A Short Masonic History

QJornell Uniocrattg ffiihrarg atljara, Wem Snrk FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library HS403 .A73 v.1-2 A short masonic histor 3 1924 030 281 228 olln,anx The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030281228 A Short Masonic History. NIGHT —BY HOGARTH. A SHORT MASONIC HISTORY being an account of the growth of Freemasonry, and some of the earlier Secret Societies, by FREDERICK ARMITAGE Solicitoy, Member of the Law Society, Member of Correspondence Circle of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Member of St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, S-c. With illustrations. VOL. 1. LONDON: H. WEARE & CO, 64 LEADEN HALL ST.. E.G. 1909 FOREWORD. 'T' HERE is probably no topic of more elusive ^ nature to discourse upon than that of the secret societies which were the ancestors of modern Freemasonry, for the early ones are enshrouded in mystery, and their records have to be dug up from various writers and pieced together like a Mosaic, while with later ones there has always been a striving to find an early original amongst their historians, who frequently gave free rein to their fancies. Suc- ceeding authors, awed by the glamour of their topic, have gravely repeated in solemn tones the lighter fancies of their predecessors, and thus the ultimate harvest has been one of mixed grain and cornflowers. From such stories it is the duty of the present-day writer to try to pick out the real from the fanciful, and to tell the tale as it should be told. Whether the author has succeeded or not must be left to his readers to judge, but here he desires to acknowledge the valuable aid he has obtained from the trans- actions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, which is now well known as the learned Society of Freemasonry, and whose endeavours, it is hoped, may in course of time throw light on many of the present obscure pages of the history of the Craft, and of other secret societies. Fred. Aemitage, P.M. July, 1909. CONTENTS. PAGE. Foreword 5 CHAPTER I. The Origins of Secret Societies- 9 II. The Persians - 12 III. The Egyptians - ig IV. The Pythagoreans - - 22 V. The Eleusinians 25 VI. The Temple Builders 28 VII The Essenes 34 VIII. The Roman Builders 38 ly. The Knights Templars - 41 X. The Veiimegericiite 48 XI. The Rosicrucians 51 XII. The Woodcutters - 59 XIII. The Italian and Spanish Societies 63 XIV. The Illuminati 67 XV. Freemasonry— The Operative Masons 6g XVI. Freemasonry— The Ancient Charges 76 XVII. Freemasonry— The Masonic Poem 91 XVIII. Freemasonry— The Transition Period - 100 CONTENTS—coaW. PAGB. XIX. Freemasonry— The Grand Lodge 112 XX. Freemasonry outside England 132 XXI. The Gregorians 139 XXII. The Gormogons 142 XXIII. The Orange Society 146 XXIV. The United Irishman's Society 148 XXV. The Friendly Societies 152 XXVI. Freemasonry IN Literature & Art 157 XXVII. Freemasonry and the Law 178 Conclusion 182 Index 183 Illustrations. page. ' Night " by Hogarth - Frontispiece The King and his Chief Mason - gj Early Masons Axe - no The Gormogons and Freemasons, by Hogarth 142 A Masonic Procession of Tarbolton Lodge 170 A SHORT MASONIC HISTORY. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGINS OF SECRET SOCIETIES. T N those early days of which Virgil sings, -*• when arms and the prowess of manly ex- ploits were considered far greater than all the acquirements of the mind, it is not surprising to find that whenever a man of genius arose among the people, he at once gathered round him a circle—small, but faithful—of followers like-minded with himself. Such a gathering either became a school, in which the master's philosophy was taught—such were the Pytha- goreans; a sect wherein the master's religious ideas were expounded, as instance the Jesuits, a club where political ends were propagated, such as the Orange Society ; or a guild, whereia the interests of a particular craft or trade were sought to be advanced, such as that of tht operative masons in England. Workmen in trades at all times have found it necessary to follow and find their work in such places as they could, and thus became wanderers from town to town, and city to city. A stranger arriving at a place and professing to be a skilled workman, had to be scrutinised and lo SECRET SOCIETIES to give proofs, not only of his skill, but also of his apprenticeship and proper entry into the trade or craft. What was better than to turn the guild into a secret society, with a system of signs and passwords, which, when duly given, would be the hall-mark of the genuine member of a society, to belong to which betokened both experience and skill ? The history of civilisation is permeated with such societies which have sprung up from time to time, have lived their life, and died out, till in later days another society has risen and used the ashes of a former body to light its own fire of existence. In this way it is probable that, although such societies had different objects, they frequently had similarities of ideas and similarities of ritual, which were originated by, if not lavishly copied from, their predecessors. One point of resemblance runs through all of them, and that is the use of symbols, or a pic- ture language, from which moral lessons were drawn and enshrined in a ritual of a more or less religious character, which formed a fitting frame for the sanction of a solemn oath by the members not improperly to divulge the sign and pass words to outsiders. The idea of symbols was doubtless drawn from the religion they pro- fessed. The rites of the ancient Egyptians, the heathen worship of the Greeks, and the ritual of the Christians teemed with pictorial and other illustrations of their truths. The figures of the Iamb and the eagle were familiar to all as symbols, while the key, the anchor, and the ship form another class, and each had their own moral lesson to convey. In the same way the coats of SECRET SOCIETIES ii arms worn by knights in mediaeval days were all symbolic of the virtues supposed to be pos- sessed by those who bore them. The characteristics of all secret societies from the earliest ages are twofold- First, an initia- tion ceremony for the candidate, prior to which he had to give proofs of his character and adaptability to the fraternity, and during which he swore an oath to keep the secrets entrusted to him. Secondly, in order to guard the true brother from the rash intruder or the spurious coyon, or cowan, who tried to be a workman without proper apprenticeship, there were signs and passwords which could only be given by those who had been properly initiated. It is a generally accepted opinion that when two bodies are found to have similar rules, the one has been copied from the 'other, unless both have a common ancestor. In this way the his- torical continuity of modern secret societies from ancient ones has been preserved, though there are not wanting those critics who say that " the likeness admits of explanation by the general doctrine of psychical identity"—a high- sounding phrase, by which is meant that by a coincidence two minds may arrive at the same truth at the same time by two independent trains of thought. The explanation of two copyists from one original, derived from the example of schoolboys, seems however, the easier and more probable. 12 CHAPTER II. THE PERSIANS. AMONG ancient races the worship of the sun was one of the most obvious and most generally practised of religious rites. To the agricultural mind the question of the raising of cereal crops, both for human food and pasture for cattle, was the prime necessity of life; and, as both these primarily depended on the sun, it was accordingly considered the most powerful of the forces of Nature, and as such, a deity to be worshipped. It had also to be propitiated, for it could be a bane as well as a blessing, as in the absence of water it created famines, and in the deserts it was the cause of those common Eastern complaints—sunstroke and ophthalmia —caused by the glare of light upon the head or eyes. Sun-worship was therefore almost uni- versally practised by Eastern nations—the Persians, Assyrians, and all the tribes whose borders were adjacent to the Hebrew nations m Old Testament times. Over and over again the Israelites are recorded to have copied the habits of their neighbours. Indeed, Solomon, after the building of the Temjjle, practised the old heathen worship, and no deity was better known to the people of Palestine than Baal, who was the Sun god. It was obvious that it rose in the east, at midday attained its meridian in the south, and at the close of day set in the west. After that it was out of sight, and what became of it during that time? The gods were sup- THE PERSIANS 13 posed to take it in hand, place it in a golden goblet, and navigate it through an ocean on a northerly course, until it reached the east again next morning. Aristotle, while rejecting the theory of the ocean voyage, believed that the sun was conveyed somehow by night across the northern regions, and that darkness was due to lofty mountains, which screened off the sun- beams during the voyage.

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