This may only mean that he was amply skilled in the knowledge, as well as the practice, of the art, although, as Gould points out, the _Regius MS_ contains intimations of thoughts above the heads of many to whom it was read.[107] Similar traces of Accepted Masons are found in the _Cooke MS_, compiled in 1400 or earlier. Hope suggests[108] that the earliest members of this class were ecclesiastics who wished to study to be architects and designers, so as to direct the erection of their own churches; the more so, since the order had "so high and sacred a destination, was so entirely exempt from all local, civil jurisdiction," and enjoyed the sanction and protection of the Church. Later, when the order was in disfavor with the Church, men of another sort--scholars, mystics, and lovers of liberty--sought its degrees. At any rate, the custom began early and continued through the years, until Accepted Masons were in the majority. Noblemen, gentlemen, and scholars entered the order as Speculative Masons, and held office as such in the old Lodges, the first name recorded in actual minutes being John Boswell, who was present as a member of the Lodge of Edinburgh in 1600. Of the forty-nine names on the roll of the Lodge of Aberdeen in 1670, thirty-nine were Accepted Masons not in any way connected with the building trade. In England the earliest reference to the initiation of a Speculative Mason, in Lodge minutes, is of the year 1641. On the 20th of May that year, Robert Moray, "General Quarter-master of the Armie off Scottland," as the record runs, was initiated at Newcastle by members of the "Lodge of Edinburgh," who were with the Scottish Army. A still more famous example was that of Ashmole, whereof we read in the _Memoirs of the Life of that Learned Antiquary, Elias Ashmole, Drawn up by Himself by Way of Diary_, published in 1717, which contains two entries as follows, the first dated in 1646: /#[4,66] _Octob 16.4 Hor._ 30 Minutes _post merid._ I was made a Freemason at _Warrington_ in Lancashire, with Colonel _Henry Wainwaring_ of _Kartichain_ in _Cheshire_; the names of those that were there at the Lodge, Mr. _Richard Panket Warden_, Mr. _James Collier_, Mr. _Richard Sankey_, _Henry Littler_, _John Ellam_, _Richard Ellam_ and _Hugh Brewer_. #/ Such is the record, italics and all; and it has been shown, by hunting up the wills of the men present, that the members of the Warrington Lodge in 1646 were, nearly all of them--every one in fact, so far as is known--Accepted Masons. Thirty-five years pass before we discover the only other Masonic entries in the _Diary_, dated March, 1682, which read as follows: