of great celebrity, but not of
unquestioned authenticity. It is a declaration or affirmation of the
design and principles of Freemasonry, issued in the year 1535, by a
convention of masons who had assembled in the city of Cologne. The
original is in the Latin language. The assertors of the authenticity of
the document claim that it was found in the chest of a lodge at Amsterdam
in 1637, and afterwards regularly transmitted from hand to hand until the
year 1816, when it was presented to Prince Frederick of Nassau, through
whom it was at that time made known to the masonic world. Others assert
that it is a forgery, which was perpetrated about the year 1816. Like the
Leland manuscript, it is one of those vexed questions of masonic literary
history over which so much doubt has been thrown, that it will probably
never be satisfactorily solved. For a translation of the charter, and
copious explanatory notes, by the author of this work, the reader is
referred to the "American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry," vol. ii. p.
52.

CHRISTIANIZATION OF FREEMASONRY. The interpretation of its symbols from a
Christian point of view. This is an error into which Hutchinson and
Oliver in England, and Scott and one or two others of less celebrity in
this country, have fallen. It is impossible to derive Freemasonry from
Christianity, because the former, in point of time, preceded the latter.
In fact, the symbols of Freemasonry are Solomonic, and its religion was
derived from the ancient priesthood.

The infusion of the Christian element was, however, a natural result of
surrounding circumstances; yet to sustain it would be fatal to the
cosmopolitan character of the institution.

Such interpretation is therefore modern, and does not belong to the
ancient system.

CIRCULAR TEMPLES. These were used in the initiations of the religion of
Zoroaster. Like the square temples of Masonry, and the other Mysteries,
they were symbolic of the world, and the symbol was completed by making
the circumference of the circle a representation of the zodiac.

CIRCUMAMBULATION. The ceremony of perambulating the lodge, or going in
procession around the altar, which was universally practised in the
ancient initiations and other religious ceremonies, and was always
performed so that the persons moving should have the altar on their right
hand. The rite was symbolic of the apparent daily course of the sun from
the east to the west by the way of the south, and wa