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The Bishop Of Sandhurst And Freemasonry.
THE BISHOP OF SANDHURST AND FREEMASONRY .
To TFIR Ennoi ; OF TIIE BendignA dfertiser . Sitt , —In your is 3 ueof tho 9 th instant you refer to a pastoral letter from tho Roman Catholic Bishop of Sandhurst , which wa 3 read at tho several service 3 hold in St . Kilian ' s pro-Cathedral on tho previous day , and yon state that in such letter Freemasonry is alluded to in the following terms : —
It seems superfluous to put the faithful on their guard against tho Masonio Sooioty , which has been so often condemned in the most forcible terms by the Church . Suffice it to say that no one can become a FreemaBon and continne to be a Catholic . The illustrious Pontiff Leo XIII . points out , in the most unequivocal language , the objects and aims of Freemasons . It is needless , now , says tho Holy
Father , to put the Masonio sects upon their trial . They are already judged ; their ends , their means , their doctrines , and their actions , are all known with indisputable certainty . Possessed by the spirit of Satan , whose instruments they are , they burn , like him , with deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work , and thoy endeavour , by every means , to overthrow and fetter it . Further on
the Pope states that " Masonio writers of the highest authority do not hesitate to deolare that the end of Masonry is to lay clericalism ( or Catholicism ) waste in its foundation , and its very sources of life , namely , in the school , and in the family . " Now , sir , we submit that these charges , brought against our anoient Order by Bishop Crane , are ex parte and untrue statements ,
and have been refuted over and over again . 1 . It would be interesting to us , as Freemasons , to be informed who these " writers of the highest Masonic authority" are ? We emphatically deny that we know of any such writers ; and we aro absolutely certain that there is not a sentence , or word , in onr Constitution , laws , or charges , whioh , by the most ingenious casuistry ,
could be twisted to bear any suoh interpretation . On tho contrary , we assert that onr system teaches the most reverent and simple godliness , strict morality , justice tempered with raeroy , and a wide embracing charity ; and , moreover , that it includes degrees of a speoifio Christian charaotor , such as the Knight Templars , the Knights of Rome and Constantine , and several others , the members
of which bind thomselves , most solemnly , to defend Christ and nis teaching . So far then the charge that Freemasons " burn with a deadly and implacable hatred , & o . " is a slanderous contradiction of the definite and express aim of some dogreea created , incorporated and recognised by Freemasons . 2 . nas Bishop Crane reflooted , for a moment , npon tho composition
of the groat body of English-speaking Freemasons ? Does he know that it includea vast numbers of mon who deaorvedly stand high in the ministry , and work , of many Christian denominations ? Does he forget that in the Imperial home of tho British Empire , another branch of Catholicism not Roman bnt English , is tho State Church , and that tho monarch of onr proud and mighty empire is the earthly
head of that Church , and the "Defendor of the Faith ? " And does he know that the Trince of Wales , his brothers and a son—any one of whom may one day bo oalled to the throno of England—are high rnlers in tho Craft of Froomasonry ; that the former ( tho Heir-Apparent ) is the elocted head of the Masonio body in England , and , nntil recently , of most of the Masonic bodies in the colonies ?
If Bishop Crane is oognisant of these factg , we suppose he will not deny that ho is a subject of England ' s Monarch , and as such should , in his high position , be a loyal and true one , and ready to acknowledge in his prospective sovereign an honourable , high-minded and Christian Prince , who would soorn to play tho two-faced part of " Defender of tho Faith " and " Destroyer of it . "
3 . But facts suoh as thoso aro persistently ignored by the aggressive Churoh of Roman claims ; and for ages her rulers have , for reasons of her own , wilfully misrepresented and maligned onr Order ; of this the organs of periodical literature afford abundant evidence , as , also , of the crushing replies made by those who , by roason of their high positions in the Order , may be supposed to know
something of the true principles of Freemasonry . Here is an examplo of such attaok and defence of more than one hundred years ago . It is a translation from a Gorman paper : — " During 1778 the Masonio Lodge at Aachen ( Aix La Chappelle ) , which , through not working , had forfeited its original warrant , was reconstructed by , and oponed under , warrant from the Grand Lodge of Wetzlar , Germany . The
occasion was seized upon by the Primate of the Dominican Monastery at Aachen , Greinemame , and the Friar Schuff to harangue the people in the Cathedral against the Masons in general , and this newly reopened Lodge in Aachen in particular . " When Frederick the Great heard of these fanatics , who , through their preaching , endangered the publio peace , he wrote , on the 7 th
February 1778 , to these inciters of the people tne ionowing letter : — " My Very Reverend Fathers , —Different records , verified by the publio prints , have acquainted me with what zeal you are endeavouring to sharpen the aword of fanaticism against quiet , virtuous and honourable people , to wit , the Freemasons of Aachen . As a former office-bearer of this moat honourable Order , I must , as much as lay in
my power , repudiate the oalumnies with whioh you have aspersed it , and I will endeavour to remove tho veil which hides from you the temple which the Masons have erected to all the virtues , but which you have proclaimed to be the meeting place of all the vices . What , my very reverend fathers , will yon bring back to ns the centuries of ignorance and cruelty which were a disgrace to the human race ? Those timea of fanaticism upon whioh the eyo of roason cannot gaze
without horror ? Those times when hypocrisy sat upon the throne of despotism between superstition and humility , chained the world , and bnrned without mercy all those who could read and write . You not only call Freemasons masters of witch craft , but yon accuse thorn of theft and murder , and of being the forerunners of the anti Christ , and you incite a whole people to annihilate this damned race . Thieves , my very reverend airs , do not consider it their duty to assist the poor and the orphan . Robbers , on the contrary , deprive them of
The Bishop Of Sandhurst And Freemasonry.
