Annotated edition

The true history of Freemasonry is much in its character like the history of a nation. It has its historic and its prehistoric era. In its historic era, the institution can be regularly traced through various antecedent associations, similar in design and organization, to a comparatively remote period. Its connection with these associations can be rationally established by authentic documents and by other evidence which no historian would reject. For the prehistoric era that which connects it with the mysteries of the pagan world, and with the old priests of Eleusis, of Samothrace, or of Syria let us honestly say that we no longer treat of Freemasonry under its present organization, which we know did not exist in those days, but of a science peculiar, and peculiar only, to the Mysteries and to Freemasonry, a science which we may call Masonic symbolism, and which constituted the very heartblood of the ancient and the modern institutions, and gave to them, while presenting a dissimilarity of form, an identity of spirit. In connecting and tracing the germ of Freemasonry in those prehistoric days, although guided by no documents, and no authentic spoken or written narratives on which to rely, we find fossil thoughts embalmed in those ancient intellects precisely like the living ones which crop out in modern Masonry, and which, like the fossil shells and fishes of the old physical formations of the earth, show by their resemblance to living specimens the graduated connection of the past with the present. Every human institution is subject to great and numerous variations; the different aspects under which they appear, and the principles by which they are governed, depend on the advance of civilization, the nature of the protecting government, and the peculiar habits and opinions of the members themselves. Before learning was advanced, and when the art of printing was unknown, the discoveries in the arts and sciences must of necessity have been known to but few individuals. The pursuit of science was a secondary matter, and questions of philosophy were solely the prerogative of priestcraft. Agriculture was the grand pursuit of life.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

FREEMASONRY

Ancient Mysteries

Egyptian Mysteries

Adonisian Mysteries in Syria

Dionysian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

Mysteries of Mithras

Israelites

Jewish History

King Solomon’s Temple

The Exploration of Jerusalem

The Foundation of the Temple

Ancient Temples

Division of the Hebrew Nation

Ancient to Modern

Roman Colleges of Artificers

Building Corporations

Speculative Masonry

Fraternity of Builders or Freemasons of Continental Europe

Germany

France

Italy

Conclusion

Revival

Degrees

Ritual

Rite

DEGREES OF FREEMASONRY – SYMBOLIC DEGREES

Entered Apprentice

Fellow Craft

Master Mason

CAPITULAR DEGREES

Mark Master

Past Master

Most Excellent Master

Royal Arch

Captivity

Termination of the Captivity

CRYPTIC DEGREES

Council of Royal and Select Masters

Royal Master 85 Select Master

Super Excellent Master

Book Of The Law

Design of Freemasonry

Commandery

Knights Templar

Knight of the Red Cross

Knights Templar

The Cross

The Crescent

The Conflict

Ancient Templars

Defense and Fall of Acre

Final Dissolution

Knights Templar, Masonic

Knights of Malta

ISBN	978-8417732813
Pages	128
Width	6.14 in
Height	9.21 in

The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar

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