Preface

045871
CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY
BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919
AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY
DATE
: DUE
^^ig'l
/ti^t^-^
m^h^
^

■?' '^nfi'i
dtr u
0 4.UTW
CAYLORD
PRINTED IN U.S. A
Cornell University Library HS403 .R29 1872
3 1924 030 284 578 olin,anx
S Pi Cornell University WM Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030284578
GENERAL HISTORY
OF
FREEMASONRY,
BASED UPON
THE AKCIENT DOCUMENTS RELATING TO, AND THE MONUMENTS
ERECTED BY THIS FEATERNITY, FROM ITS FOUNDATION
IN THE YEAR 716 B. 0. TO THE PRESENT TIME.
TRANSLATED AND COUPILSD f ROSI THB MASONIC HISTORIES OF
EMMANUEL PEBOLD, M. D.,
PAST DEPUrr OF THB GBAND ORIENT OF FRANCE, PlE&SIDENT OF THE AOADBUT OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCES, AND A MEMBER OF MANT PHILOSOPHIC AND SCIENIIFIC SOCIETIES,
By J. FLETCHER BRENNAN,
EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN FREEMASON.
^/^
ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY ENGRAVINGS.
CINCINNATI:
AMERICAN MASONIC PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,
11-* iia:A.xvr strket.
1872.
I
1.
j\(,^x)i^G
Entered according to Act of Gongreas, in the year 1866, by
J. F. BEENNAN,
In the Clerk's OfSce of the District Ooiirt of the United States for the Southern Pistrict of Ohio.
FRATERNALLY DEDICATED
TO THB
GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE,
SUPREME COUNCIL FOR FRANCE, AT THE EAST OF PARIS :
GRAND ORIENT AND SUPREME COUNCIL OF BELGIUM, AT THE BAST OP BRUSSELS ;
NATIONAL GRAND LODGE OF HOLLAND, AT THE EAST OF THE HAGUE ;
NATIONAL ALPINE GRAND LODGE, AT THE EAST OF ZURICH j
AHD TO
ALL THE LODGES OF THEIR ALLIANCE,
TBIXB AXTTECOR.
FEATERNALLY DEDICATED
GRAND AND OPERATIVE LODGES
SFrce -^^M(x&on&
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
THE TRANSLATOR.
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
A connection of several years witt the Masonic press, during two of which he edited and published The American Freemason's Mag- azine, afforded the translator of this work opportunities for reading all that in the English language had been published concerning tha origin and history of Freemasonry, of valuing all that was reason- able, and rejecting much that was traditional, apochryphal, romantic and false. In 1861, and after he had, in consequence of the then disturbed condition of the country, suspended the publication of his magazine, he accidentally became introduced by a brother of rank and education in the Fraternity at New York to the earlier work of Bro. Eebold, and after a hasty perusal, stored it iimong the few efiFects of a citizren soldier for future and, should opportunity offer, more leisure study. From that study, within the past year, the decision to translate and publish had been evolved, when he became possessed of the later work of Bao. Rebold, and from both he has compiled that which he now presents and dedicates to the Fraternity in America. In doing so, his conviction is fixed that at no previous time has he been able to benefit that Fraternity to so great a degree a« he now does, by translating and publishing this work.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOIJ^S.
AnciENT Athens, to face Title.
fokum eomanum, as it ib, " p- 27
Egtptiait Sacrifice to Isis, " 32
Cathedral op EonEN, .,......" 48
Cathedral op Strasburg, " 52
Cathedral op Burgos, " 58
Cathedral op Freiburg, " 64
Mosque at Cordova, " 72
Battle-Gallert, Palace op Versailles, ... "78
Church op the Maodalbne, Paris, " 94
Interior op the Church op the Magdalene, Pakis, . " 117
St. Peter's Church at Rome, ...... " 145
Interior op the Mosque at Cordova, .... " 152
Interior op the Church op Notre Dame, . . . . " 176
Palace of the Tuilleries, " 192
Interior of the Collegiate Church, Manchester, . . " 208
Interior of the Church of St. Simon, .... " 224
Interior op Melrose Abbey, Glasgow, .... " 240
Interior of Crypt, Abbey of St. Denis, ... " 240
Cathedral op Cologne, " 250
Vestiges of Roman Art " 259
Trajan's Triumphal Asch, " 274
Cathedral of York, " 350
Ancient Mexican Sacrifice, " 359
Ruins op the Temple of Jupiter, " 364
Celebration op the Persian Eucharist, .... " 367
Chinese Worship op the Toku Napir, .... " 368
Mysteries op Isis and Osiris, " 370
The Parthenon at Athens, " 375
Temple of Minerva at Athens, " 376
Lamaistic Funeral in Chinese Tartary, ... " 380
Worship of Fq, in Canton, " 384
Druid Worship op the Mistletoe, " 386
German Worship op the Mistletoe, " 388
Interior of a Hindoo Rock-Temple, . . . " 393
Ruins op the Temple op Neptune, .... " 398
Pyramids of Ghizza, . " 401
Egyptian Temple op Karnak, " 403
Hindoo Penitents, "413
Court of the Mosque of Osman, "416
Ruins of the Great Temples at Baalbeo, ... "421
(vi.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Title, Antbor's Dedication, Translator's Dedication and Introdnotion, Table of
Contents, Frefaoe, and Report of Examining Committee pp. 1-26
6ENEBAL HiSTOBT OF FrBEUASONBT.
Introduction 27
Origin of all the worships 28
" of Hieroglyphics and Symbols 29
" of Mysteries, Sybils, Oracles, Magi : 30
" of the Koman Colleges of Builders, the Cradle of Freemasonry 34
The organization and pririleges of these colleges 35
Origin of the expression " Crrand Architect of the Universe " 35
Introdnction and derelopment of the colleges in Britain ~ 36
Charter of St. Alban, A. D. 292 40
Origin of the (qualification "free Mason" 41
" of the title "Worshipful Master"' 46
Charter of Tork, A. D. 926 48
Origin of the dedication of lodges to St. John 49
Masonic corporations of Lombardy 50
Monopolies accorded to the Masonic corporations by the Popes 51
Organization and development of the Fraternity in Germany 52
The stone-cutters of Strasburg, A. D. 1459 .^ 53
Influence of the " Reformation " upon the Masonic corporations 64
Importance of the Fraternity in England in the ITth and 18th centuries... 54
Origin of the "higher" degrees 54
" of the title "Royal Art" accorded to Freemasonry 66
Transformation of the Fraternity to a philosophic institution 56
Its new constitution as such 57
Its influence upon social progress 6
Persecutions directed against it 57
Divers opinions as to the origin of Freemasonry 59
Explanation of the two Forms of its initiations 60
It is an imitation and not a continuation of ancient mysteries , 61
Object of the initiation into the mysteries of anti(juity 62
Object and doctrine of modern Freemasonry, 62
Approaching ideal of Freemasonry 63
(Vii)
rill CONTENTS.
HlSTOKICAL SOMMART OF THE MOTEMENTS OP THE MaSOKZO COEPOEATIOlfS IH GaUI, ntOM TBEIB InTEODUOTION, IK THE TEAS 60 B. C, TO THEIB DlSBOLHTIOS, I«
THE 16th Centubt, Establishment of the Roman Oollegea of Bailders In Trans- Alpine Gaul after
its conquest 64
Establisliment of the great military roads from Rome to Gaul 66
Erection of Bomo-Gallic cities 67
Ee-erection of the destroyed cities and towns 68
Vestiges of ancient Romo-Gallio monnments in France 69
Separation of the Colleges of Builders into different bodies 71
Erection of the first Christian churches and monasteries 71
Architectural knowledge of monastic refugees 72
Celebrated architects who go out from the Masonic schools 72
Architecture in France under Charlemagne 72
The Masonic corporations directed by the religions orders 73
Architecture paralyzed by the terrors of the year 1000 73
General renewal of all the religious edifices ^ 73
The Masonic corporations of Lombardy extend over Europe 74
Their monopolies renewed by all the Popes „..., 74
League of mutual succor among the Masonic brethren 74
The architect fraternity of bridge and road builders 74
Conception and erection of the great cathedrals of France 75
Unity of plans visible in all buildings by Freemasons... 76
Effect of the "Reformation" npon the Masonic corporations 77
Disintegration of the corporations the origin of trade unions 77
Consequences of the disintegration of the Masonic corporations 78
Celebrated French architects who succeeded those of the corporations 78
&BBIDGMENT OF THE HiSTOBT OF MoDEBN OB PhILOSOPHIO FbXEMASONBT IH FbANCB, FBOU its iNTBODnCTION IN 1721 TO THE ESTABUSHUBNT OF THE
Geakd Obient IH 1772.
First lodges founded at Dunkirk and at Paris 80
Lord Derwentwater first Provincial Grand Master for France 81
Establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge for France 81
Baron Ramsay introduces his Jacobite Masonry 81
Lord Earnwester the second Provincial Grand Master for France, 82
He is succeeded by the Duke of Autin 83
The P. G. L. of France takes the title of English G. L. of France 83
Difficulties follow and increase constantly 83
Origin of the chapters of Arras and of Clermont 84
Origin of the Rite of Perfection , „, 85
Incongruities in the accepted history of the A. and A. S. Rite .....»_, 85
Continued disgust and disagreeability among the Fraternity 86
English G. L. of France becomes the National G. L. of France 86
The Grand Master, to avoid dity, selects deputies 87
They misbehave, and their commissions are revoked 87
Consequent schism of the (Deputy) Lacorne faction 87
Stephen Morin is patented for America „.„ 88
cont:?nts, it
A Teeonoilintion bnt engenders snteequeM dieseiiBion 89
The Gt, L. revokes all ad vUam and other patents , ,...., 90
Laoome's party is expelled and proceed to extremes 90
The government interferes and interdicts rreemasonry 90
Each party misbehaves in a grievons manner , 91
Events consequent upon the Orand Master's death 91
Election of the Dake of Ghartres to the vacant position '. 92
He is indueed to accept the direction of all the bodies 93
Establishment of the Grand Orient 94
ABBiDauENT OF tbeHistobt-o; Modbbn OB Pbuosopeio Fbeehasonby is
EnSLAIIO, DIKU13E, SWEDEH, BuSSIA, VOLXSD, OebHANT, HoLLAKD, BeL- GIUU, SwiTZEBLAKD, ITALY AHO VoJllUdSh, 7B0U ITS INTBOSUCTION INTO THOSE CODNTBIES TO TEE PBBSBNT TIUE.
Circnmstanees attending the establishment of the Q. L. of London 9S
Compilation of "Anderson's Constitutions " 98
The O. L. of London assumes the initiate and sole authority 97
The Freemasons of York and Edinburgh protest 97
The 6. Ii.'s of Ireland and Scotland are established 98
Exceptions made by the lodge of Canongate Kilwinning 99
Origin of the Rite of Harodim of Kilwinning 100
Pope Benedict XIV and others interdict Freemasonry 101
In London the Qrand Lodge of Ancient Masons is organized 102
Origin of the Boyal Arch degree 103
Union of the two 3rand Lodges in 1813 104
What English Freemasons have accomplished at home lOS
Present organization of the Q. L. of England 106
« " of the G. L. of Scotland 107
" " of the &. L. of Ireland 107
Present condition of Freemasonry in Great Britain 107
Introduction of Freemasonry into Denmark r 108
« " into Sweden 110
Jesuitical interference with Freemasonry in Sweden ,., Ill
The Templar system introduced by Jesuit emissaries 112
Introduction of Freemasonry into Bussia 113
Catharine II protects and encourages it..
Jesuitical interference causes it to be abused..... IIS
Interdiction of Paul I revoked by Alexander I, and afterward confirmed.... 115
Introduction of Freemasonry into. Poland 116
The Jesuit system of strict observance is introduced 117
Introduction of Freemasonry into Belgium 118
Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, interdicts it 119
When Belgium becomes a French province it is revived. 119
Prince Frederick, as Grand Master, becomes its protector 120
King Leopold unites the lodges into a Grand Orient. , 121
Masonry triumphs over Jesuitism 121
The new Grand Master, Verhaegen, recommends general discussions in the lodges I •'• 123
X CONTENTS.
Introdaotion of Freemasonry into Holland 123
The Jesuits preach against it and excite the people 124
Establishment of the Grand Lodge of Holland : 125
" of the G. L. for the Low Countries 126
The charter of Cologne is discovered 127
Introduction of Freemasonry into Germany 128
Freemasonry in Prussia 129
Initiation of Frederick the Great at Brunsiriok 130
Present condition of Freemasonry in Prussia 131
Freemasonry in Saxony 132
" in Hanover 132
" in Bavaria 133
" in the Grand Duchy of Baden 134
" in Wurtemburg and Hesse Darmstadt 135
" in Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick 136
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick becomes head of the Templar system 137
He convokes various Masonic congresses 138
The Jesuits cause Freemasonry to be interdicted in Austria 139
Freemasonry in Bohemia 140
Becapitulation of Masonic lodges in Germany 140
Introduction of Freemasonry into Switzerland 141
Masonic Directories at Basle and Lausanne 142
Erection of " Hope " Lodge at Berne to a Prov. G. L. of England 143
Establishment of the Alpine Grand Lodge 144
Introduction of Freemasonry into Italy 145
" " into Sardinia 146
Establishment of the Grand Orient at Naples 147
General Garibaldi is elected chief the Sup, Council for Sicily 148
Introduction of Freemasonry into Portugal 149
Acts of the Portuguese " Holy Office " , 150 "
Freemasonry is interdicted by John VI, King of Portugal 151
Introduction of Freemasonry into Spain 152
, Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, interdicts its operations 163
European countries in which Freemasonry is now interdicted 154
HiSTOEY OP THE ObIOIIT OP THE AnOIENT AND ACCEPTED SOOTTiaH BlTX, AND
Obqaiiizatign op the Supreme Council pok Fbanoe.
Partisan evidence as to the origiti of thorite , 166
Reflections upon this evidence 169
Impartial evidence as to the origin of the rite 160
Pronf adduced that Frederick II was not its chief 162
Extract from the Book of Gold ; 165
Real origin of the rite 166
Its contemptuous disownment by the G. L. of Scotland 169
Introduction of the rite into France 172
Remarks in connection with the history of this rite 174
' CONTENTS. XI
Obiqin and Histoet of the " EoTPTiAN Rite of Miseaim," from its obhatiok IN 1806 TO the peksent time.
Account of its origin by its Ffenchagent, M. Bedarride 178
Mark and Michael Bedarride its propagandists 180
Its real author LechangeuT of Milan 181
He denies his highest degrees to the brothers Bedarride 182
Tbey surreptitiously obtain them and establish a council at Paris 183
Description of thorite 185
Difficult t) organize lodges — France in mourning (1816) 186
Qrave abuses appear in the administration of the executive 187
The rite is interdicted by theO-. 0. of France 188
The brothers Bedarride obtain a new patent... 189
The rite is interdicted by Frederick, G-. M. of Netberland lodges 189
The administration and its constituents at war 190
Expulsion of a whole lodge 191
Misappropriation of the funds by the executive 192
The Grrand Orient is exhorted to suppress the rite 193
The brothers Bedarride present their little bill of charges , 195
It amounts to only $20,650 196
They arrange anew obligation, binding all to pay it 196
Objectors to this obligation are expelled , 197
The death of Mark Bedarride lets up nobody 197
The rite is ridiculed by the "Masonic Globe " 198
Funds are demanded to bury a brother 199
Michael Bedarride requires all the funds to pay his bill 200
The applicants protest and denounce the whole swindle 201
Dying, M. Bedarride bequeaths his bill to his successor 201
The successor, an honest man, arranges M. B.'s debts 201
Then stigmatizing the little bill as " a debt accursed," he cancels it 202
Reflections upon the history of this rite 202
Concise Histoet op the Rite op Memphis, from its creation in 1838 until ITS fusion into the Geand Orient of France in 1862.
The author's accountofthe rite 203
Strictures upon this account , 204
Introduction of the rite into France 206
Its author an expelled member of the rite of Misraim 206
Extracts from the Constitution „ 207
The author begins to operate with his rite in France 208
Meets with difficulties and goes to London 209
In the latter city the rite explodes , > 210
He then goes to America and founds a lodge at Troy, N. Y 211
Marshal Magnan's magnanimous decree covers the rite 211
The Grand Orientadopts it, and M. Maroonis,itB anthor,is happy 211
A Concise Histoet op the Oeigin of all the Rites foe High Degrees intro- duced INTO FeEEMASONET PEOM 1736 TO THE PEESENT TIME. The only true traditional Freemasonry has but three degrees 212
Xn CONTENTS.
The Jesuits first break this arrangement , ,, ••■ 213
To support the " Pretender " they create new degrees , 214
They extend their nets over Germany and France 215
Investigation elicits some important discoveries ^ 210
They denaturalize the institution in Erance 217
They construct the system of Strict Observance , 218
The College of Clermont the nest in which new rites are batched 219
The Jesuits divide continental Europe into provinces 220
They erect "TJuknown Superiors " for their system 220
Investigation unmasks the Order of Loyola 221
" Modern Freemasons are not the successors of Knights Templar " 222
What the Congress of Wilbelmsbad provoked 223
Fruits of the Jesuits' Masonic systems 224
The Order of Modern Templars 225
The Kite of Rigid Observers 226
Introduction of Knight Templarism into America 226
The Bite of Unitarian Masonry ,,..., 227
Names of Masonic Bites extant 223
Bites extinct or absorbed into existing rites 229
DOCCIIENTIBT AND HiSTOBICAL EVIDSNCS BGAEIHG SIBEOTLT UPON THE OBI-
oiN i.MD Genebal Histobt of Fbeemasonby in Ehbope,
Documentary Evidence 232
Historical Evidence, chronologically arranged 234
Indications of the causes for diversity of opinions, etc 244
HiSTOBICAL Enuuebation OF THE Pbincipal Masonic Congbssseb and Con- ventions WHICH HAVE had PLACE IN EuBOPE.
York, Strasburg, and Batisbonne 251
Ratisbonne, Spire, Colonge and Basle 252
Strasburg, London and Dublin 253
Edinburgh, the Hague, Jena and Altenburg 254
Kohlo, Brunswick, Leipsic and Lyons .^ 265
Wolfenbuttel and Wilbelmsbad 256
Paris, Zurich, Berne, Basle and Locle 257
Paris in 1848 and in 1866 25g
Cheonolooioal aeeanoement OP THE HisTOET OF Feeemasonbt, based upon THE Ancient DoonMENTS and the Peincipal Monuments ebkctbd bt THIS Feateekitt, Divided into thbee epochs. First Upoeh, from 715 B. C. to A. D. 1000, comprising the establisbment of the Colleges of Builders at Rome ; the construction of all the monuments of Ancient Rome ; the founding of many cities ; the results of the perse- outions of such of the builders as became Christians, and, subsequently, the results of the invasions and international wars, and dispersion of the Christian builders into the East ; the state of architecture in Saul and Britain under the Romans, and, after their retreat, under the free and An- glo-Saxon kings ; the reconstruction of the Masonic corporations at the
OONTGITTS. kiii
general assembler in York A. D. 926, and the distress of tbe Masonio oor- poratioAS daring tine terrors invoked by the clergy at the close of the tenth
oentury ,...> ...SM-Mt
Second Epooh, from A. S. 1000 to A. D. 1717, comprising all the most re- markable facts which signalized this period ax oonneoted trith the arts and philosophy ; the epooh of the construction of all the great cathedrals and other religious monuments in Europe ; the organization of the Ma- sonic corporations in (Germany, its Grand Lodges, its congress and results ; the influence of the Reformation upon religious architecture ; the dissolu- tion successively of all the Masonio corporations except those of England ; and the transformation there, in 1717, of the Masonio corporations into a
phi! }sofhia institution 298-311
Third Epoch, from A. D. 1717 to A. D. 1850, comprising all the most remark- able occurrences connected with Philosophical or Modern Freemasonry daring this period ; the causes and results of the schisms ; the different con- gresses and their results ; the dates, the places, and the countries where Freemasonry was persecuted ; and the statistics indicating its numbers
wherever its exists 312-B39
text of the £dict of fope Pius Vtl against the Freemasons 340
Pbiuitive Masonio Laws and Charters.
Observations concerning the Charterof York 347
Its non-recognition of a Divine Trinity 348
Its evident religious tolerance 348
It became the basis of all modern Masonic constitutions 349
Its caption and opening prayer 350
Note explanatory of its text 361
Its " Fundamental Laws of the Brother Masons ". ... ..„ 352-35S
Summary of the Ancient Masonic Charters, comprising the Roman Charter, Char- ter of St. Alban, Charter of York, Charter of Edward III, Charter of Soot- land, Charters of Strasburg, Charter of Cologne, Charters of Scotland and London ...355-658
Efitohe of the Worship and the Mtbteries or the Ancient EASTisit TTabld.
Introduction — Origin of all the worships 359
Sabeism, or sun worship, a^d its legends 383
The Mysteries of India 364
Mysteries of the Persians 367
Mysteries of Isis and Osiris 870
Mysteries of the Hebrews 87S
Mysteries of Eleusis 876
Mysteries of Samothraoia 876
Mysteries of the Phrygians and Phenicians 877
Mysteries of the Romans 877
Sybils and Oracles most celebrated 879
Lkqislatoes, Refoemees and Foiindkhs of Worships and Mysteries, with A summaet of their doctrines in India, China, Persia, Ethiopia, Eotpt, Greece, Rome and Judea 380-3R3
Xiy CONTENTS.
IfOTES nHJSTEATITE AND AUTHORITATIVE OF SUNDBT PASSAGES IN THE TEXT OF THE WOBBHIFS AND MtSTEBIES OF THE ANCIENT EaSTEBN WoBLD.
Worships and Mysteries 384
Theology nf the Ancients 384
Sacred Books of all the peoples 385
Cosmogonies , 386
Symbols 389
Hiram of the Freemasons » 392
The Angels 393
Magnificent monuments of the Hindoos 393
Shudda(Bood, Bondd) 393
The Magi 394
TemDle of Bel, or Tower of Babel 394
Ecbatana, Babylonia, Peraepolis 396
Caves or Retreats of Mithra 397
In the throat of a bull 397
Zoroaster 398
Zendaresta 399
Temple of Ammon 399
Ethiopia, once a powerful state 400
Egypt in oivilizatlon 400
Pyramids of Qhizza 401
Hermes 402
Sybils 402
The avenues of Thebes 403
Subterranean cities , 403
Jehovah 403
Tyre 404
The Jews driven from Egypt 404
The Pentateuch 405
The Prodigies of Moses 408
Dogma of an only God 408
Worship of the Stars 413
The Essenians 413
Christianity 418
Mysteries of Christianity 419
Eleusis, Athens 420
Temple of Balbek 420
Temple of Tadmor (Palmyra) 420
Janus ' 421
Appendix.
Recapitulation 422
The Commandments of the Ancient Sages 425"
The Precepts of Modern Freemasonry 426
GEIJfEEAL HiSTOET
OF
FREEMASO:NrRY.
PREFACE.
Lefoke I make known to the reader tlie motives whicli inspired this history of Freemasonry, I beg permission to give here a suc- cinct confession of faith.
Since the moment when the principles of Freemasonry were shown me, I have made this institution a particular study, with much more fervor than that with which I have studied the relig- ion taught me in my youth; because, by the light of reflection and experience, I found the latter crowded with contradictions and puerilities, while the former offered logic and harmony according with the idea of a Divinity imbued with wisdom, clemency, power, and love.
When circumstances occasioned me to take up my residence in this celebrated city, (Paris), at a time when its Masonic temples were recovering from the effects of the political tumults of 1847, my heart found itself going out toward that fraternal society, wherein, of all others, I most expected to enjoy the pleasures of morality and brotherly love. But I am free to confess, as then conducted, the labors of the lodges left much to desire; and I found that the reproaches addressed to Masonry in Paris by the most serious authors, such as Thory, Bazot, Chemin-Dupont§s, Bagon, Clavel, Des Etangs, Juge, and Moreau, were entirely justi- fiable.
And, notwithstanding that there are few places upon the globe where the Masonic fraternity has produced results more powerful and efficacious than at Paris — ^where the concentration of sixty. 2 (^^")
avni PREFACE.
one lodges in the same locality permit the most complete unity in a financial point, and present moral and intellectual resources BO powerful to accomplish so much, not alone in the connection of educating the people, but also of founding other humanitarian institutions — yet it is necessary to state that there is no place in the world where the dissipation of moral strength is so manifest, and where the Masonic fraternity has done so little for suffering humanity, as in this same Paris, when we consider the great number of Freemasons who here reside.
