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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTSTEMPLARRevivalThe organization of that important body, theGrand Lodge of England, which took place in thecity of London in the year 1717, has been alwaysknown in Masonic history as the "Revival of Masonry/'Anderson, in his first edition of the "Bookof Constitutions," containing the History, AncientCharges and Regulations for the use of Lodges,which was adopted by the Grand Lodge and publishedin 1723, speaks of the brethren having revivedthe drooping Lodges of London but he makes;no other reference to the transaction. In his secondedition, published in 1738, he is more diffuse,and the account there given is the only authoritywe possess of the organization made in 1717. Prestonand all subsequent writers have of course derivedtheir authority from Anderson.DegreesThe word degree, in its primitive meaning, signifiesa step. The degrees of Freemasonry are thenthe steps by which the candidate ascends from alower to a higher condition of knowledge. It is nowthe opinion of the best scholars, that the division ofthe Masonic system into degrees was the work ofdegree, or rather one common platform ofthe revivalists of the beginning of the eighteenthcentury; that before that period there was but oneritualism;and that the division into Masters, Kcllows,.and Apprentices was simply a division or gradation78