Part 9 (1/2)

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During the Middle Ages, as we know, men revelled in symbolism, often of the most recondite kind, and the eh the literature, art, and thought of that time Not only on cathedrals, tombs, and monuments, where we should expect to cos, on vases, pottery, and trinkets, in the water-marks used by paper-makers and printers, and even as initial letters in books--everywhere one finds the old, familiar emblems[102] Square, Rule, Plumb-line, the perfect Ashlar, the two Pillars, the Circle within the parallel lines, the Point within the Circle, the Co Staircase, the nule--these and other such symbols were used alike by Hebrew Kabbalists and Rosicrucian Mystics Indeed, so abundant is the evidence--if the matter were in dispute and needed proof--especially after the revival of syht be filled with it Typical are the lines left by a poet riting in 1623, sings of God as the great Logician whom the conclusion never fails, and whose counsel rules without command:[103]

/P Therefore can none foresee his end Unless on God is built his hope

And if we here beloould learn By Compass, Needle, Square, and Plumb, We never must o'erlook the mete Wherewith our God hath measur'd us

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For all that, there are those who never weary of trying to find where, in the ot their i their endless essays, that the symbols of Masonry were loved and preserved by all the world--_except by the Masons themselves_ Often these writers ied, borrowed, or cribbed its emblems from Kabbalists or Rosicrucians, whereas the truth is exactly the other way round--those iht was always seeking a local habitation and a body,use of the symbols of Masonry the better to reach the minds of men Why all this unnecessary mystery--not to say mystification--when the facts are so plain, written in records and carved in stone? While Kabbalists were contriving their curious cos record of their sy always to their simple faith, and hope, and duty--as in the lines left on an old brass Square, found in an ancient bridge near Li date of 1517:

/P Strive to live with love and care Upon the Level, by the Square

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Some of our Masonic writers[104]-- Freemasonry with Guild-masonry, to the discredit of the former Even Oliver once concluded that the secrets of the working Masons of the Middle Ages were none other than the laws of Geo, it would see since lost to us As well say that the philosophy of Pythagoras was repeating the Multiplication Table! Albert Pike held that we are ”not warranted in assuenerally--in the _body_ of Masonry--the symbolism of Freemasonry is of earlier date then 1717”[105] Surely that is to err

If we had only the Mason's Marks that have co else would be needed to prove it an error Of course, for deeper s, and there may have been many Masons who did not fathom the symbolism of the order No more do we; but the symbolism itself, of hoar antiquity, was certainly the co Masons of the Lodges in England and Scotland before, indeed centuries before, the year 1717

II

Therefore it is not strange that , attracted by the wealth of symbolism in Masonry, as well as by its spirit of fraternity--perhaps, also, by its secrecy--began at an early date to ask to be accepted as members of the order: hence _Accepted Masons_[106] How far back the custooes is not clear, but hints of it are discernible in the oldest documents of the order; and this whether or no we accept as historical the membershi+p of Prince Edwin in the tenth century, of whoius Poem_ says,

/ Of speculatyfe he was a master

This e, as well as the practice, of the art, although, as Gould points out, the _Regius MS_ contains intihts above the heads of many to whom it was read[107] Similar traces of Accepted Masons are found in the _Cooke MS_, coests[108]

that the earliest members of this class were ecclesiastics ished to study to be architects and designers, so as to direct the erection of their own churches; the h and sacred a destination, was so entirely exempt from all local, civil jurisdiction,” and enjoyed the sanction and protection of the Church

Later, when the order was in disfavor with the Church, men of another sort--scholars, rees

At any rate, the custoh the years, until Accepted Masons were in the entlemen, and scholars entered the order as Speculative Masons, and held office as such in the old Lodges, the first na John Boswell, as present as a h in 1600 Of the forty-nine nae of Aberdeen in 1670, thirty-nine were Accepted Masons not in any way connected with the building trade In England the earliest reference to the initiation of a Speculative Mason, in Lodge minutes, is of the year 1641 On the 20th of May that year, Robert Moray, ”General Quarter-master of the Armie off Scottland,” as the record runs, was initiated at Newcastle by h,” ith the Scottish Army A still more famous example was that of Ashmole, whereof we read in the _Memoirs of the Life of that Learned Antiquary, Elias Ashmole, Drawn up by Himself by Way of Diary_, published in 1717, which contains two entries as follows, the first dated in 1646:

/[4,66]

_Octob 164 Hor_ 30 Minutes _post ton_ in Lancashi+re, with Colonel _Henry Wainwaring_ of _Kartichain_ in _Cheshi+re_; the nae, Mr _Richard Panket Warden_, Mr _James Collier_, Mr _Richard Sankey_, _Henry Littler_, _John Ellah Brewer_

Such is the record, italics and all; and it has been shown, by hunting up the wills of the e in 1646 were, nearly all of them--every one in fact, so far as is known--Accepted Masons Thirty-five years pass before we discover the only other Masonic entries in the _Diary_, dated March, 1682, which read as follows:

/[4,66]

About 5 pe to be held the next day, at Masons Hall, London Accordingly I went, and about Noone were admitted into the Fellowshi+p of Free Masons, Sir Williaht, Capt Richard Borthwick, Mr Will Woodman, Mr Wm Grey, M Samuell Taylor and Mr Willia 35 years since I was admitted) There were present beside myselfe the Fellowes afternamed: [Then follows a list of names which conveys no information] Wee all dyned at the halfe moone Taverne in Cheapside at a noble Dinner prepared at the charge of the new-accepted Masons

space is given to those entries, not because they are very ion and others have actually held that Ashmole made Masonry--as if any one e, if this be true, that only two entries in his _Diary_ refer to the order; but that does not disconcert the theorists who are so wedded to their idols as to have scant regard for facts No, the circumstance that Ashmole was a Rosicrucian, an Alcheh, the absence of any allusion to hi to confir Masonry about to crumble and decay, seized it, introduced their syh, albeit hidden, teaching

How fascinating! and yet how baseless in fact! There is no evidence that a Rosicrucian fraternity existed--save on paper, having been woven of a series of romances written as early as 1616, and ascribed to Andreae--until a later time; and even when it did take form, it was quite distinct fro we know not whence, and hovering like a ht to be able to find in Masonry _some_ trace of Rosicrucian influence, some hint of the lofty wisdom it is said to have added to the order; but no one has yet done so Did all that high, Her not a wraith behind, going as mysteriously as it came to that far place which no mortal may explore?[109]

Howbeit, the _fact_ to be noted is that, thus early--and earlier, for the Lodge had been in existence soe was made up of Accepted Masons Of the ten e, mentioned in the second entry in the _Diary_, Ashmole was the senior, but he was not a h the other nine were, and also two of the neophytes No doubt this is the Lodge which Conder, the historian of the Company, has traced back to 1620, ”and were the books of the Company prior to that date in existence, we should no doubt be able to trace the custo accepted members back to pre-reformation times”[110] From an entry in the books of the Company, dated 1665, it appears that