32 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
and in France, in the area of the former Visigoth kingdom, we find the
example of Saint Front of Perigueux.
In the kingdom of the Franks, where the art of building had disap-
peared, Frankish kings, as we have seen, resorted to hiring Visigoth
architects. Later, Charlemagne was struck with admiration for Italian
monuments, which aroused his desire to have similar buildings erected
in his own country, but a dearth of workers forced him to seek assis-
tance from the Italians and the Byzantines. In 796, when he undertook
the construction of the admirably designed Basilica of the Holy Mother
of God in Aix la Chapelle (Aachen), history informs us that he gathered
together for this labor master workers and laborers (magistros et opi-
fices) who had the greatest renown "this side of the sea" and placed at
their head the extremely skilled Ansigis, abbot of the abbey of
Fontanelles (abbey of Saint Wandrille).^15 The same text tells us that
among the most expert workers who were laboring on the cathedral
and buildings of Aix la Chapelle there were also serfs who had been
sent by their lieges. We should note this opposition between the masters
and workers from "this side of the sea," who were free and no doubt
products of a Byzantine college, and the autochthonous workers of
servile status—proof that no association of free builders existed in the
Frankish kingdom.
Notre-Dame of Aix la Chapelle is modeled on Italo-Byzantine
structures. The role played by the Greeks in its construction is reported
by a fourteenth-century author who informs us that Bishop Meinwerk
of Paderborn (d. 1036) had a chapel erected in the style of a similar,
older monument that he claimed Charlemagne had ordered Greek
craftsmen to construct per operarios groecos.^16
According to the Chronicle of Leon of Ostia (III, 29), Didier, abbot
of Monte Cassino, ordered from Constantinople at great expense mas-
ters in the art of mosaic and hired them to decorate the church. He also
desired that some of the inhabitants of the monastery would take pains
to learn that art, which was almost lost in Italy.
So during the first half of the Middle Ages, Byzantium generally
paved the way for art for the rest of Europe. Romanesque architecture
itself may owe more to Byzantine art than is commonly believed. The
principal Romanesque innovation was the covering of the church nave