There is no necessity to extend examples any further.  There is no doubt that the use of the gloves in Masonry is a symbolic idea borrowed from the ancient and universal language of symbolism, and was intended, like the apron, to denote the necessity of purity of life.

We have thus traced the gloves and the apron to the same symbolic source.  Let us see if we cannot also derive them from the same historic origin.

The apron evidently owes its adoption in Freemasonry to the use of that necessary garment by the operative masons of the middle ages.  It is one of the most positive evidences—­indeed we may say, absolutely, the most tangible evidence—­of the derivation of our speculative science from an operative art.  The builders, who associated in companies, who traversed Europe, and were engaged in the construction of palaces and cathedrals, have left to us, as their descendants, their name, their technical language, and that distinctive piece of clothing by which they protected their garments from the pollutions of their laborious employment.  Did they also bequeath to us their gloves?  This is a question which some modern discoveries will at last enable us to solve.

M. Didron, in his “Annales Archeologiques,” presents us with an engraving, copied from the painted glass of a window in the cathedral of Chartres, in France.  The painting was executed in the thirteenth century, and represents a number of operative masons at work. Three of them are adorned with laurel crowns.  May not these be intended to represent the three officers of a lodge?  All of the Masons wear gloves.  M. Didron remarks that in the old documents which he has examined, mention is often made of gloves which are intended to be presented to masons and stone-cutters.  In a subsequent number of the “Annales,” he gives the following three examples of this fact:—­

In the year 1331, the Chatelan of Villaines, in Duemois, bought a considerable quantity of gloves, to be given to the workmen, in order, as it is said, “to shield their hands from the stone and lime.”

In October, 1383, as he learns from a document of that period, three dozen pairs of gloves were bought and distributed to the masons when they commenced the buildings at the Chartreuse of Dijon.

And, lastly, in 1486 or 1487, twenty-two pair of gloves were given to the masons and stone-cutters who were engaged in work at the city of Amiens.

It is thus evident that the builders—­the operative masons—­of the middle ages wore gloves to protect their hands from the effects of their work.  It is equally evident that the speculative masons have received from their operative predecessors the gloves as well as the apron, both of which, being used by the latter for practical uses, have been, in the spirit of symbolism, appropriated by the former to “a more noble and glorious purpose.”

XXI.