A Lexicon of Freemasonry - The Masonic Trowel

38 ANT
brought masonry from Egypt and Syria into Greece, from whence,
in process of time, it passed into England .
I shall not vouch for the truth of this assumption ; for notwithstanding
the celebrity of Pythagoras even at this day among our
fraternity, and the adoption into our lodges of his well-known
problem, I am rather inclined to attribute the extension of masonry
into Europe to the frequent and continued communications
with Palestine, in the earlier ages of the Christian dispensation .
About this period we shall find that associations of travelling
architects existed in all the countries of the continent ; that they
journeyed from city to city, and were actively engaged in the
construction of religious edifices and regal palaces .* The government
of these fraternities of Freemasons-for they had already
begun to assume that distinctive appellation-was even then
extremely regular . They lived in huts or lodges, (a name which
our places of meeting still retain,) temporarily erected for their
accommodation, near the building on which they were employed .
Every tenth man received the title of Warden, and was occupied
iu superintending the labours of those placed under him, while
the direction and supervision of the whole was intrusted to a
Master chosen by the fraternity.
Freemasons continued for a long time to receive the protection
and enjoy the patronage of the church and the nobility, until the
former, becoming alarmed at the increase of their numbers and
the extension of their privileges, began to persecute them with
an unrelenting rigour, which eventually led to their suspension on
the continent . Many lodges, however, had already been established
in Great Britain, and these, shielded by the comparative
mildness and justice of the British laws, continued to propagate
the doctrines of the order throughout 'England and Scotland, and
to preserve unimpaired its ancient landmarks . From the royal
city of York in England, and the village and abbey of Kil winning,
the cradle of masonry in Scotland, our order continued to be
• See the article Travelling Freemaaona, in this work.