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FREEMASONRY
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FREEMASONRY
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According to an old " See also:Charge " delivered to initiates, Freemasonry is declared to be an " See also:ancient and See also:honourable institution: ancient no doubt it is, as having subsisted from See also:time immemorial; and honourable it must be acknowledged to be, as by a natural tendency it conduces to make those so who are obedient to its precepts
.
. . to so high an See also:eminence has its See also:credit been advanced that in every See also:age Monarchs them-selves have been promoters of the See also:art, have not thought it derogatory from their dignity to See also:exchange the See also:sceptre for the See also:trowel, have patronised our mysteries and joined in our Assemblies." For many years the See also:craft has been conducted without respect to clime, See also:colour, See also:caste or creed
.
See also:History.—The precise origin of the society has yet to be ascertained, but is not likely to be, as the See also:early records are lost; there is, however, ample See also:evidence remaining to justify the claim for its antiquity and its honourable See also:character
.
Much has been written as to its eventful past, based upon actual records, but still more which has served only to amuse or repel inquirers, and led not a few to believe that the fraternity has no trustworthy history
.
An unfavourable See also:opinion of the historians of the craft generally may fairly have been held during the 18th and early in the 19th centuries, but happily since the See also:middle of the latter See also:century quite a different principle has animated those brethren who have sought to make the facts of masonic history known to the brotherhood, as well as See also:worth the study of students in See also:general
.
The See also:idea that it would require an investigator to be a member of the " mystic tie " in See also:order to qualify as a reader of masonic history has been exploded
.
The evidences collected concerning the institution during the last five See also:hundred years, or more, may now be examined and tested in the most severe manner by See also:literary and See also:critical experts (whether opposed orfavourable to the See also:body), who cannot fail to accept the claims made as to its See also:great antiquity and continuity, as the lineal descendant of those craftsmen who raised the cathedrals and other great See also:English buildings during the middle ages
.
It is only needful to refer to the old See also:works on freemasonry, and to compare them with the accepted histories of the See also:present time, to be assured that such strictures as above are more than justified
.
The premier See also:work on the subject was published in See also:London in 1723, the Rev
.
See also:
. See also: Probably not, as existing records of the See also:period preserve a See also:sphinx-like silence thereon . Likewise there were many scores of lodges at work in See also:Scotland, and undoubtedly in See also:Ireland the craft was widely patronized . Whatever the ceremonies may have been which were then known as Freemasonry in Great See also:Britain and Ireland, they were practically alike, and the See also:venerable Old Charges or MS. constitutions, dating back several centuries, were rightly held by them as the title-deeds of their masonic See also:inheritance . It was a bold thing to do, thus to start a governing body for the fraternity quite different in many respects to all preceding organizations, and to See also:brand as irregular all lodges which declined 1 If history be no ancient See also:Fable Free Masons came from See also:Tower of See also:Babel . (" The Freemasons; an Hudibrastic poem," London, 1723.) 2 The Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry and See also:Medieval Builders, by Mr G . F . Fort (U.S.A.), and the See also:Cathedral Builders: The Magestri Comacini, by " See also:Leader See also:Scott " (the See also:late Mrs See also:Baxter), take rather a different view on this point and ably present their arguments . The Rev . C . See also:Kingsley in See also:Roman and Teuton writes of the Comacini, " Perhaps the original germ of the great society of Freemasons." to accept such authority; but the very originality and audacity of its promoters appears to have led to its success, and it was not See also:long before most of the lodges of the pre-Grand-Lodge era joined and accepted " constitution " by See also:warrant of the Grand Master . Not only so, but Ireland quickly followed the See also:lead, so early as 1725 there being a Grand Lodge for that country which must have been formed even still earlier, and probably by lodges started before any were authorized in the Englisn counties . In Scotland the See also:change was not made until 1i36, many lodges even then holding aloof from such an organization . Indeed, out of some hundred lodges known to have been active then, only See also:thirty-three responded and agreed to fall into See also:line, though several joined later; some, however, kept See also:separate down to the end of the 19th century, while others never See also:united . Many of these lodges have records of the 17th century though not then newly formed; one in particular, the See also:oldest (the Lodge of See also:Edinburgh, No . 1), possesses minutes so far back as the year 1599 . It is important to See also:bear in mind that all the regular lodges throughout the world, and likewise all the Grand Lodges, directly or indirectly, have sprung from one or other of the three governing bodies named; Ireland and Scotland following the example set by their masonic mother of England in having Grand Lodges of their own . It is not proved how the latter two became acquainted with Freemasonry as a See also:secret society, guided more or less by the operative MS . Constitutions or Charges See also:common to the three bodies, not met with elsewhere; but the credit of a Grand Lodge being established to See also:control the lodges belongs to England . It may be a startling See also:declaration, but it is well authenticated, that there is no other Freemasonry, as the term is now understood, than what which has been so derived . In other words, the lodges and Grand Lodges in both hemispheres trace their origin and authority back to England for working what are known as the Three Degrees, controlled by regular Grand Lodges . That being so, a history of modern Freemasonry, the See also:direct offspring of the See also:British parents aforesaid, should first of all establish the descent of the three Grand Lodges from the Freemasonry of earlier days; such continuity, of five centuries or more, being a sine qua non of antiquity and regularity . It will be found that from the early part of the 18th century back to the 16th century existing records testify to the assemblies of lodges, mainly operative, but partly speculative, in Great Britain, whose guiding stars and common heritage were the Old Charges, and that when their actual minutes and transactions cease to be traced by See also:reason of their loss, these same MS . Constitutions furnish testimony of the still older working of such combinations of freemasons or masons, without the assistance, countenance or authority of any other masonic body; consequently such documents still preserved, of the 14th and later centuries (numbering about seventy, mostly in See also:form of rolls), with the existing lodge minutes referred to of the 16th century, down to the See also:establishment of the premier Grand Lodge in 1717, prove the continuity of the society . Indeed so universally has this claim been admitted, that in popular usage the term Free-mason is only now applied to those who belong to this particular fraternity, that of mason being applicable to one who follows that See also:trade, or honourable calling, as a builder . There is no evidence that during this long period any other organization of any See also:kind, religious, philosophical, mystical or otherwise, materially or even slightly influenced the customs of the fraternity, though they may have done so; but so far as is known the lodges were of much the same character through-out, and consisted really of operatives (who enjoyed practically a See also:monopoly for some time of the trade as masons or freemasons), and, in part, of " speculatives," i.e. noblemen, gentlemen and men of other trades, who were admitted as honorary members . Assuming then that the freemasons of the present day are the See also:sole inheritors of the See also:system arranged at the so-called " Revival of 1717," which was a development from an operative body to one partly speculative, and that, so far back as the MS . Records extend and furnish any See also:light, they must have worked in Lodges in secret throughout the period noted, a history of Freemasonryshould be mainly devoted to giving particulars, as far as possible, of the lodges, their traditions, customs and laws, based upon actual documents which can be tested and verified by members and non-members alike . It has been the See also:rule to treat, more or less fully, of the See also:influence exerted on the fraternity by the Ancient Mysteries, the See also:Essenes, Roman Colleges, See also:Culdees, Hermeticism, . Fehm-Gerichte et hoc genus omne, especially the Steinmetzen, the Craft See also:Gilds and the Companionage of France, &c.; but in view of the separate and See also:independent character of the freemasons, it appears to be quite unnecessary, and the time so employed would be better devoted to a more thorough See also:search after additional evidences of the activity of the craft, especially during the See also:crucial period overlap-ping the second See also:decade of the 18th century, so as to discover in-formation as to the transmitted secrets of the medieval masons, which, after all, may simply have been what Gaspard See also:Monge felicitously entitles " Descriptive See also:Geometry, or the Art and See also:Science of Masonic Symbolism." The rules and regulations of the masons were embodied in what are known as the Old Charges; the See also:senior known copy being the Regius MS . (British Museum Bibl . Reg . 