Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Scotland.
discontinued , which has been agreed to , and Fra Aytoun is now Preceptor of the whole Order and Grand Prior of Scotland ; so that tbe anomaly complained of by Bro . AValter , of having a layman acting as Grand Prelate or Chaplain , no longer exists . That there is historical authority for giving the title of Master , G rand Prior , or Grand Preceptor of England , to persons in England previous to 1313 I freeladmit . But the style of " Grand Master of the
, y Order " never was given , and never belonged to any of the Masters , or rather Priors , resilient in London . It is quite well known that the Order was annihilated in England , and in most other countries where Priories or Preceptories had existed , early in the fourteenth century , Scotland being a solitaiy exception to this general suppression . Till comparatively lately—certainly not till some years after the reformation of religion in Scotland , and the passing of tbe Act 1560 , prohibiting all
allegiance to the Papal See , in consequence of which both Hospitallers ancl Templars ceased to be a military body , strictly so called ; indeed , scarcely before the commencement of the seventeenth century—no attempt was made to revive the Order in England , ancl that attempt was in a form purely Masonic , in which state only has the Order since existed in England ancl in Ireland . AVith regard to Scotland again , not only has the Masonic degree existed from the end of the sixteenth
century , but from the clays of De Molay down to the present period the Chivalric Order has been perpetuated , ancl the Chiefs or Masters of the Temple have since then generally belonged to this country . France also claims to have continued the Order since the suppression by Pope
Clement V . and Philip the Fair , and presents to notice a formidable list of Grand Masters . His late Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex was Grand Prior of England under ihe French Grand Master , * but this claim being unsupported by historical evidence , and most of the documents founded thereon being now allowed to be forgeries , little credit is due to the legend . Nevertheless , the French , as well as the Scotch , have had their Grand Masters ; and as both are understood to be purely
chivalric , their amalgamation might be beneficial . But no intercourse is at present maintained between them — the Order , as existing in Scotland , having , it is said , been excommunicated by Joannes Larminius , the imaginary successor of Jacques de Molay , in a Bull containing these words : — " Ego deniqua :, § c . Scotos Templarios Ordinis desertores dominiorum militia : spolialores { quibus upud Deum misericordia ) , extra gyrum Templi nunc et in futurum volo dico et jubco . "—Statutes
ofthe Order , Historical Notice , p . IV . This pretended excommunication is still acted upon by the spurious branch in France , although the members of the Order recognised in Scotland and elsewhere , would gladly hail the advent of a better feeling on the part of their French Brethren . It is allowed by all that there can be but one Grand Master of the Order at the same time in the whole world , as has been already stated in your periodical for March lastp . 41 . England claims only to
, elect one for that country , which proves at once that the degree there practised is not the Cosmopolite or true Chivalric Order , but a Masonic imitation of it . The claim for the real Grand Mastership remains in dispute alone between the Knights belonging to the Order as existing in France , or holding under French sway , and those of the Order ex-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Scotland.
discontinued , which has been agreed to , and Fra Aytoun is now Preceptor of the whole Order and Grand Prior of Scotland ; so that tbe anomaly complained of by Bro . AValter , of having a layman acting as Grand Prelate or Chaplain , no longer exists . That there is historical authority for giving the title of Master , G rand Prior , or Grand Preceptor of England , to persons in England previous to 1313 I freeladmit . But the style of " Grand Master of the
, y Order " never was given , and never belonged to any of the Masters , or rather Priors , resilient in London . It is quite well known that the Order was annihilated in England , and in most other countries where Priories or Preceptories had existed , early in the fourteenth century , Scotland being a solitaiy exception to this general suppression . Till comparatively lately—certainly not till some years after the reformation of religion in Scotland , and the passing of tbe Act 1560 , prohibiting all
allegiance to the Papal See , in consequence of which both Hospitallers ancl Templars ceased to be a military body , strictly so called ; indeed , scarcely before the commencement of the seventeenth century—no attempt was made to revive the Order in England , ancl that attempt was in a form purely Masonic , in which state only has the Order since existed in England ancl in Ireland . AVith regard to Scotland again , not only has the Masonic degree existed from the end of the sixteenth
century , but from the clays of De Molay down to the present period the Chivalric Order has been perpetuated , ancl the Chiefs or Masters of the Temple have since then generally belonged to this country . France also claims to have continued the Order since the suppression by Pope
Clement V . and Philip the Fair , and presents to notice a formidable list of Grand Masters . His late Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex was Grand Prior of England under ihe French Grand Master , * but this claim being unsupported by historical evidence , and most of the documents founded thereon being now allowed to be forgeries , little credit is due to the legend . Nevertheless , the French , as well as the Scotch , have had their Grand Masters ; and as both are understood to be purely
chivalric , their amalgamation might be beneficial . But no intercourse is at present maintained between them — the Order , as existing in Scotland , having , it is said , been excommunicated by Joannes Larminius , the imaginary successor of Jacques de Molay , in a Bull containing these words : — " Ego deniqua :, § c . Scotos Templarios Ordinis desertores dominiorum militia : spolialores { quibus upud Deum misericordia ) , extra gyrum Templi nunc et in futurum volo dico et jubco . "—Statutes
ofthe Order , Historical Notice , p . IV . This pretended excommunication is still acted upon by the spurious branch in France , although the members of the Order recognised in Scotland and elsewhere , would gladly hail the advent of a better feeling on the part of their French Brethren . It is allowed by all that there can be but one Grand Master of the Order at the same time in the whole world , as has been already stated in your periodical for March lastp . 41 . England claims only to
, elect one for that country , which proves at once that the degree there practised is not the Cosmopolite or true Chivalric Order , but a Masonic imitation of it . The claim for the real Grand Mastership remains in dispute alone between the Knights belonging to the Order as existing in France , or holding under French sway , and those of the Order ex-