Masonic Facts.

MASONIC FACTS .

LONDON , SATVJLDAS , APHID 20 , 1862 .

( Continued from page 302 . ) 181 . The foundation-stone of tiie present cathedral of Cologne was laid hy Archbishop Conrad on the 14 th August , 1248 , at a dejith , according to Boisseree , of above 44 feet below the surface . There were present on the occasion the papal legate , many ,

bishops , dukes , counts , with William of' Holland , and the flower of his army , and the chief burghers of the town . Cologne at the time was besieged , but a truce of three days was granted by mutual consent . After the stone was laid , Conrad read a letter from the Pope , granting indulgence from church diseijiline of a year and forty days to all penitents contributing to the work .

The name of the designer is buried in the secret depths of that stupendous monument , but the honour is generally supposed to be clue to Meister Gerhard , who was the first Dom Meister . Cologne Cathedral contains the celebrated tomb of " The Three Kings" CasparMelchoirancl Balthazar

, , , , whose bones were brought from Milan , after the capture of that city hy Prederie Barbarossa . The initials C . M . B . are found to this day over the doors of inns in many parts of Carinthia ancl Pranconia . Much English money helped in the building of the Cathedralgiven to it bEichard of Cornwall

, y , brother of Henry III ., who was crowned by Archbishop Conrad as King of the Eomans at Aix-Ia-Chapelle , aud offered largely at the Tomb of the "Three Kings . "

The choir was consecrated on 27 th September , 1322 , being the 450 th anniversary of the consecration of the Cathedral erected by Charlemagne . Ashes were strewn upon the pavement , and the Archbishop wrote in them with his sceptre all the letters of the alphabet . Prom the south-east to the north-west he wrote' Greek letters ; from the north-east to the north-west he wrote Latin letters ; thus forming a cross saltier X .

The bones of the Three Kings were then brought in with great pomp , and the Archbishop laid the first stone of the magnificent shrine which was to contain them ; above which , in due time , a gilt star was placed at the top end of the choir . Around the choir clustered seven chapels , unique then as now .

A . few years ago M . Boisseree discovered at an inn at Darmstadt the original design for the northern tower . An excellent hcmsfrau had pounced upon it , being a magnificent piece of parchment , ancl nailed it on to a stretcher for the purpose of drying beans , in which

capacit y it was found by a scene painter engaged in getting up an arch of triumph for some festival of volunteers . The fact ' was instantly communicated to - ¦ " ¦• Boisseree , who lost no time in purchasing the precious relic . The drawing is 13 feet by 3 feet 2 inches , beautifully and delicately executed in ink , and comprises ' , the northern tower from the base to the top of the spire , with more than half of the western gable .

The general dimensions of Cologne Catheral are said to have been fixed by multiples of 7 . ( 20 + 3 ) x 7 = 161 , interior breadth of choir . ( 30 -t- 3 ) x 7 — 231 , apex of roof unci breadth of interior . ( 70 + G ) x 7 = 5 ' 12 , height of western tower and length of interior . It is said , that these dimensions are engraved on a

stone in the Cathedral . Can any brother confirm this statement , and give an explanation of why 3 should be added to 20 , to obtain the breadth of the choir , and 6 added to 70 for the heighth of the tower ( Pig . 53 ) . 182 . A church was built at Yerulam about A . V .

300 to commemorate the martyrdom of St . Alban ; Bede says , it " was of admirable workmanship and worthy of the purpose for which it was designed . " — Hisloria Fcclesiasticce , lib . i . cap . 7 . Bede also mentions a church of stone built by Bishop JSTinian , at Candida Casa , now Withern , in Scotland , about . A . D . 488 .

1 S 3 . Matthew of "Westminster says , that Anrelius Ambrosius repaired the churches in Britain in 488 , after having assembled artificers , masons , ancl cai--penters for that purpose ; and in 522 a council was summoned at York by King Arthur to consider ecclesiastical affairs , in which the decayed state of

the churches was attended to , and measures were adopted for restoring them . " Anno Gratia ) 4 SS , Aurelius Ambrosius cum per Britanniam nostes qua _ rendo transitum faeerat , inventin Ecclesias ad solum usque destructas unde vehementer condoluit . Accersitis itacrae artificibus

ca-inentariis , et lignariis , aedificia divina a reparare curavit . Dispositio ergo in eis presbyteris et clericus . divinum obsequim ad statum debitum revocavit . "Flares Historim-tvm , Franc . 1601 , p . 91 . _ " An . gr . 522 , Per idem tempus cum rex Arthurusrivitatem Eboroci esset ingressus instante nativitatis "

domini die visa sacrarum Ecclesiarum desolatione , vehementer condoluit , ubi convocato clero et populo ; Pir anno capellano suo Arehiepiscopatus sedem concessit Ecclesias per totam Britanniam destructas renovat , nobilesque regni Saxonibus expulsos i-evocat , terras eis et possessiones paternas affluentur subministrat . " —Ibid . p . 98 .

184 . It is repeatedly observed of the buildings erected by Wilfrid ancl Benedict , that they were built " more Eomano vel Eomanorum ; " that , is in the manner of the Eomans . —E . Hagulst , De Statu Feclesice , lib . i . cap . 3 .

185 . The custom of building churches east and west ig almost peculiar to England ,- and in the MS . collection of Aubrey , 1678 , preserved in the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford , there is one entitled " Aubrey on Gentilisin and Judaism , " which contains the following : — " In the old time when they were to huild churches , they

watched and prayed all night on the vigil of the dedication , ancl took that point of the horizon where the sun arose for the east . So that few stand true , except those built between the two equinoxes . I have experimented some churches , and have found the line to point to that part of the horizon where

the . sun rises on the day of that Saint to Avhom the church is dedicated . " And , again , in the Introduction to the Sxirvey of North Wiltshire , printed in Aubrey ' s Miscellanies , 1714 , p . 33 , we read , " The night before the dedica-