ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

C

CLUBS

The eighteenth century was distinguished in England by the existence of numerous local and ephemeral associations under the name of Clubs, where men of different classes of society met for amusement and recreation. Each profession and trade had its club, and “whatever might be a man’s character or disposition,” says Oliver, ”he would find in London a club that would square with his ideas.” Addison, in his paper on the origin of clubs (Spectator, No. 9) remarks: “Man is said to be a social animal, and as an instance of it we may observe that we take all occasions and. pretenses of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies which are commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a set of men find themselves agreed in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of Fraternity and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance.” Hard drinking was characteristic of those times, and excesses too often marked the meetings of these societies. It was at this time that the Institution of Freemasonry underwent its revival commonly known as the revival of 1717, and it is not strange that its social character was somewhat affected by the customs of the day. The Lodges therefore assumed at that time too much of a convivial character, derived from the customs of the existing clubs and coteries; but the moral and religious principles upon which the Institution was founded prevented any undue indulgence; and although the members were permitted the enjoyment of decent refreshment, there was a standing law which provided against all excess (see Masonic Clubs, National League of).

COAT OF THE TILER

In olden times it was deemed proper that the Tiler of a Lodge, like the beadle of a parish–whose functions were in some respects similar-should be distinguished by a tawdry dress. In a schedule of the regalia, records, etc., of the Grand Lodge of all England, taken at York in 1779, to be found in Hughan’s Masonic Sketches and Reprints (page 33), we find the following item; “a blue cloth coat with a red collar for the Tyler.”

COCHIN CHINA

A country in the southeast of Asia in the extreme south of French Indo-China. The name was formerly applied to the whole Annamese Empire but is now usually applied to the six southern provinces annexed by France in 1862 and 1867. The Grand Orient of France opened a Lodge in Cochin China, at Saigon, Le Réveil de l’orient, meaning The Awakening of the East, in 1868. The Grand Lodge of France in 1908 also established a Lodge at Saigon, La Ruche d’orient, meaning The Beehive of the East (see Indo-China, French).

COCHLEUS

A very corrupt word in the Fourth Degree of the Scottish Rite; there said to signify in the form of a. screw, and to be the name of the winding staircase which led to the middle chamber. The true Latin word is cochlea. But the matter is so historically absurd that the word ought to be and is rejected in the modern rituals.

COCK

The ancients made the cock a symbol of courage, and consecrated him to Mars, Pallas, and Bellona, deities of war. Some have supposed that it is in reference to this quality that the cock is used in the jewel of the Captain-General of an Encampment of Knights Templar. Reghellini, however, gives a different explanation of this symbol. He says that the cock was the emblem of the sun and of life, and that as the ancient Christians allegorically deplored the death of the solar orb in Christ, the cock recalled its life and resurrection. The cock, we know, was a symbol among the early Christians, and is repeatedly to be found on the tombs in the catacombs of Rome. Hence it seems probable that we should give a Christian interpretation to the jewel of a Knight Templar as symbolic of the resurrection.

COCKADE

Some few of the German Lodges have a custom of permitting their members to wear a blue cockade in the hat as a symbol of equality and freedom-a symbolism which, as Lenning says, it is difficult to understand, and the decoration is in appropriate as a part of the clothing of a Freemason. Yet it is probable that it was a conception of this kind that induced Cagliostro to prescribe the cockade as a part of the investiture of a female candidate in the initiation of his Lodges. Clavel says the Venerable or Master of a French Lodge wears a black cockade.

COCKLE-SHELL

The cockle-shell was worn by pilgrims in their hats as a token of their profession; later on was used in the ceremonies of Templarism.

CODY, COLONEL WILLIAM FREDERICK

Born February 26, 1845; died January 10, 1917. Famous American scout and showman, pony express mail carrier covering seventy-five miles daily in wild country among hostile Indians; served as cavalry man and guide through Civil War; contracted to supply laborers on construction of Kansas-Pacific railroad with meat and in eighteen months killed four thousand buffaloes and became known as Buffalo Bill; served as army scout against Sioux and Cheyennes, 1868-72, and again in 1876, when in single combat he killed Chief Yellow Hand; member of Nebraska Legislature ; again serving as scout against Sioux Indians, 1890-1. A member of Platte Valley Lodge No 32, North Platte, Nebraska, Initiated March 5,1870; Passed April 2, 1870; Raised January 10, 1871. Became Mark Alaster, Past Master and Most Excellent Master, November 14, 1888, and was exalted on November 15, 1888, in Euphrates Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons at North Platte, Companion Cody selecting as his Mark a buffalo’s head. He was created a Knight Templar, April 2, 1889, in Palestine Commandery No. 13, at North Platte. This information sent to us by Worshipful Master Abner J. Wessling of Platte Valley Lodge. Brother Cody was given Masonic burial by Golden City Lodge No, 1 at Golden, Colorado, and his remains rest on Lookout Mountain where there is also a Memorial Museum in that State.

COETUS

Latin word meaning an assembly. It is incorrectly used in some old Latin Masonic diplomas for a Lodge. It is used by Laurence Dermott in a diploma dated September 10, 1764, where he signs himself Sec. JI. Coetus, or Secretary of the Grand Lodge.

COFFIN

In the Ancient Mysteries the aspirant could not claim a participation in the highest secrets until he had been placed in the Pastos, a bed or coffin. The placing him in the coffin was called the symbolical death of the mysteries, and his deliverance was termed a raising from the dead. “The mind,” says an ancient writer, quoted by Stobaeus, “is affected in death just as it is in the initiation into the mysteries. And word answers to word, as well as thing to thing; for is to die, and to be initiated.” The coffin in Freemasonry is found on tracing boards of the early part of the eighteenth century, and has always constituted a part of the symbolism of the Third Degree, where the reference is precisely the same as that of the Pastos in the Ancient Mysteries.

COGHLAN, REVEREND L.

Grand Chaplain of England in 1814

COHEN

A Hebrew word pronounced kohane, signifying a priest. The French Masonic writers, indulging in a Gallic custom of misspelling all names derived from other languages, universally spell it coën.

