I
THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY.
JO
becomes
tbeir subjection to the municiijality
more glaringly evident
still
any buildings for the clergy except with the consent of the
therefore, no longer even at liberty to choose their own employers.
to
erect
"
concludes,
And
;
they are forbidden
council.^
And
the
They are,
document
that shall be sworn to every half-year, or at such other time as they take their
oaths, equally with the other points of their oath."
On
the 9th
March 1491,
both
crafts."
^
was agreed "that the masons should keep
it
and neither encroach on the
painters to theirs,
This
is
other, but
which would be taking a good slice out of his
a most remarkable fact that throughout
It is
made
of the four martyrs, but that the guild of
to their craft
and the
shall be allowed to be free of
and could only
against the whole spirit of the Ordinances,
place, according to stonemason's law, if the individual
crafts,
it
had served
legally take
his apprenticeship to both
life.
this
roll
of documents,
no mention
stonemasons and carpenters,
is
who were
This
always cited together, is repeatedly called the Fraternity of St John the Baptist.
arose from their having originally held their headquarters at the Chapel of St John in
the cathedral square but it also points to the possibility of their having only formed one
;
fraternity.
In 1561 (two years before the Strassburg Ordinances of 1563), the burgomaster and council
of Cologne issued a charter of constitution to the stonemasons and carpenters, containing
eighteen clauses,
Even
if
some
we admit
which were in
of
that the craft
direct conflict with the
1459 and 1563 Ordinances.
drew up the Ordinances and the council then confirmed
the importance of these contradictions is none the less.
first
them, as was probably the case,
Either way, it implies that the municipality was able to impose terms on the masons
within its walls, subversive of the formally recognised Ordinances of the craft, which
ordinances had even been approved and confirmed by the Emperor.
Art. 1
is to
the
"
fourteen years as the age at which an apprentice
fixes
serve four years.
master
to
is
Brotherhood
the master
"
The Ordinances require
charge
but
many
the
to
recover
of the guild.
Art. 2 forbids a master to
may
bind a second.
may be bound, and he
It also fLxes his rate of pay,
which
he charges more, the master loses his
employer.
by a fine of 2 florins, half to the municipality, half to
If
So that the municipality even asserts
craftsman and to forbid him his
his term he
it
five.
its
right to
exclude a
craft.
keep more than one apprentice, but at the expiration of half
The Ord