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The Grand Lodge of |
How Old is Masonry?
c1390
The first written documentation we have is the REGIUS MS which is called the Old Charges which claims that Masonry came to Britain during the reign of King Athelstan [ c895-940 ] .
c1410
COOKE MS [ Old Charges ] claims that Masonry was introduced to Britain by St Alban [ 3rd-century ] .
1598
First recorded initiations of Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft in the Minutes of the Aitchison’s Haven Lodge, near Edinburgh [ Operative Masonry ] .
1637
First known reference to the Masone Word dated 13 October, in A Relation Of Proceedings Concerning The Affairs Of The Kirk Of Scotland From August 1637 To July 1638, by the Earl of Rothes.
1638
- Henry Adamson, The Muses Threnodie.
1641
Sir Robert Moray initiated into Speculative Freemasonry on 20 May, 1641, which is the earliest verified record of the initiation of a Speculative Freemason.
1646
1646, Oct:16. 4.30 p.m. I was made a Free Mason at Warrington in Lancashire – Elias Ashmole [ 1617-1692 ] .
1659
Samuel Lee, Orbis Miraculum dealt at great length with King Solomon’s Temple and its equipment, giving the cavern-discovery of John I in its Foundations [ originally derived from the 4th-century Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, which was repeated by Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos in the 14th-century ] .
*Cf. II Kings 22.3-24 Josiah’s renovation of the Temple, the discovery of the Book of the Law, the reformation of Israel. [ William Faithorne’s engraving of Oliver Cromwell as Josiah surrounded by Masonic-type symbolism. ]
1677
Masonic Legend related to Rosslyn Chapel recounted by Thomas Kirk in ‘An Account of a Tour In Scotland’ [ found as an Appendix to Ralph Thoresby’s Letters of Eminent Men, Volume 2, 1832 ] :
Two miles further, we saw Roslen Chapel, a very pretty design, but was never finished, the choir only and a little vault. The roof is all stone, with good imagery work: there is a better man at exact descriptions of the stories than he at westminster Abbey: this story he told us, that the master builder went abroad to see good patterns, but before his return his apprentice had built one pillar which exceeded all that ever he could do, or had seen, therefore he slew him; and he showed us the head of the apprentice on the wall with a gash in the forehead, and his master’s head opposite to him. Bishop Sinclair founded it. This chapel stands on a plot of ground higher than the rest, and at the foot of a steep descent arises a rock almost surrounded with a brook. Upon this rock is built a castle, belonging to the Sinclairs; and there are rooms for three stories together, twenty steps high a-piece, all digged down down into the rock: it withstood Monk awhile, but soon surrendered.
Another later account of the same legend by Dr Forbes, the Bishop of Caithness, from An Account of the Chapel of Rosslyn which he wrote in 1774:
The Master Mason having recieved from the Founder a model of a pillar of exquisite workmanship and design, hesitated to carry it out until he had gone to Rome or some other foreign part to see the original. He went abroad and and in his absence an apprentice, having dreamt that he had finished the pillar, at once set to work and carried out the design as it now stands, a perfect marvel of workmanship.
The Master Mason on his return, seeing the pillar completed, instead of being delighted at the success of his pupil, was so stung with envy that he asked who dared to do it in his absence. On being told that it was his apprentice, he was so inflamed with rage and passion that he struck him with a mallet, killed him on the spot and paid the penalty for his rash and cruel act.
* Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third and last St Clair Prince of Orkney - who died in 1484 and who was buried in the unfinished Chapel.
1685
Dr Robert Plot, wrote The Natural History Of Staffordshire recounts Masonic traditions that were similar to those found in the Old Charges.
1688
John Bunyan, wrote Solomon’s Temple Spiritualised.
1691
[ the Mason Word ] …is like a Rabbinical Tradition, in the way of comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars erected in Solomon’s Temple [ cf. I Kings VII:21 ] , with one addition of some secret Sign delivered from Hand to Hand, by which they know and become familiar with one another.
- Reverend Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth.
1696
Edinburgh Register House MS, which is the earliest document describing the Ritual of Freemasonry [ discovered in 1930 ] . This manuscript is the first reference to the Five Points of Fellowship.
c1700
Sloane Manuscript No.3329 is the first quotation of the Mason Word [ MAHA-BYN ] .
1702
The Haughfoot Lodge Minutes, dated 22nd December, giving a fragment of the Freemasonic Ritual – clinching the reliability of the 1696 MS.
1711
Trinity College, Dublin MS is the earliest text providing mode of recognition for three grades Enterprentice, Craftsman and Master.
1717
Grand Lodge formed on 24 June at the Goose and Gridiron [ demolished in 1894 ] at St Paul’s Churchyard, London.
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