PREHISTORIC MASONRY

CHAPTER VII
THE LEGEND, THE GERM OF HISTORY
THE Legend of the Craft, as it has been given in the fourth chapter of this work from the exemplar in the Dowland MS., appears to have been accepted for centuries by the body of the Fraternity as a truthful history. Even at the present day, this Legend is exerting an influence in the formation of various parts of the ritual. This influence has even been extended to the adoption of historical views of the rise and progress of the Institution, which have, in reality, no other foundation than the statements which are contained in the Legend.

For these reasons, the Legend of the Craft is of great importance and value to the student of Masonic history, notwithstanding the absurdities, anachronisms, and unsupported theories in which it abounds. Accepting it simply as a document which for so long a period claimed and received the implicit faith of the Fraternity whose history it professed to give - a faith not yet altogether dead - it is worthy of our consideration whether we can not, by a careful examination of its general spirit and tenor, irrespective of the bare narrative which it contains, discover some key to the true origin and character of that old and extensive brotherhood of which it is the earliest record.I think that we shall find in it the germ of many truths, and the interpretation of several historic facts concerning which it makes important suggestions.

In the first place, it must be remarked that we have no way of determining the precise period when this Legend was first composed, nor when it was first accepted by the Craft as a history of the Institution. The earliest written record that has been discovered among English Masons bears a date which is certainly not later than about the end of the 14th century. But this by no means proves that no earlier exemplar ever existed, of which the Constitutions, which have so far been brought to light, may only be copies. On the contrary, we have abundant reason to believe that all the Old Records which have been published are, with the exception of the Halliwell MS., in fact derived from some original text which however, has hitherto escaped the indefatigable researches of the investigators.

If, for instance, we take the Sloane MS., No. 3,848, the assumed date of which is A.D. 1646, and the Harleian MS., NO. 2,054, the date of which is supposed to be A.D. 1650, and if we carefully collate the one with the other, we must come to the conclusion either that the latter was copied from the former, or that both were copied from some carlier record, for whose exhumation from the shelves of the British Museum, or from the archives of some old Lodge, we may still confidently hope.

The resemblances in language and ideas, and the similarity of arrangement that are found in both documents, very clearly indicate a common origin, while the occasional verbal discrepancies can be safely attributed to the carelessness of an inexpert copyist. Brother Hughan, (1) who is high authority, styles the Harleian, from its close resemblance, "an indifferent copy" of the Sloane. The Rev. A.F.A. Woodford, (2) who assigns the earlier date of 1625 to the original Harleian, says it "is nearly a verbatim copy of Dowland's form, slightly later, and must have been transcribed either from an early, and almost contemporary, copy of Dowland's, or it is really a copy of Dowland's itself." These opinions by experts strengthen the view I have advanced, that there was a common origin for all of these manuscripts.

If we continue the collation of the manuscripts of later date, as far, even, as the Papworth, which is supposed to have been transcribed about the year 1714, the same family likeness will be found in all. It is true, that in the transcription of the later manuscripts - those, for example, that were copied toward the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries - the language has been improved, some few archaisms have been avoided, and more recent words substituted for them. Scriptural names have been sometimes spelt with a greater respect for correct orthography, and a feeble
(1) "Old Charges of the Brit. Freemasons," p. 8.
(2) Preface to Hughan's "Old Charges," p. xi.
attempt has been made to give a modern complexion to the document. But in all of them there is the same misspelling of words, the same violations of the rules of grammar, the same arrangement of the narrative, and a preservation and repetition of all the statements, apocryphal and authentic, which are to be found in the earliest exemplars.

I have said that the Legend of the Craft, as set forth in the later manuscripts, was for centuries accepted by the Operative Masons of England, with all its absurdities of anachronism, as a veritable history of the rise and progress of Masonry from the earliest times, and that the influence of this belief is still felt among the Speculative Masons of the present day, and that it has imbued the modern rituals with its views.This fact gives to this Legend an importance and a value irrespective of its character as a mere Legend. And its value will be greatly enhanced if we are able to show that, notwithstanding the myths with which it abounds, the Legend of the Craft really contains the germ of historical truth. It is, indeed, an historical myth - one of that species of myths so common in the mythology of antiquity, which has a foundation in historical truth, with the admixture of a certain amount of fiction in the introduction of personages and circumstances, that are either not historical, or are not historically treated.
Indeed, it may be considered as almost rising into the higher class of historical myths, in which the historical and truthful greatly predominate over the fictitious. (1)

In the contemplation of the Legend of the Mediaeval Masons from this point of view, it would be well if we should govern ourselves by the profound thought of Max Muller, (2) who says, in writing on a cognate subject, that "everything is true, natural, significant, if we enter with a reverent spirit into the meaning of ancient art and ancient language. Everything becomes false, miraculous, and unmeaning, if we interpret the deep and mighty words of the seers of old in the shallow and feeble sense of modern chroniclers."
Examined in the light of this sentiment, which teaches us to look upon the language of the myth, or Legend, as containing a deeper meaning than that which is expressed upon its face, we shall
(1) For a classification of myths into the historical myth and the mythical history, see the author's treatise on the "Symbolism of Freemasonry," P- 347.
(2) "Science of Language," 2d series, p. 578.


find in the Legend of the Craft many points of historical reference, and, where not historical, then symbolical, which will divest it of much of what has been called its absurdities.It is to an examination of the Legend in this philosophic spirit that I now invite the reader. Let it be understood that I direct my attention to the Legend contained in the later manuscripts, such as the Dowland, Harleian, Sloane, etc., of which a copy has been given in preceding pages of this work, and that reference is made only, as occasion may require to the Halliwell MS. for comparison or explanation. This is done because the Legend of the later manuscripts is undoubtedly the one which was adopted by the English Masons, while that of the Halliwell MS. appears to have been of exotic growth, which never took any extensive root in the soil of English Masonry.
In the subsequent chapters devoted to this subject, which may be viewed as Commentaries on the Legend of the Craft, I shall investigate the signification of the various subordinate Legends into which it is divided.