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Article MASONIC HISTORY AND HISTORIANS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article EARLY USE OF THE WORD FREEMASON. Page 1 of 1 Article EARLY USE OF THE WORD FREEMASON. Page 1 of 1
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Masonic History And Historians.
It may be remembered that Mr . Hope in his able work draws a very remarkable picture of the early formation of Freemason Guilds on lines almost entirely akin with our own to-day . Where he derived his evidences or authority for such statements he does not tell us , but as he was , I believe , a non-Mason , his expression of opinion may clearly be cited in favour of the
view of those who find in the Guild system one explanation of Masonic life and continuance in the world . We have yet to obtain a good deal more evidence as regards the Guilds before we can pretend to arrive at a clear and definite conclusion in respect of their bearing on architectural labours and Masonic developeinent .
Whence the Operative Guilds came into this country is also a moot point . Findel says from Germany ; but it has always appeared to me , that the anterior evidence in favour of Italy is so great , that the Roman origin of our Guilds , and of the whole Guild system , may be taken as a fact . It is quite clear now that Guilds are not of Anglo-Saxon formation , though the name is " no doubt so , but they were the product of Roman previous civilization and customs in this country .
Bro . Fort , in his valuable work , derives the great architectural revival from Byzantine sources . I am inclined to think he is right . Only a few days back the able correspondent of the Times in his letters on Russia declares that Russian church architecture is the work of Italian Master
Masons , being Byzantine run mad , All these points are interesting to the general student of archceology and architecture , but the essential point for the Masonic student to ascertain and to realize is—What is the connection of the Operative Guilds with our Speculative system ? When did it begin ; and how ?
Oliver ' s theory , that about 166 3 the change or transformation began in the opening of the Operative Guilds to Speculative Masons , cannot be sustained , and the evidence of Elias Ashmole and Dr . Plot has long since convinced Masonic Students that we have to seek an earlier starting point for this junction of Operative and Speculative Masons .
Early Use Of The Word Freemason.
EARLY USE OF THE WORD FREEMASON .
The quotation given by " Brighton " in the Freemason appears , as suggested by " Masonic Student , " to have its source in " Wren ' s Parenlalia , " pp . 306-7 . The full description , as given under the division " History of the Arts in Great Britain from 1216 to 1399 , " in the sixth edition of " Henry ' s History" ( London , ' 1823 , Vol . VIII ., pp . 273-4 ) , 1 S as follows : " For ( as we arc told by one who was well acquainted with their history and constitution ) the Italians , with some Greek refugees , and with them French , Germans , and
Memings , joined into a fraternity of architects , procuring papal Bulls for their encouragement , and particular privileges ; thpy styled themselves Free-masons , and ranged from one nation to another , as they found churches to be built ( for very many in those ages were everywhere in building , through piety or emulation ); their government was regular ; and where they fixed near the building in hand they made a camp of huts . A
surveyor governed in chief ; every tenth man was called a warden , and overlooked each nine . The gentlemen in the neighbourhood , either out of charity or commutation of penance , gave the materials and carriages . Those who have seen the accounts in records of the charge of the fabrics of some of our cathedrals , near four hundred years old , cannot but have a great esteem for their economy , and admire how soon they erected such lofty structures . "
The " Historia Major , " of Matthew Paris , having been referred lo , the following quotations are given , as they may be of service to anyone with leisure to consult the original manuscripts in the British Museum . Paris , in recording the death of Richard , Bishop of Durham , 15 th April , 1237 , I . 52 * says :
" It also redounds to his immortal praise that he transferred the Church of Salisbury from a hollow , dry place in the neighbourhood of the earl ' s castle to a fitting situation , and by the help of some famous architects , whom he had summoned from distant provinces , he laid a large foundation , and himself placed the first stone ; to promote which work , not only the bishop , but also the king and a great many nobles , lent a helping hand . Hence some versifier gives' Rex largitur opes , fcrt prasul opem Iapicid .-c ,
Uant operam ; tribus his est opus , ut stct opus . ' " fThe king finds money , the stonemason hands , The bishop aid ? , and so the building stands . ] Again , in 1245 , II . 62 , when the King orders the Church of St . Peter , at Westminster to be enlarged , and pulls down the old walls , he causes "new and handsome ones to be erected by clever architects , " & c .
