Reply To Bro. Hughan's "Speculative Masonry."

could get admission to-day into one of our Lodges without previous initiation into our mysteries , and hence it is absurd on our part fco claim Ashmole as otir Brother Mason , when in reality his Masonry , as the saying is , ivas a horse of another colour . BOSTON , U . S ., 26 th July 1889 .

The " Masonic Poem" Of A.D. 1390.

THE " MASONIC POEM" OF A . D . 1390 .

THE most ancient , extended and undoubted record of Freemasonry extant is the well-known British Museum MS ., " Bib . Regius , " or " Halliwell MS . " By universal consent . it is of great antiquity . Tho lato Bro . Woodford and others date it A . D . 1390 , whilo Mr . Edward

A . Bond ( keeper of MSS . ) and Bro . Dr . Geo . Kloss date it fifty years later . It was originally made known to the public by the late Mr . James 0 . Halliwell , F . R . S ., in an essay read before the Society of Antiquaries of England in 1839 . Ifc is contained in a small quarto , well written on

vellum , and before it was acquired by the British Museum , it was owned by a noted collector of the seventeenth century , Mr . Charles Theyer . David Casloy catalogued it in 1734 for the British Museum , and then styled it " A Poem of Moral Duties , " not recognizing its Masonic

character . About 1757 it was labelled "Poem on the Craft of Masonry . " Mr . Halliwell was the firsfc to distinctly point out , in 1839 , its important Masonic character . He printed it in 1840 , and again in 1844 ; audit was printed in

tho United States , at Philadelphia , in 1856 , by Bro . Leon Hyneman , in his " Masonic Library , " a valuable compend , in two volumes , containing also the famous Anderson " Constitutions" of both 1723 and 1738 . Prior to the

present year , however , this invaluable Masonic Poem has never been published in fac simile . This notable work has just been accomplished by the Lodge Quatuor Coronati , No . 2076 , London—the literary Masonic Lodge of the world —which has issued it in the first volume of its " Masonic Reprints , " under the title of " Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha . " Of the beauty , the interest and the value of

this / ac simile , and of the entire volume , we cannot speak in too laudatory terms , lt reflects the highest credit on the

Quatuor Coronati Lodge , its Secretary our esteemed friend and Brother Geo . Wm . Speth , the accomplished Secretary of the Lodge , and editor of the volume , and on Bro . Robert Freko Gould , the historian of Freemasonry , who is the

commentator on the Masonic Poem , and the other curious contents of this Reprint . We use only measured language when we say , that this volume should be in the library of

every Freemason who has any desire for culture . It is handsome , it is curious , ifc is valuable—fco our mind one of the most valuable monographs ever issued on Freemasonry .

The volume includes ten papers .- ( 1 ) fac simile and transcript of the " Masonic Poem ; " ( 2 ) fac simile and transcript of " Urbanitatis ; " ( 3 ) fac simile ancl transcript from " Instructions for a Parish Priest ; " ( 4 ) Article on the Freemasons in " The Plain Dealer , " No . 51 , September 14 , 1724 ; ( 5 ) "An Ode to the Grand Khaibar" ( 1726 ); ( 6 ) " A Defence of Masonry , " from Smith ' s " Freemason ' s Pocket Companion " ( 1738 ) ; ( 7 ) " Brother Euclid ' s Letter to the Author of Anderson ' s 1738 Constitutions ; " ( 8 ) A

Commentary on Nos . 1 , 2 and 3 , by Bro . Robert Freke Gould ; ( 9 ) Three maps of England , at the time of Edwin , A . D . 627 , in A . D . 878 , and in A . D . 926 , in the era of Athelstan , by Bro . Speth ; and ( 10 ) a glossary by Bro . Speth .

The second and third numbers are given in fac simile and transcript , because the " Masonic Poem " contains extended quotations from them , and they therefore throw important light upon its text .

