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.