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

274 FOUR
FOUR
of our devout emperor, Diocletian, and obey
his will."
And Claudius answered and said :
" Because we cannot offend our Creator and
commit a sin, whereof we should be found
guilty in his sight ."
Then said the philosophers :
you are Chris-
"From this it appears that
tians ."
And Claudius replied :
"Truly we are Christians ."
Hereupon the philosophers
chose other
Masons and caused them to make a statue
of EsQapius out of the stone which had been
rejected, which, after thirty-one days, they
finished and presented to the philosophers .
These then informed the emperor that the
statue of Esculapius was finished, when he
ordered it to be brought before him for inspection.
But as soon as he saw it he was
greatly astonished, and said :
"This is a proof of the skill of these men,
who receive my approval as sculptors ."
It is very apparent that this, like all other
legends of the church, is insufficient in its details,
and that it leaves many links in the
chain of the narrative to be supplied by the
fancy or the judgment of the readers. It is
equally evident from what has already been
said, in connection with what is subsequently
told, that the writer of the legend desired to
make the impression that it was through the
influence of Claudius and the other Christian
Masons that the rest of the workmen were
persuaded that the Thasian stone was defective
and unfit for the use of a sculptor ; that
this was done by them because they were unwilling
to engage in the construction of the
statue of a Pagan god ; that this was the cause
of the controversy between the workmen and
the philosophers ; that the latter denied the
defectiveness of the stone ; and, lastly, that
they sought to prove its fitness by causing
other Masons, who were not Christians, to
make out of it a statue of Esculapius . These
explanations are necessary to an understanding
of the legend, which proceeds as follows :
As soon as Diocletian had expressed his
admiration of the statue of Esculapius, the
philosopher said :
" Most mighty Cnsar, know that these men
whom your majesty has praised for their skill
in Masonry, namely, Claudius, Symphorianus,
Nichostratus, and Castorius, are Christians,
and by magic spells or incantations make men
obedient to their will ."
Then said Diocletian :
"If they have violated the laws, and if
your accusations be true let them suffer the
punishment of sacrilege?
But Diocletian, in consideration of their
skill, sent for the Tribune Lampadius, and
said to him :
"If they refuse to offer sacrifice to the sungod
Apollo, then let them be scourged with
scorpions . But if they are willing to do so,
then treat them with kindness ."
For five days sat Lampadius in the same
place, before the temple of the sun-god, and
called on them by the proclamation of the
herald, and showed them many dreadful
things, and all sorts of instruments for the
punishment of martyrs, and then he said to
them :
"Hearken to me and avoid the doom of
martyrs, and be obedient to the mighty
prince, and offer a sacrifice to the sun-god,
for no, longer can I speak, to you in gentle
words ."
But Claudius replied for himself and for
his companions with great boldness :
"This let the Emperor Diocletian know :
that we truly are Christians, and never can
depart from the worship of our God ."
Thereupon the Tribune Lampadius, becoming
enraged, caused them to be stripped
and to be scourged with scorpions, while a
herald, by proclamation, announced that this
was done because they had disobeyed the
commands of the emperor . In the same hour
Lampadius, being seized by an evil spirit, died
on his seat of judgment .
As soon as the wife and the domestics of
Lampadius heard of his death, they ran with
great outcries to the palace. Diocletian,
when he had learned what had happened,
ordered four leaden coffins to be made, and
that-Claudius and his three companions
being placed therein alive-they should be
thrown into the river Danube. This order
Nicetius, the assistant of Lampadius, caused
to be obeyed, and thus the faithful Masons
suffered the penalty and gained the crown of
martyrdom.
There are some legend books which give
the names of the Four Crowned Martyrs as
Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus,
and others again which speak of
five confessors who, a few years afterward,
suffered martyrdom for refusing to sacrifice
to the Pagan gods, and whose names being
at the time unknown, Pope Melchiades
caused them to be distinguished in the church
calendar as the Four Crowned Martyrs : an
error, says Jacob de Voragine, which, although
subsequently discovered, was never corrected .
But the true legend of the Four Crowned
Martyrs is that which has been given above
from the best authority, the Roman Breviary
of 1474.
"On the other side of the Esquiline," says
Mrs. Jameson (in her Sacred and Legendary
Art, vol . ii., p . 624), "and on the road leading
from the Coliseum to the Lateran, surmounting
a heap of sand and ruins, we come to the
church of the ` Quattro Coronati,' the Four
Crowned Brothers. On this spot, some time
in the fourth century, were found the bodies
of four men who had suffered decapitation,
whose names being then unknown, they were
merely distinguished as CORONATI, crownedthat
is, with the crown of martyrdom ."
There is great obscurity and confusion in
the history of these .
Their church, Mrs . Jameson goes on to say,
is held in particular respect by the builders
and stone-cutters of Rome . She has found
allusion to these martyr Masons not only in