that they were substantially the same everywhere. The candidate was asked what he desired, and on replying that he desired admission to the Order of the Knights of the Temple, he was warned of the strict and severe life that was demanded of members of the Order; of the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; and, moreover, that he must be ready to go and fight the enemies of Christ even to the death.

Others related details of the interior discipline and regulations of the Order, which were stern and rigorous, as became a body that added to the strictness of the convent, the order and system of a military organization. Many of the brethren had been nearly all their lives in the Order; some more than forty years, a great part of which had been spent in active service in the East. The witnesses who were summoned were not members of the Order, and had only hearsay evidence to give. They had heard this and that report; they suspected something else; they had been told that certain things had been said or done. Nothing definite could be obtained, and there was no proof whatever of any of the extravagant and incredible charges.

Similar proceedings took place in Lincoln, and York, and also in Scotland, and Ireland; and in all places the results were the same. And the matter dragged on till October, A.D. 1311. Hitherto torture had not been resorted to; but now, in accordance with the repeated solicitations of the Pope, King Edward gave orders that the imprisoned Templars should be subjected to the rack, in order that they might be forced to give evidence of their guilt.

The Templars having been now three years in prison, chained, half-starved, threatened with greater miseries here, and with eternal damnation hereafter, separated from one another, without friend, adviser, or legal defence, were now removed to the various gaols in London and elsewhere, and submitted to torture. We have no particular record of the horrible details; but some evidence was afterwards adduced, which was said to have been obtained from the unhappy victims during their agony.

...

In April, A.D. 1311, these depositions were read in the court, in the presence of the Templars, who were required to say what they could allege in their defence. They replied that they were ignorant of the processes of law, and that they were not permitted to have the aid of those whom they trusted and who could advise them, but that they would gladly make a statement of their faith and of the principles of the Order.

This they were permitted to do, and a very simple and touching paper was produced and signed by all the brethren. They declared themselves, one and all, good Christians and faithful members of the Church, and they claimed to be treated as such, and openly and fairly tried, if there were any just cause of complaint against them.

But their persecutors were by no means satisfied. Fresh tortures and cruelties were resorted to to force confessions of guilt from these worn-out and dying men. A few gave way, and said what they were told to say; and these unhappy men were produced in St. Paul's Cathedral shortly afterward, and made to recant their errors, and were then reconciled to the Church. A similar scene was enacted at York.

The property of the Templars in England was placed under the charge of a Commission at the time that proceedings were commenced against them, and the King very soon treated it as if it were his own, giving away manors and convents at his pleasure. A great part of the possessions of the Order was subsequently made over to the Hospitallers. The convent and church of the Temple in London were granted, in A.D. 1313, to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, whose monument is in Westminster Abbey. Other property was pawned by the King to his creditors as security for payment of his debts; but constant litigation and disputes seem to have pursued the holders of the ill-gotten goods. Some of the surviving Templars retired to monasteries, others returned to the world and assumed secular habits, for which they incurred the censure of the Pope. WOODHOUSE'S Military Religious Orders, pp. 252-255.

In view of the "pilgrimages" now made from time to time to the Templar localities in the Mother-land, we give the following list of the Preceptories in England :—

Cambridgeshire: Wilbraham.

Essex: Temple Crossing,

Hampshire: South Badesley.

Hertfordshire: Temple Dynnesly.

Kent: Swingfield.

Leicestershire: Temple Rothley.

Lincolnshire: Aslackby, Temple Brewer, Eagle, Maltby, Mere Wilketon, Witham.

Norfolk Haddiscoe.
Shropshire: Halston.

Suffolk: Gislingham, Dunwich.

Sussex: Saddlescombe.

Warwickshire: Balsall, Warwick.

Yorkshire: North Ferriby, Temple Hurst, Temple Newsome, Pafflete, Flaxflete, Ribston.

The Order also possessed many manors and estates where they had no Preceptories.

An eye-witness of the exploits of the Templars, Cardinal de Vitry, Bishop of Acre, gives the following description of the courage and heroism of the Order:

"When summoned to arms, they never demand the number of the enemy, but only where they are; fierce soldiers they are in war, monks in religion; to the enemies of Christ inexorable, to Christians kind and gracious. They carry before them to battle a banner half black and half white, which they call Beauseant, because they are fair and favorable to the friends of Christ, but black and terrible to his enemies." The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages, by

F. C. WOODHOUSE, M.A. London, 1879. pp. 215, 216.

The usual mediaval expedient was resorted to, and torture was used to extort acknowledgments of guilt. The unhappy Templars in Paris were handed over to the tender mercies of the tormentors with the usual results. One hundred and forty were subjected to trial by fire.

