Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
¦ In the aforesaid work the author ridicules the several pretensions to a hig h antiquity , and to an honourable origin , to whjch many Freemasons lay claim- It seems , that some of these say they were founded by those fraternities of Masons who rebuilt several cities in Palestine during the Crusades , and who were the fabricators of our beautiful Gothic churches : others ascribe their institution to our
king Athelstan , the grandson of the great Alfred ; who , having sent over to the Continent for the most able builders that could be engaged , gave them a charter and a code of laws peculiar to themselves ; whilst many more claim a descent from the builders of Solomon ' s famous temple . To all these Mr . Le Franc replies , that it is clear , from their own confessionas well as from every other circumstance
, , that their building is of a mere emblematical nature : their profession ' being to erect temples for the protection of virtue , and prisons for the reception of vice . It appears , that of late years , many members of this society , and amongst the rest the celebrated Count Cagliostro , maintained that the strictest conformity is to be found between the mysteries of Freemasonry and those practised in the worship of Isis ,
and that , therefore , the former were to be traced up to a very remote period of antiquity , and- tp the country of Egypt . For whatever learning there is in this account , Le Franc says , that Cagliostro is indebted to the' publication on this subject of Mons . Guillement , a learned mason . He is as far , however , from admitting this as the other genealogies of the society in question . On the contrary , he says it cannot be traced higher than the famous irreligious meeting of Trevisan ,
Ochi ' n , Gentilis , Lelius , Darius Socinus , and others , at Vicenza , in 1 : 54 6 : but it is to Faustus Socinus , he asserts , that the proper foundation of Freemasonry , as a hidden and emblematical system of Equality and Deism , properly belongs . This artful and indefatigable sectary , having seen Servetus burnt by Calvin at Geneva , for maintaining only a part of his system , and finding that the Protestant and
Catholic States were equally hostile to its reception , issaid to have concealed it under emblems and mysterious ceremonies , together with certain dreadful oaths of secrecy , in order that , whilst it was publicly preached amongst the people . in those provinces in which it was tolerated , it mi g ht silently steal , especially by means of the learned and the opulentinto other countriesin which an open
pro-, , fession of it would then have conducted to the stake , The propa-. . gation of this sj * stem is stated to have been veiled under the enigmatical term of building a temple , " the length of which , " in the terms of Freemasonry , " ¦ was to extend from the East to the West , and the breadth of it from the North to the South . " - Hence the professors cf it are furnished with the several , instruments of building ; the
trowel , the mallet , the square , the level , the plummet , & c , This accounts for the name of Masons ; which they have adopted . As to the epithet of Free which they prefix to the same , our author says it is derived from frey , which in Poland , whence this Socinian confraternity passed about the middle of the last century into England , denotes a brother , A 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
¦ In the aforesaid work the author ridicules the several pretensions to a hig h antiquity , and to an honourable origin , to whjch many Freemasons lay claim- It seems , that some of these say they were founded by those fraternities of Masons who rebuilt several cities in Palestine during the Crusades , and who were the fabricators of our beautiful Gothic churches : others ascribe their institution to our
king Athelstan , the grandson of the great Alfred ; who , having sent over to the Continent for the most able builders that could be engaged , gave them a charter and a code of laws peculiar to themselves ; whilst many more claim a descent from the builders of Solomon ' s famous temple . To all these Mr . Le Franc replies , that it is clear , from their own confessionas well as from every other circumstance
, , that their building is of a mere emblematical nature : their profession ' being to erect temples for the protection of virtue , and prisons for the reception of vice . It appears , that of late years , many members of this society , and amongst the rest the celebrated Count Cagliostro , maintained that the strictest conformity is to be found between the mysteries of Freemasonry and those practised in the worship of Isis ,
and that , therefore , the former were to be traced up to a very remote period of antiquity , and- tp the country of Egypt . For whatever learning there is in this account , Le Franc says , that Cagliostro is indebted to the' publication on this subject of Mons . Guillement , a learned mason . He is as far , however , from admitting this as the other genealogies of the society in question . On the contrary , he says it cannot be traced higher than the famous irreligious meeting of Trevisan ,
Ochi ' n , Gentilis , Lelius , Darius Socinus , and others , at Vicenza , in 1 : 54 6 : but it is to Faustus Socinus , he asserts , that the proper foundation of Freemasonry , as a hidden and emblematical system of Equality and Deism , properly belongs . This artful and indefatigable sectary , having seen Servetus burnt by Calvin at Geneva , for maintaining only a part of his system , and finding that the Protestant and
Catholic States were equally hostile to its reception , issaid to have concealed it under emblems and mysterious ceremonies , together with certain dreadful oaths of secrecy , in order that , whilst it was publicly preached amongst the people . in those provinces in which it was tolerated , it mi g ht silently steal , especially by means of the learned and the opulentinto other countriesin which an open
pro-, , fession of it would then have conducted to the stake , The propa-. . gation of this sj * stem is stated to have been veiled under the enigmatical term of building a temple , " the length of which , " in the terms of Freemasonry , " ¦ was to extend from the East to the West , and the breadth of it from the North to the South . " - Hence the professors cf it are furnished with the several , instruments of building ; the
trowel , the mallet , the square , the level , the plummet , & c , This accounts for the name of Masons ; which they have adopted . As to the epithet of Free which they prefix to the same , our author says it is derived from frey , which in Poland , whence this Socinian confraternity passed about the middle of the last century into England , denotes a brother , A 2