Our perception of accounting, as noted in our conversation of Accounting Professionalism and tracing its written origin to Luca Pacioli, is of the highest standard. Accounting is a tool to produce financial records of the highest integrity of absolute trust. As one reads through the early history of accounting (circa the 1400s and 1500s), however, it appears that accounting was viewed in a very negative light. Why was this the case? Do the same associations that caused accounting to be considered negatively in the 1400s and 1500s remain today? If so, how, and if not, why not?