THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONS.
one thus alluded
to,"
the fact being lost sight
that year, the compilation
a Benedictine
monk
of,
that whilst the
first
from certain old Latin chronicles,
itself,
of St Werburgh's
is
6i
typographical edition was not issued until
supposed to have been arranged by Roger,
It was soon afterwards
Abbey, in Chester, early in the previous century.
"
enlarged by Eanulph Higden of the same monastery, styled a Polycronicon," or Universal History, and was
brought down to hia own time. He died about a.d. 1360. The earliest edition is believed to have been issued
in 1342, and
numerous Latin transcripts were in circulation, as well as a translation in English prose, by John
de Trevisa (chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley)
I shall have occasion to refer to these
during the same century.
later on, but desire to draw
attention to the fact that there is no evidence whatever of any printed work
especial
Findel terms it the "Cooke-Baker document," simply on the
being alluded to in this quaint chronicle (MS. 2).
ground that Dr Eawlinson, about 1730, spoke of a MS. being in the possession of a Sir Baker, but the latter
was in the form of a Roll, whereas the " Cooke MS." never was ; and hence such a title is both misleading and
improper.
3.
"
Lansdowne."
*16tli Century.
British
Published in "Freemasons' Magaziue,"2 and Hughan's
"
Museum
Old Charges"
(No. 98, Art. 48).
(p. 31),
but not in the " Freemasons'
Magazine," 1794, as stated by Mr M. Cooke and other writers, neither is it dated 1560 as Fort asserts. Mr Bond
down at about 1600, and by all authorities i B