The following rule is also interesting: "If any member shall
treat another member in an abusive manner, or call him names,
he shall forfeit a quart of honey; and if he be abusive to any
other person, who is not a member, he shall likewise forfeit a
quart of honey."

Amusing as these rules may appear today, the idea was
mutual aid and contribution, which after all, is a basic principle
of life insurance.
Following the line of development vagrant cases of practical
life insurance are found in the payment of money for the non-
return of a pilgrim or a sea- faring man, or even in the payment
of certain sums of money to the heirs of a deceased annuitant,
but the whole state of affairs domestic, legal and general in
early days was not conducive to life insurance as it has devel-
oped into the present magnificent system.
The first policy of life insurance of which there is any trace
was issued in London in 1538, insuring the life of one William
Gybbons for twelve months. This was written by thirteen per-
sons acting individually and the premium was eighty dollars
per thousand. However such occasional policies as this did not
seem to induce a suspicion of the wonderful possibilities of life
insurance as a business.
One of the germs to thought intimately connected with the
subject was early furnished by a Neapolitan adventurer named



14 Early History of Life Insurance

Tonti who came to Paris in 1563 and formed associations in
which members were to pay certain sums in a fund to be invested
awd divided among the survivors.