COHENS, ELECTED

See Paschalis, Martinez

COLE, BENJAMIN

He published at London, in 1728, and again in 1731, the Old Constitutions, engraved on thirty copper plates, under the title of “A Book of the Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons.” In 1751, Cole printed a third edition with the title of The Ancient Constitutions and Charges of Freemasons, with a true representation of their noble Art in several Lectures or Speeches. Subsequent editions were published up to 1794. Brother Richard Spencer, the well-known Masonic bibliographer, says that Cole engraved his plates from a manuscript which he calls the Constitutions of 1726, or from a similar manuscript by the same scribe. Brother Hughan published in 1869 in his Constitutions of the Freemasons, in a limited edition of seventy copies, a lithographed facsimile of the 1729 edition of Cole, and in 1897 a facsimile of the 1731 edition, which was limited to 200 copies, was published by Richard Jackson of Leeds, with an introduction by Brother Hughan.

COLE, SAMUEL

He was at one time the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, and the author of a work entitled The Freemason’s Library, or General Ahiman Rezon, the first edition of which appeared in 1817, and the second in 1826. It is something more than a mere monitor or manual of the Degrees, and in Brother Mackey’s opinion greatly excels in literary pretensions the contemporary works of Webb and Cross.

COLE’S MANUSCRIPT

The record from which Cole is supposed to have made his engraved Constitutions, now known as the Spencer Manuscript. It was in the possession of Brother Richard Spencer, who published it in 1871, under the title of A Book of the Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons. Anno Dom., 1726. The subtitle is The Beginning and First Foundation of the Most Worthy Craft of Masonry, with the charges thereunto belonging. In 1875 it was bought by Brother E. T. Carson of Cincinnati, Ohio.

COLLAR

An ornament worn around the neck by the officers of Lodges, to which is suspended a jewel indicative of the wearer’s rank. The color of the collar varies in the different grades of Freemasonry. That of a symbolic Lodge is blue; of a Past Master, purple; of a Royal Arch Mason, scarlet; of a Secret Master, white bordered with black; of a Perfect Master, green, etc. These colors are not arbitrary, but are each accompanied with a symbolic signification. In the United States, the collar worn by Grand Officers in the Grand Lodge is, properly, purple edged with gold. In the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Officers wear chains of gold or metal gilt instead of collars, but on other occasions, collars of ribbon, garter blue, four inches broad, embroidered or plain. The use of the collar in Freemasonry, as an official decoration, is of very old date. It is a regulation that its form should be triangular; that is, that it should terminate on the breast in a point. The symbolical reference is evident. The Masonic collar is derived from the practices of heraldry; they are worn not only by municipal officers and officers of State, but also by knights of the various orders as a part of their investiture.

COLLEGE

The regular Convocation of the subordinate bodies of the Society of Rosicrucians is called an Assemblage of the College, at which their mysteries are celebrated by initiation and advancement, at the conclusion of which the Mystic Circle is broken.

COLLEGES IRISH

These were established in Paris between 1730 and 1740, and were rapidly being promulgated over France, when they were superseded by the Scottish Chapters.

COLLEGES, MASONIC

There was at one time a great disposition exhibited by the Fraternity of the United States to establish Colleges, to be placed under the supervision of Grand Lodges. The first one ever endowed in this country was that at Lexington, in Missouri, established by the Grand Lodge of that State, in October, 1841, which for some time pursued a prosperous career. Other Grand Lodges, such as those of Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida, and a few others, subsequently either actually organized or took the preliminary steps for organizing Masonic colleges in their respective Jurisdictions. But experience has shown that there is an incongruity between the official labors of a Grand Lodge as the Masonic head of the Order, and the superintendence and support of a college. Hence, these institutions have been very generally discontinued, and the care of providing for the education of indigent children of the Craft has been wisely committed to the subordinate Lodges and other branches of the Masonic Institutions. Brother Thomas Brown, a distinguished Grand Master of Florida, thus expressed the following views on this subject: “We question if the endowment of colleges and large seminaries of learning, under the auspices and patronage of Masonic bodies, be the wisest plan for the accomplishment of the great design, or is in accordance ,with the character and principles of the Fraternity. Such institutions savor more of pageantry than utility; and as large funds, amassed for such purposes, must of necessity be placed under the control and management of comparatively few, it will have a corrupting influence, promote discord, and bring reproach upon the craft. The principles of Freemasonry do not sympathize with speculations in stock and exchange brokerage. such, we fear, will be the evils attendant on such institutions, to say nothing of the questionable right and policy of drawing funds from the subordinate Lodges, which could be appropriated by their proper officers more judiciously, economically, and faithfully to the accomplishment of the same great and desirable object in the true Masonic spirit of charity, which is the bond of peace.” The above summary’ of the situation by Doctor Mackey may be extended to the extent of a few comments on. some of the enterprises of the past in which the Craft was interested for substantially the same benevolent reasons that in these modern days of ours prompt the Brethren to suggest somewhat similar activities. Stephen W. B. Carnemegy, born 1797, died 1892, Grand Master in 1836-8, was the author of a resolution at the Grand Lodge Communication of 1841 to establish a Masonic College in Missouri “for the education of the sons of indigent Masons and others” and this was approved. Subscriptions were reported at the Communication of 1842 as $3,556.25 for sons, and $3,926.25 for daughters, and $185 for the erection of a Masonic Hall. Brother Carnegy was an active force. We find him in attendance at the Grand Lodge of Kentucky in 1844 and on being invited at 3:30 to make any desired suggestions, he asked aid for the Masonic College then under construction in his State and “a voluntary collection was taken up” (Doings of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, 1800–1900, H. B. Grant). In all likelihood this enthusiasm encouraged the Kentucky Brethren to undertake a Masonic College of their own. The regulations for the Masonic College in Missouri required a preparatory school and a collegiate department, the Faculty to consist of a Professor for each of the following departments: ”On Natural Philosophy and Astronomy,” ”On Mathematics,” “On Mental and Moral Science,” and “Ancient Languages and Literature.” This is some course, even if not a very practicable one, as seen in the eyes of this age. The conditions were : six months’ tuition free, but charges for board; the Grand Lodge to designate the number of students each subordinate Lodge could send free of charge. The College was chartered by. the State. In those days $25 paid the board and washing of a student for a whole Session, and a cord of good wood could be purchased for a dollar.

COLLEGES, ROMAN

See Roman Colleges of Artificers

COLLEGIA ARTIFICUM

Colleges of Artificers. See Roman Colleges of Artificers.

