AMYDON-EXETER CENTRE 113

1492 Moors surrendered to the Spaniards at Granada. On 17 April Christopher Columbus began his sea-voyage from Spain to the West Indies, which he discovered.

1492 (elected 11, crowned 26 August) - 1503 (18 August) Alexander VI Bishop of Rome.

1494 Amerigo Vespucci discovered America. The Franciscan Observants established a foundation in Malta.

1495 First use of the word "Freemason" in a Statute of the Realm (II, Henry VII, c. xxii).

1495-1550 St. John of God lived. He was born in Portugal, lived dangerously as a soldier, then gave up everything in order to look after the sick, founding a hospital at Granada in Spain and in due course establishing the Order of Hospitallers of St. John of God.

1497/8 Vasco da Gama discovered the Passage to India, where Christian missionaries preached the Gospel.

1498 Culbone church was repaired, but remained unused.

1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovered Brazil.

1502 Certain Papal Confirmations are alleged to have been granted to German Stonemasons.

1503 (elected 22 September, crowned 1/8 October) - 1503 (18 October) Pius III Bishop of Rome.

1503 (elected 31 October, crowned 26 November) - 1513 (21 February) Julius II Bishop of Rome.

1504 Leonardo da Vinci, aged 52, painted the Mona Lisa.

1505-1572 John Knox lived. This Scottish priest implanted Calvinism in Scotland, leading to the foundation of the Reformed Church of Scotland in 1560.

1506-1552 St. Francis Xavier lived, a Jesuit priest who preached the Gospel in India and Japan. He died on the Chinese island of Shangchwan.

1507 Baal's bridge in Limerick so inscribed as to suggest a fusion of operative and symbolic Masonry.

1509-1532 Prior Bolton of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield "Builded of new the Manor of Chanonbury of Islington which belonged to the Canons of this house." Today's Canonbury Tower is part of Bolton's original building.

1509-1564 John Calvin lived. His masterly Institutes of the Christian religion were internationally accepted as a systematic theological exposition of the essential tenets of the Protestants' faith.

1510 The English printer Wynken de Worde published the Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode.

1511 The first Catholic diocese in the Americas was established at Santo Domingo.

1512 (10 May) - 1517 (16 March) Fifth Ecumencial Lateran Council proposed adequate training for the clergy, a revision of Canon law, and the regular convocation of Councils, but the Renaissance papacy was too busily involved in politics and the promotion of the arts to initiate the required spiritual movement of radical reform.

1513 (elected 9, crowned 19 March) - 1521 (1 December) Leo X Bishop of Rome.

1514 Mosen Rubi allegedly founded a Masonic Temple at Avila. A Spanish Authority also claims that Admiral Coligny initiated some Masons in Catalonia.

1515 The Gest of Robyn Hode published - effectively a second edition of the Geste first published in 1510.

1515-1582 St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, lived, a noted mystic and reformer of the Carmelite Order.

1515-1595 St. Philip Neri lived. He was born in Florence, founded a brotherhood in Rome to look after the sick poor, and in 1551 became a priest and formed an Oratory in which he held regular services of hymns and spiritual readings.

1516 Ships from European ports first reached China.

1516-1558 Mary I, the Catholic daughter of Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, married King Philip II of Spain, and reigned over England 1553-1558.

1517 Further Papal Confirmations are alleged to have been granted to German Stonemasons. Archbishop Ximenes de Cisneros of Toledo died, having led many of the lower clergy in Spain in reforming the communities in their care. At about this time Martin Luther, while inside the monastery bell-tower, suddenly experienced the justice of God not as punishment or reward of the individual, but as a redemptive act (iustitia salvifica) whereby God views the sinner with compassion in the light of his Son's sufferings, and thus makes him just through faith. Indeed, St. Paul added the just man shall live by faith (Romans 1:17). Luther's subsequent insistence on sola fides, sola scriptura, sola gratia motivated his own and his followers' criticisms of the Catholic Church and of its teaching regarding Indulgences in particular. On 31 October 1517 Luther sent 95 related theses he had written to the Archbishop of Magdeburg-Mainz, Albrecht of Brandenburg, complaining in particular about the granting of Indulgences to persons contributing to the cost of building the new Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, and inviting the Archbishops and the preachers of Indulgences he had licensed to a formal disputation about the questions Luther had raised.

1518 In June Pope Leo X summoned Luther to Rome, then, when Prince-Elector Frederick of Saxony protected him, had him interrogated locally by Thomas Cardinal Cajetan at the Diet of Augsburg from 12-14 October.

1519 Martin Luther wrote in a Letter to the Augustinian Vicar Johann von Staupitz: "Theology has been reduced to mere opinions... everything is so confused that there exists almost no other certainty." His own unorthodoxy became clear in his dispute in Leipzig from 27 June to 15 July with John Eck when, in opposition to 1,500 years of tradition, he argued that the Church was not a divinely founded institution.

1519-1521 Fernando Cortez conquered Mexico, and Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the world.

1520 Pope Leo X on 15 June condemned 41 offending propositions of Martin Luther in the Bull Exsurge Domine, but stopped short of excommunicating their author. Luther blamed the Bull on Eck's hatred. Between August and November he expounded his new theology in three programmatic revolutionary Letters - to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation; on the Babylonian captivity of the Church; and on the freedom of a Christian. Then, on 10 December he publicly burned both the papal Bull and a set of books of Canon Law, saying: "Here I stand, I can no other."

1521 On April 17 Martin Luther was excommunicated by the Diet of Worms, seat of the Holy Roman Empire, and on 3 June he was excommunicated by the Church. He died on 18 February 1546 in profound relationship with God. In his History of Greater Britain the Scottish writer John Major stated that, while Richard I was held captive in Germany subsequent to his crusading in the Holy Land, Robin Hood was outlawed between 1193 and 1194.

1521-1597 St. Peter Canisius, a Dutch Jesuit priest and Doctor of the Church, lived and preached in Germany. The Catechism he composed is outstanding.

1522 (elected 9 January, crowned 31 August) - 1523 (14 September) Adrian VI Bishop of Rome.

1523 (elected 19, crowned 26 November) - 1534 (25 September) Clement VII Bishop of Rome.

1526 Francisco Pizarro began to explore Peru.

1528 The first pastoral visitation of the Maltese islands by their Bishop on record took place.

1529 At the Diet of Spreyer six Princes and 14 free cities decided to introduce the new church. When Emperor Charles V prohibited the implementation of this proposal, they all protested - hence the term Protestants.

1530 Emperor Charles V donated Malta and Gozo to the religious Sovereign and Military Order of Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, as it thenceforth came to be called. The Knights found the islanders to be deeply Christian, with a strong devotion both to the Virgin Mary and to Paul the Apostle. The Knights' arrival meant that the islands were not subject to a tripartite authority - the Grandmaster as their military and civil Sovereign, and as head of an important religious Order, the local Bishop, and the Apostolic Delegate & Inquisitor General charged to ensure purity of Faith and to safeguard the interests of the Holy See. Each of these three authorities had its own sphere of influence, and its own courts, and friction between them was not uncommon.

1530-1569 After the dissolution of the monasteries, Canonbury was occupied by various Court favourites, amongst whom were Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex; John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and afterwards Duke of Northumberland; and Thomas, Lord Wentworth.

1530-1596 Jean Bodin lived. He believed that all human beings are born with a natural religion (Deism), so that any further revelation is unnecessary and even counter-productive.

1532 A Seal of Causes was granted to Scottish Masons, Wrights and Coopers.

1533-1603 Elizabeth I, half-sister to Mary I and daughter of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, was the last of the Tudors; she never married, but reigned 1558-1603.

1534 (elected 13 October, crowned 3 November) - 1549 (10 November) Paul III Bishop of Rome. In 1534 Parliament declared Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church in England. This King's political manoeuvring facilitated Calvinist encroachments on religious life, and led to the development of the Anglican Church.

1535 SS. John Fisher & Thomas More died as Martyrs for their Catholic Faith.

1536 The Prior and Convent of Bath appointed John Multon to the "Office of Master of all their works commonly called Ffreemasonry" (sic), when it should be vacant.

1537 The Masons' Company of London is described as the Company of Ffree Masons.

1537-1553 Edward VI, Henry VIII's only legitimate son, reigned 1547-1553. His mother, Henry's third wife, Queen Jane Seymour, died two days after his birth at Hampton Court; sickly, and militantly protestant, he died of tuberculosis before he was sixteen. Lady Jane Grey reigned for nine days in 1553, and was beheaded one February afternoon in the Tower of London, her young husband having been beheaded on Tower Hill the same morning.

1539 Abbot Richard Whiting of Glastonbury imprisoned in the Tower of London, then hanged on Glastonbury Tor. Francis I, King of France, attempted to stamp out Fraternities, i.e., Craft Guilds of each and every kind.

1542 Pope Paul III established the Roman Inquisition both to suppress heresy and to encourage reform. In his Collectanea Henry VIII's chief antiquarian, John Leland, referred to Robin Hood as a nobleman.

c. 1542-1591 St. John of the Cross lived, a Carmelite friar and mystic whom in about 1568 St. Teresa of Avila persuaded to reform his Order.

1542-1621 St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, lived. He was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany, joined the Jesuits and was ordained priest in Rome, where he defended the faith and taught at the Collegio Romano. He was later created Cardinal and afterwards Bishop of Capua, and helped the Roman Congregations solve many difficult questions. He died in Rome.

1544 Culbone became a leper colony, and the church was again repaired.

1545 Bishop Domenico Cubelles, who had taken up permanent residence on Malta, partly to remain on the watch against any possible Turkish attack, partly to keep an eye on the Knights, carried out a pastoral visitation of the islands.

1545 (13 December) - 1563 (4 December) Nineteenth Ecumenical Council - Trent, which worked to provide solutions to the Church's besetting problems of doctrinal confusion, fiscal abuse, widespread ignorance and organizational breakdown. Although spread over 18 years, the actual Sessions only occupied about 4 years and 4 months.

1547-1616 Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, lived.

1549 Archbishop Cranmer stated before Parliament that the prayers then being incorporated in the Book of Common Prayer had been in use in Britain for 1500 years. The Christian Gospel was preached by missionaries in Japan.

1550 Anonymous composition of the Shropshire poem Robin and Marian.

1550 (elected 7, crowned 22 February) - 1555 (23 March) Julius III Bishop of Rome.

1551 The Protestant religion officially established in Iceland.

1555 (elected 9, crowned 10 April) - 1555 (1 May) Marcellus II Bishop of Rome.

1555 (elected 23, crowned 26 May) - 1559 (18 August) Paul IV Bishop of Rome.

In 1555 Polydore Virgil (born 1470), archbishop of Wells, died; he wrote: "Britain, partly through Joseph of Arimathea, partly through Fugatus and Damianus [i.e., Fagan and Dyfan], was of all kingdoms the first that received the Gospel," viz., before Rome.

1558-1603 Queen Elizabeth I reigned.

1559 (elected 25 December; crowned 6 January 1560) - 1565 (9 December) Pius IV Bishop of Rome.

In 1559 the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis affirmed Spanish control of Italy.

1560-1584 Saint Charles Borromeo was Archbishop of Milan. His reforming decrees of 1582 set the standard for other dioceses throughout Europe.

1562 Richard Grafton published his Chronicle, and claimed to have discovered an "old and authentic pamphlet" about Robin Hood's life as a lord, and to have found "records in the Exchequer" which mentioned the confiscation of his lands.

1563 Date of the Brother-Book of German Stone-Masons.

1564-1616 William Shakespeare lived.

1564-1642 Galileo Galilei lived. He proved that Copernicus had been right about the rotation of the Earth and other planets around the Sun, but was condemned on 22 June 1633 to house-arrest for concluding that certain texts of the Bible were not, therefore, literally true. His Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze of 1638 is accepted as the first text of modern Physics.

1565 The first Catholic parish in North America, that of St. Augustine in central Florida, was canonically erected. The Gospel was preached in the Philippines. The Great Siege of Malta ended.

1566 The work of building Malta's new fortified harbour-city of Valletta began, ushering in a new epoch in the history of the archipelago. The 1st edition of the complete quatrains of Nostradamus now preserved there in the National Library of Malta was published in Salon in 1566, two years before that kept in France which most students of his Prophecies usually accept as authoritative.

1566 (elected 7, crowned 17 January) - 1572 (1 May) St. Pius V Bishop of Rome. He issued The Roman Catechism in 1566, a revised Breviary for priests in 1568, and a new Roman Missal in 1570.

1566-1625 James I of England reigned 1603-1625, having been James VI of Scotland since 1567; he was the first Stewart King of England, Wales and Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, and the great-great-grandson of Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings. His wife was Danish. He was passionately fond of hunting, and considered tobacco sinful. A post-mortem found his head to be "very full of brains."

1567 Compilation of the still extant copy of Diarebion Camberac containing the Welsh Triads.

1567-1622 St. Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva and, with St. Jane Frances de Chantal founder of the Institute of the Visitation, lived. He was declared a Saint by Pope Alexander VII in 1665, and a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1877.

1568-1591 St. Aloysius Gonzaga lived. He was born of the noble Castiglione family near Mantua in Lombardy, resigned his birthright in his younger brother's favour, became a Jesuit in Rome, and died of the plague while working among the sick in a hospital.

1570 Canonbury was acquired by Sir John Spencer, Lord Mayor of London 1594-1595. Sir John made many improvements, the fine panelling of the Spencer and Compton Oak Rooms are his work.

1571 (2 July) The parish of Our Lady of Porto Salvo was erected in the new Maltese city of Valletta. Many others followed, as the population of the islands increased and spread.

1572 (elected 13, crowned 25 May) - 1585 (10 April) Gregory XIII Bishop of Rome.

1572-1641 St. Jane Frances de Chantal lived.

