CHAPTER I

THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS

In looking back to the great church-building era, _i.e._ to the centuries between 1100 and 1500, do not the questions arise in one's mind, "How did all these great and noble buildings spring up simultaneously in all countries and all climates?" and "How comes it that in all cases they were similar to each other at similar times?"

In the twelfth century, when the Italian buildings, such as the churches at Verona, Bergamo, Como, etc., were built with round arches, the German Domkirchen at Bonn, Mayence, Treves, Lubeck, Freiburg, etc.; the French churches at Aix, Tournus, Caen, Dijon, etc.; and the English cathedrals at Canterbury, Bristol, Chichester, St. Bartholomew's in London--in fact, all those built at the same time--were not only round-arched, but had an almost identical style, and that style was Lombard.

In the thirteenth century, when pointed arches mingled with the round in Italy, the same mixture is found contemporaneously in all the other countries.

Again in the fourteenth century, when Cologne, Strasburg, and Magdeburg cathedrals were built in pure Gothic; then those of Westminster, York, Salisbury, etc., arose in England; the Domes of Milan, Assisi, and Florence in Italy; and the churches of Beauvais, Laon, and Rouen in France. These all came, almost simultaneously, like sister buildings with one _impronto_ on them all.

Is it likely that many single architects in different countries would have had the same ideas at the same time? Could any single architect, indeed, have designed every detail of even one of those marvellous complex buildings? or have executed or modelled one-tenth of the wealth of sculpture lavished on one of those glorious cathedrals? I think not.

The existence of one of these churches argues a plurality of workers under one governing influence; the existence of them all argues a huge universal brotherhood of architects and sculptors with different branches in each country, and the same aims, technique, knowledge and principles permeating through all, while each conforms in detail to local influences and national taste.

If we once realize that such a Guild must have existed, and that under the united hands of the grand brotherhood, the great age of church-building was endowed with monuments which have been the glory of all ages, then much that has been obscure in Art History becomes clear; and what was before a marvel is now shown to be a natural result.

There is another point also to be considered. The great age of church-building flourished at a time when other arts and commerce were but just beginning. Whence, out of the dark ages, sprang the skill and knowledge to build such fine and sculpturesque edifices, when other trades were in their infancy, and civic and communal life scarcely organized?

It is indeed a subject of wonder how the artists of the early period of the rise of Art were trained. Here we find men almost in the dark ages, who were the most splendid architects, and at the same time sculptors, painters, and even poets. How, for instance, did Giotto, a boy taken from the sheep-folds, learn to be a painter, sculptor, and architect of such rank that the city of Florence chose him to be the builder of the Campanile? Did he learn it all from old Cimabue's frescoes, and half Byzantine _tavole_? and how did he prove to the city that he was a qualified architect? We find him written in the archives as _Magister_ Giotto, consequently he must have passed through the school and _laborerium_ of some guild where every branch of the arts was taught, and have graduated in it as a master.

All these things will become more and more clear as we follow up the traces of the Comacine Guild from the chrysalis state, in which Roman art hybernated during the dark winter of the Middle Ages, through the grub state of the Lombard period, to the glorious winged flights of the full Gothic of the Renaissance.

And first as to the chrysalis, at little Como. The origin of the name _Comacine Masters_ has caused a great deal of argument amongst Italian writers new and old. Some think it merely a place-name referring to the island of Comacina, in Lake Lario or Como; others take a wider significance, and say it means not only the city of Como, but all the province, which was once a Roman colony of great extension. Others again, among whom is Grotius, suggest that it is not a place-name at all, but comes from the Teutonic word _Gemachin_ or house-builders. As the Longobards afterwards called them in Italian _Maestri Casarii_, which means the same thing, there is perhaps something to be said for this hypothesis.

The first to draw attention to the name _Magistri Comacini_, was the erudite Muratori, that searcher out of ancient MSS., who unearthed from the archives an edict, dated November 22, 643, signed by King Rotharis, in which are included two clauses treating of the _Magistri Comacini_ and their colleagues. The two clauses, Nos. 143 and 144, out of the 388 inscribed in crabbed Latin, are, when anglicized, to the following intent--

"Art. 143. Of the _Magister Comacinus_. If the Comacine Master with his _colliganti_ (colleagues) shall have contracted to restore or build the house of any person whatsoever, the contract for payment being made, and it chances that some one shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stones from it, the owner of the said house shall not be cited by the _Magister Comacinus_ or his brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they must sustain the risks and injuries thereof."[2]

"Art. 144. Of the engaging or hiring of _Magistri_. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work (_conduxerit ad operam dictandum_), or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it should happen that by reason of the house some Comacine should be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible; but if a pole or a stone shall kill or injure any extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation."[3]

These laws prove that in the seventh century the _Magistri Comacini_ were a compact and powerful guild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the guild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks; that the higher orders were entitled _Magistri_, and could "design" or "undertake" a work;--_i.e._ act as architects; and that the _colligantes_ worked under, or with, them. In fact, a powerful organization altogether;--so powerful and so solid, that it speaks of a very ancient foundation.

But when and how did it originate?

Was it a surviving branch of the Roman _Collegium_? a decadent group of Byzantine artists stranded in Italy? or was it of older Eastern origin? A clever logician could prove it to be all three.

For the Roman theory, he could base his arguments on the Latin nomenclature of officials, and the Latin form of the churches.

For the Byzantine theory, he would have the style of certain ornamentations, and the assertions of German writers, such as Müller, and Stieglitz.

For the ancient Eastern theory, he might plead their Hebrew and Oriental symbolism.

