Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-02-11
THE MYSTERIOUS MAsONs.
An Extraordinary Chapter from the His.
tory Of Masonry.

~" GNht ovt utuoiy ohaptCI iIUtn tlic MS
tory Of Masonry.
McMillan's Magazine.l
In the year 1000 the whole of Chris
tendon was possessed with the idea
that the end of the world and the day
of judgment were at hand and when
the dreaded year had passed and the
panic had subsidized, a great impulse to
the building Of churches arose
throughout Central and Western Flu
rope. The buildings which were the
results of this impulse gave employs
ment to a large number of artiGcer-
for a period of many years. Working
at first under the direction of the
bishops and abbots, they ere long ac-
quired considerable independence.
The lay brethren" as they had pre-
yiously been styled, separating them
selves from their clerical s%uperiors as
well as from the common laborers.
assembled in bauhuetten or wooden
buildings near the site of the churches
where they improved themselves in
the principles of their art, blending
with mathematical and artistic studies
a mystic %philosopy of sacred symbolism
and biblical illusions. They were
divided into three classes, viz, appren-
tees, young men deemed worthy of
admission into the fraternity; fellow
craftsmen, who had so far advanced
as to be able to work alone on the
details of the art and were bound to
impart to the apprentices their knowl-
edge and masters, comparatively few
in number, who were competent to
undertake the design or direction of
entire works, in the capacity of archi-
tects, surveyors or master builders.
The entered apprentices were entrust-
ed with secret sign and password and
bound on oath to divulge to none but
the initiated either the knowledge he
should acquire or the rite and prac.
tees Of his lodge. This method Of
mutual recognition was a necessity
when indentures and diplomas we're
unknown, but taken in conjunction
with the mystic philosophy inculeated
and the secret ritual practiced within
the lodges, it acquired in time a solem-
nifty and sacredness which could at
tach to no mere certificate 0 fmember-
ship or of proficiency. Further ere
dentials were provided in a set of ques-
tons and answers, forming a sort of
%catechism, orally communicated and
guarded by the same sanction by
which the brethren" as they now
call n 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.
Bauhuetten were permanently estab-
lished in most of the chief cities of the
empire, and the reputation winch their
masters acquired for genius and skill.
led to the engagement of German
architects in other countries wherever
cathedrals or churches were being
erected on a scale of more than ofdi-
harry grandeur. At first the several
lodges worked Independently of one
another but in the fifteenth century
the necessity of further union began tc
be felt, and on April %, 1859, a gath
ering Of Master Masons of central and
southern Germany was held at Rats.
bon, when the regulations ofthe differ.
ent lodges were revised and consolida.
ted. In 1892 a second and more gen
eral assembly was held, at which the
whole of the MasOns Of Germany were
represented and united into a single
brotherhood, of which the chief of
the lodge at Strasburgh, which had
long been recognized as a last court of
appeal even by the lodges of Austria
and Switzerland, was declared perpet-
nal 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, a period of transition
began the building of churches de.
clined, and in the following century
the German princes naturally looked
with suspicion on a vast and vel
organized association Of men bound
together by the closest tie,
and owing allegiance to an author.
ity by which Alsace had passed
under French dominion. In 1907 al
communication with the mother lodge
of Strasburgh was prohibited, and at.
tempts were made to establish a grand
lodge on German soil but these fail.
ing through the mutual jealousies Of
the petty States of the empire, the
most persistent efforts we're made fol
the entire suppression of the order
But, although prescribed, it could moi
be exterminated the lodges still met
in secret, admitted new members anC
maintained the existence and continu.
lty until the new Freemasonry, which
had meanwhile arisen in England Oh
the ruins of the old, held out TO it'
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.
No nadlock hollis or harq can eocurs