round arch style; and IV, the true Gothic pointed arch, prevailing almost universally over the whole of Europe till the time of the Reformation, in the 16th century. In the East, "arches still are more frequently constructed by placing the stones horizontally than in a radiating position." The history of the subject will never be correctly understood till we take both kinds into account, for the second almost certainly arose out of the first. The first example put forth by him is from the third pyramid at Gizel, in the roof of the sepulchral chamber (fig. 154), consisting

nly of two stones, showing how early the curvilinear form, with a point in the centre, was sed, and consequently how familiar it must have been to the architects of all ages. Another early form is here given from the tomb called "Campbell's Tomb," fig. 155. The yramids at Meröe, in Ethiopia, dating about 1000 to 805 years B. c., at all events being fa period anterior to the age of the Greek and Roman influence, were discovered by Ir. Hoskins. Here, stone arches show both circular and pointed forms (fig. 156); and Ir. Layard discovered, at Nimroud, drains with pointed vaults of the same age as those Meröe. A tumulus near Smyrna, in Asia Minor, presents an example almost a counterart of that from the third pyramid; a gateway, near Missolonghi, is formed by the courses !masonry projecting beyond one another till they meet in the centre. Other examples are en in the tomb of the Atridæ at Mycenae (figs. 14 and 16, tomb called treasury of Atreus). a city gateway at Arpino, in Italy; in an aqueduct at

usculum; and in a gateway at Assos, in Asia Mir (fig 157). This is known from the character of its

asonry and other circumstances to belong to the best period of Greek art, in fact to be eval, or nearly so, with the Parthenon. These examples explain all the peculiarities of is mode of construction.

305. With the appearance of Rome, this form entirely disappears from the countries to ich her influence extended, and is supplanted so completely by the circular radiating 'm, that not a single instance is probably known of a pointed arch of any form or mode construction during the period of the Roman supremacy. The moment, however, that r power declined, the pointed form reappears in Asia, its native seat; and we recur to every few that remain in Syria and Western Asia for examples. The first of these are the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, built by Constantine the Great, d now known as the Mosque of Omar. Its arches are throughout pointed, but so aidly as to be scarcely observable at first sight. Fergusson also states the reasons for inability to give other specimens; and describes the cathedral of Ani, in Armenia, (see o Donaldson, in the Civil Engineer, &c. Journal, 1843, p. 183) which is built with pointed hes throughout, and contains an inscription proving that it was finished in the year 1010: quotes M. Texier's assertion (Descr. de l'Armenie, fol. 1842) that "it results that, at a time en the pointed arch was altogether unknown, and never had been used, in Europe, ildings were being constructed in the pointed arch style in the centre of Armenia." arbekr, Mr. Fergusson continues, "there is an extremely remarkable building, now conrted into a mosque; the Armenians call it, with much plausibility, the palace of Tigranes; e friezes and cornices are executed according to the principles of Roman art of the 4th atury, nevertheless the pointed arch is found every where mixed with the ar. hitecture, as it were currently practised in the country." The palace at Moda in, the ancient Ctesiphon.

At

a building of the 6th century, is remarkable for the gigantic portal which has not a pointe but an elliptical arch. The pointed arch, however, was employed in Mesopotamia lon before it was known in Europe.

306. In the Roman empire, the aqueducts that supplied Constantinople with water, whic were commenced under Constantine immediately after the founding of the city, but com pleted under Valens, A.D 364 and 378, exhibit pointed arches, generally in the lowes story, and always in the oldest part, as near Pyrgos-" I would have no hesitation," he says "in asserting the general use of the pointed arch by the Mahomedans from the earliest year of their existence to the present hour. The Arabs, it must be recollected, when they lef their deserts to subdue the world, were warriors and not architects; they consequently em ployed the natives of the conquered countries to erect their mosques; yet, with scarcely single exception, all their edifices are built with pointed arches. They are used in the oldes part of the mosque of Amrou, at Old Cairo; this portion was built in the twenty-first year of the Hegira, A.D. 643. Except the two mosques of Amrou, in Egypt, I do not know o any erections of the Saracens anterior to the end of the 7th century. The pointed archi used throughout the mosque erected by the Calif Walid at Jerusalem, in the year 87, o about A D. 705. The great mosque at Damascus is of the same age; and from the period to the present time there is no difficulty. In Sicily, too, which the Saracens occupie for two centuries preceding 1037, they used the pointed arch in all the monuments the have left there. In Spain, however, although pointed arches occur in the baths at Geron at Barcelona, and other places in the north, whose date is tolerably well ascertained to be e the 9th or 10th centuries, as a general rule the Moors used the round or horseshoe are (see fig. 85), almost universally in their erections in that country. One other exampl that should be noted, occurs at the celebrated mosque of Kootub, at Delhi. When the Pathans conquered India, in the beginning of the 13th century, they brought with then their own style of architecture. This building, carried out by the Hindoos, was com menced about the year 1230, and completed in about ten years. The principal arch, 22 feel span and about 40 feet high, though of the pure equilateral Gothic form, is erected with horizontal courses to nearly the summit, when courses of stone are placed on their ends, done in the aqueduct at Tusculum, before mentioned.

