Post by Tamrin on May 14, 2009 6:35:38 GMT 10
THE ANCIENT SCOTTISH CRAFT
AND THE THIRD DEGREE
[Excerpt - Article by William Harvey, www.linshaw.com - Linked Above]
AND THE THIRD DEGREE
[Excerpt - Article by William Harvey, www.linshaw.com - Linked Above]
The evidence for an elaborate system of Freemasonry prior to the end of the seventeenth century and the era of Grand Lodge is so scanty that any addition to it is welcome. Recently, when investigating the history of the Mason Craft, as an operative trade, in the royal burgh of Stirling, I noted two matters of interest to Freemasons. I think them worthy of careful consideration, but I put them forward tentatively, and with due reserve.
The first of these is embedded in an Agreement between the town of Stirling and its Mason which was drawn up in I529, and under which the Mason bound himself " to work and labour his craft of Masonry and geometry." The Speculative Freemason of today in one of his charges " explains to the Fellowcraft on his being passed to the Second Degree, that " geometry and masonry were originally synonymous terms." I am not sure that they are synonymous, in the Stirling Agreement, but I believe this is the earliest Scottish document in which the words are found in any sort of conjunction. To that extent they are undoubtedly interesting to those Freemasons who believe that their Speculative system stretches back into the far past.
The first of these is embedded in an Agreement between the town of Stirling and its Mason which was drawn up in I529, and under which the Mason bound himself " to work and labour his craft of Masonry and geometry." The Speculative Freemason of today in one of his charges " explains to the Fellowcraft on his being passed to the Second Degree, that " geometry and masonry were originally synonymous terms." I am not sure that they are synonymous, in the Stirling Agreement, but I believe this is the earliest Scottish document in which the words are found in any sort of conjunction. To that extent they are undoubtedly interesting to those Freemasons who believe that their Speculative system stretches back into the far past.
