Masonic Notes And Queries.

CLERGY AND FREEMASONS IN THE MINORITY OF HENRY THE SIXTH . Anderson writes as follows of the Clergy and the Freemasons in the minority of King Henry the Sixth . " The illiterate Clergy , who were not accepted Masons nor understood architecture as the Clergy

of some former ages , were generally thought unworthy of the Brotherhood . Thinking they had an indefeasible right to know all secrets , by virtue of auricular confession , and the Masons never confessing any thing thereof , the said Clergy were highly offended , and representing them as dangerous to the State during that minority , soon influenced the Parliament to make the Act of the last day of April , 1425 . "*—C HARLES PuiiTOiV C OOPER .

REMARKS ON EARLY VOLUMES OF THE "FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . " Thanks to a London brother for a transcri p t of remarks upon early volumes of the "Freemasons ' Magazine . " I hope to make ample use of all of them

, those upon volumes one to six excepted . As mentioned in my communication " Count Zinzendorf ' s Order of the Mustard Seed , " " Freemasons' Magazine , " 18 th May , 1867 , volumes one to sis , were some time ago added to my collections in Lincoln ' s-inn Library . —CHARLES PUETOX COOPER .

PRONUNCIATION OF TIIE AA'ORD . The Jews are quite sure the true pronunciation of the Word is lost , and regard it as one of the mysteries to be revealed in the days of the Messiah . They hold , liowever , that the knowledge of the name of God does exist on earth , and he by whom the secret is acquired , has , by virtue of it , the powers of the

world at his command ; and they account for the miracles of Jesus , hy telling us that he had got possession of the Ineffable Name . Rightly understood , tbey seem to mean that he Avho calls jupon God rightly , by this his true name , cannot fail to be heard by him . In short , this word forms the famous tetragrammaton , or quadrilateral name , of which every one has heard . —Kitto .

CIVILISATION AND BARBARISM . Tho notion that the Kelts , Britons , Scandinavians , and Teutons had possessed no art at the time when they came into contact with the Romans was clearly contradicted by facts in the shape of a large number of monuments and works of art . These

Northmen were called barbarians by the Romans , but barbarism was an exceedingly relative term . These nations were eminently ' distinguished by their honesty , industry , economy and morality , and Avere in these respects far superior to the civilised Romans . But it was , unfortunately , only too often that nations

or tribes looked upon themselves as tbe only civilised beings , looking upon all outsiders as barbarians . The Chinese expressed great contempt for us , and we returned the compliment . To an E gyptian , an Egyptian was civilised ; to the Romans , only a Roman Avas _ entitled to respect . Thus the members of a particular nation despised other peoples , whose language they did not know , and of whose manners and

customs they were profoundly ignorant ; and by withdrawing themselves into a narrow circle checked the progress of civilisation . Ignorance ruined the ancient Romans . Wrapt in admiration of their own achievements , whether on the field , or in the Forum , in literature , or in art , they came to look upon the Northmenwho fought one with anotherand lived

, , simply and frugally , as mere nonentities . Had they hut condescended to make themselves acquainted with the fact that these men , though wearing coarse , home-spun linen , possessed excellent swords , spears , and battle-axes , all made of iron , and , better still , that they were gifted with indomitable courage , they

might have averted the terrible catastrophe which fell upon them . . . . Primitive Christianity was simple : the inscriptions contained in the Lapidarian Gallery in the Vatican at Rome being void of all prayers for the dead ; there were no addresses to the Apostles , Martyrs , earlier Saints , or the Tit-gin Mary , only one epitaph being fouud with the phrase : " Ora pro nobis . " —Building Hews , May 12 th , 1871 .

CONTRADICTION IN TERMS . An Entered Apprentice writes , that on his initiation , the Bible was recommended to his most sincere contemplation as a Freemason , aud he was -charged to consider it as the unerring standard of truth and justiceand to regulate his actions by the Divine

, precepts it contains . What then , asks my young brother , is the signification of the assertion , that " to talk of Christian Freemasonry is a contradiction in terms ? " *—CHARLES PURTON COOPER .

THE AA'ORD AND CEREMONIES OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS . The secret Word Avhich the associated hrethren used among themselves for purposes of mutual recognition and confirmation was Maran-atlia , " The Lord will come . " They fancied that they remembered

a declaration of Jesus , according to which their preaching would not have time to reach all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man appeared in his majesty . Baptism was the sign of entrance into the sect . The rite was the same in form as the baptism of John , but it was administered in the name of

Jesus . Baptism was liowever considered an insufficient initiation into the Society . It should be followed by a conferring of the gifts of the Hol y Spirit , which Avas produced by means of a prayer pronounced by the apostles over the head of the neophyte with the imposition of hands . This imposition of hands already so familiar to Jesus ( Matthew xix ., 13 , Mark x ., 16 , Luke iv ., 40 ) , Avas the crowning sacramental act . —B .

THE LANDMARKS , Pago 3 SG . I Avould seriously beseech the editor of the " Keystone " to get , and carefully peruse , some of the back numbers of the " Freemasons' Magazine " before he favours us with any more such Solomonic productions as we see at page 386 . fie and such as he ought to know by this time what is true ancl what is false . If we followed what existed two centuries ago we would only have a word , and as to our degrees and ceremonies , Avhere would they be ?—W . P . B .