On the 51 I 1 of June , 12 5 , 1 . 44 8 , in recording the death of Poyntz Piper , a knightly clerk , it is mentioned that "he embellished the manor of Teddinglon by building a palace , & c , & c . The workmen on his buildings are stated for several years to have received a hundred shillings each week , and often ten marks , as their pay . " In the account of the discovery of St . Alban ' s tomb , 1257 , II . 213 , " masons' labourers " are mentioned .
It would appear that in " Bede ' s ' , Lives of the Abbots of Wcarmouth and Jarrow , " it is stated that Benedict brought over Masons from France lo build a church in the " Roman manner , " and William of Malmcsbury t records that he [ Benedict ] " was the first person who introduced into England constructors of stone edifices , as well as makers of glass windows . " t
In Bede ' s " Ecc . History " § it is recorded that Naitan , King of . the Picls , renounced the error which he and his nation had till then been under [ A . D . 710 ] , and sent messengers to Ceolfrid , Abbot of Wearmouth , and " prayed to have architects sent him to build a church in his nation after the Roman manner . " Ceolfrid " sent the architects he desired . "
The following notes , with reference to the words Cemenfarius and Latomus , collected from the two volumes of "Vocabularies" dating from the tenth to the fifteenth century , edited by the late Thomas Wright , and privately printed 1857 and 18 73 , at the expense of Joseph Mayer , F . S . A ., & c , & c , may be interesting . In Archbishop Alfrio ' s Vocabulary of the Tenth Century we have Architectus , yldest-wyrhta , to which the following note is added :
" Here again the translator has mistaken the meaning . of his lvord rather singularly , for he supposed that the import of the first member of the compound word was the same in Architectus , as in Archtpiscopus , and words of that class . " The " Lexicon , Inliin , Lai . " explains the word " Faber qui facil tccta . " The same meaning , yldest-wyrhta , or chief or principal workman is attached to this word in an Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the eleventh
* The pages refertu the Knglish translation by Rev . J . A . Giles , D . C . L . Bohn , 1 S 52 . t William of Malmcsbury . Bohn , 54 n . * Ibid , p . , S 4-§ Translation by Dr . Giles , p . 227 .
Early Use Of The Word Freemason.
century " ( p . 73 ) ; and again , in a semi-Saxon one of the middle of the twelfth century , it is explained by " eldest wurhtena . " It appears again in an English vocabulary , early fifteenth century ( p . 194 ) , and also " Hie Architector , Ae . thekare , " i . e . [ thatcher ] , and ( p . 212 ) Hie tector , a theker , ( p . 227 ) Hec tectura , thak [ thatch ] . The same appears in the pictorial vocabulary of the fifteenth century . Hie tector , a thaser [ thatcher ] . In " Latin and Anglo-Saxon Glosses" the word
Archiatros is explained by hcah-tecas , odde crafgan [ architect ] ( vol . ii . p . 2 , 7 , & c . ) Cimentarius is explained in the tenth century ( I . p . 19 ) , by weal wyrhta , i . e ., the maker of a wall . In the eleventh century ( I . 75 ) . Cementum , lim to wealle . Cimentum andweorc to wealle ( p . 85 ) , i . e ., mortar or other stuff of which
a wall is made . Cimentarius , weal-wyrhta . Again in the same century we have ( II . p . 15 ) Cimentarii , weal-wyrhlan ; p . 23 ) Cimento , wrade ; ( p . 130 ) Cementum ccsura lapidis , vel lim ; Ccmenta , petre , grundstanas , vel funes ; and , on ( p . 131 ) , Cimentum , stan-lim . Cemenfarius , murare ( p . 154 ) .
