As the shell that keeps the sound of a sea mysterious past, the stones of the old Benedictine abbeys and cathedrals built huge in the heart of the medieval city, marked for these men and the sound of their hammers and chisels, witnessed a new culture that they helped to build temples to gestate Virtue.
The birth of the guilds
Towards eleventh and twelfth centuries, the accumulated tensions within Europe during the first millennium of Christianity were headed to their destination and, in this incipient development of the foundations of a new consciousness and a new society began to take shape some structures can be considered direct ancestors of Operative Masonry. Displayed the first associations of men engaged in trade to build, initially linked to the monastic orders, especially those of Cluny and the Cistercians. But it is also the time of the appearance of the first history of the guilds of the Middle Ages and the renaissance of urban culture. Cities are beginning to emerge from a long dark slumber.
In those years invested in Europe the flow of invasions. These were the years when William the Conqueror, Norman Policy unifies both sides of the Channel, where his cousin Robert Guiscard sailing to Sicily and Bohemond, Duke of Apulia and Calabria makes waving the banner of Taranto in the towers of Antioch . Trade expands the Mediterranean through the fleets of Venice, Pisa and Genoa, who manage franchises and bases in the new Christian states of Syria. It suggests a new agrarian culture and early development of the productive powers, which will generate an unprecedented flow of foreign currency into the large urban centers. The monasteries are centers of great intellectual and spiritual radiance appears an art that spans almost simultaneously on a vast geography: the Romanesque. The same year that Bernard of Clairvaux called on the barons of the West to life through the cross and that his nephew Hugh of Payens prompted a rule for the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ Temple in Jerusalem just along with other founding eight crusaders.
They are also the years when the Bishop Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis, in whose crypt lie all the kings of France, laid the foundation of a new art that has been definitely tied Freemasonry: The Gothic.
Even considering a priori that we can not go beyond an outline, how can we understand Freemasonry but in the context of all these facts and many others? How to separate the formation of corporations and trades unions in the new economic factors arising from these new conditions? How to separate the new productive forces that arise in the continent's renewed momentum involves almost simultaneous construction of hundreds of huge plays that still move us?
After a long process that some insist on calling dark, but which has managed a new Europe, new powers begin to emerge. At first only a few islands in the knowledge that has stood guard, behind the walls of the ancient monasteries that preserved a few texts and preserved a relic of its founders. Just a few small groups of theologians in the courts of a renowned warrior king. However, "... at least these tanks, these libraries, these treasures which had the most beautiful cameos profile Trajan and Tiberius, they said, through an unbroken chain of rebirths naive and earnest the permanence of a certain idea of \u200b\u200bman: the aesthetics of Suger, the science of St. Thomas Aquinas, the flowering of Gothic and will release this carried, have their roots in those islands of culture lost amid the rustic, brutality, one thousand ... "
To understand all these forces is necessary to analyze a few points in particular:
1 .- is first necessary to understand the feelings that nested in humanity faced and shaking with the arrival of the second millennium of Christianity. Date 1033, the year in 1000 years that met the passion of Jesus, has been recorded by the pen of many men that allow us a privileged observation on the XI century Europe.
2 .- The second issue is the sudden appearance of a new art. The art and architecture of the eleventh century a challenge to historians and a key to the Masons, since it is an art which recognizes an "act of initiation" as has been admitted by major medievalists. The expansion of the Romanesque, the figurative arts to complement this new vision of architecture and even music and liturgy establish a new way to communicate and educate. The question expansion of the Romanesque and Gothic subsequent invasion process is not spontaneous, but are part of a new "pedagogy." And for such a thing happen there must have been necessarily a plan, since it is obvious that this is an art designed "... for the instruction of the masses ... expressed in a language accessible to all ..."
