Part 5 (1/2)

_We need not then consider it improbable, if in the dark centuries when the Ro into ruin; when the arts and sciences were falling into disuse or being enslaved; and when no place was safe frouild of the Architects should fly for safety to alh they could no longer practice their craft, they preserved the legendary knowledge and precepts which, as history ih Vitruvius from older sources, some say from Solomon's builders themselves_

--LEADER SCOTT, _The Cathedral Builders_ /

CHAPTER V

_The Collegia_

So far in our study we have found that froion; that the working tools of the builder were ereat secret orders using the Drama of Faith as a rite of initiation; and that a hidden doctrine was kept for those accounted worthy, after trial, to be entrusted with it

Secret societies, born of the nature and need of an;[54] but as yet we have coht we know there may have been such in plenty, but we have no intimation, much less a record, of the fact That is to say, history has a vague story to tell us of the earliest orders of the builders

However, it isarchitects were members of secret orders; for, as we have seen, not only the truths of religion and philosophy, but also the facts of science and the laws of art, were held as secrets to be known only to the few This was so, apparently without exception, a all ancient peoples; so much so, indeed, that we may take it as certain that the builders of old time were initiates Of necessity, then, the arts of the craft were secrets jealously guarded, and the architects themselves, while they may have e and influence Such glimpses of early architects as we have confirm this inference, as, for example, the noble hymn to the Sun-God written by Suti and Hor, two architects eypt[55] Just when the builders began to form orders of their own no one knows, but it was perhaps when the Mystery-cults began to journey abroad into other lands What we have to keep in mind is that all the arts had their home in the temple, fro all the paths of culture

Keeping in , and the sanctity hich all science and art were regarded, we have a key whereby to interpret the legends woven about the building of the teh that temple on Mount Moriah towered in the history of the olden world, and how the story of its building haunted the legends and traditions of the tiends there were many, some of them wildly improbable, but the persistence of the tradition, and its consistency withal, despite many variations, is a _fact of no small moment_ Nor is this tradition to be wondered at, since ti of the temple at Jerusalem was an event of world-importance, not only to the Hebrews, but to other nations, more especially the Phoenicians The histories of both peoplesof the Hebrew temple, of the friendshi+p of Solomon and Hiram I, of Tyre, and of the harmony between the two peoples; and Phoenician tradition has it that Solomon presented Hiram with a duplicate of the temple, which was erected in Tyre[56]

Clearly, the two nations were drawn closely together, and this fact carried with it a ious influences and ideas, as was true between the Hebrews and other nations, especially Egypt and Phoenicia, during the reign of Soloion of the Phoenicians at this tiion in ataken the role of Osiris in the drama of faith in Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor Thus we have the Mysteries of Egypt, in which Moses was learned, brought to the very door of the temple of Solomon, and that, too, at a time favorable to their impress The Hebreere not architects, and it is plain from the records that the tened and erected by Phoenician builders, and for the most part by Phoenician workmen and materials Josephus adds that the architecture of the temple was of the style called Grecian So ends flowing fro were secrets known only to initiates, there must have been a secret order of architects who built the temple of Solomon Who were they? They were almost certainly the _Dionysian Artificers_--not to be confused with the play-actors called by the same name later--an order of builders who erected temples, stadia, and theaters in Asia Minor, and ere at the sae of Bacchus before that worshi+p declined, as it did later in Athens and Rome, into mere revelry[57] As such, they united the art of architecture with the old Egyptian dra in their ceremonies the murder of Dionysius by the titans and his return to life So that, blending the syht change made by a natural process, how easy for the master-artist of the temple-builders to become the hero of the ancient drama of immortality[58] Whether or not this fact can be verified from history, such is the forh long ages and triu over all vicissitude[59] Secret orders have few records and their story is hard to tell, but this account is perfectly in accord with the spirit and setting of the situation, and there is neither fact nor reason against it While this does not establish it as true historically, it surely gives it validity as a prophecy, if nothing more[60]

