Mason Corporations in France 155authority in this matter, such as those known as priors in Bordeaux, for
example.
At the end of the sixteenth century, the royal authority in France
attempted to extend the system of sworn trades over the entire king-
dom. This effort appeared in the measures of an edict issued by Henri
III in December 1591 and in another edict of Henri IV in April 1597.
These edicts prescribed the entrance of all people into a sworn trade
where that form was in common use, and establishment of sworn trades
where there were none. But these edicts were applied in a manner that
was far from perfect.
According to a 1673 edict, the number of officially recognized state
bodies amounted to 73. Another edict of 1691 fixes the number of
crafts at 127 and divides them up again, in accordance with their
importance, into four classes. At the same time, it establishes the impor-
tance of each of these classes with respect to the importance of the
king's right during each reception in the city. In the cities where a par-
liament sat, the masters received in first-class communities paid the
king 30 pounds, while those in fourth-class communities paid 6
pounds. The first class consisted of 25 corporations, including those of
the masons, carpenters, and sculptors, along with those of the painters,
surgeons, apothecaries, booksellers, goldsmiths, and so on. In the
fourth class, we find the spike makers, the boatmen, the flower sellers,
the patenotriers,* fishermen, and maitres fifis [garbage collectors].
The masons were always placed under the jurisdiction of the mas-
ter of the works of royal masonry, buildings, and constructions, later
called the master general of the king's buildings, bridges, and roadways
of France. In the terms of an ordinance of May 17, 1595, they held the
right to pass judgement on all transgressions of their statutes. It seems
that these mason statutes were the same as those described by Etienne
Boileau, which had been confirmed in 1574. The masters continued to
be able to ply their trade freely without having to buy that right from
the king. But the king, while avoiding any appearance of suppressing
this traditional franchise, had restricted its extent by creation of sworn
expert masons of the king, veritable public officers whom he designated.
* [These are the manufacturers of rosaries, buttons, jewelry, and so forth. —Trans.]