The Legend of the Craft (Below is an original MS copy of the Legend of the Craft, if you find it difficult to read scroll down to the next version which is categorized and easier to understand. To the left is a link leading to an essay on “The Legend of the Craft.”) Good Brethren and Fellows, our purpose is to tell you how and in what manner this worthy Craft of Masonry was first begun, and afterwards how it was mentioned and cherished by Kings and Princes and many other worshipful men; and to those that are here we shall declare the charges that every Freemason should keep. For the science of Masonry is a virtuous Craft, and well worthy to be kept, being one of the seven liberal arts and sciences which are as follow. The first is Grammar, which teaches man to speak and write correctly. The second is Rhetoric, which teaches man to speak in subtle terms. The third is Logic, which teaches man to discern truth from falsehood. The fourth is Arithmetic, which teaches man to reckon and count all numbers. The fifth is Geometry, which teaches man to mete and measure the earth and all manner of things and Masonry is of this science. The sixth is Music, which teaches man the craft of song and sweet sounds, and the seventh is Astronomy, which teaches man to know the course of the sun, moon and stars. Thus it may be proved that all the sciences of the world are grounded on the science of Geometry, for there is no trade or craft which does not work by mete or measure, nor does man buy or sell anything except by weight or measure, and especially do ploughmen and tillers of the soil work by the science of Geometry. None of the other sciences can enable man to carry on his trade or craft in such a way, wherefore we argue that Geometry is the worthiest of all sciences. We shall now tell you how this science was begun. According to the fourth chapter of Genesis, before Noah’s flood, there was a man called Lamech who had two wives, one called Ada and the other Zillah. The first wife Ada bore him two sons, Jabal and Jubal, and the second wife Zillah bore him a son and a daughter, tubal-Cain and Naamah. These four children found the beginning of all the crafts in the world. Jabel, the eldest son, found the craft of Geometry, and he was the first person to divide lands and flocks of sheep and lambs, and he was also the first to build a house of wood and stone. Jubal found the craft of Music, Tubal-Cain the craft of the Smith and Naamah the craft of Weaving. Now these children knew that God would take vengeance upon the earth, either by fire or water, and in order that their discoveries might be preserved to future generations they wrote them upon two pillars of stone; on of marble, which would not burn in fire, and the other of lattress, which would not drown in water. After the destruction of the world by flood, Hermes, who has been called the Father of Wise Men, found one of the pillars and taught the sciences written thereon to other men. At the building of the Tower of Babel, masonry was in great repute, and Nimrod, the King of Babylon, was himself a Mason and a lover of the craft, so that when Nineveh and other cities of the East were about to be built, he sent thither three score masons at the request of his cousin, the King of Nineveh, and when they went forth he gave them a Charge in this manner:– That they should love each other truly, in order that no discredit should fall on him for sending them, and he also gave them a charge concerning their science. These were the first Masons who ever received any charge. At a later date when Abraham, with his wife Sarah, went into Egypt he taught the seven sciences to the Egyptians, and he had a worthy scholar called Euclid, who made profitable use of his instructions. In these times it happen ed that many Lords and other great men of the realm had so many sons, some by their wives and some by other ladies, for that is a hot country and plenteous of generation, that they had not sufficient means to maintain them. So the King of the Country called a Council together and caused a parliament to be held to ascertain if any scheme could be devised to remove the difficulty. After full consideration they issued a proclamation that if anyone could inform them of any cunning art or science which would be of any avail he should be richly rewarded. Euclid, therefore, came before the King and his Council and offered, on condition of being appointed by commission to rule over them, to teach their sons the seven liberal sciences. The commission having been granted, Euclid took these Nobles’ sons and instructed them in the science of Geometry and how to apply the knowledge to all manner of worthy works, such as the building of castles, churches, manors, towns and houses, and he gave them Charges similar to those which Nimrod had given in Babylon, with the addition of others which would take us too long to describe; and he made them swear a great oath, which men used at that time and gave them reasonable wages that they might live honestly. And he also arranged that they should assemble annually in order that they might take counsel together and settle any points in dispute, and