Gilds, states and societies in the early Middle Ages
Rory Naismith
The early medieval gilds of north‐west Europe were very different from their later descendants. They not specifically urban or economic in focus, instead being based on religious devotion, feasting and mutual protection, usually among members united by status geography. Treatment differed sharply between the two main representatives tradition region: Carolingian empire Anglo‐Saxon England. In former, vilified as coniurationes , spontaneous oath‐bound associations, which rulers feared might undermine authority that hierarchy they represented. But latter flourished, especially tenth eleventh centuries, when England produced first gild statutes Europe. This contribution examines these traditions, reasons for break them .
Early Medieval Europe|Apollo (University of Cambridge)