I had the opportunity to meet the Author Russell Herner
of “Cathedrals Built by Masons” at the North Central Grand York Rite Conference
October 26, 2019, in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Where he gave a very passionate
presentation covering the contents of his book.
For over thirty years Russell made fifteen trips to
England and Europe. Russell first became fascinated with Cathedrals on his
first trip in 1969 to England Salisbury Cathedral. He said “I first walked in,
and Wow how did they do this? and it just intrigued me. How could they build
these Cathedrals 800, 900 years ago”?
Russell started giving out some mind-boggling fact of
the Cathedrals:
The longest Cathedral is the Canterbury Cathedral in
England. It is more than a tenth of mile long or about as long as a city block.
The tallest Cathedral is the Ulm Minster in Germany. The
steeple reaches 530 feet.
The Metz Cathedral in Lorraine France has 70,000
square feet of stained-glass windows. That’s more than 1.5 acres of glass.
Russell had on display a variety of stone masons
chisels, gouges, clawed bolsters, stone claws, smoothing planes, saws and
setting mauls. He also had a fine collection of carpenter’s tools. Many of the
tools dated back to the 1600s. It was fun to see and hold them as Russell
explained how the craftsmen used them. Im sure each tool had a story if they
could of talked.
He also demonstrated how an operative mason would
place the layout of the building on the site using two principals; How to
establish the Cathedrals sacred orientation towards the East based on the
rising sun and establishing the alter stone. And how a operative mason would
lay out the design of the cathedral floor using the Pythagorean Theorem
Triangle.
At the conclusion of Russel’s presentation, he had
copies of his book for sale. I must admit that I had an opportunity to reconnoiter
it earlier in the day. I loved the book for it is printed on chrome paper, and
it’s a larger format. The book is 240 pages with 259 beautiful colored photos that
will take you on a photographic tour capturing the splendor of thirty
cathedrals in England, France, Germany and Washington D.C.
I had just returned from England where I had visited
many of the Cathedrals that I saw in the book. The photos in the book truly
captures the beauty of the carved stone arches, the clustered columns, flying
buttress, spires, vaulted ceilings, and oh the magnificent stained-glass
windows.
He tells us the wonderful story of the monumental task
of how the Master Builders designed and constructed these glorious cathedrals
during the Middle Ages. While illuminating the quality and the highly technical
skills exhibited by the stonemason.
The book “Cathedrals Built by Masons” is the
culmination of more than fifty years of research and fifteen trips by Russell
Herner. For me this book is more than just another book of pretty pictures what
makes it special for me is that Russell is a Past Master of Roby Lodge #534 in
Monroeville Ohio, and he tells the story of the Operative Mason demonstrating
many of the known ancient construction methods and revealing what the stone
mason regarded as the mysteries and secrets of the trade. And Russel contends
how our Speculative freemasonry descends from them and devotes much researched
material to make his case.
I must apologize for this late posting. Today I went
to use Cathedrals Built by Masons for a Lodge Education lecture as I have done
many times since 2019. I went to my blog to refresh myself with the photo I had
taken of Russell. I realized that I had not posted review. For this my most sincere
apologies.
It’s a great book that I always come back to for
reference, and for the wonderful photos of some of the Cathedrals I have
visited.