We will take the Byzantine theory first. Müller (_Archaeologie der Kunst_, p. 224) says that: "From Constantinople as the centre of mechanical skill, a knowledge of art radiated to distant countries, corporations of builders of Grecian birth were permitted to exercise a judicial government among themselves according to the laws of the country to which they owed allegiance;" and Stieglitz, in his _History of Architecture_, records a _tradition_ that at the time the Lombards were in possession of Northern Italy, _i.e._ from the sixth to the eighth century, the Byzantine builders formed themselves into guilds and associations, and that on account of having received from the Popes the privilege of living according to their own laws and ordinances, they were called Freemasons.[4] Italian and Latin writers, however, place the advent of these Greek artists at a later period; they are supposed to have been sculptors, who, rebelling against the strict Iconoclasm of Leo, the Isaurian--718 A.D. to 741--came over to Italy where art was more free, and joined the _Collegia_ there.

But at this time most of the chief Longobardic churches were already built by the Comacine Masters, and were Roman in form, mediæval in ornamentation, and full of ancient symbolism. Herr Stieglitz must have pre-dated his tradition. Besides this I can find no sign in Italian buildings, or writers about them, of any lasting Byzantine influence. Indeed pure Byzantine architecture in Italy seems sporadic and isolated, not only in regard to site, but in regard to time. The Ravenna mosaics, a few in Rome, a little work in Venice, is all one can call absolutely Byzantine; and the influence never spread far. The Comacine ornamentation indeed has qualities utterly distinct in spirit, though in some of its forms allied to Byzantine. It is possible that some of these Eastern exiles joined the Comacine Guild, but there is quite enough in the communications of Como with the Greeks, to account for their having imbibed as much as they did of Byzantine style. Some of the Bishops who were rulers of Como before and after Lombard times were Greeks; notably Amantius the fourth, who was translated there from Thessalonica, and his successor, S. Abbondio. Also through the Patriarch of Aquileja, under whose jurisdiction they were brought later, the guild was put into contact with the Greek sculptors then at Venice, Grado, and Ravenna.

We will leave the Oriental theory aside as too vague and traditional for proof, depending as it does on a few Oriental symbols, and certain forms of decoration, and will look nearer home--even to Rome, with which a connection may certainly be found, and that in a form visible to our modern eyes.

Rome is almost as full of remains of what is now styled Comacine architecture, as it is of classic and pagan ruins, and they are nearly as deeply buried. Go where you will, and in the vestibules or crypts of churches, now of gaudy Renaissance style, you will find the sign and seal of the ancient guild. Investigate any church which has a Lombard tower--and they are many--and you will discover that the hands which built that many-windowed tower have left their mark on the church. In that wonderful third-century basilica, which was discovered beneath the thirteenth-century one of S. Clemente; in the almost subterranean basilica of _S. Agnese fuori le mura_; in the vestibule of the florid modern SS. Apostoli; in Santa Maria in Cosmedin; and various other buildings, are wonderful old slabs of marble with complicated Comacine knots on them. Our illustration is from a slab in San Clemente, which was evidently from the buried church, though used as a panel in the parapet of the existing choir. A marvellous piece of basket-work in marble, which, if studied, will be found composed of a single cord, twined and intertwined. An almost identical panel is preserved in the wall of the staircase to S. Agnese, another has just been found reversed, and the back of it used for the thirteenth-century mosaic decoration of the pulpit in S. Maria in Cosmedin.

Then in the later Lombard churches of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, SS. Giovanni e Paolo, S. John Lateran, etc., one may see the crouching Comacine lions, now mostly minus their pillars, and shoved under square door-lintels, or built into walls, where they remain to tell of the ancient builders whose sign and seal they were.

And here and there we get a name.

In the vestibule of the SS. Apostoli is a red marble lion, on the base of which in Gothic letters is the name BASSALECTI. Beneath it is an old inscription, "Opus magister Bassalecti Marmorari Romano sec, XIII." This same Magister's name, spelt _Vassalecti_, has lately been discovered inscribed on the capitals of some columns in the nave of S. John Lateran.

In the under church of S. Clemente, an ancient fresco of the eighth century takes us further back than this. Here we see a veritable Roman _Magister_ directing his men. He stands in magisterial toga (and surely one may descry a masonic apron beneath it!), directing his men in the moving of a marble column, and with the naïve simplicity of the primitive artist each man's name is written beside him. Albertel and Cosmaris are dragging up the column with a rope, the sons of Pute, who are possibly novices, are helping them, while Carvoncelle is lifting it from behind with a lever. These men are all in short jerkins, but the master, Sisinius, is standing in his toga, directing them with outstretched hand.

Here is the Magister of a Roman _Collegium_ embalmed and preserved for us, that we may see him and his men at work as they were in the early centuries after Christ. We know that Masonic _Collegia_ were still existing in Rome in the time of Constantine and Theodosius; we know that Constantine built the basilica of S. Agnese, afterwards restored by Pope Symmachus; also those of S. Lorenzo--at least the round-arched part of it--enlarged by Galla Placidia in the fifth century; S. Paolo _fuori le Mura_, and other ancient churches. We see from remains recently brought to light, that these were originally of the exact plan of the churches built "in the Roman manner" at Hexham and York in England, and of the Ravenna churches, and S. Pietro in Grado at Pisa, also nearly contemporary. We further realize that all of these were identical in style with the finer specimens of Lombard building some centuries later. There is only the natural decline of art which would have taken place in the century or two of barbarian invasion, between the two epochs, but the traditionary forms, methods, etc., are all reproduced in the Lombard-Comacine churches. Compare the fourth-century door of the church of S. Marcello at Capua with the eighth-century one of S. Michele at Pavia, and you will find precisely the same style of art. Compare the Roman capitals of the church of Santa Costanza, built by Constantine, with the capitals in any Comacine church up to 1200, and you will see the same mixture of Ionic and a species of Corinthian with upstanding volutes. Some of the Comacine buildings have these upright volutes plain instead of foliaged. The effect is rude, but I think these plainer capitals were not a sign of incapacity in the architects of the guild, for one sees richly ornate ones on the same building. It was only the stock design of the inferior masters, when funds did not allow of payment for richer work.