1575 Pope Gregory XIII sent Monsignor Pietro Dusina to Malta to conduct an apostolic visitation of the islands, and to prepare a detailed report in accordance with the new requirements of the Council of Trent. In April Bishop Martin Rojas also convoked Malta's first diocesan synod. Most churches and chapels then existing having been deemed unsatisfactory by the Visitator Apostolic, the people, assisted by the skills and wealth of the Knights, undertook a large-scale building programme. Baroque extravagance rapidly became dominant in both town and countryside, and the Conventual Church of the Order of St. John in Valletta, now a co-Cathedral, is regarded as the best example of late 16th-century art and architecture.

1578 The Building Accounts of Corpus Christi College distinguish between "rough" and "free" Masons.

1581 Birth of Archbishop Ussher. The Gospel was preached in China.

1581-1648 Lord Herbert of Cherbury lived, developing a philosophy of religion similar to that of Jean Bodin, and basing his own acceptance of the existence of God purely on the testimony of reason.

1581-1660 St. Vincent de Paul lived. He was born in Gascony, became a parish priest in Paris, founded the Congregation of the Missions (Vincentians) for the spiritual formation of the clergy and the relief of the poor, and with the help of St. Louise de Marillac also founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity.

1582 Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Calendar, placing Friday 15 October that year immediately after Thursday 4 October. [England made no change until 1752, when Thursday 14 September followed Wednesday 2 September.]

1583 Date of the Grand Lodge MS, said to be the oldest dated form of MS Masonic Constitutions in the strict meaning of the term. An Indenture bearing this date mentions St. Mary's Lodge of Dundee. Cloistered nuns of the Jerusalem Order opened a convent in Malta.

1585 (elected 24 April, crowned 1 May) - 1590 (27 September) Sixtus V Bishop of Rome.

1586-1617 (24 August) St. Rose of Lima lived. She was born at Lima in Peru, joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, and was an outstanding penitent and mystic.

1588 The Franciscan Capuchins established a foundation in Malta.

1590 James VI of Scotland granted Patrick Cuipland, Laird of Edaucht, the Office of Warden and Justice presiding over the Art and Craft of Masonry within the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine.

1590 (15 September) - 1590 (27 September) Urban VII Bishop of Rome.

1590 (elected 5, crowned 8 December) - 1591 (16 October) Gregory XIV Bishop of Rome.

1591 (elected 29 October, crowned 3 November) - 1591 (30 December) Innocent IX Bishop of Rome.

1592 (elected 30 January, crowned 9 February) - 1605 (3 March) Clement VIII Bishop of Rome.

1592 (28 March) A Jesuit College for the philosophical and theological instruction of candidates for the priesthood was establised in Valletta.

1596-1650 Rene Descartes broke radically and methodically from all previous philosophy, and systematically questioned all forms of authority.

1597 (5 February) The Jesuit St. Paul Miki and twenty-five others were, after having been previously subjected to terrible tortures on account of their Christian faith, crucified at Nagasaki. St. Paul was born in Japan between 1564 and 1566.

1598 Anthony Munday, an Elizabethan playwright, wrote The Downfall of Robert the Earl of Huntingdon.

1598 & 1599 Dates of the two Schaw Statutes, Codes and Laws promulgated by William Schaw, Master of the King's Work and General Warden of Masons. One concerned the Craft in general, the other Kilwinning Lodge in particular. This latter has been cited on both sides in connection with the question as to which enjoys precedence - Kilwinning Lodge as Head Lodge, or Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, as Principal Lodge. The Minutes of Edinburgh Lodge, Mary's Chapel, go back to 1599 and seem to be the most ancient surviving Lodge Records in the world. Mary's Chapel's consequent claim to precedence over both Kilwinning and Stirling Lodges is still debated.

1599 Sir John Spencer of Canonbury's 's daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, married the second Lord Compton, afterwards first Earl of Northampton. Tradition says that they eloped, Elizabeth concealed in a baker's basket, and her lover disguised as a baker's boy.

1600 A Masonic Convention was held at St. Andrews in January by order of the Warden-General. On 8 June John Boswell of Auchinleck is alleged to have attended as a non-operative member a Mary's Chapel Lodge-Meeting, and this is said to be the earliest known instance of such an occurrence. Although the word "Freemason" occurs in a York Roll of 1600, there are earlier instances as far back as the later part of the 14th century. Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle wrote The Death of Robert the Earl of Huntingdon. Robert Vernon wrote The Quest of Fulk Fitz Warine.

1600-1649 Charles I, second son of James I and wife of Henrietta, daughter of Henry IV of France, reigned 1625-1649, upholding the Divine Right of Kings, alienating Parliament, and precipitating the Civil War, which began with the battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642. He was beheaded in Whitehall on 29 January 1649.

1601 Presumed date of a Charter whereby, with the agreement of William Schaw, the Warden-General, Sir William St. Clair of Roslyn was authorised to purchase jurisdiction from the King over certain Edinburgh Lodges.

1601-1680 St. John Eudes was born the diocese of Seez in France, was ordained priest, and preached as a missioner for many years, promoting devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and establishing congregations to educate future priests in seminaries and to rescue women who were in moral danger.

1604 Incorporation of the Company of Freemasons, Carpenters, Joiners and Slaters of the City of Oxford.

1605 (elected 1, crowned 10 April) - 1605 (27 April) Leo XI Bishop of Rome.

1605 (elected 16, crowned 29 May) - 1621 (28 January) Paul V Bishop of Rome.

1606 The Augustinians established their first foundation in Malta.

1615 Robert Vernon wrote Sir Gawain and the Red Knight.

1617 (23 May) Elias Ashmole born.

1618-2012 Baktun of the Transformation of Matter.

1620 The Records of the Masonic Lodge at Glasgow date back to this year.

1621 The Masons' Company is said to have used Marks up to and including this year.

1621 (elected 9, crowned 14 February) - 1623 (8 July) Gregory XV Bishop of Rome.

1622-1715 Culbone valley uninhabited.

1623 (elected 6 August, crowned 29 September) - 1644 (29 July) Urban VIII Bishop of Rome.

1625 The Discalced Carmeltites established a foundation in Malta.

1625 Canonbury House was leased to Sir Thomas Coventry, afterwards Lord Keeper.

1630-1685 Charles II, eldest son of Charles I, rode in triumph into London on his thirtieth birthday, reigned 1660-1685, founded the Royal Society of Arts & Sciences, maintained at least thirteen illegitimate children born of one or other of his at least seven official mistresses, but had no children by his Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza.

1632-1704 The Deist philospher John Locke lived, making many important contributions to philosophy, but producing a quite muddled theory about "Ideas."

1633-1701 James II, younger brother of Charles II, reigned 1685-1688. Samuel Pepys claimed that "in all things but his amours he was led by the nose by his wife." His second wife, a Catholic, Mary of Modena, made him grandfather of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender. Jame II himself died in exile in France, ousted by his Dutch son-in-law, William of Orange.

1634 Sir Alexander Strachan and other non-Operatives were admitted to Mary's Chapel, and became Fellows of Craft on 3 July. The Arms of Freemasonry, i.e., of the Masons' Company, appear in a visitation of London by Henry St. George Richmond.

1637 (January) Minutes signed by Sir Anthony Alexander as President attest that the Lodge of Atcheson's Haven adopted the Schaw Statutes.

1638 Bishop Cornelius Jansen of Ypres died in Belgium. His posthumously published Augustinus (1640) distorts the teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo about human freedom, original sin, and grace, by attributing to Augustine certain positions logically following from things the Saint taught, but which, in fact, Augustine, whose style of writing was rhetorical rather than logically systematic, never even realised were derivable from his teaching - had he done so, he would probably have modified his teaching, rather than support such positions. Jansen's theology, like Calvin's, includes a pessimistic belief that human nature is radically corrupt.

1640 Probable date of the British Museum's Sloane MS. 3329.

1641 Alleged date of Sir Robert Moray's reception into Freemasonry at Newcastle on behalf of Mary's Chapel.

1643-1715 The Sun King Louis XIV of France lived; he became King in 1661. In 1673 he made an unilateral attempt to extend the ius regis or royal prerogative to include receiving the revenue of vacant dioceses, and making appointments to ecclesiastical benefices. When Pope Innocent XI refused to permit such an extension, King Louis convened an Assembly of the clergy of the Ecclesia Gallicana. They met from 30 October 1681 until 9 May 1692, and on 19 March 1692 issued the notorious Four Gallican Articles:

• (1) Since Popes receive only spiritual power from God, Kings are not subject to them;
• (2) Councils of the Church are superior to the Pope;
• (3) The exercise of Papal power is regulated by ecclesiastical Canons;
• (4) Papal ex cathedra pronouncements are not irrevocable.

1642 The Records of Mother Kilwinning Lodge date back to this year.

1643 Persecution extinguishes the last churches Jesuits had founded in Japan.

1644 (elected 15 September, crowned 4 October) - 1655 (7 January) Innocent X Bishop of Rome.

1646 (16 October) Elias Ashmole and other Candidates were made Masons at Warrington in Lancashire. On the same day Edward Sankey transcribed Sloane MS. 3648, the Constitutions.

1647-1690 (17 October) St. Margaret Mary Alacoque lived. She was born in the French diocese of Autun, joined the Visitation Sisters at Paray-le-Monial, and in 1675 was granted mystical revelations especially concerning the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

1648 Peace of Westphalia ends wars between Catholics and Protestants.

16491660 Oliver Cromwell executes King Charles I and creates a Puritant Commonwealth. During the Commonwealth the third Earl of Northampton lived mainly at Canonbury.

1650-1702 William III and Mary II landed at Exeter and reigned together from 1688, he until 1702; both were devout Protestants, Mary being the elder daughter of James II by his first wife - she had married William of Orange in 1677, when she was 25 years old. They had no children. Mary died in 1694.

1651-1719 St. John Baptist de la Salle lived. He was born in Rheims, ordained priest, and formed a Religious Congregation for the education of the young and the poor. He died in Rouen.

1652 Certain customs observed at the Reception of new Members into the French Compagnonnage were disclosed. On 24 February the Presbyterian Synod of Kelso solemnly declared that some Presbyterian Ministers had been Freemasons in the purest times of the Kirk. The Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri established a foundation in Malta which endured until 1825.

1653 December: Oliver Cromwell made Protector; he died in September 1658, aged 59, to be ineffectually succeeded by his son Richard.

1654 The mathematician Blaise Pascal experiences a night of fire.

1655 (elected 7, crowned 18 April) - 1667 (22 May) Alexander VII Bishop of Rome.

1655-1656 The Company of Freemasons became the Worshipful Company of Masons of London.

1656 Death of archbishop Ussher.

1658 A parchment of this date belonging to the Lodge of Scoon and Perth affirms that James VI had by his own desire been entered Freeman, Mason and Fellow-craft, and refers to "the Temple of Temples built on this Earth" as that from which proceeded as first in Scotland Kilwinning Lodge, and as second the Lodge of Scoon. According to the Charter of the Lodge of Scoon and Perth it is "a free Lodge".

1660-1727 George I lived, first Hanover King of Great Britain, a great-grandson of James I. He reigned 1714-1727.

1660-1731 Daniel Defoe lived.

1661 Angelique Arnaud died. She had led the renowed Cistercian convent of Port-Royal in Versailles in supporting Jansenism as an actual way of life, notwithstanding its having been condemned several times from 1642 onwards, while Antoine Arnaud, who died in 1694, principally spread Jansenism as a theory. The mathematician Blaise Pascal, who died in 1662, also embraced Jansenism, and wrote in its support against the Jesuits who, however, secured its virtual elimination in 1710.

1662 James Anderson born.

1663 On 8 December seven new sets of Masonic Rules or additional Orders were made, and are preserved in "the Roberts Family of MS. Constitutions". No. 5 provides that "the Company of Freemasons shall henceforward be regulated and governed by one Master and Assembly, and as many Wardens as the said Company shall think fit to choose at every Yearly General Assembly." According to tradition the Earl of St. Albans, acting as Grand Master of Masons, held the Annual Assembly of the Craft on 27 December, St. John's day.

1665 Approximate date of the Kilwinning MS. Masonic Constitutions, and of the Harleian 2054 MS. Constitutions transcribed by Randle Holme, as well of his rough memorandum containing a Masonic Pledge stating that there are Masonic Words and Signs to be kept secret from all but Masters and Fellows of the Society. An Inventory of effects belonging to the Masons' Company of London was made, and contains a MS. copy of the Constitutions and a List of Members described as Accepted Masons. A similar Inventory, likewise containing the Constitutions and a List of Members, was made in 1676.

1665-1714 Anne, younger sister of Mary II and last of the Stewarts, was married to a Dane and conceived eighteen children, of whom a few died at birth, some lived a few days, and the longest-lived, William, Duke of Gloucester, just saw his eleventh birthday. She reigned 1702-1714, dying on 1 August.

1666 Great Fire of London.

1667 (elected 20, crowned 26 June) - 1669 (9 December) Clement IX Bishop of Rome.

1667-1745 Jonathan Swift lived.

1668 (9 June) Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay born.

1670 By Laws & Statutes it was this year ordained at Aberdeen that certain privileged persons would receive the benefit of the Mason's Word, free of all due, "save for the box, mark, banquet and pint of wine," and that Lodges would be held in open fields, except in bad weather, when a house was to be chosen "where no person could hear or see." It is said that in Aberdeen at this time "Fellow-craft" and "Master Mason" were convertible terms. Although the Minutes of the Ancient Stirling Lodge go back to no earlier than 1670, the Lodge itself was mentioned in Aberdeen Burgh Records for 1483.

1670 (elected 29 April, crowned 11 May) - 1676 (22 July) Clement X Bishop of Rome.

1671 The Bishop of Durham granted a Charter incorporating first Freemasons and also various other Crafts into a Community, Fellowship & Company assembling annually on the Feast of St. John the Baptist and electing four Wardens, one of them always a Freemason.

1671-1713 Lord Shaftesbury, a Deist who reduced religion simply to a certain conscious awareness of a Supreme Being, the expectation of eternal Life, and a belief in a Day of Judgment, lived.

