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Masonic History And Historians.
MASONIC HISTORY AND HISTORIANS .
BY-. MASONIC STUDENT . There is a point in our Masonic annals very important to the Masonic historian of the future , which I think requires a little attention and elaboration . _ It is well known lo many Masonic students , and especially to Bro . Gould and others , how important a part , in the history of the German Steinmetzen , for instance , the legend or tradition of the "Quatuor Coronati " plays .
The " Quatuor Coronati , " or " The Four Crowned One ' s ( Martyrs ) , were four ~ i \ lasons put to death by the Emperor Diocletian for refusing to make a statue to / Esculapius . The ' legend is found in the "Masonic Poem , " though in no other English Masonic record that I am aware of , and the observance of their day ( November Sth ) was common in England in the eleventh century .
Bro . Findel has based mainly on this fact thc derivation of English Freemasonry from German . But a critical analysis of his argument by no means supports so hasty a conclusion ; and , indeed , not only is it not in any sense a case of " sequitur , " but it is , to a grcaf extent , " post hoc propter hoc . " Latterly a good deal of attention has been paid to this point , the more so as
the four Masons and the five sculptors ( these were also put to death by Dioclesiaii ) arc often confused together . There is still a church of the " Quatuor Coronati " at Rome , where the " reliques " of the Jour Masons and the five sculptors are said to be preserved . It is also averred that once a year there is a gathering in that church of thc arlistical and Craft Guilds of Rome .
In order to illustrate this ancient slory I have thought it well to give another account of these " worthies" of Masonry . 1 take it as a translation from Ribadaneira ' s " Les Fleurs des Vies des Saints , " published at Paris in 1687 , folio : " In the time of the Emperor Diocletian there were at Rome four brethren ( or brothers ) , Severus , Severinus , Carpopherus , and Victorinus , all
Christians , and willing to surrender their life for their mastcr . The Emperor had them taken and brought before the idol of / Esculapius , either to adore it or be beaten to death with blows of whips . They took no more notice of it than they did of thecommand of the Emperor . They then stripped them of every thing , and fastened them up , and they were then so beaten with leaded cords that they died under the torture . The tyrant had their bodies
cast to the dogs lo bc eaten there , on the spot , but they touched them not during the five days they lay there exposed , showing that men were more cruel than the beasts . The Christians carried thc bodies away secretly , and buried them in a sandpit , in the ' Via Lavinia , ' a league from Rome , and as ' Adon ' says in his ' Martyrology , ' the Pope Melchiadcs ordered
that they should keep their day—the day of 'their martyrdom , which was the Sth of November- —though then they knew not their names , but under the names of thc 'Four Martyrs . ' The ' Four Martyrologies' make mention of them . ' Pope Honorius had a church built for them , which is an ancient title of the Cardinals of which Gregory speaks . The bodies were found at Rome in the time of Leo . IV . "
• It seems according to this account that these names , long forgotten , were revealed lo a holy man . This account differs from others materially , and we must make much allowance to-day for that love ol thc marvellous and thc mythical , which often marks grotesquely enough such so-called " golden legends . "
The five martyrs , Claudianus , Nicostralus , Simphorianus , Caslorius , and Simplicianus , who are sometimes called the " Coronati , " are , in truth , thc five sculptors . "With the four crowned ones , " says Ribadaneira , "the Church celebrates this day thc feast of the five glorious martyrs , who were excellent sculptors and Christians , all but Simplicianus , who was a pagan . " The account is too long to give in detail here , and has been referred lo before in an account of the " Coronati . " Roman writers especially have
confounded thc four and thc five , and attributed what took place to the latter , — as in a MS . account published in the " Masonic Magazine" some time back , —lo the former . Suffice it lo say , that when these four Christian sculptors and the pagan equally refused to make an image for Dioclesian , he had them placed in leaded boxes and thrown into the Tiber . Forty days after their cruel death and goodly martyrdom , a Christian , called Nicomedes , sought for their " coffins , " found them , and buried them in the garden of his house .
