Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-31
FREE MASONRY.
A BRIEF GLANCE AT IT'S ORIGIN
AND HISTORY.
The Most Ancient of all Fraternal
Societies-Some of Its I'M
pressive Teaching.

pfeSS1Fe ledC0lnR.
Address by Professor W. W. Anderson, Sacra-
mento at the recent St. Johns Day INSTALL
alton services.
There was time when what was old was
venerated because of its antiquity. Myths
were cherished as truths, or at least as
beautiful colorings of events transacted in
the hoary past. What boy has not been
thrilled by the picture of the motionless
Roman Senators seated on their curule
chairs, and the rude. plundering Gauls
gazing awestruck on them as though the
gods themselves had taken possession OF
the deserted forum? Who of US has not
felt the blood leap and Jingle through our
veins as we saw, real as life, the brutal
Gessler and his retinue, the heroic bowman
Tell, and his no less heroic boy? Did we
not in our younger days enter ioyously into
the wild freaks and wonderingly admire
and applaud the sturdy feats of Robin
Hood? These are only specimens of the
many stories of the long ago that fed our
fancy, and fostered manly thoughts and
manly deeds. Nor did the narrators, as a
rule, doubt their truth more than we.
Those days have gone. The iconoclastiC
spirit of the age has smashed our idols
Those who to US were life and blood, have
become as shadowy and unreal as the
ghosts of dreams that once haunted us in
the dark and lonesome hours of some silent
night.
This has been brought about by several
nauSoc Tho ractlaSc hticfIipO oofivifu IA
our people, compelled by circumstances to
discard past methods and to cultivate the
practical and real, at too great sacrifice of
the refining and ideal, has done much to
develop a spirit of captious doubt and cav
ling unbelief Then the habit of consci-
entious rejection of what is unsupported by
indubitable evidence, the laborious re-
search, the profound learning that charac-
terze the authorities of to-day in all depart
ments of human knowledge, have de-
throned many who once held kingly sway
over human credulity. The stories of Greece
and of Rome have disappeared from the
pages of history, or are treated only as
myths-beautiful but untrue. Even the
very existence of the noble Tell is denied,
and Robin Hood stands before us rather a
rough highwayman than an avenging out
law.
We need not wonder, then, that the I'M
initiated smile when we attempt to trace
Free Masonry to days beyond the dark
ages of medieval history. There are even
Masons who smile incredulously at allu-
sions to the faraway past in our beautiful
ritual. Solomon, King of Israel, and
Hiram, King of Tyre they must accept as
real, unless they reject the truth of the
Holy Bible, in which they have been obi
gated-and no Mason good and true can
do that. Admitting their existence, how
ever, they would, if they spoke the
thoughts of their hearts, dispute the right
to call them Masons. As for Hiram, OF
the tribe of Naphtali, the widows son, his
history is myth in their opinion-a
fiction used to convey wholesome instruc-
ton in an impressive and solemn manner.
1t is, however, true that the Order is not
of modern date. We may stand in our
Lodge-rooms, and looking upon our en-
blems, know certainly that these have been
used as we now use them in speculative
Masonry for upwards of 10 years and in
operative Masonry they have been used
practically for the same purposes for up
wards of 1900 years.
Speculative Masonry, as it now exists, is
of English origin, and dates from the sew
enteenth century. The first Grand Lodge
was held in London in 1717. But men who
were not operative Masons had long before
that date been connected with Masonic or
CARNATIONS. Charles the Second, who as
cended the English throne in 1860, was a
Mason so. also, at later date was William
Ill, the hero of the Orangmen. But long
prior to this Henry VII, the shrewd, clear
headed founder of the Tudor dynasty,
was the Grand Master of the Masons in
England. There is also evidence that
Henry VI, the last of the Lancastrians,
was Mason.
This admission of men who were not
operative masons dates as far back as the
beginning of the fourth century, if not
earlier. As men began to build churches
from pious or other motives, the masonic
bodies became more and more influential.
In consideration of the services rendered
by the masons in constructing those noble
specimens of Gothic architecture, which
are yet the admiration of the world, many
privileges were accorded them. They were
specially exempted from various burden
some laws and regulations For instance,
growing out of the state of vassalage.
which prevailed in all European countries
until about the close of the twelfth or
thirteenth century, men in England, as
elsewhere, were attached to the soil on
sold and removed to another manor. but
they could not of their own accord remove
from one parish, or from one county to
another. But as masons were in constant
demand in the erection of public edifices.
it was necessary to congregate a number of
of them wherever such buildings were
being erected. As soon as one building
was completed, unless another was 10 be
erected in the same locality, it was neces-
sary that the maSons should be at
liberty to remove TO travel into for
eign countries, work, and receive a
master mason's wages. For the sake of this
freedom, men who were not masons fire.
Guently sought admission to the order and
when such men, either from their ability
and attainments, or from their exalted
position in society, were able, in return, to
confer benefit upon the Masonic fraternity.
they were gladly welcomed and initiated
into the mysteries of the craft. Members
so admitted were said to be accepted and
in consequence of the exemptions referred
to, the masons were spoken of as free"
Hence arose the term, free and accepted
mssons." The migratory life to which |
have already referred, necessitated the cree
ton of temporary buildings where the
craftsmen might reside while engaged in
for the use of the term lodge" which was
at once the temporary house and the place
of meeting and the place for initiation OF
new members.
When the general diffusion of some
knowledge of the craft, and the vast in
crease in buildings of an inferior character
necessarily caused many to be employed
in building who were not members of the
fraternity; and when tie operatives for
these and other reasons caused by social
changes were much less under the neces-
sity OF travelling about, and were allowed
more liberty in doing so, operative Masonry
as a secret society virtually ceased TO exist !;
and the organization, as already stated,
became entirely speculative in character.
1t was at this time that many of the docu-
ments in the archives of the Order were
destroyed. Documentary evidence of the
ancient rites and ceremonies of the Masonic
fraternity extending back through the
Middle Ages, and the days of imperial
Rome and the sad days of Jewish cap
tivity up to the days of Solomons magnifi-
cence and glory, cannot therefore be found.