1674 Date of the earliest Records of Melrose Lodge.

1675 Falsely alleged origin of the Order of Black Brothers, which afterwards spread largely throughout Germany and used the Ritual of Kadosh. Date of the earliest Records of Dunblane Lodge.

1676 (elected 21 September, crowned 4 October) - 1689 (12 August) Blessed Innocent XI Bishop of Rome.

1678 John Bunyon dreams of Christian on the road to the Celestial City.

1678 The Rev. George Hickes mentions the Mason-Word as, according to some Masons, a "Secret Signal" as old as Babel, though others refer its origin to the time of King Solomon.

1680 Rabbi Leone Yehudah of Modena lectured in London on King Solomon's Temple. After his death Laurence Dermott derived from the Rabbi's papers the Arms of Royal Arch Masons.

1681 Some claim that the Little Resurrection of the Templars was heard of in France.

1682 (11 March) Elias Ashmole, noted as not being a member of the Masons' Company, attended a meeting at Masons' Hall.

1683-1760 George II, son of George I, lived; he reigned 1727-1760.

1685 William, Viscount Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, died at Canonbury. Thereafter and during the 18th century, the Tower and adjoining buildings were let in apartments.

1685 Louis XIV of France ends toleration of Protestants, forcing many into exile.

1686 Publication of Dr. Robert Plot's The Natural History of Staffordshire, which refers to the Society of Freemasons in Staffordshire and states that persons of the "most eminent quality did not disdain to be of this Fellowship."

1687 Date of the earliest Records of Dumfries Lodge. The Spanish Bishop Michael Molinos's schismatic teaching in his widely circulated Guia espiritual recommending complete quiet and passivity of soul so that it no longer even desires salvation but remains entirely at rest in God without any activity (Quietism), was formally condemned.

1689 (elected 6, crowned 16 October) - 1691 (1 February) Alexander VIII Bishop of Rome.

1690 Irish academics report that Freemasonry was well-known prior to this date, "which is (sic) that of the landing of William of Orange."

1691 Constitution of the Goose and Gridiron Lodge in St. Paul's Churchyard, which occupies the place of seniority in the Engraved List of 1729. According to Plot's Natural History of Wiltshire a "great Convention of the Fraternity of Adopted Masons" was held at St. Paul's Church on 18 May, when "Christopher Wren was adopted a Brother." Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies appeared, in which the Mason-Word is compared to a Rabbinical tradition "by way of comment on Jachin and Boaz"; a Secret Sign is said to be "delivered from hand to hand."

1691 (elected 12, crowned 15 July) - 1700 (27 September) Innocent XII Bishop of Rome.

1692 (18 May) Eliash Ashmole died in London.

1693 Sir Robert Clayton held an "occasional Lodge" at St. Thomas' Hospital in London to advise on its rebuilding. The Ordinances of the Masons of Halberstadt, which mention the communication of words among German Stonemasons, were "laid before their reigning Prince."

1694-1775 (18 October) St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, lived. He was born at Ovada in Liguria and died in Rome.

1694-1778 Voltaire lived, scorning and ridiculing many aspects of life that others deemed sacred.

1696 The Prince of Nassau is alleged to have founded an Order of Concord on Masonic principles. The Minutes of Dunblane Lodge, which indicate that Operative Masons were then a minority, go back to this date.

1696-1787 St. Alphonsus Mary de Ligouri, Doctor of the Church, lived. He was born in Naples, acquired a Doctor's degree in both civil and canon law, was ordained priest, and later founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). He served the Church for some time as Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti, but died within his own Congregation at Nocera dei Pagani in Campagna, renowned as a preacher and moral theologian.

1700 Martinez de Pasqually born. The Masons' Company of London and the Lodge or Society of mainly symbolic Freemasons are said to have separated about this time.

1700 (elected 23/30 November, crowned 8 December) - 1721 (19 March) Clement XI Bishop of Rome.

1701 A Masonic apprentice at Aberdeen was "sworn by the points." The Orders to be observed by the Company and Fellowship of Freemasons settled at a Lodge held in Alnwick on 29 September are purely operative in character.

1703 (25 March) Bishop Davide Cocco Palmeri inaugurated Malta's first diocesan seminary, which his predecessars had several times attempted to establish from 1575 onwards. Like the Jesuit College in Valletta, the new institution greatly served to raise standards among the clergy.

1704 Charles Wesley founds the Holy Club in Oxford.

1705 The Little Resurrection of the Templars at Paris, if it had ever existed, vanished from the scene. The earliest extant Roll of Masons of the Ancient York Lodge is believed to date from this year, by which time, if not earlier, York Lodge was felt to be the home of Speculative Masonry and without any Operative character.

1706 Emanuel Swedenborg is fabled to have been initiated as a Mason.

1707 The Imperial Diet abolished the Strasbourg "Head Lodge"'s supremacy over German Stonemasons.

1709 Chevalier Ramsay converted to Latin Christianity.

1710 Some believe the Comte de Saint-Germain was born at St. Germains in Savoy. J. G. Gichtel's foundation of a mystical society called the Angelic Brethren, along similar lines to the Rosicrucian Brotherhood but with somewhat different objectives, possibly occurred at this time.

1712-1778 Jean Jacques Rousseau lived, teaching that true religion consists in loving everything that is good and beautiful - a sort of practical Christianity without Christ, without revelation, and without redemption.

1715 Culbone valley settled by an industrious Somerset family.

1716 Birth of A. J. Pernetti or Pernety.

1717 Anderson, writing 21 years after the event and without mentioning any precise date, affirms a Revival of Quarterly Communications by a meeting of certain Lodges at the Apple Tree Tavern, when "they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro tempore in due form," resolving "to hold the Annual Assembly and Feast, and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves, till they should have the honour of a noble Brother at their head." At a subsequent Meeting in St. Paul's Churchyard on the Feast of St. John the Baptist "in the 3rd year of King George I, A.D. 1717" Anthony Sayer, gentleman, was elected Grand Master. The German historian Findel controversially claims that there was at this time "only one Degree of Initiation."

1718 George Payne succeeded Sayer as Grand Master of Freemasons in England. Several ancient Constitutions in MS. were collected and collated. Freemasonry was carried into France perhaps in this year, perhaps earlier, possibly in 1725; the exact date is not known. Whether or not Prince Schwartzbing Rudolstadt this year founded an Order of Concord open to women is also most uncertain.

1719 Revd. John Theophilus Desaguliers, LL.D., F.R.S., was elected Grand Master of Freemasons in England.

1720 Various old manuscripts of Masonic interest are alleged to have been burnt, in case they might fall into the wrong hands. John Payne was elected Grand Master for the second time, and compiled the General Regulations. Baron Louis Theodore Tschoudy was born in Metz. A Masonic Lodge of Perfect Union, working under a Warrant from the Grand Lodge of Belgium and the Duke of Montague, is said to have been in existence in Belgium, but this is far from certain. According to the Minutes of the Lodge of Dunblane a Candidate was "entered" on 24 December, and on 27 December was passed "from the square to the compass and from an Entered Apprentice to a Fellow of Craft."

1721 (6 January) Dr. Stukeley's Diary & Commonplace Book records that

• (1) he was made a Freemason at the Salutation Tavern, Tavistock Street;
• (2) he was the first person for many years who had been so made in London;
• (3) there was great difficulty in finding sufficient members to perform the Ceremony;
• (4) immediately thereafter "Freemasonry took a run and ran itself out of breath through the folly of its members."

1721 (elected 8, crowned 18 May) - 1724 (7 March) Innocent XIII Bishop of Rome.

1721 John, Duke of Montague, was on 12 June elected Grand Master of Freemasons in England, twelve Lodges being represented at the Meeting. That same year Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers, "late General Master of the Mason Lodges in England," having proved himself "duly qualified in all points of Masonry, was received at Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, and took part on the following day in the Admission and Passing of 'various honourable persons,' the Lord Provost of Edinburgh included." A Lodge of Perfect Union, warranted by the Grand Lodge, is doubtfully asserted to have existed in Belgium at about this time. On 29 September Grand Lodge declared all copies of the Old Gothic Constitutions faulty, and ordered James Anderson to digest and produce the same after a new and better manner, sixteen Lodges being apparently represented at this Meeting, with the Grand Master in the Chair. On 27 December, when twenty Lodges appear to have been represented, the Duke of Montague appointed a Commission of fourteen learned Brothers to report on Anderson's manuscript.

1722 On 25 March, twenty-four Lodges being represented, a Committee reported favourably, subject to certain amendments, on Anderson's manuscript, and the Constitutions were ordered to be printed. On 24 June Philip, Duke of Wharton, who had been recently made a Mason, convoked an irregular Meeting at Stationers' Hall, and was proclaimed Grand Master. Baron von Hund was born on 11 September.

1723 On 17 January, twenty-five Lodges being represented, Anderson's printed Book of Constitutions was presented and approved, when the Duke of Wharton, who had summoned a Meeting of Grand Lodge at the King's Arms, was, having promised to be faithful and true, proclaimed Grand Master in proper form. The Earl of Dalkeith was afterwards elected to succeed to the Duke of Wharton, and was proclaimed as Grand Master in absentia on 24 June, which is the earliest entry in the Grand Lodge Minute Books. The Flying Post for 13 April published references to the Arch and Mark of a Master under the heading "A Mason's Examination." At the Quarterly Communication on 25 November it was resolved (1) that the Grand Master has power to appoint his Deputy and the Grand Wardens; (2) that no new Lodge in or near London should be recognized by Grand Lodge unless it be regularly constituted. Grand Lodge thus appears to have enjoyed only local jurisdiction at this time when, according to Gould, the Degrees of Speculative Masonry recognised by Grand Lodge were only two in number, viz., Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft or Master, which latter terms were then used interchangeably. Grand Lodge decreed that any Lodge in suspension for more than 12 months should be removed from the Roll and forfeit its claim to precedence.

1724 (elected 29 May, crowned 4 June) - 1730 (21 February) Benedict XIII Bishop of Rome.

1724 Thomas Dunckerley died on 23 October. On 21 November the Earl of Dalkeith presented a scheme for raising a fund in aid of distressed Masons; this was approved and adopted. The Grand Mystery of Freemasons Discovered, which contains a Masonic Catechism, was published. The Secret History of the Freemasons, which includes the Lansdowne Constitutions, also appeared. The Society of Gormogons was first heard of. The Chevalier Ramsay is said to have been in Rome with the Pretender.

1724-1804 Immanuel Kant lived. He saw the goal of enlightenment as the liberation of the autonomous human being able "to make use of his mind without the tutelage of others."

1725 On 27 November it was resolved that the Master of each Masonic Lodge, with the consent of his Wardens and a majority of Master-Masons being present, should be permitted to make Masters at his discretion. The Engraved List for this year shows sixty-four Lodges. A Grand Lodge of Ireland was at work in Dublin. A Grand Lodge of All England was formed at York, the rules of government being agreed and subscribed to by the Master and Members. The Minutes of an Operative Lodge at Swalwell, near Gateshead, date from this year. James Ratcliffe and other British Jacobites are said to have founded at Paris the first Masonic Lodge in France, but evidence is hard to find; it is highly unlikely that Charles Radcliffe or Ratcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, was then elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France.

1726 The Records of the Grand Lodge of Munster began on 27 December. A Catechism on the Mystery of Freemasons, printed and sold by Andrew White, states that an Apprentice may be entered at about 14 years of age and then "made free" in a Secret Ceremony, when he is 21.

1727 Four members of an unspecified London Lodge are said to have been admitted as Masters on 29 April, but this seems doubtful.

1728 Lord Kingston was proclaimed Grand Master of Freemasons in England. The Ancient Chapter of Clermont, which only came into existence in 1754, was allegedly in some sense founded in 1728, when Masonry was also introduced into Bengal, and the precedence of Lodges was regulated. The Grand Lodge of Munster meeting at Cork on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist resolved that every Lodge should provide itself with a copy of Anderson's Constitutions. At Madrid the Duke of Wharton seems to have founded the first Lodge in Spain; the claim that Grand Lodge also constituted a second Lodge at Gibraltar is doubtful.

1729 This year's Engraved List of Masonic Lodges enumerates 54 with 42 in London, 11 in the provinces, and one in Madrid. The Duke of Wharton died. The Lodge of the Three Stars was established in Prague about this time. The first purely speculative Scottish Lodge, Edinburgh Kilwinning, in which all the original members were theoretical Masons, is also said to have been founded in 1729; various noblemen are listed among its members in the Roll of 1736. This Lodge is also said to have been the first north of the Tweed in which the Third Degree was practised. On 29 December Grand Lodge determined that thenceforward every new Lodge should, as part of its Act of Constitution, pay two guineas to the General Charity.

1730 The Duke of Norfolk was proclaimed Grand Master, and installed on 29 January. He is alleged to have appointed a Provincial Grand Master for Lower Saxony. According to the 1730 Irish Constitutions and the 1735 Pocket Companion the Grand Lodge of Ireland recognised only two degrees in Masonry. The Mystery of Freemasonry, a spurious catechism published on 15 August in the Daily Journal referred to two degrees. Samuel Prichard's tract Masonry Dissected was advertised on 20 October in the Daily Journal; he is described as a late member of a constituted Lodge. The anonymous Defence of Masonry which was announced in the same journal as a response to Masonry Dissected is nowadays held to have been written by Martin Clare, FRS, but was at the time attributed to either James Anderson or Bishop Warburton. A Lodge was founded in Calcutta in 1730.

1730 (elected 12, crowned 16 July) - 1740 (6 February) Clement XII Bishop of Rome. In 1730 Culbone church ceased to be used for services.

1731 A Masonic Lodge was founded in the kingdom of Naples. The Duke of Lorraine, the first royal prince admitted into the Craft, was made a Mason at the Hague. James, fourth Lord Kingston, was elected Grand Master of Ireland and, from this date onwards, the succession of Grand Officers of the Irish Grand Lodge is clear. London Lodge No. 83 worked three degrees of Masonry. The written Records of a Lodge at Philadelphia, U.S.A., also date from this period.