Therefore it may be inferred: (1) That architects of the same guild worked in Rome and in Ravenna in the early centuries after Christ; (2) that though the architects were Roman, the decorators up to the fourth century were chiefly Byzantine, or had imbibed that style as their paintings show; (3) that in the time when Rome lay a heap of ruins under the barbarians, _the Collegium_, or _a Collegium_, I know not which, fled to independent Como; and there in after centuries they were employed by the Longobards, and ended in again becoming a powerful guild.

Hope, the author of an historical Essay on Architecture, had a keen prevision of this guild, although he had no documents or archives, but only the testimony of old stones and buildings to prove it. After sketching the formation of the Roman _Collegia_, and the employment of their members as Christian architects under the early Popes, he says "that a number of these, finding their work in Rome gone in the times of invasion, banded together to do such work in other parts of the world." He seems to think that the nucleus of this union was Lombardy, where the superiority of the architecture, under the Lombard kings, was such that the term _Magistri Comacini_ became almost a generic name for architects. He says that builders and sculptors formed a single grand fraternity, whose scope was to find work outside Italy. Indeed distance and obstacles were nothing to them; they travelled to England under Augustine, to Germany with St. Boniface, to France with Charlemagne, and again to Germany with their brother _magister_, Albertus Magnus; they went to the east under the Eastern Emperors, to the south under the Lombard Dukes, and in fact are found everywhere through many centuries. The Popes, one after another, gave them privileges. Indeed the builders may be considered an army of artisans working in the interest of the Popes, in all places where the missionaries who preceded them had prepared the ground for them.

Diplomas and papal bulls confirmed to the guild the privileges they had obtained under their national sovereigns, and besides guaranteed their safety in every Catholic country which they visited for the scope of their association. They assumed the right to depend wholly and solely on the Pope, which absolved them from the observance of all local laws and statutes, royal edicts, and municipal regulations, and released them from servitude, as well as all other obligations imposed on the people of the country. They had not only the power of fixing their own _honorarium_, but the exclusive right of regulating in their own lodges everything that appertained to their own internal government. Those diplomas and bulls prohibited any other artist, extraneous to the guild, from establishing any kind of competition with them.... Encouraged by such a special protection, the Romans in great numbers entered the Masonic Guild, particularly when they were destined to accompany the missionaries sent by the Pope to countries hitherto unvisited by them. The Greeks also did not delay to take part. The Exarchate of Ravenna, first detached from the Greek Empire by the power of the Lombard princes, had by King Pepin been given to the Popes.... The commercial relations and communications of all kinds maintained with Constantinople by the many cities of Northern Italy, daily attracted many Greeks to this city; finally, the political turbulence of Constantinople, and chiefly the fanaticism of the Iconoclasts, continued to associate Greek artists with Italy, and many of these were received in the lodges, whose number constantly increased.

As civilization became more diffused, the inhabitants of northern countries, French, Germans, Belgians, and English, were admitted to form part of these guilds. Without this concession they would probably have had to fear a perilous competition, encouraged by the sovereigns of other countries.... These corporations were always in league with the Church, which in those times of war and constant struggle, of military service and feudal slavery, was the only asylum for those who wished to cultivate the arts of peace. Therefore we see ecclesiastics of high rank, abbots, prelates, bishops, exalting the respect in which the Freemasons were held, by joining the guild as members. They gave designs for their own churches, overlooked the building, and employed their own monks in the manual labour.

Such is broadly the substance of Hope's account of the great Lombard Guild. It shows remarkable insight, for when he wrote, the documentary evidences which have lately been collected were wanting.[5] It also explains precisely the close connection with monks and the Church, which appears in all the story of the guild, and it accounts for the Greek influence in the ornamentation.

In all the course of the history of building we see that each country or province had to obtain its architects from this _Collegium_ at Rome, as Villani says all the cities of Italy did, and were obliged to apply to the Grand Master of the whole guild. Thus the early Popes had to beg architects for Rome from the Lombard kings; Pope Adrian had to apply to Charlemagne for builders; and so on up to the time when all the church-building Communes had to seek architects from some existing lodge.

Giovanni Villani shows us the intimate connection of the Roman _Collegium_ with Florence. He says that after Cæsar had destroyed Fiesole he wished to build another city to be called Cesaria, but the Senate would not permit this. The Senate, however, gave his Generals Macrinus, Albinus, Cneus Pompey, and Martius equal power to build, and between them they founded Florence, bringing the water from Monte Morello by an aqueduct. Villani says the _Magistri_ came from Rome for all these works. That was in the days when the great masonic company had their Grand Lodge in Rome, before the martyrdom of the _Santi Quattro_, afterwards their patron saints.

In Chapter XLII. Villani relates how when the citizens of Florence wished to build a temple to Mars, they sent to the Senate of Rome to beg that they would supply the most capable and clever _Magistri_ that Rome could furnish. This was done,[6] and the Baptistery was erected in its first form.

