The Roman Collegia.

" Sodales sunt qui ejusdem collegii sunt . His autem potestatem facit lex , pactionem quam veliut sibi ferre , dum nequid ex publica lege corrumpant . " The Collegia had at one time great power , and we find that they were regarded often with grave suspicion as the focus of secret intrigues , or the rallying point of hidden conspirators . The Roman Collegiumanswering to the Greek " Sunarchia" "Etairia "

, , , " Sullogos , " Summoria , Koinor ., and to a certain extent Eranos , was a Societas or "corpus hominum , " as Cicero tells us , " Ut minimum ejusdem dignitatis numeris vel artis . Differt ab ordine qui plures complectitur , etc ., et significat certum hominum statum sive ii societate conjuncti sint sive non . " We find that the Collegium was also termed Consilium . " Agere causum apud Collegium" was to bring a matter before the Collegium . " Cooptare

, aliquem hi collegium " was to elect a joining or honorary member . " Recipere aliqnem in collegium " was to receive any one into the body . " Collegium coit , " the Collegium meets together . " Constituere Collegium" was to constitute a Collegium lawfully . " Collegia contra leges instituta dissolvuntur , "

alludes to the power of dissolving " Collegia Illicita ; " and hence the phrase " Illicitum Collegium coire usurpare " meant to meet or attend for unlawful purposes ; while " celebrare Collegium" was to attend lawfully for the purposes of a festal day , an alba dies . Many other allusions are to be found , and thus we gain an outline of their position and existence , but of their inner life we know little or nothing .

Vitruvius seems to acknowledge them , though he probably alludes rather to the " Collegium Architeotorum , " which is said also to have had a " secreta receptio , " and signs and words of greeting and recognition . We do not suppose that any who have read Findel , or Heldmann , or Schauberg , or Coote , or "Kenning ' s Cyclopasdia , " will find much that is new for them here , but , for the first time it isperhapsclearly set before usMasonicallywhat a living

, , , , institution the Collegium was among the Romans , as living and important as the Guilds in our mediaeval social existence , and of which we as yet know so little . The Roman Guilds which fell with the Roman empire , though they were revived at Byzantium , seem to have gradually become Christian , and the next we hear of them after the "Romanum opus , " is doing the " novum sedificandi genus" in Gaul , Germany , and England in the eleventh century .

Memoir Of Elias Ashmole.

MEMOIR OF ELIAS ASHMOLE .

[ As the attention of our readers has recentl y been called in the Magazine in Bro . W . H . Ryland ' s exhaustive paper to the Masonic connection of Ashmole with the Craft and his interesting Diary , it has been thought that a brief memoir of a somewhat remarkable man , a distinguished antiquary , and so far the earliest English Freemason known , may not prove unacceptable to the readers . — -ED . M . M . ~ ] "IVrO sketch of the earl y history of our modern or speculative system of

Free--L ' masony is complete without some reference to the circumstances attending the _ initiation into the mysteries of our Craft of this distinguished antiquary ; while no memoir of the antiquary himself would be regarded as satisfactory which