Ceremonies and rites constituted an inseparable part of the _compagnonnages_. The initiation of a new member, the "recognition" of a newly arrived _compagnon_, the meeting of two traveling _compagnons_ on the road, etc., were occasions for strange and complicated ceremonies which had to be accurately performed. These ceremonies were due in a large measure to the secrecy in which the _compagnonnages_ developed under the ancient régime, persecuted as they were by the royal authorities, by the church, and by the master-craftsmen.
Within the _compagnonnages_ the feeling of corporate exclusiveness and the idea of hierarchical distinctions were strong. Emblems of distinction, such as ribbons, canes, etc., were worn on solemn occasions, and the way in which they were worn, or their number, or color, indicated the place of the _compagnonnage_ within the whole corporate body. Many riots and bloody encounters were occasioned between _devoir_ and _devoir_ and between different _compagnonnages_ within each _devoir_ by disputes over "ribbons" and other emblems appropriate to each. For instance, the joiners were friends of the carpenters and of the stonecutters, but were enemies of the smiths whom the other two trades accepted. The smiths rejected the harness-makers. The blacksmiths accepted the wheelwrights on condition that the latter wear their colors in a low buttonhole; the wheelwrights promised but did not keep their promise; they wore their colors as high as the blacksmiths; hence hatred and quarrels. The carpenters wore their colors in their hats; the winnowers wanted to wear them in the same way; that was enough to make them sworn enemies.[15] Besides, the _compagnonnages_ did not strive to embrace all members of the same trade or all trades. On the contrary, they were averse to initiating a new trade and it sometimes took decades before a new trade was fully admitted into the organization.
[15] _Les Associations Professionelles_, vol. i, p. 95.
While these features harked back to the past, the economic functions of the _compagnonnages_ anticipated and really were a primitive form of the later syndicat. The _compagnonnages_ offered effective protection to the _compagnons_ in hard stresses of life as well as in their difficulties with their masters. "The 'devoir' of the compagnons" (read the statutes of one of these societies) "is a fraternal alliance which unites us all by the sacred ties of friendship, the foundations of which are: virtue, frankness, honesty, love of labor, courage, assistance and fidelity."[16] These abstract terms translated themselves in life into concrete deeds of mutual aid and of assistance which were immensely valuable to the traveling _compagnons_. A traveling _compagnon_, on arriving at a city or town, would only have to make himself "recognized" and his fellow-compagnons would take care of him. He would be given lodging and food. Employment would be found for him. If sick or in distress, he would receive aid. If he wished to leave the town to continue his _tour de France_, he would be assisted and would be accompanied some distance on the road.