After all, then, the tradition that Masonry, not unlike the Masonry , had its origin while the teiven shape by the two royal friends, may not be so fantastic as certain superior folk seem to think it How else can we explain the fact that when the Knights of the Crusades went to the Holy Land they came back a secret, oath-bound fraternity? Also, why is it that, through the ages, we see bands of builders co thele-seal as their emblem? Strabo, as we have seen, traced the Dionysiac builders eastward into Syria, Persia, and even India TheyAsia Minor, they entered Europe by way of Constantinople, and we follow theh Greece to Rome, where already several centuries before Christ we find thees flourished in all parts of the Ro been discovered in England as early as the middle of the first century of our era

II

Krause was the first to point out a prophecy of Masonry in the old orders of builders, following their footsteps--not connectedly, of course, for there are h the Roes Since he wrote, however, ht, but the date of the advent of the builders in Ro of the city, while others go no further back than King Nuoras[61] By any account, they were of great antiquity, and their influence in Roions to rees, and temples, and it was but natural that Mithra, the patron God of soldiers, should have influenced their orders Of this an example may be seen in the reht[62]

As Ro empire, the individual man felt, more and ether with the increasing specialization of industry, begat a passion for association, and Collegia of lance at the inscriptions, under the heading _Artes et Opificia_, will show the enormous development of skilled handicrafts, and how minute was their specialization Every trade soon had its secret order, or union, and so powerful did they becoht of free association Yet even such edicts, though effective for a little ti for combination Ways were easily found whereby to evade the lahich had exempted from its restrictions orders consecrated by their antiquity or their religious character Most of the Collegia became funerary and charitable in their labors, hu to escape the dim, hopeless obscurity of plebeian life, and the still more hopeless obscurity of death Pathetic beyond words are so of the horror and loneliness of the grave, of the day when no kindly eye would read the forgotten naium held memorial services, and marked the tomb of its dead with the emblems of its trade: if a baker, with a loaf of bread; if a builder, with a square, coes of Architects see to the value of their service to the state, and while we do not find the before they wore the name They were perulations, both secular and religious In foriu, no College could consist of less than three persons, and so rigid was this rule that the saying, ”three e was presided over by a Magister, or Master, with two _decuriones_, or wardens, each of whom extended the commands of the Master to ”the brethren of his column” There were a secretary, a treasurer, and a keeper of archives, and, as the colleges were in part religious and usually met near some temple, there was a _sacerdos_, or, as ould say, a priest, or chaplain The members were of three orders, not unlike apprentices, fellows, and ues

What ceremonies of initiation were used we do not know, but that they were of a religious nature see the many then worshi+ped Also, as the Mysteries of Isis and Mithra ruled the Roman world by turns, the ancient drama of eternal life was never far away

Of the eain we find the simple tools of the builder used as teachers of truth for life and hope in death Upon a nui, still extant, we find carved the square, the compasses, the cube, the plummet, the circle, and always the level There is, besides, the faiu been buried under the ashes and lava of Mount Vesuvius since the year 79 AD It stood near the Tragic Theater, not far froeles on the walls, was identified as an ancient lodge room Upon a pedestal in the roon and exquisite in execution, now in the National Museum at Naples It is described by SR Forbes, in his _Rambles in Naples_, as follows:

/[4,66]

It is awooden frareen stone, in the rey, and black colors In appearance the skull is quite natural The eyes, nostrils, teeth, ears, and coronal are all well executed Above the skull is a level of colored wood, the points being of brass; and from the top to the point, by a white thread, is suspended a plumb-line Below the skull is a wheel of six spokes, and on the upper ried with yellow; its eyes blue On the left is an upright spear, resting on the ground; froarment of scarlet, also a purple robe; whilst the upper part of the spear is surrounded by a white braid of dianarled thorn stick, froy piece of cloth in yellow, grey, and brown colors, tied with a ribbon; and above it is a leather knapsack Evidently this work of art, by its composition, is mystical and sy of these e since fallen into dust, who gathered about such an altar They wrought out in this work of art their vision of the old-worn pilgrim way of life, with its vicissitude and care, the level of ht at last by death, and the winged, fluttering hope of man Always a journey with its horny staff and wallet, life is sohtly by the plumb-line of rectitude, there is a true and victorious hope at the end

/P Of wounds and sore defeat I ed sandals for my feet I wove ofspear, Of loss and doubt and dread And swift on-co plume

P/

III