But that which struck me above all, in assisting at the work of the lodges of Paris, was the total want of intelligent Masonic instruction — a reproach which the authors named have so often made — .the labors of the lodges being altogether confined to the ceremonies of initiation, the regular lectures, and the administra- tion of their affairs. And it is to this circumstance, principally, that it is necessary to attribute the indifference so generally mani- fested for Freemasonry among the wealthy and intellectual Paris- ians ; for the greater portion of the intellectual initiates, finding nothing in the society, such as they expected, to attract their attention, after attending a few meetings, fall off, in the belief that Freemasonry has no moral signification to justify the consid- eration they had been induced to accord to it.
These observations are painful to Freemasons convinced of the high object and deep signification of Freemasonry, and who believe it destined to become one day the religion of all nations ; and these observations apply happily but to Paris, for, in all other portions of France, Masonry is much better estimated, and consequently its value is much better appreciated than in the capital.
This lack of instruction of which I speak is more apparent in the superior initiations called "high degrees," or, to speak more correctly, it is there entirely absent. By all, however, by whom Masonry is estimated. Masonic instruction is looked upon as a sacred duty due tq those who are received into its bosom, and that
PREFACE. XIX
instruction should be extended not only to all that concerns its history, its object, and the doctrines of the institution, but to all that is interesting to the friend of humanity and the lover of his race. And here we can not refrain from quoting a passage which we find proceeding from the pen of brother Cesar Moreau, of Mar eeilles, and published in his journal. The Masonic World:
"From this state of things there resulted an Order' which, while it embraced the universality of the nations, and drew within its bosom many of the notabilities of all races, is compelled to ignore its nature, its origin, its spirit, and its object ; and to acknowledge that its traditions are forgotten or altered; that we have substituted some novelties contrary to the genius of Masonry ; that the initiated fail to perceive any thing of mystery beyond the ceremonies and the ornaments of the lodge, and do not suspect that a hidden meaning is attached to the knowledge conveyed by the symbols. Thus Masonry iu unfaithful to its high destiny. This society, which, according to the ideas of its founders, is entitled to the first place in the system of civilization, is allowed CO march in the rear of that system. While progress in every other condition is manifest, it alone is stationary, if not falling behind in the march of human improvements. The most powerful of all human agencies, by reason of its immense association and the facilities afforded by its multiple correspondence, Freemasonry is
iThe editor of the Masonic World is the only French author who has admitted that material architecture has probably given birth to moral archi- tecture; and yet, making of Freemasonry an Order, finds himself in accord with all of his predecessors. This opinion, however, so generally that of the French Masons, is entirely erroneous; for Freemasonry never was an Order. Its origin was a fraternity; and that its transformation, from a cor- poration of artisans to a philosophical institution, did not change its char- acter is proven in the most incontestible manner by its own Constitution, which, adopted in 1717, and published by the Grand Lodge of England in 1723 is entitled "Constitution of the Ancient and Respectable Fraternity of Freemasons."
XX PREFACE.
to-day utterly powerless to enlighten its own members, to say nothing of enlightening the rest of mankind.'.'
All the French authors, except Moreau, have placed the origin of Freemasonry in the mysteries of the East; and the Masters of our lodges, as well as the commonly received lecture of its history, tend to perpetuate this erroneous idea. The work of Alexander Thory, entitled "Acta Latomorum," and that of B. Clavel, entitled ' Histaire Pittoresque de la Franc-magonnerie," must be placed among the most remarkable of Masonic publications; but they are, nevertheless, incomplete and fragmentary. In the history by B. Clavel, it is true he mentions the colleges of Roman architects; but, always preoccupied, in common with his predecessors, in seeking a remoter origin for Freemasonry in the mysteries of the Bast, he fails to perceive that it was precisely within these colleges that the birth of Freemasonry took place.
The authors who pretend — and their number is very great — that Masonry originated at the construction of Solomon's Temple, are led into this error by the numerous allusions to that construction which have place among the lectures of our lodges of to-day. Those authors who believe that Freemasonry proceeded from the society of the Rose-Cross, founded in 1616, by Valentine Andrea, a profound philosopher,' who, in founding it, had in view the beautiful design of reforming the world — a society which was propagated by Christian Rose-Croix,' renewed afterward by the renowned philosopher, Lord Bacon, and put in practice by the famous antiquary, Elias Ashmole, in 1646— are led into this error by the fact that this society was resuscitated, under Masonic forms,
1 See his work, " La Beformation," etc.
2 There appeared, in 1616, a new work, entitled « La Noce Gkemique de Ohrisiian Rose- Orffix." This name of Rose-Cross is itself allegorical. The cross represented the sanctity of union, and the rose the image of disGietion; ihese two words united signifying a holy discretion.
PREFACB. XXi
ih Germany, in 1767 ;. and yet others, who attribute its foundation to the partisans of the Stuarts,' or to Christopher Wren, architect, in 1690, are led into this error by the transformation of Free- masonry from an exclusively operative to an exclusively philo- sophic institution having taken place about this time.
Independently of the serious authors mentioned, there may b found a certain number of pretending historians, -vrho, concerning the origin of Freemasonry, have advanced assertions as absurd as ridiculous. Among them we find those who represent God him- self as the first Freemason,' and Paradise as the first sanctuary of the lodge! We find another author who pretends that the archangel Michael was Grand Master of the first lodge that the children of Seth held after the murder of Abel ! ' Others, who maintain that Noah was the founder of Masonry ; and yet others, who as stoutly assert that it originated at the construction of the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar. From this mass of con- tradictory opinions, A. Thory, in the preface to his work already named, deduced an opinion which he thus expresses:
" The general opinion among the most distinguished Freemasons is, that it is impossible to write a general history of Freemasonry which will bear any approach to correctness in dates and authen- ticated facts. M. De Bonnville has asserted that ten ages of man- kind would not suffice for such a work. Others have expressed, and yet others have repeated the same idea, while to-day those of
1 See, in the "Acta Laiomonim" by A. Thoi'y, the fragment upon the origin of the Society of Freemasons, translated from the second volume of the work " Versuch iiber die Beschuldigungen wider den Tempelherrenorden," etc., by Nicolai. This fragment of a German work, extracted and admitted by Thory, proves that he himself had no settled opinion upon the origin of Freemasonry; for otherwise we can not comprehend how, to give a just idea in his work of the origin of the institution, he could have chosen to copy from a work which, in his opinion, had no historic value in this conneotion.
2 See the work of Le Franc, entitled " Voile levi pow let Ourieux." Z"Le wai Franc- Magon," by Enoch, 1773.
Xxii PREFACE.
the members of the association who, by their talents and theii lio-hts, could be expected to undertake the task with success, have never essayed it, persuaded that it is beyond their strength.
"In seeking for the true cause of such discouragement, we believe it consists in the extreme difficulty of procuring the proper documents, the secret memoirs, the polemic and didactic writings; in fact, the necessary manuscript and printed informa- tion as to the history of the institution. This obstacle, if not insurmountable, is certainly exceedingly difficult; and we are free to state that, were it not that the extensive library of the mother lodge of the Scotch Rite had, with its rare and valuable maiiu- scripts, been placed at our disposal, we never would have attempted the labor of which this our work is the result."
It is, in fact, to the insufficiency of the materials that it is necessary to attribute the fact that since the work of Dr. Ander- son, first published in London in 1723, and subsequently to the number of five separate editions, no writer has attempted to pro- duce a general history of Freemasonry, believing the problem of its origin insoluble; and, therefore, they have been forced to treat it from a philosophical point of view, and place its origin among the mysteries of antiquity.
It is these considerations which determined me to extract from, the numerous materials which I have gathered, during a number of years, with the intention of one day filling a void in Masonic literature, and publish a history of our institution free from the superstitions and traditions with which it has been continually surrounded; and, in this object, I have resolved to unite, in a synoptic table, all that is afforded the most interesting, to the end that the erroneous opinions upon its origin may be dissipated, and a just and instructive idea of the principles and object of Free- masonry be afibrded.
In treating in a manner indicative of my own convictions this
PREFACE. Xxiii
general Iimwit of Freemasonry, I have endeavored to demon- strate—
1. Tl-ak InJu \i not only the cradle of the hulnan race, but the country wherein may he found the source of all the religions of the world.
2. That, ia Iioi antiquities, India offers us a civilization th most advanced, as ;s abundantly proven by her colossal monu- ments, which have existed for at least six thousand years.
3. That from Ivdia have proceeded science and philosophy.
4. That we find in her sacred books, the Vedas, a sublime uoctrine, practiced by the Buddhist Samaneens, and which pre- sents the most striking resemblance to the primitive Christian doctrine.
5. That these same Vedas recount the creation of the world in a manner corresponding to the description contained in the sacred books of the Persians and the Hebrews, but with the difference that in the Vedas the description has an entirely figurative sense, while the sense conveyed by the Hebrew Scriptures, as given to us, is actual.
6. That the religion of the Hindoos — their science and philos- ophy— passed into Persia and Chaldea, and subsequently to Ethi- opia, and from thence to Egypt. Afterward, returning invested with other forms, it is found to exist at present in the former countries.
My readers may be assured that intentions the most pure have guided me in this work, and that, while I have communicated the results of the philosophical researches of the most profound thinkers, I have to my readers awarded the task of harmonizing these truths with their own Masonic and religious ideas.
In this work I believe I have omitted nothing which would interest a young Mason. Herein he will find the origin of the mysteries of antiquity, as also the origin of all religions, and the connections which the ancient religions and mysteries bear to
XXIV PREFACE.
those of the present day; also, the degrees of civilization of the ancient peoples, the true origin of Freemasonry, its history, and in that history each historic fact, each important monument — whether of antiquity or of the middle ages — ^which appertain to that history, each document, each usage, each important name of which mention should be made ; and^ having done this, I leave to the reader to judge of the actual condition and importance of this institution from the tables of the lodges existing on the globe, and the countries wherein Freemasonry has spread and its doc- trines are practiced.
Emmanuel Bebold. Eabi ov Pabis, JNovember, 1860.
REPORT
OP THE COMMITTEE INTRUSTED WITH THE EXAMINATION OE THE WORK OF BRO. RESOLD, ENTITLED "GEN- ERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY."
Bbo. Bebold having requested the undersigned to examine his History of Freemasonry, and report their opinion thereof, it ia with the most lively interest that we comply with his wishes.
In our opinion it is impossible to put together, in a manner more instructive and more concise, so many facts and dates in so few pages. All is comprised in the work of Bro. Kebold — facts, historical and geographical, as well as chronological ; all is arranged by the hand of a master; and we can, without exaggeration, say that it is the first Masonic history truly worthy of this name which has ever appeared in France.
All the works that we possess speak of Masonry as an institu- tion of an illusory character, and its origin merely traditional, if not apocryphal; but Bro. Bebold, on the contrary, taking hold of it at its birth, follows its growth and extension through the different phases of its career, from nation to nation, and from cen- tury to century, and supports his every statement with facts and dates and names, and the edifices and monuments of antiquity.
Many pages might be profitably filled with even a cursory analysis of the work of our brother; but this we will leave to the reader, being satisfied with saying, for ourselves, that nearly every line is the substance of a volume; every word carries with it a portion of instruction. We have read and re-read the manuscript with the most intense interest, and we can return to it again and again with pleasure, for it nobly fills the deplorable vacuum that exists in all of our Masonic libraries.
An immense success is reserved for this book — we had almost
(25)
26 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
said this library in epitome — a success enthusiastic, merited, and durable. To every brother who, animated with true religious sen- timents, seeks instruction at the source of the most solid informa- tion, we recommend this work; and, after the most conscientious examination — after the most attentive study, and with our hands, as Freemasons, upon our hearts, we express this our opinion of the work of Bro. Heboid; and regret our inability, by so limited an expression of our feelings, to do' that justice to this really merit- orious production that it is so richly entitled to.
Du Planty, M. D.,
Wor, MaB. of Trinity Lodge.
AUGUSTE HUMBEETE, Wor. Mas. Star of Bethlehem Lodge.
B. LiMETH, Wor. Haa. of CommanderB of Mt. Lebanon Loclge.
East or Pabis, June, 27 1860.
c^^
~?
I
:^
■-^
f^^
HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
INTRODUCTION.
"When man, placed upon this earth, saw himself sur- rounded with so many differently formed beings, of which the producing cause and motive for their existence were to him unknown, his thoughts were necessarily concen- trated in one sentiment — intense admiration. Unable to comprehend the cause, he attached more importance to the effect. He studied the physical qualities of all, to the end that be might be enabled to select for his use those which were useful, and reject those which were hurtful.
But that which struck him with most surprise was the constant return of day and night, light and darkness — ^the brilliance and warmth of summer, and the cold and gloom of winter — to see the earth for a season ornamented with flowers and fruits, whilst during a corresponding period it languished and labored In sterility. He sought to ascer- tain the cause of those phenomena which regularly repro- duced themselves around him, and to whose influence he found his own nature subjected; and little by little, in the laws, flrst of physics, and next of astronomy, he discov- ered the explanation.
He saw that, regulated by these laws, nature existed; that the sun and moon and earth moved in common accord. In fact, whilst all else lived and died around
(27)
28 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
him — and died forever — ^these alone abated not in the :."egu]arity of their movements nor perpetuity of their existence: without beginning! and, apparently, without end, they seemed uncreated and immutable. To feelings, therefore, of admiration for all, were added feelings of gratitude and thanks for the beneficence of that star of lay whose brilliance and heat ripened for his use fruits and vegetables; for that lesser light which seemed ar- ranged, when the greater disappeared, to take its place; and for the earth, the great nurse, always attentive, sup- porting all living creatures, and offering each year, for their use, the abundance of her varied and bounteous products.
Those sentiments of admiration and gratitude begot yet another^ — their natural product — worship ; and from that time man began to reverence good and evil. . He made of light and darkness spirits of good and spirits of evil, regarding the former as the good being, and the latter as the evil one; light the benefactor; darkness the de- stroyer. And this worship of light of every degree neces- sarily led to sun worship or Sabeism, which we see diffused among all the primitive peoples of the earth — as well in Europe as in Asia, in. Africa, and among the Incas oi America.
It is thus that the Hindoos adored in Brahma the sun of summer, the creator, the genius of good ; and in Shiva the sun of winter, the destroyer, the genius of evil ; that the Persians reverenced the good principle in Oromaze, and the bad in Ahrimane; that the Egyptians adored these same principles in Osiris and Typhon; and the Israelites in Jehovah and the Sei-pent, without stopping to consider that this adoration was a worship of stars, or a worship of the changes of nature. Every-where, in fact, and among all peoples — even among the Jews them- selves— we find, from the earliest times, man prostrated
INTRODUCTION. 29
before material nature, confounding continually, in one and the same worship, the being who suffers the action and the principle that caused it.
This primitive worship was not entirely abolished, but maintained itself among the elect, and was, consequently,, the fundamental dogma taught in the mysteries of an tiquity by the gymnosophists of India and the hierophant of Memphis. And, as it was the duty of those sages to notice and record natural phenomena, to the end that the dates of feasts and the movements of the planets should be known, as well as a record kept of memorable events, and the knowledge of their doctrines, sciences, and dis- coveries be communicated among themselves, the system of hieroglyphics and symbols was invented — a system which has been found to exist, as the earliest style of record, among priests and peoples of the most remote ages.
These priests were the intercessors before the divinities, the counselors and guides of the people ; and to perpetu- ate their numbers, men were admitted who proved them- selves 'capable and worthy of the position by submitting, after a long and careful training, to the ordeal of a severe examination. It was in this manner that the initiations, so celebrated among the peoples of antiquity, were insti- tuted.
These civilizers and early instructors of the human race, believing that it was impossible for the mass of man- kind— ^the ignorant and illiterate — to perceive the truths of science, religion, and philosophy, except when repre- sented by material symbols, instituted such symbols for that purpose, and, in consequence, two forms of religion began to prevail ; viz. : the one the religion of the multi tude, who, in great numbers, perceived nothing beyond the exterior object or symbol; and the other the religion of the learned, who perceived in the symbol but the
so GENERAL HISTOKY OF FREEMASONRY.
emblem of the moral truth or natural effect, of which the symbol was but the type.
All these mysteries and their initiations, having a common object, resembled each other in their rites and symbols, and differed but in degree, according to the genius and manners of the particular peoples among whom they were practiced, and the talents, more or less brilliant, of their priests and founders. Those among the Chaldeans, the Ethiopians, and the Egyptians taught the arts and sci- ences in secret, particularly architecture. Among the Egyptians the priests formed a distinct class, and devoted themselves to teaching special branches of human knowl- edge. The youth who by them were instructed were initiated into the mysteries of religion, and during their novitiate formed an outer class or corporation of arti- sans, who, according to the designs drawn by the priests, erected the temples and other monuments consecrated to the worship of the gods. It was this class that gave to the people kings, warriors, statesmen, and useful citi- zens.
The favor shown to the priests by the people of -Egypt was due in part to their wisdom, in part to the elevated conditions of science and morality which they taught, but more particularly to their study and application of an occult science practiced by the magicians of Persia. In this study they were aided by a class of assistants, called sybils or oracles, to whom they were indebted for the knowledge of a great number of plants and their thera- peutic properties — of which the priests affixed the names at the gates of their temples — as, also, for their knowl- odge of chemistry, anatomy, and many of the secrets of nature.*
•This occult science, designated by the ancient priests under the name of regenerating fire, is that which at the present daj' is known as animal magnetism — a science that for more than three thousand years was the peculiar possession of the priesthood, into the knowledge of which Moses
INTRODUCTION. 81
Thus we see the most illustrious men of Greece — Thales, Solon, Pythagoras, Democritus, Orpheus, Plato, Theodo- sius, Epicurus, Herodotus, Lycurgus — ^these great philos- ophers of antiquity, binding their stoutest sandals upon
was initiated at Heliopolia, where he was educated, and Jesus Christ «mong the Essenian priests of Jerusalem.
This science, that an illustrious Dominican calls "a piece broken from a grand palace, a ray from the Adamic power, destined to confound human reason and to humiliate it before God, a phenomenon belonging to the prophetic order" — is that same-science which has been resusci- tated by Bro. Mesmer, whose disciples to-day spread every-where, and, by the application of it &s a therapeutic agent, are every-where alleviating the physical condition of the sick and the afflicted.
Magnetism, the vital principle of all organized beings, soul of all who respire, made a part, under various names, of the secret teachings of the priests. The titles of regeaerating fire, living fire, magic, were given to it by them, and the initiation into this divine science was participated in but by a small number of the elect, i Believing it to be our duty to define the meaning of this science in as clear and distinct a manner as possible, we have chosen for this purpose to select a passage that we find in the work of our friend and brother Henry Delage, entitled "Perfec- tion of the Human Kace," in which he expresses himself upon this subject as follows;
"The knowledge of this magnetic fluid is the most precious gift of •Divine Providence. It is the mysterious key that opens to our dazzled intelligence th'e world of truth and of light, and joins the finite to the infinite. It is the chain of gold so often chanted by the poet, the basis of that secret philosophy that Democritus, Plato, and Pythagoras trav- eled to Egypt to demand of the hierophants of Memphis and of the gymnosophists of India. Invisible to the eyes of the senses, it must be studied by the vision of the soul as seen in the rapt gaze of the som- nambulist. In other days the truth was heard proceeding from the lips of the initiating priest; to-day we see it in the eyes of the clairvoyant. A magnetic fluid, very Subtle, placed in the human race between the soul and the body, it circulates in all the nerves; and, particularly abundan in the great sympathetic of the healthy subject, it constitutes the spiri of the living being. Its color, that of fire or the electric spark, inducea the name of living fire given to it in the works of the magicians of Persia, and of iniimate star in those of the alchymists and astrologers of
32 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
their feet, aud taking the pilgrim's staff Trithin their hands, leaving their country and going forth to visit the vast sanctuaries of Egypt, there to be initiated into the mysteries of Isis and Osiris.
These mysteries were transported into Greece, where Orpheus founded those of Samothracia, and Triptoleme those of Eleusis. The Greeks drew upon these mysteries and initiations for a part of their mythology. Homer drew upon them for his ingenious fictions, and clothed his songs with their allegories. The descent into a well, made by the aspirant for initiation, led to the saying that truth was concealed at the bottom of a well, "the judges of the dead, before whom they were conducted by the ferryman Charon across the lake Acheron, the urn that contained the ballots, and after an examination of which the judges pronounced sentence and again intrusted the initiates to the care of Charon, who alone appeared to have the right or ability of traversing the subterranean obscurity through which they passed, the barking of dogs, the monsters, the hideous specters, the flitting shades, the furies, the dog Cerberus — the sight of all those objects which the Egyp- tians and the Greeks had invented to try the nerves of the initiates — made in their imagination a real hell. While the Elysian fields, lighted up by a mimic sun, was evi- dently the place to which the initiate was conducted after his initiation ; and Tartarus, where shades groaned plain- tively at their own feebleness, the place where those who had succumbed in terror before these hideous spectacles were congregated. The braziers and flames, between which the initiate was compelled to pass, evidently gave
the middle ages. One of its principal virtues is the generative' power; neace the sacred books give it the name of regenerating fire. Soul of the world, universal spirit permeating all nature, it is the essence and the vital spark of all that it animates, of all orders of beings, classes, and races in which it is incarnated, and is profoundly modified by all through which "t passes."
I
INTRODUCTION. 33
rise to the saying that men who would be elevated to the rank of the gods must first pass through fire and be purified of all of earth that attaches to humanity. In fine, to descend into hell, and to be initiated into the mys- teries, were, among the ancients, one and the same opera- tion.
FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGES OF BUILDERS, THE CRADLE OE FBEEMASONRY.
The mysteries of the Egyptians, passing through Moses to the Jewish people, afterward disseminated among the Greeks and the Romans, were, among the latter, intro- duced in part into the Colleges of Builders, instituted by Numa Pompilius, in the year 715 before our era.^
These colleges were, at their organization, as well relig- ious societies as fraternities of artisans, and their connec- tion with the state and the priesthood were by the laws determined with precision. They had their own worship and their own organization, based upon ^hat of the Dyo- nisian priests and architects, of whom many were to be found anterior to this period in Syria, in Egypt, in Persia, and in India ; and the degree of sublimity to which they had carried their art is revealed to us by the ruins which yet exist of the monuments which they there erected. Besides the exclusive privilege of constructing the temples and public monuments, they had a judiciary of their own, and were made free of aU. contributions to the city and state.
The members of these colleges, usually after the labors of the day, convened in their respective lodges — wooden houses, temporarily erected near the edifice in course of construction — ^where they determined the distribution and
'Numa Pompilius also instituted Colleges of Artisans {Collegia Arlifi- cum) to the number of one hundred and thirty-one; at the head of which were the Colleges of Architects or Constructors, otherwise Builders (Golr legia, Fabrorum.) The latter were designated under the name of Frater- nities {Fraternitates.) (34)
FOUNDATION OF THE COLLESES OF BUILDERS. 85
execution of the work upon such edifice, the decisions being made by a majority of votes. Here, also, were ini- tiated the new members into the secrets and particular mysteries of their art. These initiates were divided into three classes : apprentices, companions or fellow- workmen, and masters; and they engaged themselves by oath to afford each other succor and assistance. The presidents of those coUegeSj elected for five years, were named mas- ters or teachers {magistri); their labors in their lodges Were always preceded by religious ceremonies, and, as the membership was composed of men of all countries^ and consequently of different beliefs, the Supreme Being neces- sarily had to be represented in the lodges under a general title, and therefore was styled " The Grand Architect of the "Universe" — ^the universe being considered the most perfect work of a master builder.
In the beginning the initiations into these corporations appear to have been confined to but two degrees, and the ritual of these degrees limited to, 1st, some religious cere- monies ; 2d, imparting to the initiate a knowledge of the , -duties and obligations imposed upon him ; 3d, to explain- ing certain symbols, the signs of recognition, and the inviolability of the oath : the workman or fellow-craft being, in addition, carefully instructed in the use of the level and the square, the mallet and chisel. To become a master, the elected had to submit to proofs such as were exacted at the initiation of the priest architects of Egypt, and in which he underwent a searching examination of his knowledge of art and moral principles.
By the protection that these colleges of builders ac- corded to the institutions and worships of othet countries, there were developed among them doctrines and rules of Conduct very much in advance of their age, and which they clothed in symbols and emblems, which were thus charged with a double signification ; and, like the Dyonisian priest fcrchitects, they had words and signs of recognitiou.
