CHAPTER XII

THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE
Craft gilds existed in France from a very early period and may in some cases have derived from their Roman predecessors.1 In details they developed along different lines from similar English institutions, though they possessed alike the three grades of Apprentice, Fellow or Compagnon, and Master. Under the French system the Master might take as many servants or employees as he liked, provided he did not instruct them in the mystery; the consequence was that the journeyman or Compagnon grew to be a class apart, with no hope of ever rising to become a Master, which was reserved for the privileged classes of Apprentices and Masters’ kinsfolk; and this state of affairs lasted till after the Revolution. As was only to be expected in the circumstances, the Compagnons instituted at a very early date an association for self-help. The four crafts of stone¬ cutter, locksmith, joiner, and carpenter formed the Com- pagnonnage, and developed in detail the system known as the Tour de France. Other trades joined the society later, and it ultimately included nearly all of them. It was an association of journeymen only; “and the criterion of membership was their right to make the Tour de France, a circuit comprising most of the important towns south of Paris, and Paris was also included in it. Only the work¬ men of trades recognised as belonging to the association were permitted to make this circuit, and any attempt on
1 Vide the admirable article by Lionel Vibert on The Compagnonnage, in A.Q..C., xxxiii, p. 191, et seq. It contains a complete summary of the facts about this society. The reader in search of more details may be confidently and gratefully referred to it.
74
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 75
the part of unauthorized trades, or of unauthorized indivi¬ duals, to associate themselves with it was liable to be resisted with actual violence.” There was no system of apprentice¬ ship; but a lad might join one of the trades as a novice, and even make the tour1 in that capacity, and when he had acquired sufficient skill in his craft might claim to be admitted a Compagnon on paying the prescribed fees and going through the prescribed rites.
For the Compagnonnage had early developed a ritual containing a legend and imparting secret modes of recog¬ nition.
This was inevitable, for great advantages attached to membership. In every town there existed a local centre where the travelling Compagnon could apply for work, relief, and brotherly assistance, but the applicant had first of all to prove his bona Jides. The local officers of the society were known as the Premier-en-ville, the Second-en-ville, and the Rouleur, or agent, whose business was to find employment for applicants and act as secretary. The land¬ lady at whose house the Compagnon stayed was known as his Mere, and the local society was careful to see that he had discharged his debt to this mother before he was allowed to leave the town on further travels.
In spite of many laws passed to suppress such associations, the society continued to exist throughout the Middle Ages down to our own times.
These Tours were enlivened by constant quarrels and pitched battles between the three great divisions of the regular Compagnonnage as well as with other associations of journeymen which the former regarded upon as surrep¬ titious and irregular and discountenanced in every possible way. The legendary date of the origin of these discords in the society is 1401, but no direct evidence of them is available prior to 1655, when an ecclesiastical censure on
1 The scope of the Tour probably varied from time to time. Vibert, Op. cit., has pointed out that before 1453 Gascony and Guienne cannot have been included, since they were English provinces. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the circuit was about 1,500 miles, which had to be made on foot; but the Compagnon might take his own time about it; sometimes over four years were spent in this way.
FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
76
the society was published by the Sorbonne, whereupon the cordwainers retired from it in a body, and did not return to it till two centuries later.
The Compagnonnage recognizes three original founders, King Solomon, Maitre Jacques, and Maitre or Pere Soubise, all of whom met at the building of the Temple. The recognition of one of these founders in particular formed the three Devoirs1, or divisions to which all the original trades in the Compagnonnage were affiliated.
“The Compagnonnage recognizes three principal founders; it forms many Devoirs and is divided into many Societies. The masons, named the Compagnons Strangers, otherwise called Loups, the joiners and locksmiths of the Devoir de Liberte, called Gavots, recognize Solomon; and they say that this king to reward them for their labours gave them a Devoir. . . .
“The masons named Compagnons Passants and also Loups-garous with the joiners and locksmiths of the Devoir called Devorants or Devoirants, also pretend that they issued from the Temple, and that Maitre Jacques, famous conductor of the works in that edifice, founded them.
