Companions of Duty

The Companions of Duty

Druids passed down all their information to this group of builders before the cathedral burned down. Pascal Leguarde infiltrated this group to learn everything he could (copied all the information). Before leaving the group. We believe this group is not part of any Arcana

The group we know:

1. Eric
2. Matthieu
3. Dominico
4. Eric (teenager)

Information copied from google...

Les Compagnons du Devoir, until recently little known even in Europe, is a lay community for French artisans organized under a secret Rule at least six hundred years ago and still in existence. Its members aspire to rectify some of the deviations from which their consciences suffer and to become an example to the multitudes of other workers.

Each one spends his professional life subject to the ordinary con­ditions of existence as a carpenter, a mason, farmer, plumber, metal-worker, shoemaker, draper, milliner or whatever. Return­ing to the community in the evening, he adapts to a program of activities and rituals which establish his right place in the commu­nal hierarchy and are specially devised for his training or master- ship as a man.

Houses were established by the Order in the principal cities of , including , the original capital of the Order, , , , , . In these houses, the young artisans lived and took their meals under the guidance and protection of a Mother, chosen for her exceptional character, as­sisted by a doctor, an employment officer and others. One of the practices, the Tour de France, made it an obligatory part of his training for everyone to spend some months at his trade in each of these cities. Eventually, each worker has to give himself the final test—in an era when the world no longer gives it—of producing a worthy piece of work by hand. This “‘masterwork”‘ becomes a means for meditating on the deep meaning of all human work, and after the test the Companion is regarded by his brothers as “‘Fin­ished.”‘ The conscience of the Finished Man is opened and the awareness of its movement in him is said to be added to what moves in him as he works at his trade. One movement does not stand in the way of the other. The two movements together integrate the Man’s complete force. His trade becomes what it is meant to be, a natural service to society accomplished in full knowledge of its cause, Himself.

The Compagnonnage was reformed and revived in the first part of the nineteenth century and has survived the industrial revo*lution*in *France and the growth of the trade union movement, many of whose benefits it anticipated. It is tempting to imagine the appearance of a similar (and much needed) Order among the workers in . But here a new revolution is already taking place, as “‘white collar”‘ workers—clerks, draftsmen, laboratory assistants, etc., using their heads more than their hands—already greatly outnumber manufacturing employees. Managements of large corporations are concerned, from the point of view of func­tional efficiency, about the morale of these people, who perform repetitive jobs analogous to assembly-line operations. Many of the more resourceful ones compensate for their sedentary work by en­gaging in crafts and hobbies at home. But this is only a partial answer to the fundamental question. Will the modern Finished Man be able to learn to regard his own thoughts as external mate­rial to be worked on worthily as he sits at his desk?*

*The following essays, translated from editorial articles in the monthly journal of*Les Compagnons du Devoir *in Paris,\* deal with the whole question of what is work*in *the contemporary mass production culture, and with the need to bring the idea of quality back into the minds of “‘blue collar”‘ workers, especially through the mastery of traditional crafts.*

http://www.farwesteditions.com/mft/Companions.htm