Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1881 — Modern Origin of Free Masonry [ARTICLE]

Modern Origin of Free Masonry

■ —— - a » London Saturday Review. It has been indisputably proved that the institution of the order of Free Ktasona, which under the name of the of Masons," was lormed by the architect and workmen employed from the thfrtcehth to the fourteenth ' naf.inry jn the building of Btrasburg CatheJral. The flower and pick of the profession w»e engaged upon this -mas terly flee, and they were naturally Arirait of Perpetuating the secret of ttWfrgSbd work Just as the Comedie Francaise preserved the traditions of theart of perfect Acting. Their example was followed by other groups sf Masong throughout Germany, and all these different lodges were,some twenty years after yie completion of the tower of Bt&Sbtrtg, merged into ods assogtatioal-Their act of Uniformity wasftfaWrfffp in 1469, and ratified by the Emperor Maximilian thirty years later hy au imperial diploma. They adopted LbedpStoPrfants of the craft—-the-square, level and compass—as their emblems,and had the secret pass-word, ‘Liberty,V which, in itself, gives a else to the ulterior alms of the society. Tha Fraternity pfMasons lasted until 1707, when It vnm abolisbiedjby