36 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
These colleges of artisans, and principally those who professed excellence in ability to execute civil and relig- ious, naval and hydraulic architecture, at first extended from Rome into Venice and Lombardy, aftenvard into France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Britain; and more lately into Spain, Arabia, and the East ; and a great number of these colleges, which at this time were known by the name of Fraternities, followed the Eoman legions. Their business was to trace the plans of all military construc- tions, such as intrenched camps, strategic routes, bridges, aqueducts, arches of triumph, etc. They also directed the soldiers and the laborers in the material execution of their works. Composed of artisans, educated and studious men, these corporations extended the knowledge of Eoman manners and a taste for Roman art wherever the legions carried victorious the Eoman arms. And as, in this way, they contributed more largely to the victories of peace than to those of war, they carried to the vanquished and to the oppressed the pacific element of the Eoman power — the arts and civil law.
These colleges existed, in all their vigor, almost to the fall of the Roman empire. The irruption of the peoples called barbarians dispersed and reduced their number, and they continued to decline while those ignorant and fero- cious men continued to worship their rude gods; but when they were converted to Christianity, the corporations flour- ished anew.
The Masonic Corporations in Britain.
Many of the corporations of builders who were with the Eoman legions in the countries bordering on the Rhine were sent by the Emperor Claude, in the year 43, into the British Isles, to protect the Eomans against the incursions of the Scots. Before their arrival in that country, there
THE MASONIC COfiPOBATIONS IN BRITAIN. 37
were to be found neither towns nor villages. Here, as elsewhere, the Masonic corporations constructed for the legions camps, which they surrounded with walls and fortifications; and, as time advanced, the interior of these colonies was beautified with baths, bridges, temples, and palaces, which, in a great degree, rivaled even those of Rome herself.
"Wherever the legions established intrenched camps, the Masonic corporations erected cities more or less import- ant. It is thus that York, called by the Romans Ebora- cum, and subsequently celebrated in the history of Free- masonry, became one of the first that acquired importance and elevation to the rank of a Roman city.
The native population who aided the Romans in those different constructions were incorporated into the opera- tive bodies of workmen, and taught their art; and, in a short time, towns and villages were in course of erec- tion on every side. The rich inhabitants of the country, imitating the Romans, constructed equally sumptuous habitations, which the architects ornamented with the same sentiments of art they had exhibited on the temples of the most powerful Romans. Daily in contact with the most elevated people of the civilized world, the inhabit- ants acquired a humanitarian tolerance for the manners of foreigners, and for religious ideas so different from their own. And, in their turn, the Romans discovered that there existed in every people a portion of true humanity; and this they sought to. increase rather than unveil the barbaric and disagreeable in local manners and national prejudices.
The irruptions of the mountaineers of Scotland obliged the Romans to erect on the north of Britain three im- mense walls, in three diff'erent directions," one of which traversed the country from the east to the west.
•The first great wall was constructed by the Masonic Corporations,
38 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The corporations being inadequate for the constructioa of such immense works, the Britons, who were devoted to their service, aided them in their labors, and thus became partakers of all the advantages and privileges which were enjoyed by the corporations themselves. Their constant intercourse, during the execution of the same construc- tions, and particularly in foreign countries, always resulted in individual advantage, and the enjoyment in common of the same privileges cemented this intercourse. The same art, the unity in plans of action, combined to create in their intimacy the greatest tolerance for religious and national peculiarities, and a feeling of common brother- hood was thus developed among them. All the work- men of every degree employed upon a construction called themselves a lodge — sleeping and taking their meals in buildings resembling tents, which were temporarily erected in the vicinity of the work in course of construction, and which served them as dwellings until its completion only.
The erection of these houses and palaces, bi-idges and aqueducts, castles and walls, contributed to elevate archie tecture in Britain to a degree of perfection it had not attained in any other Roman province; so that, as early as the third century, this country was celebrated for the great number and the knowledge of her architects and of their workmen; and their services were called for wherever, upon the continent, great constructions were about to be erected. Christianity, too, from the first hour of its introduction, spread in Britain, and gave to the Masonic lodges the peculiar characteristics which distin- guished them at this period. These same military roads,
under the orders of Agrippa, the Boman general in command of the legions in Britain, in the year 90 of our era. The second under tha Emperor Adrian, A. P. 120. This crossed the country from the river Tyne to the Gulf of Solway, and thus traversed Britain from east to west. And the third was constructed further north, by order of Septi- mus Severus, in the year 207.
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 39
BO immense in theic extent, and upon wliicli chains and slavery had been carried to people as free as they were ignorant, served now to carry to enslaved humanity, wea- ried of life, that new and inspiring liberty preached by Christ. Men now traveled these roads who, filled with the new faith, believed it to be their mission to impart to 11 whom they met or overtook in their journeyings a knowledge of the true God and the gospel of his Son. And although, when alone, these missionary converts were exposed to bloody persecutions in the towns and villages through which they passed, they were invariably per^ mitted to accompany unmolested the Masonic corpora- tions, who now, sometimes alone and sometimes in the retinue of the Roman legions, were continually threading the immense empire.
Britain, too, by a favorable fortune, had more kind and humane governors at this period than any other Roman province. The example of the nobility, in becoming con- verts to the new faith, was swiftly followed by the people. If, in consequence, in the other provinces, the persecutions of the Christians were, by order of the emperors, executed with rigor the most appalling, in Britain a certain refuge was offered to the persecuted, by the connivance of her governors, among the building corporations. Hence it was that many among those who became advocates and public propagandists of the gospel, for the certain protection afforded them by these corporations, sought for and ob- tained admission among those fraternities of builders ; and thus, in the hearts of the lodges, they associated with aud- itors more freely disposed to listen to their doctrines, at once so humane and so pure ; for that love of the human race which characterized the primitive Christians entirely accorded with the spirit of those cultivated workmen who composed the Masonic corporations. When, therefore, a humane governor shrank from the disagreeable function of ordering the execution of Christians under imperial
40 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
decree, those who were thus menaced sought refuge among the Scots, or in the Orkney Islands ; or, aided by the build- ers who accompanied them, they fled to Ireland, and there remained until the death of the emperor who had ordered their execution.
In this manner Scotland became the most accessible esort of these refugees, who, in return for the security awarded them, carried into that country a knowledge of Eoman architecture; and from this period may be dated the construction of those magnificent castles of the Ko- manesque or Etruscan style of architecture, whose grand remains, braving even until to-day the destructive hand of time, attest the architectural knowledge and artistic genius of their builders.
"When Carausius, as commander of the Roman navy, found himself upon the coast of Belgium, he revolted, and, making sail for Britain, landed on that island in the year 287, when he declared his independence of Rome and took the title of emperor; but, ever fearful of an attack by the Emperor Maximilian, whom Diocletian had chosen for co-emperor, and to whom he had awarded the west- ern empire, Carausius sought, above all, to conciliate that society — ^then the most influential and important in the island — the Masonic corporations. These were then com- posed not alone of the descendants of those G-reeks and" Romans whom. the Emperor Claude had, in the year 43, ordered into the country, as already mentioned, but, in major part, of the natives of Britain.
With this object in view, Carausius, at the ancient city of Verulam, afterward known as St. Albans, where he had taken up his abode and established his court, convoyed and confirmed to the Masonic corporations — through, the instrumentality of Albanus, a Roman knight, and Amphi- abulus, a Roman architect — all those ancient privileges accorded to them by IS^uma Pompilius, and the kings, his successors, more than a thousand years before, but which
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 41
in later years had been greatly curtailed by the subsequent Roman emperors. And it is to this renewal of those privi- leges— the greatest among which was the right of making laws for their own government, and thus, in establishing their own judiciary, becoming independent of all other legal tribunals — to which may be attributed the title Free- mason, which, since that time, has distinguished the mem- bers of these corporations in contradistinction to the other workers in wood and stone who composed no part of such bodies.
K"ot having been interfered with by the Emperor Maxi- milian, Carausius employed all his wealth to augment the well-being of the country. He engaged the Masonic cor- porations in the erection of magnificent public edifices, which were rivaled but by those of Eome herself. His death, however, which occurred by assassination, in the year 295, brought these plans to an abrupt close.
Immediately after the death of Carausius, Maximilian appointed Constance Clorus to the vacant governorship of Gaul and Britain. He, selecting Eboraeum, subsequently known as the city of York, for his residence, found there the oldest and most influential lodges of the Masonic cor- porations; and this city, from that time, became the center of all the lodges of Freemasons in Britain.
After the death of Constance, called the Great, an event that took place in the year 306, his son Constantine suc- ceeded him. He stopped at once the persecution of the Christians, and declared himself their protector. After his victory over his rival, Licinius, he adopted Christianity himself — more, it is believed, from political motives than from a conviction of its truth — and declared it the religion of the state.
Among tne earliest Christian communities the true doc- trines of Christ were, from the first, exhibited in the lives of their members — ^the first apostles having been found m Britain among the Masonic corporations. These true
42 GBNBRAId HISTOEY OP FKBEMASQJJRT.
prieats and propagandiata of the religion of Jesus were entire strangers to all thought of temporal power; and the unfortunate disputes of the four bishopes who had arro- gated to themselves the government of all Christendom had not, as yet, affected the primitive doctrine recognized in that declaration of the Eedeemer: "He who serves me with most devotion upon earth shall te greatest in the kingdom of heaven." The confiding and susceptible spirit of the artist easily became impressed with the beauties of that morality which embraced humanity as a whole. The sentiments of art with which his soul was imbued repulsed all sophism, and the social life of the lodges resembled the earliest Christian associations, with this exception, that, instead of that contemplative idleness that saw no religious labor save in fasting and prayer, was exercised a robust and manly energy that found, in the acquirement of useful knowledge and the engagement in actual labor, a fitting outlet for that love of beauty and perception of the sublime which are never better directed than in the creations of art when employed for the glory of God.
The early Christian missionaries, not being actuated by feelings of ambition, their doctrines were simple, pure, and easily understood and appreciated by those whom they addressed. Hence, to make themselves intelligible and beloved by their companions in the lodge, they had but to unfold before them the pure ordinances of primi- tive Christianity; and when, as was often the case, they were obliged to seek refuge in Scotland, in Ireland, or among the Orkney Islands, there to live the lives of Coul- deans,' it was necessary, when the most simple interpreta-
'Many Christians who had sought refuge in Ireland, in Gaul, and the Orkneys, habituated to every privationduringtheirapostolicalexcursions, lived in solitude in those same caves and grottoes, in the sides of rocks and mountains, which had been, before their time, inhabited by tha Druids, who there assembled to celebrate their religious rites ; and from which those Christians went forth only for the purpose of spreading the
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 43
tion of their doctrines was desired, to seek for it among those northern heroes of the truth. It was in this man- ner that Christianity in its greatest purity was better preserved in Great Britain than in any other country.
As Christianity, in its new relations to the state^ daily increased in power, and demanded for its exercise the erection of suitable buildings, the Freemason corpora- tions found ample employment. Every-where Christian Churches sprang up under the direction and active opera- tions of these workmen. Constantine himself, who, imi- tating his father in many of his acts and determinations, made York his residence during the first years of his reign, knew personally the principal members of those corporations, extended to them every privilege they had ever possessed or were at any time deprived- of, and thus they became the most effective and influential arm of the public service.
The approaches of the Q-ermans upon the Roman Em- pire of the West became from day to day more menacing. They did not content themselves, as was once their cus- tom, with pillaging and retiring from such provinces as they overran, but commenced to definitely establish them- selves therein. Succeeding hordes pushed past those who had arrived before them, and penetrated even beyond the country possessed by the Eomans; and it was from this cause that Britain, finding herself more and more isolated from the protection of the continental empire, began to look forward with more of fear than pleasure upon a day of freedom from the Roman sway.
From the beginning of the third century the Romans had to contend almost constantly with the mountaineer of Scotland, a warlike people, the aborigines of their
Grospel among the people. It was from the name of those solitary habitations that the title of Couldeans was given to those preachers of Christianity; as, in the Gaelic language, the word couldean aignifies "hermit," or dweller in solitudt
44 GENERAL HISTORY OF FEBEMAS0NR7.
country, and who, like the Welsh or Cambrians, had never been conquered;^ and at length, menaced on every hand, and wearied with the continued strife, the Western emperor considered it prudent to remove to the southern portion of his empire those forces which had hitherto been reserved for the protection of Britain; and, by de- crees, as they were required to protect his empire from the inroads of the Groths, he withdrew his legions, and with them his jurisdiction over the country — a jurisdic- tion which he finally abdicated in the year 406. Thus deserted by the Romans, the Britons called to their assist- ance the Anglii and the Saxon pagans of the neighboring continent, to protect them from the assaults of the Picts and Scots and the northern pirates who infested their coasts. These auxiliaries, however, became as injurious in one sense as they were useful in another. They repulsed the Scots, it is true, but they also fixed themselves in the land and founded the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Their gross barbarities made them the enemies of all civilization. Cities and villages were destroyed, and the flourishing prosperity that Britain enjoyed under the Roman sway disappeared. The Christian and- civilized inhabitants fled to the mountains of Wales, to Scotland, or to the isles beyopd. It was among these refugees that the ancient language of Britain was preserved, and with it primitive Christianity and the knowledge of architecture as practiced by the Masonic corporations.
After the first barbarous impetuosity of the Anglo-Sax- ons had been calmed, and the more peaceful pursuits of agriculture replaced the wars of robbers, some of these Christian refugees withdrew from their mountain caves and fortresses, and, returning to what were once their homes, converted many among the pagan nobles and people,
'It -was not until between the years 1273 and 1307 that the Welsh were finally conquered by Edward I, son of Henry III, and grandson of John, the Nero of English kings. — Tkans,
THB MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 45
but as yet dreaded to approacli the kings. And thus, toward tlie close of the sixth century, the mild and fruit- ful light of the primitive Christian doctrine began to diffuse its gentle rays almost to the center of the seven kingdoms. It was reserved for the Benedictine monks, whom Pope Gregory I sent to England, to convert th Anglo-Saxons, and at whose head presided Austin, a cele brated priest-architect, to succeed in gradually converting all the kings. It is true that these monks, prompted by that spirit- of temporal dominion which even at that early age began to manifest itself in the Church, exerted their best efforts to strengthen the power of the Pontiff and enhance the possessions of the Holy See; but in these operations they were at once met by the returned refu- gees and their pupils, who had kept the early faith, doc- trine, and practices of the primitive Church; and thus, to a great extent, were the encroachments on that early doctrine prevented, and abuses of power corrected. And to this preservation of the primitive teachings of Chris- tian apostles, in the midst of the Masonic corporations, it is proper to attribute that better and more libera;l spirit that rendered the converts of the British Isles more fa- vorably disposed toward the arts and sciences of those days than were the inhabitants of the neighboring conti- nent.
In accordance with the teachings of their founder, the Benedictine monks worked more than they fasted or prayed. Austin himself, the apostle of England and first Archbishop of Canterbury, was no less celebrated for his knowledge of architecture than for his other powers of mind and varied acquirements; and it was he who, at this time, began to rebuild and re-establish the ancient Masonic corporations, now reduced, it may well be bb- lieved, to a very small number — indeed, entirely inade- quate for those immense constructions projected by the new apostles of Christianity. It was in this manner that
46 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
at this time, in England as upon the continent, the lodges became attached to the convents, and were more or less governed by monks, according as the leading architects were monks or lay brethren ; and from this fact arose the condition that lodges held their meetings almost exclu- sively in the convents, where, if an abbot was proposed as Master or Warden of a lodge, they addressed him as Wor- shipful Brother or Worshipful Master, thus establishing a mode of address which has descended even to our own day as the usual one in speaking to or of the first officer within a lodge-
After the close of the seventh century, .both bishops and abbots made frequent journeys to Eome, as well for the purpose of collecting pictures and relics of saints as to in- duce superior workmen to return with them and settle in England. Such as did so, and all others who erected for the nobles their castles and for the clergy their convents and churches, were treated with the greatest consideration by the principal men of the country, who concerted means for establishing a taste for the arts and sciences. And in this undertaking it was soon discovered that the senti- ments of early art, as taught by "Vitruvius, in the reign of Csesar Augustus, had been better preserved among lie Masonic refugees from Anglo-Saxon murder and robbery in the mountains of Wales and of Scotland, than among any other of the peoples of either islands or continent. In consequence of this discovery, it became necessary to arrange anew the British lodges, and to compose them not alone of companion architects and masons, but also of influential men; and men who, advanced in civilization, protected and loved the arts, began to take a position in these lodges as aecepted masons. The lodge at York was revived and became the most important one in the coun- try, and into it none were received as companions but free men — ^thus establishing what is yet the principal charac- teristic of this institution, to the end that no person, when
THE MASONIC OOKPORATIOSS m BRITAIN. 47
dues admitted into ita memberahij) as an equal, could in any manner be impeached in his possession of Masonic privileges. It was at this time^ also, that he who desired elevation to the rank of master or teacher had to make three voyaged into strange countries, and prove to the chief workmen, When he returned, that he had perfected limself in a knowledge of the architecture peculiar to .hose countries.
The Superior knowledge of the Workmen who had prac- ticed their art among the early refugees in Scotland began to be generally recoguiaed at the beginning of the eighth century, and to stamp its expression upon the buildings erected in Britain. This fact produced a particular modi- fication in the constitution of the lodges. While the gen- eral assemblies of MaSons occupied themselves with archi- tecture of a general character, particular members of the fraternity formed themselves into a separate organization, that aimed to Copy eiclusively after ike Scottish models, and, for each important work, thes« admirable models were most rigorously followed. From York, therefore, these select masters, as they might properly be called, made frequent journeys to Scotland, where a rendezvous was fixed upon at which each of them might deliberate, after he had arrived, upon the observations made by others during their travels in the country, and record his own. For this purpose was chosen the valley of GHenbeg, on the uorth-east coast of Scotland, opposite the Isle of Skye. Here there were two old castles, built in a remarkable manner, of stone, with neither lime nor mortar, and which appeared to have served as places of refuge in the wars of earlier times. It was in these castles that the masters assembled in council, and consequently they received the name of Masters of the Valley, or Scottish Masters. In lodge assembled, when they returned, all deference was paid them, as the most learned tnembers of the fraternity, and to them were intrusted the most particular parts of
48 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
each construction, or, in other words, the conscientiouB adaptation and rendering of the Scottish models.
In this way, the Masonic corporations, in connection with the convents and abbeys, became, after the fall of the Roman empire, the great conservators of science and art; and in so great esteem were the memba?s "of these corporations held, that, notwithstanding the political in- feriority of Britain at this time, these corporations were found to create, by their invincible hardihood, a circle of activity and influence that embraced nearly the whole west of Europe. Whenever an apostle of the Christian religion was sent to a distant mission, a body of builders invariably accompanied him, and thus it was that a material edifice soon bore witness to the advent of the spirit of truth.
During the invasion of the Danes, between the years 835 and 870, nearly all the convents, churches, and monas- teries were destroyed by fire, and with them the records and ancient documents of the lodges which had been preserved in those convents. Fifty years afterward, the king, Athelstan, desirous to rebuild these monuments of the religion of his heart, directed his adopted son Edwin, who had been taught the science of architecture, to as- semble, in the year 926, in the city of York, all the lodges of Freemasons scattered throughout the country, to the end that they would reconstitute themselves according to their ancient laws. This done, he confirmed to them all the privileges which were possessed by the free Roman colleges in the time of the republic. The constitution that was at this time presented by the king to the assem- bly of Masons, and which is called the Charter of York, is imbued with the spirit of the first Christian communi- ties, and proves, in its introduction, that the Masonic corporations at this time were but little affected by any of the peculiar doctrines which subsequently were pro- mulgated by councils of the Church dominant.'
'See the text of this Constitution, under the title "Cnqrter of York."
-1
'^N
THE MASONIC COKPORATIONS IN GAUL. , 49.
In those days it was customary to dedicate and conse- crate to some saint every erection intended for the wor- ship of God, and with the like idea all the corporations of artists, artisans, and trades chose patron saints. The Freemasons chose St. John the Baptist for theirs, because his feast fell on the 24th of June, date of the summer solstice. This day had always been celebrated by the peoples of antiquity and by the Masons, since the founda- tion of their fraternity, as the period of the year when, the sun having attained its greatest height, nature is clothed and disports herself in the greatest abundance of her richest products. As successors of the ancient col- leges of the Romans, the Freemasons of England con- served these cherished feasts ; but, not to come in aonflict with the dominant clergy, they were obliged to give their celebration a name not calculated to give offense. It was on this account they were known not exclusively by the name of Freemasons, but often as the Fraternity of St. John, and, upon the continent, almost exclusively as St. John Brothers, or Brothers of St. John.
The Masonic Cokpoeations in GI-aul.
In the transalpine provinces of Gaul, the Masonic cor- porations, cotemporaneous with those of Britain, increased in a no less extraordinary, manner. After the Eoman provinces were abandoned in the year 486, all the coun- tries which had been subject to the Roman sway received with delight the attention of these builders. In those countries they were called Free Corporations, their mem- bership being composed entirely of brother Masons.' Oom-
'See, for all that relates to the history of the society in France, first me Chronological Table, and then the Summary of the History of Free- masonry in Graul.
4
50 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
posed of the remains of the ancient colleges of constructors, they maintained their antique organization in Lombardy, where Cosmo had a celebrated school of architecture. Here they multiplied to such an extent that they failed to find occupation in that country, and consequently spread over the continent. After obtaining from the Popes the renewal of their ancient privileges, and the exclusive monopoly of erecting, in all Christendom, the monuments dedicated to religious worship, they spread into all Christian countries. And although the members of these corporations had but little fear of, or respect for, either the temporal or spiritual power of the Popes — a fact which they took no care to hide — so useful were they in enhancing the grandeur and dignity of religion, this monopoly was, nevertheless, renewed and confirmed by Pope Nicholas III, in the year 1277, and continued until the year 1-334, when Pope Benedict XTI accorded to them special diplomas. These diplomas made them free of all local laws, all royal edicts, all municipal regulations, and every other obligation to which the other inhabitants of the country had to submit, thus rendering the title by which they were known, of free corporations, peculiarly appropriate. In addition to this freedom, these diplomas conceded to them the right of communicating directly with the Popes, of fixing the amounts of their own sal- aries or wages, and of regulating in their general assem- blies all subjects appertaining to their interior government. All artists and artisans who were not members of these corporations were interdicted from every act which would in any wise interfere with the work of the builders, and all sovereign rulers were commanded, as they dreaded the thunders of the Church, to suppress, with the strong arm of their power, any combination of such artists and art- isans as might rebel against this provision.
During the middle ages, in all the kingdoms and princi- palities of Europe, do we find these corporations or frater-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 61
nities — in Germany, in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where, under the title of St. John Brothers, or Brothers of St. John, they have erected these sublime monuments, which, for all time, seem destined to remain as memen- toes of their architectural skill and genius. "Wherever these corporations established themselves, they there in- creased their influence by adopting, as patrons, the emi- nent men of the locality, and initiating them as accepted Masons into the bosom of their society. These, generally laying aside the material object of the institution, which for them had no charms, attached themselves to its mys- tical sense, and founded, outside of the lodges of work- men, lodges whose labors were entirely moral and philo- sophic. But, almost immediately after becoming known to the 'clergy, these lodges were met , by that intolerant spirit which superior knowledge, if unauthorized by the Church, did, in those days of general ignorance, receive at their hands, and the members of these lodges were ac- cused of introducing schisms among the laity, and troubles and sedition into the temporal sovereignty, disaflection toward the Pontiff and all other sovereigns, and, in fine, of the wish to re-establish the Order of the Knights Tem- plar, and to revenge the death of the last Grand Master and other officers of that Order upon the descendants of the kings and princes who were accessory thereto. In consequence of these charges, it is stated by a document the authenticity of which has not yet been entirely estab- lished, that the representatives of nineteen of those philo- sophic lodges, located in different portions of Europe, assembled at Cologne, in the year 1535, under the direc- tion of Hermann V, Bishop of Cologne.' At this meeting there was prepared a confession of faith, in which were enunciated the purposes and doctrines of these Masonic societies. This document, called the " Charter of Cologne,"
' For presiding at this assembly, he was, some years subsequently, put under the ban of the Church.
52 GENBEAL HISTORY OF FBBBMASONET.
is dated 24th of June, 1535, and thereto are signed nine- teen illustrious names, among which appear Philip Me- lancthon, Bruce, Coligni, Falk, Visieux, Stanhope, Jacobus Prepositus, Van ]S"oock, and Noble — names of those pres- ent at this assembly, as delegates from the Masonic lodges of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Vi- enna, and other cities, to assist at this general assembly convoked at Cologne. This charter is written upon a sheet of parchment in Masonic characters, which are con- tracted into the Latin of the middle ages, and the writ- ing of which is so much defaced as to render some of the words unintelligible. This charter, together with a docu- ment, said to be the records of a lodge called the " Lodge of the Valley of Peace," from its organization to the year 1519, after the death of a member of the lodge,' named Boetzlaar, fell into the hands of Prince Frederick, Grand Master of the lodges of Holland, who had copies of them prepared and sent to the principallooges of Europe. The persecutions of the ultramontane clergy, however, event- ually destroyed the philosophic lodges of Southern and Western Europe.