307. "With the Western styles, the first series to be noticed is that found in the south of France, comprised to the south of the Loire and the north of the Garonne, extending from the Gulf of Nice to the shores of the Bay of Biscay; being, in date, from about the age of Charlemagne till the middle or end of the 11th century, when it was superseded b the round arch styles. This assertion may startle some readers, but it would long ag have been received as well established facts, had it not been for the preconceived opinio that no pointed arch existed in Europe anterior to the 12th century. One of the be known examples is that of the cathedral at Avignon, where the porch and general detai of the church are so nearly classical, that they are usually ascribed to the age of Charlemagn

The

and even earlier. At Vaison are two well known churches, so classical also, that the are often called Roman temples; both an roofed with wagon vaults of a pointe form, and must certainly date before the middle of the 12th century, when Vaisa was destroyed and deserted; they are pro bably of the 9th or 10th centuries. same remark applies to the churches at Pet nes, Souillac (fig. 158), Moissac, Carcasson and many other churches of that age, all which are covered with pointed vaults, b of a form extremely different from the tru Gothic vaults of the 13th and 16th cen turies." The chapel in the castle of Loche in Lorraine is given by Mr. Fergusson his Handbook, as explaining most of th peculiarities of the style. The origin building was founded by the Count Anjou in the year 962, and the wester tower certainly belongs to him. The nay is either a part of the original edifice, was erected by his son, Foulques Nerra -between 992 and 1040. The supposition that it belongs to the latter receives con firmation from its singularly Eastern aspec and the fact that this Count three times visited the Holy Land, and died there in the yes above quoted. The churches of Moissac, Souillac, and St. Frond at Périgueux, wit several others, are still more eastern in their appearance. This latter building, of whic

Fig. 158.

CHURCH AT SOUILLAC.

we give a plan (fig. 159), was commenced in the year 984, and was completed in 1047,

on the type of, if not copied from, the cathedral of St. Mark, at Venice. A section is given in fig. 160, exhibiting the use of the pointed arches in construction only. The choir at Loches was erected between the years 1140 and 1180, and is in the late and elegant Norman style universal in that country, just anterior to the introduction of the true pointed style, which was timidly effected in the north of France about the year 1150, being mixed with round arches in all the great cathedrals and churches erected between 1150 and 1200, at which date the style may be said to have been perfected in all its essential peculiarities.

307a. In England it was in every respect above twenty-five years later The first really authentic example of its use is in Canterbury Cathedral after the fire in 1175, and was apparently introduced by William of Sens; nearly half a century passed before it can be said to have entirely superseded the Norman arch. In Germany, the introduction was somewhat later, and we know of no authentic specimen of pure Gothic anterior to the commencement of the 13th century, and even then nearly half a century elapsed before it entirely superseded the round arch style. During the whole of the first half of that century, we find round arches mixed up with the pointed ones which were then coming into fashion." 3076. These views were combated by Mr. E. Sharpe, as noticed in the Builder, p. 317, especially as to the first named works being considered as arches at all; and a question

arose at the Institute of British Architects, as to the age of the French buildings named; Transactions, 1860-61, p. 211, &c., and 115. Mr. Street, in his Brick Architecture in Italy, states, (p. 258) thatThe Italians ignored, as much as possible, the clear exhibition of the pointed arch, and, even when they did use it, not unfrequently introduced it in such a way as to show their con

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tempt for it as a feature of construction; employing it often only for ornament, and never hesitating to construct it in so faulty a manner, that it required to be held together with iron rods from the very first day of its erection. This fault they found it absolutely necessary to commit, because they scarcely ever brought themselves to allow theuse of the buttress."

(b) MEDIEVAL ARTIFICERS.

308. In considering the question of the origin of pointed architecture, those who have hitherto been supposed to have devised the pointed arch itself must not be neglected: and to these persons we are indebted for the gigantic masses of exquisitely decorated composition, to be seen in the structures which they designed and erected. These men are imagined to have belonged to a corporation or guild having authority over all countries, or to a guild in each country, having authority only in its own nation. This so-called confraternity has been known as the Freemasons. In the following account of them we shall much abridge the two papers read before the Royal Institute of British Architects, and given in

the Transactions of that society, 1860 and 1861. Before doing so, however, it will be necessary to introduce a few preliminary remarks on the state of architecture previous to the period when the so-called body of Freemasons is said to have arisen.

