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THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONSCanonbury Research Masonic Centre DescriptionThe Old Charges — description of the term from A Concise Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry by E. L. Hawkins, London 1908 This is the name generally given to a number of old
manuscripts which have been found in England and elsewhere during the last
seventy years. They generally consist of three parts -- first, an introductory
prayer or invocation; second, the history of the Order, or the Legend of the
Craft, commencing at the time of Lamech and ending with the era of Athelstan, or
about 926; and third, the peculiar statues and duties, the regulations and
observances, which the Craft in general or Masons in particular are bound
carefully to uphold and inviolably to maintain. There are now some 70 copies of
these Charges known to be in existence, and new ones may be discovered at any
time, for about 40 have come to light in the last 35 years, chiefly owing to the
indefatigable research of Bro. W. J. Hughan, who has made them his especial
study. The earliest known reference to them made by any writer is
in Dr. Plot's "Natural History of Staffordshire", published in 1686, in which he
gave an account of the Freemasons of that county, and said that they had among
them a large parchment volume containing the history and rules of the Craft of
Masonry.
Of these Old Charges the earliest so far discovered is a
poem of 794 lines, supposed to have been written about 1390, and now in the
British Museum; known as the Regius Poem. The next in point of time is in prose
and also in the British Museum; experts fix its date as about 1450; it is known
as the Matthew Cook MS. Then comes one known as the Grand Lodge MS. No. 1, as
being in the possession of the Grand Lodge of England; this was dated by the
copyist '1583'. And so they approach in date nearer and nearer to our own time,
until we come to a copy made in 1869 from a MS. which has since been missing. Though all have a general likeness, yet no two are
precisely the same, showing additions, omissions, variations, and discrepancies
of names. It has been supposed that in former times each Lodge possessed a copy
of these Charges, which was read to a candidate on his initiation, but there is
no actual proof that such was the case. Bro. W. J. Hughan, in his work "The Old Charges", has
given full particulars of each of these documents and the Quatuor Coronati Lodge
has issued facsimiles and transcripts of several of them. ExcerptFrom Chapter II of History of Freemasonry, by Robert Freke Gould, London 1883 THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH
FREEMASONS
THE ancient documents handed
down from the operative masons in Great Britain and Germany respectively - all
generically described under the misleading title of Constitutions require to be
carefully examined, and separately described. The so-called "Constitutions,"
peculiar to England and Scotland, contain legends or traditional history, which
are not to be found in the regulations or working statutes of the latter
country, nor do they appear in the Ordinances of the craft in either France or
Germany. The only point of identity between the English and German
constitutions in the shape of legend or tradition is the reference to the "Four
Holy Crowned Martyrs", but as they are only mentioned in one of the English
versions, and then merely in that portion of the MS. devoted to religious
duties, the thread that connects them is a very slender one indeed. It will be
found that, as a general rule, early documents of the guilds or crafts commence
with an invocation of saintly patronage, and the "Holy Martyrs" were not
monopolised in this respect by the masons of Germany, as they were the assumed
patrons of numerous other fraternities. Nor can it be maintained, with any show
of reason, that the slender thread of union already cited, at all warrants the
conclusion that the English masons derived the legend of the "Quatuor Coronati"
from their German brethren. The British Constitutions, or "Old Charges," have
indeed neither predecessors nor rivals, and their peculiar characteristics will
be found, in truth, to amply warrant the detailed examination which I shall now
proceed with. By no other
craft in Great Britain has documentary evidence been furnished of its having
claimed at any time a legendary or traditional history. Oral testimony of any
real antiquity is also wanting when it is sought to maintain that the British
Freemasons are not singular in the preservation of their old legends. The
amusing pretensions of certain benefit societies do not affect the claim, for no
"traditions" of these associations can be traced historically to a period
sufficiently remote to prove their independent origin; the probability being
that they are all modern adaptations of masonic traditions and customs. In saying "no
other craft," I exclude from consideration the French Compagnons, who
were members (latterly) of all crafts, though in the first instance the