Thb Masonic Coeporations in Germany.
During the fifteenth century there existed in Germany' a great number of lodges of operative Masons which, following the example of the English lodges of the same period, recognized a few principal lodges of master work- men and architects, to whom they accorded the title of high or grand lodges. These, were in number five, and were established at Cologne, Strasburg, Vienna, Zurich, and Madgeburg. That at Cologne was from at first con- sidered the most important, and the master of the work upon the cathedral at Cologne was recognized as the chief of all the masters and workmen of Lower Germany, as was
ti^^ '^^^ia/r/'''Ma/u^^..
THE MASONIC COKPORATIONS IN GERMANY, 53
the master of the work oa the cathedral of Strasburg' considered as occapying a similar position of honor in Upper Germany. Subsequently there was established a central mastership, and Strasburg, when the work upon its great cathedral was continued to its completion, dis- puted the pre-eminence with Cologne, whose cathedral is yet unfinished, and became the seat of the grand master- ship. The grand lodge of Strasburg counted within her jurisdiction the lodges of France, Hesse, Swabia, Thurin- gia, Franconia, and Bavaria ; while to the grand lodge of Cologne were subordinate the lodges of Belgium and neighboring portions of France. The grand lodge of Vienna exercised jurisdiction over the lodges of Austria, Hungary, and Styria; while those .of Switzerland were attached to the grand lodge of Berne during the con- struction of the cathedral in that city, and subsequently to that of Zurich, where its seat was transferred in 1502. The lodges of Saxony, which from at first recognized the supremacy of the grand lodge of Strasburg, were subse- quently placed under that of Madgeburg.
These five grand lodges had a sovereign and inde- pendent jurisdiction, and adjudged, without appeal, all causes brought before them, according to the statutes of the society. These ancient laws, revised by the chiefs of the lodges, assembled at Ratisbonne on the 25th of April, 1459, and, for the first time, printed in 1464,^ were en- titled '■^Statutes and Rules of the Fraternity of Stone-cutters of Strasburg." Sanctioned by the Emperor Maximilian in the year 1498, the constitution, composed of those statutes and rules, was confirmed by Charles V in 1520, by Ferdinand in 1558, and their successors.
'Erwiix of Steinbach. He called together, at Strasburg, the Masonic Congress of 1275. His seal is mentioned by Brother Clavel as being the oldest arrangement of the compass, square, and letter G extant. — Trans*
'This was about twenty-flve years after the discovery of the art of printing with moveable types. — Tkans.
54 GENEEAL HISTORY OF EEEEMASONKT.
Toward the close of the fifteenth century, however, the crying abuses of the clergy and the Popes having cooled the religious fervor and unsettled the faith of the people, the construction of many churches was arrested for want of necessary means to erect them. This led to the dis- persion of the men engaged in erecting them, and imme- diately following this change in public sentiment, burst forth the reformation, led by Luther, which rent for the time, almost to its foundation, the temporal and spiritual power of the Popes, and, forever arresting the work upon the vast monuments of worship, gave the death-blow to the Masonic corporations in every portion of the European continent. Gradually thenceforth the German lodges dis- solved— those of Switzerland had been by an order of the Helvetian Diet disbanded in 1522 — the jurisdiction of the five grand lodges was narrowed to very confined limits, and with nothing to construct, and nothing to adjudicate, the Diet of the Empire, sitting at Ratisbonne, abrogated, by a law of the 16th of March, 1707, the authority of these lodges, and ordained that the differences between the workmen builders which might thereafter arise should be submitted to the civil tribunals.
General Teansformation of Ereemasonet from an Opera TivB TO A Speculative oe Philosophic Institution.
DuEiNG the troubles which desolated England about the middle of the seventeenth century, 'and after the death of Charles I, in 1649, the Masonic corporations of England, and more particularly those of Scotland, labored in secret for the re- establishment of the throne destroyed by Crom- well; and for this purpose they instituted many degrees hitherto unknown and totally foreign to the spirit and na- ture of Ereemasonry, and which, in fact, gave to this time- .honored institution a character entirely political. The dis-
GENERAL TRANSFORMATION OP FREEMASONRY. 55
cussions to which this country was a prey had already pro- duced a separation between the operative and accepted Ma- sons. The latter were honorary members, who, according to long established usage, had been accepted into the society for the advantage which their generally influential position in the country might effect; but this very position made them at this time naturally the adherents of the throne and the strong supporters of Charles II, who during his exile was received as an accepted Mason by their election, and, in consequence of the benefits he derived from the society, gave to Masonry the title of Royal Art; because it was mainly by its instrumentality that he was raised to the throne and monarchy restored to England.
Notwithstanding, however, the favor with which it was regarded by the king. Freemasonry, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, decreased to such a degree that in 1703 but four lodges existed in the city of Lon- don, while throughout Great Britain at that time none other were known to the members, who, reduced to the smallest number, attended the meetings of these. In fact, with the completion of St. Paul's Cathedral, the city of London was considered rebuilt, and the occupation of the operative Masons seemed to have been brought to a close ; while the accepted Masons, having obtained the object of their desire in the restoration of the monarchy, neglected the communion they had previously kept up with the operative members of the institution. Hence we find that in the year 1703 the lodge of St. Paul — so named because the operative Masons engaged in the erection of the cathe- dral held their lodge in a building situated in the church- yard or grounds thereof — passed aii important resolution the object of which was to augment the numbers of the fraternity, and to give the Masonic institution some of its former importance in public estimation. Here, having agreed that they should continue the existence of so praiseworthy an institution to be used as the conservator.
56 GENEBAL HISTORY 01 FRBEMASONKY.
of religion and tradition, and perpetuate, by the beautifu. allegories of its legends and symbols, its eminently hu- manitarian doctrines, they for this purpose adopted the following memorable resolution :
" Resolved, That the privileges of Masonry shall no longer be confined to operative Masons, but be free to men of all pro- fessions, provided that they are regularly approved and ini- tiated into the fraternity."
This important decision changed entirely the face of the society, and transformed it into what we find it to-day; but many difficulties had to be removed, many years of probation had to be passed before this form of its work- ings could be successfully adopted- This was owing, first, to the want of union among the four lodges; second, to the exceedingly disreputable character which, for many years, had attached to the society — ^it having degenerated from an influential and privileged institution to little better than a pot-house companionship, with here and there a proud few who remembered its glories of other days — but perhaps, above all, the determined oppositioj of the G-rand Master, Sir Christopher Wren, the archi- tect of the new city of London, to the spirit of the inno- vating resolution. This opposition he maintained until his death; so that it was not until after that event, which occurred in 1716, that the four lodges which still existed, more in name than in fact, felt themselves at liberty to assemble their membejship with the primary object of electing a new Grand Master, but more particularly to detach themselves from all connection with the lodge at York, that had for fifty years enjoyed but a nominal exist- ence, and to put into active operation the decision involved in the resolution of 1?03.
In that assembly, after electing the Master of St. Paul's Lodge, Anthony Sayre, to the office of Grand Master, there were gathered up the "Constitution and Charges of a Freemason," which, subsequently prefaced by a " History of
SBNERAL TRANSFORMATION OF FRBBMASONRT. 57
Freemasonry," prepared by Dr. Anderson, were accepted, sanctioned, and printed in 1723, under the title of "TAe Constitution and Charges of the Ancient and Respectable i?Va- temity of Freemasons." And it is the date of this publica- tion that may properly be considered the commencement of exclusively speculative or modern Freemasonry. The principle of civilization indwelling in the doctrines and pursuits of Masonry, after having burst the bonds which kept it grasped in the stiff embrace of a mechanical asso- ciation, at once abandoning itself to all its powers of ex- pansion, almost immediately penetrated the heart of the social system, and animated it with a new life. The new Freemasonry, in the short space of twenty-five years, spread itself in a manner but little less than miraculous mto nearly every portion of the civilized world. It passed from England to France as early as 1725, theUce to Belgium, to Holland, to Germany, to America^ subse- quently to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, to Sweden, and to Poland; and, as early as 1740, were to be found lodges in Denmark, in Bohemia, in Russia, in the Antilles, in Africa, and in the British possessions in Hindostan.
If Freemasonry has ceased to erect temples ; if it has ceased to engage in material architecture; if it no longer exhibits itself in the elevation of spires and turrets as points from which eyes may be directed and hopes ascend toward a better and a happier world, it has not less con- tinued its work of moral and intellectual culture; and its success in this respect has been far more satisfactory than those who planned its design as a speculative institution ever hoped to achieve. In all time it has exercised a power- ful and happy influence upon social progress ; and if to- day, instead of holding itself at the head of all secular societies, it is known in some countries but to be rejected and despised, this conditioli is owing to the destruction of that uniformity and oneness of purpose which constituted its fundamental recommendSltion ; and this destruction ia
58 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
due to the innovations introduced by ambitious and design- ing men for motives of personal influence and advancement, and in defiance of their solemn asseverations that it was not within the power of its membership to introduce inno- vations into the body of Freemasonry. But even here it has shown the immortality of its spirit; for, notwithstand- ing the multiplicity of rites which have been forced upon it, and the ceremonial degrees which have been added to it — ^thus dividing its strength, causing grave inconvenience, choking the sources of accurate information as to its, origin and history, and creating useless and unsatisfactory dis- tinctions among its members — ^that excellent spirit which its earliest teachings engender and subsequent culture fosters is ever exhibited in a fraternal regard for each other when the brethren meet in their popular assembly, and there lay aside " all distinctions save that noble dis- tinction, or rather emulation, of who can best work and best agree."
/^ ^^^^^a/yj^a^^
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 59
DIVEES OPINIONS UPON THE OEIGIN OF FREEMA-
SONRY— ITS DOCTRINES, ITS OBJECT,
AND ITS FUTURE.
The origiii of Freemasonry has been, for a long time, vague and obscure. And while it is to this obscurity in its history, augmented by the multiplicity of systems which have been introduced, that it is necessary to attrib- ute the contradictory opinions as to its origin held by those who have written upon that subject, it is, however, due to the scientific researches of a few Masonic historians who have entered this field of darkness with the deter- mination to lay aside all the commonly received opinions and traditions upon the subject, that at the present day this obscurity has disappeared.
By the connection that its forms of initiation present with the Egyptian Mysteries, and with many societies and philanthropical schools of antiquity — the Dyonisian, the Therapeutic, the Essenian, the Pythagorean — some authors have believed that within one or several of those societies might be found the cradle of Freemasonry ; while others, led into error by the symbols and passwords of Hebrew origin, have pretended that its birth had place at the build- ing of Solomon's Temple, of which the books of Kings and of Chronicles, as found in the Old Testament, afford us such precise details. This temple, erected in the year 1012, before the Christian era, by king Solomon, who was, no doubt. Master of the Hebrew Mysteries — a type of the Egyptian — and nine years afterward dedicated by him to
60 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the glory of the one only and ever-living Qod, was the first national manifestation of an only God ever erected. From the pointed bearing of this fact, and as a masterpiece of gorgeous architecture, representing in perfection the image and harmony of the universe, this temple has ever sym- bolized in Freemasonry the moral excellence to which very brother is in duty bound to carry his perfected work. Losing sight, however, of this aspect of the mat- ter, as well as of the fact that all the teachings of an- tiquity were invariably clothed in allegories and illustrated by symbols, many authors, and following them the mass of the brethren, have accepted the teachings of Masonry and the legends of the degrees not as allegories, but as actual occurrences, and have inextricably entangled them- selves in their endeavors to explain them as such.
Another peculiarity which has, above all, contributed to mduce error in the researches into the origin of the so- ciety, is the difference presented by the forms of initiation ; that of the first degree being evidently borrowed from the Egyptian, while those of the second and third belong en- tirely to the Hebrew mysteries. This difference, however, will be easily understood, when it is known that Numa Pompilius organized his colleges of constructors as a fra- ternity of artists and artisans, and, at the same time, as a religious society. When so organized, the greater num- ber of the colleges, finding themselves composed of G-reeks who had been initiated into the mysteries of their country, imitated in their worship ihe form of initiation practiced in those naysteries; but when, some seven hundred years afterward, in the time of Julius Csesar, the Jews were pro- tected at Rome and granted many immunities, among which were the privilege of setting up their synagogues, a great many Hebrew artists and artisans were affiliated in those colleges, and in their turn introduced a part of the Hebrew mysteries, and with them their own beautiful allegories, among which that of the third degree was chief
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OP FREEMASONRY. 61
It is true that the forms of initiation practiced in our day probably bear very little resemblance to those which were in use among the Roman colleges of builders, and that these forms have often been changed or modified to suit the country and the men who found themselves at the head of the fraternity ; nevertheless, it is certain tha a fixed and unchanged foundation has always religiouslj been preserved. The rituals which were established at London in 1650, as well as those of 1717, seem to have been based upon the Anglo-Saxon documents, arranged by the General Assembly at York in the year 926. It will be remembered that the fraternity in 1650, the year after the bloody execution of Charles I, and when the accepted Masons had acquired such influence in the insti- tution, had, to some considerable extent, and, in 1717, to a far greater degree, abandoned the material object of the association, and the members thereof having submitted, at their initiation into the two first degi'ees, to all the proofs required of the Master, the allegory of Hebrew origin and the summit of Hebrew mystery was always preserved as the proper illustration for the third degree, susceptible, as it is, of a local interpretation that satisfles men of every worship.^
Notwithstanding the connection that so evidently exists between the ancient mysteries and the Freemasonry of our day, the latter should be considered an imitation
'Such historiana as attribute to the partisans of the Stuarts the in- stitution of Freemasonry, and who constantly believe that this allegory portrays the violent death of Charles I, are in error; for it requires but a very limited knowledge of the ancient mysteries to see in Hiram, the • master workman, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Per sians, the Bacchus of the Q-reeks, the Atys of the Phrygians, or the Balder of the Scandinavians, of whom these people celebrated the pas- sion, violent death, and resurrection as the Boman clergy of to-day, in the sacrifice of the Mass, celebrate the passion, violent death, and resur- rection of Jesus Christ Otherwise, this is the type eternal of all the religions which have succeeded each other upon the earth.
62 GENERAL HISTOET OF FREEMASONRY,
rather than a continuation of those ancient mysteries ; for initiation into them was the entering of a school wherein were taught art, science, morals, law, philosophy, philan- thropy, and the wonders and worship of nature; while the mysteries of Freemasonry are but a resumS of divine md human wisdom and morality — ^that is to say, of all hose perfections which, when practiced, bring man nearest to God. Freemasonry of to-day is that universal morality that attaches itself to the inhabitants of all climes — to the men of every worship. In this sense, the Freemason re- ceives not the law, he gives" it; because the morality Free- masonry teaches is unchanging, more extended and uni- versal than any native or sectarian religion can be; for these, always exclusive, class men who differ from them as pagans, idolaters, schismatics, heretics, or infidels ; while Masonry sees nothing in such religionists but brothers, to whom its temple is open, that by the knowledge of the truth therein to be acquired they may be made free from the prejudices of their country or the errors of their fathers, and taught to love and succor each other. Free- masonry decries error and flies from it, yet neither hates nor persecutes. In fine, the real object of this association may be summed up in these words : To efface from among men the prejudices of caste, the conventional distinctions of color, origin, opinion, nationality; to annihilate fanat- icism and superstition ; extirpate national discord, and with it extinguish the firebrand of war; in a word, to ar- rive, by free and pacific progress, at one formula or model of eternal- and universal right, according to which each individual human being shall be free to develop every faculty with which he may be endowed, and to concur, heartily and with all the fullness of his strength in the bestowment of happiness upon all, and thus to make of the whole human race one family of brothers, united by affection, wisdom, and labor. Slowly and painfully does the highest condition of
DIVBRS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 63
human knowledge accomplish its great revolution around the glittering axis of truth. The march is long, and since it began nations and peoples have lived and died; but when that journey is accomplished, and the incarnation of truth, now robed but in its symbol, shall appear in all the splendor of its brilliant nudity, truth's torch itself hall then enlighten the world, the doctrine that has just been announced shall become the religion of all the peo- ples of the earth, and then, and not till then, will be realized that sublime ideal now mysteriously hidden in the symbol of Freemasonry.
That day is, without doubt, yet far distant ; but it will arrive. Its coming is marked by destiny and in the order of the centuries. Already, in the sacred balance of eter- nal justice, is seen each day to diminish a portion of the errors of the people, and to increase the body of light, of principle, and those truths which are preparing the way for its triumph, and which, one day, will give assur- ance of its reign.
64 GEUEKAL HISTORY OP FKBBMASONRY.
HISTOKIOAL SUMMARY OF THE MASONIC CORPORA- TIONS IN GAUL, FROM THEIR INTRODUCTION IN THE YEAR 60 B. C, TO THEIR DISSOLUTION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
After ten years of unavailing war, the old Gallic na- tionality perished. All had to submit to the great genius of Julius Caesar — the most beautiful devotion as well as the most indomitable courage. It was in vain that the three hundred and fifty tribes of the Gauls, the Bellovici and the Oarnutes, the Aedui and the Bituriges, the Treviri and the Arverni, had disputed with him, step by step, the possession of their territory. The Roman legions, sur- mounting every obstacle, filling up swamps, breaking out roads, and traveling securely through dense forests, took possession of nearly every town and village to which they laid siege, and gained nearly every battle which they fought. After having exhausted themselves in vain ef- forts for the defense of Alise and TJxellodunum,^ Gaul
' Shortly before this period, some brigades of Companion Constructors, with their masters at their head, accompanied the Eoman legions into the middle of Gaul and into Spain, and there had erected some towns: Cordova, for example. But it was not until Caesar's time that the col- leges, complete in all their appointments, were called by him to recon etruct the destroyed cities.
^Alise is supposed by some to be now called Iselburg, or, according to JuniuH, Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves, but more probably Ulsen — Index to Ccesar's CoiAmenis. The situation of Uxellodunum is not now known, though, in the opinion of some geographers, it was the modern Ussoldun. — Ibid. (Note by Translator.)
'^^
'U
^^WJ^i'/'/'/ ^/'ji^lr/A/t^/
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 66
forced into her last intrenclimeiits, was obliged to submit to the yoke of the conqueror ; and thus, despite ,of her- self, she became one of the most rich and beautiful prov- inces of the vast Roman Empire.
According to Plutarch, Caesar, for the purpose of bring- ing to a successful conclusion his long and perilous enter- prise, had taken more than eight hundred towns, con- quered more than three millions of men — of whom one million perished in battle, and another million was re- duced to captivity — ^but, finally, in the year 60 B. C, the work of conquest was achieved.
Csesar treated the conquered country with extreme mod- eration. He left to Gaul her territory, her habitations, and the essential forms of her government. He accorded to her people even the title and rights of Roman citizens, with the sole condition that they should pay tribute.
Little by little the old Gauls abandoned their rude and savage manners for those soft and polished of their con- querors. They forsook their antique oppida, difficult of access, for cities embellished and adorned with elegant constructions, and upon favorable spots, desolated by war, arose cities and towns equaling those of Italy. Augusto- dunum replaced Bibracte, and Augusto-nemetum was built near Gergovia. The new cities, built under the direction of the corporations of constructors, who were partly at- tached to the Roman legions, took names from the lan- guage of their builders, and received from Rome priests and magistrates. Immediately sumptuous edifices arose upon the sacred places; beautiful statues, modeled by Graeco-Latin art, are substituted for the rude effigies of the Celtic divinities; swamps filled with reeds, and lands covered with briars, are converted into beautiful fields and meadows; the forests are cleared and the soil cultivated to rival the most beautiful countries on the thither side of the Alps. Numerous roads open up communication with all parts; the rivers are furrowed with boats, and 5
66 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the ocean with richly-laden ships, like those of the Medi- terranean; commerce is extended, fabrics of every kind begin to be manufactured; and, in fine, the various prod- ucts of the country are carried into every province of the vast empire.
Since the time of Csesar, Gaul had been furrowed with oads, but it remained until the reign of Augustus to con- nect them with those which had been constructed in the neighboring provinces. That Emperor, for the immense work that the conquest reclaimed, ordered from beyond Cisalpine Gaul, (Venice and Lombardy,) and even from Rome itself, all the builders and artisans, members of the colleges of constructors, which could be spared. These corporations conserved their important privileges, and in Gaul considerably augmented their organization. One portion occupied themselves with the construction of the roads, and directed the Roman soldiers in their labors. Another was more particularly charged with the work on fortifications and intrenched camps, and the latter were generally attached to the legions. Other colleges, com- posed of artist constructors in wood, and mechanics, built, at Massilia (Marseilles), and at Frejus, ships and boats for the service of the state; while another class of those colleges were occupied exclusively in the erection of public temples and monuments; and, finally, yet an- other in constructing bridges and aqueducts. It was under the orders of Agrippa that the latter class con- structed the most beautiful paved roads which crossed Gaul in every direction. Among these may be reckoned the Via Domitia, that traversed Savoy and Provence (this road was originally constructed under the directions of Pompey, in the year 45 B. C, and extended from Italy almost into Gaul, toward the Alps) ; the Via Aurelia, which starting from Civita Vecchia (Forum Aurelia), to Aries; that of Emporium, from near the Pyrenees to the passage of the Rhone; finally the road which, ending at Lyons,
THE MASONIC COEPORATIONS IN GAUL. 67
after having passed through the valley of Aosta, contin- ued, by order of Agrippa, in four different directions — viz. : the first into Aquitania (Guienne and Gascony), by the Auvergne; the second to the Rhine, by the mouth of the Meuse; the third to Laon, by Burgundy and Pi- cardy, and the fourth to Marseilles, by j^arbonne. These were the principal roads; but th^re were a great many others which connected the different towns and villages. Lugdunum (Lyons) was to Gaul what the City of Eome was to the rest of the universe, the c^ter wherein termi- nated all the principal roads of the country. As at Rome was there to be seen at Lyons the great milestone or col- umn from which all roads were measured, and upon which the distance to every point along each road was marked. The great Roman roads were marked at regular distances, by milestones (milliarii lapides), of from five to eight feet high, upon which was indicated the number of the stone, and the distances given in miles and leagues.
A means of pacification employed by the Roman Em- peror was to found a great number of military colonies. Entrusted with the task of keeping quiet their most tur- bulent neighboring countries, and with the defense of their frontier against the aggressions of the Germans, these colonies, which have given birth in nearly all the provinces to the cities of the present day, were in daily communication with the inhabitants of the neighboring country, transmitting to them their ideas of taste and cultivation. Composed of Roman citizens, they enjoyed the same rights and privileges to which they were accus- tomed in Italy.
The Emperor Augustus, after having regulated, at ISTarbo- Martius (JiTarbonne), in the year 27 B. C, the assessment of imposts and the administration of the interior, after having established schools and adapted the laws to the wants of the people, occupied himself in directing the construction, in many of the cities, in Narbonne and Lyons,
68 • &ENEEAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
particularly, by tlie colleges of architects, roads, aqueducts, entrenched camps, etc. rrom that date the prosperity of Lyons may be said to have begun. Under the Roman rule this city became the capital of Gaul, the seat of gov- ernment, the imperial residence during the voyages of Augustus, and those of most the successors to liis reign.
Caesar and Augustus, moreover, accepted the patronage of a number of towns which took their names from the Julian and Augustan families, and which enjoyed many privileges.
The ancient cities, such as Marseilles, Aries, Aix, Ifar- bonne, etc., were ornamented, in a considerable degree, by monuments; while, by the prodigious activity of the colleges of constructors, upon the sites of ancient towns, destroyed in the wars, arose new cities, in the construction of which both Roman soldier and native population lent their aid.
Among this crowd of cities, the, most important were Rheims, Rouen, Bourges, Sens, Bourdeaux, Besangon, Lyons, Vienne, Toulouse, Paris, and Treves, and the last- named was chosen latterly as the residence of the gover- nors of Gaul. Those cities were organized exactly upon the. plan of Rome, wherein reposed the center of govern- ment. Each of them had its forum, its papitol, its thea- ters, its amphitheater, its temples, its cathedrals, its streets and aqueducts, and also its schools, wherein were taught polite literature, science, and art with a success that ri- valed that of Athens under Pericles, and Rome under Au- gustus himself.
