132 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
vagabonds: In 1270 the ordinance of Saint Louis pronounced the
penalty of banishment against them; Henri II's ordinance of April 18,
1558 declared the crime of being a vagabond to be punishable by hang-
ing; and a declaration of August 27, 1702, banned these homeless from
the jurisdiction of the provostship and viscounty of Paris and, in the
case of repeat offenders, sentenced them to three years in the galleys.^44
Through the declaration made by the grand prior of Vendome, we also
know that such individuals could not benefit from the right of asylum
in the Temple's jurisdiction. Finally, a police ordinance issued on
February 19, 1768, made it "a crime for mendicants and vagabonds,
and persons without the proper credentials, and so forth, to seek lodg-
ing at Saint Gervais Hospital, and for pilgrims and travelers to present
themselves there without certificates and passports in the proper
order."^45
We can easily deduce from these texts that the "poor transients"
and "travelers" housed in such large number at Trinity Hospital and
especially at Saint Gervais Hospital were in possession of a trade. Quite
often they were nothing more or less than transient journeymen in
search of a master to employ them. We could maintain they were sim-
ply a "Tour de France" of guildsmen. Their wandering of the country-
side echoed the route taken by those on pilgrimage, which was how
they would obligatorily visit Saint Baume to pay homage to Saint James,
in whom they saw their patron saint (Maitre Jacques), who would have
lived near Saint Magdalene and been buried in her famous cave.
At this point, how could we not bring up the famous Compagnons
du Devoir? The journeymen stonecutters and carpenters of the Duty
called themselves the Compagnons Passant. It was they who were nick-
named the Loups Garoux [werewolves] and the Drilles [good fellows].
They presented as their remote founders this same Master Jacques
[James], who would have been the overseer of the works of the Temple,
and Father Soubise, Solomon's head carpenter. They stated that their
modern organization dated from the Templars and some identified
Master Jacques as Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the
Templars.^46 C. H. Simon, in his Etude historique et morale sur le
Compagnonnage,^47 considers it likely that "the Children of Solomon"
received a new "duty" from Jacques de Molay. He sees a great connec-