MASONS, FREE (ante). The claims of freemasonry to origin in a period of remote antiquity have recently received a certain arnount of support. In the process of making the necessary preparations for the removal of the Egyptian obelisk at Alexandria to its new site at New York, in 1880, certain discoveries were rnade which were alleged to have a distinct masonic reference. These discoveries included a number of objects masonic in character, and the fact that the foundations and position of the monolith had been established according to rules which form a part of the traditions of the order. In regard to this whole matter of antiquity, there is nothing in the traditions of the order SO exceptionally remarkable as to make any special demand on our credulity. Men have been constituted after the same fashion from the beginning of time; and, given the same motive and the same or a similar environment and like opportunities, they may be .assumed to act in the same way. The organization of the craft-guild in northern and central Europe as early as the 7th century is a sufficient illustration of the tendency to association among men, and particularly among the laboring or " cmft" classes, to prove this. We know that among the Greeks, and Romans also, such association occurred in various directions, and there is no sound reason for disbelief in the possible combina tion of the 'architects and master-builders of Rome in the time of Numa Pompilius, as is claimed by the masons. Whether we are to accept the traditions which point to Solo mon's temple, and refer to the times of the ancient Egyptians for the period of the foundation of the order, is a matter not of vital importance; though the same reasoning that answers in the case of Rome is equally sound in that of Egypt. Certainly when one contemplates the pyramids, Memphis, Thebes, Denderah, and the other ruins of marvelous structures built by the Egyptian masons and architects, there is nothing absurd in the supposition that then, as now, associated effort might have been con cerned; and that the associations concerned might have organized on some such basis ss is involved in the traditional history of freemasonry. The Roman colleges of builders are said to have been created by Numa Pompilius in 715 n.c. In 52 A.D. the corporations of constructors were e,stablished in Great Britain. In A.D. 290 Caransius, commander of the Roman fleet, is said to have renewed the ancient constitution and privileges of the Roman colleges, with a view to gaining the favor of the builders, who -were a very powerful association: the architect Albanus, sent to Great Britain as an -inspector of the constructors, or masons, is credited with having been the first Christian martyr in Britain, lie having been beheaded for preaching the doctrine of Christ. His Tank of inspector became later on that of grand master. .4 t this period, which was in the latter part of the 3d c., the city of York contained the most important lodges or colleges of builders in Britain. In the 4th and 5th centuries corporations of artists and operatives, so called, were instituted in Great Britain, and manuscript copies of their statutes are said to be still in existence in certain of the French libraries. In 614 pope Boniface conferred by diploma upon the masonic corporations the exclusive privilege of erecting all religious buildings and monuments, and made them free from all taxation. The civil wars of this period paralyzed the development of the masonic corporations, and they took refuge in the monasteries, which thus became the schools of architecture --sending forth such architects as St. Aloysius, bishop of Noyen ; St. Ferol, of Limoges; Dalmac, bishop of Rhodes; and Agricola, of Chalons (659-700). In some of the Anglo-Saxon documents which still exist in the libraries of England the masonic fraternities are styled "freemasona." In 925 A.D Athelstan convoked all the masonic 1odges of Great Britain; the order was re-organized; and the city of York was established as the seat of the grand mastership: 34 years later the archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dunstan, was named grand master of the fraternity. In 1040 Edward the Con fessor assumed the protectorate of the order; and in 1100 king Henry IV. accepted the grand mastership. In 1145 the freemasons from upper Normandy were called to the aid of the builders of the cathedral of Chartres, and were publicly blessed by the archbishop of Rouen; they made a triumphal entry into the city of Chartres. In 1250 the
,grand lodge of Cologne WaS instituted; and in 1275 a masonic congress was convoked to hasten the building of the cathedral of Strasburg. The monopoly granted by pope Boniface IV. WRS confirmed by diplomas issued by pope Nicholas III. in A.D. 1277; and these were again confirmed by pope Benedict III. in 1334. In 1360 Germany had five grand lodges, Cologne, Strasburg, Bern, Vienna, and Magdeburg, upon which were dependent the local lodges of France, Belgium, Hesse, Swabia, Thuringia, Switzerland, Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and Styria- In the 15th c. the assemblies of frQemasons in England were suppressed by act of patharnent, but a few years later Henry- VI. was initiated into the fraternity, his example being followed by nearly all the gantlemen of his court. In 1452 a new constitution was compiled at Strasburg, and in 1459, '34, and '69 masonic congresses were held in Ratisbon and Spire. A grand lodge of master masons was held in London in 1502, presided over by the king, Henry VIL, who laid the corner-stone of the chapel of Westminster which bears his name. A. congress of masons was held at Basle in 1563, and at Strasburg in 1564; and in 1607 king James I. of England proclaimed himself protector of the freemasons. In 1663 a general assembly of English masons took place at York, and was presided over by king Charles II. In 1666, at the time of the great fire in London, there were but seven lodges of masons in the city; and in 1703 these had declined to four, though Sir Christopher Wren, the aged graud master, exhibited great zeal in endeavoring to foster the progress, and increase of the order. In France, in 1539, Francis I. suspended all the corporations of w orkmen, and freemasonry became extinguished in that country, not to be revived unti.1 1721. It is claimed by the masons- that this act of Francis I. resulted in the abandonment of the practice of Gothic architecture, and the substitution for it of the 7,;enaissance style, of which school were the architects Delorme and Bullant, who built the Tuileries iu 1577; Lescot and Goryon, the architects of the Louvre, built in 1571; Bloudel and Bullet, who constructed the gates of St. Denis and St. Martin, of Paris, between 1674 and 1686; Mansart, who built the palace of Versailles and the Invalides in 1700 and 1725; and J. Sonfflot, who erected the Pantheon: none of these architects were freemasons. It was in the year 1703 that the English masons forming the lodge of St. Paul, having completed the erection of the cathedral, passed the resolution which opened the doors of the order to others than practical masons and builders. This resolution reads as follows: " Resolved, that the privilege of masonry shall no longer be confined to operative masons, but be free to men of all professions, provided that they are regu larly approved and initiated into the fraternity." This important decision entirely changed the nature of the society, and transformed it into the body as we find it to-day. In 1717 the grand lodge of London was constituted, and put into execution the resolu tion of 1703: see MASONS, FREE, ante. In 1864 the three grand lodges of Great Britain controlled 109 provincial grand lodges, with 1597 operative lodges under their jurisdic tion, which extended their connections to every part of the globe. Freemasonry was introduced into Denmark, in 1783; France, 1721; in Sweden, in 1736; Russia, in 1731; Belgium, 1721; Holland, 1725; Germany, 1737; Switzerland, 1737; Italy, 1729; Portugal, 1735; Spain, 1727. It is claimed that a lodge was established in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as early as 1750, the first in the British dominions in America; but this statement is not fully credited. Of the five provinces which comprise the dominion of Canada, Prince Edward Island alone has its lodges subject to the grand lodges of Great Britain. The first lodge in the New England colonies was opened in Boston in 1733. After the war of independence, grand lodges were organized in all the states. The statistics of the order in America showed the following membership in the different states in 1880, including also the British provinces, or Dominion of Canada, and New 3Iexico: