“At a convocation held at the city of Winchester the Friday next before the feast of Corpus Christi, in the 13th yere of the raigne of King Harry the sixt, after the Conquest--it was ordained by Richard Salter, mayor of the cytie of Winchester, John Symer and Harry Putt, Bailiffs of the cytie aforesaid, and also by all the cytizens and commonaltee of the same cytie: It is accorded of a certain general processyon in the feste of Corpus Christi of diverse artyficers and crafts within the same cytie being: that is to say: the Carpenters and Felters shall go together first; Smythes and Barbers, second; Cooks and Buchers, third; Shomakers with two lights, fourth; Tanners and Tapaners, fifth; Plummers and Silkmen, sixth; Fyshers and Farryers, seventh; Taveners, eighth; Wevyres with two lights, ninth; Fullars, with two lights, tenth; Dyers with two lights, eleventh; Chandlers and Brewers, twelfth; Mercers with two lights, thirteenth; Wyves with one light and John Blak with another, fourteenth; and all these lights shall be borne orderlie before the said procession before the prieste of the citie. And four lyghtes of the Brethren of St. John’s shall be borne about the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the same day in the procession aforesaid.” Lastly, it may be well to give an instance of some of the laws under which the mediæval guild system was governed. For this purpose the Statutes of the “Guild of the Purification of our Lady” at Bury St. Edmund’s, which were revised and renewed in 1471, may be taken as a sample:-- 1. All members were to swear obedience to the laws: were to pay 4_d._ on enrollment and 1_d._ to the light kept by the guild in the parish church: they must also get a surety to pay 10_s._ to the property of the fraternity on their death. 2. On becoming members all shall swear to fulfil the wills of John Smith and Margaret Odham, which were written in English at the beginning of the book, and which were to be read every year at the Guild dinner on February 2. After the dinner all members of the Guild shall kneel and say the _De profundis_ and the “prayers that long therto” for the souls of the above founders. 3. All officers to be elected yearly. 4. All shall “have every year ther presens and speche daye at the charnell or in the churchyard in the day of the Epiphany for the ordynaunce and profit of the guylde. And yf any be absent of the sayde fraternytie but if he have a reasonable excuse he shall loose a pounde waxe.” 5. All shall come to the Guild hall “anent after evensonge the daye of the Purification to the beadesbydding and there devoutly to praye for all the brethrene and systerne sowles that have been in guylde aforesaide.” For absence a fine of a pound of wax. 6. On the death of any one member all shall attend at the “Exequye and Dirige.”