1731Jean-Pierre de Caussade becomes confessor to the nuns at Nancy.

1732 William Hutchinson was born. Martin Clare, FRS, revised the Grand Lodge Lectures. The Grand Lodge of Ireland determined that all Lodges which hadn't taken out Warrants or Charters of Confirmation must do so. By virtue of Viscount Montague's authority as Grand Master Lodges are said to have been constituted in both Valenciennes and Paris, and General James Keith is mentioned as having been Master of a Lodge in either Moscow or Petrograd.

1733 A sketch of the Freemasons which appeared on 8 February in the Grub Street Journal was reprinted in the London Magazine. A Lodge of St. John was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. Reference is for the first time made to a Master Mason's Lodge, but no further particulars are available. The Earl of Strathmore, acting as Grand Master, is said to have authorised the foundation of a Lodge in Hamburg by eleven Germans. On 31 August a Ceremony in the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, U.S.A., marked the foundation of the first American Lodge, as authorised in writing by Henry Price, Provincial Grand Master of New England. Lord George Sackville is also said to have established a Lodge in Florence.

1734 Date of the Cole Constitutions. Benjamin Franklin had Anderson's Book of Constitutions published in America. Masonry is alleged to have been introduced into Poland. A Masonic Grand Master is said to have been elected in Holland.

1735 On 24 February, because the first edition of the Book of Constitutions, which was his personal copyright, had been pirated, James Anderson rather oddly sought Grand Lodge's permission to issue a second edition. Viscount Weymouth was proclaimed Grand Master in succession to the Earl of Crawfurd. According to Grand Lodge Minutes for the 31 March, James Anderson was instructed to collect and have printed in his new Book of Constitutions the names of all Grand Masters from the beginning of time, together with those of other Grand Officers. Freemasonry was prohibited in Holland by the States-General. A Lodge was founded in Stockholm. An English Lodge was established in Lisbon. A Lodge was also founded at the Hague under an English Warrant with the title of Le Veritable Zele. According to the Minutes of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge for 31 March, there then took place the "admission of a Master Mason under the modern Masonic Constitution," this being the earliest known Scottish record of such an event. A Masonic Catechism was published in The Scots' Magazine. Lodges of Solomon were founded in both Charleston, South Carolina, and in Savannah, Georgia. Minutes are believed to exist of a Roman Lodge in the States of the Church covering the period from 1735 until its suppression in 1737. It is possible that the Honourable Mrs. Aldworth was admitted under exceptional circumstances to the first two Craft Degrees, although not to the third. In December Martin Clare delivered an Oration or Discourse to members of the then recently constituted Stewards' Lodge; this was subsequently translated into several languages, and included in The Pocket Companion of 1754.

1736 A Lodge was established in Geneva. According to a 1744 German publication the Earl of Derwentwater was chosen by the French Lodges to succeed James Hector Maclean. French authorities, however, consistently refer to the Earl as Lord Harnouester, claiming that he succeeded his brother Charles Radcliffe, whereas, as far at least as the Earldom is concerned, it was actually Charles who succeeded to it in 1736, when his brother James was executed for high treason. It appears doubtful whether there was any Grand Master in France at all at this time, and the question of a first foundation of the Grand Lodge of France in this year remains problematic. The Masonic Ritual published with the help of an opera dancer, Mdme. Carton, by a French superintendent named Herault was largely a translation of Prichard's book. On 30 November, Feast of St. Andrew, thirty-three Lodges being represented, the Grand Lodge of Scotland was instituted, and Mr. William St. Clair, after renouncing his hereditary claims as Patron of Masons in Scotland, was elected Grand Master, but a number of ancient Lodges stood aside from this foundation and others, including Mother Kilwinning and Mary's Chapel, seceded for various periods.

1737 An article in the April issue of Gentlemen's Magazine attacking Freemasonry had a sequel in the July issue claiming that in Florence Masons were regarded as Quietists. An English Provincial Grand Lodge was established in Geneva. Masons in Paris were treated arbitrarily by the Lieutenant of police, who also soon suppressed the newly founded Order of the Palladium. In Paris, too, the Chevalier Ramsay delivered a famous Oration, but that Baron C. F. Scheffer was there made a Mason in the Prince Clermont's Lodge is uncertain. Robert Tomlinson succeeded Price as Provincial Grand Master of New England. On 5 November in Kew Palace with Desaguliers acting as Master, Frederick Prince of Wales was made a Mason at an Occasional Lodge. On 6 December the first German Lodge was founded in Hamburg.

1738-1820 George III, grandson of George II, lived. He reigned 1760-1820, when he was declared insane, and Charlotte, his wife, meanwhile gave him fifteen children, of whom the eldest was made Regent.

1738 The earliest mention of a Master Grade in the Records of Edinburgh Lodge occurs. On 25 January, 66 Lodges being represented, Grand Lodge approved and had printed the second edition of Anderson's Book of Constitutions. In the course of a Masonic Festival at Luneville Lord Derwentwater resigned his office as French Grand Master, and the Duc D'Antin was proclaimed to succeed him. A Relation Apologique (sic) et Historique de la Societe des F.M., purporting to have been published in Dublin, challenged Herault's Ritual of 1736. Prichard's Masonry Dissected, which Herault had largely translated, was re-issued, price sixpence, with a fascinating if unreliable Catechism, and by 1750 had appeared in at least twenty-one editions. A Master's Lodge was established in Boston, U.S.A. The first Lodge at Dresden, the Three Eagles Lodge, was established. On 14 August Crown Prince Frederick (the Great) of Prussia was initiated in the Mother German Lodge at Brunswick. The Lodge of Secrecy and Harmony was founded in Malta. Lodges were also established in Smyrna and Aleppo. Freemasonry was, however, suppressed in Sweden. On 27 April in the Bull In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry and also menaced with excommunication any persons promoting or favouring it.

1738 John Wesley's heart is trangely warmed at Aldersgate Street.

1739 On 14 January Cardinal Firrao, acting on Papal authority, decreed that Masons were subject to the death-penalty, confiscation of good and utter exclusion from any future grace or mercy. Masons in Florence were persecuted by the Holy Inquisition. Some Lodges in Warsaw were closed. On 28 May James Anderson died, and an organised rebellion against the authority of Grand Lodge subsequent to the publication of his new Book of Constitutions threatened English Masonry with serious schism. Freemasonry was introduced to Sardinia. The Discalced Carmelites established a foundation in Malta.

1740 Philip V of Spain issued an edict against Masonry. The Grand Master of the Knights of Malta forbade Masons on the island. The Grand Lodge of all England at York became dormant. Scots Degrees sprang up throughout France. The Grand Lodge of Scotland agreed to correspond with the Grand Lodge of England. The Minutes of the Royal Order of Scotland begin. An itinerant pedlar promoted the Royal Arch Degree in Ireland, claiming it was practised in both York and London. Deucher, a Grand Master of Scotland, later affirmed that the Templar Order could be traced back through living members to this year. General Keith received an English Patent as Provincial Grand Master of Russia. Under warrant from the Grand Lodge of England the reigning Master of the original Hamburg Lodge was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Hamburg and Lower Saxony. On 13 September the Lodge of the Three Globes was founded in Berlin. The Moravians established an Order of the Mustard Seed. An androgynous Masonic Order of Amazons is fabled to have been introduced from South America into the United States.

1740 (elected 17, crowned 22 August) - 1758 (3 May) Benedict XIV Bishop of Rome.

1741 Margrave Frederic of Brandenburgh-Culmbach on his own authority established a Lodge at Bayreuth. A Lodge was opened in Leipzig. The German Lodge of the Three Compasses was established. Cornelius Harnett is said to have founded at Norfolk the earliest Lodge in Virginia. A Provincial Grand Master of the Most Ancient and Honourable Order of Heredom of Kilwinning in Great Britain is also claimed.

1742 Anthony Sayer died. William Preston was born at Edinburgh on 7 August. Baron von Hund was initiated on 20 March. Frankfort's first regularly constituted Lodge, Union Lodge was founded. The Archimedes of the Three Tracing Boards Lodge was founded in Altenburg. Vienna's first Lodge, the Three Firing Glasses, was opened and immediately suppressed. Stephen Morin, commissioned from France as Deputy Inspector-General, is fabled to have landed on San Domingo. Abbe Peran published Les Secrets des Francs-Macons.

1743 On 4 May Horace Walpole in a letter to Sir Horace Mann stated that Freemasons in England had fallen into low repute. Joseph Balsamo, sometimes identified as Count Cagliostro, was born in Palermo on 2 June and baptized 6 days later. Desaguliers died on 29 November. A contemporary report of a Lodge meeting at Youghal in Ireland is the earliest clear reference to the Royal Arch in that country. The Minutes of Stirling Rock Royal Arch Chapter date from this year. The Lodge of Kilwinning re-affirmed its independence and exercised the prerogatives of a Grand Body for nearly seventy years. On the Earl of Kilmarnock's recommendation the first Military Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland was warranted. General Keith constituted a Lodge in Stockholm at about this time. Freemasonry appeared in Bohemia. A member of the Three Globes Lodge in Berlin founded the first Danish Lodge, the Lodge of St. Martin in Copenhagen. Thory speculates that the Grade of Kadosh was invented in Lyons. Sir Samuel Lockhart possibly insituted certain Scottish Rites at Toulouse and Montpellier under the name Vielle Bru (= "Faithful Scot"). Baron von Hund alleges that under Jacobite guidance the Rite of the Strict Observance was at work. The Order of Felicity with members of both sexes was instituted in Paris. Prince Louis de Bourbon was elected Grand Master in succession to the Duc D'Antin, a French code of Masonic laws was promulgated on 9 December, and the Grand Lodge about that time became known as the Grande Loge Anglaise de France.

1744 D'Assigny's A Serious and Impartial Inquiry into the Cause of the Present Decay of Freemasonry in the Kingdom of Ireland described the Royal Arch as an organised body of men who had passed the chair. L'Ordre des Francsmacons Trahi said to be by the Abbe Peran, Le Parfait Macon and Le Sceau Rompu were published, the first of these being reprinted the following year. Scottish Masonry was introduced to Bordeaux. The name of Adonhiram made its appearance in French Masonic works. The Dutch Lodges resumed work after their suspension by the States-General. The Lodge of Zerubbabel was founded in Copenhagen. The Lodge at Bayreuth assumed the title of Grand Lodge, as did the Warsaw Lodge of the Three Brothers. The Three Globes at Berlin called itself Grand and Royal Mother Lodge, and the Crown Prince (afterwards Frederick II) of Prussia became Grand Master.

1745 Thomas Oxnard became Provincial Grand Master of North America. The first Lodge in Norway, St. Olaf's Lodge, was estabished. A Lodge was opened in Marburg. Masons were persecuted in Germany, and the Council at Berne prohibited Freemasonry. Prince Charles Edward Stuart is unreliably alleged to have granted a Rose-Croix Warrant to a Lodge in Arras.

1746 The Earl of Derwentwater, first Grand Master of France, died on the scaffold. The Lodge of Swalwell regulated its fees for admission to the status of Harodim. On 15 October five Brethren of the Old Lodge at Salisbury were made Scots Masons. Lord Byron was elected Grand Master, but Masonry is held to have suffered neglect during his five years in office.

1747 A Primordial Chapter is said to have been formed at Arras. The Adepte Macon was published, ostensibly in London. Les Francmacons Ecrases was published anonymously; it has been attributed to Abbe Larudan, and is sometimes seen as the sequel to the Abbe Peran's L'Ordre des Francsmacons Trahi. According to Jean B. Pessina, who claimed that the first Masonic Lodge at Crotona was opened by Pythagoras, on 10 December the Masters of several Lodges thitherto working in secret in Southern Italy and on the island of Sicily met in the Valley of Seked and founded a Grand Lodge, with Raimondo of Sangro, Prince de Saint Sebero, as Grand Master.

1748 The Ottoman Porte opposed any introduction of Freemasonry into Turkey. An Order of Xerophagists comprising persons clandestinely Masons is said to have been formed in Italy to circumvent Papal opposition to Freemasonry.

1749-1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived.

1749 The Duke of Montague died in July. Masonry was introduced into Hungary. Benjamin Franklin was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania.

1750 William Allen was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, with Benjamin Franklin as Deputy. The first Lodge in Transylvania was founded. The Lodge of Friendship, afterwards known as the Royal York of Friendship Lodge, was founded in Berlin.

1750 Jesuits take up the word to defend their paradise state in Paraguay.

1751 A schismatic "Grand Lodge" of England was set up. Edward Spratt, Grand Secretary of Ireland, who had prepared that country's Masons' General Regulations in 1741, issued a new Book of Constitutions based on the English 2nd edition of 1738. The Guards' Lodge was founded in Stockholm and survived for a time. On 18 May by the Bull Providas Pope Benedict XIV confirmed and renewed Clement XII's condemnation of Freemasonry. King Ferdinand VII of Spain condemned Freemasons to death without trial. Le Macon Demasque was published, apparently in London.

1752 Lodges were founded in Madras and in Stockholm. Lord Carisfort succeeded Lord Byron as Grand Master. Baron von Knigge was born on 16 October. On 4 November George Washington was initiated in Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia. The claim that under warrant from Prince Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Clermont and Grand Master of France, Count Knut Carlsson Posse on 13 January founded the Swedish Lodge of St. John Auxiliaire in Stockholm is doubtful.

1753 Baron Scheffer joined the St. John Auxiliaire Lodge. The King of Sweden became first Protector of the Swedish Craft. The Mother Lodge founded a Freemasons' Orphanage in Stockholm. George Harrison became Provincial Grand Master for the State of New York. A Lodge in Norfolk, Virginia, is said to have received a Constitution from the Grand Lodge of England. Jeremy Gridley became Provincial Grand Master over those parts of North America where no such official had been previously appointed. The Minutes of Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia, contain the earliest surviving record of the actual working of the Royal Arch Degree.

