Gould's History Of Freemasonry Vol. Iii.

GOULD'S HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY VOL . III .

SIXTH NOTICE . Bv MASONIC STUDENT . In lirin- 'ing my remarks on this remarkable instalment of , * i very remarkable svork to a close I add a fesv supplementary svords . It svill be ' seen hosv very greatly 1 admire the

care , conscientiousness , research , anil industry of the svriter , and , at the same time , hosv much " it has gone against the grain " to feel myself unable to follow him into the conclusions he has so distinctly set forth , and the deductions he his so laboriously and honestly arrived at . Considering as I do Bro . Gould ' s " History of Freemasonry" one of the most remarkable contributions to Masonic history this

or any other age has seen , I am , I confess , a little atraid that the unhesitating rejection of Sir Christopher Wren ' s traditional connection svith English Freemasonry , of svhich he has hitherto been the boast and pride , as it seems to mc , on a pure negation , incapable of proof , the peculiar point raised in regard of the Harleian MS . 1943 , the charges against Anderson and Preston of deliberate "

falsification of history , " may prevent this third volume being so-popular as its predecessors , and even hinder its receiving that universal assent svhich in other respects is its most just due . To " experts" especially I greatly fear the conclusions somesvhat confidently announced by our distinguished Bro . Gould svill appear , I venture to think , both svanting in " reality "and "staying power ;" in that they rest both on dcfectis'e information and a

soiness'hat arbitrary manipulation of facts , seem to be somesvhat hastily educed from most conflicting materials , and to be svanting in that unfailing clement , svhether of judicial decisions or historical results , a purely impartial summing-up . Bro . Gould has set himself to demolish the " Wren " theory , and he has done so " more suo" from his osvn special point of viesv , but not completely ; for by the results of a negative

theory of constructive " nihilism" he leaves us svithout a consistent tradition , svithout , in fact , a Masonic history , charging all our authorities and lights and leaders , the svhole Grand Lodgeof 173 S , svith deliberate falsification of history for some unknosvn purposes of their osvn , a process of criticism svhich , I apprehend , though it may be vcry decided , is alike unreal , unsound , and yes , 1 must say

itsvorthlcss . 1 am only expressing my osvn humble opinion . To master the " rcductio ad absurdum" to svhich sve are nosv reduced , let us realize svhat has been authoritatively said , and svhat Hro . Gould so ably nosv puts forsvard in lieu thereof . In 1722 Roberts published a transcript of Harleian 1942 , svith a preface , and svhich publication is so far thc oldest knosvn Anglican Masonic publication . 1 do not say that it

is the oldest ; thus far it seems so to be . It may be that earlier publications may yet turn up . In 1723 Anderson , by authority of Grand Lodge , and svith the special approbation of the Masters and Wardens of 20 London lodges , published the Constitutions , and nosv sve have to deal svith a " Crux " both serious and severe . Wh y Anderson did not allude to Wren or Ashmole , or Plot ' s history , sve do not

knosv . He calls Wren that " ingenious architect , " but nothing more , and 1 must admit does not identify him in any svay svith English Freemasonry . But I think sve see thc cause of this othersvisc peculiar position on his part in thc instructions of Grand Lodge . I le svas to revise and set in order the Gothic Constitutions , svhat sve nosv call thc " Guild Legends , " and hc did this in his osvn svas * . and

presented to his readers in 1723 a connected and modernized form of Guild legend . It may be regretted perhaps that he did not notify thc fact more distinctly that lie was simply modernizing these archaic forms , and that he did not himself adopt their anachronisms and absurdities . In 1 73 S he issued a second edition , having received orders to insert Patrons and Grand Officers , & c , and having seen , he tells us ,

lodge minute books , in this new book he gives us a precightccnth century history of Freemasonry , svhich Bro . Gould has vigorousl y attacked and ultimately utterly repudiated , affixing to it the somesvhat opprobrious epithet of "historical falsification . " Anderson , in fact , asserts the " h'evival . " of the Grand Lodge in 1717 on its "old lines " and the Masonic membership and Grand