The spectacle that Gaul presented under ihe dominion of the twelve Csesars is of the highest interest. The col- leges of architects, composed generally of artists and men versed in all the sciences, had contributed to this elevated degree as much by the great number of monuments which they had erected in the principal Gallic cities, under tha reign of Augustus, as by their learning and their humani-
THE MASONIC COKPOKATIONS IN GAUL. 69
tarian principles. In tLis manner the fraternity had at- tained to a condition of such consideration that men the most distinguished regarded it a high privilege to be ac- cepted among them as honorary members. At this time many of the most illustrious patricians, prefering Gaul to Italy as a residence, Agrippa, Drusus, Tiberias, and the richest among the citizens of Rome, sought governorships in- that country preferably to any other. In fine, the Roman institutions, manners, letters, and arts ^transplanted to this soil attained a development as abundant as in the most flourishing of the years known to Italy herself.
It should be remarked that all of these productions of intelligence were forwarded or retarded, however, by the condition of reigning emperor — the good ruler working for the good of the provinces as well as for that condition of Rome herself, while the evil-disposed ruler burdened them with imposts and vexatious grievances.
Almost to the fourth century the arts, and particularly architecture, were very flourishing in the province of (Jaul. From the time of Constantine, almost to the defeat ctf Syagrius, the emperors continued to visit the country to defend it against the incessant invasions of the G-er- laans, Saxons, Burgundians, Herulians, etc. But the j^'ranks, of all its invaders, appeared to be the most re- doubtable and persistent. No defeats damped their cour- age until the year 355, of our era, when Julian, having overthrown them in the most signal manner, removed his residence to Lutesia (Paris), and caused there to be con- structed an immense palace, the ruins of the baths of which may be seen, in the Rue de la Harpe, to this day. Under the emperors who succeeded him, however, the aggressions became more active and audacious, and the ravages more terrible. The imperial power lost each year, each day, a portion of its prestige. Stilicon yet sus- tained the power of Honorius, in Gaul; but, after him,' the Sclaves, the Alans, and the Huns pillaged and devas-
70 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tated the country without pity and without mercy. The Visigoths and the Burgundians undertook even to estab- lish themselves in the land. Adolph, king of the Goths, fought the German hordes for some time with variable success, but he was, in his turn, chased from !N"arbonne and finally driven from the south by Constance, a gen- eral commanding the army of Honorius. It was in this war that the greater portion of the beautiful monuments erected by the Roman colleges were destroyed — monu- ments the beauty and symmetry of which we can yet judge by the existing remains of the amphitheaters at Aries, at Frejus, IsTemes, etc., the aqueducts of the Pont du Gard, at Lyons, and those of neighboring cities.
Honorius reorganized the Gauls, and Aries became the capital. In a proclamation, he invited the people to con- struct twenty-four of their destroyed cities, to rebuild their bridges, and re-establish their roads. For this pur- pose, he sent into all parts of the country which had been overrun by the barbaric hordes artist constructors, to guide the workmen and direct them in their labors. But all of these ameliorations endured for but a short time; the barbarous nations continued their invasions, and the Franks finally triumphed. It was in vain that Actius fought the Visigoths, repulsed the Burgundians, defied Attila. It was in vain that Majorien retook Lyons from Theodoric; the Franks seized upon Mayenee, Treves, and Cologne, destroyed their principal edifices, and heaped ruin upon ruin. They established themselves at Tour- nay, and from thence advanced, step by step, over the territory of the empire. In fine, Clovis appeared, and Gaul was forever withdrawn from Roman domination. Then it was that a new art erected itself upon the old ruins, established itself upon a new basis, and developed itself, marked with some material elements of the past, but reinvested with another symbol.
The Masonic corporations which had been formed out-
THE MASONIC COfiPORATIONS IN GAUL. 71
side of the legions who settled in Gaul^ — and their number was considerable — after the retreat of the Eomans in the year 486, remained in the country. For years they had been in the habit of receiving into their membership many of the Gauls. Many members of these corporations em- braced Christianity, which, in Gaul, since the beginning of the third century, had numerous partisans. K"o longer exclusively employed by the government, and their privi- leges consequently having decreased, a change operated in their organization. The different arts and trades which, almost to that time, had been united in one fraternity, separated and formed distinct corporations; and it was among these corporations that, much degenerated, were found to exist the manners and customs of the Eoman colleges of constructors, and which, subsequently, served as a basis for the communes of the middle ages. Among them the corporations of Masons were at all times the most important, because they conserved their primitive organization and privileges, and continued to devote them- selves particularly to the construction of religious edifices. Intrusted by the new apostles, who, in the year 257, came from Rome, bearing the title of bishops, with the construc- tion of the religious edifices then iu course of erection at Amiens, Beauvais, Soissons, Rheims, and Paris, these Christian Masons, guided by those apostles, and inspired by them with a horror of pagan temples, wrought with zeal in the destruction of the enormous number of edifices and works of art that the wars and the invasions had not yet destroyed, and of which there existed many remains. la this manner the earth became the sepulcher of all the remains of centuries of earlj'^ art.
Under the reign of Childeric (460-481), of Clovis (481- 611), of Clothaire (511-561), many churches were built upon the ruins of the pagan temples, and, at the close of the sixth century, a great many existed. During the in- ternational wars, the invasions of barbarians and social
72 GENERAL HISTORY OF FKEEMASONRT.
struggles of the people, the study of science .and the prac- tice of the divers branches of the arts, found place alone in the monasteries, wherein, above all, were cultivated architecture, sculpture, and painting. So that wherever the erection of a church was contemplated, the plan was furnished by an ecclesiastic — a member of the Masonic corporations — and the work was executed under his direc- tion. St. Eloi, Bishop of Noyen (659), St. Ferol, of Limo- ges, Dalmac, Bishop of Rhodes, and Agricola, Bishop of Chalons (680-700), were the celebrated architects. But the corporations had equally good from among the laity, of which the most renowned had gone to England, having been engaged by the Bishop of Weymouth, who came to Gaul to seek such ; and, later, Charles Martel, who ruled (740) in France under the title of " Major of the Palace," sent many masters and workmen to England upon the demands of the Anglo-Saxon kings.
The invasion of the Arabs (718) arrested the flight that the arts had taken in the seventh century, and it was not until the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) that stone- cutters and sculptors were ordered from Lombardy, and architecture was again cultivated with success. The quali- fication of stone-cutter, or master of the work, was then given to the greatest architects of Europe, and whoever wished to become an architect found it necessary to be received into the corporation to learn the art of stone- cutting — that branch of architecture being considered the basis of the art — not, however, to be considered or re- ceived as a master until he had passed through many de- grees of apprenticeship. It was in the Latin style that all edifices of the time were erected. The Roman and Roman-ogee, or transition, styles succeeded it.'
'All the monuments constructed by Masonic corporations were erected after certain forms and rules which are called style. The style was adopted by the architects or chiefs, and all the masters had to conform
§^
■^
'N*.
X
- ^
^
"k
V
.,v~
" V
^v
t
V
V
■>-
-.^
^
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 73
The year 1000, so much dreaded, arrived. It shoula have brought the reign of Anti-Christ and the end of the world's existence ; but no inundation had flooded nor earthquakes shaken our globe from its axis, although the terror entertained by the Christian world, that its destruc- tion was merely deferred, was not dissipated for nearlj three years afterward. At the expiration of that time, however, the most skeptical felt they had nothing further to fear, and this belief was hailed as the aurora of a hew earth. Art as well as humanity arose from its long leth- argy and gave evidence of the vitality of its being. The desire to repair the disasters of years became general, and soon made itself felt in the reconstruction of nearly all the religious edifices of the Christian world. William the Conqueror, King of England in 1054, influenced in some degree by the stream of Norman priests and archi- tects that flowed into England during his reign — ^gradu- ates all of the school of the Lombards — built the finest and most stupendous cathedrals of England. A great number of Masons had, at this time, formed an Italian school in Lombardy, which, in the seventeenth century; was an active center of civilization, and where some frag- ments of the ancient Roman colleges of builders had lo- cated themselves, and enjoyed their antique organization
to it. There may be enumerated four periods in which, each style ia marked by a form or style different from the other.
In the first period, it was the Latin style that prevailed, from the fourth to the eleventh century ; subsequently the Eomau style, during the elev- enth and first half of the twelfth.
In the second period, it is the Roman-ogee, or transition Roman stylej that prevailed, from 1150 to 1200.
In the third period, it was the primary ogival style that prevailed u the thirteenth century, the secondary in the fourteenth, and the tertiary in the fifteenth centuries.
In the fourth period, it was the style called the Renaissance, or an- cient Latin revived, that prevailed to the close of the sixteenth and dur- ing the seventeenth centuries.
74 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
and privileges, under the name of Free Corporations. The most celebrated were those of Como, which had acquired so great a degree of superiority that the title of "Magistn Comadni," or Masters of Como, had become the generic name 'of aU the members of the architect corporations. They always taught in secret, and had their own judiciary and mysteries.
While they had been laboring to cover Lombardy with religious edifices, their number had so greatly increased that, this work accomplished, the country failed to afford employment for all, and, in consequence, many united in the formation of a great Fraternity, having for its object to travel into all Christian countries, and therein erect religious edifices. This design was earnestly and ably sec- onded by the Popes, who conferred upon the corporations and upon those who, with the same object, followed in their train, the exclusive monopoly — ^mentioned in an- other part of this work — which was respected and sanc- tioned by the kings of such countries.
In the eleventh century we find them again in France, where they are known under the name of Brother Masons and Brother Bridgers, and sometimes, also, under that of Freemasons. Employed and directed almost exclusively by the religious orders, the abbots and prelates held it an honor to enter into membership with the Fraternity, and to participate in their secrets, and thus greatly promoted the stability and consideration accorded to the institution. The numbers of the Mason Fraternity were united by mutual obligations of hospitality, succor, and good offices, and thus they were enabled to make, at small expense, the most lengthy journeys in the pursuit of employ ment.
The Bridgers, or Bridge-building Fraternity, who formed a community, civil and religious, resembling that of the ancient Eomau colleges, occupied themselves more par- ticularly with that which concerned bridges. It was them
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 75
who built the bridge at Avignon (1180), and nearly all the bridges of Provence, Lorraine, and Lyons.
The architect-in-chief of. the corporation of Freemasons was generally a Benedictine monk, and supported by men of all the. principal nationalities — Italy, England, France, Holland, Germany, and Greece — who, during the construe tion of some more masterly production than usual, found it necessary to travel much from country to country.
The workmen dwelt, upon these occasions, in barracks erected for their convenience, near by the edifice in course of construction, and generally upon a high or rising ground. The master directed all. Ten men were always under the surveillance of a chief, and none but actual Freemasons participated in the work, and who, when their task was in that locality accomplished, sought their fortunes elsewhere. In nearly every instance they were ably seconded by the people of the neighborhood, who freely carried to the spot the necessary materials in the rough which were used in the construction of the edifice, and also by the nobles, who gave them money and pro- •visions necessary for their support. All of the principal cities had their corporations of workmen, who, in addition to their rights as citizens, had their own fundamental and special laws, as corporate societies.
It was in the reigns of Philip Augustus (1180 to 1223), and of St. Louis (1226-1270), that were conceived the majority of these magnificent cathedrals that can be called by 'no lesser name than sublime sanctuaries of an all-pow- erful God ; grand conceptions of Christian genius as poems written out in the faith and by the hand of those Mason philosophers. In the eyes of the vulgar, these monuments are but masses of stone regularly heaped, together; their forms present to such nothing beyond the expression of an idea indicating a temple, a palace, or other form of edifice; but to the eye of the philosopher, this form had a mission more noble and elevated — that of transmitting
76 GENERAL HISTORY OF rRBEMASONRT.
to future generations the ideas, manners, and civilizing progress of the day and generation, and of faithfully re- flecting the image and sentiments indicative of the then civil and religious knowledge of the peoples. Thus the varied genius .wtich had conceived and executed the tem- ples, as weli^' of 'antiquity as the middle ages, gave expres- sion to'the spirit of the 'times, while each of these monu- ments'seems '^animated Vith the soul of its author.
Without'ehterihg into the details of these gigantic con- ceptions, such as we. find expressed in the cathedrals of Cologne, Strasburg, Paris, and many others, let us pause a moment to grasp their grandness as majestic edifices, and we will discover ourselves lost in surprise at the hardihood evinced by the builder in his harmonious blend- ing of diametrically opposite elements. But, when we perceive that a principle — individual, original, and in- genious, disposing of even the smallest parts and descend- ing to the arrangement of the most minute details — rules and imparts to the whole an unrivaled strength and beauty, our souls are ravished with unbounded admira- tion.
The principle of repetition and regular variation from a fundamental form that is observable in the interior of these monuments, has been uniformly followed in the formation of all the other members in the exterior of the edifice. By all the type of the whole is represented _ in the parts; 'and thus we find, in the compositions of these architect 'philosophers, a marvelous principle of develop- ment from a few fundamental forms, proceeding from the simple to the composite, such as Haiiy, in his treatise on Mineralogy, demonstrates as the principle of crystalliza- tion, and such as Goethe, in his " JSTaturwissenschaft und Morphologie," discovered in plants, as the principle of vegetable 'meta;morphosis.
The^ties' of union which existed among the member-
• THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN OAUL. 77
ship of Freemasons, explains how and why there, appears such a striking, identity of expression among the various monuments erected by them in. the different countries of Europe, and above all, among those erected during the thirteenth century. The masters of the work (architects) of all. the religious edifices of the Latin Church had ob- tained their knowledge at the same central school; they were obedient to the laws of the same hierarchy; they were directed in their constructions by the same prin- ciples, and what was known to one immediately, became the property of the whole body. They were obliged to conform to a general plan adopted for all religious edifices, and therefore were not permitted to follow their, individual ideas of form, even if the result of their inspirations, as to details, would have been more beautiful in effect, or har- monious in ornament. And it is thus that the cotem- . porary monuments of Alsatia, Poictiers, Normandy, Bur- gundy, and the province of Auvergne present, in point of decoration, a particular physiognomy, which is generally attributed to local circumstances, and, to, the nature of the materials, rather than to the facts we have indicated.
The enormous sacrifices that the ; population, had made to erect churches, joined to the crying abuses of the clergy and the popes, had, in the fifteenth century, weakened the popular ardor, and dispelled the, popular faith to so great a degree, that new church edifices ceased to be erected, and the work even on these in course of con- struction was stopped. Then the Reformation completed the destruction of papal power, and forever arrested the erection of vast religious edifices. No more enjoying the protection of the popes, the privileges of the Masonic corporations became of little value, and, having no more religious edifices to construct, the corporations dispersed; and, by the beginning of the sixteenth century, they found occupation but in the erection of civic edifices. Finally,
78 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in 1539, Francis I suspended all the corporations of work- men, and thus Freemasonry, in the ancient sense of the term, was extin^ished in France.
Since that time, the architects have, in their individual capacity, undertaken and finished, by the aid of workmen engaged in the usual manner, such erections as was or- lered or required. The tie of fraternity that heretofore had united master, workman, and apprentice was gradu- ally dissolved, and the workmen formed themselves into separate societies which were imitated by other bodies of tradesmen. This was the origin of the trades-unions which were so prevalent in the seventeenth century, and which at the present day exists, in more or less influence, in every city of Europe and America.
The consequences of the dissolution of the Masonic so- cieties were such that in a few years the art of building the pointed arch was lost, as also the art of constructing those voluted elevations which characterizes the great ca- thedrals of the middle ages. The Gothic style, prevalent from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, gave place to the style called the Renaissance, as that of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and it is to this last school that belonged the celebrated architects, Delorme and Bul- lant, who built, in 1577, the Tuilleries ; Lescot and Goryon, who built, in 1571, the Louvre ; Lemercier, who built the national palace of St. Rock; Blondel and Bullet, who built, between the years 1674 and 1686, the gates of St. Denis and St. Martin ; Mansart, who built the castles of Versailles and the Invalides, between the years 1700 and 1725; and J. Soufflot, who built the Pantheon. These architects were not members of the Freemason corporations.
The Masonic corporations never presented in France that distinctive character that they had in England, and more particularly in Scotland; and consequently their in- fluence upon civilization there has been much less than in the latter countries. The practice adopted by the corpora-
i
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUl. 79
tions in those countries of affiliating, in. the capacity of honorary members or patrons, some eminent men, had, however, in France, the same result; that is to say, the formation of lodges outside of the corporations, whose' object was the propagation of the humanitarian doctrines of the institution ; for it is certain that, since the Masonic orporations were dissolved in France, there have existed lodges of this character at Marseilles, Lyons, and Paris, similar to those which existed at Anvers, Gand, Brus- sels, Amsterdam, and Florence. All of these lodges are believed to have had entered into relations of correspond- ence with each other; but, since the middle of the seven- teenth century, no trace of such relationship is discover- able.
The final transformation of this fraternity of artists and artisans to a moral institution, such as went into operation in London in 1717, and as it exists in our qwn day, took place in France in 1721.
80 GENERAL HISTOKT OF FBEEMASONRY.
ABKIDGMENT OF THE
HISTORY OF MODERN OR PHILOSOPHIC FREEMASONRY
m FRANCE, SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION, IN 1721, TO THE
ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND ORIENT
OF FRANCE, IN 1772.
Isr the abridgment of the General History of Freema- sonry previously given, we have shown how this ancient fraternity of arts was transformed, in 1717, at London, from a corporation mechanical and philosophic to an insti- tution purely philosophic, abandoning forever its material object — that is to say, the construction of buildings of every kind — but otherwise scrupulously conserving its traditional doctrines and symbols. The first cities of the continent of Europe to which Masonry, thus regenerated, was carried, were Dunkii'k,^ in 1721, and Mons.^
It was not until 1725 that the first lodge was founded at Paris, by Lord Derwentwater and two other English- men, under the title of " St. Thomas," and constituted by them, in the name of the Grand Lodge of London, on the 12th of June, 1726. Its members, to the number of five or six hundred, held their lodge at the house of the traitor Hurre, in the street of the St. Germain meat-market. A second lodge was established, by the same English gentle-
' The lodge at Dunkirk was named " Friendship and Brotherly Love," and was reconstituted by the Grand Lodge of France in 1756.
"The lodge at Mons was constituted by the Grand Lodge of England, on the 24th of June, 1721, under the title of "Perfect Union." Subse- quently it was erected into an English Grand Lodge of the lower country of Austria, and has constituted or chartered lodges since 1730.
FRBEMASONBT IN FRANCE. 81
men, on the 7th of May, 1729, under the name of "Louia d' Argent." Its meetings were held at the house of the traitor Lebreton, who kept the same as an inn, under the name of Louis d' Argent. IJpon the 11th of December of the same year a third lodge was constituted, under the title of "Arts Sainte Marguerite." Its meetings were held at the house of an Englishman named Gaustand. Finally, on the 29th of IsTovember, 1732, a fourth lodge was consti- tuted, under the name of " Buci," the same being the name of the hotel wherein its meetings were held. This house was located in the Bue de Bud, and kept by the traitor Landelle; and the lodge "Buci," after having initiated the Duke of Aumont, took the name of " Lodge of Aumont."
Lord Derwentwater, who had, in 1725, received from the Grand Lodge of London plenary powers to constitute lodges of Freemasons in France, was, in 1735, invested by the same Grand Lodge with the functions of Provincial Grand Master; and when he subsequently quitted France to return to England, (where he perished upon the scaffold, a victim to his adherence to the fortunes of the Stuarts,) he transferred those plenary powers which he possessed to his friend Lord Harnwester, whom he authorized to repre- sent him, during his absence, in the quality of Provincial Grand Master.
The four lodges then existing at Paris resolved to found a Provincial Grand Lodge of England, to which such lodges as should be organized in the future should address them- selves directly, as the representative of the Grand Lodge of London. This resolution was put into execution aftei the death of Lord Derwentwater, and this Grand Lodge regularly and legally constituted itself, in 1736, under the presidency of Lord Harnwester.
Beside the lodges constituted by Lord Derwentwater, under the powers and after the forms of the Grand Lodge of London, there were constituted other lodges by a Scotch- man named Eamsay, who styled himself Doctor and Baron 6
82 aEKEBAL HISTORY OF FRBEMASONBY.
of Ramsay, also a partisan of the Stuarts. This celebrated Mason filled for some time the office of Orator to the Pro- vincial Grand Lodge of whose organization we have just spoken, and during that time he sought to introduce and to establish a system of Masonry called Scottish, and which he stated had been created at Edinburgh by a chapter of the lodge " Canongate Kilwinning," but which had a political object no less than to make Masonry subservient to the Stu- art party, and an aid to the Catholic Church by the resto- ration of the Pretender to the throne of England. ISTot wish- ing to avow its true origin, the founders of this system attributed its creation to Godfrey de Bouillon, the last Grand Master of Knights Templar. This rite, styled Ma- sonic, had not, however, at this time been accepted either in Scotland or England; but, introduced by Ramsay in France, it served as a basis for all the Masonic systems invented and propagated from that time in France, and exported into the different countries of the globe.
In 1737, Lord Harnwester, the second Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons in France, wishing to return to England, demanded, before his departure, to be replaced in his office by a Frenchman, and the Duke of Autin, a zealous Mason, succeeded him in the month of June, 1738.^
' The Duke of Autin was chosen from among the lords of the Court of Louis XV, as that one who had shown the greatest zeal for Freema- sonry. He had, in fact, braved the anger of the King, who had inter- dicted the lords of his court from attending the meetings of the Freema- sons; and he, above all, had shown, in accepting the position of Grand Master, an unusual degree of courage, as he knew that the King had threatened him with arrest and condemned him to the Baatile for so doing. The King, however, contrary to general expectation, took no steps to carry out his threat; but the police of the court continued the proscription against the lords in attendance who would not oppose the weight of their names and influence against the institution. After hav- ing, in 1737, condemned the inn-keeper Chapelot to pay a fine of one hundred francs, and to close his tavern, because he had allowed a meet- ing of Freemasons to take place therein, the year following they brutally dispersed a lodge which had met at the Hotel of Soissons, in the street
FRBMASONRT IN FRANCE. 83
After the death of the third Grand Master, which took place in 1743, the Masters of the lodges, at a meeting that was held on the 11th of December of that year, named in his place the Duke of Bourbon, Count of Clermont, and from this time the organization over which he presided took the title of the "English Grand Lodge of Trance," always recognizing, as it did, the supremacy of the Grand Lodge' of London.
From the period of its organization, this English Grand Lodge created difficulties for itself which became the prin- cipal cause, eventually, of spreading disorder in the Ma- sonic ranks, by giving, according to the usage of the Grand Lodge of York at this time, and also of chapters estab- lished by its lodges, powers to permanent Masters,' of
of the Two Crowns, and imprisoned many of its members in the Fort L'Eveque. The nomination, in 1743, of the Duke of Bourbon to the Grand Mastership did not even weaken their pursuit of the brethren; for, on the 5th of June, 1744, they issued an order which prohibited the Freemasons to meet in the capacity of a lodge, and by virtue of this order they condemned, shortly afterward, the hotel-keeper Leroy to pay a fine of three thousand francs, for having allowed a lodge session to take place at his house.
'Alexander Thory, in his Acta Latamorum, affords us a very vivid pic- ture of these disorders. On page 70 he says : " The Grand Lodge of France, which was established at Paris, in 1743, under the title of the ' English Grand Lodge of France,' declared itself the Grand Lodge of the Kingdom, and released from the authority of the Grand Lodge of London; but it conserved in the charters which it gave, in like manner with the Grand Lodge of York, the authority to dispose of personal titles to brethren under the style of permanent Masters, or Masters ad viiam, and thus empowered such Masters to govern their lodges continually, and according to their individual caprice. These Masters were permitted to dispose of charters to other Masters of lodges, at Paris and in the provinces, who, in their turn, constituted other bodies, which rivaled, in the expression of their authority, the Grand Lodge; and which bodies organized themselves, under the titles of cha,pter8, colleges, counsels, and tribunals, at Paris and in many of the cities of France, wherein they established additional lodges and chapters. From these disorders there resulted such a complication of evil consequences, that it soon became
84 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
whom a great number had already been created by the first delegates of the Grand Lodge of York. The Eng- lish Grand Lodge of France also organized local and fed- eral administrations, under the name of Provincial Grand Lodges, which were presided over by the Masters of sub- ordinate or operative lodges. These Provincial Grand Lodges, equally with the power that created them, had the right to create lodges and grant charters. FrOm this general distribution of the creative power, it resulted that at this time there existed in Paris more than sixty lodges, and over one hundred in the provinces.
