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Article THE SECOND AND THIRD DEGREES. ← Page 2 of 2 Article THE SECOND AND THIRD DEGREES. Page 2 of 2 Article MASONRY ELEVEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO IN AMERICA. Page 1 of 3 →
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The Second And Third Degrees.
satisfactory to the human mind under certain circumstances , in reaching positive conclusions . It is certainly fair to ask , Bow can any Grand Lodge make or furnish evidence or muniments of anything which
it is its duty to adjudicate and determine ; except through the hands of its Officers who execute its determinations and intentions ; and of what use can be the most solemn official
certificates , verified by signatures and seal , even though executed in presence of the assembled Craft , if the most important document it can frame and deliver is to be set
aside as false the moment the acts and judgments it
announces run counter to an assumed theory of those who allow no weight whatever to positive evidence , but insist on want of any evidence as proving affirmative facts : to wit , that two Grand Lodges of an honourable society , one in
England and one m Scotland , through a space of twenty years , with all their Officers and subordinate Lodges , conspired to foist upon the world the falsehood that two degrees of their own fabrication had been in use for a considerable length of time ?
What is the matter with the charter to the Inverness
Lodge , that its recitals and verified statements of facts are to be branded as " fanciful ? " Does it assert that the ' petition contains something not found in it ? Not the least —it says the proof was " evidently" made by " proper
documents" Of course the petition could not be called a " proper document" to prove aught except the wishes of the members of the Lodge at Inverness . As to the documents mentioned in the charter , what reason has any one
now to consider their absence of any weight in forming an opinion ? The first question in regard to them must be , Where ought they to be found , if anywhere ? And the
answer must be , Not in the archives of the Grand Lodge , unless by chance those to whom they belonged chose to surrender them to its custody .
How many hundreds of thousands of judgments of
common law courts of record in England and the United States have been entered in cases tried on documentary proofs , since December 1678 ? Tet in which of them did the court ever retain the documents on which the
judgment was founded ? If search were made everywhere throughout both countries , how many out of the millions used could be found ? I suppose the case is the same in Scotland in determinations of like character as those at
common law ; but perhaps not . But however that may be , there is no presumption that the Grand Lodge took possession of Lodge or individual personal property without
consent ; or that the Lodge or other persons to whom su ch documents belonged gave them up for no cause whatever after they were used as proofs , although they may have done so in some instances .
It was only forty years from the time when the first Grand Lodge of Illinois is known to have been in existence , before Bro . J . 0 . Reynolds compiled the history of Illinois Masonry for the Grand Lodge now existing ; yet
in that short time all trace of records or documents of the last three , or perhaps five or six years , of the existence of a Grand Lodge which had set in ample form , officered by the most competent men of the State , and in correspondence
for five or more years with other Grand Lodges , had become completely lost , so that one charter issued to Western Star Lodge , being mentioned by that Lodge in returning its former charter to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , is all which can be found in the shape of an
Illinois proceeding , to show that the Grand Lodge of
Illinois was in existence during the two years preceding the date of that charter ; and the latter is only known by the statement of the Western Star Officers to the Grand Secretary of Pennsylvania . This kind of work has
been always going on in every department of affairs , and who can expect to find a chain or body of documents of any kind , outside public archives , after a century and a half , except there was always some special known reason wh
¦ y they should be preserved ? These last matters are not adduced for any other purpose than to indicate some considerations which should be borne in mind in making up opinions concerning transactions of the Fraternity
which took place so many years ago as these in question . In the same article Bro . Hughan further says : " On the constitution of the Lodge thus officially , the membership consisted of nineteen Masters , ten Felloio Crafts and twenty
six Apprentices , fifty-five in all , mainly Spemlative Freemasons if not exclusively so . " ( Italics mine . ) Here it seems clear that the three degrees had been conferred on members of the Inverness Lodge during some time previous
The Second And Third Degrees.
to the granting of the charter . How did they get them ? Was the new Grand Lodge formed of Masons having but one degree ? If they had as many as the members of the Inverness Lodge , where and how did the other Lodges
they came from become possessed of them ? I suppose that whatever was the form of general organisation in Scotland , no one disputes that the Masons of that country had a Grand Master at their head during many generations
previously to 1737 , or that the office being hereditary there , the Earl of Sinclair who then held the office resigned in order that the Grand Lodge of 1736 might be
formod with an elective Grand Master , and was himself made the first Grand Master under the new arrangement . If this is correct , or if there was any Grand Master at all , in Scotland there must have been at least one head of the Fraternity whose duty it was to look after the Lodges , and
see that they did not utterly overthrow the established
usages , by making another and different institution out of the one they had , as would be the result of taking on two new degrees . But it appears that all these nineteen Masons with the three degrees were members of the Lodge at
Inverness , and everything going on m harmony . Besides any such change would of course become a subject of tradition , even if suppressed in all records , and we all understand
how persistent such traditions are . But no such tradition is cited to show that new degrees came in ; but the tradition has been to the contrary .