Again whilst Charlemagne and Pope Adrian were employing the Comacines to rebuild the ruins of Rome, we find from Villani (lib. iii. chap. 1) that Charlemagne sent some Romans with "all the masters there were in Rome" (e vennero con quanti maestri n'avea in Roma per più tosto murarla) to fortify Florence, which had appealed to him for succour against the Fiesolans. In this manner, says Villani, "the _Magistri_ who came with the Romans began to rebuild our noble city of Florence."

As early as the fifth century Cassiodorus seems to refer to the work of the Comacines when writing about the "public architects"--the very expression implies a public company--and admiring the grand Italian edifices with their "airy columns, slight as canes," he adds, "to be called _Magister_ is an honour to be coveted, for the word always stands for great skill."[7]

This brings us to the question of the Latin nomenclature. No really qualified Comacine architect is ever mentioned either in sculptured inscription, parchment deed, or in the registers of the lodges, without the prefix _Magister_, a title which Cassiodorus, for one, respected. It was not a term applied indiscriminately to all builders, like _murarius_; and we find that the subordinate ranks of stone-cutters or masons were called by the generic name of _operarius_. I take it that the word, as applied to the higher rank of the Comacine Guild, has the same value as the title of _Master_ in the old trade guilds of London, _i.e._ one who has passed through the lower rank of the schools and laborerium, and has by his completed education risen to the stage of perfection, when he may teach others.

Morrona[8] gives the same definition. Judging from ancient inscriptions and documents, he says that "operator" (Latin _operarius_) is used for one who works materially; while _Magister_ signifies the architect who designs and commands. When a _Magister_ carries out his own designs, he is said to be _operator ipse magister_, as in the case of Magister Rainaldus, who designed and sculptured the façade of the Duomo at Pisa.

In warlike times such as the Middle Ages, the only means by which artisans could protect their interests was by mutual protection, and hence the necessity and origin of Trade Guilds in general. The Masonic one appears to have been a universal fraternity with an earlier origin; indeed many of their symbols point to a very ancient Eastern derivation, and it is probable it was the prototype of all other guilds.

Since I began writing this chapter a curious chance has brought into my hands an old Italian book on the institutions, rites, and ceremonies of the order of Freemasons.[9] Of course the anonymous writer begins with Adoniram, the architect of Solomon's Temple, who had so very many workmen to pay, that not being able to distinguish them by name, he divided them into three different classes, _novices_, _operatori_, and _magistri_, and to each class gave a secret set of signs and passwords, so that from these their fees could be easily fixed, and imposture avoided. It is interesting to know that precisely the same divisions and classes existed in the Roman _Collegium_ and the Comacine Guild--and that, as in Solomon's time, the great symbols of the order were the endless knot, or Solomon's knot, and the "Lion of Judah."

Our author goes on to tell of the second revival of Freemasonry, in its present entirely spiritual significance, and he gives Oliver Cromwell, of all people, the credit of this revival! The rites and ceremonies he describes are the greatest tissue of mediæval superstition, child's play, blood-curdling oaths, and mysterious secrecy with nothing to conceal, that can be imagined. All the signs of masonry without a figment of reality; every moral thing masquerades under an architectural aspect, in that "Temple made without hands" which is figured by a Freemasons' lodge in these days. But the significant point is that all these names and masonic emblems point to something real which existed at some long-past time, _and, as far as regards the organization and nomenclature, we find the whole thing in its vital and actual working form in the Comacine Guild_. Our nameless Italian who reveals all the Masonic secrets, tells us that every lodge has three divisions, one for the novices, one for the _operatori_ or working brethren, and one for the masters, besides a meeting or recreation room; and that no lodge can be established without a minimum of two masters. Now wherever we find the Comacines at work, we find the threefold organization of _schola_ or school for the novices, _laborerium_ for the _operatori_, and the _Opera_ or _Fabbrica_ for the Masters of Administration.

The anonymous one tells us that there is a _Gran Maestro_ or _Arch-magister_ at the head of the whole order, a _Capo Maestro_ or chief Master at the head of each lodge. Every lodge must besides be provided with two or four _Soprastanti_, a treasurer, and a secretary-general, besides accountants. This is precisely what we find in the organization of the Comacine Lodges. As we follow them through the centuries we shall see it appearing in city after city, at first dimly shadowed where documents are wanting, but at last fully revealed by the books of the treasurers and _Soprastanti_ themselves, in Siena, Florence, and Milan.

Thus, though there is no certain proof that the Comacines were the veritable stock from which the pseudo-Freemasonry of the present day sprang, we may at least admit that they were a link between the classic _Collegia_ and all other art and trade guilds of the Middle Ages. They were called Freemasons because they were builders of a privileged class, absolved from taxes and servitude, and free to travel about in times of feudal bondage. The term was applied to them both in England and Germany. Findel quotes two old English MSS., one of 1212, where the words "_sculptores lapidum liberorum_" are in close conjunction with _cœmentari_, which is the oldest Latin form for builder; and another dated 1396, where occurs the phrase "_latomos vocatos fremaceons_." In the rolls of the building of Exeter and Canterbury cathedrals the word _Freimur_ is frequent, and no better proof can be given of the way the early Masonic guild came into England. The Italian term _liberi muratori_ went into Germany with the Comacine Masters, who built Lombard buildings in many a German city, before Gothic ones were known; thence it passed Teutonized as _Freimur_ into England.[10]

