A voluntary association of persons pursuing the same trade, art, profession, or business, such as printers, goldsmiths, wool merchants, etc., united under a distinct organization of their own, analogous to that of a corporation, regulating the affairs of their trade or business by their own laws and rules, and aiming, by cooperation and organization, to protect and promote the interests of their common vocation. In medieval history these fraternities or guilds played an Important part in the government of some states; as at Florence, in the thirteenth and following centuries, where they chose the council of government of the city. But with the growth of cities and the advance in the organization of municipal government, their importance and prestige has declined. The place of meeting of a guild, or association of guilds, was called the “Guildhall.” The word is said to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon “gild” or “geld,” a tax or tribute, because each member of the society was required to pay a tax towards its support. Guild rents. Rents payable to the crown by any guild, or such as formerly belonged to religious guilds, and came to the crown at the general dissolution of the monasteries. Tomlins.