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

Part II--History
FREE-MASONS
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_The curious history of Freemasonry has unfortunately been treated
only by its panegyrists or calumniators, both equally mendacious.
I do not wish to pry into the mysteries of the craft; but it would
be interesting to know more of their history during the period
when they were literally architects. They are charged by an act of
Parliament with fixing the price of their labor in their annual
chapters, contrary to the statute of laborers, and such chapters
were consequently prohibited. This is their first persecution;
they have since undergone others, and are perhaps reserved for
still more. It is remarkable, that Masons were never legally
incorporated, like other traders; their bond of union being
stronger than any charter._
--HENRY HALLAM, _The Middle Ages_
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CHAPTER I
_Free-Masons_
I
From the foregoing pages it must be evident that Masonry, as we find
it in the Middle Ages, was not a novelty. Already, if we accept its
own records, it was hoary with age, having come down from a far past,
bringing with it a remarkable deposit of legendary lore. Also, it had
in its keeping the same simple, eloquent emblems which, as we have
seen, are older than the oldest living religion, which it received as
an inheritance and has transmitted as a treasure. Whatever we may
think of the legends of Masonry, as recited in its oldest documents,
its symbols, older than the order itself, link it with the earliest
thought and faith of the race. No doubt those emblems lost some of
their luster in the troublous time of transition we are about to
traverse, but their beauty never wholly faded, and they had only to be
touched to shine.
If not the actual successors of the Roman College of Architects, the
great order of Comacine Masters was founded upon its ruins, and
continued its tradition both of symbolism and of art. Returning to
Rome after the death of Diocletian, we find them busy there under