Note 485 — Front matter (continued 4)
Reading edition
Ib., 792. The masters of crafts exercised a particular form of oppression in forcing apprentices to take oaths on entering their service (cf. "the unlawful oaths of the dyers") perhaps to the effect that they would not set up in business after their apprenticeship was over. The craft masters were forbidden by leet to cause others to take an oath on "any point of their occupation" under penalty of a fine of 100s. "without any pardon" (Ib. 654).