tfs their heritage , and grow fat on the prooeeds of their iniquities in the . ' ;' lap of laziness and hypocrisy—those swindle the people , but the ; Freemasons enlighten thorn . A Freemason who returns from hia Lodge , where ho received nothing bnt precepta calculated to benefit his fallow man , sh-juld , when he retnrns home , be a better husband nnd father . Forerunners of anti Christ would most likely turn their ittention to tho destruction of God's laws , but the Freemason conld
not so act without destroying hia own building , hia temple . And how can these people bo a damned race , who are nover tired of disseminating all virtues whioh mako and mould a true citizen , and to do this is their only aim and reward . —Frederick . 4 . Attain , this very encyclioal letter of Pope Leo XIII ., quoted by Bishop Crane , was replied to in tho Grand Lodgo of England in 1884
by tho Pro Grand MaBter the lato Earl of Carnarvon in the following temperate , but telling and dignified language : — " Before we proceed to the next business which stands on the agenda paper I havo a communication of an important charaoter to make from the Grand Master . I could have wished that this communication were entered on the agenda paper , it would have boon more in due form that it
should bo so ; but whatever blame attaohea to any delay in furnish - ing the resolution I have to move attaches to myself . Brethren , every one here present has probably seen an encyclical letter of the Pope , whioh appeared in many publio prints with reference to Freemasonry in general . I believe it would not be doing onr duty if , on this , the first and earliest occasions wo meet after the
pnblication of that enoyolical , we were to separate without some notioe of it . I havo felt it my duty from this chair to propose to you tho course which I think it is wise and dignified for ua to take . It is a duty which none of ns can covet , but whioh , like many other duties , wo aro sometimes bound to accopt , and I hope that in tho few words which I shall say this evening on this question , T shall
only spook in that measured Hngnaga of respect whioh is duo to tho head of tho Roman Catholic Chnroh . AH the more do I say this , and fool it , that I sincevely respeot him not merely as the Roman Pontiff , but as a statesman , who , succeeding to a great post—a great political post—in critical times , has shown his statesmanship with abilitv , and I think discretion .
Now , the letter to which I have called your attention ia a very long ono ; it contains a variety of topics , and it would occupy far too long if I were to attempt either to read it or to summarise it . It commences by muking a certain exception in favour of individuals . A certain portion of it is devoted to what I may call Italian politics , and to the rolations cf the Papal Court to other foreign powers with
which , cf course , this Grand Lodge has nothing to do . And a part ngtiin is dovotod to a condemnation of that which we muat all condemn in literatnro , in morals , in practice in the present day . Having so far disposed of those points on which no issno need be raised , I now approach thoso topics which intimately concern us ; and I think this encyclical falls into theso two groat errors—in the first place it
confounds all Masonio bodies in all parts of the world in a common and sweeping charge of comdemnation , and it next proceeds to confound all thnso Masonic bodies , with infidels , or , as it terms them , " natnralists in religion , " and the ' revolutionists and anarchists in politics . Now I hold here a copy of this enoyolical , and I observe that it
impntes , amongat other things , these charges to the whole Masonio body without discrimination and without qualification . It charges ua with treating matrimony in tho lightest possible spirit , and regarding it as no bond or tie ; it licenses ua of separating education from religion and morals , and it oharges us with a dissemination of vice and vicious principles for the purpose of corrupting
the morals of the young , and , lastly , it impntes to ua all those monstrous charges which aro inoludcd nndor the titles of sedition , revolution , socialism and communism . Now , brethren , it is perhaps right that I should , for the purpose of substantiating what I say , read a very few words from the encyclical . It says that wo hold that matrimony belongs to a olaas of business
engagements ; that it oau be broken off at the will of those who contract it , and by right ; that in the educating and teaching of children , wo exclude the ministers of the Churoh from all supervision and instruction of them ; and that , in moral instruction , nothing ia to bo brought in which is to bind man to God by the great and holy sanction of religion .
