THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1915

REGENSBURG STONEMASON'S REGULATIONS

(A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN)

BY BRO. F. W. KRACHER, OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN, STATE
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

CONCLUDED.

(As before stated, the question with regard to the old German
Stonemasons is, whether or not they were Freemasons, and opinions
are divided. For the benefit of discussion we venture to offer this
conjecture--we do not call it a theory--that they stood midway
between the Guilds and the Freemasons. If we may believe Findel and
others, the Stonemasons seem to have been in possession of the
first Degree of Masonry, or the-substance of it--though one may
hesitate to accept all the details, as given by Findel as to their
ceremonies of initiation. Whether they had anything more--the
Hiramic Legend, for example--has never been established. Perhaps
they were men employed by the Cathedral Builders, and entrusted by
them with the first principles of Masonry--as many think was the
case with Egyptian Masons in respect to the Mysteries--and as such
continued to exist and work even after the parent Order declined.
At any rate, we shall be glad to have the Brethren examine this
conjecture for what there is in it, putting it to the severest kind
of test in behalf of the truth about the German Stonemasons.--The
Editor.)

27. A master having charge of a book of the order shall take care
of it according to his vow to the order. He must not copy it nor
have it copied by someone else, he must not give it or lend it to
any person, so that the book may always remain with the craft as
the workers decided. But, if a member of the order should need to
know a paragraph or two, these may be given to him by the master in
writing. The master shall arrange to have the rules read aloud to
all workers in the shops once every year.

28. If the question arise whether any member under complaint shall
be expulsed, the master of the district shall not act
independently. Two other masters who are in possession of the
written rules, and who are empowered by their brethren, shall be
summoned so that the council is made up of three. To this council
shall be added the workers of the shop in which the trouble arose.
The decision of the three masters, supported by the majority of the
workers shall then be accepted by all the craftsmen.

29. In case two or more masters of the order should quarrel over
affairs not directly connected with stone-masonry, this quarrel
shall not be brought before any other court but that of the order,
which shall decide in accordance with their understanding. The
decision must, however, be submitted to the cities in which the
quarrel took place, for approval.


30. That the ritual of the order may be properly observed with
divine worship and other necessary ceremonies, each master shall
donate to the order one "gulden" at his initiation. Hereafter he is
to pay four "blappart" (small silver coin) annually into the
treasury of the order. Each craftsman also pays four "blapparts";
the same every apprentice after finishing his term.

31. Each master and workman belonging to the order and employed in
a shop, shall be in possession of a savings-box. Into this box
shall be dropped one penny each week. The money is to be collected
by the master and handed to the order once a year. With it shall be
paid the church services and other expenses of the order.

32. All masters who have such boxes but in whose shops there is
kept no book-(of account) of the order, shall hand it to the master
who has the books once a year, and a church-service is to follow.
If a master or craftsman dies in a shop where no book is kept, this
must be reported to the next master who has a book of the order.
After being informed of such a death, he shall have a mass read for
the benefit of the departed soul, and the master and craftsmen who
had worked with the deceased are to pay for it.

33. Any expense caused to a master or craftsman by the order shall
be refunded out of the order's treasury; may it be little or much.
If any one were to be brought before court in affairs pertaining to
the order, or if one were thereby thrown into need, all masters and
craftsmen should aid him in accordance with their vow to the order.

34. In case a master or craftsman becomes ill, or has to
discontinue the work and is, thereby, confronted by need, he shall
receive assistance from those masters having charge of the order's
treasury. The one receiving help must, however, promise to repay
all money received after his recovery. In case of death, so much of
the clothing and other articles left behind, shall be sold, as is
necessary to cover the debt.

This is the regulation book of the watchers (foremen) and
craftsmen.

35. No master shall employ a craftsman who has induced a woman to
adultery, or who leads an immoral life with women; who does not go
to confession at least once a year as the church prescribes, or who
has the evil reputation of gambling his clothes away.

36. If any workman ask unnecessarily for a leave of absence, he
shall forfeit his privilege for another leave for one whole year.
This applies to workmen in the shops and also such employed on the
buildings.

37. If any master employs a traveling craftsman and wishes to
discharge him, he may do so on a Saturday or the evening of
pay-day, so that the man may be able to travel on. The same shall
be done by a craftsman who wishes to leave. This rule does not hold
good if just cause was given by either side.

38. No craftsman shall approach any one else for work except it be
the master of the job or the overseer, and never without his
master's or the overseer's knowledge.

Regulation of the Servants (Common Laborers.)

39. A master shall not employ any laborer who has not been born in
wedlock. He must, therefore, endeavor to inform himself accordingly
by asking the man whether his father and mother were really and
truly married.

