[3] "Si quis Magister Comacinum unum aut plures rogaverit, aut conduxerit ad operam dictandum, aut solatium diurnum praestandum inter suos servos ad domum aut casam faciendam et contigerit per ipsam casam, aliquem ex ipsis Comacinis mori non requiratur ab ipso, cuius casa est. Nam si cadens arbor, aut lapis ex ipsa fabrica, et occiderit aliquem extraneum, aut quodlibet damnum fecerit, non reputetur culpa magistro, sed ille qui conduxit, ipsum damnum sustineat."--From the _Edict of Rotharis_--edited by Troyes. [4] Stieglitz, _Geschichte der Baukunst_, 1827, pp. 423, 424. See also Hope's _Historical Essay on Architecture_, 1835, pp. 229-237. [5] See Hope's _Historical Essay on Architecture_, 3rd edition, 1840, chap. xxi. pp. 203-216. [6] E mandaro al Senato di Roma, che mandassi loro i più sofficienti maestri, e più sottili (subtle) che fossero in Roma: e cosi fu fatto.--_Storia_ di G. Villani. Libro primo, cap. xlii. [7] Cassiodorus, _Variorum_, Lib. VI. Epist. vi. _Ad Prefectum Urbis De Architecta Publicorum_. [8] Morrona, _Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno_, p. 160. Pisa, 1812. [9] _Instituzioni, riti e ceremonie dell' ordine de' Francs-Maçons, ossia Liberi Muratori._--In Venezia MDCCLXXXVIII, presso Leonardo Bassaglia, Con Licenza de' Superiori. [10] The Charter Richard II. for the year 1396, quoted in the _Masonic Magazine_ (1882), has the following entry--"341 Concessimus archiepiscopo Cantuar, quod, viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatus ffre Maceons et viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatos ligiers ... capere ... possit." Here then at Canterbury is the same thing as at Milan, and all other ancient cathedral-building cities,--the master builders are Freemasons, _i.e._ of the great and universal guild,--the underlings who assist them have not the same rank and privilege. The Act Henry VI., c. 12, 1444, says in queer mixed parlance--"Les gagez ascun frank mason ou maister Carpenter nexcede pas par le jour IIIJ d. (denari) ovesque mangier & boier ... un rough mason and mesne Carpenter ... III d. par le jour." Here we recognize the same distinction of grades between the master who has matriculated and the mason of lower grade. It is interesting also to note that the master carpenter is equally a Freemason as well as the master builder. In Italy the same peculiarity is noticeable; the _magister lignamine_, whose work was to make scaffoldings and roofs, is a member of the _Maestranze_, just as much as the _magister lapidorum_, and yet a master in wood is never a stonemason. The members seem to have been grounded in all the branches, but only graduated in one of them. The author of the article "Freemason" in the _New English Dictionary on Historical Principles_, seems to be perplexed over the expression "_maestre mason de franche peer_" ("master mason of free-stone"); but this is merely the equivalent of the Latin _magister lapidus vivum_, from _Saxum vivum_, free-stone, which merely means a sculptor, in distinction to an