The Secret History of Freemasonry

The Templars, the Francs Metiers, and Freemasonry 91

The European Mastery Associations and the Templars

The exemptions and privileges that craftsmen benefited from in
Templar commanderies were particularly propitious for increasing the
Order's influence and popularity. In the troubled times of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, when the craftsmen and bourgeois of the cities
sought protection for themselves and their properties by freeing them-
selves from their cities' control, the Temple offered them not only asy-
lum but also the model of a free professional organization. The status
of the inhabitants of commanderies could only inspire those outside to
benefit from the same rights and to obtain their recognition—if need be,
by force—from the lords.
There is no doubt that under these conditions the Templars exer-
cised, directly or indirectly, an important influence on the formation of
craft communities. This is not to say that the activity of the Templars
and the example they set was the sole origin of guilds and mastery asso-
ciations, whose creation was largely a response to profound political,
economic, and social needs. But the Templars and their franchises,
while they may not have been the primary cause, were at least a deter-
minative cause.
It is striking to observe that the first crafts guilds appeared at the
time and in the regions when and where the Templars were first in
action and founded their earliest establishments. Such a parallel goes
beyond simple coincidence and any gratuitous hypothesis to attribute
the formation of these mastery associations to the Order.
From the start of their existence as an order, the Templars held large
domains in Flanders, Hainaut, Artois, and Picardy as a result of dona-
tions made by the first knights Templar such as Geoffroi de Saint Omer.
This was how such large commanderies like those of Ypres, Tournai,
Bruges, Loverval, Moustier sur Sambre, Mesmin les Mons, Chantraine,
Aires sur la Lys, Bailes, Arras, Abbeville, Saint Quentin, Laon, and so
forth, were created so quickly between 1130 and 1140. The Templars
owned a significant number of domains in these regions and their activ-
ity here was intense. The construction of all major monuments in
Picardy has been attributed to them.
It is precisely in these northern provinces that the first professional
guilds made their appearance in the second half of the twelfth century