Antiquity Of The Craft.

prevalent in the Craft , also , were used by them in ancient time , a Strang line of demonstration is established , that , in the absence of actual proof of their modern introduction , would appear conclusive .

After the labours of modern scholars , it will hardly be denied that many of our symbols can be traced backward through Gothic Cathedrals and Templar edifices , as well as through Rosicrucian writers , to an era where modern civilisation

takes its departure from the ancient ; and , through other channels , the same symbols can be followed into cognate connection with the speculative mataDhysics of the era of the Jewish Captivity . This is no idle whim : there are identities and

similarities which blend into a chain of considerable and growiug plausibility , sufficiently so to make the continued investigation a matter of much interest with many scholars . It is difficult to trace anything through the dark ages which

followed the decay of the Roman Empire , until the Crusades brought Greek literature , and the Spanish Moors brought Arab science , into Europe . Through these channels a rich flood of learning

poured , which , like all that came from the holy East , was grasped at with avidity . Oriental , Jewish , and Arab doctors , deeply instructed in

the mystic metaphysics of the Hebrew Kabbala , came as teachers of medicine , alchemy , astrology , and the cognate sciences . Leaders of the Church , like Albertat Magnus and St . Thomas Aquinas , no less than laymen , like Yilleneuve and Cordova ,

drank at their fountains . Under the new instruction they sought the philosopher's stone , the influence of the stars on human fortune , and the elixir of life ; and from the Kabbala they drew the power of numbers , and the occult meaning ,

included in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures . These men had societies , with initiations , where knowledge , held as a sacred trust , was , little by little , revealed to those proved worthy to receive it . Vigils and purifications were demanded of

the candidate . The firmness of his nerves , the strength of his faith , were first ascertained ; an ascetic virtue was needed to fit him to receive light . These were the Rosicrucian societies . Their

tenets were equally compatible with a liberal orthodoxy in Christian , Hebrew , and Arab faith . Regarding their secret initiations , we know

from Cornelius Agrippa ' s letters that in 1508-9 he was in a secret society devoted to these studies . We know , also , that the formulas of initiation , purification , and light , are set out in the Idra Rabba which , as a part of the Zohar , had

been introduced by the Rabbi Moise ben Nacham into Spain before his death , A . D . 1300 , and continued to be the delight of the learned . ( See Frank Kab . 93 . ) The rules and principles , restricting these initiations in Kabbalistic learning ,,

are given with great particularity in his Zohar . Two persons could not be received at the same time , nor instructed at once ; and , in the metaphysics of the " Mercaba , " one could not receive the whole instruction at once , but little by little .

Progress was by degrees ; and the upper grades were only reached at extreme age , through merit , and by very few . This Kabbalistic Rosicrucianism is , at least , as early as Avicennes' time in Europe . From the vigorous way its secrecy was

guarded , the public , though knowing much of the savants , seem to have known far less of their secret organisation than they now know of Masonry . This is not strange . The dangers that beset secret organisations and liberal opinions in

a despotic age need not be stated here . The-Inquisition prowled on the scent for heresy . Renchlin and Cornelius Agrippa , expounding the mirific word , risked like perils for metaphysical with those Galileo encountered for scientific

discovery . Some protection men of letters could obtain from liberal , curious , and learned churchmen ; but for a secret lay society , with human aspirations , the feudal power had no velvet on its cruel paw . Even the church could not avert the swift extermination , by the feudal despots , of all such dabbers when discovered . The fate those

poor soldiers of the Cross , —the Knights Templar , —met from Philip the Fair , shows how unutterably more savage than the church was the despotic prince , who saw in every secret society a conspiracy against his state , and in every generous thought a war against the divine right of thrones . What was said had to be so

cautiously guarded , separated , and concealed in connection and purpose , that , although it might be clear to the initiates , it should be utterly unintelligible to profane curiosity . We catch among the guarded writers of this age , many veiled allusions , which indicate the existence of these societies , their symbols , and fragments of doc-