The Origins of Craft Masonry
Greek Eranoi: Around the 7th century BC there were permanent societies in Greece called Eranoi. Their members contributed to a general fund for the purpose of aiding one another in necessity, provided for funerals, met in an assembly to deliberate on their affairs and celebrated feasts and religious ceremonies in common. Strict rules against disorder were enforced by fines. He who did not pay his yearly quota to the society was excluded unless he could show good cause of poverty or sickness. Some writers assert that it was from the Eranoi that Numa gained his idea of the Collegia.
Roman Collegia: The earliest authentic record of the association of artisans relates to those instituted among the Romans by Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome (715 BC). He organized the artisans into Collegia (legal associations) and the Masons or stone workers became leaders of this fraternity. One Collegium was attached to each legion of troops so that when a Roman colony was established, the work of civilization and art proceeded without delay.
Collegium parallels: A college could consist of no fewer than three sodales or companions, was presided over by a Magister (Latin: Master) and decurions (Stewards), and had a treasurer, sub‑treasurer, secretary and archivist. They had a common chest (fund), a common cult (rituals), a meeting‑house (Lodge) and a common table (festive board). There was a bond of relationship among them and they called and regarded themselves as fraters (Latin: brothers). This bond required the duty of accepting the guardianship of the child of a deceased colleague. The brothers publicly interred their dead in a common sepulcher, with all the survivors being present. Thus the Roman collegia could be taken as the precursors of Freemasons Lodges.
Though the rules or by‑laws of the Collegia tenuiorum are not available, those of the Collegia Cultorum Dei which were similar associations are, and they are identical to the corresponding regulations of the guilds in England. The Roman artificers continued in their growth and following the destinies and conquests of Rome spread into every country that came under Roman domination.
Byzantium: When the Roman Emperor Constantine (272 – 337 AD) became the patron of Christianity in 312 AD Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. In 324 AD Constantine shifted his capital to Byzantium in Asia Minor, giving birth to Constantinople (Istanbul). Constantine wanted to build grand churches, but he considered the existent forms of Christian buildings inappropriate considering the status of Christianity, and sought an architecture that had fresh meaning. He found this in the Saracenic architecture in Byzantium and the marriage of Roman and Saracenic architecture begot the Byzantine architecture with the magnificent Basilicas that served as a combination of an imperial audience hall, law court, financial center, and army drill hall.
Britain: When Julius Caesar conquered England in 55 B. C. he found the Britons entirely uninformed about architecture of any kind. There is evidence of the establishment of a college at Regnum (today’s Chichester) in the form of a slab of marble (found in 1733) with the inscription “"The college or company of artificers and they who preside over sacred rights by the authority of King Cogibunus, the legati of Tiberius Claudius Augustus, in Britain, dedicated this to Neptune and Minerva for the welfare of the Imperial family. Pudens, the son of Pudentius, having given the site."
This decline of the Roman Empire began around 150 AD and continued over a period of approximately 320 years, culminating in 476 AD, when Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain. When the Roman Empire fell, most of the Collegia became extinct except those of the stone masons, who probably shifted their operations to France. Buildings of stone decreased in much of Western Europe, with a resulting increase in timber-based construction.
With their departure the British Isles were invaded (449 AD) by the barbaric Saxons who were accustomed to hovels of mud and habitations of rough stone with straw coverings, and destroyed everything else. Consequently, the use of wrought stone for building was discontinued for the next two hundred years.
France: In the meantime, from the 3rd to the 5th century AD the Franci, a West Germanic tribal confederation, raided Roman territory, and one of their tribes, the Salii, formed a kingdom in the region in ancient Gaul that came to be known as Francia. The Francian King Merovich established a dynasty that reigned from the 5th to the 8th century AD. The Merovingians were Christians and continued the Roman Basilica tradition, and innovated upon it.
The focus being on building Basilicas, few other truly large stone buildings were attempted between the 4th century, and the 8th century AD. Between the 6th and 8th century AD the Byzantine architecture was combined with the Roman style into a form of stone architecture named Romanesque and many churches and castles were built in this style in the Western European Roman empire.
Some very ancient records, note that during the Merovingian dynasty (as early as 628), the trades and crafts of Paris organized themselves into associations called corps de métiers along the lines of the Roman colleges.
The Corps de Metier: The oldest code of the corps de métiers which has been preserved is probably that of Boileau (around 1260 AD) that unites the masons, stonemasons, plasterers (both makers and users) and the mortarers (both makers and users of mortar) under the banner of St. Blaise. From other sources we know that the quarry‑workers and the tuilières (tile makers) owed allegiance to the same banner, also the millstonemakers.
