May Chepworth: A Cleveland Sketch.

time that portion of Scripture * Avas too sadly realised which says : — " Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou knowesfc not Avhat a clay may bring forth . " ' Rose Cottage , Stokeslcy .

Freemasonry And The Early English Gilds.

FREEMASONRY AND THE EARLY ENGLISH GILDS .

BY ALBERT G . MACKEY , M . D . WE need no apology for repeating this interesting communication of our esteemed ancl learned brother Albert G . Mackey . As earl y as the eleventh century Ave find in Englandassociations of men

, , united together for mutual assistance , to assist poor and helpless members , and to bury the dead . ' These associations Avere called GILDS .

It is unnecessary to trace the word to the various deviations Avhich have been suggested by different writers on the subject . It is sufficient to say that in the old French , the Teutonic , and the Scandidavian languagesGilde signified a -

, corpo ration or societ y having a common contributed stock , or as Co well defines it , " a fraternity or company combined together , by orders ancl laws made among themselves . "

Perhaps the best idea of a gild , that could be furnished to a cursory reader would be obtained from the description given by Brentano , in his History and Development of Gilds , ef one of the oldest that existed in England about the beginof the eleventh

ning century . " This Gild , " he says , " was founded and richly endoAved b y Orey , a friend of Canute the Great at Abbotsbury , in honour of God and St . Peter . Its object , according to the statutes , appears to have been the

support aud nursing of infirm Gild-brothers , the burial of the dead and the performance of religious services ancl the saying of prayers for their souls . The association met every year , on the feast of St . Peterfor united worshiin honour of

, p their patron saint . " The salient points in this descri ption would equally apply to every Gild that was formed from that day to the time of their

dissolution . Each waa erected in honour of God and of some particular Saint . Each Avas gOA'erned by a form of statutes , or as it Avas most frequently called , Ordinations or Constitutions . Each Avas

intended for the support of infirm brethren . Each met at an annual feast which was on the day of the Saint to Avhom the Gild Avas erected . The reader will be impressed with the general resemblance that lodges of Freemasons bear in their organization to these

Gilds . Ancl hence , it is that the now A'ery generally accepted theory of the history of Freemasonry , traces it back to the corporations of Stonemasons AVIIO , in the Middle Ages , were common over Europe and Avhich Avere nothing more nor less than Craft Gilds .

The object of the present paper is not to trace this historical connection , but only by a comparison of the Constitutions of the various Gilds Avith the laws which regulate the government of Masonic Lodges to SIIOAV the strong analogies which exist between the tAvo institutions .

Materials for this comparison are very ample . To say nothing of the German and French authorities , the former especially , who have Avritten copiously aud almost exhaustively on this subject , we have in the Avork of the late Toulmin Smith

, edited by his daughter Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith and published by the Early English Text Society , a collection of the original ordinances or constitutions of more than one hundred of the Early English Gilds .

This collection consists of the ordinances of Social and Religious Gilds , of Merchant Gilds , and of Craft Gilds , but does not embrace the Gilds or Corporations of Masons , for Avhich we will be indebted to the labours of Halliwell , Cooke , WOODFORDand especially of HUGHAN . These

, latter , will not , howeA'er , constitute any part of the present paper , which will be devoted entirely to a comparison of the laws Avhich governed the non-masonic Gilds of the Middle Ages in England , with the Laws which govern the modern

Society of Freemasons . "An examination of the close connection between "the laws and usages which prevailed among the early Masonic Gilds or Corporations of Stonemasons ancl the organizations of modern Masonic Lodges will furnish