; until, in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, it assumed its present organization. The details would
require more time for their recapitulation than the limits of the present
work will permit.

But my object is not so much to give a connected history of the progress
of Freemasonry as to present a rational view of its origin and an
examination of those important modifications which, from time to time,
were impressed upon it by external influences, so as to enable us the more
readily to appreciate the true character and design of its symbolism.

Two salient points, at least, in its subsequent history, especially invite
attention, because they have an important bearing on its organization, as
a combined speculative and operative institution.

VIII.

The Travelling Freemasons of the Middle Ages.

The first of these points to which I refer is the establishment of a body
of architects, widely disseminated throughout Europe during the middle
ages under the avowed name of _Travelling Freemasons_. This association of
workmen, said to have been the descendants of the Temple Masons, may be
traced by the massive monuments of their skill at as early a period as the
ninth or tenth century; although, according to the authority of Mr. Hope,
who has written elaborately on the subject, some historians have found the
evidence of their existence in the seventh century, and have traced a
peculiar masonic language in the reigns of Charlemagne of France and
Alfred of England.

It is to these men, to their preeminent skill in architecture, and to
their well-organized system as a class of workmen, that the world is
indebted for those magnificent edifices which sprang up in such
undeviating principles of architectural form during the middle ages.

"Wherever they came," says Mr. Hope, "in the suite of missionaries, or
were called by the natives, or arrived of their own accord, to seek
employment, they appeared headed by a chief surveyor, who governed the
whole troop, and named one man out of every ten, under the name of warden,
to overlook the nine others, set themselves to building temporary huts[35]
for their habitation around the spot where the work was to be carried on,
regularly organized their different departments, fell to work, sent for
fresh supplies of their brethren as the object demanded, and, when all was
finished, again raised their encampment, and went elsewhere to undertake
other jobs." [36]

This society