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(Toulmin Smith, English Gilds, p. 178)

[Summary]

[The gild was founded on Easter Eve, A.D. 1350.]

On the death of a brother or sister within the city, not only shall the Dean bring the four wax lights which are called “soul candles,” and fulfil all other usual ceremonies, but the banner of the gild shall be brought to the house of the dead, and there openly shown, that men may know that the dead was a brother or sister of the gild; and this banner shall be carried, with a great torch burning, from the house of the dead, before the body, to the church.

On the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi, and on the eve of the day following, all the bretheren and sisteren shall come together as is the custom, to the gildfeast. At the close of the feast four wax lights having been kindled, and four of the tankards which are called flagons having been filled with ale, a clerk shall read and explain these ordinances, and afterwards the [ale in the] flagons shall be given to the poor.

If any brother or sister goes away from Lincoln for a year, not being on pilgrimage, and afterwards seeks to rejoin the gild, he must pay twelve pence: if away for two years, he must pay two shillings, unless he have grace.

Whoever seeks to be received into the gild, being of the same rank as the bretheren and sisteren who founded it, namely of the rank of common and middling folks, shall be charged to be faithful to the gild, and shall bear his share of its burdens.

And whereas this gild was founded by folks of common and middling rank, it is ordained that no one of the rank of mayor or bailiff shall become a brother of the gild, unless he be found to be of humble, good, and honest conversation, and is admitted by the choice and common assent of the bretheren and sisteren of the gild. And none shall meddle in any matter, unless especially summoned; nor shall such a one take on himself any office in the gild. He shall on his admission be sworn before the bretheren and sisteren, to maintain and keep the ordinances of the gild. And no one shall have any claim to office in this gild on account of the honour and dignity of his personal rank.

If any brother or sister of the gild has fallen into such an ill state that he is unable to earn his living, and has not the means of supporting himself, he shall have, day by day, a penny from the bretheren and sisteren of the gild, in the order in which their names stand on the register of their admission to the gild; each brother or sister giving the penny in turn out of his own means.