17 A, i.), which, however, is not so exclusively devoted to See also:masonry as the later copies . See also:David Casley, in his See also:catalogue of the See also:MSS. in the King's Library (1734), unfortunately styled the little See also:gem A Poem of Moral Duties; and owing to this misdescription its true character was not recognized until the year 1839, and then by a non-mason (Mr Halliwell-Phillipps), who had it reproduced in 1840 and brought out an improved edition in 1844 . Its date has been approximately fixed at 1390 by Casley and other authorities . The curious See also:legend of the craft, therein made known, deals first of all with the number of unemployed in early days and the See also:necessity of finding work, " that they myght gete here lyvynge therby." See also:Euclid was consulted, and recommended the " onest craft of See also:good masonry," and the See also:genesis of the society is found " yn Egypte lande." By a rapid transition, but " mony erys afterwarde," we are told that the " Craft See also:corn ynto England yn tyme of good kynge Adelstonus (IEthelstan) day," who called an See also:assembly of the masons, when fifteen articles and as many more points were agreed to for the See also:government of the craft, each being duly described . Each brother was instructed that " He must love wel See also:God, and See also:holy Churche algate And hys mayster also, that he ys wythe." " The thrydde poynt must be severle .
With the prentes knowe hyt wele,
Hys mayster cownsel he kepe and See also:close,
And hys felows by hys goode purpose;
The prevetyse of the chamber telle he no mon, Ny yn the logge whatsever they done,
Whatsever See also:thou heryst, or syste hem do,
Telle hyt no mon, whersever thou go."
The rules generally, besides referring to trade regulations, are as a whole suggestive of the Ten Commandments in an extended form, winding up with the legend of the Ars quatuor coronatorum, as an incentive to a faithful See also:discharge of the numerous obligations
.
A second part introduces a more lengthy See also:account of the origin of masonry, in which See also:Noah's See also:flood and the Tower of See also:Babylon are mentioned as well as the great skill of Euclid, who
" Through hye See also:grace of Crist yn heven,
He commensed yn the syens seven ' ,
The " seven sciences " are duly named and explained
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The compiler apparently was a See also:priest, line 629 See also:reading " And, when ye See also:gospel me cede schal," thus also accounting for the many religious injunctions in the MS.; the last hundred lines are evidently based upon Urbanitatis (Cott
.
MS
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Caligula A 11, fol
.
88) and Instructions for a See also:Parish Priest (Cott
.
MS
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See also:Claudius A 11, fol
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27), instructions such as lads and even men would need who were ignorant of the customs of polite society, correct deportment at See also:
23,198, British Museum), because See also:Matthew Cooke published a See also:fair See also:reproduction of the document in 1861; and it is deemed by competent paleographers to date from the first part of the 15th century
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There are two versions of the Old Charges in this little book, See also:purchased for the British Museum in 1859
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The compiler was probably a mason and See also:familiar with several copies of these MS
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Constitutions, two of which he utilizes and comments upon; he quotes from a MS. copy of the Policronicon the manner in which a written account of the sciences was preserved in the two historic stones at the time of the Flood, and generally makes known the traditions of the society as well as the laws which were to govern the members
.
Its introduction into England through See also:Egypt is noted (where the See also:Children of See also:Israel " lernyd ye craft of Masonry "), also the " lande of behest " (Jerusalem) and the See also:Temple of Solomon (who " confirmed ye chargys yt David his Fadir " had made)
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Then masonry in France is interestingly described; and St Alban and " iEthelstane with his yongest See also:sone " (the Edwin of the later MSS.) became the chosen mediums subsequently, as with the other Charges, portions of the Old Testament are often cited in order to convey a correct idea to the See also:neophyte, who is to hear the document read, as to these sciences which are declared to be free in themselves (ire in hem selfe)
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Of all crafts followed by See also:man in this world " Masonry bathe the moste notabilite," as See also:con-firmed by " Elders that were bi for_us of masons [who] had these chargys wryten," and " as is write and taught in ye boke of our charges."