“The carpenters, Compagnons Passants or Bons Drilles, claim the same origin as the last group; they also issued from the Temple, and Pere Soubise, renowned in carpentry, was their founder.”2
1 Scholars cannot agree about the exact meaning to be given to this word as used by the Compagnonnage. Its ordinary meanings are duty, behaviour, task, exercise, debt; but on occasions it also seems to mean the secrets of the order, or even the written ritual. If it be permissible to take the word in a symbolic sense, it might be defined as the chain of obligation by which the Compagnons were bound to one another.
2 Agricol Perdiguier, Livre du Compagnonnage, quoted by W. H. Rylands, Legends of the Compagnonnage, A.Q..C., i.
Vibert, Op. cit., puts the divisions in a convenient tabular form: The stone¬ masons were known as (i) Sons of Jacques; Compagnons Passants; Loups- garous (werewolves) ; Bons Enfants ; and their novices as Aspirants : (ii) Sons of Solomon; Compagnons Strangers (foreign journeymen) ; Loups (wolves); and their novices as Jeunes Hommes (young men).
Joiners and Locksmiths were known as (i) Sons of Jacques; Devoirants; Chiens (dogs); and their novices as Aspirants; (ii) Sons of Solomon; Gavots; and their novices were known as Affilies (affiliated). The Carpenters were known as Sons of Soubise; Compagnons Passants; Drilles or Bons Drilles (good fellows) ; Devoirants; and their novices as Renards (foxes). It should be noted that the stone-masons, locksmiths and joiners were all divided into two camps according as they favoured Solomon or Maitre Jacques.
THE FRENCH C O M P A G N O N N A G E 77
There were three degrees in the primitive society. The young workman in his novitiate, protected, looked after, but excluded from any mysteries, was known as the Attendant (aspirant) . The Compagnon regu (received) was better known, and had received part of the secrets, but was not com¬ petent to hold office in the society. As soon as he had been entrusted with all the secrets he was termed Compagnon Fini or Acheve (finished) and could become a ruler. On the top of these original degrees was introduced in the year 1803 “a new and aristocratic order”, which was the occasion of a great deal of jealousy and schism. This will be referred to later on.
It is obvious from what has gone before that the Com- pagnonnage, even in its earliest days, must have been a federation of different trade societies and not one sole body. This becomes even more apparent when we begin to examine the different legends that were in vogue among its constituent parts.
The most important of these centre round the three mythical founders, Solomon, Jacques and Soubise. No trace has yet been discovered of that connected with the wise king, which may or may not have been the most primitive of all; but the French historian of the Compag- nonnage, himself a Son of Solomon, has preserved for us the Compagnonnage legend of Maitre Jacques and Maitre Soubise.1
“Maitre Jacques is a person little known; each society has made about him a story more or less improbable; there is one, however, which enjoys a large enough authority with many Compagnons du Devoir. It is from this that I extract without changing a word the details which follow.
“Maitre Jacques, one of the head masters of Solomon and colleague of Hiram, was born in a small town in Gaul, named Carte, now Saint-Romili, situated in the south. He was the son of Jacquin, celebrated architect. He devoted himself to cutting stone; at the age of fifteen years he left his family; he travelled in Greece, then the centre of the
1 W. H. Rylands’s translation from Agricol Perdiguier, Le lime du Compagnon¬ nage, in A.Q..C., i. p. 122.
78 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
fine arts, where he associated himself intimately with the philosopher . . . 1 of distinguished genius, who taught him sculpture and architecture; he soon became famous in these two arts. Having heard that Solomon had made an appeal to all the celebrated men, he passed into Egypt, and from thence to Jerusalem; he was not at first distinguished among the workmen; but having received from the head master the order to make two columns, he carved them with so much art and taste that he was received master. . . . Maitre Jacques arrived at Jerusalem at the age of twenty- six years; he lived there a very short time after the con¬ struction of the temple ; many masters wishing to return to their native countries quitted Solomon loaded with favours.
“Maitre Jacques and Maitre Soubise returned to Gaul; they had sworn never to separate ; but soon Maitre Soubise, whose character was violent, became jealous of the influence which Maitre Jacques had acquired over their disciples and of the love which they bore him, separated himself from him and chose other disciples. Maitre Jacques landed at Marseilles and Maitre Soubise at Bordeaux.2 Before commencing his travels, Maitre Jacques chose thirteen Compagnons and forty disciples; one of them quitted him; he chose another; he journeyed during three years, leaving everywhere the remembrance of his talents and his virtues.
