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Article THE CONSTITUTIONS OF ENGLISH FREEMASONRY. ← Page 3 of 3 Article "ANTIQUITY OF MASONIC DEGREES" ONCE MORE. Page 1 of 2 Article "ANTIQUITY OF MASONIC DEGREES" ONCE MORE. Page 1 of 2 →
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The Constitutions Of English Freemasonry.
thon reviewing tho Regius MS ., and he quoted Bibl . JHarl . MS . 64 Ct' '» , ft 1-9 ( Wanley Coll . Miscel . ) , which is a copy of a 14 th century MS . rehting to the Tilers of Coventry , in support of his statement . This MS . certainly opens in a manner which is not dissimilar to the contents of many of our Old Charges : " iu the name of God , Amen . "
" These benne the poyntes and tho ordynauns of the Ty lers craft of Coventre First hit is ordeynnnd that every liere thei shall como tf > gydnr to the White frers on Seynt Steronsis day and there yu worshippo of God and of owre lady to offere at tho hyo messo and hyf hit be an Elyng
day ( far to goo honestlyche to gydur and ete and drynke . " But the differences between this MS ., which was written about the same time as our earliest Constitutions ( the Reg ius MS . ) are very marked . Tho Tyler's rules make no claim to any great antiquity , and there is ample internal
evidence that when the MS . was written , the rules had been newly formulated . They refer entirely to ordi « ary working men in only one part , which was admittedly added to the MS . in 1432 ; is there any allusion or hint as to how the laws or rules came into existence . On tho other hand ,
our own M . S . carefully describes how our society came into existence and how tho power of government was acquired ; it thereafter gives tho rules of the Craft and admonitions , which are in several cases not applicable to ordinary
handicraftsmen . It illustrates something moro than the dawn of Speculative Masonry , whilst it yet has references to actual building operations . It is this peculiarity which distinguishes it from any other trade regulations known .
"Antiquity Of Masonic Degrees" Once More.
"ANTIQUITY OF MASONIC DEGREES" ONCE MORE .
BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . I HAVE read with care Bro . Gould ' s letter under the above heading , in fche FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE of 2 nd August . I havo also reperused Chapter XVII . of Bro . Gould ' s " History of Freemasonry , " and am very sorry that I remain unconvinced and unconverted to Bro . Gould ' s views , and must repeat here what I have
pointed out m my former paper , that in the 1723 Constitutions Anderson said : — " Apprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow Craffc only hero [ in the Grand Lodge ] except by dispensation . " Evidently meaning that a Lodo-e
had a right to confer the Apprentice degree . But the Grand Lodge reserved to itself the right of either granting a dispensation to a Lodgo to confer the Master ' s and Fellow Craft ' s degrees , or nofc .
In the year 1738 Constitutions , under the heading of " New Regulations , " Anderson also said , " The Master of . a Lodge , with his Wardens and a competent number of the Lodge assembled in Due Form , can make Masters and Fellows at discretion . "
In both of the above paragraphs the word " and" [ and not " or " ] stands between tho words " Masters" and " Fellow Crafts . " According to my understanding , when Anderson said " Apprentices , " ho meant those that have
taken one degree ; and by " Fellow Craft and Masters " he meant two degrees more . The sum total means three degrees . Or , in other words , I believe that 1 and 2 makes 3 , and not 2 , and that is jnsfc the kind of arithmetic I learned when I Avent to school .
Bro . Gould quotes from a Dail y Journal of 15 fch August i 7 o 0 : — •N -B- — -When you are first made a Mason , or aa fchey call it , passed the Master's part , yon are only an entered Apprentice . NOTK . —There isi not a man in a hundred that will be at the expouce to pass the Waster s part , except ifc be for interest . "
Now , I admit that , according to the writer of the Daily Journal of 15 fch August 1730 , ifc may be put down cocksure that at the above date Masons had but two degrees , namely , A pprentice and Master . Bufc , on the other hand , I be *? to
remind Bro . Gould that out of 106 Lodges in London ancl its suburbs in 1738 , only 11 of these Lodges availed themselves of the privilege granted b y the Grand Lodo-e in Nov ember 1725 to confer the third decree ivnon Fellow
Gratis . One of these Lodges was constituted in 1723 . One ^ as constituted in 1725 , and two were respectivel y constituted in April and in Jul y 1730 . It is possible that not
vko Lodgea began to raise Masons until after J'w ; but be that as it may , the Masons of 1730 could not lave cared much about taking more than one degree , and
"Antiquity Of Masonic Degrees" Once More.
