Masonic History And Historians.

MASONIC HISTORY AND HISTORIANS .

BY BKO . JACOB NORTON . IT is gratifying to perceive that our leading English Masonio writers have at last agreed that the histories of Anderson , Preston , Der . mott and Co . are faulty and unreliable . The Freemason of March 5 th , 26 th , April 9 th , & c , contains articles on tho above snbject from the pons of Bros . Hnghan , Gould , Masonic Strident , and Whytehead . Bat , while they agree in the necessity of a now history of Free .

masonry , they still differ about the value of Masonic traditions . Bros . Hughan and Gonld are inclined to reject all traditions which are unsupported by reliable testimony , and Bros . Masonic Student and Whytehead show a decided hankering after the leeks , onions , and garlic of Egypt . "In dealing with traditions ( says Masonic Student ) , qua traditions ,

we must be careful and reverential in the handling of them . It is not a case of ' sequitor , ' remember , at all , that because traditions are incorrect , therefore they are untrustworthy . It was pointed out years ago , by one of the greatest experts in MSS ., that we must bear in mind that there was a ' substratum' of truth in all traditions , if we could find it , and that as all traditions , become incorrect through

the lapse of time , or the repetition of men , so whilo we were not slavishly to accept them , we wero not equally as slavishly to reject them in Mo . " With all due respect to Masonio Student , and to his " experts of MSS ., " I cannot believe that there is " a substratum of truth to all traditions : " for instance , there is an Irish tradition that St . Patrick

awam across the Shannon , carrying his head in his mouth . Now , suppose Masonio Student does not believe that the saint carried his whole head in his mouth , does he imagine that he carried a half , a quarter , or even a tenth part of his head in his own mouth ? Where is the substratum of truth in the said Irish tradition ? " The Reader ' s Hand Book , " by the Rev . E . 0 . Brewer , contains

several versions of the story abont the " Wandering Jew . Now , can Bro . Masonic Student say thafc he believes in either of those versions ? or can he point out any substratum of truth in tho whole , or in either of them ? A discussion took place in Rome , a few years ago , between really learned and eminent Catholic and Protestant Divines , as to whether

Sfc . Peter was over Bishop of Rome . The Catholic party rested their arguments on a tradition to that effect , that St . Peter was Bishop of Rome , and was crucified there , & c . But the Protestants maintained that whereas the said tradition was not mentioned till about a cenfcnry after the supposed event , they could therefore neither believe that St . Peter was Bishop of Rome , or that he had ever been in

Rome . Owing to the power claimed by the Pope on account of bis sup . posed succession to St . Peter , Protestants have no hesitation in disputing St . Peter's Roman Bishopship . Now , the truth is , the story of St . John the Evangelist having been Bishop of Ephesns , & o ., rests upon no better foundation than that of the St . Peter Roman

tradition , and had the Bishop of Ephesus claimed homage of all Christians on account of his succession to St . John , those that would refuse his claimed homage could make as good an argument against the St . John Ephesns legend as the others did against the St . Peter Roman legend . Bat as there is no Bishop of Ephesns to claim superiority , the St . John's legend is tolerated and even defended by the orthodox

party . The more advanced ecclesiastical critics , however , reject both legends alike . Now , upon this Ephesns Sfc . John legend , Masons have erected Sfc . John Masonic legends—viz ., how the Evangelist became Grand Master when he was upwards of ninety years of age , and how Lodges were first dedicated to King Solomon , afterwards to Zerubbabel , and

last to the St . Johns , because the Baptist was also a Grand Master . And in the April number of the Masonic Magazine , 1879 ( p 465 ) , there is a tradition about St . John , -while still in the old faith , having joined the Eleusinian's mysteries ; and how , when the Saint was banished to the Isle of Patmos , the Eleusinian brethren on the island helped him somehow to get back to Ephesus . There is also related a

miracle—viz ., that the Emperor or Domitian ordered the saint to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil , and how the oil wonld not cook the saint , & o . Now , it is really needless to waste time , ink , and paper to prove the absurdity of all these legends . There is not a particle of truth in either of them ; and it is high time for Masons to stop talking aboufc handling these Masonic so-called traditions

reverentially ; and the same may be said of all other Masonic traditions , and all of the English pre-1717 Grand Masters , so ludicrously reprinted , year after year in the English Masonic Calendars . Bro . Whytehead , I am sorry to say , is strongly afflicted with the High Degree mania , and believes without doubt that Christian Degrees , Rosicrusianism , & c , wero in full blast in 1717 , and

before ; and hence , in a book called " Long Livers , " published about 1726 , his distorted vision can make out evidence of the existence at that time of some kind of mystic Christian degrees , and what not ; but before I analyse his reasoning , I shall call attention to the following article from Chambers' Cyclopedia , about the origin of Rosicrucianiam , & c .:

—"The beginning of the 17 th century was a period which manifested an extraordinary tendency to mysticism in science as well as in religion ; alchemy , astrology , and divination , divided the public interest with Pietism in the Protestant world , and the Convulsionist mania in the Catholic community . A remarkable impulse was given

to this tendency by the simultaneous appearance of two anonymous books , printed at Casfel in 1614 , in German , entitled Universal and General Reformation of the whole wide world , together with the " Fawn Fratemitatis or Brotherhood of the Illustrious Order of the Rosy Cross ; to the Rulers , States , and Learned of Europe . Printed at Cassel , by William Wessel . " The first of these books is a kind of mystic allegory [ and the story runs thus . ] In the reign of Justinian , Apollo , finding the world full

Masonic History And Historians.

of every kind of corruption , resolved on effecting a reformation , and with this view , calls up the seven wise men of Greece , and three Roman philosophers , of whom Cato and Seneca are the chief advisers . Their deliberation forms the subject of the book , which ia a satire at once on tho philosophy and the political systems and governments of the age .

