ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY
AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
By
Albert Gallatin Mackey, M. D.
C
C
The third letter of the English alphabet, which was not known in the Hebrew, Phoenician, or early Aryan languages.
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CAABA or KAABA
Arabic word Ka'abah for cubic building. The square building or temple in Mecca. More especially the small cubical oratory. within, held in adoration by the Mohammedans, as containing the black stone said to have been given by an angel to Abraham. The inner as well as the outer structure receives its name from Ka'ab, meaning cube (see Allah).
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CABALA
This word is frequently written Kabbala, which see. CABALA. The mystical philosophy or theosophy of the Jews is called the Cabala. The word is derived from the Hebrew Kabal, signifying to receive, because it is the doctrine received from the elders. It has sometimes been used in an enlarged sense, as comprehending all the explanations, maxims, and ceremonies which have been traditionally handed down to the Jews; but in that more limited acceptation, in which it is intimately connected with the symbolic science of Freemasonry, the Cabala may be defined to be a system of philosophy which embraces certain mystical interpretations of Scripture, and metaphysical and spiritual beings. In these interpretations and speculations, according to the Jewish doctors, were enveloped the most profound truths of religion, which, to be comprehended by finite beings, are obliged to be revealed through the medium of symbols and allegories.
Buxtorf (Lexicon of the Talmud) defines the Cabala to be a secret science, which treats in a mystical and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelical, theological, celestial, and metaphysical; the subjects being enveloped in striking symbols and secret modes of teaching. Much use is made of it in the advanced degrees, and entire Rites have been constructed on its principles. Hence it demands a place in any general work on Freemasonry.
In what estimation the Cabala is held by Jewish scholars, we may learn from the traditions which they teach, and which Doctor Ginsburg has given in his exhaustive work ( Kabbalah, page 84) in the following words:
The Cabalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall, the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to furnish the protoplasts With the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems.
Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science, the lawgiver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and the frequent miseries oi the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy.
This constitutes the former the man, and the latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were first initiated into the Cabalah. No one, however, dared to write it down till Simon ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple. Having been condemned to death by Titus, Rabbi Simon managed to escape with his son, and concealed himself in a cavern, where he remained for twelve years. Here in this subterranean abode, he occupied himself entirely with the contemplation of the sublime Cabalah, and was constantly visited by the prophet Elias, who disclosed to him some of its secrets, which were still concealed from the theosophical Rabbi. Here, too, his disciples resorted to be indicated by their master into these divine mysteries, and here Simon ben Jochai expired with this heavenly doctrine in his mouth, whilst discoursing on it to his disciples. Scarcely had his spirit departed, when a dazzling light filled the cavern, so that no one could look at. the Rabbi; whilst a burning fire appeared outside, forming as it were a sentinel at the entrance of the cave, and denying admittance to the neighbors. It was not till the light inside, and the fire outside, had disappeared, that the disciples perceived that the lamp of Israel was extinguished.
As they were preparing for his obsequies, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, " Come ye to the marriage of Simon ben Jochai; he is entering into peace, and shall rest in his chamber!" A flame preceded the coffin, which seemed enveloped by and burning like fire. And when the remains were deposited in the tomb, another voice was heard from heaven, saying, "This is he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms to shake! " His son, Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, as well as his disciples, then collated Rabbi Simon ben Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar, that is, Splendor, which is the grand storehouse of Cabalism.
The Cabala is divided into two kinds, the Practical and the Theoretieal. The Practical Cabala is occupied in instructions for the construction of talismans and amulets, and has no connection with Masonic science.
The Theoretical Cabala is again divided into the Dogmatic and the Literal. The Dogmatic Cabala is the summary of the rabbinical theosophy and philosophy.
The Literal Cabala is the science which teaches a mystical mode of explaining sacred things by a peculiar use of the letters of words, and a reference to their value. Each of these divisions demands a separate attention.
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I. THE DOGMATIC CABALA
The origin of the Cabala has been placed by some scholars at a period posterior to the advent of Christianity, but it is evident, from the traces of it which are found in the Book of Daniel, that it arose at a much earlier day. It has been supposed to be derived originally from the system of Zoroaster, but whether its inventors were the contemporaries or the successors of that philosopher and reformer it is impossible to say. The doctrine of emanation is, says King (Gnostics, page10), "the soul, the essential element of the Cabala; it is likewise the essential element of Zoroastrism. " But as we advance in the study of each we will find important differences, showing that, while the idea of the Cabalistic theosophy was borrowed from the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the Persian sage, it was not a copy, but a development of it.
The Cabalistic teaching of emanation is best understood by an examination of the doctrine of the Sephiroth. The Supreme Being, say the Cabalists, is an absolute and inscrutable unity, having nothing without him and everything within him. He is called, En Soph, meaning the Infinite one. In this infinitude he cannot be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in words intelligible by human minds, so as to make his existence perceptible. It was necessary, therefore, that, to render himself comprehensible, the En Soph should make himself active and creative. But he could not become the direct creator ; because, being infinite, he is without will, intention, thought, desire, or action, all of which are qualities of a finite being only. The En Soph, therefore, was compelled to create the world in an indirect manner, by ten emanations from the infinite light which he was and in which he dwelt.
These ten emanations are the ten Sephiroth, or Splendors of the Infinite One, and the way in which they were produced was thus: - At first the En Soph sent forth into space one spiritual emanation. This first Sephirah is called Kether, meaning the Crown, because it occupies the highest position. This first Sephirah contained within it the other nine, which sprang forth in the following order: At first a male, or active potency, proceeded from it, and this, the second Sephirah, is called Chocmah or Wisdom. This sent forth an opposite, female or passive potency, named Binah or Intelligence. These three Sephiroth constitute the first triad, and out of them proceeded the other seven.
From the junction of Wisdom and Intelligence came the fourth Sephirah, called Chesed or Mercy. This was a male potency, and from it emanated the fifth Sephirah, named Giburah or Justice.
The union of Mercy and Justice produced the sixth Sephirah, Tiphereth or Beauty; and these three constitute the second triad. From the sixth Sephirah came forth the seventh Sephirah, Nitzach or Firmness. This was a male potency, and produced the female potency named Hod or Splendor. From these two proceeded Isod or Foundation; and these three constituted the third triad of the Sephiroth. Lastly, from the Foundation came the tenth Sephirah, called Malcuth or Kingdom, which was at the foot of all, as the Crown was at the top.
This division of the ten Sephiroth into three triads was arranged into a form called by the Cabalists the Cabalistic Tree or the Tree of Life, as shown in the diagram.
In this diagram the vertical arrangement of the Sephiroth is called Pillars. Thus the four Sephiroth in the center are called the Middle Pillar; the three on the right, the Pillar of Mercy; and the three on the left, the Pillar of Justice.
They allude to these two qualities of God, of which the benignity of the one modifies the rigor of the other, so that the Divine Justice is always tempered by the Divine Mercy. C. W. King, in his Gnosties (page 12), refers the right-hand pillar to the pillar Jachin, and the left-hand pillar to the Pillar Boaz, which stood at the porch of the Temple; and "these two pillars", he says, "figure largely amongst all the secret societies of modem times, and naturally so for these Illuminati have borrowed, without understanding it, the phraseology of the Cabalists and the Valentinians." But an inspection of the arrangement of the Sephiroth will show, if he is correct in his general reference, that he has transposed the pillars. Firmness would more naturally symbolize Boaz or strength, as Splendor would Jachin or Establishment.
These ten Sephiroth are collectively denominated the archetypal man, the Microcosm, as the Greek philosophers called it, and each of them refers to a particular part of the body.
Thus the Crown is the head; Wisdom, the brain; and Intelligence, the heart, which was deemed the seat of understanding. These three represent the intellectual; and the first triad is therefore called the Intellectual World. Mercy is the right arm, and Justice the left arm, and Beauty is the chest. These three represent moral qualities; and hence the second triad is called the Moral World. Firmness is the right leg, Splendor the left leg, and Foundation the privates. These three represent power and stability; and hence the third triad is called the Material World. Lastly, Kingdom is the feet, the basis on which all stand, and represents the harmony of the whole archetypal man. Again, each of these Sephiroth was represented by a Divine name and by an Angelic name, which may be thus tabulated:
Sephiroth ........ Divine Names ........ Angelic Names
Crown ............. Eheyeh .................. Chajoth
Wisdom .......... Jah ........................ Ophanim
Intelligence ..... Jehova .................. Arelin
Mercy ............. El .......................... Cashmalim
Justice ............ Eloha .................... Seraphim
Beauty ............ Elohim .................. Shinanim
Firmness ......... Jehovah Sabaoth ... Tarshishim
Splendor ......... Elohim Sabaoth .... Beni Elohim
Foundation ..... El Chai ................. Ishim
Kingdom ......... Adonai ................ Cherubim
These ten Sephiroth constitute in their totality the Atzilatic World or the World of Emanations, and from it proceeded three other worlds, each having also its ten Sephiroth, namely, the Briatic World or the World of Creation; the Jetziratic World or the World of Formation ; and the Ashiatic World or the World of Action: each inhabited by a different order of beings.
But to enter fully upon the nature of these various worlds would carry us too far into the obscure mysticism of the Cabala. The ten Sephiroth, represented in their order of ascent from the lowest to the highest, from the Foundation to the Crown, forcibly remind us of the system of Mystical Ladders which pervaded all the ancient as well as the modern initiations; the Brahmanical Ladder of the Indian mysteries; the Ladder of Mithras, used in the Persian mysteries; the Scandinavian Ladder of the Gothic mysteries, and in the Masonic mysteries the Ladder of Kadosh; and lastly, the Theological Ladder of the Symbolical Degrees
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II. THE LITERAL CABALA
This division of the Cabala, being, as has already been said, occupied in the explanation of sacred words by the value of the letters of which they are composed, has been extensively used by the inventors of the advanced degrees in the symbolism of their significant words. It is divided into three species : Gematria, Notaricon, and Temura.
1. Gematria. The word, which is evidently a rabbinical corruption of the Greek geometric, is defined by Buxtorf to be "a species of the Cabala which collects the same sense of different words from their equal numerical value." The Hebrews, like other ancient nations, having no figures in their language, made use of the letters of their alphabet instead of numbers, each having a numerical value. Gematria, is therefore, a mode of contemplating words according to the numerical value of their letters.
Any two words, the letters of which have the same numerical value, are mutually convertible, and each is supposed to contain the latent signification of the other.
Thus the words in Genesis xlix, 10, "Shiloh shall come," are supposed to contain a prophecy of the Messiah, because the letters of ''Shiloh shall come, " and of "Messiah," both have the numerical value of 358, according to the above table.
By Gematria, applied to the Greek language, we find the identity of Abraxas and Mithras, the letters of each word having in the Greek alphabet the equal value of 365. This is by far the most common mode of applying the literal Cabala.
2. Notaricon is derived from the Latin notarius a shorthand writer or writer in cipher. The Roman Notarii were accustomed to use single letters, to signify whole words with other methods of abbreviation, by marks called notae. Hence, among the Cabalists, notaricon is a mode constructing one word out of the initials or finals of many, or a sentence out of the letters of a word, each letter being used as the initial of another word. Thus of the sentence in Deuteronomy xxx, 12, "Who shall go up for us to heaven?" in Hebrew, the initial letters of each word are taken to form the word circumcision, and the finals to form Jehovah; hence it is concluded that Jehovah hath shown circumcision to be the way to heaven. Again : the six letters of the first word in Genesis, ''in the beginning, " are made use of to form the initials of six words which constitute a sentence signifying that "In the beginning God saw that Israel would accept the law,"
3. Temura is a rabbinical word which signifies permutation. Hence temura is a Caballstic result produced by a change or permutation of the letters of a word.
Sometimes the letters are transposed to form another word, as in the modern anagram ; and sometimes the letters are changed for others, according to certain fixed rules of alphabetical permutation, the first letter being placed for the twenty-second the second for the twenty-first, the third for the twentieth, and so on. It is in this way that Babel, is made out of Sheshach, and hence the Cabalists say that when Jeremiah used the word Sheshach, xxv, 26, he referred to Babel.
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CABALISTIC COMPANION
A degree found in the archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophical Rite of France.
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CABIRI
or CABEIRI. A group of minor Greek, deities (the name signifying great Gods) having the protection of sailors and vessels at sea. Worshipped at Lemnos, Samothrace, Thessalia, Bocotia, etc., as early as the fifth century. Initiation into their mysteries portrayed passage through death to a higher live. Many of the ancient deities believed to have been members of the Cabiri such as Pluto, proserpine, Mercury, the sons of Vulcan, the sons of Jupiter, etc. (see An Encyclopedia of occultism, Lewis Spence, New York, 1920, page 83).
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CABIRIC MYSTERIES
The Cabiri were gods who' worship was first established in the island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries were practiced. The gods called the Cabiri were originally two, and afterward four, in number, and are supposed by Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, iii, 342) to have referred to Noah and his three sons, the Cabiric Mysteries being a modification of the arkite worship.
In these mysteries there was a ceremony called the "Cabiric Death," in which was represented amid the groans and tears and subsequent rejoicing of the initiates, the death and restoration to life of Cadmillus, the youngest of the Cabiri. The legend recorded that he was slain by his three Brethren, who afterward fled with his virile parts in a mystic basket. His body was crowned with flowers, and was buried at the foot of Mount Olympus. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the legend as the sacred mystery of a brother slain by his brethren, or in the original as frater trucidatus à fratribus.
There is much perplexity connected with the subject of these mysteries, but it is generally supposed that they were instituted in honor of Atys, the son of Cybele or Demeter, of whom Cadmillus was but another name. According to Macrobius, Atys was one of the appellations of the sun, and we know that the mysteries were celebrated at the vernal equinox. They lasted three days, during which they represented in the person of Atys, or Cadmillus, the enigmatical death of the sun in winter, and his regeneration in the spring. In all probability, in the initiation, the candidate passed through a drama, the subject of which , was the violent death of Atys. The Cabiric Death was, in fact, a type of the Hiramic, and the legend, so far as it can be understood from the faint allusions of ancient authors, was very analogous in spirit and design to that of the Third Degree of Freemasonry.
Many persons annually resorted to Samothrace to be initiated into the celebrated mysteries, among whom are mentioned Cadmus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Ulysses. Jamblichus says, in his Life of Pythagoras, that from those of Lemnos that sage derived much of his wisdom. The mysteries of the Cabiri were much respected among the common people, and great care was taken in their concealment. The priests made use of a language peculiar to the Rites. The mysteries were in existence at Samothrace as late as the eighteenth year of the Christian era, at which time the Emperor Germanicus embarked for that island, to be initiated, but was prevented from accomplishing his purpose by adverse winds.
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CABLE TOW
The word tow signifies, properly, a line wherewith to draw. Richardson (Dictionary) defines it as " The word is purely Masonic, and in some writings of the early part of the eighteenth century we find the expression cable rope. Prichard so uses it in 1730. The German word for a cable or rope is kabeltauw, and thence our cable tow is probably derived.
In its first inception, the cable tow seems to have been used only as a physical means of controlling the canidate, and such an interpretation is still given in the Entered Apprentice's Degree. But in the Second and Third Degrees a more modern symbolism has been introduced, and the cable tow is in these grades supposed to symbolize the covenant by which all Freemasons are tied, thus reminding us of the passage in Hosea (xi, 4), "1 drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love."
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CABLE TOW'S LENGTH
Gädieke says that, "according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow." The old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes called a cable's length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice. But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable ability.
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CABUL
A district containing twenty cities which Solomon gave to Hiram, King of Tyre, for his assistance in the construction of the Temple. Clark (Commentary and Critical Notes) thinks it likely that they were not given to Hiram so that they should be annexed to his Tyrian dominions, but rather to be held as security for the money which he had advanced.
This, however, is merely conjectural. The district containing them is placed by Josephus in the northwest part of Galilee, adjacent to Tyre. Hiram does not appear to have been satisfied with the gift ; why, is uncertain. Kitto thinks because they were not situated on the coast. A Masonic legend says because they were ruined and dilapidated villages, and in token of his dissatisfaction, Hiram called the district Cabul. The meaning of this word is not known. Josephus, probably by conjecture from the context, says it means unpleasing. Hiller and, after him, Bates (Dictionary) suppose that the name is derived from a combination of letters meaning as and nothing. The Talmudic derivation from "tied with fetters", is described by Brother Mackey as Talmudically childish. The dissatisfaction of Hiram and its results constitute the subject of the legend of the Degree of Intimate Secretary in the Scottish Rite.
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CAGLIOSTRO IN ANTIQUITY
Beginning on page 170 is down in more than needed volume the wretched story of Cagliostro, and now that this glossy charlatan, the gold frogs on his clothes and the self-invented title on his visiting card , has become a ghost in which no living interest remains there would be no warrant to add further facts to a surfeit of facts were it not that the article on page 170 does not contain one fact which was not available before Bros. Rylands and Firebrace published their great two-volume history of the Lodge of Antiquity.
This fact is important, and is here emphasized as such, because it sets the records straight as regards what regular Freemasonry felt about Cagliostro When Cagliastro was bodily present.
Because he had been made a Mason in a French speaking Lodge in London (see page170) Cagliostro felt he had the right to visit Antiquity, and did so on the night of Nov. 1, 1786. This year fell in that (for Antiquity ) unhappy period when there were two Antiquity Lodges; one under the leadership of William Preston and comprising the larger and most solid portion of the membership and which was acting as head of the Grand Lodge of all England South of the River Trent; the other "the Northouck Lodge," so-called from the leader who had occasioned the division. Cagliostro was accompanied by a train of his friends, some of them, had only the Brethren known it at the time, not regular Masons but members of Cagliostro's Clandestine Egyptian Rite, which he had invented as a scheme for exploiting Masons, and made, up, as were his other claims and titles, out of his own head. A newspaper reported the meeting, in substance, thus: A few at least among "Northouck's members" resented the charlatan's presence, and one of them, Bro. Marsh, found ingenious means of saving his Lodge from a compromising and embarrassing contretemps.
Bro. Marsh, called upon for a song, with a devilishly witty ingenuity substituted an act, which portrayed a "traveling physician" (a quack) and played it out at Cagliostro's elbow. The effect was devastating; the audience (except for the visitors) was in an uproar of laughter. Cagliostro withdrew.
This was a cartoon in prose, and the Lodge passed a formal Resolution to condemn it as a misrepresentation. What actually occurred in the Meeting the Minums do not tell, but whatever it was the "Count's" prestige, gold frogs and all, was ruined Masonically.
(The Trowbridge book referred to on page171 continues to be among the best-read, but to it may be added other titles: Romantic Rascals, by Charles J. Finger; MacBride; New York. Count Cagliostro, by Constantin Photiades; Rider & Co. ; 1932. Le Matre Inconnu Cagliostro, by Dr. Marc Haven; Dorbon-Aire; Paris; a very elaborate bibliography. See Vol. II, by Firebrace, in Reccrds of the Lodge of Anliquily.)
Aside from manufacturing his spurious Egyplian Rite, Cagliostro had no part in regular Freemasonry except to join a French-speaking London Lodge. What the Inquisition found out about him nobody knows, but the trial itself shocked France by exposing the sinister methods still in use by the Roman hierarchy, and in its total effects, and as precipitating a nation-wide social crisis, ranks with the Dreyfus, Rasputin (Russian), and Taxil cases. Dumas wrote a novel about Cagliostro in The Diamond Necklace; and Frank King collects a number of illuminating facts in The Last of the Sorcerers. To a Masonic community as far from Paris as is American Masonry there is not much of either profit or comfort in the case, unless it be that at this distance it lays a red underline beneath the danger confronting any Masonic Jurisdictions which permit degree making and degree mongering, disguised as Masonry, to go unchecked or unchallenged. Bro. Marsh's performance was a commentary not altogether malapropos.
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CALENDARS, MASONIC
The calendars given on page 172 ff. are in use by modern bodies of Speculative Freemasonry, and the datings are self-confessedly of modern origin. They are based on the date of the Creation as 4004 B.C. as written into the margin of the Authorized Version of the Bible by Archbishop Usher in 1611. This date had been nowhere in general use prior to that time, and afterwards was never accepted by many chronologists. A work of encyclopedic informativeness on the calendars in use during the whole of the Operative and the Transition Periods of Freemasonry is Mediaeval Kalendarium, by R. F. Hampton, two volumes; London; 1841. It covers the Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries. In a period before calendars and almanacs came into general use it was widely employed as a handbook on matters of many kinds which have to do with the calendar. It contains much folklore; many pages on the Sts. John, lists of Saints' Days; and, as illustrative of what was said above, gives in one chapter a long list of the estimates of the date of Creation as computed by authorities at different times, among them being: Scaliger, 3950 B.C.; Petavius, 3984 B.C.; Ricciola, 4063 B.C.; Eusebius, 5200 B.C.; Alphonsine Tables, 6934 B.C.
There is no evidence to show that Operative Masons ever adopted a given date, or ever found use for one; moreover they had scarcely any conception of such a thing as a calendar, but fixed dates by reference to Saints' Days, Church festivals, the reign of Kings, and memorable local events-a flood, a fire, a battle, etc.
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CALIPH OF BAGDAD, THE
This most Widely-read of Masonic novels was written by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. He was born at Waterville, Maine (the native State of a score of eminent Masons), June 5, 1823, the first of nine children. He moved to Malden, Mass., where his father was Universalist pastor, and a friend of Bro. Hosea Ballou, and lived there ten years ; in 1838 he moved to Waltham, Mass., from which, in 1841, he joined the Navy. Returned, he took up journalism, and for forty years was on the staff of the New York Ledger, an old-fashioned newspaper which published stories and essays. He was made a Mason in Oxford Lodge, Norway, Me., in 1854, and was its Worshipful Master five times. He was exalted in 1859; Knighted in Boston in 1872, and in 1874 was made 32 in the same city. He published three Masonic stories in the New York Ledger in 1858-1874. Sea stories, Oriental stories, Masonic stories, and religious stories were his forte. A new edition of the Caliph of Bagdad was published by Geo. H. Doran; New York.
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CANDID DISQUISITION, A
Wellins Calcott (see page 172) saw in Freemasonry something more than a museum of Medieval relics, and more than a set of convivial clubs, and undertook to write a rational, or philosophy, on the Craft, becoming thereby the first of a line of greatly distinguished Craftsmen, in which were to stand Hutchinson, Preston, Oliver, Mackey. He was born at a date not discoverable in available books; in the Minutes of one Lodge he is described as "a native of Shrewsbury, county of Salop," in another as from "Salop in Cheshire." At some date in probably the late 1750's he published A Collection of Thoughts, a volume half of quotations and half of his own meditations, a type of book dear to readers in that period. He had 1600 subscriptions for it before printing; and it went through five editions. In 1769 (and with 1200 subscribers) he published A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the Most Honorable society of Free and Accepted Masons, etc. Oliver described this book, so simple, so gentle in spirit, and with few obvious displays of the classical learning behind it, "the gem of the period." Kenning describes Calcott: "Indeed he may fully be called the father of the Masonic philosophical and didactic school." Hughan characteristically valued it because it contained a list of Boston Lodges, as follows : under the Provincial Grand Lodge headed by John Rowe: Master's, First, Second, Rising Sun; and under the Scottish Provincial Grand Lodge under Joseph Warren: St. Andrew's, Lodge No. 2: and under an Ancient Grand Lodge Warrant: Ancient York, No. 169. Calcott was twice in America, both times in the Carolinas, possibly in New York or Boston. He must have been a wandering man, perhaps one of those impracticable, learned men ungifted with the sense of trade or of money, for we can track him in Scotland and England from Lodge to Lodge, going about like a colporteur to distribute his Candid Disquisitions. He was three times in St. David Lodge, No. 30, and became member by affiliation, during 1761 and 1762. Was Worshipful Master of Holywell Lodge, in England. He visited Lodge St. John Kilwinning, Haddington, No. 57, in 1761. He was in Phoenix Lodge, No. 94, in Sunderland, in 1779, when the Minutes describe him as "from Carolina," and gave a Third Degree Lecture. In his Preston Lecture for 1928, John Stokes says: "Many of the words and phrases used in his lectures were adopted by Hemming and made part of the Ritual which we use today." It is a romantic fact (and Freemasonry is fuII of them) that words written down in 1750 or 1760 by this only half-known, gentle, much wandering man, two or three times described in Lodge Minutes as "in unfortunate circumstances," should afterwards be on the tongues of millions of men who have never so much as heard his name !
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CATASTROPHES, MASONIC RELIEF OF
During the period of five years from1923 to1928 inclusive the Fraternity in the United States was called upon to raise funds for relief no fewer than five times: the Japanese earthquake of 1923; the Florida hurricane of 1926; the Mississippi flood of 1927; the Porto Rico hurricane of 1928; the Florida hurricane of 1928. on each of these occasions the Masonic Service Association acted as a unit for the Grand Lodges holding membership in it; other non-member Grand Lodges used it as an agency through which to distribute their funds; the remaining Grand Lodges sent their funds directly to Masonic bodies or other agencies at the scene of the disaster. The total amount of monies raised by Masonic Bodies of each and every Rite has never been computed; the amounts reported as passing through the hands of the Masonic Service Association, or passing through other hands but reported by it were as follows : for the Japanese earthquake, $15,777 the Florida hurricane of 1926, $111,652; the Mississippi flood in 1927, $605,603; the Porto Rico hurricane of 1928, $81,774; the Florida hurricane of 1828 $107,622.
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CATECHISMS, THE OLD
The Early Masonic Calechismus by Douglas Knoop, G. P. Jones, and Douglas Harner (Manchester University Press; 1043) is the first book-length (200 pages) analysis of those unfamiliar but important documents which are called the Old Catechisms. The authors describe them as having been originally "mainly conceded with the form of giving the Mason Word, and the quostion and answers used to test persons claiming to have the Mason Word." There are Masons still living in America who can recall a wide-spread use of "test questions," some of which were of archaic form, and which on the surface had no apparent connection with the Ritual. Something of the same sort was in use in the Eighteenth Century (and perhaps a half century or so earlier); a few of them, and possibly the elaborate ones, were written or printed. They are useful for the data they contain, or imply, about the Esoteric Work. The authors of Early Masonic Catechismus have collected everything thus far discovered about nine written catechisms and seven printed ones. Of the former: Edinburgh Register House MS., 1696. Chetwode Crawley MS., circa 1700. Sloane MS. 3529, Circa. 1700. Dumfries No. 4 MS., circa 1700 Trinity College Dublin MS., 1711. Institution of Free Masons circa 1725. Graham MS., 1726. Chesham MS., circa 1740. Essex MS., circa 1750. Of the printed ones: A Mason's Examination, 1723. The grand Mystery of Free-Masons Discovered , 1725. The Whole Institutions of Free-Masons Opened 1725. The Grand Mustery Laid Open, 1726. A Masons Confession, 1725. The Mystery of Freemasonry, 1730 Prichards Masonry Dissected, 1730.
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CATHEDRALS, AMERICAN
The Cathedral of St. John The Devine In New York City was built according to the designs and methods used by Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages as nearly as modern knowledge, skill and circumstances made it possible. Except that its founder, Bishop Henry C Potter, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was an active Freemason, this first American cathedral, properly and strictly so called (architecturally), has received little attention from the American Fraternity, though each year an increasing number of Masons visit it to see with their own eyes what kind of work had been done by the founders of their own Craft. The second genuinely Gothic cathedral to be erected on the Continent, the National Cathedral at Washington, has been in a different case, for so many Grand Bodies have taken a share in building it that they must in the future ever feel a small sense of proprietorship in it.
A charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation was granted by Congress in 1893. A cathedral close of 65 acres was purchased on Mount Saint Alban, 400 feet above the general level of Washington, D.C. Its central tower will stand higher in the sky than the Washington Monument ; it and the Washington Masonic Memorial (Freemasonry's own national cathedral) will be in full view of each other. Washington had expressed a hope for "a church for national purposes," I'Enfant had embodied it in his city plan; the National Cathedral is a realization of their dreams.
The bodies of Admiral Dewey, President Wilson, and Bishop Satterlee already are entombed in it; in the course of time it may become another Westminster Abbey. There will be in it a Masonic Section, as planned for by Bro. and Bishop James E. Freeman; hundreds of Masons or Masonic Bodies have paid for stones to be used in it. A Masonic Committee of the National Cathedral Association was formed, led by Bro. John H. Cowles, head of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction; the Rt. Rev. James E. Freeman, Bishop of Washington, Honorary Chairman.
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CENSORSHIP
The Roman Popes set up systems of censorship long before the invention of printing, and when even hand-written manuscripts were very scarce and were too expensive for general use ; it censored also symbols, statues, pictures, music, speeches, ceremonies and pageants-it even tried to censor games and dances, and more than once went so far as to undertake the censorship of women's dress!-one of the favorite subjects of many of the bachelor Popes, and a principal theme of the sermons of the great preacher, Chrysostom. From the early days of the Christian religion down to the present moment the system of censorship of the Roman Church has rested on a single principle : it claims for itself the exclusive right to decide what is true and what is not true. Kings, princes, barons, Lords, the heads of great commercial companies, and the heads of colleges and universities, these also have employed censorship as a means of control and of preventing unorthodox words or practices. The American Revolution and the French Revolution between them were the first to overthrow this system which is as pernicious and inhuman in its own way as slavery was in another way. Today the bureau of the Roman Censorship publishes thick volumes of its Index, which are little more than titles of condemned books; many Masonic titles are among them, as also are titles by Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and a long list of names equally celebrated of men who have believed that facts and realities decide what is true and is not true (the many Papal condemnations of the doctrine of the sphericity of the earth had no effect on the shape of the planet)!
