![]() ![]() The poem has seven hundred ninety-four lines, of which the first five hundred seventy-six are Masonic, the rest being a sort of sermon, with a distinctly Roman Church flavor, including references to '€œthe sins seven,'€ '€œthe sweet lady'€ (Virgin Mary), '€œholy water,'€ etc. The verse is written in couplets, the majority of which are bracketed at the right hand side in red. The '€œFifteen articles,'€ and '€œfifteen point'€ - '€œarticulus'€ and '€œpunctus'€ in the poem - are also in red. ![]() The Monk or Priest - which the writer probably was - embellished his work with red shading on all initial letters. Speth, famous English Masonic authority, compiled a glossary of the old English words of the poem, invaluable to those who wish to translate this oldest document of the Craft. The script, is old English, and many of the words are difficult for the non-antiquarian reader to understand. '€œAmen - So Mote It Be.'€ The manuscript is beautifully hand written, on sixty-four pages of vellum, some four by five inches in size. As the Regius Poem is obviously a copy of some older document, or documents, its form bears out the contention of critics that its antiquity of substance is much greater than the date of its writing Never a freemason attends lodge who does not utter the closing words of this ancient poem, which so far as evidence goes, are thus the oldest words in our ritual. Before the invention of printing, when writing was an art known only to a few learned men, it was common practice to pass important information from man to man by means of song, doggerel, sayings with some meter or rhythm which made them easy to remember. It is the only one which is wholly in verse an especially interesting circumstance in view of its age. 1390 antiquarians are fairly well agreed that while it can hardly be from earlier, and it could be from a few years later. ![]() It days from the fourteenth century it probably was written A.D. The oldest of Freemasonry'€™s documents is the '€œRegius Poem,'€ sometimes called the Halliwell Manuscript. Whether these latter have been destroyed, or will yet be found, only time will tell. Some seventy-six of these old manuscripts are in existence nine more are printed versions of ancient lineage, and thirteen others are know to have existed. '€œOld Charges'€ - '€œManuscript Constitutions'€ - Manuscript Rolls'€ - do these sound forbidding, only for students and delvers into musty antiquity? They should not, for in their withered pages and faint inks of days long gone lies old romance of Freemasonry, a genuine thrill for him who finds joy in being one of a long, unbroken line of brethren which stretches back into a dim and distant past. SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XIII August, 1935 No.8 Set a price limit $ Front Page Artwork Antiques Apparel Emblems Lapel Pins Masonic Rings Jewelry Supplyĭesign Your Own Custom Masonic Rings Old Romance ![]() We will beat any competitors price by 5%. Masonic Articles | Old Romance The Ashlar Company - Masonic Shop For the good of the craft. ![]()
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