Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

FREEMASONRY IN ITALY 75brethren were in any way molested . A lodge was re-establishedafterwards, which was discovered in 1785, when all itscontents were again burnt or otherwise destroyed . From theritual, which was found among the other effects, it appearsthat the candidate for initiation was led, his eyes beingbandaged, from street to street, or canal to canal, so as toprevent his tracing the locality, to the Rio Marino, wherehe was first conducted into a room hung with black, andillumined by a single light ; there he was clothed in a longgarment like a winding sheet, but black ; he put on a capsomething like a turban, and his hair was drawn over hisface, and in this elegant figure he was placed before alooking-glass, covered with a black curtain, tinder whichwere written the words, "If thou bast true courage, andan honest desire to enter into the Order, draw aside thecurtain, and learn to know thyself ." He might then removethe bandage and look at himself. He was then again blindfolded,and placed in the middle of the room, while thirtyor forty members entered and began to fight with swords .This was to try the candidate's courage, who was himselfslightly wounded . The bandage was once more removed,and the wound dressed . Then it' was replaced, and thecandidate taken to a second apartment, hung with black andwhite, and having in the middle a bed covered with a blackcloth, on the centre of which was a white cross, whilston either side was represented a white skeleton . The candidatewas laid on the bed, the bandage being removed,and he was there left with two tapers, the one white, theother yellow. After having been left there for some time,the brethren entered in a boisterous manner, beating discordantdrums . The candidate was to show no sign oftrepidation amidst all these elaborate ceremonies ; and thenthe members embraced him as a brother, and gave himthe name by which he was henceforth to be known in thesociety.459. Abatement under Napoleon .-During the reign ofNapoleon I ., numerous lodges were founded throughoutItaly ; and it cannot be denied by the greatest friends of theOrder, that during that period Freemasonry cut a most pitifulfigure . For a society that always boasted of its independenceof, and superiority to, all other earthly governments,to forwardaddresses such as the following to Napoleon, seems somethinglike self-abasement and self-stultification :-" 0 Napoleonthy philosophy guarantees the toleration of our natural anddivine religion. We render thee honour worthy of thee for it,i