It says we treat as idle fables tho redemption of the human raoe , heavenly graoe , the saoraments and the attaining of felioity in heaven ; that we claim onr right to say that there ia a God , or to say that there ia no God ; that we maintain that the massos of the people , by every art and design , are to be saturatod with an
unlimited license to vice , for , this being secured , they will be in tho power of the sect to attempt anything and everything at its bidding , and , lastly , it adds that our nltimato end is to aim to overthrow that discipline and aocial order which Christianity has founded , and to erect npon its throne a new one after its own principles and foundations of disorder .
Now , brethren , it is my duty , and I hold it to be the duty of the Grand Lodge this night , on the first occasion which has been given to it , to protest against those nnfounded charges , and , in protesting , to affirm , with all the force and all the solemnity we can bring to bear , that they are founded upon a complete and total misapprehension of Freemasonry . I am not here to-night to defend all
Masonio bodies in all parts of the world . As we desire to stand perfectly clear ourselves , so let us not take np any ground that is not absolutely correct . I grieve to think that there are some Masonio bodies that havo laid themselves open to many of the charges which the enoyolical letter contains , but , on the other hand , I fearlessly deny that there has been anything , directly
or indirectly , by word or by deed , that can sully the fair fame , either of the Grand Lodge or any Lodge nntler its rule . If I desired to appeal for ovidence on this subject , whoro should I turn ? I should point to our own rules , our ancient charges , our Book of Constitutions , one and all breathing a spirit of religion and of obedionco to the law .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Bishop Of Sandhurst And Freemasonry.
THE BISHOP OF SANDHURST AND FREEMASONRY .
To TFIR Ennoi ; OF TIIE BendignA dfertiser . Sitt , —In your is 3 ueof tho 9 th instant you refer to a pastoral letter from tho Roman Catholic Bishop of Sandhurst , which wa 3 read at tho several service 3 hold in St . Kilian ' s pro-Cathedral on tho previous day , and yon state that in such letter Freemasonry is alluded to in the following terms : —
It seems superfluous to put the faithful on their guard against tho Masonio Sooioty , which has been so often condemned in the most forcible terms by the Church . Suffice it to say that no one can become a FreemaBon and continne to be a Catholic . The illustrious Pontiff Leo XIII . points out , in the most unequivocal language , the objects and aims of Freemasons . It is needless , now , says tho Holy
Father , to put the Masonio sects upon their trial . They are already judged ; their ends , their means , their doctrines , and their actions , are all known with indisputable certainty . Possessed by the spirit of Satan , whose instruments they are , they burn , like him , with deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work , and thoy endeavour , by every means , to overthrow and fetter it . Further on
the Pope states that " Masonio writers of the highest authority do not hesitate to deolare that the end of Masonry is to lay clericalism ( or Catholicism ) waste in its foundation , and its very sources of life , namely , in the school , and in the family . " Now , sir , we submit that these charges , brought against our anoient Order by Bishop Crane , are ex parte and untrue statements ,
and have been refuted over and over again . 1 . It would be interesting to us , as Freemasons , to be informed who these " writers of the highest Masonic authority" are ? We emphatically deny that we know of any such writers ; and we aro absolutely certain that there is not a sentence , or word , in onr Constitution , laws , or charges , whioh , by the most ingenious casuistry ,
could be twisted to bear any suoh interpretation . On tho contrary , we assert that onr system teaches the most reverent and simple godliness , strict morality , justice tempered with raeroy , and a wide embracing charity ; and , moreover , that it includes degrees of a speoifio Christian charaotor , such as the Knight Templars , the Knights of Rome and Constantine , and several others , the members
of which bind thomselves , most solemnly , to defend Christ and nis teaching . So far then the charge that Freemasons " burn with a deadly and implacable hatred , & o . " is a slanderous contradiction of the definite and express aim of some dogreea created , incorporated and recognised by Freemasons . 2 . nas Bishop Crane reflooted , for a moment , npon tho composition
of the groat body of English-speaking Freemasons ? Does he know that it includea vast numbers of mon who deaorvedly stand high in the ministry , and work , of many Christian denominations ? Does he forget that in the Imperial home of tho British Empire , another branch of Catholicism not Roman bnt English , is tho State Church , and that tho monarch of onr proud and mighty empire is the earthly
head of that Church , and the "Defendor of the Faith ? " And does he know that the Trince of Wales , his brothers and a son—any one of whom may one day bo oalled to the throno of England—are high rnlers in tho Craft of Froomasonry ; that the former ( tho Heir-Apparent ) is the elocted head of the Masonio body in England , and , nntil recently , of most of the Masonic bodies in the colonies ?
