In other places butchers were far from acquiring the same importance which they did in France and Belgium (Figs. 90 and 91), where much more meat was consumed than in Spain, Italy, or even in Germany.  Nevertheless, in almost all countries there were certain regulations, sometimes eccentric, but almost always rigidly enforced, to ensure a supply of meat of the best quality and in a healthy state.  In England, for instance, butchers were only allowed to kill bulls after they had been baited with dogs, no doubt with the view of making the flesh more tender.  At Mans, it was laid down in the trade regulations, that “no butcher shall be so bold as to sell meat unless it shall have been previously seen alive by two or three persons, who will testify to it on oath; and, anyhow, they shall not sell it until the persons shall have declared it wholesome,” &c.

To the many regulations affecting the interests of the public must be added that forbidding butchers to sell meat on days when abstinence from animal food was ordered by the Church.  These regulations applied less to the vendors than to the consumers, who, by disobeying them, were liable to fine or imprisonment, or to severe corporal punishment by the whip or in the pillory.  We find that Clement Marot was imprisoned and nearly burned alive for having eaten pork in Lent.  In 1534, Guillaume des Moulins, Count of Brie, asked permission for his mother, who was then eighty years of age, to cease fasting; the Bishop of Paris only granted dispensation on condition that the old lady should take her meals in secret and out of sight of every one, and should still fast on Fridays.  “In a certain town,” says Brantome, “there had been a procession in Lent.  A woman, who had assisted at it barefooted, went home to dine off a quarter of lamb and a ham.  The smell got into the street; the house was entered.  The fact being established, the woman was taken, and condemned to walk through the town with her quarter of lamb on the spit over her shoulder, and the ham hung round her neck.”  This species of severity increased during the times of religious dissensions.  Erasmus says, “He who has eaten pork instead of fish is taken to the torture like a parricide.”  An edict of Henry II, 1549, forbade the sale of meat in Lent to persons who should not be furnished with a doctor’s certificate.  Charles IX forbade the sale of meat to the Huguenots; and it was ordered that the privilege of selling meat during the time of abstinence should belong exclusively to the hospitals.  Orders were given to those who retailed meat to take the address of every purchaser, although he had presented a medical certificate, so that the necessity for his eating meat might be verified.  Subsequently, the medical certificate required to be endorsed by the priest, specifying what quantity of meat was required.  Even in these cases the use of butchers’ meat alone was granted, pork, poultry, and game being strictly forbidden.