In the treatise " De Utensihbus , " of Alexander Neckam , written probably between 1157 and 1217 , the following sentence occurs ( I . 103 ) , in speaking about the building of a castle : " Ex cemento et lapidibus constructa ; " and ( p . 104 ) , "Superficies autem muri trulle equalitatem et cementarii operam representet . Cancellidebitisdistignantur proporcionibus . " The gloss of this work which is principally written in the Anglo-Norman dialect
of the French language of that period , explains the words as follows : Cemento , ciment ; trulle , plane . Cementarii , maszun . In a metrical vocabulary , perhaps of the fourteenth century ( I . 181 ) , the word cemenfarius is explained by "dawber , " which appears to be its original meaning . An early fifteenth century MSS . has ( I . 194 ) Semcntariiis , Ae . Mason .
The same meaning is given to the word in a " Nominate " of the fifteenth century ( I . 213 ) , and in another part of the same MS . ( p . 235 ) wchave , Hoc cementum , cyment , and Hie simentarius , a waller . The word Latonii , stan-wyrhta , appears in Archbishop Alfric ' s Vocabulary , tenth century ( I . p . 19 ) together with Lapidicina vel lapidicedum , stan-hywet . In the dictionary of John de Garlande , written in the first half of the thirteenth century ( I . 137 ) , it is said : —
" In aula mea hec architectari feci , & c , & c . Hec fabricantur cum securi ( hachct ) & c . & c , et cum calce lathomi cum lathomega ( reule ) amussi ( a squyre ) , etcum perpendiculo ( plomet ) nondcroso ( hevy . ) "
In a metrical vocabulary wnllen probably in the fourteenth century : — "Est faber ( smyth ) fullo ( toivker ) ' * latamus ( mason ) , penularius ( skynnere ) , * atquc carpentarius ( carpynter ) est cementarius ( dawber ) aleptes ( leche . )" The " Nomina artificiorum " of an English vocabulary of the early fifteenth centurv offers the following explanations : —( I . 194 . ) Hie littamits ,
a mason , and in a " Nominale " of the same century ( I . 213 . ) Hie latamus a mason . Hec Lotomcga , a mason ax ; Hie pctro ,-nis , a mason schype ; Hec rcgula , a mason rcwllc ; Hoc perpcndiculiun , idem , Hec a / unssis , a mason lyne . The following may be added from Brillon ' s " Dictionary of Archilecture : "
" Richard de Gainsborough , or Gaynisburgh , an architect , or mason , employed at Lincoln Cathedral in the thirteenth century . His gravestone still remains , and bears the following inscription : ' Hie jacet Ricardus de Gaynisburgh , olym cpincntarius hujus ecclesie , qui obiit , duodecim . Kalendarum Junii , Anno Domini , MCCC . . . ( the concluding figures are obliterated)— ' Walpolc's Anecdotes , ' by Dallaway , 1 . 211 . John dcGloucester is styled in a precept of Henry III . f , nth Mav , 1259 , ' cementario suo ' ( his plasterer ) ,
and is granted a freedom for life from all tallage and tolls throughout the realm . The nature of his services arc unknown , except that in another precept he is directed to make five statues of kings , carved in free-stone , to be given by the king to the Church of St . Martin , London— ' Walpolc's Anecdotes , ' by Dallaway , I . 25 . Odo , termed in an old record ' coementarius , ' was employed in building the tower of the Church of St . Lucien at Beauvais , about the year 107 S , when that church was rebuilt— ' Whittington's
Hist . Survey . ' p . 54 , and ' Hawkins ' s Gothic Arch ., ' p . 107 . J Odo , Prior of Croyland , during the supremacy of Abbot Joffiid , superintended the rc-crection of the church and monastic buildings which had been destroyed by fire in 109 , 1 . He was assisted by Arnold , a lay brother and experienced Mason , ' cementari .-c artis scicntissimo magistro . ' —Continuation of ' Ingulphus ' s History , ' by Peter of Blois , p . 11 S . A second conflagration about 11 G 3 destroyed all the works of this architect— ' Britton ' s Arch . Antiq , ' IV ., SS , Sg . "
In the return lo a commission for inquiring into the state of the Tower , in the ninth year of the reign of King Edward III . ( 1335-36 ) § , we have the names of Pctrus de Tytemerssh , Willichnus de Ramescye , Reginaldus de Whytham , et Roberlus de Dippenhalc , "cimentariorum , " as well-as the " carpentariorum , " & c , Ike .