Hore we must commend , also in the highest terms , Bro . Gould ' s thoughtfnl , able and entirely satisfactory commentary on the Poem . He was evidently benefited by the

criticisms ( ours with thafc of others ) on his previous lack of veneration for Craft traditions , as evidenced in his " History of Freemasonry . " His careful study of the Masonic Poem has led him to revise his views on this

important branch of Masonic learning , and we aro glad to announce that he is now in line with those who accept the traditions of Freemasonry as monumenting Masonic history . We congratulate him on his growth in Masonic grace and true Masonic scholarship , and we trust that

The " Masonic Poem" Of A.D. 1390.

hereafter the Keystone and he will be at one in their estimate of the value of Masonic tradition aa an exponent of lost or obscured Masonic history . Bro . Gould says , there is " a strong presumption that tho Masonic Poem was of Northumbrian origin . " This carries us back from the year of the writing of the Poem , about A . D . 1390 or 1440 , to the year 627 , the era of King

Edwin of Northumbria . It may help us fche better to comprehend the date of the writing of the MS . of this Poem by recalling the fact , that Chaucer ' s " Canterbury Tales " shortly antedate it . The facfc thafc ifc is poetic in form , while singular now , was customary then , as Bro . Gould abundantly shows . Tho laws of ancient Spain were versified . Down to the thirteenth century tho compositions of jongleurs and

trouveres were exclusively preserved by song and recitation . A rhythmical oath was taken by candidates on becoming members of the Holy Vehme , and the court was opened with a metrical dialogue . The marriage service of the Episcopal Church to-day is rhythmical , and in the Roman Catholic Church the priests sing the mass . Gould says , in this connection : " Our Masonic laws and traditions may

havo been passed down through the alliterative rhythm of the Anglo-Saxons , and the rhyme of the Normans , to find their first place in written language a remove or two only from the Poem under examination . " When the reader is informed that nearly one-third of tho

Masonic Poem is composed of extracts from two other ola MSS . —" Mirks' Instructions to Parish Priests , " and " Urbanitatis "—a poem relating to conduct afc meals , in the

presence of a lord , he will be glad that fac similes and transcriptions from both of these deeply interesting originals supplement the Poem in this Reprint .

The late Bro . Woodford believed that the concluding one hundred lines of the Poem ( 693 to 794 ) and " Urbanitatis , " had a common origin , and the same learned Brother declared thafc the Poem was " fche original o ( all our later ' Constitutions . ' " The earliest version of these MS .

Constitutions which have come down to us is that known as the " Grand Lodge MS ., " of date about A . D , 1583 . It is now in the archives of Freemasons' Hall , London . In

nearly all of these MSS . Prince Edwin and King Athelstan are referred to as loving Masons and practising Masonry . Concerning them and the ancient city of Tork Bro . Gould says : "In that ancient city all lines of way seem to converge , and in connection with it a tradition has grown up wherein are associated the names of Athelstan and Edwin as patrons of Masonry . * * Edwin was the firsfc King of

Northumberland , and has left his name on the frontier fortress of Eadwinesburgh or Edinburgh . * * I think we may safely assume that Athelstan having been the firsfc king of all England , was therefore the mosfc natural fountain-head from which a legendary belief in the grant of a Royal Charter to the Masons can be supposed to have arisen . " Athelstan . we know , erranted two charters to the

monastery of Sfc . Wilfrid , and one to the Church afc Beverley , from both of which instruments Bro . Gould quotes ; and the statutes of the London Guilds were firsfc reduced to writing in the time of Athelstan . Our Brother styles the " Masonic Poem " the " Regius MS , " for two reasons—because it is in the Royal Library of the British Museum , and also because " of its supremacy

as a document of tho Craft . " Ho significantly adds , as to the concurrent testimony of all the leading Masonic MSS ., that " the ' Old Charges' or ' Manuscript Constitutions ' concur with the ' Regius MS . ' in tracing the establishment of Masonry as a science to an Egyptian origin . " Here , again , we are at one with Bro . Gould , in his construction of these venerable Craft documents .

In order that tho reader may fully comprehend the important Masonic events upon which light is cast by the Masonic Poem and the Old Charges of Freemasonry , and also that they may appreciate and applaud Bro . Gould's present estimate of the value of Craffc traditions , as embodied in Craft MSS ., we quote from his Commentary on the Poem in this Reprint fche following significant paragraphs : —

Tho facta then are , thafc the Cathedral of St . Peter ' s afc York waa begun under Edwin in 627 , and fche officiating clergy of the same edifice wore granted a charter by Athelstan about the year 936 . Here at all events two loading incidents in the Legend of the Craffc coalesce in a common centre—York Minster—which Edwin founded ,

aud whose ministers Athelstan endowed . * * That the Edwin of Masonic tradition is identical with Edwin of Northumbrifi , seems to me fairly inferential , from the fact that fche latter was an undoubted patron of Operative Masonry , A . D . 627 . The Athelstan of the Legend can be identified with even greater ease ,