COLLEGIUM

In Roman jurisprudence, a collegium, or college, expressed the idea of several persons united together in any office or for any common purpose. It required not less than three to constitute a college, according to the Latin law maxim, Tres faciunt collegium, meaning Three make a college, and hence, perhaps, the Masonic rule that not fewer than three Master Masons can form a Lodge.

COLLOCATIO

The Greek custom of exposing the corpse on a bier over night, near the threshold, that all might be convinced of the normal death.

COLOGNE, CATHEDRAL OF

The city of Cologne, on the banks of the Rhine, is memorable in the history of Freemasonry for the connection of its celebrated Cathedral with the labors of the Steinmetzen of Germany, whence it became the seat of one of the most important Lodges of that period. It has been asserted that Albertus Magnus designed the plan, and that he there also altered the Constitution of the Fraternity, and gave it a new code of laws. It is at least clear that in this Cathedral the symbolic principles of Gothic architecture, the distinguishing style of the Traveling Freemasons, were carried out in deeper significance than in any other building of the time. Whether the document known as the Charter of Cologne be authentic or not, and it is fairly well established that it is not, the fact that it is claimed to have emanated from the Lodge of that place, gives to the Cathedral an importance in the views of the Masonic student. The Cathedral of Cologne is one of the most beautiful religious edifices in the world, and the vastest construction of Gothic architecture. The primitive Cathedral, which was consecrated in 873, was burned in 1248. The present one was commenced in 1249, and the work upon it continued until 1509. But during that long period the labors were often interrupted by the sanguinary contests which raged between the city and its archbishops, so that only the choir and the chapels which surrounded it were finished. In the eighteenth century it suffered much from the ignorance of its own canons, who subjected it to unworthy mutilations, and during the French Revolution it was used as a military depot. In 1820, this edifice, ravaged by men and mutilated by time, began to excite serious anxieties for the solidity of its finished portions. The debris of the venerable pile were even about to be overthrown, when archeologic zeal and religious devotion came to the rescue. Societies were formed for its restoration by the aid of permanent subscriptions, which were liberally supplied; and it was resolved to finish the gigantic structure according to the original plans which had been conceived by Gerhard de Saint Trond, the ancient master of the works. The works were renewed under the direction of M. Zwiner. The building is now completed; Seddon says in his Rambles on the Rhine (page 16), “It is without question, one of the most stupendous structures ever conceived.” There is a story, that may be only a tradition, that there was a book written by Albertus Magnus called Liber Constructionum Alberti, which contained the secrets of the Operative Freemasons, and particularly giving directions of how to lay the foundations of cathedrals. Even though these builders had a special treatise on laying the foundations of cathedrals, they had not made provision for inventions which came later. It has been shown that within these modern days the foundations of the Cathedral were being loosened by the constant shaking from the railway trains that now run near, so that they became unsafe and seriously threatened the destruction of this wonderful masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The German Government came to the relief and saved the structure.

COLOGNE, CHARTER OF

this is an interesting Masonic document, originally written in Latin, and purporting to have been issued in 1535. Its history, as given by those who first offered it to the public, and who claim that it is authentic, is as follows: From the year 1519 to 1601, there existed in the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, a Lodge whose name was Het Vredendall, or The Valley of Peace. In the latter year, circumstances caused the Lodge to be closed, but in 1637 it was revived by four of its surviving members, under the name of Frederick’s Vredendall, or Frederick’s Valley of Peace. In this Lodge, at the time of its restoration, there was found a chest, bound with brass and secured by three locks and three seals, which, according to a protocol published on the 29th of January, 1637, contained the following documents:

1. The original warrant of constitution of the Lodge Het Vredendall, written in the English language.
2. A roll of all the members of the Lodge from 1519 to 1601.
3. The original charter given to the Brotherhood at the City of Cologne, and which is now known among Masonic historians as the Charter of Cologne.

It is not known how long these documents remained in possession of the Lodge at Amsterdam. But they were subsequently remitted to the charge of Brother James Van Vasner, Lord of Opdem, whose signature is appended to the last attestation of The Hague register, under the date of the 2d of February, 1638. After his death, they remained among the papers of his family until 1790, when M. Walpenaer, one of his descendants, presented them to Brother Van Boetzelaer, who was then the Grand Master of the Lodges of Holland. Subsequently they fell into the hands of some person whose name is unknown, but who, in 1816, delivered them to Prince Frederick.

There is a story that the Prince received these documents accompanied by a letter, written in a female hand, and signed “C., child of V. J.” In this letter the writer states that she had found the documents among the papers of her father, who had received them from Brother Van Boetzelaer. It is suspected that the authoress of the letter was the daughter of Brother Van Jeylinger, who was the successor of Van Boetzelaer as Grand Master of Holland. Another version of the history states that these documents had long been in the possession of the family of Wassenaer Van Opdem, by a member of which they were presented to Van Boetzelaer, who subsequently gave them to Van Jeylinger, with strict injunctions to preserve them until the restitution of the Orange regency.

The originals are now, or were very lately, deposited in the archives of a Lodge at Namur, on the Meuse ; but copies of the charter were given to the Fraternity under the following circumstances: In the year 1819, Prince Frederick of Nassau, who was then the Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Holland, contemplating a reformation in Freemasonry, addressed a circular on this subject to all the Lodges under his Jurisdiction, for the purpose of enlisting them in behalf of his project, and accompanied this circular with copies of the charter, which he had caused to be taken in facsimile, and also of the register of the Amsterdam Lodge, Valley of Peace, to which Brother Hawkins has already referred as contained in the brass-mounted chest.

A transcript of the charter in the original Latin, with all its errors, was published, in 1818, in the Annales Maçonniques. The document was also presented to the public in a German version, in 1819, by Dr. Fred Heldmann; but his translation has been proved, by Lenning and others, to be exceedingly incorrect. In 1821, Doctor Krause published it in his celebrated work entitled The Three oldest Masonic Documents. It has been frequently published since in a German translation, in whole or in part, but is accessible to the English reader only in Burnes’ Sketch of the History of the Knights Templar, published at London in 1840; in the English translation of Findel’s History of Freemasonry, and in the American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry, where it was published with copious notes by Brother Mackey.

