Part 5 (2/2)

Christianity, whose Founder was a Carpenter,classes of Rome As Deissmann and Harnack have shown, the secret of its expansion in the early years was that it cae of hope and joy Its appeal was hardly heard in high places, but it elco the Collegia it an deities as patrons, and its spirit of love welding men into closer, truer union When Diocletian deterely lenient and patient with the Collegia, so many of whose members were of that faith Not until they refused to eance and turn on the his fury In the persecution that followed four Master Masons and one humble apprentice suffered cruel torture and death, but they became the Four Crowned Martyrs, the story of whose heroic fidelity unto death haunted the legends of later times[63] They were the patron saints alike of Lo Masons of the Middle Ages, as witness the poeius MS_

With the breaking up of the College of Architects and their expulsion from Rome, we come upon a period in which it is hard to follow their path Happily the task has beenby recent research, and if we are unable to trace theht has been let into the darkness Hitherto there has been a hiatus also in the history of architecture between the classic art of Rome, which is said to have died when the Empire fell to pieces, and the rise of Gothic art Just so, in the story of the builders one finds a gap of like length, between the Collegia of Roap cannot, as yet, be perfectly bridged, much has been done to that end by Leader Scott in _The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild_--a book itself a work of art as well as of fine scholarshi+p Her thesis is that the uild of architects who, on the break-up of the Roman Empire, fled to Comacina, a fortified island in Lake Como, and there kept alive the traditions of classic art during the Dark Ages; that from them were developed in direct descent the various styles of Italian architecture; and that, finally, they carried the knowledge and practice of architecture and sculpture into France, Spain, Gerland Such a thesis is difficult, and, from its nature, not susceptible of absolute proof, but the writercan well be

While she does not positively affirm that the Comacine Masters were the veritable stock fro, ”we may admit,” she says, ”that they were the link between the classic Collegia and all other art and trade Guilds of the Middle Ages _They were Free-ed class, absolved from taxes and servitude, and free to travel about in tie_” The name Free-mason--_Libera muratori_--may not actually have been used thus early, but the Co before the name was employed_--free to travel frorations; free to fix their own prices, while other workes The author quotes in the original Latin an Edict of the Lo Rotharis, dated Novees are confirantes_ From this Edict it is clear that it is no new order that is alluded to, but an old and powerful body of Masters capable of acting as architects, with men who executed work under them For the Co architects, sculptors, painters, and decorators, and if affinities of style left in stone be adequate evidence, to the the cathedral-building period Everywhere they left their distinctive impress in a way so unne the Corations, and we find the the missionaries of the church into re churches When Augustine went to convert the British, the Comacines followed to provide shrines, and Bede, as early as 674, inthat builders were sent for from Gaul to build the church at Wear Rotharis For a long ti siland, puzzled students[64] Further knowledge of this powerful and widespread order explains it It also accounts for the fact that no individual architect can be nareat cathedrals Those cathedrals were the work, not of individual artists, but of an order who planned, built, and adorned them In 1355 the painters of Siena seceded, as the German Masons did later, and the nain to appear; but up to that time the Order was supreme

Artists froe with the Comacines, and Leader Scott finds in this order a possible link, by tradition at least, with the tees the na lived in thefroistri_ and _Discipuli_, under a _Gastaldo_, or Grand Master, the very saes later

Moreover, they called theirlist of which the author recites fro names of officers, and, often, of members They, too, had their rips, and passwords which foral ties They hite aprons and gloves, and revered the Four Crowned Martyrs of the Order

Square, co their e Solomon's Knot” was one of their symbols, and the endless, interwoven cord, sy nor end, was another Later, however, the Lion's Paw seeiven by the author they are shown in their regalia, with apron and e of which they wereard for facts will not again speak lightly of an order having such ancestors as the great Cousson known their story, he would not have paused in his _History of Architecture_ to belittle the Free- the while as to who did draw the plans for those dreams of beauty and prayer Hereafter, if any one asks to knoho uplifted those reat drama of mediaeval worshi+p, he need not remain uncertain With the decline of Gothic architecture the order of Free-masons also suffered decline, as we shall see, but did not cease to exist--continuing its sy, and often sad, vicissitude until 1717, when it becaory and moral science by symbols

FOOTNOTES:

[54] _Primitive Secret Societies_, by H Webster; _Secret Societies of all Ages and Lands_, by WC Heckethorn

