The Secret History of Freemasonry

Ecclesiastical and Monastic Associations 35

activity extended well beyond the time of the monastic associations.
From the twelfth century on they were involved with the organization
of lay communities of builders that enjoyed specific franchises, earning
them the name francs metiers (free craftsmen; see chapter 6).
In this chapter we will study these monastic associations specifi-
cally. The role of the Templars, which appears to be closely tied to the
birth of operative freemasonry, will be developed in chapters 5-7.

The Formation of Ecclesiastical and Monastic Associations

in the Goth Regions and Their Extension

into the North

We have seen how in England and the Frankish kingdoms the advocates
of Christianity appealed to the Roman collegia and their remnants in the
Visigoth regions. This was widespread due to the fact that members of the
collegia were regarded as the best artisans for propagating the faith by
erecting churches in all areas where Christianity had spread. When their
existence became incompatible with the state of the society, however, it
was around the Church that new groups of builders began to form. As a
self-contained body, the Church had retained its own rights. It remained
subject to Roman laws. At this time, the Church did not merely represent
a belief and a form of worship; it also constituted a political organization.
As a veritable state, it exercised all the attributes of one and extended its
authority over all Christian countries. Its legal and institutional rights,
combined with the zeal of faith, explain how the Church became a pole
of social and political attraction. As Etienne Gilson rightly argued, the
Roman Empire was dead, but the Church saved its culture from destruc-
tion and then imposed it upon the peoples of the West.
This universal role of the Church and the relative security it pro-
vided were much more in evidence in and applicable to the great reli-
gious orders than to the bishops, who were more often compelled to
confront temporal requirements and whose nominal authority stopped
at the borders of their dioceses.
The builders from the collegia, who, as we have seen, found refuge
with the bishops, discovered themselves to be bound simply by close
personal ties to these prelates. This was not the case with those members