-
Articles/Ads
Article A CENTURY OF FREEMASONRY* ← Page 9 of 15 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Century Of Freemasonry*
The police authorities had all this time refrained from insulting the fraternity by domiciliary visitations . The neiv Grancl Master , although he does not seem to have clone anything of importance up to this time , had at any rate sheltered the Society by the prestige of his belonging to it . In 1744 , however ( after remaining inactive since 1738 ) , the police
recommenced their persecution , and on the 5 th of June , 1745 ( after a year ' s Avarning ) , they broke into a Lodge where forty members were assembled . * Le Roi the OAvner of the hotel , Avas seized and interrogated , and he pleaded that although the company hacl indeed assembled there for six months , he himself Avas only a serving brother , f Thishoweverseems to haA'e been the last
, , aggression of the police , for evidently the , position of the neiv Grancl Master gave him influence to stay these proceedings , as , except with the clergy , opposition UOAV ceased . An author of this period has observed , that ,
" Times have now changed considerably . ISTow-a-days there is no more doubt attached to the Preemasons , as it was some years since . We know that the Prince of Coude , this incomparable hero , considers it an honour to be a Mason , and sometimes he lays down his arms to don an apron , and to employ himself in the great work with surpassing zeal . " J I just now mentioned the priesthood as the chief assailers of Freemasonry . It Avas actually about this time agitated among
the clerics , whether a parishioner , Avho belonged to the Society , should be permitted to receive the sacrament , and six doctors of the Sorbonne ( although it was , subsequently , ascribed to the Avhole body ) passed some resolutions in the November of 1748 , declaring Masonry , as usual , to be pernicious ancl bad . §
Bephlets which appeared at this time . They were either forms of rituals of a distorted , though possibly truthful , nature , and while they reacted upon the times , we cannot say that they continued ivorthy of notice at a time when their object has either been attained or frustrated . I may , however , remark that it is Franc Mafon ecrase , 1747 , whieh first gave rise to the fable about the political influence of Masonry during the English revolutionand at the time of the Stuart rebellionSee Klossvol . i . . 59 .
, . , p * This was the Lodge held at the hotel de Soissons , rue de Deux Ecus , in the parish of St . Germain l'Auxerrois . t He was condemned to pay three thousand livres , and , Oh ! official liberality ! the informer got six livres ! t Steinheil , Le Francmacon dans la TZepublique , p . 4 , 1746 . § It is about this time ( May 28 th , 1751 ) , that Benedict XIV . reiterated the hull of Clement XIIIt has been frequently reported that this
. pope was himself a Mason ; indeed , the document at the end of Naudot's Chansons Notees ( quoted in ISTo . I . of these papers , p . 438 ) says- that he was honorary Master of a Lodge , and elected by the English ( 1740 ) . Very likely to propitiate him , this dignity was bestowed on him , just as princes and ex-members of protectionists' cabinets get doctors' degrees at Oxford .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Century Of Freemasonry*
The police authorities had all this time refrained from insulting the fraternity by domiciliary visitations . The neiv Grancl Master , although he does not seem to have clone anything of importance up to this time , had at any rate sheltered the Society by the prestige of his belonging to it . In 1744 , however ( after remaining inactive since 1738 ) , the police
recommenced their persecution , and on the 5 th of June , 1745 ( after a year ' s Avarning ) , they broke into a Lodge where forty members were assembled . * Le Roi the OAvner of the hotel , Avas seized and interrogated , and he pleaded that although the company hacl indeed assembled there for six months , he himself Avas only a serving brother , f Thishoweverseems to haA'e been the last
, , aggression of the police , for evidently the , position of the neiv Grancl Master gave him influence to stay these proceedings , as , except with the clergy , opposition UOAV ceased . An author of this period has observed , that ,
" Times have now changed considerably . ISTow-a-days there is no more doubt attached to the Preemasons , as it was some years since . We know that the Prince of Coude , this incomparable hero , considers it an honour to be a Mason , and sometimes he lays down his arms to don an apron , and to employ himself in the great work with surpassing zeal . " J I just now mentioned the priesthood as the chief assailers of Freemasonry . It Avas actually about this time agitated among
the clerics , whether a parishioner , Avho belonged to the Society , should be permitted to receive the sacrament , and six doctors of the Sorbonne ( although it was , subsequently , ascribed to the Avhole body ) passed some resolutions in the November of 1748 , declaring Masonry , as usual , to be pernicious ancl bad . §
Bephlets which appeared at this time . They were either forms of rituals of a distorted , though possibly truthful , nature , and while they reacted upon the times , we cannot say that they continued ivorthy of notice at a time when their object has either been attained or frustrated . I may , however , remark that it is Franc Mafon ecrase , 1747 , whieh first gave rise to the fable about the political influence of Masonry during the English revolutionand at the time of the Stuart rebellionSee Klossvol . i . . 59 .
, . , p * This was the Lodge held at the hotel de Soissons , rue de Deux Ecus , in the parish of St . Germain l'Auxerrois . t He was condemned to pay three thousand livres , and , Oh ! official liberality ! the informer got six livres ! t Steinheil , Le Francmacon dans la TZepublique , p . 4 , 1746 . § It is about this time ( May 28 th , 1751 ) , that Benedict XIV . reiterated the hull of Clement XIIIt has been frequently reported that this
. pope was himself a Mason ; indeed , the document at the end of Naudot's Chansons Notees ( quoted in ISTo . I . of these papers , p . 438 ) says- that he was honorary Master of a Lodge , and elected by the English ( 1740 ) . Very likely to propitiate him , this dignity was bestowed on him , just as princes and ex-members of protectionists' cabinets get doctors' degrees at Oxford .