Cesare Cantù (_Storia di Como_, vol. i. p. 440) thus describes the Guild--

"Our Como architects certainly gave the name to the Masonic companies, which, I believe, had their origin at this time, though some claim to derive them from Solomon. These were called together in the _Loggie_ (hence Lodge) by a grand-master to treat of affairs common to the order, to accept novices, and confer superior degrees on others. The chief Lodge had other dependencies, and all members were instructed in their duties to the Society, and taught to direct every action to the glory of the Lord and His worship; to live faithful to God and the Government; to lend themselves to the public good and fraternal charity. In the dark times which were slowly becoming enlightened, they communicated to each other ideas on architecture, buildings, stone-cutting, the choice of materials and good taste in design. Strength, force, and beauty were their symbols. Bishops, princes, men of high rank who studied architecture fraternized with them, but the mixture of so many different classes changed in time the spirit of the Freemasons. The original forms of building were lost when the science fell into the hands and caprice of venal artisans."[11]

We shall see the way in which the Comacines spread fraternity wherever they went. When they began building in any new place, they generally founded a lodge there, which comprised a _laborerium_ and school. Thus we find one under the Antellami family in Parma before 1200, and not long after one in Modena under the same masters from Campione. The lodge is clearly defined at Orvieto and Siena. In Lucca there was a _laborerium_ before the year 1000. In 1332 it had obtained privileges. At Milan there was evidently another, for on February 3, 1383, the archbishop invites the architects _Fratelli_ (brethren), and others who understand the work, to inspect the models for the cathedral; now these words evidently refer to a Masonic brotherhood, as does the term _Opera Magiestatem_ so often met with in old documents.

In the Marches of Ancona is a sepulchre inscribed to the _fratres Comacini_, and in the Abruzzi are chapels dedicated by them. In Rome it is recorded that they met in the church of SS. Quattro Coronati. These patron saints of the guild, the four holy crowned ones (Santi Quattro Coronati), strike me as having a peculiar significance in regard to their origin. We are told that during the persecutions under Diocletian, four brethren, named Nicostratus, Claudius, Castorio, and Superian[12] (either brothers, or more likely members of the same _Collegium_), who were famous for their skill in building and sculpture, refused to exercise their art for the pagan Emperor. "We cannot," they said, "build a temple for false gods, nor shape images in wood or stone to ensnare the souls of others." They were all martyred in different ways: one scourged, one shut up and tortured in an iron case, one thrown into the sea; the other was decapitated. Their relics were in the time of St. Leo placed in four urns, and deposited in the crypt of the church, which was built to their honour, in the time of Honorius, by the Comacines then in Rome. It has always been the especial church of the guild, and their meeting-place. They had an altar dedicated to the same saints at Siena, and another at Venice. We find from the statutes of the Sienese guild as late as the fourteenth century, that the _fête_ of the "Quattro" was kept in a special manner by the Masonic guild. All the Church _fêtes_ are classed together as days when no work is to be done, but the day of the SS. Quattro has two laws all to itself, and is kept with peculiar ceremonies.[13]

On the altar of this church on Mount Aventine are silver busts of the four Magister martyrs; and on the wall is an ancient inscription, as follows--

BEATVS LEO IIII PAPA PARITER SVB HOC SACRO ALTR̄ REC̄DENS COLLOCAVĪ CORPOR̄ SCŌ M͞R CL[AV]DII NICOSTĪ SEMPRON̄I CAST̄ ET SIMP̄ ET HII FR̄M SEVERI SEVERIANI CARPOFORI ET VICTO RINI [MA]RII AVDIFAX EABBACV̄ FELICISSIMO ET AGAPITO YPPOLT̄ OVDE CV̄ SVA FAM̄L NV̄O X ET VIIII ACQVILINI ET PRISCI ARSEI AQVNI NARCISI ET MARCELLI NI FELICIS SIMETRII CANDI DAE ATO PAVLINÆ ANASTASII ET FELICIS APOLLIONIS ET BENEDICTI VENANTII ATO FELICIS DIOGENIS ET LI BERALIS FESTI ET MARCELLI ATO SVPERANTII PVDENTIAN̄E ET BENEDICTI FELICIS ET BENE DICTI NECN̄ CAPITA SANCTO PROTI SC̄EO CECILIA E SC͞I ALEXANDRI SC̄IO XISTI ET SC͞I SEBASTIANI ATQ SACRATISSIME VIRGINIS PRAXEDIS ET ALIA MVLTA CORPORA SANCTORVM QVORVM NOMINA DEO SVNT COGNITA

If I interpret the abbreviations M͞R. F͞RM and FA͞ML aright, this inscription would imply that members of each of the three grades of the Roman Masonic guild, Magister, Fratres, and Famuli (apprentices), were martyred together, and their remains placed in this church with the relics of some proto-martyrs. The _Magistri_ were afterwards canonized, and the four I have named became the patron saints of the guild. S. Carpophorus was held in special veneration in Como, of which place he was probably a native, or else a Greek member of the Comacine Lodge there.

The other side of the inscription chronicles the restoration of the altar which was ruined and broken down, in the time of Pope Paschalis Secundus, A.D. 1111, in the fourth Indiction.

The church of the SS. Quattro has remains of a fine atrium or portico. In the wall of the atrium is a fragment of _intreccio_. The original form of the church is well preserved, and is identical with that of S. Agnese, _fuori le mura_. The gallery for the women is well preserved.

The especial veneration for the four crowned martyrs seems to point to their Roman origin, and to specify the reason why the remnant of the particular _Collegium_ to which they belonged fled from Rome, and took refuge in the safe little republic of Como, so that it was not only the Goths and Vandals from whom they fled. It explains also the intense religion in their work, and rules; the very first principles of which were to respect God's name, and do all to His glory.

