Beginning in the late twelfth century, the town council of Paris passed a series of regulations for bakers. The following excerpts from twelfth- and thirteenthcentury laws show the widespread government concern about certain crafts.

Mastery ceremony: "The new baker . . . shall take a new clay pot and fill it with nuts and wafers; arid he shall come to the house of the master of the bakers, and he shall have with him the tax collector, and all the bakers, and the masterjourneymen. . . . And this the new baker shall hand his pot and nuts to the master of the bakers, and say, 'Master, I have finished and completed my four year.' And the master shall ask the tax-collector whether this is true. And if he says that it is true, the master shall hand the new baker his pot and...