Table Of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Notes on the Ordevs of thc Temple and Hospital ... ( ire , Koyal Visit to Lathom I louse- 6 5 6 Melrose Abbey ( 15 7 CORRESPONDENCE : — Obituary 6 5 8 Provincial Grand Officers 6 59 Consecration of a New Lodjrc at Anerley 6 ^ 9

Freemasonry at the Cape of Good Hope 6 59 The Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction , U . S lido Cit A FT M ASONIIY : — Metropolitan ( if ) r Provincial fifii Scotland O 64

Rov A 1 . Alien : — Metropolitan 6 Y 14 Provincial Ofi . ; . MAUI ; MASONIIY : —¦ Provincial € >(>?

KNIGHTS I EMPI . AU : — Provincial 666 RED CHOSS or CONSTANTINE : — Provincial 666 TvTasonic Meetings for next week 666 Advertisements , 6 ;;; , 6 54 , 667 668

Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."

NOTES ON THE " UNITED ORDERS OF THE TEMPLE AND HOSPITAL . "

A Lecture ile / iretctl lefure ihe Fratres 0 / the Prutli'iice . Encuiiipiiifiit uf Mitsumi : Knights Tt'inp / ar . al Ipsivklt , mi the ^ isl July , 1872 .

BY EMRA H OLMES , , 31 , Eminent Commander of tiie Encampment , Grand Provost of England , Provineial Grand Banner Hearer of the Koval Order e > f Scotland , ive .

( Ciinliniicil from page 609 J " Therefore ; I have : appointed signs unknown to and out of the re : ich of the false brethren , to be

orally delivered by fellow soldiers , and in the manner that in the Grand Convent it has ahead ) been pleased to deliver them .

" But which signs are onl y communicated , after due profession and consecration as a Knight , according to the statutes , rites , and usages ol fellow soldiers of the Temple , transmitted by me

to tlie aforesaid Eminent Commander , as have had them delivered into my hand from the Worshipful Master , and most holy Martyr . ' ' Sir Sidney Smith , the modern Cunir de Lion ,

as he has been called , became Grand Alaster in 183 S , and he-appointed tlie Duke of Sussex , who , as you know , was Grand Master of the English Masonic Knights Templar , Grand Prior of

England ; conferring upon the Earl of Durham ( I ' rov . Grand Commander of Durham , and , I believe , a P . E . C . of the Royal Kent Encampment at Newcastle-on-Tvne ) , the rank of Grand

Prior of Scotland . Napoleon recognised it as a public order of Chivalry in France , and some authors say he joined the Order ( Bro . "Woof says not ) , but it

never recovered the Papal sanction to be enrolled amongst the surviving Orders of religious military character . Barrow , in his life of Sir Sidney Smith , savs

that Don Pedro of Portugal , Emperor of Brazil , was desirous of being elected Granel Master of the Order , but in spite of Don Pedro ' s magnificent oiler to re-establish the Order in Poitnpal

in all its former splendour , with lands and houses ¦ is tlie seat ol' a Grand Prior , declined to put his Majesty in nomination , averring that he could not regard rank as having any claim per se in an

Order where promotion should be based solely upon the merits of the candidate . The Duke of Sussex accepted the ofiice of Grand Prior of England about 1 S 24 or 1825 ,

says Bro . Woof , and in doing so stipulated that no Englishman should be admitted into tlie

Order without his special sanction . This condition the Grand Master subseiiuently sought to set aside , and in consequence , a coolness , which soon amounteel to a total breach of oiricm ! intercourse , followed .

A convent existed in London , and another was founded in Liverpool ( the latter without the Duke ' s sanction , who would not recognise the

members ) . No chapter lias been held in this country since 18 . 36 , and the two convents have long been extinct .

Amongst the names Bro . Woof gives us as members of the Metropolitan Convent of London are Henry , Duke of Beaufort , K . G ., Lord AVilliam Cholmondeioy , General Sir Hugh Davison ,

George , Alarquis of Donegal , K . G ., the Earl of Durham , Sir James Fellowes , Colonel Keiuvs Tynte , afterwards Grand Master of the Masonic Knights Templar , Charles Alills ( the author of

the History of Chivalry ) , the Duke of Leinster , Grand Prior of Ireland , ( Grand AIaster of the Alasonic Hi g h Knights Templar of Ireland ) , the Earl of Hamilton , Lord Dorrington , and others .

In the Grand Priory of Scotland we observe the names of William Alexander Laurie , ( sometime Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of

Scotland , and tlie author of the History of Freemasonry ) ; and in the Grand Priory of India we see the name of Sir James Outram .

