"The thrydde poynt must be severle. With the prentes knowe hyt wele, Hys mayster cownsel he kepe and close, And hys felows by hys goode purpose; The prevetyse of the chamber telle he no mon, Ny yn the logge whatsever they done, Whatsever thou heryst, or syste hem do, Telle hyt no mon, whersever thou go." The rules generally, besides referring to trade regulations, are as a whole suggestive of the Ten Commandments in an extended form, winding up with the legend of the _Ars quatuor coronatorum_, as an incentive to a faithful discharge of the numerous obligations. A second part introduces a more lengthy account of the origin of masonry, in which Noah's flood and the Tower of Babylon are mentioned as well as the great skill of Euclid, who-- "Through hye grace of Crist yn heven, He commensed yn the syens seven"; The "seven sciences" are duly named and explained. The compiler apparently was a priest, line 629 reading "And, when ye gospel _me rede schal_," thus also accounting for the many religious injunctions in the MS.; the last hundred lines are evidently based upon _Urbanitatis_ (Cott. MS. Caligula A 11, fol. 88) and _Instructions for a Parish Priest_ (Cott. MS. Claudius A 11, fol. 27), instructions such as lads and even men would need who were ignorant of the customs of polite society, correct deportment at church and in the presence of their social superiors. The recital of the legend of the _Quatuor Coronati_ has been held by Herr Findel in his _History of Freemasonry_ (_Allgemeine Geschichte der Freimaurerei_, 1862; English editions, 1866-1869) to prove that British Freemasonry was derived from Germany, but without any justification, the legend being met with in England centuries prior to the date of the _Regius MS._, and long prior to its incorporation in masonic legends on the Continent. The next MS., in order, is known as the "Cooke" (Ad. MS. 23,198, British Museum), because Matthew Cooke published a fair reproduction of the document in 1861; and it is deemed by competent paleographers to date from the first part of the 15th century. There are two versions of the _Old Charges_ in this little book, purchased for the British Museum in 1859. The compiler was probably a mason and familiar with several copies of these MS. _Constitutions_, two of which he utilizes and comments upon; he quotes from a MS. copy of the _Policronicon_ the manner in which a written account of the sciences was preserved in the two historic stones at the time of the Flood, and generally makes known the traditions of the society as well as the laws which were to govern the members.