Correspondence.

has all along been a standing protest against the unhistorical notions and foolish dreams of our wouldbe Masonic teachers , and the fact of the above quotation being recorded by Bro . Dr . Mackey in his Lexicon affords a curious instance of " seeing and not perceiving . " Gentlemen ivere admitted into the old

operative Masonic societies before 1717 ; but the question is—What were they admitted into ? To which , of course , the answer is—They were admitted into an operative Mason ' s society . Then another question arises—Did they then aud there receive the doctrines and degrees of speculative Freemasonry ?

To which the answer is—They did not receive any such doctrines and degrees before 1717 , for until 1717 Ereemasonry did not exist as an exponent of the doctrines and ideas of speculative Masonry . Consequently , operative Masonry , with its practices and ideas , was something different from speculative

Ereemasonry and its practices ancl ideas . Judaism existed before the time of Christ , and Christ was a Jew . However , Christ instituted Christianity ; consequently , although there are ideas common to both Judaism and Christianity , yet Christianity is not so old as Judaism . Again , Mahomedanism has ideas

common to both Christianity and Judaism , yet it was not instituted until the time of Mahomet . So with speculative Ereemasonry , although there are some ideas in it common to both it and operative Masonry , yet it is not therefore so old as operative Masonry ] STo , for just as Christ instituted Christianitor

y , Mahomet originated Mahomedanism , so did Messrs . Desaguliers & Co . ori ginate and institute speculative Freemasonry about A . D . 1717 . Yours fraternally , W . P . BUCHAN .

CONSTANTINIAJST ORDER . 10 THE EDI . OE 03 ? THE PEEEMASO-fS' MAGAZINE AUD MASONIC 5 IIEB 0 E . Dear Sir and Brother , —So obvious are the replies to the questions put to me b y " Historians , " that it is with considerable hesitation that I venture to occupy your space . The modern custom of Royal Houses

is so well known , that , by way of reply to the first question propounded , it may be as well to adduce a more ancient example , and that taken from the Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders . When Philip I . de Courtenay , the first Titular French Emperor of Constantinople ( R . 1272—85 )

[ who was only child of Baldwin II . de Courtenav ( E . 1237—1272 ) , the sixth and last French Emperor of Constantinople ] died in the year A . D . 1285 , his only child , Catherine de Courtenay , was recognised as Titular Empress , and on her marriage iu 1301 with Charles of France , Count de Yalois , third son of

Philip III . le Hardi , King of France , and of Isabella of Arragon , she transmitted to him , and being his wife shared , the title of Titular Emperor of Constantinople ; on her death it passed in , 1308 , to their only child , Catherine de Valois , who transmitted it again on her marriage ( A . D . 1313 ) to her husband

, Philip IL , of Sicily , Prince of Tarentum , whose recognised right to the title was inherited again by her on his death in 1332 , and on her death in 1346 , by her eldest son Robert IL , who prior to this was qualified— " Prince of Achaia and of Tarentum ,

Despot of Romania , and Count of Cephalonia and Zante , " and who enjoyed the title of Emperor of Constantinople from , the year 1346 to 1364 , when dying without issue he was succeeded by his younger brother , Philip III . ( R . 1364—74 ) , who also dying childless the title passed to bis sister Marguerite ' s

son , James des Baux , Duke d'Andrie , sixth and last Titular French Emperor of Constantinople . In the same way , Theodora Pakeologina being the only child and heiress of Theodorus Palaeologus ( by his wife Exdoxia Comnena , see Notes and Queries , 3 rd S . VII . p . 403 & 506 ) sixth Titular Emperor of

, , the Byzantine Empire ( of a race expelled by a foreign usurping government , which remains still the worst in the whole world , forced upon a people who have never mingled or ever will ) , she succeeded to the title and transmitted it to her descendants . Even had she died unmarried , the title of Titular Emperor

would have been inherited by the head of the House of Rhodocanaki as the next heir to the dignity after her family ; indeed , so peculiarly strong are the rights of that House in this respect , that we might , in an imaginary way , dispose similarly of a score of claim ., by alliance , and revert to their oldest—that ¦ of

descent from the Coustantinian House of Ducas . " Historicus " might just as appropriately ask me why Queen Yietoria , being a female , could inherit tbe British Throne or transmit it to our newly made brother , Albert Edward Prince of Wales ; or , again , why Queen Isabella , of Spain conveyed a few weeks ago the succession of Titular King of Spain , to the Prince of Asturias and his descendants . In reply to the second question put to me by

" Historicus , " as to the derivation of the first part of the name of _ Eliodoeana 7 cis from Ultodoc ; I must refer him to Byzantine coins and inscrip tions of the period , where he can ascertain for himself that the letter s was always written as c ; and as to the second part , Anales , the Greek letter , H ( in Latin and English , X ) ,

was written then usually with two letters—K and S . The same occurs with the letter T , which was then written—P . and S . All this was clearly enough shown iu the article . The words Anales (* Ava {) and Tasileus ( "BatriXeis ) "have both the same meaning , as can he seen by opening any Greek Lexicon .

"Historicus " is well aware that the word Emperor is derived from the Latin , Imperator , the Greek equivalent in later times being Autocrator ( AiroKpaTop ) . In England there are scores of names , whose derivations are well established , which have been spelt in a dozen different ways .

Lastly , there is not any special history of the Kings of Rhodes , of the family of Rhodocanakis , but the various events of their history are scattered over the pages of the Byzantine historians and oi' those of Western Europe who wrote on that Empire . My brother who ives himself the title of " Historicus "

g , ought surel y to he well acquainted with the works of the Byzantine historians ( Corpus Scriptorum Historias Byzantina . ) , published in Paris , 1644—1711 . 36 vols ., in folio : Venice , 1722—33 , in folio ; and Bohn , 1828—55 , in Svo ., together with the rest of the writers of the Middle Ages . If , however

, " Historicus " insists upon having the title of every work necessary to a thorough elucidation of the subject , I will even take the trouble to send on to you for publication a list of a couple of hundred books