When the representatives of the " St . John's Old Kilwinning " returned to Inverness , they and all the others of the nineteen Masters of the Lodge must have known whether the new charter they had secured was truthful or
false ; and so in the case of any other Lodge , whose members might be informed by the charter they received , that they had been making Master and Fellow Craft Masons
during a long space of time ; and it would seem impossible for fifty-five members , some of them probably of forty years' standing , to hear such a matter for the first time without considerable surprise , to say the least .
As there are now , and have been for some years past , a constantly increasing number of those who are deeply interested in the propagation of the modern " High Degrees , " so-called , who are consequently interested in destroying the
one great characteristic of Ancient Craft Masonry which overshadows their enterprises , they have of late years ceased their former attempt to maintain the pretended antiquity of their own establishments , and are now
endeavouring to bring about the equality of the latter with genuine Masonry , by getting the Craft to believe that what they call the " Blue Lodge " is as modem as their own rites . As many of them have secured large influence
as distinguished Masons , the remarkable change in their published opinions as they grow warmer in the work of filling the United States with a brood of European inventions , can be easily understood on reflection . These opinions
are cited with delight by many well wishers of the Ancient Craft , who do not stop to examine into the cause of their inconsistency with the former utterances by the same authorities (?) . It is a great satisfaction to know that
Bro . Hughan cites some of these opinions in his last book , " Origin of the English Rite , " with manifest appreciation of their inconsistency and little value , although , like most of the Craft , little noticing how the zeal of propagating " high" rites goes hand in hand with new opinions
touching the modem origin of all degrees . —Voice of Masonry
Masonry Eleven Thousand Years Ago In America.
MASONRY ELEVEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO IN AMERICA .
FinHERE was a time , and that not very remote , when it JL was asserted that America possessed no antiquities , and that for these we must resort to the old world ; but of late it is claimed that the tables have been turned . If certain authors are to be credited , the old world is the new , and the new world is the old . Dr . Warren has found the
Garden of Eden at the North Pole ; while Mr . Donnelly makes the lost island of Atlantis the source equally of the civilization of Central America and Egypt ; and Dr . La Plongeon finds Tncatan to have been the great original
central source of light , both profane and Masonic , and he dates its discovered monuments of civilization and Masonry from a period eleven thousand five hundred years ago ! In
order that our readers may not rest under the impression that Freemasonry assuredly began either at the Apple Tree Tavern , London , in 1717 , or at the building of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Second And Third Degrees.
satisfactory to the human mind under certain circumstances , in reaching positive conclusions . It is certainly fair to ask , Bow can any Grand Lodge make or furnish evidence or muniments of anything which
it is its duty to adjudicate and determine ; except through the hands of its Officers who execute its determinations and intentions ; and of what use can be the most solemn official
certificates , verified by signatures and seal , even though executed in presence of the assembled Craft , if the most important document it can frame and deliver is to be set
aside as false the moment the acts and judgments it
announces run counter to an assumed theory of those who allow no weight whatever to positive evidence , but insist on want of any evidence as proving affirmative facts : to wit , that two Grand Lodges of an honourable society , one in
England and one m Scotland , through a space of twenty years , with all their Officers and subordinate Lodges , conspired to foist upon the world the falsehood that two degrees of their own fabrication had been in use for a considerable length of time ?
What is the matter with the charter to the Inverness
Lodge , that its recitals and verified statements of facts are to be branded as " fanciful ? " Does it assert that the ' petition contains something not found in it ? Not the least —it says the proof was " evidently" made by " proper
documents" Of course the petition could not be called a " proper document" to prove aught except the wishes of the members of the Lodge at Inverness . As to the documents mentioned in the charter , what reason has any one
now to consider their absence of any weight in forming an opinion ? The first question in regard to them must be , Where ought they to be found , if anywhere ? And the
answer must be , Not in the archives of the Grand Lodge , unless by chance those to whom they belonged chose to surrender them to its custody .
How many hundreds of thousands of judgments of
common law courts of record in England and the United States have been entered in cases tried on documentary proofs , since December 1678 ? Tet in which of them did the court ever retain the documents on which the
judgment was founded ? If search were made everywhere throughout both countries , how many out of the millions used could be found ? I suppose the case is the same in Scotland in determinations of like character as those at
common law ; but perhaps not . But however that may be , there is no presumption that the Grand Lodge took possession of Lodge or individual personal property without
consent ; or that the Lodge or other persons to whom su ch documents belonged gave them up for no cause whatever after they were used as proofs , although they may have done so in some instances .