309. The pontificate, towards the end of the 10th century, of a Benedictine monk, named Gerbert, afterwards known under the name of Sylvester II., and whose life, if Platina (Lives of the Popes) may be relied on, was not of the most virtuous character, seems to have induced an extraordinary change in the arts. Gerbert was a native of Auvergne, and, under Arabian masters at Cordova and Granadi, applied himself to, and became a great proficient in, mathematical learning. He afterwards appears to have settled at Rheims, and to have there planted a school which threw out many ramifications. The scholars of the period were confined to the clergy, and the sciences, having no tendency to injure the Church, were zealously cultivated by its members.

3094. In the 11th century, architecture, considered as an art, was little more than a barbarous imitation of that of ancient Rome, and in it, all that appears tasteful was, perhaps, more attributable to the symmetry flowing from an acquaintance with geometry, than the result of fine feeling in those that exercised it. It was adapted to religious monuments, with great modifications; but the materials and resources at hand, no less than the taste of those engaged in it, had considerable influence on the developments it was doomed to undergo. The sculptures of the period were borrowed largely from the ancients, and among them are often to be found centaurs and other fabulous animals of antiquity.

3096. In the 12th century, the Elements of Euclid became a text book, and though this country was then behind the Continent, as respected the art of architecture, there is good reason for believing it was by no means so in regard to proficiency in mathematics, inasmuch as the Benedictine monk, Adelard of Bath, is known to have been highly distinguished i for his acquirements in them.

310. The crusades had made the people of Europe acquainted with the East, and in the 12th century the result of the knowledge thus acquired was manifest in France, England, and Germany; it could, however, scarcely be expected that the art would emerge otherwise than slowly under the hands of the churchmen, who were the principal practitioners, as it is generally supposed; but there were undoubtedly professional men, as they may be called. in the 12th century, who undertook the management of work, as we shall notice presently; and it is well authenticated (De Beka, De Episcopis Ultraject.) that, in 1099, a certain Bishop of Utrecht was killed by the father of a young freemason, from whom the prelate had extracted the mystery (arcanum magisterium) of laying the foundations of a church. The period at which arose the celebrated Confraternité des ponts, founded by St. Benezet, is known to have been towards the latter end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. The association of Freemasons had, however, its types at a period extremely remote. Among the Romans, and still earlier, among even the Greeks, existed corporations (if they may be so called) of artificers and others; such were Numa's Collegia Fabrorum and Collegia Artificum, who made regulations for their own governance. These collegia were much in favour with the later Roman emperors, for in the third and fourth centuries we find that architects, painters, and sculptors, and many of the useful artificers, were free from taxation. The downfall, however, of the eastern and western empires, involved them in one common ruin, though it did not actually extinguish them.

311. The idea of the early establishment of a superintending body of co-workers such as the Freemasons are said to have been, appears to have originated in the assumption, that as the monuments of the 13th century bear so great a resemblance to each other, no other probable cause could be assigned for their similarity, than the influence of some powerful association of operators. Allowance, however, must, in many cases, be made for the materials at hand in different localities, which, it is hardly necessary to observe, influence style in architecture most perceptibly. Another point too often forgotten in this inquiry, is the gradual progression of the art, and the long transitional periods between each phase of pointed architecture. Some writers on the Freemasons have imagined that the concealment of their modes of arranging arch stones was the chief object of their association, and there can be no doubt that the whole science of construction was studied and taught in the lodges, Others have thought that they inclined to Manicheism. of which the sects were numberless: but we think they had enough to engage their attention, without discussing whether all things were effected by the combination or repulsion of the good and the bad; or that men had a double soul, good and evil; or that their bodies were formed, the upper half by God, and the lower half by the devil. Some have considered that though the Freemasons, as a body, were not hostile to the Church, they were inveterate enemies of the clergy and more particularly of the monks. This may be abundantly seen in the ridicule and grotesque lampoons bestowed on them in the sculptures of the 13th century. As an instance of the extreme length to which the ridicule of the priests was then carried, there is at Strasburg the representation of an ass saying mass and served by other animals as acolytes: and this work must have been done under the eyes of the monks themselves!

man.