They wcie put to death on the same day as the four crowned martyrs , but two years before . An account of them is lo bc found in " The Pour Martyrologies . " I have thought this account interesting to studentsj and not the least to Bro . Gould , as he knows how constant is the reference lo them by the German Steinmetzen , and how there is a sort of link in the life of the Craft Guilds with this curious history or legend , call it which you will , of the Four Faithful Masons .
One very remarkable fact is that on the Sarum Missal , on the day of this " Quatuor Coronati" there is not one name of the four honoured ' martyrs ^ but the names given are those of the five sculptors . Some of the German and other Breviaries are different , and hardly any agree in the names . HEIDELOIT gives thc name as RIBADANEIRA does , and SCHAUBERG tells us that at Basle Cathedral , by the " Meisler Tafcl , " is a sculptured representation of the " Quatuor Coronati , " villi an inscription alluding to the symbolical meaning of compass , square , rule and level .
Freemasonry And Its Traducers
FREEMASONRY AND ITS TRADUCERS
Bv BRO . T . 15 . WHYTEHEAD . I have only just been able to obtain thc whole of the correspondence in the Building News relative to the article in the Saturday Review on Freemasonry , which has already been handled in the editorial columns of the Freemason . My only regret is that the Review ' s Jesuitical essay was not reprinted at length by thc Masonic Press , in order lo show the brethren the follies to which men commit themselves who pcrpetratclhefoolisherrorotwriting
on subjects concerning which theyhave only very imperfect information . I use the word " Jesuitical" advisedly , because it is perfectly evident that the expounder in the pages of thc Review has been influenced by a strong anti-Masonic animus , whicli he endeavours to conceal behind a very thin veil of mock conscientiousness . His opening sentence betrays him when ne tells his readers that Freemasons regard any effort to throw light upon the real origin of their Society , as " almost criminal , " when he must have known perfectly well , from the " immense list of books " which he claims to have
Freemasonry And Its Traducers
seen , that one of the greatest anxieties amongst intelligent Masons of the present day is to elucidate their history , and , from the dim traces of their footprints in the past , to produce a really reliable and faithful record of thc origin and'descent of what even outside critics have been compelled to admit to be one of the most remarkable of social organisations .
Masons are accused by this critic of "sedulously cultivating" certain pretensions to antiquity , which he is pleased to consider utterl y baseless , and of promulgating as facts certain legends , or as this person chooses to call them , " cock and bull stories , " about Solomon's Temple . It appears to me that the description of PYeemasonry , as taught in its initiatory instruction , lhat it is " a system of morality , founded in allegory and illustrated by symbols , "
is of itself a sufficient reply to such slanders as these . It is a very easy matter to refer to a Masonic allegory as a " clumsy fable , " and those " whose duties or misfortunes have cnlorced upon them a perusal of the writings of Mr . Bradlaugh and-such like persons , will recognise in such terms as this thc style of argument commonly used by those who , for want of real knowledge , find in abuse the readiest method of disposing of a difficult question .
From the titles of the " authontes " quoted by our friend it is perfectly evident that the sources of his information are of an extremely feeble kind ; and when he declares that any one of the "fifty different treatises " on the Order " will enable a reader to make his way into a lodge quite as well as though he had submitted to the inane ceremonies of probation and initiation , " he makes it very patent that he himself , at any rate , has never made practical trial , of
what he impudently and ignorantly declares to be so easy , but that he is simply repeating or reproducing thc falsehoods of previous writers . He gives a brief sketch of thc history of the Mcdi . xval Guilds of Builders , which he says were abolished in 1707 , and tells us that the date of the origin of Freemasonry was " about the beginning of thc eighteenth
century , " but he is satisfied to say nothing at all about Plot's account of thc Order a century previous , or to the onirics in thc diary of Ashmole ; neither docs he in any way refer lo the ancient parchment constitutions in the possession of the brethren , or to thc ancient Scotch minutes , if , indeed , he ever heard of them .
