A GREAT MASONIC GUILD.*
WHEN, in September, 1307, the sculptors of Venice appealed to their Signory for permission to form statutes and hold chapters under the denomination of the Arts de tajapiere (or stonecutters), it was not possible to allow them to form a Masonic or Building Guild, because there already existed one great historic Guild of Masons who held a monopoly of the rights of the trade. It is the story of the work and the growth and the falling to pieces of this great Guild of Free- masons that Leader Scott tells in the handsome volume now before us. The subject is one of extreme intricacy, and, in part, of some obscurity ; and at many points of the narrative the reader is in danger of losing the thread of the argument and the history in the immense quantity of detail brought forward to illustrate the one and enforce the other. Bat, at the beginning and at the end, there are chapters giving abstracts and summaries of the whole, and by returning again and again to these, it becomes possible to keep before the mind a general understanding of the very interesting theory the author undertakes to prove. When Geneeric sacked Rome in the middle of the fifth century, it is recorded that he destroyed forty-six Christian basilicas which had been erected under Constantine. But three important churches were saved, those of S. Agnese, San Lorenzo, and S. Maria in Cosi:twain; and the remains of the original elements in these three buildings make an important contribution to Leader Scott's great argument that in the Guild of the Liberi Muratori, Freemasons, or Comacine architects, we have a chain binding together, in unbroken continuity, the architecture of classic Rome and all the Italian styles (with their Norman, Romanesque, Byzantine, and Gothic modifications and de- velopments) down to the false classic of the Renaissance. It is no new theory that when Rome lay in ruins under the , • The Cathedral Builders : the Story of a Great 'Masonic Guild. By Leader scott, wiLb 53 Mlustrattons. London : Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. L211.]
dominion of the barbarians, a collegison of builders fled from the eternal city and took refuge in the island of Comacina, on the lake of Como. From that time till the seventh century, there was no church-building done in Rome. But revival came with Pope Adrian I., and he is known to have sent to Lombardy for builders, as did also Charlemagne for his architectural works. In Lombardy the building of churches and monasteries had been going on since about 580, when Theodolinda, a Christian Princess, married Autharis the Arian King of the Lombards, and in company with him caused a monastery near Monza to be erected—employing for the work the Comacine Masters from the lake of Como, When Antharis died, Theodolinda married his successor Agilulf, who was a Christian, and in his reign she built the Cathedral at Monza and a great many other churches, hospices, and monasteries. The Monza Cathedral was the prototype of all the Lombard churches,—a basilica with an arched tribune supported on four columns. a high altar, loggie or galleries for the women, an atrium with porticoes, and a sculptured façade. The relation to the earlier Roman architecture was plainly traceable in the general form. and Leader Scott assures us that examina- tion of the oldest parts of the churches that escaped the destruction of Genseric reveals no difference between the works of the Roman builders under Constantine and the Lombards under Theodolinda, except such a deteriora- tion of style as would be a natural consequence of the inactivity of the collegiunt during at least a cen- tury. This Comacine Guild, in which we are to recog- nise the origin of the great fraternity of the Freemasons, very quickly grew into power. It was encouraged by the Popes to the extent of being emancipated from all the restrictions as to place and nationalty which bound other guilds. The sixth century was the age of the first great Christian missions, and wherever missionaries were sent to preach the gospel, Masters and Brothers of the Comacine Guild went with them to build churches, There is reason to believe that some of them came with Augustine to England and founded a school or lodge at Canterbury, and that from this school builders were fetched seventy years later by Wilfrid to renew the Cathedral at York, which had been originally built by Patilinus,—himself a Comacine Master. For the building of Hexham Church, the members of the Canterbury Lodge were again employed. But for the church and monastery at Wearmontb, Bishop Benedict had to fetch builders from Gaul, presumably because all the Can- terbury men were already engaged at Hex.ham. But the builders from Gaul were Comacines also; there is presumptive evidence, we are told, of the existence of Galilean lodges about this time. Evidence is not wanting either of the presence of the Comacines in Ireland, and Leader Scott has no hesitation in attributing to them the making of the early Irish crosses and round towers, as well as the Crosses at Whalley, Ruthwell, Kirkdale, Crowle, Yarm, and other places in England and Scotland. The Brothers accom- panied S. Boniface to Germany, and their hand is traceable in the early churches of Lombard style at Cologne, Worms, and Spires. S. Guillaume brought them into Normandy to build churches at Caen and Dijon. They took root in both countries, and, in each, their art developed new national characteristics. The transition from Romano-Lombard to the Norman and the Gothic is traceable, and has been traced. In Italy the Guild spread through all the communes and cities. Lodges or schools were established at Pisa, Siena, Orvieto, Venice, Milan, Rome, and, with the be- ginning of the fourteenth century, documentary evidence of the existence of a great confraternity with a common organisa- tion for its many branches becomes accessible. The fact that the Freemasons were originally a secret society accounts sufficiently for the want of such evidence in the earlier centuries ; but as soon as it becomes available it throws light not only on the time to which it belongs, but on the times that went before. Everywhere the same organisation of the lodges is found, and the names of the successive Masters show a very interesting hereditary continuity in the personnel of the Order, An immense number of authorities have been consulted by Leader Scott in the course of the studies that have led to the production of this book. But the author acknowledges a very special debt to a ponderous work in two volumes by the late Professor Merzario, entitled /Maestri Cornacini Styria Artistica di mine dv.ecento anni, 600-1800. Of this book, which was published in 1893, Leader Scott tells us that it contains " a huge amount of material from old writers, old deeds, and old stories, But valuable as the material is, Merzario is bewildering in his redundancy, confusing in his arrangement, and not sufficiently clear in his deductions, his chief aim being to show how many famous artists come from Lombardy.'
