AN ANALYSIS OP ANCIENT and Master's Word to a Subsidiary Degree," As the MODERN FREEMASONRY
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LONDON, SATURDAY, MAT 9, 1868. Thomas Dunkerley, the most eminent Mason of his age. This able brother has the credit (?) of " disarranging the landmarks by transferring ths 'AN ANALYSIS OP ANCIENT AND Master's word to a subsidiary degree," as the MODERN FREEMASONRY. seceding Masons had done before, the success of By Bro. WILLIAM JAMES HOTJHAN, W.M., 131, which innovation was remarkable. From an un- Truro, Cornwall. recognised Royal Arch degree up to A.D. 1813, it was then and afterwards accepted as " Pure and (Oontinuid from page 268.) Ancient Freemasonry," although unadopted, and MODERN FREEMASONRY . virtually unknown and unrecognised hy the Grand We feel wholly unable to trace the variations Lodge for nearly a century before. As Dr. Oliver made iu the lectures or authorised working from says, " Time has effected wondrous changes. Tho the revival until now, with the accuracy ancl pre- crab has ripened into a most delicious fruit, and cision to be desired. Many of the materials re- the improved Eoyal Arch degree is now con- quisite for such a sketch, are buried in the great sidered the perfection of Masonry." (Revelations forgotten past, and much that exists now is so of a Square Page 135.) The lectures have always distributed over the four quarters of the globe as been " elementary," and thus were never intended almost to defy arrangement aud order, neither can to be considered a thorough aud complete system we spare the necessary time for so lengthy an in- of science and morals. vestigation. Hence we merely intend glancing at They however " certainly breathe the fresh air ¦ the subject, in the hope that some one better of the early ages, and contain the essence (though qualified than the writer will endeavour to collect much diluted) of those pure principles which the scattered elements of Masonic history and cemented our ancient brethren, and gave them unite them, so as to form a building full of symmetry the influence they undoubtedly possessed over and consistency for the benefit of the Graft uni- the uncultivated spirits of the age iu which they versal. lived." We are informed by the late Bro. the Rev. Dr. Each successive period of Freemasonry found Oliver that, "' there were no prescribed lectures the rituals deficient in modern illustration and before A.D. 1717, but every Master of a lodge ex- effect, hence their revision was founded on a phi- horted his brethren to the practice of moral virtues losophical basis and according to the necessary laws in short and extemporaneous addresses, according of process ; although whilst admitting the de- to the capacity, and adapted to the comprehension sirability of a revision, we do not thereby agree of the brethren and state of the lodge/'' He also with the revision made, for undoubtedly in more mentions that there are cogent reasons for be- than one instance, what was considered an im- lieving that primitive Freemasonry had but one provement was at the expense of departing from O.B. for all the three degrees. (Vide Symbol of an ancient landmark, and consequently of neglect- Glory.) We are inclined ;to accept this theory as ing the ancient customs of the Craft for modern correct, as it accords with the following statements innovations. which have been gleaned from authentic sources, Masonry can no more be at a standstill than and still more induces us to reject the theory that science generally, ancl it were folly indeed to refuse the Masters degree existed before the eighteenth the advantages obtainable from the continuous and century, for it was not until A.D. 1720 that Bro. earnest investigations of learned Masons of the Dr. Desaguliers ancl Dr. Anderson first arranged present day, on the plea that Masonry knows no the lectures in a catechetical form . change, yet too much care cannot be exercised in The arrangement however was found to be so such a work, and those who are the votaries of incomplete that they were revised by Bro. Martin Masonic conservatism [should receive due atten- Clare, M.A. and F.B.S., A.D. 1732. This brother tion, as well as those who are solicitous for reform. was subsequently made a Gran d Warden, then Let full credit for sincerity be given to each party, Deputy Grand Master A.D. 1740, and seems to and before accepting any explanation, theory, or have had considerable influence over the Craft as fact, let no pains be spared to verify them. a learned lecturer and accomplished Mason. The Something more than a mere verbal knowledge lectures were again revised and extended hy Bro. of our ceremonies is requisite to constitute a bright and expert Mason. Without a serious deport- the three essential qualifications of