THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY.
,(5s
II.
"
level teaches the true faith
The
Therefore
is it
;
to be treasured.
III.
" Justice and the
compass' science
It boots
—
naught to establish them.
IV.
"
The gauge
And
is
is
fine
and
scientific,
used by great and small."
second and third rhymes more especially, clearly show us that they
of the implements of their handicraft yet the
grasped the idea of an ethical symbolisation
whether this ought not rather to be taken as a proof of philosophical
question arises,
of
reflection on the part of some individual members, than as indicative of a system
^
such
If
co-existent with mediaeval stonemasonry ?
speculative philosophy having been
has it not survived ? and why are there no traces of it in the still
a system existed, why
The
versifiers, in the
;
?
Wliy, when Freemasonry was introduced from England,
existing lodges of the stonemasons
The reason is obvious.
did no recognition take place of its previous existence in Germany ?
had existed in Germany,
Freemasonry, that is, a
Stonemasonry, purely operative,
—
—never!
speculative science
The Steinmetzcn may have claimed a few thoughtful, speculative
members, and so, for that matter, might a society of coalheavers but it never concealed
within the bosom of its operative fraternity any society which consciously and systematically
;
practised a speculative science.
In view of the assertions so often made, that the stonemasons were in the habit
of
of the age, it is somewhat surprising to
admitting into their fraternity the most learned men
Albertus Argentinus and Albertus
in the Ordinances.
find no provision for this contingency
the design for the towers of
Magnus are both claimed as masons. To the former is attributed
some writers
Strassburg Cathedral, and to the latter the plan of Cologne Cathedral, although
This is the opinion of, amongst
to consider them as one and the same person.
are inclined
others, Heideloff, m'Iio
"
says,
the masons' traditions connect Albertus Argentinus with the
Cathedral of Strassburg, but he is probably Albertus Magnus, born 1193 or 1206, living in
12.30 as a Benedictine monk in Strassburg, teacher of theology, philosophy, physics, and
^
If he really designed the plan of Cologne Cathedral, we can scarcely wonder at
metaphysics."
the masons desiring to claim him as a brother, but proof is, in such a case, of course, hardly to
be expected.
fraternity, as
proof
of,
The Emperor, Frederick
shown in his Wcisl-unig?
nor provision made for
it.
(1440-1492), is said to have been admitted to the
All this is not impossible, but there is nowhere any
III.
Nevertheless,
we know
that other crafts admitted honorary
the town government was divided amongst the craft guilds, it became
that every citizen should belong 2'>'>'o forma to one of them, and provision is very
necessary
In the charter, granted in 12G0 by the Bishop of Bale to the tailors
early made for this.
members
'
It
;
indeed,
when
Mr H. A.
has been already shown that the masons enjoyed no monopoly of the symbolism of tlieir trade.
" From time immemorial we find the
and compasses used by
observes
3)
square
ji.
Giles (Freemasonry in China,
:
Chinese writers, to symbolise exactly the same phases of moral conduct as in our
«
Ibid., p. 22.
of Freemasonry.
"
Heideloff, Die Bauhiitte des Mittelalters, p. 15.
'
own system
I
have not been able to verify
admits that the passages
may
this,
but KIoss (Die Freimaurerei
bear this construction, although they do not prove
it.
in ihrer
wahren Bedeutung,
p.
250)