authentic materials, of the precise system adopted at that remote period,
to enable us to make any historical deductions on the subject.

The first historical notice that we have of the formation of a supreme
controlling body of the fraternity, is in the "Gothic Constitutions"[4]
which assert that, in the year 287, St. Alban, the protomartyr of England,
who was a zealous patron of the craft, obtained from Carausius, the
British Emperor, "a charter for the Masons to hold a general council, and
gave it the name of assembly." The record further states, that St. Alban
attended the meeting and assisted in making Masons, giving them "good
charges and regulations." We know not, however, whether this assembly ever
met again; and if it did, for how many years it continued to exist. The
subsequent history of Freemasonry is entirely silent on the subject.

The next general assemblage of the craft, of which the records of
Freemasonry inform us, was that convened in 926, at the city of York, in
England, by Prince Edwin, the brother of King Athelstane, and the grandson
of Alfred the Great. This, we say, was the next general assemblage,
because the Ashmole manuscript, which was destroyed at the revival of
Freemasonry in 1717, is said to have stated that, at that time, the Prince
obtained from his brother, the king, a permission for the craft "to hold a
yearly communication and a general assembly." The fact that such a power
of meeting was then granted, is conclusive that it did not before exist:
and would seem to prove that the assemblies of the craft, authorised by
the charter of Carausius, had long since ceased to be held. This yearly
communication did not, however, constitute, at least in the sense we now
understand it, a Grand Lodge. The name given to it was that of the
"General Assembly of Masons." It was not restricted, as now, to the
Masters and Wardens of the subordinate lodges, acting in the capacity of
delegates or representatives, but was composed, as Preston has observed,