Lidependently of these Provincial Grand Lodges, there were also established in France other constituent bodies, some professing the rite introduced by Samsay, and others analagous rites under other names. From among these we will mention the Chapter of Arras, constituted on the 15th of April, 1747, by the Prince Pretender, Charles Ed- ward Stuart; and another, under the title of the "Mother Lodge of St. John of Scotland," organized at Marseilles, in 1751, by a Scotchman of the Pretender's suite. Subse- quently there was established the Chapter of Clermont, founded at Paris, in 1754, in the college of the Jesuits at Clermont, the refuge of all the partisans of the Stuarts. For the purpose of hiding the true authorship of the sys- tem of the Templars, mentioned as having been propa- gated at Paris by Ramsay, this system was at this time called Strict Observance, and the chevalier Bonnville, also a partisan of the Stuarts, was announced as its founder, when he was nothing in connection with it but its propa- gator. Finally, in 1758, the chapter called "The Em- perors of the East and the "West," of which the members
impossible to ascei-tain witli any readiness what body was really the head of Masonry in the kingdom. The history of Masonry at this period is much more obscure than at any other, as none of these Masters of lodges and chapters kept any minutes of their proceedings or operations — a formality that was often neglected by the Grand Lodge itself.
IfSBBMASONRY IN PRANCE. 86
gave themselves the titles of Sovereign Prince Musons, Sub- stitutes General of the Eoyal Art, and Grand Wardens and Officers of the Sovereign Grand Lodg.e of St. John of Jeru- salem—a, chapter created bj the Jesuits of Lyons.^
' According to the work of Alexander Thory, it should be by this chap ter that the Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret was founded, it 1758, at Bordeaux, and by the members of which the thirty-flve articles comprisfng the rules and regulations of the system styled a Lodge of Per- fection were prepared. This system comprised the twenty-five degrees which, under the direction of its founders, had been for some short time practiced in France. This assertion of Thory is incorrect ; for no proof can be found that a Consistory of Princes of the Eoyal Secret existed at Bordeaux before the year 1789. No authority of this name existed either in 1758 or in 1761 at Bordeaux; and consequently its membership could not have aided in the compilation of the famous thirty-five articles upon which the Supreme Council of the Scottish Kite for France founded its origin ana its rights to the exclusive administration of this rite, and which it called "The Grand Constitutions." How, otherwise, is it reason- able to admit that the council, constituted and composed of the " Em- perors of the East and West," created in 1758, at Paris, who are said to have established this Consistory of the Eoyal Secret in 1759, at Bor- deaux, had called in the aid of their members to compile rules and regur lations which already were compiled, and under which this very Con- sistory was organized? All that there is of truth in connection with these "Grand Constitutions'' is, that they had no existence in any form prior to 1804, when the Supreme Council was organized by Grasse de Tilly; and they were, in all probability, fabricated by him as comple- mentary to the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, invented at Charleston, South Carolina, and carried by him to France. Other- wise the facts which should have been advanced against the authenticity of these Eegulations, which we unworthily dignify by calling them Con- stitutions, would have completely crushed them out of existence. Of these facts, one is that there was not a printed or manuscript copy of these regulations prior to 1804, and the manuscript that appeared at that date rendered it necessary for the reader to suppose that it had beet prepared at Berlin ; for the name of that city, where a name of produo tion should have appeared, was indicated by the letter B, followed by the three points, (.".). Now, as this manuscript assured the leader that the king, Frederick of Prussia, had ratified it in his capacity as supreme chief of the rite — an assertion completely and in every particular false, as we shall prove in our history of the Supreme Council — this initial
86 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The establishment of all these independent bodies created gradually such confusion and such disorder that these coun- cils, consistories, tribunals, and chapters knew not them- selves which was the true constituting body in France.
Constantly disquieted by these " sovereign " chapters and tribunals, founded, as we have indicated, for the most part by Scotch gentlemen, partisans of the Stuarts, the Eng- lish Grand Lodge of France resolved, in 1756, to detach itself from all connection with the Grand Lodge of Lon- don, and by thus declaring itself independent, hoped to be able to rule the different isolated bodies. In pursuance of this resolve, it declared itself independent of all foreign Masonic alliances, and took the title of "National Grand Lodge of France." Its hopes, however, were not realized, for it continued to be tormented by new creations of Ma- sonic authority it could not impeach, and which, like all elder organizations, attributed to themselves the right of supremacy oveV it. The Grand Lodge, they asserted, in conformity with its character, delivered to it by Lord Derwentwater and confirmed by Lord Harnwester, con- ferred but the three degrees of symbolic Masonry, while these " chapters and lodges of perfection " believed them- selves alone possessed of the right to confer what they styled the " higher " degrees. Following their lead, many councils and chapters were constituted by masters ad vitam, who obtained, and very often purchased, their privileges from others of their own rank; and these last affected equally a supremacy toward the Grand Lodge of Fi-ance, by reason of their pretended knowledge and their right to confer "high" degrees — a right which, though usurped,, the no less obtained general recognition. B-epeatedly did
should have indicated Berlin, and not Bordeaux. Was it by design, or through ignorance, that subsequently the word was completed by writing it Bordeaux ? We are unable to decide. But it ia plain that Thory has believed and repeated the fable invented by the creators of the rite, to give it an importance that age alone would confer.
FREEMASONRY IN SRANCB. 87
the Grand Lodge denounce the administration and the acts of these usurpers, as abusive of the trust reposed in those who enabled them to act in this manner; but this de- nunciation, as also the efforts put forth by the Grand Lodge from time to time, to demonstrate the inutility of these "higher" degrees, werfe all in vain; for a great many of the lodges, recognizing its authority and jurisdiction, had adopted those degrees, and conferred them in chapters or- ganized by and under the control of those lodges,
The Grand Lodge, unhappily, was powerless to enforce the execution of its edicts against these illegitimate powers. The chapters continued to issue charters, and the Grand Lodge, in consequence of the carelessness of its Grand Master, the Count of Clermont, fell into anarchy. To re- lieve himself from the administration of its affairs, the Grand Master substituted a deputy named Baure, who, soon misbehaving himself, was replaced by a person even less worthy — a dancing-master named Lacorne. Lnpressed with the belief that the possession of all the degrees in vogue was necessary to add to his dignity, in the new position into which he was thrust, Lacorne had himself initiated into a lodge of perfection. He then convoked many as- semblies, from which every member of the Grand Lodge abstained to attend. Irritated at this desertion, he as- sembled a number of lodge masters, whom he recruited in the taverns, to organize a Grand Lodge, and of these he chose his officers in accordance with his caprice. Finally, upon the representations which were made to the Count of Clermont on the subject, he revoked the appointment of Lacorne, and named in his stead the brother Chaillou de Joinville, as his substitute or Deputy General, From this state of things there arose a schism in the Grand Lodge, and it became divided into two parties who occu- pied themselves in tearing each other, each pretending to represent the constituent body of French Masonry and perform its functions. To aid the disorder, each party
88 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
published constitutions,' and the masters of the lodges, composing a portion of the party of Lacorne, and equally desirous of gain, sold the right of holding lodges, and thus the mysteries and the constitutions becoming an ob- ject of traffic, outside of the lodges Masonry fell into contempt, while inside anarchy reigned supreme.
^We believe it proper here to give in full one of these constitutions, which was delivered, in 1761, to Stephen Morin, an Israelite, both because that it is at once a document authentic and curious, as well as that it served, some forty years afterward, as the foundation of the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Thirtj'-three Degrees," created at Charleston, South Carolina, by five other Jews, and introduced into France, in 1804, by the establishment of the Supreme Council for France, situated at Paris, and which is to-day the rival authority of the Grand Orient of France. This constitution reads as follows:
"To the glory of the G-rand Architect of the Universe, etc. Under the good pleasure of his serene highness, the very illustrious brother, Louis of Bourbon, Count of Clermont, prince of the blood. Grand Master and protector of all the lodges at the Orient, etc., the 27th of August, 1761. Imx e tenebris, unitas, concordia fratrum. We, the undersigned. Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Wardens of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge, President of the Grand Council, a request to us made by ^the brother Lacorne, substitute of the T. M. G. M., read at a meetr ing: That our dear brother Stephen Morin, grand elect, perfect and ancient sublime Master of all the orders of the Masonry of Perfection, member of the Royal Lodge of the Trinity, etc., having, upon his de- parture for America, desired the power to travel regularly, etc. ; that it has pleased the Supreme Grand Council and Grand Lodge to accord to him letters patent for constitutions, etc. For these causes, etc., are given plenary and entire powers to the said brother to form and to establish a lodge for to receive and to multiply the royal art of the Freemasons in all the degrees perfect and sublime, etc. ; to regulate and to govern all the members who may compose the said lodge which he may establish in the four quarter parts- of the world whither he shall arrive or he may reside, under the title of 'Lodge of St. John,' and surnamed 'Perfect Harmony;' giving him power to choose such ofiicers to aid him in the government of his lodge as he shall judge suitable; deputing him, in the quality of our Grand Inspector in all parts of the new world, for to reform the observance of our laws in general; constituting him our Grand Master Inspector; giving him full and entile power to create inspectors in all places where the sublime degrees shall not be established.
FREEMASONKT IN FRANCE. 89
After remaining in this condition for some time, a re- conciliation took place' between the two parties composing the Grand Lodge, and a union was ratified on the 24th of June, 1762. But the old masters, who made no portion of the Lacorne faction, and who were persons belonging some to the nobility of the kingdom, some to the bar, and soma to the most distinguished of the people, seeing themselve. confounded with mechanics and men of no education, as also men infamous and utterly unworthy of a place in the Grrand Lodge, took exceptions constantly to such men being members of that body; and hence constant dissensions arose, and which were envenomed by the pretensions, growing more and more intolerable, set up by the other constituent bodies. Finally, worn out with the inces-
"In witness of which we have delivered these presents, signed by the Substitute General of the Order, Grand Commander of the Black and "White Eagle, Sovereign Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, and Chief of the eminent Degree of the Royal Art, and by our grand inspectors, sublime officers of the Grand Council and of the Grand Lodge estab- lished in this capital, and have sealed them with the great seal of his serene highness, our illustrious Grand Master, and with that of our Grand Lodge and Sovereign Grand Council at the Grand East of Paris, the day and year, etc.
[Signed] "Chaillou db Jointillb,
" Substitute General of the Order, Worshipful Master of the first Lodge in France, called ' St. Thomas.' Chief of the eminent Degrees, Commandant and Sublime Prince of the Boyal Secret.
" Prince db Rohan,
" Member of the Grand Lodge ' Intelligence,' Prince Mason.
" Lacorne,
"Prince of Masonry, Substitute of the Grand Master.
" Satalette, Db Buokolt, Tadpin, and " Brest db la Chaussee,
"Grand Knights and Prince Masons,
" De Choiseul,
" Count, Grand Knight, Prince Mason, and Orator.
"Boucher db Lenonoourt, " Grand Knight and Prince Mason, by Order of the Grand Lodge ; and
" Daubantin,
'• Grand Knight and Prince Mason, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge and of the Sublims Council of Perfect Masons in Trance, etc."
90 GENERAL HISTOBT OF FREEMASONRY.
eant complaints wliicli were addresBed to it by a great number of the lodges organized by councils, colleges, and tribunals of the " high " degrees, the Grand Lodge resolved to choke all these pretensions, and on the 14th of August, 1766, decided to publish a decree by which was revoked all the capitulary constitutions, and all the symbolic lodges prohibited from recognizing the authority which was arrogated to themselves by these councils and chapters.^ A certain number of the members of the Grand Lodge of the old Lacorne party, infamous men, and who were, at the same time, members of the chapters, protested against this decree and compromised the authority of the Grand Lodge. Consequently, in the re-election of the oflBlcers of the lodges which took place in 1766, in accordance with the regula- tions, those members who belonged to the Lacorne faction were not renominated. Erom that sprang protestations on their part and defamatory writings against the Grand Lodge and against the acts of its officers, until, finally, it became incumbent upon the Grand Lodge to expel these factious members, and publish them as deprived of all their Masonic rights.
The brethren thus expelled from the Grand Lodge re- sponded to its decision by new libels, personalities, and other injuries, and even went so far, at the feast of St. John, 1767, as to make it necessary for the government to interfere and forbid, after that day, the meetings of the Grand Lodge.
This rigorous measure, which struck as well at the inno- cent as the guilty, paralyzed all the efforts of the Grand
' Though the Grand Lodge of France, in 1756, declared itself inde- pendent of the Grand Lodge of London, which had, through its agenf^ Lord Derwentwater, constituted it, it nevertheless subsequently sought to renew its amicable relations with the latter, and in 1767 proposed and concluded an agreement, by the terms of which each of these constituent Masonic bodies agreed to respect the rights of the other, and constitute no Masonic organization within each other's jurisdiction.
FKEEMASONRY IN PBANCB. 91
Lodge membership. The expelled brethren who had been the cause of the interdiction, and who were always under the direction of Lacorne, profiting by the dispersion of a great many members of the Grand Lodge, held secret meetings and constituted operatire lodges, to which they delivered constitutions ante-dated to a time previous to the division in the Grand Lodge. Upon the other hand, the legal party of the Grand Lodge, represented by the brother Chaillou de Joinville, Substitute General of the Grand Master, the Count of Clermont, also delivered constitu- tions to organize working lodges in the provinces, which documents were also ante-dated, and of which no less than thirty-seven of these constitutions, so delivered by the lat- ter party during the period of the interdiction, were sub- sequently annulled.
The Lacorne party eventually conceived the plan of overthrowing the Grand Lodge and replacing it by a new power, in order to re-establish in their Masonic rights all the honorable members who should once more compose such authority ; and they awaited but a favorable occasion to put this design into execution. Some approaches made to the Lieutenant-General of Police were not attended with success ; and the state of interdiction was prolonged until the death of the Count of Clermont, which took place in 1771. This event raised the courage of the factions, who had not ceased to intrigue ; and, in the hope of reas- suming power, they addressed the Duke of Luxembourg, falsely announcing that they had formed the nucleus of the ancient Grand Lodge of France, interdicted since 1767, and desired to offer the Grand Mastership to the Duke of Chartres. The proposition was agreed to, and the Duke of Chartres, nephew of the Count of Clermont,' designated the Duke of Luxembourg for his substitute. The faction who had thus obtained so important a success convoked
' Since»Duke of Orleans, Philip Equality.
92 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
a general assembly of the Masters of all the lodges of Paris, and even invited the members of the Grand Lodge who had expelled them. At this assembly they submitted the acceptance of the Grand Mastership, signed by the Duke of Chartres, and offered to present this document to the Grand Lodge, provided that it would revoke its decree of expulsion made against them. The unfavorable circum- stances in which the Grand Lodge found itself at this time, joined to the advantageous considerations which would result to it by its acceptance of the Duke of Char- tres as its Grand Master, determined the members to accept the conditions which were proposed; and they decided that a report should be submitted to the Grand Lodge, upon the demand for a revocation of the decrees rendered against the expelled brethren, in order that these decrees should be revoked in due form. This being done, at the feast of St. John, in the year 1771, the Duke of Chartres was nominated for the Grand Mastership, and the Grand Lodge thereupon proceeded to annul all the charters, or constitutions, delivered during the suspension of its privi- leges, in the name of the Grand Lodge of France. A commission, composed of eight members, was thereupon appointed to elaborate a project of reorganization of the Masonic fraternity. There were also named twenty-two Provincial Grand Inspectors, with the mission to visit all the lodges in the kingdom and direct the administration of the rules and regulations, etc.
The party who had obtained the revocation of the de- crees of expulsion had, in the reorganization of the Grand Lodge, exerted their influence to obtain the admission of their partisans; and the success which had attended their first operation favored the accomplishment of the latter designs. Therefore, in the interval, this party, reinforced by all the councils and chapters of the Scottish E,ite, who had reserved to themselves the privilege of avenging the injury they had sustained from the decrees directed against
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 93
them by tlie Grand Lodge, resolved to equally oflfer to the Duke of Chartres the honorable position of Grand Master of all the lodges, chapters, and councils of the Scottish Rite in France. This honor the Duke accepted.^
In submitting this request to the Duke of Chartres, they made him believe that he had already attained the posi- tion, by his nommation in 1771, to the Grand Mastership of the Grand Lodge of Trance. The Duke knew nothing of Masonic forms, and never supposed that any nomina- tion of this kind should be made in an assembly of the Grand Lodge, an authority that had repudiated and pro- scribed the "high" degrees. He, therefore, accepted the office which to him was offered, and signed the article of acceptance presented to him by the Duke of Luxembourg, on the 5th of April, 1772. The latter, as substitute of the Duke of Chartres, wished to concentrate in his own hands the control of all the Masonic bodies in the king- dom, as, by the parties who had proposed the matter, he had been advised ; but he did not perceive that he had made
^We here give the text of this acceptance, because this document is not without historic interest:
" The year of the great Light, 1772, third day of the moon John, 5th day of the 2d month of the Masonic year 5772, and from the birth of the Messiah the 5th day of April, 1772, in virtue of the proclamation made in Grand Lodge assembled the 24th day of the 4th. month of the Masonic year 5771, of the very high, very povferful, and very excellent prince, his most serene highness Loiiis Phillipe Joseph d'Orleans, Duke of Chartres, prince of the blood, for Grand Master of all the regular lodges of France; and of that of the Sovereign Council of the Emperors of the Bast and West, sublime mother lodge of the Scottish (rite), of the 26th day of the moon Elul, 5771, for sovereign Grand Master of all the Scottish councils, chapters, and lodges of the great globe of France, offices which his said most serene highness has been pleased to accept for the love of the royal art, and in order to concentrate all the Masonic labors under one only authority.
" In guarantee of which, his said most serene highness has signed this minute of the transaction of acceptance.
[Signed] "Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orlbans."
94 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
himself, in this respect, the instrument of "but a faction. Unhappily having once lent himself to such a scheme, all the remonstrances addressed to him by the enlightened and respectable portion of the Grand Lodge, who pointed out to him the awkwardness of his position, and his stultifica- tion of theirs, were not sufficient to induce him to resign .he powers thus accorded to him, and his adhesion to which ultimately caused the extinction of the Grand Lodge of France, and the organization^ of the Grand Orient, whose history we propose to give an another volume.
-V
FREEMASONRY Hf ENGLAND. 96
ABRIDGMENT OF THE HISTORY OF MODERN OR PHILOSOPHIC FREEMASONRY
IN ENGLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, RUSSIA, POLAND, GER- MANY, HOLLAND, BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, AND PORTUGAL, FROM ITS ORGANIZATION IN THOSE COUNTRIES TO THE PRESENT DAY.
England.
We have seen, at the conclusion of our summary of the origin and general history of Freemasonry, in what man- ner the transformation of the corporation of Freemasons li'om an operative to a philosophic institution took place in England, in the year 1717, and under what circum- stances the Grand Lodge of London, in constituting itself, put into execution the decision made, in 1703, by the Lodge of St. Paul.
The new Grand Lodge directed George Payne, who had been elected its Grand Master, to collect all the docu- ments, manuscripts, charters, rituals, etc., relating to the ancient usages of the fraternity, for the purpose of con- necting them with the registers and Anglo-Saxon deeds written in the Gothic and Latin languages, and of the whole to form a body of laws and doctrines, and to pub- lish so much of the same as might be judged proper and necessary.'
' Some membera of the Lodge of St. Paul, alarmed at the prospective publicity of their archives, believed it to be their duty, imposed upon them by the oath which they had taken, to publish nothing which pai^
96 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
After the careful examination of all these deeds, and a report made of their subjects by a commission composed of fourteen brethren, chosen from the most erudite Ma- sons of London, the Grand Lodge directed the brother Anderson, a doctor of philosophy and eminent minister jf the Presbyterian Church at London, to compile frob ,hese documents a constitution, to be preceded by a his- tory of the corporation, which would in the future, serve as a guide to modern Freemasonry.
Brother Anderson, having acquitted himself of the task, in 1722 submitted his work to the commission, who ap- proved it, and caused it to be sanctioned by the Grand Lodge on the 25th March, 1723. This constitution is en- ' titled, "The Book of Constitutions for Freemasons, con- taining the History, Charges, and Regulations, etc., of that Most Ancient and Right "Worshipful Fraternity, for the use of the Lodges."
This constitution is based upon the charter of York, which, of all others, has served as a guide for all those which have been established since A. D. 926. Into this constitution were carried otherwise the changes and the developments which were rendered indispensable by the new object of the society, and properly above all was caused to predominate the supremacy of the Grand Lodge of London. This last tendency, so much to be, in this our own day, deprecated, but proves that its authors were not penetrated by the true spirit of the Charter of York.
This collection of laws, published for the first time in 1723,* has been printed many times, and for the last time
,ook of the character of corporate information, delivered the greater part f the documents in the possession of their lodge to the flames, thus causing, by their exaggerated scruples, an irreparable loss to the Ma- sonic historian.
'Translations of this work were made and published in Germany in the years 1741, '43, '44, '62, '83, and 1805. In London it was reprinted in 1756, '57, and '75.
FEBEMASONRT IN ENGLAND. 97
by the Grand Lodge of England, in 1855. Beginning with the year 1723, the organization of the new Masonry was seated upon a solid foundation, and its prosperity con- tinued to increase. By virtue of this constitution, the new Grand Lodge of England placed itself in legitimate and sole authority over the entire Masonic fraternity, and settled from that time all contradictions, on the part of English lodges constituted previous to that date. This constitution in fact attainted the ancient liberties of Eree- masons, and in particular prohibited the formation of any lodges which should not receive the confirmation of the Grand Lodge of London. In this manner protests against this new authority were excited in the Grand Lodges of York and Edinburgh.
The activity displayed by the Grand Lodge of London, and the great number of operative lodges that it consti- tuted, stimulated the zeal of the Masons of Ireland and Scotland, who, up to this time, had not assembled but at distant and irregular periods. Soon Masonic temples opened on all sides in the two kingdoms, and the initia- tions were multiplied in great number, which fact resulted in the convocation of a general assembly of the Masons of Ireland by the lodges of Dublin, with the object of organ- izing Freemasonry upon the same basis as sustained the lodge of London. A central power was constituted at this assembly, which took place in 1729, under the title of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and the Viscount Kingston was elected Grand Master.
The Grand Lodge of York, jealous of the prosperity of the Grand Lodge of London, and pretending that it was the most ancient and legitimate power, and solely endowed with the right to direct Freemasonry, contested the su- premacy claimed by the latter, and thereby caused for a time some considerable embarrassment; but it could not arrest the progress of that body, nor interrupt its success, and soon found itself under the necessity of revising its 7
98 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
laws and conforming its regulations to the object of the modern Freemasonry, as had already been done by its suc- cessful rival, the Grand Lodge of London.
The ancient Grand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh, considering the prosperity and aggrandizement of the new English lodges as the consequence of their adoption of lew regulations and the election of new Grand Masters, desired to introduce these changes into its system; but the hereditary trust of patron, of which James I had con- ceded the honor to the family of Roslin, in 1430, was an obstacle to this innovation. However, the Baron Sinclair of Roslin, then Grand Master under this concession, ac- ceded to the general wish expressed for him to renounce this authority, and the four oldest lodges of Edinburgh convoked, on the 24th of November, 1736, all the other lodges and all the Masons of Scotland in a general as- sembly, with the object of organizing a new Masonic power. After reading the act of renunciation of the Baron Sinclair of E,oslin to the dignity of hereditary Grand Master, as also to all the privileges thereto appertaining, the assembly, composed of the representatives of thirty- two lodges, constituted itself the " Grand Lodge of St. John of Scotland," and named the Baron Sinclair of Ros- lin its first Grand Master for 1737. Some of the ancient lodges, that of Kilwinning among others, had conserved the two political degrees — Templar and Scottish Master — and hj so doing introduced troubles which had agitated England from 1655 to 1670, and which degrees were not conferred at this time but upon brethren adjudged to be worthy of being initiated into the political designs favor- able to the Stuarts, and they had been maintained subse- quently, by a decision of King Charles II, from the time of the general assembly of Masons at York, in 1663. It was the chapter named Canongate Kilwinning, composed of partisans of the Stuarts, who propagated, between the years 1728 and 1740, these anti-masonic degrees, created
FREBMASONET IN ENGLAND. • 99
with a political object, and delivered to their partisans — among whom was the Doctor Baron Kamsay, and other emissaries — ^by diplomas, authorizing them to confer those degrees wherever they found suitable persons to receive them. It is in this manner those degrees became to be known as the Scottish Rite. Ramsay, not finding the col- l(!ction extensive enough, added to it, and others who succeeded him continued so profitable an occupation, until the Scottish Rite comprised in France lodges, chap- ters, and councils, the membership of which being com- posed mainly of intriguing politicians.
