THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONS.
ic6
'Grand Lodges,' and there is every reason to believe that they were held iu York long
^
antecedent to their being held in London."
reasons for questioning the validity of this claim will be expressed in due course, when
My
I shall
attempt to show that
versions of the
more than one
"
all
the proofs tend to precisely an opposite conclusion, and fortify
Grand Lodges are modern institutions, and that the several
"
Old Charges
supply no evidence from which we can reasonably infer that
"
unless, indeed, the reckless
Assembly was ever held in the city of York
the position I take up,
viz.,
that
"
;
an older school are to pass unchallenged.
That Dr Bell's
of a certain kind may be freely admitted.
Also that many names
assertions of masonic historians of
statement rests on authoritij
may be cited in support of the view he has advanced.
Yet an opinion may be held by a large
number of persons, who have aU been misled by some erroneous authority, and have all
mechanically followed the same blind guide so that their number has, in fact, no weight, and
;
they are no
more
entitled to reckon as independent voices,
"
than the successive compilers who
transcribe an historical error are entitled to reckon as independent witnesses."
^
Supplementary Note.
49.
"Hakkis."
Whilst these pages were passing through the
A7ite,
press, the
-p.
45.
above MS. was published in the " Freemasoiis'
I have no hesitation in pronouncing it
Chronicle," through the good offices of Mr John Constable (London).
"
to be the junior of the
MS. versions of the Old Charges " its proper place, therefore, on the roll of documents
3
:
do not consider the text of any value, because it contains so many
modern interpolations (possibly designed to render it more serviceable in the " Bedford Lodge," prior to its
The transcription was probably made after 1738, though
joining the Grand Lodge of England a.d. 1766).
examined in
this chapter
would be 31a.
I
•undoubtedly from an old MS., as we know that the lodge was active* from the year 1739, and several clauses
The peculiar headings to the twentyof the " Prince Edwin's Charge " cannot well be assigned an earlier date.
flve paragraphs into which it has been divided by the scribe constitute its only distinctive feature.
^
Speecli of Dr John P. Bell, Deputy ProTincial Grand Master, North and East Yorkshire (Report by Mr T. B.
"Whytehead, Reception at York to Masonic Members of the British Association, 5th September 1881).
^
Sir G. C. Lewis, On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion (p. 170). Woodford (in his excellent
preface to
the " Old Charges," which merits the careful study of all students of freemasonry) observes "Tradition sometimes
gets
:
confused after the lapse of time, but I beUeve the tradition is in itself true, which links masonry to the church
building
at York by the operative brotherhood under Edwin iu 627, and to a guild charter under Athelstan in 927."
3
Freemasons' Chronicle, April 22 and 29, 1882.
*
Rosicruciun, 1876, p. 35.