1754 The Eintracht Lodge was founded in Berlin. A second Lodge, the Three Hearts, was founded in Vienna. The Chapter of Clermont was founded. The foundation of the Strict Observance is also referred to this year, when the Rite of Elect Priests is also alleged to have originated.

1755 The Port Royal Kilwinning Lodge, Virginia, is assigned to this year, to which the College de Valois of Knights of the East has also been traced.

1756 Laurence Dermott published Ahiman Rezon. The Marquis of Carnarvon became Grand Master of England. Lord Aberdour was elected Grand Master of Scotland for a second time, and the Grand Lodge of Scotland chartered a Lodge in Blandford, Virginia. La Grande Loge Anglaise de France acknowledged the claims of the Scots Masons. The Seventh St. John's Lodge was founded in Sweden by C. F. Eckleff (afterwards Grand Master of the Order), who compiled a Ritual mainly dependent on the French High Grades. On 3 December T. Manningham, the Deputy Grand Master, advised the Provincial Grand Lodge of Holland that no permission could be granted to warrant Scots Lodges or to admit Brethren according to that method. On 27 December, fourteen Lodges (some of English or Scottish origin) being represented, the national Grand Lodge of the Netherlands was established. That the order of African Architects was founded during this year is doubtful. Ecclesiastical opposition to the existence of an alleged Secret Grand Lodge in Southern Italy triggered popular rioting; Grand Master de Sangro's palazzo was burnt, and he was imprisonned.

1756 23 September: John Wesley visited Glastonbury.

1757-1824 Ercole Cardinal Consalvi lived. He was a personal friend and patron of the composer Cimarosa and the sculptor Canova, became the Pope's Secretary of State in 1800, negotiated a Concordat with Napoleon, served as Vatican Minister at the Congress of Vienna, and did much to embellish the city of Rome. Stendhal described him as the greatest, because the only honest statesman in Europe. The Duchess of Devonshire greatly loved and admired him, and Napoleon esteemed him more highly than all the other Cardinals put together.

1757-1827 William Blake, poet and mystic, lived:

1757 The Synod of Stirling is said to have excommunicated many of its members on the charge of Freemasonry. George Payne died. Minutes of Alnwick Lodge end, and are said to indicate the working was operative. Lord Aberdour, previously Grand Master of Scotland, became Grand Master of England when the Marquis of Carnarvon resigned. The Archives of the Grand Lodge of the Netherlands contain a leeter of 12 July from Deputy Grand Master Manningham to a Brother at the Hague reporting the result of consultations with Lord Aberdour about Scots Degrees and about Degrees of Masonic Chivalry, which he condemned as innovations on the grounds that in England and Scotland the three Craft Degrees are all that are known in Masonry.

1758 Lodges were founded in Mayence and Bombay. Lodges under the Obedience of the Ancients flourished in Philadelphia, where those of the Moderns went into decline. After being in independent existence for some years, the Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia is said to have been chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The Foundation of the Emperors of the East and West belongs to this year.

1758 (elected 6, crowned 16 July) - 1769 (2 February) Clement XIII Bishop of Rome.

1759 Under warrant of a Provincial Grand Lodge deriving from the Moderns, Lodges were opened in Quebec. A French Lodge, L'Union, was instituted in Stockholm.

1760 A Swedish Grand Lodge was founded in Stockholm, where the St. John Auxiliaire lost its power of warranting other Lodges, but Baron Scheffer continued as Grand Master and Eckleff was elected his Deputy. Jachin and Boaz was published in London. The old Lodge of operative Masons at Swalwell in Durham survived until this year at least. The previously "self-constituted" Lodge of St. Andrew in Boston, U.S.A., received a Scottish Warrant. The Three Doves Lodge, now Grand York Royal Lodge No. 3, was opened in Berlin. Martinez de Pasqually brought a Hieroglyphic Chart into Toulouse. The Illumines of Avignon were established. The first Rite of Adoptive Masonry in France has also been referred to this year. Lodges under the banner of the Strict Observance reopened in Switzerland. The Oriental Rite of Memphis is, under another name, fabled to have appeared in Roumania.

1761 In Portugal the Jesuits were banished and Freemasonry revived. A third Lodge, the Royal Militaire, was formed in Vienna. Stephen Morin is alleged to have received from the Grand Council of Emperors of the East and West, and from the Grand Lodge of France a Patent to confer the High Degrees. The Grand Lodge of all England at York resumed activity, recognising the Royal Arch and Templar as well as the Craft Grades, and is said to have warranted ten or so subordinate Lodges, including the Lodge of Antiquity.

1762 An Order of Knights of the East was formed by a splinter-group of the Council of Emperors. The Grand Lodge of Dresden joined the Strict Observance. Three Distinct Knocks at the Door of Freemasonry was published.

1762-1764 Oliver Goldsmith lodged in Compton Oak Room on the second floor of the Tower.

1762-1830 George IV, eldest son of George III, lived; he reigned 1820-1830. In 1785 he married Maria Fitzherbert, then a twenty-nine-year-old widow and a Catholic in contravention to the Royal Marriage Act of 1772. He was later persuaded to marry another widow, Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, and had by her one daughter, Charlotte, wife of the Leopold who became King of the Belgians in 1831. Charlotte died while giving birth to a still-born son in 1817.

1763 The Minutes of the Royal Order of Scotland begin. A Masonic Congress was held in Jena. Thoux de Salverte is rumoured to have founded or to have revived in Warsaw an Academy of the Ancients or of the Mysteries. Stephen Morin is supposed to have left Paris for San Domingo (where he is alleged to have landed in 1742). From this year on Bishop Nicholas von Hontheim, alias Febronius, who died in 1790, promoted a German form of Gallicanism known as Febronianism - autonomous national churches would replace the papal monarchy, the Pope would be granted limited guiding authority, and a Council of the Church would hold supreme power.

1764 A Lodge was founded at Glina in Southern Hungary. Pennsylvania received a warrant for a Provincial Grand Lodge from the Ancient and schismasic "Grand Lodge" of England. Hiram or the Grand Master-Key, which purported to be written by a member of the Royal Arch, was published in London. Lord Blayney became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, and the sons of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York, Cumberland and Gloucester, were initiated.

1765-1837 George IV's younger brother, William IV, lived; he reigned 1830-1837. Although his mistress, Mrs Jordan, gave him many children, Aldelaid of Saxe Meiningen, whom he married in 1818, bore him only two daughters who died in infancy.

1765 The Order of African Architects was founded. An English Lodge was established at Alost in Belgium. The English Provincial Grand Lodge of Denmark went over to the Strict Observance. The Provincial Grand Master of Hamburg joined the Strict Observance. The Strict Observance was founded in Russia. The Minutes of Caledonian Chapter date from 12 June of this year. On 27 July in the Berlin Lodge of the Three Doves Edward, Duke of York and brother of George III, was initiated; the Lodge assumed the name of Royal York of Friendship, and received a Constitution from England. Charles Tollmann, Secretary to the British Embassy in Stockholm, was granted an English Patent as Provincial Grand Master of Sweden, and established several Lodges. Zinnendorf obtained parts at least of the Swedish Rituals and what purported to be a Warrant of Constitution, and established in Potsdam a Masonic Rite opposed to the Strict Observance.

1766 Solomon in all his Glory was published in London. Thirty English Lodges, outside those of Boston, U.S.A., were on the Roll of the "Province of America." The Grand Lodge of England chartered a Provincial Grand Lodge in Frankfurt. Many German Lodges adopted the Rite of the Strict Observance. F. J. W. Schroeder established in Marburg a Chapter of True and Ancient Rose-Croix Masons. The Taciturnitas Lodge was working at Pressburg in Hungary.

1767 Some believe the Order of African Architects was founded in 1767, and that Thoux de Salverte's foundation of an Academy in Warsaw belongs to this year rather than to 1763. John Rowe succeeded Gridley as Provincial Grand Master of Boston, U.S.A. A Grand Lodge of Spain was formed. Benedict Chastanier is supposed to have founded an Order of Illuminated Theosophists in London. J. A. von Starck established as a break-away group from the Strict Observance his so called Clerks of Relaxed Observance, more properly the Clerici Ordinis Templariorum. The Royal Arch is mentioned in the Minutes of the Anchor and Hope Lodge in Bolton, Lancashire.

1768 Renovation of Culbone church, still in use today. Martinez de Pasqually introduced his Masonic Rite to Paris. J. C. Schroepfer established a "Scots Lodge" in Leipzig. The Union des Coeurs Lodge was established in Geneva. An English Lodge opened in Ghent. The Grand Lodge of Scotland adopted the practice of issuing diplomas or certificates, and issued a Charter authorising meetings of a Provincial Grand Lodge at Grant's East Florida Lodge. Improved Regulations were enacted for the government of Irish Freemasons.

1769 Baron Tschoudy died in Paris on 28 May. The Minutes of the apparently newly formed Darlington Second Lodge date from 22 August. On 28 August the Degrees of Excellent Mason, Superexcellent Mason and Knight Templar were, this last seemingly for the first time, conferred in the Royal Arch Chapter of St. Andrew. The earliest known reference to the Mark Degree occurs in the Minutes for 1 September of a Royal Arch Chapter in Portsmouth. The Freemason Stripped Naked was published. Count Augustus Moszyuski became Grand Master of Poland. The German Directory of the Strict Observance was transferred from Bayreuth to Ausprach. An Independent Grand Lodge of Geneva was founded by 10 Lodges to practise the pure and ancient Masonry of Britain. A Provincial Grand Lodge, under Scotland, was established in Boston, New England.

1769 (elected 19/28 May, crowned 4 June) - 1774 (22 September) Clement XIV Bishop of Rome.

1770 The Comte de Saint-Germain is said to have made his first appearance in Paris. A Patent for the diffusion of the Strict Observance in France was allegedly granted. The Strict Observance is supposed to have meddled in the affairs of Martinez de Pasqually's Sovereign Tribunal. The Primitive Scottish Rite established a foundation at Namur in Belgium. The Duke of Montague is fabled to have founded La Parfaite Union Lodge in Mons. Stephen Morin is said to have created a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret in Kingston, Jamaica. The Grand Lodge of England recognised the Grand Lodge of Sweden as a Sovereign Masonic power, and agreed to issue no further Warrants in Holland in view of the National Organisation there established. On 27 December Zinnendorf founded the Grand National Lodge in Berlin.

1770-1780 The southern range of Bolton's building at Canonbury was demolished, and replaced by "elegant new villas" - now Nos 1-5 Canonbury Place, Islington.

1771 Death of Prince Louis de Bourbon, Grand Master of France. King Gustavus III of Sweden and his two brothers became Masons, and the King Patron of the Craft. The Swedish Rite was established in Russia. A Lodge was founded at Agram in Southern Hungary.

1771-1832 Sir Walter Scott lived.

1772 Count Cagliostro visited London. An English Provincial Grand Master was appointed for Russia. Preston's Illustrations of Masonry was published. Because of the partition of Poland, most Polish Lodges were closed. Joseph Warren is said to have been appointed Grand Master for the Continent of America. Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick was appointed Grand Master of the Strict Observance. Savalette des Langes founded the Lodge of United Friends and originated the Rite of Philalethes. Conrad von Rhetz instituted an Order of Argonauts open to both sexes. The first of many Dutch Lodges was established in Cape Town. On 17 April in Bordeaux Martinez de Pasqually created Louis Claude de Saint-Martin Rose-Croix, and on 5 May left for Port-au-Prince.

1773 The Rite of Philalethes was established in Paris. On 27 September the Grand Orient of France was founded. The Duc de Chartres was installed as Grand Master of France. Polish Lodges resumed working. A Rite of Enoch was founded in Liege. In agreement with the Grand Lodge of England all Lodges with English Warrants in Germany (but not Frankfurt Lodge) transferred their allegiance to Zinnendorf's Grand Lodge of Germany, and the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt became its Grand Master. On 21 July at the request of the Bourbons Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus.

1774 Zinnendorf was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Germany, remaining in office until his death in 1782. Martinez de Pasqually died. Louis Claude de Saint-Martin at about this time gave Conferences at the Loge de Bienfaisance in Lyons, where Willermoz - whom the Strict Observance appointed Provincial Grand Master of Auvergne - was an active member; some of these were published after Saint-Martin's death. The Grand Orient of France established a Rite of Adoption. The Lodge Emanuel opened in Hamburg, and that of the Three Dragons was established at Varasd in Croatia. The Royal Duke Charles was elected Grand Master of Sweden, and the English Provincial Grand Master in Russia transferred his allegiance, becoming Provincial Grand Master under the Swedish Rite.

1775 (elected 15, crowned 22 February) - 1799 (29 August) Pius VI Bishop of Rome.

1775-1817 Jane Austen lived.

1775 A National Masonic Rite of Southern Hungary and Slavonia was founded under the name of Masonry of Freedom or Province of Liberty. A Masonic Congress was held in Wiesbaden. On 12 September King Ferdinand IV of the two Sicilies made membership of Freemasonry a capital offence. On 8 November Baron von Hund died.

1776 On 1 May Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati of Bavaria. The Rite Ecossais Philosophique is said to have been established. The Ecossais Mother Lodge of the Philosophical Rite opened an Academy of Sages. A Rite of the Sublime Elects of Truth may have been founded during this year, when, according to Oliver, the Moderns accepted the Royal Arch Degree. The Lodge of Luxembourg was founded. The Ferdinand Caroline Lodge opened in Hamburg. The Grand National Lodge of Berlin founded the Baldwin of the Linden Lodge in Leipzig. A New Masonic Hall was opened in London in Great Queen Street.

1776 (4 July) The American Declaration of Independence gave institutional expression to the principles of human enlightenment, the development of which had made medieval forms of social life appear outmoded, precipitating the end of trials for heresy or witchcraft and the abandonment of torture as a routine feature of the juridical process, and so leading to an end of religious discrimination in public life.

1777 Adam Weishaupt was initiated in Munich. The Rosicrucian Society was reformed. A Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch was established in London. A Swedish Rite of nine Grades superposed upon those of the Craft may have originated this year. The Strict Observance spread throughout Italy. With the death of Joseph II Masonry declined in Portugal. On 6 November the Grand Lodge of Virginia was founded.

1778 De Chaumont founded the Order of Knights and Nymphs of the Rose in Paris. An Academy of True Masons was founded in Montpellier. The Directoire Ecossais Helvetique was instituted in Zurich. An Order of the Eastern Star was established in the U.S.A. A Masonic Convention was held in Lyons. Masonry may have been introduced into the Grand Duchy of Baden. In Petrograd a Provincial Grand Chapter was founded under the authority of the Swedish Rite.

1778-1779 The Duke of Brunswick presided over a temporary amalgamation of the Strict Observance and the Swedish Templar system.

1779 On 27 December, Feast of St. John, George Washington was among the guests at the celebrations at the American Union Lodge in Morris Town, New Jersey. Prince Gagarin established a National Grand Lodge in Russia, where a Provincial Grand Lodge in Petrograd was warranted on 25 May with the Prince as Provincial Grand Master. Martinez de Pasqually died. The Primitive Rite of Philadelphians was founded in Narbonne. Duke Charles assumed the headship of the Seventh Province, the German Province of the Strict Observance. The Lodge of Antiquity split, and the Grand Lodge of England South of the Trent was established. Baron von Ditfurth instituted the Eclectic Union in Frankfurt.

1780 Baron von Knigge joined the Order of Illuminati. Baron Grant of Blairfindy opened an Academy of the Sublime Masters of the Luminous Ring in Douai. The Mystical Order of the Knights of the True Light was founded in Austria, where Freemasonry passed under the Rule of the Strict Observance. An Order of Knights and Brothers of Asia is said to have been founded in either Berlin or Vienna. Goethe was initiated on St. John's Eve. King Gustavus III erected a Ninth Province of the Order of the Temple in Sweden with Dukes Charles installed as Vicar of Solomon. The Grand Lodge of Spain adopted the title of Grand Orient. A Grand Lodge was established in Madras.

1780-1790 The enlightened Emperor Joseph II ruled Austria, and sought by the exercise of absolute state sovereignty to improve education, preaching, ecclesiastical administration and organization and the liturgy, arbitrarily suppressing monasteries and other Church establishments whenever this seemed to him a good idea. This Austrian version of Gallicanism is known as Josephinism.

1781 Uranus rediscovered. Duke Charles resigned from the headship of the Strict Observance in Germany. Catherine of the Pole-Star Lodge in Warsaw was granted an English Patent as a Provincial Grand Lodge. A Grand Lodge was established in New York.

1782 The Authorities in Berne dissolved the Helvetic Directory. The Grand Orient of France created a Chambre des Grades. The Grand Chapter-General of France was founded. An Independent National Grand Lodge was founded in Russia. On 9 July a notable Masonic Convention opened in Wilhelmsbad. In New York Stationary and Military Lodges organised a Provincial Grand Lodge. George Oliver was born on 5 November. Having led 13 individual colonies to independence, George Washington was unanimously offered the status of King; at his behest the American crown was instead offered (by Mr Galloway of Maryland, two brothers named Sylvester from Pennsylvania, and Mr Fish, a lawyer from New York) to Charles III Stuart, then resident at the Palazzo San Clemente in Florence - he, however, declined it.

1782-1854 Felicite de Lamennais lived, a leader of liberal Catholics in France, he favoured an alliance between the Church and an extended democracy, and founded the first modern Catholic daily L'Avenir (1830-1831) with the motto Dieu et Liberte.

1783 Mesmer and his followers founded the Order of Universal Harmony to help spread his teaching about animal magnetism. On 18 March a Grand Lodge was established in Frankfurt. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg renounced Strict Observance and returned to their Masonic system of 1737. The Three Globes declared their own independence of the Strict Observance. On 31 July a Grand Lodge was founded in Maryland, U.S.A. J. A. Fessler was initiated.

1783-1785 In agreement with Lyons and Wilhelmsbad Strict Observance was reconstituted and adopted by the Provinces of Bourgoyne and Auvergne and also, apparently, by the Directories of Switzerland, Hesse-Cassel, Lombardy and one Lodge in Denmark.

1784 In June the Elector of Bavaria suppressed the Illuminati. A Grand Lodge of Austria and its Dependencies was established. The Grand Orient of Poland and Lithuania may have originated. In London a revised Book of Constitutions was published.

1785 The Academy of the Illuminati of Avignon began working, though its roots have been traced to 1760. English, German and French Masons attended a Masonic Congress on 15 February at the Lodge of Philalethes in Paris.

1785-1859 Thomas de Quincey lived.

1786 A Grand Orient of the French Rite consisting of Seven Degrees was insitituted. A Second Convention of the Philalethes was held. The Primitive Rite of the Philadelphians united with the Grand Orient. General Horne amalgamated Ancient and Modern Masons in Madras. In Belgium, then known as the Austrian Netherlands, Emperor Joseph II closed all Lodges save three. A third Danish Lodge, the Charles of the Norwegian Lion Lodge, was established. F. L. Schoeder became Master of the Emanuel Lodge. Karl, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz arranged the foundation of the Karl of the Wreath of Rue Lodge in Hildsburgshausen; it received a Warrant from London in 1787. The Grand Lodge of Georgia, U.S.A., was founded on 16 December, and on 18 December that of New Jersey. Four Catholic Archbishops originated Febronian Episcopalism by adopting much of Febronius's programme and issuing their own declaration of episcopal independence of Rome in Bad Ems. However, only a small number of Bishops rallied to their call for support, so that their movement was short-lived.

1786-1859 St. John Mary Vianney lived. He was born in Lyons. After overcoming tremendous difficulties, he was ordained priest and placed in charge of the parish of Ars in the diocese of Belley, which his forthright preaching, personal mortification, prayer and charity wonderfully renewed. People also flocked to him from all sides to make a sacramental confession or to seek his personal guidance.

1787 On 24 March the Grand Lodge of Southern Carolina was established. New York Lodges established by the schismatic Grand Lodge declared their independence. The Chapter-General of France became the Metropolitan Chapter and worked the French Rite. The Knights and Companions of the Mystic Crown, open only to Master Masons, was instituted in Paris, where, though allegedly in Heliopolis, L'Origine de la Maconnerie Adonhiramite was published. All Lodge meetings were prohibited in the Austrian Netherlands. Karl Friedrich Bahrdt founded the Rite of Bahrdt at Halle in Germany. William Preston founded the Grand Chapter of Harodim.

1788 G. B. F. Kloss, the German Bibliographer of Freemasonry, was born. The Moderns founded the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls.

1789 On 8 July the Grand Lodge of Connecticut was founded, and that of New Hampshire on 18 July. The Lodge of Secrecy and Harmony, in which all Officers are said to have been Knights of Malta, was reconstituted in Malta from England. In Stockholm an exegetical and philanthropic Society for the study of both Magnetism and Swedenborg's philosophy was established, and seems to have had Masonic links. On 5 May King Louis XVI of France, hoping to solve a great financial crisis, had summoned a meeting of the parliament or Estates-General, which comprised nobles, clergy and commoners. On 17 June the commoners or Third Estate, who were the numerical majority, declared themselves a National Constituent Assembly committed to radical reform. On 23 June the Second Estate (4 bishops and 149 priests) threw in their lot with the Third Estate, but the King, instead of meeting their wishes, ordered out the National Guard against them. The citizens of Paris revolted and, on 14 July, stormed the Bastille. Many social changes followed, Church property was nationalized and non-charitable religious orders and monasteries were closed. On 27 August the new French Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Men, viz.: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

1790 Two Grand Lodges were by this time in existence in Massachusetts, two in South Carolina, and one each in Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia. The Grand Lodge of all England, otherwise the Ancient York Rite became extinct. The Earl of Moira was appointed Acting Grand Master, first under the Duke of Cumberland and then under the Prince of Wales. The at first unofficial custom of numbering Scottish Lodges began about this time. On 12 July the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was promulgated in an attempt to entirely reform the Church in France, eliminating all papal control of its internal affairs, and providing for a democratic election of priests and bishops. In December, when the Assembly attempted to compel all members of the clergy to take an oath of acceptance of this new Constitution, the Pope condemned the oath, all but 7 of the bishops and about two-thirds of the lower clergy refused to take it, and 40,000 were imprisoned, deported or executed. There were now two French Churches - the new Constitutional Church of those who, usually for honourable reasons, had taken the oath required, and the non-juring Church of those entirely loyal to Rome. During the ensuing September Massacres (2-5 September 1792) at least 3 bishops and 220 priests were killed.

1791 An Association of Alchemists, the Order of Jerusalem with eight Degrees and some connection with the Rite of Chastanier, is rumoured to have been founded somewhere in North America, to have spread to Germany in 1793, and thereafter to Russia, Holland and England. The Province of Canada was this year divided into Upper and Lower Canada under Provincial Grand Masters appointed by the Ancients, who warranted a Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec under Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent. The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island was founded on 25 June, and the Maria of the Three Hearts Lodge was found at Odense in Denmark.

1792 In Boston, U.S.A., Ancients and Moderns united. On account of the French Revolution, Austrian Lodges closed their doors. Ferdinand of Brunswick died, and Prince Charles of Denmark assumed sole headship of Danish Lodges. On 2 September Abbe Le Franc, author of The Veil Lifted for the Curious and of The Conspiracy against the Catholic Religion, was murdered during the September Massacres already mentioned. On 22 September, the day after a new National Convention had been created to replace France's National Constituent Assembly, an entirely new Calendar (based on that of Ancient Egypt) was introduced, which had a 10-day week, and excluded any reference to Anno Domini or the Christian Sunday. On 7 November the French National Convention introduced a Cult of Reason, many churches being transformed into Temples of Reason, where young girls were enthroned as "goddesses of Reason." About 20,000 priest-members of the new Constitutional Church, willingly or otherwise, "apostatized," and went along with the new Cult.

1793 William Carey, a cobbler, becomes the first Baptist Missionary to India.

1793 The French National Convention suppressed Trade Guilds. The Lodges of Bohemia closed. All Secret Societies within the Austrian Dominions were by edict dissolved. On 10 March Augustus IV of Sweden was initiated in Stockholm. J. J. C. Bode, previously a keen supporter of the Strict Observance, joined the Illuminati under Weishaupt. A German Order of Amicists, somehow dependent upon the Chapter of Clermont, is rumoured to have been established.

1794 On 7 May the French National Convention (Maximilien Robespierre) introduced a new cult of the Supreme Being, but this and other Deistic cults were not a success, and the free exercise of any religion was guaranteed by a new Decree of 21 February 1795. In 1794 N. C. des Etangs was initiated into Masonry. At the express desire of Empress Catherine the Russian Lodges closed their doors. On 14 October the Grand Lodge of Vermont, U.S.A., was founded. Durham Lodge is by this year said to have possessed the Passing the Bridge, Harodim, and Knight Templar Degrees.

1795 A new French Grand Orient was established. For the following 20 years Swiss Lodges divided their allegiance between this French establishment and the Scots Directory of the Fifth Province, which was a modified form of the Strict Observance. On 1 October a governing Directory of five took over power from the French National Convention, and Christian clergy were more or less allowed to return to business as usual, although there were still two Churches.

1796 After its brief revival the Grande Loge de France was virtually dissolved by the new Grand Orient. Charleston created the Comte de Grasse-Tilley and his father-in-law, J. B. M. de la Hogue, Deputy Inspectors-General.

1797 Dorothy & William Wordsworth visited Culbone in November. Masonic Knights Templar are said to have appeared in the U.S.A. The Regeneration Lodge was instituted on board the frigate Phoenix. German Masonry adopted, and is said to have kept a new system of seven Degrees. Emperor Paul I of Russia prohibited Secret Societies in general and Freemasonry in particular.

1798 The Wordsworths visited Culbone with Cottle in May, when Coleridge and William Hazlitt also visited Culbone. Dorothy Wordsworth's diary records that it was in the course of a dark and cloudy evening walk that William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge conceived and planned together The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem that Coleridge then actually wrote alone. Kubla Khan was also the result of a dream Coleridge had at Culbone. Napoleon Buonaparte was, Besuchet informs us, initiated as a Mason at Valetta on the island of Malta, where on 10 June he had brought the rule of the Knights to an abrupt end. The Grand Lodge Royal York of Friendship was founded in Berlin on 11 June. The Three Doves Lodge divided into four distinct Lodges, which together are said to have constituted themselves the Grand Lodge of Prussia. The Ancients founded the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys. On Sunday 2 September the Maltese population, inspired by Canon Francesco Saverio Caruana in Malta and by Dun Saver Cassar in Gozo, rose up in revolt against the French, who had hoped to sell by auction gold and silver articles, tapestries and other sacred objects stolen from convents in Rabat and Mdina. The French were blockaded inside the fortifications of Valletta, the Maltese holding the countryside and, at their request, British sea-power isolating Valletta from the rest of the world.

1799 A Grand Chapter-General of the Royal Arch was founded in the U.S.A. On 26 May the Scottish Grand Lodge limited its sanction to the three Craft Grades of the Ancient Order of St. John. Parliament enacted that all Societies requiring an oath from their members be deemed unlawful, Lodges of Freemasons excepted, providing these complied with the provisions of the Act. On 9 November Napoleon Buonaparte by a coup d'etat made himself First Consul and pratically a dictator in France.

