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  • April 1, 1881
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The Masonic Magazine, April 1, 1881: Page 14

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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Mysticism.

MYSTICISM .

BY MASONIC STUDENT . ( Concluded from page 373 ) . IF I have well explained the teaching set forth above , we shall be able to understand by what meansside by side with the orthodox churchthere

, , was developed , uninterruptedly , a school half religious and half philosophical ; which , fertile doubtless in heresy , but often accepted or tolerated by the Catholic clergy , kept up a certain spirit of mysticism or of supernaturalism , necessary for brooding or nervous imaginations , as to certain natures more disposed than others to spiritualistic ideas . The converted Jews were the first who httowards the end of the eleventh centuryto infuse into Catholicism

soug , , certain hypotheses founded on the interpretation of the bible , and going up to the doctrines of the Essenes and the Gnostics . Near this epoch it is that the word "Cabala" frequently abounds in theolog ical discussions . There is mixed up with it naturally something of the p latonic formuhe of the Alexandrian School , of which a good deal had already been reproduced in the doctrines of the fathers of the church .

The prolonged contact of Christianity with the East during the Crusades brought back , in addition , a great number of analogous ideas , which for the matter of that found easily a basis for themselves in the traditions and local superstitions of the European nations . The Templars were , among the Crusaders , those who endeavoured to realize the most extended alliance between oriental ideas and those of Roman

Christianity . In the desire to establish a link between their order and the ignorant populations they were charged to govern , they laid the foundation of a sort of new dogma , which seemed to share in all the religions practised by the Levantines , without abandoning entirely the catholic synthesis , but making it bend to the necessities of their position . Here were the foundations of Freemasonry * which belonged to analagous institutionsestablished bthe

, , y Mussulmans and divers sects , and which still have survived all persecution , especially in Persia , and in Lebanon and The Hauran . The most strange p henomenon and the most exaggerated of these oriental associations was the celebrated order of the "Assassins . " The nation of the Druses and of the Ansayrii are to-day those which retain the last vestiges of it .

The Templars were soon accused of having set up one of the most terrible heresies which Christianity had yet had to face . Persecuted and at last destroyed by the united efforts of the Papacy and various monarchies , 'they had for them the intelligent classes and a great number of distinguished intellects , all of whom constituted then , as against the abuses of feudalism , what we should call to-day " The opposition . " From these ashes cast to the winda mystical and philosophical institution

, had its birth , which greatly influenced that first moral and reli gious revolution which was called among the people of the north " Reform , " and of the south " Philosophy . " Reform was yet to take possession both of the safety as well as the religion of Christianity ; philosophy , on the contrary , became little by little its opponent , and acting specially among the nations which had remained established , there were soon two severed divisions of the unbelievers and the believers

“The Masonic Magazine: 1881-04-01, Page 14” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 23 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmg/issues/mmg_01041881/page/14/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
HISTORY OF THE AIREDALE LODGE, No. 387, Article 1
THE PRESENT POSITION OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CRITICISM. Article 6
CURIOUS LIST OF LODGES, A.D. 1736. Article 8
AUTUMN. Article 13
MYSTICISM. Article 14
WAS SHAKESPEARE A FREEMASON ? Article 15
A TWILIGHT SONG ON THE RIVER FOWEY. Article 19
A TALE OF VENICE IN 1781. Article 20
A NEW HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY. Article 21
OLD BOOKS. Article 24
SPRING. Article 29
CONISHEAD PRIORY. Article 30
LITERARY GOSSIP. Article 34
FAITH AND LOVE. Article 36
AFTER ALL. Article 36
NURSERY DECORATION AND HYGIENE. Article 41
BRO. THOMAS TOPHAM, THE STRONG MAN. Article 43
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Mysticism.

MYSTICISM .

BY MASONIC STUDENT . ( Concluded from page 373 ) . IF I have well explained the teaching set forth above , we shall be able to understand by what meansside by side with the orthodox churchthere

, , was developed , uninterruptedly , a school half religious and half philosophical ; which , fertile doubtless in heresy , but often accepted or tolerated by the Catholic clergy , kept up a certain spirit of mysticism or of supernaturalism , necessary for brooding or nervous imaginations , as to certain natures more disposed than others to spiritualistic ideas . The converted Jews were the first who httowards the end of the eleventh centuryto infuse into Catholicism

soug , , certain hypotheses founded on the interpretation of the bible , and going up to the doctrines of the Essenes and the Gnostics . Near this epoch it is that the word "Cabala" frequently abounds in theolog ical discussions . There is mixed up with it naturally something of the p latonic formuhe of the Alexandrian School , of which a good deal had already been reproduced in the doctrines of the fathers of the church .

The prolonged contact of Christianity with the East during the Crusades brought back , in addition , a great number of analogous ideas , which for the matter of that found easily a basis for themselves in the traditions and local superstitions of the European nations . The Templars were , among the Crusaders , those who endeavoured to realize the most extended alliance between oriental ideas and those of Roman

Christianity . In the desire to establish a link between their order and the ignorant populations they were charged to govern , they laid the foundation of a sort of new dogma , which seemed to share in all the religions practised by the Levantines , without abandoning entirely the catholic synthesis , but making it bend to the necessities of their position . Here were the foundations of Freemasonry * which belonged to analagous institutionsestablished bthe

, , y Mussulmans and divers sects , and which still have survived all persecution , especially in Persia , and in Lebanon and The Hauran . The most strange p henomenon and the most exaggerated of these oriental associations was the celebrated order of the "Assassins . " The nation of the Druses and of the Ansayrii are to-day those which retain the last vestiges of it .

The Templars were soon accused of having set up one of the most terrible heresies which Christianity had yet had to face . Persecuted and at last destroyed by the united efforts of the Papacy and various monarchies , 'they had for them the intelligent classes and a great number of distinguished intellects , all of whom constituted then , as against the abuses of feudalism , what we should call to-day " The opposition . " From these ashes cast to the winda mystical and philosophical institution

, had its birth , which greatly influenced that first moral and reli gious revolution which was called among the people of the north " Reform , " and of the south " Philosophy . " Reform was yet to take possession both of the safety as well as the religion of Christianity ; philosophy , on the contrary , became little by little its opponent , and acting specially among the nations which had remained established , there were soon two severed divisions of the unbelievers and the believers

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