The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARor pagan countries of Christianity, and the conversionof their inhabitants to the true faith, we alsohear of the propagation^ of the art of building inthe same places by the corporations ofarchitects,the immediate successors of the Roman legionarycolleges, for the new religion required churches,and, in time, cathedrals and monasteries, and theecclesiastical architecture speedily suggested improvementsin the civil. In time, all the religiousknowledge and all the architectural skill of thenorthern part of Europe were concentrated in theremote regions of Ireland and Scotland, whencemissionaries were sent back to England to convertthe pagan Saxon. From England these energeticmissionaries, accompanied by the pious Architects,passed into Europe, and effectually labored for theconversion of the Scandinavian nations, introducinginto Germany, Sweden, Norway, and even Ireland,the blessings of Christianity, and the refinementsof civilized life.The religious contest between the original Christiansof Britain and the Papal power, after yearsof controversy, finally terminated in the submissionof the British bishops to the Pope. As soon asthe Papal authority was firmly established overEurope, the Roman Catholic hierarchy secured theservices of the builders' corporations, and these, underthe patronage of the Pope and the bishops, wereeverywhere engaged as 'Traveling Freemasons,"in the construction of ecclesiastical and regal edifices.Henceforth we find these corporations ofbuilders exercising their art in all countries, everywhereproving by the identity of their designs thatthey were controlled by universally accepted princi-63