The Trade Guild The trade guild is an institution of vocational training. One of its requirements is that the young trainees must travel for several years in order to enrich their professional and human knowledge. This is known as the “Tour de France” (Tour of France). After several centuries of existence, the guild continues today — now made up of 3 sections which continue to offer complete vocational training. In each city, the young trainee is lives with the head of his guild section, who finds an employer for him. There he improves his level of technical skill. In the evenings he takes classes. After a few years, he will have to present a masterwork to an assembly of guild masters who will assess his professional and personal skills. After passing this examination, he will be accepted to the guild. Historians date the beginning of the first trade guilds to the Middle Ages during the construction of cathedrals, monasteries and castles. Skilled workers — stone masons and carpenters — moved from site to site. They would have sought each other out to adopt a system of rules and customs for each trade. The principal contribution of the guild, through the centuries, was to offer highly skilled labor as a result of its training system. The guild members also knew how to assess wages and appropriate working conditions — and did not hesitate to organize a strike if needed. When a member was in difficulty, his guild came to his assistance with relief funds. The trade guild succeeded in surviving the centuries, preserving its traditions and its knowledge while adapting to the changes in the working world. “The Duty of Freedom” Guild From their very beginnings, craftsmen gathered according to their particular trades and traced their professions back to the one of the three legendary characters associated with the construction of the temple of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE — Solomon, who commissioned the building, Master James, stonemason; and Father Soubise, head of the carpenters — to establish their identity and traditions. Eventually, due to differences in religious opinions, two principal sections were formed: “The Duty”, supporting the Catholic confession, and “The Duty of Freedom”, which professed the freedom of personal confession. Thus there were two sections of carpenters: the “Master Carpenters of the Duty” (from Soubise) and the “Master Carpenters of the Duty of Freedom” (from Solomon). These two companies merged in 1945 to form “The Company of the Master Carpenters of the Duties of the Tour of France,” known today as the Federated Guild of Building Trades. Pierre-François Guillon was a Master Carpenter of “The Duty of Freedom, Child of King Solomon”. In the guild of “The Duty of Freedom,” the carpenters are known as Indians, because according to the tradition, the Master who actually worked on the construction of the Temple was called Father Indian.