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  • May 1, 1881
  • Page 16
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The Masonic Magazine, May 1, 1881: Page 16

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    Article THE PRESENT POSITION OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CRITICISM. Page 1 of 2 →
Page 16

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The Present Position Of Masonic History And Criticism.

THE PRESENT POSITION OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CRITICISM .

BY THE EDITOR , No . II . I PROPOSE in this paper to consider the MS . evidence we have at present available with respect to the history of Freemasonry . As regards the " guild legends" little need be saidbecausethough they exist from the

, , , beginning of the fifteenth century , or even the end of the fourteenth according to some , they are to a certain extent " out of court " for the purposes of this enquiry ancl discussion . " Non constat , " say the upholders of the 1717 theory , that though they undoubtedly exist , and as undoubtedly belonged to the operative guilds , they have anything to do with the speculative Masons of 1717 ; ancl as I desire to use no debateable propositions , I simply confine myself

to what may be called " ritual evidence , " whether friendly or hostile matters nothing for the purpose of my argument . Even the hostile evidences being fictitious , according to Paley ' s well-known argument , would prove the genuine to have existed , and therefore we may assume safel y that a genuine form of Masonry existed , for instance , in 1730 , of which Pritchard was the foolish ancl untrustworthy assailant . A good deal of stress is often laid on

" rituals " per se , but I have always failed , I confess , to see the cogency or value of any such argument . At the best it would be but quasi evidence , being oral ancl traditional altogether , and unless we adopt the adage of the " schoolmen" and apply it to Masonic ceremonial , " Lex orandi , lex credendi , " I certainly fail to see how the evidence of the " rituals " can prove or disprove the antiquity of Freemasonry , unless , indeed , we had any old rituals which we have not .

The earliest MS . evidence is the famous " Sloane MS ., " 3329 , which , though of early eighteenth century transcript , is undoubtedly a seventeenth century MS . in its " archaisms . " The MS . is not an original MS ., remember , but a " transcript , " ancl if before 1700 , or really about 1640 as has been alleged , establishes in a remarkable manner the continuity and certainty of Masonic degrees . I do not say perfectly so , for that it does not do , as it is still a " moot point" whether it be the production of an ignorant Mason or an

inquisitive non-Mason . To the " bright Mason " it offers " indicia ? , " and " points , " and " facts , " which , as it appears tome , are alike irrefragable and unanswerable . The next MS . is Bro . Gould ' s " Catechism " of 1723 , unearthed in the British Museum , and the next " The Grand Mystery" of 1724 . Putting these three MSS . together , we cannot , I think , fail to arrive at the conclusion that a form of Masonry triple in arrangementidentical in nomenclatureand

, , apparently similar in ritual was in existence before 1717 , the forerunner and antitype of the Masonry we know of , as admitted to exist in the Constitutions of 1723 . For it is impossible to believe on any ground of ratiocination or even probability that all on a sudden , after the revival of 1717 , Freemasonry was essentially arranged as we have it now , without any pretension to antiquity , the mere product , in fact , of the fertile imaginations ancl habile

manipulation of Payne , Anderson , and Desaguliers . If the verbiage of the Sloane MS . is identified with seventeenth century forms , of course this argument and theory fall to the ground at once . And what arewe to say of the pre-1700 Masonry , which undoubtedly existed in Cheshire , Staffordshire , at York and London . We have the unchallengeable reality of a " ceremonial" of some kind in 1646 at Warrington ; of Masonic receptions in Staffordshire , as mentioned by

“The Masonic Magazine: 1881-05-01, Page 16” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 7 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmg/issues/mmg_01051881/page/16/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
A CURIOUS MASONIC TRACT. Article 1
List of the Regular Lodges in England according to their seniority, year of erection, and time of meeting. Article 9
MASONIC RESEARCH. Article 12
SONG. Article 14
THE PRESENT POSITION OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CRITICISM. Article 16
OLD RECORDS OF THE LODGE OF PEEBLES. Article 17
A MASON'S STORY. Article 21
FURNESS ABBEY. Article 24
THE SECRET AT LAST. Article 26
CONSERVATION OF MASONRY. Article 28
AFTER ALL. Article 29
CHAPTER X. Article 32
HISTORY OF THE AIREDALE LODGE, No. 387, Article 37
APPENDIX. Article 40
THE PHILOSOPHY AND WORK OF PYTHAGORAS. Article 43
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Present Position Of Masonic History And Criticism.

THE PRESENT POSITION OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CRITICISM .

BY THE EDITOR , No . II . I PROPOSE in this paper to consider the MS . evidence we have at present available with respect to the history of Freemasonry . As regards the " guild legends" little need be saidbecausethough they exist from the

, , , beginning of the fifteenth century , or even the end of the fourteenth according to some , they are to a certain extent " out of court " for the purposes of this enquiry ancl discussion . " Non constat , " say the upholders of the 1717 theory , that though they undoubtedly exist , and as undoubtedly belonged to the operative guilds , they have anything to do with the speculative Masons of 1717 ; ancl as I desire to use no debateable propositions , I simply confine myself

to what may be called " ritual evidence , " whether friendly or hostile matters nothing for the purpose of my argument . Even the hostile evidences being fictitious , according to Paley ' s well-known argument , would prove the genuine to have existed , and therefore we may assume safel y that a genuine form of Masonry existed , for instance , in 1730 , of which Pritchard was the foolish ancl untrustworthy assailant . A good deal of stress is often laid on

" rituals " per se , but I have always failed , I confess , to see the cogency or value of any such argument . At the best it would be but quasi evidence , being oral ancl traditional altogether , and unless we adopt the adage of the " schoolmen" and apply it to Masonic ceremonial , " Lex orandi , lex credendi , " I certainly fail to see how the evidence of the " rituals " can prove or disprove the antiquity of Freemasonry , unless , indeed , we had any old rituals which we have not .

The earliest MS . evidence is the famous " Sloane MS ., " 3329 , which , though of early eighteenth century transcript , is undoubtedly a seventeenth century MS . in its " archaisms . " The MS . is not an original MS ., remember , but a " transcript , " ancl if before 1700 , or really about 1640 as has been alleged , establishes in a remarkable manner the continuity and certainty of Masonic degrees . I do not say perfectly so , for that it does not do , as it is still a " moot point" whether it be the production of an ignorant Mason or an

inquisitive non-Mason . To the " bright Mason " it offers " indicia ? , " and " points , " and " facts , " which , as it appears tome , are alike irrefragable and unanswerable . The next MS . is Bro . Gould ' s " Catechism " of 1723 , unearthed in the British Museum , and the next " The Grand Mystery" of 1724 . Putting these three MSS . together , we cannot , I think , fail to arrive at the conclusion that a form of Masonry triple in arrangementidentical in nomenclatureand

, , apparently similar in ritual was in existence before 1717 , the forerunner and antitype of the Masonry we know of , as admitted to exist in the Constitutions of 1723 . For it is impossible to believe on any ground of ratiocination or even probability that all on a sudden , after the revival of 1717 , Freemasonry was essentially arranged as we have it now , without any pretension to antiquity , the mere product , in fact , of the fertile imaginations ancl habile

manipulation of Payne , Anderson , and Desaguliers . If the verbiage of the Sloane MS . is identified with seventeenth century forms , of course this argument and theory fall to the ground at once . And what arewe to say of the pre-1700 Masonry , which undoubtedly existed in Cheshire , Staffordshire , at York and London . We have the unchallengeable reality of a " ceremonial" of some kind in 1646 at Warrington ; of Masonic receptions in Staffordshire , as mentioned by

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