P. J. Schouten, a Dutch writer on the history of Freemasonry, who had undoubtedly seen the original document, describes it as being written on parchment in Masonic cipher, in the Latin language, the characters uninjured by time, and the subscription of the names not in cipher, but in the ordinary cursive character. The Latin is that of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished by many incorrectly spelled words, and frequent grammatical solecisms. Thus, we find bagistri for magistri, trigesimo for tricesimo, ad nostris ordinem for ad nostrum ordinem, etc. Brother Hawkins who prepared this article concluded, that of the authenticity of this document, it is but fair to say that there are well-founded doubts among many Masonic writers. The learned antiquaries of the University of Leyden have testified that the paper on which the register of the Lodge at The Hague is written, is of the same kind that was used in Holland at the commencement of the seventeenth century, which purports to be its date, and that the characters in which it is composed are of the same period. This register, it will be remembered, refers to the Charter of Cologne as existing at that time ; so that if the learned men of Leyden have not been deceived, the fraud—supposing that there is one in the charter-must be more than two centuries old. Doctor Burnes professes to have no faith in the document, and the editors of the Hermes at once declare it to be surreptitious. But the condemnation of Burnes is too sweeping in its character, as it includes with the charter all other German documents on Freemasonry ; and the opinion of the editors of the Hermes must be taken with some grains of allowance, as they were at the time engaged in a controversy with the Grand Master of Holland, and in the defense of the Advanced Degrees, whose claims to antiquity this charter would materially impair. Doctor Oliver, on the other hand, quotes it unreservedly, in his Landmarks, as a historical document worthy of credit; and Reghellini treats it as authentic. In Germany, the Masonic authorities of the highest reputation, such as Heldermann, Morsdorf, Kloss, and many others, have repudiated it as a spurious production, most probably of the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Kloss objects to the document, that customs are referred to in it that were not known in the rituals of initiation until 1731; that the Advanced Degrees were nowhere known until 1725 ; that none of the eighteen copied documents have been found; that the declaimer against Templar Freemasonry was unnecessary in 1535, as no Templar Degrees existed until 1741; that some of the Latin expressions are not such as were likely to have been used; and a few other objections of a similar character. Bobrik, who published, in I840, the Text, Translation, and Examination of the Cologne Document, also advances some strong critical arguments against its authenticity. Summing up the above’ evidence, Brother E. L. Hawkins was convinced that on the whole, the arguments to disprove the genuineness of the charter appear to be very convincing, and are strong enough to throw at least great doubt upon it as being anything else but -a modern forgery. See Mackey’s revised History of Freemasonry (page 780) and Gould’s History of Freemasonry (1, 496), where the question of the authenticity of the document is examined, and it is classed among the doubtful manuscripts.

COLOGNE, CONGRESS OF

A Congress which is said to have been convened in 1525, by the most distinguished Freemasons of the time, in the City of Cologne, as the representatives of nineteen Grand Lodges, who are said to have issued the celebrated manifesto, in defense of the character and aims of the Institution, known as the Charter of Cologne. Whether this Congress was ever held is a moot point among Masonic writers, most of them contending that it never was, and that it is simply an invention of the early part of the nineteenth century (see Cologne, Charter of).

COLOMBIA

A republic in the northwestern part of South America. In 1824 Colonel James Hamilton was appointed by England head of the Masonic Province of Colombia.

The Republic of Colombia consisted at first of New Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In 1831, however, all these became independent and in 1861 Colombia was constituted by New Granada.

Concord Lodge, No. 792, was established by England in 1824 but its authority was withdrawn in 1862. A Scotch Lodge, Eastern Star of Colombia, was opened the same year as Concord Lodge.

On June19, 1833, the Grand Orient of New Granada was established at Carthagena and has continued work up till the present day. Towards a Grand Orient founded June 13, 1864, at Bogota for the southern states of the Republic, it maintained, with occasional interruptions, a friendly attitude. A Supreme Council of Colombia had existed at Bogota as early as 1825 but ceased work.

The present Supreme Council was created later. v The Grand Lodge of Colombia was opened on November 30, 1919, with all due ceremony by delegates from the four Lodges, Astrea, No. 56; Siglo XX, No. 61: Libertad, No. 54, and Luz de la Verdad, No. 46, at Barranquilla.

Three other Bodies, the National Grand Lodge of Colombia at Barranquilla, the Most Serene National Grand Lodge of Colombia at Carthagena and the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Colombia, at Carthagena, established in 1918, 1920 and 1922 respectively, are still in existence and all six, according to Brother Oliver Day Street, are more or less independent.

COLONIAL LODGES

Lodges in the colonies of Great Britain are under the immediate supervision and jurisdiction of District Grand Lodges, to which title the reader is referred.

COLONIAL MASTERS, ORDER OF

This organization was instituted at Ha1ifax, North Carolina. December 30, 1912, and comprises in its membership Worshipful Masters and Past Masters of Colonial Lodges. No application on the part of such Brethren was ever to be required but whenever such a Brother shall present himself and pay the fee he is to be initiated without ballot and that no objection shall debar him except for non-affiliation with some Lodge. The first lesson of the Order was to honor the Fathers by perpetuating and building up their Colonial Lodges and not only to glorify the early guardians of Freemasonry on the Continent of America but to -also listen to the call for service, fidelity and faith, and to be pledged to a higher consecration and a more vivid realization of duty.

COLORADO

When Auraria, or Denver as it later came to be called, sprang up in consequence of the discovery of gold in Jefferson Territory, the Brethren in the town applied to the Grand Master of Kansas for a Dispensation to open a Lodge. This was granted on October 1, 1859. While their request for a Charter, granted on October 15, 1862, was being considered by the Grand Lodge of Kansas they resigned the Dispensation from that State and as Denver Lodge accepted one, and in due course received a Charter, December 11, 1861, from the Grand Lodge of Colorado. The Grand Lodge of Colorado was organized by representatives of Golden City Lodge, No. 34; Summit Lodge, No. 7, and Rocky Mountain Lodge, no. 8, who met on August 2, 1861. Brother Eli Carter of Golden City presided over the Convention and Brother Whittemore acted as secretary. A Constitution drawn up by a Committee composed of Brothers J. A. Moore, C. F. Holly, and S. M. Robbins was submitted and approved. John M. Chivington was elected Grand Master and O. A. Whittemore, Grand Secretary. The first Chapter in Colorado was Central City, No. l, in Central City. Its Dispensation, dated March 23, 1863, was granted by the General Grand King. On May 11, 1875, a Convention was held at Denver City by authority of Elbert H. English, the General Grand High Priest, and the Grand Chapter of Colorado was duly established. Companion William II. Byers was the first Grand High Priest, Companion Irving W. Stanton, Deputy Grand High Priest, and Companion Francis E. Everett, Grand Secretary. The General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters issued a Dispensation to Denver, No. l, at Denver, on January 16, 1892, and a Charter on August 21, 1894. Denver, No. l, with Rocky Mountain, No. 2, and Durango, No. 3, met and organized the Grand Council of Colorado on December 6, 1894.