3 .- For this revival of art and architecture has been possible and in turn has been conceived in terms of a plan to develop about a geography as vast, must necessarily have existed economic conditions changed social reality, its composition productive forces that she acted and human and material resources to carry it out. In this scheme, the figure of Mason acquires its historical reality, since it builds on an educational project. In this project, the first Mason, the Lodge, then, Freemasonry and finally, begin to be a tool to become, over time, in a conscious force of this new pedagogy, possessing a knowledge which, as the art that inspires is initiation. Economic factors establish new types of partnerships between artisans and craft workers. Finally, the group of individuals inspired by the same symbols, exalted by the same archetypes in his mind and forced into a task made necessary means of transmitting information and knowledge, they constitute an associative mechanism imposes particular: The Lodge.
4 .- The fourth point can not be ignored is that in this society, where feudal structures reach their peak, there is also tied to a new moral ideal of chivalry, which not only runs counter to this major expansion economic and spiritual art but is also a consequence. The cavalry began to be a military component but rapidly drift into a new elite of individuals who have rediscovered the myth of the hero and launched his personal adventure with a new moral code. The need to combine the arts of chivalry and love inherited spiritual vocation to the monastic life results in the military orders, whose influence in Freemasonry has been sufficiently treated in recent years by leading medievalists.
should begin with an overview of the eleventh century, and nothing better for this than the words of the monk Raoul Glaber cited in countless essays and treatises, but with great force reflected witness the spirit of those years: ".. . As the third year following the year 1000, was seen in almost all the land, but especially in Italy and Gaul, rebuild the church buildings; although most fairly well built, not needed at all. An authentic emulation drives every Christian community to have a sumptuous church than their neighbors. It had said that shook the world to shed its antiquated and it wore everywhere for a white cloak of churches. So almost all the churches of episcopal sees, those of the monasteries dedicated to any saint, and even the small chapels in the villages were rebuilt by the faithful with beautiful ... "Other witnesses corroborated, as the bishop of Merseburg Thietmar "... having reached the thousand years from the conception of Christ the Savior to the Virgin without sin, was shine on the world a radiant morning ... "
There is no doubt that this is a sunrise for a few, and only the top of the feudal pyramid, only a small group of men around the Lord or Bishop can perceive the effects of this change. But Europe is gradually leaving the difficult years of the great famine, misery and distress. Jacques Heers defined as the time: "... in recent years confirmed a broad movement, uneven and more or less early, which affected all Western countries and gave them a new economic balance and human efforts made bitter exchange out for centuries. There is no doubt that this flowering of Europe was caused by strong population growth necessitated the search for new lands and new activities ... "The causes of this demographic growth are varied.
Many authors agree that the continuing effort to improve agricultural production techniques began to yield positive results towards the end of the tenth century, mainly within the vast tracts of land under monastic rule. These developments accelerated the activity of clearing and gradually change the diet that will, over time, move from a survival economy to one that says, always within certain limitations, to eat all year round. However, well into the eleventh century there are still serious subsistence crisis among which include the severe famine in the year 1033. Among the consequences of population pressure expansion should include military, political and religious of the West. The Crusades are one of those consequences, but so are the feats of arms in Spain trying to recover the territories under Islamic rule and the German invasion of Eastern Slavic territories.
But longer term, Heers said, "... the substantial changes experienced by Western economies were a much more decisive factor ...": Development International Trade; occupation of cities and the emergence of urban society, growth in the amount of labor and industrial origins of life. To this we must add the aforementioned progress of the agricultural economy.
In this context, some authors prefer to find in the midst of these economic causes of the emergence of the medieval guilds, others identify their origins in religious associations built around the great monasteries or following and imitation of corporations business arising in the great Mediterranean cities. The truth is that towards the end of the eleventh century appear brotherhoods (Fraternitat - caritate), trades unions and, between them, the guilds of builders that stretch with dizzying speed.
appear in a few years in cities such as Mainz, Worms, Wurtzbourg, Rouen, Cologne. By the end of the eleventh century and are set in England - under the name "craftgilds" - in Oxford, Huntington, Winchester, London, Lincoln and countless small towns, like the rest of the continent. Europe is about to conceive of operative masonry.
