General History, Cyclopedia and Dictionary of Freemasonry; Containing an Elaborate Account of the Rise and Progress of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Ass

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ... 1740. At this time there were more than two hundred lodges in France, of which twenty-two were in Paris. 1744. The Lodge of the Three Globes at Berlin, founded by Baron Bielefeld in 1740, was raised to the dignity of a Grand Lodge by Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, who was elected Grand Master, and continued in office till 1747. 1751. At this period Freemasonry had found its way into all civilized countries. Its humane and elevating principles, its dogma of liberty, equality, and fraternity, alarmed the kings and clergy, and they sought to arrest its progress. Edicts were fulminated against it in Russia (1731), its meetings forbidden in Holland (1735), and at Paris (1737,'38, '44, '45), its members arrested and persecuted at Rome and Florence, their meetings forbidden in Sweden, at Hamburg, and Geneva (1738); the Inquisition cast them into prison and caused the executioner to burn the books which ti-eatcd of its doctrines. The Inquisition also caused knights who had been present at Masonic meetings to be perpetually exiled to Malta (1740). In Portugal, unheard-of cruelties were practiced against them, including condemnation to the galleys, at Vienna (1735); even the Sultan undertook to annihilate them (1748). As a worthy climax to this scries of persecutions, Charles, king of Naples, forbid the practice of Masonry in his states; Ferdinand VII., king of Spain, forbid Masonic assemblies under penalty of death; and Pope Benedict XIV. renewed (1751) the bull of excommunication against the Freemasons, issued by Clement XII. in 1738. But all this violence failed to check the progress of the institution, which spread over the face of the globe with a rapidity which nothing could stop. Notwithstanding Benedict's bull, Masonry was openly...