The formula of admission to a Spanish brotherhood was very quaint in its punctilious and precise severity. A notice of this ceremony, relating to the Cofradía of Saint Eligius, or Silversmiths' Brotherhood of Seville,[67] is quoted by Gestoso from the venerable _Regla de Hermandad_ or statutes of the members, preserved in a codex dating from the first half of the sixteenth century. It was required that the candidate for admission should be a silversmith, married in conformity with the canons of the church, a man well spoken of among his neighbours, and not a recent convert to the Christian faith. The day prescribed for choosing or rejecting him was that which was consecrated to Saint John the Baptist, coinciding with the festival of Saint Eligius or San Loy, "patron and representative" of silversmiths, and who in life had been a silversmith himself. The regulations of the Cofradía decreed the following method of election. "In the chest belonging to the Brotherhood shall be kept a wood or metal vessel with space sufficient to contain some fifty beans or almonds; and the said vessel shall be set in our chapter-room, in a spot where no man is. Each of the brothers that are present shall next be given one of the beans or almonds, and, rising from his seat, arrange his cloak about him so as to conceal his hands, in order that none may witness whether he drops, or does not drop, the almond or the bean into the vessel. Then, with due dissimulation, he shall proceed to where the vessel lies, and if he deem that he who seeks to be admitted as our brother be an honourable man, and such as shall contribute to the lustre of our Brotherhood, then shall he drop in a bean or almond, and return to his seat, still covering his hands with his cloak. But if, upon the contrary, he deem that the said candidate be a sinner, and a riotous fellow and bad Christian, that should prove a source of evil and vexation to our chapter, or that hath wronged another of our brethren, then shall he not cast in the bean or almond, but secretly reserve the same, and once more seat himself. Lastly, when all shall have crossed over to and from the vessel, they shall bear it to the table where the officers sit, and void it in the sight of all the company, and count the beans or almonds; and if the number of these be full, then is it clear that we do receive the other for our _Hermano_. But if there be a bean or almond wanting, in that a brother hath retained it in his fingers, then shall our _Alcaldes_ speak to this effect. 'Señores: here wants a bean or almond' (or two, or any number, as may be). 'Within eight days from now let him that kept it back present himself to us, or to any one of us, and give account why he that sought admission to our Brotherhood deserves to be rejected.' And if the brother that kept back the bean or almond should not present himself within the appointed time, then shall the Brotherhood admit the other: but if he appear, and state a lawful cause