It need not excite wonder that any guild should have fled from Rome in these centuries. This was the time that Gregory the Great, painted so graphically in his passionate Homily of Ezechiel, preached at Rome. "Everywhere see we mourning, hear we laments; cities, strongholds, villages are devastated; the earth is a desert. No busy peasants are in the fields, few people in the cities, and these last relics of human kind daily suffer new wounds. There is no end to the scourging of God's judgment.... We see some carried into slavery, others cruelly mutilated, and yet more killed. What joy, oh my brethren, is left to us in life? If it is still dear to us we must look for wounds, and not for pleasures. Behold Rome, once Queen of the world, to what is she reduced?--prostrated by the sorrows and desolation of her citizens, by the fierceness of her enemies and frequent ruin, the prophecy against Samaria has been fulfilled in her. Here no longer have we a senate; the people are perished, save the few who still suffer daily. Rome is empty, and has barely escaped the flames; her buildings are thrown down. The fate of Nineveh is already upon her...."[14]

The Longobard invaders were more merciful than the Goths, for not long after their rule was over, another Pope wrote to Pepin--"Erat sanæ hoc mirabile in regno Longobardorum, nulla erat violenta nulla struebantur insidiæ. Nemo aliquem iniuste angariabat, nemo spoliabat. Non erat furta, non latrocinia, unusquisque quodlibebat securus sine timore pergebat."--_Histor. Franc. Scrip._ Tom. III. cap. xvi.

Whatever the moving cause, the fact remains that in the Middle Ages the Comacine Masters had a nucleus on that strong little fortified island of Comacina, which, together with Como itself, stood against the Lombards in the sixth century for twenty years before being subjugated; and in the twelfth, held its own independence for a quarter of a century against Milan and the Lombard League, which it refused to join.

When at length the Longobards became their rulers, they respected their art and privileges. The guild remained free as it had been before, and in this freedom its power must have increased fast.

The Masters worked liberally for their new lords, but it was as paid architects, not as serfs. As a proof we may cite an edict signed by King Luitprand on February 28, 713. It is entitled _Memoratorio_, and is published by Troya in his _Codex Diplomaticus Longobardus_.

It fixes the prices of every kind of building. Here are the titles of the seven clauses, referring to the payments of the _Magistri Comacini_: _De Mercede Comacinorum_--

CLVII. Capit. i. De Sala. "Si sala fecerit, etc."

CLVIII. Capit. ii. De Muro. "Si vero murum fecerit qui usque ad pedem unum sit grossus ... cum axes clauserit et opera gallica fecerit ... si arcum volserit, etc."

Capit. iii. De annonam Comacinorum.

CLIX. Capit. iv. De opera.

CLX. Similiter romanense si fecerit, sic repotet sicut gallica opera.

Capit. v. De Caminata.

CLXI. Capit. vi. De marmorariis.

CLXII. Si quis axes marmoreas fecerit ... et si columnas fecerit de pedes quaternos aut quinos ...

Capit. vii. De furnum.

CLXIII. Capit. viii. De Puteum. Si quis puteum fecerit ad pedes centum.[15]

The Longobard rule explains why the Comacine Masters of the thirteenth century were known as Lombards, and the architecture of that time as the "Lombard style." In the same way they were called _Franchi_ when Charlemagne was their king; and _Tedeschi_ when the German dynasty conquered North Italy; if indeed the words _artefici Franchi_ do not merely signify Freemasons, which I strongly suspect is the true meaning.

To understand the connection of this guild of architects with little Como we must glance backwards at the state of that province under the Romans, when it was a colony ruled by a prefect. Junius Brutus himself was one of these rulers, and Pliny the Younger a later one. At this time Como was a large and flourishing city. It had in Cæsar's time a theatre whose ruins were found near S. Fedele; a gymnasium for the games, which was near the present church of Santa Chiara. A document dated 1500 speaks of the Arena of Como as then still existing. The _campus martius_ was at S. Carpoforo, where several Roman inscriptions, urns, and medals were found. This valuable collection of Latin inscriptions, found in and about Como, proves the successive rule of emperors, prefects, military tribunes, naval prefects, Decurions, etc. We have records also of Senators, Decemviri, and other municipal magistrates. The inscriptions also show that there were temples to Jove, Neptune, the _Dea Bona_, the Manes, the _Dea Mater_, Silvanus, Æsculapius, Mars, Diana, Hygeia, and even Isis.

Some Cippi are dedicated to Mercury and Hercules; and one found near S. Maria di Nullate was inscribed by order of the Comacines to _Fortuna Obsequente_, "for the health of the citizens." To this day a _Prato Pagano_ (pagan field) exists near Como. All these proofs, together with Pliny's testimony, go to show that Como was in Roman times an important centre, and as such was likely to have its own _Collegia_ or trade guilds, to one of which probably Pliny's builder, Mustio, belonged, and to which the Roman refugees naturally fled as brethren.

Pliny the Younger at that time lived at Como, in his delightful villa, _Comedia_. In his grounds, on a high hill, were the ruins of the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and he determined to restore this temple, as devotees flocked there during the Ides of September, and had no refuge from sun or rain.[16] His letter to "Mustio," a Comacine architect, gives the commission for this restoration, and after explaining the form he wished the design to take, he concludes--"At least unless you think of something better, you, whose art can always overcome difficulties of position." For Pliny, fresh from Rome, to give such praise to an architect at Como, shows that even at that time good masters existed there.