“One day, being far from his disciples, he was assailed by ten disciples of Maitre Soubise, who sought to assas¬ sinate him, and wishing to save himself he fell into a marsh, in which the reeds having supported him protected him from their blows; while these cowards sought the means to get at him, his disciples arrived and freed him.
“He retired to Sainte-Beaume. 3 One of his disciples, named by some Jeron, by others Jamais, betrayed him and delivered him to the disciples of Maitre Soubise. One morning before sunrise Maitre Jacques was alone at prayer in an accustomed place; the traitor came there with his butchers, gave him, as was customary, the kiss of peace, which was the signal of death; then five ruffians fell upon him and assassinated him with five dagger-strokes. His
1Left blank in original.
2 Perdiguier notes the obvious anachronism. Neither city was in existence in the tenth century b.c.
3 Between Marseilles and Toulon ; a celebrated place of pilgrimage in honour of St. Mary Magdalene.
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 79
disciples arrived too late, but soon enough to receive his last adieux.
“‘I die,’ said he, ‘God has willed it so; I pardon my assassins, I forbid you to pursue them; they are sufficiently miserable; one day they will repent of it. I give my soul to God my creator, and you, my friends, receive the kiss of peace. When I shall have joined the Supreme Being, I will watch still over you; I wish that the last kiss which I give you, you will always give to the Compagnons whom you make, as coming from their father; they will transmit it in like manner to those whom they make; I shall watch over them as over you; say to them that I shall follow them everywhere as long as they are faithful to God and their Devoir, and that they must never forget. . . .’
“He pronounced some more words which could not be understood, and crossing his hands on his breast he expired in his forty-seventh year, four years and nine days after having gone out of Jerusalem, 989 years before Jesus Christ.
“The Compagnons having taken off his robe found on him a little reed (jonc) which he carried in memory of those which had saved him when he fell into the marsh.1 Since then the Compagnons have adopted the cane ( jonc ). No one knows if Maitre Soubise was the author of his death; the tears which he shed upon his tomb and the pursuit which he made for his assassins removed a portion of the suspicions which lay heavy upon him. As for the traitor, he was not long in repenting of his crime, and in the despair which his remorse occasioned him he cast himself into a well, which the Compagnons filled with stones.”
The legend goes on to relate, that the Compagnons took up the body of Maitre Jacques on a litter and carried it into a grotto, where it was embalmed by “eight seniors,” dressed in fresh garments, and exposed for two days to view. After this it was placed in a coffin of cedar-wood, and taken to be buried in the evening.
“Four Compagnons in blue scarves carried the coffin, and four in the same costume followed after to replace them.
1 Jonc means cane as well as reed ; and this portion of the legend purports to account for the custom of carrying tall staves.
80 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Four others carried the pall, upon which were all the mysterious ornaments of the Compagnonnage. Another carried the acte de foi pronounced by Mai tre Jacques at his reception at Jerusalem. All the Compagnons in the pro¬ cession had a lighted torch. Ten others armed with cudgels and iron levers marched a hundred paces in front to avoid any one coming to trouble them in this lugubrious cere¬ mony.”1
The Compagnons bore the body through a wood named Vorem, and stopped at various places. At midnight in the wood “a terrible wind blew; the torches went out, and the cortege remained in the greatest darkness; the thunder made itself heard with crashes, the rain fell in torrents. The Compagnons approached the body, and continued their prayer for the remainder of the night. In the morning, the storm being over, they recommenced the march at the first light of day. . . They finally reached the place where Maitre Jacques had been assassinated and “where he had wished to be buried.” Before lowering the body into the tomb each gave it the kiss of peace. “The first descended near to him, the Compagnons covered it with the pall; after that, having made the guilbrette ,2 he had given to him bread, wine and flesh, deposited them in the tomb, and went out. The Compagnons covered the tomb with large stones and fastened them down with strong bars of iron; then, having made a large fire, they cast into it their torches and everything which had been used for the funeral ceremonies of their Master. The clothes were put into a chest. At the destruction of the temples the children of Maitre Jacques being about to separate, they divided his garments, and they were thus given: his hat to the hat-makers ; his tunic to the cutters of stone ; his sandals to the locksmiths; his cloak to the joiners; his girdle to the carpenters ; his pilgrim’s staff to the wheel¬ wrights.”