If Bishop Crane is oognisant of these factg , we suppose he will not deny that ho is a subject of England ' s Monarch , and as such should , in his high position , be a loyal and true one , and ready to acknowledge in his prospective sovereign an honourable , high-minded and Christian Prince , who would soorn to play tho two-faced part of " Defender of tho Faith " and " Destroyer of it . "
3 . But facts suoh as thoso aro persistently ignored by the aggressive Churoh of Roman claims ; and for ages her rulers have , for reasons of her own , wilfully misrepresented and maligned onr Order ; of this the organs of periodical literature afford abundant evidence , as , also , of the crushing replies made by those who , by roason of their high positions in the Order , may be supposed to know
something of the true principles of Freemasonry . Here is an examplo of such attaok and defence of more than one hundred years ago . It is a translation from a Gorman paper : — " During 1778 the Masonio Lodge at Aachen ( Aix La Chappelle ) , which , through not working , had forfeited its original warrant , was reconstructed by , and oponed under , warrant from the Grand Lodge of Wetzlar , Germany . The
occasion was seized upon by the Primate of the Dominican Monastery at Aachen , Greinemame , and the Friar Schuff to harangue the people in the Cathedral against the Masons in general , and this newly reopened Lodge in Aachen in particular . " When Frederick the Great heard of these fanatics , who , through their preaching , endangered the publio peace , he wrote , on the 7 th
February 1778 , to these inciters of the people tne ionowing letter : — " My Very Reverend Fathers , —Different records , verified by the publio prints , have acquainted me with what zeal you are endeavouring to sharpen the aword of fanaticism against quiet , virtuous and honourable people , to wit , the Freemasons of Aachen . As a former office-bearer of this moat honourable Order , I must , as much as lay in
my power , repudiate the oalumnies with whioh you have aspersed it , and I will endeavour to remove tho veil which hides from you the temple which the Masons have erected to all the virtues , but which you have proclaimed to be the meeting place of all the vices . What , my very reverend fathers , will yon bring back to ns the centuries of ignorance and cruelty which were a disgrace to the human race ? Those timea of fanaticism upon whioh the eyo of roason cannot gaze
without horror ? Those times when hypocrisy sat upon the throne of despotism between superstition and humility , chained the world , and bnrned without mercy all those who could read and write . You not only call Freemasons masters of witch craft , but yon accuse thorn of theft and murder , and of being the forerunners of the anti Christ , and you incite a whole people to annihilate this damned race . Thieves , my very reverend airs , do not consider it their duty to assist the poor and the orphan . Robbers , on the contrary , deprive them of
The Bishop Of Sandhurst And Freemasonry.
