I /Si] rev. WILLIAM smith, d. d. 57 



"Whereas (says the law) by yearly Congregations and Confederacies, 

 made by the Masons in their General Assemblies, the good course and 

 effect of the statutes for labourers be openly violated and broken, in 

 subversion of the law, and to the great damage of all the commons, our 

 Sovereign Lord the King, willing in this case to provide a remedy, by 

 the advice and assent aforesaid, and at the special request of the com- 

 mons, hath ordained and established that such Chapters and Congrega- 

 tions shall not hereafter be holden ; and if any such be made, that they 

 cause such Chapters and Congregations to be assembled and holden, if 

 they thereof be convict, shall be judged for felons, and that the other 

 Masons that come to such Chapters and Congregations be punished by 

 imprisonment of their bodies, and make line and ransom at the King's 

 will." — G;. Inst. 3. 



But, as was said before, this Parliament does not seem to have been 

 made up of many wise heads, and tradition informs us also that they 

 were too much influenced by the ignorant Monks and illiterate Clergy 

 (not like those of modern days, or of the early ages, who were many of 

 them eminent Masons and friends to Masons) but a sett of men, who 

 thought they had a right to know all men's secrets, by means of confes- 

 sion \ and therefore hated the Masons, and represented them as danger- 

 ous to the state, because they kept their own secrets, and made no use 

 of Confessors at all. But the King, when he came to man's estate, ap- 

 proved the Masonic Constitution, as above set forth, without any regard 

 to the said Act of Parliament; which the great Lord Coke tells us is 

 now of no effect — "For," says he, "all the Statutes concerning labour- 

 ers, whereunto this act doth refer, are repealed by the Statute V. Eliz. 

 Chap. IV. ; whereby the cause and end of making this Act is taken away, 

 and consequently this act is become of no force or effect ; for ccssante 

 ratione Legis, cessat ipsa Lex. And the indictment of felony upon this 

 Statute must contain, that those Chapters and Congregations were to the 

 violating and breaking of the good course and effect of the Statutes of 

 labourers; which now cannot be so alledged, because these Statutes be 

 repealed." This quotation is thought to confirm the tradition that this 

 most learned Judge really belonged to the ancient Lodge, and was a 

 faithful Brother. 



We read further, that Queen Elizabeth once entertained some con- 

 siderable prejudices concerning the truly ancient and honourable body 

 of Free Masons. We know it was part of this Queen's character, among 

 all her rare and princely virtues, to be of a jealous temper, with a great 

 curiosity to be Mistress of all secrets, and an enemy to all meetings or 

 assemblies of her subjects, whose business slie was not duly apprized of. 

 Being told by some of her ignorant and busy meddling Courtiers, that 

 the Masons had secrets that could not be revealed to her, and altho' as 

 a woman, she could govern a Nation, yet she could not govern a Lodge, 

 nor be made Grand Master (or Mistress) of Masons; she therefore sent 



