Speculative Freemasonry 233No other prophecy exists that influenced the art of the Middle Ages
in such enduring fashion. According to Emile Male, the motif of the tree
of Jesse seems to have been conceived by Abbot Suger, for the oldest
known image of the Jesse Tree can be found in Saint Denis in a stained-
glass window that dates to a time earlier than 1144. Jesse Trees were
numerous in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and can be found in
stained glass (for example, in Chartres, Saint Denis, Le Mans, and
Sainte Chapelle) and in the archivolts of portals (in Senlis, Mantes,
Laon, Chartres, Amiens.. .). Starting at the end of the thirteenth cen-
tury, the Virgin began appearing at the top of the tree, holding the
Infant Jesus in her arms. She is the rose, the flower that blossoms at the
tip of the stem.
How illuminating and eloquent Hiram's legend becomes when
placed alongside Christ's Ascension, which was so often celebrated by
stone sculptors, masons, and carpenters.
All the prophets and seers of Israel, all those heralds of Christ, all
those figures who gravitated around the scriptures and the Apocrypha
and oral tradition or the books of legends such as Jacques de Voragine's
Golden Legend, Comestor's Historia Scholastica, and Vincent de
Beauvais's Speculum Historiale [Mirror of History)—all of these were
common figures to the people of the Middle Ages. Each year at
Christmas or on Epiphany or other religious feast days and commemo-
rative celebrations, these figures and their retinues paraded in costume.
The processions they formed entered the church or cathedral and each
of them, at the call of his or her name, stepped forth to give witness to
the truth, reciting a verse or a monologue. Religious dramas and mys-
teries emerged from these kinds of processions and the same thought
behind them provided the same lessons everywhere. It permeated all of
life's circumstances.
Using an understanding of the amphibological meaning of Christ's
Passion with respect to the French and English crafts of the Middle
Ages, this is a good time to revisit these mysteries. The Passion was
certainly the subject that aroused the greatest enthusiasm in the
medieval imagination. In truth, it was the preferred study of the Middle
Ages, inspiring men such as Saint Francis of Asissi to push love to the
extreme until it was impossible for them to make any distinction