Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages.

No doubt there were some organizations of bridge builders in the Middle Ages but there is no evidence that they had any relation to the Freemasons in England, or to other fraternities of Masons, such as the Steinmetzen of Germany or the Compagnonnage of France. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. states under the title, Bridgebuilding Brotherhood. ”a confraternity (Fratres Pontifices) that arose in the South of France during the latter part of the 12th century, and maintained hospices at the chief fords of the principal rivers, besides building bridges and looking after ferries. The brotherhood was recognized by P*pe Clement III in 1189 ” Encyclopedia Americana, 1940 ed. states under the same title: ”a fraternal, r*ligious order formed in the 12th century in southern France. Its object was the building of bridges and the keeping of ferries. Tradition connects its origin with Saint Benezet, through whose effort a bridge across the Rhone at Avignon was begun in 1117. After the completion of this bridge in 1185 the order received the sanction of Clement III. The order was dissolved by P*ius II.” (P*ius II became P*pe in August, 1458.)

It is, indeed, strange that the scholarship of the modern Masonic Fraternity should be so much more profound than that of the British and American encyclopedists as to find bridge builders, not only scattered throughout Europe, but also to trace their origin back to the Freemasons and to a class of Freemasons that probably never existed, viz, the so-called Travelling Freemasons (q.v.), they, too, being equipped with P*pal authority. A common device is to connect those bridge builders on the Rhone River with the Pontifex Maximus, the College of Pontiffs, and the Pontifices by simple declaration, after which, all the esoteric lore relating to those institutions is inferentially made equally applicable to the bridge builders and possibly to Freemasons in distant England and Scotland.

Though it probably serves no useful purpose, we may, in order to show a scholarly interest in ancient non-Masonic material, call attention to the title, Pontifex, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., where it is pointed out that the name comes from the Latin pons and facere, (to make a bridge), and that this name became attached to a certain order of the pr*esthood, headed by the Pontifex Maximus, (Principal Bridge Builder). But, while we know that Pontiff finally came to designate the B*shop of Rome, who gradually became recognized as chief B*shop or P*pe, the connection between the ch*rch and the bridges, between the pr*ests or cl*rics and river crossings seems to be completely lost. It probably arose, as names often do, from circumstances of too little importance at the time to create permanent records. The Freemasons left innumerable examples of the finest specimens of architecture ever devised, but no one has offered an example of a single bridge built by these ubiquitous bridge builders; not even that at Avignon, which seems to have consisted largely of tradition. The Freemasons also left written documents; the bridge builders left none. The records of the Freemasons mentioned no bridge builders; the bridge builders wrote nothing about Freemasons. See ARCHITECTURE.