Masonic Antiquities, Documents, &C. Jerusalem Encampment, Manchester.

of Postulance— "Esquire and Knight , or Levite of the Interior " Guard "—called the Noviciate or Covenant—Professed Knight includes the grades' of Companion , Commander , and Grand Cross . For the higher degrees , strict inquiries are made respecting the aspirant , and only dispensed with in the case of Knights of the " Order of Christ " —the Portuguese " Order of the Temple , "

which changed its name in 1314 , but lost the power of electing its Grand Master in 1550 . * Though the French Order did not introduce Templary into either England or Scotland , there is no doubt , more particularly in the latter country , that it modified the working to a considerable extent . The same may be said of the Rosicrucianism of

Germany ; and it is not improbable that the rite of the old Rosy Cross philosophers was a modified form of Templary , for in the last century , the Masonry passing under that name , included Templary . These Rosicrucians inherited , from the east , many singular doctrines of great antiquity , which at that period passed as Magic , but which are now understood to be referable to

natural causes . M . Maier , who wrote on the Order in England in 1627 , states that , like the Pythagoreans and Egyptians , the Rosicrucians exact vows of secrecy and silence , and that they subjected even welltrained novices to a probation of five years before they are admitted to the higher mysteries ; and within this period they are to learn

how to govern their tongues , and that though the Masters of the Order hold out the Rose as a remote prize , they impose the Cross upon those who are entering . These rites and vows of secrecy were used in the Schools , Orders , and Colleges of the period , and Fludd ( a Rosicrucian ) , in 1630 , repudiates his oath by which he had promised allegiance , " by a ceremonial rite" in his youth , to the

Papal philosophy . The seven chambers of the " Chymical Nuptials of Christian Rosy Cross " have been thought to refer to the degrees of the rite , and our present Arch Pedestal was used by the Alchemists to convey the secrets of the Philosophers' Stone . Allusion was made , in the last paper , to the establishment of a Grand Conclave in London in 1791 , and the following letter referred to . shows that the origin of this step arose with Sir

Thomas Dunckerley , a " modern" Mason who obtained admission among the " ancient / ' made many innovations on the " Body of Masonry , " and formed the first Grand Chapters and Conclaves of the Arch and Templary , which , under the ancient system , appear to have been ruled by the same Grand Master as the Craft degrees .

'" ' Hampton Court Palace , March 22 nd ., 1791 . " Most Excellent and Exalted Knights , Companions of the Encampment of jRedemption ( being No . 5 of England ) , held at the Golden Lion Inn , in the City of York . " I accept with gratitude the confidence you place in me , as Grand " Master by the will of God , of the Most Noble and Exalted Religious and