Masonic Antiquity;

MASONIC ANTIQUITY ;

BROTHER GOULD'S NEWLY ASSUMED CHAMPIONSHIP FOR .

Br BBO . JACOB NORTON . ( Continued from page 355 ) .

AS belief and disbelief is independent of human will , I cannot blame Bro . Gould for his *' new departure , " as the Editor of the Freemason " called it , but when he undertook to convert others to his changed belief , he ought to have furnished better reasons than he did in his

Commentary on the Masonic Poem and in his Glasgow address . Briefly , Bro . Hayter Lewis , in November 1886 informed the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , that Professor D . Marks had seen an Arabic MS ., in Hebrew characters , about seven years ago , in which the Hiramic legend was given , and Bro . Lewis added ;—

" I have since thon been informed that a MS ., which seems to be of the character above referred to by Dr . Marks , is said to have been ia the Cambridge University Library , and very possibly may bo the actual one to which he refers . " This theory of Professor Hayter Lewis Bro . Gould

attacked , in the Philadelphia Keijstone of 4 th December 1886 . I was informed privately that while Dr . Marks claimed to have seen the Arabic MS . in the Bodleian

Library , upon inquiry no such MS . was to be found there . Recently , however , Bro . Gould has changed his opinion ; the first reason he gave in his Commentary of the Masonic or " Regius Poem " is as follows : -

"About ten years ago an Arabic MS . came to the notice oi Professor Marks .... This work referred to a sign or password known to the Masonic brotherhood , each letter beiDg an initial of a separate word , which word makes up the sentence , 'We have found our Lord Hiram . ' The title of the M . S ., Dr . Marks says , has passed ont

of his memory , but he belives it was an introduction to the Sunnah , and the date he assigns to it is that of the 14 th century . Tho book was found by him , to the best of his recolleotion , in tho Bodleian Library , and he adds , 'I made out its meaning readily , inasmuch as the passage referred to Masonry , which , by the bye , it traced up to tho Patriarchs , if not to Adam himself . " ( Regius Commentary , p 13 . (

As I havo in a measure been instrumental in directing the investigation of the Cambridge MS . referred to by Bro . Hayter Lewi ? , I will first furnish evidence that no such a MS . ever existed in Cambridge . First , iu tho Freemason of 1874 , page 584 , Bro . Hughan

stated that ho had read an article by Bro . Jacob Norton , stating that tho Rev . George Oliver , in his "Freemason ' s Treasury , " said , that Desaguliers and Anderson obtained the . Hiramic legend from idle tales taken out of the Jewish Targums , which were published in London , A . D . 1715 ,

from a MS . in the University Library , at Cambridge . Iltnce Bro . Hughan urged Bro . Woodford to make inquiry into the case . A few days after the above was published Bro . Wcodford received from mo a similar request for inquiry . On page 610 of the same volume of tho Freernason is the following reply : —

" Bro . Hughan ' s note has anticipated Bro . Norton ' s , so we do not deem it needful to publish it .... We are authorised to state that Bro . Woodford is at this moment engaged in inquiries at the Cambridge "University and at the British Museum , endeavouring to Vtrify Dr . Oliver ' s original statement . "

Oa page 719 of the same volume I find as follows : — "Some reference has recently been made by Bro . Hughan and Bro . Norton to some tales from the Talmud , published in 1715 , and alluded to by Dr . Oliver . I have had a long search made . No such a book .... exists , at any rate of that date [ but he heard ] that such a book was published at Amsterdam ( not in London ) in Vtl & . " And promised to make further inquiry . On pace 75 of

Vol . VIII of the Freemason ( 1875 ) Bro . Lewis may read as follows : — "In answer to Bro . Hughan , Mr . Bernsley , the Librarian of Cambridge University , tells me there ia no legend to be traced . Indeed , it could not well be in the Targums . Oliver ' s statement is therefore incorrect . "

In other words , Oliver invented the story about the Cambridge MS . Hence Bro . Hayter Lewis must therefore give up the idea that Dr . Marks ever saw such a MS . at Cambridgre .

