The earliest authentic record of the association of artisans or craft guilds relates to those instituted among the Romans by Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome. When this distinguished monarch ascended the throne in 715 B.C. the nation was composed of several nationalities. To secure uniformity of sentiment and action, Numa divided the people into tribes according to racial characteristics. The artisans, he organized into corporations under the name of collegia and the Masons or stone workers became leaders of this new propaganda. One of these collegia was attached to each legion of troops so that when a Roman colony was established, the work of civilization and art proceeded without delay. This is first the authentic record of any recognized organization among builders, and wherever the influence of Rome spread, we find evidences of the work of these organized builders.

According to Dufresnoy, Numa was chosen king three hundred years after Solomon commenced the building of his temple on Mt. Moriah. It has been assumed by some that Numa had a precedent for the organization of artisans which he maintained. A few Masonic writers have insisted that he derived it from the organizations created by Solomon at the building of his temple. There is, however, not the slightest evidence to sustain this position. The Masonic student, who is interested in knowing the truth concerning Freemasonry is, safe in the conclusion that the corporations established by Numa form the foundation of the idea of organizations among building crafts which after twenty-seven hundred years, of varying evolution have resulted in the superstructure of Freemasonry.

Plutarch enumerates nine of these Roman Collegia, one of which that of the builders, being a fraternity of artisans, possessed some features slightly analagous with what we know of the beginnings of Masonry. Contemporaneous with the Roman Collegia, and nearly contemporaneous in their origin were the Greek Eranoi, or Thiasoe, which were numerous at Rhodes, in the islands of the archipelago, at Piraeus and other important places. L. Toulman Smith in writing of these organizations says; they partook more nearly of the character of the Medieval guilds than did the Roman Collegia. The members contributed to a general fund for the purpose of aiding one another in necessity, provided for funerals, met in an assembly to deliberate on their affairs and celebrated feasts and religious ceremonies in common. Strict rules against disorder were enforced by fine. He who did not pay his yearly quota to the society was excluded unless he could show good cause of poverty or sickness.

Some writers assert that it was from the Eranoi that Numa gained his idea of organized workers. There is a slight analogy between a Roman collegium of artificers and a lodge of Masons. The old regulation was that each collegium must consist of at least three. In the crude organization which they maintained the head man was called Magister, which liberally translated means master. One of the features possessed in common by the collegia and medieval craft guilds was the acknowledgment by the state of their right to an internal policy of their own. Inasmuch as they were doing the work of the state in keeping their own members within the bounds of that behavior, which characterized good citizenship, they demanded their freedom from all forms of taxation, and other state exactions. Special reference is made to this fact, because out of this peculiar relation to governmental authority was probably evolved, whatever of mystery attached to these organizations, apart from the merely technical secrets of their operative handicraft; that professional knowledge which artisans in all ages of the world have guarded with more or less jealousy, a jealousy which is manifest even today among those, who arc specially expert in some particular line of work. From the collegia and eranoi, down to the guilds of Northern and Central Europe which went to decay when the reformation brought larger liberty for all, these voluntary associations served to stimulate the idea of civil and religious liberty, because they maintained a freedom peculiarly their own. They were democratic in their organic bases and republican in their form of government. Each constituted even in the early and turbulent period of the world, a sort of modern commonwealth, an example of what might be the relation of men when freed from the tyranny and rapacity of their temporal and spiritual rulers.

The Roman artificers continued in their growth and following the destinies and conquests of Rome spread into every country that came under Roman domination. There was no town at all important and no province, however distant where some of the Collegia did not exist, even to the downfall of the Western and Eastern empires. With their peculiar constitution and semi religious and political character they assumed, an importance in the affairs of the state which caused them to be called by imperial orders to travel to all parts of the empire to assist in the building of cities, palaces, temples, and public edifices which were so characteristic of the greatness of Rome. The craft of stonemasons multiplied as did the others, and commenced the erection of buildings in various parts of the world.

When Julius Caesar conquered England in 55 B. C. he found the Britons entirely uninformed of the very rudest forms of architecture altho there is evidence in existing remains to prove that at some very early time, huge stones were erected to commemorate heroes and also to build rude forms of temples to mythical dieties. When the emperor Claudius sent Allus Plautius to form a colony in Britain, immediately upon his arrival he instituted Roman laws and institutions, founded cities and taught the people useful arts. The Encyclopedia Britannica is authority for the following statement which has a direct bearing upon the subject under discussion.

"The existing Roman remains show that there was quite enough architecture and decorative art introduced into England by the Romans to have formed a school of Masonic sculptors and builders, if the civilization of the people had been sufficient to make them desire it. Such a school can hardly be said to have been formed, if we look at the few and comparatively rude remains of buildings certainly erected before the Norman Conquest." The same authority further states that: "When Roman architecture ceased, for nearly seven hundred years, almost every building erected was ecclesiastical. The study of architecture clearly establishes the fact that no school of Masonic architecture existed prior to the Eleventh Century; after that, until near the end of the Seventeenth Century, such a school flourished, as is indicated by the large number of ecclesiastical structures erected."

