The Keystone And Saints John Once More.

THE KEYSTONE AND SAINTS JOHN ONCE MORE .

BT BRO . JACOB NORTON . I SUPPOSED that my paper on tho above subject , reprinted from the ( London ) FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE in the Masonie Truth of 3 rd March , would have shamed the Keystone editor from repeating his folly . Bnt there ia no shame in him ; he is determined by hook or by crook to impress his ignorant readers with a belief—First , that the Masons of the middle ages had the Saints John only

for their patron saints : And second , that in Scotland , for abont three hundred consecutive years , the Masons , and more especially the Edinburgh Lodge , kept np the custom of celebrating the Baptist ' s Day . And to accomplish his purpose , the Philadelphia Christianising

Masonic luminary resorts to the meanest pettifogging tricks , saying more than the truth here and less than the truth there , and takes care to appeal to sectarian prejudices . For instance , the 24 th of Jane , he says , is the summer solstice , but every schoolboy knows better . The Baptist , he says , " tanght as we teaob , this truth by

degrees . " Now , 1 st , where and when did the Baptist teach by degrees ? And 2 nd , if the Baptist tanght truth like the Keystone , then the less we have to do with him the better . Again , he s >» ys , " St . John had a noble ancestry , as Freemasonry has . " This is in a measure true , because both noble ancestries are alike pure fiction .

In 1736 , he says , four Scotch Lodges recommended that the annual election of Grand Masters should take place on the Baptist ' s Day ; but he carefully concealed the fact that the Scotch Grand Masters were never elected on the Baptist ' s Day ; and still again he says , Tbe Edinburgh Lodge , " No . 1 , " celebrated St . John the Baptist ' s

Day in 1757 , but he carefnlly conceals the facts , which I shall show up hereafter . From Gould ' s third volume , he quotes that in 1671 the Bishop of Durham granted a charter to a Masons' Guild , which ordained for the Guild to elect their officers on the Baptist ' s Day ; but tbe pnrtizan editor of the Krystnne ignores the fact tbat in 1671

they never dreamed either of speculative or cosmopolitan Masonry . The Masonry of to-day is as unlike the Masonry of 1671 as tbe 1671 Masonry was unlike Masonry of 1471 . Thus , the 15 th century Masons had to go to confession , and to adore the virgin , saints , & o . The 17 tb century Masons dispensed with confession , adoring the

saints , & c , but they retained the old Masonic Law , viz ., " To be true to the Choroh , " & o . ; and as the Bishop commanded them to observe i the Baptist's Day , they had to do it . Now , as well as tbe Masons of the 17 th centnry could depart from the sectarian notions of tbe Masons of the 15 th century , so conld the Masons of the 18 th centnry

expunge the old sectarian law , " To be true to the Church ; " and for the same reason the English Grand Lodge of tbe 19 th century threw out of the ritual sectarian notions , wbicb were tolerated by the Masons of 1717 . Now it would be just as absurd for a Catholic to demand the restoration of saint worship in a Lodge , because in the

15 th centnry the Masons did worship saints , or for any one to demand the restoration of the old Masonic law , viz ., " To be true to the Church and to entertain no heresy , " because the Masons of tbe 17 tb century had thafc law , as it is for the Keystone editor to quote the Charter of the Bishop of Durham of 1671 . In 1723 the Masons

substituted for the old law , " To be true to the Church , " the new law of Masonic universality . Thenceforth , all that was required of a candidate for Masonry was belief in God and the practice of morality , ' and I have yet to learn why Masonic morality sanctions lying and deceiving .

