The Secret History of Freemasonry

Universal Freemasonry 219

light, is symbolized and represented by a white cock." Subsequently, the
rooster came to symbolize daybreak and by extension the Resurrection.
Today it still figures in the initiation skit of the apprentice Mason.

The Decline of Masonic Universalism

The universalism of the medieval builders was closely connected to the
Catholic religion and the building of its churches. A breech had already
been torn in this universalism by the communal movement, when
purely local brotherhoods formed without any solid bonds to another
brotherhood or ties of origin to the monastic association and, through
them, to tradition. The Renaissance and Reformation dealt a fatal blow
to this universal character.
The sixteenth century was marked first and foremost by a serious
decline in the art of religious construction. The essentially religious
Gothic art disappeared to make way for the essentially secular
Renaissance art. The Christian symbolic language, vehicle of the tradi-
tion, was erased with the same stroke. Despite the efforts of the Italian
academies and the most prestigious artists, such as Leonardo Da Vinci
and Michelangelo, the return to antiquity was accompanied by little in
the way of understanding and quickly became widespread solely as a
visual and decorative art. It contributed no compensation for the spiri-
tual values it replaced. Finally, the encroachment of the Reformation
upon Western Europe and the army of iconoclasts that emerged from it
brought a complete halt to the construction and maintenance of the
magnificent monuments to piety on which so many master builders had
collaborated.
Other contrasts contributed as well. The Gothic building technique
was quite difficult and exacting, whereas that of the Renaissance proved
to be much simpler and more flexible. We should also note that with
the development and vulgarization of the arts and sciences, the number
of artists multiplied. Each country had its own reserves of personnel
from which it could draw to meet construction needs. Cosmopolitan
artisans had far fewer opportunities to meet their foreign colleagues.
Finally, from the weakening of the Christian mind brought about
by the intolerance and fanacticism of confessional conflicts, social