And now for another statement made by Dr . Marks . But 1 must preface by stating that I made the acquaintance of the late Bro . Henry Faudel , of the firm of Faudel

and Phillips , in Newgate-street , in 1853 , when he told me that Masonry was not ancient . Bro . Faudel was a member of the Grand Stewards' Lodge , was Grand Deacon in 1846 ,

Masonic Antiquity;

he wa 3 acquainted with the German and French languages , possessed an excellent library , was a friend of Dr . Crucifix , was appointed by the Doctor as his executor , and for two years after Dr . Crucifix demised , Bro . Faudel virtually

edited the Masonic Magazine , or whatever us name was . And this will account for his knowing , as early as 1853 , what no other English Mason seems to have known before 1866 , when Bro . Findel ' s English edition was first printed , viz ., that our Masonry was not ancient .

Our acquaintance ripened into friendship . During my subsequent annual visits to England I spent many evenings at Bro . Faudel's bouse , in Regent ' s Park . In the Spring

of 1857 I met there Dr . Marks , who , in tho courso of conversation , told us that in a preface to a copy of tho " Zohar " he once found the Hiramic legend , but he could not remember in what edition ho saw it . Bro . Faudel then turned to me , with a smile , and said , " So , after all ,

I was mistaken . " Now , I confess that Dr . Marks always had an exceptionably high character for truthfulness . It would therefore be wrong for me to charge him with inventing his statements . Bnt , on the other hand , it is possible that the " Zohar " ho saw may have been printed after 1730 , and the writer of ts preface may have been a Mason . And as to the MS .

which he saw about ; ten years ago , I verily believe that ho saw a forged copy ; the said MS . may have sheen manufactured in the 18 th or even in the 19 th century . Dr . Marks is doubtless a tip top Hebrew scholar , but it

does not follow that he is also a tip top expert in judging the difference between a genuine and forged MS . Every one knows that from tho earliest time MSS . have been forged . The book called the "Zohar" is a forgery- It

was ascribed to tho pen of Rabbi Shimon Ben Yechnai , who lived in the 2 nd century . But Dr . Graetz , iu his History of the Jews , proved that it was manufactured in tho middle of the 13 th century ( See Masonic Magazine ,

Vol . VII . p 528 ) . Dr . Krause , tho great Masonic sceptic , was imposed upon at York , early in this century , with a Charter alleged to have been copied from King Athelstan ' s original Latin copy of his Masons' Charter , which was confirmed in 1806 by somebody who called himself "

Stonehouse . ' Not many years sinco , tho late Bro . Woodford got hold of an old Masonic MS ., on which v , as inscribed the name of Inigo Jones , with a date A . D . 1610 , but it is known now to have been manufactured iu the middle of

the 18 th century . The Rev . Bro . Kira of Canada exhibited a Masonic MS . in 1860 , written in Scarborough , Yorkshire , dated 1505 . As soon as I saw a printed copy thereof , in 1873 , I at once pronounced it a 1705 MS ., and not of

1505 ; and when the said MS . was produced , it proved that I was right , that a good figure 7 was changed into a 5 ( read my letter in the Canadian draftsman of March 1874 , p 89 ) . The Malcolm Charter , the Cologne Charter , and

the Frederick the Great Charter aro also Masonic forgeries . Wo see now that forged MSS . have deceived scholars , doctors and clergymen . And as the strongest reasons

exist about the alleged antiquity of the Hiramic legend , I must conclude that Dr . Marks , like many other scholars , was deceived by a forged MS ., and I think that if the above arguments were submitted to Dr . Marks'

consideration , that he would himself admit the possibility of having made such a mistake . The next argument of Bro . Gould rests upon the poem called " Urbanitatis , " which , according to the opinion of

its editor , Mr . Furnival , was written in about 1460 , and a hundred lines of which poem the author of the Regius poem welded on to his own poem . This poem was designed to teach good manners , and the following are specimens of the manners it taught , viz . : —

" When yon come before a lord take off your cap or hood , and fall on your knee twice or thrice . Keep your cap off till you are told to put it on . Hold your chin up . Look the Lord in tho face . Keep hands and feet still . Don't spit and snot . Break wind qnietly .

Behave well when yon go into the hall . . . See that your hands are clean and your knife sharp . Don ' t clutch the beat bit . Keep your hands from dirtying the table cloth , and don't wipo yonr nose on it , & o . "

And again , in the Masonic Poem , are the following lines , which I give from a modern version , viz .: — " By old time written , I find

That the prentice should be of gentle kind , And BO , sometimep , great lords' blood Took this gemetry that is foil good . " Mr . Furnival , the editor of " Urbanitatis , " remarked on the above lines : — " I should like to see the evidence of a