may or may not agree with the authors regarding the origins of the Order pasts, but all agree as to its link with the unions and "guilds builders' medieval.
should probably establish first what we mean by "guilds of builders." Do we make mention of Architects? What the Stonecutters? "A frank stone carvers (marble)? All these trades involved in construction, and carpenters, blacksmiths, saddlers ... glaziers etc. Therefore, we could adopt the approach of referring to the guild in a more generic sense than "builder." If the Lodge was a kind of factory where not only planned but also directed and essentially ensured continuity of a work whose implementation would require years and even "generations" of artisans and workers whole, it is logical to include, among its many activities, the coordination of specialized workers and officials in many different trades.
There are numerous studies on the origin of the corporations of architects and artisans guilds in general, is how-in general-even in this century much research has gone the way of the scholars of the early nineteenth century , as to consider a continuation of the "collegia fabrorum" in ancient Rome. Many of these works have proved an important contribution to the study of the economy in the Middle Ages and it is worth some mention. Henri Pirenne, in his classic treatise on medieval economics says that, although long assumed that collegia had survived the Germanic invasions, "... no evidence has been adduced in favor of such survival north of the Alps, and what is known about the absolute disappearance of local life from the ninth century allows us to admit "to the Belgian scholar, only in the regions of Italy who remained in the Middle Ages under the Byzantine administration could have kept some form of organization inherited from the collegia, "... but this phenomenon is too local and too important minimum derived from it by an institution as general as the guild ... "
The views are quite divergent even among the authors of the most important works related to this issue. Some scholars, such as PS Leicht, who has written extensively about it, but in particular "Corporazioni romane e arti medievale" hold-like-Pirenne's influence is reduced to the collegia Italy and prefer to see the origin of corporations union in some form of partnership developed in the Rhineland and northern France by the policy of the Carolingians. In contrast, at the same time, another Italian, MG Monti, rejected any about any possible survival of Roman schools and denied such an origin for medieval guilds even in Italy.
Similarly, some scholars of the medieval economy have believed to see its origin in the right manor, called hofrecht. " In this view, associations of craftsmen have developed into large estates and domains emerged from the Carolingian period and later. The artisans are organized within each large estates by the master, acting, in this view, under the supervision of chief governing the behavior of each trade, and their production and the proceeds thereof. It is definitely of specialized servants in an office whose activity is regulated by the lord to which they belong. It has tried in vain to the point at which these trades associations were allowed to open its activities beyond the boundaries of the estate or simply to work for the public. This line of reasoning argues that this happened sometime in the eleventh century and then some free men were admitted to these orders which eventually became subservient to be associations independent unions.
criteria that currently prevail in the formation of unions are inclined to free association. Growth cities and towns that were recorded from the eleventh century, causing a boom hitherto unknown about the trades that have a direct relationship with an emerging industrial process. The growth of individuals participating in the same industrial or craft activity imposes the need for partnership for many reasons: the common defense, mutual assistance, charity among the members that compose it, the defense against the competition, the regulation of the activity etc. It is likely that history was taken as trade associations, and widespread in Mediterranean Europe and also those of a religious nature arising around monasteries and large estates Cistercians.
The second factor in this approach is that of authority. Many authors, among them the aforementioned Henri Pirenne-believe "... As important as the association was not enough, however, to cause the formation of guilds. It should give a large place, beyond, the role played in this formation the government or ... "This assessment is based on the fact of survival was considered, during the Middle Ages, a certain police power the state-read here by the State to any public authority that is real, municipal or episcopal monopoly in terms of weights and measures and structures marketing goods and merchandise. Later in the twelfth century, these associations inevitably fall under community control and will eventually be legislated in the first urban constitutions. This time from most of the documents that are considered direct antecedents of the "Constitutions" modern Masonic. As seen in previous works, many of these documents are inspired net bias in the constitutions of Cluny.
