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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARMasonic historians have found much difficulty insettling the question as to the time of the inventionand composition of the degree. The theory thatat the building of the temple of Jerusalem theCraft were divided into three or even moredegrees, being only a symbolic myth, must bediscarded in any historical discussion of thesubject. The real question at issue is, whether theMaster Mason's degree, as a degree, was in existenceamong the operative Freemasons before theor whether we owe it to theeighteenth century,Revivalists of 1717, and documentary evidence isyet wanting to settle the precise time of its composition,as we now have it. It was originally calledthe summit of Ancient Craft Masonry. But underthe present organization the degree isactually incomplete,because it needs a complement that is onlyto be supplied in a higher one. Hence its symbolismis necessarily restricted, in its mutilated form,to the first temple and the present life, although itgives assurance of a future one. (SeeDegrees, page 78.)The whole system of Craft Masonry isRevival andintendedto present the symbolic idea of man passing throughthe pilgrimage of life. The Entered ApprenticeMason istaught those elementary instructionswhich are to fit him for further advancement in hisprofession, just as the youth is supplied with thatrudimentary education which is to prepare him forthe active duties of life; as a Fellow Craft he isdirected to continue his investigations in the scienceof the institution and to labor diligently in thetasks it prescribes, just as the man isrequired toenlarge his mind by the acquisition of new ideas,and to extend his usefulness to his fellow-creatures ;86