1799 Pius VI dies a prisoner at Valence and is refused a Christian burial.

1800 (elected 14, crowned 21 March) - 1823 (20 August) Pius VII Bishop of Rome. Napoleon immediately opened negotiations with him in order to secure religious peace, and an important Concordat was agreed on 15 July 1801. The Catholic religion, as the denomination of the majority, was restored. All bishops, whether constitutional or non-juring, were required to hand in their resignations to the Pope. All new bishops were to be named by the First Consul, but would receive their canonical institution from the Pope. The Church waived all claim to confiscated Church property. Bishops and clergy were promised traitement convenable - fitting maintenance at state expense. Religion could be exercised freely and publicly in conformity with police regulations. Finally, Napoleon unilaterally attached to the Concordat 77 additional Organic Articles redolent of Gallicanism, that partly nullified the provisions of the Concordat itself. The Pope protested, but seemingly in vain.

1800 When the blockade of Valletta was lifted on 5 September, Malta and Gozo passed under British protection, remaining an Island Colony until 1964. The Grand Lodge of Portugal was established. The Grand Lodge of Kentucky was founded on 16 October. There were now 16,000 Masons, 347 subordinate Lodges and 11 Grand Lodges in the U.S.A.

1801-1890 John Henry Cardinal Newman lived.

1801 The Chapitre Rose-Croix d'Arras is said to have been reconstituted and united to the Grand Orient. Emperor Francis II proscribed Freemasonry in Austria. Mackey claims that the first Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was founded at Charleston, U.S.A. By dispensation George Oliver was initiated as a Lewis in Peterborough.

1802 De Grasse-Tilly and De la Hogue founded a Supreme Council of Masonry in Port-au-Prince. The Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees is said to have been established in Paris.

1802-1885 Victor Hugo lived, and conversed with St. John Bosco shortly before his death.

1803 J. M. Ragon was initiated into Masonry. Emperor Alexander I of Russia is also said to have been initiated after his Chancellor of State, Johann Boeber, had clarified the real objects of the Craft. Masonry in the Netherlands is by this date said to have comprised three Classes: (1) Craft Degrees; (2) Red Masonry, i.e., Select Master, 3 Scots Degrees, Kinght of the Sword or the East, and Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix; (3) Elect Master and Sublime Elect Master. A Conference of delegates of the Tour de France or Compagnonnage is said to have assembled in Paris. The Grand Lodge of Italy was founded.

1804 Tower only of church on Glastonbury Tor again rebuilt. On 21 May an Arch-Chapter of High Grades was established for the Netherlands. The Archimedes of Eternal Union Lodge (which in 1811 became independent and thereafter remained so) was established as an offshoot of the Altenburg Lodge. Bernard Raymond Fabre-Palaprat founded or reorganised the Order of the Temple in Paris, and was elected Grand Master. In September De Grasse-Tilly with the support of De la Hogue and others from San Domingo established a Supreme Council for France. On 22 October the Paris Supreme Council formed a Grand Scots Lodge, and elected Prince Louis Buonaparte Grand Master. Prince Joseph Buonaparte became Ruler of the Grand Orient of France, which is alleged to have accepted the twenty-five degrees of the Rite of Perfection. On 2 December Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor.

1805 Many Masonic Lodges in the North of Ireland were influenced by Alexander Seton, resulting in a schism within the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The Prince of Wales was elected Grand Master and Patron of Masonry in Scotland. The Grand Orient of Portugal was founded. Negotiations were opened for the establishment of a Grand Lodge of Saxony. Lechangeau is fabled to have created an Oriental Rite of Mizraim (of which mention is made this year) to avenge his loss of position in the Ancient and Accepted Rite. On 21 June a Supreme Council of Italy was established. Prince Cambaceres was elected Grand Maitre Adjoint of the Grand Orient.

1805-1875 Hans Christian Andersen lived.

1806 Prince Cambaceres was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the French Supreme Council. An Order of the Orient similar to the Order of the Temple is alleged to have been founded in Paris. Mention is made of the Order of African Architects, supposedly founded in 1767. The Grand Lodge of Delaware was founded on 6 June.

1807 Munez, a Portuguese Freemason, founded in Paris the Order of Christ with Templar-like pretentions. The Grand Orient absorbed the Primordial Chapter of Arras. Irish Masonic Regulations were replaced by a Constitution along Ahiman Rezon lines. On 18 September Ferdinando Mattei became the first native Maltese cleric to be elected Bishop of Malta; all subsequent Bishops of Malta have been Maltese.

1807 William Wilberforce wins his campaign to abolish the British slave-trade.

1808 On 7 January the Grand Lodge of Ohio was founded. Askeri Khan, a Persian Prince and Ambassador of the Shah, was initiated in Paris, but it is not true that Alexander I and Frederick William III of Prussia were there this year made Masons in Napoleon's presence. Mother Kilwinning Lodge was decreed to have precedence over Mary's Chapel. Prince Cambaceres became National Grand Master of the Rectified Strict Observance for the Province of Bourgogne. Napoleon imprisoned Pope Pius VII, who remained his prisoner until 1814, when the Emperor's declining fortunes made possible the Pontiff's return to Rome where, on 7 August, he restored the Society of Jesus which Clement XIV had suppressed in 1773.

1809 A Lodge under the Grand Orient of France was established in Corfu. Charles XIII of Sweden assumed the office of Grand Master. Grand Lodge created the Lodge of Promulgation, a special Board with the duty of promulgating the Ancient Landmarks.

1810 A second Lodge under the Grand Orient of France was established in Corfu. Lechangeau granted Michael Bedarride a Patent to promulgate the Rite of Mizraim. Minutes of the Lodge of Promulgation witness to that Lodge's adopting workings prevalent among the Ancients. In a ceremony that ranked as a Landmark, the regular or constitutional Grand Lodge of England sanctioned the Degree of Installed Master, and Masters of London Lodges were cited to appear for installation as Rulers of the Craft. Sir Gore Ousely, English Ambassador at the Court of the Shah, was appointed English Provincial Grand Master. The National Grand Orient of French Helvetia was established in Lausanne. The Grand Lodge of Columbia was founded on 11 December. Freemasonry was persecuted in Portugal.

1811 A Grand Lodge under Sweden was formed in Russia. The King of Sweden founded the Order of Charles XIII, restricted to Freemasons and conferring a Grade of Chivalry. Charles XIII of Sweden resigned the office of Grand Master in favour of his adopted heir, afterwards Charles XIV, but remained Vicar of Solomon. Twelve Lodges in Saxony took part in a Masonic Congress in Dresden. The Grand Lodge of Saxony was formed on 28 September. J. F. K. Arnold's account of Bohemann, the reputed head of the Asiatic Brethren, was published in Hamburg, where the Grand Lodge declared its independence of French Masonic rule and influence, working thereafter as a Sovereign Masonic Body. An Independent Grand Lodge was founded to incorporate Lodges in the Kingdom of Bavaria. The French Supreme Council repudiated Anton Firmin Abraham, who had been selling fake Masonic Degrees. A second Supreme Council of Spain was founded, and Spain also had two Grand Orients. Jerome Buonaparte is said to have decreed the final suppression of the Vehm-Gerichte or Secret Court of Westphalia.

1812 The Grand Lodge of Louisiana was founded on 21 January. Joseph Cerneau established the Sovereign Grand Consistory of the U.S.A.; the Supreme Council of Charleston made an expulsion order against him the following year.

1812-1870 Charles Dickens lived. 1813 Dissension between Mother Kilwinning Lodge and Mary's Chapel was healed. A Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was insitituted for Southern Italy, but was not immediately established on a firm basis. In Berne Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, afterwards King Leopold I of the Belgians, was initiated. Peter Maurice Glaire was elected Grand Master of the Roman Grand Orient of Helvetia. Under the Earl of Moira, acting Grand Master of India, Ancients and Moderns were reconciled, and Masonry became firmly established in Bengal. On 12 May the Duke of Sussex was installed to succeed the Prince of Wales as Grand Master. On 14 October the Grand Lodge of Tennessee was established, and the Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., came into being about this time. On 1 December the Duke of Atholl resigned in favour of the Duke of Kent, who was placed in the Chair of the Ancient Grand Lodge. On 23 December, according to Ragon, a Bull of Constitution instituted Supreme Bodies of the Rite of Mizraim in Brussels, Paris and Madrid. On St. John's Day, 27 December, English Freemasons united in a single body and constituted a single Grand Lodge, the motion having been proposed by the Duke of Kent; the Duke of Sussex was elected Grand Master of this United Grand Lodge. The United Grand Lodge decreed that Pure and Ancient Freemasonry consists of Three Degrees, including the Holy Orders of the Royal Arch. A Lodge of Reconciliation was established to ensure uniformity of working. Power to work the Rite of Mizraim is said to have been obtained from Naples. Britain granted the island colony of Malta the first in a series of twelve Constitutions enacted between then and 1964, when the archipelago achieved independence.

1813-1883 Louis Veuillot lived in France, where he opposed men such as de Lamennais, and became the leader of Integralist Catholics, who favoured a condemnation of the principles of the Revolution, and advocated close links between Church and State.

1814 Some say the Rite of Mizraim, which others date to 1805, first appeared in Paris, where Alexandre Le Noir published Freemasonry restored to its True Origin. Until 1852 the office of Grand Maitre Adjoint replaced that of Grand Master of the French Grand Orient. Masonic Lodges in Norway gave their allegiance to the Swedish Grand Lodge. On 7 April William Hutchinson died. United action by the Grand Lodges of England and Ireland terminated Alexander Seton's breakaway Movement in the North of Ireland. French Grand Orient Rule over Belgian Masonry ceased. Pope Pius VII on 14 September, newly returned to Rome, renewed Clement XII's condemnation of Freemasonry. Freemasons in Spain were persecuted.The downfall of Napoleon allowed Pius VII to refound the Jesuits.

1814-1815 The Congress of Vienna began the work of reordering the wrecked European continent, and established a general peace that lasted by and large for one hundred years. Those aspects of the Congress which expressed an attempt to put the clock back to the ancien regime may have slowed down, but did not derail the progress of liberalism and democracy which where outstanding characteristics of the new times.Papal States restored.

1815 In a new edition of the Freemasons' Book of Constitutions published in London, special wording of the charge concerning God and Religion was introduced. An English Provincial Grand Lodge was established in Malta. The Academy of Sublime Masters of the Luminous Ring was again heard of in Douai Lodge. Czar Alexander I founded the Grand Lodge Astrea. Samuel Honis of Cairo is held to have extended the Rite of Mizraim. Claude O. Thory published in Paris his historically important collection Acta Latomorum. On 30 April an Ancient and Primitive Rite dependent upon the Primitive Rite of Philalethes and linked with the Rite of Memphis was possibly established in Montauban.

1815 (16 August) - 1888 (31 January) St. John Bosco lived. He was born in the small hamlet of Becchi, near Turin, had a decisively important dream when he was 9 years old, and eventually, despite very considerable opposition, established three still flourishing world-wide religious institutions - the Society of St. Francis of Sales, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Pious Union of Salesian Cooperators, encouraged not only by his own steadfast Faith in God, but also by the personal support of Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII on the one hand, and of Cavour, Ratazzi and other leaders of the Risorgimento on the other.

1816 Prince Frederick William, second son of King William I, was elected Grand Master of Holland. A Grand Encampment of Knights Templar for the United States was established on 20 June. From this time forward Swiss Masonic systems are said to include: (1) Lodges working under the Grand Orient of France, (2) the Helvetic Rite, (3) the seemingly identical Scots Directory, and (4) a Lodge of Hope... established by the Grand Orient of France in Berne in 1803! Enthusiasts for Napoleon the Great are fabled to have instituted an Order of Noachidae in Paris. The Scottish Lodges were renumbered.

1817 J. C. Ridel's Bibliography and Chronology of Masonry spanning the years 1717-1817 was published. Prince Christian, after King Christian VIII of Denmark, was initiated into Masonry in the Maria of the Three Hearts Lodge. On 24 June the Grand Orient repudiated the Rite of Mizraim. The Grand Lodge of scotland reaffirmed its restriction of Masonry to the three Craft Degrees. Two Grand Chapters of the Holy Royal Arch were united. A Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite was established in Brussels.

1818 On 12 January a Grand Lodge of Indiana, and on 27 July a Grand Lodge of Mississippi was founded. Prince Frederick William is held by some to have become Grand Master of the Grand Orient with Masonic jurisdiction over Holland and Belgium, which seems highly doubtful. The Lodge of Hope in Berne is also alleged to have become an English Provincial Grand Lodge.

1818 Jean-Baptiste Vianney becomes parish-priest at Ars.

1819 The Provincial Grand Lodge of Mecklenburg was established, and a Persian Philosophical Rite originating in Erzeroum is said to have been brought from there and introduced to Paris.

1819-1901 Victoria, daughter of George III's fourth son, Edward Duke of Kent (who died when she was only 8 months old), and of Victoria Mary of Saxe-Saalfeld Coburg, lived. One month after her 18th birthday, she succeeded her uncle, ruled for 64 years, headed the largest Empire of recent times, married her cousin Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and bore nine children before he died in 1861, aged 42, three years after she had been proclaimed in India as Queen of the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the colonies and dependencies thereof in Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia'; she was, in Delhi, declared Empress of India in 1877.

1820 The Grand Lodge of Maine, U.S.A., was founded on 1 June. The Grand Lodge of Ireland warranted the Social Lodge in Sydney, Australia, in which region only Military Lodges had previously been founded.

1820-1864 Elizabeth Prout (Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus, C.P.) lived. She was with Father Gaudentius Rossi (an English-speaking member of the Congregation of the Passion founded in 18th-century Italy by St. Paul of the Cross) co-founder of the contemplative yet pastorally active Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Cross & Passion of Jesus Christ (Passionists), applicants for membership of which were not required to pay a dowry.

1821 On 13 September in the Bull Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo Pope Pius VII again renewed Clement XII's condemnation of Freemasonry. Freemasons in Portugal were persecuted. Freemasonry was prohibited in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. All Masonic activity in Italy seems to have ceased for some thirty years. The Czar decreed the suppression of Masonry both in Russia itself and in Russian Poland. On 21 April a Grand Lodge of Missouri was founded. Other Grand Lodges were founded in Alabama, in Brazil, and in France.