Imagine for a moment the lives of these associations. Imagine for a moment these powers were beginning to wake up in a Europe which saw people slowly back their cities ... "Lined by white mantle of churches ", peppered with an enormous number of works that begin to be formed almost simultaneously and that will be mobilized in the following years an immense amount of tons of stone. A society in which groups of men, skilled in various arts and crafts, community or episcopal protected, they begin to establish professional relationships in an era in which arise the great thinkers of the Middle Ages.
From a purely economic view, the medieval guilds and corporations are absolutely privileged groups. Public power not only gives them exclusivity of the profession practicing but it guarantees and protects. In return, corporations pay a franchise. However, at least in the eleventh century and much of the XII unions are still very far from independence. His statutes and rules are dictated by the local power, lack of freedom to administer and have no interference beyond the "art matters", but basically there is a structure consisting of teachers, peers (formal workers) and apprentices.
listen as an economist-Pirenne describes, again-this structure: "... The members of any corporation is divided into subordinate categories including: teachers, learners and peers. Teachers are the rulers of the other dependent two. Workshops are small heads, owners of raw materials and utensils. The product produced theirs, therefore, and all proceeds from their sale are left in their hands. Beside trainees start in the office under his direction, since no one can be admitted to the practice of the profession without warranty of fitness. Peers, in short, are the employees who completed their learning but have not yet been able to elevate the status of teachers ... The number of these is limited, since it is limited to local market requirements and the acquisition of expertise is subject to certain conditions (fees, legitimate birth, affiliation the bourgeoisie) to make this acquisition very difficult ... "
description is familiar to any Mason. However, in reality, you are referring to unions of a "local", established in towns and cities without "mobility." Privileges are limited to the area over which governs the district or the bishop to protect them.
The builders guilds necessarily need additional privileges, privileges which in turn allowed them a freedom not easily accessible to men of the eleventh century, a freedom which, as expected, formed different men. The need for These genuine industrial superstructures itinerant teachers able to move automatically, craftsmen, workers and staff of all kinds can turn to move large volumes of raw materials and erecting the same time, the greatest works ever built in the west, left of a new art. Romanesque art.
His appearance in the mid-eleventh century, is of great importance in understanding the further development of the large corporations that built the great cathedrals. Indeed, the emerging architecture of Romanesque art, offers an extraordinary testimony of historical acceleration in the middle of this century material progress joins transformations mutations social and spiritual. Jacques Le Goff, he says, drawing on the work of Roman humanism conducted by Pierre Francastel, "the existence of a deep rupture in the aesthetic ideal to about the year 1050. This allows to set a starting point for the Romanesque style, emphasizing the historical significance of a date and considered as particularly notable ... "and continues:" ... Pierre Francastel discover in this way to mid-eleventh century "a new willingness coordination in relation to the vault of the different parts of the Christian edifice. " No one could better symbolize the synthesis effort in all areas, will inspire the expansion of the Western world ... "
Francastel
What he describes is a profound artistic renewal that takes place and results from a deep spiritual rebirth, whose ultimate expression is the great Romanesque abbeys. And this renewal is not limited to a new architectural concept art but it states: "... Its walls and vaults carved stone, the extraordinary decorations of their eardrums and carved capitals, or in natural fresh in many cases only been discovered from earlier this century ... "
Romanesque It is called the extent that derives directly Roman art and is inspired by the style of the basilicas and the Latin cities. Moreover, and as Heers says "... was clearly different from their own artistic expressions of the barbarian kingdoms of the Middle Ages and Eastern Christian art .." Anxious to relieve the walls and counteract the thrust of the vaults, building on the Romanesque architects focus their efforts on developing the column and arch, invented the clerestory and taken from the Byzantine dome shells. The huge walls rest on solid buttresses. The narrow vessels of the plant modified Roman basilica, taking the form of a cross.
Some argue that the great Romanesque art only in the countries first imposed noon. Its characteristics are in principle uniform and vary from one region to another. Heers, Le Goff, Duby and many other medievalists agree that their origins are complex. But basically we agree that there have been two fundamental background of Romanesque art: A primitive Romanesque architecture inherited from the Carolingian and Romanesque art in which the primitive southern decorative arts, carvings, frescoes and furniture, are much more prominent .