The acte de foi, act of faith, alluded to above, is given in
1 The details of this and other portions of the legend may be an index towards the ceremonies used in the Compagnonnage initiations.
2 The sign of recognition. See p. 89.
THE FRENCH C O M P A G N O N N A G E 8l
Perdiguier, and consists of a long prayer, followed by an oath tendered by Maitre Jacques to King Solomon.
“O thou great king, to whom the all-powerful God has accorded the gift of wisdom, deign to receive my oath. I swear to thee never to adore another God than that one whom thou hast caused me to know, never to receive any Compagnon without having searched to the bottom of his heart and made him pass by the most severe trials. I now offer up the prayer that thou mayest live in peace a long life and that thou mayest see thy posterity equal the stars of the firmament.”
To the Masters Maitre Jacques tendered another oath, of which the most important passages ran:
“I swear always to follow the divine laws which you have made known to me, to share your troubles and your labours, to cherish you, to love you as my brothers. True elect (e/us) of the true God, true elect disciples of the wisest of the kings of the earth, receive the oath which I make you to-day. I thank you for the favour you have done me by receiving me among you.
“May my blood stop in my veins, may the chill of death freeze my senses, may my sight be extinguished, may my body be paralysed, may my soul quit the dwelling which God has given to it, and may I become the food of wild beasts, if I become perjured to the oath which I have pro¬ nounced.”1
The acte de foie goes on to request the sacrifical priest to accept the offering of a white heifer; after which comes the oath of an aspirant on being received.
“I swear by the God whom I adore, by the soul which gives me life, by the blood which flows in my veins, by this heart which beats within me, to guard with constancy, per¬ severance, firmness, the secret which has been confided to me, to love my neighbour as myself, to punish the traitor,
1 It would be fairly safe to assume that the foregoing oaths were in use in the different ceremonies of the Compagnonnage at the time when Maitre Jacques’s acte de fox was put on record by Perdiguier.
82
FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
and to uphold the Devoir even to the last drop of my blood.”
The names Jacques and Soubise occur in another and later legend of the Compagnonnage referring to the great split that took place in the order at Orleans. Perdiguier obtained this legend in the archives of the Compagnons Dyers, and what follows is a synopsis of it.1
The towers of the cathedral at Orleans were begun in 1401, and the works were confided to Jacques Moler of Orleans,2 Jeune Homme du Devoir, and to Soubise of Nogent-sous-Paris, Compagnon and Menatzchim of the children of Solomon. These two Compagnons directed all the works.
“A great number of workmen were employed there. But a general discontent grew among them ”... they organized resistance, and struck work.
“Jacques Moler and Soubise vexed at this mode of action, unknown to the Franks3, demanded from the Court of Aids what they should do under such circumstances. Parliament gave as judgment in consequence, the banishment of all those organized bodies ( corps d’etat). The carpenters, dyers, stone-cutters, as well as a portion of the joiners and lock¬ smiths, submitted to Moler and Soubise, for fear of suffering the same penalty. They adopted for their father Jacques Moler of Orleans. He allowed the hatters to adopt Soubise of Nogent, which was done on the spot. But one part of the joiners and locksmiths formed a league and swore always to be faithful to Solomon; they took flight, and embarked on barges ( gavotages ), hence the name of Gavot with which they invested themselves. One part of the stone-cutters also took flight. Finally their ancient records were burnt, and Moler and Soubise became the Masters in name, and Christ the spiritual Master.
“Nothing was spared to bring the rebel Compagnons
1 Perdiguier, Quettion Vitale, 1863. The translation is W. H. Rylands’s in A.Q..C., ii., p. 56.
2 Some writers on the Compagnonnage have confused this Jacques Moler of Orleans with Jacques du Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars. There is, of course, no connexion between them in the legend.
3 This reference to the strike as a weapon in trade disputesin France is note¬ worthy, and might be a key to the date of the compilation of the legend.