Ofthe Aletropolitan Convent , onl y eight members were living in 186 ;] , and only four remained of the Liverpool Convent .

Wilcke , wlio of course disbelieves in tlie Charter of Larmenius , aud quotes against its genuineness the fact of Du Gucsclin signing his name

when he could not write—an objection of which I have already elisposeel—adds -.

—" From 170- the signatures are all ol historical persons—for instance , Philip , Duke of Orleans till 1724 ; Lewis Augustus , Duke of

Alarne , till 1 7 , 57 ; Louis J ienry , IJuke ol bourbon Conde till 1741 ; Lewis Francis of Bourbon Conli , till 1766 ; the last were Grand

Alasters of French Freemasonry ; but under the last mentioned Grand AIaster the Templars separated themselves from the lodges , and under Cosse

Biissac lirst lormed an independent society . This is important , since it connects the "Ordre du Temple" with Freemasonry .

It is now time that I should briefly note , the connection between the Templars and Hospitallers of modern date , as well as their union with the Freemasons .

Tlie readers of the Free ma suit are , no doubt , perfectly aware that the Hospitallers , as such , were not orig inally a military body—indeed , I

think 1 have already adveited to this fact at an early stage' of this lecture .

Addison informs us * that Gerard , the head ol the Hospitallers in 11 18 , had the title of Guardian ofthe Poor . What : would our workhouse authorities say to that ?

Pope Innocent , in 1 1 , 30 , issue da bull , exhorting the bishops and clergy to minister to the necessities of the Hospitallers , as they maintained at

their own expense a body of horsemen and foot soldiers .

The Hospitallers became from this time a military body , though it was not till 116 S , when Gilbert D'Assalit succeded to the guardianship of the Hospital , that they became organised , much

against the wishes of the senior members of the Order , as a great military order . I have before alluded to the curious similarity of Chivalric and Alasonic titles , and , perhaps , I

ought to apologise to my readers for again referring to the subject . But whilst speaking of the Knights of St . John , I am reminded that among the Cottonian AISS . is preserved a letter

from Clement AVest ( dated at Alalta ) to Sir AVilliam AVeston , the Prior of England , from which we extract tlie following , as likely to interest your readers .

" Right AVorchypfulI , —After all hearty , kc It may be your pleasure to undystond , the whych is the xvii . of the last past dep ' ted thys lyll ' the good Lord Alaster Pryn de Fount : and xxii

of the same the elccsyon was chosen the Priour of Tholoze yn Ffrance , gret master of our relygyon , and that elexyon during , vet pleased

them by her to sehoose me ffor Regent , whych onor hath . . . ( never before ) . . . . byn gyllen to an Englishman . "

This Clement AVest was one of the Knights to whom an annuity was granted upon the suppression of the Priory at Clerkenwell . The Order of Knights Hospitallers of St . John

was suppressed in 1540 in England and Ireland , when a bill was brought before Parliament for that purpose , by order of Henry VIII ., and the Knights belonging to the various establishments

were enjoined no longer to use the habit or their former titles . ' ¦ ' The suppression of the Hospitallers , " observes Fuller , " deserveth especial notice , because the manner thereof -was different

irom tiie other religious houses ; for manfully they stood it out to the last , in despite of several assaults . The Knights Hospitallers ( whose chief mansion was at Clerkenwell , m < 'h London )

being gentlemen and soldiers , of ancient families and high spirits , would not be brought to jiresent to Henry the Eighth such puling petitions and public recognitions of their errors , as other Orders

had done . Wherefore , like stout fellows , they opposed any that thought to enrich themselves with their ample revenues , and stood on their

own elefence and justification . But Barnabas ' Day itself hath a nig ht , and this long lived Order , which in England went over the grave , of all others , came at last to its own . " *

Sir AVilliam AVeston did not survive the suppression of thc priory , " but was himself dissolved by death on the day of the dissolution of his houset" He was buried in the chancel of

the church belonging to the suppressed nunnery of St . Alary , Clerkenwell , where it was discovered , April 27 , 17 S 8 , in a leaden cutrin , with the cross of the Hospitallers on the lid . This was the

cross pattee , the same as is worn upon our Templar cloaks , and borne upon the banner of the Agnus Dei in the Templar seal , found at Bristol , to which I shall refer .

From Stow ' s Annals , we learn that at the suppression ofthe nun Hospitallers , to whom Henry II ., in 1180 , gave the Preceptory of Buckland , in Somersetshire , but whose chief house had