But the _ideas_ of Gild-members and townsmen were long kept separate. Burgess-ship depended on residence[40] and the possession of a burgage-tenement, but not so membership of the Merchant Gild, which often comprised among its numbers many outsiders[41]. In this way the two bodies were clearly distinguished. At Ipswich it was ordered in John's charter[42] that the statutes of the town were to be kept distinct from those of the Gild "as is elsewhere used in cities and boroughs where there is a Gild Merchant," for the latter would probably consist of both "de hominibus civitatis" and also "de aliis mercatoribus comitatus[43]." Ecclesiastics[44] and women might also be members of the Gild, but of course could not be burgesses. Such members had, in some towns, to pay additional fees[45]. [Sidenote: _Distinction between Gild and Communa preserved in Charters, but not in practice._] The charters were always granted to the "Burgesses," without reference to their capacity as Gild-members, except in the cases where the privileges granted were such as would only concern members of the Gild. It was the "burgesses" who purchased the _firma burgi_ and who paid such goodly sums for trading and other privileges. But in making up these payments they were glad to avail themselves of the assistance of the non-burgess merchants, not the least of whose recommendations seemed doubtless to lie in the share they were willing to bear in contributing to the periodical tallages and similar royal charges. They were indeed as a document expresses it most serviceable when it was requisite "_defectus burgi adimplere_[46]." Although in name it was the burgesses who paid the money and who purchased the _firma burgi_, it was in fact the Merchant Gild which bore the largest part. In another way also the "foreigners" who were members of the Merchant Gild were useful to the burgess-members of it. During earlier years all the Craftsmen who so desired, and could afford the necessary payments, were admitted into the Gild of Merchants. The designation 'merchant' was then extended to all who engaged in trade. But as the Gilda Mercatoria became in practice more and more identical with the Communa the idea seems to have grown up that landless men, renters of their shops within the towns, should not be admitted to the Gild. [Sidenote: _Gild seems to become Communa._]