The writer ' s utter ignorance of the Craft , its objects and its organisation , prevents any feeling of astonishment at his accusations against the Christian Orders amongst P ' reemasons of "blasphemy and profanity . " It is impossible to discuss the ceremonials of any secret society , even in : i Masonic
paper ; but most men will bc . slow to believe that societies in Freemasonry , which have for their patroness our beloved Queen , and for their ruler the heir to the throne of England , and which number amongst their prominent members many of the highest , noblest , and most devoted both of churchmen and laymen , can wilh either truth or justice deserve so foul an
aspersion . . One of the most egregious blunders of all'is to be found in the tail of thc reviewer ' s article , and , no doubt , is intended to convey the sting of the attack . We are informed that " Freemasonry is an excellent friendly society , " and that weare " exactly on a par" with Foresters and other benefit societies . This is just the mistake into which a complete outsider
would be likely to fall , but it is one which cannot be too widely or emphatically denied . Whatever antiquity may fairly be claimed for our Order , it was never intended , in its present form , to take the place of a friendly or benefit society , and one of the greatest dangers threatening thc Craft at thc present moment is the entrance of men within our portals who have imbibed this cwoneous idea promulgated by this writer . It should bc clearly
understood lhat the Charities and the munificent grants from our Lodge of Benevolence are an accident of the society , and are by no means the objects for which our present organisation' was worked out . They have been an aftergrowth , and their magnitude is the result of the immense extension of our society in our own day . The impression existing in many minds
outside Freemasonry that substantial advantages are lo be gained from membership cannot be too widely combalted , since it has a most powerful effect in inducing men to become . Masons in thc hope of receiving material benefits ; and the influx of such persons is one of the reasons why the demands upon our Charities have of late been so heavy .
That our Order is by no means " on a par " wilh the friendly or benefit societies of the country is sufficiently proved by the existence of thc act which speciall y excepts it from interference as a secret society , and from the fact that the Priendly Societies Acts take no cognizance of it . A writer in thc Building News , in defending our Craft from the insolent attacks in thc Saturday Review , seems to hint that the writer has received
his inspiration from Papal sources ; and this may bc so , although to mc it seems lo be merely one of those bilious and rancorous productions for which the Review has long been specially famous . Our champion of the Building News , who writes under the non de plume of ' * Knight Templar , " happily instances the history of the church of England as analogous to that Freemasonry . Both have passed through many changes , and must yet see more
if the world last sufficiently long . But a change of ritual or ot laws would simply mark an epoch in either , and a revival or a new departure need not necessarily occasion a break in its history , leading principles , or teachings . " Veritas , " taking up the pen in reply lo " Knight Templar , " runs off the scent altogether , and lugs in the question of the date of the commencement
of the Three Degrees System , which is another problem entirely , and has no connection with the antiquity of the Order . If every alteration in ritual or working is to be regarded , as the commencement of a new Order , we shall bc told next that thc year 1 S 13 , when the present working was settled , was the date of our origin .
As for the question of the origin of "Templar" Masonry , that is a matter entirely apart and distinct , and lo be discussed on its own merits . I will not attempt it here . Those who have done any historical reading worth talking about know full well thc difficulties of the critic . These arc days when close investigations of ancient sculptures , inscriptions , papyri , & c , arc continually throwing light upon moot points in history , disproving statements
long regarded as reliable , and proving to be facts assertions previously suspected to bc baseless , upsetting long cherished theories , and adding longmissing links to the great chain of thc world ' s history . It is significant that some of our best Masonic writers have already relinquished the fashion of dogmatically writing down all Freemasonry as of modern origin ; and I do not bv any means despair of . seeing the day when irrefragable evidence will
show our clear chain of descent from thc mediaeval Guilds . As for writers prating with smug priggishness aboul their "duly , " and , al the same time , stigmatising as a" sham " and an " imposition " a system and a Society of the most genial , benevolent , and beneficial character , the sooner they learn their proper place in literature the better for their own credit and that of their employers , as well as for the satisfaction of those readers who arc made the victims of their egregious and vicious nonsense .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic History And Historians.
