CHAPTER XI

THE STEINMETZEN
The Gild of the German stonemasons or Steinmetzen which became immensely powerful in the Middle Ages, while primarily a trade society possessed some features that seem to have made it definitely secret.
The exact significance of the German name Steinmetzen is doubtful; stein means stone, but for metzen derivations are offered connecting it with either meitzel, a chisel or messen, to measure. Stonemason or stonecutter is a close enough translation.
Various writers culminating with Fallou in Germany, and G. F. Fort in America, wove a legend round the Steinmetzen constituting them the ancestors of the Free¬ masons of England, but it will be enough to say here that this airy fabric was built of hypothesis and assertion on a base of fable, and was demolished once and for all by the criticisms of the English scholars Speth and Gould. The real facts about the Steinmetzen are, however, worth being recounted, for they form an interesting parallel to the customs of the French Compagnonnage.
The gild system arose in Germany in the eleventh century, and by the beginning of the thirteenth had become so strong that two successive Emperors decreed the total suppression of all such bodies. The gilds, however, did not dissolve themselves, and in the last quarter of the thirteenth century the Emperor Rudolf, acting on the principle that what cannot be cured must be endured, reinstated the gilds in all their former privileges.
In most medieval German cities existed what was known as the High or Patrician Gild, recruited from descendants
68
THE STEINMETZEN 69
of the original freeholders, a very close corporation which ruled the city. As a rule such a gild refused to admit workmen; so the craft trades in self-defence had to form their own gilds to combat the Patricians. Probably in the twelfth century arose the Gild of the Steinmetzen. It is said to have originated among skilled masons who had been employed by the convents and found that these were no longer supplying them with sufficient work, and who therefore migrated to the great cities, joined forces with the resident masons there, and proceeded to evolve a code of government for the whole of their craft throughout Germany.
The earliest copy of their laws dates only from 1459, but had probably been developing through well-nigh two centuries. In this code the Lodge of Strassburg is named as the supreme court of appeal in any question about the laws, but no indication is given of why this privilege was granted.1 The German Lodges paid a yearly tribute to this Head Lodge, and even after Strassburg became French territory in 1681 the tribute continued to be paid for some years; and as late as 1760 we find Strassburg claiming the custo¬ mary contribution from the Rochlitz Lodge.
Later certain territory was put under subjection to the workmaster of St. Stephen in Vienna; other territory to the Lodge at Cologne; while the Lodge at Zurich had authority over Switzerland. All these districts were, how¬ ever, merely convenient divisions of the one great fraternity.
From the original ordinances and a later version drawn up at Torgau, in Saxony, in 1462 many curious customs of the medieval workmen are discoverable.
If a Master had a complaint against another Master, a Fellow against a Fellow, etc., “whatever Master or Fellow is concerned therein” was to give notice to the Masters who held the book of the regulations, which it was forbidden to copy. “The Masters who are informed thereof shall hear both parties, and set a day when they will hear the cause. And meanwhile before the fixed or appointed day no Fellow shall avoid the Master, nor Master the Fellow,
1 The meeting which revised the code of 1459 was held at Strassburg, so local Steinmetzen may have been in the majority.
7° FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
but render services mutually until the hour when the matter is heard and settled.”
The weekly subscription from each Fellow was about one penny. The subscriptions appear to have been collected by the Masters, who rendered an account of them yearly to the superior of a district. This money was to be employed for the relief of the poor and sick members.
When a member fell on evil days, he was enabled to borrow money from this benevolent fund ; but on his recovery from illness or on his obtaining work, he was obliged to refund the sum borrowed.
The regulation regarding the appointment of a warden discloses a point of ritual observance.
“A Master shall appoint his Warden, Master and Warden being both present; and he shall appoint no Warden unless he be able thereto, i.e. capable of acting in that office, so that the craftsmen and he be supplied. He shall impress him with the Wardenship and receive his oath to the saints on square and gauge to prevent harm to the building or the Master.”
The apprentice out of his indentures, and setting forth on his Wanderjahre as a journeyman was to be provided by the Master with a “Mark,” apparently a particular symbol to be used by him henceforth in signing his work.
