It had been nursed, during the wars which
ravaged Europe, in the humble village of Kilwinning, in the west of the
country; from whence it at length burst forth, and communicated its light
to the lodges in the south. The records of this lodge actually go back to
the beginning of the fifteenth century, as also do those of a lodge in or
near Edinburgh. And about this time the Scottish king appointed a fee to be
paid by every master to the grand master, who was chosen by the grand
lodge. James II. of Scotland made the grand mastership hereditary, and
conferred it on the St. Clairs of Roslin, in which family it continued till
1736, when the then representative of the family, being old and childless,
resigned it into the hands of the grand lodge, then first established on
its present footing, by whom he was re-elected grand master for life.
During the civil wars in England masonry declined; but on the accession of
Henry VII., in 1485, it revived again, under the patronage of the grand
master of the order of St. John, at Rhodes, who, in 1500, chose King Henry
their protector. In 1502 this king presided in person in a lodge of master
masons, and proceeded in ample form to lay the foundation of the chapel, at
the east end of Westminster Abbey, which bears his name.
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