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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 4 of 9 →
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On Freemasonry.
employed in the di plomatic service of his sovereign , was for several years stationed at Rome as the representative of his country . On one of the festivals of the Church , previous to participating m which , confession is enjoined , he attended the celebrated Cardinal Gonsalvi , who officiated as Grand 1 enitentiary . After having unburthened his bosomhe
, waited for some time in expectation of the customary rite : His Eminence paused—there was evidentl y something labouring upon his mind—he at last observed , to his still kneeling penitent , < You are a Freemason . ' As Secretary of State , the prelate had been made acquainted with the fact by the police , who had watched the meeting of a Lod < re .
which the Baron , being privileged as a forei gn minister , occasionall y held at his residence . Our noble Brother frankly acknowled ged the fact , adding , < that so far from considering it a crime , from the moral excellence of the institution , he was proud of it as a virtue . ' In the language of Scripture , the Cardinal replied , 'If God hath not condemned it , neither will What further
I . '" passed , the sacred landmarks ot our Order command me to keep silent , but the illustrious txonsalvi died a . Brother!— a fact honourable to the character of the Craft , when it is remembered , that by the decretals of the Roman Church , Freemasonry is a crime , absolution for which , except in articulo mortis , is reserved to the
sovereign pontiff himself . By attempting to prove what Masonry is , we have , we trust , shown what it is not ; but to enter into a detailed exposition , seriatim , of all the absurd opinions of its enemies , would far exceed our limits and intention ; it will be sufficient , by way of illustration , to allude to a few ofthe most prevalent .
Ihe vul gar idea of a communion with forbidden thino-s and an unearthl y power , is dismissed at once as unworthy ot refutation , and too degrading to be now entertained by an enlightened mind . Many writers , possessed of much learning and ingenuity , have endeavoured to prove a connexion between the Craft and the rites of the Cabiri—an admission which
the skilful Mason , versed in the ancient traditions , will b y no means allow—although in fairness we confess , that formerly a few Brothers , chiefl y Germans , were to be found who inclined to that opinion ; more , we suspect , from a fanciful desire of establishing a union in accordance with their classic imagination / than from minute research and candid investigation . First , wc ivould ask , what were the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
employed in the di plomatic service of his sovereign , was for several years stationed at Rome as the representative of his country . On one of the festivals of the Church , previous to participating m which , confession is enjoined , he attended the celebrated Cardinal Gonsalvi , who officiated as Grand 1 enitentiary . After having unburthened his bosomhe
, waited for some time in expectation of the customary rite : His Eminence paused—there was evidentl y something labouring upon his mind—he at last observed , to his still kneeling penitent , < You are a Freemason . ' As Secretary of State , the prelate had been made acquainted with the fact by the police , who had watched the meeting of a Lod < re .
which the Baron , being privileged as a forei gn minister , occasionall y held at his residence . Our noble Brother frankly acknowled ged the fact , adding , < that so far from considering it a crime , from the moral excellence of the institution , he was proud of it as a virtue . ' In the language of Scripture , the Cardinal replied , 'If God hath not condemned it , neither will What further
I . '" passed , the sacred landmarks ot our Order command me to keep silent , but the illustrious txonsalvi died a . Brother!— a fact honourable to the character of the Craft , when it is remembered , that by the decretals of the Roman Church , Freemasonry is a crime , absolution for which , except in articulo mortis , is reserved to the
sovereign pontiff himself . By attempting to prove what Masonry is , we have , we trust , shown what it is not ; but to enter into a detailed exposition , seriatim , of all the absurd opinions of its enemies , would far exceed our limits and intention ; it will be sufficient , by way of illustration , to allude to a few ofthe most prevalent .
Ihe vul gar idea of a communion with forbidden thino-s and an unearthl y power , is dismissed at once as unworthy ot refutation , and too degrading to be now entertained by an enlightened mind . Many writers , possessed of much learning and ingenuity , have endeavoured to prove a connexion between the Craft and the rites of the Cabiri—an admission which
the skilful Mason , versed in the ancient traditions , will b y no means allow—although in fairness we confess , that formerly a few Brothers , chiefl y Germans , were to be found who inclined to that opinion ; more , we suspect , from a fanciful desire of establishing a union in accordance with their classic imagination / than from minute research and candid investigation . First , wc ivould ask , what were the