312. The remarks by the present editor, On the Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages contains the first classified account of the official situations of persons engaged, with some general idea of their duties. This list includes the terms: -1, Architect; 2, Ingeniator; 3, Supervisor; 4, Surveyor; 5, Overseer; 6, Master of the Works; 7, Keeper of the Works; 8, Keeper of the Fabric; 9, Director; 10, Clerk of the Works; 11, Devizor; 12, Master mason; and 13. Freemason and mason, or inferior workIt will be impossible here to give more than a brief outline. To commence with the freemasons:-In 1077, Robertus, cementarius, was employed at St. Albans, and for his skill and labour, in which he is stated to have excelled all the masons of his time, he had granted to him and his heirs, certain lands and a house in the town. In 1113, Arnold, a lay brother of Croyland Abbey, is designated "of the art of masonry a most scientific master." William of Sens, employed at Canterbury, was a layman and was called "magister"; the history of his work has been preserved to us in the well written account by the monk Gervase, who details the burning and rebuilding of that cathedral. A number of chosen cementarii were assembled at St. Albans in 1200, of whom the chief, magister Hugo de Goldclif, proved to be a "deceitful but clever workman." Very many other names of masons are noticed, but these cannot all be here given. In 1217, a writer uses the synonyms maszun for cementarius; artificer is a word also used in the same century; marmorarius, or marbler; and latomus or lathomus, stone-cutter, also occur. In 1360, a mason de fraunche pere ou de grosse pere is named in the Statutes; while it is not until 1396 that the terms "lathomos vocatos ffremaceons,” and “lathomos vocatos ligiers," are used to designate the masons who were called free(stone)masons, and the masons called layers or setters. In the fabric rolls of Exeter cathedral, the term simentarius is used before, and the term fremason after, the above-named period of 1396. Thus the derivation of the term freemason, from a freestone worker, appears more probable than the many fanciful origins of it so often quoted. What becomes then of the "travelling bodies of freemasons" who are said to have erected all the great buildings of Europe? Did they ever exist? The earliest mention of them appears to have been promulgated by Aubrey, some time before 1686, who cited Sir William Dugdale as having told him many years since, that about Henry III's time (1216-72), the Pope gave a bull or patents to a company of Italian freemasons to travel up and down over all Europe to build churches. From them are derived the fraternity of Adopted Masons." No evidence has been adduced in support of this statement; searches have been made in the Vatican library without success. Wren's Parentalia gives an account of these personages to the same purport, though somewhat enlarged, (par. 401), and this has been quoted as an authority. From a careful comparison of circumstances, Dugdale's information to Aubrey most probably referred to the "Letters of Indulgence "of Pope Nicholas III., in 1278, and to others by his successors as late as the 14th century, granted to the lodge of masons working at Strasburg cathedral, as also noticed on page 131 herein.

In

The

313. Concerning the Fratres Pontis, or the Confraternité des ponts, already referred to, (par. 310), much has been written during the last one hundred years asserting that this brotherhood had been founded for the express purpose of travelling far and wide to build bridges. Even as regards France, only a notice is found of such a troop having been formed by St. Benezet, for building the bridge at Avignon, and that of St. Esprit, over the Rhone, during the 12th and 14th centuries, (1178 1188 and 1265-1309). England no such companies are found recorded; but wherever a bridge was built, a chapel appears to have been founded, to which a priest was attached to pray for the soul of the founder, to receive passage money, and sometimes to pray with the passenger for the safe termination of his journey. Two instances only, of an early date, have been put forward of so called fraternities of masons; the first is that Godfrey de Lucy, bishop of Winchester, formed in 1202, a confraternity for repairing his church during the five years ensuing. "Such," says Milner, "was probably the origin of the Society of Freemasons." second, as asserted by Anderson, (Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons, 1738), but not since authenticated, is that the register of William Molart or Molash, prior of Canterbury cathedral, records that a respectable lodge of freemasons was held in that city in 1429, under the patronage of Henry Chichele, the archbishop, at which were present Thomas Stapylton, master, the warden, fifteen fellowcrafts, and three entered apprentices. It does not then appear to have been known that each cathedral establishment possessed a permanent staff of officers, with certain work people, and took on " additional hands whenever the edifice was to receive additions, or to be rebuilt. The monarch also had an office for carrying out the repairs and rebuildings at the palaces and royal houses. A guild of masons was undoubtedly in existence in London, in 1375, 49th Edward III, and in 1376 two companies of masons and of freemasons were in existence. The Masons' Company of London was incorporated in 1411, and Stow says "they were formerly called freemasons." The masons, during the 17th and 18th centuries, often became designers or architects, as witness Nicholas Stone, George Dance the elder, Sir Robert Taylor, and others.

314. At this date of 1375, some writers have placed the origin of that wonderful society, caused, as they urge, by the masons combining and agreeing on certain signs and tokens by