Mastership of Sir Christopher Wren . Had Anderson been as full in 1717 as he is in 173 S no question could have arisen , as Wren did not die until 1723 , and had these statements appeared svhile he svas living , and he had not objected to them , " silence gives consent . " Bro . Gould meets this portion of Anderson's statements by denying that Wren svas a I'Vcemason , declaring his Masonic connection to be a fable , and that therefore " a fortiori" he could not

have been Grand Master ; that Grand Masters svere un . knosvn in the seventeenth century j that in 1717 some FVecmasons , linked on in some mysterious svay and some unintelligible manner- at present , svith thc lodges of svhich Ashmole and I'lot and Randle Holmes speak , started thc Grand Lodge of 1717 , and for the first time " nom . inatim " proclaimed a Grand . Master . But svhat du our osvn

authorised books say ? The Constitutions of 173 S received the " approbation " of the Grand Master , Deputy Grand Master and Grand Wardens of the time , Lord Darnlcy , John Ward , Robert Lasvlcy , and William Gnome . They sverc specially and particularly revised by the Duke of Richmond , P . G . M . ; Bros . Payne and . Desaguliers , P . G . Ms . ; Bro . Cosvper

the Clerk to thc Parliament , and for svhom Reed , G . S ., copied Cooke ' s MS . ; and the Grand Ollicers , and J . Revis , Grand Secretary . * Nosy let us sec svhat the Duke of Richmond " particularly" sasv and approved of . He read a statement that his father , svho only died in 1723 or 1724 , svas a member of thc Order , and Grand Master , and Sir Christopher

Wren his Deputy . It seems to me that 111 accepting Hro . Gould ' s hasty theory of deliberate historical falseficalion , sve arc affixing a stigma on our Masonic forefathers svhich they in truth do not deserve" in the slightest measure . The Duke of Richmond svas a soldier and a statesman , Desaguliers a man of science , Payne and Cosvper mixing svith thc most intellectual society of the day . Tlie Grand Officers ss-cre men of honour . ind . probity , and to suppose

that they all concurred . " nolcntes volentcs" in a " pious fraud , " palmed off on a credulous Craft a deliberately false history , used noble and distinguished names svithout the . slightest authority , is not only a grave reflection , on their Masonic character , but entirely unsupported by the knosvn facts of the case . Why , they must have laughed in each other ' a faces svhen this portion of the seventeenth century history svas read out of the Duke of Richmond , father of their Grand Master , havinsr been a Grand Master , and

Gould's History Of Freemasonry Vol. Iii.

Sir Christopher Wren , D . G . M . and G . M ., if it svas knosvn positively to them all that the allegations svere deliberate lies ! Yes ,. Iies ! lies ! Let us put the matter boldly and fairly before us , svith no soft svords of extenuation or qualification , and then let my brethren and readers be the judges . Can any of us believe that the Grand Lodge of those days svould have sanctioned such a personal and particular falsification of history , if it svas merely the pure invention ol

the imaginative and unscrupulous Anderson ? - . I feel sure that there can be but one anssver on the part of thinking men to such a proposition . It is indeed riding a hobby to death , ln 1757 Bro . Dr . Manningham told quite a different talc . He stated distinctl y that Wren had been Grand Master , that Payne svas his authority for svhat hc stated as regards certain innovations , that his osvn father svas an old Mason , and that he had spoken to an old Mason of 90

thcreanent ; but he could not have said svhat he did say unless hc fully believed in the tradition of others like Payne , P . G . M ., who must have knosvn the fact , and svhether it svas a fact or no , that Wren had been Grand Master . Bro . Gould rejects Manningham ' s evidence on thc ground of distance of time and thc slip of a pen as regards Sayer , but as Wren did not die until 1723 , svhat Manningham meant probably svas that Payne svas so close to

Wren that * there ss'as a " continuous tradition . Wc knosv little of svhat Wren did betsveen 1717 and 1723 . If our traditions arc true he svas superseded . Manningham's evidence , by every principle of legal testimony , is good " quantum valet " as Jar as he speaks of svhat he clearly knosvs or conscientiously believes . Rejecting then this nesv gloss of Masonic history , I adhere

to the pre-1717 history as sketched out , though not filled in by Anderson . I svish I could have more fully endorsed my able Bro . Gould ' s theories , but as 1 cannot , 1 have honestly said so , and leave the svhole matter here to the judgment and decision of others , fully recognizing thc intense value and services to Masonic history and archirology of Bro . Gould ' s admirable svork .

The Pope's Encyclical Letter"De Secta Massonum."

THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL LETTER"DE SECTA MASSONUM . "