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 83
under subjection; the sword, gibbet, prison, all were used. Some corps d’etat presented themselves, and were received in their old sheds, and bore the name of compagnons passants. These were the rope-makers, basket-makers, hatters, etc. To them was given the rule of the Devoir to follow, and they were received by the trials of the Passion, and the entries into the chamber were symbolized by bread, wine, and cheese, and all in allegories.” Sainte-Beaume was appointed a place of pilgrimage. Coloured ribbons were ordered to be worn by the Compagnons instead of sashes.
“The carpenters, joiners, locksmiths, dyers and tanners, Children of Solomon, seeing that strength was on the side of Moler and Soubise, asked to be Compagnons du Devoir, which was allowed them. The carpenters entered under Soubise, and the others under Moler. There only re¬ mained a portion of the stone-cutters, the joiners and lock¬ smiths, who took the name of Gavots and Compagnons du Devoir de Liberte; as for the stone-cutters, they took the name of Compagnons du Devoir Etranger; all three of them Children of Solomon, and faithful to their first Master.”
Moler and Soubise decided that the Jeunes Hommes who had stood by them should wear certain ribbon dec¬ orations and be known as Compagnons Passants. “The Compagnons faithful to Solomon lamented and always protested against all these admittances,” Moler and Soubise called an assembly of their proselytes and ordained rules to be followed.
“The accolade or guilbrette was given to the numerous initiated stone-cutters, and entry to the chamber was allowed them. The chamber was provided for examina¬ tions on morality and about the work which the newly initiated were made to undergo. A Master Compagnon was constantly placed there to direct the symbolic works, and to enter the names of the Compagnons who had been re¬ ceived, and to give the pass-words, sacred words, and general means of recognition of each corporation.1 Lastly, Jacques and Soubise made their Compagnons swear this solemn oath : ‘ I swear by the God whom I worship, by the soul which animates me, by the blood which flows in my
1 “Paroles, motssacres, et la reconnaissance generate de chaque corporation.”
84 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
veins, by the heart which beats unceasingly within me, to guard inviolate with constancy, perseverance and firmness the secrets which have been confided to me by my worthy brothers and brothers Jacques and Soubise; I swear by my sacred Devoir to love my neighbour as myself, to succour him everywhere, to punish the traitor, and to uphold the holy Devoir to the last drop of my blood.5 ... At this assembly it was decided that no non-Catholic should be received Compagnon; and, at their request, the Compagnons joiners and locksmiths should have no longer the surname of Compagnons, and this was so, to distinguish them from the Gavots; they pleaded also that, having been once baptised, they had no need to be so a second time, follow¬ ing the maxims of the true Master, Jesus Christ.5’1
Another legend, probably introduced at a comparatively late date, had to do with Hiram, the architect of King Solomon’s temple.
According to Perdiguier2, there is among the stone-cutters, Compagnons Strangers, called les Loups, an old fable “in which it is a question of Hiram, according to some, Adonhiram according to others; there are in it crimes and punishments; but I leave this fable for what it is worth.” He goes on to say, that the stone-cutters are named Strangers, because almost all the stone-cutters employed at the temple were not of Judea but of Tyre and the neighbouring countries, and that the society consisted of them alone in ancient times. Hiram, it would appear, was murdered in the Compagnonnage legend, for the joiners du Devoir, Children of Maitre Jacques, wear white gloves, because, as they say, they did not steep their hands in the blood of Hiram; moreover, the Compagnons du Devoir are called Chiens (dogs), because it was a dog which discovered the place where the body of Hiram lay under the rubbish, and that after that all the Compagnons “who separated themselves from those who had slain Hiram
1 One of the charges brought against the Compagnonnage by the Sorbonne ( vide p. 87) was that mock baptism was administered in the ceremony of initiation. The above legend may incorporate a change made by a certain section to avoid this reproach for the future; if so, the legend is later than
1655-
2Rylands, A.Q..C. i., p. 119.
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 85
were called by this name.” It would appear from this as if the blame for the murder of Hiram rested in this legend on the followers of Solomon, “and was supposed to have been the work of the particular division who were strangers, having come from the country from whence Solomon obtained Hiram the builder. This is important, as it gives the legend to the most ancient division of the Order, the stone-cutters, Compagnons Strangers, called Loups.” Perdi- guier, however, considered that this fable was quite a recent introduction into the Compagnonnage by “those men initiated into the two secret societies” — Freemasonry being the other.
