Part 13 (1/2)

[144] Nor was that all In 1735 it was resolved in the Grand Lodge ”that in the future all Grand Officers (except Grand Master) shall be selected out of that body”-- Already the Craft had let go its power to elect the Wardens, and now the choice of the Grand Master was narrowed to the ranks of an oligarchy in its worst form--a queer outcome of Masonic equality Threethat they ”e,” with special jewels, etc Naturally this bred discontent and apprehension, and justly so

[145] Often we speak of ”the York Rite,” as though it were the oldest and truest foruish one branch of Masonry fro, there is no such thing as a York Rite The name is more a tribute of reverence than a description of fact

[146] _Masonic Facts and Fictions_, by Henry Sadler

[147] _Atholl Lodges_, by RF Gould

[148] Williah in 1742, and came as a journeyman printer to London in 1760, where he made himself conversant with the history, laws, and rites of the Craft, being ood speaker, and frequently addressed the Lodges of the city After his blunder of seceding had been forgiven, he was honored with ave him time to pursue his studies Later he wrote the _Freemason's Callender_, an appendix to the _Book of Constitutions_, a _History of Masonry_, and, most famous of all, _Illustrations of Masonry_, which passed through a score of editions Besides, he had much to do with the development of the Ritual

[149] The history of the Ritual is , and should be written in more detail (_History of Masonry_, by Steinbrenner, chap

vii, ”The Ritual”) An article giving a brief story of it appeared in the _Masonic Monthly_, of Boston, Noveland Craftsman_, vol vii, and still later in the _Bulletin of Iowa Masonic Library_, vol xv, April, 1914) This article is valuable as showing the growth of the Ritual--as much by subtraction as by addition--and especially the introduction into it of Christian iery and interpretation, first by Martin Clare in 1732, and by Duckerley and Hutchinson later One need only turn to _The Spirit of Masonry_, by Hutchinson (1802), to see how far this tendency had gone when at last checked in 1813 At that time a committeeMasons, and the ultienerally in use in this country (See a valuable article by Dr Mackey on ”The Lectures of Freemasonry,”

_American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry_, vol ii, p 297) What a pity that this _Review_ died of too es_, by Gould; also Kipling's poe the articles of union, it was agreed that Freerees, ”_including the Holy Royal Arch_” The present study does not contemplate a detailed study of Capitular Masonry, which has its own history and historians (_Origin of the English Rite_, Hughan), except to say that it seeun about 1738-40, the concensus of opinion differing as to whether it began in England or on the Continent (”Royal Arch Masonry,” by CP

Noar, _Manchester Lodge of Research_, vol iii, 1911-12) Lawrence Dere about thirty years before the Grand Lodge of England took it up in 1770-76, when Thoe and introduce it

Dermott held it to be ”the very essence of Masonry,” and he was not slow in using it as a club hich to belabor the Moderns; but he did not originate it, as sorees before he came to London, perhaps in an unsysteinal Grand Masonic word fro another in its stead

Enough to say that Royal Arch Masonry is authentic Masonry, being a further elaboration in draree, of the spirit and motif of old Craft Masonry (_History of Freehan and Stillson)

[152] It is interesting to note that the writer of the article on ”Masonry” in the Catholic _Encyclopedia_--an article admirable in many ways, and for the htly so, albeit his interpretation of it is altogether wrong He iery in the ritual was due to enmity to Christianity Not so Masonry was not then, and has never at any tiion Far from it But Christianity in those days--as, alas, too often noas another naoted sectarianisenius was, and is, _unsectarian_ Many Masons then were devout Christians, as they are now--not a few clergymen--but the order itself is open to men of all faiths, Catholic and Protestant, Hebrew and Hindu, who confess faith in God; and so it will always remain if it is true to its principles and history

[153] As for the chronicle, the one indispensable book to the student of American Masonry is the _History of Freehan and HL Stillson, aided by one of the ablest board of contributors ever assembled It includes a history of Masonry in all its Rites in North, Central, and South Arowth of every Grand Lodge in the United States and British America; also adan Excitement, Masonic Jurisprudence, and statistics up to date of 1891--all carefully prepared and ritten

A other books too many to name, there are the _History of Symbolic Masonry in the United States_, by JH Drunificent _History of Masonry_, vol

iv What the present pages seek is the spirit behind this forest of facts

[154] For the full story, see ”Reon Tavern,” in _Centennial Meton, the Man and the Mason_, by CH Callahan Jackson, Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan, Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, all were Masons A long list may be found in _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_, by Stevens, article on ”Freeton and his Masonic Compeers_, by Randolph Hayden

[157] Thoh not a Mason, has left us an essay on _The Origin of Freemasonry_ Few ned than this great patriot, as the first to utter the na a sceptic, believed in ”the religion in which all ree”--that is, in God, Duty, and the ian was a dissolute, nondescript printer in Batavia, New York, who, having failed in everything else, thought tothe secrets of an order which his presence polluted

Foolishly ot him out of the country, and apparently paid hied exposure it would have fallen still-born from the press, like an was said to have been thrown into Niagara River, whereas there is no proof that he was ever killed, much less murdered by Masons Thurlow Weed and a pack of unscrupulous politicians took it up, and the rest was easy One year later a body was found on the shore of Lake Ontario which Weed and the wife of Morgan identified--a _year afterward!_--she, no doubt, having been paid to do so; albeit the wife of a fisherman named Munroe identified the same body as that of her husband drowned a week or so before No an until after the election_”--a characteristic ree by his own portrait as drawn in his _Autobiography_ Politically, he was capable of anything, if he couldup every vile and sli in human nature for sake of office (See a splendid review of the whole han and Stillson, also by Gould in vol iv of his _History_)

[159] _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_, by Stevens, article, ”Anti-Masonry,” gives detailed account withthe first day of the battle of Gettysburg, there was a Lodge led as friends, under the Square and Compass Where else could they have done so? (_Tennessee Mason_) When the Union ar officer, Thoe of Iowa--threw a guard about the home of General Albert Pike, _to protect his Masonic library_ Marching through burning Richmond, a Union officer saw the fae rooether with a nuanized a society for the relief of s and orphans left destitute by the war (_Washi+ngton, the Man and the Mason_, Callahan) But for the kindness of a brother Mason, who saved the life of a young soldier of the South, as a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Ill, the present writer would never have been born,soldier was athered in proof of the gracious ministry of Masonry in those awful years

[161] _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_, by Stevens (last edition), article, ”Free Masonry,” pictures the extent of the order, withits world-wide influence

[162] space does not permit a survey of the literature of Masonry, still less of Masonry in literature (Findel has two fine chapters on the literature of the order, but he wrote, in 1865, _History of Masonry_) For traces of Masonry in literature, there is the famous chapter in _War and Peace_, by Tolstoi; _Mon Oncle Sosthenes_, by Maupassant; _Nathan the Wise_, and _Ernest and Falk_, by Lessing; the Masonic poes of Herder (_Classic Period of German Letters_, Findel), _The Lost Word_, by Henry Van dyke; and, of course, the poetry of Burns