imated for the
London companies at L20,000. In order to do so they were of course
forced to sell or mortgage much of their land. That which they
succeeded in retaining, however, or bought subsequently was relieved
of all government charges, and being situated for the most part in the
heart of London, ultimately became extremely valuable and is still in
their possession. So far have the London companies, however, departed
from their original purpose that their members have long ceased to
have any connection with the occupations from which the bodies take
their names.

*41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds.*--An
analogous narrowing of the interests of the crafts occurred in the
form of a cessation of the mystery plays. Dramatic shows continued to
be brought out yearly by the crafts in many towns well into the
sixteenth century. It is to be noticed, however, that this was no
longer done spontaneously. The town governments insisted that the
pageants should be provided as of old, and on the approach of Corpus
Christi day, or whatever festival was so celebrated in the particular
town, instructions were given for their production, pecuniary help
being sometimes provided to assist the companies in their expense. The
profit which came to the town from the influx of visitors to see the
pageants was a great inducement to the town government to insist on
their continuance. On the other hand, the competition of dramas played
by professional actors tended no doubt to hasten the effect of the
impoverishment and loss of vitality of the gilds. In the last half of
the sixteenth century the mystery plays seem to have come finally to
an end.

Thus the gilds lost the unity of their membership, were weakened by
the growth of industry outside of their sphere of control, superseded
by the government in many of their economic functions, deprived of
their administrative, legislative, and jurisdictional freedom, robbed
of their religious duties and of the property which had enabled them
to fulfil them, and no longer possessed even the bond of their
dramatic interests. So the fraternities which had embodied so much of
the life of the people of the towns during the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth centuries now came to include within their organization
fewer and fewer persons and to affect a smaller and smaller part of
their interests. Although the companies continued to exist into later
times, yet long before the c