Whether

of Gothic architecture throughout the middle ages. any of their original lodges are, as they themselves assert, founded upon the Roman colleges, or whether they were affiliated upon similar institutions in the middle ages, is open to much conjecture; yet we cannot deny but that their symbols retain the impress of high antiquity. Many of them can be traced in the Roman sepulchre, or the quarter gem; and although it may be hard to admit that the craftsmen of York are the unbroken successors of the architects sent to Britain by Claudius, yet they might perhaps more truly assert, that they derived their reorganization from members of the brotherhood, travelling into this island at more recent periods, from Germany or Gaul.

Confused, ignorant, and even absurd, in the traditional Charges, which unfolded to the masonic aspirant, the incipient lodgenna; the dignity of his art, the connexion assumed between masonry and the severe sciences, bear a remarkable resemblance to the Canons of Vitruvius; and the astral hieroglyphics, so conspicuous in various portions of the medieval structures, furnish a very remarkable comment upon the Vitruvian precepts of combining astrological and architectural science. The signs of the zodiac, the seals and configurations of the planets, the phases of the moon, are found in the recesses of the portal,+-in the gem-like orb-high in the vaulted roof-in the pavement of the choir. When to these are to be added the symbols of the winds and elements, and the angelic host, we may indeed read, as in hieroglyphics, the words of praise proceeding from all the works of creation. Others are of more difficult exposition. The griffin accompanied by the wheel, or grasping the serpent-the

·

* From the language of these Charges, they are, in the existing texts at least, as old as the early part of the fifteenth century. The one which we have before us has the following attestation prefixed: -This is a very ancient record of masonry, which was copied for me by Mr Reid, Secretary to the Grand Lodge, 1728. Lord Coleraine, Grand-Master; Alexander Clarke, Deputy; Nat. Blakesby, Js. Highmore, Grand• Wardens.'

Amiens and Notre Dame furnish exceedingly fine examples of portals enriched with astronomical symbols. In edifices of more recent date, those of San Zeno (Verona), St Margaret's, York, and Malmesbury, may be particularly instanced. At Piacenza are added the winds, the elements, and the angels. The cathedral of Lausanne exhibits a very fine circular or marigold window, in the south transept, filled with painted glass, representing the signs and planets; and its counterpart may be found in the cathedral of Soissons. And it is likely that all such circular windows were originally planned for the purpose of receiving similar representations. Fragments of astronomical pavements may be seen at Westminster Abbey and at Canterbury.

lion rending the dragon-or the warrior,* may be paralleled, if not explained, by the gems of the bastidias, or the symbols of the alchemist. If any mysterious doctrine is, or has been at any period really taught in the masonic lodge, it may, as in the case of the Templars, be deemed an extraneous ingraftment; for which the practice of secret initiation, anciently common to many other similar bodies, prepared the way. Yet it is remarkable that the mythos of the disciple slain by the jealousy of his master, whose skill he rivalled or excelled, and presented as the basis of the modern Masonic system, retains a local habitation at York and at Lincoln, at Rosslyn † and at Rouen ; whilst the window or the column which tradition assigns as the cause of the rivalry, displays the pentalpha, or exhibits the adornment by which they are rendered the acknowledged tokens of the fraternity.

Rarely would it be necessary, in the middle ages, to commit to writing any proceedings connected with such an operative community. In England, the lodges, at an early period, were proscribed by the legislature. The statute, 3 Hen. VI. c. I. prohibiting their assemblies, and thus bearing record, upon the Parliamentary Roll, of the importance which they possessed, would for a time compel them to conceal themselves in a deeper cloud; and the scanty fragments of our ancient monastic archives have, as yet, been only imperfectly examined. Under these circumstances, instead of being surprised at the deficiency of evidence, it is, in truth, remarkable that such distinct and satisfactory evidence of the labours of the Freemasons should have been preserved. The constitutions of the Metropolitan Lodge of Strasburg, convey minute and accurate details of the organization of the community, whose members carried the art to its highest degree of perfection. § This document enables us to

* As at Pavia, Verona, or Padua.

The Earls of Rosslyn being hereditary Grand-Masters of the Scottish Freemasons, renders this tradition the more weighty and remarkable.

It appears from this statute, that the masonic chapters or congregations were held yearly. They were general assemblies, like those of the German masons, and called together by certain members possessing authority; and, it is enacted, that they that cause such chapters and congregations to be assembled and holden, if they be thereof convict, shall 'be judged for felons, and that all the other masons that come to such chapters and congregations, be punished by imprisonment of their bodies, ' and make fine and ransom at the king's will.'