In the year 1866 a Commandery, namely Colorado, No, l, was established by Dispensation dated January 13. On September 10, two years later, a Charter was granted and it was constituted on January 26, 1869. With Central City, no. 2, and Pueblo, No. 3, Colorado, No. l, organized a Grand Commandery which was opened on March 14, 1876. A Lodge of Perfection, Delta, No. l, was chartered at Denver on January 26, 1877; a Chapter of Rose Croix, Mackey, No. l, on April 11, 1878; a Council of Kadosh, Denver, No, l, on September 3, 1888, and a Consistory, Colorado, No. l, on October 17, 1888.

COLORED FRATERNITIES

The secret societies of negroes claiming to be Masonic are quite extensive, embracing Grand Lodges in practically every State (see Negro Masonry).

COLORS, SYMBOLISM OF

Wemyss, in his Clavis Symbolica, the Latin meaning Symbolic Key, says: “Color, which is outwardly seen on the habit of the body, is symbolically issued to denote the true state of the person or subject to which it is applied, according to its nature.” This definition may appropriately be borrowed on the present occasion, and applied to the system of Masonic colors. The color of a vestment or of a decoration is never arbitrarily adopted in Freemasonry. Every color is selected with a view to its power in the symbolic alphabet, and it teaches the initiate some instructive moral lesson, or refers to some important historical fact in the system. Frederic Portal, a French archeologist, has written a valuable treatise on the symbolism of colors, under the title of Des Couleurs Symboliques dans l’antiquité, le moyen âge et les temps modernes, meaning Symbolic Colors in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times, which is well worth the attention of Masonic students.

The Masonic colors are seven in number, namely:

1. blue
2. purple
3. red
4. white
5. black
6. green
7. yellow
8. violet (see those respective titles in this Encyclopedia).

About the Church of God as well as the Bodies of Freemasonry has clustered a rich store of symbolism.

Their foundation is the same. Writers through the centuries have found peculiar significance galore in the various features of church construction and adornment. Among these the symbolism of colors has been prominently mentioned. Bishop William Durandus, was born at Puy-moisson in Province about the year 1220 A.D., and died at Rome in 1296.

A book of his dealing freely with symbolism was finished in 1286 and from it we take the following item to illustrate the early ceremonial symbolism of colors:

On festivals, curtains are hung up in churches, for the sake of the ointment they give; and that by visible, we may be led to invisible beauty. These curtains are sometimes tinctured with various hues, as is said afore; so that by the diversity of the colors themselves we may be taught that man, who is the temple of God, should be ordained by the variety and diversity of virtues. A white curtain signifieth pureness of living, a red, charity; a green, contemplation; a black, mortification of the flesh: a livid-colored, tribulation. Besides this, over white curtains are sometimes suspended hangings of various colors: to signify that our hearts ought to be purged from vices: and that in them should be the curtains of virtues, and the hangings of good works. We must not overlook the authorities whose comments on the symbolism of colors are not in complete accord with the findings of Bishop Durandus and with those who have accepted and continued his conclusions. While an exact meaning may not universally have been applied to the individual colors there is found a striking correspondence with several of them.

Anyway, a difference in the symbolic meanings does not destroy or even impair the circumstance that colors have long been and are now freely employed as Symbols. The preface to English Liturgical Colors, by Sir Wm. St. John Hope and E. G. Cuthbert F. Atchley, published in 1918 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, refers to the discussion of the subject in 1860 in the Ecclesiologist (volume xxi, pages 133–i), by a writer over the initials J. C. J, who, after showing the considerable variety of the colors recorded, and that no strict rule for their use was possible, pointed out that

In early times richness of material seems to have been the chief point aimed at: a good deal being left to the fancy and taste of the donors, most of all to the bishops, sacristans, and clergy. This commentator arrives at the following conclusion:

First of all then, it is quite clear that the English did not bind themselves down to the so-Called ecclesiastical colors. By this I do not mean to say that they never had particular colors for particular days, but that they allowed themselves much more liberty than modem Rome allows to her members.

Of the growth of such symbolism and the outcome, Messrs. Hope and Atchley have this to say on page viii:

As soon as churches began to acquire more vestments than a set for everyday use, a second set for Sundays, and a best set for festivals, it was natural that different colors should be appropriated to the various festivals and several classes of saints, and the choice of the color was determined in each country in western Europe by the prevailing ideas of fitness. In point of fact, however, there was a fairly general unanimity in the schemes which developed everywhere outside the Roman diocese, while within that a scheme of another type gradually took shape. No color has any essential and necessary meaning, consequently a “teaching sequence” rests on purely arbitrary conventions.

Durandus and other Writers have explained at length from Holy Writ and elsewhere how ”each hue mysteriously is meant,” but it is perfectly easy to put together quite as plausible a set of reasons for precisely the opposite or any other signification. At the same time it is not to be denied that there are a few quasi-natural symbolical meanings which have obtained for so many centuries that they have now become common ideas of Western Europe. Such are the use of black or dark colors for mourning and sadness, of white as a symbol of purity and innocence, and of bright red for royalty; as well as the ideas connoted by such phrases as “in the blues,” and the like. Medieval writers, as is shown in Essays on Ceremonial, differ widely among themselves in the significance that they attribute to different colors, and no certainty is anywhere to be found.

COLUMN

A round pillar made to support as well as to adorn a building, whose construction varies in the different orders of architecture. In Freemasonry, columns have a symbolic signification as the supports of a Lodge, and are known as the Columns of Misdom, Strength, and Beauty. The broken column is also a symbol in Freemasonry (see the titles Supports of the Lodge and Broken Column).

