Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/784

748 FREEMASONRY and other social and political secret societies, old and young, of the most widely differing aims. It is possible that Freemasonry copied an older ritual, which was again imitated by younger societies, who also endeavoured to utilize masonic lodges as stations for proselytizing work. But these facts themselves show discontinuity of life. The true historical precursors of the modern fraternity of Free masons were the mediaeval building corporations. Of these the most distinctive type is to be found in the stone masons (Steinmetzen) of Germany. It is a further and more diffi cult question what were the relations between these medize- val societies and the Roman collegia not struck at by the law De Collegiia Illicitis, D. 47, 22. Krause in his Diedrei dltestenKunsturkunden derFreimaurerbriiderschaft 1 points out that these collegia had an exchequer, an archive, patrons, religious ceremonies, an oath, a benefit and burial fund, and a register. They had such officers as magistri, decuriones, tabularii, censores, and they instructed their apprentices to a certain extent in secret. No doubt such sodalitia existed for centuries in Gaul and Britain, and they may have deposited in the civilization of these countries some of their ideas and habits. Again, at a later period, there was a distinct invitation sent from the West to the building corporations of Byzantium ; the movement west ward was increased by the iconoclasm of Leo. But the European building societies wers undoubtedly distinct growths. The ccementarii or liberi muratores at first grouped themselves round the monasteries, especially of the Benedictine order. The abbots were in many cases the architects who employed the masons on ecclesiastical build ings and repairs. As architecture developed, and with in creasing wealth the church gradually undertook larger and nobler works, these societies of craftsmen also assumed a more definite and more durable form. The taste and science of Gothic architecture were to a large extent the possession of the Bauhiitten, or wooden booths where the stone-cutters during the progress of the work kept their tools, worked, held their meetings, and probably also took their meals and slept. In the 12th century there are distinct traces of a general association of Bauhiitten throughout Germany, ac knowledging one set of Ordnungen or craft laws, one set of secret signs and ceremonies (Heimlichkeiten) and to a cer tain extent one central authority in the Haupthutte of Strasburg. 2 Albertus Magnus (1205-1280) is supposed to have introduced many of the Jewish and Arabian symbols which were popular in the craft. The privileges which a Bauhiitte was able to give to its masters, parlierer (speakers), and journeymen, were chiefly "a share in the administration of justice, in the election of officers, in the banquets, and in works of charity." The trade customs and symbolic forms of these associations have been described by Fallou in his Mysterien der Frdmaurer (1859), Winzer in his Dcutschen Briiderschaften des Mittelalters (1859), and Fort, Early His tory and Antiquities of Freemasonry (Philadelphia, 1877). The initiation is said to be copied from a Benedictine conse cration. Instruction was given to all apprentices in both architecture and its allegory. When he had served his time and finished his " Wanderjahre," every man was entitled, if of good character, to receive the Wortzeichen or der Gruss. He took the oath of secrecy on the Bible, the compass, and the square, and drank the Willkommen. The three great lights, 3 the hammer or gavel, the gold, azure, and white 1 See also Rebold, Hist. Gin. de la Franc-ma^onnerie, 1851, of which there is an American translation by Brennan, Cincinnati, 1868. a The importance of this was first pointed out in Abbe Grandidier s letter, which forms App. xvii. to De Luchet s Essai sur la Secte des IllumMs, Paris, 1789. 3 These caudles have been derived from the cabalistic triangle formed of the sepJiira, splendours or attributes proceeding from the Yudh, the En-Soph, or central point of light (see Ginsburg On the C<tbyl i The masonic MS. attributed to Henry VI. refers to the colours, the sacred numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9, and the interlaced cords, all had their traditional meaning. The obligation to secrecy, however, probably applied to the apprentice even before initiation. See the Constitutions of Masonry (Halli- well s edition, 1. 279-282) " The prevystye of the chamber telle he no inon, No yn the logge whatsever they done ; Whatsever thou heryst, or syste hem do, Tell hyt no mon, whersever thou go." It has been observed by Brentano, 4 that the working arrangements of the building trades at this time differed when a cathedral or palace was being built, the architect being then master of the lodge with foremen under him ; and when a dwelling-house was built, the owner then engaging both masters and workmen. There was thus a nearer approach to the modern factory system ; and in fact the well-known English statutes against combinations, congregations, and chapters of workmen (34 Edw. III. c. 9, and 3 Hen. VI. c. 1) were directed against the ex cessive wages of journeymen. The separate interests of this class found expression in the contemporary French institution of Compagnonnage. 5 The atmosphere of these societies seems, even at an early date, to have been favour able to liberty of thought and religious toleration. Hence they were prohibited by the council of Avignon in 1326. The authority of the Haupthutte was recognized at the great assemblies of Ratisbon and Strasburg in 1459, the statutes of which received imperial confirmation. It was legally destroyed by an edict of 1731, long before which time its practical vitality had ceased. England imported much of her lodge organization and learning from Germany. The York charter, on which she based her claim to a native system in the time of Athelstan, is a much later document. This charter contains the famous legend of the craft which derives the seven liberal sciences (masonry bsing a part of geometry) from the family of Lamech. This science, pre served on a stone pillar from the flood, was taught by Euclid to the Egyptians, and carried by Israel to the build ing of the temple. Maymus Greens brought it to Charles Martel and to England. The early history of the English mason lodges has been illustrated by the works of Win. J. Hughan, Constitutions of the Freemasons, History of Freemasonry at York, oic. 6 The first instance of a gentle man or amateur being " accepted " is that of the antiquary Elias Ashmole (afterwards Windsor Herald under Charles II.) who, along with Colonel Manwariug, was entered at Warrington in 1646. The causes which led to the intro duction of a new class of members, and gradually converted operative into speculative masonry, are well stated by Finclel, the learned editor of the German masonic journal Die Bauhiitte, whose History of Freemasonry (translated into English in 1869) is by far the most scientific and com plete work upon the subject. In the first place the old secrets of Gothic masonry were rendered less valuable by the spread of Augustan and Renaissance architecture, which Inigo Jones and his patron Lord Pembroke had been study ing on the Continent. Jones was patron of the Freemasons from 1607 to 1618. He invited several Italian artists to join the body. Then the disorder of the civil wars pre vented meetings and broke up the masonic connexion. Again the growing spirit of the Reformation in religion gave men a freedom of speech which superseded the marks and caricatures in which the old masons exposed the vices of the church. Toleration was soon a political fact. Science, too, faculty of Abrac, i.e.. of the adorable name worshipped by the Basilidian heretics. 4 History and Development of Guilds, London, 1870, p. 80. 5 C. G Simon, Etude historique et morale sur le Compagnonnage, Paris, 1853. 6 See also Dallaway. Historical Account of Master and Freemason.