S In a solemn convention of the lodges of Suabia, Bavaria, Franconia, Saxony, and Thuringia, held at Ratisbon, 1489, the masons

speak with entire certainty respecting the laws and regulations under which Erwin of Steinbach directed the operations, which, carried on from generation to generation in the dark ages,' our age of civilisation' has abandoned in despair. As to our own

country, in despite of the statute, the Abbot, nay, the Sovereign retained Freemasons as the architects of their proudest structures.* The fabrics raised by their skill still subsist; and it was not, perhaps, until the seventeenth century, that their operative character was wholly lost.

Those who have hitherto attributed Gothic architecture to the Freemasons, have considered the style as the offspring of 'a congregated body;' and, deeming the members of the fraternity to have acted in concert, have attempted to show them working and calculating as a fraternity, for the purpose of arriving at the definite results which they afterwards so gloriously attained, an hypothesis which will become perfectly credible, when any scientific society shall have discovered a system of gravitation; any literary academy shall have composed a Pa'radise Lost; or any academy of the fine arts shall have painted a 'Transfiguration.' But we believe that the fraternity of Freemasons just performed the very useful and important

เ

acknowledged the lodge of Cologne as the grand lodge of Germany-a recognition, which, in 1498, was ratified and confirmed by the Emperor Maximilian. The constitutions of the German Freemasons published by Huldman (Arau, 5819), under the title of Die drey æltesten Geschichtlichen Denkmale der Teutschen Freymaurer bruderschaft.' The earliest is dated in 1464. It is remarkable, that they employ the same terminology as the English masons, calling their assembly the chap

ter.'

*The palace of Hampton Court was thus erected by the craft, as appears from the very curious account of the expenses of the fabric, extant among the public records in London. The following items are extracted from the entries of the works performed between the 26th February, 27 Hen. VIII., to the 25th March, then next ensuing.

The clerk of the works received Sd. per diem, and his writing clerks 6d. each. The accounts contain much valuable information respecting the building, and would be of great use to the industrious topographer.

duties properly belonging to the Society or the Academy. They assisted in the spread of knowledge, and in bestowing upon talent the countenance and protection of station and established power. By means of the masonic organization, Gothic architecture, the creation of the Proto-Goth, was transmitted from land to land. Received in some countries, as in Italy, tardily and reluctantly, it never became an enchorial art; in others, adopted with vigour, the German brother was admitted with frankness and affection. As other Gothic inventors,-other poets arose,-their patterns and inventions more or less beautiful, were accepted or neglected, until the period when the human mind receiving a new impulse and a new direction, Gothic art passed away with the state of society by which it had been sustained. The stream ceased to flow; the roots lost their nourishment; the tree withered, decayed, and fell.

Much more might be said on the subject of masonry. The connexion between the operative masons and those whom, without disrespect, we must term a convivial society of good fellowswho, in the reign of Queen Anne, met at the Goose and Gridiron, in St Paul his Churchyard'-appears to have been finally dissolved about the beginning of the 18th century.* It is rather curious to observe, that after the general abandonment of Gothic architecture, there was still a succession of true and living Gothic art. The Capuchin Church at Ghent (1632), and the cloister of St Peter's in the same city (1636), are both in the regular Gothic style. At Oxford and Cambridge, many of the edifices erected in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., display real Gothic feeling and sentiment-Gothic architecture was still alive, though in its last stage of decrepitude; and the very remarkable door-way in the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick, executed. towards the commencement of the eighteenth century, by a common mason-the last representative of the craft-perhaps exhibits the last vestige of the traditional inheritance.

The theoretical and mystic, for we dare not say, ancient Freemasons, separated from the Worshipful Company of Masons and Citizens of Londion, about the period above mentioned. It appears from an inventory. of the contents of the chest of the London Company that, not very long since, it contained A Book, wrote on parchment, and bound or sticht in parchment, containing an 113 annals of the antiquity, rise, and progress of the art and mystery of Masonry.' But this document is now not to be found.

t Messager des Sciences et des Arts de la Belgique, 1836, p. 136,

answer to the Msrepresentations emerized in he Life of Clarendon in No. CXXIV, of view. by T. H. LISTER, Esq. Sra. Log

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