This seems to have happened in or about the year 1803, when a third order or degree superior to that of Compagnon was invented at a convention of the Compagnonnage, attended by some twenty delegates, but approved of by only two-thirds of this gathering. However, the new dig¬ nity was spread rapidly by its missionaries, who had invented a mysterious ritual, high-sounding titles, etc. This gave rise to much dissension, for the holders of the new degree claimed supremacy over the Order. Finally, in 1843, at a general assembly of the Order, the new grade, the Initie (Initiated) was suppressed. Perdiguier, who had himself been admitted to this degree, describes it as “ Imitation franc-mag onnique . . . imitation grossiere des hauts grades .”
One can perhaps venture to ascribe the origin of the legend given above to the period when this “reform” took place in the society.
It will be more profitable to consider some older cere¬ monies of these federated societies. When the system of initiation began in trade societies is unknown, but it cer¬ tainly had been established before the middle of the fifteenth century in France.1 In 1655 the doctors of the Sorbonne published a condemnation of the rites of the Compagnonnage, which may have been partly just, though, as has been pointed out by Vibert, the fact that the Sons of Solomon had taken to admitting Huguenots into their
1 Vide Mercelots, p. 196
86
FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
mysteries may have weighed in the scales against the Compagnonnage, which had already been attacked in 1639 for its alleged impiety. Anyway the Sorbonne disclosures of 1655 gave the following account of the “impious, sacri¬ legious and superstititious practices which take place among the Compagnons.”1
“The Devoir of a Compagnon is alleged to consist of three percepts: to honour God, to protect the master’s interests, and to support the Compagnons. But in fact the Compagnons do just the reverse; they greatly dishonour God by profaning all the mysteries of our religion; they ruin their masters by emptying their workrooms of labour whenever one of their faction complains of having been insulted ; and they ruin themselves by the fines which they levy on one another for breaches of the Devoir, to be spent on drink. Besides which the Compagnonnage does not in any way help towards attaining the mastership. They have a system of government of their own, and elect officers, a president, a deputy, a secretary, and a bailiff,2 and the various towns have a organized system by which they keep in touch. They have a pass-word by which they recognize one another, and which they keep secret. They form every¬ where an offensive league against the apprentices of their trade who are not of their party, beating them and ill- treating them and soliciting them to join the society. The impieties and sacrileges which they commit when admitting them as members vary according to the different trades. They have nevertheless much in common ; in the first place, they make those whom they admit swear on the Gospels not to reveal to father or mother, wife or child or con¬ fessor, what they are now to do or see done. For these ceremonies they meet at their tavern, which they call ‘ The Mother,’ because it is there that they usually assemble as if at a common mother’s, in which they choose two rooms conveniently placed for going from one to the other, one serving for their abominations, and the other for the feast. They close carefully the doors and windows to avoid all
1 Vibert, Op. cit.
2 These are the Premier-en-ville, Second-en-ville, and Rouleur.
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 87
chance of being seen or surprised. Secondly, they elect sponsors for the candidate, give him a new name, such as may be decided on, go through a mock baptism, and per¬ form the rest of the accursed ceremonies of admission according to the particular usages of each craft, and their hellish traditions.”
It is hardly necessary to point out that while the similarity of the legend of Maitre Jacques to the story of the Passion may well have seemed impious in the seventeenth century, the medieval minds that probably conceived it would not have deemed it irreverent; and other items will suggest themselves as similarly objection¬ able to a generation that had developed a mentality incapable of comprehending the naive faith of more primitive times.
Indeed the exposures of their ceremonies made volun¬ tarily by some of the trades from 1651 on in response to clerical denunciations can only be described as shocking parodies of the Christian sacraments. The Saddlers’ initia¬ tion rite was a travesty of the Mass and Baptism. The Shoemakers made the candidate take an oath on bread, wine, salt, and water, “by his faith, his hope of paradise, his God, his chrism, and his baptism”; he was then in¬ structed to choose a new name, and one of the Compagnons poured a glass of water over his head with the words: “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The Cutlers, after having sworn the neophyte, made him eat bread mixed with salt and drink three glasses of wine. “Some time after they take him quietly to the country, and show him the rights of a passed Compagnon, make him take off one shoe, and all take several turns on a cloak which they have spread in circular form on the earth, in such manner that the shoeless foot remains on the cloak and the other on the earth.” Various objects were then shown him all having a religious signi¬ fication. The Hatters’ initiation was a representation of the Crucifixion, with the candidate playing the part of our Lord, and culminated like many others with a mock baptism. The ceremony was full of allusions to the
88
FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Passion and other incidents in the life of the Saviour.1 Little wonder that the Doctors of the Sorbonne were horrified.
