The Old Master Masons.

an old chronicle you can take up which does not bear unmistakeable witness to this fact , as a fact ; and as our own guild legends attest , both inferentially and even distinctly , the same reality , for once history and tradition run kand-iiihand , or as we often like to say , " on all fours . " It may be difficult to point out , for instance , where the Ecclesiastical builders end and really operative Masons begin ; but then , as Dallaway points out , there is no use in blinking

the truth that such terms in the old chronicles as " fabricavit , " " construxit , " " cedificavit , " " inchoavit , " " perfecit , " " fecit sedificari , " " cedificationes novo genere fecit , " "fieri fecit banc fabricam , " are continually found , equally applied to monks as directors or builders , just as to operative Masons . Of the old ecclesiastical "Master Masons , " " builders , " " designers , " " architects , " whatever you like to call them , we have undoubtedly Augustine , Wilfred , Benedict ,

Biscop , Deinstall , Swithiu ; Gundulph , of Rochester ; William , of Wykeham ; Read , of Chichester ; Alan de Walsingham , Prior of Ely ; Quivil , of Exeter ; Robert Tully , of St . David ' s ; Leon , Bishop of Tours ; Germanns , Ethelwald , Ednoth , Aelfric ; William , of Dijon ; Baldwin , of St . Edmunds , and many more . For instance , Viberius and Gratulus , probably monks , are two early French architects in the eleventh century . Wa heartooof Peter de

Cole-, , churehe , who built London Bridge , Chaplain , in 1163 ; of Wimbolde ; of Abbot Suger , in 1137 , who is stated to have been " a skilled architect ; " of Adam , a monk of Fountains , who presided at the building of Woburn Abbey ; etc . Of Gundulph , Bishop of Rochester , it is declared that , " in opere cesmentario plurirnum sciens et efficax erat , " and that he brought into England with the conquest "novum asdificandi genus . " Of Alan de Walsingham it is recorded

that he was " vir venerabilis et artificiosus frater . " One of the earliest architects we hear of in the Christian Era is Fulbert , a monk , constructor of the Cathedral of Chartres , 1029 . Two other French builders , Hugues and Gerard , probably also monks , are mentioned in this century at Clugny . Paulinus , the sacrist , built the church of Trindsbury , in Kent , in 1125 , and we also hear of a certain William at Ferrara , in 1135 , in these

lines—El mite cento trempta cinque nato , Lo quesfco templo a Yorsi consecrate , Lo Nioolao seulptore , E Glillmo fo lo autore . Some difficulty no doubt occurs in the old chronicles as to the exact Latin words employedand the difference existing between the "master of the work "

, , the " architect , " and the " Master Mason . " In the early records , the Masons are termed indifferently opifices , operararii , laborantes , ccementarii , latomi . In French chronicles we find the words " tailleurs de pierre . " the exact rendering of the Greek words which are represented by " Latomi , " properly " Lithotomi or Lupicidre . " Later we hear of rnacons , raaconns , masouns , massounsmaysons . The Master Mason is called ruagister ccementarius ister

, , mag latomus , maistre maeon , maystermassoun . We also read of a "magister operis , " " operarum magister tedificans , " " solutor operis , " " supervisor , " and "depositor operis , " one literally who lays a foundation and gives a plan .. Jean de Chelles built the south porch of Notre Dame in 1257 , probabl y a Master Mason and monk , and we hear of Alexandre de Berneval , of whom the same may be said . We are expressly told that he was " maitre des ceuvres de

maconnerie" at Rouen . In the epitaph of the Master Mason at Caen , it is said , " Gulelrmis fecit , petrarum summits in arte . " In the fifteenth century we now know of Thomas Mapylton , Master of the Loge Latomorum at Canterbury , and of " John Gowere , who built Camden Church and Gloucester Towre . " An epitaph is recorded of T . Wolvey : " Latomus Summits in arte , Mason , Armiger , Ricardi Secuudi Regis Anglice , ob . 1430 . " Many other inscriptions of Master Masons may be found , and