THE BUILDER APRIL 1926

The Comacine Gild

By BRO. W. RAVENSCROFT, England

THE article which appeared in the January number of THE BUILDER entitled
"Gilds, Collegia and Comacines," seems to call for some response and criticism
in respect to the latter. Its attitude in the main is such as is assumed
generally by those who do not accept the claim some of us make for the
Comacines, inasmuch as it neither denies or affirms and consequently is
somewhat inconclusive; one would like to get a bit of flat denial, if such
could be forthcoming, as something tangible with which to deal; and the
suggestion that the greater weight of Masonic scholarship is on the negative
side--although one doubts very much if that holds good in England--should
indicate that such scholarship ought to produce, if possible, something
definite by way of argument on its side.

There are two questions raised by this contribution to your columns: one as to
the relationship between Collegia and Comacines; the other as to that of
Comacines to Speculative Masonry. As regards the former I cannot admit the
statement that "the skeleton of the argument usually advanced amounts to very
little more than this: a certain form of social organization existed in Roman
times called Collegium -- in a later period another form is found that is
called a Gild and that where the latter is found the former presumably
existed." As regards Collegia and Gilds generally one would suggest that at
present there is little ground for such argument and one doubts if as yet it
is seriously held by anybody.

But in the case of the Comacines whatever we have before us goes to show that
their particular Gild was the outcome of the Collegium and that the hiatus of
the Dark Ages, so-called, was the very period in which this change developed.
One does not wish to refer unnecessarily to my little book on the Comacines,
but to save space I do so for authorities quoted.

Surely the evidence for the existence of a band of workmen living after the
downfall of Rome on the Island of Comacina and on the shores and neighboring
districts around the Lake of Como, both historic and expressed on stone, is
beyond question. It is certainly admitted by our most learned authorities in
Europe and England, and the evidence for their connection with Roman
artificers is scarcely less strong. The patronage of the Quatuor Coronati--the
development of Comacine work in plan, designs and detail from Roman models--
the traditional connection with the old Collegia -- all developed during the
"Dark Ages" surely leave no doubt on the point. Moreover how are the Comacines
otherwise to be accounted for? Their persistent preference for the Roman plan
rather than the Eastern in their churches forbids the suggestion that,
notwithstanding some Byzantine influence felt and developed by them, they were
of that school.

As to the derivation of their name, one does not really worry much. When it is
remembered that the Lombards named the Island of Comacina "Christopolis" and
that its present name is of later date, it is very possible that it was
identified as the home of the "Commacon" or associate Masons and hence the
derivation both of the name by which the island is now known and the Gild now
called the Comacines.

NO DIRECT LINK BETWEEN COMACINES AND LATER GILDS

With re( gard to the other point of the article in question, viz., the
association of the Comacines with Speculative Masonry, I do not suppose anyone
would claim a direct or rather an immediate connection between the two,
especially those of us who hold that the Comacine Gilds either died out or
were merged, as is more probable, into the Mediaeval Gilds of the Gothic
period.

The suggestion that the disappearance of the Roman power from Englan,d broke
the connection between the Roman College and subsequent artificers, is one of
the main arguments we, who stand for the Comacines, regard as essential to our
claim. For while not admitting that "the effect was the reduction of the
Celtic population into barbarism as complete as that of their enemies"--seeing
it drove a large number of these people westward where they did, to some
extent, retain their religion, civilization and art, it is, we claim, from the
fact that in England at any rate such was the retrograde condition of things
caused by the Roman departure, that it later became necessary for converted
Saxons to fetch from France and Italy men who could build as they could not.
Thus it was through these men that the continuity of architectural development
was maintained in England and ultimately grew into the Norman and later styles
which prevailed here. Recent excavations in this country as well as existing
buildings here demonstrate in a remarkable way the close connection between
the Comacine work of Como and that of England.

As to what was done in 1717 I do not venture to suggest more than this: that
through the church building period, and even down to the early eighteenth
century, there was before the men who developed our ritual at that time a
model from which our Speculative Masonry drew much inspiration; and whether
the Mediaeval Gilds gradually merged into a Speculative Society by admission
in increasing numbers of laymen to their circles, or whether the Masonry of
today has no more association with that of the Operative Craftsmen than that
of being formed on its basis, it is fairly clear that the inspiration of
Speculative Masonry is considerably drawn from the teaching and practice of
the Gilds.