After the organization of the Grand Lodge of Scot- land, the thirty-two lodges of which it was constituted ranked by number in the order of their claims to age, and the lodge " Mary's Chapel," exhibiting an act in due form, which carried its origin to the year 1598, was placed at the head of the list of operative lodges, and took the rank of No. 1. The lodge " Canongate Kilwinning" had claimed this first place, stating that its origin went back as far as the year 1128 — a circumstance very generally ad- mitted in the country ; but this lodge, having lost its pa- pers during a sleep of a century and a half, could not now produce them, and consequently was refused the prefer- ence ; and this refusal caused this lodge to desire no con- nection with the new Grand Lodge, but, on the contrary, to set itself up as an independent constituent power, which it did, at Edinburgh, in 1744, at first under the name of the "Mother Lodge of Kilwinning," and subse- quently as the " Royal Grand Lodge and Chapter of the Order of Herodim of Kilwinning," abandoning the admin- istration of the three symbolic degrees to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and reserving to itself the right to confer the two high degrees (Templar and Scottish Mas- ter) that it already possessed, and also those which by this time were in use, the invention of Ramsay and others, in France. Ifot meeting with any success at home in its as-
100 6ENBEAL HISTOET OE FREBMASONEY.
sumption of the right to propagate its high degrees, thia lodge created, through its emissaries upon the continent, a number of chapters, and thus returned to France the degrees which it liad imported, by establishing at Rouen, on the 1st May, 1786, in the lodge of "Ardent Amitie," a Grand Chapter of Herodim, to propagate, as a provincial grand lodge, this false Masonry.
Such is the origin of the Rite of Herodim of Kilwin- ning, about which, as an important and valuable adjunct to Freemasonry, so much noise has been made. Finally, after having, during half a century, been instrumental in producing as much disorder as it could in the Masonic ranks at home and abroad, this lodge of " Canongate Kil- winning" quietly proposed a union vnth the Gl-rand Lodge of Scotland, and in the year 1807 was placed on the list of the operative lodges of Scotland, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, as " Canongate Kilwin- ning, No. 2."
The three Grand Lodges of Great Britain, thus consti- tuted, propagated the new Freemasonry upon every por tion of the globe, so that, in 1750, we find it extended into nearly every civilized country ; but its humanitarian doc- trines, like the dogma of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," which it exhibited, frightened the kings and the clergy, who sought to arrest its progress by issuing decrees and edicts against it. In Russia, in 1731, in Holland, in 1735, in Paris, in 1737, 1738, 1744, and 1745, the meetings of lodges of Freemasons were interdicted by the government; while at Rome and in Florence its members were ar- rested and persecuted, and in Sweden, Hamburg, and Ge- neva they were prohibited from meeting or assembling themselves in the capacity of lodges. The Holy Inquisi- tion threw Freemasons into prison, burnt; by the hand of the public executioner, all books which contained Masonic regulations, history, or doctrines ; condemned at Malta to perpetual exile, in 1740, a number of knights who had or-
FKBBMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 101
ganized a lodge on that island ; in Portugal it exercised against them cruelties of various kinds, and condemned them to the galleys ; while in Vienna and Marseilles, as also in Switzerland, in the canton of Berne, the iron hand of that "Holy" institution was felt in 1743. In 1748, at Constantinople, the sultan endeavored to destroy the Ma sonic society. In the "states of the Church, the King of Naples prohibited Masonry, and Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, issued an edict that prohibited the assembly of Freemasons within his kingdom, under penalty of death In 1751, Pope Benedict XIV renewed the bull of excom- munication promulgated against the Fraternity by Clem- ent XH, while the threat of death menaced all who should be known to attend Masonic meetings.
But all these exhibitions of the rage of kings, princes, and potentates were ineffectual to stop the onward course of Freemasonry, which continued to be propagated upon all the surface of the earth with a rapidity that no power could arrest. Braving the bull of Benedict XIV, Free- masonry is openly practiced in Tuscany, at !N^aples, and in many other parts of the Italian peninsula. At Rome even the partisans of the Stuarts founded some lodges, which they took but feeble pains to hide from the au- thorities.'
The activity of the three Grand Lodges of Great Brit- ain, and, above all, of that of London, was not confined to the establishment of lodges in Europe between the years 1727 and 1740 ; they had already transplanted Ma- sonry to Bengal, to Bombay, the Cape of Good Hope, New South "Wales, New Zealand, and Java, and as early as 1721, lodges of Masons were established in Canada. Before 1740 Masonry existed in the principal colonies of
. ■ 1 in.
' It may well be believed that the reason for the blindness which pressed upon the vision of the authorities at Bome, in connection with these lodges, was, that the Jesuits, whose cause those lodges served, did not wish to see.
102 GENERAL HISTOET OF FEEEMASONET.
the now United States of America, such as Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina, and !N'ew York. In those colo- nies the lodges had created Grand Lodges independent of the Grand Lodges of England, of whom they had in the beginning received their authority. Massachusetts had a Grand Lodge in 1777, Vermont in 1.774, Virginia and N"orth Carolina in 1778, Maryland in 1783, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and !N"ew Jersey in 1786, and 'New York in 1787.
The Lodge of London, notwithstanding its astonishing prosperity, was not permitted to enjoy that prosperity without great internal struggles, caused first by the Grand Lodge of York, and subsequently by the schism of a great many brethren, who, adhering to the claims of the latter, went out from the former and took the name of "Ancient Masons," in contradistinction to the member- ship of the Grand Lodge of London, who remained true to their engagements, and whona this schismatic party styled "Modern Masons." These schismatic lodges, com- posed in great part of L-ish Masons — who accused the Grand Lodge of altering the rituals and introducing in- novations— and of Masons who had been expelled, in 1751, constituted a rival power to the Grand Lodge, under the title of "The Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons of Eng- land." Ifotwithstanding its inferiority, and the few lodges which it represented or was enabled to establish, this schismatic party, in 1772, requested the Duke of Athol, who had already filled that office in the Grand Lodge of Scotland, to become its Grand Master, a request with which he complied.
To give itself importance, and to influence to its ranks the nobility, this schismatic party added to the degrees with which- it had started some of the high degrees cre- ated in France by the partisans of the Stuarts, and which they imported into England about the year 1760, and com- bined them with the symbolic degrees into a rite of seven
ITREEMASONEY IN ENGLAND. 103
degrees, the highest of which they called the Eoyal Arch.' This Grand Lodge of self-styled Ancient Masons trans- planted its rite into the lodges which it constituted in Ame^'ica, and there produced the same disorders and the same schisms among the Fraternity that the "high" de- grees had already provoked in all the states of Europe.^
' This degree is founded entirely upon the biblical legend of the Jew ish ark of the covenant; but, in England, they give it another signihca- tion, and call it the " Holy Arch."
° In this stateme'it I beg leave to correct brother Eebold. The only dis orders or schisms created by "Lawrence Dermott's Grand Lodge" — by which name the schismatic organization styled "Ancient Masons" is known, at this time, in America — were at an early stage checked in their growth by the organization of what is also known as the "American System of Freemasonry," comprising a rite of twelve degrees, in which, while the different State Grand Lodges have exclusive jurisdiction over the three degrees of symbolic Masonry, the operative Eoyal Arch Chap- ters, Councils, and Encampments, (or, as more lately styled, Comma.nd- eries), have in charge the conference of the other degrees known as Capitular, Cryptic, and Christian Masonry ; and they, in their turn, are subject to State organizations, and the latter to a general organization for each, styled, respectively, the "General Grand Chapter of Eoyal Arch Masons for the United States," organized in 1808, and the "Gen- eral Grand Encampment of Knights Templar for the United States," organized in 1816. In this manner the different degrees are utilized and kept apart, every Master Mason being allowed to "take" as many or as few of them as he may deem necessary for hie enlightenment.
While the object of these higher degrees in*^ Europe, according to our author, was entirely of a political character, in this country no such character, or even tendency, has ever been attributed to them. The anti-masonic excitement, which prevailed in this country . from 1826 to 1836, or thereabouts, had no effective origin within a Masonic body of any rite. William Morgan, it is true, in the former year, took umbrage at being refused membership in a Eoyal Arch Chapter about to be or- ganized in the town of Batavia, his residence, in the State of New York and thereupon resurrected an old copy of " Jachin and Boaz," published in London in 1750, and republished shortly afterward in the then colony of New York. With this book, and what he knew of Masonic rituals, he made an "Exposition of Freemasonry j" and, by the aid of an evil- dispQsed person named Miller, published the same. His subsequem
104 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
This unhappy division in the bosom of English Ma- sonry, commenced in 1736, was continued for a long time, by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland recognizing the schismatic " Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons," to which they in this manner gave a character that it did not tnerit, but which continued until the year 1813, when at his time it ceased, by the schismatic Grand Lodge, which then had as its Grand Master the Duke of Kent, and the Grand Lodge of London, styled by these schismatics " Modern. Masons," and which had as its Grand Master his brother, the Duke of Sussex, uniting under the title of the " United Grand Lodges of England." In this union the ancient laws, as well written as traditional, were taken as the basis, and the spirit that influenced the or- ganization of 1717 was recognized, and it was then and there announced and proclaimed that the ancient and true Freemasonry was composed of' but three degrees, viz: Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason. Unhappily, however, the legitimate Grand Lodge conceded to the party self-styled "Ancient Masons," who necessarily had to abandon their rite of seven degrees, a division of the degree of Master Mason practiced by this party, and taught as a supplementary portion of this degree, under the name
sudden disappearance from the town of his residence was made use of by what was then in this country a lesser political party, for the pur- pose of increasing its strength and numbers, by raising a cry against the Freemasons, and branding them as a secret society which stopped not even at the sacrifice of human life to accomplish its purposes. The cry was successful ; the life of Morgan was asserted to have been taken by the Freemasons, and, in the summer of 1828, the body of a drowned man having been found in the neighborhood of Morgan's disappear- ance, it made, in the language of one of the leaders of the anti-masonic party ' a good enough Morgan until after the [then pending presiden- tial] election." For some years after this the Fraternity remained in comparatively a dormant condition; but, during the last twenty-five years, its progress has been as rapid and its ranks as united as its moal ardent admirers could desire. — Teanslaioe
FREEMASONRY IN BNaLAND. 105
of JRoyal Arch. This concession, which the schismatic party exacted as a sine qua non of their union with the legitimate Grand Lodge and surrender of their rights to that body, was an act of feebleness, on the part of the Grand Lodge of London, which has destroyed, in a great degree, the unity and the basis of true Masonry, as it had been practiced by that body, up to that time, with a laud- able firmness.
If English Freemasonry has remained, for a long time, in a consumptive condition, and has not, as it did for the first century of its existence, continued to extend its civ- ilizing and progressive character, it has practiced always in a generous manner one of the essential dogmas of the institution ; viz., solidarity. Among the numerous benef- icent establishments created by it, we may particularly mention three which are due to the efforts of the Grand Lodge of London.
1. The Royal School of Freemasons for girls, of which the capital fund, in March, 1863, amounted to about ?145,000.
2. The Royal Masonic Institute for the sons of indigent Freemasons, which possessed, at the same date, a capital fund of over $100,000.
3. The Royal Beneficiary Institution for aged Free- masons and their widows, of which the capital was, at the same date, about $75,000 for the men's department, and
.$35,000 for that of the women.
After having recorded the most important events in the history of English Freemasonry, we will now briefly indi- cate the composition of the three Grand Lodges and their importance as Masonic powers.
The Grand Lodge of England is composed of a Grand Master and his deputy, of all the Past Grand Masters and Provincial Grand Masters, of all the officers of the Grand Lodge, and of all the Past and Acting Worshipful Mas- ters. In it resides the legislative and judiciary power for
106 GENERAL HISTOET OF FREEMASONRY.
jurisdiction of England and the British colonies. A gen- eral committee, composed of twenty-four masters of lodges, of a first Professor {Expert), of the Grand Master and his representative, exercise the administrative and executive power. The decisions are made by a majority of votes. All the offices, even that of Grand Master, are submitted to an annual election. The Grand Lodge holds quarterly communications upon the first Wednesday of the months of March, May, September, and December; in the latter, the election for Grand Master takes place. Charles, Earl of Zetland, who has filled the office of Grand Master since 1850, has been re-elected for the thirteenth time since his first nomination. The Earl Grey and Ripen is the Deputy Grand Master.
Under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of London there are sixty-three Provincial Grand Lodges, of which forty-two are in the counties of England, and twenty-one are elsewhere in British possessions. Under these there are nine hundred and eighty-nine operative lodges, who report themselves in the manner following : Four hundred and ninety-one in the counties, one hundred and fifty-four in London, one hundred and forty-three in America, twenty in Africa, eighty-seven in Asia, eighty-thr6e in Oceanica, and fourteen in other countries. It possesses a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons — a degree which, as we have stated, comprehends the second part of the degree of Master Mason, but which forms really a fourth degree,- having its own officers and its special meetings. This Grand Chapter directs two hundred and eighty-seven operative chapters in England and sixty-one in the British possessions. 'So advantage or privilege is accorded to its members in the ordinary or extraordinary meetings of the Grand Lodge.
Independently of the Grand Chapter, there also exists at London, but having no connection with the Grand Lodge, a Grand Conclave of "High Knights Templar,"
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 107
at the head of which presides the brother F. W. Stuart. Neither this authority nor any other of the kind are recog- nized by the Q-rand Lodge ; they are the remains of the systems which were imported from France to England by the partisans of the Stuarts, and by whom these poisonous germs have been introduced into the body of English Ma- sonry.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland, sitting at Edinburgh, which has for its Grand Master the Duke of Athol,' counts under its jurisdiction thirty-eight Provincial Grand Lodges, and two hundred and ninety-seven operative lodges in Scot- land and elsewhere in British possessions. Like the Grand Lodge of London, it tolerates the Eoyal Arch Chapters, which have been engrafted upon a great number of its lodges from the time that the schismatic Grand Lodge at London propagated its rite of the Royal Arch, and for the direction of which there was established, in 1817, a Supreme Grand Chapter; but, like the Grand Lodge of London, it does not accord to the members of these chap- ters the least privilege ; for, like the lodges which consti- tute it, the Grand Lodge does not practice, confer, or recognize but the three symbolic degrees.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland, held at Dublin, of which the Duke of Leinster is the Grand Master, has under its jurisdiction ten Provincial Grand Lodges, with three hun- dred and seven operative lodges in L-eland and other countries outside of Great Britain. Independently of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, which confers, in like manner with the other Grand Lodges, none but the symbolic de- grees, there is established, at Dublin, a Supreme Council of Rites, founded in 1836, which confers all the " high " degrees of such rites, a Grand Royal Arch Chapter, which is under the direction of the same Grand Master, and constitutes, like those of England and Scotland, operative
'George Augustus Frederick John, Duke of Athd, died al Blair Castle, his resideace, on the 16th of January, 1864
108 GENERAL HISTORY OF FEBEMASONRT.
chapters of the Royal Arch degree ;' also a Grand Con- clave of Knights Templar; but these three authprities have no connection with the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
The three Grand Lodges of Great Britain, consequently, control one hundred and nine Provincial Grand Lodges, with one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven operative lodges under their jurisdiction, which extend their con- nections to every part of the globe.
In the connection of its moral effects and civilizing in- fluence, English Freemasonry — we say it with sorrow — ^has made but slight advances in the last half century ; while, as we have seen, it was once the active pioneer every-where. It exercised by its introduction into France an immense influence upon the principles of 1789, and started the de- velopment of liberal ideas throughout the whole of Eu- rope; while in Oeeanica, Hindostan, and China its prin- ciples have modified the religious beliefs of the sectaries of Brahma, of the Persians and the Mussulmans, of whom are composed the majority of the lodges founded in those countries ; yet to-day the Grand Lodge of England, like its sisters, those of Scotland and Ireland, seems satisfied to re- pose under its glories of the past and rest upon its laurels
Denmark. Freemasonry was introduced into the capital of this kingdom, in 1783, by the Baron of Munich, Secretary of the Ambassador of Russia, who organized the first opera-
' Besides these three grand colleges, all conferring a species of high degrees, there is in Dublin, to complete the hierarchy, a Supreme Coun- cil of the Scotch Kite of Thirty-three Degrees, established in 1808, of which the Duke of Leinster is also nominally the Grand Master. A similar institution is established at Edinburgh, founded in 1846, while a third is situated at London since 1845. At the head of the last are tiie brethren H. B. Leison, Esq., and Colonel Vernon; but these authorities, not being recognized as Masonic, are of very little importance and merely enjoy a vegetating existence.
I'EEBMASONRY IN DBNMAKK. 109
tive lodge, under the name of "St. Martins Lodge." Shortly afterward several others were established, and, in 1749, the Grand Lodge of London there constituted a Pro- vincial Grand Lodge, of which Count Damekiold Laurvig was named Grand Master, and who, in 1780, erected the same into a Grand Lodge of Denmark. The simplicity )f English Masonry had to give way here, as every-where else, to the system of high degrees, which had invaded all Europe and blinded the good sense of the brethren. The system of Strict Observance, invented, as we have seen, by the Jesuits in France, to forward the interests of the Stuart party, was introduced by the Baron of Bulow at Copen- hagen, who organized there a prefectship, or commandery, having for Grand Master the Duke Ferdinand of Bruns- wick. After the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, in 1782, the Grand Lodge of Denmark abandoned the rite of " Strict Observance," or Templar system; but, in returning to the English system, besides the three degrees of symbolic Ma- sonry, she preserved of the abandoned rite two degrees, those of Scottish and Past Master. Immediately after this reformation, lodges were established in all the cities of any importance in the kingdom, and even, in 1785, ex- tended to the Danish colonies, in the archipelago of the Antilles, the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.
King Christian VIII, after having named the landgrave, Charles of Hesse, Grand Master for life, solemnly recog- nized Freemasonry by an official act, dated 2d of E'ovem- ber, 1792.
At the death of the landgrave of Hesse, in 1836, the Prince Royal, afterward King Christian VIII, declared himself protector and Grand Master. In 1848, the Grand Mastership passed to King Frederick VII, under whom Danish Masonry has attained a very flourishing condition.
The intimate connection of this countiy with Sweden, where the Masonry of Swedenborg, subsequently that of Zinnendorf, had taken deep root, and, at an early pei'iod.
110 GENERAL HISTORY OF FEEEMASONRT.
manifested a religious tendency that it has held from the first in a remarkahle manner, and toward which evidently the Masons of Copenhagen, including the king, have in- clined, decided the Grand Lodge of Denmark to adopt officially, on the 6th of January, 1855, the Swedish rite, or that of Zinnendorf, of seven degrees, and to enforce its adoption upon all the lodges under its jurisdiction.
Danish Masonry enjoys great consideration in the coun- try, and, under the Grand Mastership of the reigning king, prospers from day to day.
In 1863, the Grand Lodge of Denmark exercised juris- diction over nine operative lodges, of which four are in the capital and five in the provinces.
Sweden.
Masonry was introduced at Stockholm in 1736 ; but th& interdictions pronounced against it by nearly every Euro- pean state aft'ected in a similar manner the Swedish gov- ernment against it, and the Masonic meetings were pro- hibited in 1758. IS'evertheless, new operative lodges were subsequently established, and, in the year 1764, a provin- cial Grand Lodge for Sweden was organized at Stock- holm. One of the first acts of the Freemasons of this country was the establishment of an orphan asylum, which is to-day the glory and crown of Swedish Masonry. One donation of §30,000, which was made it by Brother Bohmann, permitted it to be greatly enlarged. As else- where, the true Freemasonry did not long exist in this country before the importation from France of the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees ; but the progress of this rite was checked by the crusade entered into against the system of Strict Observance. The chivalrous char- acter of the Templars, from the first approaches of that system; met none of tha favor in Sweden it had enjoyed
FKEEMASONRY IN SWEDEN. Ill
in Prance and Germany. The King, Gustavus III, and his brother, the Duke of Sudermanie, were initiated in 1770 ; and believing the statement made to him by the officials of the rite, that Sweden was the first country into which it was introduced, the king undertook to re-estab- lish the order of Knights Templar. He was named Grand Master, and exercised the functions of that office until 1780, when the provincial Grand Lodge, declaring itself independent, took the title of Grand Lodge of Swe- den, and the king designated his brother, the Duke of Sudermanie, to replace him as Grand Master.
The importers of the system of Strict Observance into Sweden — of whom history has not preserved the names — deposited in the archives of the Grand Chapter of the sys- tem, at Stockholm, many documents which, according to them, were of the highest importance to the order of the Templars, and among which they exhibited a will, in the Latin language, which they said was the last will and tes- tament of Jaques de Molay, the last Grand Master ; as also ,an urn, said to contain his ashes, collected, according to the same authority, by his nephew, the Count of Beaujeu. These statements engaged the attention of the Duke of Brunswick, who had been nominated at this time Grand Master of the system, and he repaired to Sweden to exam- ine the documents; but the result proved satisfactory in but a very trifling degree.
The King Gustavus had in the beginning favored the establishment of the system of the Templars, and in some degree discouraged the lodges practicing the English rite ; but, having immediately discovered the secret plans which lay hidden under the system of Strict Observance, he mis trusted its tendency ; and it is to this fact — thanks to the efibrts of the independent Masonic lodges located in the country — ^that he afterward successfully confounded the projects of the Jesuits, and liberated himself from the tu- telage under which he was held by them. Assassinated
112 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the 27th March, 1792, his son succeeded him, under the title of Gustavus IV, and was initiated, though yet a mi- nor, into Masonry upon the 22d March of the year follow- ing, after he had renounced his right to the throne. His uncle, the Duke of Sudermanie, already Grand Master of Swedish Freemasonry since 1780, succeeded him, under the title of Charles XIII, and exercised the Grand Master- ship until 1811, when he delegated the office to Prince Charles Jean Bernadotte.
In Sweden the endeavor was, as it also was in Germany, to discover the truth in relation to the system of the Tem- plars, of which the chiefs had been expelled from the lat- ter country. These researches wrought in the system some modifications, which were due, in great part, to one of the most eminent Masons of the time — ^the brother Swedenborg — intimate councilor of the king, who had introduced religious principles, impressed with his own mystical creed, and which, in consequence, has imprinted upon Swedish Masonry a particular character, which dis- tinguishes it to the present day..
Beside the Templar system thus transformed, Zinnen- dorf, surgeon-in-chief of the Swedish army at Berlin, and Grand Prior of the system of the Templars, having aban- doned the chiefs of the rite after he had exposed their jug- gleries, established, in Sweden, a rite of seven degrees, which bears his name, founded, in part, upon the same religious principles, but less mystical than those of Swe- denborg. It is this rite that now is found to predominate, and is known in Europe as the Swedish Rite, or Rite of Zinnendorf.
The-protection of the king, and the official recognition of Masonry by the government, in 1794, has given to the institution in Sweden an importance which it does not possess elsewhere. On the 27th May, 1811, King Charles XIII founded an order exclusively for meritorious Free- masons, of which the insignia is publicly worn, and thus
FRBBMASONKT IN SWEDEN. 113
proved Ms respect for the institution. The foundation of this order, created from a noble sentiment that greatly honored the king, is, nevertheless, in contradiction to the spirit of Treemasonry, and in opposition with its princi-. pies. The same day this order was established, the king announced as his successor the brother Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte-Corvo, and the announcement was sanctioned by the government, and he was proclaimed at the same time Grand Master of Swedish Masonry. Since coming to the throne, in 1818, the new king delegated the Grand Mas- tership to his son Oscar, Duke of Sudermanie, subsequently Charles John XIV, who directs in person, as the actual king, (Charles XV,) the Masonic labors of the Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge of Sweden has under its juris- diction three provincial Grand Lodges, with twenty-four operative lodges. The reigning king is Grand Master in his own right.
EussiA.
It was the Grand Lodge of London that established the first lodge at Moscow, in 1731, under the reign of the Empress Anna Ivanowa, and, for the purpose of constitut- ing others in the country, patented John Phillips, Provin- cial Grand Master. Freemasonry made but little progress in Eussia, and it was not until the year 1771 that the first lodge was organized at St. Petersburg. In 1772, the Grand Lodge of London delivered to John Telaguine, a Senator and Privy Councilor, a patent constituting him Provincial Grand Master for Eussia ; and, after his death, he was succeeded by the Count Eoman Woronsow. At this time the lodges increased to a greater extent in St. Petersburg than in any other portion of the empire, the membership belonging in great part to the nobility. Un- der the reign of Catherine 11, it would have been difficult to find in St. Petersburg a noble who was not a Freemason. 8
114 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
It is true that the Empress often manifested some chagrin when, often finding but a single chamberlain in attendance upon her, she inquired for such and such a one whom she missed, and was told that he had gone to the lodge ; but, nevertheless, she was well enough disposed toward the fraternity to have her son, Paul I, initiated immediately upon his becoming of age.
