The Old Charges.

THE OLD CHARGES .

AS announced in our issue of ist June our worthy Bro . W . J . Hughan took a prominent part in a conversazione arranged by the Devon Lodge , No . 1138 , he then delivering an address on this subject .

In opening his lecture , Bro . Hughan said the subject was beset with many difficulties , not because it was a Masonic subject , pure and simple , but from the fact that many of the investigations were of a difficult character to explain , and required a very much longer time than was then at his

disposal to bring before them . The " old charges were documents of parchment , and as a rule were known by the name of Masonic scrolls , rolls , or books , and were really the rules and regulations which guided the Freemasons who built our cathedrals . Wherever it was arranged for a cathedral

to be built a Lodge was formed , and it consisted of a covered building in which Masons fashioned the stones and prepared them for the building that was to be raised . Those Masons were required to serve a regular apprenticeship of seven years . ' They received what was called the apprentice ' s

charge , and then subsequently became journeymen or Craftsmen ; whilst , if able by their circumstances or otherwise , they eventually became masters or Master Masons , as distinguished from Masters of Lodges . The old charges proper were altogether unique and peculiar to the Masonic body .

They were usually about a foot in width , and about twelve to fifteen feet in length , and when a candidate was initiated he had to receive his charge within twelve months as a rule , or

a fine was inflicted . They were very fond of fines in those days , because the fines went to the annual banquet . The charge was read , and with the communication of certain secrets , constituted the initiation .

When the full time of seven years was served the apprentices had to pass an essay , which was of a novel character . It was to build a wall , fashion an arch , or whatever condition was laid down by the essay master , and the candidate had to act accordingly . If the essay was accepted

he was technically called passed , and became a Fellow Craftsman . The manuscripts in existence dated from the 14 th century , all the older ones being lost . The oldest of the

kind known was named the Regius manuscript , and was written in the 14 th century . It was in book form , and every page of fine vellum . It was not a copy of the old charges so much as it contained extracts from them . Then there was

the Cooke manuscript , which was in the British Museum . That was in book form , and was of an interesting character . This was the oldest actual copy of an old charge known , and was written early in the 15 th century . The old charges ran on from that date right down to the latter part of the 18 th

century , and every Lodge undoubtedly during most of the period had copies . The next oldest known was what was called the Grand Lodge manuscript , and it was dated in the year 1583 . The lecturer produced some copies of scrolls and stated they ran to about fifteen feet long . When the

candidate was being initiated it was read to him , and it was rolled and unrolled just as the rolls were used in synagogues . These manuscript rolls were used by each individual Lodge

to the eighteenth century , and a very remarkable feature about them was that they all began with an Invocation to the Trinity . He wished to emphasise that fact , because it was not generally known .

The rolls all began " In the name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , three persons in one God . " Every one so began , and the tenour of the rolls showed that the society was at that time exclusively Christian . He thought a great deal of the religious part of the scrolls was mainly due to the

action of the priests , who were naturally interested in the erection of the particular structures , upon which the builders were engaged . If they knew the origin of the rolls they would find that the earlier ones were compiled by the priests

of the neighbourhood , and the ordinary regulations added as circumstances might require , and so far as the parties needed . One of the finest of the manuscripts was written about the year 1650 ; it was on vellum and in book form . The rolls

were now m the possession of the British Museum , and various bodies at home and abroad , but originally they were exclusively in the possession of the Lodges . There was nothing secret in them ; and the only secret of Freemasonry then was the way to build ; whilst the modern secret of

The Old Charges.

Freemasonry is that there is no secret . He thought that would be practically admitted ; for they simply had secrets of the way to know each other , and when that was said , they had said all . The great question had been to prove the continuity of

Freemasonry from the 14 th century down to the present time ; and although some students never admitted such continuity , Masons proved it by the documents he was referring to . Those manuscripts were in existence all over the country , and if that were not sufficient , they had also the

minutes of the Lodges , which , in themselves , proved the continuity of the Craft in another way . The oldest Lodge in the world was the Lodge of Edinburgh , which had minutes dating from the year 1 599 down to the present day . When the modern character was given to Freemasonry early in the

18 th century , it was never referred to at all in those minutes , and it was evidently passed over in consequence of the continuity of the work . He did not know when the speculative character of Freemasonry was originally introduced , and nobody knew . The earliest reference to it was in the 15 th

century , and that was far back enough for them . From the 15 th century there was plenty of evidence of the speculative as well as the operative character of Masonry . In 1641 the Scots invaded England , and their army was at Newcastle . Whilst they were there—the Englishmen having gone

souththey had nothing to do . Some of them , however , happened to be Freemasons , and they initiated their Ouarter-Master-General as a Mason , and when they got back to Edinburgh , reported what they had done ; and it was entered upon the minutes . That was the earliest record of speculative membership of the kind .

The earliest prominent Enelish and speculative admission known was that of Elias Ashmole , the celebrated antiquarian , who was admitted in 1646 ; and in the British Museum was a manuscript of the old charges dated on the day of his admission , and written by a Scribe called Holmes , who was

present at the initiation . Some years ago , he ( the lecturer ) went to the office of the Masons' Company to see the records , and was shown some of the earliest . In five minutes he showed that in those records there was evidence of the existence of Freemasons in 1650 , and earlier .

Notwithstanding that , he was not permitted to go through all the records , and no one did so until one of the Freemasons got in as Master of the Company , and whilst Master brought out a history of the Masons' Company . In that book , it is stated that he discovered the minutes of a Lodge , meeting under

the wing af the Masons' Company , that admitted gentlemen as Freemasons quite distinct from the Company—they could join the Lodge without the Company . Those who were thus admitted were called Accepted Masons , and those who

belonged to the Company , Freemasons . The Company dropped the prefix " Free " in 1654 , and from that time was known as Masons only ; but there were still Free and Accepted Masons .

In Exeter there were old documents used by the Free Sewers , which showed that only those who were sewers were allowed to be members of the society . Taking all things into consideration , the term " Free " was used because a man by his craft was free to be a Mason , whilst " Accepted "

showed that a man was accepted as a Mason irrespective of his Craft . Until early in the 18 th century no one was allowed to join the Masons unless under the Christian constitution . In the early days also it was a monopoly , and no one was allowed to earn a living as a Freemason unless he

had served seven years . But in time that monopoly was broken down . In their records the Freemasons had a very old word , which was now practically obsolete—Sir Walter Scott used it , he being a Freemason . He referred to the word " cowan , " which was in use in 1 599 , and signified that

a man had obtained a knowledge of Freemasonry without serving seven years . No cowan was to be employed by any master unless there were no regular Mason in the neighbourhood . In that case he was allowed to employ a cowan on condition that he was not allowed to enter the Lodge .

In time the cowans got to be very numerous , and the monopoly was broken down , but it was not until early in the 18 th century that an opportunity generally was afforded men to get a knowledge of Freemasonry without serving seven years . In 1717 there were only four or five Lodges working in London , and those , assembling together , started the Grand