how best generally to advance the interest of the craft. Long afterwards, when the Children of Israel were come into the Land of Behest, which we now call Canaan, King David began to build the Temple of the Lord, and he loved Masons well and gave them Charges as Euclid had done in Egypt. And after the death of David, his son Solomon completed the temple which his father had begun, and he sent for masons into divers towns and countries, and gathered together twenty-four thousand men, of whom one thousand were ordained to be governors of work. And there was a King of another country whose name was Hiram, and he loved King David well and gave him timber for his work, and he had a son name Aymon, who was a master of Geometry and chief of all Masons and of all graven and carved work belonging to the Temple, as related in the First Book of Kings. Skilful craftsmen walked abroad in different countries, some to learn more science and others to spread the knowledge they had already gained, and it happened that there was a curious craftsman named Naymus Graecus who had been at the building of King Solomon’s Temple, and he went int France and there taught the craft to Charles Martel, who afterwards became King of that country. Charles took upon himself the charges of a mason, and for the love he bore to masons he set many of them to work and gave them good wages and ordained for them an annual assembly as previously related for masons in Egypt. England at that time stood void of any charge of Masonry, but when St. Amphibal came out of France he converted St. Alban to Christianity. The King of England at that time was a pagan, and he walled the town of Veralum, which is now called St. Albans, round about, and St. Alban, who was a worthy Knight, was chief steward to the King, and had the government of the realm and also the making of all walls, towers and other works, and he loved masons well and cherished them much and made their pay right good, considering the times, for he gave them thirty pence a week with three-pence a day for their noon-findings, for at that time a mason took but a penny a day and his meat, and he gave them charges which St. Amphibal had taught him and they differ but little from the charges in use at this day. Soon after the death of St. Alban grievous wars disturbed the realm and the good order of Masonry was destroyed, until the time of King Athelstane, who brought the land to rest and peach and erected many abbeys, castles, and other buildings, and he had a son called Edwin, who loved Masons even more than his father did, and was a great practiser of Geometry and communed much with Masons, and he was afterwards made a Mason himself, and he obtained from the King, his father, a charter that they might hold every year an assembly wheresoever they wished within the realm, that they might correct any faults, errors, or trespasses concerning their craft. Edwin himself presided over a great assembly of Masons at York, and he there made Masons, and he ordered all who had any writing concerning masonry to produce them, when some were found to be in Latin, some in Greek, sone in French and some in other languages; but the meanings were all one, and he caused a book to be made thereof telling how the craft was found, and he commanded that it should be read whenever any Mason should be made and that he should be given his charge. Right worshipful masters and fellows who have been at divers assemblies from time to time since then have ordained and made other charges according to the necessities of the times, and these charges have been seen and perused by our late Sovereign Lord Henry VI and the Lords of the honourable Council who have approved them and agreed that they were good and reasonable. And the good rule of masonry obtains to this day, the charges being descended through the various channels described in the foregoing narrative. The manner of taking the oath at the making of Masons: Tunc unus ex senioribus teneat librum et ille vel illi ponant manus supra librum tunc praecepta deberunt legi. [then one of the elders shall hold out a book and he or they (who are to be made masons) shall place his or their hands upon it and the following precepts shall be read]. “Every man that is a Mason take heed right wisely to these Charges, if you find yourselves guilty of any trespasses amend your errors against God, for it is a great peril to forswear yourselves upon a book.” Another Version of the Legend of the Craft This is a categorized version of the Legend that we chose to include in an attempt to make it easier to follow and understand. The legend of Lamech’s Sons and the Pillars The traditional history of Masonry now begins, in the legend of the Craft, with an account of the three sons of Lamech, to whom is credited the discovery of all sciences. But the most interesting part of the legend is that in which the story is told of two pillars erected by these sons, and on which they had inscribed the discoveries they had made, so that after the threatened destruction of the world of knowledge which they had gained might be handed on to the human race after the Flood. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, B. I., II, Whiston’s translation). The legend of Hermes The next part of the legend of the Craft which claims our attention is that which relates to Hermes, who is said to have found one of the pillars erected by the sons of Lamech, and to have given to mankind the sciences written on it. This story may, for distinction, be called The legend of Hermes. As to Hermes, the legend is not altogether without some historical support, although the story is in the legend mythical, but of that kind which belongs to historical myth. He was said to be the son of Taut or Thoth, whom the Egyptians made a God and placed his image beside those of Osiris and Isis. To him they credited the invention of letters, as well as of all the sciences, and they esteemed him as the founder of their religious rites. The Tower of Babel Unlike the legend of Hermes, the story of the Tower of Babel appears in the Halliwell poem, which shows that the legend was the common property of the various writers of these old manuscripts. In the second of the two poems, which as we have seen are united in one manuscript, the legend of Babel, or Babylon, is given. The legend of Nimrod The universal sentiment of the Freemasons of the present day is to confer upon Solomon, the King of Israel, the honor of being their first Grand Master. But the legend of the Craft had long before, though there was a tradition of the Temple in existence, given, at least by suggestion, that title to Nimrod, the King of Babylonia and Assyria. It had credited the first organization of the fraternity of craftsmen to him, in saying that he gave a charge to the workmen whom he sent to assist the King of Nineveh in building his cities. That is to say, he framed for them a Constitution, and, in the words of the legend, this was the first tyme that ever Masons had any charge of his science. It was the first time that the Craft was organized into a fraternity working under a Constitution of body of laws. As Nimrod was the autocratic maker of these laws, it necessarily resulted that their first legislator, creating laws with his unlimited and absolute governing power, was also their first Grand Master. The legend of Euclid Having settled the foundation of Freemasonry in Babylon, the legend of the Craft next proceeds by a quick change to tell the history of its movement into Egypt. This Egyptian account, which in reference to the principal action in it has been called the legend of Euclid, is found in all the old manuscripts. This legend is the opening feature of the Halliwell poem, being in that document the beginning of the history of Masonry; it is told with very much detail in the Cooke MS., and is apparently copied from that into all the later manuscripts, where the important particulars are about the same, although we find a few things told in some which are left out of others. The legend of the Temple From this account of the exploits of Abraham and his pupil Euclid, and of the invention of Geometry, or Freemasonry in Egypt, the legend of the Craft proceeds, by a rapid stride, to the story of the introduction of the art into Judea, or as it is called in all of them, the land of the behest, or the land of promise. Here it is said to have been principally used by King Solomon in the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem. The general details connected with the building of this edifice, and the help given to the King of Israel, by Hiram, King of Tyre, are told either directly or at second hand, through the Polychronicon, from the first Book of Kings, which, in fact, is referred to in all the manuscripts as a source of information. (As it is said in the Bible, in the third book of Kings, are the words of the Cooke MS. In the arrangement of Scripture as then used, the two books of Samuel were called the first and second of Kings. The third book of Kings was then our first, according to the present practice.) The extension of the Craft into other Countries The legend of the Craft next proceeds to tell us how Freemasonry went into divers countryes, some of the Masons traveling to increase their own knowledge of their art, and others to use elsewhere abroad that which they already possessed. But this subject is very briefly treated in the different manuscripts. The Halliwell poem says nothing of the progressive march of Freemasonry, except that it details almost as an actual event the ill-use of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati) as Christian Freemasons, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and we should almost be led to believe from the course of the poem that Freemasonry went directly into England from Egypt. The Cooke MS. simply says that from Egypt, Freemasonry went from land to land and from kingdom to kingdom until it got to England. We find the later manuscripts are a little more definite, although still brief. They merely tell us that many skilled craftsmen traveled into various countries, some that they might acquire more knowledge and skill, and others to teach those who had but little skill. Certainly there is nothing that is myth or fable in this account. Every