The early and late use of the word Free-mason is a subject upon which I have for some time been collecting notes , and am led by them to agree with " Masonic Student " in his remarks at the end of his letter of July 23 rd . Much as I wish that an opportunity would occur of placing Ihcftill notes collected by Mr . Papworth in the hands of those interested in the subject , still the non-connexion of the early Freemasons with the Freemasons of 1717 is very far from a settled fact , and I cannot help thinking that to dogmatise on the subject at present is a little premature .
As there are several editions of " Rymer ' s Foedera , " it is to be regretled that only so loose a reference as " Syn XVII ., under the date 1396 " has been given .
KILWINNING MANUSCRIPT . — This is a copy of the "Constitutions , " which belongs to the Mother Kilwinning Lodge , and is transcribed , as Bro . D . Murray Lyon points out in his history of the Lodge of " Mary Chapel , " Edinburgh , by the same scribe who wrote the minutes of that lodge from 1675 to 1678 . Hence the date of the transcription is about that time probably . The MS . is clearly not an indigenous Scottish MS ., but is a copy of an English form , and , as Bro . W . J . Hughan has previously
pointed out in "The Old Charges , " an "indifferent copy" of the Grand Lodge MS . F . It was first published by Bro . W . J . Hughan , from a copy by Bro . I ) . Murray Lyon in " Masonic Sketches and Reprints , " and subsequently b y Bro . D . Murray Lyon himself in his history of the Lodge "Mary Chapel , " Edinburgh . —Kenning ' s Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry .
* Or dyer . t " Rot . C / aus , " 43 , Hen . Ill , M . 10 . + Wimmbolde , also called " cementarius , " was concerned in the rebuilding of the same church . " Fclib . Vie des Arch , " IV ., 193 . - § Bayley ' s History and Antiquities of the Tower of London , Lond . 1 S 21 . App . to part I . p . ij .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic History And Historians.
It may be remembered that Mr . Hope in his able work draws a very remarkable picture of the early formation of Freemason Guilds on lines almost entirely akin with our own to-day . Where he derived his evidences or authority for such statements he does not tell us , but as he was , I believe , a non-Mason , his expression of opinion may clearly be cited in favour of the
view of those who find in the Guild system one explanation of Masonic life and continuance in the world . We have yet to obtain a good deal more evidence as regards the Guilds before we can pretend to arrive at a clear and definite conclusion in respect of their bearing on architectural labours and Masonic developeinent .
Whence the Operative Guilds came into this country is also a moot point . Findel says from Germany ; but it has always appeared to me , that the anterior evidence in favour of Italy is so great , that the Roman origin of our Guilds , and of the whole Guild system , may be taken as a fact . It is quite clear now that Guilds are not of Anglo-Saxon formation , though the name is " no doubt so , but they were the product of Roman previous civilization and customs in this country .
Bro . Fort , in his valuable work , derives the great architectural revival from Byzantine sources . I am inclined to think he is right . Only a few days back the able correspondent of the Times in his letters on Russia declares that Russian church architecture is the work of Italian Master
Masons , being Byzantine run mad , All these points are interesting to the general student of archceology and architecture , but the essential point for the Masonic student to ascertain and to realize is—What is the connection of the Operative Guilds with our Speculative system ? When did it begin ; and how ?
Oliver ' s theory , that about 166 3 the change or transformation began in the opening of the Operative Guilds to Speculative Masons , cannot be sustained , and the evidence of Elias Ashmole and Dr . Plot has long since convinced Masonic Students that we have to seek an earlier starting point for this junction of Operative and Speculative Masons .
Early Use Of The Word Freemason.
EARLY USE OF THE WORD FREEMASON .
