ABSTRACT

What I would like to suggest in this chapter is that Westlake had too narrow a conception of the context in which guild activities occurred. His conviction that fraternities were almost exclusively concerned with intercession for the dead rested upon a misconception of the nature of Purgatory, and a distorted impression of events such as the annual guild feast. It is probably more helpful to associate fraternities first and foremost with the patron saint. An emphasis on devotion to the guild patron allows us to give due consideration to the whole range of activities which fraternities undertook. It will, however, require a reconsideration of the relationship between fraternities and parochial piety, in particular the point at

which the two intersect. Before assessing in more detail Westlake’s own study of the guilds, it is first necessary to define what a fraternity actually was, and to describe the mechanics of Purgatory itself. Westlake’s interpretation of fraternity activity will then be considered through a study of the guilds of late medieval East Anglia.