After the year 1050, these traditions and artistic and architectural innovations succeeded and spread throughout Europe. Were an original art reached its apogee in the great Benedictine abbeys, particularly those of the Order of Cluny. It was at this time begin to appear where specific records from a large number of guilds and unions, particularly related to the construction of these great abbey church, traveling the roads of the great pilgrimages, spreading the new art, and with it the complex symbolism that develops the Romanesque. Is the point at which the great abbeys matrices reach the peak of his prestige.
Currently there is some consensus that the master masons of Milan and Como, known as "Magistri Comacini "- were actively involved in building a new broadcast in Lombardy since 1000 and who enrolls in a Southern primitive Romanesque art which have dealt at length by authors such as L. Grodecki. His influence reached the Mediterranean coast of France and Catalunia and through the valleys of the Rhone and the Saone to Burgundy and the Alpine valleys.
men who traveled along the routes of expansion of Romanesque art, added a further privilege the already privileged status of his office: men were freed from the bounds of the manor, were beyond the territorial power of feudalism, which arrived by then at its height, and had a tool that very few men of the time available: seeing the world beyond the place of birth. Some records kept in the archives of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in the real church of San Juan Bautista de Leon, in the cathedral of Jaca, account for a large number of stone carvers, who came across the Pyrenees worked in these buildings. These same guilds left their mark on the entire architecture Cluny in Burgundy and low in northern Spain.
Before the expiry of the eleventh century, the world had undergone a major transformation. Centuries after the demise of the old Roman state those cultures from the plains and steppes of Europe depth to which he called "barbarians" had managed to shape a new form of civilization which must find its own expression initiation. For too long these people collided with the dominant Celtic culture in North and Latin, which never completely gave its influence in southern Europe. Over the centuries this vast interregnum ascended and descended the kings of the Merovingian house, the Carolingians, with its "rex Bellator" at the top, established the basis of feudal society, the monks of Benedict of Nursia saved what they could and some men gathered, in songs that never forget-the exploits of a few champions who saved the world from the Muslim wave. Western Europe was gradually moving away from the patriarchs of Byzantine Christianity, and is not a mere coincidence that in the century XI, in 1054, the pope's legacy left on the altar of St. Sophia the bull that excommunicated the emperor Miguel Cerulario sealing the division which will soon celebrate a thousand years and still is at issue in the Balkans. To the extent that departed from the ancient fathers, became the very core of a new civilization that would cross the gates of Jerusalem following the army of the Franks, who commanded Lorraine Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse.
The eleventh century expired, but Western thought was born. Soon become self-conscious. The reason would find a place ... and progress. Amid this climate that he loved to describe Raul Glave chisels ringing carvers, stonemasons tore his bowels to the ground and the men were in partnerships for mutual protection. The abbots vied with each other for who built the most beautiful church, while the popes called for a crusade and people were beginning to systematically remove one of the most remarkable topographic transformations in human history.
In this world where everything was still to be done, is very possible that there existed already some sort of operative masonry incipient, "protomasonería" limited to a group of men whom they recognized the possession of a skill, a skill that allowed them to gather under his leadership to colleagues and learners which once protected and exploited. These teachers were the executing arm of the plan needed an architecture of civilization itself, an art that expresses in symbols what the people could not understand even more than in figurative terms. They were, in short, those who made possible this "mass education" which was designed by the great slow movement abbots Benedictine monastery. But we will never know to what extent they were aware of their part in that work. Or not know how many, if any, knew the stories about the Temple of Solomon had written the English monk Bede, immortalized in the famous gloss written by another Benedictine Regular: Walafrid Strabo.
But I was not far off that come the first operative lodges.
(c) Monks and Quarrying, Eduardo R. Callaey (Buenos Aires - Dunken - 2001)