When the Mother Grand Lodge of England (1717) set up a censorship of Masonic books, that is, books about Masonry written by Masons, it was acting according to received custom. That censorship continued until late in the century, when it went by default, and is not likely ever to be revised, because a censored Mason and a Freemason are a contradiction in terms; for if a Mason can be trusted to be loyal to the Craft in his behavior, so can he be trusted not to betray or to misrepresent it in what he says and writes. (On Church censorship the standard work is Censorship of the Church of Rome, by George Haven Putnam; S. P. Putnam's Sons; New York; 1906.)
*
CHARLEMAGNE
The paragraph about Charlemagne on page 195 makes note of the tradition that he had a school for Masons in his castle at Aix-la-ChapeIle (Aachen). To this may be added two other points at which he enters the circle of Masonic studies:
1. Beginning at line 576 the Cooke MS. refers to a Carolus Secundus, that is, Charles the Second; and in 590 ff. goes on to say that he was a King who loved Masons and cherished them and gave them charges and manners of which some are still in use in France, and ordained for them an annual assembly "and for to be ruled by matters & fellows of alle thyngs a-mysse." It is likely that Charles the Bold (840-77 A.D.) is here referred to ; but some commentators believe rather that it refers to Charlemagne, and if so it explains the origin of the tradition referred to in the above paragraph.
2. In Medieval wall paintings and stained glass windows the conventionalized picture of Charlemagne represents him as a large, bearded, Moses-like figure, carrying the model of a cathedral in the crook of his arm. In a few French Medieval manuscripts this cathedral at Aix is described as "our Solomon's Temple," Charlemagne is "our Solomon," and the knowledge and skill showed in building it is described "as Solomon's art."
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CHAUCER AND FREEMASONRY
For some centuries the Kings of England had a general overseer to manage and to supervise their own many and often very large building operations, and to act in the King's name when Royal supervision of any other building enterprise might be called for, such officials being called at times Commissioner, Supervisor, Chief Clerk, etc. Elias de Dereham and William of Wykeham were two of the more famous ''surveyors''; as also were, at a later time, Inigo Jones, who introduced the Palladian style from Italy into England, and Christopher Wren.
Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, held the office late in the Fourteenth Century. On page 67, of the Transactions of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research, Vol. 19-21 (for 1928-31) was quoted a document which Chaucer issued and signed:
(3) Bill of Geodffrey Chaucer, Clerk of the King's Works, to be Chancellor, for the issue of a commission under the Great Seal to Hugh Swayn to purvey stone, timber, tiles, shingles, &c. and to take masons, carpenters, and others for the works at Westminster, Sheen, Kennington, Charing Mews, Byfleet, Coldkennington, Clarendon and Hathebergh Lodge; and of similar commissions to three others for the works of the Tower of London, Berkhampstead, Childeme Langley, and Eltham. (A.D.1389. French. Probably holograph.) Signed :- Par GeoEray Chaucer, clerc des cevereines du roy nostre seignur.
Traces of signet. (Chancery Warrants 1. 1660 a No. 26)
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales also establish a link, though a less obvious one, between the poet and the Craft of Masons. The Masons' Company in London, with which Chaucer had official connections, sustained the St. Thomas Hospital there, left it many bequests, and often visited it in livery. Masons' Companies in two, and possibly three, other cities also helped to support local hospitals of their own named for St. Thomas and it is possible that they looked on St. Thomas as their Patron Saint. This Saint Thomas was the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket, who was murdered in his own cathedral in 1170. The fact that three knights, described at the time as "the three ruffians," murdered the fifty-three year old prelate by beating him over the head after demanding that he "give them his word," threatened to bury him in the rubbish, and that his body was buried in a spot between a memorial to John the Baptist on one side and John the Evangelist on the other, the two forming parallel lines, must have held a peculiar interest to men in the Masons' Companies, and may account for their support of St. Thomas Hospitals; and it is possible that Chauser, connected with the Mason Company in London as he was, may from that association have had his interest in Canterbury first aroused, and as a result of which he wrote in rhyme the Canterbury (St. Thomas' church) Tales.
It belongs to the in curable romanticism of Medieval England 'that this St. Thomas, England's "favorite saint,'' her most "glorious martyr," "the most English of the Saints," was by blood only half English, and half Christian. Gilbert Becket was a member of the Mercers Company, or gild, but as a young man went off on one of the Crusades to war on the infidel Saracens, was captured, was released by "a fair Saracen," a Mohammedan lady ; they fell in love, she followed him to London, professed conversion, and Thomas was their son.
Thomas learned reading and writing, went to work in the Sheriff's office, and then was employed by the King, upon whose wish, and against Thomas' own desires, he took Holy Orders expressly in order to be named Archbishop of Canterbury, where the King purposed to have a friend and supporter in that highest of ecclesiastica1offices, but discovered to his chagrin, and too late, that "he had a Tartar there."
The Mercers Company afterwards was given the land which had belonged to the senior Becket; and in the Charter given it by Henry IV in 1406 its members were named "Brothers of St. Thomas à Becket." St. Thomas was for centuries a favorite Patron Saint among the gilds and companies.
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CADET-GASSICOURT, CHARLES LOUIS
The author of the celebrated work entitled Le Tombeau de Jacques de Molay, which was published at Paris, in 1796, and in which he attempted, like Barmel and Robison, to show that Freemasonry was the source and instigator of all the political revolutions which at that time were convulsing Europe. Cadet-Gassicourt was himself the victim of political persecution, and, erroneously attributing his sufferings to the influences of the Masonic Lodges in France, became incensed against the Order, and this gave birth to his libelous book. But subsequent reflection led him to change his views, and he became an ardent admirer of the Institution which he had formerly maligned. He sought initiation into Freemasonry, and in 1805 was elected as Master of the Lodge l'Abeille in Paris. He was born at Paris. January 23, 1769, and died in the same city November 21, 1821.
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CADMILLUS
The youngest of the Cabiri, and as he is slain in the Cabiric Mysteries, he becomes the analogue or representative of the Builder in the legend of Freemasonry. '
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CADUCEUS
The Caduceus was the magic wand of the god Hermes. It was an olive staff twined with fillets, which were gradually converted to wings and serpents. Hermes, or Mercury, was the messenger of Jove. Among his numerous attributes, one of the most important was that of conducting disembodied spirits to the other world, and, on necessary occasions, of bringing them back. He was the guide of souls, and the restorer of the dead to life.
Thus, Horace, in addressing him, says:
Unspotted spirits you consign
To blissful seats and joys divine,
And powerful with your golden wand
The light unburied crowd command.
Vergil also alludes to this attribute of the magic wand
when he is describing the flight of
Mercury on his way to bear Jove's warning message to Aeneas:
His wand he takes ; with this pale ghost he calls
From Pluto's realms, or sends to Tartarus' shore.
And Statius, imitating this passage, makes the same allusion in his Thebaid (1, 314), thus translated by Lewis:
He grasps the wand which draws from hollow graves,
Or drives the trembling shades to Stygian waves ;
With magic power seals the watchful eye
In slumbers soft or causes sleep to fly.
The history of this Caduceus, or magic wand, will lead us to its symbolism. Mercury, who had invented the lyre, making it out of the shell of the tortoise, exchanged it with Apollo for the latter's magical wand. This wand was simply an olive branch around which were placed two fillets of ribbon. Afterward, when Mercury was in Arcadia, he encountered two serpents engaged in deadly combat. These he separated with his wand; hence the olive wand became the symbol of peace, and the two fillets were replaced by the two serpents, thus giving to the Caduceus its well-known form of a staff, around which two serpents are entwined.
Such is the legend; but we may readily see that in the olive, as the symbol of immortality, borne as the attribute of Mercury, the giver of life to the dead, we have a more ancient and profounder symbolism. The serpents, symbols also of immortality, are appropriately united with the olive wand. The legend also accounts for a later and secondary symbolism-that of peace.
The Caduceus then-the original meaning of which word is a herald's staff-as the attribute of a life-restoring God, is in its primary. meaning the symbol of immortality; so in Freemasonry the rod of the Senior Deacon, or the Master of Ceremonies, is but an analogue or representation of the Hermean Caduceus. This officer, as leading the aspirant through the forms of initiation into his new birth or Masonic regeneration, and teaching him in the solemn ceremonies of the Third Degree the lesson of eternal life, may well use the magic wand as a representation of it, which was the attribute of that ancient deity who brought the dead into life.
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CAEMENTARIUS
Latin. A builder of walls, a mason, from caemantum, a rough, unhewn stone as it comes from the quarry. In medieval Latin, the word is used to designate an Operative Mason.
Du Cange cites Magister Caementariorum as used to designate him who presided over the building of edifices, that is, the Master of the works. It has been adopted by some modern writers as a translation of the word Freemason. Its employment for that purpose is perhaps more correct than that of the more usual word latomus, which owes its use to the authority of Thory.
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CAGLIOSTRO
Of all the Masonic persons of romantic celebrity who flourished in the eighteenth century the Count Cagliostro was most prominent, whether we consider the ingenuity of his schemes, the extensive field of his operations through almost every country of Europe, or the distinguished character and station of many of those whose credulity made them his enthusiastic supporters.
The history of Freemasonry in that century would not be complete without a reference to this personage. To write the history of Freemasonry in the eighteenth century and to leave out Cagliostro, would be like enacting the play of Hamlet and leaving out the part of the Prince of Denmark. And yet Carlyle has had occasion to complain of the paucity of materials for such a work.
Indeed, of one so well known as Cagliostro comparatively little is to be found in print. Doctor Mackey held that there was sufficient published to prove him to be a "charlatan" and a "prince of Masonic imposters."
The authorities on which Brother Mackey rested his belief are mentioned in his following sentence. The only works upon which he who would write his life must depend are a Life of him published in London, 1787; Memoirs, in Paris, 1786 ; and Memoirs Authentiques, Strasbourg, 1786; a Life, in Germany, published at Berlin, 1787; another in Italian, published at Rome in 1791; and a few fugitive pieces, consisting chiefly of manifestoes of himself and his disciples.The widest differences exist among writers as to Cagliostro's true standing, the majority following the lead of Doctor Mackey, whose account is appended.
Joseph Balsamo, subsequently known as Count Cagliostro, was the son of Peter Balsamo and Felicia Braconieri, both of mean extraction, and was born on the 8th of June, 1743, in the city of Palermo. Upon the death of his father, he was taken under the protection of his maternal uncles, who caused him to be instructed in the elements of religion and learning, by both of which he profited so little that he eloped several times from the Seminary of St. Roch, near Palermo, where he had been placed for his instruction.
At the age of thirteen he was carried to the Convent of the Good Brotherhood at Castiglione. There, having assumed the habit of a novice, he was placed under the tuition of the apothecary, from whom he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine. His brief residence at the convent was marked by violations of many of its rules; and finally, abandoning it altogether, he returned to Palermo. There he continued his vicious courses, and was frequently seized and imprisoned for infractions of the law. At length, having cheated a goldsmith, named Marano, of a large amount of gold, he was compelled to flee from his native country.
He then repaired to Messina, where he became acquainted with one Altotas, who pretended to be a great chemist. Together they proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, where, by means of certain chemical, or perhaps rather by financial, operations, they succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of money.
In 1776 Cagliostro appeared in London. During this visit, Cagliostro become connected with the Order of Freemasonry. In the month of April he received the degrees in Esperance Lodge, No. 289, which then met at the King's Head Tavern. Cagliostro did not join the Order with disinterested motives, or at least he determined in a very short period after his initiation to use the Institution as an instrument for the advancement of his personal interests. Here he is said to have invented, in 1777, that grand scheme of imposture under the name of Egyptian Freemasonry, by the propagation of which he subsequently became so famous as the great Masonic charlatan of his age.
London did not fail to furnish him with a fertile field for his impositions, and the English Freemasons seemed no way reluctant to become his dupes; but, being ambitious for the extension of his Rite, and anxious for the greater income which it promised, he again passed over to the Continent, where he justly anticipated abundant success in its propagation. This Egypt Freemasonry constituted the great pursuit of the rest of his life, and was the instrument which he used for many years to make dupes of thousands of credulous persons.
During Cagliostro's residenee in England, on his last visit, he was attacked by the editor Morand, in the Courier de l'Europe, in a series of abusive articles, to which Cagliostro replied in a letter to the English people. But, although he had a few Egyptian Lodges in London under his government, he appears, perhaps from Morand's revelations of his character and life, to have lost his popularity, and he left England permanently in May, 1787. He went to Savoy, Sardinia, and other places in the south of Europe, and at last, in May, 1789, by an act of rash temerity, proceeded to Rome, where he organized an Egyptian Lodge under the very shadow of , the Vatican. But this was more than the Church, which had been excommunicating Freemasons for fifty years, was willing to endure. On the 27th of December of that year, on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, to whom he had dedicated his Lodges, the Holy Inquisition arrested him, and locked him up in the castle of San Angelo.
There, after such a trial as the Inquisition is wont to give to the accused-in which his wife is said to have been the principal witness against him-he was convicted of having formed'' societies and conventicles of Freemasonry." His manuscript entitled Maçonnerie Egyptienne was ordered to be burned by the public executioner, and he himself was condemned to death; a sentence which the Pope subsequently commuted for that of perpetual imprisonment. Cagliostro appealed to the French Constituent Assembly, but of course in vain.
Thenceforth no more is seen of him. For four years this adventurer, who had filled during his life so large a space in the world's history-the associate of princes, prelates, and philosophers; the inventor of a spurious Rite, which had, however, its thousands of disciples-languished within the gloomy walls of the prison of St. Leo, in the Duchy of Urbino, and at length, in the year 1795, in a fit of apoplexy, bade the world adieu. But there is another side to the foregoing account by Doctor Mackey. Some more recent writers have seriously questioned the identity of Cagliostro and Balsamo.
Both Trowbridge and Spence deem the later evidence to have proven that Cagliostro was not Balsamo. Lewis Spenee sums up the situation thus in his Encyclopedia of Occultism after a lengthy review of the various assertions of the authorities and the test of them by the ascertained facts:
"It is distinctly no easy matter to get at the bedrock truth regarding Cagliostro or to form any just estimate of his true character. That he was vain, naturally pompous, fond of theatrical mystery, and of the popular side of occultism, is most probable.
Another circumstance which stands out in relation to his personality is that he was vastly desirous of gaining cheap popularity. He was probably a little mad. On the other hand he was beneficent, and felt it his mission in the then king-ridden state of Europe to found Egyptian Masonry for the protection of society in general, and the middle and lower classes in particular. A born adventurer, he was by no means a rogue, as his lack of shrewdness has been proved on many occasions. There is small question either that the various Masonic lodges which he founded and which were patronized by persons of ample means, provided him with extensive funds and it is a known fact that he was subsidized by several extremely wealthy men, who, themselves dissatisfied by the state of affairs in Europe, did not hesitate to place their riches at his disposal for the purpose of undermining the tyrannic powers which then wielded sway.
There is reason to believe that he had in some way and at some period of his life acquired a certain working knowledge of practical occultism, and that he possessed certain elementary psychic powers of hypnotism and telepathy. His absurd account of his childhood is almost undoubtedly a plagiarism of that stated in the first manifesto to the public of the mysterious Rosicrucian Brotherhood, as containing an account of the childhood of their Chief. But on the whole he is a mystery, and in all likelihood the clouds which surround his origin and earlier years will never be dispersed. It is probably better that this should be so, as although Cagliostro was by no means an exalted character, he was yet one of the most picturesque figures in the later history of Europe; and assuredly not the least aid to his picturesqueness is the obscurity in which his origin is involved."
For further reading on the career of Cagliostro, a showing to the effect that if he was not of unalloyed honor, he was not altogether an impostor and scoundrel, consult Cagliostro: The Splendor and Mystery of a Master of Magic by W. R H, Trowbridge, and An Encyclopedia of Occukism by Lewis Spence.
Other books of reference are Cagliostro and Company, by Franz Funck-Brentano, and the Life of Joseph Balsamo, published at Dublin in 1792, the latter being translated from the original proceedings published at Rome by order of the Apostolic Chamber and therefore of especial interest as the Roman Catholic argument against one condemned by the Inquisition for being a Freemason. This report (page 239), asserts that the judgment entirely accords with justice, equity, prudence, religion, and public tranquillity.
It then runs thus: "Joseph Balsamo, attainted and convected of many crimes, and having incurred the censures and penalties pronounced against formal heretics, dogmatists, heresiarchs, and propagators of magic and superstition, has been found guilty, and condemned to the censures and penalties denounced as well by the apostolic laws of Clement XII and of Benedict XIV against those who in any manner whatever favor or form societies and conventicles of Free Masons, as by the edict of the Council of State against those who are guilty of this crime at Rome, or any other place under the dominion of the Pope.
Notwithstanding this, by way of special grace and favor, this crime, the expiation of which demands the delivery of the culprit over to the secular arm, to be by it punished with death, is hereby changed and commuted into perpetual imprisonment, in a fortress where the culprit is to be strictly guarded, without any hope of pardon whatever."
This order was carried into effect as was also the burning by "the hand of the hangman" of Cagliostro's manuscript on Egyptian Freemasonry as were all his other books, instruments, symbols, etc., relating thereto. The order also confirmed and renewed the laws of the Roman Catholic Church prohibiting societies and conventicles of Freemasons, and winds up by declaring "We shall enact the most grievous corporal punishments, and principally those provided for heresies, against whosoever shall associate, hold communication with, or protect, these societies."
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CAHIER
French. A number of sheets of parchment or paper fastened together at one end. The word is used by French Freemasons to designate a small book printed, or in manuscript, containing the ritual of a Degree. The word has been borrowed from French history, where it denotes the reports and proceedings of certain assemblies, such as the clergy, the States-General, etc.
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CAIRNS
Derived from the Gaelic can, meaning a mound, and applied thus to heaps of stones of a conical form erected by the Druids. Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments, others altars. They were undoubtedly of a religious character, since sacrificial fires were lighted upon them, and processions were made around them.
These processions were analogous to the circumambulations in Freemasonry, and were conducted, like them, with reference to the apparent course of the sun. Thus, Toland, in his Letters on the Celtic Religion, II, xvii, says of these mystical processions, that the people of the Scottish islands "never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing Cams but they walk three times round them from east to west, according to the course of the sun. This sanctified tour, or round by the south, is called Deaseal, as the unhallowed contrary one by the north, Tuapholl"; and he says that Deaseal is derived from "Deas, the right (understanding hand), and soil, one of the ancient names of the sun, the right hand in this round being ever next the heap." In all this the Freemason will be reminded of the Masonic ceremony of circumambulation around the altar and the rules which govern it.
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CALATRAVA, MILITARY ORDER OF
Instituted l158, during the reign of Sancho III, King of Castile, who conquered and gave the Castle of Calatrava, an important fortress of the Moors of Andalusia, to the Knights Templar, who subsequently relinquished their possession of it to the king.
The king, being disappointed in the ability of the Templars to retain it, then offered the defense of the place to Don Raymond of Navarre, Abbot of St. Mary of Hitero, a Cistercian convent, who accepted it. Don Raymond being successful, the king gave the place to him and his companions, and instituted the 0rder of Calatrava. A Grand Master was appointed and approved of by the Pope, Alexander III, 1164, which was confirmed by Innocent III in 1198.
The knights had been granted the power of electing their own Grand Master; but on the death of Don Gareias Lopez de Pardella, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella annexed the Grand Mastership to the Crown of Castile, which was sanctioned by Pope Innocent VIII.
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CALCOTT, WELLINS
A distinguished Masonic writer of the eighteenth century, and the author of a work published in 1769, under the title of A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons; together with some Strictures on the 0rigin, Nature, and Design of that Institution, in which he has traced Freemasonry from its origin, explained its symbols and hieroglyphics, its social virtues and advantages, suggested the propriety of building halls for the peculiar and exclusive practice of Freemasonry and reprehended its slanderers with great but judicious severity.
This was the first extended effort to illustrate philosophically the science of Freemasonry, and was followed, a few years after, by Hutchinson's admirable work ; so that Oliver justly says that ''Calcott opened the mine of Freemasonry, and Hutchinson worked it."
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CALEDONIA, NEW
See Oceania
*
CALENDAR
Freemasons, in affixing dates to their official documents, never make use of the Common Epoch or Vulgar Era, but have one peculiar to themselves, which, however, varies in the different rites. Era and epoch are, in this sense, synonymous.
Strictly, the epoch is an important point in history beginning a period termed an era, as the epoch of the Crucifixion followed by the Christian Era.
Freemasons of the York, American, and French Rites, that is to say, the Freemasons of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and America, date from the creation of the world, calling it Anno Lucis, which they abbreviate A. . L. ., signifying in the Year of Light. Thus with them the year 1872 is A.'. L.'. 5872. This they do, not because they believe Freemasonry to be coeval with the Creation, but with a symbolic reference to the light of Freemasonry.
In the Scottish Rite, the epoch also begins from the date of the creation, but Freemasons of that Rite, using the Jewish chronology, would call the year 1872 A.'. M.'. or Anno Mundi meaning in the Year of the World, 5632. They sometimes use the initials A.'. H. '., signifying Anno Hebraico, or, in the Hebrew year.
They have also adopted the Hebrew months, and the year, therefore, begins with them in the middle of September (see Months, Hebrew).
Freemasons of the York and American Rites begin the year on the lst of January, but in the French Rite it commences on the lst of March, and instead of the months receiving their usual names, they are designated numerically, as first, second, third, etc. Thus, the lst of January, 1872, would be styled, in a French Masonic document, the lst day of the 11th Masonic month, Anno Lucis, 5872. The French sometimes, instead of the initials A.'. L.'., use L'an de la V.'. L. '., or Vraie Lumiére, that is, Year of True Light.
Royal Arch Masons commence their epoch with the year in which Zerubbabel began to build the second Temple, which was 530 years before Christ.
Their style for the year 1872 is, therefore, A.'. Inv.'., that is, Anno Inventionis, or, in the Year of the Discovery, 2402.
Royal and Select Masters very often make use of the common Masonic date, Anno Lucis, but properly they should date from the year in which Solomon's Temple was completed; and their style would then be, Anna Depositionis, or, in the Year of the Deposit, and they would date the year 1872 as 2872.
Knights Templar use the epoch of the organization of their Order in 1118. Their style for the year 1872 is A.'. O.'., Anno 0rdinis, or, in the Year of the 0rder, 754.
We subjoin, for the convenience of reference, the rules for discovering these different dates.
l. To find the Ancient Craft date. Add 4000 to the Vulgar Era. Thus 1872 and 4000 are 5872.
2. To find the date of the Scottish Rite. Add 3760 to the Vulgar Era. Thus 1872 and 3760 are 5632. After September add one year more.
3. To find the date of Royal Arch Masonry. Add 530 to the Vulgar Era. Thus 530 and 1872 are 2402.
4. To find the Royal and Select Masters' date. Add 1000 to the Vulgar Era. Thus 1000 and 1872 are 2872.
5. To find the Knights Templar's. Subtract 1118 from the Vulgar Era. Thus 1118 from 1872 is 754. The following will show, in one view, the date of the year 1872 in all the branches of the Order:
Year of the Lord, 1872 A.D.-Vulgar Era.
Year of Light, A.'. L.'. 5872-Ancient Craft Masonry.
Year of the World, A.'. M.'. 5632-Scottish Rite.
Year of the Discovery, A.'. L.'. 2402-Royal Arch Masonry.
Year of the Deposit, A.'. Dep.'. 2872-Royal and Select Masters.
Year of the Order, A.'. O.'. 754-Knights Templar.
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CHARTERS AND THE OLD CHARGES
When King Henry III was in want of money to carry on his war against the Barons he announced to the Prior of the Templars that he intended to commandeer some portions of the riches with which their vaults were crowded (The Templars, the Knights of St. John, and the Church among them owned one-third of England) and in spite of the Charters he had given them, the Prior of the Templars replied: "What sayest thou, O King? Far be it that thy mouth should utter so disagreeable and silly a word. . . Thou wilt cease to be king."
The Prior took his defiant stand on his Charter, the solidest thing in the Middle Ages. Even the Tudor Kings, unafraid of man or devil, were smitten with fear at the mere thought of Charter breaking. There are in modern use contracts, deeds, charters, warrants, and similar instruments through which authority acts, and in which sovereignty resides; but no one of those documents is what a Medieval Charter was. For in the Middle Ages, a Charter was a document which possessed sovereignty, power, authority in itself, not as delegated, but as original. If a town received a Charter (a town might pay the king a large sum for one) it was thereby made a free, independent, sovereign, self-governing incorporation which could levy taxes, conscript soldiers, hold courts, execute criminals, buy, sell, or construct property; subject only to the national sovereignty it was almost a small nation.
The town of Cambridge was such a chartered incorporation; the University of Cambridge, though a school and not a city, and only a short distance from the town, also had a Charter, and therefore had its own courts and peace officers; and in the Town and Gown battles the two were more than once virtually at war with each other. If a gild of craftsmen or churchmen or merchants received a Charter, they became a self-governing unit even though they had no territory or property. Chartered Colonies, chartered trading companies like the East India, West India African Companies, were English governments in pello in foreign places. Medieval England was almost a government by Charters. Magna Carta was epoch making because it was a charter granted to the people of London; it was therefore the guarantee of the liberties named in it, and as against any King or Parliament, because it was a Charter.
It is evident from the Old MSS., the Craft's oldest existing written records, that the Freemasons, a fraternity spread over England, claimed to possess a Charter as a fraternity, and that it had been granted to them by Prince Edwin in the Tenth Century; from this "Great Charter" they claimed authority to constitute themselves as Lodges, to hold assemblies (so often forbidden by the Kings), to hold their own courts, to have their own laws, to make contracts (as often they did), to hold property, to regulate their own hours and wages, to take apprentices under bond, and to regulate their own affairs wherever one Freemason or a Lodge of them might be.
When any city, university, or society petitioned for a Charter it usually gave the grounds upon which it felt a right to ask it, and among the more common grounds were a great antiquity, a record of peaceableness, the prestige of names among its members, etc. ; the writer of the original book of the Old Charges (old MSS.), of which nearly two hundred copies have been found, sets out in the first half of his document, though with great brevity, and discontentedly, the grounds upon which the Fraternity of Freemasons had obtained a Charter from Prince Edwin. Freemasonry was ancient, because building went back to Adam; among its earliest founders (men who made the art possible) were such famous and learned men as Pythagoras and Euclid; such great kings as Charlemagne and Athelstan had been among its patrons; Freemasons had always been educated men, not lewd fellows ("lewd" meant illiterate) or churls, but lovers of the Liberal Arts and Sciences (curriculum of the schools and universities);
they had never held unlawful assemblies to conspire against lawful rulers, and it was while holding one of their lawful and peaceable assemblies that Edwin had given them their Great charter. Copies of such a charter, duly authenticated, were sufficient authority for regular Freemasons anywhere to hold local assemblies and constitute themselves into Lodges, nor could local prelates or lords forbid them.
Having thus shown the ground of authority the document then goes on to set down the set of rules and charges which, on Charter authority, the Masonic Fraternity imposed upon its membership.
Boys come to be made apprentices, though of gentle birth, need not expect that they would be in a loose and carefree circle, to act as they wished; they would be governed under strict laws. This grounding of the authority of the Craft on an original Charter is repeated in the records of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the formation of which was not attempted until after the ancient family holding the rights of Masonic Charter had made over those rights to the governing body to be.
It has been assumed by some Masonic writers that the Old charges were a mere "tradition" of legendary Graft ,,history," to be piously believed, and to be read to Apprentices to give them an impression of the Craft's antiquity; and they took the charges and the rules and regulations, to be mere by-laws of a voluntary social Fraternity, or sodality. It is submitted on the basis of facts given above that this is an error. A copy of the old Charges was a Lodge's Charter, its legal right to exist. From its Minute Book it is evident that Antiquity Lodge insisted that it never had surrendered its own Charter to the new Grand Lodge in 1717; when later it believed that the Grand Master had violated Antiquity's Charter, Antiquity withdrew and continued to work in independence for more than ten years. The new Grand Lodge was not to replace the authority inherent in each Lodge but was to supervise only such matters as lay among the Lodges. And it is certain that most of the old Lodges looked upon the Book of Constitutions as a Grand Lodge Charter, and that the old Masons (represented by fourteen members) had insisted on incorporating in it the old grounds on which the original Charter (as they believed) had been given by Prince Edwin ; so that the first half of the Book was not, as Gould and Hughan erroneously believed, a fabulous and pleasing tale or legend but a claim to original Charter authority one thousand years old.
The "new men," the "gentlemen" or "accepted" Masons who followed the Duke of Montague into the Craft in a stream, and who came into control of the Fraternity had only a sketchy knowledge of Masonry and little understanding of its ancient customs and landmarks.
They committed one fateful blunder after another One of the cardinal discoveries, as even the young and green Grand Lodge found out in thirty years was that a Grand Master, privately and personally , and at his own pleasure, could not "make" a Lodge though until 1757 he undertook to do so; for if he could make a Lodge at his own pleasure he could break a Lodge at his pleasure (and often did), could control the making of Masons and decide whom to admit etc., would leave a Lodge no authority or sovereignly of its own, and would reduce it to a number of members meeting under club rules. When the Grand Lodge ordained that Master Masons could "be made only at Grand Lodge, Masons everywhere rebelled Lodges withdrew by the score, and the erection of the Ancient Grand Lodge, no such innovator was one of the consequences.
