No. 14, VOL. 12.] LONDON, Friday, Oct. 7, 1825. [PRICE 6d.

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE DUKE OF SUSSEX, GRAND MASTER OF FREEMASONS AND GRAND COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF MASONIC KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, &c.

SIR KNIGHT,

and

Dorchester Gaol, September 30,
Anno Tenebræ 1825.

I AM an infidel towards your professed faith, and, as such,
I challenge you to battle. Upon the true allegorical mean-
ing of the Christian Cross, I pin my faith, and proclaim you
your order of Knights Templars to be spurious Chris-
tians; a proclamation which I will maintain in battle against
you all.
But I must have a choice of weapons. Those
weapons must be the pen and the printing press, and, if you
like to add the tongue, I shall have no objection, provided,
that I have Mrs. Wright for my esquire. I beg of you, to
communicate this challenge to your brother, the "Grand
Patron," and tell him, that he is a great or a base coward,
to keep me in prison, because he cannot match me in an
opponent at arms. Had I been in London in 1821, and at
the coronation, I would have taken up the challenge, or the
glove or the gauntlett, of his champion; particularly, as the
real champion was a priest. The fellow should not have
mimicked the fighting man for want of an opponent and
have carried of his goblet quietly. But, remember, my
weapons would have been the pen and the printing press.
The
purpose of this letter is to unfold to you the import-
ance of your masonic play at knighthood, and to shew you,
that the red or rosy cross is not the right cross, and that you,
Knights Templars, are not the bearers or defenders of the
true cross, not that cross on which Prometheus, the Logos,
or the Jesus Christ suffered a temporary death.

Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 135, Fleet Street.

To do this I must describe what are the ceremonies of your knights Templars and other Rosicrucian knights, in their grand conclaves and encampments. And before this, I had better give a brief sketch of the origin and history of those Knights.

The Mahometans, always more mild, more tolerant, and less revengeful towards other idolators, than the Christians, having possession of that worthless, rocky, barren, earthless spot of land, called in Europe the Holy Land, gave leave to the mad and fanatical Christians, to amuse themselves in pilgrimages to Jerusalem. From the origin of these knights, it appears, that these pilgrims occasionally got robbed or maltreated on the road, from the coast to Jerusalem: and yet, there is no precise proof of this; for the first order of these knights was an order of Hospitallers, a few Frenchmen, who took up their residence at Jerusalem, for the avowed purpose of entertaining the pilgrims on their arrival. To this order of Hospitallers, an opposition very soon arose, in the order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, also called Knights Templars, from their living near where the Temple had stood. To outdo the Hospitallers in attention to the pilgrims, or rather in trade, for I make gain to be a universal motive with mankind, under whatever art it might be carried on, these Knights Templars, as well as to entertain on their arrival at Jerusalem, undertook to escort the pilgrims to and from the coast; and there was a complete rivalry between these knights, until the Crusades began, that both could wet their appetites for blood in that of the Anti-Christian Saracens! Notwithstanding, that these Christian Knights had originated upon the generosity of the Saracens, it soon became a principal with their order, to exterminate, as far as possible, their benefactors! And this is one of many proofs, that the Chistian system of religion, as it has existed for the last seventeen hundred years, bas been the most villanous system that ever infested the earth; a system that has promoted, under the pretensions of peace on earth and good will towards men, nothing but villainy of the worst kind and the most direful calamities. The sensible reader of the history of the Crusades, those holy wars, and indeed of the whole history of Christianity, will need no more particular authorities, for what I state, and if you want a standing instance, more prominent than any other, LOOK AT SPAIN!

But the Saracens and the Turks successively drove these Knights out of the Holy Land, and it was then that they

preserved their orders and began to spread throughout Europe. They had two residences in London: that which is now called St. John's Square and the Temple. After a time, they became so numerous, as to carry on a piratical war against the Saracens and Turks in the Mediterranean Sea, and even took possession of the Island of Rhodes. This Island they defended above two hundred years, and thus acquired the additional name of Knights of Rhodes. They were ultimately driven from Rhodes, and obtained, from the Emperor of Germany, the Island of Malta, which they long held, or until the European Princes confederated to break up, the order, for the purpose of dividing the spoils, and the territory or located landed property and buildings which they had acquired by purchase, bequests, &c. Old Harry the Eighth, that grand spoiler of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first to play the game of rob a thief' upon them. The order has been long entirely extinct and was last known under the name of Knights of Malta.

It is to commemorate the past existence of this order, that we now find Masonic Knights Templars, as a secret association, under the common appellation of Rosicrucians. Of this association, we shall find many branches, or as many branches as the ancient Christian Knights had obtained distinct names.

It must be kept in memory, by the reader of this exposure, that the ceremonies of no two lodges of Masons, or of Rosicrucians are precisely alike: and whatever I introduce, as a selection from a mass of papers, and painful selection, is practised, or was practised, in some lodge or other; and whatever I omit, as not among my documents, was omitted in those lodges from whence my information comes.