sublimity, ment, cautious examination, patient research, and universality and natural religion ; it contained moral character, our sections and lectures—which Christianity veiled, and fidelity as its corner stone, are the marrow of science—will be but a dead and was emphatically Freemasonry. No other letter, a stumbling block, a snare, and the three degree in its forms and nomenclatui-e was so Grand Principles, and four Cardinal Virtues of homely simple and adapted to the popular compre- Freemasonry will be found in questionable com- hension, yet withal so majestic in nature, and im- panionship with prejudice, ignorance, and vain posing and instructive in dramatic and moral effect, glory. although under the York Rite, the whole grandeur These facts were early recognised by the Masons of the third degree is not witnessed until exal- of the last century, but unfortunately were not tation to the Royal Arch, full Masonic light is ful ly carried into practice. If there had been obtainable in other rites and Grand Lodges, many of the stamp of William Hutchinson, and wherein the Royal Arch is unknown and unrecog- William Preston, the ancient landmarks would soon nized, under which authority the Master Mason have been restored, and the Craft degrees acknow- really attains the summit of Masonry, and is raised ledged to be the acme of Freemasonry, but they according to the ceremonials of the Craft anterior -were powerless of themselves to repair the havoc to the introduction of the Royal Arch ; so that and losses occasioned by neglect of the ancient Royal Arch Masons under the York Rite, would ceremonials ; and so in process of time, the third be no farther advanced than Master Masons belong- degree was allowed to be actually divested of its ing to the Grand Lodge of Bayrenth, Royal York, chief distinction and grand design. Bro. Hutch- Berlin, and others, who still continue to impart to inson made some additions to the lecture about the brethren of the third degree the ancient word, A.D. 1763, and Bro. William Preston, the His- which according to the distinguished Mason, the torian of the Craft, likewise enlarged and improved Rev. Dr. George Oliver, corresponds in meaning them as to style, matter, and arrangement. Soon with the well-known name of the bountiful pro- after the union of 1813, the finishing stroke is sup- vider of our wants, and the author of all good, posed to have been given them (under the super- viz : " The Great Architect of the Universe." vision of the " Lodge of Reconciliation "), by Bros. Samuel Hemmings, and William Williams, (the compiler ofthe " Book of Constitutions," 2nd (No. 8.)—THE PROVINCE OF JERSEY. part, 1835, and 1827), of which system the late Freemasonry appears to have existed in Jersey Bros. Peth, Gilkes, Stephen Barton, Wilson, and for at least six centuries, a fact which may well be other Masonic worthies (now, alas ! no more) were regarded with pride by modern Craftsmen, for it able and willin°- instructors. is doubtful whether any other society of equal The leading minds of the Grand Lodge, how- antiquity exists in the island. In the Ereemasons' ever, b y degrees obscured ancient, and elevated Magazine f or October 5th, 1861, Bro. William modern Freemasonry, hence our ceremonials par- Kelly, Deputy-Grand Master for the Province of take mostl y of the latter part of the eventful Leicester, remarked that :—" At the church of ei ghteenth century . St. Lawrence, Jersey, there is a Masonic grave- In concluding the 1st chapter of " Modern Free- stone of the 13th century, which is engraved in masonry " we feel compelled to again refer to the Cutt's work, on monumental slabs. It has incised sublime nature of the Master Mason's degree, upon it a double triangle within a circle, the whole ^ which even now, although divested of part of its enclosed within a square." ritual under the English rite, is still the monarch In company with Bro. Dr. Kitchener, P.M. and of degrees, and unequalled for grandeur and im- P.G.D. of Jersey, and Bro. P. L. M. NicoIIe, of portance in the Masonic edifice, when veined in Doyle's Lodge of Fellowship, Guernsey, we connection with its history. visited St. Lawrence, in the hope of identifying The revered Dr. Crucefix well said that " The this Masonic tombstone ; but our search for it Master Mason can learn nothing beyond the third proved unavailing. The rector had never heard degree." There was in fact nothing higher than of it, and we fear it has become obliterated. We Master Mason in the last century, for it possessed saw, however, a tombstone head with Royal Arch symbols in memory of Bro. C. Hocquard, who the French language. This lodge was principally died in 1815. founded by Bro. J. T. Du Jardin, of whose There are in Jersey eight lodges under the Masonic labours it will be the best monument.