As in many areas of pre-Reformation devotion, the dead were a conspicuous presence in English religious guilds of all sizes. Members joined in the expectation that the guild would say prayers and perform masses for their souls after death, and previous members and benefactors would be commemorated with regularity. This article, however, investigates a new avenue of the fraternal relationship with the dead: the practice of enrolling people after their death. Doing so shifts the paradigm of our understanding of the multidimensional functions of pre-Reformation society, commemoration, and guilds, privileging the experiences of both the dead and living equally, while highlighting the interplay of the spiritual and socioeconomic. Taking the extensive membership records of England's “great” guilds as its basis, this article reveals that postmortem enrollment was a practice both common and widespread, and it addresses questions of practicalities and motivations. As such, the richness of commemoration in late medieval society is demonstrated, and the importance of postmortem membership brought to the fore.

就像宗教改革前的许多宗教信仰领域一样，死者在英国各种规模的宗教行会中都很显眼。成员们加入进来，期望公会在死后为他们的灵魂祈祷和做弥撒，以前的成员和捐助者会定期被纪念。然而，本文探讨了与死者建立兄弟关系的新途径：在死后登记人的做法。这样做改变了我们对宗教改革前社会、纪念和行会的多维功能的理解范式，使死者和生者的经历平等，同时强调精神和社会经济的相互作用。本文以英格兰“大”行会的大量会员记录为基础，揭示了死后登记是一种既普遍又普遍的做法，它解决了实用性和动机的问题。因此，证明了中世纪晚期社会纪念活动的丰富性，并凸显了死后成员的重要性。