tfs their heritage , and grow fat on the prooeeds of their iniquities in the . ' ;' lap of laziness and hypocrisy—those swindle the people , but the ; Freemasons enlighten thorn . A Freemason who returns from hia Lodge , where ho received nothing bnt precepta calculated to benefit his fallow man , sh-juld , when he retnrns home , be a better husband nnd father . Forerunners of anti Christ would most likely turn their ittention to tho destruction of God's laws , but the Freemason conld
not so act without destroying hia own building , hia temple . And how can these people bo a damned race , who are nover tired of disseminating all virtues whioh mako and mould a true citizen , and to do this is their only aim and reward . —Frederick . 4 . Attain , this very encyclioal letter of Pope Leo XIII ., quoted by Bishop Crane , was replied to in tho Grand Lodgo of England in 1884
by tho Pro Grand MaBter the lato Earl of Carnarvon in the following temperate , but telling and dignified language : — " Before we proceed to the next business which stands on the agenda paper I havo a communication of an important charaoter to make from the Grand Master . I could have wished that this communication were entered on the agenda paper , it would have boon more in due form that it
should bo so ; but whatever blame attaohea to any delay in furnish - ing the resolution I have to move attaches to myself . Brethren , every one here present has probably seen an encyclical letter of the Pope , whioh appeared in many publio prints with reference to Freemasonry in general . I believe it would not be doing onr duty if , on this , the first and earliest occasions wo meet after the
pnblication of that enoyolical , we were to separate without some notioe of it . I havo felt it my duty from this chair to propose to you tho course which I think it is wise and dignified for ua to take . It is a duty which none of ns can covet , but whioh , like many other duties , wo aro sometimes bound to accopt , and I hope that in tho few words which I shall say this evening on this question , T shall
only spook in that measured Hngnaga of respect whioh is duo to tho head of tho Roman Catholic Chnroh . AH the more do I say this , and fool it , that I sincevely respeot him not merely as the Roman Pontiff , but as a statesman , who , succeeding to a great post—a great political post—in critical times , has shown his statesmanship with abilitv , and I think discretion .
Now , the letter to which I have called your attention ia a very long ono ; it contains a variety of topics , and it would occupy far too long if I were to attempt either to read it or to summarise it . It commences by muking a certain exception in favour of individuals . A certain portion of it is devoted to what I may call Italian politics , and to the rolations cf the Papal Court to other foreign powers with
which , cf course , this Grand Lodge has nothing to do . And a part ngtiin is dovotod to a condemnation of that which we muat all condemn in literatnro , in morals , in practice in the present day . Having so far disposed of those points on which no issno need be raised , I now approach thoso topics which intimately concern us ; and I think this encyclical falls into theso two groat errors—in the first place it
confounds all Masonio bodies in all parts of the world in a common and sweeping charge of comdemnation , and it next proceeds to confound all thnso Masonic bodies , with infidels , or , as it terms them , " natnralists in religion , " and the ' revolutionists and anarchists in politics . Now I hold here a copy of this enoyolical , and I observe that it
impntes , amongat other things , these charges to the whole Masonio body without discrimination and without qualification . It charges ua with treating matrimony in tho lightest possible spirit , and regarding it as no bond or tie ; it licenses ua of separating education from religion and morals , and it oharges us with a dissemination of vice and vicious principles for the purpose of corrupting
the morals of the young , and , lastly , it impntes to ua all those monstrous charges which aro inoludcd nndor the titles of sedition , revolution , socialism and communism . Now , brethren , it is perhaps right that I should , for the purpose of substantiating what I say , read a very few words from the encyclical . It says that wo hold that matrimony belongs to a olaas of business
engagements ; that it oau be broken off at the will of those who contract it , and by right ; that in the educating and teaching of children , wo exclude the ministers of the Churoh from all supervision and instruction of them ; and that , in moral instruction , nothing ia to bo brought in which is to bind man to God by the great and holy sanction of religion .
It says we treat as idle fables tho redemption of the human raoe , heavenly graoe , the saoraments and the attaining of felioity in heaven ; that we claim onr right to say that there ia a God , or to say that there ia no God ; that we maintain that the massos of the people , by every art and design , are to be saturatod with an
unlimited license to vice , for , this being secured , they will be in tho power of the sect to attempt anything and everything at its bidding , and , lastly , it adds that our nltimato end is to aim to overthrow that discipline and aocial order which Christianity has founded , and to erect npon its throne a new one after its own principles and foundations of disorder .
Now , brethren , it is my duty , and I hold it to be the duty of the Grand Lodge this night , on the first occasion which has been given to it , to protest against those nnfounded charges , and , in protesting , to affirm , with all the force and all the solemnity we can bring to bear , that they are founded upon a complete and total misapprehension of Freemasonry . I am not here to-night to defend all
Masonio bodies in all parts of the world . As we desire to stand perfectly clear ourselves , so let us not take np any ground that is not absolutely correct . I grieve to think that there are some Masonio bodies that havo laid themselves open to many of the charges which the enoyolical letter contains , but , on the other hand , I fearlessly deny that there has been anything , directly
or indirectly , by word or by deed , that can sully the fair fame , either of the Grand Lodge or any Lodge nntler its rule . If I desired to appeal for ovidence on this subject , whoro should I turn ? I should point to our own rules , our ancient charges , our Book of Constitutions , one and all breathing a spirit of religion and of obedionco to the law .