(e) GILD OF THE TAILORS OF LINCOLN.

The gild was founded A.D. 1328.

All the bretheren and sisteren shall go in procession on the feast of Corpus Christi.

No one shall enter the gild, as whole brother, until he has paid for his entry a quarter of barley, which must be paid between Michaelmas and Christmas. And if it is not then paid, he shall pay the price of the best malt, as sold in Lincoln market on Midsummer-day. And each shall pay xij.d. to the ale.*. ["Pro ciphis" in the original. See note on p. 175.]

If any one of the gild falls into poverty (which God forbid), and has not the means of support, he shall have, every week during his life, sevenpence out of the goods of the gild; out of which he must discharge such payments as become due to the gild.

If any one dies within the city, without leaving the means for burial, the gild shall find the means, according to the rank of him who is dead.

If any one wishes to make pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, each brother and sister shall give him a penny; and if to St. James's or Rome, a halfpenny; and they shall go with him outside the gates of the city of Lincoln; and, on his return, they shall meet him and go with him to his mother church.

If a brother or sister dies outside the city, on pilgrimage or elsewhere, and the bretheren are assured of his death, they shall do for his soul what would have been done if he had died in his own parish.

When one of the gild dies, he shall, according to his means, bequeath v.s. or xl.d., or what he will, to the gild.

Every brother and sister coming into the gild shall pay to the chaplain as the others do.

There shall be four mornspeeches held in every year, to take order for the welfare of the gild: and whoever heeds not his summons, shall pay two pounds of wax.

If any master [tailor] of the gild takes any one to live with him as an apprentice, in order to learn the work of the tailor's craft, the apprentice shall pay two shillings to the gild, or his master for him, or else the master shall lose his gildship.

If any quarrel or strife arises between any bretheren or sisteren of the gild (which God forbid), the bretheren and sisteren shall, with the advice of the Graceman and Wardens, do their best to make peace between the parties, provided that the case is such as can be thus settled without a breach of the law. And whoever will not obey the judgment of the bretheren, shall lose his gildship, unless he thinks better of it within three days, and then he shall pay a stone of wax, unless he have grace.

On feast days, the bretheren and sisteren shall have three flagons and six tankards, with prayers; and the ale in the flagons shall be given to the poor who most need it. After the feast, a mass shall be said and offerings made for the souls of those who are dead.

Four wax lights shall be put round the body of any dead brother or sister, until burial, and the usual services and offerings shall follow.

If any master of the craft keeps any lad or sewer of another master for one day after he has well known that the lad wrongly left his master, and that they had not parted in a friendly and reasonable manner, he shall pay a stone of wax.

If any master of the craft employs any lad as a sewer, that sewer shall pay vj.d., or his master for him.

Each brother and sister of the gild shall every year give j.d.for charity, when the Dean of the gild demands it; and it shall be given in the place where the giver thinks it is most needed, together with a pottle of ale from the ale store of the gild.

Officers chosen, and not serving, shall pay fines.

In witness whereof, and at the special request of the gild, the seal of the Deanery of Christianity at Lincoln is hereto put.

Written at Lincoln in very great haste.*. [The original of this very curious photograph of a minute in January, 1389, is not in Latin, like the rest, but in the old French:—"Escript a Nicol en tresgraunt hast."]

Here ends the roll of the Gild of the Tailors of Lincoln.

The bretheren have no lands nor tenements, in mortmain or otherwise, nor any chattels of the gild except for fulfilling what has been set forth; nor do they hold any feasts, save those before named for cherishing love and charity among themselves.*. [This paragraph is written in another hand.]