There was a fixed form of address to be used by a travel¬ ling Brother when entering a Lodge where he was not known1
“ ‘ God greet ye, God guide ye, God reward ye, ye honourable overmaster, warden, and trusty fellows ! ’ and the Master or Warden shall thank him, that he may know who is the superior in the Lodge. Then shall the fellow address himself to him and say, ‘ The Master So-and-so bids me greet you worthily ’ ; and he shall go to the fellows from one to the other and greet each in a friendly manner, even as he greeted the superior. And then shall they all, Master and Warden and Fellows, pledge him as is the cus¬ tom . . . but not to him whom they hold to be no true man.”
1 F. J. Gould, History of Freemasonry, 1883.
THE STEINMETZEN
7*
The Stonemasons were divided, like all other gilds, into masters, fellows and apprentices, the last class being of the craft but not of the brotherhood. The usual term of inden¬ tures was five years. When he was out of his indentures the apprentice was received as a fellow in the assembled Lodge, where he took a solemn obligation “on his truth and honour in lieu of oath” under the penalty of being expelled the craft, that he would be a true, loyal and obedient mason, that he would not change his distinc¬ tive mark, that he would not disclose the Greeting or Grip ( Schenck ) to any non-mason, and that he would write nothing about the secrets of the fraternity. There¬ upon the methods of recognition were made known to him.
These consisted in certain words, a form of greeting to be used, and the Schenck mentioned above. This might mean instead of grip a prescribed movement of hand and cup when drinking a health; but German tradition accords a grip to the Steinmetzen, and it may well have existed.
Several words might have to be remembered.
In many parts of Germany there was a distinction of Operative Masons into Wortmaurer and Schriftmaurer.1 The Wortmaurer had no other proof to give of their having been regularly brought up to the trade of builders, but the word and signs; the Schriftmaurer had written indentures to show. Up to the end of the eighteenth century there were extant and in force borough laws enjoining the masters to give employment to journeymen who had the proper words and signs. It appears that some cities had more extensive privileges in this respect than others. The word given at Wetzlar, the seat of the great council of revision for the empire, entitled the possessor to work over the whole empire. We may infer, says one authority, that a master gave a word and token for each year’s progress of his apprentice. He gave the word of the incorporated Imperial city or borough on which he depended, and also a word peculiar to himself, by which all his own pupils could recognise each other. This mode of recognition was probably the only means of
Literally, “word-masons” and “writing-masons.”
72 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
proof in old times, while writing was confined to a very small part of the community.1
The particular work over which the Steinmetzen claimed a monopoly was known in the old German as “Masswerke oder Auszuge aus dem Grund,” and the phrase has often been misunderstood. The real meanings are “proportioned work of elevation from a given ground-plan.” The Stein¬ metzen specialized in the elaborate carving of stone, and the preparation of designs for such work; thus they looked upon themselves, with justice, as being a cut above the ordinary stonemason who could prepare a rough or smooth ashlar.
As with most craft gilds the Steinmetzen could indulge in some rough horse-play on occasions. If a Fellow or Apprentice had in the course of his employment utterly spoilt a piece of stone, it was hoisted on a litter and carried in solemn procession to the refuse heap, known as the Beinhaus, charnel-house, and thrown among the rubbish. As chief mourner followed the unlucky wight who had botched his work, and behind him all his comrades. This ceremony over, the procession returned to the Lodge, and the delinquent was soundly flogged with the flat plumb rules. It was to put a stop to this bad old custom that the ordinances of 1563 enjoined: “And in future in no Lodge, no matter for what cause, shall anyone be beaten without the knowledge and consent of the workmaster.”
The Steinmetzen fell from their high estate owing to the Reformation and Thirty Years’ War, but still carried on into the eighteenth century. Though in 1731 an Imperial edict forbade all brotherhoods of journeymen and all oaths of secrecy, yet these usages continued in practice for more than another century. They may even have lingered on in isolated German masons’ gilds down to our own times.
It should be noted in conclusion that the Steinmetzen were far from being the only German gild to have a general bond of union, but their system of centralization has drawn more attention than has been bestowed on the other frater¬ nities. Their objects were much the same as those of any
1John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy, etc, 1798.
THE STEINMETZEN
73
other gild ; to provide work, relief, and help for their members, and to secure a monopoly of their particular trade for them. Finally, though there were many outward resemblances between the customs of the German Stein- metzen and the English Freemasons, when English Specu¬ lative Freemasonry was brought into Germany early in the eighteenth century it was not then recognised by anyone as having any connection with the indigenous rites of the Steinmetzen. Had there been any correspondence between the esoteric workings of the two systems, some contempor¬ ary would most assuredly have drawn attention to the fact.