It was only forty years from the time when the first Grand Lodge of Illinois is known to have been in existence , before Bro . J . 0 . Reynolds compiled the history of Illinois Masonry for the Grand Lodge now existing ; yet
in that short time all trace of records or documents of the last three , or perhaps five or six years , of the existence of a Grand Lodge which had set in ample form , officered by the most competent men of the State , and in correspondence
for five or more years with other Grand Lodges , had become completely lost , so that one charter issued to Western Star Lodge , being mentioned by that Lodge in returning its former charter to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , is all which can be found in the shape of an
Illinois proceeding , to show that the Grand Lodge of
Illinois was in existence during the two years preceding the date of that charter ; and the latter is only known by the statement of the Western Star Officers to the Grand Secretary of Pennsylvania . This kind of work has
been always going on in every department of affairs , and who can expect to find a chain or body of documents of any kind , outside public archives , after a century and a half , except there was always some special known reason wh
¦ y they should be preserved ? These last matters are not adduced for any other purpose than to indicate some considerations which should be borne in mind in making up opinions concerning transactions of the Fraternity
which took place so many years ago as these in question . In the same article Bro . Hughan further says : " On the constitution of the Lodge thus officially , the membership consisted of nineteen Masters , ten Felloio Crafts and twenty
six Apprentices , fifty-five in all , mainly Spemlative Freemasons if not exclusively so . " ( Italics mine . ) Here it seems clear that the three degrees had been conferred on members of the Inverness Lodge during some time previous
The Second And Third Degrees.
to the granting of the charter . How did they get them ? Was the new Grand Lodge formed of Masons having but one degree ? If they had as many as the members of the Inverness Lodge , where and how did the other Lodges
they came from become possessed of them ? I suppose that whatever was the form of general organisation in Scotland , no one disputes that the Masons of that country had a Grand Master at their head during many generations
previously to 1737 , or that the office being hereditary there , the Earl of Sinclair who then held the office resigned in order that the Grand Lodge of 1736 might be
formod with an elective Grand Master , and was himself made the first Grand Master under the new arrangement . If this is correct , or if there was any Grand Master at all , in Scotland there must have been at least one head of the Fraternity whose duty it was to look after the Lodges , and
see that they did not utterly overthrow the established
usages , by making another and different institution out of the one they had , as would be the result of taking on two new degrees . But it appears that all these nineteen Masons with the three degrees were members of the Lodge at
Inverness , and everything going on m harmony . Besides any such change would of course become a subject of tradition , even if suppressed in all records , and we all understand
how persistent such traditions are . But no such tradition is cited to show that new degrees came in ; but the tradition has been to the contrary .
When the representatives of the " St . John's Old Kilwinning " returned to Inverness , they and all the others of the nineteen Masters of the Lodge must have known whether the new charter they had secured was truthful or
false ; and so in the case of any other Lodge , whose members might be informed by the charter they received , that they had been making Master and Fellow Craft Masons
during a long space of time ; and it would seem impossible for fifty-five members , some of them probably of forty years' standing , to hear such a matter for the first time without considerable surprise , to say the least .
As there are now , and have been for some years past , a constantly increasing number of those who are deeply interested in the propagation of the modern " High Degrees , " so-called , who are consequently interested in destroying the
one great characteristic of Ancient Craft Masonry which overshadows their enterprises , they have of late years ceased their former attempt to maintain the pretended antiquity of their own establishments , and are now
endeavouring to bring about the equality of the latter with genuine Masonry , by getting the Craft to believe that what they call the " Blue Lodge " is as modem as their own rites . As many of them have secured large influence
as distinguished Masons , the remarkable change in their published opinions as they grow warmer in the work of filling the United States with a brood of European inventions , can be easily understood on reflection . These opinions
are cited with delight by many well wishers of the Ancient Craft , who do not stop to examine into the cause of their inconsistency with the former utterances by the same authorities (?) . It is a great satisfaction to know that
Bro . Hughan cites some of these opinions in his last book , " Origin of the English Rite , " with manifest appreciation of their inconsistency and little value , although , like most of the Craft , little noticing how the zeal of propagating " high" rites goes hand in hand with new opinions
touching the modem origin of all degrees . —Voice of Masonry
Masonry Eleven Thousand Years Ago In America.
MASONRY ELEVEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO IN AMERICA .
FinHERE was a time , and that not very remote , when it JL was asserted that America possessed no antiquities , and that for these we must resort to the old world ; but of late it is claimed that the tables have been turned . If certain authors are to be credited , the old world is the new , and the new world is the old . Dr . Warren has found the
Garden of Eden at the North Pole ; while Mr . Donnelly makes the lost island of Atlantis the source equally of the civilization of Central America and Egypt ; and Dr . La Plongeon finds Tncatan to have been the great original
central source of light , both profane and Masonic , and he dates its discovered monuments of civilization and Masonry from a period eleven thousand five hundred years ago ! In
order that our readers may not rest under the impression that Freemasonry assuredly began either at the Apple Tree Tavern , London , in 1717 , or at the building of the