The first Roman station in England was at Camulodunum and there appears to have been built here a substantial town of which temples, theaters and baths were a conspicuous part. At Chichester or Regnum as it was called we find a very early establishment of the collegia or operative associations of workmen and discover the foundation of a temple dedicated to Neptune and Minerva by a company of Roman artisans in honor of the imperial family of Claudius. The information is derived from a slab of sussex marble which was found in 1733 in North Street. The fragments when pieced together and the inscription deciphered has been translated thus: "The college or company of artificers and they who preside over sacred rights by the authority of King Cogibunus, the legati of Tiberius Claudius Augustus, in Britain, dedicated this to Neptune and Minerva for the welfare of the Imperial family. Pudens, the son of Pudentius, having given the site."

The spirit of building which was introduced by the Romans so increased the number of operatives that when Constantius, the father of Constantine, the Great, rebuilt the city of Autum in Gaul A. D. 296, he was chiefly furnished with workmen from Britain, which we are told abounded in artificers, so that at the end of the Third Century the number of Masons drawn from the island, to assist at the building of Constantinople was so great that the Venerable Bede records: "That for the want of Masons, walls were repaired with sod instead of stone." The departure of the Romans in 410 led to a decadence in the arts introduced by them. The Britains being left in a helpless state, easily fell under the dominion of the Saxon invaders, who arrived A. D. 449. They were a rude horde totally ignorant of art and like their German neighbors accustomed to hovels of mud and habitations of rough stone with straw coverings, types of buildings, which were little better than the ancient British habitations. Consequently, after the next two hundred years the use of wrought stone was discontinued for building, because in the island there were no craftsmen of sufficient skill, to work in stone and cement.

However, following the revival of Christianity under Augustine, and a need for substantial places of worship the Bishop of York was induced to exert his influence and try and restore the art of Masonry. In this undertaking Bishop Wilfred was ably assisted by Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Weirmouth, who we are informed by the Venerable Bede traveled several times into Italy and France to induce Masons to return with him in order to restore the lost arts and building in stone, as he remarks, after the Roman method. William of Malemsbury in his chronicle also dwells at some length on the restoration of the mason's art under Biscop. And we learn further that "the Abbot of Weirmouth fostered the building art or Masonry, as there is a letter on record from Naitan King of the Picts to Coleford, Abbot of Weirmouth in. which he entreats that some Masons may be sent there to build a church of stone in his field in imitation of the Romans."

Here we have undoubted evidence that the masons who were able to set out and work the free stone in order to produce an ornamental effect, necessary for architectural building were very early taken up by the religious party and from this relationship and connection with the Monastic orders, we can easily see how whatever religious element existed in the traditions of the later Masonic guilds originated.

Passing to the time of Ethelstan, we continence to learn something of early guild tradition. We are informed by a Fifteenth Century manuscript now in the British museum that King Ethelstan who was a student of geometry granted a charter in A. D. 926 to a company of Masons. This charter cannot be found, but there is a general belief that such a document existed. So far as this assembly of Masons in York relates to Freemasonry it is simply a myth. While the holding of such an association must be viewed as legendary only, yet whatever assembly may have been held was simply that of an aggregation of rough stone Masons. In no sense did it relate to the cathedral builders of the middle ages. The manuscript referred to says, that congregations of Masons were "to be held annually or triennially for the examination of Masons for their knowledge of the craft." This would tend in a measure to show that in those primitive times geometric knowledge was looked upon as requisite in a foreman or overseer and was regarded as a secret and only, practiced by certain classes of Masons to distinguish them from the ordinary Mason waller, whose work consisted in coarse rubel stone often plastered over to give it a surface.

The Norman conquest brought with it a fresh interest in the building art. All the kings were great builders. Many of the great cathedrals, either date from this period or were built tinder Norman influence. Papworth draws attention to Robertus Cementarius, a Master Mason, employed at St. Albans in 1077, who for his skill excelled, all Masons of his day and owned a grant of land and a house in the town. It is probable that this man may have occupied a position in his community, which in modern times is called architect, altho classed as a mason. As an example of how rapidly architecture spread it is pointed out that in the reign of Henry II one-hundred-fifty-seven abbeys, priories, and other religious buildings were founded in England, and it is at this period that we begin to see evidences of an entirely new type of architecture, the Gothic.

Nothing has ever been discovered to show the slightest connection between the Roman Collegia, the Cathedral Builders, and modern Freemasonry. The Roman Collegia simply illustrate the fact that, as civilization progresses and becomes more complex, means of meeting new conditions are devised and there naturally evolves various organizations and associations to cope with the problems which arise. Each age feels its way toward the expression of its own ideals, modifying those of the past to meet those of the present. The evolution of the art of building or architecture made necessary organizations of men sufficiently skilled in the science of construction to undertake great building enterprises. In the days of the Pharoahs and Kings, this work was performed mostly by slaves whose only compensation was their sustenance. In the Roman Collegia we find the same principle of united effort presented in organized form, soldiers and slaves being the unskilled workmen directed by an intelligence which was lacking in the constructive work of the earlier building periods. The collegia were the forerunners of societies of workmen and artisans which organizations, through various periods of rise and decline, finally after eighteen hundred years of constant evolution have culminated in Freemasonry.

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