authentic history of architecture agrees in the claim that at an early period the various countries of Europe were traveled by bodies of builders in search of work in the building of religious and other edifices. The name indeed of Traveling Freemasons, which was given to them, is familiar in architectural history books. Sufficient for the present, for us to show that in this part, as elsewhere, the legend of the Craft is not a mere fiction, but that the general statement of the spread of Freemasonry through-out Europe at an early period is proved by historical evidence. When we examine the legend of the Craft, it will be found to trace the growth of Freemasonry through its several stages of progress from Babylon and Assyria to Egypt, from Egypt to Judea, from Judea to France, and from France to England. Accepting Freemasonry and the early art of building as meaning the same thing, this line of progress will not be very different, with some necessary variations, to that assumed to be correct by writers on architecture. But the study of this subject belongs not to that which went before, but to the historical period of the Society, that is based on the evidence of fully accredited records. The legend of Charles Martel and Namus Grecus The legend now gets near the field of authentic history, but still having its traditional character, goes on to tell, but in a very few words, of the entry of Masonry into France. We have this account given in the language of the Dowland MS. Now, this legend is repeated, almost word for word, in all the later manuscripts right up to recent times. But it is not even mentioned in the earliest of the manuscripts – the Halliwell poem – and this proves again that the two sets of recorded events and traditions are copied from quite different sources. This whole subject is so closely connected with the authentic history of Masonry, having really passed out of the pre-historic period, that it claims a future and more detailed study in its proper place. The legend of St. Alban The legend of the Craft now goes on to tell of the history of the bringing of Freemasonry into England, in the time of St. Alban, who lived in the 3rd century. The legend referring to the first martyr of England is not mentioned in the Halliwell poem, but it is first found in the Cooke MS., in the following words: And sone after that come seynt Adhabell into England, and he convertyd seynt Albon to cristendome. And seynt Albon lovyd well masons, and he gaf hem fyrst her charges and maners fyrst in Englond. And he ordeyned convenyent to pay for their travayle. Later manuscripts, for some time, say nothing of St. Adhabell. When we get to the Krause MS. in the beginning of the 18th century, we find mention of St. Amphibalus, who is said in that document to have been the teacher of St. Alban. But this St. Amphibalus, of which the Adhabell of the Cooke MS. is seemingly in error in spelling, is so doubtful a person, that we may rejoice that the later copyists have not as a rule thought proper to follow the Cooke document and give him a place in the legend. However, the name is not entirely mythical as we find it in the writings of Robert of Monmouth, 1140, as well as, for example, in the William Watson MS., 1687. A very interesting point of the legend of the Craft to which our attention may be directed, is that referring to the organization of Freemasonry at the city of York in the 10th century. This part of the legend is of much importance. The prehistorical here verges so closely upon the historical period, that the true account of the rise and progress of Freemasonry can not be justly understood until each of these elements has been carefully attached to the proper period. This subject will therefore get critical attention. The legend of York The decline and decay of all architectural art and enterprise having lasted for so long a period of time in Britain, the legend of the Craft proceeds to account for its revival in the 10th century and in the reign of Athelstan. His son Edwin called a meeting, or General Assembly, of the Freemasons of York in the year 926, and there revived the institution, giving to the Craft a new code of laws. Now it is impossible to attach to this portion of the legend, absolutely and without any reservation, the taint of fiction. The gathering of the Craft of England at the city of York, in the year 926, has been accepted by both the Operative Freemasons who preceded the Revival in 1717, and by the Speculatives who succeeded them, up to the present day, as a historical fact that did not admit of dispute. The two classes of the legends – the one represented by the Halliwell poem. and the other by the later manuscripts – agree in giving the same statement. The Cooke MS., which holds a middle place between the two, also contains it. But the Halliwell and the Cooke MSS., which are of older date, give more fully the details of what may be called this revival of English Freemasonry. Thoroughly to understand the subject, it will be necessary to compare the three accounts given in the several sets of manuscripts.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 23:56:04 +0000