Having spent many years in the study of the old Artisan Guilds, Fraternities and Mystical Association of Europe, it has always appeared to me that at the heart of these institutions there lay a ritual symbolism involving a search for something remote, hidden or lost.

In this respect, the Age of Chivalry also produced Companies of Knights and Companions dedicated to the service of the poor and afflicted. As an only reward for such noble pursuits, the knight could hope to aspire to a heavenly vision of spiritual mysteries outwith church teaching.

The legends of Chivalry are the veiled allegories of the eternal search for spiritual truth in a world of natural realities.

Bards, Troubadors, Meistersingers and strolling gypsy players, by way of song, sonnet and pageant, carried onwards just such an esoteric doctrine. The wide network of Knightly Orders, Companies and Guilds acting as the human vehicle, transmuted the secret symbolism into the greater permanence of metal, wood and stone. Such carvers were known as "Meassons". Of these, the most important were the stone-masons; for what better place to plant the seed of an old democratic dream than in the design, geometry and carvings of a permanent temple?

From small self-governing guilds and companies flowed the philosophic inspiration that aimed always towards a coming age of reason. An age founded on the rights of man; a spiritual and temporal world-wide common-wealth of mankind.

--ROBERT BRYDON

"Whoever attentively observes the objects which surround him, will find abundant reason to admire the works of Nature, and to adore the Being who directs such astonishing operations; he will be convinced that infinite wisdom could alone design, and infinite power finish such amazing works.

Were man placed in a beautiful garden, would not his mind be affected with exquisite delight on a calm survey of its rich collections? Would not the groves, the grottoes, the artful wilds, the flowering patterns, the open vistas, the lofty cascades, the winding streams, awaken his sensibility, and inspire his soul with the most exalted ideas? When he observes the delicate order, the nice symmetry and beautiful disposition of every part - would not his mind be agitated with the most bewitching sensations? and would not the View of this delightful scene naturally lead him to admire and venerate the happy genius who contrived it?"

--The words of William Preston, Master Mason, 1788.



The Operative Craft Guilds
The Practical Mystics

The word "craft" is derived from the old English word "craeft"-- "skill". That is; the ability to combine mind and hand with dexterity in the performance of an art, as does an artisan or artificer. The European Craft Guilds which emerged from earlier roots in the 11th century developed into sophisticated organisations during the middle- ages, uniting those workmen or women engaged in the same trade over a wider area. Goldsmiths, Metalworkers (Hammermen), carpenters, weavers, etc. With the growth of towns and cities, the Guilds formed a most important and vital element in the social structure of the times. In the larger towns the Merchants Guild would often provide a Guildhall. Members were divided into Masters, journeymen, and apprentices, whilst aiming at regulating terms, standards of trade, production, and conditions of apprenticeship. They also gave help and support to needy members and their offspring, "the Craftchilder".

In some towns, with the growth of a specific trade, one Guild might rise to prominence to become the "Prime Guild". In seaports such as Burntisland on the Firth of Forth, this was usually the Shipmasters Guild.

The secrets of their various crafts were jealously guarded by the Guild Masters, who also recorded every member's name and mark in the Lodge Book. The language and tools of the craft were used to conceal each crafts' mystical teaching. Within architectural terms, the stone mason concealed the building of a Universal Temple, relative to the brotherhood of man. Many of these Guild mystery traditions were play-acted out, and in part, often performed in public once a year. Goldsmiths favoured "The adoration of the Kings. " Vintners specialised in "The Marriage Feast at Canna" Shipwrights used "Noah's Ark ".

In 1483, the Master Mariners and Ship's Pilots Guild staged a "Noah" pageant for which costs survive: -- "Sixpence for minstrels, ninepence each for Noah and his wife, and to Robert Brown for playing God, -- sixpence. "



The Ancient Rosicrucians

During the late middle-ages, throughout the same wide network of Operative Guilds, Companies and Orders, there spread a belief in the existence of "Enlightened ones". These obscure "Rosicrucians" travelled the highways of Europe in disguise and might fall in with some unsuspecting journeyman; -or so it was believed.