Another invaluable source of information has been a collection of documents bearing upon science and art, brought together by the great archivist Milanesi, With the help of these and other archwological collections, Leader Scott has suc- ceeded in putting together chronological tables of the history of the different schools and lodges, which are a great help to the substantiation of the theory of continuity. But, on the whole, the more fascinating vein of evidence is that which is preserved in the stonework of the churches themselves. Certain forms of decoration, and a few special symbols have been the handmarks of the Freemasons or Comecines through all the ages,—the Solomon's knot, with its developments of interlaced strands having neither beginning nor end, and known technically as intrecci ; and the Lion of Judah, some- times supporting, sometimes surmounting, a column. These symbolic ornaments connected with the mystical tradition, which Freemasons pretend to trace back to the days of Solomon, are found with convincing regularity in a very large number of the important churches of all the countries to which the Lombard Masters came. With the later developments of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance, these symbols lose their simplicity, and tend to disappear ; but as the centuries grow older we are no longer obliged to look to the stones of the buildings for the proof of continuity ; it is found in the archives of the various branches, who were apparently released from the necessity of secrecy that bound the original members of the fraternity to leave no document behind them, The general outline of the organisation was threefold, Everywhere there was, first, the school where novices were trained in painting, sculpture, and architecture. For pupils received from outside, the novitiate was a very severe discipline; but sons and nephews of members became members by inheritance, and went through no novitiate. Then there was the laboreriutn, or great work- shop, where all the hewing of stone, carving of columns, and cutting up of woodwork was done, the headquarters of the brethren or colVgantes who had passed the schools but were not yet Masters," Qualified Masters had separate studios, where they might take pupils and apprentices, Thirdly, there was "the opera, or office of administration, which formed the link between the Guild and its patrons." Here was the seat of the ruling Council, consisting generally of four members, though sometimes dwindling to one, and, at Milan, exceeding the number four; and above the office was the President, who was often the local reigning Prince, The statutes of the Guilds are full of interest, and supply a great deal of information about manners and means, It was the principle of the Order that no man could be a Master who could not with his own hands build, carve, and paint hie church. And all the early Comaoine churches were richly carved on their façades with Bible symbolism, and painted within with Church history. Their whole organisation was religious, and many monks and abbots were among their members, But their work was, neither in the beginning nor afterwards, confined to church-building. Fortresses, bridges, palaces, were built by them from the days of King Agilulf onwards. Leader Scott appears to have felt at one time a sort of fear that the discovery of this spreading tree of hereditary and associated architects might in some manner upset all that has been previously known and written about art. But as the work went on, it was realised that there was no reason to fear any such result. The researches in the volume before us do but serve to bring to light the framework upon which the various styles of European architecture have been trained, and to fill up, partly with evidence and partly by suggestion, gape in the con- tinuity of the story. It is especially interesting to we how, in Leader Scott's own words, every great and notable name in the art of the Middle Ages finds its place in the lists of one or other branches of the Comacine Guild, and some of the most inter- esting passages of his book are those which trace the connec- tion of such artists as Albertne Magnus, Giotto, Gime* Cimabue, and Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano, with the universal Guild. To recognise that these men were trained by, and derived their inspiration from, an organisation as old as the Catholic Church itself, takes nothing from their merit or their interest; while the recognition of the existence of such a monopolising organisation meets, as nothing else can, the question how it came that the same forms of structure and ornament, and the same tendencies to transition (subject to superficial modifications according to climate and national character), showed themselves at the same time in all the countries of Europe. And the connection of the builders of Como with the Collegia of Rome explains that other difficulty of art history,—how came the Lombards to leap straight from barbarism to the artistic conception of the imposing edifices of seventh-century Lombard architecture. Even then, if we feel obliged to refrain from pinning our faith absolutely to all Leader Scott's theories, we gladly admit the learning and interest of the book before us. No final judgment can be passed on the main question till the experts on the other side have been heard ; but, at any rate, it is safe to say that the book before us is a very valuable contribution to the origins of modern European architecture.
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