Quick answer:
By the 1500s surgery guilds were well established and there was a formal training scheme with ranks from initiate to master. It was more like a trade steaming from the separation of medicine (physicians) and surgery (surgeons and barber-surgeons).
Long Answer (some of it copied from a previous post of mine):
After the disintegration of the Roman world and before the development of Universities, medicine was taught under a "preceptorship" scheme mostly in monasteries(1). Later, around 1100, some of the clergy practiced medicine outside of the monastery in the service of kings and nobles this remained a common practice till the 13th century(2). Ecclesiastic authorities recognized a threat posed by clergymen being capable of charging for their services and in some instances being tempted by avarice, ambition and women. Hildebert de Lavardin, Bishop of Mans(1096-1125) wrote “of the many things that can destroy clerical morals the most important are women, money and ambition"(3)
This trend eventually culminated in the proclamation of edicts by Pope Honorius III and Boniface VIII in the 13th century that prohibited clergymen from practicing medicine for personal gain. (4)
In 1215, Pope Innocent III ruled that clergymen were forbidden to practice surgery. Traditionally it has been attributed to the maxim "Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine" translating to the church abhors the shedding of blood. However the text itself is not so specific citing: No cleric is to be put in command of cavalry, archers or other of the same kind, nor are deacons or priest to exercise that part of surgery involving cauterization and incision" (5). Upon this decree, medicine an surgery became two different branches of the medical arts.
Eventually, when the first Universities started, they drew heavily on the monastical medical tradition, including the exclusion of surgery. (3) The Church influence on the Universities waned but the tradition remained.
As a consequence, surgical education developed it's own institutions to train and practice the art. Barbers were skilled in the use of razors and would regularly tend to boils and minor wounds. With the limitations on the practice of surgeons by the "trained" physicians, the barbers had to take on more complex cases.
As the barbers grew in knowledge and skill they gradually secured official recognition. A corporation of barbers existed at Montpellier in 1252. In Paris as early as 1301 they had taken the title of "barber-surgeons" In 1308 the Company of Barbers in London appointed it's first master.
By the end of the 13th century the barbers had become the primary providers of surgical procedures and knowledge. In 1348 the Chancellor at Oxford University incorporated the barber-surgeons of the city and they enjoyed the same privileges as the physicians from that university. (6)
During the time period you refer to, Surgical Guilds and Colleges were present and thriving. It has to be noted that even though surgery had risen from a "trade" into having academic recognition, it remained separate from medicine. So kings and important people would usually have both a physician and a surgeon appointed to their service. The complete unification of surgery and medicine did not fully materialize until the late 18th century.