154 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
house roofers, crochetiers [boatwains], turners, and panelers. The
king's carpenter, who was the head of all these specialities, assigned a
lieutenant to administrate each one. He himself received eighteen
deniers a day for his services along with a livry robe on All Saints' Day
(title XLII, art. 1, and 8).
The apprenticeship period for a carpenter was four years. In 1292,
according to the Talliage Registry, there were 104 master masons, 98
master carpenters, and 12 stonecutters listed in Paris.
The Extension and Evolution of the Corporative SystemThe Parisian-type craft community could also be found in a certain num-
ber of towns known as "sworn towns." At the end of the fourteenth cen-
tury Loyseau, in his Traite des Offices, explains that the sworn towns are
those in which "certain sworn crafts exist, meaning those that have the
right to exist as a body and a community in which membership is gained
by oath." Up until that time, sworn towns were fairly rare. In the major-
ity of towns throughout the north, central, and Midi regions of France,
and even in Paris in the areas of sovereign jurisdiction, including that of
the Templars, entry into a profession was free. It was the same through-
out Provence until the end of the fifteenth century. In Bourdeaux, fran-
chised trades were exercised in areas called sauvetes or sauvetats. In
Lyon, crafts people were subject only to their own customs and to the
police regulation of the municipality or the manorial authority to whom
the masters were required to swear an oath of fealty. This last restriction
shows that absolute freedom in the trades did not exist anywhere. There
were only different systems of rules. An individual could oppose either
the sworn trades or the trades goverened by municipal or manorial
authority. Even the francs metiers, despite the great privileges attached
to them, fall into this second category.
In all cases where trades were performed in franchise, there was
only one grouping, and it was both religious and professional in nature:
the brotherhood. Affiliation with it was obligatory. In addition to its
religious and charitable mission, which was led by clerics, the brother-
hood mainly concerned itself with its material interests and saw that
respect was paid to trade customs. There were officers who were given