MASONIC HISTORY AND HISTORIANS .
BY-. MASONIC STUDENT . There is a point in our Masonic annals very important to the Masonic historian of the future , which I think requires a little attention and elaboration . _ It is well known lo many Masonic students , and especially to Bro . Gould and others , how important a part , in the history of the German Steinmetzen , for instance , the legend or tradition of the "Quatuor Coronati " plays .
The " Quatuor Coronati , " or " The Four Crowned One ' s ( Martyrs ) , were four ~ i \ lasons put to death by the Emperor Diocletian for refusing to make a statue to / Esculapius . The ' legend is found in the "Masonic Poem , " though in no other English Masonic record that I am aware of , and the observance of their day ( November Sth ) was common in England in the eleventh century .
Bro . Findel has based mainly on this fact thc derivation of English Freemasonry from German . But a critical analysis of his argument by no means supports so hasty a conclusion ; and , indeed , not only is it not in any sense a case of " sequitur , " but it is , to a grcaf extent , " post hoc propter hoc . " Latterly a good deal of attention has been paid to this point , the more so as
the four Masons and the five sculptors ( these were also put to death by Dioclesiaii ) arc often confused together . There is still a church of the " Quatuor Coronati " at Rome , where the " reliques " of the Jour Masons and the five sculptors are said to be preserved . It is also averred that once a year there is a gathering in that church of thc arlistical and Craft Guilds of Rome .
In order to illustrate this ancient slory I have thought it well to give another account of these " worthies" of Masonry . 1 take it as a translation from Ribadaneira ' s " Les Fleurs des Vies des Saints , " published at Paris in 1687 , folio : " In the time of the Emperor Diocletian there were at Rome four brethren ( or brothers ) , Severus , Severinus , Carpopherus , and Victorinus , all
Christians , and willing to surrender their life for their mastcr . The Emperor had them taken and brought before the idol of / Esculapius , either to adore it or be beaten to death with blows of whips . They took no more notice of it than they did of thecommand of the Emperor . They then stripped them of every thing , and fastened them up , and they were then so beaten with leaded cords that they died under the torture . The tyrant had their bodies
cast to the dogs lo bc eaten there , on the spot , but they touched them not during the five days they lay there exposed , showing that men were more cruel than the beasts . The Christians carried thc bodies away secretly , and buried them in a sandpit , in the ' Via Lavinia , ' a league from Rome , and as ' Adon ' says in his ' Martyrology , ' the Pope Melchiadcs ordered
that they should keep their day—the day of 'their martyrdom , which was the Sth of November- —though then they knew not their names , but under the names of thc 'Four Martyrs . ' The ' Four Martyrologies' make mention of them . ' Pope Honorius had a church built for them , which is an ancient title of the Cardinals of which Gregory speaks . The bodies were found at Rome in the time of Leo . IV . "
• It seems according to this account that these names , long forgotten , were revealed lo a holy man . This account differs from others materially , and we must make much allowance to-day for that love ol thc marvellous and thc mythical , which often marks grotesquely enough such so-called " golden legends . "
The five martyrs , Claudianus , Nicostralus , Simphorianus , Caslorius , and Simplicianus , who are sometimes called the " Coronati , " are , in truth , thc five sculptors . "With the four crowned ones , " says Ribadaneira , "the Church celebrates this day thc feast of the five glorious martyrs , who were excellent sculptors and Christians , all but Simplicianus , who was a pagan . " The account is too long to give in detail here , and has been referred lo before in an account of the " Coronati . " Roman writers especially have
confounded thc four and thc five , and attributed what took place to the latter , — as in a MS . account published in the " Masonic Magazine" some time back , —lo the former . Suffice it lo say , that when these four Christian sculptors and the pagan equally refused to make an image for Dioclesian , he had them placed in leaded boxes and thrown into the Tiber . Forty days after their cruel death and goodly martyrdom , a Christian , called Nicomedes , sought for their " coffins , " found them , and buried them in the garden of his house .
