The 'Fraternitee' of Chaucer's Guildsmen

Description: The haberdasher, carpenter, weaver, dyer, and tapestry maker of the GP must each have belonged to his own "communitas," or mystery, and the five could not (by law and custom) be members of a sixth company. Harwood shows that the "fraternitee" was probably a religious society of which the guildsmen were honorary members, and which they had joined, as members of lesser companies, so that they could have contact with the wealthy and controlling merchant class.; Their lives could signify membership in the Fraternity of Tailors and Linen Armorers of Saint John the Baptist. If so, their hoods would have been scarlet.