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

172 COMPAGNONAGE
COMPAGNONAGE
hers. It was at one time considered among
handicraftsmen as the Second Degree of the
novitiate, before arriving at the maitrise, or
mastership, the first being, of course, that of
apprentice ; and workmen were admitted into
it only after five years of apprenticeship, and on
the production of a skilfully constructed piece
of work, which was called their chef-d'auvre.
Tradition gives to Compagnonage a Hebraic
origin, which to some extent assimilates it
to the traditional history of Freemasonry as
springing out of the Solomonic Temple . It is,
however, certain that it arose, in the twelfth
century, out of a part of the corporation of
workmen . These, who prosecuted the labors
of their Craft from province to province, could
not shut their eyes to the narrow policy of the
gilds or corporations, which the masters were
constantly , seeking to make more exclusive .
Maitre Jacques over their disciples . They
parted, and the former landed at Bordeaux,
and the latter at Marseilles .
One day, Maitre Jacques, being far away
from his disciples, was attacked b ten of those
of Pere Soubise. To save himself, he fled into
a marsh, where he sustained himself from
sinking by holding on to the reeds, and was
eventually rescued by his disciples . He then
retired to St. Baume, but being soon after
betrayed by a disciple, named, according to
some, Jeron, and according to others, Jamais,
he was assassinated by five blows of a dagger,
in the forty-seventh year of his age, four years
and nine days after his departure from Jerusalem
. On his robe was subsequently found a
reed which he wore in memory of his having
been saved in the marsh, and thenceforth his
disciples adopted the reed as the emblem of
Thence y perceived the necessity of forming
for themselves associations or confra-
Pere Soubise is not generally accused of
their Order .
ternities, whose protection should accompany having taken any part in the assassination .
them in all their laborious wanderings, and The tears which he shed over the tomb of his
secure to them employment and fraternal colleague removed in part the suspicions
intercourse when arriving in strange towns . which had at first rested on him . The traitor
The Compagnons de la Tour, which is the who committed the crime, subsequently, in a
title assumed by those who are the members of moment of deep contrition, cast himself into a
the brotherhoods of Compagnonage, have well which the disciples of Maitre Jacques
legends, which have been traditionally transmitted
from age to age, by which, like the were long preserved in a sacred chest, and,
filled up with stones . The relics of the martyr
Freemasons, they trace the origin of their association
to the Temple of King Solomon . different crafts, his hat was given to the hat-
when his disciples afterward separated into
These legends are three in number, for the ters, his tunic to the stone-cutters, his sandals
different societies of Compagnonage recognize to the locksmiths, his mantle to the Joiners,
three different founders, and hence made his girdle to the carpenters, and his staff to the
three different associations, which are :
cartwrights .
1 . The Children of Solomon .
According to another tradition Maitre
2 . The Children of Maitre Jacques .
Jacques was no other than Jacques Je Molay,
3 . The Children of Pere Soubise .
the last Grand Master of the Templars, who
These three societies or classes of the Compagnons
are irreconcilable enemies and re-
Children of Solomon that had separated from
had collected under his banner some of the
proach each other with the imaginary contests
of their supposed founders .
ferred upon them a new devoir or gild. Pere
the parent society, and who, about 1268, con-
The Children of Solomon pretend that Soubise is said, in the same legend, to have
King Solomon gave them their devoir, or gild, been a Benedictine monk, who gave to the
as a reward for their labors at the Temple, carpenters some special statutes . This second
and that he had there united them into a legend is generally recognized as more truthful
brotherhood .
than the first. From this it follows that the
The Children of Maitre Jacques say that division of the society of Compagnonage into
their founder, who was the son of a celebrated three classes dates from the thirteenth century,
and that the Children of Maitre Jacques
architect named Jacquain, or Jacques, was one
of the chief Masters of Solomon, and a colleague
of Hiram. He was born in a small city Children of Solomon, from whom they were a
and of Pere Soubise are more modern than the
of Gaul named Carte, and now St . Romille, dismemberment .
but which we should in vain look for on the The organization of these associations of
ma s.
Compagnonage reminds one very strongly of
om the age of fifteen he was employed in the somewhat similar organi zation of the
stone-cutting . He traveled in Greece, where Stonemasons of Germany and of other countries
in the Middle Ages. To one of these
he learned sculpture and architecture ; afterward
went to Egypt, and thence to Jerusalem,
where he constructed two pillars with so expected to attach himself . There was an initi-
classes every handicraftsman in France was
much skill that he was immediately received ation, and a system of degrees which were four
as a Master of the Craft . Maitre Jacques and in number : the Accepted Companion, the
his colleague Pere Soubise, after the labors of Finished Companion, the Initiated Companion,
and, lastly, the Affiliated Companion .
the Temple were completed, resolved to go
together to Gaul, swearing that they would
never separate ; but the union did not last
very lo.
There were also signs and words as modes of
recognition, and decorations, which varied in
in consequence of the jealousy excited
in ere Soubise by the ascendency et and compasses was a common symbol
the different devoirs ; but to all, the square
.