Post by Tamrin on Aug 3, 2008 15:44:04 GMT 10
WHEN the Angles and Saxons settled in ancient England (Britain it was then called) they at first maintained their military form of organization, so that each settlement was a kind of camp; but as time went on and villages became permanent, a civil form of social order began slowly to evolve. The first step in this was the institution of the kin-bond, wherein blood relatives stood together for support and protection, the individual and his family being mutually responsible. This gave way in the course of time to voluntary associations founded not on blood relationship but on community ties, existing to protect the individual against the group, to preserve order in the settlement, and for a variety of similar purposes. These associations, described as “artificial” in contrast to the “natural” bond of blood, were the first gilds in England, in virtue of which fact it cannot be said that anybody ever “discovered” or “invented” gilds; they grew out of natural conditions in response to social necessity, just as t hey had come into existence among the Greeks and Romans centuries before, the former calling them “thiassoi”, etc., the latter, “collegia”. It is generally believed by the more dependable authorities that it is very possible that there may have been some historical continuity between the gilds of early England and the Roman collegia, but the historical remains of the period are too scanty to enable us to make sure on that point. If such a continuity ever existed it was more probable in Italy, where the collegia longest endured, and which, like most other European countries, had a gild system of its own.
The word “gild” (sometimes spelled “guild”) continues to be a puzzle so far as its etymology is concerned. The North Germans had “geld”, meaning money; the Danish, “gilde”, a religious feast in honour of the god Odin; the Anglo-Saxons, “gild”, from same root as “yield”, and meaning a fixed payment of money; the Bretons “gouil”, a feast or holiday; the Welsh “gmylad”, a festival. In later times, when gilds became everywhere common, the North Germans used the word “gild”; the South Germans, “zunft”; the Fr ench, “metier”; and the Italians, “arte”. In the sixteenth century England the word was generally superseded by “company”, “corporation” or “mystery”, the last name derived from the Latin “ministerium”, or trade, and having no reference to anything mysterious, being preserved in our usage to this day, as when we speak of the arts, parts and mysteries of Freemasonry.
The first gilds, as it is believed, were organized in Italy. In France they were very common before Charlemagne, and are first mentioned in the Carolingian Capitularies of 779 and 789. Commercial and craft gilds began to become common in France, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Sweden in the eleventh century. The oldest known ordinances, as the written laws for the government of a gild were called, occur in England in the eleventh century. The gild principle proved so successful and was applied to so many uses that by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it became the outstanding feature of the social and economic life of Europe.
The word “gild” (sometimes spelled “guild”) continues to be a puzzle so far as its etymology is concerned. The North Germans had “geld”, meaning money; the Danish, “gilde”, a religious feast in honour of the god Odin; the Anglo-Saxons, “gild”, from same root as “yield”, and meaning a fixed payment of money; the Bretons “gouil”, a feast or holiday; the Welsh “gmylad”, a festival. In later times, when gilds became everywhere common, the North Germans used the word “gild”; the South Germans, “zunft”; the Fr ench, “metier”; and the Italians, “arte”. In the sixteenth century England the word was generally superseded by “company”, “corporation” or “mystery”, the last name derived from the Latin “ministerium”, or trade, and having no reference to anything mysterious, being preserved in our usage to this day, as when we speak of the arts, parts and mysteries of Freemasonry.
The first gilds, as it is believed, were organized in Italy. In France they were very common before Charlemagne, and are first mentioned in the Carolingian Capitularies of 779 and 789. Commercial and craft gilds began to become common in France, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Sweden in the eleventh century. The oldest known ordinances, as the written laws for the government of a gild were called, occur in England in the eleventh century. The gild principle proved so successful and was applied to so many uses that by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it became the outstanding feature of the social and economic life of Europe.
