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© entente . - PAGE . FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE : — Masonic Red Cross Order and the Imperial Constantmian Order of St . George—By R ., 33 ° 61 History of Freemasonry in Worcestershire 6 _ Grand Lodge Fund of Benevolence 66 Freemasonry in France—BPictus 68

y Music-at Lodge Meetings 69 Masonic Jottings—No . 20 69 Alasonic Notes and Queries 70 Correspondence .... ' . 70 Alasonic Sayings aud Doings Abroad 73 MASONIC AIIRROE : — Masonic Moms 74 Lodof Benevolence 74

ge CBAPT LODGE MEETIKGS : — Metropolitan _ . 74 Provincial 74 Scotland 78 Ireland , 78 Royal Arch 78 Mark Masonry 78 Knights Templar 79

Masonic Festivities . ' . 79 Obituary 80 List of Lodge , & c ., Meetings for ensuing week 80 To Correspondents 80

Masonic Red Cross Order And The Imperial Constantnian Order Of Saint George.

MASONIC RED CROSS ORDER AND THE IMPERIAL CONSTANTNIAN ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE .

By E ., 33 ° . Ifc lias been very much the custom , amongst historical writers , to quote intermediate authorities instead of the original , and few think of referring to the Byzantine authors themselves , since Gibbon

has stood the test of a century of searching criticism . But unfortunately for the public , the Abbe Giustiniani has not been subjected to the latter ordeal , and in consequence , his errors have been copied by subsequent writers , with a

confidence quite surprising . In his Avork * now before me , the Abbe gives a remarkable list , of the succession of forty-two emperors and princes , who were Grand Masters of the Imperial Constantmian Order of St . George .

but few of the names are known to history , and it does seem remarkable , that , when a dignity is hereditary , and not the reward of public services which latter , are generally recompensed late in life , their imputed Grand Masters should startle

statisticians , with a display of longevity , f notoriously at variance , ivith all well-known authen . treated records , of the average duration of life amongst the nobility of the feudal ages , and

without a parallel , in any other history , since that of the Mosaic Patriarchs . But the truth is "Giovanni Andrea Angelo Flavio Comneno . " Avho figures as the forty-second ancl last of this succession of Grand Masters , represented

a family , of which Du Cange gives the names only of six * chiefs , under the heading , " Angeli de Drivasto . "

The Giustinianian hypothesis is this , that amongst the many ¦ Byzantine families , that took refuge , on the fall of Constantinople , in those islands of the Grecian Archipelago , held by the Venetians and Genoese , Avas that of the Angeli—¦

subsequently settled in Italy , where ( having however , be it observed , been totally ignored , aud unmentioned , during the first century after their imputed immigration ) in 15-1-5—Pope Paul III ., ( Alexander Earnese ) settled on Joannes Andreas

Angelus , a pension of 100 golden ducats a mouth ; and this liberality , so tardy it may be thought , was imitated by Pope Julius III ., who added to the pension , a country seat . But the Angeli , Ave are taught to believe ,

finding it incumbent , on them to produce documentary evidence of their pretensions , substantially conserved the facts , that Constantino the Great was the

founder of the Imperial Byzantine Order ; and that Isaac Angelus , and Michael Pakeologus , had attached the dignity of Grand Master , to the exclusive family of the former , from which they claimed a lineal male descent—That these

pretensions Avere duly registered at Rome , June -30 th . 1533 , by Vasque de Ulloa—That Paul III . having examined these documents , ancl—beingpossibly an infallible authority in such mattersformally declared , that the Angeli de Drivasto were

the veritable descendants of those Emperors , whom they asserted , to be their ancestors ; and that the right to confer the Order , founded by their ancestors , Avas hereditary in their fami . ' y—That Julius III . in a Bull dated 1568 , confirmed

the authority of his predecessor ; and that Urban VIII . by another Bull , dated in 1626 , afiirmed the same judgment .

It is a matter of history that , during tho first century , after the fall of the Byzantine empire , and when the detection oi imposture would have been comparatively easy , the Palceologi were fully recognised , while of the Angeli nothing was

LONDON , SATURDAY , JZTLT 23 . 1670 .