having taken the firsfc degree , some of them probably | did not care whether tho Lodgo could supply them with one or two more degrees , and whether the second degree was called Fellow Craft or Master ' s degree , they doubtless knew that the Master had to take another degree , and may therefore
have imagined that the second degree was called the Master ' s degree , and such was evidently the case with the writer in the Daily Journal of 15 th August 1730 , whom Bro . Gould quoted to prove that in 1730 Masons had only an
Apprentice and a Master ' s degree : whilo , on the other hand , another book was printed in 1730 , in which is described three distinct degrees , respectively named , the " Prentice Degree , " the " Fellow Craffc Degree , " and the " Master's Degree . "
Again , " Old Livers" was translated in 1721 . I believe that its preface is dated 1721 , but it was printed in 1722 . Its translator ' s name was Eugenius Philalethes , F . R . S . He was initiated into Masonry , and having been a dreamer of
the higheset kind , he very naturally imagined that those decrees which the Grand Lodge alone conferred contained the most wonderful kind of mysteries in creation , and he thus addressed the then highest Masonic luminaries .
" And now , my brethren . Yon of tho higher class , permit me a few Words , since yon are but few , and these few words I shall speak to yon in riddles , because to yon it is given to know those mysteries which are hidden from the unworthy . " Now let us bear in mind that if Masons had two degrees
before 1717 , that those degrees must have been then conferred in the Lodges upon all who were initiated . Now , in 1717 , the Grand Lodge was organized by four Lodges , and I have seen somewhere an estimate ( I think that ifc was by Bro . Gould ) thafc fche three first Lodges had about 15
members each , and Lodgo No . 4 had about 75 members . Then , if my memory be correct , the Grand Lodgo started with about 120 Masons , who had all received the first and second degrees . It is nofc impossible that George Payne ' s Constitutions of 1720 prohibited Lodges from conferring
more than one degree ; bufc those who wero initiated between 1717 and 1720 must also havo received two degrees in their respective Lodges ( that is if Masons had two degrees before 1717 ) . If such had beon the case , and assumim ? that between 1717 and 1720 that 30 new Masons
were made in the four Lodges , then there musfc have been 160 Masons in 1720 who were illumined with both degrees . Now , during the year 1721 , two now Lodges were constituted , and assuming thafc the two new Lodges of 1721 numbered together forty members , and thafc the three
Officers of each of the new Lodges alone had received the Fellow Craffc degree , then there must have been in London on the 1 st of January 1722 about 166 Masons who were illumined with the highest Masonic degree then known , viz ., " Master or Fellow Craft , " and only 36 Apprentices ;
and if such was the case there must have been in January 1722 more than four Masons who had received the tip-top degree to one who received the Apprentice degree only . This , however , would be at variance with the
paragraph quoted above , from tho Introduction to the book called Long Livers , wherein it is plainly stated that those who then had received the highest mysteries were but a few .
But if wo adopt the common sense view , that up to 1717 , or 1720 , Masons had bufc one degree ; that about 1720 the Grand Lodge added a Fellow Craffc and a Master ' s degrees , that the earliest Constitutions required Officers of Lodges to receive the Fellow Craft degree , while the Master ' s
degree was reserved for a " higher class , " which class consisted of but " a few "; then the words of Bro . Eugenius Philalethes , written in 1721 , were in perfect harmony with
the laws regarding the higher degrees in those days . And he doubtless referred " the mysteries which are hidden from the unworthy , " to the third degree or Master Mason ' s degree .
But Anderson , in his "History of Masonry" of 1723 , furnished indirect evidence of the thon existence of the Master Mason ' s degree . Now , bo it remembered thafc no pre-1717 Masonic MS . alludes to Hiram Abif , but in the 1723 history appended to the Constitution Anderson gavo
a long foot-note , in small type , which covers half of tho pages numbered 10 , 11 , and 12 , all of which is devoted to Hiram Abif . Now it seems to me that if Hiram Abif had
not then been introduced into the Masonic ritual , that Anderson would not have written in 1722 ( for the book , thongh printed in 1723 , was wi-itten in 1722 ) such a long dissertation about Hiram Abif .