Mysterious Rosicrucians were said to be bound by oaths of impenetrable secrecy and to labour towards pure knowledge and the preservation of human life by means of the healing art. These hidden masters were said to be known by name, only to the innermost adepts of the mystery traditions and to the great and good rulers of society who protected them. The medieval Rosicrucian Fraternity is often viewed as being a body of learned and scientifically advanced alchemists. It is probable that some such underground body did exist during the 14th century. It is even possible that the designation "Rose Croix" resulted from the abolished Red Cross symbolism of the Templar Order. Destroyed in 1307, hundreds of members of the once vast and widespread order had simply gone into hiding. The official penalty for aiding a fugitive Templar was excommunication. Cartographers, Navigators, Doctors and learned Clerics, amongst Armourers and Knights, had all fled arrest in almost every country in Europe. The impact on the Guilds of a wave of unemployed professional and highly skilled intellectuals, all of whom had suffered at the hands of the Church and State, should not be underestimated.

The Albigenses -- Cathars

It is now well established that the art of paper-making was brought to Europe from the Near East by Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, or by the Moors in Spain.

Also established is the fact that the earliest paper-making centres of Europe correspond to the districts of the heretical sect known as Albigenses. The strongholds of this fraternity stretched from Northern Spain across the Southern Provinces of France and from Lombardy to Tuscany.

During the 13th century the Albigenses or Cathari became subject to Church repression, culminating in the massacre at their stronghold of Montsegur, in 1244. Later, it was estimated that about four thousand were still wandering Europe, disguised as troubadours, pedlars, merchants and journeymen. The dispersed paper-makers amongst them set up in any hidden retreat that could be found. They used a secret symbolism in the almost invisible watermark ingeniously worked into the paper. Such "Lombardy paper" spread wherever writers and scribes were at work. New Guilds of Paper-makers kept contact one with the other by means of such watermark symbolism.

What is a Freemason?

The Stonemasons Craft, like that of the Carpenter and Blacksmith, is as old as our civilization. Wood and stone are the primary building materials of the Northern World. During the middle ages it was the practice of the above three trades to denote a man "free" when, through years of training he had finally exhibited a "masterpiece" of his special art and thus gained his Masters Certificate. In a statute of 1350, the wages of a "Free" mason are set at fourpence a day and other "bonded" masons at threepence. A Master Free mason was "Mestre de franche-peer" and the others were workers in "Grosse-peer". The former worked in free stone and finished stone, and the latter prepared rough stones for the more experienced workmen. As late as the 18th century the Operative Guild was titled "The Worshipful Society of Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviors, Plaisterers and Bricklayers."

Certainly, as far back at least as the Reformation some of these Operative Guilds welcomed Patrons and Aristocratic neighbours as honorary members. Such non-operative members are now usually referred to as "Speculative" Masons. Confusion is compounded when 16th century Master Carpenters and Master Blacksmiths (Hammermen) can be found referring to each other as "Meassons".

What might we conclude when Henry Adamson of Perth in his "Muses Threnodie" printed in 1636, enthusiastically states:

"For we are the Brethren of the Rosie Cross, we have the Mason's Word and second sight"?

The close association at that period between the terms "Rosicrucian" and "Mason", meaning the speculative type, must also be taken into account.


The New Rosicrucian Enlightenment

The power of the Operative Guilds had gone into severe decline during the course of the 16th century. With the Union of the Crowns in 1606 new Mercantile Companies were emerging and a new age dawning. New intellectual fraternities were forming; more isolated from each other than the close knit Guilds. Corresponding by secret and symbolic writing and operating under assumed names, they became generally known as "Rosicrucians". Interested in arcane knowledge, many of these joined the Guilds as "Speculatives" and became known as "Masons" or "Free Masons".

The Society of the Rosy Cross

The Rosicrucian traditions of the Middle Ages adapted, spread and grew in accordance with the interest in Hermetic subjects which flourished during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Alchemical schools of Europe used the symbol of the Rosy Cross (or Rose Cruix) and evolved a complex philosophical symbolism incorporating elements of the old Operative Craft Guild mystery traditions.

During the course of these two centuries many different kinds of Rosicrucian Societies emerged, some were Masonic or quasi-Masonic.

In 1747, Prince Charles Edward Stewart with his supporters, established the Chapter of Arras in France, with the title of "Chapitre Primordian de Rose Croix". In the chapter Prince Charles describes himself as "King of England, France, Scotland and Ireland. " The old Stewart Sovereign title.

Some Rosicrucian traditions relate their foundation (as a society) to "Christian Rosenkruez", who lived to be 106 years old. At some far distant time Rozenkreuz wearing a white linen coat, girded crosswise with a broad red band and four red roses in his hat, made his way to a strange castle. On arrival he witnessed a Royal marriage and was invested with "The Order of the Golden Fleece". His curiosity led him to a secret chamber where he found Venus asleep on a bed, and, in the Castle library; -- the "King's secret books of wisdom", which he obtained.