MASONRY. 



713 



British isles. That these societies of architects at 

 last gave rise to one not occupied with actual build- 

 ing (speculative masonry, as it is called by some), 

 appears, from a critical investigation of the history 

 of free-masonry. 



The first societies of antiquity with which free- 

 masonry appears to stand in historical connexion 

 are the corporations of architects, which, with the 

 Romans, existed under the name of collegia and cor- 

 pora. It is related that Numa established the first 

 corporations (if we may so term them) of architects 

 (collegia fabroruni), with many other societies of 

 mechanics and artificers (collegia artiftcum), after 

 the model of the Greek societies or colleges of arti- 

 ficers and priests : he also instituted for them proper 

 meetings and certain religious rites. According to 

 the laws of the twelve tables, the collegia had the 

 right to make their own laws, and could conclude 

 certain treaties with eacli other, if nothing was con- 

 tained in either contrary to the public laws, which 

 was conformable with Solon's legislation. Such 

 corporations of all kinds, particularly the crafts con- 

 nected with hydraulic, naval, and civil architecture, 

 early became dispersed through all the provinces of 

 the Roman state, went on continually increasing, 

 and co-operated most powerfully in propagating the 

 Roman customs, sciences, arts, and laws. They, as 

 it were, cultivated the soil, which the sword had 

 gained. The useful arts are, of course, among the 

 most important gifts which a civilized race can con- 

 fer on the rude tribes who may be dependent on it. 

 When an Indian tribe first concludes a treaty with 

 the United States, one of the points has often been a 

 stipulation that the hitter shall send a blacksmith 

 among them. If we now remember that the Romans 

 were pre-eminently an architectural race (like most 

 conquering nations, who have already attained a 

 considerable degree of civilization), and that the 

 sciences and arts, connected with architecture, 

 include a vast range, and are intimately connected 

 with the other attainments of an advanced civiliza- 

 tion, we shall easily comprehend that the colleges of 

 architects must have been of great importance. As 

 the collegia were established in those early times 

 when states were formed after the model of a family, 

 and the religious and political constitution confusedly 

 mingled, they had, besides their character of a society 

 of artificers, that of a civil and religious institution. 

 This character was retained by the collegia, particu- 

 larly the collegium of architects, to the end of the 

 Roman empire, and transplanted into the corpora- 

 tions of architects of the middle ages, already men- 

 tioned, because the constant mingling of religion in 

 law, politics, and science, by no means ceased in the 

 middle ages ; on the contrary, in some particulars, 

 a still closer union was effected. As the Roman col- 

 legia held their meetings with closed doors, nothing 

 was more natural than that they should become, in 

 times of violent political agitation, the place of 

 political parties and religious mysteries, secret 

 worship, and doctrines of all sorts. The Roman 

 emperors of the first centuries limited the collegia 

 as much as possible, but the later governments 

 favoured them so much the more. In the corpus 

 juris are contained several lists of the mechanic arts, 

 legally existing, and free from taxation, in the third 

 and fourth centuries, among which we find those of 

 architects, ship-builders, machine-builders, builders 

 of ballistce, painters, sculptors, workers in marble, 

 masons, stone-cutters, carpenters, &c. There was 

 no town at all important, no province ever so dis- 

 tant, where some of the collegia, just mentioned, did 

 not exist, to the downfall of the Western and Eastern 

 empires, with their peculiar constitutions, and having 

 more or less of a political and a religious character. 



The corporations of artificers, whose occupations were 

 connected with architecture, were called upon, by 

 imperial orders, to come from all parts of the empire, 

 to assist in the building of large cities, palaces, 

 churches, &c. Similar artificers also accompanied 

 each Roman legion. Such corporations also existed 

 in Britain (where the Romans, during their conquests, 

 built a great deal), both in the legions there stationed 

 and in the cities. The same was the case in Spain, 

 France, on the Rhine, and on the Danube. It is 

 true that these collegia vanished in Britain, with 

 most of their works, when the Picts, Scots, and 

 Saxons devastated the country ; but, in France, Spain, 

 Italy, and in the Greek empire, they continued to 

 flourish, and from these countries the Christian Saxon 

 rulers of Britain, particularly Alfred and Athelstan, 

 induced a number of artificers and architects to come 

 to England in order to build their castles, churches, 

 and convents. Although these foreign artists, and 

 the few who had survived the ravages of the bar- 

 barous tribes, were Christians, and though most of 

 their leaders or directors were clergymen, yet the 

 corporations which they formed had no other consti- 

 tutions than those transmitted to them from the 

 Roman colleges, which were spread over all Chris- 

 tian Europe, and the character of which is still to 

 be learned from the corpus juris Romani. As the 

 members of these corporations of architects of the 

 tenth century belonged to different nations, and at 

 the same time publicly or secretly to sects, widely 

 differing in their tenets, and often condemned as 

 heretical ; in short, as they were very different in 

 faith, customs, and manner of living, they could not 

 be induced to go to England, and to remain there, 

 without receiving from the pope and king satisfac- 

 tory liberties and letters of protection, especially 

 jurisdiction over their own bodies, and the right of 

 settling their own wages. They then united, under 

 written constitutions, founded upon the ancient con- 

 stitution of the Roman and Greek colleges, and the 

 provisions of the civil law. The different tenets of 

 the members, the scientific occupation and elevated 

 views of their leading architects and clergymen, 

 naturally gave rise to a more liberal spirit of tolera- 

 tion, a purer view of religion, and stricter morals, 

 than were common in those times of civil feud and 

 religious persecution. The lofty notions of Vitru- 

 vius (their constant manual), in regard to the dignity 

 of an architect, may have contributed to ennoble 

 their character. Their religious tenets being often 

 objects of suspicion to the orthodox, they were 

 obliged to keep them secret. Secrecy, moreover, 

 was the character of all the corporations of the mid- 

 dle ages, and, down to the most recent times, the 

 corporations of mechanics on the continent had what 

 they called secrets of the craft certain words, or 

 sometimes absurd ceremonies, by which they pre- 

 tended to know each other. To this we must add, 

 that the corporations of architects, in the middle 

 ages, were descended from the times of antiquity, so 

 that their societies had received, in the times when 

 Rome adored all gods, and listened to all philoso- 

 phical systems, impressions derived from the Greek 

 philosophical schools, particularly the Stoic, united 

 with some fragments of the Greek and Egyptian 

 mysteries, and subsequently modified by notions 

 acquired in the early times of Christianity, particu- 

 larly from the Gnostics, which led to certain doc- 

 trines and sacred ceremonies, clothed, according to 

 the spirit of the time, in symbols, and constituting 

 their esoteric mysteries. The watchful eye of the 

 popes induced them to keep these doctrines closely 

 concealed, in connexion with the real secrets of their 

 art, and its subsidiary branches, their rude chemistry, 

 their metallurgy, and natural philosophy, and to 



