human
Each for All
gpt
The link which has been broken and mislaid was the English Guild
human
gild,
gpt
[Footnote:
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They were associations of those living in the same neighbourhood, who remembered that they had, as neighbours, common obligations. ] And as another authority on medieval life--Dom Gasquet--says:
gpt
The oldest of our ancient laws--those, for example, of Alfred, of Athelstan, and Ina--assume the existence of guilds to some one of which, as a matter of course, everyone was supposed to belong.
human
Broadly speaking, they were the benefit societies and the provident associations of the Middle Ages. They undertook towards their members the duties now frequently performed by burial clubs, by hospitals, by almshouses, and by guardians of the poor. [Footnote:
gpt
Poor laws had no existence in medieval England, yet the peasants did not fear and die of starvation in old age. The Romans had no poor laws ... until the destruction of small freehold. --Francis Newman.]
human
Not infrequently they are found acting for the public good of the community in the mending of roads and in the repair of bridges.... The very reason of their existence was to afford mutual aid. [Footnote: Parish Life of Medieval England.] They were in very deed, as Mr. Toulmin Smith describes them, institutions of
gpt
And everyone who knows anything of the subject is aware that they