Now Bro . Gould maintains that in 1723 Masons had ^ wo
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Constitutions Of English Freemasonry.
thon reviewing tho Regius MS ., and he quoted Bibl . JHarl . MS . 64 Ct' '» , ft 1-9 ( Wanley Coll . Miscel . ) , which is a copy of a 14 th century MS . rehting to the Tilers of Coventry , in support of his statement . This MS . certainly opens in a manner which is not dissimilar to the contents of many of our Old Charges : " iu the name of God , Amen . "
" These benne the poyntes and tho ordynauns of the Ty lers craft of Coventre First hit is ordeynnnd that every liere thei shall como tf > gydnr to the White frers on Seynt Steronsis day and there yu worshippo of God and of owre lady to offere at tho hyo messo and hyf hit be an Elyng
day ( far to goo honestlyche to gydur and ete and drynke . " But the differences between this MS ., which was written about the same time as our earliest Constitutions ( the Reg ius MS . ) are very marked . Tho Tyler's rules make no claim to any great antiquity , and there is ample internal
evidence that when the MS . was written , the rules had been newly formulated . They refer entirely to ordi « ary working men in only one part , which was admittedly added to the MS . in 1432 ; is there any allusion or hint as to how the laws or rules came into existence . On tho other hand ,
our own M . S . carefully describes how our society came into existence and how tho power of government was acquired ; it thereafter gives tho rules of the Craft and admonitions , which are in several cases not applicable to ordinary
handicraftsmen . It illustrates something moro than the dawn of Speculative Masonry , whilst it yet has references to actual building operations . It is this peculiarity which distinguishes it from any other trade regulations known .
"Antiquity Of Masonic Degrees" Once More.
"ANTIQUITY OF MASONIC DEGREES" ONCE MORE .
BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . I HAVE read with care Bro . Gould ' s letter under the above heading , in fche FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE of 2 nd August . I havo also reperused Chapter XVII . of Bro . Gould ' s " History of Freemasonry , " and am very sorry that I remain unconvinced and unconverted to Bro . Gould ' s views , and must repeat here what I have
pointed out m my former paper , that in the 1723 Constitutions Anderson said : — " Apprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow Craffc only hero [ in the Grand Lodge ] except by dispensation . " Evidently meaning that a Lodo-e
had a right to confer the Apprentice degree . But the Grand Lodge reserved to itself the right of either granting a dispensation to a Lodgo to confer the Master ' s and Fellow Craft ' s degrees , or nofc .
In the year 1738 Constitutions , under the heading of " New Regulations , " Anderson also said , " The Master of . a Lodge , with his Wardens and a competent number of the Lodge assembled in Due Form , can make Masters and Fellows at discretion . "
In both of the above paragraphs the word " and" [ and not " or " ] stands between tho words " Masters" and " Fellow Crafts . " According to my understanding , when Anderson said " Apprentices , " ho meant those that have
taken one degree ; and by " Fellow Craft and Masters " he meant two degrees more . The sum total means three degrees . Or , in other words , I believe that 1 and 2 makes 3 , and not 2 , and that is jnsfc the kind of arithmetic I learned when I Avent to school .
Bro . Gould quotes from a Dail y Journal of 15 fch August i 7 o 0 : — •N -B- — -When you are first made a Mason , or aa fchey call it , passed the Master's part , yon are only an entered Apprentice . NOTK . —There isi not a man in a hundred that will be at the expouce to pass the Waster s part , except ifc be for interest . "
Now , I admit that , according to the writer of the Daily Journal of 15 fch August 1730 , ifc may be put down cocksure that at the above date Masons had but two degrees , namely , A pprentice and Master . Bufc , on the other hand , I be *? to
remind Bro . Gould that out of 106 Lodges in London ancl its suburbs in 1738 , only 11 of these Lodges availed themselves of the privilege granted b y the Grand Lodo-e in Nov ember 1725 to confer the third decree ivnon Fellow
Gratis . One of these Lodges was constituted in 1723 . One ^ as constituted in 1725 , and two were respectivel y constituted in April and in Jul y 1730 . It is possible that not
vko Lodgea began to raise Masons until after J'w ; but be that as it may , the Masons of 1730 could not lave cared much about taking more than one degree , and
"Antiquity Of Masonic Degrees" Once More.