( Continued from page 247 . ) There are various sects of men svhich although differing in name , ritual , form , and origin , yet since they are intertsvincd b y a kind of common purpose and the similitude of their main principles , agree in reality svith the sect of Freemasons , svhich is as it sverc a centre svhence they have their

origin and to svhich they all return . Although these seem nosv to be unsvilhng to hide in darkness hut rather hold their assemblies in the light and beneath thc eyes of citizens and issue their daily papers , yet none the less svhen the matter is thoroughly looked into do they retain the nature and character of secret societies . Indeed there arc many resemblances in these mysteries svhich arc bound to be hidden not only from the uninitiated but even

from very many members of the society ( gre ' gales ) : such ar . c their most secret and final designs , the highest chiefs of their factions , and some of their secret and most private meetings ; so too their decrees and the method and means of carrying them out . The tendency is thc same of that complex distribution of rights , offices , and duties among the members : so also of thc fixed distinction of rank and degrees . and that severity of discipline by svhich they are

ruled . I hc candidates ( initiates ) arc ordered to promise and indeed to swear by the strongest possible oath that they svill never in any svay divulge to any one the members , signs ( notas ) , and doctrines . So by a fictitious appearance and ever by the same course of dissimulation the Freemasons , like thc Maniclucans of old , endeavour as far as possible to hide themselves and tu have no witnesses but their osvn members , lust nosv they arc seeking

lurkingplaces , having adopted thc mask of learned and svisc men for thc sake of instructing their associates : they profess an open study of a more cultivated politeness and charity for the lower classes : they profess that they alone svish to obtain prosperity for the populace and to share svith as many as possible svhat arc held to be advantages in a society of citizens . Although then these designs might be genuine , yet this is by no means all their intention .

Further those svho are elected members must promise and undertake to obey their leaders and master *! svith the utmost submission and loyalty : to attend to the least nod and sign of theirs , to carry out their orders : if they du othersvisc then not to refuse to suffer every torture and even death itself . In truth if it is decided that any have betrayed their discipline or disobeyed their orders punishment is not uncommonly inflicted , and indeed svith such

boldness and dexterity that the assassin very often escapes justice the detective ( specttlatrix ) and avenger of crimes . But to use deceit , and to svish for concealment : to bind men to them as if they svere captives svith thc closest of ties , and that for an insufficiently explained reason : to compel the slaves of another ' s svill to commit any crime : to arm their hands for bloodshed , liaving sought impunity for the crime , is a monstrosity svhich thc nature of things

docs not allosv . Wherefore the society of svhich sve are speaking is provcd . by reason and truth itself to be repugnant to justice and natural honesty . This is thc more so because other arguments , and Ihosc too clear ones , prove , that thc nature of the society is at variance svith honesty .. For hosvever great in men is the cunning of concealment and thc habit of lying , still it cannot but be that the nature of every cause should in some

svay appear from its results . " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit , neither can a corrupt trceliringforth good fruit " ( Matt , ¦ vii ., 18 ) . Nosv thc sect of Freemasons produces pernicious fruit mingled svith very great cruelty . For from thc very sure evidence svhich sve have above set forth the most final of their designs is coming lo light , viz ., to utterly overturn all that discipline of religion and state svhich christian institutions have produced and to

build up a nesv one after their osvn mind , foundations , and lasvs , being deduced from Materialism ( Naturalismits ) itself . _ The above and succeeding remarks about the sect of Freemasons must be understood as referring to its nature , and so far as it embraces cognate and allied societies : not to individual members . In their number , hosvever , there

can be and there arc some fesv , svho , although they are not free from blame for having entagled themselves in societies of this kind , yet are neither themselves participators in tlieir misdeeds nor are asvare of that final result svhich these societies are striving to gain . In the same svay some of those alliances perchance by no means approve of some extreme conclusions svhich , since they necessarily follosv

The Pope's Encyclical Letter"De Secta Massonum."

from their general principles , it svould be consistent for them to embrace did not the baseness of these conclusions deter them by its very ugliness . Again the exigencies ( ratio ) of time and place compel some of the societies to attempt smaller results than cither their intentions svarrant or others are syont to attempt : yet on that account they must not be considered distinct fiom the Masonic-alliance , because that must not be judged by its results and achievements so much

as by the sgm total of its doctrines ( scnlcntiarum ) : Indeed the chief tenet of the Materialists ( Naturalistic ) is , . is they declare by their mere name , that human nature and human reason ought in all matters to be mistress and chief . On this assumption they either neglect their duties tosvards Gnd or pervert them by cironcous and mistaken theories . For they deny that anything has been . handed dosvn on _ the authority of God , tbey approve no dogma

about religion , they assert that there is no truth svhich the human intelligence does not comprehend , tbat there is no master to whom credence must be given as a right in virtue of the authority of his ollice . Hut since it is the singular and appropriate duty of the Catholic Church to fully embrace and to guard svith uiicorruptcd integrity the . doctrines received from heaven , and the authority of her rule together svith other divine aids to safety , therefore it

is against her that the chief anger and onslaught of the . enemy is directed . Nosv hosvever in those matters svhich affect religion it must . be noticed svhat the sect of Freemasons is doing , especially svhere it is more free to act : and it must be thoroughly decided svhether it does not clearly seem to svish to carry into reality the viesvs of life Materialists . In truth svith long and pertinacious labour it exerts itself for this purpose that the rule of the

