As to the social characters of the medieval guild, any guild-statute may illustrate them.  Taking, for instance, the skraa of some early Danish guild, we read in it, first, a statement of the general brotherly feelings which must reign in the guild; next come the regulations relative to self-jurisdiction in cases of quarrels arising between two brothers, or a brother and a stranger; and then, the social duties of the brethren are enumerated.  If a brother’s house is burned, or he has lost his ship, or has suffered on a pilgrim’s voyage, all the brethren must come to his aid.  If a brother falls dangerously ill, two brethren must keep watch by his bed till he is out of danger, and if he dies, the brethren must bury him—­a great affair in those times of pestilences—­and follow him to the church and the grave.  After his death they must provide for his children, if necessary; very often the widow becomes a sister to the guild.(29)

These two leading features appeared in every brotherhood formed for any possible purpose.  In each case the members treated each other as, and named each other, brother and sister;(30) all were equals before the guild.  They owned some “chattel” (cattle, land, buildings, places of worship, or “stock”) in common.  All brothers took the oath of abandoning all feuds of old; and, without imposing upon each other the obligation of never quarrelling again, they agreed that no quarrel should degenerate into a feud, or into a law-suit before another court than the tribunal of the brothers themselves.  And if a brother was involved in a quarrel with a stranger to the guild, they agreed to support him for bad and for good; that is, whether he was unjustly accused of aggression, or really was the aggressor, they had to support him, and to bring things to a peaceful end.  So long as his was not a secret aggression—­in which case he would have been treated as an outlaw—­the brotherhood stood by him.(31) If the relatives of the wronged man wanted to revenge the offence at once by a new aggression, the brother-hood supplied him with a horse to run away, or with a boat, a pair of oars, a knife and a steel for striking light; if he remained in town, twelve brothers accompanied him to protect him; and in the meantime they arranged the composition.  They went to court to support by oath the truthfulness of his statements, and if he was found guilty they did not let him go to full ruin and become a slave through not paying the due compensation:  they all paid it, just as the gens did in olden times.  Only when a brother had broken the faith towards his guild-brethren, or other people, he was excluded from the brotherhood “with a Nothing’s name” (tha scal han maeles af brodrescap met nidings nafn).(32)