In a degree of Masonry have I found a greater variety of forms than in this of the Knights Templars: even the names of the officers vary. In one account, or that of the Royal Grand Select Sols, I have a description of the officers corresponding with those of the three first degrees in Masonry. In a description of a Bristol order, called the Encampment of Baldwyn, I find the officers thus named:-Grand Master; Grand Deputy; Grand Prior; Grand Sub Prior; Grand Captains, First and Second; Grand Orator; Grand Prelate; Grand Chancellor; Grand Chaplain; Grand Recorder; Grand Drapers; Grand Preceptor; Grand Herald; Grand Equerries; Grand Almoner; Grand Councillor; Grand Admiral; Equerries of the out-post. In another description, I find a Grand Treasurer, Grand Hospitaller, Grand Marshal

r

or vice Admiral and Grand Bailiff, in addition to some of those before mentioned. Finch, in his description, has a Royal Master, whom he also calls Grand Commander, a Captain and Lieutenant General, a Master of the Ceremonies, and a Janetar or Tyler as the only officers mentioned. He also makes the order of Malta to be distinct from that of the Templars; whilst other encampments create a knight at once, as a Hospitaller, a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, of Palestine, of Rhodes and of Malta, and a Knight Templar of Jerusalem. To copy all the different descriptions which I have will be far too tedious to the reader as well as to myself, so I shall compile from each whatever appears to be of masonic importance. For the officers, I have taken a Grand commander, First and second Captain, a Prelate, an Orator, and sentinels for the out-posts or door.

The penal signs are a chin sign, a beard sign, a light sign and a saw sign. The grand signs are emblematical of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The common grip is to grasp each other's arms across, above the elbow, to represent the double triangle. There is also a token made with cross bones on the scull. The pass words are as various as the encampments. I find "I am that I am, Jao-bul-on, Jerusalem, Calvary, Golgotha, Arima thea, Emanuel, and Ehihu.' The grand word is Adonai. Finch, in his Maltese order, has Eli Eli Lama Sabacthani, as the grand word, and Gethsemane, Capharsoleum or Caiphas and Melita as the pass words.

A candidate for initiation must be habited as a pilgrim in sandals, with a mantle, a staff, a scrip and wallet, a belt or cord round his waist, with bread and water and a cross. Some encampments require a burthen on the back, which is to fall off at the reception and view of the cross. The whole ceremony is purely Christian, according to the vul gar notions and the literal sense of Christianity, ridiculous and contradictory at all points. The general tenour of the order, or the pretended object, is ridiculous; for if the Holy Land were freed from the Mahometans next year, it would be alike a matter of contempt to both Jews and Christians of this day. The age of pilgrimage is gone with that of chivalry: so I proceed to the

FORM OF OPENING THE ENCAMPMENT.

G. C. Does it meet with your approbation, Sir Knights, to open this grand christian encampment?

Answer. (all) It does.

G. C. Sir Knights, assist me to resume the duties of this grand christian encampment. To order, as Knights Templars. (All draw their swords and rest the points on the left hand.) Sir Knight, First Captain, what is the first duty of Knights Templars met together in arms?

F. C. To see the grand christian encampment well guarded both within and without and the sentinels well posted.

G. C. Sir Knight, First Captain, are the guards and sentinels well posted on their respective duties and this grand christian encampment secure?

F. C, I will issue your commands to that effect. (First to the second captain.) See that the guards and sentinels be well posted on their respective duties and that this grand christian encampment be secure.

The

S. C. Trumpeter, sound the alarm. (This being done and answered by the sentinels the second captain reports to the first,) guards and sentinels are properly posted on their respective duties and all is well.

F. C. Grand Commander, the guards and sentinels are properly posted on their respective duties and all is secure.

G. C. What is it secured with?

F. C. Faith in Jesus Christ, peace and goodwill towards men. (To which should be added, who are christians of our sect R. C.) G. C. Where is the second captain's place in this grand chris-tian encampment?

F. C. I the North west.

G. C. (To the second captain) Your christian duty, when there placed?

S. C. As Christ arose at high meridian and ascended into heaven to bring glad tidings to the believing world; so it is my duty to preside in the North West, to call the Sir Knights from the field to refreshment, that the Grand commander may have the pleasure and the Sir Knights the profit consequent. G. C. You have a second duty?

S. C, To receive, obey and disperse all general orders from the Grand Commander and the First Captain, and to see them duly executed. Also, to guard the entrance of the grand christian encampment, that none pass therein, but those who are duly qualiEfied.

G. C. Where is the situation of the First Captain in this grand christian encampment?

S. C. In the South West.

G, C. (To the first captain.) Your christian duty, when there placed?

F. C. Joseph of Arimathea, being a just and a devout man, went to Pilate to beg the body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which being granted, he wrapped it up in clean linen and laid it in a new sepulchre wherein never man was laid, and clo