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50
THE ELIZABETHAN PEOPLE

sisters of the Guild of the Holy Cross of Stratford.

"First, each of the brethren who wishes to remain in the guild, shall give fourpence a year, payable four times in the year; namely a penny on the feast of Saint Michael, a penny on the feast of Saint Hilary, a penny at Easter, and a penny on the feast of Saint John the Baptist. Out of which payments there shall be made and kept up one wax candle, which shall be done in worshipful honour of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin and of the Holy Cross. And the wax candle shall be kept alight every day throughout the year, at every mass in the church, before the blessed cross; so that God and the Blessed Virgin, and the venerated cross, may keep and guard all the brethren and sisters of the guild from every ill. And whoever of the brethren and sisters neglect to come at the above-named times shall pay one penny.

"It is also ordained by the brethren and sisters of the guild, that, when any of them dies, the wax candle before named, together with eight smaller ones, shall be carried from the church to the house of him that is dead; and there they shall be kept alight before the body of the dead until it is carried to the church; and the wax candles shall be carried and kept alight until the body is buried,