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Article ROMAN CATHOLIC FREEMASONS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE OBSERVANCES OF ST. JOHN'S EVE. Page 1 of 4 →
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Roman Catholic Freemasons.
assurance that British Freemasonry , according to our constitutions , has no undue concern with either religion or politics , that our morality is that which is inculcated by Christianity ; therefore the decrees against Freemasonry are unjust as regards us in this country ? Would any man in his senses tell me , that such a document would be unheeded by the authorities of the court of Rome ? But here my labour must end ; my health will not allow me to do more .
Your obedient Servant , A CATHOLIC . This possibly may be the last letter I shall be enabled to address you as the term of my days at present hangs upon a thread . It is necessary for me to state to you that I became a Mason , in La Charitee , at Amsterdam , in Holland , in 1818 , and for several years afterwards never heard of the decrees of the Popes until 1 went to Portugal and Spain ,
where I met with hundreds of ecclesiastics who were Masons , and who understood those decrees to be merely local . Since that time I have joined actively no Lodge in this country , but have acted only as an ( weak ) advocate of our Order .
On The Antiquity Of The Observances Of St. John's Eve.
ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE OBSERVANCES OF ST . JOHN'S EVE .
BY BRO . THOMAS PRYEI ! , OP THE OAK LODGE . AJIONG the many popular superstitions whose progress it is interesting to investigate , there are few , perhaps , possessing greater interest than those which relate to the observances of the vigil of St . John , or Midsummer-eve , as their origin is clearly traceable to a most remote period . The subject is also one which cannot well be fully elucidated ,
without the assistance derivable from a knowledge of Masonic antiquities ; it becomes , therefore , as much a matter of Masonic as of archaeological research . The customs and superstitions observed upon this occasion , are now
fast disappearing ; but still , upon St . John ' s eve , the fires are lighted on the hills in Ireland , and the vigil is kept by the peasantry of that country and Scotland , as well as in Italy and various parts of Europe . Fires are made , dancing , feasting , and rejoicing take place , and various mystical , though simple , rites are used—some ridiculous , but all sufficiently amusing—by which the unmarried endeavour to discover their future partners . These vary in different places , and there are other periods of tiie year in which rites having a similar reference are performed ; but
the lighting of bonfires and divination by roses , are the most general and striking observances which characterize the eve of St . John . It is not my present intention to discuss the potency of the spells used upon this occasion , or to describe their peculiar mode of operation , this being a part of the subject which is generally known , and has been frequently described in various historical and topographical works . The investigation , however , of the origin of these observances carries us back to primitive ages , aud becomes a most interesting matter of research .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Roman Catholic Freemasons.
assurance that British Freemasonry , according to our constitutions , has no undue concern with either religion or politics , that our morality is that which is inculcated by Christianity ; therefore the decrees against Freemasonry are unjust as regards us in this country ? Would any man in his senses tell me , that such a document would be unheeded by the authorities of the court of Rome ? But here my labour must end ; my health will not allow me to do more .
Your obedient Servant , A CATHOLIC . This possibly may be the last letter I shall be enabled to address you as the term of my days at present hangs upon a thread . It is necessary for me to state to you that I became a Mason , in La Charitee , at Amsterdam , in Holland , in 1818 , and for several years afterwards never heard of the decrees of the Popes until 1 went to Portugal and Spain ,
where I met with hundreds of ecclesiastics who were Masons , and who understood those decrees to be merely local . Since that time I have joined actively no Lodge in this country , but have acted only as an ( weak ) advocate of our Order .
On The Antiquity Of The Observances Of St. John's Eve.
ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE OBSERVANCES OF ST . JOHN'S EVE .
BY BRO . THOMAS PRYEI ! , OP THE OAK LODGE . AJIONG the many popular superstitions whose progress it is interesting to investigate , there are few , perhaps , possessing greater interest than those which relate to the observances of the vigil of St . John , or Midsummer-eve , as their origin is clearly traceable to a most remote period . The subject is also one which cannot well be fully elucidated ,
without the assistance derivable from a knowledge of Masonic antiquities ; it becomes , therefore , as much a matter of Masonic as of archaeological research . The customs and superstitions observed upon this occasion , are now
fast disappearing ; but still , upon St . John ' s eve , the fires are lighted on the hills in Ireland , and the vigil is kept by the peasantry of that country and Scotland , as well as in Italy and various parts of Europe . Fires are made , dancing , feasting , and rejoicing take place , and various mystical , though simple , rites are used—some ridiculous , but all sufficiently amusing—by which the unmarried endeavour to discover their future partners . These vary in different places , and there are other periods of tiie year in which rites having a similar reference are performed ; but
the lighting of bonfires and divination by roses , are the most general and striking observances which characterize the eve of St . John . It is not my present intention to discuss the potency of the spells used upon this occasion , or to describe their peculiar mode of operation , this being a part of the subject which is generally known , and has been frequently described in various historical and topographical works . The investigation , however , of the origin of these observances carries us back to primitive ages , aud becomes a most interesting matter of research .