The history of freemasonry : its legends and traditions, its chronological history . THE INVENTION OF THE THIRD DEGREE 977 for these high offices. We are not without the proof of how these Charges would have been made to read had the degree of Mas-ter Mason been in existence at the time of their compilation. Notwithstanding that Speculative Freemasonry owes much toDr. Anderson, we are forced to reluctantly admit that, as an histo-rian, he was inexact and inaccurate, and that while he often substi-tuted the inventions of tradition for the facts of history, he alsooften modified the phraseology
The history of freemasonry : its legends and traditions, its chronological history . THE INVENTION OF THE THIRD DEGREE 977 for these high offices. We are not without the proof of how these Charges would have been made to read had the degree of Mas-ter Mason been in existence at the time of their compilation. Notwithstanding that Speculative Freemasonry owes much toDr. Anderson, we are forced to reluctantly admit that, as an histo-rian, he was inexact and inaccurate, and that while he often substi-tuted the inventions of tradition for the facts of history, he alsooften modified the phraseology of old documents to suit his ownviews. In 1738 he published a second edition of the Book of Consti-tutions, a work which, although at first perhaps carelessly approved,was subsequently condemned by the Grand Lodge. In this workhe inserted a copy of these Charges. But now the Masters de-gree had been long recognized and practiced by the lodges as thesummit of the ritual. Now let us see how these Charges were modified by in this second edition, so as to meet the altered
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