Candlemaking as we know it began in the thirteenth century when itinerant chandlers (as candlemakers were called then), traveled from town to town and door to door. So in demand were their services that in Paris alone a tax list of l292 named seventy-one chandlers. The chandlers set up their candlemaking equipment and dipped tapers for their clients, who provided the material. In both Paris and England, wax chandlers and tallow chandlers formed guilds. The English Tallow Chandlers were incorporated in l462 and they regulated trade in candles made from animal fat, made for the common folk. Those who worked with wax were the upper crust of candlemakers and made a lot more money because only the wealthy could afford wax. So prized were wax candles that the home that had them set them proudly in pewter or silver holders.

Although beeswax had probably been recognized for centuries as a material for making candles, it is extremely difficult to handle. Therefore, until the invention of candle molds and stearin (l820s), all beeswax candles had to be made by hand, which was a time-consuming and laborious process. Yet, only beeswax candles were used in churches and monastery chapels.

Because churches and monasteries of the period were great users of candles, monasteries had extensive candlemaking facilities on their properties. Candlemaking, like cooking and gardening, was one of the common works carried on in these institutions. One writer has speculated that monks' reputation for being always cheerful came not from spiritual development but from the drinking of mead, a byproduct of the honey left over from the making of beeswax candles. No doubt the danger of getting stung by a bee had its compensations.

So valued was beeswax, and so expensive, that Catholics in the Middle Ages were permitted to use beeswax to pay their tithes to the Church! And since the Church's candles had to be made of beeswax, by papal decree, this was an important source of the precious substance for Church use.