1821-1880 Gustave Flaubert lived.

1821-1881 Fedor Dostoevsky lived.

1822 The Czar's prohibition of Freemasonry in Russia was renewed. The Helvetic Rite and Lodges in Switzerland under the French Grand Orient are mistakenly held to have fallen asleep. The Lodges of Berne and Vaud fored a National Grand Lodge of Switzerland working the Craft Grades only. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Lower Canada divided into two districts, Quebec and Montreal.

1823 Freemasonry in Portugal was abolished by Royal Decree. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Frankfurt assumed the title of Grand Lodge.

1823 (elected 28 September, crowned 5 October) - 1829 (10 February) Leo XII Bishop of Rome.

1824 On 13 August the Supreme Council of Ireland was founded.

1825 Pope Leo XII's Bull Quo Graviora of 13 March renewed and strengthened Clement XII's condemnation of Freemasonry and other Secret Societies. A Lodge in Granada was raided, seven Master Masons present were hanged, and a newly initiated Apprentice was sent to the galleys for five years.

1825 Seraphim of Sarov emerges from the forest and begins to draw disciples.

1826 The Supreme Council of Brazil was founded. Some adherents to the Antient and Primitive Rite gave their allegiance to the French Grand Orient.

1828-1905 Jules Verne lived.

1828-1906 Henrik Ibsen lived.

1829 (elected 31 March, crowned 5 April) - 1830 (30 November) Pius VIII Bishop of Rome.

1829 The Scottish Constitutions were revised. On 21 May Pope Pius VIII renewed his predecessors' condemnation of Freemasonry.

1830 The Supreme Council of Peru was founded. On 5 July the Grand Lodge of Florida was established. Belgium is said to have attained Masonic independence, but seems to have enjoyed this since 1814 in practice.

1831 (elected 2, crowned 6 February) - 1846 (1 June) Gregory XVI Bishop of Rome.

1831 The Grand Orient of Peru was founded. Hegel, whose philosophy underpinned the development in Germany and neighbouring countries of an insufficiently humanitarian climate of social, cultural, economic and political Nationalism and Totalitarianism, died. On 20 June Pope Gregory XVI acceded to a British request and separated the diocese of Malta from the Metropolitan See of Palermo, to which it had earlier been united by Adrian IV, the only English Pope, in 1156.

1832 The Grand Lodge of Arkansas was founded on 22 February. An illegal United Supreme Council had previously been formed in New York on 13 February. On 15 August Pope Gregory XVI renewed the Papal condemnation of Freemasonry.

1832-1898 Lewis Carroll lived.

1833 Supreme Councils of Masonry in Columbia and New Granada were founded. The Grand Orient of Belgium also dates from this year.

1833 John Keble's sermon on National Apostasy starts the Oxford Movement.

1834 Freemasons were again persecuted in Portugal.

1836 Crown Prince Christian, afterwards King Christian VIII of Denmark, became Protector of Danish Masonry. A Grand Orient was formed in Porte-au-Prince.

1837 The Pythagoras Lodge was founded in Corfu, and the Grand Lodge of Texas was established. Pope Gregory XVI established the Museo Gregoriano Egizio in Vatican City.

1838 The Rite of Memphis or Antient and Primitive Rite was introduced in Paris as a system of ninety-five Degrees, and Marconis was elected as Grand Hierophant.

1839 The Rite of Memphis is said to have been worked in Roumania.

1840 Prince William, afterwards Emperor Wilhelm I of Prussia was initiated into Masonry. The Grand Lodge of Illinois was established. A Grand Lodge of Greece is also supposed to have been formed on the island of Corfu, but appears to have sunk without trace.

1841 The Masonic Provinces of Quebec and Montreal united. Frederic VII of Denmark was initiated in the Lodge Maria. On 5 June John Bosco was ordained a priest, and assumed the title Don Bosco, by which this dreamer-Saint is still popularly known. On 8 December he began to teach the Christian catechism to an orphan boy, Bartholomew Garelli, and their ensuing friendship strengthened the Saint's determination to improve his young friend's economic and social lot, and that of others like him.

1841-1910 Edward VII, Victoria's eldest son, lived; he reigned 1901-1910. His Queen was the beautiful Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Admiral Lord Fisher said "he wasn't clever, but he always did the right thing."

1842 The Supreme Council of Portugal was set up. An annuity fund for males was initiated by the English Grand Lodge.

1843 To open the Portals of Masonry to Indians Dr. James Burnes founded the Rising Star Lodge in Bombay. The Grand Lodge of Iowa was founded on 8 January, and that of Wisconsin on 18 December. On 15 May and the days immediately following fifteen Grand Lodges were represented at a National Masonic Convention in Baltimore. A new Temple of the Grand Orient was opened in Paris. The Third Degree of the Compagnonnage (said to have been established in 1803) was this year abolished. The first Earl of Zetland succeeded the Duke of Sussex as Grand Master.

1844 On 24 July the Scots Directory in Basle and the National Grand Lodge in Berne united to form the present Grand Lodge Suisse Alpina. Brigham Young and 1,500 Mormons were expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of Illinois. The Grand Lodge of Michigan was founded on 14 September.

1845 The Supreme Council of England and Wales was founded on 26 October. The Three Doves Lodge in Berlin became the Grand Lodge of Prussia or Royal York of Friendship. It is erroneously claimed that the Royal Oriental Order of the Sat B'hai met at Allahabad for the last time in India.

1845 Dominic Barberi receives Newman into the Catholic Church.

1846 (elected 16, crowned 21 June) - 1878 (7 February) Pius IX Bishop of Rome. Although by personal disposition a liberal, and initially welcomed as such, the actual means he took to confront the problems of the Risorgimento were frequently anachronistic and to a large extent ineffectual.

1846 Neptune rediscovered. On 9 November Pope Pius IX condemned Freemasonry along with other Secret Societies. The Supreme Council of Scotland was founded, and a Scottish Masonic Benevolent Fund was established. On 22 March a Grand Lodge had been founded in Darmstadt.

1847 Guistino de Jacobis begins ordained married Catholic priest in Ethiopia.

1847 A Congress of American Lodges was held in Baltimore.

1848 Frederick VII ascended the Throne of Denmark and became Grand Master of Danish Masonry which was remodelled on the Swedish system. Masonic organisations in Portugal at this time comprised three Grand Lodges, one Grand Orient and one Irish Provincial Grand Lodge. A Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite was constituted on an uncertain foundation in Palermo. In Germany the Catholic bishop Wilhelm von Ketteler vehemently defended the rights of workers, and sought to organize them.

1848 Europe erupts into revolution and Pius IX flees from Rome in disguise.

1849 Pope Pius IX renewed his condemnation of Freemasonry and other Secret Societies. Masons in England and Wales extended their Annuity Fund to benefit Freemasons' widows. The Rite of Memphis established its statutes. On 7 September a Supreme Council was set up in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

1850 The Grand Lodge of Kansas was founded on 17 March, and that of California on 18 April. In England and Wales the Masons' Widows' Fund was amalgamated with that of the Asylum. Hodnet Church renovated. On 6 April the Italian Jesuits established their influential and long-running periodical La Civilta Cattolica which sided with Integralist or Ultramontane and criticised Liberal Catholics.

1851 On 16 August the Grand Lodge of Oregon was founded.

1852 On 9 January Prince Lucien was elected Grand Master of the French Grand Orient. The Grand Lodge of Peru was this year reorganised. Joseph Hunter, a Yorkshire antiquarian and sub-commissioner of public records, published Mr Hunter's Critical and Historical Tracts: No. IV - The Ballad Hero Robin Hood, subtitled Robin Hood: His Period, Real Character, Etc., Investigated and Perhaps Ascertained.

1853 On 23 February the Grand Lodge of Minnesota was founded. A Congress of American Lodges was held at Lexington in Kentucky. Prince Frederick of Prussia, afterwards Emperor Frederick III of Germany, was initiated into Masonry. Don Bosco opened a workshop of his own to teach poor and abandoned youngsters in the Valdocco quarter of Turin a trade, and started to publish his own magazine, Catholic Readings, to provide them with reading matter they could understand.

1854 The German Masonic writer Kloss died. There was a Masonic Congress in Paris. Pope Pius IX renewed his condemnation of Freemasonry. On 18 December in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus he infallibly declared that "Mary in the first moment of her conception was freed by special grace from the stain of original sin in view of the merits of Christ."

1855 On 6 January the King of Denmark replaced the Strict Observance by Zinnendorf's Masonic system. Reghellini died in Brussels. An universal Masonic Congress was held in Paris. An independent Grand Lodge was established in Upper Canada. In England Thomas Wright published a translation of Fulke le Fitz Waryn, as well as Robert Vernon's The Quest of Fulk Fitz Warine and Sir Gawain and the Red Knight.

1856 On 16 February Michael Bedarride died. The Supreme Council of Uruguay was established. The Antient and Primitive Rite was introduced into America. A Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons was opened in London. On 25 September Pope Pius IX again condemned Freemasonry.

1856-1925 H. Rider Haggard lived. 1857 An Ancient Grand Lodge of Canada was formed, and united with the Independent Grand Lodge of Canada to form the Grand Lodge of Canada. The Grand Lodge of Chile was founded on 20 April, and that of Nebraska on 23 September. A Grand Lodge was also formed in Roumania.

1858 The National Grand Lodge of Denmark was formed on 16 November, and the Grand Lodge of Washington on 9 December. During this year the Blessed Virgin Mary is very widely believed to have appeared several times in the grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes in the French Pyrenees to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, and a specially appointed Commission has reported the occurrence of 65 subsequent related miraculous cures up to 1976, the date of the last miracle in that connection recorded - until that of 8 October 1987 mentioned in The Tablet for 20 February 1999, which also notes that of 6,500 cases followed up by this Commission (about 2,000 cases are reported each year to the Lourdes Medical Office) some 2,500 have so far been deemed "extraordinary".

1859 The Lusitanian United Grand Orient was founded in Lisbon, and the Supreme Council of Cuba established. A new Freemasons' Hall was consecrated at 98 George Street, Edinburgh. On 18 December Don Bosco founded the Salesian Congregation to extend and perpetuate his own work for the young.

1859 Charles Darwin publishes his theory of evolution, The Origin of Species.

1859-1932 Kenneth Grahame lived.

1860 The Supreme Council of Mexico was instituted, and on 2 August the Grand Lodge of Colorado was founded. Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont defeats the pope's volunteer army.

1861 The Grand Orient of Italy was reconstituted. A Supreme Council for the Republic of San Domingo was constituted. On 19 May an Association of German Freemasons was formed.

1862 On 1 January, twenty-two Lodges being represented, the Grand Orient of Italy was proclaimed. In November the Grand Orient of France admitted the Rite of Memphis as a subordinate Masonic System, and Marconis surrendered his powers to that body. On 14 May members of Don Bosco's new Salesian Congregation were for the first time permitted to make public vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.

1863 Pope Pius IX again condemned Secret Societies. Don Bosco opened his second House at Mirabello in Piedmont.

1864 Pope Pius IX again condemned Freemasonry. The Supreme Council of Florence, afterwards that of all Italy, was founded. The Pope's principal concern by this time was to oppose the swelling tide of Liberalism among Catholics. On 16 September he separated the islands of Comino and Gozo from Malta, and established them as an autonomous diocese. On 6 December he privately announced his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council, and on 8 December he issued a comprehensive Encyclical Quanta Cura to which was appended a Syllabus of Errors. The eighty errors he identified concerned pantheism, naturalism, rationalism, socialism and communism (1-18); Church-State relationships (19-55); natural ethics (56-64); the nature of Christian marriage (65-74); and the Papal States (75-76). He also firmly rejected liberalism, including liberty of cult and expression, and rejected any unqualified belief in progress (77-80). Although he had intended this Syllabus as a helpful guide for Catholics, it provoked a widespread negative reaction.

1864 Samuel Crowther becomes the Anglican Church's first black bishop.

1865 The Supreme Council of Venezuela was founded. The Grand Lodge of Nevada was founded on 16 January, and in Toronto that of Canada on 10 October. It was learned that in Japan several Christian communities had managed to survive without priests for two hundred years.

1865-1936 Edward VII's second son, George V, lived; he reigned 1910-1936.

1866 J. M. Ragon died in Paris. The Grand Lodge of Western Virginia was founded on 16 May, and that of Nova Scotia on 12 June. A Grand Orient was founded in the Negro Republic of San Domingo. On 4 November a diocesan seminary was opened on the island of Gozo.

1867 Dr. George Oliver died on 3 March. Although still prohibited in Austria, Masonry revived in Hungary. The Grand Lodge of Hanover ceased working. An Independent Grand Lodge of Greece was established, a Grand Lodge constituted in the Negro Republic of Nigeria, the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick founded on 27 August, and that of Idaho on 16 December.

1868 A Convention of German Grand Lodges in Stuttgart denied that a White Book containing the Name of God might replace the Bible on the Altars of Grand Lodges under their obedience. The Unity in the Motherland Lodge was founded in Budapest. On 9 June in Turin a huge basilica dedicated to Mary, Help of Christians, which Don Bosco had begun to build when he had only 2p to his name, was solemnly consecrated as the mother-church of the Salesian Congregation, and of the companion Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, which by this time another Piedmontese Saint, Maria Domenica Mazzarello, was helping him to establish.

1868 Cardian Charles Lavigerie founds the White Fathers to evangelise Africa.

1869 The Grand Lodge of Quebec was founded on 12 February, and that of Nova Scotia was formed. The Grand Orient of Greece was founded, Tunis was incorporated into the Malta District, and Masonry revived in Spain. Four Irish Lodges dissenting, Masonic bodies in Portugal combined to form a United Grand Orient of Lusitania. The King of Sweden initiated Edward, Prince of Wales, into Masonry. On 1 July a Papal Decree of approval was granted to Don Bosco's rapidly growing new Salesian Congregation.

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