The Pope And Mediaeval Freemasons.

ceeded in converting the heathen Teutons to the new religion . As a consequence of such enterprise it was of the last necessity that those who accorded an implicit acceptance of the Christian faith , should not only become an

integral part of the Church Militant , but also have erected for their accommodation rude and temporary structures , in which the services of the Church might be celebrated , amid the solemn pomp of a rapidly increasing cumbersome ritualism . The earliest edifice so hastily put together for the purpose alluded to , were mainly the handiwork of a class of workmen in wood

designated as ligna / rios , composed of inferior craftsmen , whose skill was narrowed down to the preparation of timber churches to be used for temporarily assembling the new converts . These builders as early as the fourth century may be stated to have consisted exclusively of

ecclesiastical workmen , acting under specific instructions of the Head of the Church of Borne , sanctioned by imperial authority . Although colleges of artificers were still sojourning upou Germanic territory at this epochaud pursued their

, avocations with many customs , and practised their skill , derived from ancient precursors , there does not appear sufficient evidence to assume that the stone workers were at this time under the control of

Church government . In this age the secular authority still had need of the skilled labour of such constructors ; but when a century later the great , heart of the Byzantine empire withdrew along its arterial routes the vital fluids from

remote provinces , and more closely concentrated them at home , then under the mighty advance of sacerdotal authority they were controlled by Church forces . In the fifth century , as is well known , the Gothic King Theodorick , influenced by his secretary , Cassiodurusintroduced

, from Byzantium numerous bodies of builders , who aided him in reconstructing the public edifices which had suffered from the destruction of war . The Church of Rome having , by frequent politic , subserviency , managed to maintain with

increasing vigour , a foothold in the administration of civil society , quickly seized the opportunity offered , to utilise the building guilds by erecting more important edifices

than had hitherto prevailed , on newl y converted territory . These artificers were exclusively composed of masons , caementarii , and carpenters , lignarii , and in the absence of that profound knowledge subsequently current among the later Freemasonsvia .: as to the preparation of

, an entire building from stone , these two classes of craftsmen worked upon uniform plans , and possessed traditions drawn from identical sources . During the Middle Ages the guilds of Masons and carpenters were in the closest union . To such

intimacy in detail was this similitude carried , that a distinguished archaeologist asserts the original unity of these corporatious , while our own Masonic writers of the last

century earnestly insisted upon their common parentage . These associations of builders , continually recruited and invigorated by additions from ^ Byzantium , were used by the Romish Church , in the erection of houses of religious worship of a more

enduring character than the first structures in foreign countries , of wood work , and yet , when completed on this new scheme , presented the appearance of churches built of stone and timber—a combination of

material which fully accounts for the frequency of conflagrations during the Middle Ages . Down to the eight century , it may be added , the wood-workers , or lignarii , were made use of in the erection of churches and cathedrals . The system closely followed by the ecclesiastical

authorities of those remote ages , in the rapid extension of Christianity among the Tuetonic races , placed such evangelical labour under the immediate control of the supreme head of the Church—an assumption fully recognised and allowed by the

temporal authorities . The earliest prerogative claimed by the Papacy , and radically incorporated into canonical law , was the exclusive administration of Church government over new converts gathered to the Faith of Christ , wheresoever the proselytes

were made . An infinitely more important concession , maintained by the canons of the Church , permitted the Pope to exercise personal direction in missionary labours , and to him as the Divine Vicegerent was entrusted the undisputed privilege of systematising all plans of extending ecclesiastical jurisdiction , or rendering them