The obtaining of the mastership or mastery of a gild, i.e. the right to set up a workshop, to go into business, depended on certain qualifications in the aspirants, and certain formal ceremonies, necessitated by the organization of the gild, and its (frequent) feudal relationship to the king or his official. The first requirement was skill, acquired during service as apprentice and _valet_, capital, upright character and good conduct. Most of the sections have such an article as “Quiconques veut estre de tel mestier, estre le peut pœrtant qu’il sache le mestier, et ait de coi,” and an article of the _drapiers_ reads: “Il conviendra qu’il sache faire le mestier de touz poinz, le soy, sans conseil au ayde d’autruy et qu’il à ce examiné par les gardes du mestier.” The cook’s regulations require that the son of a master have an expert in his bake-house until the masters judged the son skilful enough. This article was evidently designed to counteract the carelessness of regulation of the apprentice-work of sons. The formal requirement was the purchase of the right to trade. At the most 25 gilds were required to purchase this right, the rest were “free.” Among these who purchased were the bakers, the criers of wine, the retailers of bread and vegetables, the farriers, the cutlers, locksmiths, weavers of silk cloth, masons, hose-makers, poulterers, potters, old-clothes dealers, purse-makers, saddlers, shoe-makers, glovers, and fishermen. The necessity was created by the fact that about 30 of the gilds were fiefs of the king, and accordingly could be reserved for himself, or bestowed upon his favorite officers. In general, however, those the king retained for himself, notably, the dealers in food-necessities, were free of purchase. After purchasing the right from the king, the aspirant had usually to present himself within a week to be admitted to the corporation. At a solemn meeting the masters or jurés “read loudly” and explained the regulations. The recipient of the privilege then swore by the saints’ relics that he would keep the laws and carry on his profession carefully and loyally. Initiation fees were of course variable; the criers paid the jurés 4 _deniers_ (0 fr. .45), the silk-cloth weavers and hose-makers 10 _sous_ (2 fr. .50); the _épiciers_ paid 5 _sous_[8] _pour boire_ to their companions. The time for paying this fee also varied. The curriers of shoe-leather were allowed to pay their fee a year and a day after establishment, while the bakers were restrained only by a limit of four years. The widow of a master was generously permitted to carry on the business in his stead, though usually if she remarried a stranger, i.e. a man outside the gild, she forfeited this right.