The Keystone editor argues tbat Sfc . John taught truth , & c , and therefore Masons onght to celebrate his Day , to keep us in reraembrance of him . He should , however , have remembered thafc as Masonry is now constituted , what is truth to one Mason is not truth to another : hence , in a Masonio gathering , each Mason should keep bis reliious ism

g to himself . But if Christians deem it necessary to *? P St . John in remembrance , it belongs to the Church to celebrate the Saints John Days , and not to Masons . Let us , however , put the shoe npon the other foot . Suppose a Christian in Constantinople joined a Lodge , under an impression that it was unsectarian , but he was soon undeceived by finding thafc the Lodge was dedicated to the Holv Prophet Mahomet , that ifc was

opened and closed in the name of the Holy Prophet Mahomet , & c , and when tbe Christian brother objected to it , he was answered , " 0 , the Holy Prophet taught truth , and we should therefore keep his name iu remembrance , " he ., I venture to assert , that tbo disappointed Christian would feel the same degree of contempt for the Mahomedan fraud as the Jewish Mason feels for the Christian fraud .

The fact is , the very designation of the 24 th of June and 27 th of ueoember as St . John ' s Days originated in fraud . Mr . Fosbroke , in aw Cyclopaedia , says : ' Tie heathens were much delighted with the festivals of their gods , and unwilling to part with those delights ; and therefore wegory Thanmatureres . who died in 265 . and was Rialinn nf Tvrnnno .

hmf ' , facilitate ths " conversion , instituted the annual festivals ! BA t' festivals of the Christians were substituted for the f aecbanalia and Saturnalia—the May games for Floralia-and tho « eepmg of the festivals to the Virgin Mary , Sfc . John the Baptist , and «„„\ , Postles , in the room of the solemnities afc tbe entrance of tbe

( TJnl > i e B 1 f ? D of the zodiac , according to the old Jnlian Calendar . " W if Bo <* > C 0 * MWWl 9 b 6 - ) Hed f ^ ' " y Thaumaturges , which means tbe wonder worker . Keii < lt P P ° se of converting the heathens , and our editor of the tealir ; e ? ? avonrs t 0 Perpetuate lying in the Lodge , to gratify his faith ^ f ^ , ' ™ of annoying and insulting brethren who have no Th V hf ,, ness of tfae Saints John . b eliev « » h T edit 0 r ' as a , ready stated , wants to make his readers JtaBnT ,- m Saints John have monopolised tbe patronage of the "uic fraternity ; he still ignores the facts I have given in my

The Keystone And Saints John Once More.

former paper , viz ., that in the 15 th century the English and Gorman Masons adored the ' Fou ^ - Holy Martyrs " as their patron P- nt 8 ; an Alnwick Lodge adored Sfc . Michael as its patron saint ; the Paris Masons adored St . Blaise as their patron saint ; the Zamora Masons adored St . Julia as their patron saint ; St . Eulalia was the national Masonic patron saint of Spain . In Scotland each Lodge had a differ .

ent patron saint , snch as St . Thomas , St . Ninian , St . Mungo , St Bride , & o . Now , it is very curious , that while the sharp-eyed editor of tbe Keystone discovered in the third volume of Bro . Gould ' s history abont the Durham Bishop stipulating in a charter he granted to Masons , to hold their annual meetings on the Baptist ' s Day , be omitted to notice , in the first volume , that at Rouen , in 1610 , tbe

Masons adored Saints Simon and Jude as their patron saints . Now , T venture to assert that Saints Julia and Eulalia , Saints Simon and Jude , & o ., & o ., had as much connection with Freemasonry as the , Saints John had . The fact is , the Christian dogma of mediation was tbe parent of saint patronage . At first it was supposed that tho Son ' s mediation

with the Father was sufficient ; it was next discovered that if tbe Virgin mediated with her Son ifc would be better ; and last , to make it still better , the saints bogan to be solicited to mediate with tbe Virgin , Ac . The saints then began to be regarded as a kind of Celestial lobbyists , who could , with their importunities , influence the decrees of the powers above . When this notion once took root , every

kingdom , city and village , every church and chapel—in short , everything in creation , had its patron saint . Mr , Hone in his second volume of " Every Day Book , " column 85 , says that even every joint in person ' s fingers and thumbs bad its distinct and separate patron saint . And how can any one suppose that in those days the Craft emids conld suppose it possible to succeed in their business without

