The Templars, the Francs Metiers, and Freemasonry 85corvee; to the municipal authorities they were compelled to give time in
service of the watch. The Parisian francs bourgeois, some of whom left
their name to a street that still exists today,* were exempt from all taxes
and unpaid serviced.+
The tallage was actually a tax on revenue. It earned its name from
the notches or cuts made into the pieces of wood that served as receipts
for paid debts. Originally it was due to the suzerain lord, but later it was
owed to the king. Tallage did not exist in the Templar commanderies.
The watch, a Roman institution introduced early on in Gaul, was
responsible for the surveillance of the city while it slept. In 595 King
Clotaire II had established the rules for its practice, but Henry II sup-
pressed this police service. It was reorganized by Saint Louis in 1254,
and again by John II in 1364 and Francois I in 1540, but was eliminated
in 1559 by Henry II. Mandatory for all individuals to participate in
until the age of sixty, the bourgeois watch had become the function of
guards known as the assis [seated ones], who were assigned specific
posts. Comprising almost sixty men, they met every three weeks. The
royal watch, another company maintained by the king, made daily
rounds. Both watches were under the sole command of the Knight of
the Watch. Only those living in the domain under the control of the
Temple were not compelled to fulfill this watch service.
As for those who pursued various crafts and trades, in the rural
areas they were either serfs or villains, while in the towns they held the
status of bourgeoisie. Free craftsmen, however, meaning either villains
or bourgeois, did not perform their trade under similar conditions
everywhere. As a general rule, the artisan owed taxes and allowances to
the king or lord. In Paris, at the time the crafts were organized during
the reign of Saint Louis, the artisan was subject to community regula-
tion. Quite often entrance into a craft was not free; it was necessary to
purchase this right from the king. Just as the bourgeoisie, artisans were
* [It is located in the Marais district of Paris. —+ Trans.]
It should he noted that the rue Francs Bourgeois was located in the censive district and
was under the jurisdiction of the Temple. Maps from the time of Louis XIV show the
existence of another rue Francs Bourgeois located on the left bank (today it forms the
upper part of rue Monsieur le Prince). See also Lefeuve, Histoire de Paris, rue par rue,
maison par maison, vol. 5 (Paris: C. Reinwald, 1875), 244.