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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARcontinued to exist without interruption until 1707,when a decree of the Imperial Diet at Ratisbon dissolvedthe connection of the Lodges of Germanywith the Grand Lodge of Strasburg, because thatcity had in 1687 passed into the power of the French.The head being now lost, the subordinate bodiesbegan rapidly to decline, and in 1731, by an imperialedict of Charles I., nearly all the Lodges in Germanywere dissolved, and lost of until the restora-sighttion of the Order in the eighteenth century, throughthe English Fraternity.FRANCE.In the beginning of the tenth century a Fraternityof Architects was founded in France, and was similarto that of their German brethren. Originatinglike them, from the cloisters, and from the employmentof laymen by the monkish architects, the connectionbetween the Masons of France and theRoman Colleges of Artificers was more intimateand direct than that of the Germans, because of theearly and very general occupation of Gaul by theRoman legions; but the French organizations didnot materially differ from the Germans. Protectedby popes and princes, the Masons were engagedunder ecclesiastical patronage in the construction ofreligious edifices. The principal seat of the FrenchFraternity was at Como, a city of Lombardy, fromwhere the Lodges were disseminated over the kingdom,and who passed from country to country andfrom city to city under the name of 'TravelingFreemasons." In the beginning of the sixteenthcentury the necessity for their employment in fur-72