Of particular interest to us is a brief chapter dealing with the marks of the Stonemason.

I include it here for your enlightenment. Enjoy the whole book as well.

 

                                       

“These were signs by which journeyman stonemasons in the Middle Ages distinguished their finished work. They are to be found carved on many German cathedrals and other mediaeval buildings.

 

The Masonic lodges were powerful guilds of stonemasons, the chief one being the Masonic lodge of Strasburg, which had authority over all the other lodges of the German speaking countries. The members of these guilds were strongly bound together in their work. Originally these Masonic lodges were entirely controlled by the church, but they shook themselves free from the influence of religion. For a long time however they still remained powerful societies of men remarkable for their principles and adherence to the church.

 

On the completion of his apprenticeship the journeyman received a sign, conferred upon him by his master. This sign was taken from a so-called Mother Figure, which differed in each Masonic lodge. These different Mother Figures were based upon triangulation and squaring, the trefoil and the quatrefoil. From these signs we can tell exactly whence the wandering journeymen came, who worked on any particular building. Disgraceful conduct might lead to a mason being deprived of his sign and excluded from his lodge. The first duty of a journeyman when he came under a new master, in the course of his travels was to construct the sign of his own Mother Lodge before his assembled colleagues in the lodge room and then to explain it symbolically. Master Masons were allowed to enclose their own signs within a shield.”