The quotation given by " Brighton " in the Freemason appears , as suggested by " Masonic Student , " to have its source in " Wren ' s Parenlalia , " pp . 306-7 . The full description , as given under the division " History of the Arts in Great Britain from 1216 to 1399 , " in the sixth edition of " Henry ' s History" ( London , ' 1823 , Vol . VIII ., pp . 273-4 ) , 1 S as follows : " For ( as we arc told by one who was well acquainted with their history and constitution ) the Italians , with some Greek refugees , and with them French , Germans , and
Memings , joined into a fraternity of architects , procuring papal Bulls for their encouragement , and particular privileges ; thpy styled themselves Free-masons , and ranged from one nation to another , as they found churches to be built ( for very many in those ages were everywhere in building , through piety or emulation ); their government was regular ; and where they fixed near the building in hand they made a camp of huts . A
surveyor governed in chief ; every tenth man was called a warden , and overlooked each nine . The gentlemen in the neighbourhood , either out of charity or commutation of penance , gave the materials and carriages . Those who have seen the accounts in records of the charge of the fabrics of some of our cathedrals , near four hundred years old , cannot but have a great esteem for their economy , and admire how soon they erected such lofty structures . "
The " Historia Major , " of Matthew Paris , having been referred lo , the following quotations are given , as they may be of service to anyone with leisure to consult the original manuscripts in the British Museum . Paris , in recording the death of Richard , Bishop of Durham , 15 th April , 1237 , I . 52 * says :
" It also redounds to his immortal praise that he transferred the Church of Salisbury from a hollow , dry place in the neighbourhood of the earl ' s castle to a fitting situation , and by the help of some famous architects , whom he had summoned from distant provinces , he laid a large foundation , and himself placed the first stone ; to promote which work , not only the bishop , but also the king and a great many nobles , lent a helping hand . Hence some versifier gives' Rex largitur opes , fcrt prasul opem Iapicid .-c ,
Uant operam ; tribus his est opus , ut stct opus . ' " fThe king finds money , the stonemason hands , The bishop aid ? , and so the building stands . ] Again , in 1245 , II . 62 , when the King orders the Church of St . Peter , at Westminster to be enlarged , and pulls down the old walls , he causes "new and handsome ones to be erected by clever architects , " & c .
On the 51 I 1 of June , 12 5 , 1 . 44 8 , in recording the death of Poyntz Piper , a knightly clerk , it is mentioned that "he embellished the manor of Teddinglon by building a palace , & c , & c . The workmen on his buildings are stated for several years to have received a hundred shillings each week , and often ten marks , as their pay . " In the account of the discovery of St . Alban ' s tomb , 1257 , II . 213 , " masons' labourers " are mentioned .
It would appear that in " Bede ' s ' , Lives of the Abbots of Wcarmouth and Jarrow , " it is stated that Benedict brought over Masons from France lo build a church in the " Roman manner , " and William of Malmcsbury t records that he [ Benedict ] " was the first person who introduced into England constructors of stone edifices , as well as makers of glass windows . " t
In Bede ' s " Ecc . History " § it is recorded that Naitan , King of . the Picls , renounced the error which he and his nation had till then been under [ A . D . 710 ] , and sent messengers to Ceolfrid , Abbot of Wearmouth , and " prayed to have architects sent him to build a church in his nation after the Roman manner . " Ceolfrid " sent the architects he desired . "
The following notes , with reference to the words Cemenfarius and Latomus , collected from the two volumes of "Vocabularies" dating from the tenth to the fifteenth century , edited by the late Thomas Wright , and privately printed 1857 and 18 73 , at the expense of Joseph Mayer , F . S . A ., & c , & c , may be interesting . In Archbishop Alfrio ' s Vocabulary of the Tenth Century we have Architectus , yldest-wyrhta , to which the following note is added :
" Here again the translator has mistaken the meaning . of his lvord rather singularly , for he supposed that the import of the first member of the compound word was the same in Architectus , as in Archtpiscopus , and words of that class . " The " Lexicon , Inliin , Lai . " explains the word " Faber qui facil tccta . " The same meaning , yldest-wyrhta , or chief or principal workman is attached to this word in an Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the eleventh
* The pages refertu the Knglish translation by Rev . J . A . Giles , D . C . L . Bohn , 1 S 52 . t William of Malmcsbury . Bohn , 54 n . * Ibid , p . , S 4-§ Translation by Dr . Giles , p . 227 .
