In the fourteenth century the apothecaries of Paris were required to subscribe to a formal oath before they were permitted to practise. They swore to live and die in the Christian faith, to speak no evil of their teachers or masters, to do all in their power for the honour, glory, ornament, and majesty of medicine, to give no remedy or purge without the authority of a physician, to supply no drugs to procure abortion, to prepare exactly physicians' prescriptions, neither adding, subtracting, nor substituting anything without the express permission of the physician, to avoid the practices of charlatans as they would the plague, and to keep no bad or old drug in their stocks. An ordinance of 1359 provides that no one shall be granted the title of master-apothecary unless he can show that he can read recipes.
The edict of 1484, issued during the minority of Charles VIII, sets forth that, "We, of our certain science, especial grace, full power, and royal authority, do say, declare, statuate, and ordain" the curriculum to be observed by those who desire to learn the trade of an apothecary. A four years' apprenticeship was essential, and the aspirant had to dispense prescriptions, recognise drugs, and prepare "chefs d'œuvres" in wax and confectionery in the presence of appointed master-apothecaries. Latin was added to the examination in 1536, and ten years' experience after the apprenticeship was also insisted upon ultimately before the candidate could be admitted as a master-apothecary. One of the ordinances of the sixteenth century gave to the apothecaries the monopoly in the manufacture and sale of gingerbread.
These edicts all related particularly to the apothecaries of Paris. There were similar ones in the provinces, with some peculiarities. At Dijon, for example, it was provided that no apothecary could receive a legacy
