Cathedrals Built by Masons

 

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.