The details preserved are almost too horrible to be related. The feet of some were fastened close to a hot fire till the very flesh and even the bones were consumed. Others were suspended by their limbs, and heavy weights were attached to them to make the agony more intense. Others were deprived of their teeth; and every cruelty that a horrible ingenuity could invent was used.

While this was going on questions were asked, and offers of pardon were made, if they would acknowledge themselves or others guilty of the monstrous wickednesses which were detailed to them. At the same time forged letters were read, purporting to come from the Grand Master himself, exhorting them to make a full confession, and declarations were made of the confessions which were said to have been already freely given by other members of the Order. - WOODHOUSE'S Military Religious Orders, pp. 240, 241.

The Knights of the Temple ever maintained their fearless and fanatic character; if they neglected to live, they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ. - GIBBON.

A carefully drawn and accurately colored print of a " Templier, en habit de Guerre," is prefixed to the rare and valuable "Histoire Critique et Apologétique de l'Ordre des Chevaliers du Temple de Jérusalem, dits Templiers, Par feu le R. P. M. J. Chanoine, Régulier de l'Ordre de Prémontré, Docteur en Théologie, Prieur de l'Abbaye d'Étival. A Paris, MDCCLXXXIX. Avec Approbation et Privilege du Roi." This work is in two volumes, quarto, pp. xx. 390, xv. 354, and is in the library of the writer.

Pautifully & Fraternally Yours,

Millian Fievens Perry. 32,
Aishops of
Joma.

"History must depend for credence on creditable evidence. In order to justify belief, one must either himself have seen or heard the facts related, or have the testimony, direct or indirect, of witnesses or well informed contemporaries. The original sources of historic knowledge are mainly comprised in oral traditions, or in some form of well-written records."

Applied to Freemasonry, these remarks meet at the outset with various difficulties. The antiquity of the society forbids the test of personal witness to the facts attested, and the written traditions, as they come down, partake so much of the legendary element that their evidential value is greatly impaired, if not wholly discredited by scholars outside the pale of the Order.

The Early Historians. In the search after oral traditions to establish a history of Freemasonry prior to A.D. 1717, one is at once met by the fact that the early Craftsmen did not, usually, place on paper the customs and usages pertaining to the ceremonies of their guild, and if, in some cases, they did do so, all those papers of evidential value have long since been destroyed. Absolutely nothing remains but the writings of the early historians of Speculative Masonry, among whom, as the first, we place the Rev. James. Anderson, D.D., and the "Old Charges" of British Freemasons, together with those of the Stone-masons of Germany.

The Mythical Assembly A.D. 926.

In one of the apocryphal treatises

of the Fraternity, we read that Prince Edwin of England called a congregation at York, in June A.D. 926,

"And composed a general or grand Lodge of which he was Grand Master. And having brought with them all the old writings, and records of the craft extant, some in Greek, some in

Latin, some in French and other languages, from the contents thereof, that Assembly framed the constitutions and charges of an English Lodge, made a law to preserve and observe the same in all time coming, and ordained good pay for working Masons."

These "Constitutions" of A.D. 926 are said by the same authority to have been revised at two subsequent periods, the last one of which is of a date late enough to possess authenticity had such an assembly actually been held. We refer to it in this connection as contributory to the traditions which lurk about the "Old Charges." Several of these bear internal evidence of having been copied from documents of a much earlier time from originals now wholly lost.

Acknowledgment. In compiling the documents and historic data following, the author has had the assistance of Brother Wm. James Hughan, European Editor, and access to the publications and Masonic Reprints," of the Lodge Quatuor Coronati, No. 2076, London. He has, also, freely availed himself of material from the "History of Freemasonry," by Brother Gould, the Masonic Publications of Brother Hughan, the treatises on this subject by Brother G. W. Speth, secretary of the lodge above mentioned, and others.

