Excerpt from The History of Freemasonry, Its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, Etc, Vol. 3: Embracing an Investigation of the Records of the Organisations of the Fraternity in England, Scotland, Ireland, British Colonies, France, Germany, and the United States; Derived From Official Sources As already Observed, Aubrey's memorandum of Wren's approaching initiation was not printed or in any way alluded to until 1844. It can therefore have exercised no in uence whatever in shaping or fashioning the belief (amongst Masons) which, from 1738 onwards, has universally prevailed as regards the connection of the great architect with the ancient craft. Indeed, the statements of Aubrey (1691) and Anderson (1738) are mutually destructive. If Wren was only accepted or adopted in 1691, it is quite clear that he could not have been Grand Master at any earlier date; and, on the other hand, if he presided over the Society in the year 1663, it is equally clear that the ceremony of his formal admission into the fraternity was not postponed until 1691. I shall now proceed to examine the question chronologically, dealing with the evidence in order of time - ta, time of publication. Accord ing to this method of procedure, the entries in the Aubrey mss. Will be considered last of all, at which stage I shall enter upon a review of the whole subject, and conclude with an expres sion of the views which, in my judgment, are fairly deducible from the evidence before us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."