Part 6 (1/2)

FREE-MASONS

/ _The curious history of Freeyrists or calumniators, both equally mendacious

I do not wish to pry into theto knowthe period when they were literally architects They are charged by an act of Parlia the price of their labor in their annual chapters, contrary to the statute of laborers, and such chapters were consequently prohibited This is their first persecution; they have since undergone others, and are perhaps reserved for still ally incorporated, like other traders; their bond of union being stronger than any charter_

--HENRY HALLAM, _The Middle Ages_ /

CHAPTER I

_Free-Masons_

I

Froes it es, was not a novelty Already, if we accept its own records, it was hoary with age, having co with it a reendary lore Also, it had in its keeping the same simple, eloquent emble religion, which it received as an inheritance and has transends of Masonry, as recited in its oldest documents, its symbols, older than the order itself, link it with the earliest thought and faith of the race No doubt those emblems lost some of their luster in the troublous time of transition we are about to traverse, but their beauty never wholly faded, and they had only to be touched to shi+ne

If not the actual successors of the Roreat order of Comacine Masters was founded upon its ruins, and continued its tradition both of sy to Rome after the death of Diocletian, we find them busy there under Constantine and Theodosius; and froe it is plain that their style of building at that time was very like that of the churches built at Hexhaland, and those of the Ravenna, also nearly contemporary They may not have been actually called Free-masons as early as Leader Scott insists they were,[65] but _they were free in fact_, traveling far and near where there ork to do, following the land When there was need for the naested by the fact that the cathedral-builders were quite distinct fro a universal order whereas the other was local and restricted Older than Guild-masonry, the order of the cathedral-builders was ious; and it is from this order that the Masonry of today is descended

Since the story of the Coer re period the order of Masons was at the height of its influence and power At that ti art stood above all other arts, andthe services of the reatest artists of the age Moreover, its sy before they ritten on parchment, if indeed they were ever recorded at all Efforts have been ners of the cathedrals, but it is in vain[66] Their enius and art High upon the cathedrals they left cartoons in stone, of which Findel gives a list,[67] portraying with searching satire abuses current in the Church Such figures and devices would not have been tolerated but for the strength of the order, and not even then had the Church knohat they e, lifts only a part of the past into view, leaving much that we should like to know in oblivion At this distance the Middle Ages wear an aspect of smooth uniformity of faith and opinion, but that is only one of the many illusions of time by which we are deceived What looks like uniformity was only conformity, and underneath its surface there was alht as there is today, albeit not so freely expressed Science itself, as well as religious ideas deeht seclusion; but the hureat secret order like Masonry, enjoying the protection of the Church, yet independent of it, invited freedoht and faith[68] The Masons, by the very nature of their art, came into contact with all classes of men, and they had opportunities to know the defects of the Church Far ahead of the y in education, in their travels to and fro, not only in Europe, but often extending to the far East, they becaious views They had learned to practice toleration, and their Lodges becae for those ere persecuted for the sake of opinion by bigoted fanaticism

While, as an order, the Comacine Masters served the Church as builders, the creed required for admission to their fraternity was never narrow, and, as we shall see, it became every year broader

Unless this fact be kept in mind, the influence of the Church upon Masonry, which no one seeks to erated Not until cathedral building began to decline by reason of the i wars, the dissolution of the reatly influence the order; and not even then to the extent of diverting it froinal and unique mission Other influences were at work betihts Te thean to be suspected of harboring heresy So tangled were the tendencies of that period that they are not easily followed, but the fact ees that Masonry rapidly broadened until its final break with the Church Hardly more than a veneer, by the tie of the impress of the Church had vanished never to return Critics of the order have been at pains to trace this tendency, not knowing, apparently, that by so doing they only lory of Masonry

II

Unfortunately, as so often happens, no records of old Craft-ht into stone, were un to decline; and for that reason such documents as have come down to us do not show it at its best Nevertheless, they range over a period of more than four centuries, and are justly held to be the title deeds of the Order Turning to these _Old Charges_ and _Constitutions_,[70] as they are called, we find a body of quaint and curious writing, both in poetry and prose, describing the Masonry of the late cathedral-building period, with glireater days of old Of these, there are ht, to be exact--ht since 1860, and all of them, it would seem, copies of documents still older Naturally they have suffered at the hands of unskilled or unlearned copyists, as is evident from errors, ees_ because they contained certain rules as to conduct and duties which, in a bygone time, were read or recited to a newly admitted member of the craft While they differ soend as to the origin of the order, its early history, its laws and regulations, usually beginning with an invocation and ending with an Aiven of the dates and characteristics of these docuest of what they have to tell us, first, of the Legend of the order; second, its early History; and third, its Moral teaching, its workings, and the duties of its members The first and oldest of the records is known as the _Regius MS_ which, owing to an error of David Casley who in his catalogue of the MSS in the King's Library marked it _A Poem of Moral Duties_, was overlooked until Jah not a Mason, Hallias attracted by the MS and read an essay on its contents before the Society of Antiquarians, after which he issued two editions bearing date of 1840 and 1844 Experts give it date back to 1390, that is to say, fifteen years after the first recorded use of the name _Free_-mason in the history of the Company of Masons of the City of London, in 1375[71]

More poetical in spirit than in for of the nu work, ”that they s therby” Euclid was consulted, and recoin of the order is found ”yn Egypte lande” Then, by a quick shi+ft, we are landed in England ”yn tye Adelstonus day,” who is said to have called an assembly of Masons, when fifteen articles and as reed upon as rules of the craft, each point being duly described The rules rese with the legend of the Four Crowned Martyrs, as an incentive to fidelity Then the writer takes up again the question of origins, going back this ti the tower of Babylon and the great skill of Euclid, who is said to have commenced ”the syens seven” The seven sciences are then naic, Rhetoric, Music, Astronomy, Arithmetic, Geometry, and each explained Rich reward is held out to those who use the seven sciences aright, and the MS proper closes with the benediction:

/P Amen! Amen! so mote it be!

So say we all for Charity

P/

There follows a kind of appendix, evidently added by a priest, consisting of one hundred lines in which pious exhortation is mixed with instruction in etiquette, such as lads and even men unaccustomed to polite society and correct deportreat part extracted from _Instructions for Parish Priests_, by Mirk, a manual in use at the time The whole poem, if so it ladness, of social good will; so much so, that both Gould and Albert Pike think it points to the existence of symbolic Masonry at the date fro by so the art, of Masonry They would find intimation of the independent existence of speculative Masonry thus early, in a society from whom all but the memory or tradition of its ancient craft had departed One hesitates to differ riters so able and distinguished, yet this inference seems far-fetched, if not forced Of the existence of symbolic Masonry at that time there is no doubt, but of its independent existence it is not easy to find even a hint in this old poem Nor would the poeuild, whereas the spirit of genial, joyous coh it is of the very essence of Masonry, and has ever been present when Masonsfrom the early part of the fifteenth century, and first published in 1861 If we apply the laws of higher-criticiss appear, as obvious as they are interesting Not only is it a copy of an older record, like all the MSS we have, but it is either an effort to join two docuarded as a long preamble to the manuscript which forms the second part For the two are quite unlike indiffuse, with copious quotations and references to authorities,[72] while the second is simple, direct, unadorned, and does not even allude to the Bible Also, it is evident that the co to harin of the order, one tracing it through Egypt and the other through the Hebrews; and it is hard to tell which tradition he favors most Hence a duplication of the traditional history, and an odd mixture of names and dates, often, indeed, absurd, as when hefound an old Constitution of the Craft, he thought to write a kind of co proofs and illustrations of his own, though he did not e his materials very successfully