Church should be of no weight , that its authority should be as nothing in a state ; and for this reason they cverysvherc assert and insist that sacred and civil matters ought to be wholly distinct . My this they exclude the most wholesome virtue of thc Catholic religion from the laws and from the administration of a country : and thc consequence is that they think svhole states ought to be constitute ! outside the institutes and prceepts ' of the Church . Nor are

they content svith neglecting the Church , their best guide , unless they can injure her by hostility . ' And in truth they are allojved svith impunity to attack the vcry foundations of the Catholic religion b y speaking , svriting , and teaching : they Mo not spare the rights of the Church : her offices , by svhich she is divinely strengthened , are not safe . There is left to her the vcry smallest opportunity for action , and this by lasvs svhich are in appearance indeed nut

tooagressivc , but in reality designed and lilted to . hinder her liberty . So too sve see lasvs singular and sveighty imposed upon the clergy , so that they lose day hy day much from their number , much ( ram tlscir necessaries -, sve see the remains or the property of the Church hampered svith the greatest restrictions , transferred to thc posver and svill of the administrators of the government : sve sec thc societies of religious orders overturned and dispersed . Bjtthe onslaught

of the enemy is most vigorous against the Apostolic Chair and thc Pope of Rome . He in truth has lirst , on feigned grounds , been driven from the bulsvark of his liberty and his right , and Irony lis civil principatc : next he has been forced into an unfair position and one too svhich is rendered intolerable by difficulties opposed to him from all quaitcrs : until sve have reached , these times in svhich . the su-fportcrs of sects arc openly threatening svhat they had long been

secretl y planning , namely , to overthrosv the sacred posver of the Popes and to utterly blot out the Papacy itself svhich svas established b y divine right . And this , if other proofs sverc svanting , is clearly shosvn by the testimony of men svho are privy to the plan : some of them both often at other times and again svithin recent memory have declared this to be the true design of Freemasons that they specially svish to harass svith implacable enmity thc Catholic body ,

and that they svill not be quiet until they have seen everything destroyed svhich thc Popes have instituted in the interests of religion . But if those svho are enrolled into tlieir number arc by no means ordered to forssvear in set form the Catholic institutions , ( his indeed is so far from being repugnant from thc designs of Freemasons that it rather serves them . For in the first place they easily . deceive in this svay thc simple and incautious , and offer

attractions to far more persons . Then moreover by accepting any that p resent themselves , no matter of svhat religion , they gain their purpose of urging that great error of the present day , viz ., that questions of religion ought to be left undetermined , and that there should be no distinction made betsveen varieties . And this policy aims at the destruction of all reli g ions , specially at that of the Catholic religion svhich , since it is the only true one , cannot be made equal svith the rest svithout thc greatest injury . ( To be continued . )

Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS .

The second meeting of the Board of Stewards for Iho Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys took place on Thursday afternoon , thc 29 th inst ., at Freemasons' Hall , under the presidency of Bro . I ' " rank Richardson . Among those present sverc Bros . J . L . Mather ,

Charles Belton , C . I . Lesvis , A . M . Broadley , F . II . Keeble , CF . Alatier , Charles Tayler , T . Hastings Miller , Edgar Bowyer , Horace Brooks Marshall , Controller Bake , J . VV . Baldwin , VVm . Hamlyn , George D . A . Schofield , J . Terry , II . Young , II . Dubois , G . P . Festa , Henry Glenn , J . Brittain , G . F . Romieu , . F . Adlard , "VV . A . Scurrah , Ed . F . Home , A . Harker , VV . II . Harris ,

Charles VV . Baker , J . N . Bate , James Addington , I . Tyler , M . Carter , Charles H . Driver , Edsvard Lukey , R . VV . Galer , Theo . Davey , and J , Lcsvis-Thomas . The minutes of the meeting held on the 2 nd inst svere read and confirmed and thc report of the Sub-Committee on music svas received and adopted .

Thc follosving arc the Special Stesvards * . Bros . . ] . L . Mather , j . Terry , C . F . Matier , Hastings Miller , George Cooper , ' G : P . Festa , Scurrah , Driver , Tayler , Hogard , Berridge , and Jenkin . Thc next meeting of the Stesvards svill be held on the 23 rd June , at 4 p . m . "

Tin-: G RAND T KEASUKI ' . K . — - Brethren wishing to unite svith a Committee appointed to present a testimonial to V . W . Bro . Horace Brooks Marshall , Grand Treasurer , may ascertain particulars on application to the Hon , Secretary atSa , Red Lion-square , Holborn , W . C .