COLUMNS, THE WARDENS

In Freemasonry the Senior Warden’s Column represents the pillar Jachin while the Junior Warden’s Column represents the pillar Boaz. The Senior Warden’s Column is in an erect position and the Junior Warden’s placed horizontally during labor, these positions being reversed during refreshment.

COMACINE MASTERS

It has long been a theory of some writers, secular and Masonic, that there was a direct succession of the Operative Gilds from the Roman Colleges to those who merged into Speculative Freemasonry in 1717, and as investigation proceeded, the proofs became stronger and stronger until now it can no longer reasonably be doubted.

At first it was not attempted to prove the succession it was only inferred, but recently more careful investigators have come to view, whose results go far in establishing the direct succession from Roman Colleges to speculative Freemasonry.

The principal purpose of this article is to put a link in the chain of Operative Gilds and establish a continuous connection from the oldest Gild formation, that of the Roman Colleges, which see, through the Lombard period and Renaissance to the formation of Speculative Freemasonry by the English Gilds.

Before beginning the description of the Comacine Masters, which, from the controversial character of the subject, must of necessity be kindred to a discussion resting heavily on citations and quoted authorities who have worked in this special field, it will be necessary to draw a fair picture of the Roman possessions and civilization at this period.

When Rome had passed the zenith of her power and had begun to decline from internal and external causes, it is but natural to suppose that her neighboring enemies noticed this, and as they had long looked upon Italy with avaricious eyes, felt the time had arrived for them to attain what they had most desired. The year 476 A.D.,when the last of the nominal Caesars ceased to rule in the West, is usually taken by historians as marking the fall of the Roman Empire.

However true that may be, the falling began when Constantine established the seat of his empire at Constantinople, in 327, and drew much strength from Rome, thereby making it easier for the Vandals and Goths to renew their attacks.
For five centuries horde after horde of barbarians flung themselves against the Roman frontiers, each striking deeper than the last, and being repelled with greater and greater difficulty, the Empire sinking beneath internal decay more than from her external enemies.

When the Western Empire ceased in the fifth century and Europe was plunged into what has been called The Dark Ages and all progress in letters and the arts of peace is supposed to have ceased, it is refreshing to quote what John Fiske said in Old and New Ways of Treating History, when speaking of that period: “In truth the dull ages which no Homer has sung or Tacitus described, have sometimes been critical ages for human progress. . . . This restriction of the views to literary ages has had much to do with the popular misconception of the 1,000 years that elapsed between the reign of Theodoric the Great and the Discovery of America.

For many reasons that period might be called the Middle Ages ; but the popular mind is apt to lump these ten centuries together, as if they were all alike, and apply to them the misleading epithet Dark Ages. A portion of the darkness is in the minds of those who use the epithet.

” Brother E. E. Cauthorne who wrote this article says he also wishes to take exception to their position and conclusions, for in the success of these exceptions lies the potency and possibility of the subject, the Comacine Masters, who lived and built at this period, having descended from branches of the Roman Colleges of Artificers who had come to Como as colonists or had fled to this free republic for safety during barbaric invasions, creating and developing what is called Lombard architecture, and forming a powerful gild which later not only influenced, but had a connection with the gilds of France and Germany at the Renaissance, thereby establishing a direct line of descent of Roman Colleges to the Operative Gilds that grew into speculative Freemasonry.

It can be understood how a tribe or a small section of people may, from various causes, recede in letters, science and civilization, but how the world could do so is difficult to, comprehend, yet the historians and literature attempted to confirm this in describing the “gloom when the sun of progress was in a total or partial eclipse from the fifth to the twelfth centuries,” or, between the period of ancient Classic Art of Rome and that early rise of Art in the twelfth century, which led to the Renaissance. Leader Scott says that “this hiatus is supposed to be a time when Art was utterly dead and buried, its corpse in Byzantine dress lying embalmed in its tomb at Ravenna. But all death is nothing but the germ of new life. Art was not a corpse ; it was only a seed laid in Italian soil to germinate and it bore several plants before the great deflowering period of the Renaissance.”

Those who produced these several plants which it bore before the great Cathedral Building period that followed the Renaissance, will furnish the subject of this article, and trust it will be as interesting and important to the Masonic student as it is new in the literature of Freemasonry. Most things will become more and more clear as we follow up the traces of the Comacine Gild from the chrysalis state, in which Roman Art hibernated during the dark winter of the usually called Dark Ages, as Scott says “through the grub state of the Lombard period to the glorious winged flight of the full Gothic of the Renaissance.” Many historians, Masonic and profane, who wrote as long as a generation ago, are inclined to give the impression that there was but little or nothing that transpired during the so-called Dark Ages which was essential to the world’s progress’ at the time, or worthy of contemplation at present.

Had their views of the importance of historical matter prevailed, we would now know very little of what transpired from the Fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. We know that many cities in Italy were rebuilt after they had been sacked and partly destroyed by the Goths and Huns. Many cathedrals were built during this period, some of which work lasts till today, and is worthy workmanship. The historical architects have approached this period from another angle and the results of their efforts now make this article possible and open up a new and important field for Masonic students.

Toward the end of the fifth century a new wave of barbaric invasions swept over the West. North and East Gaul-all not previously held by the Visigoths fell into the hands of the Franks in 486 A. D. Theodoric and the Ostrogoths wrested Italy from Odoacer and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, with its capital at Ravenna. This kingdom was established and governed on exceptionally enlightened lines.

Theodoric, often called The Great, was the most broad-minded and advanced of all the German conquerors.

He was a man of culture, yet some have said that he could not read. He had been educated from his eighth to his eighteenth year at Constantinople. His rule was, therefore, more like the revival of Roman ideas than a barbarous conquest.

Accordingly we need not be surprised to find him decorating his capital city, Ravenna, during the period of his occupation, 493-526, A.D., with a series of monuments which, although strongly tinctured with Byzantine fluence, yet constitute, perhaps, the finest examples we possess of the early Christian style.

Theodoric was an Aryan and opposed to the Bishop of Rome.

