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

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complete in its details than the Breviarium
Spirense ; and yet the latter contains a few
incidents that are not related in the former .
Both agree in applying to the Four Crowned
Martyrs the title of "quadratarii ." Now
quadratarius, in the Latin of the lower age,
signified a Stone-s quarer or a Mason . This
will remind us of the passage in the Book of
Kings, thus translated in the authorized version
: "And Solomon's builders and Hiram's
builders did hew them, and the stone-squarers
." It is evident from the use of this word
"quadratarii" in the ecclesiastical legends, as
well as from the incidents of the martyrdom
itself, that the four martyrs were not simply
sculptors, but stone-cutters and builders of
temples : in other words, Operative Masons .
Nor can we deny the probability of the supposition,
that they were members of one of
those colleges of architects, which afterward
gave birth to the gilds of the Middle Ages,
the corporations of builders, and through these
to the modern Lodges of Freemasons . Supposing
the le gend to be true, or even admitting
that it is only symbolical, we must acknowledge
that there has been good reason why the
Operative Masons should have selected these
martyrs as the patron saints of their profession
.
And now let us apply ourselves to the
legend . Taking the Roman Breviary as the
groundwork, and only interpolating it at the
proper points with the additional incidents
related in the Breviary of Spire, we have the
following result as the story of the Four
Crowned Martyrs .
In the last quarter of the third century
Diocletian was emperor of the Roman Empire
. In his reign commenced that series
of persecutions of the Christian church which
threatened at one time to annihilate the new
religion, and gave to the period among Christain
writers the name of the Era of Martyrs .
Thousands of Christians, who refused to violate
their consciences by sacrificing to the
heathen gods, became the victims of the
bigotry and intolerance, the hatred and the
cruelty, of the Pagan priests and the Platonic
philosophers ; and the scourge, the cross, or the
watery grave daily testified to the constancy
and firmness of the disciples of the prophet of
Nazareth .
Diocletian had gone to the province of
Pannonia, that he might b y his own presence
superintend the bringing of metals and stones
from the neighboring mines of Noricum
wherewith to construct a temple consecrated
to the sun-god, Apollo . Among the six hundred
and twenty-two artisans whom he had
collected together for this purpose were fourby
name Claudius, Castorius, Sym phorianus,
and Nichostratus-said to have been distinguished
for their skill as Stonemasons .
They had abandoned the old heathen faith
and were in secret Christians, doing all their
work as Masons in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ .
The Breviary of Spires relates here an additional
occurrence, which is not contained in
the Breviary of Rome, and which, as giving a
miraculous aspect to the legend, must have
made it doubly acceptable to the pious Christians
of the fifteenth century, upon whose
religious credulity one could safely draw without
danger of a protest .
It seems that, in company with our four
blessed martyrs, there worked one Simplicius,
who was also a Mason but a heathen . While
he was employed in labor near them, he wondered
to see how much they surpassed in skill
and cunning all the other artisans . They
succeeded in all that they attempted, while
he was unfortunate, and always breaking his
working tools . At last he approached Claudius
and said to him :
"strengthen, I beseech thee, my tools, that
they may no longer break ."
Claudius took them in his hands, and said :
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ be
these tools henceforth strong and faithful to
their work ."
From this time, Simplicius did his work
well, and succeeded in all that he attempted
to do. Amazed at the chan ge, Simplicius
was continually asking his fellow-workmen
how it was that the tools had been so strengthened
that now they never broke . At length
Claudius replied :
"God, who is our Creator, and the Lord of
all things has made his creatures strong ."
Then gimplicius in quired :
"Was not this done by the God Zeus?"
To this Claudius replied :
"Repent, 0 m y brother, of what thou hast
said, for thou hast blasphemed God, our
Creator, whom alone we worship ; that which
our own hands have made we do not recognize
as a God ."
With these and such sentences they converted
Simplicius to the Christian faith, who,
being baptized by Cyrillus, bishop of Antioch,
soon afterward suffered martyrdom for his refusal
to sacrifice to the Pagan gods .
But to return from this e pisode to the legend
of the Four Martyrs : It happened that one
day Diocletian issued an order, that out of a
piece of marble should be constructed a noble
statue of Apollo sitting in his chariot . And
now all the workmen and the philosophers began
to consult on the subject, and each one
had arrived at a different opinion .
And when at length they had found a huge
block of stone, which had been brought from
the Island of Tkasos, it proved that the marble
was not fit for the statue which Diocletian
had commanded ; and now began a great war
of words between the masters of the work and
the philosophers. But one day the whole of
the artisans, six hundred and twenty-two in
number, with five philosophers, came together,
that they might examine the defects
and the veins of the stone, and there arose a
still more wonderful contest between the
workmen and the philosophers .
Then began the philosophers to rail against
Claudius, Symphorianus, Nichostratus, and
Simplicius, and said
"Why do ye not hearken to the commands