Masonic Manuscripts
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There are a number of manuscripts that are historically important in the development of Freemasonry.
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[edit] The Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem
The Halliwell Manuscript, also known as the Regius Poem, is the first known Masonic text. It consists of 64 written pages in poetic form. The poem begins by evoking Euclid and his invention of geometry in ancient Egypt and then the spreading of the art of geometry in "divers lands". This is followed by fifteen points for the master concerning both moral behaviour (do not harbour thieves, do not take bribes, attend church regularly, etc) and the operation of work on a building site (do not make your masons labour at night, teach apprentices properly, do not take on jobs that you cannot do etc). There are then fifteen points for craftsmen which follow a similar pattern.
The general consensus on the age of the document dates its writing to between the late 1300s and the middle of the 15th century. The manuscript was recorded in various personal inventories as it changed hands until it came into possession of the Royal Library. The manuscript was donated to the Library of the British Museum in 1757 by King George II.
During this time, the document was generally described as a poem of moral duties. The significance of the document as relating to Freemasonry was not realized until it was featured in an article on Freemasonry by James Halliwell in 1840.
The text of the document states that Freemasonry was brought to England during the reign of King Athelstan from 924 to 939.
The manuscript is presently held by the British Library in the Royal Manuscript Collection, catalogue reference 17 A. I.
[edit] The Matthew Cooke Manuscript
The Matthew Cooke Manuscript is the second oldest known manuscript in Masonic history.
The manuscript was published by R. Spencer, London, in 1861 and it was edited by Mr. Matthew Cooke—hence the name. In the British Museum's catalogue it is listed as "Additional M.S. 23,198", and has been dated by Hughan at 1450 or thereabouts, an estimate in which most of the specialists have concurred.
Dr. Begemann believed the document to have been "compiled and written in the southeastern portion of the western Midlands, say, in Gloucestershire or Oxfordshire, possibly also in southeast Worcestershire or southwest Warwickshire. The 'Book of Charges' which forms the second part of the document is certainly of the 14th century, the historical or first part, of quite the beginning of the 15th." (A.Q.C. IX, page 18)
The Cooke manuscript was most certainly in the hands of Mr. George Payne, when in his second term as Grand Master in 1720 he compiled the "General Regulations," and which Anderson included in his own version of the "Constitutions" published in 1723. Anderson himself evidently made use of lines 901-960 of the manuscript.
The Lodge Quatuor Coronati reprinted the manuscript in facsimile in Vol. II of its Antigrapha in 1890, and included therewith a Commentary by George William Speth.[1]
[edit] The Kirkwall Scroll
The Kirkwall scroll is an ancient manuscript of uncertain origin which depicts several masonic devices. It hangs on the west wall of the temple of Lodge Kirkwall Kilwinning No. 38(2) in Orkney.
It is believed to be the floor cloth recorded as having been given to the lodge by Bro. William Graeme in 1785. Various legends link the scroll to the Knights Templar and location of the Holy Grail.
[edit] References
The Matthew Cooke Manuscript with translation. Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M.. Retrieved on February 6, 2006.
Bro. H. L. Haywood (1923). The old charges of Freemasonry. The Builder. Retrieved on February 6, 2006.
"Some literary contexts of the Regius and Cooke MSS"; Andrew Prescott; in "The Canonbury Papers, Volume 2: Freemasonry in Music and Literature"; 2005; CMRC;UK
"The Documentary Early History of the Masonic Fraternity"; Henry Leonard Stillson; Kessinger Publishing