The Corps de St. Blaise: In 1467 Louis XI organized the crafts into a species of militia or garde national. The various trades were ranged under sixty‑one banners. The leading banners were those of the six corps of merchants; the thirty‑second being that of St. Blaise, comprising the masons, quarrymen, stonemasons, etc.
The Confraire: An institution closely allied with the Corps de Metier was that of the social assemblies (confrairie, conphrairie, frairie). These met at stated periods, for religious exercises and social pleasures. Every craft banner belonged, as a body, to some Confrarie. The society was composed of the same members as the craft but comprised only of the Masters.
Their most useful sphere of action was the sustenance and relief of aged and poor Masters, their widows and children, the assistance rendered to members in cases of illness and to companions on their travels. Their downfall was their excess in the social pleasures. A code preserved in the archives of the city of Amiens, dated June 15, 1407 is styled the "Statutes regulating the Fraternity of the masons' trade (du mestier de Machonnerie) of Amiens " which regulated their finances and their banquets".
In 1498, the Parliament prohibited all banquets and Confraries and, at the same time, enacted laws to regulate the associations; by 1534 when fresh laws regulating the associations were passed, the Masonic Confrairies were in a large measure dispersed and dissolved and their scattered fragments were absorbed by the Compagnonage.
The Compagnons: The Compagnons (Companions) du Tour de France are a French organization of the journeymen of France formed for mutual support and assistance during their travels. The title 'journeyman' derives from the French “journée” or day, as such workers were generally paid by the day. After being employed by a master for several years, and after producing a qualifying piece of work, the apprentice was granted the rank of journeyman and was given documents
(letters or certificates from his master and/or the guild itself) which certified him as a journeyman and entitled him to travel to other towns and countries and work for other masters.
Compagnon parallels: The origin of the Compagnons is shrouded in history, and is traditionally traced back to the time of Solomon, helping to build the first temple in Jerusalem before migrating to Gaul.
The Companions’ legend of Maitre Jaques, one of the first masters of Solomon and a colleague of Hiram, (recorded by Perdiguier - 1805-1875 , a joiner belonging to the Compagnonange “Sons of Solomon”) so remarkably parallels the tragic assassination of the Widows Son as to have been its predecessor. But the ceremonies and rituals of the Companions were kept a close secret and shrouded in mystery.
Even Perdiguier has not gone into much detail except to the following customs and arrangements: “A young workman presents himself and requests to be made a member of the society. His sentiments are inquired into, and if the replies are satisfactory, he is embauche (recruited).
At the next General Assembly he is brought into an upper room … when, in the presence of all the companions and of filier (network or fellows), questions are put to him to ascertain that he has made no mistake, that it is into this particular society and not in some other that he wishes to enter; and he is informed that there are many distinct societies and that he is quite free in his choice. The ordinances, to which all companions …..are obliged to conform, are then read to him and he is asked whether he can and will conform thereto.
Should he answer “No," he is at liberty to retire; if he replies “Yes," he is affiliated and conducted to his proper place in the room. If he is honest and intelligent, he obtains in due course all the degrees of the Companionage, and succeeds to the various offices of the society.” – Gould.
There are three further degrees in the Companionage: accepted companion, finished companion and initiated companion, probably attended with a ceremony comprising the enactment of some tragic scene similar to that recounted in the career of Maitre Jacques or of Hiram Abiff.
Thory, in his History of the Grand Orient, reproduces the material portions of the Compagnon of charcoal burners: “At their initiation a white cloth was spread on the ground, on which was placed a full salt‑cellar, a goblet of water, a wax candle and a cross. The candidate took the oath lying prostrate on the cloth and, with his hands, one on the salt, and the other on the goblet. He was then raised and, after some “mystification “given the password; which would prove him a true and good “cousin “in all forests.
The master afterwards explained the symbols; the cloth represents the shroud; the salt, the three theological virtues; the fire, our funeral torches; the water, that which will be sprinkled over our grave; the cross, that which will be borne before our coffin”. This is probably the first reference we find to a ritual that parallels the speculative rituals in Freemasonry.
As the reader can gather, the ceremonies detailed above closely parallel those of Freemasonry. An inscription found with the names of Sons of Solomon, who died in the battle of Lacrau in the mid 17th century, bears carvings of masons' picks, compasses, squares, levels and other stonemasons' tools.
In 1648, with the interdiction of assemblies, the Compagnons took refuge in the Temple, which was under a separate jurisdiction, and the clergy forbade the ceremonies and institutions.