90 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
construction. This role and its effects on social organization were
already in decline when existing monastic brotherhoods began trans-
forming into secular confederations. The number of craftsmen, espe-
cially builders, diminished considerably near Benedictine abbeys. As we
have seen, craft associations enjoyed specific exemptions in Benedictine
jurisdiction. Thus in Paris we have Saint Germain des Pres, Saint
Martin des Champs, Saint Eloi (Saint Maur), and Saint Magloire. Yet it
does not appear that a large number of lay craftsmen benefited from
this, for proof has been offered showing that the Benedictine censive
districts remained sparsely populated for long periods of time.
The religious order that appears most prominently at the origin of
the francs metiers is that of the Templars, a fact that has largely gone
unnoticed.* In the jurisdiction of its commanderies, free craft was the
rule, just as the bourgeois residents of Templar-controlled areas were
free bourgeois. In the cities where the Templars had establishments, a
distinction can be made in the same craft between the "franc" crafts-
man (who were free and enjoying certain exemptions) living in the
Templar's domain, and artists who were merely free who worked in
other quarters and were subject to royal and manorial charges and
taxes as well as to their own trade regulations. This was the case in
Paris with respect to the masons. Clearly in this distinction between
"franc" craftsmen and free artists, we can seek the origin of the term
francs-macon (franc-maconnerie), for with this term, the noun that
labeled and distinguished the worker eventually became one with the
name it qualified, quite opposite to a simple free mason who did not
enjoy the benefits of any exemptions.
It can also be said that because of the spiritual and temporal auton-
omy and authority of the Temple, as well as that of a large number of
its commanderies spread throughout the land, the francs-macons and
all other free, exempt craftsmen in Templar jurisdiction could move
about freely. They enjoyed freedom of passage and were confident both
of receiving assistance and protection everywhere and of their right to
settle in one location and find work there.
- Abbe Auber sensed this and drew some tendentious conclusions from it in his small
tract, Francs-Macons du Moyen Age (Tours: 1874).