Vrijmetselarij

Monday, September 06, 2010

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Vrijmetselarij - een Brits product

'freemasonry' or 'masonry'.
We distinguish 'roughmasons'; those who worked with hard blocks of stone from 'freemasons'; those who worked with soft limestone (freestone).

When the speculative freemasonry moved from England to France around 1725, the French translated the English word "mason" with "maçon" which means bricklayer.
The word 'freemason' became 'franc maçon' which literally translated into Dutch became “Vrijmetselaar”.

Mason - Een verzamelnaam

Although a mason in the strict sense of the word means brick worker the name has a wider meaning as well; as is the case with the Dutch word 'construction worker'.
He who works at the quarry is a mason as he is the one forming the rough stone to the required shape.

But the professionals who decorated the 'freestone' were also called a mason.

We know “layers and setters” as workmen who work in construction.
They were also masons, though their social status was lower than the other masons (Bernard Jones).
The “layer” was the one who applied the mortar and put the stone in its place after which the 'setter' levelled the stone.
The symbolic Freemasonry has taken the lower status of the 'layer' into their rituals through the tools of the mason: hammer and chisel placed higher in the rituals than the tool of the layer: the trowel.

De Gilden

In the Middle Ages it was impossible to live without religion or outside of a social structure. (G. Bakker).
The guild presented a social fabric and as such was an important part of medieval society. The guild was an economic and political power in the city in which the guild was established.
Each city had several guilds: The guild of fur workers, bookbinders, but also masons guilds.
The guild had its own statutes, its own government and its own jurisdiction.
The statutes represented the trade interests of the guild on the local market.
The guild also turned away unwanted competition from non-members.

The Lodge

The word 'lodge' also means hut or warehouse.
Both in the quarry and at the location of the construction of a long term project a 'lodge' was established, which had to serve as a shelter for the workers and also as a repository for tools.
When in 1426 "Trinity College in Cambridge was built, they first built a Lodge (Bernard Jones).
A lodge was obviously something more than a simple warehouse!
The lodge was so typical of the masons, that the group of masons, who took part in the construction, was called a Lodge.

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