THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 74, 1 March 1879, Page 2

THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY.

Much has been siitd and written on this subject and a recent article in Macmillon's Magazine, by Edward F. "Willoughby, gives some items in this connection that will be road, with interest by the general public as well as the Craft. lie says:— " It is to the architectural and masonic guilds of Germany thai we must look for the true origin of the order. The Roman "a duties and obligations were limited to his own collegium; he had no password or signs by which he could gain admission to a lodge on his travels; the idea of a universal brotherhood—nay, the very name of brotherhood—had its rise in the unselfish spirit of Christianity, obscured though that religion was amid the lawlessness and rapacity of tho times. Then men of the same trades and professions formed themselves into guilds or fraternities for mutual protection, and for the better maintenance and transmission of the knowledge and art of which thsy, in tho absence of books, wero tho living and only repositories. In tho year 1000, tho whole of Christendom was possessed with the idea that tho ond of tho world and tho Day of Judgment were at hand, and when tho dreaded year had passed and tho pauio had subsided, a great impulse to tho building of churches urose throughout Central and AVostoru Europe. Tho buildings which were tho result of this impulse gave employment to largo numbers of artificers for poriods of many

years. Working at first under the direction of the bishops and abbots, they era long acquired considerable independence. The " lay brethren," as they had previously been styled, separating themselves from their clerical superiors, as well as from the common labourers, assembled in Bauhutten, or wooden buildings, net) the site of the churches, where they improved themselves in the principles of their art, blending with mathematical and artistic Studies u mystic philosophy of sacred symbolism and Biblical allusions. They were divided into threo classes, viz., Apprentices (Lohrlingen)— young men deemed worthy of admission, into the fraternity; Fellow craftsmen (Uesellen), who had so fur advanced as to be able to work alone on the details of architects surveyors, or master builders. The entered apprentice was entrusted with a secret sign and password (Grass), and bound on earth to divulge to none but the initiated either the knowledge he should acquire or the rites and practices of his lodge! This method of mutual recognition was a necessity when indentures and diplomas were unknown ; but, taken in conjunction with the mystic philosophy inculated, and the secret ritual practised within the lodges, it acquired in time a solemnity and a sacredness which could attach to no mere certificate of membership or of protticiency. Further credentials were provided in a set of questions and auswers forming n sort of catechism, orally communicated und guarded by, the same sanction by which the " brethren," as they now called one another, could give proof of their identity wherever they might travel in search of employment. "Bauhutten were permanently established in most of the chief cities of the empire, and the reputation which their masters acquired for genius and skill led to the engagement of German architects iu other countries, wherever cathedrals or churches were being erected ou a scale of more thuu ordinary grandeur. At first the several lodges worked independently

of one another ; but in the fifteenth century the necessity of further union began to be felt, and on April 25, 14J1), a gathering of the Master Masons of Central ami Southern Germany was held at liatisbon, when the regulations of the different lodges wen; revised and consolidated. In 1492 a second and more general assembly was held at which the whole of tlie Masons of Germany were represented, and united into a single brotherhood, of which the chief of the lodge of Strasburg, which had long been recognised as a last court of appeal, even by the lodges of Austria and Switzerland, was declared perpetual Grand Master. The statutes then drawn up received in 14!)« the confirmation of the Emperor Maximilian I, whose example was followed by several of his successors. " Its transformation from a guild of working artists to an association for other purposes, is described thus : From 1(507 to IUIM, Inigo Jones was patron sf the Freemasons; the fraternity flourished under his direction ; nolle, learned, and wealthy men were admitted as a sort of associates or honorary members, or, as they were called by way of distinction, " Accepted Masons.' Quarterly meetings and festivals were held, aud lodges of instruction founded. During the wars of the Parliament and the Commonwealth, Freemasonry, as might have been expected from its close connection with art ■and with the church) suffered greatly; but it experienced something of a revival in 1033, when Henry Jennyn, Earl of St. Allans, was elected Grand Master, Sir John Deuham, D U.M., and Sir Christopher Wren and Joseph Webb, Graud Wardens."