THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

impoverishment of the nations by long wars, the dissolution of the
monasteries, and the advent of Puritanism, did the Church greatly
influence the order; and not even then to the extent of diverting it
from its original and unique mission. Other influences were at work
betimes, such as the persecution of the Knights Templars and the
tragic martyrdom of De Molai, making themselves felt,[69] and Masonry
began to be suspected of harboring heresy. So tangled were the
tendencies of that period that they are not easily followed, but the
fact emerges that Masonry rapidly broadened until its final break with
the Church. Hardly more than a veneer, by the time of the German
Reformation almost every vestige of the impress of the Church had
vanished never to return. Critics of the order have been at pains to
trace this tendency, not knowing, apparently, that by so doing they
only make more emphatic the chief glory of Masonry.
II
Unfortunately, as so often happens, no records of old Craft-masonry,
save those wrought into stone, were made until the movement had begun
to decline; and for that reason such documents as have come down to us
do not show it at its best. Nevertheless, they range over a period of
more than four centuries, and are justly held to be the title deeds of
the Order. Turning to these _Old Charges_ and _Constitutions_,[70] as
they are called, we find a body of quaint and curious writing, both in
poetry and prose, describing the Masonry of the late cathedral-building
period, with glimpses at least of greater days of old. Of these, there
are more than half a hundred--seventy-eight, to be exact--most of which
have come to light since 1860, and all of them, it would seem, copies
of documents still older. Naturally they have suffered at the hands of
unskilled or unlearned copyists, as is evident from errors,
embellishments, and interpolations. They were called _Old Charges_
because they contained certain rules as to conduct and duties which, in
a bygone time, were read or recited to a newly admitted member of the
craft. While they differ somewhat in details, they relate substantially
the same legend as to the origin of the order, its early history, its
laws and regulations, usually beginning with an invocation and ending
with an Amen.
Only a brief account need here be given of the dates and
characteristics of these documents, of the two oldest especially, with
a digest of what they have to tell us, first, of the Legend of the
order; second, its early History; and third, its Moral teaching, its
workings, and the duties of its members. The first and oldest of the
records is known as the _Regius MS_ which, owing to an error of David
Casley who in his catalogue of the MSS in the King's Library marked it
_A Poem of Moral Duties_, was overlooked until James Halliwell
discovered its real nature in 1839. Although not a Mason, Halliwell
was attracted by the MS and read an essay on its contents before the
Society of Antiquarians, after which he issued two editions bearing
date of 1840 and 1844. Experts give it date back to 1390, that is to
say, fifteen years after the first recorded use of the name
_Free_-mason in the history of the Company of Masons of the City of
London, in 1375.[71]
More poetical in spirit than in form, the old manuscript begins by
telling of the number of unemployed in early days and the necessity of