Come to its senses the Grand Lodge( of 1757, ) began in 1757 following Ireland by two years, to issue no more Grand Master's written consents, for that is what the Deputations or Warrants had been, but Charters, documents possessing original authority in themselfs.
These charters did not create the right of Freemasons to form a Lodge, they recognized it, they were an official evidence that a given Lodge received one was deemed regular by other Lodges and entitled to be represented at Craft Assemblies in the Grand Lodge.
This means that a regular Lodge possesses inherent authority, by time immemorial rights, and not a merely provisional and delegated authority; and it is one that cannot be usurped by any faction among its own members, or by other Lodges, or by the Grand Master or by the Grand Lodge. It was this which he had in mind when Albert G. Mackey stated that Masons right to form and to assemble in Lodges is an Ancient Landmark, as indubitably it is; and it is for the same reason that Lodges are not "subordinate'' to Grand Lodge, mere local branches of it, but are constituents of it, and hence are properly called Constituent Bodies.
Thus it turns out at the end of some eight or so centuries of Masonic history that modern Speculative Freemasonry discovered what the original authors of the Old Charges knew and affirmed, that a Lodge, or assembly of Masons, without a Charter will find in experience that their Lodge and assembly is an empty vanity; and that each Lodge has inherent and alienable Charter rights.
American Masons are separated by the Atlantic Ocean and centuries of time from the Middle Ages : in the nature of things they cannot be expected to have a clear and adequate knowledge of Medieval history. The fact explains the acceptance by many American Masons of the theory, often set out in Masonic periodicals and in Grand Masters' Addresses, that the original and sovereign Masonic authority was the Holy Bible. l. During almost one-half of the total history of the Craft, Masons had no copies of the Bible. In the earliest centuries they did not, excepting only a few, even know of the existence of such a Book. They had from it only a few stories, such as Adam's fall, Noah's Ark, etc., and some portions of the New Testament, and those they had not from any text directly, but only as they were used by the Church, which had modified them out of recognition by accretions of stories and legends.
2. If there had been a Bible available, the Masons could not have been persuaded to use it by any cajolery or the direst threats, because to do so would have meant a march to the stake, or the dreaded excommunication. Holy Church forbade laymen to own or use copies of any Holy Scriptures, and often forbade laymen to read the Scriptures under any circumstances. In the eyes of the Masons It would have been an unspeakable heresy for them to employ the Scriptures in their own Lodges. They left the Church to itself; never intruded upon it or interfered with it, nor permitted it to interfere with Lodges ; they taught no religious doctrines, nor made any theological pronouncements. Masons like other men of the time were men of religion but they incorporated nothing of theology in their own Fraternity, and never have; they did not see that Church and Theology had anything more to do with the Chartered Craft of builders than with a Chartered Company of Hierohants.
3. The "book" on which Apprentices made their oath was in the beginning not the Bible but the Old Charges. In the first years of the new Grand Lodge officers of Antiquity Lodge held a copy of the Old Charges aloft on a cushion and carried it around the Grand Lodge Room, thus exhibiting the authority on which the Grand Lodge was being assembled. In the minutes of the oldest Lodges and in the engravings they printed it is seen that a copy of the Old Charges (not the Bible) is placed on a pedestal directly in front of the Master. The Bible is used in the Lodge not as an original warrant of authority and constitution, but symbolically, like the Square and Compasses, and is one of the Great Lights. Its power and authority in its own place and for its own proper use is none the less for that, but the authority on which every Lodge works is not, and never was, a religious or theological authority, but is in the written, signed, and sealed Charter which hangs on the Lodge Room walls, and which is in essence and meaning as ancient as Freemasonry itself. Whether such a Charter goes back in unbroken succession to a particular sealed document issued by Prince Edwin at York does not matter; it goes back to some written Charter, or Charters, issued to the Freemasons in the beginnings of their Fraternity.
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CHESTERFIELD AND NASH
The absence of Lord Chesterfield and Beau Nash from the Masonic histories thus far published is yet another of the proofs that no really complete Masonic history has been written. They were eminent men and Masons but so were thousands of others; their distinction is that they were leaders and spokesmen for one of the most drastic reforms by which England has ever been purged, the reform of manners. Chesterfield was asked to take the Grand East of the Ancient Grand Lodge; it is unfortunate that a journey he was about to take made it impossible because his name in the list would have been both a reminder and a monument to one of the largest services the British and American Lodges rendered their countries in the Eighteenth and the first quarter of the Nineteenth Centuries. Chesterfield's letters to his son (the family name was Dormer) circulated privately for years before they were published and became one of the classics of English literature.
In one of his histories of England, Trevelyan, summarizing hundreds of reports and findings about the manners of the Eighteenth Century, notes that between 1700 and 1725 (the first Grand Lodge was erected in 1717), somebody found a way to manufacture cheap gin ; this hard liquor replaced beer and ale, children as well as women joined the men at the pubs, and thousands increasingly began to die in delirium tremens; this' national orgy of drunkenness was at home among the other fatal vices which accompanied it: lust, uncounted prostitution, universal profanity, gambling, filth, slums, vomitarian feasts, rowdyism, mobs.
The fight against this lunatic determination of the masses to commit suicide was a grim business. To Chesterfield it was a question of life or death. Beau Nash managed to make his resort at Bath popular with the aristocracy; but he compelled the young bloods from the city and the young squires from the country to bathe every day, excluded them if drunk, stopped their profanity, and pounded into them the rudiments of manners.
The Masonic Lodges set themselves against vulgarity with thin-lipped determination. At the Lodge in Highen, wealthy and aristocratic, meeting in a dining room that one of the kings had himself designed, a member rode his horse upstairs and jumped it over the banquet table. Tilers here and there had fist fights with young bloods determined to wear their swords in Lodge. When almost every Lodge was a small circle of close friends who sat around the table while conducting the Order of Business or initiating candidates, vulgarity, quarreling, profanity were fatal to it. Minute books are filled with cases where members were fined for swearing, refused admittance for arriving "disguised with liquor," rebuked, or reprimanded or excluded for quarreling, expelled for insolence or bad manners.
The Lodges were determined to wipe out this new species of barbarism or perish in the attempt; hundreds perished, but more hundreds succeeded. For decades on both sides of the Atlantic, Lodges were schools of good manners, and the fact is more important for any history of them than whole chapters about the election of officers or the names of committees.
Washington was to American Lodges what Chesterfield had been to the English, at once the ideal and the embodiment of the gentleman Mason; if biographers and historians complain that he was too stiff, too formal, too correct it is because they do not realize the dreadful dangers both to the American Fraternity and American society there was in lust, drunkenness, and vulgarity, or how much continuing power of the will was required, as it was required of Washington himself, to stand out against it.
(The literary references for this subject, and authority for the statements made above, have never been collected into one chapter or volume; they lie in thousands of entries in the Minute Books and histories of some 200 of the oldest British and American Lodges.)
Chesterfield was very early made a Mason, probably in the Lodge which met at the Horn Tavern and had been No. 4 among the "four old Lodges" which had formed the first Grand Lodge in 1717. while on a tour in Italy he met Montesquieu and the two become fast friends. When Montesquieu was on a visit to London in the early 1720's he was made a Mason, and the indications are that since he was visiting Chesterfield he was introduced and made a Mason in Chesterfield's own Lodge. When Montesquieu helped to Set up the first Lodge in Paris in 1725 it also is probable that Chesterfield and his English friends living in Paris had a hand in it. A number of famous men in that period were initiated but took no active Part in Lodge work afterwards; not so Chesterfield and Montesquieu, both of whom were Masonic leaders for many years. (See article on MONTESQUIEU).
After the murrain of bad manners with its profanity, vulgarity, lust, gambling, and drunkenness had raged Unchecked for decades the English discovered (what every other people in a like case have discovered) that the collapse of manners leads to a plague of crime; for the end of vulgarity is not, as often thought, the decay of religion (though there is much of that) because vulgarians cling to a superstitious form of religion, but to murder, thievery, rape, robbery, mobbing, arson, piracy, etc. The English at home suddenly lost interest in their great war in France where the Duke of Marlborough was winning his famous victory of Malplaquet and began assiduously to read Addison, and Steele, and Chesterfield's Letters. This has been a mystery to many historians. The explanation is that the English at home had suddenly discovered themselves in greater danger from the flood of vulgarity in which they were engulfed than from their foreign foe, and were moving heaven and earth to stem that flood. They had to stop it or perish.
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CHINA, FREEMASONRY IN
The History of Freemasonry in Northern China: 1913-1937 Shanghai; privately printed in 1938; cloth; 435 pages. This invaluable work is bacdeker as well as history. As of 1937 there were 11 Lodges in China under Charters from the United Grand Lodge of England; five Lodges of Instruction; a District Grand Lodge of Northern China; two Mark Lodges, and one Knight Templar Body.
There was one Lodge under Irish Constitution (Shanghai). Under Scottish Charters were seven Lodges, including one Lodge of Instruction, one District Grand Lodge, two Royal Arch Chapters and one Council, one Body of Royal Order of Scotland. Under Charters from the United States there were eight Lodges; one Lodge of Instruction; one District Deputy Grand Lodge (sic); two Royal Arch Chapters; one K. T. Commandery; eight Scottish Rite Bodies, four in Shanghai and four in Peking. Under the Grand Lodge of the Philippine Islands were six Lodges, including one U. D., and one District Grand Lodge.
The eight Lodges under American charters were constituted by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, which long has led other Grand Jurisdictions in work for foreign countries, followed by New York. The Mother Lodge of America in China was Ancient Landmark Lodge, Shanghai, Chartered Dec. 14, 1864.
(The History referred to at the beginning of the paragraph above is the second of two; it was preceded by an earlier volume of the same name, and included a history of Ancient Landmarks Lodge.) In 1937 it had 95 members. Shanghai Lodge was Chartered September 14, 1904; Sinim Lodge in 1904, at Shanghai; International Lodge at Peking (Peiping) was Chartered in June, 1916; Hykes Memorial Lodge, Tientsin, was Chartered in September, 1922; Pagoda Lodge, Mukden, in March, 1926; Sungari Lodge, Harbin, in March 1929. From 1864 until 1915 the Massachusetts Lodges in China (and Manchuria) were supervised by a District Deputy Grand Master, of which there were five during the period. In 1915 the District Grand Lodge of China was formed.
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CINCINNATI, GENERAL SOCIETY OF THE
The true and authentic sources of information about this Society over which there has been so much debate ever since 1783 are in transactions, proceedings, and other papers published by the Society itself. Chief among these is Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati with the Original Institution of the Order (Sherman, printer; Philadelphia; 1847). This perpetuates in a better form a copy of the Institution that had been published in Philadelphia by John Steele, in 1785, except that it omits a number of letters included in the latter.
A sufficient amount of original sources is accumulated if to the above two brochures is added A Journal of the General Meeting of The Cincinnati in 1784, by Major Winthrop Sargent; Philadelphia; 1859. Of the storms of printed objections to the Society the most famous was Consideration of the Order of Cincinnati, by The Count De Mirabeau; London ; 1785. The plan as stated in the General Institution was to enable the officers of the Revolutionary Army to have a national society of their own with a branch in each state; that its first purpose was to perpetuate the fellowship of the army in the field, and its second purpose to give relief to the needy in its circles; it was assumed that to be a member would in itself be a military honor; and-it was this which aroused the storm of objections-"as a testimony of election to the memory and the offspring of such officers as have died in the service, their eldest male branches shall have the same right of becoming members as the children of the actual members of the society."
This constitution was adopted and the Society was formed on it at the Verplanck House, Steuben's Headquarters, near Fishkill, shortly before demobilization.
Washington was the first President-General, elected in 1787, two years before his inauguration as first President; he was succeeded by Alexander Hamilton; C. C. Pinckney; Thomas Pinckney; Aaron Ogden ; Morgan Lewis; William Popham, H. A. S. Dearborn; Hamilton Fish ; William Wayne; Winslow Warren. The last original member died in 1854. The Society is still in existence.
In the accumulated literature belonging to the Society the most valuable is a series of sermons and orations delivered before the General Societies or the State Branches between 1784 and about 1825 ; almost without exception they are discussions by able spokesmen of the nation (President Timothy Dwight of Yale was one of them), of its problems, anxieties, and of the conceptions of the American republican system and of its National Government. They are a better portrait of what was going on in the minds of responsible and representative Americans in the critical period between 1787 and 1825 than many volumes of general history.
(The documents referred to above, along with a number of others, are preserved in the Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.)
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CALIFORNIA
When gold was discovered in California many Masonic Brethren were among the crowds that poured into the district and several Lodges began work in the early part of the year 1848. Soon the question of establishing a Grand Lodge arose. A Convention met on April 18, 1850, of which Brother Charles Gilman of San Francisco was the Chairman and Brother Benjamin D. Hyam of Benicia was Secretary. The Lodges represented were California Lodge, No. 13, of San Francisco; Connecticut Lodge, No. 75, of Sacramento City ; Western Star Lodge, No. 98, of Benton City, Upper California, and New Jersey Lodge of Sacramento City. Brother Benjamin D. Hyam presented credentials from Benicia Lodge, at Benicia, but, as no Masonic information of the existence of such a Lodge could be discovered, it was not recognized. On April 19, a Constitution was adopted and Grand Officers duly elected and installed.
The first Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, namely, San Francisco, No. l, was organized by Dispensation dated May 9, 1850, and a Charter was granted to it, September 13, in the same year. Three Chapters, San Francisco, No. l, Sonora, No. 2, and Sacramento, No. 3, sent delegates to a Convention held on May 6, 1854, at Sacramento for the purpose of organizing a Grand Chapter. The meeting was adjourned, after three days' session, and met again at San Francisco, July 18, 1854. A Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge opened. Companion Charles M. Radeliff, of Sonora Chapter, No. 2, was the first Grand High Priest; Companion John D. Creigh, of San Francisco, No. l, Deputy Grand High Priest, and Companion Townsend A. Thomas, of Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, Grand Secretary.
Charters were granted by the Grand Council of Alabama to two Councils in California. One was chartered by the Grand Council of Tennessee and one by the Grand Council of Texas. By representatives of these four Councils the Grand Council of California was organized on June 26, 1860.
A Commandery of Knights Templar, San Francisco, No. l, was formed on November 10, 1852, and was chartered on November 1, 1853. Under the Warrant of Sir William Hubbard, who was then Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, the Grand Commandery of California was established, August 10 and 11, 1858, in the Asylum of San Francisco Commandery, No. 1.
A Lodge of Perfection, King Solomon, No. 3, was established by a Charter dated January 3, 1866; Robert Bruce, No. 3, a Chapter of Rose Croix, January 13, 1886; Hugues de Payens, Council of Kadosh, No. 3, January 7, 1886, and Los Angeles Consistory, No. 3, October 22, 1888. These four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite labored in South California. In North California a Chapter of Rose Croix and a Lodge of Perfection, both by name San Francisco, No. l, were chartered in 1868, the first on June 15, the second on July 13. A Council of Kadosh and a Consistory, also of the same name, were granted Charters on September 17, 1868, and June 30, 1897, respectively.
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CALLING OFF
A technical term in Freemasonry which signifies the temporary suspension of labor in a Lodge without passing through the formal ceremony of closing. The full form of the expression is to call from labor to refreshment, and it took its rise from the former custom of dividing the time spent in the Lodge between the work of Freemasonry and the moderate enjoyment of the banquet. The banquet formed in the eighteenth century an indispensable part of the arrangements of a Lodge Communication. "At a certain hour of the evening," says Brother Oliver, "with certain ceremonies, the Lodge was called from labor to refreshment, when the Brethren enjoyed themselves with decent merriment." That custom no longer exists; and although in England almost always, and in the United States occasionally, the labors of the Lodge are concluded with a banquet; yet the Lodge is formally closed before the Brethren proceed to the table of refreshment.
Calling off in American Lodges is now only used, in a certain ceremony of the Third Degree, when it is desired to have another meeting at a short interval, and the Master desires to avoid the tediousness of dosing and opening the Lodge.
Thus, if the business of the Lodge at its regular meeting has so accumulated that it cannot be transacted in one evening, it has become the custom to call off until a subsequent evening, when the Lodge, instead of being opened with the usual ceremony, is simply "called on," and the latter meeting is considered as only a continuation of the former.
This custom is very generally adopted in Grand Lodges at their Annual Communications, which are opened at the beginning of the session, called off from day to day, and finally closed at its end. We do not know that any objection has ever been advanced against this usage in Grand Lodges, because it seems necessary as a substitute for the adjournment, which is resorted to in other legislative bodies, but which is not admitted in Freemasonry. But much discussion has taken place in reference to the practice of calling off in Lodges, some authorities sustaining and others condemning it. Thus, many years ago, the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi proposed this question : ''In case of excess of business, cannot the unfinished be laid over until the next or another day, and must the Lodge be closed in form, and opened the next, or the day designated for the transaction of that business?" To this question some authorities, and among others Brother C. W. Moore (Freemasons Monthly Magazine, volume xii, No,10), reply in the negative, while other equally good jurists differ from them in opinion.
The difficulty seems to be in this, that if the regular meeting of the Lodge is closed in form, the subsequent meeting becomes a special one, and many things which could be done at a regular communication cease to be admissible. The recommendation, therefore, of Brother Moore, that the Lodge should be closed, and, if the business be unfinished, that the Master shall call a special meeting to complete it, does not meet the difficulty, because it is a well settled principle of Masonic law that a special meeting cannot interfere with the business of a preceding regular one. As, then, the mode of briefly closing by adjournment is contrary to Masonic law and usage, and cannot, therefore, be resorted to, as there is no other way except by calling off to continue the character of a regular meeting, and as, during the period that the Lodge is called off, it is under the government of the Junior Warden, and Masonic discipline is thus continued, Doctor Mackey, for the reasons cited by him in regard to Brother Moore, was clearly of opinion that calling off from day to day for the purpose of continuing work or business is, as a matter of convenience, admissible.
The practice may indeed be abused. But there is a well-known legal maxim which says, Ez abusu non arguitur in usum. "No argument can be drawn from the abuse of a thing against its use. " Thus, a Lodge cannot be called off except for continuance of work and business, nor to an indefinite day, for there must be a good reason for the exercise of the practice, and the Brethren present must be notified before dispersing of the time of reassembling; nor can a Lodge at one regular meeting be called off until the next, for no regular meeting of a Lodge is permitted to run into another, but each must be closed before its successor can be opened.
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CALLING ON
When a Lodge that is called off at a subsequent time resumes work or business, it is said to be called on. The full expression is called on from refreshment to labor.
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CALUMNY
See Back
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CALVARY
Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated due west from Mount Moriah, on which the Temple of Solomon was built. It was originally a hillock of notable size, but has, in more modern times, been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
There are several coincidences which identify Mount Calvary with the small hill where the "newly made grave," referred to in the Third Degree, was discovered by the weary Brother. Thus, Mount Calvary was a small hill ; it was situated in a westward direction from the Temple, and near Mount Moriah; and it was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and is the very spot where a weary brother, traveling on that road, would find it convenient to sit down to rest and refresh himself; it was outside the gate of the Temple; it has at least one cleft in the rock, or cave, which was the place which subsequently became the sepulcher of our Lord. Hence Mount Calvary has always retained an important place in the legendary history of Freemasonry, and there are many traditions connected with it that are highly interesting in their import.
One of the traditions is, that it was the burial place of Adam, in order, says the old legend, that where he lay, who effected the ruin of mankind, there also might the Savior of the world suffer, die, and be buried. Sir R. Torkington, who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1517, says that ''under the Mount of Calvary is another chapel of our Blessed Lady and St. John the Evangelist, that was called Golgatha; and there, right under the mortise of the cross, was found the head of our forefather, Adam." Golgotha, it will be remembered, means, in Hebrew, the place of a skull ; and there may be some connection between this tradition and the name of Golgotha, by which, the Evangelists inform us, in the time of Christ, Mount Calvary was known. Calvary, or Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin.
Another tradition states that it was in the bowels of Mount Calvary that Enoch erected his nine-arched vault, and deposited on the foundation-stone of Freemasonry that Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a symbol of Divine truth, is the great object of Speculative Freemasonry. A third tradition details the subsequent discovery of Enoch's deposit, by King Solomon, whilst making excavations in Mount Calvary during the building of the Temple.
On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer slain and buried. It was there that, rising on the third day from his sepulcher, He gave, by that act the demonstrative evidence of the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.
And it is this spot that has been selected, in the legendary history of Freemasonry, to teach the same sublime truth, the development of which by a symbol evidently forms the design of the Third or Master's Degree.
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CAMORRA
A secret society of gangsters organized about 1820 at Naples. The name is a Spanish word meaning quarrel and similar societies are reported as active in Spain before they were heard of in Italy. From local organized criminals the society grew to revolutionary power in elections and from 1848 exercised a control only broken by the government in 1877. Still powerful in defeat, the municipality of Naples as recently as 1900 was set aside by a Royal Commission.
A double murder in 1911 resulted in the arrest and trial of forty conspirators, several condemned to long imprisonment. The initiation is said to have required the candidate to pick up a coin while the others present struck at it with daggers.
Later there was a fight or duel instead of this. Training of new members lasted three years and at reception the initiate was pledged to loyalty by an oath repeated while his uplifted hand was wet with his own blood. Today the Camorra is curbed, but mysterious crimes in other lands and at home are sometimes credited to its venom (see Carbonari, Mafia, and Secret Societies).
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CAMP
A portion of the paraphernalia decorated with tents, flags, and pennons of a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, or Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
It constitutes the Tracing Board and is worn on the apron of the degree. It is highly symbolic, and represents an imaginary Masonic camp. Its symbolism is altogether esoteric.
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CAMPE, JOACHIM HEINRICH
A Doctor of Theology, and Director of Schools in Dessau and Hamburg, who was born in 1746 and died October 22, 1818. He was the author of many works on philosophy and education, and was a learned and zealous Freemason, as is shown in his correspondence with Lessing.
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CANADA
Upon the advent of Confederation, July 1, 1867, local control in each Province for the government of the Masonic Fraternity of the Dominion took a strong hold as a predominant idea, and prevailed. Each Province has now a Grand Lodge, and in order of their organization are as follows:
Canada, having jurisdiction only in Ontario, 1855; Nova Scotia, 1866; New Brunswick, 1867; Quebec, 1869; British Columbia, 1871; Manitoba, 1875; Prince Edward Island, 1875; Alberta, 1905; Saskatchewan, 1906. Brother Will H. Whyte, P. G. M., says the first marks of the ancient craftsmen have been found in Nova Scotia A mineralogical survey in 1827 found on the shore of Goat Island in the Annapolis Basin, partly covered with sand, a slab of rock 2,5 by 2 feet, bearing on it those well-known Masonic emblems, the Square and Compasses, and the date 1606. Brother Whyte concluded that who were the craftsmen and how the stone came there, must be left to conjecture.
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CANAL ZONE
Sojourners Lodge was originally constituted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the Republic of Panama. When the Canal Zone was acquired by the Government of the United States of America this Lodge, in I912, came under the control of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1912. In 1915 the Canal Zone Lodges were erected into a District Grand Lodge. A treaty was concluded in 1917 between the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and Panama whereby the former had sole jurisdiction over the Canal Zone. In 1921, the Canal Zone District Grand Lodge comprised six Lodges: Sojourners at Cristobal, Canal Zone at Ancon, Army at Corozal, Isthmian at Paraiso, Darien at Balboa and Sibert at Gatun.
On February 9, 1911, a Dispensation was issued by the General Grand Council to a Council in the Canal Zone at Ancon. This was chartered as Canal Zone Council, No. l, on September 12, 1912. The Grand Encampment of the United States authorized the Canal Zone Commandery, No. l, at Ancon, Panama, on August 14, 1913.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was first established here when Panama, No. l, at Cristoal, was constituted a Consistory, a Council of Kadosh, a Chapter of Rose Croix, and a Lodge of Perfection by Charters from the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, dated October 22, 1915.
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CANCELLARIUS
An office of high rank and responsibility among the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, performing the duties of, or similar to, the Chancellor.
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CANDIDATE
An applicant for admission into Masonry is called a candidate. The Latin candidatus means one who is clothed in white, candidis vestibus indutus. In ancient Rome, he who sought office from the people wore a white shining robe of a peculiar construction, flowing open in front, so as to exhibit the wounds he had received in his breast. From the color of his robe or toga candida, he was called candidatus, whence the word candidate. The derivation will serve to remind the Freemason of the purity of conduct and character which should distinguish all those who are candidates for admission into the Order.
The qualifications of a candidate in Freemasonry are somewhat peculiar. He must be free-born-under the English Constitution it is enough that he is a Freeman, under no bondage, of at least twenty-one years of age, in the possession of sound senses, free from any physical defect or dismemberment, and of irreproachable manners, or, as it is technically termed, under the tongue of good report. No atheist, eunuch, or Woman can be admitted. The requisites as to age, sex, and soundness of body have reference to the operative character of the Institution. We can only expect able workmen in able-bodied men.
The mental and religious qualifications refer to the duties and obligations which a Freemason contracts. An idiot could not understand them, and an atheist would not respect them. Even those who possess all these necessary qualifications can be admitted only under certain regulations which differ under the several Masonic Constitutions.
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CANDIDATES, ADVANCEMENT OF
See Advancement, Hurried
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CANDLESTICK, GOLDEN
The golden candlestick of seven branches, which is a part of the furniture of a Royal Arch Chapter, is derived from the holy candlestick which Moses was instructed to construct of beaten gold for the use of the tabernacle.
Smith (Dictionary of the Bible) thus abbreviates Lightfoot's explanation of the description given in Exodus:
"The foot of it was gold, from which went up a shaft straight, which was the middle light. Near the foot was a golden dish wrought almondwise; and a little above that a golden knop, and above that a golden flower. Then two branches one on each side bowed,- and coming up as high as the middle shaft. On each of them were three golden cups placed almondwise, in sharp, scallop-shell fashion; above which was a golden knop, a golden flower, and the socket. Above the branches on the middle shaft was a golden boss, above which rose two shafts more, above the coming out of these was another boss and two more shafts, and then on the shaft upwards were three golden scallop-cups, a knop, and a flower, so that the heads of the branches stood an equal height."
In the tabernacle, the candlestick was placed opposite the table of shewbread, which it was intended to illumine, in an oblique position, so that the lamps looked to the east and south. What became of the candlestick between the time of Moses and that of Solomon is unknown. The first Temple was lighted by ten golden candlesticks similarly embossed, which were connected by golden chains and formed a sort of railing before the veil.
These ten candlesticks became the spoil of the Chaldean conqueror at the time of the destruction of the Temple, and could not have been among the articles afterward restored by Cyrus; for in the second Temple, built by Zerubbabel, we find only a single candlestick of seven branches, like that of the tabernacle. Its form has been perpetuated on the Arch of Titus, on which it was sculptured with other articles taken by that monarch, and carried to Rome as special plunder, spolia opima, after he had destroyed the Herodian Temple. This is the candlestick which is represented as a decoration in a Royal Arch Chapter.
In Jewish symbolism, the seven branches were supposed by some to refer to the seven planets, and by others to the seventh day or Sabbath. The primitive Christians made it allusive to Christ as the Light of the World, and in this sense it is a favorite symbol in early Christian art.
Brother C. C. Hunt, Grand Secretary of Iowa, instructively discussed this subject in the Quarterly Bulletin, January, 1924, and says, in part: "The use of the seven-branched candlestick in the Most Excellent Degree is correct according to the General Grand Chapter ritual, and has, I believe, an important symbolical reference in the work of that degree.
There is no reason why the seven-branched candlestick should not be used in the Most Excellent Degree as well as in the Royal Arch. It is not necessary to duplicate the elaborate furniture of the Temple in our Most Excellent Degree. The single table and candlestick of the Tabernacle and the second Temple has the same symbolism as the ten of the first Temple. It is true that no symbolic meaning is attached to the candlestick in the ritual, but the very fact that it is used as part of the furniture of the degree indicates that it has the same symbolism there that it had in its place in the Temple, which is, that the seven lights represent the seven planets, which, regarded as the eyes of God, behold everything.
The light in the center signifies the sun, the chief of the planets. The other six planets represented by the three lamps on each side of the central light are Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus was first recognized as a planet by Sir William Herschel in 1781 A.D. and the earth was looked upon as receiving light from the planets instead of being considered a planet itself. The seven-branched candlestick was especially holy, and it was forbidden to make copies of it for general purposes.
The fourth chapter of Zechariah gives a symbolical meaning to the seven branched candlestick which is very appropriate to our Chapter work. In fact, part of this very Chapter is quoted in the work of the Degrees. How fitting it is that this candlestick, the symbol of the spirit of the Lord and the light of his countenance shining upon us through his eyes beholding and encouraging us in the noble and glorious work of fitting ourselves as living stones for the spiritual building which is to be our eternal dwelling place, should have a place in the ceremonies of the Most Excellent Master's Degree, the degree which symbolizes the completion of that work and the dedication of the Temple to the service of the only true and living God."
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CANNING, GEORGE
English statesman and orator, born April 4, 1770; died August 8, 1827; member of Parliament, 1793 ; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1807; Prime Minister of England, 1827. Brother Canning was made a Freemason in Prince of Wales Lodge, London, in 1810 (see New Age, August, 1924).
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CANOPY
Oliver says that in the Masonic processions of the Continent the Grand Master walks under a gorgeous canopy of blue, purple, and crimson silk, with gold fringes and tassels, borne upon staves, painted purple and ornamented with gold, by eight of the oldest Master Masons present ; and the Masters of private Lodges walk under canopies of light blue silk with silver tassels and fringes, borne by four members of their own respective companies.
The canopies are in the form of an oblong square, and are in length six feet, in breadth and height three feet, having a semicircular covering. The framework should be of cedar, and the silken covering ought to hang down two feet on each side. This is, properly speaking, a Baldachin (see Baldachin).
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CANOPY, CELESTIAL
Ritualists seem divided in the use of the terms Clouded Canopy and Celestial Canopy in the Entered Apprentice Degree (for the former, see Canopy, Clouded, and Covering of the Lodge). It would seem that the unclouded grandeur of the heavens should not be without advocates. Sir John Lubbock gives the following description of the heavens filled with stars in connection with the latest discoveries: "Like the sand of the sea, the stars of heaven are used as a symbol of numbers. We now know that our earth is but a fraction of one part of, at least 75,000,000 worlds. But this is not all.
In addition to the luminous heavenly bodies, we cannot doubt there are countless others invisible to us from their great distance, smaller size, or feebler light; indeed, we know that there are many dark bodies which now emit no light, or comparatively tittle.. Thus the floor of heaven is not only 'thick , inlaid with patinas of bright gold,' but studded also with extinct stars, once probably as brilliant as our own sun."
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CANOPY, CLOUDED
The clouded canopy, or starry-decked heaven, is a symbol of the Entered Apprentice Degree, and is of such important significance that Lenning calls it a "fundamental symbol of Freemasonry." In the lectures of the York Rite, the clouded canopy is described as the covering of the Lodge, teaching us, as Krause says, "that the primitive Lodge is confined within no shut up building, but that it is universal, and reaches to heaven, and especially teaching that in every clime under heaven Freemasonry has its seat." Gädieke says, "Every Freemason knows that by the clouded canopy we mean the heavens, and that it teaches how widely extended is our sphere of usefulness. There is no portion of the inhabited world in which our labor cannot be carried forward, as there is no portion of the globe without its clouded canopy."
Hence, then, the German interpretation of the symbol is that it denotes the universality of Freemasonry, an interpretation that does not precisely accord with the English and American systems, in which the doctrine of universality is symbolized by the form and extent of the Lodge. The clouded canopy as the covering of the Lodge seems rather to teach the doctrine of aspiration for a higher sphere; it is thus defined in this work under the head of Covering of the Lodge, which see.
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CANZLER, CARL CHRISTIAN
A librarian of Dresden, born September 30, 1733, died October 16, 1786. He was an earnest, learned Freemason, who published in a literary journal, conducted by himself and A. G. Meissner at Leipsic, in 1783-5, under the title of Für ältere Litteratur und neuere Lectüre, many interesting articles on the subject of Freemasonry.
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CAPE COLONY
In the days when this district belonged to the Dutch two Lodges were established by them, both of which have had successful careers.
The first of these, Lodge of Good Hope, dates from ,1772. The Grand Lodge of England established British Lodge in 1811 and the Athol Grand Lodge followed suit iu 1812 with a Lodge attached to the Tenth Battalion of the Royal Artillery.
The first Lodge erected in 1821 after the arrival of the English colonists was Hope, No. 727. South Africa is divided into Provinces, the Eastern, Western and Central Divisions, Natal and the Transvaal, by the first two of which Freemasonry in Cape Colony is controlled. There are also Provincial Grand Lodges under the Scotch, Irish and Dutch Jurisdictions. Throughout the history of the Colony there has been no antagonism between the Dutch and English Freemasons and many Brethren attend Lodges under both systems. The first Provincial Grand Master under the English Constitution was the Deputy Grand Master of the Netherlands who continued to hold both offices until he died.
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CAPE VERDE ISLANDS
Praia and St. Vincent each has possessed a Lodge, chartered by the Grand Orient of Portugal.
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CAPITULAR DEGREES
The degrees conferred under the charter of an American Royal Arch Chapter, which are Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. The Capitular Degrees are almost altogether founded on and composed of a series of events in Masonic history. Each of them has attached to it some tradition or legend which it is the design of the degree to illustrate, and the memory of which is preserved in its ceremonies and instructions. Most of these legends are of symbolic signification. But this is their interior sense. In their outward and ostensible meaning, they appear before us simply as legends.
To retain these legends in the memory of Freemasons appears to have been the primary design in the establishment of the advanced Degrees; and as the information intended to be communicated in these Degrees is of a historical character, there can of course be but little room for symbols or for symbolic instruction; the profuse use of which would rather tend to an injury than to a benefit, by complicating the purposes of the ritual and confusing the mind of the aspirant. These remarks refer exclusively to the Mark and Most Excellent Master's Degree of the American Rite, but are not so applicable to the Royal Arch, which is eminently symbolic. The legends of the second Temple, and the lost word, the peculiar legends of that degree, are among the most prominent symbols of the Masonic system.
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CAPITULAR MASONRY
The Freemasonry conferred in a Royal Arch Chapter of the York and American Rites. There are Chapters in the Ancient and Accepted, Scottish, and in the French and other Rites ; but the Freemasonry therein conferred is not called capitular.
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CAPRIPEDE RATIER ET LUCIFUGE
A burlesque dining degree, mentioned in the collection of Fustier. The title is a significant allusion to the goat-footed horned satyrs, minor deities of the Roman mythology, companions of Bacchus, living in the depths of the forest, shunning the light (see Thory, Acta Latomorum,1, 298).
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CAPSTONE
or, as it might be called, the cope-stone, the topmost brick or stone in building (but the former word has been consecrated to us by universal Masonic usage), is the topmost stone of a building. To bring it forth, therefore, and to place it in its destined position, is significative that the building is completed, which event is celebrated, even by the Operative Freemasons of the present day, with great signs of rejoicing.
Flags are hoisted on the top of every edifice by the builders engaged in its construction, as soon as they have reached the topmost post, and thus finished their labors. This is the celebration of the capstone---the celebration of the completion of the building----when tools are laid aside, and rest and refreshment succeed, for a time, labor. This is the event in the history of the Temple which is commemorated in the Degree of Most Excellent Master, the sixth in the American Rite. The day set apart for the celebration of the capstone of the Temple is the day devoted to rejoicing and thanksgiving for the completion of that glorious structure.
Hence there seems to be an impropriety in the ordinary use of the Mark Master's keystone in the ceremonies of the Most Excellent Master. That keystone was deposited in silence and secrecy; while the capstone, as the legend and ceremonies tell us, was placed in its position in the presence of all the Craft.
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CAPTAIN-GENERAL
The third officer in a Commandery of Knights, Templar. He presides over the Commandery in the absence of his superiors, and is one of its representatives in the Grand Commandery. His duties are to see that the Council Chamber and Asylum are duly prepared for the business of the meetings, and to communicate all orders issued by the Grand Council. His station is on the left of the Grand Commander, and his jewel is a level surmounted by a cock or rooster (see Cock).
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CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
The sixth officer in a Council of Royal and Select Masters. In the latter degree he is said to represent Azariah, the son of Nathan, who had command of the officers of the king's household (First Kings iv, 5). His duties correspond in some measure with those of a Senior Deacon in the primary. degrees. His post is, therefore, on the right of the throne, and his jewel is a trowel and battle-ax within a triangle.
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CAPTAIN OF THE HOST
The fourth officer in a Royal Arch Chapter. He represents the general or leader of the Jewish troops who returned from Babylon, and who was called Sar el hatzba, and was equivalent to a modern general. The word Host in the title means army. He sits on the right of the Council in front, and wears a white robe and cap or helmet, with a red sash, and is armed with a sword. His jewel is a triangular plate, on which an armed soldier is engraved.
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CAPTIVITY
The Jews reckoned their national captivities as four: the Babylonian, Medean, Greeian, and Roman.
The present article will refer only to the first, when there was a forcible deportation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan, the general of King Nebuchadnezzar, and their detention at Babylon until the reign of Cyrus, which alone is connected with the history of Freemasonry, and is commemorated in the Royal Arch Degree.
Between that portion of the ritual of the Royal Arch which refers to the destruction of the first Temple, and that subsequent part which symbolizes the building of the second, there is an interregnum or halt, if we may be allowed the term, in the ceremonial of the degree, which must be considered as a long interval in history, the filling up of which, like the interval between the acts of a play, must be left to the imagination of the spectator. This interval represents the time passed in the captivity of the Jews at Babylon. That captivity lasted for seventy years-from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar until that of Cyrus-although but fifty-two of these years are commemorated in the Royal Arch Degree. This event took place in the year 585 B.C. It was not, however, the beginning of the '"seventy years' captivity," which had been foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, which commenced eighteen years before.
The captives were conducted to Babylon. What was the exact number removed we have no means of ascertaining.
'We are led to believe, from certain passages of scripture, that the deportation was not complete. Calmet says that Nebuchadnezzar carried away only the principal inhabitants, the warriors and artisians of every kind, and that he left the husbandmen, the laborers, and in general, the poorer classes, that constituted the great body of the people. Among the prisoners of distinction, Josephus mentions the high priest, Seraiah, and Zephaniah, the priest that was next to him, with the three rulers that guarded the Temple, the eunuch who was over the armed men, seven friends of Zedekiah, his scribe, and sixty other rulers. Zedekiah, the king, had attempted to escape previous to the termination of the siege, but being pursued, was captured and carried to Riblah, the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar, where, having first been compelled to behold the slaughter of his children, his eyes were then put out, and he was conducted in chains to Babylon. A Masonic tradition informs us that the captive Jews were bound by their conquerors with triangular chains, and that this was done by the Chaldeans as an additional insult, because the Jewish Freemasons were known to esteem the triangle as an emblem of the sacred name of God, and must have considered its appropriation to the form of their fetters as a desecration of the Tetragammaton.
Notwithstanding the ignominious mode of their conveyance from Jerusalem and the vindictiveness displayed by their conqueror in the destruction of their city and Temple, they do not appear, on their arrival at Babylon, to have been subjected to any of the extreme rigors of slavery. They were distributed into various parts of the empire, some remaining in the city, while others were sent into the provinces.
The latter probably devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits, while the former were engaged in commerce or in the labors of architecture. Smith says that the captives were treated not as slaves but as colonists. They were permitted to retain their personal property, and even to purchase lands and erect houses. Their civil and religious government was not utterly destroyed, for they kept up a regular succession of kings and high priests, one of each of whom returned with them, as will be seen hereafter, on their restoration. Some of the principal captives were advanced to offices of dignity and power in the royal palace, and were permitted to share in the councils of state.
Their prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel, with their associates, preserved among their countrymen the pure doctrines of their religion. Although they had neither place nor time of national gathering, nor temple, and therefore offered no sacrifice, yet they observed the Mosaic laws with respect to the rite of circumcision. They preserved their tables of genealogy and the true succession to the throne of David.
The rightful heir was called the Head of the Captivity. So says the Talmud, but Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, affirms that the assertion is unsupported by proof. The Masonic legends conform to the Talmudic statement. However that may be, Jehoiachin, who was the first king of Judea carried captive to Babylon, was succeeded by his son Shealtiel, and he by his son Zerubbabel, who was the Head of the Captivity, or nominal prince of Judea at the close of the captivity, The due succession of the highpriesthood was also preserved, for Jehosadek, who was the high priest carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, where he died during the captivity, was succeeded by his eldest son, Joshua.
The Jewish captivity terminated in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, 536 B.c. Cyrus, from his conversations with Daniel and the other Jewish captives of learning and piety, as well as from his perusal of their sacred books, more especially the prophecies of Isaiah, had become imbued with a knowledge of true religion, and hence had even publicly announced to his subjects his belief in the God "which the nation of the Israelites worshipped." He was consequently impressed with an earnest desire to fulfil the prophetic declarations of which he was the subject, and to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. Cyrus therefore issued a decree by which the Jews were permitted to return to their country. According to Milman, 42,360, besides servants, availed themselves of this permission, and returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, their prince, and Joshua, their high priest, and thus ended the first or Babylonian captivity, the only one which has any connection with the legends of Freemasonry as commemorated in the Royal Arch Degree.
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CAPUCHIN
one of the monks of the order of ST Frances. They went barefoot, were longbearded, and wore a gown or cloak of dark color made like a woman's garment with a hood.
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CARAUSIUS
A Roman emperor, who assumed the purple 287 A.D. Of him Preston gives the following account, which may or may not be deemed apocryphal, according to the taste and inclination of the reader: "By assuming the character of a Freemason, he acquired the love and esteem of the most enlightened part of his subjects.
He possessed real merit, encouraged learning and learned men, and improved the country in the civil arts. In order to establish an empire in Britain, he brought into his dominions the best workmen and artificers from all parts ; all of whom, under his auspices, enjoyed peace and tranquillity. Among the first class of his favorites he enrolled the Freemasons: for their tenets he professed the highest veneration, and appointed Albanus, his steward, the principal superintendent of their assemblies. Under his patronage, Lodges and Conventions of the Fraternity were formed, and the rites of Freemasonry regularly practiced. To enable the Freemasons to hold a general council, to establish their own government and correct errors among themselves, he granted to them a charter, and commanded Albanus to preside over them in person as Grand Master" (see Illustrations, edition of 1812, page 142).
Anderson also gives the legend of Carausius in the second edition of his Constitutions, and adds that "this is asserted by all the old copies of the Constitutions, and the old English Masons firmly believed it" (Constitutions, 1738, page 57). But the fact is that Anderson himself does not mention the tradition in his first edition, published in 1723 nor is any reference to Carausius to be found in any of the old manuscripts now extant. The legend is, it is true, inserted in Krause's Manuscript ; but this document is of Very little authority, having been, most probably, a production of the early part of the eighteenth century, and of a contemporary of Anderson, written perhaps between 1723 and 1738, which would account for the omission of it in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions, and its insertion in the second.
The reader may hence determine for himself what authenticity is to be given to the Carausian legend.
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CARBONARI
The name in Italian means Charcoal Burners, applied to some revolutionary secret societies particularly active in Italy and France, having their principal inspiration during the reign of King Joachim Murat of Naples, and aiming to free themselves from foreign rule and establish democratic government. Murat, a Frenchman and a Freemason, the dashing cavalry leader of Napoleon's army, was rewarded with the throne. Luigi Villari says (Encyclopedia Britannica): ''The Carbonari were probably an offshoot of the Freemasons, from whom they differed in important particulars," a suggestion and admission meaning little more than similarity, both being secret societies. However, the Carbonari had its significant words: a Lodge was baracca or a hut; an ordinary meeting was venidita, a sale; an important meeting, alta vendita; God was Grand Master of the Universe. The ritual had four grades and the ceremonies had typical allusions, as "clearing the forest of wolves" was said to be the aim, and there were references to the 1amb torn by wild animals, tyranny. Carbonarism was declared high treason by 1821. While many prominent persons were members, Lord Byron of England and Louis, afterwards Napoleon III, of France, yet the strength of the movement waned and died in France about 1830, and soon afterwards a like end came to it in Italy, the Camorristi in the former country accepting generally the government then at work, and in the latter instance associating with Mazzini and his followers (see Camorra, Mafia, and Secret Societies).
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CARBUNCLE
In Hebrew, baw-rek-ath, the third stone in the first row of the high priest's breastplate, according to the authorized version, but the first stone in the second row, according to the Septuagint. Braun, a writer on the sacerdotal vestments of the Hebrews, Amsterdam, 1680 supposes that the baw-rek-ath was a smaragd.us or emerald, which view is sustained by Kalisch, and is in accordance with the Septuagint translation. The Talmudists derive baw-rek-ath from a word signifying to shine with the brightness of fire, which would seem to indicate some stone of a coruscate or sparkling color, and would apply to the bright green of the emerald as well as to the bright red of the carbuncle. The stone, whatever it was, was referred to the tribe of Judah.
The carbuncle in Christian iconography signifies blood and suffering, and is symbolical of the Lord's passion. Five carbuncles placed on a cross symbolize the five wounds of Christ.
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CARDINAL POINTS
The North, West, East and South are so called from the Latin cardo, meaning a hinge, because they are the principal points of the compass on which all the others hinge or hang.
Each of them has a symbolic signification in Freemasonry which will be found under their respective heads. Doctor Brinton, in an interesting Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America, has a chapter on the sacred number four; the only one he says, that has any prominence in the religious of the red race, and which he traces to the four cardinal points. The reason, he declares, is to be "found in the adoration of the cardinal points," and he attributes to this cause the prevalence of the cross as a symbol among the aborigines of America, the existence of which so surprised the early missionaries that they "were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of Saint Thomas or the sacrilegious subtlety of Satan."
The arms of the cross referred to the cardinal points, and represented the four winds, the bringers of rain. The theory is an interesting one, and the author supports it with many ingenious illustrations. In the symbolism of Freemasonry each of the cardinal points has a mystical meaning. The East represents Wisdom ; the west, Strength; the South, Beauty and the North, Darkness.
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CARDINAL VIRTUES
The pre-eminent or principal virtues on which all the others hinge or depend.
They are temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice.
They are referred to in the ritual of the Entered Apprentice Degree, and will be found in this work under their respective heads. Oliver says (Revelations of a Square, chapter 1) that in the eighteenth century the Freemasons delineated the symbols of the four cardinal virtues by an acute angle variously disposed.
Thus, suppose you face the east, the angle symbolizing temperance will point to the south.
It was called a Guttural.
Fortitude was denoted by a saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, X. This was the Pectoral.
The symbol of prudence was an acute angle pointing toward the southeast, and was denominated a Manual; and justice had its angle toward the north, and was called a Pedestal or Pedal.
The possession of cardinal virtues is no special distinction of Freemasons, for other societies have had them.
They are in evidence in the Christian church.
The fifteen cardinal virtues, in mosaic, in the dome of Ascension of Saint Mark's at Venice is a famous example.
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CARIBBEE ISLANDS OR LESSER ANTILLES
A name sometimes applied to the whole of the West Indies, strictly comprising only the chain of islands from Porto Rico to the Venezuelan coast of South America. Three Lodges were at work in 1739 at Antigua. Others had been chartered and were on the Grand Lodge Books but they had ceased to exist and were dropped from the Register.
In 1738 Governor Matthews was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England Provincial Grand Master of the Leeward Islands. A Masonic Province was also established by Scotland in 1769. A Provincial Grand Lodge was opened at the Windward Islands in 1740 and Brother Thomas Baxter was first Provincial Grand Master.
In the same year the "Moderns" Grand Lodge of England authorized Lodge No. 186. The Grand Lodge of Ireland established another Provincial Grand Lodge at Barbados, but it was soon abandoned.
A Lodge, Albion, was opened at Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1790 by the "Ancient" and it remained in existence although three others warranted by the same authority' soon ceased work. Other Lodges were chartered in the Islands by the Grand Lodges of England, Holland, France, Pennsylvania, etc.
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CARLILE, RICHARD
A printer and bookseller of London, who in 1819 was fined and imprisoned for the publication of Paine's Age of Reason, and Palmer's Light of Nature.
He also wrote and published several pretended expositions of Freemasonry, which, after his death, were collected, in 1845, in one volume, under the title of a Manual of Freemasonry, in three parts.
Carlile was a professed atheist, and, although a fanatical reformer of what he supposed to be the errors of the age, was a man of some ability.
His Masonic works are interspersed with considerable learning, and are not as abusive of the Order as expositions generally are. He was born in 1790, and died in 1843, in London. For ten years before his death his religious opinions had been greatly modified.
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CARMELITES
Monks of an Order established on Mount Carmel, in Syria, during the twelfth century. They wore a brown scapular passing over the shoulder and diagonally across the back and body, thus crossing the gown from right to left.
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CARNARVON, MARQUIS OF
Grand Master of England, March, 1754, to May 18, 1757. Afterwards known as Duke of Chandos.
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CARPENTERS, ORDER OF
An organized body in Holland and Belgium, with central point of assembly at Antwerp. Their gatherings were at night in some neighboring forest.
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CARPET
The chart or Tracing Board on which the emblems of a degree are depicted for the instruction of a candidate.
Carpets were originally drawn on the floor with chalk or charcoal, and at the close of the Lodge obliterated by the use of a mop and pail.
To avoid this trouble, they were subsequently painted on cloth, which was laid on the floor ; hence they were called carpets.
Carpets, or charts, as they are at the present time commonly designated, are now generally suspended from the wall, or from a framework in the Lodge (see Steps on Master's Carpet).
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CARSON, ENOCH TERRY
Initiated in 1846 and became Past Master of Cynthia Lodge No. 155, as well as founder and First Worshipful Master of Kilwinning Lodge, No. 356, warranted in 1865, both Lodges being at Cincinnati, Ohio, and he was active and scholarly in all branches of the Fraternity. He printed at his own expense several important works of interest and value to the Fraternity.
The first facsimile of the Book of Constitutions of 1723 was published by him in 1855 from the copy in his own library and in the same year he had a catalog of his collection printed in the American Freemason at Louisville.
Doctor Oliver's Historical Landmarks was also issued in like manner in 1855.
He established the Masonic Archeological Society, of wich he was really the whole organization and mainspring and which did good work, producing the very rare works, the Grand Mystery of1724 and Prichard's Masonry Dissected, of 1730, and publishing them iu 1868.
Eight years later, what is known as Mrs. Dodds Manuscripts of 1739 was issued. In 1889 an artistic facsimile reproduction of the very valuable engraved list of 1736 by Pine was published by him and from 1872 he was at work on the production of a sumptuous catalog of his Masonic library, which was begun in the Masonic Review of Cincinnati and then reprinted in book form from 1874.
It was not completed, however, much to the regret of his many friends, the important bibliography ending with No. 1134 Picart, pages 1 to 224.
Brother Carson also wrote and published much other material respecting the Craft, and, as with the previously mentioned books, all was at his own expense; the whole of the works being presented to his literary friends and Brethren.
He died on February 23, 1899.
His fine library is now, through the generosity of General Lawrence, possessed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
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CARSON, KIT
Famous American scout, born in Madison County, Kentucky, December 24, 1809. In his childhood, his parents moved to Missouri.
Carson became guide and hunter, accompanied the Fremont expeditions, took part in the Mexican War, and become Indian Agent at Taos, New Mexico, in 1854.
Made a Master Mason on December 26, 1854, in Montezuma Lodge at Santa Fe, in what was then a Territory but is now the State of New Mexico, Montezuma Lodge was No, 109 on the roster of the Grand Lodge of Missouri and was one of the Lodges organizing the Grand Lodge of New Mexico in 1877.
He demitted from this Lodge on April 30, 1860, but affiliated again a few years later and remained a member until his death which occurred, May 24, 1868, at Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Grand Lodge of Arizona has taken charge of the grave lot and the monument which was erected to this early American, pioneer (see also New Age Magazine, May, 1925).
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CARTHUSIANS
A religious Order founded by Bruno in 1080, and named from Chartreux, in France, the place of their institution.
They were noted for their austerity.
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CARTULARY
An officer who has charge of the register or other books of record.
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CARYSFORT, JOHN PROBY, LORD
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, March 10, 1752, to 1754
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CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, GIOVANNI JACOPO
Usually mentioned by the word Casanova An Italian adventurer, born at Venice, 1725, died in Bohemia 1798, noted particularly for his Memoirs, a spirited boastful autobiography so romantic and improbable in his numerous detailed successes among the opposite sex that doubt attaches to almost all his claims. Allowing freely for the widespread social evils of his day, we shall the better understand his sneering frankness about vice. Several reliable authorities agree that his eleven writings are trustworthy accounts of the morals and manners of the society he usually frequented.
Among his acquaintances were the most notable people, Rousseau, D'Eon, Frederick the Great, Suvaroff, Empress Catherine of Russia, Voltaire, Cagliostro, and as a prominent Roman Catholic, he received from the Pope the distinction of the Order of the Golden Spur.
Expelled from school, he entered the service of Cardinal Acquavisa, began his travels; returning to Venice in 1755, was denounced as a spy and imprisoned; escaped to Paris and gained a fortune directing the State Lotteries, again traveled to Florence; whence he was banished, thence to Rome.
After further journeys he was. forced to flee from. Poland.
Arriving at Paris he found a warrant for his arrest awaiting him and he took refuge in Spain, but was ejected from Madrid in 1769, and going again to Italy was exiled from Venice, ending his turbulent career as librarian from 1785 to his death in 1798 at Dux in Bohemia. Here he wrote his famous Memoirs, published first in twelve volumes at Leipzig and then in eight at Paris.
Brilliant as any romantic fiction, their worth as sober truth has not been above suspicion and his acknowledged exploits in knavery demonstrate that anything he said or did was subject to question.
Casanova claims to have been initiated in the latter part of 1750 at Lyons, on his way to Paris, where he was made a Master Mason.
At Venice in 1755 he was arrested on charges of sorcery and of being a Freemason, his Masonic clothing being found by police and deemed incriminating.
Not only does he tell of meeting prominent Freemasons in various countries but in Rome itself he asserts that several prelates and cardinals were secretly members of the Craft.
References to the Craft are sprinkled freely through his Memoirs, one of them (pages 276-9, Librarie Garnier Freres edition in French, Paris, tome II, chapter xiii) we translate as follows:
At Lyons there was an estimable personage with whom I became acquainted through M. de Rochebaron, and who obtained the favor for me of being admitted to participate in the sublime trifles of Freemasonry. Arriving as an Apprentice at Paris, some months afterwards, I there planned to become a Fellow Craft and Master.
The Master is certainly the supreme degree of Freemasonry, for all the others that are in the series taken by me are only pleasing inventions which, good enough in symbolism, add nothing to the dignity of Master.
There is no one person in the world who may succeed in knowing everything, but men sensible of their faculties and who know how to take account the more closely of their moral powers, should seek to know all that is possible. A young man, well born, who plans to travel and acquaint himself with the world, and what we call society, who does not wish to find himself in certain circumstances the inferior of his equals and to be excluded from participation in all their pleasures, ought to have himself initiated into what they call Freemasonry, even though it would only be to know superficially what it is.
Freemasonry is an Institution of Benevolence which, in certain times and in certain places, may serve as a pretext for plots criminal and subversive of good order; but good God, what has not been abused? Have not the Jesuits been seen, under the sacred guise of religion, to furnish weapons for the parricidal arms of blind enthusiasts to strike Kings'? All men of some importance, I wish to say those whose social existence is marked by merit, knowledge or fortune, should be Freemasons, and a great number are ; why infer that the democratic communications, where the members impose on themselves the law of never speaking intramuros (within the walls in a tiled place) neither of politics, religion, nor government, who only converse about emblems, or morals, or puerilities; why infer, I say, that these reunions where the governments may have their creatures, can offer such dangers that Sovereigns forbid therein and that popes entertain themselves by excommunicating?
Besides that it is a failure of purpose and the Pope, notwithstanding his infallibility, trips up himself by the persecutions, giving only to Freemasonry an importance that it would never perhaps have acquired without them. Mystery is in the nature of man, and all that presents itself to the crowd under a mysterious aspect always excites curiosity and will be sought, many convinced that there something substantial awaits them. though the veil often hides but a zero. After all, I advise every well-born young man who wishes to see the world to be accepted a Freemason, but I urge him to choose well the Lodge; for, although bad company cannot work in the Lodge, it may however be found there, and the candidate ought to guard himself from dangerous associations.
Men who only plan to be accepted as Freemasons, with the purpose of coming to know the secret of the Order, run great risk of growing old under the trowel without ever attaining their object. However, there is a secret but it is so inviolable that it has never been told nor confided to anyone.
Those who grasp at the superficiality of things believe that the secret consists in words, signs and grips, or that in the final analysis it is the grand word of the last degree. A mistake!
He who discovers the secret of Freemasonry, for they never know where they are finding it, will not arrive at that knowledge by reason of frequenting Lodges.
He gains it only by the strength of reflecting, of reasoning, of comparing, and of deducing. He will not confide it to his best friend in Freemasonry, for he knows that if that brother does not find it for himself as did he, the friend will not have the talent to extract the means to do so from what shall be said in the ear.
He who has it remains silent and this secret is always secret.
All that is done in the Lodge ought to be secret; but those who by dishonest indiscretion make no scruple of revealing what is done there, have never revealed the essential: they do not know. it; and if they have not known, truly they cannot reveal the ceremonies.
The sensation experienced today by the profane, that is to say by those who are not Freemasons, is of the same kind as that experienced in times of yore by those who were not admitted to the mysteries that were celebrated at Eleusis in honor of the goddess Cérés. But the mysteries of Eleusis interested all Greece, and all they had there of eminence then in society aspired to be made a party to them : so it is with Freemasonry., in the midst of a great number of men of premier merit, enclosed by a crowd of scamps that no society would acknowledge, because they are the rubbish of the human species under the moral accounting.
In the mysteries of Cérés they long kept an impenetrable silence to cause the reverence of which these mysteries were the object.
Moreover, what could they reveal? The three words that the hierophant said to the initiates! But to what would that lead? To the dishonor of the indiscreet, because he would only reveal barbarous language unknown by the vulgar, the common herd.
