190 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
The two most important ancient documents on operative freema-
sonry itself, both of which are now housed in the British Museum, are
the Masonic Poem and the Cooke Manuscript. The Masonic Poem, also
known as the Royal Manuscript (Regius) or the Halliwell Manuscript,
from the name of its first publisher, dates from around 1390-1400.^8
This poem, 794 verses of rhyming couplets composed in Old English,
shows clearly that the mysteries of the brotherhood were practiced in
fourteenth-century England. Numerous clues allow us to attribute the
work to a priest who had knowledge of various documents related to
the history of the organization. He may have held the role of chaplain
or assumed the duties of the brotherhood's secretary or, most likely,
both in an era when people who knew how to read and write were rare.
Verses 143-46 seem to show that freemasonry was even then
accepting members who were not artisans of that craft.
By olde tyme wryten y fynde
That the prenes schulde be of gentyl kynde;
And so symtyme grete lordys blod
Toke thys gemetry, that ys ful good.
(By old time written I find
That the 'prentice should be of gentle kind;
And so sometime, great lords' blood
Took this geometry that is full good.)The Masonic Poem is divided into nine sections. The first concerns
the legendary history of freemasonry (86 verses); the second is fifteen arti-
cles related to corporate labor (173 verses); the third consists of fifteen
articles concerning the constitutions and underscores the fact that the
order is religious and moral (209 verses). We should note that the articu-
lus quartus [fourth article] and the tertius punctus [final point] mention
the lodge (logge). The fourth section of the poem provides the procedure
of the annual general assembly (25 verses); the fifth presents the legend of
the Four Crowned Martyrs, the protectors of the Order (37 verses);* the
- The legend of the Four Crowned Martyrs also entered England at a very early time.
It is said that a church of the Four Martyrs was built in Canterbury in 597 (Gould, A
Concise History of Freemasonry, 238).