royal personages and drew nobles, clergy, and gentry into their honorary
membership, thus serving as an important agency in breaking down the
social-class exclusiveness of the Middle Ages. In these guilds, which were
self-governing bodies debating questions and deciding policies and
actions, much elementary political training was given their members which
proved of large importance at a later time.

In the same way the craft guilds rendered a large educational service to
the small merchant and worker, as they provided the technical and social
education of such during the later period of the Middle Ages and in early
modern times, and protected their members from oppression in an age when
oppression was the rule. With the revival of trade and industry craft
guilds arose all over western Europe. One of the first of these was the
candle-makers' guild, organized at Paris in 1061. Soon after we find large
numbers of guilds--masons, shoemakers, harness-makers, bakers, smiths,
wool-combers, tanners, saddlers, spurriers, weavers, goldsmiths,
pewterers, carpenters, leather-workers, cloth-workers, pinners,
fishmongers, butchers, barbers--all organized on much the same plan. These
were the working-men's fraternities or labor unions of mediaeval Europe.
Each trade or craft became organized as a city guild, composed of the
"masters," "journeymen" (paid workmen), and "apprentices." The great
mediaeval document, a charter of rights guaranteeing protection, was
usually obtained. The guild for each trade laid down rules for the number
and training of apprentices, [39] the conditions under which a
"journeyman" could become a "master," [40] rules for conducting the trade,
standards to be maintained in workmanship, prices to be charged, and dues
and obligations of members (R. 97). They supervised work in their craft,
cared for the sick, buried the dead, and looked after the widows and
orphans. Often they provided one or more priests of their own to minister
to the families of their craft, and gradually the custom arose of having