40. No builder or master shall make any laborer, who is still
serving as an apprentice, a "parlierer" (watchman.)

41. No builder or master shall make any laborer a "parlierer"
although he may have served his term as an apprentice, but who has
not at least traveled one year.

42. If one has served as assistant to a mason and comes to a
master, in order to learn from him the craft, he shall not be
accepted as an apprentice unless he is to serve as such an
assistant for three years.

43. No builder or master shall employ anyone as laborer and raise
him to a finished apprentice within less than five years.

44. Should it happen that an apprentice leaves his master during
his term without just cause, that apprentice shall not be employed
by any other master. No fellow craftsman shall support him or
associate with him in any way unless he can show testimonial that
he has served the regular time and met all the requirements of the
master. No one shall buy himself free before the time, unless he
entered into marriage with the consent of his master, or who has
some other just cause which may force him or the master to do so.

45. Should a laborer think that he is not treated rightly by his
master for whom he is working, he may bring complaint in the place
where he is at work, so that he may receive instruction and the
wrong may be righted in accordance with the rules of the order.

46. Each master who has a book (permission) from the district of
Strassburg, shall pay each Christmas a half gulden into the
treasury of Strassburg. And this shall be done so long until the
debt is paid which stands against that treasury.

47. Any master who has a book and whose work has completed so that
he cannot employ his helpers any longer, shall send the book and
all the money which belongs to the order to the builder at
Strassburg.

48. On St. Marc's day, in the year of our Lord one thousand four
hundred and fifty nine, four weeks after Easter, the following was
decided upon in the meeting at Regensburg: The builder Jost
Dotzinger, of Worms, in charge of the cathedral of "Our Lady" at
Strassburg, shall be the highest judge of our order. The same shall
be true in the case of his successors at the same work. (A similar
decision was given before at Spyr, at Strassburg, and on the ninth
day of April, in the year fourteen hundred and sixty four again at
Spyr.) Master Lorenz Spenning, of Vienna, shall be the highest
authority at Vienna for the whole country.

The present masters at Strassburg, Vienna, and Cologne, these
three, or their successors shall constitute the highest authority
of the order. They cannot be displaced without good and just cause.

49. This is the district which belongs to Strassburg: All the
country above the Mosel; the country of the Franks down to the
Thuringian forest, and Babenburg to the monastery near Eystetten;
from Eystetten to Ulm, from Ulm to Augsburg, to the Adelburg near
land of the Welsh (Flance); Meisen, Thuringia, Saxony, Frankfurt,
and Hesse, and also Swabia shall be obedient to him.

To the district of Master Lorenz Spenning, builder of the cathedral
St. Stephan, at Vienna, belong: Lambach, Styria, Werckhusen,
Hungaria (along the Danube.)

Master Steffen Hurder, builder of St. Vincent at Bern, shall
control the cantons.

Master Conrad, of Cologne, builder of the cathedral at that place,
and all his successors, shall have charge over the rest of the
shops which are now in the order or may, in a future period, be
admitted to the same 

50. Any master, parlierer, and fellow-craftsman, acting contrary to
a secret or recorded paragraph, shall be called before such a
council and reprimanded, if the complaint is founded on good
authority. Any punishment meted out must be obediently complied
with, as the vow demands. If one disregards the call without a good
reason, he shall be fined in absentia. If he refuses to pay he may
be brought before a secular or ecclesiastical court which shall
decide what ought to be done to him.

51. Whoever wants to join this order, must vow to keep all rules
which are written in this book or may be added in the future.
Should the emperor, king, prince or any other authority, rightly or
wrongly, object to his belonging to the order, he may act in such
a manner that no harm can come to him. Any business with the order
can be arranged thru fellow-workmen who are members of the order.

52. If it is every Christian's duty to work at his soul's
salvation, it is much more so a duty of every master and craftsman
whom the almighty God has endowed with the ability, to erect
churches and other buildings and, thereby, to earn their living.
Thankfulness should fill their hearts, and prompted by their
Christian nature they should endeavor to increase the divine
services, and by doing so earn their soul's salvation. Therefore,
in honor of God Almighty, his worthy mother Mary, all the saints,
and especially in honor of the holy four, and for the benefit of
the souls of all persons who belong to this order or may join in
the future, we, as stone-masons, have agreed upon these rules for
ourselves and all our descendants: We will have celebrated one mass
every year at the time dedicated to the holy four, namely in the
munster at Strassburg, and there in the Chapel of Our Lady. This
mass shall be one for our souls with all the ceremonies belonging
to it.

53. This has been decided upon on the ninth day of April, in the
year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and sixty four, in the
representative meeting at Spyr, etc." (Then follows the names of
the masters of the different delegations and their signatures and
subscriptions. )