Another letter of Pliny's (Lib. X. Epist. xlii.) speaks of the villa of his friend Caninus Rufus, on the same lake, with its beautiful porticoes and baths, etc., and of the many other villas, palaces, temples, forums, etc., which embellished Como and its neighbourhood.

Catullus lived here when the poet Cæcilius, whose works have now perished, invited him to leave the hills of Como, and the shores of Lario, to join him in Verona.

Pliny seems to confirm the existence of guilds,[17] as he speaks of the institution of a _Collegium_ of iron-workers, who wished to be patented by the Emperor, but Trajan refused to form new guilds, for fear of the _Hetæriæ_ or factions which might infiltrate into them.

Mommsen, in his work _De Collegiis et Sodalitiis Romanorum_, says that under the emperors no guild was allowed to hold meetings, except by special laws, yet though new companies were not to be formed, the existing ones of architects and artisans were permitted to continue after public liberty was lost. Several documents prove that the chief scope of these unions was to promote the interests of their art, to provide mutual assistance in the time of need, to succour the sick and poor, and to bury the dead.

The trade guilds in London, the _Arti_ in Florence, and the town clubs kept up in England till lately, seem to be all survivals of these ancient classical societies.

Besides the Builders' Society, Como had, in Roman times, a nautical guild. An inscription is extant, dedicated to C. Messius Fortunatus by the _Collegium nautarum Comensium_. This guild sent twenty ships of war to Venice in Barbarossa's time.

But besides having privileged societies, Como and its Comacine islands were a privileged territory, and might almost have been called a republic. We have, it is true, no documentary evidence of this dating back to pre-Longobardic times, but as Otho in 962[18] confirmed the islands in all former privileges granted by his predecessors on the Imperial throne, we may fairly suppose the privileges dated from times far anterior to himself.

This is an anglicized version of his decree, which was granted on the petition of the Empress Adelaide--

"In the name of the Holy and indivisible Trinity, Otho, by the will of God, august Emperor. If we incline to the demands of our faithful people, much more should we lend our ear to the prayers of our beloved consort. Know then, all ye faithful subjects of the Holy Church of God, present and future, that the august Empress Adelaide, our wife, invokes our clemency, that for her sake we receive under our protection the inhabitants of the Comacine islands, and surrounding places known as Menasie (_sic_), and we confirm all the privileges which they have enjoyed under our predecessors, and under ourselves before we were anointed Emperor, viz. they shall not be called on for military service, nor have _arbergario_ (taxes on roads and bridges), nor pay _curatura_ (tax on beasts), _terratico_ (tax on land), _ripatico_ (on ships), or the _decimazione_ (tax on householders) of our kingdom, neither shall they be obliged to serve in our councils, except the general assembly at Milan, which they shall attend three times a year. All this we concede, etc. Given on the 8th before the calends of September, in the year of the Incarnation 962, first year of the reign of the most pious Otho."--_Indiction V. in Como._

The hypothesis that this decree refers to a long-existing liberty is confirmed by the history of Como in the time of Justinian I. Up to the middle of the sixth century a certain Imperial Governor of Insubria, named Francione, who had seen Rome sacked and his own state taken, fled to Comacina as a free place of refuge when Alboin invaded Italy. He helped the Comacines to hold out against the barbarians for more than twenty years, and so secure was the place considered that the island was by Narses and others made the depositary of infinite treasures. With him multitudes of Romans had taken refuge there, but finally even this fell into the hands of the Longobards. We are told that Autharis subjugated Istria, and after a six months' siege, possessed himself of the very strongly fortified island of Comacina on the lake of Como, where he found immense treasures, doubtless part of the traditional wealth amassed by Narses, and which as well as much private property had been deposited here for security by the neighbouring peoples.[19]

Here then, four centuries before Otho's decree, we have Comacina as a place of refuge in troublous times, chosen because, being a free city, it was considered more safe than other towns. We need not then consider it improbable, if in the dark centuries when the Roman Empire was dying out, and its glorious temples and streets falling into ruin under the successive inroads of half-savage despoilers; when the arts and sciences were falling into disuse or being enslaved; and when no place was safe from persecution and warfare, the guild of the Architects should fly for safety to almost the only free spot in Italy; and here, though they could no longer practise their craft, they preserved the legendary knowledge and precepts which, as history implies, came down to them through Vitruvius from older sources, some say from Solomon's builders themselves.

Among the treasures must have been works of Greek and Roman art, that kept alive the old spirit among the guild of builders gathered there; but alas! after the long generations when art was decaying, and uncalled for, their hands lost their skill, they could no longer reproduce the perfect works.

It was here the Longobards found them, and in their new Christian zeal soon furnished them with work enough.

LONGOBARD KINGS

568. Alboin conquers Italy; he was poisoned by his wife Rosamund for compelling her to drink out of her father's skull.

573. Cleoph (assassinated).

575. Autharis (poisoned).

591. Agilulf.

615. Adaloald. He was poisoned.

625. Ariold.

636. Rotharis. He married Ariold's widow, and published a code of laws.

652. Rodoald (son), assassinated.

653. Aribert (uncle).

661. Bertharis and Godebert (sons); dethroned by--

662. Grimoald, Duke of Beneventum.

671. Bertharis (re-established).

686. Cunibert (son).

700. Luitbert; dethroned by--

701. Ragimbert.

701. Aribert II. (son).

712. Ansprand elected.

712. Luitprand (son); a great prince, favourite of the Church.

744. Hildebrand (nephew), deposed.

744. Ratchis, Duke of Friuli, elected, but afterwards became a monk.

749. Astolfo (brother).

756. Desiderius, quarrelled with Pope Adrian, who invited Charlemagne to Italy. He defeated and dethroned Desiderius, and put an end to the Lombard kingdom.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] "Si Magister Comacinus, cum collegis suis, domum ad restaurandum, vel fabricandum super se placito finito de mercede susceperit, et contigerit aliquem per ipsam domum aut materiam, aut lapide lapso moti, aut quodlibet damnum fieri, non requiratur domino, cuius domus fuerit, nisi Magister Comacinus cum consortibus suis ipsum homicidium aut damnum componat, qui postquam fabulam firmatam de mercede pro suo lucro susciperit, non immerito sustinet damnum."

