THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

orders of builders, following their footsteps--not connectedly, of
course, for there are many gaps--through the Dionysiac fraternity of
Tyre, through the Roman Collegia, to the architects and Masons of the
Middle Ages. Since he wrote, however, much new material has come to
light, but the date of the advent of the builders in Rome is still
uncertain. Some trace it to the very founding of the city, while
others go no further back than King Numa, the friend of
Pythagoras.[61] By any account, they were of great antiquity, and
their influence in Roman history was far-reaching. They followed the
Roman legions to remote places, building cities, bridges, and temples,
and it was but natural that Mithra, the patron god of soldiers, should
have influenced their orders. Of this an example may be seen in the
remains of the ancient Roman villa at Morton, on the Isle of
Wight.[62]
As Rome grew in power and became a vast, all-embracing empire, the
individual man felt, more and more, his littleness and loneliness.
This feeling, together with the increasing specialization of industry,
begat a passion for association, and Collegia of many sorts were
organized. Even a casual glance at the inscriptions, under the heading
_Artes et Opificia_, will show the enormous development of skilled
handicrafts, and how minute was their specialization. Every trade soon
had its secret order, or union, and so powerful did they become that
the emperors found it necessary to abolish the right of free
association. Yet even such edicts, though effective for a little time,
were helpless as against the universal craving for combination. Ways
were easily found whereby to evade the law, which had exempted from
its restrictions orders consecrated by their antiquity or their
religious character. Most of the Collegia became funerary and
charitable in their labors, humble folk seeking to escape the dim,
hopeless obscurity of plebeian life, and the still more hopeless
obscurity of death. Pathetic beyond words are some of the inscriptions
telling of the horror and loneliness of the grave, of the day when no
kindly eye would read the forgotten name, and no hand bring offerings
of flowers. Each collegium held memorial services, and marked the tomb
of its dead with the emblems of its trade: if a baker, with a loaf of
bread; if a builder, with a square, compasses, and the level.
From the first the Colleges of Architects seem to have enjoyed special
privileges and exemptions, owing to the value of their service to the
state, and while we do not find them called Free-masons they were such
in law and fact long before they wore the name. They were permitted to
have their own constitutions and regulations, both secular and
religious. In form, in officers, in emblems a Roman Collegium
resembled very much a modern Masonic Lodge. For one thing, no College
could consist of less than three persons, and so rigid was this rule
that the saying, "three make a college," became a maxim of law. Each
College was presided over by a Magister, or Master, with two
_decuriones_, or wardens, each of whom extended the commands of the
Master to "the brethren of his column." There were a secretary, a
treasurer, and a keeper of archives, and, as the colleges were in part
religious and usually met near some temple, there was a _sacerdos_,
or, as we would say, a priest, or chaplain. The members were of three
orders, not unlike apprentices, fellows, and masters, or colleagues.
What ceremonies of initiation were used we do not know, but that they
were of a religious nature seems certain, as each College adopted a
patron deity from among the many then worshiped. Also, as the