I have read somewhere what is meant by the three sacred and secret words of the mysteries of Eleusis : Be watchful and do nu evil.
The sacred and secret words of the several Masonic degrees are nearly all as criminal!
The Eleusian initiation lasted nine days; the ceremonies very impressive, and the company very respectable. Plutarch informs us that Alcibiades was condemned to death and all his goods confiscated for having dared in company with Polition and Theodore against the Eumolpides to turn into ridicule the great mysteries.
They even intended that Alcibiades should be cursed by the priests and priestesses.
But the curse was never uttered because a priestess opposed it, saying. " I am a priestess for blessing, not cursing." Sublime words!
Here is a lesson of morality and of wisdom that the Pope despises, but the Gospels taught and the Savior of the world ordained.
There is an allusion (page 286, tome VIII, chapter xi) to the prominent Roman Catholics of the eighteenth century ignoring privately in practice what they said publicly and officially against Freemasonry.
Of course there are instances of Roman Catholics of prominence being admitted openly into Masonic Lodges during that century- and later. Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, as he was called, also active in the Grand Lodge of Ireland, found the two pursuits, Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, were deemed inconsistent and he eventually resigned his membership in the Craft. But others, as the Abbe Cordier at Paris, a leader in the famous Lodge of the Nine Sisters, and with Benjamin Franklin, supporting Voltaire when he was initiated, paid little or no heed to the threats from the head of the Roman Catholic Church against Freemasonry.
'What Casanova says gives a hint as to the position of those attempting to be on both sides of the fence and his introduction of a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church as a Freemason is a curious commentary on the situation in question:
The first day of the year 1772, I presented myself to the Cardinal Brancafarte, Legate of the Pope, who I had known at Paris twenty years previously when he was sent by Benoit (Benedict XIV) to carry the blessed linen clothes to the new-born Duke de Bourgoyne. We had been together in a Lodge of Freemasons, for the members of the Sacred College who thundered against the Freemasons knew well that their anathemas (solemn curses) impressed only the weak, whom a too lively light might dazzle.
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CASMARAN
The Angel of Air. Referred to in the Degree of Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew. The etymology is uncertain.
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CASSIA
A corruption of acacia, which undoubtedly arose from the common habit, among illiterate people, of sinking the sound of the letter A in the pronunciation of any word of which it constitutes the initial syllable, as pothecary for apothecary, and prentice for apprentice, The word prentice, by the way, is almost altogether used in the old records of Freemasonry, which were, for the most part, the productions of uneducated men. Unfortunately, however, the corruption of acacia into cassia has not always been confined to the illiterate; but the long employment of the corrupted form has at length introduced it, in some instances, among a few of our writers. Even Doctor Oliver has sometimes used the objectionable corruption, notwithstanding he has written so much upon the symbolism of the acacia.
He refers to the Sprig of Cassia in Revelations of a Square (page 113).
There is a plant which was called by the ancients cassia, but it is entirely- different from the acacia.
The acacia was a sacred plant; the caisson ignoble plant, having no sacred character. The former is in Freemasonry profoundly symbolic; the latter has no symbolism whatever.
The cassia is only three times mentioned in Scripture, but always as an aromatic plant forming a portion of some perfume.
There is, indeed, strong reason for believing that the cassia was only a coarse kind of cinnamon, and that it did not grow in Palestine, but was imported from the East.
Casia, therefore, has no rightful place in Masonic language, and its use should be avoided as a vulgar corruption.
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CASTELLAN
In Germany, the Superintendent or Steward of a Lodge building, in which he resides.
He is either a serving brother or an actual member of the Lodge, and has the care of the building and its contents.
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CASTING VOICE or VOTE
The twelfth of the thirty-nine General Regulations prescribes that "All matters are to be determined in the Grand Lodge by a majority of votes, each member having one vote and the Grand Master having two votes" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 61). From this law has arisen the practice of giving to the Master of the Lodge a costing vote in addition to his own when there is a tie.
"The custom is so universal, and has been so long practiced, that, although I can find no specific law on the subject, the right may be considered as established by prescription" says Doctor Mackey.
But there are exceptions.
These are given in the revised edition of Doctor Mackey's Jurisprudence of Freemasonry (chapter iii).
It may be remarked that the Masonic usage is probably' derived from the custom of the London Livery Companies or Gilds, where the casting vote has always been given by the presiding officers in all cases of equality, a rule that has been recognized by Act of Parliament.
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CATACOMB
A grotto for burial; a sepulchral vault.
A subterranean place for the burial of the dead, consisting of galleries or passages with recesses excavated at their sides for tombs.
Later applied in the plural to all the subterranean cemeteries lying around Rome which, after having been long covered up and forgotten, were fortuitously discovered in 1578.
They are found elsewhere, as, at Naples, at Syracuse, in Egypt, at Paris, etc.
The term is chiefly applied to those lying about Rome, the principal ones lying along the Appian Way.
The accompanying engraving shows a small portion of the Northern section of the Catacomb of Saint Calixtus.
There seems to have been no plan for these excavations, for they shoot off in the most unexpected directions, forming such a labyrinth of connected passages that persons often have been lost for several days at a time, giving the monk attendants much trouble.
They are several miles in extent.
Those about Rome are under the care of various monks of the church, and are a source of considerable revenue from tourists.
They are now entered by narrow passages and some, as in the case of Saint Calixtus, descend to considerable depth.
Along the passages are small chambers at the sides for tombs, one above another, each of which generally closed by a slab of stone on which was placed the letters D. M., the initials of Dea Maximo, or X. P., the Greek letters for Christ. Tombs of saints bore inscriptions of identification.
The passages are generally three or four feet wide and were at intervals along their course enlarged into chambers, usually square or rectangular, that were used for worship. One in Saint Calixtus was an irregu1ar semicircle and about thirty-two feet in diameter.
In these chambers is usually found a stone bench or chair for the bishop or teacher.
They were ventilated and partially fighted by shafts that extended to the surface of the ground. Some frescoes were found on the walls.
Many catacambs were destroyed and traces of them lost when the Goths, Lombards, and others besieged Rome at various times.
The foregoing would not justify a place in a work of this character, were it not for the influence it sheds on the beginning of Christian architecture, as for three centuries Pagan Rome would not permit Christians to meet above ground.
The Twenty-sixth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite refers to catacombs (see also Labyrinth).
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CATAFALQUE
From an Italian word meaning scaffold. A temporary structure of wood, appropriately decorated with funereal symbols and representing a tomb or cenotaph. It forms a part of the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge, and is also used in the ceremonies of the Master Mason's Degree in Lodges of the French Rite.
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CATCH QUESTIONS
Questions not included in the Catechism, but adopted from an early period to try the pretensions of a stranger, such as this used by American Freemasons: "Where does the Master hang his hat?" and by the French, "Comment êtes vous entré dans le Temple de Salomon (how are -you admitted into the Temple of Solomon)?"
Such as these are of course unsanctioned by authority.
But Doctor Oliver, in an essay on this subject preliminary to the fourth volume of his Golden Remains, gives a long list of these "additional tests," which had been reduced to a kind of system, and were practiced by the English Freemasons of the eighteenth century. Among them were such as these : "What is the punishment of a cowan?" "What does this stone smell of?" "If a brother were lost, where would you look for him?" "How blows a Mason's wind?" and many others of the same kind.
Of these tests or catch questions, Doctor Oliver says "that they were something like the conundrums of the present day-difficult of comprehension; admitting only of one answer, which appeared to have no direct correspondence with the question, and applicable only in consonance with the mysterious terms and symbols of the Institution."
Catch questions in the United States, at least, seem to be getting out of use, and some of the most learned Freemasons at the present day would find it difficult to answer them.
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CATECHISM
From the earliest times the oral instructions of Freemasonry have been communicated in a catechetical form.
Each degree has its peculiar catechism, the knowledge of which constitutes what is called a bright Freemason.
The catechism, indeed, should be known to every Freemason, for every aspirant should be thoroughly instructed in that of the degree to which he has attained before he is permitted to make further progress.
The rule, however, is not rigidly observed; and many Freemasons, unfortunately, are very ignorant of all but the rudimentary parts of their catechism, which they derive only from hearing portions of it communicated at the opening and closing of the Lodge, or from careless Brethren freely using Masonic expressions publicly.
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CATECHUMEN
One who had attained the Second Degree of the Essenian or early Christian Mysteries and assumed the name of Canstans.
There were three degrees in the ceremonies, which, to a limited extent, resembled the Pagan services.
Of the three classes, the first were Auditors, the second Catechumens, and the third the Faithful.
The Auditors were novices, prepared by ceremonies and instruction to receive the dogmas of Christianity.
A portion of these dogmas was made known to the Catechumens, who, after particular purifications, received baptism, or the initiation of the theogenesis Divine regeneration; but in the grand mysteries of that religion-the incarnation, nativity, passion, and resurrection of Christ-none were initiated but the Faithful.
The Mysteries were divided into two parts -the first, styled the Mass of the Catechumens; the second, the Mass af the Faithful.
Many beautiful ceremonies and much instruction touching these matters will be found in that most enticing Degree called Prince of Mercy, and known as the Twenty-sixth in the Scottish Rite services.
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CATENARIAN ARCH
If a rope be suspended loosely by its two ends, the curve into which it falls is called a catenarian curve, and this inverted forms the catenarian arch, which is said to be the strongest of all arches. As the form of a symbolic Lodge is an oblong square, that of a Royal Arch Chapter, according to the English Ritual, is a catenarian arch.
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CATHARINE II
Catharinc the Great, Empress of Russia, in 1762, prohibited by an edict all Masonic meetings in her dominions.
But subsequently better sentiments prevailed, and having learned the true character of the Institution, she not only revoked her order of prohibition, but invited the Freemasons to re-establish their Lodges and to constitute new ones, and went so far in 1763 as to proclaim herself the Protectress of the Order and Tutrice of the Lodge of Clio at Moscow (see Thory, Acta Latamorum, 1, 82),
During the remainder of her reign Freemasonry was in a flourishing condition in Russia, and many of the nobles organized Lodges in their palaces. But in 1794 her feelings changed and she became suspicious that the Lodges of Moscow were intriguing against the Court and the Ministers ; this idea, coupled with the horrors of the French Revolution and other crimes said to be due to secret societies, caused her to cease to protect the Order, and without any express prohibition emanating from her, the Lodges ceased to work (see Thory, Acta Latomorum, 1, 195). She died November 6, 1796, and in 1797 her successor, Paul I, forbade all secret societies in Russia.
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CATHEDRAL
"The use of the word Cathedral is improper as applied to Scottish Rite buildings. It is only in recent years that the word has come into use in this Jurisdiction, presumably from the purchase of some church building by Scottish Rite Bodies, and remodeling it to Scottish Rite uses.
Strictly speaking, the Cathedral is the Bishop's Church ; that is, there may be many Churches in the diocese of a Bishop, but the one he uses to preach in regularly is called the Cathedral."-John H. Cowles, Sovereign Grand Commander, Transactions of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction (page 99) of 1923.
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CATHEDRAL BUILDERS
Some Masonic students have thought, although the opposition holds that there does not seem to be any specific documentary evidence to warrant such belief, that in the Middle Ages there was a separate class of Freemasons known as Cathedral, or Church, Builders who worked on ecclesiastical structures only and were distinct from the town guilds or companies.
These students are of the opinion that the so-called Old Charges were originally intended as rules for use among this church building class of Freemasons.
Leader Scott (the pen name of the author, Mrs. Baxter of Florence, Italy) has in her book, Cathedral Builders, unearthed from Muratori's collection of ancient manuscripts an edict signed by King Rotharis of November 22, 643, containing the following clauses:
If the Comacine Master with his colleagues shall have contracted to restore or build the house of any person whatsoever, the contact far payment being made, and it chances that some one shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stones from it, the owner of the said house shall not be cited by the Magister Comacinus or his brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury ; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they must sustain the risks and injuries thereof. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work (conduxerit ad operam dictandam), or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it should happen that by reason of the house some Comacine should be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible; but if a pole or a stone shall kill or injure any extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation.
Mrs. Baxter says: "These laws prove that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact and powerful guild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the guild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could 'design' or 'undertake' a work; i.e., act as architects; and that the colleagues worked under, or with them.
In fact, a powerful organization altogether; so powerful and so solid, that it speaks of a very ancient foundation" (see Cathedral Builders, the Story of a Great Masonic Guild, 1899, London, pages 5-7, 423-6; also the Comacines, their Predecessors and their Successors, Brother W. Ravenscroft, 1910, London, pages 54-64, and the astride on Comacine Masters in this work).
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CAUTION
It was formerly the custom to bestow upon an Entered Apprentice, on his initiation, a new name, which was Caution.
The custom is now very generally discontinued, although the principle which it inculcated should never be forgotten. Similar instruction is still given in the Bristol Working but without the foregoing name.
The Old Charges of 1723 impress upon a Freemason the necessity, when in the presence of strangers not Freemasons, to be "cautious in your words and carriage, that the most penetrating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be intimated''; as these Charges were particularly directed to Apprentices, who then constituted the great body of the Fraternity, it is possible that the "new name" gave rise to the Charge, or, more likely, that the Charge gave rise to the "new name."
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CAVERN
In the Pagan mysteries of antiquity the initiations were often performed in caverns, of which a few, like the cave of Elephanta in India, still remain to indicate by their form and extent the character of the rites that were then performed.
The Cavern of Elephanta, which was the most gorgeous temple in the world, is one hundred and thirty feet square, and eighteen feet high. It is supported by four massive pillars, and its walls are covered with statues and carved symbolic decorations.
The sacellum, or sacred place, which contained the phallic symbol, was in the western extremity, and accessible only to the initiated.
The caves of Salsette greatly exceeded in magnitude that of Elephanta, being three hundred in number, all adorned with symbolic figures, among which the phallic emblems were predominant, which were placed in the most secret recesses, accessible only by private entrances.
In every cave was a basin to contain the consecrated water of ablution, on the surface of which floated the sacred lotus flower.
All these caves were places of initiation into the Hindu mysteries, and every arrangement was made for the performance of the most impressive ceremonies.
Faber (Dissertatian an the Mysteries af the Cabiri, ii, 257) says that "wherever the Cabiric Mysteries were practiced, they were always in some manner or other connected with caverns," and he mentions, among other instances, the cave of Zirinthus, within whose dark recesses the most mysterious Rites of the Samothracian Cabiri were performed.
Maurice (Indian Antiquities, iii, 536), speaking of the subterranean passages of the Temple of Isis, in the island of Phile in the river Nile, says "it was in these gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymns of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony recesses."
Many of the ancient orates, as, for instance, that of Trophonius in Boeotia, were delivered in caves.
Hence, the cave - subterranean, dark, and silent - was mingled in the ancient mind with the idea of mystery.
In the ceremonies of Freemasonry, we find the cavern or vault in what is called the Cryptic Freemasonry of the American Rite, and also in the advanced Degrees of the French and Scottish Rites, in which it is a symbol of the darkness of ignorance and crime impenetrable to the light of truth.
In reference to the practical purposes of the cavern, as recorded in the legend of these Degrees, it may be mentioned that caves, which abounded in Palestine in consequence of the geological structure of the country, are spoken of by Josephus as places of refuge for banditti; and Phillott says, in Smith's Bible Dictionary, that it was the caves which lie beneath and around so many of the Jewish cities that formed the last hiding-places of the Jewish leaders in the war with the Romans.
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CAYENNE or FRENCH GUIANA
A country in South America. Lodge No. 204, L'Anglaise, at Bordeaux, France, warranted a Lodge at Cayenne in 1755 and gave it its own name. Other Lodges were organized by French authority, both of the Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient, at different times throughout the years.
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CEDARS OF LEBANON
In Scriptural symbology, the cedar-tree, says Wemyss (Symbolic Language of Scripture), was the symbol of eternity, because its substance never decays nor rots.
Hence, the Ark of the Covenant was made of cedar; and those are said to utter things worthy of cedar who write that which no time ought to obliterate.
The Cedars af Lebanan are frequently referred to in the legends of Freemasonry, especially in the advanced Degrees; not, however, on account of any symbolical signification, but rather because of the use made of them by Solomon and Zerubbabel in the construction of their respective Temples.
Phillott (Smith's Bible Dictionary) thus describes the grove so Celebrated in Scriptural and Masonic history:
"The grove of trees known as the Cedars of Lebanon consists of about four hundred trees, standing quite alone in a depression of the mountain with no trees near, about six thousand four hundred feet above the sea, and three thousand below the summit.
About eleven or twelve are very large and old, twenty-five large, fifty of middle size, and more than three hundred younger and smaller ones.
The older trees have each several trunks and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are of cone-like form, and do not send out wide lateral branches.
In 1550 there were twenty-eight old trees, in 1739, Pococke counted fifteen, but the number of trunks makes the operation of counting uncertain.
They are regarded with much reverence by the native inhabitants as living records of Solomon's power, and the Maronite patriarch was formerly accustomed to celebrate there the festival of the Transfiguration at an altar of rough stones."
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CELEBES
An island in the East Indies
The Grand Lodge of Holland chartered a Lodge at Macassar in 1883 called Arbeid Adelt (Ennobled Labor).
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CELEBRATION
The Third Degree of Fessler's Rite (see Fessler, Rite of)
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CELESTIAL ALPHABET
See Alphabet, Angels
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CELTIC MYSTERIES
See Druidical Mysteries
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CELTS
The early inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Britain.
They are supposed to have left Asia during one of the Aryan emigrations, and, having traveled in a westerly direction, to have spread over these countries of Europe. The Celtic Mysteries or the Sacred Rites which they instituted are known as Druidical Mysteries, which see.
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CEMENT
The cement which in Operative Freemasonry is used to unite the various parts of a building into one strong and durable mass, is borrowed by Speculative Freemasonry as a symbol to denote that brotherly love which binds the Freemasons of all countries in one common brotherhood. As this brotherhood is recognized as being perfected among Master Masons only, the symbol is very appropriately referred to the Third Degree.
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CEMETERIES, MASONIC
The desire to select some suitable spot wherein to deposit the remains of our departed kindred and friends seems almost innate in the human breast.
The stranger's field was bought with the accursed bribe of betrayal and treason, and there is an abhorrence to depositing our loved ones in places whose archetype was so desecrated by its purchase-money.
The churchyard, to the man of sentiment, is as sacred as the church itself.
The cemetery bears a hallowed character, and we adorn its graves with vernal flowers or with evergreens to show that the dead, though away from our presence visibly, still live and bloom in our memories.
The oldest of all the histories that time has saved to us contains an affecting story of this reverence of the living for the dead, when it tells us how Abraham, when Sarah, his beloved wife, had died in a strange land, reluctant to bury her among strangers, purchased from the sons of Heth the cave of Machpelah for a burial-place for his people.
It is not, then, surprising that Freemasons, actuated by this spirit, should have been desirous to consecrate certain spots as resting-places for themselves and for the strange Brethren who should die among them
A writer in the London Freemason's Magazine for 1858 complained that there was not then in England a Masonic cemetery, nor portion of an established cemetery especially dedicated to the interment of the Brethren of the Craft. This neglect cannot be charged against the Freemasons of America, for there is scarcely a city or town of considerable size in which the Freemasons have not purchased and appropriated a suitable spot as a cemetery to be exclusively devoted to the use of the Fraternity.
These cemeteries are often, and should always be, dedicated with impressive ceremonies; and it was long to be regretted that our rituals provided no sanctioned form of service for these occasions.
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CENSER
A small vessel of metal fitted to receive burning coals from the altar, and on which the incense for burning was sprinkled by the priest in the Temple. Among the furniture of a Royal Arch Chapter is to be found the censer, which is placed upon the altar of incense within the sanctuary, as a symbol of the pure thoughts and grateful feelings which, in so holy a place, should be offered up as a fitting sacrifice to the great I AM.
In a similar symbolic sense, the censer under the name of the pot of incense, is found among the emblems of the Third Degree (see Pot of Incense).
The censer also constitutes a part of the Lodge furniture in many of the advanced Degrees.
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CENSOR
Gädicke says he is not an officer, but is now and then introduced into some of the Lodges of Germany.
He is commonly found where the Lodge has its own private house, in which, on certain days, mixed assemblies are held of Freemasons and their families and friends. Of those assemblies the Censor has the superintendence.
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CENSURE
In Masonic Law, the mildest form of punishment that can be inflicted, and may be defined to be a formal expression of disapprobation, without other result than the effect produced upon the feelings of him who is censured. It is adopted by a resolution of the Lodge on a motion made at a regular communication; it requires only a bare majority of votes, for its passage does not affect the Masonic standing of the person censured, and may be revoked at any subsequent regular communication.
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CENTAINE, ORDER OF
A mystical society of the eighteenth century which admitted females.
It was organized at Bordeaux in 1735 (see Thory, Acta Latamorum 1, 298).
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CENTENARY JEWELS AND WARRANTS
In England when a Lodge celebrates the hundredth year of its anniversary it is permitted to choose a special jewel for the occasion.
In 1867 the particular design to be used was authorized and illustrated for the first time in 1871 when the Book of Constitutions was issued.
Before that time each Lodge was permitted to select its own design, securing the approval of the Grand Master before using the jewel.
As a result of this method there are forty-two of the older Lodges now in possession of Special Centenary Jewels of different designs and which may, be worn by all subscribing members of the particular Lodge.
Many Centenary Warrants were issued before 1871 but it is during that year that the first special provision was made for them. In order to secure one of the Warrants a Lodge must prove uninterrupted existence for one hundred years.
The English Royal Arch Chapters come under this same ruling.
CENTENNIAL
That which happens every hundred years.
Masonic Bodies that have lasted for that period very generally celebrate the occasion by a commemorative festival.
On the 4th of November, 1852, almost all of the Lodges of the United States celebrated the centennial anniversary of the initiation of George Washington as a Freemason.
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CENTER, OPENING ON THE
In the English instructions, a Master Mason's Lodge is said to be opened on the center, because the Brethren present, being all Master Masons, are equally near and equally distant from that imaginary central point which among Freemasons constitutes perfection.
Neither of the preliminary Degrees can assert the same conditions, because the Lodge of an Entered Apprentice may contain all the three classes, and that of a Fellow Craft may include some Master Masons; and therefore the doctrine of perfect equality is not carried out in either. An attempt was made, but without success, in the Trestle Board, published under the sanction of the Baltimore Masonic Convention, to introduce the custom into the American Lodges.
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CENTRALISTEN
Meaning Centralists. Lenning says such a society existed in Europe between 1770 and 1780, pursuing alchemical, political and religious studies and operating under Masonic forms.
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CENTRALISTS
A society which existed in Europe from 1770 to 1780. It made use of Masonic forms at its meetings simply to conceal its secrets.
Lening calls it an alchemical association, but says that it had religious and political tendencies.
Glädicke thinks that its object was to propagate Jesuitism.
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CENTRAL POINT
See Point within a Circle
*
CEPHAS
A word which in the Syriac signifies a rock or stone, and is the name which was bestowed by Christ upon Simon, when he said to him, "Thou art a rock," which the Greeks rendered by nirpo, and the Latins by Petrus, both words meaning a rock.
It is used in the Degree of Royal Master, and there alludes to the Stone of Foundation, which see.
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CEREMONIESThe outer garments which cover and adorn Freemasonry as clothing does the human body. Although ceremonies give neither live nor truth to doctrines or principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use certain things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would not otherwise have had; and hence, Lord Coke has most wisely said that "prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies. "
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CEREMONIES, MASTER OF
See Master of Ceremonies
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CERES
Among the Romans, the goddess of agriculture; but among the more poetic Greeks she was worshiped under the name of Demeter, as the symbol of the prolific earth.
To her is attributed the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the ancient initiations.
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CERIDWEN
The Isis of the Druids
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CERNEAU, JOSEPH
A jeweler, born at Villeblevin, in Yonne, a department of central France. A register of the Lodge Reunion des Coeurs at Port Republican (Port-au-Prince) in Santo Domingo, West Indies, was in the possession of General Albert Pike ,and in 1886 he quotes from it in publishing the report to him of the Supreme Council of France in regard to Joseph Cerneau (see page 29): "Joseph Cerneau appears on the same (the register for 1801) as Keeper of the Seals and Archives, the entry as to him, signed manu propria (by his own hand) being 'Garde de Sceaux et Archives: Joseph Cerneau, Marchand Orfevre, ne a Villeblerin, age de 37 ans R. .A. .R. . (i. e. Royal Arch (of Heredom) and Rose Croix)'" the other words not commented upon specifically by Brother Pike meaning Joseph Cerneau, merchant goldsmith, born at Villeblerin (the v in this word being copied as r), aged 87 years, etc. Cerneau was active in Cuba later on and we find that on December 17, 1804, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania received a petition from several Brethren for a Warrant to hold a Lodge at Havana and that Brother Joseph Cerneau might be named Master, a request which was granted on that date, the "Petition being duly recommended according to the Regulations of this Grand Lodge."
Antonie-Mathieu Dupotet was Master of Lodge No. .47, Reunion des Coeurs, and in the register of that Lodge his name is followed by the same initials of Degrees or titles as in the case of Cerneau, but with this important addition "et P. . du R. . S. .," meaning and Prince af the Royal Secret.
Brother Pike in his Memoir, af Cerneauism (page 6, Supplement, 1885) says. "
In July, 1806, he (Dupotet) gave Cerneau, at Baracoa, in Cuba, the Degrees of the Rite of Heredom à Perfection, from 19 to 25.''
The Appendix to this Memoir, contains a copy of the Patent of the Twenty-fifth Degree to Joseph Cerneau, 16 July, 1806, signed by Dupotet, giving him power for the Northern part of the Island of Cuba to initiate and promote Brother Masons from the fourth to the twenty-fourth, and on one only a year the remaining Degree was perrnitted.
The Patent was said by General Pike in this Memoir to be " from papers belonging to Bro. . Charles Laflon de Ladebat, who was, prior to 1857, a member of the Supreme Council for the State of Louisiana, at New Orleans (claiming to be the Hicks-Laurent United Sup. Council continued), of which Jacques Foulhouze had been Grand Commander."
The Patent not only specifically restricted the conferring of Degrees by Joseph Cerneau as Deputy Grand Inspector to the northern part of the Island of Cuba and only to such in the series as are enumerated, namely from the fourth to the twenty-fourth and once a year not more than one in the twenty-fifth, but provides further that these candidates " shall have been officers of a Lodge regularly constituted and recognized, and in places only where there may not be found Sacred and Sublime and regularly constituted Asyla."
Dr. Robert B. Folger, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 1881 (page 337) says "Joseph Cerneau established his Sovereign Grand Consistory, in New York City in 1807.
He pretended to no more than the Rite of Perfection in Twenty-five degrees.''
There is another allusion by the author (page 157), "
It will be found that the name of The Most Potent Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry, according to the Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite of Heredom was continued up to the end of the time---viz., 1827."
Doctor Folger mentions the activity of Cerneau in promoting various branches of the Masonic Institution and says in his history, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (second edition, 1881, page 128), " Mr. Cerneau also established a Degree called Aaron's Band which continued to be worked as a detached Degree for many years, in a separate Body; but eventually about the year 1825, was stopped by the interference of the Grand Chapter, which Body stated that it was an infringement upon the Degree of High Priesthood."
We may fix the time when Cerneau came to New York from Cuba by a report made by Brother Duplessis, the proxy of Lodge No. 103 at Havana, to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on January 5, 1807. In this statement (see page 244, Reprint of the Minutes, volume 11, 1801-10), "It appears from said papers that difficulties of the highest importance had happened in that Lodge.
That unworthy Brethren had denounced the Lodge to the Governor of Havana and that Bro. Cerneau had been Ordered to quit the Island and was arrived at New York in the beginning of November last with his Family. That the worthy Brethren of the said Lodge No. 103, had proceeded to the choice of New Officers agreeably to the Communications and Returns aforesaid, and were Obliged to use the greatest caution in their work, &c.; that the Lodge had lost above Three Thousand Dollars by the unfortunate circumstance aforesaid, and our worthy Brother Cerneau had also met with a heavy loss by his being obliged to remove with his Family, though he had received from the Governor every mark of regard that could be expected by the most respectable Character, &c., and that the said Bro. Cerneau had previous to his departure given to the Brethren the most wholesome advice and Assisted them in reorganizing the said Lodge, which now consists of the most respectable Characters of the Island."
We find later on, April 6, 1807, the Grand Lodge authorizing a letter of sympathy to the " late and present Worshipful Masters and Worthy Brethren of Lodge No. 103.'' Brothers Emanuel De La Motta, M. J. Maduro Peixotto, J. J. J. Gourgas and Sampson Simson, the first being Treasurer-General of the Supreme Council having its Grand East at Charleston, South Carolina, visited Joseph Cerneau in New York on September 14, 1813, and as a result of that investigation he was denounced and he and his associates declared expelled from every lawful Degree or Masonic Society in which they may have been received or admitted (see page 25, Documents, Joseph M'cosh).
Joseph M'cosh states in Documents upon sublime Freemasonry in the United States of America (page vii), " Of J. C.'s Masonic conduct in Havana de Cuba, we have many facts before us which would blacken any thing we have before communicated.
His labors were conduced by his being expelled from the island by the governor, at the request of the fraternity who resided there."
There is in the report of the Supreme Council for France, published in 1886, a reference that would indicate action against Joseph Cerneau had been taken by the Masonic authorities in Cuba as well as in the United States.
