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

268 FLUDD
MIKES
Washington Lodge at Quincy, and Harmony
Lodge at Mariana . On the 5th of July, 1830,
delegates from these three Lodges met at Tallahassee,
and organized the Grand Lodge of
Florida, which has 166 subordinate Lodges
under its rule .
Fludd, Robert . Robert Fludd, or, as he
called himself in his Latin writings, Robertus
de Fluctibus, was in the seventeenth century a
prominent member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity
. He was born in England in 1574, and
having taken the degrees of Bachelor and Master
of Arts at St . John's College, Oxford, he
commenced the study of physic, and in due
time took the degree of Doctor of Medicine .
He died in 1637. In 1616, he commenced the
publication of his works and became a voluminous
writer, whose subject and style were
equally dark and mysterious . The most important
of his publications are : Apologia Compendaria,
Fraternitatem de Rosea Cruce, suspicionis
et infamice maculis aspersum abluens,
(Leyden, 1616), i . e ., A Brief Apology, clearing
the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross from the
stigma of suspicion and infamy with which
they have been aspersed ; and Tractatus Apologeticus
integritatem Societatis de Rosea truce
defendens contra Libanium et alios (Leyden,
1617), or, An Apologetic Tract defending the
purity of the Society of the Rosy Cross from the
attacks of Libanius and others . And last, and
wildest of all, was his extravagant work on
magic, the kabbala, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism,
entitled Summum bonum, quod est
verism magice, cabaa?l, alchymice, fratrum
Rosae Crucis verorum very subjectum . Rosicrucianism
was perhaps indebted more to
Fludd than to any other person for its introduction
from Germany into England, and it
may have had its influence in molding the
form of Speculative Freemasonry ; but we are
not prepared to go as far as a distinguished
writer in the London Freemasons' Magazine
(April, 1858, p . 677), who says that "Fludd
must be considered as the immediate father of
Freemasonry as Andrea was its remote father ."
Nicolai more rationally remarks that Fludd,
like Andrea, exerted a considerable and beneficial
influence on the manners of his age . His
explanation of the Rose Croix is worth quoting.
He says that it symbolically signifies
the cross dyed with the blood of the Savior ;
a Christian idea which was in advance of the
original Rosicrucians .
Folkes, Martin . From his acquaintance
with Sir Christopher Wren, and his intimacy
with Dr. Desaguliers, Martin Folkes was induced
to take an active part in the reorganization
of Freemasonry in the beginning of the
last century, and his literary attainments and
prominent position in the scientific world enabled
him to exercise a favorable influence on
the character of the Institution . He was descended
from a good family, being the eldest
son of Martin Folkes, Esq ., Counsellor at
Law, and Dorothy, the daughter of the Sir
William Howell, Knt., of the county of Norfolk.
He was born in Queen Street, Leicester
Inn Fields, Westminster, October 29, 1690 . In
1707 he was entered at Clare Hall, Cambridge,
and in 1713 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society,
of which, in 1723, he was appointed Vice-
President. In 1727, on the death of Sir Isaac
Newton= he became a candidate for the Presidency,
m which he was defeated by Sir Hans
Sloane, who, however, renewed his appointment
as Vice-President, and in 1741, on the
resignation of Sloane as President, he was
elected his successor . In 1742 he was
elected a member of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Paris, and in 1746 received the
degree of Doctor of Laws from the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge .
In 1750, he was elected President of the Society
of Antiquaries. To this and to the Royal
Society he contributed many essa s, and published
a work entitled, A Table ofyEnglish Silver
Coins, which is still much esteemed as a
numismatic authority . On September 26,
1751, he was struck with paralysis, from which
be never completely recovered . On November
30, 1753, he resigned the Presidency of the
Royal Society, but retained that of the Society
of Antiquaries until his death. In 1733, he
visited Italy, and remained there until 1735,
during which time he appears to have ingratiated
himself with the Masons of that country,
for in 1742 they struck a medal in his honor, a
copy of which is to be found in Thory's History
of the Foundation of the Grand Orient of
France. On one side is a pyramid, a sphinx,
some Masonic ciphers and the two pillars,
and on the obverse a li(ceness of Folkes .
Of the Masonic life of Folkes we have but
few records . In 1725, he was appointed Deputy
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England,
and is recorded as having paid great attention
to the duties of his office . Anderson
says that he presided over the Grand Lodge in
May of that year, and " Rrompted a most
agreeable communication . (Constitutions,
1738, p . 119 .) But he held no office afterward ;
yet he is spoken of as having taken great interest
in the Institution . Of his literary contributions
to Masonry nothing remains .
The Pocket Companion cites an address by
him, in 1725, before the Grand Lodge, probably
at that very communication to which
Anderson has alluded, but it is unfortunately
no longer extant . He died June 28, 1754, and
was buried in the Chancel of Hillington
Church near Lynn, Norfolk. He left a wife
and two daughters, an only son having died
before him .
Nichols, who knew him personally, says
(Lit . Anecd ., ii ., 591) of him : "His knowledge
was very extensive, his judgment exact and
accurate, and the precision of his ideas appe~ared
from the perspicuity and conciseness of
his expression in his discourses and writings on
abstruse and difficult topics. . . . He had
turned his thoughts to the study of antiquity
and the polite arts with a philosophical spirit
which he had contracted by the cultivation of
the mathematical sciences from his earliest
youth ." His valuable library of more than
five thousand volumes was sold for £3,090 at
auction after his decease .