INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

EARLY MASONRY IN EUROPE. -ITS INTRODUCTION
INTO THE AMERICAN COLONIES.—ITS
CONNECTION WITH THE
MASONRY OF
TO-DAY.

any

It is not the province of this work to attempt to prove or disprove

of the existing claims as to the exact origin of the fraternity of Freemasons, yet, as a proper introduction to the history of this institution in Michigan, it is well to briefly review a few points in its early recorded history, as well as its first introduction into America. It is not the design to open a controversy with those who claim that Masonry dates back to the builders of the Egyptian pyramids, or to the building of King Solomon's Temple. A historian, in writing upon this subject says:

"The mysteries of the Egyptians, passing through Moses to the Jewish people, afterwards disseminated among the Greeks and Romans, were, among the latter, introduced in part into the College of Builders, instituted by Numa Pompelius in the year 715, before our era." He further says: "Many of the corporations of builders who were with the Roman Legions in the countries bordering on the Rhine were sent by the Emperor Claude, in the year 43, into the British Isles, to protect the Romans against the incursions of the Scotts. Wherever the legions established intrenched camps, the Masonic Corporation erected cities, more or less important. It is thus that York, called by the Romans, Eboracum and subsequently celebrated in the history of Freemasonry, became one of the first that acquired importance and elevation to the rank of a Roman city." The Roman possession of Britain transformed the inhabitants thereof, and many of the customs and practices of the conquering nation were adopted by the people of that subjugated land. It is without doubt true, that the "Colleges of Builders," introduced by the Romans, became, in England and Scotland, the "Societies of Freemasons" that existed in those countries for a long time after the Roman invasion.

William J. Hughan, of England, one of the best known masonic writers in the world, in writing upon early Freemasonry, says:

"Believing as we do that the present association of Freemasonry is an outgrowth of the Building Corporations and Guilds of the Middle Ages, as also the lineal descendant and sole representative of the early Secret Masonic Sodalities, it appears to us that their ancient laws and charges are specially worthy of preservation, study and reproduction." Again he says: "Grand Lodges are a modern outgrowth of operative Freemasonry, the first of which was instituted in the metropolis of England, on the Festival of St. John the Baptist, A. D., 1717, and was the vigorous offspring of four old Lodges, two of which exist to this day."

It has long been maintained by the most profound English students and writers upon Masonry, that the first Grand Lodge of Freemasons was established at York, by a charter granted by King Athelstan to his brother, Prince Edwin, in the year 926, and that this Prince became the first Grand Master out of York. The Grand Lodge then established continued in operation for about eight hundred years.

One of the claims of the craft, in those ages, was the right of the requisite number of Masons, wherever they might chance to be sojourning, to combine themselves together into a Lodge, adopt such by-laws as were suited to their government, and, without any authority of warrant from a higher source, to practice the principles and disseminate the benefits of Masonry according to their own judgment. After the