This fact and his education at Constantinople are sufficient to explain the strong Byzantine elements so noticeable even in those monuments at Ravenna, which antedate the Byzantine conquest. Charles A. Cummings in his History of architecture in Italy says: “One of the earliest acts of Theodoric after his accession to the throne was the appointment of an architect to have charge of all the public buildings-including the aqueducts and the city walls-of Ravenna and Rome, putting at his disposal for this purpose, yearly, twelve hundred pounds of gold, two hundred and fifty thousand bricks, and the income of the Lucrine Haven. A remarkable letter from Theodoric to this official on his appointment is preserved by Cassiodorus, who was the minister of the Empire. ‘These excellent buildings,’ he says, ‘are my delight. They are the noble image of the power of the Empire, and bear witness to its grandeur and glory. The palace of the sovereign is shown to ambassadors as a monument worthy of their admiration, and seems to declare to them his greatness. It is then a great pleasure for an enlightened prince to inhabit a palace where all the perfections of art are united, and to find there relaxation from the burden of public affairs. . . . I give you notice that your intelligence and talents have determined me to confide to your hands the care of my palace. It is my wish that you preserve in its original splendor all which is ancient, and that whatever you add to it may be comfortable to it in style. It is not a work of small importance which I place in your hands, since it will be your duty to fulfill by your art the lively desire which I feel to illustrate my reign by many new edifices; so that whether the matter in hand be the rebuilding of a city, the construction of new castles, or the building of a Pretorium, it will be for you to translate my projects into accomplished realities.

And this is a service highly honorable and worthy of any man’s ambition:-to leave to future ages the monuments which shall be the admiration of new generations of men. It will be your duty to direct the mason, the sculptor, the painter, the worker in stone, in bronze, in plaster, in mosaic. What they know not, you will teach them. The difficulties which they find in their work, you will solve for them.

But behold what various knowledge you must possess, thus to instruct artificers of so many sorts. But … you can direct their work to a good and satisfactory end, their success will be your eulogy, and will form the most abundant and flattering reward you could desire.'” From this it may be seen that an architect of those days was a complete Master of the art of building.

He was required to be able to construct a building from foundation to roof and also to be able to decorate it with sculpture and painting, mosaics and bronzes.

This broad education prevailed in all the schools or Lodges up to 1335, when the painters seceded, which was followed by other branches separating themselves into distinct gilds. It is a well-known fact that when the barbarians were sacking and carrying away the riches of many Italian cities and particularly of Rome, people fled to more secure places for the better protection of their lives and property. Of the various places to which they fled only one interests us in this article. Como was a free republic and many fled there for the protection it afforded. Rome had previously colonized many thousands in Como before the Christian Era (see Como). The first we hear of the Comacines was that they were living on an island called Isola Comacina in Lake Como, that most beautiful of lakes. They were so well fortified that it was years before the island was captured and then only by treachery. Their fortifications and buildings were similar to those built by the Colleges of Artificers at Rome, which gave rise to the belief that they were the direct descendants from these Roman builders, who had built for the Roman Empire for several centuries.

In offering the form of building as best evidence of the descent of the Comacines from the Roman Colleges, it is appreciated how recorded literature, which is usually the word and opinions of one person, can be biased, changed and often wrong. But all who have studied a people in their social, political or religious aspects, know how permanent these things are and how subject to slow changes.

Their forms of dress, songs, folklore and language undergo changes but slowly, climate, unsuccessful wars and amalgamation proving the most disastrous. But probably none of these change so slowly as forms of building, unless the latter be subjected to a marked change of climate from migration. Architecture is one of the noblest and most useful of arts and one of the first to attract the attention of barbarous people when evolution into higher civilization, and is at all times an accurate measure of a people’s standing in civilization.

A law we learn from biology in the morphology of animals is, that nature never makes a new organ when she can modify an old one so as to perform the required functions. New styles of architecture do not spring from human intellect as creations. Cattaneo says: “Monuments left by a people are truer than documents, which often prove fallacious and mislead and prove no profit for those who blindly follow them.

The story of a people or a nation, if not known by writings, might be guessed through its monuments and works of art.”

The Lombards, who had come from northern Germany and settled in northern Italy in 568 A.D., at once began to develop along many lines which made Lombardy known all over Europe—the result of which influence Europe feels today. They developed along lines which in our everyday parlance may be called business. They were not primarily architects or builders and they employed the Comacines for this kind of work and it was the Comacines who developed what is known today as Lombard architecture, covering a period that we may roughly put as from the seventh century to the Renaissance.

The first to draw attention to the name Magistri Comacini was the erudite Muratori, that searcher out of ancient manuscripts, who unearthed from the archives an edict, dated November 22, 643 A.D., signed by Rotharis, in which are included two clauses treating of the Magistri Comacini and their colleagues The two clauses, Nos. 143 and 144, out of the 386 inscribed in cribbed Latin, says Leader Scott, are, when anglicized, m the following intent:

Art. 143. Of the Magister Comacinus. If the Comacine Master with his colleagues shall have contracted to restore or build a house of any person whatsoever, the contract for payment being made, and it chances that someone shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stone from it, the owner of said house shall not be cited by the Master Comacinus or his Brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they just sustain the risk and injuries thereof.

Art. 144. of the engaging and hiring of Magistri. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work, or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it shall happen by reason of the house some Comacine shall be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible; but if a pole or stone shall injure some extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation.

Charles A. Cummings says: “The code of Luitprand, eighty years later, contains further provisions regulating the practice of Comacini, which had now become much more Ilumerous and important. Fixed rates of payment were established for their services, varying according to the kind of building on which they were engaged; definite prices being allowed for walls of various thicknesses, for arches and vaults, for chimneys, plastering and joiners’ work. The difficulty which these early builders found in the construction of vaults is indicated by the allowance of a charge per superficial foot, from fifteen to eighteen times as great as in the case of a wall. The price of provisions and wine furnished to the workmen is also determined and is counted as part of their pay.”
Scott maintains that “these laws prove that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact and powerful gild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the gild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could ‘design’ or ‘undertake’ a work; that is, act as architects ; and that the colligate or colleagues worked under, or with, them. In fact, a powerful organization altogether so powerful and so solid that it spoke of a very ancient foundation. Was it a surviving branch of a Roman Collegium? Or a decadent group of Byzantine artists stranded in Italy?”

Professor Merzario says: “In this darkness which extended all over Italy, only one small lamp remained alight, making a bright spark in the vast Italian metropolis. It was from the Magistri Comacini. Their respective names are unknown, their individual work unspecialized, but the breath of their spirit might be felt all through those centuries and their names collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art between 800 and 1000 A.D., the greater and better part are due to that brotherhood-always faithful and often secret-of the Magistri Comacini. The authority and judgment of learned men .justify the assertion.”

