In 1737, the Dutch prohibited the assemblies of freemasons as a precautionary measure, without charging them with any crimes; the members of a lodge assembled, they were arrested and prosecuted, but they defended themselves with so much energy, that they were acquitted, and the prohibition revoked.
The Elector Palatine of the Rhine also prohibited the order in his states, and arrested several members at Manheim, in consequence of their disobedience.
John Gaston, grand duke of Tuscany, published a decree of proscription against the lodges in the same year. This prince died soon after, and the masons again assembled: they were denounced to Pope Clement XII. This pontiff sent an inquisitor to Florence, who imprisoned several members of the society, but Francis of Lorraine, when he became Grand Duke, set them at liberty. He declared himself the protector of the institution, and founded several lodges in Florence, and other towns in his states.
If I was a member of the society, I would do all in my power to abolish those things which gave the inquisitors and other ecclesiastics occasion to say, that sacred and profane things are mingled in the masonic ceremonies; particularly the following, which have already appeared in printed works.
In the sixth grade, or rank, which is that of particular secretary (secretary intime,) the history of Hiram, king of Tyre, is taken from the ninth chapter of the third book of Kings for the masonic allegories; and Jehovah, the ineffable name of God, for the sacred word of freemasonry; this custom is likewise observed with some slight differences in several other grades.
In the eighteenth, called the Rosicrusian of Haradom of Kilwiniug, is a representation of columns with inscriptions; the highest is as follows: In the name of the Holy and indivisible Trinity: lower down, May our salvation be eternal in God; still lower, We have the happiness of being in the pacific unity of the sacred numbers. The history of the second chapter of the first, and the nineteenth of the second book of Esdras is made use of; the word of order between two freemasons of the same rank is INRI, which some persons have supposed to be Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judæorum: the word passe is added, which means Emmanuel, or God is with us.
The rank of Rosicrusiaci, in the Scotch lodges, is the perfection of the order; the meaning is developed in fifteen sections. In the fifth, the allegories are the mounts of salvation, mounts Moriah and Calvary, the first for the sacrifices of Abraham, David, and Solomon, the second for that of Jesus of Nazareth: other allegories relate to the Holy Spirit, designated as the Majesty of God which descended on the tabernacle, and on the temple at the moment of its dedication. In the twelfth section a holy mountain is seen, on which is a large church in the form of a cross from east to west, in the neighbourhood of a city, which is the image of the celestial Jerusalem; in the thirteenth, three great lights, symbols of the natural law, the laws of Moses and of Jesus Christ, and the cabinet of wisdom, designated as the stable for oxen, in which is a faithful chevalier and his holy wife, and the sacred names of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus; the fourteenth is an allusion to the descent of our Saviour into the Limbos after his death, his resurrection and ascension; lastly, the fifteenth has the words consummatum est, which Jesus pronounced on the cross.
In the twenty-seventh grade of the grand commander of the temple, a cross is made on the forehead of the brother with the thumb of the right hand; the sacred word INRI; the scarf has four crosses, the disc a triangle of gold, with the Hebrew characters of the ineffable name, Jehovah.
The seal of the order has between the devices of the shield of arms across, the arch of alliance, a lighted candle in a candlestick on each side, and above the inscription, Glory to God. (Laus Deo).
All these things, and many others which allude to the sacred history of the temple of Jerusalem, built by Solomon, re-established by Esdras, restored by the Christians, and defended by the knights templars, present a mixture liable to an interpretation similar to that in the information of the witnesses at Florence, which was the first apostolical condemnation; it was renewed under Pius VII., in an edict of Cardinal Gonsalvi, in 1814.