They wcie put to death on the same day as the four crowned martyrs , but two years before . An account of them is lo bc found in " The Pour Martyrologies . " I have thought this account interesting to studentsj and not the least to Bro . Gould , as he knows how constant is the reference lo them by the German Steinmetzen , and how there is a sort of link in the life of the Craft Guilds with this curious history or legend , call it which you will , of the Four Faithful Masons .
One very remarkable fact is that on the Sarum Missal , on the day of this " Quatuor Coronati" there is not one name of the four honoured ' martyrs ^ but the names given are those of the five sculptors . Some of the German and other Breviaries are different , and hardly any agree in the names . HEIDELOIT gives thc name as RIBADANEIRA does , and SCHAUBERG tells us that at Basle Cathedral , by the " Meisler Tafcl , " is a sculptured representation of the " Quatuor Coronati , " villi an inscription alluding to the symbolical meaning of compass , square , rule and level .
Freemasonry And Its Traducers
FREEMASONRY AND ITS TRADUCERS
Bv BRO . T . 15 . WHYTEHEAD . I have only just been able to obtain thc whole of the correspondence in the Building News relative to the article in the Saturday Review on Freemasonry , which has already been handled in the editorial columns of the Freemason . My only regret is that the Review ' s Jesuitical essay was not reprinted at length by thc Masonic Press , in order lo show the brethren the follies to which men commit themselves who pcrpetratclhefoolisherrorotwriting
on subjects concerning which theyhave only very imperfect information . I use the word " Jesuitical" advisedly , because it is perfectly evident that the expounder in the pages of thc Review has been influenced by a strong anti-Masonic animus , whicli he endeavours to conceal behind a very thin veil of mock conscientiousness . His opening sentence betrays him when ne tells his readers that Freemasons regard any effort to throw light upon the real origin of their Society , as " almost criminal , " when he must have known perfectly well , from the " immense list of books " which he claims to have
Freemasonry And Its Traducers
seen , that one of the greatest anxieties amongst intelligent Masons of the present day is to elucidate their history , and , from the dim traces of their footprints in the past , to produce a really reliable and faithful record of thc origin and'descent of what even outside critics have been compelled to admit to be one of the most remarkable of social organisations .
Masons are accused by this critic of "sedulously cultivating" certain pretensions to antiquity , which he is pleased to consider utterl y baseless , and of promulgating as facts certain legends , or as this person chooses to call them , " cock and bull stories , " about Solomon's Temple . It appears to me that the description of PYeemasonry , as taught in its initiatory instruction , lhat it is " a system of morality , founded in allegory and illustrated by symbols , "
is of itself a sufficient reply to such slanders as these . It is a very easy matter to refer to a Masonic allegory as a " clumsy fable , " and those " whose duties or misfortunes have cnlorced upon them a perusal of the writings of Mr . Bradlaugh and-such like persons , will recognise in such terms as this thc style of argument commonly used by those who , for want of real knowledge , find in abuse the readiest method of disposing of a difficult question .
From the titles of the " authontes " quoted by our friend it is perfectly evident that the sources of his information are of an extremely feeble kind ; and when he declares that any one of the "fifty different treatises " on the Order " will enable a reader to make his way into a lodge quite as well as though he had submitted to the inane ceremonies of probation and initiation , " he makes it very patent that he himself , at any rate , has never made practical trial , of
what he impudently and ignorantly declares to be so easy , but that he is simply repeating or reproducing thc falsehoods of previous writers . He gives a brief sketch of thc history of the Mcdi . xval Guilds of Builders , which he says were abolished in 1707 , and tells us that the date of the origin of Freemasonry was " about the beginning of thc eighteenth
century , " but he is satisfied to say nothing at all about Plot's account of thc Order a century previous , or to the onirics in thc diary of Ashmole ; neither docs he in any way refer lo the ancient parchment constitutions in the possession of the brethren , or to thc ancient Scotch minutes , if , indeed , he ever heard of them .