Early Use Of The Word Freemason.
century " ( p . 73 ) ; and again , in a semi-Saxon one of the middle of the twelfth century , it is explained by " eldest wurhtena . " It appears again in an English vocabulary , early fifteenth century ( p . 194 ) , and also " Hie Architector , Ae . thekare , " i . e . [ thatcher ] , and ( p . 212 ) Hie tector , a theker , ( p . 227 ) Hec tectura , thak [ thatch ] . The same appears in the pictorial vocabulary of the fifteenth century . Hie tector , a thaser [ thatcher ] . In " Latin and Anglo-Saxon Glosses" the word
Archiatros is explained by hcah-tecas , odde crafgan [ architect ] ( vol . ii . p . 2 , 7 , & c . ) Cimentarius is explained in the tenth century ( I . p . 19 ) , by weal wyrhta , i . e ., the maker of a wall . In the eleventh century ( I . 75 ) . Cementum , lim to wealle . Cimentum andweorc to wealle ( p . 85 ) , i . e ., mortar or other stuff of which
a wall is made . Cimentarius , weal-wyrhta . Again in the same century we have ( II . p . 15 ) Cimentarii , weal-wyrhlan ; p . 23 ) Cimento , wrade ; ( p . 130 ) Cementum ccsura lapidis , vel lim ; Ccmenta , petre , grundstanas , vel funes ; and , on ( p . 131 ) , Cimentum , stan-lim . Cemenfarius , murare ( p . 154 ) .
In the treatise " De Utensihbus , " of Alexander Neckam , written probably between 1157 and 1217 , the following sentence occurs ( I . 103 ) , in speaking about the building of a castle : " Ex cemento et lapidibus constructa ; " and ( p . 104 ) , "Superficies autem muri trulle equalitatem et cementarii operam representet . Cancellidebitisdistignantur proporcionibus . " The gloss of this work which is principally written in the Anglo-Norman dialect
of the French language of that period , explains the words as follows : Cemento , ciment ; trulle , plane . Cementarii , maszun . In a metrical vocabulary , perhaps of the fourteenth century ( I . 181 ) , the word cemenfarius is explained by "dawber , " which appears to be its original meaning . An early fifteenth century MSS . has ( I . 194 ) Semcntariiis , Ae . Mason .
The same meaning is given to the word in a " Nominate " of the fifteenth century ( I . 213 ) , and in another part of the same MS . ( p . 235 ) wchave , Hoc cementum , cyment , and Hie simentarius , a waller . The word Latonii , stan-wyrhta , appears in Archbishop Alfric ' s Vocabulary , tenth century ( I . p . 19 ) together with Lapidicina vel lapidicedum , stan-hywet . In the dictionary of John de Garlande , written in the first half of the thirteenth century ( I . 137 ) , it is said : —
" In aula mea hec architectari feci , & c , & c . Hec fabricantur cum securi ( hachct ) & c . & c , et cum calce lathomi cum lathomega ( reule ) amussi ( a squyre ) , etcum perpendiculo ( plomet ) nondcroso ( hevy . ) "
In a metrical vocabulary wnllen probably in the fourteenth century : — "Est faber ( smyth ) fullo ( toivker ) ' * latamus ( mason ) , penularius ( skynnere ) , * atquc carpentarius ( carpynter ) est cementarius ( dawber ) aleptes ( leche . )" The " Nomina artificiorum " of an English vocabulary of the early fifteenth centurv offers the following explanations : —( I . 194 . ) Hie littamits ,
a mason , and in a " Nominale " of the same century ( I . 213 . ) Hie latamus a mason . Hec Lotomcga , a mason ax ; Hie pctro ,-nis , a mason schype ; Hec rcgula , a mason rcwllc ; Hoc perpcndiculiun , idem , Hec a / unssis , a mason lyne . The following may be added from Brillon ' s " Dictionary of Archilecture : "
