Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

CTXT COMPANIES AND EEEEMASONBT . Does not the fact of there being Worshipful Masters , Prime Wardens , Senior Wardens , Master Wardens , Junior Wardens , Second Wardens , & c , in various city companies show where Preemasonry took the idea of its principal lodge officers ?—W . G . C . —[ If you advocate that most visionary of

all fallacies , the Guild theory of tbe origin of Freemasonry , there ma } ' be something in the similarity of names but beyond the bare likeness of such titles there is no reason to suppose any identity between them . AVe know Freemasonry to be older than any existing guild , or " art and mystery" of trade .

Perhaps the very words " art and mystery " will lead you to infer there must he a greater resemblance than many suppose ; this , however , is not the fact . In the middle ages every handicraft was reckoned an art and it was likewise a mystery because it was secret , or confined to those who had learned it by regular

apprenticeship , and when that period had expired and the aspirant could show proof ' s of his proficiency he was advanced to the dignity of a master , on his own account , and declared free of his craft . ' Now

Preemasonry in the middle ages was nothing of the kind . It was a secret society having political , religious , and social development for its particular object . Then it was called Love . The doctrine of Platonic love turned the heads of half the schoolmen in Europe , and that was the Freemasonry of the times before guilds or companies existed . The

resuscitation of the Craft in 1716 was opening it to the middle classes . These middle classes were interested in tbe trading communities represented by the city companies—the successors of the trading guilds—and as Freemasonry knew no such officers as Wardens , in its earlier career in England , it is not improbable

that Anderson , Payne , Desaguliers , & c , being men of standing , were often at city festivities , if some of them were not actual members of existing companies , and that they remodelled Freemasonry so as to make it assimilate with the middle-class institutions of their clay . We know they used the language of some of

our British classics iu the revised ritual and what so likely to he their plan as to borrow titles familiar to the condition of life from which many of the Freemasons , of the eighteenth century were chosen . ]

NO CYPHER . Ton are reckoned good at reading cyphers . A brother has given me the following . Please unriddle it , and favour—J . B . AE . . TBBI . . . NGS . . 'JO .. NE . . 1 " . . OEA . . SS . . ES . [ The above is no cypher . Tell the brother who gave it you we never require such a stone . The length of

his ears may render it invaluable to him . ] TUB THEEE DEGREES . A LANDMARK . The three degrees are one of the ancient landmarks of the Craft . The English Grand Lodge says the three degrees including tho hol y lloyal Arch . The Grand Lodge of Scotland excludes the Eoyal Arch

. The Grand Lodge of Ireland also excludes the latter . The Grand Orient of Prance does not know the Eoyal Arch , but includes seven degrees . Some German Grand Lodges adopt three and no more , others include a variety of degrees . Wliich is right , and who breaks one of the landmarks ?—* * * .

GREEN . Is green a Masonic colour ?—SPES . —[ All colours are Masonic under various rites . Green , red , and white composed the symbolic prism by which the early Ereemasons were wont to recognise their opponents . ]

INSTALLED MASTEE . There are several opinions afloat as to the modern origin of the degree of an Installed Master . Without offering any conjecture of my own , I should be glad if some of your readers would tell me when was the degree of Installed Master of a lodge first instituted ?

HIGH PRIESTHOOD . " Past Z ., " at page 208 , Sept . 17 , 1864 , asks is the High Priesthood a Royal Arch or a Knight Templar degree ? In the Eoyal Arch chapters of other rites than the English , the Pirsi Principal is the High Priest , and the order of High Priests consists of tiiose who have held this office . Where the rite is fully

observed the order of High Priests has its own ritual , and the installation takes place by High Priests , as in the Craft lodges the W . M . is installed by Installed Masters . In the United States , where there are many High Priests , chapter of High Priests are common . It is often called a side degree of the Eoyal

Arch , but it is an essential part of the American ritual . It becomes a side degree when , as in some cases , it is given abusively to companions who have not been elected to the first chair of a chapter . —H . P .

ITALIAN MASONET . What rite is worked by the lodges of the Grand Lodge of Italy ? Is it alleged to be a modification of the Eit Ecossais . Is it the fact that this Grand-Lodge lately sent round a circular to all its lodges requesting subscriptions for the insurgents of Priuli ? Has it constituted a Grand Lodge for Hungary , of the Hungarian refugees , with General Turr as G . M . ? Does it celebrate Masonic baptism?—QUERIST .

ATJSTEIA . Some short time ago there was a remark in the PEEEMASONS MAGAZINE that a German Kalendar of Masonry said nothing of lodges in Austria . The reason is that Masonry has been under the ban since the reign of Joseph II ., and that there is no regular jurisdiction . Masonry ishoweverkept up chiefly

, , by the action of the members of the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Eite , exercising their functions , and by the numbers of Austrians initiated abroad , wherever there is an opportunity . There are known to be lodges in Vienna , Pesth , Prague , and Triestebut the proceedings are kept very secret on

, account of the bitter hostility of the police , civil and ecclesiastical . It will be interesting to know what is the present condition of Alasonry in Eussia . Many Eussians have , of late years , been initiated abroad . — A . AND A .

XNIGjrJDI / X NOTES . In the old PEEEMASONS MAGAZINE , for 1794 , are the twn following very characteristic letters which ought to be remembered by our present K . ' s T .: — " Extract of a circular letter from the Graud Master of the relig ious and military Order of Knights Templars in England , to the chapters of that confraternity .