ABSTRACT
What can we know about the ethos or mentality of medieval guilds? We have already summarized the moral temper of the early general guilds: brotherhood, friendship and mutual aid among guild members - obligations incurred by mutual oath and confined to the fellowship of the small group. Now we must consider in more detail the mentality of the craft-guilds of the high Middle Ages. Here our main sources are statutes and other official documents produced by guilds and city authorities. Secondly, how were craft-guilds regarded by outsiders, and in particular by the more articulate spokesmen of society? References to guilds are not very common in medieval literature, and theoretical discussion of them is confined, with few exceptions, to the Roman law jurists. Three principal spheres of thought may be distinguished: what the guild was held to exist for, what made it a legitimate corporation, and its internal procedural (constitutional) principles. Together, these will tell us something about what kind of association the guild was held to be. It will be instructive to compare the views held by guild members and jurists upon each of these topics in turn.