The high degrees, and, above all, those of the system Strict Observance, had invaded, about the year 1775, Eus- sian Masonry, and in which it lacked nothing of creating the same disorders it every- where caused ; for many of the lodges, professing only the English Rite, had no desire to accept this Templar parody, which w£|,s principally the cause of the interdiction of Freemasonry in 1798.
The system of Strict Observance, under the patronage and Grand Mastership of the Duke of Brunswick, had organized at St. Petersburg a power, under the title of Grand Lodge of the Order of Vladimir, which pretended to direct all the lodges of Eussia, and thus came in conflict with a great many operative lodges which practiced only the English Rite.
In few countries did Masonry rise to the splendor it at- tained under Catharine II, for the Masonic temples at St. Petersburg were indeed palaces. Many beneficial estab- lishments were also founded by her directions and under her patronage.
During the sojourn of the King of Sweden, Gustavus in, at St. Petersburg, who, in his own country, was Grand Master of the Templar lodges, or lodges of the system of Strict Observance, the lodges of this system gave him the most superb feasts, at which he assisted with his whole Buite, composed entirely of Freemasons.
JSTotwithstanding these brilliant appearances, the true Freemasonry, so far from making corresponding progress in Eussia, had, on the contrary, degenerated to such a point that the Empress Catharine not only openly ex-
FREEMASONRY IN RUSSIA. 115
f t'essed her disconteiit thereat to the gentlemen of her court, in respect to the abuses which were being intro- duced, but published a pamphlet very severe in its strict- ures against Freemasons. This pamphlet has been trans- lated into French and German.
Such was the situation of Masonry in Russia upon the accession of Paul I to the throne, in 1796. Although he had been initiated, this prince had allowed himself to be prevailed upon by intriguants, who obtained of him an interdiction, under the most severe penalties, of Masonic assemblies, as well as those of all other secret societies. Subsequently, regarding the Order of Knights of the Tem- ple as the true possessors of Masonic science, he desired to re-establish that Order, and, in fact, in the object of hastening this pretended regeneration of Masonry, he had, the 16th of December, 1798, taken the title of Gr^-nd Master of the Order of Malta, as a means of more effect- ually accomplishing his purpose; afterward, however, he renounced the project, which was, in fact, otherwise im- practicabTe.
To Paul I, assassinated the 23d of March, 1801, suc- ceeded Alexander I. At first he confirmed the interdiction pronounced by his predecessor against Freemasonry ; but, in 1803, consequent upon a circumstantial report which he ordered to be made upon the object and principles of Free- masonry, he revoked it, and was himself initiated. We have been unable to ascertain the exact date of this cere- mony, the place, or the lodge in which it took place, nor do we know that he ever took any part in the labors of the Fraternity. On the contrary, although he never re- stricted in any way its existence, he always exhibited a certain degree of mistrust in the institution.
The Grand Lodge of Vladimir, which, with the opera- tive lodges under its jurisdiction, were suspended by the interdiction pronounced by Paul I, after 1803 awoke to renewed activitv. From that time the struggle recom-
116 GENEKAL HISTORY OP FRBBMASONKY.
menced. The lodges of the English system established a new Masonic code for all the lodges of Eussia; but not wishing to recognize certain privileges that the Grand Lodge Vladimir revindicated, and to withdraw forever from the systematic domination of it, they founded, in 1815, another Grand Lodge, under the title of "Astrea," of which the rules and regulations were approved by the government, and which from that time directed all the lodges of Russia.
Though Freemasonry had not greatly extended, it ap- pears that it aifbrded some unquiet to the Emperor Alex- ander ; for, by a ukase, dated the 21st of August, 1821, he interdicted anew all Masonic assemblies ; and, in the auto- graph rescript that he addressed to his minister charged with the execution of this ukase, he based its promulga- tion upon the assertion that the lodges occupied themselves with the discussion of political subjects.
None of the successors of Alexander, who died in 1825, having revoked this prohibition. Masonry remains in Rus- sia under the ban of this interdiction.
Poland.
Is consequence of the political .troubles which have con- stantly agitated it, Freemasonry has never attained a per- manent position in this country.
In 1839, some nobles, resident at the court of King Frederick I, established a lodge at Varsovia, which was shortly dissolved by the bull of Clement XII; but, not- withstanding this prohibition, the Count Stanislaus Mnis- zek, Andrew Mocranowski, and Constantine Jablonowski founded, at Yiennavitz, in "Wolhania, a lodge, in which men the most eminent for their virtue and patriotism came from all parts of Poland to be initiated. In 1744, a French lodge was organized at Lemberg, by a man named
FREEMASONRY IN POLAND. 117
Franr' igchampa, the labors of which were subse-
quently -.. ;cted by another Frenchman, named Colonel Jean de Thoux de Salverte. After many vicissitudes, there was organized, at Varsovia, on the 24th June, 1769, under the reign of Stanislaus Augustus — who protected Masonry— a Grand Lodge of Poland, of which the Count Augustus Moszynski was nominated Grand Master. Thit Gfaffti^i^odge organized operative lodges at Cracov'ia, Wilna, arid Lemberg; but, after the first division of Po- land, their ,bors were interrupted.
The sj,^. n of Strict Observance here, as elsewhere, soon apfpeaved, and established, at Varsovia, a Directory, under tJae authority of the Duke of Brunswick. Many French lodges were also established at Varsovia, and, among others — ^by the Grand Orient of France — the lodge "Perfect Silence," which, aspiring to the title of Grand Lodge, sought to win to its direction operative lodges; afterward, by virtue of a patent delivered to it by the Grand Orient of France, and dated 14th May, 1781, it proclaimed itself Mother Lodge, or Grand Lodge of Po- land. But it failed in its project, as did many others, which obtained, for this purpose, from the Grand Lodges of England and Germany, patents, constituting them legal powers, for which the necessity was recognized. Finally, thirteen lodges united, and, on the 26th February, 1764, constituted definitely a Grand Orient of Poland, by vir- tue of a patent delivered to them by the Grand Lodge of England. This Lodge was installed on the 4th of the following March, and chose for its Grand Master the Count Felix Potoski. Its existence was of short dura- tion; for, after the second partition of Poland — which took place in 1784 — ^this Grand Lodge, together with all the operative lodges under its jurisdiction, suspended op- erations.
The Lodges which were subsequently established in the Grand Duchy of Poland were then organized, under tho
118 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Glrand Lodges located at Berlin. Finally, on the 22d March, 1810, the Grand Orient of Poland awoke and took charge of the lodges in the country. The political events of 1813 but slightly modified their condition, and but mo- mentarily interrupted their labors ; and, in 1818, we find the Grand Orient of Poland directing the labors of thirty- four operative lodges. The ukase of the Emperor Alex- ander, however, struck with death the lodges of Poland, in common with those of Russia, and since that time (12th August, 1822,) all Masonic labors have ceased in [Poland.
The heroic courage with which our Polish Nbrethren fought for their liberty and their nationality, against a despotism the most arbitrary and revolting that any power calling itself Christian ever exercised against a civilized people, has acquired for them the sympathy and admira- tion of the Freemasons of the whole world.
Belgium.
The history of Freemasonry in Belgium is divided into many periods : that during which Belgium was part of the low country of Austria ; that during which it was incor- porated in the Empire of Prance; that of its re-union with Holland ; and, finally, the period since the independ- ence of Belgium was established. This was the first con- tinental country that received the new Freemasonry of England. The first lodge was instituted at Mons, the 4th of June, 1721, under the title of "Perfect Union," by the Duke of Montague, then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of London. It was this lodge that was subse- quently erected into an English Grand Lodge for the low countries of Austria ; but, in 1785, it shared the fortunes of all other Austrian lodges by the edict. of the Emperor Joseph I.
Another lodge was established, in 1730, at Gand, under
FREEMASONRY m BELGIUM. 119
the Austrian direction. In common witli other lodges organized about the same time, in consequence of the per- secutions of the Catholic clergy, who were armed with the bulls of excommunication launched at Freemasons by the popes, it labored in the most profound secrecy. The membership of these lodges were, in most part, composed of the nobility, animated, in a great degree, by the demo- cratic tendencies of that period, and seeking to extend the principles of political liberty among the people. The most zealous patriots were to be found at the head of the lodges — many of the clergy themselves, who then were liberal, exhibiting a strong partisan trait for Masonry. To such a degree was this feeling expressed, that even the Bishop of Liege, and many of his ecclesiastics, were in- itiated into and directed the labors of the lodges. The Duke of Aremberg, the Duke of Ursel, the princes of Ligne and of Gavre, all took a very active part in the labors of Masonry. At. one time fifteen lodges were in operation ; but, unhappily, the political manifestations of the pppula- tion of the low countries of Austria caused, in 1785 and in 1786, the Emperor Joseph I to interdict Masonic assem- blies, though els*, where — in Brussels, for instance — he per- mitted the lodges to continue their labors. In 1787, how- ever, he ordered, by a new edict, that all the lodges in the empire, without exception, be closed, under the most se- vere penalties.
When Belgium was incorporated into the French Em- pire, the Belgian lodges — which at that time, in conse- quence of the edict of 1787, were in a state of suspended animation — were ordered to place themselves under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of France ; and, from that time, Masonry in Belgium became an integral part of that of France, which there organized some twenty-two lodges. In 1814, there were in Belgium, in active operation, twenty-seven lodges, which, after the re-union of Belgium with Holland, for three years vainly endeavored to erect
120 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
a central authority at Brussels, Finally, Prince Freder- ick, of the Low Countries, second eon of the king — ^who, after the enfranchisement of Holland, h'ad therein consti- tuted a new Grand Orient — proposed to the Belgian lodges the creation of two independent Grand Lodges, which should direct all the operative lodges, each having its own administration and particular jurisdiction : the one to be located at the Hague, to exercise jurisdiction over all the northern lodges and those of the East Indies ; the other having its seat at Brussels, to direct the southern lodges and those of the West Indies — the Grand Orient of Hol- land, thus divided into three sections, to form a Supreme Council, whose object would be to take cognizance of all the great principles affecting Freemasonry in general, etc.
This treaty of union was concluded in 1817, and the installation of the Provincial Grand Lodge at Brussels took place on the 11th April, 1818, at which time Prince Fred- erick was elected Grand Master of the three independent Grand Lodges, and named, as his representatives, Brother Falk, Minister of State, for the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Hague, and the Prince of Gavre for that of Brussels.
From this time the history of Belgian Freemasonry is confounded with that of Freemasonry in Holland. We will only add that from 1817 to 1832, strenuous attempts were made to establish in Belgium, particularly at Brus- sels, the different systems of high degrees.
The separation of Belgium from Holland — ^which took place in 1831 — modified anew the condition of Masonry in the former country. The provincial Grand Lodge of Brussels becoming, by the separation, isolated from the Grand Orient of Holland, invited, by a circular, dated the 16th of December, 1832, all the lodges of the new king- dom to recognize it as an independent authority, to unite under its recognition, and to send up their delegates to a general assembly convoked for the 25th of February, 1833. . Only four lodges, however, were represented ; but the dele-
FREEMASONRY IN BELGHITM. , 121
gates present, nevertheless, decided to declare the provin- cial Grand Lodge of the Low Countries dissolved, and to constitute in its place a Grand Orient of Belgium. This new authority, placed under the protection of the king, Leopold I — himself a Freemason — succeeded in uniting under its jurisdiction, but not without difficulty, all the lodges of Belgium except four, which were then declared irregular. On the 1st May, 1835, the Baron of Stassart was nominated Grand Master.
The flourishing condition of Masonry, and the influence that its members were exercising over all classes of society, provoked the hate of the Catholic clergy, who recom- menced their persecutions ; and the Bishop of Malines, in 1837, published a sentence of excommunication — a strange proceeding in our day — against all the Belgian Freemasons. The struggle became more and more lively, and the Cath- olic party, of whom the "Journal of Belgium" is the or- gan, surpassed the part it took in the revolution of 1830, in its pretentions to rule the country, and exhibit the in- tolerance that elsewhere and always is exhibited in seasons of triumph by this party.
The Masonic lodges, pursued, excommunicated, tor- mented, in their material interests and social position, al- most up to the family hearth-stones, by their implacable 6nemies, who sought to drive to destitution the President of the Senate and the Governor of Brussels himself, be- cause of their adherence to Freemasonry, though the king himself was known to be a member of the institution, were constrained to take an attitude, through their Grand Orient, which was no less an exhibition of dignity and moderation than it was of strength. They opposed uni versal liberty to universal Romanism, free publications and loyal to anathemas, and the preaching of the eternal truth of their faith to the intolerance of a theocratic ambition. By this course the Freemasons finally triumphed.
To brother, the Baron of Stassart, who abdicated in 1841,
122 GBNEEAL HISTORY OP FKEBMASONRT.
succeeded Brother Defacqz d'Ath, Counselor to the Court of Appeals, and to him succeeded, in 1854, the brother Theo. Verhsegen, Advocate and President of the Chamber of Representatives.
The new Grand Master, seeing the institution over which he was called to preside the constant object of the attacks of obscure politicians, backed by the clergy, in- sisted, in a discourse pronounced upon St. John's day, 1854, and which reflected the profound convictions and eminent talents of the distinguished speaker, that there existed an absolute necessity for Freemasonry to oppose itself more and more energetically to the antagonistic party, and discuss within its lodges such religious and po- litical questions as affected the condition of the country; and, for this purpose, that the regulations of the Grand Orient be so amended as to repeal the laws forbidding such discussion to take place within the lodges. 'His ad- vice was approved by all the brethren who assisted at the feast, and they decided to publish his discourse. This declaration, consequently, being printed and promulgated, provoked the protest of a portion of the Grand Lodges of Germany, and also that of Sweden, who not only ceased, in consequence of this manifestation, all connection with the Grand Orient of Belgium, but even prohibited their operative lodges from receiving Belgian Masons.
This movement was attended by another deplorable consequence. The chiefs of the Supreme Council of the Scottish (33d) Eite, located at Brussels — a rival authority of the Grand Orient — and some lodges under the jurisdic- tion of the latter body, protested against the new inter- pretation of the principles and the rights of Freemasons as inculcated by the Grand Master Verhsegan, and mad it the occasion of their passing over to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council. This factionist condition has re mained nearly the same up to the present time.
The statutes of the Grand Orient, promulgated the 19th
FRBBMASONRY IN HOLLAND. 123
of January, 1838, contained but fifteen articles, and made no mention of any other style of Masonry except that of the three symbolic degrees. Each lodge of the union is represented by three delegates, who in general assemblies exercise the legislative power. The Grand Orient of Bel- gium exercises jurisdiction over sixty operative lodges while the Supreme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite> which was instituted the 1st of March, 1817, and had for a long time a precarious existence, now counts thirteen lodges within its jurisdiction. These two authorities hold their meetings in the same city, Brussels.
Holland.
This country was for a long time preserved from the in- novations due to intriguing politicians and other schemers, who every-where have provoked deplorable schisms in the Masonic ranks; nevertheless it finally had to submit to the consequences of allowing the English Rite, which was for years the only one known, to be encroached upon by those anti-masonic productions which have denaturalized our beautiful institution, and which, in place of hastening us forward to the goal of its ideal, have but advanced that goal farther from us.
A lodge was founded at the Hague, in 1725, composed of the elite of Dutch society; but the clergy, ever hostile to Freemasons, not having permitted it to be openly con- stituted, its labors during many years were conducted in the most profound secrecy; and it was not until 1731, when Lord Stanhope, Duke of Chesterfield, was English embassador at the court of William, Prince of Orange, that it was officially constituted. This lodge owed its ex- ■ istence to Brother Vincent de la Chappela, who had been authorized for the purpose of organizing it by the Grand Lodge of England. It was by it that the Emperor Francis I,' then Duke of, Lorraine, was initiated.
124 GBNURAL HISTOUT OF JRBBMASONRT.
In 1834, many lodges united in a general assembly for the purpose of regularly organizing Freemasonry in Hol- land, by constituting a provincial Grand Lodge. This Grand Lodge, of which the Count of Wagenaer was pro- posed as provincial Grand Master, after having been regu- larly patented by the Grand Lodge of England, was inau- gurated in 1735, in an assembly held at the hotel of Niewe-Doelen, under the presidency of the titulary pro- vincial Grand Master, Brother John Cornelius Radema-, cher. It took the title "Grand Masters' Lodge of Gen- eral Appeal for the United Provinces;" and, in 1749, it took the name of " Mother Lodge of the Royal Union."
Another lodge, founded in 1734 at the Hague, and com posed of eminent men, announced, in the public newspa- pers of the 24th October, 1735, a Masonic assembly which would be presided over by the new provincial Grand Master Rademacher; but the magistracy of the Hague, on the 30th of the following November, issued an ordi- nance interdicting all such assemblies.
N'otwithstanding this prohibition, a lodge of Amster- dam, which numbered among its members the most em- inent men in the city, dared to continue its labors. The Catholic clergy, by the aid of calumnious reports, suc- ceeded in stirring up the ignorant class of the people against it; and its place of meeting being invaded by a crowd of those fanatics, they burned the property of the lodge and exhibited otherwise a disposition, upon any re- sistance being offered, to proceed to the most violent measures. The general government, with the object of preventing a recurrence of such action, intervened and prohibited Masonic assemblies. One lodge, having, in de- fiance of this prohibition, continued to meet, it was sur- rounded, by the order of the magistracy, and its mem- bers captured and impi'isoned. The master of the lodge and his officers, when brought before the court, explained
FKBEMASONRT Df HOLLAND. 125
SO clearly the object and principles of the iustitution, that they were immediately set at liberty, and all the judges of the tribunal solicited the honor of being initiated. Since that time, a great many lodges have been established m the country; but, in 1746, new persecutions, on the part of the Catholic clergy, forced the lodges of the Hague, Nimegue, and Amsterdam to demand the inter- vention of the general government, which obliged the clergy to retract their calumnies.
The Holland lodges — which held their constitutions, some from the Grand Lodge of England, and others from those of Germany and France — existed isolated from and independent of the provincial Grand Lodge created in 1735. With the object of a more intimate union, the lodge styled " Eoyal Union " convoked a general assem- bly, which was attended, on the 27th December, 1756, by representatives from thirteen lodges, and then and there organized, under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of London, a Grand Lodge for the United Provinces, of which the Baron Van Aersen Beyeren was nominated provincial Grand Master.
This Grand Lodge proclaimed, the following year, its general statutes in forty-one articles. In 1770 it declared itself independent; and, by virtue of an agreement with the Grand Lodge of London, it took the title of Grand Lodge of Holland, and notified all the Grand Lodges of Europe of the fact. It at once organiiied a provincial Grand Lodge, at Brussels, for the low countries of Aus- tria, and nominated the Marquis of Gages provincial Grand Master ; but this lodge was obliged, in 1789, in consequence of the edict of the Emperor Joseph I, to suspend active operations. After the removal of this in- terdiction, in 1798, the Grand Lodge of Holland decreed, on the 17th May of that year, a new administrative code, according to which it ruled only the three symbolic de-
126 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees, and intrusted a special chapter, directed by the Grand Master, Baron Van Teylingen, with the conference of the other degrees of its rite.
In 1810, by the aid of the subscriptions made up by the Holland lodges, an asylum for the blind was instituted at Amsterdam.
After the union of Holland with the French Empire, in 1811, the existence of the Grand Orient of Holland was attacked and compromised, by the "Grand Orient of France assuming to extend its authority over all the Ma- sons and all the Masonic institutions of Holland. To the decree published by it on the 3d March, 1812, the Grand Orient of Holland responded, on the 21st of the same month, in a manner so dignified that the Grand Orient of France renounced its project of assumption, and the Grand Orient of Holland continued its jursdiction as be- fore, save that the nine operative lodges, instituted by the Grand Orient of France at Amsterdam and the Hague, remained, from 1812 to 1814, under the jurisdiction of the latter.
At the time of the events of 1814, which changed anew the position of Freemasonry in Holland, the Grand Orient had under its jurisdiction, in Holland and the two Indies, seventy-one operative lodges. The direction of the lodges of the Low Countries having been offered to it, the Grand Orient proposed, in 1814, a treaty of union among all the northern and southern lodges of the Low Countries, for the purpose of organizing a Grand Lodge for that king- domj with the Provincial Grand Lodges,' of which the one should be located at the Hague, and comprising within its jurisdiction all the northern lodges, together with those in the East Indies ; and the other should be located at Brussels, to take charge of all the southern lodges of the kingdom, together with those of the West Indies. Of the Latter, Prince Frederick was elected Grand Master, and
' See Masonry in Belgium, ante.
PREEMASONET IN HOLLAND. 127
the Minister of State, Brotlier Falk, Grand Master of the former.
In 1819, Prince Frederick sent to all the lodges of Eu- rope copies of two documents found in the papers of the defunct Grand Master Boetzelaar. The first of these docu- ments is a species of charter,^ dated at Cologne, the 24th ^f June, 1535, and signed by nineteen persons, bearing illustrious names, and who therein are presented as dele- gates from nineteen Masonic lodges of different countries in Europe. The second is the record-book of the n^eetings of a lodge which, according to it, should have existed at the Hague in 1637, and whose date of organization is 8th May, 1519. These documents, particularly the charter, have been submitted to the examination of learned Free- masons, some of whom have pronounced them authentic, while others have decided that both documents have been produced for some purpose best known to the manufactur- ers. The latter decision seems to be best supported.
The lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of the Low Countries numbered, in 1820, one hundred and five, of which forty-five in Holland, and fourteen in the East Indies, were borne upon the register of the Grand Lodge of the northern provinces at the Hague ; and thirty- two in Holland, and fourteen in the West Indian colonies, on that of the Grand Lodge of the southern provinces at Brussels. The number of operative lodges organized from that time to 1829 augmented the foregoing by thirty- one lodges, thus making the total number one hundred and thirty-six.
The events of 1830 changed anew the Masonic organ- ization in Holland, placing it as we found it in 1818; and the Grand Orient of Holland took under its direction the lodges of the new Dutch territory and the Dutch colonies m the two Indies. As in, the past, it continues to fill with dignity, under its noble chief, Prince Frederick William
'See GeDeral History of Freemasonry, p. 51.
128 GENERAL HISTORY OF FRBBMASONKT.
Charles, tlie position that it occupies as one of the most ancient departments of Freemasonry in Europe.
The Grand Orient of Holland at present directs, in all, the labors of sixty-seven operative lodges, of which about twenty are in the East and "West Indies.
Geemant.
We must give the history of Freemasonry in this vast country, which contains an empire, five kingdoms, and twenty-one principalities, in a manner more succinct than that of any other of the States of Europe. We will com- mence, therefore, by speaking of that city which, of all others in Germany, was the first in which Freemasonry took root.
Hamburg. — On the 3d of December, 1737, the first Ma- sonic lodge in Germany, under the English dispensation, was established in this city. It was named "Absalom Lodge," and was placed under the direction of Brother Charles Sarey. On the 30th of October, 1740, this lodge was raised, by the Grand Lodge of England, to the rank of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg and Lower Saxony, and having for its Grand Master, Brother Lutt- man. It was by a deputation of this lodge that the Prince Frederick of Prussia, subsequently Frederick 11, was in- itiated, in 1738, at Brunswick — a circumstance that has contributed much to the propagation of Freemasonry in Germany. From Hamburg, Freemasonry passed, in 1738, to Dresden; in 1740, to Berlin; in 1741, to Leipsic; in 1744, to Brunswick, and in 1746, to Hanover. The Pro- vincial Grand Lodge established up to 1795 but five lodges, and in that year these united in founding a hospital for house servants, and, subsequently, created a fund for the re- lief of foreign brethren who might require it. This Grand Lodge had extended its jurisdiction, in 1807, over sixteen lodges, all working the English Rite and remaining faith-
FKEEiyiASONRY IN GEEMAJSfT. 129
fill to its mother lodge df London, In this respect it shone as a bright example of fidelity in comparison to other Provincial Grand Lodges, which, although estab- lished under like circumstances and by the same authority, generally took the first favorable opportunity to become independent of the authority that created them. It was not until the year 1811 that the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg decided to assert its independence. To-day it directs a Provincial Grand Lodge and twenty-one oper- ative lodges, all practicing the English Rite, together with a chapter, created by Shrceder, who was, during many years, its Grand Master.
Prussia. — The " Lodge at the Three Globes," in Berlin, composed of French artists, was constituted on the 23d of September, 1740. This was the first lodge established at that time. On the 24th of June, 1744, Prince Frederick elevated it to the rank of a Grand Lodge, under the title of "Royal Grand Mother Lodge." He was, as a natural consequence, elected Grand Master, and filled the office as such until 1747, from which date he ceased to take any