[3] "Si quis Magister Comacinum unum aut plures rogaverit, aut conduxerit ad operam dictandum, aut solatium diurnum praestandum inter suos servos ad domum aut casam faciendam et contigerit per ipsam casam, aliquem ex ipsis Comacinis mori non requiratur ab ipso, cuius casa est. Nam si cadens arbor, aut lapis ex ipsa fabrica, et occiderit aliquem extraneum, aut quodlibet damnum fecerit, non reputetur culpa magistro, sed ille qui conduxit, ipsum damnum sustineat."--From the _Edict of Rotharis_--edited by Troyes.

[4] Stieglitz, _Geschichte der Baukunst_, 1827, pp. 423, 424. See also Hope's _Historical Essay on Architecture_, 1835, pp. 229-237.

[5] See Hope's _Historical Essay on Architecture_, 3rd edition, 1840, chap. xxi. pp. 203-216.

[6] E mandaro al Senato di Roma, che mandassi loro i più sofficienti maestri, e più sottili (subtle) che fossero in Roma: e cosi fu fatto.--_Storia_ di G. Villani. Libro primo, cap. xlii.

[7] Cassiodorus, _Variorum_, Lib. VI. Epist. vi. _Ad Prefectum Urbis De Architecta Publicorum_.

[8] Morrona, _Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno_, p. 160. Pisa, 1812.

[9] _Instituzioni, riti e ceremonie dell' ordine de' Francs-Maçons, ossia Liberi Muratori._--In Venezia MDCCLXXXVIII, presso Leonardo Bassaglia, Con Licenza de' Superiori.

[10] The Charter Richard II. for the year 1396, quoted in the _Masonic Magazine_ (1882), has the following entry--"341 Concessimus archiepiscopo Cantuar, quod, viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatus ffre Maceons et viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatos ligiers ... capere ... possit." Here then at Canterbury is the same thing as at Milan, and all other ancient cathedral-building cities,--the master builders are Freemasons, _i.e._ of the great and universal guild,--the underlings who assist them have not the same rank and privilege. The Act Henry VI., c. 12, 1444, says in queer mixed parlance--"Les gagez ascun frank mason ou maister Carpenter nexcede pas par le jour IIIJ d. (denari) ovesque mangier & boier ... un rough mason and mesne Carpenter ... III d. par le jour." Here we recognize the same distinction of grades between the master who has matriculated and the mason of lower grade. It is interesting also to note that the master carpenter is equally a Freemason as well as the master builder. In Italy the same peculiarity is noticeable; the _magister lignamine_, whose work was to make scaffoldings and roofs, is a member of the _Maestranze_, just as much as the _magister lapidorum_, and yet a master in wood is never a stonemason. The members seem to have been grounded in all the branches, but only graduated in one of them. The author of the article "Freemason" in the _New English Dictionary on Historical Principles_, seems to be perplexed over the expression "_maestre mason de franche peer_" ("master mason of free-stone"); but this is merely the equivalent of the Latin _magister lapidus vivum_, from _Saxum vivum_, free-stone, which merely means a sculptor, in distinction to an architect, who was _magister inzignorum_.

[11] At one era in Lombard times a law was made that no marble was to be used in building, except by royal persons--which accounts for all the Lombard churches being sculptured in _Saxum vivum_, or free-stone. There may have been a similar custom in England where marble was scarce.

[12] There were other five martyrs of the Masonic guild, whose names have been given as Carpoferus, Severus, Severanus, Victorianus, and Symphorian. I have taken the four "Coronati" from the statutes of the Venetian _Arte_.

[13] Mrs. Jameson finds the Santi Quattro illustrated in a predella in Perugia Academy. In one scene they are kneeling before the Emperor with their implements in their hands. In another they are bound to four columns and tortured. In a third they are in an iron cage and being thrown into the sea. In their own church they are represented as lying in one sarcophagus with crowns on their heads. In sculpture they also occur on the façades of several early churches; on the Arco di S. Agostino, and lastly on Or San Michele at Florence, where Nanni di Banco had so much trouble in squeezing the four of them into one niche, that Donatello had to help him. These sculptures were placed by the _Arte_ of masons and stone-cutters, and they naturally chose their patron saints.

[14] _Gregor. Epist._ Tom. III. Epist. iv. an. 755.

[15] Pietro Giannone, an exile from Naples, contemporary of Muratori, was the first to mention this _Memoratorio_, which he said he had seen among the precious codices of the monks at Cava dei Tirreni; that it contained 152 laws, seven of which were added specially for the Comacine Masters.

[16] See _Epistola ad Mustio_, 39, lib. ix.

[17] Lib. X. Epist. xliii.

[18] Muratori, _Novus Thesaurus veterum Inscriptorum_, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 526.

[19] _Antiq. Long. Mil._ Tom. I. chap. i. p. 17.