Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

160 COLOGNE
COLORADO
the restitution of the Orange regency . The
originals are now, or were very lately, deposited
in the archives of a Lodge at Namur,
on the Meuse ; but copies of the charter were
given to the Fraternity under the following
circumstances :
In the year 1819, Prince Frederick of Nassau,
who was then the Grand Master of the
National Grand Lodge of Holland, contemplating
a reformation in Masonry, addressed
a circular on this subject to all the Lodges
under his jurisdiction, for the purpose of enlisting
them in behalf of his project, and accompanied
this circular with copies of the
charter which he had caused to be taken in
facsimile, and also of the register of the Amsterdam
Lodge, Valley of Peace, to which I
have already referred as contained in the
brass-mounted chest . A transcript of the
charter in the original Latin, with all its errors,
was published, in 1818, in the Annales Magonniques.
The document was also presented to
the public in a German version, in 1819, by
Dr . Fred. Heldmann ; but his translation has
been proved, by Lenning and others, to be exceedingly
incorrect . In 1821, Dr. Krause published
it in his celebrated work entitled The
Three Oldest Masonic Documents . It has been
frequently published since in a German translation,
in whole or in part, but is accessible to
the English reader only in Burnes' Sketch of
the History of the Knights Templars (London,
1840) ; in the English translation of Findel's
History of Freemasonry, and in the American
Quarterly Review of Freemasonry, where it was
published with copious notes by the author of
the present work. P . J. Schouten, a Dutch
writer on the history of Freemasonry, who had
undoubtedly seen the original document, describes
it as being written on parchment in
Masonic cipher, in the Latin language, the
characters uninjured by time, and the subscription
of the names not in cipher, but in the
ordinary cursive character . The Latin is that
of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished by
many incorrectly spelled words, and frequent
grammatical solecisms. Thus, we find "bagistri"
for "magistri," "trigesimo" for "tricesimo,"
"ad nostris ordinem" for "ad nostrum
ordinem," etc .
Of the authenticity of this document, it is
but fair to say that there are well-founded
doubts among many Masonic writers . The
learned antiquaries of the University of Le -
den have testified that the paper on which the
register of the Lodge at The Hague is written,
is of the same kind that was used in Holland at
the commencement of the seventeenth century,
which purports to be its date, and that the
characters in which it is composed are of the
same period . This register, it will be remembered,
refers to the Charter of Cologne as
existing at that time ; so that if the learned
men of Leyden have not been deceived, the
fraud--supposing that there is one in the
charter-must be more than two centuries old .
Dr. Burnes professes to have no faith in the
document, and the editors of the Hermes at
once declare it to be surreptitious. But the
condemnation of Burnes is too sweeping in its
character, as it includes with the charter all
other German documents on Freemasonry ;
and the opinion of the editors of the Hermes
must be taken with some grains of allowance,
as they were at the time engaged in a controversy
with the Grand Master of Holland, and
in the defense of the high degrees, whose
claims to antiquity this charter would materially
impair . Dr. Oliver, on the other hand,
quotes it unreservedly, in his Landmarks, as
an historical document worthy of credit ; and
Reghellini treats it as authentic . In Germany,
the Masonic authorities of the highest reputation,
such as Heldermann, Morsdorf, Moss,
and many others, have repudiated it as a
spurious production, most probably of the
beginning of the present century . oss objects
to the document, that customs are referred
to in it that were not known in the rituals
of initiation until 1731 ; that the higher
degrees were nowhere known until 1725 ; that
none of the eighteen copied documents have
been found ; that the declaimer against Templar
Masonry was unnecessary in 1535, as no
Templar degrees existed until 1741 ; that some
of the Latin expressions are not such as were
likely to have been used ; and a few other objections
of a similar character . Bobrik, who
published, in 1840, the Text, Translation, and
Examination of the Cologne Document, also
advances some strong critical arguments
against its authenticity . On the whole, the
arguments to disprove the genuineness of the
charter appear to be very convincing, and are
strong enough to throw at least great doubt
upon it as being anything else but a modern
forgery. [See Gould's History of Freemasonry
(i ., 496), where the question of the authenticity
of the document is examined, and it is
classed among Apocryphal Manuscripts .-
E . L . H .]
Cologne, Congress of. A Congress which
is said to have been convened in 1525, by the
most distinguished Masons of the time, in
the city of Cologne, as the representatives of
nineteen Grand Lodges, who are said to have
issued the celebrated manifesto, in defense of
the character and aims of the Institution,
known as the Charter of Cologne. Whether
this Congress was ever held is a moot point
among Masonic writers, most of them contending
that it never was, and that it is simply
an invention of the early part of the present
century . (See Cologne, Charter of .)
Colonial Lodges . Lodges in the colonies
of Great Britain are under the immediate
supervision and jurisdiction of District Grand
Lodges, to which title the reader is referred .
Colorado. Freemasonry was introduced
into the territory of Colorado in 1860, in which
year the Grand Lodge of Kansas chartered
Golden City Lodge at Golden City . In 1861
two other Lodges, Rocky Mountain at Gold
Hill and Summit Lodge at Parkville, were
chartered by the Grand Lodge of Nebraska .
On August 2, 1861, representatives from these
three Lodges met in convention at Golden
City, and organized the Grand Lodge of Col-