Until quite recently no representative or survival of this particular version had been traced, but in 1890 one was discovered of 1687 (since known as the See also: These scrolls give considerable information as to the traditions and customs of the craft, together with the regulations for its government, and were required to be read to apprentices long after the See also:peculiar rules ceased to be acted upon, each lodge apparently having one or more copies kept for the purpose . The old Lodge of See also:Aberdeen ordered in 167o that the Charge was to be " read at ye entering of everie entered prenteise "; another at See also:Alnwick in 1701 provided " Noe Mason shall take any apprentice [but he must] Enter him and give him his Charge, within one whole year after ' , ' The service rendered by Dr W . Begemann (Germany) in his " See also:Attempt to Classify the Old Charges of the British Masons (vol . 1 Trans. of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, London) has been very great, and the researches of the Rev . A . F . A . See also:Woodford and G . W . Speth have also been of the utmost consequence.and still another at Swallwell (now No . 48 See also:Gateshead) demanded that " the Apprentices shall have their Charge given at the time of Registering, or within thirty days after "; the minutes inserting such entries accordingly even so late as 1754, nearly twenty years after the lodge had See also:cast in its See also:lot with the Grand Lodge of England . Their See also:Christian character is further emphasized by the "First Charge that you shall be true men to God and the holy Church "; the York MS . No . 6 beseeches the brethren " at every meeting and assembly they pray heartily for all Christians "; the See also:Melrose MS . No . 2 (1674) mentions " Merchants and all other Christian men," and the Aberdeen MS . (167o) terms the invocation " A Prayer before the Meeting." Until the Grand Lodge era, Freemasonry was thus wholly Christian . The York MS . No . 4 of 1693 contains a singular See also:error in the admonitory lines: " The [n] one of the elders takeing the Booke and that . hee or See also:shee that is to be made mason, shall See also:lay their hands thereon and the charge shall be given." This particular reading was cited by Hughan in 1871, but was considered doubtful; Findel,2 however, confirmed it, on his visit to York under the guidance of the celebrated masonic student the late Rev . A . F . A .
Woodford
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The See also:mistake was due possibly to the transcriber, who had an older See also:roll before him, confusing " they," sometimes written " the," with " she," or reading that portion, which is often in Latin, as ille vel ills, instead of ille vel illi
.
In some of the Codices, about the middle of the 17th century and later, New Articles are inserted, such as would be suitable for an organization similar to the Masons' See also:Company of Loudon, which had one, at least, of the Old Charges in its See also:possession ac-cording to inventories of 1665 and 1676; and likewise in 1722, termed The Book of the Constitutions of the Accepted Masons
.
See also:Save its mention (" Book wrote on See also:parchment ") by See also:Sir See also:Francis See also:Palgrave in the Edinburgh See also:Review (See also:April 1839) as being in existence " not long since," this valuable document has been lost sight of for many years
.
That there were signs and other secrets preserved and used by the brethren throughout this mainly operative period may be gathered from discreet references in these old MSS
.
The Institutions in parchment (22nd of See also:November 1696) of the See also:Dumfries See also:Kilwinning Lodge (No
.
53, Scotland) contain a copy of the See also:oath taken " when any man should be made ":
" These Charges which we now reherse to you and all others Ye
secrets and misterys belonging to free masons you shall
faithfully and truly keep, together with ye Counsell of ye
assembly or lodge, or any other lodge, or brother, or See also:fellow."
