200 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKING
the Durham Charter was promulgated in which we see freemasons
holding the principal position among all the most important trades.^21
From all this evidence, we can draw the conclusion that the devel-
opment of freemasonry in Great Britain was never hindered by royal
power or religious authority. The situation here was thus completely
different from the one that prevailed in France, where the ancient
brotherhood found itself divided between the strictly regulated trade,
which was controlled and confined to a professional role, and the
stricto sensu brotherhood, which was quite often banned and often sus-
pect in the eyes of the Church.
In England, the companies or fraternities of craftsmen retained the
unity and traditions of the earlier brotherhoods. Restrictions imposed
upon them by the king were limited only to specific periods of time and
for specific purposes. Furthermore, the corporations were to a large
extent the masters of their rules. Finally, they never collided with the
hostility of the clergy. In fact, there is no visible instance of any con-
demnation laid upon them by the Church. When the bishop of
Winchester stepped in in 1425, it was not as a pastoral figure but as a
holder of temporal power. It was only following the Reformation and
the dynastic changes that Freemasons—not only the Scots but the
English as well—because they remained faithful to the Catholic reli-
gion, or at least maintained traditional rites and customs, incurred the
wrath of the Anglican clergy. Later we will see how they skirted this
danger by creating the Grand Lodge of London in 1717.
The Masonic BondOutside of those connected to religious orders, guilds and brotherhoods
alike retained a local character because of the way they originated.
Their organizations and activities were confined to particular cities,
which was as true for the companies or brotherhoods of masons as for
any. Despite the widespread movement of their statutes and franchises
into general use, thanks to the favor of public officials, their authority
was limited in each instance to the city in which the craftsmen grouped
together. Because of the unique aspects of the builders trade, however,
it was impossible for their organization to remain strictly local. The