Note 10 — Chapter I · THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS

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.