THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY.
148
figures in
The
^
masonic attitudes."
idea thus suggested,
same
representation of the entrance to the cathedral in the
to his
well-known work.
forms of
In this sketch
we
further supported
city,
which
lie
Eoman
by a
pictorial
gives as a frontispiece
find portrayed (exclusive of
reverential attitudes.
five ecclesiastics in
those conversant with the services of the
is
minor
figures) the
The postures they assume, will remind
Church, of the attitude of the ofiiciating
and beyond the strong family likeness which must always exist, between supplicatory
and reverential positions of all kinds and in all countries, assumed in invocation of Divine
aid, I do not see that there is anything to merit our attention in the similitude upon which
priest,
much
Fort has laid so
Hyde
Clarke,
"
common
years, wherein as a
masonic
signs,
It
stress.
be added, that to what has been happily termed by Mr
"
"
all the
of later
traveller's tales
may
the doctrine of chance coincidences," are due
the whole, I tliink,
or the recognition of
feature, appear either the manifestation
by Arabs of the
we may
desert, native Australians,
safely infer
Bushmen, Afghans,
that whatever
resemblances
may
Upon
etc., etc.
apj)ear to exist
between the masonic ceremonial and the attitudes to which Fort has alluded, are as much
"
the product of chance as the " supposititious masonry
of our own times, which has evoked
the excellent definition of Mr Clarke.^
As
in
for the greeting itself,
which a fellow was
help tendered.
we
may seem
It
are distinctly told
to claim assistance (Art. 110),
strange, that
what
it
was
in Art. 107, also the
and how he was
what was considered a
words
to return thanlcs for the
secret should have
been
committed to writing and in fact, Fallou asserts ^ that it was never in use, and that the
Torgau Ordinances were of no authority, being merely a private sketch of a proposed
new ordinance and rule and he elsewhere states that they never received confirmation.
;
;
The
entirely subsidiary to,
moreover, they were never meant to be confirmed, being
and elucidatory of, the 1459 Ordinances but as to the former, it is so
palpably erroneous, as
shown
latter
statement
no words about
is
correct, and,
;
in another place,
and by the preamble
itself,
that
we need waste
Fallou prefers to this documentary evidence, the statements of a
Stcinmciz of the present day the greeting, however, as told by him is so similar, that it may
well have arisen from the old original all except the three upright steps, against which I
here.
it
;
—
have already protested. When we take into account, however, the fact that the Torgau
Ordinances were never printed, or intended to be, and were probably only entrusted to wellknown masters, as may be presumed from the fact that up to the present time, only one copy
has come to light when we consider how important it was that this greeting should be given
with great exactitude, in order to distinguish a bond fide craftsman, we can no longer wonder
;
at the
Saxon masters ensuring
similarly preserved
?
Because
it
its
But
accurate preservation.
was
not be forgotten or perverted.
have thus been able to trace
We
if so,
why was
n