[55] We may add the case of Weshptah, one of the viziers of the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt, about 2700 BC, and also the royal architect, for who (_Religion in Egypt_, by Breasted, lecture ii); also the statue of Semut, chief of Masons under Queen Hatasu, now in Berlin

[56] _Historians His World_, vol ii, chap iii Josephus gives an elaborate account of the te the correspondence between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre (_Jewish Antiquities_, bk viii, chaps 2-6)

[57] _Symbolism of Masonry_, Mackey, chap vi; also in Mackey's _Encyclopedia of Masonry_, both of which were drawn from _History of Masonry_, by Laurie, chap i; and Laurie in turn derived his facts from a _Sketch for the History of the Dionysian Artificers, A Fragment_, by HJ Da Costa (1820) Why Waite and others brush the Dionysian architects aside as a drea out in view of the evidence and authorities put forth by Da Costa, nor do they give any reason for so doing ”Lebedos was the seat and assembly of the _Dionysian Artificers_, who inhabit Ionia to the hellespont; there they had annually their soles and festivities in honor of Bacchus,”

wrote Strabo (lib xiv, 921) They were a secret society having signs and words to distinguish their members (Robertson's _Greece_), and used e (Eusebius, _de Prep Evang_ iii, c 12) They entered Asia Minor and Phoenicia fifty years before the temple of Solomon was built, and Strabo traces them on into Syria, Persia, and India Surely here are facts not to be swept aside as romance because, forsooth, they do not fit certain theories Moreover, they explain end has it that all the workmen on the temple were killed, so that they should not build another temple devoted to idolatry (_Jewish Encyclopedia_, article ”Freeends equally absurd cluster about the te, none of which is to be taken literally As a fact, Hiram the architect, or rather artificer in metals, did not lose his life, but, as Josephus tells us, lived to good age and died at Tyre What the legend is trying to tell us, however, is that at the building of the teled with Hebrew faith, each h, there is a sect or tribe called the Druses, now inhabiting the Lebanon district, who claim to be not only the descendants of the Phoenicians, but _the builders of King Solo theion is built about it--if indeed it be not soend They have Khalwehs, or terees of initiation, and, though an agricultural folk, they use signs and tools of building as erips, and passwords for recognition In the words of their lawgiver, Hamze, their creed reads: ”The belief in the Truth of One God shall take the place of Prayer; the exercise of brotherly love shall take the place of Fasting; and the daily practice of acts of Charity shall take the place of Al such a tradition? Where did they get it? What eless East mean? (See the essay of Hackett Smith on ”The Druses and Their Relation to Free, _Ars Quatuor Coronatorum_, iv 7-19)

[60] Rawlinson, in his _History of Phoenicia_, says the people ”had for ages possessed the ypt” Sir C Warren found on the foundation stones at Jerusalem Mason's marks in Phoenician letters (_A Q C_, ii, 125; iii, 68)

[61] See essay on ”A Masonic Built City,” by SR Forbes, a study of the plan and building of Rome, _Ars Quatuor Coronatorus of the Coronatorue of Research, it will be convenient hereafter to use only its initials, _A Q C_, in behalf of brevity For an account of the Collegia in early Christian times, see _Roman Life from Nero to Aurelius_, by Dill (bk ii, chap iii); also _De Collegia_, by Mommsen

There is an excellent article in Mackey's _Encyclopedia of Freemasonry_, and Gould, _His Masonry_, vol i, chap i

[62] See _Masonic Character of Roman Villa at Morton_, by JF Crease (_A Q C_, iii, 38-59)

[63] Their names were Claudius, Nicostratus, Simphorianus, Castorius, and Siht from Rome to Toulouse where they were placed in a chapel erected in their honor in the church of St Sernin (_Martyrology_, by Du Saussay) They becaland (_A Q C_, xii, 196) In a fresco on the walls of the church of St Lawrence at Rotterdam, partially preserved, they are painted with compasses and trowel in hand With theure, clad in oriental robe, also holding compasses, but with a royal, not a martyr's, crown Is he Solomon? Who else can he be? The fresco dates from 1641, and was painted by F Wounters (_A Q C_, xii, 202) Even so, those humble workmen, faithful to their faith, becan with Solo fell off and they stood forth with compasses and trowel as before

[64] _History of Middle Ages_, Hallam, vol ii, 547

Part II--History