The Fama Fratemitatis is the story of a certain holy and revereud Brother Christian Rosenkreuz ( i . e ., Rosy Cross ) , who is represented as living in the fourteenth century . This father , a German of noble birth , having been educated in a monastery , conceives a design for the reformation of the world ; aud after learning , at Jerusalem and Damascus , all the sciences of the Arabians , spends three years afc Fez ,

in Morocco , in the study of the magical science of the Moors , and returns to Germany , where he establishes in a house—under the title Saneti Spiritus , with the aid of seven monks from the convent where he had been educated—a fraternity , which is the original brotherhood of the Rosy Cross . These adepts having formed a system , with secret symbols , and committed it to paper , sent forth Father Rosenkreuz to

propagate the brotherhood , which waa to be kept secret for a hundred years , the members , however , meeting once each year in the mother house of Sancti Spiritus . Rosenkreuz died at the age of 106 , aud the place of his burial was held secret by the adapts ; but he ordered that an inscription shonld be placed on one of the doors of Sanoti Spiritus . " Post oxx . annos patebo . "

" In the following year—1615—a third tract appeared , also in German , called Confession of the Society and Brotherhood Bosy Cross , which purports to be a defence of the Brotherhood , by Johann Valen . tine Andrea . " Without tracing the subject further , it is generally conceded by all impartial investigators that there is about as much truth in the

several Rosicrusian narratives as there is in More ' s Utopia , Swift ' s " Gulliver ' s Travels , " and thousands of other kindred works . No Rosicrucian organisation existed anywhere in the seventeenth century , and no such Society existed in the eighteenth century before the Ramsays , Cagliostros , Weishaups , & c , began manufacturing Christian , Egyptian , and other High Degrees .

" The Long Livers , above referred to , cannot be bettor described than in Bro . Whitehead ' s own words , viz . — " That it is a history of persons who have lived to a great age , and who have grown young again , " and that the pamphlet is filled with receipts for rejuvenising old people . The writer of that pamphlet was evidently a Master Mason , and therefore dedicated his book to the Grand Master ,

Masters , Wardens , & o ., of England and Ireland . He does not claim to have been a Rosicrusian or a member of any other Society combining Christianity , philosophy , with mysticism . Indeed , we may infer that if he had been a member of such a Society , he would have dedicated his book , not to Masons , but to the Society connected with his notions . Now , here are the extracts from which our High

Graders have derived comfort , and to whioh Bro . Whytehead calls special attention . " By what I here say , those of you who are nofc far illuminated , who stand in the outward place , and are not worthy to look behind the vail , may find no disagreeable or unprofitable entertainment , and those who are so happy as to have greater light will discover , " & c .

I am very sorry thafc Bro . Whytehead stopped short in the middle of a sentence , and did not enlighten us about what they " will discover . " The second quotation from " Long Livers "is : — "And now , my brethren , you of the Higher Class . " And the third quotation is : — " The Spiritual Celestial Cube , " which phrase occurs in a ritual

of one of the Christian High Degrees . Furthermore , Bro . Whytehead informs us that while the author of " Long Livers" cautions Masons against introducing religion and politics into Masonry , he himself repeatedly eulogises Christianity . * hence he infers thafc he may have belonged to the Christian Degrees . These are all the arguments derived from the testimony of " The Long Livers" as to

the existence at that time of higher Masonic or other degrees . " A drowning man catches at a straw . " Our American profound Dr . Mackay was the first High Grader who attempted to catch at the " Long Livers '" straw , and now Bros . Whytehead and Masonic Student are trying to catch the same straw but the fact is , it is not a straw at all they are after , but a mere shadow of a straw . I admit that , as a rule , High Graders are very apt to pretend here that Masonry ia

cosmopolitan , and there that is Christian . But this Masouic inconsistency is not altogether monopolised by High Graders , of which many instances can be shown . Nay , it existed before the High Graders were thought of . The earliest ritual referred to Christ ou the top of the Temple , St . John , & c . The author of " Long Livers " was , therefore , no more inconsistent than the then ritual . With regard to the quotations above given , be it remembered that the 1721 Constitntion allowed Fellow Crafts to hold the offices o

Warden , Master , and even Grand Master ; that up to 25 th November 1725 , the F . C . and M . M . degrees could be obtained only in the Grancl Lodge . That even as late as 1730 , not one in a hundred Masons took the third degree . ( This fact was pointed out to me in an original printed document of 1730 , by a member of your staff when I was in London , a few weeks ago . ) We may therefore infer that in 1726 ,

when " Long Livers was printed , the mass of the brotherhood were mere Entered Apprentices * a few took the second degree ; and still fewer took the third degree . With these facts before us , the references made by the author of "Long Livers , " " to those who are not far illuminated , who stand in the outward place , and you of the higher class , " simply refers to those who have

taken only one degree , and to those who have been illumined with the second and third degrees . With regard to the phrase " Spiritual Celestial Cube , " mentioned by the author of " Long Livers , " which phrase is used in one of the High Christian Degrees . I beg to call the attention of Bro . Whitehead to a phrase taken from Milton , in the English Crif t Ritual , viz . — " Grace in her footstep , and heaven in her eye . " This passage does not prove fchafc Mil ton was a Mason , bufc that