The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic GuildScott, Leader
History
The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild
Scott, Leader
Cathedrals; Church architecture; Guilds
Our author goes on to tell of the second revival of Freemasonry, in
its present entirely spiritual significance, and he gives Oliver
Cromwell, of all people, the credit of this revival! The rites and
ceremonies he describes are the greatest tissue of mediæval
superstition, child's play, blood-curdling oaths, and mysterious
secrecy with nothing to conceal, that can be imagined. All the signs
of masonry without a figment of reality; every moral thing masquerades
under an architectural aspect, in that "Temple made without hands"
which is figured by a Freemasons' lodge in these days. But the
significant point is that all these names and masonic emblems point to
something real which existed at some long-past time, _and, as far as
regards the organization and nomenclature, we find the whole thing in
its vital and actual working form in the Comacine Guild_. Our nameless
Italian who reveals all the Masonic secrets, tells us that every lodge
has three divisions, one for the novices, one for the _operatori_ or
working brethren, and one for the masters, besides a meeting or
recreation room; and that no lodge can be established without a
minimum of two masters. Now wherever we find the Comacines at work, we
find the threefold organization of _schola_ or school for the novices,
_laborerium_ for the _operatori_, and the _Opera_ or _Fabbrica_ for
the Masters of Administration.
The anonymous one tells us that there is a _Gran Maestro_ or
_Arch-magister_ at the head of the whole order, a _Capo Maestro_ or
chief Master at the head of each lodge. Every lodge must besides be
provided with two or four _Soprastanti_, a treasurer, and a
secretary-general, besides accountants. This is precisely what we find
in the organization of the Comacine Lodges. As we follow them through
the centuries we shall see it appearing in city after city, at first
dimly shadowed where documents are wanting, but at last fully revealed
by the books of the treasurers and _Soprastanti_ themselves, in Siena,
Florence, and Milan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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