The First Book of Constitutions. The first "Book of Constitutions" was published in 1723, and the author of it was the Rev. James Anderson, D.D., a minister of the Scottish Presbyterian Church. The title-page read as follows: "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, &c., of that Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the use of Lodges." The sub-title was in these words:

"The Constitution, History, Laws, Charges, Orders, Regulations, and usages, of Accepted Free Masons; Collected from their General Records, and their Faithful Traditions of Many Ages. To be read at the Admission of a New Brother, when the Master or Warden shall begin, or order some other Brother to read as follows: "

Then follows the first version of the "Charges," which is familiar to all Craftsmen.

It will be noted that Dr. Anderson gives the society the name of "Right Worshipful Fraternity of Accepted Free Masons," but later on, in the same edition, the more lengthy and appropriate title of "The Right Worshipful and most ancient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons," the name by which it is frequently called to-day.

The Second Book. — In the edition of 1738 Dr. Anderson had added the words: "Antient and Honourable." This edition, called the "New Book of Constitutions," was approved by the Grand Lodge, January 25, 1738. In the work, the author is supposed to have reprinted the "Old Regulations," these being "The Charges of a Free Mason, ordered to be printed in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions on 25th March, 1722," and added thereto the "New Regulations" in parallel columns. "But again the insatiable desire of Anderson," says Brother Hughan, "to modernize and alter is conspicuous." Other criticisms have been freely made, but we incline to the opinion of our European Editor that

"Whatever may be its merits or demerits, according as we look at the volume leniently or critically, the fact remains that to it, and to it alone, are we indebted for a history of the Grand

Lodge of England from its inauguration in A.D. 1717 to 1723, when the official Records begin, and from that period for an able extract of the Proceedings; hence the work has been described as the 'basis of Masonic History,' by Prof. Robinson, and its author is termed by the Rev. A. F. A. Woodford 'the Father of English Masonic History,' both titles being fairly earned in respect to the sketch of the premier Grand Lodge."

What were the "General Records" and "Faithful Traditions," examined by Dr. Anderson, upon which he based the "Constitutions" of the Craft? What became of them? The reader is referred to the "Masonic Reprints," before noted, for reply. Dr. Anderson, no doubt, had in his possession several copies of the "Old Charges," while preparing the first and second editions of his celebrated "Book of Constitutions"; the remainder of our opinion is largely that of speculation. Experts say that one of these must have been the "Matthew Cooke MS.," which we give herein, and others, the titles of which are not essential to our purpose. The "Book of Constitutions" has passed through various revisions, since its author's famous revision in A.D. 1735-38, the twenty-two editions dating as follows: I. 1723, II. 1738, III. 1756, IV. 1767, V. 1784, VI. 1815, VII. 1819, VIII. 1827, IX. 1841, X. 1847, XI. 1853, XII. 1855, XIII. 1858, XIV. 1861, xv. 1863, xvi. 1865, xvII. 1866, xvIII. 1867, XIX. 1871, XX. 1873, XXI. 1884, XXII. 1888. Many of these editions are extremely rare, and the last two are entirely new works, having been thoroughly revised and rearranged.

The Ahiman Rezon. It may be of interest to state that the Regulations published by the "Ancient " Grand Lodge, called by the English the "Atholl Masons," and known as the "Ahiman Rezon," were eight in number, viz.: 1. 1756, II. 1764, III. 1778, IV. 1787, v. 1800, VI. 1801, VII. 1807, VIII. 1813, the last two having "Lists of Lodges." Probably one of the most complete collections of these editions of the "Ahiman Rezon," in America, is in the Masonic Library, Philadelphia, Pa.

As the "Book of Constitutions" became the model or standard for the government of Freemasonry by the "Moderns," so the " Ahiman Rezon" was the law of the "Ancients." The history of these rival Grand Lodges and subsequent union is given in another place in this volume.

Destruction of the Ancient MSS. The legendary writings called apocryphal, as well as those more authentic, are said to have been destroyed after they were collated into a volume variously called: "The Masonic Constitutions," "Constitutions," "The Legend of the Guild," the "History of Freemasonry," "The Constitutions of the Craft," etc., etc.; all of which were designated by Dr. Anderson, in these words:

"The Free-Masons had always a Book in Manuscript called the Book of Constitutions (of which they have several very antient Copies remaining), containing not only their Charges and Regulations, but also a History of Architecture from the Beginning of Time; in order to show the Antiquity and Excellency of the Craft or Art."

These writings have, by Hughan's suggestion, been called the "Old Charges of British Freemasons," of which an increasing number are still in