The writer ' s utter ignorance of the Craft , its objects and its organisation , prevents any feeling of astonishment at his accusations against the Christian Orders amongst P ' reemasons of "blasphemy and profanity . " It is impossible to discuss the ceremonials of any secret society , even in : i Masonic
paper ; but most men will bc . slow to believe that societies in Freemasonry , which have for their patroness our beloved Queen , and for their ruler the heir to the throne of England , and which number amongst their prominent members many of the highest , noblest , and most devoted both of churchmen and laymen , can wilh either truth or justice deserve so foul an
aspersion . . One of the most egregious blunders of all'is to be found in the tail of thc reviewer ' s article , and , no doubt , is intended to convey the sting of the attack . We are informed that " Freemasonry is an excellent friendly society , " and that weare " exactly on a par" with Foresters and other benefit societies . This is just the mistake into which a complete outsider
would be likely to fall , but it is one which cannot be too widely or emphatically denied . Whatever antiquity may fairly be claimed for our Order , it was never intended , in its present form , to take the place of a friendly or benefit society , and one of the greatest dangers threatening thc Craft at thc present moment is the entrance of men within our portals who have imbibed this cwoneous idea promulgated by this writer . It should bc clearly
understood lhat the Charities and the munificent grants from our Lodge of Benevolence are an accident of the society , and are by no means the objects for which our present organisation' was worked out . They have been an aftergrowth , and their magnitude is the result of the immense extension of our society in our own day . The impression existing in many minds
outside Freemasonry that substantial advantages are lo be gained from membership cannot be too widely combalted , since it has a most powerful effect in inducing men to become . Masons in thc hope of receiving material benefits ; and the influx of such persons is one of the reasons why the demands upon our Charities have of late been so heavy .
That our Order is by no means " on a par " wilh the friendly or benefit societies of the country is sufficiently proved by the existence of thc act which speciall y excepts it from interference as a secret society , and from the fact that the Priendly Societies Acts take no cognizance of it . A writer in thc Building News , in defending our Craft from the insolent attacks in thc Saturday Review , seems to hint that the writer has received
his inspiration from Papal sources ; and this may bc so , although to mc it seems lo be merely one of those bilious and rancorous productions for which the Review has long been specially famous . Our champion of the Building News , who writes under the non de plume of ' * Knight Templar , " happily instances the history of the church of England as analogous to that Freemasonry . Both have passed through many changes , and must yet see more
if the world last sufficiently long . But a change of ritual or ot laws would simply mark an epoch in either , and a revival or a new departure need not necessarily occasion a break in its history , leading principles , or teachings . " Veritas , " taking up the pen in reply lo " Knight Templar , " runs off the scent altogether , and lugs in the question of the date of the commencement
of the Three Degrees System , which is another problem entirely , and has no connection with the antiquity of the Order . If every alteration in ritual or working is to be regarded , as the commencement of a new Order , we shall bc told next that thc year 1 S 13 , when the present working was settled , was the date of our origin .
As for the question of the origin of "Templar" Masonry , that is a matter entirely apart and distinct , and lo be discussed on its own merits . I will not attempt it here . Those who have done any historical reading worth talking about know full well thc difficulties of the critic . These arc days when close investigations of ancient sculptures , inscriptions , papyri , & c , arc continually throwing light upon moot points in history , disproving statements
long regarded as reliable , and proving to be facts assertions previously suspected to bc baseless , upsetting long cherished theories , and adding longmissing links to the great chain of thc world ' s history . It is significant that some of our best Masonic writers have already relinquished the fashion of dogmatically writing down all Freemasonry as of modern origin ; and I do not bv any means despair of . seeing the day when irrefragable evidence will
show our clear chain of descent from thc mediaeval Guilds . As for writers prating with smug priggishness aboul their "duly , " and , al the same time , stigmatising as a" sham " and an " imposition " a system and a Society of the most genial , benevolent , and beneficial character , the sooner they learn their proper place in literature the better for their own credit and that of their employers , as well as for the satisfaction of those readers who arc made the victims of their egregious and vicious nonsense .