The item mentioning the decree issued at Charleston in 1813, says (page 31).
It declares him unworthy to be a Mason, annuls as irregular his Masonic operations, and demolishes the Consistories and Councils which he may have established. It thus approves the Masonic decisions made in 1805, by the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of Havana, Island of Cuba, against this Ver I1l:. Brother."
In the business recorded of the Adjourned Grand Quarterly Communication at Philadelphia on January 16, 1809 (page 381, Reprint) the Grand Secretary "Brother Baker stated that he had been informed that Bro. Joseph Cerneau, formerly J. G. W. of the Provincial Lodge of St. Domingo and afterwards Master of Lodge No. 103, held at Havannah, and now residing in the City of New York, had been Guilty of Un-masonic Conduct.
Whereupon, On Motion made and Seconded, Resolved, that Brothers Duplessis, Chaudron and Baker be a Committee to Examine respecting the premisses and make Report thereon. "
But the details of this affair must be left to conjecture as we do not discover the Committee to have brought in any report.
In a footnote by General Pike to the report of the Supreme Council for France, July 7, 1886, published at Washington by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States (page 29), we read of Cerneau's claims.
" He did not style himself to be an Inspector-General 'of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.' The Body that he established did not pretend to be a body, and he did not pretend to be an Inspector; of that Rite; but of 'the Ancient Constitutional Rite of Heredom.
He went back to France in December, 1827, and was no more heard of: and no Body claiming to be a Supreme Council of the 33d Degree, with any powers, was established by him until November 28, 1827.
Before then the 32ds of his Grand Consistory elected 33ds from among themselves, the title being merely honorary, and with no powers attached." As to the date when Joseph Cerneau left New York for France there is some uncertain, Doctor Folger intimating a later time than General Pike. Doctor Folger alludes in his History, 1881, to his personal acquaintance with Joseph Cerneau and in regard to his circumstances and movements in later years has this to say (page 117), " For, in the latter part of the time - from 1832 onward - he was in poor circumstances, and made application to the Supreme Council for assistance.
That body made some considerable purchases of him, which relieved his necessities. He returned to his native land in comparative poverty, and died there, between the years 1840 and 1845, while filling a small public office, under wretched pay."
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CERTIFICATE
A Diploma issued by a Grand Lodge or by a subordinate Lodge under its authority, testifying that the holder thereof is a true and trusty Brother, and recommending him to the hospitality of the Fraternity abroad. The character of this instrument has sometimes been much misunderstood. It is by no means intended to act as a voucher for the bearer, nor can it be allowed to supersede the necessity of a strict examination. A stranger, however, having been tried and proved by a more unerring standard, his Certificate then properly comes in as an auxiliary testimonial, and will be permitted to afford good evidence of his correct standing in his lodge at home; for no Body of Freemasons, true to the principles of their Order, would grant such an instrument to an unworthy Brother, or to one who, they feared, might make an improper use of it.
But though the presence of a Grand Lodge Certificate be in general required as collateral evidence of worthiness to visit, or receive aid, its accidental absence, which may arise in various ways, as from fire, captivity, or shipwreck, should not debar a strange Brother from the rights guaranteed to him by our Institution, provided he can offer other evidence of his good character.
The Grand Lodge of New York has, upon this subject, taken the proper stand in the following regulation: ''
That no Freemason be admitted to any subordinate Lodge under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, or receive the charities of any Lodge, unless he shall, on such application, exhibit a Grand Lodge certificate, duly attested by the proper authorities, except he is known to the Lodge to be a worthy brother."
The Certificate system has been warmly discussed by the Grand Lodges of the United States, and considerable opposition to it has been made by some of them on the ground that, it is an innovation.
If it is an innovation, it certainly is not one of the present day, as we may learn from the Regulations made in General Assembly of the Masons of England, on Saint John the Evangelist's day, 1663, during the Grand Mastership of the Earl of St. Albans, one of which reads as follows: "That no person hereafter who shall be accepted a Freemason shall be admitted into any Lodge or Assembly, until he has brought a certificate of the time and place of his acceptation from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that limit or division where such Lodge is kept" (see Constitution, 1738, page 101).
Among the General Regulations " made at a Grand Lodge held in Corke, on Saint John ye Evangelist's Day, 1728," is the following:
" That no person pretending to be a Mason shall be considered as such within ye precincts of our Grand Lodge or deemed duly matriculated into ye Society of Freemasons, until he hath subscribed in some Lodge to these regulations and obliged himself to sign ye before mentioned Duplicate (a copy of the General Regulations possessed by all Lodges), at which time he shall be furnished with proper means to convince the authentic Brethren the hath duly complied."
Brother WT. J. Chetwode Crawley (Caementaria Hibernica, Fasciculus1, pages 11 and 12), says further that "In this clause we descry the germ of the Certificate now issued to every Master Mason. '
The proper means to convince the authentic Brethren' supplies the earliest intimation in the history of the Craft of a practice which, originating with the Grand Lodge of Munster, has been adopted by every Grand Lodge in the World.
The first Grand Lodge Certificate ever heard of in England seems to have been that brought with him to England by Lawrence Dermott, and proudly exhibited by hirn to his Grand Lodge (see the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient for March 2, 1757, as given in Brother Sadler's Masonic Facts and Fictions).
The Premier Grand Lodge (Moderns) borrowed the practice from Lawrence Dermott and began to make use of Certificates in the year 1755."
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CEYLON
An island in the Indian Ocean. In 1771 Freemasonry was introduced to Ceylon with the establishment by the Grand Lodge of Holland of Fidelity Lodge at Colombo, the capital of the island, in 1771. Sir Alexander Johnston was appointed Provincial Grand Master by the Grand Lodge of England in 1810. Oliver Day Street says of Ceylon in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama in 1922 :
"On this island are nine Lodges subject to the Grand Lodge of England and three subject to that of Ireland.
Four of these are at Colombo and one each at Badulla, Galle, Halton, Kandy, Kurunegala, Nuwara Ebya, and Tolowakello."
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CHAILLOU DE JOINVILLE
He played an important part in the Freemasonry of France about the middle of the eighteenth century, especially in the schisms which at that time existed in the Grand Lodge. In 1761, he was an active member of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, or Rite of Perfection, which had been established in 1758.
Under the title of Substitute General of the Order, Venerable Master of the First Lodge in France, called Saint Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent Degrees, Cammander, and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, etc.,etc., etc., he signed the Patent of Stephen Morin, authorizing him to extend the Royal Order in America, which was the first step that subsequently led to the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Rite in the United States.
In 1762, the Prince of Clermont, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, removed the dancing-master Lacorne, whom he had previously appointed his Substitute General and who had become distasteful to the respectable members of the Grand Lodge, and put Chaillau de Jainville in his place.
This action created a schism in the Grand Lodge, during which De Jainville appears to have acted with considerable energy, but eventually he became almost as notorious as his predecessor, by issuing irregular charters and deputations.
On the death of the Prince of Clermont, in 1771, the Lacornists regained much of their influence, and De Jainville appears quietly to have passed away from the field of French Freemasonry and Masonic intrigues.
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CHAIN, MYSTIC
To form the Mystic Chain is for the Brethren to make a circle, holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding a grave, etc.
Each Brother crosses his arms in front of his body, so as to give his right hand to his left-hand neighbor, and his left hand to his right-hand neighbor.
The French call it Chaine d'Union. It is a symbol of the close connection of all Freemasons in one common brotherhood.
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CHAIN OF FLOWERS
In French Freemasonry, when a Lodge celebrates the day of its foundation, or the semicentennial membership of one of the Brethren, or at the initiation of a louveteau (which see) the room is decorated with wreaths oi flowers called chaine de fleurs.
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CHAIN OF UNION
See Chain, Mystic
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CHAIN, SOCIETY OF THE
In German, Gessellschaft der Kette.
Also known as Order of the Chain of the Pilgrims. A German society of both sexes, founded, 1758, in Hamburg.
Comprised persons of high social position and among its benevolent work was an Institute for the Blind.
The letters W, . B and S were used by the members as signs of recognition, signifying the German equivalents for the words Camplaisance, Constancy and Silence.
The jewel was a chain of three links with the three letters W, B and S, and the members were called Knights of the Chain; their meetings were called Unions and the assembled members were known as Favorites.
There was a similar society founded in Denmark in 1777.
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CHARGES OF A FREEMASON
These Charges or Regulations, published in1723, have been adopted by various Grand Lodges and made a part of their Constitutions:
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THE CHARGES OF A FREE MASON
Extracted from The Ancient Records of Lodges beyond Sea, and of those in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the use of the Lodges in London : 'To be read
AT THE MAKING OF NEW BRETHREN OR WHEN THE MASTER SHALL ORDER IT
The General Heads, Viz.:
1 In the Lodge while Constituted.
2 Behavior after the Lodge is over
3 Behavior when Brethren meet without Strangers,
4 Behavior in presence of Strangers not Masons.
5 Behavior at Home, and in your Neighborhood.
6 Behavior towards a strange Brother.
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i CONCERNING GOD AND RELIGION
A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral law ; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid ATHEIST, nor an irreligious LIBERTINE.
But though in ancient Times Masons were charged in every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet 't is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves; that is, to be .good Men and true, or Men of Honor and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguished ; whereby Masonry becomes the Center of Union, and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remained at a perpetual Distance.
ii. OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE SUPREME AND SUBORDINATE
A Mason is a Peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and welfare of the Nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior Magistrates ; for as Masonry hath been always injured by War, Bloodshed and Confusion, so ancient Kings and Princes have been much disposed to encourage the Craftsmen, because of their Peaceableness and Loyalty, whereby they practically, answered the Cavils of their Adversaries, and promoted the Honor of the Fraternity, who ever flourished in Times of Peace. So that if a Brother should be Rebel against the State, he is not to be countenanced in his Rebellion, however he may be pitied as an unhappy Man ; and if Convected of no other Crime, though the Royal Brotherhood must and ought to disown his Rebellion, and give no Umbrage or Ground of Political Jealousy to the Government for the time being, they can not expel him from the Lodge, and his relation to it remains indefeasible.
iii. OF LODGES
A Lodge is a Place where members assemble and work ; Hence that Assembly, or duly organized Society of Masons, is called a Lodge and every Brother ought to belong to one, and to be subject to its By-Laws and the General Regulations.
It is either particular or general, and will be best understood by attending it, and by the Regulations of the General or Grand Lodge hereunto annexed.
In ancient Times, no Master or Fellow could be absent from it, especially when warned to appear at it, without incurring a severe Censure, until it appeared to the Master and Wardens, that pure Necessity hindered him.
The Persons admitted Members of a Lodge must be good and true Men, free-born and of mature and discreet Age, no Bondmen, no Women, no immoral or scandalous Men, but of good Report.
iv. OF MASTERS, WARDENS, FELLOWS, AND APPRENTICES
All preferment among Masons is grounded upon real Worth and Personal Merit only; that to the Lords may be well served, the Brethren not put to Shame, nor the Royal Craft despised : Therefore no Master or Warden is chosen by Seniority, but for his Merit. It is impossible to describe these things in writing, and every Brother must attend in his Place, and learn them in a way peculiar to the Fraternity : Only Candidates may know, that no Master should take an Apprentice, unless he has sufficient Employment for him, and unless he be a perfect Youth, having no Maim or Defect in his body, that may render him incapable of learning the Art, of serving his Master's Lord, and of being made a Brother, and then a Fellow-Craft in due time, even after he has served such a Term of Years, as the Custom of the Country directs; and that he should be descended of honest Parents; that so, when otherwise qualified, he may arrive to the Honor of being the Warden, and then the Master of the Lodge, the Grand Warden, and at length the Grand-Master of all the Lodges, according to his Merit.
No Brother can be a Warden until he has passed the part of a Fellow-Craft; nor a Master until he has acted as a Warden, nor Grand Warden until he has been Master of a Lodge, nor Grand Master unless he has been a Fellow-Craft before his election, who is also to be nobly-born, or a Gentleman of the best Fashion, or some eminent Scholar, or some curious Architect, or other Artist, descended of honest Parents, and who is of singular great Merit in the Opinion of the Lodges.
And for the better, and easier, and more honorable discharge of his Office, the Grand-Master has a Power to cause his Deputy Grand-Master, who must be then, or must have been formerly, the Master of a particular Lodge, and has the Privilege of acting whatever the Grand Master, his Principal, should act, unless the said Principal be present, or interpose his Authority by a Letter.
These Rulers and Governors, Supreme and Subordinate, of the ancient Lodge, are to be obeyed in their respective Stations by all the Brethren, according to the old Charges and Regulations, with all Humility, Reverence, Love and Alacrity.
v. OF THE MANAGEMENT OF THE CRAFT IN WORKING
All Masons shall work honestly on working Days, that they may live creditably on Holy Days; and the time appointed by the Law of the Land, or confirmed by Custom, shall be observed.
The most expert of the Fellow-Craftsmen shall be chosen or appointed the Master or Overseer of the Lord's Work; who is to be called Master by those that work under him. The Craftsmen are to avoid all ill Language, and to call each other by no disobliging Name, but Brother or Fellow; and to behave themselves courteously within and without the Lodge.
The Master, knowing himself to be able of Cunning, shall undertake the Lord's Work as reasonable as possible, and truly dispense his Goods as if they were his own ; nor to give more Wages to any Brother or Apprentice than he really may deserve.
Both the Master and Masons receiving their Wages justly, shall be faithful to the Lord, and honestly finish their Work, whether Task or Journey ; nor put the Work to Task that hath been accustomed to Journey.
None shall discover Envy at the Prosperity of a Brother, nor supplant him, or put him out of his Work, if he be capable to finish the same ; for no Man can finish another's Work so much to the Lord's Profit, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with the Designs and Droughts of him that began it.
When a Fellow-Craftsman is chosen Warden of the Work under the Master, he shall be true both to Master and Fellows, shall carefully oversee the Work in the Master's Absence to the Lord's Profit; and his Brethren shall obey him.
All Masons employed shall meekly receive their Wages without murmuring or Mutiny, and not desert the Master till the work is finished.
A younger Brother shall be instructed in working, to prevent spoiling the Materials for want of Judgment, and for increasing and continuing of Brotherly Love.
All the Tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand Lodge.
No Laborer shall be employed in the proper work of Masonry; nor shall Free Masons work with those that are not free, without an urgent Necessity; nor shall they teach Laborers and unaccepted Masons, as they should teach a Brother or Fellow.
vi. OF BEHAVIOR
1 In the Lodge while Constituted.
2 BEHAVIOR after the Lodge is over
3 BEHAVIOR when Brethren meet without Strangers,
4 BEHAVIOR in presence of Strangers not Masons.
5 BEHAVIOR at Home, and in your Neighborhood.
6 BEHAVIOR towards a strange Brother.
1. In the Lodge while constituted.
You are not to hold private Committees, or separate Conversation, without Leave from the Master, nor to talk of any thing impertinent or unseemly, nor interrupt the Master or Wardens, or any Brother speaking to the Master; nor behave yourself ludicrously or jestingly while the Lodge is engaged in what is serious and solemn ; nor use any unbecoming Language upon any Pratense whatsoever; but to pay due Reverence to your Master, Wardens, and Fellows, and put them to worship.
If any Complaint be brought, the Brother found guilty shall stand to the Award and Determination of the Lodge, who are the proper and competent Judges of all such Controversies, (unless you carry it by Appeal to the Grand Lodge,) and to whom they ought to be referred unless a Lord's Work be hindered the mean while, in which case a particular Reference may be made; but you must never go to Law about what concerneth Masonry, without an absolute Necessity apparent to the Lodge.
2. BEHAVIOR after the Lodge is over and the Brethren not gone.
You may enjoy yourselves with innocent Mirth, treating one another according to Ability, but avoiding all Excess, or forcing any Brother to eat or drink beyond his Inclination, or hindering him from going when his Occasions call him, or doing or saying anything offensive, or that may forbid an easy and free Conversation; for that would blast our Harmony, and defeat our Laudable Purposes.
Therefore no private Piques or Quarrels must be brought within the Door of the Lodge, far less any Quarrels about Religion, or Nations, or State Policy, we being only, as Masons of the Catholic Religion above-mentioned ; we are also of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds, and Languages, and are resolved against all Politicks, as what never yet conduced to the Welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will.
This charge has been always strictly enjoined and observed, but especially ever since the Reformation in Britain, or the Dissent and Secession of these Nations from the Communion of Rome.
3. BEHAVIOR when Brethren meet without Strangers, but not in a Lodge formed.
You are to salute one another in a courteous manner. as you will be instructed, calling each other Brother.
freely giving mutual Instruction as shall be thought expedient, without being overseen or overheard, and without encroaching upon each other or derogating from that Respect which is due to any Brother, were he not a Mason : For though all Masons are an Brethren upon the same Level, yet Masonry takes no Honor from a Man that he had before; nay rather it adds to his Honor, especially if he has deserved well of the Brotherhood, who must give Honor to whom it is due, and avoid ill manners.
4. BEHAVIOR in presence of Strangers not Masons.
You shall be cautious in your Words and Carriage, that the most penetrating Stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be intimated ; and sometimes you shall divert a discourse, and manage it prudently for the Honor of the worshipful Fraternity.
5. BEHAVIOR at Home, and in your Neighborhood.
You are to act as becomes a moral and wise Man ; particularly, not to let your Family, Friends, and Neighbors know the Concerns of the Lodge, &c., but wisely to consult your own Honor, and that of the ancient Brotherhood, for Reasons not to be mentioned here.
You must also consult your health, by not continuing together too late, or too long from home, after Lodge Hours are past; and by avoiding of Gluttony or Drunkenness, that your Families be not neglected or injured, nor you disabled from working.
6. BEHAVIOR towards a strange Brother.You are cautiously to examine him, in such a method as prudence shall direct you, that you may not be imposed upon by an ignorant false Pretender, whom you are to reject with Contempt and Derision, and beware of giving him any Hints of Knowledge.
But if you discover him to be a true and Genuine Brother, you are to respect him accordingly; and if he is in want, you must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be relieved.
You must employ him some Days, or else recommend him to be employed.
But you are not charged to do beyond your Ability, only to prefer a poor Brother, that is a good Man and true, before any other poor People in the same Circumstances.
Finally, all these Charges you are to observe, and also those that shall be communicated to you in another way ; cultivating Brotherly-Love, the foundation and Capstone, the Cement and Glory of this ancient Fraternity, avoiding all Wrangling and Quarreling, all Slander and Backbiting, nor permitting others to slander any honest Brother, but defending his Character, and doing him all good offices, as far as is consistent with your Honor and Safety, and no farther.
And if any of them do you Injury, you must apply to your own or his Lodge, and from thence you may appeal to the Grand Lodge at the Quarterly Communication, and from thence to the annual Grand Lodge ; as has been the ancient laudable Conduct of our Forefathers in every Nation; never taking a legal Course but when the Case cannot be otherwise decided, and patiently listing to the honest and friendly Advice of Master and Fellows, when they would prevent you going to Law with Strangers, or would excite you to put a speedy Period to all Law Suits, that so you may mind the Affair of Masonry with the more Alacrity and Success ; but with respect to Brothers or Fellows at Law, the Master and Brethren should kindly offer their Mediation, which ought to be thankfully submitted to by the contending Brethren, and if that submission is impracticable, they must however carry on their Process, or Law-suit, without Wrath and Rancor (not in the common way), saying or doing nothing which may hinder Brotherly Love, and good Offices to be renewed and conducted; that all may see the benign Influence of Masonry, as all true Masons have done from the Beginning of the World, and Will do to the End of Time.
Amen so mote it be.
*
CHARGES OF 1722
The . Fraternity had long been in possession of many records, containing the ancient regulations of the Order; when, in 1722, the Duke of Montague being Grand Master of England, the Grand Lodge finding fault with their antiquated arrangement, it was directed that they should be collected, and after being properly digested, be annexed to the Book of Constitutions, then in course of publication under the superintendence of Dr. James Anderson.
This was accordingly done, and the document now well known under the title of The Old Charges of the Free and Accepted Masons, constitutes, by universal consent, a part of the fundamental law of our Order.
The charges are divided into six general heads of duty, as follows:
1. Concerning God and religion.
2. Of the civil magistrate, supreme and subordinate.
3. Of Lodges.
4. Of Masters, Wardens, Fellows, and Apprentices.
5. Of the management of the Craft in working.
6. Of behavior under different circumstances and in various conditions.
These charges contain succinct directions for the proper discharge of a Freemason's duties, in whatever position he may be placed, and are as modern researches have shown, a collation of the charges contained in the Old Records and from them have been abridged, or by them suggested, all those well-known directions found in our monitors, which, Masters are accustomed to read to candidates on their reception (see Records, Old).
*
CHARGES, OLD
The Freemasons' Constitutions are old records, containing a history, very often some-what apocryphal, that is of doubtful authority, of the origin and progress of Freemasonry, and regulations for the government of the Craft. These regulations are called Charges, and are generally the same in substance, although the differ in number, in the different documents.
These charges are divided into Articles and Points; although it would be difficult to say in what the one section differs in character from the other, as each details the rules which should govern a Freemason in his conduct toward his Lord, or employer, and to his Brother workmen.
The oldest of these charges is to be found in the York Constitutions, if they are authentic, and consists of Fifteen Articles and Fifteen Points.
It was required by the Constitutions of the time of Edward III, ''that, for the future, at the making or admission of a brother, the constitutions and charges should be read."
This regulation is still preserved in form, in modern Lodges, by the reading of the charge by the Master to a candidate at the close of the ceremony of his reception into a degree (for a list of the Old Charges, see Manuscripts, Old).
*
CHARITY
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing" (First Corinthians xiii,1-2).
Such was the language of an eminent apostle of the Christian church, and such is the sentiment that constitutes the cementing bond of Freemasonry. The apostle, in comparing it with faith and hope, calls it the greatest of the three, and hence in Freemasonry it is made the topmost round of its mystic ladder.
We must not fall into the too common error that charity is only that sentiment of commiseration which leads us to assist the poor with pecuniary donations.
Its Masonic, as well as its Christian application, is more noble and more extensive.
The word used by the apostle is, in the original, love, a word denoting that kindly state of mind which renders a person full of good-will and affectionate regard toward others.
John Wesley expressed his regret that the Greek had not been correctly translated as love instead of charity, so that the apostolic triad of virtues would have been, not "faith, hope, and charity," but "faith, hope, and love."
Then would we have understood the comparison made by Saint Paul, when he said, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."
Guided by this sentiment, the true Freemason will "suffer long and be kind."
He will be slow to anger and easy to forgive.
He will stay his falling Brother by gentle admonition, and warn him with kindness of approaching danger, He will not open his ear to the slanderers, and will lose his lips against all reproach.
His faults and his follies will be locked in his breast, and the prayer for mercy will ascend to Jehovah for his Brother's sins.
Nor will these sentiments of benevolence be confined to those who are bound to him by ties of kindred or worldly friendship alone; but, extending them throughout. the globe, he will love and cherish all who sit beneath the broad canopy of our universal Lodge.
For it is the boast of our Institution, that a Freemason, destitute and worthy, may. find in every clime a Brother, and in every land a home.
Colonel Edward M L. Ehlers, a soldier of the Civil War in which he was severely wounded, was subsequently and at his death the Grand Secretary of New York.
To his courtesy and promptness the Revisor of this work is much indebted for many favors and there is a distinct satisfaction in submitting here one of the eloquent addresses to initiates that so often heartened his hearers (see Definitions of Freemasonry).
My Brother: With this right hand I welcome you to the fellowship of our Lodge and to the ranks of our ancient and honorable Fraternity whose cornerstone is Charity.
Charity is the brightest jewel in the Masonic crown.
Charity is the Corinthian pillar whose entablature adds strength, beauty and grace to the Masonic fabric.
Charity is the radiant spark emanating from God, the inexhaustible source of love.
If we attempt to eulogize its charms, the cooler powers of the mind melt into ecstasy, the heart is at empire, and every discordant passion bows before its lenient sovereignty.
Not the Charity circumscribed by the narrow limits of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, binding up the wounds of the afflicted, but that broader nobler Charity that regards all men as Brothers.
The Charity that is swift of foot, ready of hand, in the cause of a common humanity.
The Charity that writes a Brother's vices in water and his virtues in enduring brass.
The Charity of which He who spake as never man spake was the illustrious exemplar.
Let this, the Mason's Charity, burn upon the altar of your heart a living fire.
This Charity whose superstructure is friendship, morality, brotherly love; whose capstone is holiness to the Lord. Liturgies and creeds, articles of faith and rules of discipline, stain the rubric pages of history, and speculative points of doctrine have occasioned more misery in the world than all the crimes for which nations have been punished and recalled to their duty.
We arraign no man's political opinions, nor do we interfere with his religious creed.
To himself and his country we leave the one, and to his conscience and his God we commit the other. To the altar of Masonry, all men bring their votive offerings. Around it all men, whether they have received their teachings from Confucius, Moses, Zoroaster, Mahomet, or the Founder of the Christian religion; if they believe in the universality of the Fatherhood of God and of the universality of the brotherhood of man, here meet on a common level.
The rich man, the poor man, the sovereign, the subject, are lost in the common Brother. The Christian returns to his Temple, the Jew to his Synagogue, the Mohammedan to his Mosque, each better prepared to perform the duties of life by the association of this universal brotherhood. It is to this Institution, born of heaven in the gray of the world's morning, before poets sang or historians wrote, that I am privileged to accord you a Craftsman's greeting.
And I charge you, by the noblest instincts of your manhood, by all that you are and revere, by the ties that bind you to earth, by your hope of heaven, so to live and so to act that your Masonic life may be an open book known and read of all men.
Finally, my Brother, I do assure you that whatever good you do is but duty done.
If a sorrow you have lightened or a tear wipe‚ away, if of poverty's load you have taken a share from some weary burdened soul, if you have lifted a cup of cold water to the lips of a famishing mortal, then to far have you illustrated the divine teachings of Masonry, then in so far have you done as the Master commanded.
May He, without whose knowledge not even a sparrow falls, bless your fellowship in our Lodge, and to His great name shall be all the praise.
CHAIN, TRIANGULAR
One of the legends of Freemasonry tells us that when the Jewish Freemasons were carried as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar they were bound by triangular chains, which was intended as an additional insult, because to them the triangle, or delta, was a symbol of the Deity, to be used only on sacred occasions. The legend is of course apocryphal, and is worth nothing except as a legendary symbol.
*
CHAIR
A technical term signifying the office of Master of a Lodge. Thus he is eligible to the chair is equivalent to he is eligible to the office of Master. The word is applied in the same sense to the presiding officer in other Masonic Bodies.
*
CHAIRMAN
The presiding officer of a meeting or committee. In all committees of a Lodge, the Worshipful Master, if he chooses to attend, is ex-offcio or by reason of that fact the chairman; as is the Grand Master of any meeting of the Craft when he is present.
*
CHAIR, MASTER IN THE
The German Freemasons call the Worshipful Master der Meister im Stuhl, or the Master in the Chair.
*
CHAIR, ORIENTAL
The seat or office of the Master of a Lodge is thus called---sometimes, more fully, the Oriental Chair of King Salomon.
*
CHAIR, PASSING THE
The ceremony of inducting the Master-elect of a Lodge into his office is called passing the chair. He who has once presided over a Lodge as its Master is said to have passed the chair, hence the title Past Master.
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CHALDEA
A large tract of country, lying in a nearly northwest and southeast direction for a distance of four hundred miles along the course of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, with an average width of one hundred miles. The kingdom of Chaldea, of which Babylon was the chief city, is celebrated in Masonic history as the place where the Jewish captives were conducted after the destruction of Jerufalem. At that time Nebuchadnezzar was the king. His successor during the captivity, were Evilmerodach, Neriglissar, Labosordacus, and Belshazzar. In the seventeenth year of his reign, the City of Babylon was taken and the Chaldean kingdom subverted by Cyrus, King of Persia, who terminated the captivity of the Jews, and restored them to their native country.
*
CHALDEAN CYLINDER
The cylinder discovered by Rassam in the course of his excavations in Babylonia, which greatly attracted the attention of the London Society of Biblical Archeclogy, is one of the most remarkable yet made known, by reawn of the light it throws upon the ancient chronology of the Chaldean Empire. It dates from the time of Nabonides, and records, among various things, that this sovereign, when digging under the foundations of the Temple of the Sun-god at Sippara, forty-five years after the death of King Nebuchadnezzar, came upon a cylinder of Naramsin, the son of Nargon, which no one had seen for "3200 years. " This gives as the date of the ancient sovereign named 3750 B.C. This, and the fact pointed out by Professor Oppert, that there was in those early days already "lively intercourse between Chaldea and Egypt," will have to be taken into account by future Bible critics. This destroys the conception of Abraham, the founder of the Jews, as a wanderer or nomad, and establishes the existence of two highly civilized, as well as cultured, empires in Egypt and Chaldea more than 5,500 years ago ; that the highroad between them lay direct through Southern Palestine, and that Abraham was a native of the one great empire and an honored visitor in the other. Thus has been opened up a new field for investigation in the matter of Akkad and Akkadian civilization.
*
CHALDEANS or CHALDEES
The ancient Diodorus Siculus says the "most ancient"-inhabitants of Babylonia. There was among them, as among the Egiptians, a true priestly caste, which was both exclusive and hereditary; for although not every Chaldean was a priest, yet no man could be a priest among them unless he were a Chaldean. "At Babylon," says Doctor Smith (Ancient History of the East, page 398), "they were in all respects the ruling order in the body politic, uniting in themselves the characters of the English sacerdotal and military classes. They filled all the highest offices of state under the king, who himself belonged to the order."
The Chaldean priests were famous for their astronomical science, the study of which was particularly favored by the clear atmosphere and the cloudless skies of their country, and to which they were probably urged by their national worship of the sun and the heavenly hosts. Diodorus Siculus says that they passed their whole lives in meditating questions of philosophy, and acquired a great reputation for their astrology. They were addicted especially to the art of divination, and framed predictions of the future.
They sought to avert evil and to insure good by purifications, sacrifices, and enchantments. They were versed in the arts of prophesying and explaining dreams and prodigies. All this learning among the Chaldeans was a family tradition; the son inheriting the profession and the knowledge of the priesthood from his father, and transmitting it to his descendants. The Chaldeans were settled throughout the whole country, but there were some special cities, such as Borsippa, Ur, Sippera, and Babylon, where they had regular colleges. The reputation of the Chaldeans for prophetic and magical knowledge was so great, that astrologers, and conjurers in general, were styled Babylonians and Chaldeans, just as the wandering fortune-tellers of modern times are called Egyptians or gipsies, and Ars Chaldoearum was the name given to all occult sciences.
*
CHALICE
A cup used in religious rites. It forms a part of the furniture of a Commandery of Knights Templar, and of some of the higher Degrees of the French and Scottish Rites. It should be made either of silver or of gilt metal. The stem of the chalice should be about four inches high and the diameter from three to six.
*
CHALK, CHARCOAL, AND CLAY
By these three substances are beautifully symbolized the three qualifications for the servitude of an Entered Apprentice---freedom, fervency, and zeal. Chalk is the freest of all substances, because the slightest touch leaves a trace behind. Charcaal, the most fervent, because to it, when ignited, the most obdurate metals yield; and Clay, the most zealous, because it is constantly employed in man's service, and is as constantly reminding us that from it we all came, and to it we must all return. In the earlier lectures of the eighteenth century, the symbols, with the same interpretation, were given as Chalk, Charcaal, and Earthen Pan.
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CHAMBER, MIDDLE
See Middle Chamber
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CHAMBER OF REFLECTION
In the French and Scottish Rites, a small room adjoining the Lodge, in which, preparatory to initiation, the candidate is enclosed for the purpose of indulging in those serious meditations which its somber appearance and the gloomy emblems with which it is furnished are calculated to produce. It is also used in some of the advanced degrees for a similar purpose. Its employment is very appropriate, for, as Gädicke well observes, "It is only in solitude that we can deeply reflect upon our present or future undertakings, and blackness, darkness, or solitarine, is ever a symbol of death. A man who has undertaken a thing after mature reflection seldom turns back."
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CHANCELLOR
An officer in a Council of Companions of the Red Cross, corresponding in some respects to the Senior Warden of a Symbolic Lodge.
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CHANCELLOR, GRAND
An officer in the Supreme Councils and Grand Consistories of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, whose duties are somewhat similar to those of a Corresponding Secretary.
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CHAOS
A confused and shapeless mass, such as is supposed to have existed before God reduced creation into order. It is a Masonic symbol of the ignorance and intellectual darkness from which man is rescued by the light and truth of Freemasonry. Hence, Ordo ab chao, or, Order out af chaos, is one of the mottoes of the Institution.
*
CHAOS DISENTANGLED
One of the names formerly given to the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or Knight of the Sun. It is likewise found in the collection of M. Pyron. Discreet and Wise Chaos are the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Degrees of the Rite of Mizraim.
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CHAPEAU
The cocked hat worn in the United states bodies by Knights Templar. The regulations of the Grand Encampment of the United States, in 1862, prescribe that it shall be "the military chapeau, trimmed with black binding, one white and two black plumes, and appropriate cross on the left side. "
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CHAPEL
The closets and anterooms so necessary and convenient to a Lodge for various purposes are dignified by German Masons with the title of Capellen, or chapels.
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CHAPEL, MARY'S
Known also as the Lodge of Edinburgh. The oldest Lodge in Edinburgh, Scotland, whose Minutes extend as far back as the year 1599. This long stood as the oldest Minute, but in 1912 one was found of Aitchison's-Haven Lodge dated 1598 (see Aitchison's- Haven). They show that John Boswell, Esq., of Auchinleck was present in the Lodge in the year 1600, and that the Hon. Robert Moray, Quartermaster-General of the Army of Scotland, was created a Master Mason in 1641 at Newcastle by some members of the Lodge of Edinburgh who were present there with the Scotch Army. These facts show that at that early period persons who were not Operative Freemasons by profession were admitted into the Order. The Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary's Chapel, 18 No. 1 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland; the date of its formation is unknown, and at one time it stood first on the roll, but in 1807 the Mother Kilwinning Lodge was placed before it as No. 0. It met at one time in a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary; hence comes the second part of its name. Its history was published in 1873 by D. M. Lyon.
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CHAPITER
The uppermost part of a column, pillar, or pilaster, serving as the head or crowning, and placed immediately over the shaft and under the entablature. The pillars which stood in front of the porch of King Solomon's Temple were adorned with chapiters of a peculiar construction, which are largely referred to, and their symbolism explained, in the Fellow Craft's Degree (see Pillars af the Porch).
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CHAPLAIN
The office of Chaplain of a Lodge is one which is not recognized in the ritual of the United States of America, although often conferred by courtesy. The Master of a Lodge in general performs the ,duties of a Chaplain.
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CHAPLAIN, GRAND
An office of very modern date in a Grand Lodge. It was first instituted on the 1st of May, 1775, on the occasion of the laying of the foundation of the Freemasons' Hall in London. It is stated in the English Constitutions of 1784 (page 314) that the office "which had been discontinued for several years, was this day revived," but there is no record of any appointment to it before the date given. This office is now universally recognized by the Grand Lodges of America. His duties are confined to offering up prayer at the communications of the Grand Lodge, and conducting its devotional exercises on public occasions.
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CHAPTER
In early times the meetings of Freemasons were called not only Lodges, but Chapters and Congregations. Thus, the statute enacted in the third year of the reign of Henry VI of England, 1425 A. D., declares that "Masons shall not confederate in Chapiters and Congregations." The word is now exclusively appropriated to designate the bodies in which degrees more advanced than the symbolic are conferred. Thus there are Chapters of Royal Arch Masons in the York and
American Rites and Chapters of Rose Croix Masons in the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
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CHAPTER, GENERAL GRAND
See General Grand Chapter
*
CHAPTER, GRAND
See Grand Chapter
*
CHAPTER MASON
A colloquialism denoting a Royal Arch Mason
*
CHAPTER MASONRY
A colloquia1ism intended to denote the Degrees conferred in a Royal Arch Chapter.
*
CHAPTER OF ROYAL ARCH MASONS, AN OLD
There is in Boston, Massachusetts, a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons which was holden in Saint Andrew's Lodge and formed about the year 1769 (see Royal Arch Masons, Massachusetts; also, Pennsylvania).
*
CHAPTER, ROSE CROIX
See Rase Croix, Prince of
*
CHAPTER, ROYAL ARCH
A Convocation of Royal Arch Masons is called a Chapter. In Great Britain, Royal Arch Masonry is connected with and practically under the same government as the Grand Lodge ; but in America the Jurisdictions are separate.
In America a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons is empowered to give the preparatory Degrees of Mark, Past, and Most Excellent Master ; although, of course, the Chapter, when meeting in any one of the' Degrees, is called a Lodge.
In some Chapters the Degrees of Royal and Select Master have also been given as preparatory Degrees ; but in most of the States, the control of these is conferred upon separate bodies, called Councils af Royal and Select Masters.
The presiding officers of a Chapter are the High Priest, King, and Scribe, who are, respectively, representatives of Joshua, Zerubbabel, Haggai, and son of Josedech. In the English Chapters, these officers are generally styled either by the founders' names, as above, or as First, Second, and Third Principals. In the Chapters of Ireland the order of the officers is King, High Priest, and Chief Scribe. Chapters of Royal Arch Masons in America are primarily under the jurisdiction of State Grand Chapters, as Lodges are under Grand Lodges ; and secondly, under the General Grand Chapter of the United States, whose meetings are held triennially, and which exercisers a general supervisor over this branch of the Order throughout the Union (see Royal Arch Degree).
*
CHAPTERS, IRISH
See Irish Chapters
*
CHARACTERISTIC NAME
See Ordoe Name
*
CHARACTERISTICS
The prefix to signatures of Brethren of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is as follows: To that of the Sovereign Grand Commander, the triple cross crosslet, as in the illustration and Figure 1 in red ink. To that of an Inspector General other than a Commander, Figure 2, in red ink. To that of a Brother of the Royal Secret, Thirty-second Degree, Figure 3, in red ink. In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, a Ros Croix Knight will suffix a triangle surmounted by a cross in red ink, as in Figure 4. In all eases it is usual to place the Degree rank in a triangle after the name (see Abbreviations).
*
CHARCOAL
See Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay
*
CHARGE
So called from the Old Charges, because, like them, it contains an epitome of duty. It is the admonition which is given by the presiding officer, at the close of the ceremony of initiation, to the candidate, and which the latter receives standing, as a token of respect. There is a Charge for each Degree, which is to be found in all the monitors and manuals from Preston onward.
*
CHARITY, COMMITTEE ON
See Committee of Charity
*
CHARITY FUND
Many Lodges and Grand Lodges have a fund especially appropriated to charitable purposes, which is not used for the disbursement of the current expenses, but which is appropriated to the relief of indigent brethren, their widows, and orphans.
*
CHARLATAN
A charlatan is a babbling mountebank, who imposes on the populace by large pretensions and high-sounding words. A charlatan in Freemasonry is one who seeks by a display of pompous ceremonial, and often by claims to supernatural powers, to pervert the Institution of Freemasonry to the acquisition of mere gain, or the gratification of a paltry ambition. Every man, says a distinguished writer, is a charlatan who extorts money by charging for sixpenny trash the amount that should only be paid for works of science, and that, too, under the plea of conveying knowledge that cannot otherwise be obtained (Freemasons Magazine, London, 1844, page 505). The eighteenth century presented many examples of the Masonic charlatans, of whom Brother Mackey deemed the one by far the greatest was Cagliostro; nor has the nineteenth century been entirely without them.
*
CHARLEMAGNE
The great Charles, King of France, who ascended the throne in the year 768, is claimed by some Masonic writers as a patron of Freemasonry. This is perhaps because architecture flourished in France during his reign, and because he encouraged the arts by inviting the architects and traveling Freemasons, who were then principally confined to Italy, to visit France and engage in the construction of important edifices. The claim has been made that at his castle at Aix-la-Chapelle he set apart a room or rooms in which the seven liberal arts and sciences were taught. This comprised a liberal education for that period.
*
CHARLES MARTEL
He was the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty, and governed France with , supreme power from 720 to 741, under the title of Duke of the Franks, the nominal kings being only his puppets. He is claimed by the authors of the Old Records as one of the patrons of Freemasonry. Thus, the Manuscript (Grand Lodge, No. l, Volume iv, Quatuor Coronati Lodge reprints) tells us: "There was one of the Royal Line of France called Charles Marhsall, and he was a man that loved well the said Craft and took upon him the Rules and Manners, and after that BY THE GRACE OF GOD he was elect to be the King of France, and when he was in his Estate he helped to make those Masons that were now, and sett them on Work and gave them Charges and Manners and good pay as he had learned of other Mascns, and confirmed them a Charter from year to year to hold their Assembly when they would, and cherished them right well, and thus came this Noble Craft into France and England."
Rebold, in his History, has accepted this legend as authentic, and says: "In 740, Charles Martel, who reigned in France under the title of Mayor of the Palace at the request of the Anglo-Saxon kings, sent many workmen and Masters into England."
*
CHARLES I AND II
For their supposed connection with the origin of Freemasonry, see Stuart Freemasonry.
*
CHARLES XIII
The Duke of Sudermanland was distinguished for his attachment to Freemasonry. In 1809 he ascended the throne of Sweden under the title of Charles XIII, Having established the Masonic Order of Knighthood of that name, he abdicated in favor of Charles John Bernadotte, but always remained an active and zealous member of the Order. There is no king on record so distinguished for his attachment to Freemasonry as Charles XIII, of Sweden, and to him the Swedish Freemasons are in a great measure indebted for the high position that the Order has maintained in that country.
*
CHARLES XIII, ORDER OF
An Order of knighthood instituted in 1811 by Charles XIII, King of Sweden, which was to be conferred only on the principal dignitaries of the Masonic Institution in his dominions. In the manifesto establishing the Order, the king says: "To give to this Society (the Masonic) a proof of our gracious sentiments towards it, we will and ordain that its first dignitaries to the number which we may determine, shall in future be decorated with the most intimate proof of our confidence, and which shall be for them a distinctive mark of the highest dignity." The number of Knights are twenty-seven, all Freemasons, and the King of Sweden is the perpetual Grand Master. The ribbon is red, and the jewel a maltese cross pendant from an imperial crown.
*
CHARLESTON
A city in the United States of America, and the metropolis of the State of South Carolina. It was there that the first Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was established in 1801, whence all other Supreme Councils have emanated, directly or indirectly. Hence, it has assumed the title of Mother Council of the World. The headquarters of the Southern Supreme Council were removed in 1870 to the city of Washington (see Scottish Rite).
*
CHARMS, MAGICAL
See Talisman
*
CHART I
A map on which is delineated the emblems of a degree, to be used for the instruction of candidates, formerly called a carpet, which see. 2. The title given by Jeremy L. Cross to his Hieroglyphic Monitor, which acquired on its first appearance in the Lodges of America a popularity that it has not yet entirely lost. Hence the word chart is still sometimes used colloquially and improperly to designate any other Masonic manual of monitorial instruction.
*
CHARTER
Often used for Warrant of Constitution, which see.
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CHARTERED LODGE
A Lodge working under the authority of a Charter or Warrant of Constitution issued by a Grand Lodge as distinguished from a Lodge working under a Dispensation issued by a Grand Master. Chartered Lodges only are entitled to representation in the Grand Lodge. They alone can make by-laws, elect members or have their officers installed- They are the constituent Bodies of a Jurisdiction, and by their representatives compose the Grand Lodge.
*
CHARTER IS, FRANCIS
Sixth Earl of Wemyss Grand Master of Scotland, 1747. Another Francis Charteris, afterwards Lord Elcho, was Deputy Grand Master of Scotland 1786-7.
*
CHARTER MEMBER
A Freemason whose name is attached to the petition upon which a Charter or Warrant of Constitution has been granted to a Lodge, Chapter, or other subordinate body.
*
CHARTER OF COLOGNE
See Cologne, Charter of
*
CHARTER OF EDWIN
See Edwin Charges and Edwin
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CHARTER OF TRANSMISSION
See Transmission, Charter of
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CHARTRES, LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH, DUKE OF
Afterwards Duke of Orleans, known as Egalité or Equality. Succeeded Comte de Clermont as Grand Master of France in 1771. In 1793, January 5, a letter in the Journal de Paris, signed Egalité, repudiated the Grand Orient of France and Freemasonry, to which the Grand Orient replied by declaring the Grand Mastership vacant (see Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie, Albert Lantoine, 1925, Paris, page 74). Died by the guillotine November 6, 1793. Besuchet says that the Duke de Chartres was not the head of the entire Masonic Order as there was also in existence the Grand Lodge of France and the Grande Loge Nationale, or the Grand Orient de France.
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CHASIDIM
In Hebrew, pronounced Khaw-seed-eem, meaning saints. The name of a seet which existed in the time of the Maccabees, and which was organized for the purpose of opposing innovations upon the Jewish faith. Their essential principles were to observe all the ritual laws of purification, to meet frequently for devotion, to submit to acts of self-denial and mortification, to have all things in common, and sometimes to withdraw from society and to devote themselves to contemplation. Lawrie, History of Freemasonry (page 38), who seeks to connect them with the Masonic Institution as a continuation of the Freemasons of the Solomonic era, describes them under the name of Kasideans as "a religious Fraternity, or an Order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, who bound themselves to adorn the porches of that magnificent structure, and to preserve it from injury and decay. This association was composed of the greatest men of Israel, who were distinguished for their charitable and peaceful dispositions, and always signalized themselves by their ardent zeal for the purity and preservation of the Temple."
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CHASTANIER, BENEDICT
A French surgeon, who in the year 1767 introduced into England a modification of the Rite of Pernetty, in nine degrees, and established a Lodge in London under the name of the Illuminated Theosophists ; which, however, according to Lenning, soon abandoned the Masonic forms, and was converted into a mere theosophic sect, intended to propagate the religious system of Swedenborg. White, in his Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, published at London in 1868 (page 683), gives an account of "The Theosophical Society', instituted for the purpose of promoting the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem by translating, printing, and publishing the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg." This society was formed in 1784, and met on Sundays and Thursdays at Chambers in New Court, Middle Temple, for the discussion of Swedenborg's writings. Among the twenty-five persons mentioned by White as having either joined the society or sympathized with its object, we find the name of "Benedict Chastanier, Freach Surgeon, 62 Tottenham Court." The nine degrees of Chastanier's Rite of Illuminated Theosophists are as follows: 1, 2, and 3, Symbolic degrees; 4, 5, 6, Theosophic Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master; 7, Sublime Scottish Mason, or Celestial Jerusalem; 8, Blue Brother; and 9, Red Brother.
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CHASTITY
In the Regius or Halliwell Manuseript of the Constitutions of Freemasonry, written not later than the latter part of the fourteenth century, the seventh point is in these words: Thou schal not by thy maystres Wyf ly, Ny by thy felows yn no manner wyse, Lest the Craft wold the despyse; Ny by thy felows concubyne, No more thou woldest he dede by thyne. Again, in the Constitutions known as the Matthew Cooke Manuscript, the date of which is about the latter part of the fifteenth century, the same regulation is enforced in these words : ''The 7th Point. That he covet not the wyfe ne the daughter of his masters, another of his fellows but if (unless) hit be in maryage.'' So all through the Old Constitutions and Charges we find this admonition to respect the chastity of our Brethren's wives and daughters ; an admonition which, it is scarcely necessary to say, is continued to this day.
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CHASUBLE
The outer dress which is worn by the priest at the altar service, and is an imitation of the old Roman toga. It is a circular cloth, which falls down over the body so as completely to cover it, with an aperture in the center for the head to pass through. It is used in the ceremonies of the Rose Croix Degree.
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CHECKERED FLOOR
See Mosaic Pavement
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CHEF-D'OEUVRE
French, meaning superior production. It was a custom among many of the gilds, and especially among the Compagnans du Devoir, who sprang up in the sixteenth century in France, on the decay of Freemasonry in that kingdom, and as one of its results, to require every Apprentice, before he could be admitted to the freedom of the gild, to present a piece of finished work as a proof of his skill in the art in which he had been instructed. The piece of work was called his chef-d'oeuvre, or masterpiece.
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CHEQUERED FLOOR
See Mosaic Pavement
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CHEREAU, ANTOINE GUILLAUME
He was a painter in Paris, who published, in 1806, two hermetico-philosophical works entitled Explication de la Pierre Cubique, and Explication de la Croix Philosophique; or Explanations of the Cubical Stone and of the Philosophical Cross. These works are brief, but give much interesting information on the ritualism and symbolism of the advanced degrees. They have been republished by Tessier in his Manuel General, without, however, any acknowledgment to the original author.
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CHERUBIM
The second order of the angelic hierarchy, the first being the seraphim. The two cherubim that overtopped the merey-seat or covering of the ark, in the holy of holies, were placed there by Moses, in obedience to the orders of God : " And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercyseat. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; towards the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubims be" (see Exodus xxv, 18, 20). It was between these cherubim that the Shekinah or Divine Presence rested, and from which issued the Bathkol or Voice of God. Of the form of these cherubim we are ignorant. Josephus says that they resembled no known creature, but that Moses made them in the form in which he saw them about the throne of God; others, deriving their ideas from what is said of them by Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Saint John, describe them as having the face and breast of a man, the wings of an eagle, the belly of a lion, and the legs and feet of an ox, which three animals, with man, are the symbols of strength and wisdom. But all agree in this, that they had wings, and that these wings were extended. The cherubim were purely symbolic. But although there is great diversity of opinion as to their exact signification, yet there is a very general agreement that they allude to and symbolize the protecting and overshadowing power of the Deity. Reference is made to the extended wings of the cherubim in the Degree of Royal Master. Much light has been thrown upon the plastic form of these symbols, says Brother C. T. MeClenachan, not only as to the Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant spoken of in Exodus, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, but those of Chaldeo-Assyrian art which beautified the gates of the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, and other structures. Brother McClenachan adds the following comments : The Kirubi of the Assyrian type, in the shape of bulls with extended wings, in nowise meet the description given above. The figures which can be found in various places upon Egyptian monuments, placed face to face on either side of the Naos of the gods, and stretching out their arms, furnished with great wings, as though to envelop them (see Wilkinson, Manners and Custom of Ancient Egyptians, 1878, volume iii), more fully meet the idea-in fact, it is convincing, when we remember the period, and note that all else about the sacred furnishings of the Tabernacle, or Ohel-mo'ed, are exclusively Egyptian in form, as well as the sacerdotal costumes (see L'Egypte et Moïse, by Abbé Ancessi, Paris, 1875). Furthermore, this was most natural, since the period was immediately after the exodus. The Cherubim of the Ark were remodeled by Solomon after designs by his father, David (First Chronicles xxviii, 18). At this epoch, says François Lenormant, Professor of Archeology at the National Library of France, in his Beginnings of History, 1882, the Egyptian influence was no longer supreme in its sway over the Hebrews; that the Assyro-Babylonian influence balanced it; that the new Cherubim, then executed, may have been different from the ancient ones as described in Exodus; in fact, Kirubi after the Assyrian type, which formed a Merkabah, meaning a chariot (First Chronicles xxviii, 18), upon which Yahveh was seated. In the Egyptian monuments the gods are often represented between the forward-stretching wings of sparrow-hawks or vultures. placed face to face, and birds of this kind often enfold with their wings the divine Naos. The adornment of the Tabernacle, as mentioned in Exodus, excluded every figure susceptible of an idolatrous character, which is far from being the case in what we know of the Temple of Solomon. In the matter of plastic images, none was admitted save only the Cherubim, which were not only placed upon the Ark, but whose representations are woven into the hangings of the Mishkan and the veil which separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. It is therefore most probable that the Cherubim of Exodus were great eagles or birds-Kurubi-while under the remodeling by Solomon these were changed to Kirubi with human faces. The prophet Ezekiel describers four hay-yoth or Cherubim, two and two, back to back, and going "each one straight forward'' toward the four quarters. The Cherubim of the Merkabah of Ezekiel have four wings-two lifted up and two covering their back and four human faces set in pairs, to the right and to the left, one of a man, one of a bull, one of a lion, and one of an eagle-the faces of creatures which combine all the emblems of strength depicted by the Chaldeo-Assyrian bull. Ezekiel thus describes the Cherubim with several faces which, alternately with the palm-trees, decorated the frieze around the interior of the temple at Jerusalem: "Each Kerub had two faces, a man's face turned one way toward the palm-tree, and a lion's face turned the other way toward the other palm-tree; and it was in this wise all around the house." The following information, furnished by Professor Lenormant, on the subject of Cherubim, is important: "Deductions were formerly made from the Aryan theory to support primitive tradition as to origin and form, but these have been overthrown, and the Semitic interpretation made manifest through finding the name of the Cherubim in the cuneiform inscriptions; that in place of referring the Hebrew word kerub to the Aryan root grabh, meaning to seize, the word is more properly of Semitic origin, from the root karab, signifying bull, or a creature strong and powerful. Referring to the prophet Ezekiel (i, 10, and x, 14), the two parallel passages use the word kerub interchangeably with shore, bull, the face of a bull and face of a cherub, which are synonymous expressions. Since we have come to know those colossal images of winged bulls with human faces, crowned with the lofty cidaris, decorated with several pairs of horns, which flanked the gateways of the Assyrian palaces, a number of scholars, intimately acquainted with antique sculpture, have been zealous in associating them with the Cherubim of the Bible. The winged bull with a human head figures in a bas-relief in the palace of Khorsabad as a favoring and protecting genius, which watches over the safe navigation of the transports that carry the wood of Lebanon by sea. The bulls whose images are placed at the gateways of the palaces and temples, as described in the above ideographic group, are the guardian genii, who are looked upon as living beings. As the result of a veritable magical operation, the supernatural creature is supposed to reside within these bodies of stone." In a bilingual document, Akkadian with an Assyrian version, we read invocations to the two bulls who flanked the gate of the infernal abode, which were no longer simulacra of stone, but living beings, like the bulls at the gates of the celestial palaces of the gods. The following is one of the unique expressions made in the ear of the bull which stands to the right of the bronze enclosure: "Great Bull, most great Bull, stamping before the holy gates, he opens the interior; director of Abundance, who supports the god Nirba, he who gives their glory to the cultivated fields, my pure hands sacrifice toward thee. " Similar expressions were then made on the other side. These genii, in the form of winged bulls with human countenances, were stationed as guardians at the portals of the edifices of Babylonia and Assyria, and were given the name of Kirubi ; thus, Kirubu damqu lippaqid, meaning May the propitious Kirub guard. Numerous authorities may be given to show that the Chaldeo-Assyrians' Kirub, from the tenth to the fifth century before our era, whose name is identical with the Hebrew Kerub, was the winged bull with a human head. The Israelites, during the times of the Kings and the Prophets, pictured to themselves the Cherubim under this form. The figures of the Cherubim are said to have defeated Dante's power of constructive imagination.
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CHESED
A word which is generally corrupted into Hesed. It is the Hebrew pronounced chesed, and signifies mercy. Hence it very appropriately refers to that act of kindness and compassion which is commemorated in the degree of Select Master of the American system. It is the fourth of the Cabalistic Sephiroth, and is combined in a triad with Beauty and Justice.
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CHEVALIER
Employed by the French Freemasons as the equivalent of Knight in the name of any degree in which the latter word is used by English Freemasons as Chevalier du Soleil for Knight of the Sun, or Chevalier de l'Orient for Knight of the East. The German word is Ritter.
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CHIBBELUM
A significant word used in the rituals of the eighteenth century, which define it to mean a worthy Freemason. It is a corruption of Giblim.
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CHROMATIC CALENDAR. THE FIVE POINTS
COLORS, ELEMENTS, AND POINTS, OF THE FIVE RULERS
BLACK, RED, GREEN, WHITE, YELLOW
In the great Temple, usually known as the Ocean Banner Monastery, at Honam, a suburb of Canton, China, we find four colossal idols occupying a large porch, each image being painted a different color. Ch'i-kwoh, who rules the north and grants propitious winds, is dark ; Kwang-muh is red, and to him it is given to rule the south and control the fire, air, and water; To-man' rules the west, and grants or withholds rain, his color being white; while Chang-tsang, whose color is green, rules the winds and keeps them within their proper bounds, his supreme control being exercised over the east. The old custom of associating colors with the four quarters of the globe has probably led to the habit of describing the winds from these respective points as possessed of the same Colors. The fifth, the earth, the central remaining point, still is conjectural. Thus, we also find in China a set of deities known as the five rulers; their colors, elements, and points may be thus represented as in the table.
Black ..... Water ..... North .... Back
Red ........ Fire ........ South .... Breast
Green ..... Wood .... East ....... Mouth
White ..... Metal .... West ...... Knee
Yellow .... Earth .... Middle ... Foot
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COLORS, ELEMENTS, AND POINTS, OF THE FIVE RULERS
These again are in turn associated with the planets, and the study of Chinese and Babylonian planet colors is full of curious points of similarity.
BLACK, typifying the north, has two direct opponents in symbolic colors, and these are red and white. The first as implying ignorance arising from evil passions, the second indicating ignorance of mind.
Red-black is called in Hebrew Heum, from which comes Heume, an enclosing wall. Black from white, in Hebrew, is Seh-her, signifying the dawn of light to the mind of the Masonic profane, the hand to back, as the words of wisdom are about to be spoken.
In the Egyptian, the black Osiris appears at the commencement of the Funereal Ritual, representing the state of the soul which passes into the world of light.
Anubis, one of the sons of Osiris, who weighs the soul in the seales of Amenti, and is the god of the dead, is black. The Conductor, or Master of Ceremonies, Thoth Psychopompe, has the head of the black Ibis (see Truth).
RED
In Hebrew, the fire of love, which burns in the south, is are, to bum, On Egyptian monuments, and in their temples, the flesh of men is painted red, and that of women, yellow. The same difference exists between the gods and goddess, except where speciality otherwise defined. Mill's name in Hebrew signifies red, and as the image of fire is love, it is the universal tie of beings from breast to breast.
GREEN
pronounced yeh'-rek, meaning green thing, verdure. pronounced rake-eh-ah meaning vault of heaven, the firmament, also the winds. Green designates the beginning, the creation, the birth, as the world was called into being in the wisdom of God by his word of mouth, and Light was to appear in the East.
Phtha was the Egyptian Creator of the world; he was at times represented with his flesh painted green, and holding a scepter of four colors, red, blue, green, and yellow: fire, air, water, and earth. The god Lunus, the Moon, in Hebrew pronounced yeh-rak, is formed of one of the roots of green, signifying to found or set in order. Green is the symbol of Victory as well as Hope, in the symbolic colors (see Green).
