Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

World, ' and of both principles the Crusaders who had been admitted to the mysteries of the Children of the Widow and initiated therein, imparted them, on their return home, to their pupils in Europe during the sojourn of the Crusaders with the Mussulmans, all kinds of theological investigations were instituted. These led the Crusaders deeper into the faith in the Great Architect of the World (G. A. 0. T. W.).

142." In spite of the religious changes that followed upon the conquests of the Saracens in Asia, and Europe; in spite of the persecutions introduced by them, the doctrines as to the Unity of God was able to maintain itself by means of the Mysteries in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, more especially, however, in the neighborhood of Thebes; for here the Christians and Coptic priests preserved, in the lap of their solitude, the teachings communicated to them by Herman, the pupil of Manes, a teaching which later passed over ^[92] into Europe. ' *•

143."It is proved that the Emperor Rudolph I, even in the year 1275, authorized an Order of Masons, whilst Pope Nicholas III, in the year 1278, granted to the Brotherhood of Stonemasons at Strausburg, a letter of Indulgence, which was renewed by all his successors down to Benedict XII, in 1340. The oldest order of German Masons arises in the year 1397; next follow the so-called Vienna Witnesses of 1412, 1430, and 1435; then the Strassburg Order of Lodges, 1495; that of Torgau of 1462, and finally sixteen different Orders on to 1500, and to the following centuries for Spires, Regensburg, Saxon-Altenburg, Strassburg, Vienna, and the Tyrol."**

144."At this period the Roman Church appears to have made various futile efforts to retain a hold upon these Masons, but without tangible results. For the forces at the back of these movements prevented the destruction of a new free spiritual growth by the Roman power. At this period also came those great souls, burning for freedom, who worked the Reformation, such as John Tauler, the famous Dominican, who formed a Mystical Fraternity, the members of which recognized each other by secret signs. Then we have Nicholas of Basle, with his four disciples, the beginning of the 'Friends of God.' These men kept watch on all that was going on in the world, and they had special messengers who had certain secret signs, by ^[93] which they recognized each other; Nicholas was burned as a heretic. Although these reforms were dwarfed of their full growth by the natural crudity and narrowness of the human mind, nevertheless the dogmatic and mind-killing power of Rome was materially thwarted, and the spirit in the teachings of the Master Christ set free from those trammels. Writes Abafi:

145."Equally important in the formation of Freemasonry were certain religious communities and brotherhoods of the Middle Ages, which for the most part aimed at a return to the pure teachings of Christ, and at making its ethical form familiar to their adherents. One of these brotherhoods was that of the Waldenses, established by Peter Waldo in the year 1170, at Lyons. Their aim was the restitution of the original purity of the Church through the adoption of voluntary poverty, and the other ascetic practices. But because of the doctrine of Transubstantiation they soon came into conflict with the Catholic Church, and as early as 1134, Pope Lucias III excommunicated them, and Sextus IV, in 1477, proclaimed a Crusade against them. In spite of these attacks they have kept alive up to the present day, and have spread into several countries, namely, into Italy, France and Bohemia, and in this latter country we shall meet them again under the name ' Bohemian Brothers. '