" Then after ye oath taken and the book kissed " (i.e. the See also:Bible) the " precepts" are read, the first being:-
" You shall be true men to God and his holy Church, and that
you do not 'countenance or maintaine any eror, See also:faction,
See also:schism or herisey, in ye church to ye best of our under-
See also:standing."- (History of No
.
S3, by James See also:
See also:Mus.) is still more explicit, termed The ffree Masons Orders and Constitutions, and is in the See also:handwriting of Randle Holme (author of the Academie of Armory, 1688), who was a member of a lodge in See also:Cheshire
.
Following the MS
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Constitutions, in the same handwriting, about 16so,, is a scrap of See also:paper with the See also:obligation:
" There is sevrall words and signes of a free Mason to be revailed to yu wch as yu will answr. before God at the Great and terrible day of judgmt. yu keep secret and not to revaile the same to any in the heares of any p'son, but to the Mrs and See also:fellows of the Society of Free Masons, so helpe me God, &c." (W
.
H
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See also:Rylands, Mas
.
Mag., 1882.)
2 Findel claims that his See also:Treatise on the society was the cause which " first impelled England to the study of masonic history and ushered in the intellectual See also:movement which resulted in the writings of Bros
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Hughan, See also:Lyon, See also:Gould and others." Greatcredit was due to the late See also:German author for his important work, but before its See also:advent the Rev
.
A
.
F
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A
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Woodford, D
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See also:
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It is not yet settled who were the actual designers or architects ~ them " Cowans," a course justified by the king's Maister of of the grand old English cathedrals
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Credit has been claimed Work," William Schaw, whose Statutis and Ordinanceis (28th See also:December 1598) required that " Na maister or fellow of craft ressaue any cowanis to wirk in his societie or companye, nor send See also:nave of his servants to wirk wt. cowanis, under the See also:pane of twentie pounds." Gradually, however, the rule was relaxed, in time such monopoly practically ceased, and the word "cowan " is only known in connexion with spectelative Freemasonry
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Sir See also:Walter Scott, as a member of Lodge St David (No
.
36), was familiar with the word and used it in Rob See also:Roy
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In 1707 a cowan was described in the minutes of Mother Lodge Kilwinning, as a mason " without the word," thus one who was not a free mason (History of the Lodge of Edinburgh No. r, by D
.
Murray Lyon, 1900)
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In the New English See also:Dictionary (See also:Oxford, vol. iv., 1897) under " Freemason " it is noted that three views have been propounded:--(r) " The See also:suggestion that free-mason stands for free-See also: (4) Perhaps the best See also:hypothesis is that the term refers to the medieval practice of emancipating skilled artisans, in order that they might be able to travel and render their services wherever any great See also:building was in See also:process of construction." The late secretary of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge (No . 2076, London) has thus had his view sanctioned by " the highest tribunal in the See also:Republic of Letters so far as See also:Philology is concerned " (Dr W . J . Chetwode Crawley in Ara Quatuor Coronatorum, 1898) . Still it cannot be denied that members of lodges in the 16th and following centuries exercised the See also:privilege of making free masons and denied the freedom of working to cowans (also called un-freemen) who had not been so made free; " the Masownys of the luge " being the only ones recognized as freemasons . As to the prefix being derived from the word See also:frere, a sufficient See also:answer is the fact that frequent reference is made to " Brother freemasons," so that no ground for that supposition exists (cf. articles by Mr Gould in the Freemason for See also:September 1898 on " Free and Freemasonry ") . There are numerous indications of masonic activity in the British lodges of the 17th century, especially in Scotland; the existing records, however, of the See also:southern part of the United See also:Kingdom, though few, are of importance, some only having been made known in See also:recent years . These concern the Masons' Company of London, whose valuable minutes and other documents are ably described and commented upon by Edward See also:Conder, jr., in his Hole Crafte and Fellowship of Masons (1894), the author then being the Master of that ancient company . It was incorporated in 1677 by Charles II., who graciously met the wishes of the members, but as a company the information " that is to be found in the See also:Corporation Records at See also: |