The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-05
AN OLD ORDER.
Masonry Dates Back Over Two Hundred


Years.
Freem&sonry is a principle which has
existed in all stages of civilization.
The state in which we know it, of a
vast brotherhood of amateur masons,
who are not really builders, but who,
as everybody is aware, have adopted
the signs and symbols of the building
craft to express their own secret prin-
ciple, is, as far as we know, about
two and a half centuries old. The first
instance of a gentleman or amateur be-
ing accepted into one of the lodges of
the old building crafts is that of Elias
Ashmole, the antiquary (afterward
Windsor Herald to King Charles II.).
who, along with Col. Wainwright, was
entered at Warrington in 1916. It is
believed that there are now more than
ten thousand lodges and more than one
million members. The conception of
freenasonry implies, like the Christian
church, cosmopolitan or universal
brotherhood, and was impossible to the
ancient world, or until the brotherhood
of man was taught by Jesus of
Nazareth. But the principle of sacred
moral and religious societies on the
one hand, and the principle of brother
hood of the building craft on the other,
are old as civilization itself: and it
is OF these two that speculative free
masonry is the modern representative.
The principle of moral and religious
societies is represented in ancient
times by the Pythagoreans and the
E1eusinians among the Greeks, by the
Essences among the Jews and by the
Carmathites and Fedavi, who were the
mystic rationalists of the Mahometans.
But the true historical precursors of
our modern brotherhood of freemasons
were the medieval building corpora
tions, who may themselves have a re-
mote connection with the east, while
among the Romans there were collegia,
or skilled fraternities for the same
| purpose. These Roman collegia had
an exchequer, an archive, patrons, re-
| ligious ceremonies, an oath, a benefit
and burial fund and register Their
! officers were masters, wardens. record
ers and censors, and they instructed
| their apprentices to 4 certain extent in
secret. There can be no doubt that
such fellowship existed for centuries
| in Gaul and Britain, and it is probable
that they deposited in these countries
the tradition of their ideas and habits.
| The taste and science of Gothic archi-
lecture were to a large extent the pos
|
| booths, where the stonecutters during
| the progress of their work kept their
| tools, worked, held their meetings and
probably also took their meals and
slept. Hence our modern institutions
of the lodge. In the twelfth century
there are distinct traces of a general
association of these lodges throughout
Germany, acknowledging one set of
craft laws, one set of secret signs and
ceremonies, and, to a certain extent,
one central authority in the Grand
Lodge of Strasburg.
The Jewish and Arabian symbols
which were SO popular in these crafts
are supposed to have been introduced
! by Albertus Magnus early in the thir-
teenth. century. The atmosphere of
these medieval building societies seems
favorable to liberty of thought and re-
ligious liberation. Hence they were
prohibited at the Romish council of
Avignon in the year 1926. The author
ity of the grand lodge was recognized
at the great assem- blies of Ratisbon and
Strasburg in 1889, the statutes of which
received imperial confirmation. It was
legally destroyed by an imperial edict
in 1741. England had imported much
of her lodge organization and learning
from Germany. The causes which
led to the introduction of the
new class of members, the am
ateurs, those who are ordinarily known
as freemasons, and which gradually
converted operative into speculative
masonry, were inevitable. The recon
struction of London, after the fire, the
building of st. PauFs cathedral, and
the patronage of the immortal Sir
| sc%1 ~,
in the movement, and at last formal
resolution was passed that the masonic
privileges should no longer be confined
to operative masons. The modern
phase of English masonry may be said
to have begun on June "a, 1717, when
the four London lodges, having erected
themselves into grand lodge, named
their first grand master. The leading
spirits were the Huguenot Desaguliers,
the well known popularizer OF natural
science, and James Anderson, Scotch
Presbyterian minister, who compiled
: the Book of Constitutions" From
this time new lodges could only be
| formed by warrant from the grand
lodge.-The Churchman's Magazine.
Signatures on Checks.
Lawyer-Is that your signature on
the back of this check?
. Merchant-I don't know, sir. It
may be.
Does it look like your sigma
ture?''
mot a particle"
Doesn't it bear the least resemb-
lance to your signature?'
, mot the least
''Then why do you think it may be
your signature? Tell me that"
81 might have written it with bank
penn. Y. Weekly.
A Woman With a Past.
Hunker-I think Miss Elders mind
must be burdened with unpleasant
thoughts. judging from her looks.