uilds: one whose chief purpose was a religious one,
and the other concerning itself in the first instance with the secular
concerns of the body. However, both classes of journeymen-guilds worked
into one another's hand. On coming into a strange town a travelling
member of such a guild was certain of a friendly reception, of
maintenance until he procured work, and of assistance in finding it as
soon as possible.

Interesting details concerning the wages paid to journeymen and their
contributions to the guilds are to be found in the original documents
relating exclusively to the journeymen-guilds, collected by Georg
Schanz.[17] From these and other sources it is clear that the position
of the artisan in the towns was in proportion much better than even that
of the peasants at that time, and therefore immeasurably superior to
anything he has enjoyed since. In South Germany at this period the
average price of beef was about two denarii[18] a pound, while the
daily wages of the masons and carpenters, in addition to their keep and
lodging, amounted in the summer to about twenty, and in the winter to
about sixteen of these denarii. In Saxony the same journeymen-craftsmen
earned on the average, besides their maintenance, two groschen four
pfennige a day, or about one-third the value of a bushel of corn. In
addition to this, in some cases the workmen had weekly gratuities under
the name of "bathing money"; and in this connection it may be noticed
that a holiday for the purpose of bathing once a fortnight, once a week,
or even oftener, as the case might be, was stipulated for by the guilds,
and generally recognized as a legitimate demand. The common notion of
the uniform uncleanliness of the mediaeval man requires to be
considerably modified when one closely investigates the condition of
town life, and finds everywhere facilities for bathing in winter and
summer alike. Untidiness and uncleanliness, according to our notions,
there may have been in the streets and in the dwellings in many cases,
owing to inadequate provisions for the disposal of refuse and the like;
but we must not therefore extend this idea to the person, and imagine
that the mediaeval craftsman or even peasant was as unwholesome as, say,
the East European peasant of to-day.

When the wages received by the journeymen artisans are compared with
the prices of commodities previously given, it will be seen how
relatively easy were their circumstances; and the extent