Old Undated Masonic Manuscripts.

OLD UNDATED MASONIC MANUSCRIPTS .

BY BRO . JACOB NORTON .

THE first of these MSS . was hitherto known as the •' Halliwell Poem . " Bro . Gould , however , calls it " The Begins MS . " Next to it is "The Matthew

Cooke MS . * ' These aro followed by about sixty other MSS ., which Brother Hughan calls " Old Charges of British Freemasons . " A few of these , however , havo dates attached to them ; the oldest was written in 1585 . All

tho said MSS . contain legends and laws of tho Craft , and the Cooke MS ., as well as the " Old Charges , " wero doubtless the rituals of our pre-1717 brethren . The questions about these MSS . are , first , how old aro they ? Second , are any parts of the legends true ? And , third , if not true , when and by whom wero they invented ? Let

us first consider the age of tho poem . Mr . Wallbran , an antiquary , fixed the date of the poem to 1390 . Mr . Halliwell says that it was written not later than the latter part of the fourteenth century ; and Mr . Bond , of the British Museum , says that it was not

written before the middle of the fifteenth century . These learned antiquaries draw their conclusions from the style of penmanship of various periods , but thoir difference in

the time when it was written amounts to sixty years . It is evident , therefore , that their rule is faulty ancl unreliable .

For instance , my own handwriting has not changed for the last forty years . Suppose then an undated scrap of my own penmanship was laid before me , and thero was no internal evidence to indicate its age , I myself could not

tell whether it was written five years ago or fifty . Some persons' style of writing , however , does change with age ; in some cases persons purposely change , now and then , the formation of more or less letters , and in other cases , decay of

strength , age or nervousness will cause a change in the style of writing . In such a case if it is necessary to ascertain tho age of an undated MS . of such an individual , if a sufficient number of dated MSS . of the same penman

or that it was not written before a certain year , nor after a certain year . But , any how , when we know the penman was born and when he died , then we are sure that it was

written within the period of his lifetime . Now , with regard to the writer of the Masonic poem ; no one knows his name , when he was born , or when he died ; hence , it seems to me to be impossible to fix its age ,

even to within a period of sixty years . 1 admit , however , that changes have takeu place , both in the art or mode of penmanship , in language , in phrases , and certain marks as substitutes for words . These changes , however ,

have been gradual , and , what is more , in some parts of the country they were more backward than in others . Even to-day the language spoken in the north of England differs very much from the language spoken in London ; the

language in London has gradually changed since the days of Chaucer , while in the north very little change is perceptible . And as we do not know where tho poem was written , it enhances the difficulty of ascertaining even in which century it was written .

Unfortunately , I am not an export of old MSS . I have seen very few of them in my lifetime , and never thought of making an effort to compare any until I obtained tho " Quatuor Coronati Masonic Reprints , " which contains fac similes of tbo Masonic poem , and also

of two other poems , and all were written by different penmen . These three MSS . I havo compared with each other , and with tho fac simile page in Matthew Cooke ' s MS ., and I will try to give an idea about somo

of the differences I observed . For instance , I found in the Masonic poem the letter ^ , —sometimes in the beginning of a word , sometimes in tho middle , and sometimes at the end , —which puzzled rae exceedingly .

In the two other fac similes , reprinted by the " Quatuor Coronati Lodge , " the letter 3 is also sounded in the above fashion , but in the Cooke MS . the letter - *; is no longer

so sounded or used . And , on tho other hand , while the said two MSS ., as well as that of Matthew Cooke , havo marks to denote the word " and , " though all tho marks

exists , covering all the decades of his life , then the undated MS . will have to be compared with all the dated ones , and even then all that might reasonably be said about it is , that it was written somewhere near a certain decade ,

Old Undated Masonic Manuscripts.

differ , and differ from tho present mark ) , the Masonic Poem has no such mark , or any mark for the word and . These three MSS . wero written by different penmen , and may be at different times more or less remote ; and they

may have been written at the same time , in different parts of the country , where the fashion of penmanship varied . Hence , in order to ascertain tho age of our poem , it is necessary to possess dated MSS . from all parts of England ,

of all the decades covering a period of about three centuries ; and even then , all that an unprejudiced expert could decide would be thafc our poem was written within a stipulated period of about eighty or a hundred years .

I have , however , pointed out , in the Masonie . Magazine , Vol . III ., pp 131-2 , & c , internal evidence in the poem , that it could not havo been written before 1406 , for fche following reason , viz .: —Up to 1388 , the law was that labourers could not charge higher wages than they

received in the 20 th year of Edward the Thirds reign . But during famine years , when food doubled or trebled in price , the labourer could not live on his wages , which gavo rise to discontent and riots . Hence , in 1388 , it was ordained that thenceforth Magistrates in Counties , and City Governments in Cities , should meet twice a vear , in order

to ordain the amount of wages that was to be paid , to servants and to various classes of employes for the next six months , in accordance with the price of food in their respective localities . The said law did not , however , answer the purpose . The working people would not obey the Magistrates ; hence , in the seventh year of Henry IV .,

it was ordained that the working people should be present at the semiannual meetings of the Magistrates , and thoro take an oath to abide by the decision of the said Magistrates or City Governments , and the following parfc of tho poem refers to the last named law . It says : —

" The twelfth point is of great realty . There as the assembly holden shall be , There shall be masters and fellows also , And other great lords many more . And there shall be the sheriff of thafc county .

Knights and squires there shall be , Aud other Aldermen , as ye shall see . Suoh ordinances as they make there , They shall maintain it whole together

Against thafc man , whoe er he be , That belong to tho Craffc both fair and free If any strife against them make , Into their ward [ prison ] he shall be taken . FOURTEENTH POINT .

The fourteenth point is ful of good law To him that would be under awa . A good and true oath he must there swear To his master and his fellows that be there , He must be steadfast and true also , To all this ordinance wheresoever ho go .

And to all those points hero before , To them though must needs bo sworn . Aud all shall swear the same oath , Of the Masons , be they willing or be they loth To all these points here before

That hath been ordained by full good lore And they shall inquire , every man , Of his party aa woll as ho can ,

If any man may bo found guilty Tn any of these points especially . And what he be , lot him be sought , And to the assembly let him be brought

The fifteenth point is full of good lore For them that shall bo sworn . Such ordinance as the assembly was laid [ provided ] Of great Lords and masters before said . For thylke [ every one ] that be disobedient for certain Against tho ordinance tbat there is . N . B . —Tho poem , as here given , I copied from a translated edition

FIFTEENTH POINT

into modern English . Which winds up with fche punishment of the dis

obedient , viz .: by being deprived of his cattle , and by imprisonment during the King ' s pleasure . Now the above " Points , " or laws , were suggested by

an Act of Parliament passed in 1406 . The Masons' code from which the poet copied the above laws could not have

been written before 1406 at least . And as the poet claimed that tho laws of the Masons' code were enacted by Athelstan , the Mason ' s code could nofc have fallen into the poet ' s hands until many years after it was written . We know , therefore , that tho poem was not

written before 1406 , because the code itself was not