History | Page 183

THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY. crowned martyrs), on the square and gange, to perform Lis duties to the best of his fellows then hailed him as warden, and swore obedience to him as the master's (the four The ability. representative As state generally, that much more the whole 20), (Art. expense (Art. 20). are i6i he course of to his duties, they to be true, trusty, is We minute. concluding with feast at the warden's The 1563 Ordinances merely were manifold. and obedient a but those of Torgau (Art. XLII.), was two knocks, but whenever an are told that his signal announcement was made, such as to begin or to cease work, command attention, etc., one knock only (Art. 28). He was to preserve the order, the i^rivileges, the tools and appliances of the lodge (Arts. 48, 63, and 65), and to see that all instruments of precision, square, gauge, etc., were maintained in full accuracy (Art. 49). He was to act as general instructor to the fellows and apprentices (Arts. 49 and 50), and prepare, prove, to reject spoilt He was work (Art. 51), and to call the brethren to labour at the proper time, to fine those who did not make and pass work their for them, to levy all fines for negligence or otherwise (Art. 52). without fear or favour (Art. their appearance (Art. 56) ; 54), and in this latter respect his atten- Whilst true and tion being forcibly directed to the influence of a good example (Art. 62). on the alert to safeguard his interests, he was to be confaithful to his master, and ever ciliatory and kind to the fellows (Art. 49), and ever ready to help them, of a peaceable disposition, to avoid giving cause of strife (Art. 57), severity than the usages of the craft permitted and on no account (Art. 64). He was to act to with greater preside at their ordinary vesper meal, and to enforce a becoming frugality (Art. 59) he had power to assist a and to engage and dismiss workmen (Art. 60), and in the master's absence succeeded ; traveller, to all his authority (Art. 55), His name According is even to the extent of reducing the hours of labour (Art. 59). The Strassburg Ordinances always call him parlierer. given. " and others this word would signify the speaker," from the French parlcr, fact, he was undoubtedly, to a certain extent, the mouthpiece of the master. differently to Fallou speak and iii But a glance at the original language of the Statutes will show that no other word there used indicates a French origin, and the custom, since so prevalent with a certain class of German to ; writers and speakers, of Teutonising French words, to the great detriment of their fine old mother tongue, had not yet arisen. Fort gives a far more probable derivation.^ The Torgau Ordinances spell the word places of wor.ship, j ; and he states that, in former times amongst the Germans, all were fenced around with a row of stakes, in modern German piallircr ustice, etc., pfahl, formerly |;«?; the guardian or warden of the enclosure of the word pfahlirer or pallirer, and when the real meaning would thence take was forgotten, his name, and the present might easily have become corrupted into parlierer. we accept this deiivation, the conclusion is inevitable, that warden, parlierer, and pallirer If We have thus a clear picture of the lodge as it existed in are identical in their signification. office of the holder only remembered, the fifteenth century, and probably for it many centuries previously, consisting of apprentices, resident fellows, travelling fellows, v&FV