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torical interest happening at a period too remote to be fully testified to by documentary evidence . We maintain , therefore , that the tradition regarding- the priority of the Kilwinning Lodge is worthy of belief from the strong and long-continued hold

it has ( to the exclusion of all other aspirants to the honour ) had on the public mind , and from the total absence of evidence by which it can be controverted , as well as from the fact that there is nothing incredible in the story . What is it that

we are called on to believe in regard to Kilwinning ' s connection with Masonry ? It is not that foreign Masons found in Kilwinning alone an asylum from the persecution of the Pope in the

twelfth century , or that there exclusively continental architects and artificers sought refuge from the wars of the middle ages ; neither is it that Freemasonry was practised nowhere else in Scotland prior to the building of the Kilwinning

Abbey . All that in a Masonic point of view can be claimed for Kilwinning is that it was there that the first Scottish lodge was formed , and that that branch of the mediasval fraternity rose to , and for a time held , the position of head lodge of the

Mason Craft in Scotland . That it did occupy such a position is placed beyond question by the Masonic ordinance of 1599 , framed by one who from his official status must have exercised caution in giving currency to a tradition in connection

with the history of any body of Craftsmen that was not in its essential parts believed to be in unison with the truth;—and , further , although this Ordinance was unknown to Laurie when

writing his History of tiie Grand Lodge of Scotland , he in that work states unhesitatingly , that , when in 1743 the Grand Lodge declined to give Mother Kilwinning precedence over the Lodge St . Mary's Chapel , on the ground of the production

by the latter of the oldest records , " it was well known and admitted that Kilwinning was the birthplace of Scottish Masonry , " or , rather , the place where the first Scottish lodge was set up . There is also the evidence afforded by the charter

( 1658 ) , of the Lodge Scoon and Perth , whose existence is therein set down as having been derived from Kilwinning in the twelfth century . But evidence of this kind is superabundant—charters having been issued from Kilwinning to lodges in

all parts of the country , not even excepting Glasgow , that of St . Mungo having been granted on the petition of members of an incorporation without whose permission , it has been alleged , no

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lodge could be erected in any part of the Scottish dominions . The Malcolm Canmore charter , upon the strength of which it had been proposed to dispute with Mother Kilwinning its right of priority ,

having wisely been re-entombed , it is for the present unnecessary to reopen the question of its genuineness . The champions of the antiquity of Lodge No . 3 bis . have , it must be admitted , been somewhat

precipitate in their conclusions as to the grand results that were to accrue to the Masonic province of Glasgow through the simple production of a parchment which , after all that has been advanced in its favour , they are now candid enough to

acknowledge to be the " shadow , " by the use of which they , in 1850 , secured for Glasgow St . John precedence over its neighbour , Glasgow Kilwinning , aud by the aid of which they expected to have been able to " walk into the first position

in the Grand Lodge . " ( To be continued . )

The Knights Templars.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS .

By . ANTHONY ONEAL HAYE . ( Continued from page 162 . ) BOOK IL—CHAPTER V . THE GEAND MASTEE .

At the head of the Order stood the Grand Master . At first , this dignitary was simply styled the Master , and so St . Bernard calls him in his epistle in praise of the Order , addressed to " Hugo , Knight of Christ , and Master of the Kni

ghthood of Christ . " However when other Masters came to be appointed in the various states , the head of the Order was called the Great or Grand Master . The election of this officer took place in the following manner . Upon the death of the

preceding" Grand Master , the Marshal of the Order exercised the duties of the office , under the title of Regent , until ] the election of Graud Prior , if the Grand Master should have died at Jerusalem ; but , on the other hand , if he died at Tripolis or

Antioch , the Prior of such province then directed the affairs of the Order till the Grand Prior was elected . The election of a Grand Master did not take place till after the funeral of his predecessor , and an interregnum of considerable duration often