E. H. ADDINGTON

168 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GRAND LODGE
Europe, wherever their labors were in demand. When Borne ceased to
be "Mistress of the World" many cities arose, especially throughout
the south of Europe and Cis-Alpine Gaul. In many parts, Masonic builders
were in demand. Thus it was that lodges were established in many
places in Europe, and apprentices, (laborers and workmen, fellow-craft),
were added to their numbers, who, after long service and study became
Master Masons, enabled to travel in foreign parts and earn Masters'
wages. It may be proper also to remind you, that during the years of
Numa's reign, many were accepted as apprentices and had prepared
themselves, we may suppose, as acceptable Master Masons. This accounts
for so large a number, after Numa's death, found in France,
Germany, England, and perhaps elsewhere, engaged as builders.
Of lodges in England and Scotland, there were several that had
been in existence for three hundred or more years. Architecture, only
another name for masonry, was conceived and developed where law and
order and worship of God were accepted. Athelstan, grandson of Alfred
the Great, issued charters for lodges. York was the seat of the Grand
Master of Masons. The lodge at Edinburgh No. 1 has a series of- minutes
extending from 1509 to 1717 and to 1883—extending over three centuriees.
In 1422 (Henry VI) Parliament passed laws against Masonry; and in
1425 other penal statutes were enacted. But when Henry VI attained
his majority, he not only permitted Masons to meet, but also became a
member of the order and its Grand Master.
Here we have the beginning of the early existence of Masonry in
Europe. We have also learned that many centuries previously Master
Builders had been actively engaged in Assyria,, even to the borders of
India; also, throughout the plains of Mesopotamia, Arabia, the Nile and
Egypt. Even in Rome, while she was mistress of the world.
Following the history of the Master Mason, as stated in the cylinders,
and works of ancient ruins, of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the
country east of Nineveh, and many other portions of the world—-what
a light! What a history is disclosed of the Master Mason in the grand
march, bringing with him a knowledge of the sciences essential to the
operative mason in the art of building homes, cities and monuments!
In the examination of ancient ruins and races of people of the
earth, there is one important fact that must leave an impression upon
the mind. Until recently evidence of ancient man was confined mostly
to the discoverers of Eastern Europe and Asia. No cylinders, no histories,
no great ruins of ancient cities or of people, if is excepted the
recent discoveries in England and the buried city of Yucatan, Central
America. Of these last ruins the people have no knowledge whatever
of the sculpture and other works of man; they appear to resemble somewhat
Eastern handicraft. This one spot of America could perhaps have
been the work of immigrants from Assyria, Arabia or Egypt, ten thousand
or more years ago, if the lost Atlantis ever did occupy a place on
the globe between Afriea and • America, and brought these continents
closer together than they are to-day!