(1) The maintenance of Divine service.
(2) Prayer for the souls of the faithful departed.
(3) Maintenance of a Grammar School.
(4) Relief of the Poor.
(5) Maintenance of almshouses.
(6) Repair of the church.
(7) Maintenance of dykes “for the sauftie bothe of the sayd towne and 14 other towns.”[439]
Here we have an effective enumeration of the duties of a municipal authority, and when the date of the founding of the gild and the absence of any legislation which compelled the carrying out of such tasks are considered, then the duties specified point to a high degree of social responsibility having been attained at Wisbech at this date. We may, therefore, conclude that the gild at Wisbech was not simply a religious association for purely spiritual purposes, but was an association of the civil community for municipal purposes. That these purposes included certain religious functions is not a matter of surprise. Religion in the Middle Ages was more closely interwoven with the life of the people than it is to-day.
The gild existing at Stratford-on-Avon seems also to have been a citizen gild. Its origin can be traced to a date earlier than 1295. In the return made to the sheriff’s proclamation in 1389, it was stated that the gild was begun at a time beyond the memory of man. The affairs of the gild were administered by two wardens who were elected by the members. The main objects of the gild seem to have been the maintenance of priests to celebrate divine service and the keeping of a grammar school.[440]
The chantry certificate of the city of Worcester further supports the contention that the municipal authority provided a school. The certificate referred to was signed by the master of the gild, two bailiffs of the city, an alderman, a citizen, and two stewards of the gild. It is notable that not a single ecclesiastic signs the return. The school, moreover, was kept in the Gild Hall of the city, and was apparently a successful one, as there were over 100 scholars who attended it. This return, coupled with the fact that Worcester was a cathedral city, raises several points of interest which it is hoped that future research will elucidate. From whom was the necessary authority to establish the school derived? Was the school the outcome of a dispute between the civic and the ecclesiastical authorities, as was the school at Exeter in the seventeenth century? Prima facie, facts certainly point in that direction.[441]