ecessary to state
that they were frequently violated. The fines which were then imposed on
delinquents constituted an important source of revenue, not only to the
corporations themselves, but also to the town treasury. The penally,
however, was not always a pecuniary one, for as late as the fifteenth
century we have instances of artisans being condemned to death simply for
having adulterated their articles of trade.

[Illustration: Fig. 248.--Elder and Jurors of the Tanners of the Town of
Ghent in Ceremonial Dress.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript of
the Fifteenth Century.]

This deception was looked upon as of the nature of robbery, which we know
to have been for a long time punishable by death. Robbery on the part of
merchants found no indulgence nor pardon in those days, and the whole
corporation demanded immediate and exemplary justice.

According to the statutes, which generally tended to prevent frauds and
falsifications, in most crafts the masters were bound to put their
trade-mark on their goods, or some particular sign which was to be a
guarantee for the purchaser and one means of identifying the culprit in
the event of complaints arising on account of the bad quality or bad
workmanship of the articles sold.

[Illustration: Fig. 249.--Companion Carpenter.--Fragment of a Woodcut of
the Fifteenth Century, after a Drawing by Wohlgemueth for the "Chronique de
Nuremberg."]

Besides taking various steps to maintain professional integrity, the
framers of the various statutes, as a safeguard to the public interests,
undertook also to inculcate morality and good feeling amongst their
members. A youth could not be admitted unless he could prove his
legitimacy of birth by his baptismal register; and, to obtain the freedom,
he was bound to bear an irreproachable character. Artisans exposed
themselves to a reprimand, and even to bodily chastisement, from the
corporation, for even associating with, and certainly for working or
drinking with those who had been expelled. Licentiousness and misconduct
of any kind rendered them liable to be deprived of their mastership. In
some trade associations all the members were bound to solemnize the day of
the decease of a brother, to assist at his funeral, and to follow him to
the grave. In another community the slightest indecent or discourteous
word was punishable by a fine. A new master could not establish himself in
the same street as his former master, except at a dis