having taken the firsfc degree , some of them probably | did not care whether tho Lodgo could supply them with one or two more degrees , and whether the second degree was called Fellow Craft or Master ' s degree , they doubtless knew that the Master had to take another degree , and may therefore
have imagined that the second degree was called the Master ' s degree , and such was evidently the case with the writer in the Daily Journal of 15 th August 1730 , whom Bro . Gould quoted to prove that in 1730 Masons had only an
Apprentice and a Master ' s degree : whilo , on the other hand , another book was printed in 1730 , in which is described three distinct degrees , respectively named , the " Prentice Degree , " the " Fellow Craffc Degree , " and the " Master's Degree . "
Again , " Old Livers" was translated in 1721 . I believe that its preface is dated 1721 , but it was printed in 1722 . Its translator ' s name was Eugenius Philalethes , F . R . S . He was initiated into Masonry , and having been a dreamer of
the higheset kind , he very naturally imagined that those decrees which the Grand Lodge alone conferred contained the most wonderful kind of mysteries in creation , and he thus addressed the then highest Masonic luminaries .
" And now , my brethren . Yon of tho higher class , permit me a few Words , since yon are but few , and these few words I shall speak to yon in riddles , because to yon it is given to know those mysteries which are hidden from the unworthy . " Now let us bear in mind that if Masons had two degrees
before 1717 , that those degrees must have been then conferred in the Lodges upon all who were initiated . Now , in 1717 , the Grand Lodge was organized by four Lodges , and I have seen somewhere an estimate ( I think that ifc was by Bro . Gould ) thafc fche three first Lodges had about 15
members each , and Lodgo No . 4 had about 75 members . Then , if my memory be correct , the Grand Lodgo started with about 120 Masons , who had all received the first and second degrees . It is nofc impossible that George Payne ' s Constitutions of 1720 prohibited Lodges from conferring
more than one degree ; bufc those who wero initiated between 1717 and 1720 must also havo received two degrees in their respective Lodges ( that is if Masons had two degrees before 1717 ) . If such had beon the case , and assumim ? that between 1717 and 1720 that 30 new Masons
were made in the four Lodges , then there musfc have been 160 Masons in 1720 who were illumined with both degrees . Now , during the year 1721 , two now Lodges were constituted , and assuming thafc the two new Lodges of 1721 numbered together forty members , and thafc the three
Officers of each of the new Lodges alone had received the Fellow Craffc degree , then there must have been in London on the 1 st of January 1722 about 166 Masons who were illumined with the highest Masonic degree then known , viz ., " Master or Fellow Craft , " and only 36 Apprentices ;
and if such was the case there must have been in January 1722 more than four Masons who had received the tip-top degree to one who received the Apprentice degree only . This , however , would be at variance with the
paragraph quoted above , from tho Introduction to the book called Long Livers , wherein it is plainly stated that those who then had received the highest mysteries were but a few .
But if wo adopt the common sense view , that up to 1717 , or 1720 , Masons had bufc one degree ; that about 1720 the Grand Lodge added a Fellow Craffc and a Master ' s degrees , that the earliest Constitutions required Officers of Lodges to receive the Fellow Craft degree , while the Master ' s
degree was reserved for a " higher class , " which class consisted of but " a few "; then the words of Bro . Eugenius Philalethes , written in 1721 , were in perfect harmony with
the laws regarding the higher degrees in those days . And he doubtless referred " the mysteries which are hidden from the unworthy , " to the third degree or Master Mason ' s degree .
But Anderson , in his "History of Masonry" of 1723 , furnished indirect evidence of the thon existence of the Master Mason ' s degree . Now , bo it remembered thafc no pre-1717 Masonic MS . alludes to Hiram Abif , but in the 1723 history appended to the Constitution Anderson gavo
a long foot-note , in small type , which covers half of tho pages numbered 10 , 11 , and 12 , all of which is devoted to Hiram Abif . Now it seems to me that if Hiram Abif had
not then been introduced into the Masonic ritual , that Anderson would not have written in 1722 ( for the book , thongh printed in 1723 , was wi-itten in 1722 ) such a long dissertation about Hiram Abif .
Now Bro . Gould maintains that in 1723 Masons had ^ wo