56 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
Jean d'Orbais, Villard de Honnecourt, and Pierre de Corbie were
among those who had received their training in the school of the monks
and as such, were heirs to the entire science of their teachers.
In sharing a similar origin in monastic associations, all the lay
brotherhoods respected the same religious spirit and the same tradition.
The professional rules were identical everywhere, often down to the last
detail. The work left no room for innovation. Nevertheless, the status
of these brotherhoods and the position of their members were often
quite varied depending upon their training and the means by which they
had become established. Evolution had led to adaptation of feudal law,
but it had not altered the principles of this law.
The brotherhoods that had emerged directly from monastic associ-
ations and that remained in the abbey's domain remained subject to the
sovereign jurisdiction of the abbey and often continued to benefit from
great franchises and privileges issued by the Church. It is within these
brotherhoods that we can see the birth of the francs metiers (free crafts-
men) and freemasonry.
The "communal" brotherhoods, on the other hand, developed in
the cities and became the cogs of their urban settings. Despite their
autonomy, they were far from holding the same extensive franchises
enjoyed by their monastic colleagues. The restrictions imposed upon
them came either from the high lord and dispenser of justice, the city
itself, or from the sovereign who took the bourgeoisie of the town
under his protection in order to fend off feudal lords and under his tute-
lage so that they would serve his policies. In any event, the rights of
these artisans never extended beyond city limits.
Yet within these limits, the franchises connected to the power and
patronage of the Church were reduced to a singular degree. The local
authority of the bishop and lay clergy generally replaced the spiritual
and lordly supervision of the monks, which had served as a guarantee
for territorial universalism.
Only later, in recollection of Roman law and the institutions of the
Roman Empire and in order to strengthen absolute monarchy, would
the royal powers in France and England attempt to group trades into
their own communities that tended to extend over the whole of the
nation and contribute to its unification.