Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Antiquities, Documents, &C. Jerusalem Encampment, Manchester.
MASONIC ANTIQUITIES , DOCUMENTS , & c . JERUSALEM ENCAMPMENT , MANCHESTER .
Information Collected on the Ancient York Rite by JOHN YARKEB , Junr . P . M . ; P . M . M - ; P . Z . ; K . T . Pt . ; P . E . C . ; ROSE ? £ , & c . & c . P . Grand Vice-Chancellor of Cheshire , and P . Grand Constable , or Mareschal , of England .
fHE General object of these papers will be to develop some of the particulars of the old York Rite , Avhilst the details , hoAveA r cr minute , will interest members of this particular Encampment ; and though there is every probability that the information may not be of much interest , to your readers generally , yet as Masonic Conservatism is one of the objects of
your Journal , and as it is proper that AVO should knoAV Avhat changes an order or degree has undergone , even in the short space of fiity or a hundred years , if in these days of Masonic innovation Ave are to have anything of antiquity left to conserve , so I send you these , in the hope that others Avill folloAV with documents of more importanceand of older datebearing on the rite ; feeling
, , assured that such a collection Avould be of considerable importance , — and to their publication little objection can noAV be made , —in judging of the past and present state of Freemasonry . These documents Avere originally gone over at the request of members of the Jerusalem Encampment Avho Avishecl them printed exclusively for their use .
Many theories on the subject of our Masonic mysteries have been hazarded ; a popular one being that the mysteries of antiquity haA r e come CIOAVII to us through the " Order of the Temple of Solomon , " and its connection AAuth secret associations of the middle ages . It has been asserted that all the secret mysteries of antiquity , Egyptian , SamotliracianPythagoreanPlatonicEssenianand Gnosticconsisted
, , , , , of two chief classes , as in the Templar Order , again divided into degrees . That the rites practised in these mysteries were jn'ophetical of the Crucifixion and Resurrection . That I . H . S Avas in use before the advent of " HE that should come "—the meek and blessed
Jesus . That these two chief classes Avere handicraft , and priestly or contemplative ; and that some of the mysteries , as the Samotliracian , added a third branch for females , and in proof of the early period at Avhich this Avas done , the viiith chapter of Ezekiel is quoted , AA'here the Avhole are alluded to , as practised in a secret subterranean , beneath the temple at Jerusalem , and their degeneracy pointed out .
It has also been asserted that Avhen an individual Avas created a " soldier of Mithras" he Avent through similar ceremonies , as the candidate VOL I . o
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Antiquities, Documents, &C. Jerusalem Encampment, Manchester.
MASONIC ANTIQUITIES , DOCUMENTS , & c . JERUSALEM ENCAMPMENT , MANCHESTER .
Information Collected on the Ancient York Rite by JOHN YARKEB , Junr . P . M . ; P . M . M - ; P . Z . ; K . T . Pt . ; P . E . C . ; ROSE ? £ , & c . & c . P . Grand Vice-Chancellor of Cheshire , and P . Grand Constable , or Mareschal , of England .
fHE General object of these papers will be to develop some of the particulars of the old York Rite , Avhilst the details , hoAveA r cr minute , will interest members of this particular Encampment ; and though there is every probability that the information may not be of much interest , to your readers generally , yet as Masonic Conservatism is one of the objects of
your Journal , and as it is proper that AVO should knoAV Avhat changes an order or degree has undergone , even in the short space of fiity or a hundred years , if in these days of Masonic innovation Ave are to have anything of antiquity left to conserve , so I send you these , in the hope that others Avill folloAV with documents of more importanceand of older datebearing on the rite ; feeling
, , assured that such a collection Avould be of considerable importance , — and to their publication little objection can noAV be made , —in judging of the past and present state of Freemasonry . These documents Avere originally gone over at the request of members of the Jerusalem Encampment Avho Avishecl them printed exclusively for their use .
Many theories on the subject of our Masonic mysteries have been hazarded ; a popular one being that the mysteries of antiquity haA r e come CIOAVII to us through the " Order of the Temple of Solomon , " and its connection AAuth secret associations of the middle ages . It has been asserted that all the secret mysteries of antiquity , Egyptian , SamotliracianPythagoreanPlatonicEssenianand Gnosticconsisted
, , , , , of two chief classes , as in the Templar Order , again divided into degrees . That the rites practised in these mysteries were jn'ophetical of the Crucifixion and Resurrection . That I . H . S Avas in use before the advent of " HE that should come "—the meek and blessed
Jesus . That these two chief classes Avere handicraft , and priestly or contemplative ; and that some of the mysteries , as the Samotliracian , added a third branch for females , and in proof of the early period at Avhich this Avas done , the viiith chapter of Ezekiel is quoted , AA'here the Avhole are alluded to , as practised in a secret subterranean , beneath the temple at Jerusalem , and their degeneracy pointed out .
It has also been asserted that Avhen an individual Avas created a " soldier of Mithras" he Avent through similar ceremonies , as the candidate VOL I . o