Gothic Architecture And Operative Freemasonry.

" This decline of true art had nowhere shown itself during the 13 th century , with which we are concerned at present . Then architecture was truly progressive : every man and every class in the country lent his aid , each in his own

department , and all worked together to produce those wonderful buildings which still excite our admiration . The masons performed their part , and it was an important one ; but neither to them nor their employers , such as the Abbe Suger , Maurice

de Sully , Robert de Lusarches , or Fulbert of Chartres , is the whole merit to be ascribed , but to all classes of the French nation carrying on steadily a combined movement towards a welldefined end .

" In the following- pages , therefore , it will not be necessary to recur to the Freemasons nor their Masters—at least not more than incidentally—till we come to Germany . Nor will it be necessary to define who Was the architect of any particular

building . The names usually fixed upon by antiquaries after so much search are merely those of the Master Masons or foremen of the woi-ks , who had nothing to do with the main designs of the building-s . "

The above is the whole of " Chapter VIII . " I should also like to give the following extracts from " Chapter IX . " which treats on French Gothic Cathedrals . The contents referring to the cathedrals of " Paris—Chartres—Rheims— -Amiens . —

Other cathedrals — Later style—St Ouen ' s , Rouen . " "The great difficulty iu attempting to describe the architecture of France , during the glorious period of the loth century is really the emharras de richesse .

There are even now some thirty or forty cathedrals of the first class in France , all owing their magnificence to this great age . Some of these , it is true , were commenced even early in the 12 th aud many were not completed till after the 14 th century

but all their principal features , as well as all the more important beauties , belong to the 13 th century , which , as a building epoch , is perhaps the most brilliant in the whole history of architecture . Not even the great Pharaonic era in Egypt , the

age of Pericles in Greece , nor the great period of the Roman empire will bear comparison with the 13 th century in Europe , whether we look to the extent of the buildings executed , their wonderful variety and constructive elegance , the daring imagination that conceived them , or the power of poetry and of lofty religious feelings that is

expressed in every feature and in every part of them . " During the previous age almost all the greater ecclesiastical buildings were abbeys , or belonged exclusively to monastic establishments—were in

fact the sole propert }^ and buil t only for the use of the clergy . The laity , it is true , were admitted but only on sufferance . They had no right to be there , and no part in the ceremonies performed .. During the 13 th century almost all the great

buildings were cathedrals , in the erection of which the laity bore the greater part of the expense ,, and shared , in at least an equal degree , in their property and purposes . In a subsequent age theparochial system went far to supersede even the

cathedra ! , the people ' s church taking almost , entirely the place of the priest ' s church , a step which was subsequently carried to its utmost , length by the Reformation , Our present subject , requires us to fix our attention on that stage of

this great movement which gave rise to the buildlug of the principal cathedrals throughout Europe from the 12 th to the 15 th century .

" The transition from the round Gothic to the true pointed Gothic style in the centre of France took place with the revival of the national power under the guidance of the great Abbe Suger , about the year 1144 . In England it hardly appeared

till the rebuilding of Canterbury cathedral under the guidance of a French architect , A . D . 1175 ; and in Germany it is not found till at all events , the beginning of the 13 th century , and can hardly be said to have taken firm root in that country till a century at least after it had been fairly established

in France . " In France as in England , there is no one greattypical building to which we can refer as a standard of perfection—no ITypostyle Hall or Parthenon which combines in itself all the excellencies of the styleand we are forced therefore to cull from

, a number of examples , materials for the composition , even in imagination , of a perfect whole . * - Germany has in this respect been more fortunate , possessing in Cologne cathedral f an edifice combining all the beauties ever attempted to be produced in pointed Gothic in that country . But

even this is only an imitation of French cathedrals , erected by persons who admired and understood the details of the style , but were incapable of appreciating its higher principles . " ( To be continued . )