the court of the freemen when specially summoned thereto, but that they found their own advantage in exercising a kind of police-surveillance over them all: if a crime were committed, the gyld were to hold the criminal to his answer; to clear him, if they could conscientiously do so, by making oath in his favour; to aid in paying his fine if found guilty; and if by flying from justice he admitted his crime, they were to purge themselves on oath from all guilty knowledge of the act, and all participation in his flight; failing which, they were themselves to suffer mulct in proportion to his offence. On the other hand they were to receive at least a portion of the compensation for his death, or of such other sums as passed from hand to hand during the progress of an Anglosaxon suit. Being his neighbours, the _visnetum_, _vicinage_ or _venue_, they were his natural compurgators or witnesses, and consequently, being examined on oath, in some sense the _jurati_ or _jurors_ upon whose verdict his weal or woe depended. And thus the importance of character, so frequently appealed to even in our modern jurisprudence, was carried to the highest extent. We may reasonably conclude that the close intercourse thus created, was improved to private and social purposes, and that these gylds, like the much larger associations of the same name in after times, knew how to combine pleasure with business. The citizens of London hint at a monthly _symposium_ or treat, with _butt-filling_, when the tithingmen met together to settle the affairs of their respective hundreds,—a trait not yet extinct in the civic, or indeed the national, character. There can also be little doubt that the gylds even formed small courts of arbitration, as well as police, for the settlement of such trifling disputes between members of the same gyld, as were not worthy of being reserved for the interference of a superior tribunal[465]; and it is also probable that the members considered themselves bound to aid in the festivities or do honour to the obsequies of any individual gyld-brother: the London gyldsmen were to distribute alms, and cause religious services to be performed at the decease of a fellow; and it is obvious that this sharing in a religious obligation, the benefits of which were to extend even into another life, must have impressed somewhat of a solemn and sacred character upon the whole institution[466]. ----- Footnote 465: