"
"A great number of masons were trained in Italy, and came from Lombardy,
which in the tenth century even was an active centre of civilisation.
Italy had its corporations of masons called _maestri comaccini_,
enjoying exclusive privileges, who, having passed the different degrees
of apprenticeship, became 'accepted'[34] masons, and had the right of
exercising their profession wherever they might be. The sovereigns of
different countries granted them special privileges, and the popes
protected them in all Catholic countries where they might travel. Thus
the lodges grew and prospered. The Greek artists who had fled from
Constantinople during the various Iconoclast persecutions had got
themselves enrolled in the ranks of the freemasons, and taught their
fellow-masons their Byzantine methods."
[34] German "angenommen."
"Speedily these corporations spread through France, England, and
Germany, where they were employed almost exclusively by the religious
Orders, in building their churches and conventual buildings."
While, therefore, the general plan and rules of construction were common
to all members of the fraternity, the details were almost entirely left,
under regulations, to the individual taste of certain members of each
band of workmen, who, being all qualified artists, were quite capable of
putting in execution, and with masterly skill, any such minuti? of
ornament as might be left to their discretion.
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