Thus we learn from these revelations that the ceremonies of initiation differed according to trades. The novice was admitted with or without oath on promising to conform to the regulations of the particular Devoir he wished to join, but to become a Compagnon required a much more elaborate ceremony.2
The room was arranged to represent the Temple. The candidate was introduced blindfolded and divested of all metals, and was led round the room, now stooping, now stepping high. Different tests were put to try his moral character. Having declared that he still wished to join the society, the bandage was removed from his eyes, and he took an oath to guard the secrets of the society. After he had repeated, “I swear, I swear, I swear,” a Compagnon said: “And you, brethren, if the Pays ,3 * becomes a perjurer, say what he will deserve ; 5 ’ and all present replied : ‘ ‘ Death ! ’ ’ Then he was made to drink a mixture of salt and wine, to choose three Compagnons as godfather, godmother and priest, and to select his future nickname, with which he was then baptized. He was then adorned with his ribbons, and the ceremony might conclude with the delivery of a moral lecture.
The Conduite (conducting) was a method in which the Compagnons took leave on the outskirts of a town from one of their brethren who was going away. The Entree de Chambre (entrance of the Chamber) was the mode of receiving a Compagnon newly come to a town. He had to present his credentials and give the pass-words in an assembly of the Compagnons, after which he advanced three paces, and bowing to the Premier-en-ville said:
1The rites of the Italian Carbonari, which were in my opinion undoubtedly derived from France, also contained a representation of the Crucifixion. The parallel is worth noting. Vide p. 132.
2 In describing this and the other peculiar customs of the Compagnonnage, I follow Vibert, Op. cit.
3 The title used by the Compagnons in addressing one another ceremoniously.
In colloquial French it means compatriot, one from the same district or
locality.
THE FRENCH COMPAGNONNAGE 89
“Glory to God, honour to Maitre Jacques, and respect to all worthy companions.” The topage was a dialogue between two Compagnons who met on the road and wished to discover the particular Devoir to which each belonged, and in case of a feud’s existing between these Devoirs often ended in a fight with their heavy canes. The most curious custom of all was the Guilbrette, a word whose meaning has perplexed the scholars. Another name for the ceremony was the Accolade, embrace. It was used at funerals, the Entree de Chambre, and when two travelling Compagnons met one another. The canes were laid crosswise on the ground, and each Compagnon placed a foot in one of the four quadrants; they then turned inwards, placing their right feet in the opposite quadrants, grasped each other’s right hands, and kissed, after which the pass-words were whispered. The posture seems to have varied for different occasions.
The Compagnons’ regalia consisted of bunches and strings of coloured ribbons and a heavy cane about five feet long. The ribbons were attached to the cane and to the hat and clothes, and the exact position in which they might be worn was rigorously prescribed for each trade, the seniors wearing them highest. A constant cause of feuds was the attempt of some junior and more recently admitted trade to wear its ribbons in the manner assumed as the privilege of a more senior body. The practice led to a fight on sight in which the canes were used as weapons.
The Compagnonnage finally came to an end in the nineteenth century, partly owing to the railways, partly to internal weaknesses. During the centuries it lasted it had tremendous influence on the social life of the class of work¬ man to whom it ministered; and perhaps it may even be said to have influenced the life of the nation in general by accustoming the French to the presence of secret societies in their midst, and preparing the ground for the intro¬ duction of those later secret societies that trafficked in matters political. In any case the Compagnonnage is noteworthy as a medieval survival, and the ideas it disseminated were in all probability responsible for the
go FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
birth of such bodies as the Charbonniers, and consequently we must regard it as the ancestor in the second or third remove of revolutionary societies that remodelled the political orientation of Europe; all of which raises its importance far above the level of that of the ordinary benefit society.