The Secret History of Freemasonry

178 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING

master form a bond with him and may no journeyman render him

assistance until he has renounced his evil habits and been punished

by the association. No laborer or master shall bestow his favor on

a journeyman who does not go annually to confession and to the

Holy Sacrament, in conformance with Christian precept...

On the news of the death of an associate [the master] will cel-

ebrate a Mass for the comfort of the recently departed soul, and

thoses masters and journeymen who are then present will attend

this pious ceremony.

The statutes established at Ratisbonne ordered the celebration of four
Masses during the year, including the feast day of the Throne of Saint
Peter. The tax imposed for this purpose was two large sous for every
work performed by the masters and a denier a week for the journeymen.
The statutes also prescribed fasts, vigils, and Masses to be celebrated in a
chapel in Strasbourg dedicated to the Virgin. The building of churches
was to be performed by the associates, by virtue of the same rules, for
"the enlargement of divine worship and the salvation of their souls."

The Decline of the German Brotherhoods

The mastery associations in Germany never attained the same level of
power that their medieval Italian counterparts did. Their efforts were
sometimes opposed by the cities' aristocrats, sometimes by the feudal
lords, and sometimes by the emperor himself. The Burgave of
Strasbourg had the right to place the masters who headed the arts cor-
porations. In Worms all such associations were suppressed in 1233,
with the exception of those of the coin minters and the furriers. The
statute handed down by Frederic II to the inhabitants of Goslar in 1219
expressly forbade mastery associations. A decree issued in 1232 by this
same emperor from Ravenna banned associations throughout the
empire. In 1378, Charles IV put a stop to the training and activities of
the arts brotherhoods of Minden, which prompted no intervention by
the Episcopal authorities; this decree was later confirmed by Charles V.
In all these ordinances no exception was made in favor of the building
mastery associations; consequently they were forced to submit, like the