The Irish standard., 1901-10-12
It's Antiquity Does Not. Probably Extend
Beyond the Period Known as
the Middle Ages.
What Catholic Priest Says of 1t in an
Interesting Communication to the
Sun of New York.

The raising by the Presbyterian So
cieties of the question Of the opposi-
ton Of secret societies to Christianity
leads me to explain the reasons Of
Catholic opposition ito the order of
Free Masonry, writes Catholic priest
to the New York sun.
Free Masonry processes, by means
Of symbolical language and certain
ceremonies Of initiation and promo
tion, to lay down code of morality
founded on the brotherhood of human
ity only. Some writer's apply the
term Free Masonry not only to the Free
Mason proper, but also to all secret
organizations which seek to undermine
Christianity and the political and So
cial institutions that have Christianity
for their basis.
The origin Of Free Masonry is dis
puted. The Free Masons themselves,
in the language Of their ritual, assume
the order to have begun it's existence at
the building Of Solomon's temple, but
serious Masonic writers, as well as all
writer's of repute, declare this to be
conventional fiction. Nor Is any more
value to be attached to the attempts
that are occasionally made to find a
link between the pagan mysteries and
Free Masonry. Some writers trace
Free Masonry to the heresies of East
ern origin that prevailed during the
early and middle ages in certain parts
of Europe, such as those Of the Gnost-
les. Manicheans and Albigenses, some
of whose tenets are. no doubt, appar
ent in the sect. The suppressed order
Of the knights of Templars, too, has
been taken to have been source Of
the order, and this theory may have
some countenance in the fact that
number of the knights of Scotland
illicitly maintained their organization
after the suppression, and that 1t was
brought into France at the beginning
Of the last century.
But it seems more in consonance
with many known historical facts to
trace the order to the medieval guild
Of stone masons, who were popularity
called by the very name of Free Ma
sons. During the middle ages the
]. various trades were formed, with the
appreciation of the church, into guilds
or close protective societies. In gen.
eral, no one was permitted to follow
a trade for wages or profit, as appren-
hce, journeyman or master, until he
had been made free of the guild repre-
senting that trade. Each guild had it's
patron saint, and several guilds, It is
certain, had each its peculiar ritual,
using it's own tools and technical Ian
guage dn a symbolical way in the cere-
monies Of initiation and promotion
that is to say, in entering an appren-
tice and at the end of his time declar-
Ing him a worthy fellow-journeyman
or craftsman. The guild of Free Ma
sons was singular in this, that it was
migratory, its members travelling un-
der their masters in organized bodies
through all parts of Europe, wherever
their services were required in build
ing. When first referred to they are
found grouped about the monasteries.
especially about those Of the Benedic-
tines. The earliest form of initiation
used is said to have been suggested
by the ritual for the reception of a
Benedictine novice.
The south Of France, where large
Jewish and Saracenic element re-
mained, was thotbed of heresies. and
that region was also favorite one
with the guild of masons. 1t Is as
serted, too, that as far back as the
twelfth century the lodges Of the guild
enjoyed the special protection Of the
knights of Templars. It is easy in this
way to understand how the symbolical
allusions to Solomon and his temple
might have passed from the Knights
into the Masonic formulary. In this