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

feudal bondage_." The name Free-mason--_Libera muratori_--may not
actually have been used thus early, but the Comacines were _in fact
free builders long before the name was employed_--free to travel from
place to place, as we see from their migrations; free to fix their own
prices, while other workmen were bound to feudal lords, or by the
Statutes of Wages. The author quotes in the original Latin an Edict of
the Lombard King Rotharis, dated November 22, 643, in which certain
privileges are confirmed to the _Magistri Comacini_ and their
_colligantes_. From this Edict it is clear that it is no new order that
is alluded to, but an old and powerful body of Masters capable of
acting as architects, with men who executed work under them. For the
Comacines were not ordinary workmen, but artists, including architects,
sculptors, painters, and decorators, and if affinities of style left in
stone be adequate evidence, to them were due the changing forms of
architecture in Europe during the cathedral-building period. Everywhere
they left their distinctive impress in a way so unmistakable as to
leave no doubt.
Under Charlemagne the Comacines began their many migrations, and we
find them following the missionaries of the church into remote places,
from Sicily to Britain, building churches. When Augustine went to
convert the British, the Comacines followed to provide shrines, and
Bede, as early as 674, in mentioning that builders were sent for from
Gaul to build the church at Wearmouth, uses phrases and words found in
the Edict of King Rotharis. For a long time the changes in style of
architecture, appearing simultaneously everywhere over Europe, from
Italy to England, puzzled students.[64] Further knowledge of this
powerful and widespread order explains it. It also accounts for the
fact that no individual architect can be named as the designer of any
of the great cathedrals. Those cathedrals were the work, not of
individual artists, but of an order who planned, built, and adorned
them. In 1355 the painters of Siena seceded, as the German Masons did
later, and the names of individual artists who worked for fame and
glory begin to appear; but up to that time the Order was supreme.
Artists from Greece and Asia Minor, driven from their homes, took
refuge with the Comacines, and Leader Scott finds in this order a
possible link, by tradition at least, with the temple of Solomon. At
any rate, all through the Dark Ages the name and fame of the Hebrew
king lived in the minds of the builders.
An inscribed stone, dating from 712, shows that the Comacine Guild
was organized as _Magistri_ and _Discipuli_, under a _Gastaldo_, or
Grand Master, the very same terms as were kept in the lodges later.
Moreover, they called their meeting places _loggia_, a long list of
which the author recites from the records of various cities, giving
names of officers, and, often, of members. They, too, had their
masters and wardens, their oaths, tokens, grips, and passwords which
formed a bond of union stronger than legal ties. They wore white
aprons and gloves, and revered the Four Crowned Martyrs of the Order.
Square, compasses, level, plumb-line, and arch appear among their
emblems. "King Solomon's Knot" was one of their symbols, and the
endless, interwoven cord, symbol of Eternity which has neither
beginning nor end, was another. Later, however, the Lion's Paw seems
to have become their chief emblem. From illustrations given by the
author they are shown in their regalia, with apron and emblems, clad
as the keepers of a great art and teaching of which they were masters.