lass, and
the consequent rise of the journeymen-guilds, the latter function was
probably in most cases taken over by the latter. The guild laws against
adulteration, scamped work, and the like, were sometimes ferocious in
their severity. For example, in some towns the baker who misconducted
himself in the matter of the composition of his bread was condemned to
be shut up in a basket which was fixed at the end of a long pole, and
let down so many times to the bottom of a pool of dirty water. In the
year 1456 two grocers, together with a female assistant, were burnt
alive at Nuernberg for adulterating saffron and spices, and a similar
instance happened at Augsburg in 1492. From what we have said it will be
seen that guild life, like the life of the town as a whole, was
essentially a social life. It was a larger family, into which various
blood families were merged. The interest of each was felt to be the
interest of all, and the interest of all no less the interest of each.

But in many towns, outside the town population properly speaking,
outside the patrician families who generally governed the Rath,
outside the guilds, outside the city organization altogether, there
were other bodies dwelling within the walls and forming _imperia in
imperiis_. These were the religious corporations, whose possessions
were often extensive, and who, dwelling within their own walls, shut
out from the rest of the town, were subject only to their own
ordinances. The quasi-religious, quasi-military Order of the Teutonic
Knights (_Deutscher Orden_), founded at the time of the Crusades, was
the wealthiest and largest of these corporations. In addition to the
extensive territories which it held in various parts of the empire, it
had establishments in a large number of cities. Besides this there
were, of course, the Orders of the Augustinians and Carthusians, and a
number of less important foundations, who had their cloisters in
various towns. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the pomp,
pride, and licentiousness of the Teutonic Order drew upon it the
especial hatred of the townsfolk; and amid the general wreck of
religious houses none were more ferociously despoiled than those
belonging to this Order. There were, moreover, in some towns, the
establishments of princely families, which were regarded by the
citizens with little less hostility than that accorded to the
religious Orders.

Such were the explosive elements of town life when c