" Richard de Gainsborough , or Gaynisburgh , an architect , or mason , employed at Lincoln Cathedral in the thirteenth century . His gravestone still remains , and bears the following inscription : ' Hie jacet Ricardus de Gaynisburgh , olym cpincntarius hujus ecclesie , qui obiit , duodecim . Kalendarum Junii , Anno Domini , MCCC . . . ( the concluding figures are obliterated)— ' Walpolc's Anecdotes , ' by Dallaway , 1 . 211 . John dcGloucester is styled in a precept of Henry III . f , nth Mav , 1259 , ' cementario suo ' ( his plasterer ) ,
and is granted a freedom for life from all tallage and tolls throughout the realm . The nature of his services arc unknown , except that in another precept he is directed to make five statues of kings , carved in free-stone , to be given by the king to the Church of St . Martin , London— ' Walpolc's Anecdotes , ' by Dallaway , I . 25 . Odo , termed in an old record ' coementarius , ' was employed in building the tower of the Church of St . Lucien at Beauvais , about the year 107 S , when that church was rebuilt— ' Whittington's
Hist . Survey . ' p . 54 , and ' Hawkins ' s Gothic Arch ., ' p . 107 . J Odo , Prior of Croyland , during the supremacy of Abbot Joffiid , superintended the rc-crection of the church and monastic buildings which had been destroyed by fire in 109 , 1 . He was assisted by Arnold , a lay brother and experienced Mason , ' cementari .-c artis scicntissimo magistro . ' —Continuation of ' Ingulphus ' s History , ' by Peter of Blois , p . 11 S . A second conflagration about 11 G 3 destroyed all the works of this architect— ' Britton ' s Arch . Antiq , ' IV ., SS , Sg . "
In the return lo a commission for inquiring into the state of the Tower , in the ninth year of the reign of King Edward III . ( 1335-36 ) § , we have the names of Pctrus de Tytemerssh , Willichnus de Ramescye , Reginaldus de Whytham , et Roberlus de Dippenhalc , "cimentariorum , " as well-as the " carpentariorum , " & c , Ike .
The early and late use of the word Free-mason is a subject upon which I have for some time been collecting notes , and am led by them to agree with " Masonic Student " in his remarks at the end of his letter of July 23 rd . Much as I wish that an opportunity would occur of placing Ihcftill notes collected by Mr . Papworth in the hands of those interested in the subject , still the non-connexion of the early Freemasons with the Freemasons of 1717 is very far from a settled fact , and I cannot help thinking that to dogmatise on the subject at present is a little premature .
As there are several editions of " Rymer ' s Foedera , " it is to be regretled that only so loose a reference as " Syn XVII ., under the date 1396 " has been given .
KILWINNING MANUSCRIPT . — This is a copy of the "Constitutions , " which belongs to the Mother Kilwinning Lodge , and is transcribed , as Bro . D . Murray Lyon points out in his history of the Lodge of " Mary Chapel , " Edinburgh , by the same scribe who wrote the minutes of that lodge from 1675 to 1678 . Hence the date of the transcription is about that time probably . The MS . is clearly not an indigenous Scottish MS ., but is a copy of an English form , and , as Bro . W . J . Hughan has previously
pointed out in "The Old Charges , " an "indifferent copy" of the Grand Lodge MS . F . It was first published by Bro . W . J . Hughan , from a copy by Bro . I ) . Murray Lyon in " Masonic Sketches and Reprints , " and subsequently b y Bro . D . Murray Lyon himself in his history of the Lodge "Mary Chapel , " Edinburgh . —Kenning ' s Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry .
* Or dyer . t " Rot . C / aus , " 43 , Hen . Ill , M . 10 . + Wimmbolde , also called " cementarius , " was concerned in the rebuilding of the same church . " Fclib . Vie des Arch , " IV ., 193 . - § Bayley ' s History and Antiquities of the Tower of London , Lond . 1 S 21 . App . to part I . p . ij .