association was confined to the masons and carpenters. Not that the "Compagnons"
were without legendary histories, but they now possess no early writings
with which we can compare the "Old Charges of British Freemasons" as
the "Constitutions" under examination have been aptly termed by the masonic
author whose labours have been the longest sustained in this branch of
archeological research. The legends
peculiar to the Compagnonage have been very lightly passed over by masonic and
other historians. This is in a great measure to be accounted for, no doubt, by
the absence of any literature bearing on the subject until a comparatively
recent date. Authors of repute have merely alluded to this obscure subject in
the most casual way, and virtually the customs and legends of this association
were quite unknown to the outer world, until the appearance of a small work in
1841, by Agricol Perdiguier, entitled "Le Livre du Compagnonage." Perdiguier,
who was a "Compagnon," writes of the organisation as a Freemason would of
Freemasonry, i.e., without disclosing aught of an esoteric character; but
the legends and customs are carefully described. The analogies
between distinctive portions of the English and French legends occur too
frequently, and are too strongly marked to be accidental. If then, we may
assume - and I apprehend we may do so safely - that certain legends were afloat
in early days of the Compagnonage, anterior to the date of our earliest British
"Constitution " - The "Halliwell," circa 1390 - the following is the
result: In the fourteenth century there is, on the one hand, an organisation
(the Compagnons) in full activity, though without manuscript
constitutions, or legends, which has endured to this day. On the other hand,
there is documentary evidence satisfactorily proving that the legendary history
of the English masons was not only enshrined in tradition, but was embalmed in
their records. Yet we have little or no evidence of the activity of English
masons in their lodges at so early a period, beyond what is
inferentially supplied by the testimony of these Old Charges or Constitutions,
which form the subject of our present investigation. On the whole,
it may be reasonably concluded that the Compagnons of the Middle Ages preserved
legends of their own which were not derived from the Freemasons (or masons); and
the latter, doubtless, assembled in lodges, although Acts of Parliament and
other historical records are provokingly silent upon the point. But if the
legends of the Compagnonage were not derivative, can the same be said of those
which have been preserved by the masons? The points of similarity are so varied
and distinct, that if it be conceded that the present legends of the two
bodies, have been faithfully transmitted from their ancestors of the Middle
Ages, the inference is irresistible, either that the masons borrowed from the
Compagnons, or that the traditions of both associations are inherited from a
common original. Without an
exception, all these "Old Charges" have been carefully collated, and their
points of agreement and divergence as far as possible extracted, in order that
their value as ancient masonic chronicles may be accurately gauged.
One at least of these MSS. and possibly two, date before the introduction of the
printing press. Of the remainder, some twenty were in emulation amongst the
masonic lodges prior to the last century, the majority being over two hundred
years old, and all being copies of still older documents. No two of the
MSS. are exactly alike, though there is a substantial agreement
between them all, and evidently they had a common origin, just as they were
designed to serve a common purpose. As it is probable that each lodge, prior to
the last century, had one of these "Old Charges" amongst its effects, which was
read to an apprentice on his introduction to the craft, it is almost certain
that additional scrolls still await discovery, the only wonder being, that
considering how numerous the lodges must have been, so few have yet been traced.
Possibly, however, the "several very valuable manuscripts concerning the
fraternity (particularly one written by Mr Nicholas Stone, the warden of Inigo
Jones), too hastily burned by some scrupulous brothers," mainly consisted of
forms of the "Old Charges". When and how the first of these documents was
compiled, or by whom, it is impossible now to decide, for we possess no
autographic versions of the masonic constitutions. Editor's Note:Whilst anxious, however, to disconnect such ancient writings from modern adaptations and erroneous interpretations, I yield to none in my appreciation of their importance and value, as the repertories of our time-honoured traditions and regulations. Even regarded in this light alone these old legends and traditions, these bygone usages and regulations of the operative guilds, thus happily preserved, have, and always must have for all thoughtful Freemasons, the deepest value and the most lasting interest. |
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