having also patron saints ? Now , " our ancient brethren were m those days just as silly as the members of other Crafts were , and so they also had their patron saints . But in return for the supposed services the saints rendered to the Crafts , the Craft members undertook , or rather were compelled , to have wax candles burning night and day on their patron saint ' s altar , to employ a priest to say mass

at the said altar , and to blarney the saint witb grand compliments . In Scotland , the city authorities supplied every new guild with a chapol or an altar for its especial use ; and as every chapel and altar had been dedicated to a saint , the guild thafc accepted tbe altar or chapel adopted its saint for their patron saint . In 1475 the city authorities of Edinburgh chartered a guild composed of Masons and

Carpenters , and there happened to be just then a vacant chapel in St . Giles Kirk , that had formerly been dedicated to the two Saints John . The chapel needed repairing , and ifc was therefore disposed of to the new guild on condition of their repairing it and keeping it in repair ; and , hence , the charter ordained that the guild should " assent to certain statutes and rules made amongst themselves , for

honour and worship of Saint John , " & c . ( see p 231 " Lyon's History " ); and Bro . Lyon adds : " It seems to have been because of its neglected condition that the altarge wns assigned by the Magistrates to the care of Masons , and not from any preference they or their colleagues in the guild [ the Carpenters ] entertained for the Saints John over St . Ninian . St .

Thomas , or any other of tbe saints , in whose honour altars were sustained by their fellow Craftsmen in other parts of Scotland . " ( " Lyon ' s History , " p 236 . ) Bro . Gould , in his first volume , page 194 , to which I have already referred , while he shows that some Crafts confine themselves to one patron saint , snob as the Cordwainers , who everywhere had St . Crispin , and two or three other trades who had special saints ; Bro .

Gould goes on to say t " Fraternities appear to have been generally dedicated to patron saints of the churches or chapels in which their altars were raised . At Rouen , in 1610 , the Masons had a Fraternity nnder the patron , age of Saints Simon and Jude , who , as far as I am aware , were never even traditionally connected with the building Craft . "

In connection with the four Scotch Lodges , who recommended in 1736 for the Scotch Grand Masters to be elected on the Baptist ' s Day , the editor of the Keystone quoted from a foot-note in Bro . Lyon ' s history , page 170 , as follows : " Because it had long been customary among the Fraternity to bold their principal assemblies on the Baptist's Day . "

And thns be leads a reader of the Keystone to suppose that ifc was so . But Bro . Lyon follows up the quotation thus : " And upon this assumption [ that is , that the Baptist ' s Day among Masons was an old custom ] the fabulous story of the Craft's ancient connection with St . John the Baptist has ever since been perpetnated . The raising of the 24 th of June to the rank of a red-letter day in the

Scotch Masonic Calendar is more likely to have been done after the example of the English Grand Lodge ; for , taking the records of tbe Edinburgh Lodge and of Kilwinning as conclusive evidence on the point , the holding of Lodge assemblies on St . John the Baptist ' s Day was never a custom of the Scotch Fraternity until after tho erection of the Grand Lodge [ in 1736 ] . Of all the meetings of the Lodge of

Edinburgh that were held between the years 1599 and 1756 , only some half dozen happened to fall on the 24 th of June , and the first mention of the Lodge celebrating the festival of St . John the Bap . tisfc is in 1757 . The custom was afterwards observed with more or less regularity for about sixty years . " Having afforded the reader an opportunity of judging tbe Keystone

editor s method of dishing np one-sided evidence to prove thafc for three hundred years the Scotch Masons celebrated the Baptist ' s Day , I shall now show thafc he was as inaccurate abont the Grand Lod ge of England . He says : " Early Masonio historical references to St . John the Baptist ' s

Day are numerons . The Grand Lodge of England was revived on 24 th June 1717 , and the annuals were kept on that day for the next ten years ; after which it was observed on St . John the Evangelist's Day . " Before I proceed to show how little truth there is in his state - ment , viz ., " after which it was observed on the Evangelist ' s Day , "