The Accounts of the Medieval Paternoster Gild of York

The 1399 account roll of the Paternoster Gild of York, missing since the 1880s, has recently been discovered amongst papers donated to the Borthwick Institute, University of York. These accounts, edited at the end of this paper, reveal the names of over 150 gild members from all over the city of York and beyond and allow them to be placed within their social context, showing members and their families receiving bequests in each other's wills, and revealing several of them as members of the later Corpus Christi gild at York. The accounts also demonstrate the extent of the gild's property ownership and give details of preparations and purchases for the elaborate gild feast. The gild was responsible for performances of the Paternoster play, and examination of the accounts allows revision of confused, earlier reports of their contents relating to the plays. It is now clear that two pageants from the play are mentioned in the accounts, supporting Johnstone's suggestion that the play was based on seven pageants, each one reflecting one of the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, matched against one of the seven deadly sins.