Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-05-12
AN OLD ORDER.
Masonry Dates Back Over Two Hundred
 Years.

Years.
 Freemasonry is 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 half centuries old. The first instance of 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 H., who, along with Col. Wainwright, was entered at Warrington in 1646. 1t is believed that there are now more than ten thousand lodges and more than one million members. The conception of freemasonry 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 as 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 Eleusinians among the Greeks, by the Essenes 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- 1igious ceremonies, an oath, benefit and burial fund and a register. Their officers were masters. wardens. record CTS and censors, and they instructed their apprentices to a 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 md science of Gothic archi- lecture were to large extent the pos session of the Bauhutten, or wooden booths, where the stonecutters during the progress of their work kept their tools, worked, held their meetings and proba ply 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 toleration. 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 assembliesof Ratisbon and Strasburg i'll 1459, the statutes of which received imperial confirmation. It was legally destroyed by an imperial edict in TAI. Eugland 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 ann 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. Paurs cathedral, and the patronage of the immortal Sir Christopher Wren, kept up the interest 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 24, TIT, 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. Churchman's Magazine.
 Signatures on Checks.