Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

COMACINE
complete unless it was adorned in its whole
height and breadth with sculpture on the outside
mosaics or paintings on the inside, and
in its completeness formed the peoples' Bible
and dogma of religious belief, and this from
the very early times of Constantine and his
Byzantine mosaicists, and of Queen Theolinda
and her fresco-painters, up to the revival of
mosaics by the Cosmati and the frescopainting
in the Tuscan schools, but never were
these arts entirely lost .
For the first, we have the identity of form
and ornamentation in their works and the
similarity of nomenclature and organization
between the Roman Collegio and the Lombard
Gild of Magistri . Besides this, the
well-known fact that the free republic of
Como was used as a refuge by Romans who
fled from barbaric invasions makes a strong
argument. For the second, we may plead
again the same identity of form and organization
and a like similarity of ornamentation
and nomenclature . Just as King
Luitprand's architects were called Magistri,
and the Grand Master the Gadtaldo, so
we have the great architectural Gilds in
Venice, in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, using the very same titles
and having the very same laws.
Again the hereditary descent is marked
by the patron saints of the Lombard and
Tuscan Lodges, being the Four Martyr
Brethren from a Roman Collegio . (See Four
Crowned Martyrs.)
All these and other indications are surely
as strong as documental proof, and are
practically the summary of the conclusions
of Leder Scott and are not overdrawn, being
amply borne out by facts already known .
Older writers recognized the presence of a
compact gild in the work, but did not
connect them with the builders of the Renaissance
. More recent writers, such as
Rivoira Porter, and others declare the connection
. this connection is probably without
the field of historical architects, whose work
is the study of the product of the workmen,
and not the workmen themselves, while our
interest is centered on the workmen and their
relations to those who follow them in connected
sequence and not on the product of
their work, further than to show and prove
relationships of the building crafts .
There are many most interesting and important
things pertaining to the Comacines
that must be omitted in a cyclopedic article .
Their rich, varied and curious symbolism,
which even Ruskin failed to understand, would
furnish matter for a fair-sized volume .
While it is recognized that history should
always be written from as nearly original
sources as is possible, it has not been realized
in this instance, as I have had to rely solely
on those who have made their investigations
at first-hand, and while some liberties have
been taken, no violence has been done to
their conclusions .
The reader will find a rich field in the
following bibliography :
COMBINATION 167
The Cathedral Builders, The Story of a Great
Masonic Guild, by Leder Scott .
The Comacines, Their Predecessors and their
Successors, by W . Ravencroft .
Lombard Architecture, Its Origin, Development
and Derivatives, by G . T . Rivoira .
A History of Architecture in Italy, from the
Time of Constantine to the Dawn of the Renaissance,
by Charles A . Cummings.
Medieval Architecture, by A . K . Porter .
Architecture in Italy from the Sixth to the
Eleventh Century, Historical and Critical Researches,
by Raffaele Cattaneo.
Historical Essay on Architecture, by Thomas
Hope.
These are English works or have been trans.
lated into English . From them an extensive
bibliography embracing other languages will
be found . [E. E . C .]
Combination of Masons. The combination
of the Freemasons in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries to demand a higher rate of
wages, which eventually gave rise to the enactment
of the Statutes of Laborers, is thus
described by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine
(January, 1740, p . 17) : "King Edward
III. took so great an affection to Windsor, the
place of his birth, that he instituted the Order
of the Garter there, and rebuilt and enlarged
the castle, with the church and chapel of St .
George . This was a great work and required a
great many hands ; and for the carrying of it
on writs were directed to the sheriffs of severall
counties to send thither, under the penalty of
£100 each, such a number of masons by a day
appointed . London sent forty, so did Devon,
Somerset, and several other counties ; but several
dying of the plague, and others deserting
the service, new writs were issued to send up
supplies. Yorkshire sent sixty, and other
counties proportionably, and orders were
given that no one should entertain any of
these runaway masons, under pain of forfeiture
of all their goods . Hereupon, the Masons
entered into a combination not to work, unless
at higher wages . They agreed upon tokens,
etc ., to know one another by, and to assist
one another against being impressed, and not
to work unless free and on their own terms .
Hence they called themselves Freemasons ;
and this combination continued during the
carrying on of these buildings for several years .
The wars between the two Houses coming on
in the next reign, the discontented herded together
in the same manner, and the gentry also
underhand supporting the malcontents, occasioned
several Acts of Parliament against
the combination of Masons and other persons
under that denomination, the titles of which
Acts are still to be seen in the printed statutes
of those reigns." Ashmole in his History
of the Order of the Garter (p . 801, confirms the
fact of the impressment of workmen by
Edward ; and the combination that follow
seems but a natural consequence of this oppressive
act ; but the assertion that the origin
of Freemasonry as an organized institution of
builders is to be traced to such a combination,
is not supported by the facts of history, and,