orant and wicked builders a
stumbling block and bone of contention. This stone therefore is Christ who
has become our Cornerstone...." (Summ. Bon., p. 19.) "If we consider now
the stone Aben in its significance for the microcosmos ... we shall soon
be sure that as a stone temple of God it can have no less value for every
outer man in so far as the Holy Ghost also reserves a dwelling in him
forever." (Summ. Bon., p. 20.)

"That is also the reason why the stone Aben appears in double form (quod
ambae petrae), that is, in the macrocosmic and in the microcosmic.... For
the spiritual stone is Christ that fulfills all. So we also are parts of
the spiritual stone and such are also living stones, taken out of that
universal stone (a petra illa catholica excisi)...." (Summ. Bon., p. 20.)
Here again we have the alchemistic distinction between the universal and
the particular, and the like distinction is also expressed by the
opposition of the celestial and the terrestrial stones. The second chapter
of I Peter speaks of the living stone. I Corinthians X, 4, says likewise:
"And did all drink of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock
was Christ." Alchemistically expressed it is called aurum potabile
(drinkable gold).

"But," now you ask, "where then is all the gold with which those
alchemists [Fama] glitter so famously?" So we answer you.... "Our gold is
indeed not in any way the gold of the multitude, but it is the living
gold, the gold of God.... It is wisdom, which the psalmist means, Ps. XII,
6, 'The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.' If you now wish ... to put before yourself
the true and actual animal stone, then seek the cornerstone, which is the
means of all change and transformation, in yourself." (Summ. Bon., pp. 34
ff.)

"Finally the brother works towards the consummation of his labors in the
form of a master builder (_denique sub architecti figura operatur frater
ad huius operis perfectionem_).... Only for the better carrying out of our
building and thereby to attain the rose-red bloom of our cross concealed
in the center of our foundation ... we must not take the work
superficially, but must dig to the center of the earth, knock and seek."
(Summ. Bon., p. 48; Trans. Katsch, pp. 413 ff.) Just after that he speaks
of the three dimensions, height, depth, and breadth. The masonic symbolism
is accompanied clearly enough in the "Summum Bonum" by the a