Quaternal de Quincy, in his Dictionary of Architecture, under the heading Comacines, remarks that “to these men who were both designers and executors, architects, sculptors and mosaicists, may be attributed the Renaissance of art and its propagation in the southern countries, where it marched with Christianity.

Certain it is that we owe to them that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely lost, and it is only by their tradition and imitation that the art of building was kept alive, producing works which we still admire and which become surprising when we think of the utter ignorance of all science in those Dark Ages.”

Hope, in his well-balanced style, draws quite a picture of the gilds at this period which, upon the whole, is fairly accurate. He says: “When Rome, the Eternal City, was first abandoned for Milan, Ravenna and other cities in the more fertile North, which became seats of new courts and the capitals of new kingdoms, we find in northern Italy a rude and barbarous nation-the Lombards-in the space of two short centuries, producing in trade, in legislation, in finance, in industry of every description, new developments so great, that from them, and from the regions to which they attach their names, has issued the whole of that ingenious and complex system of bills of exchange, banks, insurance, double sentry bookkeeping, commercial and marine laws and public loans, since adopted all over Europe—all over Europe retaining, in their peculiar appellations the trace and landmarks of their origin-and all over Europe affording to capital and commerce an case of captivity and a security unknown before.

“To keep pace with this progress, kings, lesser lords and the municipalities that by degrees arose, were induced, at one time from motives of public policy, at others, of private advantage, to encourage artificers of different professions. Thus of their own accord, they granted licenses to form associations possessed of the exclusive privilege of exercising their peculiar trades, and making them an object of profit; of requiring that youths anxious to be associated with their body, and ultimately to be endowed with the mastery of the profession, should submit to a fixed and often severe course of study, under the name of apprenticeship, for their master’s profit, and in addition should frequently be compelled to pay a considerable premium; and of preventing any individual not thus admitted into their body, from establishing a competition against them. These associations were called Corporations or Gilds.

“These Bodies in order to enjoy exclusive exercise of their profession, and that its profits should be secure to them, not only by law, but by the inability of others to violate it, by degrees made their business, or craft, as they called it, a profound mystery from the world at large, and only suffered their own apprentices to be initiated in its higher branches and improvements, most gradually; and in every place where a variety of paths of industry and art were struck out, these crafts, these corporations, these masterships and these mysteries became so universally prevalent, that not only the arts of a wholly mechanical nature, but even those of the most exalted and intellectual nature—those which in ancient times had been considered the exclusive privilege of freemen and citizens, and those dignified with the name liberal-were submitted to all those narrow rules of corporations and connected with all the servile offices of apprenticeship.” While Hope and writers of his time recognized that some well-organized body of workers had dominated the building trades at the Lombard period of history, they never attempted to trace their genealogy. Later historical critics of architecture have given some attention to origin and succession of these building crafts. One of the latest Italian students, Rivoiri, has devoted a separate chapter to the Comacine Masters.

As his extensive work on Lombard Architecture, Its Origin, Development and Derivatives may be accessible to but few, we shall give a generous quotation from him for the importance of his sound conclusions:

“The origin of the Comacine Masters in the diocese of Como is explained quite naturally, according to De Dartein, Merzario, and others, by the custom, which has always existed among the craftsmen and workmen of that region, of leaving their native places in order to betake themselves in gangs wherever building works are about to be or have been begun, urged thereto by their barren mountain soil, pecuniary gain, their innate ability and enterprising character.

Another explanation is to be found in the presence on the shores of the lakes of Como, Lugano and the Maggiore, of numerous stones, marble and timber yards which furnished building material for the cities of the plains. These yards gave scope for the practice of the crafts of carver, carpenter, builder, etc. ; and these, in their turn, by constant practice and continuous progress, ultimately developed architects and sculptors.

“And here we may naturally feel surprise at the appearance, amid the darkness of the early centuries of the Middle Ages, of a corporation of craftsmen who, though of Roman origin, none the less enjoyed Lombard citizenship and the rights belonging to it; while the Roman or Italian subjects of Lombard rule were, if not slaves, nothing better than ‘aldi,’ that is to say, midway between freedmen and serfs, manumitted on the condition of performing the manual tasks assigned them by the manumitter, A corporation, too, which had a legal monopoly of public and private building work within the territories occupied by the Lombards, as the code of Rotharis proves, and can claim the honor of filling up the gap which for so long was believed, especially by non-Italian writers, to exist between the incorporated artisans of the Roman epoch, supposed to have vanished with the fall of the Empire, and the gilds of craftsmen which sprang up so luxuriantly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Such surprise, however, may easily be allayed if we consider that in reality the fraternity of craftsmen, in Italy at least, by no means came to an end with the barbarian invasions, and particularly that of the Lombards, who actually preserved those Roman institutions which best fulfilled their aim of keeping the conquered people in subjection. Accordingly, they would have maintained the corporation of artisans in order to make the exaction of tribute easier, and at the same time to be able to keep a hold over the individuals composing them.

“Hence we have good grounds for inferring that the corporation of ‘Comacini,’ who apparently were neither more nor less than the successors of the Master Masons who in the days of the Empire had directed the operations of the collegia specially devoted to building, survived the barbarian invasions which were so disastrous to Italy in the centuries preceding , the accession of Rotharis to the Lombard throne.

This view is confirmed by the undoubted fact that from this time onwards the ‘Comacini’ formed a very important Gild, as is shown by the need which he felt of making regulations for it in his laws. This Gild cannot have sprung into existence full grown, and, as it were, by magic, just when the Code of Rotharis made its appearance in 643 A. D. It must have already been in existence and have attained some degree of importance well before Alboin’s descent on Italy in 568 A.D. Troya, in fact, remarks that when the Lombards of the time of Autharis in 583-590 A.D., and of Agilulf and Theodelinda from 590–625 A.D., wanted to erect buildings, they must have made use of it ; and that everything leads one to think that before the promulgation of the Code of Rotharis, some of the members, those of the highest capacity and reputation had already been enfranchised by ‘impans’ or express grace of the King. However that may be, the mention of the associations of Comacini in the reign of Rotharis and Luitprand is one of the earliest in the barbarian world, and earlier than that of any Gild of ar