and still another at Swallwell (now No. 48 Gateshead) demanded that "the Apprentices shall have their Charge given at the time of Registering, or within thirty days after"; the minutes inserting such entries accordingly even so late as 1754, nearly twenty years after the lodge had cast in its lot with the Grand Lodge of England. Their Christian character is further emphasized by the "First Charge that you shall be true men to God and the holy Church"; the _York MS. No. 6_ beseeches the brethren "at every meeting and assembly they pray heartily for all Christians"; the _Melrose MS. No. 2_ (1674) mentions "Merchants and all other Christian men," and the _Aberdeen MS._ (1670) terms the invocation "A Prayer before the Meeting." Until the Grand Lodge era, Freemasonry was thus wholly Christian. The _York MS. No. 4_ of 1693 contains a singular error in the admonitory lines:-- "The [n] one of the elders takeing the Booke and that hee or shee that is to be made mason, shall lay their hands thereon and the charge shall be given." This particular reading was cited by Hughan in 1871, but was considered doubtful; Findel,[4] however, confirmed it, on his visit to York under the guidance of the celebrated masonic student the late Rev. A. F. A. Woodford. The mistake was due possibly to the transcriber, who had an older roll before him, confusing "they," sometimes written "the," with "she," or reading that portion, which is often in Latin, as _ille vel illa_, instead of _ille vel illi_. In some of the _Codices_, about the middle of the 17th century and later, New Articles are inserted, such as would be suitable for an organization similar to the Masons' Company of London, which had one, at least, of the _Old Charges_ in its possession according to inventories of 1665 and 1676; and likewise in 1722, termed _The Book of the Constitutions of the Accepted Masons_. Save its mention ("Book wrote on parchment") by Sir Francis Palgrave in the _Edinburgh Review_ (April 1839) as being in existence "not long since," this valuable document has been lost sight of for many years. That there were signs and other secrets preserved and used by the brethren throughout this mainly operative period may be gathered from discreet references in these old MSS. The _Institutions in parchment_ (22nd of November 1696) of the Dumfries Kilwinning Lodge (No. 53, Scotland) contain a copy of the oath taken "when any man should be made":-- "These Charges which we now reherse to you and all others ye secrets and misterys belonging to free masons you shall faithfully and truly keep, together with ye Counsell of ye assembly or lodge, or any other lodge, or brother, or fellow." "Then after ye oath taken and the book kissed" (i.e. the Bible) the "precepts" are read, the first being:--