[351] Gross, ii. 380-3.
[352] See Chapter XIII. 374-5.
[353] Gross, i. 111, note 3. The cases of Durham and Morpeth here mentioned are very late.
[354] Ibid. 112, note 4.
[355] Ibid. i. 124 note 2. Von Ochenkowski (Wirthschaftliche Entwickelung, 67) argues that this regulation was made in consequence of the mediæval view of trade as a public trust not a mere individual act; and that skill in craft was taken as a test of uprightness of character and a pledge of fitness for citizenship. From this conclusion follows the belief, which in its turn supports the conclusion, that the rule was one imposed by the town authorities and not by the will of the crafts.
[356] Stubbs, iii. 607.
[357] This history has been treated by Dr. Gross in his “Gild Merchant.” In the thirteenth century Merchant Guilds existed in at least one-third and probably in a much greater proportion of the English boroughs. (Gross, i. 2, 22, 158.)
[358] Ibid. i. 107.
[359] Gross, i. 74, 107, 108, note 3, 109. There were clergy and women in the Andover Guild (Ibid. ii. 299, 321); and in Coventry (English Guilds, 228).
[360] Gross, i. 66-71, ii. 236.