Masonic Notes And Queries.

Noviciate Knight by actual attendance at certain meetings . This rule was followed by the High Council of England , under Waller Eodwell Wright ( vide p . 35 of the "Sketch . " ) The ceremonial of " professing " Knightsaud the reception of Grand Crosses were

, both conducted in secret , and the traditional account of the ori gin of the Order was delivered to the members upon these occasions . The constitution of the Order of Constantino will thus he found to differ

essentiall y from that of any similar Order of Knighthood ; inasmuch as the right to confer the " Eed Cross " was not restricted to the" Grand Master , but was also a prerogative of the Grand Crosses . I am quite aware that tlie Order was not originally confined to Freemasons ; and I believe that a reference to the context in page 27 of the " Sketch " will show

that the observations therein apply only to the TSnglish Branch , whose existence I have now traced back for neariy 110 years , approximating the period of the Abbe Giuistiniani ' s decease in 1735 . I am also perfectly willing to admit that , as a Masonic institution , it is in much the same category as the Order of the Temple , the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre , or the Hospitallers of St . John of Jerusalem .

I will now allude only to one more point in " Lupus ' s " communication : — " Did the Committee , of which H . B . H . the Duke of Sussex was President , in 1 S 13 , decide upon using the regalia of the public foreign Orders , or has the appropriation been recent ? " To this I beg to reply that I have in my

possession a cross which was worn during the Duke ' s Grand Mastership , and with the exception of the position of certain letters , it is identical with the cross now worn in the Priestl y Order of Eusebius . Bro . C . Greenwood , Prov . G . Sec . for Surrey , also remembers his father wearing a Eed Cross jewel of similar design .

The " " regalia" is therefore not new , nor is the Order itself , as UOAV practised in England , quite the modern invention some persons would fain believe . It will probably surprise many to hear that , since 1862 , the propriety of re-establishing the Masonic Order has occupied the minds of influential Masons ,

and that inquiries were made in the Freemasons ' Magazine in the year named , as to the " degree called the Red Cross of Constantino . " See No . 179 , page 446 , and the editorial reply then given was , I am sorry to say , erroneous , viz . -. — " It is the same known in America as Knihts of the Eed Cross

g Several brethren in England say they can g ive it , but it is questionable . . . . " We know of no competent jurisdiction for whom you might receive it . " This answer was incorrect in the first place , as the Eed Cross Order conferred in America as a preliminary to Templar Knighthood is not a Christian

degree , but is commemorative of certain events in thc history of Darius , Kiug of Persia . Secondly , at the date of the repl y ( December 6 , 1 SG 2 ) several members of the English Order were living , from one of whom I received the ritual of our first grade ; and , thirdly , in accordance with the Constitutions of the Orderas

, now embodied in the Statutes ( see page 14 ) , so long as a single member ofthe Orderremaiued iu existences " competent jurisdiction " also existed for perpetuating the institution , provided he should deem it advisable .

The Freemasons' Magazine is replete with passages which prove that the Order has hardly ever been in abeyance in England—see a " Templar ' s Certificate , 1830 , " page 302 " , No . 221 , in which it is stated that a Templar , the owner of the certificate , was " subsequently admitted a Kniht of the Eed Cross aud of

g the Order of Malta , " and upon this certificate were placed the letters of the Christian Order ( not the Persian degree ) , which , with the Cross therein mentioned , appertain to the Order of Constantino and to no other . * I annex the Cross described . I have

also a Templar certificate of more recent date ( at present lent to a friend ) , iu which the Eed Cross degree is recorded as having been conferred upon the brother named therein . The " Priestly Order " was also given in the same Encampmentat Manchesterand doubtless by

, , brethren , who , rather than allow the Eed Cross degrees to become extinct , preferred working them under Templar warrants—the certificates to Avhich I allude being diplomas from private encampments . Indeed , a writer in the Magazine , , who , I sincerely trust , is alive and able to answer for himself , wrote

thus in No . 1 S 4 , 10 th January , 1 S 63 : — " Apparently the following legend ( viz ., that of the Order of the Thistle ) is only another version of the vision of Constantino , and as the Templars were a military Order of Speculative Masons , and connected with the Order of Constantinothe coincidence cannot be accidental & c . "

, , See also ' a communication from a distinguished Mason , Bro . D . Murray Lyon , on Scottish Templary , No . 195 , 28 th March , 1863 , in which he states that : " Under the charters granted by the Grand Priory of Scotland , subordinate priories are permitted to form themselves into Masonic encampments or chapters of

Knights of the Sed Gross of Constantino , & c . ' ' Time will not permit me to add much more at present , but I hope enough has been said to demonstrate that the re-organized Grand Council of Eugland , now held under Lord Kenlis , was not tire first to introduce the Masonic element into the ceremonies

of the Eed Cross Order . We have simply accepted them as a united series , and revised only those portions which might possibly conflict Avith other chivalric rituals .

In promoting the re-establishment of the Order , we have been actuated solely by the desire to place before those brethren whose tastes are in consonance with our own , a ceremonial of Masonic knighthood , -which is at least as ancient as any on record , Avhoae vows are simple , and whose teachings are sound . The result of the attempt is that the Order is now based upon a firm foundation , and we may safely confide its destinies to the impartial and intelligent verdict of our brethren in Freemasonry . —E . W . L .