The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-07-31

fully performed.
Respectfully Yours. etc,
A. II. WEST
FREEMAsONRK.
In the year 1000 the whole Of Chris
tendon was possessed with the idea that
the end of the world and the day of iudg-
ment were at hand; ard when the dread
ed year had passed, and the panic had
subsidized, great impulse to the building
OF churches arose throughout Central and
Western Europe. The buildings which
were the result of this impulse gave EN-
pioymeIt to large numbers of artifcers
for periods of many years. Working at
first under the direction of the bishop and
abbots, they ere long acquired consider
able independence. The clay brethren, 3"
as they had previously been styled, sep
aratlng themselves from their clerical su-
perlors, as we'll as from the comLlOn la
borers, assembled in bdUhutten, or wood
en- buildings, near the site of the churches,
es, where they improved themselves in
the principles of their art, blending with
mathematical and artistic studies a n.ys-
tic philosophy of sacred symbolism and
Biblical illusions. TheYAWeEe dividedi in
to three classes, viz apprentices (teI,tlin-
gem, young men deemed worthy of ad
mission into the fraternity; fellow crafts
men (gesellen), who had so far advanced
as to be able to work alone on the details
OF the art, and were bound to impart their
knowledge to the apprentices; the mas
tiers, com paratively few in number, who
were competent to undertake the design
or direction of entire works, in the ca
pacity of architects, surveyors or master
builders. The entered apprentice was
entru sted with a secret sign and pass
word (grUSS), and bound on oath to di-
vulge to none but the initiated either
the knowledge he should acquire or the
rites and practices Of his lodge This
method of mutual recognition was ne
cessitY when indentures and diplomas
were unknown, but, taken in connection
with the mystic philosophy inculcateG
and the secret ritual practised within the
lodges, it acquired in time a solemnity
and sacredness which could attach to
no mere certificates of membership or of
proficiency. Further credentials were
provided in set of questions and an
swers, forming a sort of catechism, orally
communicated, and guarded by the same
sanction, by which the fbrethren," as
they now call one another, could give
proof of their identity wherever they
might travel in search of employment,
and which are in all essential points
preserved in the Lectures of the three
degrees of modern Freemasonry. Bau-
hutton were permanently established in
most of the chief cities of the Empire,
and the reputation which they acquired
for genius and skill led to the engage
ment of German architects in her couu-
tries, whenever cathedrals or churches
were being erected on a sale of more
than ordinary grandeur. At first the
several lodges worked independently of
one another; but in the fifteenth century
the necessity of further union began to be
felt, and April %, 1859, a gathering of
the Master Masons of Central and South
ern Germany was held at Ratisbon, when
the regulations of the different lodges
were revised and consolidated. In
1892 a second and more general assem-
bly, was held, at which the whole of the
Masons of Germany were represented,
and united into single brotherhood, OF
which the chief of the lodge of Strasburg,
which had long been recognized as last
court of appeal, even by the lodges of
Austria and Switzerland, was declared
perpetual Grand Master. The statutes
then drawn up received in 1893 the con-
firmation of the Emperor Macmillan l.,
whose example was followed by several
of his successors.
After the Reformation period OF
transition began; the building of church
es declined, and in the following century
the German Princes naturally looked
with suspicion on a vast and well organ
lied association of men bound together
by the closest ties and owing allegiance
to an authority which by the loss of AL
SAGE has passed under French dominion
In 1907 all communication with the
mother lodge of Strasburg was prohibi
| ted, and attempts were made to establish
/ grand lodge on German soil; but these
failing, through the mutual jealousies Of
the petty States of the Empire, the mos
| persistent efforts were made for the en-
tire suppression of the order. But, al
though prescribed, it could not be exter
minated; the lodges still melt in secret,
admitted new members and maintained
their existence and continuity until the
new Freemasonry, which had meanwhile
arisen in England on the ruins of the
old, held out to its German brethren the
right hand of fellowship, and in once
more raising them to liberty and honor
did but repay the debt which our country
owed to its continental sister.-Macmil
Ian Magazine.