The Templars, the Francs Metiers, and Freemasonry 89nate. On the one hand, they were free of all bonds of subordination
with respect to the local lord, the city, or even the king. On the other
hand, the members of these brotherhoods, placed under the protection
of the Church and, more precisely, under an order possessing all the
rights of higher and lower justice, benefited from the valuable privilege
of being able to circulate and find welcome in other abbeys and houses
belonging to the same order, and even other orders.
It is therefore easy to understand how these craftsmen who were
dependent on ecclesiastical jurisdictions—particularly those who
moved most often, such as masons and boatmen—could be labeled as
francs when compared to the craftsmen of other lords or of the cities.
These latter, even when free, could acquire exemptions only from their
lord high justice. Their rights existed only on the sufferance of this lord
and their freedom did not extend beyond the city limits. In addition, as
we have seen, often the autonomy of the city and the guilds it housed
within its walls entailed particularly burdensome responsibilities and
duties. Finally, it frequently happened that the craftsmen of the towns
and cities could be freed of their ties to their lord only with the support
of the king; they would be released from the tutelage of one only by
placing themselves under that of another. It is true the king's was ordi-
narily less heavy because he was a more remote presence, but this does
not mean that the bourgeoisie of the king did not subsequently seek
with any less energy to emancipate themselves from his control.
The king, however, especially in England, sometimes conferred more
or less extensive exemption to certain crafts, granting them charters that
encompassed all members of the same craft throughout the entire king-
dom and subjected them to the same regulations. In the fourteenth cen-
tury, this was the case for the weavers, and it is possible that the
Company of the Masons of London enjoyed certain privileges outside
the city, among them more or less acknowledged suzerainty over all
other guilds forming part of this trade.^7 English masonry was then known
as franc-maconnerie, but the term at this time had a much more exten-
sive acceptance than its original meaning.
At the time when crafts communities were initially being formed,
the first religious order whose abbeys gave birth to free communities
was that of the Benedictines, who for centuries oversaw the art of