A Roman Catholic's Notion Of Freemasonry.

country either disgusted with Masonry , or with his faith and morals ruined . " To assert that secret societies are the " curse and bane of European nations " is part of the premises "ft-fr . Robertson has set out to prove ; therefore , we shall pass this by without objection , and take to

ourselves his admission of the Masonic Order , being the venerable parent of all secret societies . In this latter particular he has , perhaps unconsciously , seriously damaged his own cause , for if Ereemasonry had its origin as the first secret society , then those founded and encouraged within the pale ofthe Romish

church are mere modern imitations of our Order , and can but reckon a century or two ' s existence , whilst Ereemasonry dates thousands of years before the Church of Rome was heard of . Indeed , many of our symbolic mysteries are to be traced up to the flood , and writers who were Romanists have admitted this ,

e . g ., Halliwell's Farly History of Freemasonry in Fnglani , Avritten in the fourteenth century , fixes the orig in of geometry in Egypt ( p . 14 ) , and that this was the versification of a Romanist ; the following examples testify : — " Pray wa now to God almyzht , ' And to hys moder Mary bryzht . " ( P-31 . )

" Into the churche when thou dost gon , Pnlle uppe thy herte to Crist , anon ; Uppon the rode thou loke uppe then , And knele down fayre on both thy knen . " ( p . 34 ) ****** "To churche come zet , zef thou may ,

And here thy masse uche day ; Zet thou mowe not come to churche , Wher that thou dost worche , When thou herest to masse knylle , Pray to God with herte stylle , To zeve the part of that servyse , That in churche ther don yse . " ( p . 37 . )

So also in Cooke ' s History and Articles of Masonry , written in MS . about 1460 , the craft is traced up to Adam , and in the body of the work , as well as the notes , Higden ' s Polychronicon is quoted , ancl quotations g iven from S . Isidore , of Seville , Methodius , Bishop of Olympus , ancl others . Also in note E . ( p . 146 ) are some particulars of Seth ' s pillar in the

Vatican library . These all bear out the position that Mr . Robertson has admitted , showing that Ereemasonry is "the venerable parent of all secret societies , " and acknowledged as such hy the early chroniclers and historians of the world , who were members of the Romanist communion . As Roman

Catholics are interdicted from becoming Ereemasons , the fault is not ours , but that of the narrow bigotry of the church to which they belong . Without doubt , many of them have ceased to belong to our Order at the bidding of their ecclesiastical superiors , hut amongst them we can enumerate some who never

surrendered the privilege , such as the late Cardinals Mai ancl Mezzofanti , and the Ri ght Reverend Dr . Griffiths , Vicar Apostolic of the London District . There are many Priests ancl Laymen of the Romish Church still amongst us , his Holiness . Pope Pius the IS . not the least conspicuous , and to Ereemasonry he , and the whole Roman Catholic Church , is indebted for his life , which , with all the power of the

confessional at his command , must have been sacrificed had not a brother mason warned him of the impending danger . Mr . Robertson is good enough to tell us that there are " estimable individuals belonging to the lower degrees of Masonry , who are not cognizant of its ultimate tendency , which he ivill show to be

anti-christian and anti-social , " and he then goes on to remark that in Great Britain it has generally retained a more innocuous character . This assertion must be taken for what it is worth . We cannot reach the high grades of Ereemasonry without passing through the lowerand with all due

, respect to our Author , no one has ever yet shown that a man ivho enters the latter has to he lowered in character before he can attain to the higher mysteries , but the practice is just the contrary , for every step taken towards the highest rank is one which may be termed a winnowing process , ancl where piety and

purity of morals are more essentially required . So far as a high grade brother being an anti-christian or anti-socialist , we shall immistakeably he able to prove the contrary as we proceed . Returning again to Mr . Robertson , we will give the whole of the latter part of his introduction , when he tells us : —

" As Preemasonry professes iu its higher grades to restore what it calls the pure religion of nature ; and again , as it promises under the specious names of " Liberty and Equality , " to make men better aud happier than Christianity has made them ; it throws down the gauntlet on all the great problems of moral aud social life . Whoever attempts , therefore , to oppose its pretensions , must take

up the gauntlet it has thrown down . "Under these circumstances , I have been compelled to point out the nature of primitive religion , the defection of heathenism , and the relations of the celebrated Eleusinian Mysteries , from which Masonry claims to derive its system , both to the primitive revelation on the one hand , and to paganism itself on the other . The appeal

which this institution makes to what it calls the more spiritual Judaism , is then examined . "Next , I give a rapid historic sketch of Masonry , showing how it evolved from the associations of architects in the middle age , till , in the times of the English Commonwealth , it assumed a political form , Then I trace its history from that period clown to the middle of the last century , when it incurs the formal censures of the Church . Afterwards , I endeavoured to justify the

judgments of the Church in respect to all secret societies , and especially to those , ivho , like the higher Masous , the Illuminati , the Jacobins , and the Socialists , aim at a total religious and social revolution . I show how utterly inconsistent with the Christian revelation are the very pretensions of Masonry . Then I explain why so many estimable individuals , and some holding a high social

position , were members of the Masonic Order . Afterwards , I show that a large portion of Masons in every country , and especially in this empire , as they occupied the lower grades of the Order , knew nothing of its ultimate tendencies . The dangers of Masonry , even to those in the inferior degrees , are then considered . "Next I analyze its constitutions , and then its religious , and its

subsequently political , doctrines . " Here occurs an episode on the Knights Templars , iu which I show how their history fits iu to that of the Masonic Order . I prove how the corrupt tenets of the bad portion of the Templars perfectly correspond to those of the higher grades of Masonry . I then go off into an excursus on the social and intellectual blessings ivhich the Catholic Church has actually conferred on mankind , compared with those which Masonry promised , but could