Masonic Archaeology, No. 2.

qua degrees before the 18 th centuiy . That they did not exist before then , I do not think , as I before said , that Bro . Lyon's able work by any means incontestably proves ; on the contrary , as I ventured to suggest in my first essay

on this subject , the verdict we ought at present to arrive at as regards the nonexistence of the 2 nd and 3 rd degrees in Scotland is , that the fact is as yet " nonproven . " For though it maybe truethatBro . D . M . Lyon has found

, , no traces of them in the minute books of the 17 th century , it is not necessarily a case of " sequitur " that those degrees did not exist , but all it proves , I think , is , that the scribes of those days only recorded the meetings and the minutes

of the 1 st degree . Indeed , one or two minutes quoted by . Bro . Lyon seem to show that , as each Mason must be " Fallow of Craft" before he became " Master Mason , " some ceremony did exist , and that the degrees were different in themselves and distinct , and as such well known to be so to the Craft .

My view on the subject generally I ventured to submit to the Craft in a previous article under this heading , and I need not , therefore , here repeat it ; but that view has been greatly strengthened by Bro . Hughan ' s interesting and

well-timed publication of the statutes and ordinances of the lodge of Brechin in the October number of the Magazine . Those very striking minutes which data back to December 27 , 171-i , declare "that none are to be entered unless

either the master of the lodge , warden , and treasurer , with two free masters and two entered 'prentices , " were present , and if admitted " said admission to be null . " There is no mention in this minutewe seeof " Fallow of Craft "

, , ; but in an ordinance which follows almost immediately after , it is forbidden , under a penalty of 10 s ., for any member of . the lodge " to witness the entry or passing of any person into any other lodge unless the dues of entry and

passing be paid into this lodge . " But further on Ave read as follows : " It is hereby statute and ordained that every

member of this lodge shall at Ins passing pay into the box the sum of 2 s ., " and " that none be passed except in the presence of the master and wardens and seven members . " Thus , then , we have in 1714 a clear

declaration of "passing" and a distinct ceremony , distinct even in the number of " admittors ; " for whereas at the " entry" seven had to be present as a " minimum , " at the passing nine were always to be the requisite number .

Now tliis is a most striking fact in itself , and shows the great need of can ? tion , before we decide too hastily on assumed irrefragable " data" that " passing " was unknown in Scotland

before the 18 th century . For it is not " a priori" likely nor is it in truth , as it appears to-me , to all arguable , that , if the custom existed in 1714 it was then first introduced , and had been altogether unknown previously . On the contrary ,

if we only take what is termed the " legal memory " that would bring us in to the 17 th century easily , and this record of the Brechin minutes appears to mo to settle the question as to the existence of the " passing" ceremony

in Scotland , before the 18 th century . What that " passing" ceremony was , I admit , is matter of much doubt and more controversy . In 1734 there is a minute of a brother "passed and made Free Master Mason .

Iu 1735 , April oth , in the Glasgow Kilwinning Lodge held at Irvine , " Cunnioghaine or Collenan and Forbes , of AYatertown , were received and admitted fellows of craft and Masters . " This extract taken from Bro . D . M .

Lyon ' s historical notes on Scotch lodges ( page 620 of the Freemason ) though later than the first minutes of the Brechin Lodge , proves that the usage was similar in Scotland , and we also read in the same from the same

page authority , of a visitor " somewhat boastful of his being a Master Mason , " who " after examination , " was " declared to be a veny weak entered prentice . " Nothing can prove more forcibly as it appears to me , the line of denial ' -