WHITE
He-ur, to be white; Heurim, meaning to be noble and pure. The Egyptian spirits of the dead were clothed in white, like the priests. Phtha, the creator and generator, was frequently robed in a white vestment, symbol of the egg from which he was born, enveloped in the white or albumen. The head of Osiris was draped in a white tunic. While the Chinese metaphorically represented Metal by this color, the Egyptians and Hebrews made it the symbol of Earth.
Its reference to the West would imply the first point whereat the profane bent the knee in supplication to the Deity.
YELLOW
pronounced tsaw-hab, gold color, designates a radiation of light, signifying to shine, to be resplendent. Man, or the male principle, symbolized by ardent fire, was represented by red, and the female principle, identified with the idea of light or flame, represented by yellow or light-colored earth, over which the swift-footed messenger bears the tidings of a Freemason's distress and the return of obligatory succor. This light of the fire, the female of Divine beauty, the Egyptian Venus, was called Athor, signifying dwelling of Horus, and was as represented in the engraving.
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CHURCH, FREEMASONS OF THE
An Architectural College was organized in London, in the year 1842, under the name of Freemasons of the Church for the Recovery, Maintenance, and Furtherance of the True Principles and Practice of Architecture. The founders announced their objects to be "the rediscovery of the ancient principles of architecture; the sanction of good principles of building, and the condemnation of bad ones; the exercise of scientific and experienced judgment in the choice and use of the most proper materials ; the infusion, maintenance, and advancement of science throughout architecture ; and eventuality, by developing the powers of the College upon a just and beneficial footing, to reform the whole practice of architecture, to raise it from its present vituperated condition, and to bring around it the same unquestioned honor which is at present enjoyed by almost every other profession" (Builder, volume 1, page 23).
One of their own members has said that "the title was not intended to express any conformity, with the general body of Freemasons, but rather as indicative of the professed views of the College, namely, recovery, maintenance, and furtherance of the free principles and practice of architecture." And that, in addition, they made it an object of their exertions to preserve or effect the restoration of architectural remains of antiquity threatened unnecessarily with demolition or endangered by decay. But it is evident, from the close connection of modern Freemasonry with the building gilds of the Middle Ages, that any investigations into the condition of medieval architecture must throw light on Masonic history.
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CIPRIANI, JEAN BAPTISTE
Born in 1727, died in 1785. A famous Florentine artist, who came to England in 1755, and co-operated with Bartolozzi in the production of the frontispiece of the 1784 edition of the Book of Constitutions.
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CIRCLE
The circle being a figure which returns into itself, and having therefore neither beginning nor end, has been adopted in the symbology of all countries and times as a symbol sometimes of the universe and sometimes of eternity. With this idea in the Zoroastrian mysteries of Persia, and frequently in the Celtic mysteries of Druidism, the temple of initiation was circular. In the obsolete lectures of the old English system, it was said that "the circle has ever been considered symbolical of the Deity; for as a circle appears to have neither beginning nor end, it may be justly considered a type of God, without either beginning of days or ending of years. It also reminds us of a future state, where we hope to enjoy everlasting happiness and joy.'' But whatever refers especially to the Masonic symbolism of the circle ,will be more appropriately contained in the article on the Point within a Circle.
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CIRCLES
The name in German is Kränzchen
There are in Germany many small Masonic clubs, or Circles, which are formed in subordination to some Lodge which exercises a supervision over them and is responsible for their good behavior to the Grand Lodge, by whose permission they have been established. The members devote themselves to Masonic work, organize lectures, ete., and acquire a Masonic library (see Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, ix, 66).
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CIRCUIT
Fort, in his Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, says: "Northern kings, immediately upon acceding to the throne, made a 'gait' or procession about their realms. According to the Scandinavian laws, when real property was sold, granted, or conveyed, the transfer of possession was incomplete until a circuit was made around the estate by the buyer and vendor, in which tour all the inhabitants of the nearest hamlet united.
"During the installation ceremonies of the Master of a Masonic Lodge, a procession of all the Craftsmen march around the room before the Master, to whom an appropriate salute is tendered. This Circuit is designed to signify that the new incumbent reduces the Lodge to his possession in this symbolic manner" (Fort's Early History, page 320; see also Circumambulation).
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CIRCULAR TEMPLES
These were used in the initiations of the religion or Zoroaster. Like the square temples of Freemasonry, and the other mysteries, they were symbolic of the world; and the symbol was completed by making the circumference of the circle a representation of the zodiac. In the mysteries of Druidism also, the temples were sometimes circular.
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CIRCUMAMBULATION, RITE OF
Circumambulation is the name given by sacred archeologists to that religious rite in the ancient initiations which consisted in a formal procession around the altar, or other holy and consecrated object. The same Rite exists in Freemasonry.
In ancient Greece, when the priests were engaged in the rite of sacrifice, they and the people always walked three times round the altar while singing a sacred hymn. In making this procession, great care was taken to move in imitation of the course of the sun. For this purpose; they commenced at the east, and passing on by the way of the south to the west and thence by the north, they arrived at the east again. The strophe of the ancient hymn was sung in going from the east to the West : the antistrophe in returning to the east, and the epode while standing still. The strophe in Greek choral poetry was the first in a pair of two corresponding stanzas, or rhymed lines ; the second being called the antistrophe. The epode was the name for the last part of an ancient ode or poem. In this procession, as it will be observed, the right hand was always placed to the altar. "After this," says Potter, "they stood about the altar, and the priest, turning towards the right hand, went round it and sprinkled it with meal and holy water", (Antiquities of Greece, Book II, chapter iv, page 206). This ceremony the Greeks called moving, from the right to the right, which was the direction of the motion, and the Romans applied to it the term dextrovorsum, or dextrorsum, which signifies the same thing. Thus, Plautus (Curculis, 1,1, 70), makes Palinurus, a character in his comedy of Curculio, say: "If you would do reverence to the gods, you must turn to the right hand," Si deos salutas dextroversum censeo. Gronovius, in commenting on this passage of Plautus, says : ''In worshiping and praying to the gods, they were accustomed to turn to the right hand." A hymn of Callimachus has been preserved, which is said to have been chanted by the priests of Apolio at Delos, while performing this ceremony of circumambulation, the substance of which is ''we imitate the example of the sun, and follow his benevolent course. "
Among the Romans, the ceremony of circumambulation was always used in the rites of sacrifice, of expiation or purification. Thus, Vergil (Aeneid, vi, 229), describes Corynacus as purifying his companions at the funeral of Misenus, by passing three times around them while aspersing them with the lustral waters; and to do so conveniently, it was necessary that he should have moved with his right hand toward them.
Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda,
Spargens rore levi et ramo felicis olivae.
That is:
Thrice with pure water compass'd he the crew,
Sprinkling, with olive branch, the gentle dew.
In fact, so common was it to unite the ceremony of circumambulation with that of expiation or purification, or, in other words, to make a circuitous procession in performing the latter rite, that the term lustrate, whose primitive meaning is to purify, came at last to be synonymous with circumire, to walk round anything, and hence a purification and a circumambulation were often expressed by the same word.
The circuit of sacred places as a significant religious rite has many recorded examples. William Simpson (The Jonah Legend, page 18), says: "With the Semites there is one example which appears to be a good illustration of the principle. The pilgrims of Mecca perform what is considered to be a very sacred part of the ceremonies ; that is, the tawuf. or circumambulation of the Kaabah. The reason given for this is that the first Kaabah was an imitation of the celestial throne which is constantly being circumambulated by the angels. Going round sacred places and things is not peculiar to the Semites; it is a ritualistic custom that can be traced through most parts of the ancient world, and in many cases it is continued down to our own times. Being part of the ritual at the Kaabah, it is not difficult to understand how it gave birth to the mythos of the angels and the throne."
Among the Hindus, the same Rite of Circumambulation has always been practiced. As an instance, we may cite the ceremonies which are to be performed by a Brahman, upon first rising from bed in the morning, an accurate account of which has been given by Colebrooke in the sixth volume of the Asiatic Researches.
The priest having first adored the sun, while directing his face to the east, then walks toward the west by the way of the south, saying, at the same time, "I follow the course of the sun," which he thus explains: "As the sun in his course moves round the world by way of the south, so do I follow that luminary, to obtain the benefit arising from a journey round the earth by the way of the south.'' Lastly, we may refer to the preservation of this Rite among the Druids, whose "mystical dance" around the caim, or heap of sacred stones, was in the opinion of Brother Mackey nothing more nor less than the Rite of Circumambulation.
On these occasions, the priest always made three circuits from east to west, by the right hand, around the altar or cairn, accompanied by all the worshipers. And so sacred was the rite once considered, that we learn from Toland (Celtic Religion and Learning, II, xvii), that in the Scottish Isles, once a principal seat of the Druidical religion, the people "never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing cairns, but they walk three times around them, from east to west, according to the course of the sun.'' This sanctified tour, or round by the south, he observes, is called Deaseal, as the contrary, or unhallowed one by the north, is called Tuapholl. And, he further remarks, that this word Deaseal was derived ''from Deas, the right (understanding in this case the hand) and soil, one of the ancient names of the sun ; the right hand in this round being ever next the heap.''
This Rite of Circumambulation undoubtedly refers to the doctrine of sun-worship, because the circumambulation was always made around the sacred place, just as the sun was supposed to move around the earth; and although the dogma of sun-worship does not of course exist in Freemasonry, we find an allusion to it in the Rite of Circumambulation, which it preserves, as well as in the position of the officers of a Lodge and in the symbol of a point within a circle. The Rite of Circumambulation may not be without some suggestion of the old ceremony of beating the bounds or, as it is called in Scotland, riding the marches, a custom still observed in some cities. The procession usually started and ended at the town cross if there should be one. So much we are told on page 16 of By-Gone Church Life in Scotland in an essay by Reverend George S. Tyack.
A more elaborate discussion of the old ceremony of beating the bounds is given by John T. Page in the collection of essays contained in Curious Church Customs edited by William Andrews. From this we learn that in the early days when deities were called into existence at the will of any human power we may note the fact that somewhere between the years 715 and 672 B.C. Numa Pompilius introduced to the Roman cities the worship of the god, Terminus. The king originated a plan by which the fields of the cities were separated from each other by means of boundary stones. These were dedicated and made sacred to a god Terminus. Terminalia, as the Feast of Terminus was called, was celebrated annually on the 23rd of February. On this day the people turned out in force and visiting the several boundary stones, bedecked them out with flowers and performed various sacrificial rites with great rejoicing.
From the seventh century before Christ to the present time is a long step, but it is generally admitted that in this yearly Terminalia of the ancient Romans we have the germ of the custom known as beating the bounds ,which in many parishes throughout England is still carried out either annually or every third or seventh year as the case may be.
The early Christians readily adopted some of the heathen customs to their own requirements. Thus we soon find them making a perambulation around their fields accompanied by their bishops and clergy. They repeated litanies and implored God to avert plague and pestilence and to enable them in due season to reap the fruits of the earth. We find these processions recorded as early as the 550th year of the Christian era.
The curious custom of whipping during these processions around the bounds of any particular locality came to form a part of the ceremony. In order that the boundaries of the parish might be deeply impressed on the younger portion of the community, it became common to publicly whip a boy while he was near one of these landmarks in the course of the procession. In order to encourage the youngsters to undergo this treatment, we find that a present was usually given to them at the close of the proceedings.
Something of the same sort has been preserved in certain religious observances whenever a piece of property has been dedicated for sacred use. Then the procession marches around the various boundary marks and dedicates them solemnly.
In all this there is a kinship showing the ancient source of the Rite of Circumambulation.
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CLANDESTINE
The ordinary meaning of this word is secret, hidden. The French word clandestin, from which it is derived, is defined by Boiste to be something fait en cachette et contre les lois, a phrase meaning in the French language Done in a hiding place and against the laws, which better suits the Masonic signification, which refers to what is illegal, or not authorized. Irregular is the word which is often used for small departures from custom.
Brothers Newton R. Parvin, former Grand Secretary of Iowa, and C. C. Hunt, who succeeded him in office, have sent us an account of the American Masonic Federation.
A book, the Thomson Masonic Fraud, a Study in Clandestine Masonry, has also been written by Brother Isaac Blair Evans, United States Attorney for Utah in 1921, who not only prepared the case, with the assistance of Brother M. G. Price, for presentation to the Grand Jury but also drew the indictment upon which Messrs. Thomson, Perrot, and Bergera were Convected.
The principal reason for the financial success of the American Masonic Federation was, as Brothers Parvin, Hunt and Blair point out, due to the general ignorance of the Craft on the subject of Masonic history and Law. By setting forth claims on this subject, which very few Freemasons because of lack of knowledge were able to disprove, the convicted persons were able to impose upon the public. We may here point out that neither the Judge nor any member of the jury were Freemasons. From these two sources of first hand information the following particulars are obtained. Brother Evans says in the introduction to his book, page 1.
The conviction in the Federal Court at Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 15, 1922, of Matthew A.McBlain Thomson, Thomas Perrot and Dominic Bergera, of using the mails to defraud, was the culmination of efforts of the United States Government, begun in 1915, to have a reckoning with the perpetrators of one of the most ingenious mail frauds, and the most daring and spectacular Masonic imposture in American history. No one can study the facts in the case without sensing keenly the great importance of this trial, both in the history of crimes and the history of Masonry. Future accounts of celebrated American mail frauds will surely be incomplete without some mention of this bold swindle which had gone its way without molestation for more than a decade.
For about fifteen years there had been an organization at work in the United States headed by one Matthew McBlain Thomson, formerly a member of two Lodges in Scotland and a Past Master of one of them. He came to America and affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 27 of Montpelier, Idaho. Later on he took a dimit from this Lodge and then formed an organization, which became the American Masonic Federation. Thomson claimed to have 10,000 members, and that his organization had been recognized in practically every country in the world. He put forth plausible arguments to convince people that he had authority to form his organization and confer Masonic degrees.
This he was able to do by making statements which only those who were posted in Masonic history and jurisprudence could refute. He claimed that with the exception of Louisiana, the United States was unoccupied territory Masonically, and that not one of the Grand Lodges in the United States had a Charter authorizing it to work; that each of the thirteen Colonies organized a Grand Lodge of its own, without obtaining consent of the Grand Lodge from which their Charters had originally been issued; that the Lodges in the Colonies, by this breaking away from the home Grand Lodges of Great Britain without first obtaining consent, became irregular and clandestine organizations, and that, therefore, the field in the United States was open to any regular organization that chose to occupy it; that later recognition by the Grand Lodges of Great Britain did not make these self-formed Grand Lodges of the United States legitimate; that they are clandestine, also, because of the alleged fact that they are not universal and refuse to recognize Freemasons in other countries on account of religion, race, or some other assumed reason, contrary to the principles of universality.
As for himself, Thomson claimed descent through lawful Charters from Mother Kilwinning Lodge No. 0, of Scotland, to Saint Johns Mother Lodge at Marseilles, France, and that this latter body chartered Polar Star Lodge in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1794; that Polar Star Lodge became a constituent part of the Supreme Council of Louisiana, and that this Supreme Council, on September 14, 1906, granted a Charter of authority to Matthew McBlain Thomson to form Craft or Symbolic Grand and Subordinate Lodges of Masons, and that by virtue of this Charter he, Thomson, granted a Charter to the Grand Lodge Inter-Montana.
Thus, he claimed that he alone had the true Scottish Rite Masonry since his came from Scotland, while the so-called Scottish Rite Masonry of the United States either originated in the United States or came from France, not Scotland.
For the Higher degrees of Masonry, as he called them, he claimed authority by virtue of a Charter from the Grand Council of Rites of Scotland, which he asserted to be "The oldest High degree Body in the world and all High Degree Diplomas came directly from the Grand Council in Scotland." He also claimed that the Grand Council of Rites derived from Mother Kilwinning Lodge. Such in brief is the "chain of title" claimed by Thomson. As a matter of fact there is not a sound link in the entire chain, but only a student of Masonic history could disprove his claim, and from among his statements, pick the true from the false.
Thomson sent out paid organizers whose duty it was to organize Lodges and confer Masonic degrees. The charge for the Craft degrees ranged from 535 up to 550 or more, the usual charge being about 550.
For the Scottish Rite degrees from the Fourth to the Thirty-third the charge was from $135 to $200. Sometimes for this amount were added the Shrine and Templar degrees. Occasionally these organizers would be arrested by the police on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. Sometimes convictions were had, but usually these were hard to obtain, for the reason that it was difficult to disprove statements made by Thomson and his organizers. This difficulty existed because of lack of knowledge by Freemasons called to testify in such trials. In 1915 one of these organizers by the name of Ranson was arrested in Saint Louis. The Post Office Inspector in charge at Saint Louis concluded that the United States Government take up the charge of using the mails to defraud.
He assigned his inspector, M, G. Price, to investigate. Price was not able to enter actively upon this work until 1919. Since then and up to the date of the trial he spent practically his entire time making an investigation in the United States, Scotland and France. As a result an indictment was found against Matthew McBlain Thomson, Thomas Perrot, Dominic Bergera and Robert Jamieson, and the case came to trial in the United States District Court at Salt Lake City, Utah. As the regular judge in this district was a Freemason, Judge Wade of Iowa was assigned to try the case and he impressed all who attended the trial with his absolute fairness to both prosecution and defense. As witnesses for the Government there were summoned several ex-members of Thomson's organization, three officers of various Masonic Grand Bodies of Scotland, and several Brethren representing the regular Masonic organizations in the United States. The former members of Thomson's organization testified as to methods used and representations made in obtaining members.
The Scotch Brethren testified as to Masonic history and Law in Scotland. They also testified that Mother Kilwinning Lodge had a copy of every Charter issued by her and that she never chartered a Lodge in Marseilles, France; as for the Grand Council of Rites of Scotland, it was considered clandestine and that members of legitimate Lodges in Scotland were forbidden to be members of it or have anything to do with it Masonically.
Two officers of the Supreme Council of Louisiana testified that their Council never granted a Charter to Thomson to work Craft degrees. The Government also was able to show contradictory statements in Thomson's publications. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and the Judge sentenced each of the defendants to serve a term of two years in the penitentiary and pay a fine of $5,000.
Judge Wade, in passing sentence upon the defendants, said:
Nobody can hear this evidence in this case without being convinced, absolutely convinced, that this thing has been a fraudulent scheme from the beginning. I can see where an ignorant person might find some possible excuse for the methods employed in this case. For intelligent people and experienced people to try to convince the Court that this organization and this plan and this work that had been going on is on the square-it can't be done. Of course now we are living in a time when some of the brightest minds in the country are devoting themselves to securing money by short cuts, by taking advantage of the gullible for their enterprises.
In fact that is one of the dominant crimes of the present time. I know of one state in which in the last two years, within two, there has been sold over twenty-nine million dollars worth of stock in packing houses which never were built, and practically every dollar of the money lost, just by shrewd practice, by trying to get the other fellow's money in some way without working for it. Now, of course, after all that was stated in this case from the beginning and all through I confess that I was astounded when I heard Mr. Thomson testify that there was no pretense, that there was no record anywhere of a Charter to Marseilles Lodge, on the existence of which lay the right and practically the foundation of all claims of legitimacy on that branch of the case and to have him admit that such a lodge existed only in tradition-I realize that some things can be proven by tradition, but tradition cannot exist with one man tradition must have-before it has any force as proof- such general recognition among men in that particular occupation or relation that it forces itself upon the mind as it truth the record of which has been lost-and it was conceded on the witness stand that so far as this particular thing was concerned there was no record anywhere and no one who was skilled in the history of Freemasonry had ever met any such a tradition so far as the record in this case is concerned, in any history or book or pamphlet or anything else outside of this organization. So was I surprised when I found that the Council of Rites of Scotland which had been one of the chief points urged by these gentlemen, had no record behind it but a few years and it was represented-entirely aside from the question of the origin and history of this organization and those that preceded it-it was represented time and time again without dispute to these poor devils that were led largely by their attraction to an ancient organization and to the rites and rituals of the organization, it was represented to them specifically and it has not been denied that by virtue of their association with this organization the doors of Freemasonry the world over were open to them outside of the United States, which is of course an absurd claim under the evidence in this case.
Then the trip that Bergera made to Europe on the investigation, in view of what transpired according to his own testimony, has all the appearance of being a plan or scheme th the might come back here and state to those whose membership was sought his capacity to enter the Lodges of Europe to support their claim, that the members immediately on getting across the water would have the doors wide open to them. And then after making a trip and going to one or two Lodges or three under peculiar circumstances, in fact never going to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and that was included in the representation made, that is to say, all Europe was included, never going m the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the Grand Lodge of England and never going to the Grand Lodge of France, whatever it is called, and coming back here no doubt to back up the representation that membership in this organization was opening the doors of all Masonic Orders, all of the regular Masonic orders in Europe-it was a pretense, gentlemen, you can't come to any other conclusion. If Bergera went over there for the purpose of conferring what these organizers were representing and which is not denied here he certainly would have gone to the Grand Lodge of Scotland or England or France or Germany or somewhere to find out whether the doors would be open to these fellows that were joining their ranks.
But it is not necessary to recite the details. One cannot listen to this evidence without being forced to the conclusion that so far as the representation as to the standing and the brotherhood and the association of people with which they would become immediately affiliated was concerned, that aside entirely from the genealogy of the lodge, nobody can claim that there was any truth in what was said except insofar as they had access to certain Lodges with which Mr. Thomson through his relation had some affiliation. The spectacle of Mr. Thomson going to Switzerland to this great conference, and parading afterwards through the journal a conference where eight men from the entire world were present-that in itself is sufficient to condemn the whole thing and the manner in which this business had been done. is sufficient in itself.
No pretense here on the part of the defendants that this money was kept in any business-like way for the benefit of this organization.
What became of it I don't know but there was more than a million dollars taken in here, of that there can be no question in view of the prices charged for little printed sheets of paper in the form of diplomas and certificates and things of that kind, entirely, aside from the membership fee. What became of that money is not indicated here. The head of this organization testified before the Court that he didn't know and in fact had some difficulty in recalling whether there was ever an account of the organization in a bank anywhere in the world. As far as the Secretary is concerned, there is no suggestion of a report indicating that this business was conducted as an honest organization, not a word.
So that, gentlemen, there is only one thing for the Court to do. If it were not for the age of Mr. Thomson at this time there would be a long prison sentence because I think he is the chief actor. I think he is more responsible than anyone else. As far as Bergera is concerned, of course, I cannot understand at all how a man would presume to parade himself as the Treasurer General of the organization of ten thousand members which had received from them in the neighborhood of a million or more dollars and never handle a cent of the money.
I cannot understand it at all, that is all, that any honest man would allow his name to be used in that connection under such condition and the concealment of the methods of doing business and where this money went even up to the present time. I cannot comprehend the whole thing. There is only one thing that saves these men a long prison term. I don't feel justified in sending any of these men to prison any longer than I do Mr. Thomson. As I say, when it comes to this point, in a trial of the case the charity of the law asserts itself.
Old age and sickness, of course, has a strong appeal to the Court, when it comes to the question of a prison term and I think that the district Attorney has been very generous in his suggestion. This Court hasn't really any power to impose a penalty here which would be adequate punishment for this thing that has been going on when we step to think of the honest fellows who parted with their fifty or seventy-five or a hundred and fifty dollars for membership in this organization.
So far as the evidence in this case is concerned not one dollar of it was ever used for any, of the business of the society except to carry on this work of getting members.
Not a word of charity or charitable funds or anything of that kind before this Court. I am very much inclined to be lenient in all things. I am inclined to look in a charitable way upon the mistakes of men, but this thing has in it that deliberateness and continuous conduct which sort of overcomes my tendency.
Stand up, gentlemen. The judgment of this Court is that each one of you serve a period of two years in Fort Leavenworth Prison and each one of you pay a fine oi five thousand dollars and costs Brother Evans says in his work that although the public at large knows little of Freemasonry it expects much of Freemasons. In the eyes of those who are not Freemasons one Freemason would have the same standing as another. How could the public know a spurious from a genuine Freemason? No argument is needed to show that the misdeeds of one such spurious claimant can do more damage to the Fraternity than can be overcome by the good conduct of regular Freemasons. Thus, the Fraternity at large has to answer to the public for any bad conduct of both the genuine and the bogus who claim to be members of the Craft. This is indeed a truth which all Freemasons may well afford to take to heart.
Brother Evans says further, on page 7 of his book: Thomson also knew some other things about regular Masons. He knew that they read very little about their own institution, and that, therefore, they are generally ill-informed in matters of Masonic history and law.
Many times his degree peddlers were haled into petty criminal courts to answer to the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. In as too many instances the prisoner was discharged because the prosecution could not show wherein the fraud lay. The prosecution was dependent, of course, for its proof of fraud upon the testimony of regular Masons. This testimony was often without value and all Masons will know why. Every little victory won by Thomson in the courts gave him just one more argument to make to his dupes.
Thomson also knew that regular Masons in general entertain acute indifference towards as things clandestine. The chances of his being caught up for his gross falsehoods were few, because, first, no one knew enough both about his institutions and regular Masonry to answer him, and, secondly, no one would take the pains to run his lies to earth. These things account, in part, for his enormous success for so many years.
This Thomson case is typical and because of its scope deserves liberal space. Other instances are numerous where the Masonic Institution has defended itself in the courts of law. Volumes two and three, History of Freemasonry in Ohio, 1914, contain many references to the seceders from the Grand Lodge and the lawsuits resulting from "Cerneauism" in that State. On the latter subject see Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry (volume vi) ; General Albert Pike's Cerneauism, 1885, his report on Joseph Cerneau, 1886, and other works; A History of Spurious Supreme Councils in the Northern Jurisdiction, William Gardiner, Past Grand Master, Massachusetts, 1863-4, republished 1884; The History of the Peckham Supreme Council, E. T. Carson, 1884; The Ancient Acceptet Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, William Homan, 1905, this latter work containing valuable reports on proceedings against unauthorized conferring of Craft as well as other degrees.
Forrest Adair, 33 , a Brother memorable for his labors for crippled children, spent freely his time and money protecting Masonic interests, as in the rights of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine determined by the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1915, and the Supreme Court of the United States in 1918. A Committee headed by Brother Frank C. Jones on behalf of the Imperial Council continued this work successfully for the Shrine in other States, as in Texas, 1925, and the results will probably, end the matter for the whole country (see Infringing upon Freemasonry).
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CIPHER WRITING
Cryptography, or the art of writing in cipher, so as to conceal the meaning of what is written from all except those who possess the key, may be traced to remote antiquity. oe la Guilletiere (Lacedoemon), attributes its origin to the Spartans, and Polybius says that more than two thousand years ago Aeneas Tacitus had collected more than twenty different kinds of cipher which were then in use. Kings and generals communicated their messages to officers in distant provinces, by means of a preconcerted cipher; and the system has always been employed wherever there was a desire or a necessity to conceal from all but those who were entitled to the knowledge the meaning of a written document.
The druids, who were not permitted by the rules of their Order to commit any part of their ritual to ordinary writing, preserved the memory of it by the use of the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Cabalists concealed many words by writing them backward: a method which is still pursued by the French Freemasons. The old alchemists also made use of cipher writing, in order to conceal those processes the knowledge of which was intended only for the adepts. Thus Roger Bacon, who discovered the composition of gunpowder, is said to have concealed the names of the ingredients under a cipher made by a transposition of the letters.
Cornelius Agrippa tells us, in his Occult Philosophy, that the ancients accounted it unlawful to write the mysteries of God with those characters with which profane and vulgar things were written, and he cites Porphyry as saying that the ancients desired to conceal God, and divine virtues, by sensible figures which were visible, yet signified invisible things, and therefore delivered their great mysteries in sacred letters, and explained them by symbolical representations. Porphyry here, undoubtedly, referred to the invention and use of hieroglyphics by the Egyptian priests; but these hieroglyphic characters were in fact nothing else but a form of cipher intended to conceal their instructions from the uninitiated profane.
Peter Aponas, an astrological writer of the thirteenth century, gives us some of the old ciphers which were used by the Cabalists, and among others one alphabet called "the passing of the river," which is referred to in some of the advanced degrees of Freemasonry.
But we obtain from Agrippa one alphabet in cipher which is of interest to Freemasons, and which he says was once in great esteem among the Cabalists, but which has now, he adds, become so common as to be placed among profane things. He describes this cipher as follows in one Occulta Philosophia (book iii, chapter 3). The twenty-seven characters (including the finals) of the Hebrew alphabet were divided into three classes of nine in each, and these were distributed into nine squares, made by the intersection of two horizontal and two vertical lines, forming the accompanying figure.
In each of these compartments three letters were placed; as, for instance, in the first compartment, the first, tenth, and nineteenth letters of the alphabet ; in the second compartment, the second, eleventh, and twentieth, and so on. The three letters in each compartment were distinguished from each other by dots or accents. Thus, the first compartment, or L, represented the first letter, or N; the same compartment with a dot, thus, L, represented the tenth letter, or J; or with two dots, thus, L it represented the nineteenth letter, or p; and so with the other compartments; the ninth or last representing the ninth, eighteenth, and twenty-seventh letters, accordingly as it was figured without a dot in the center or with one or two.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, the French Freemasons adopted a cipher similar to this in principle, but varied in the details, among which was the addition of four compartments, made by the oblique intersection of two lines in the form of a Saint Andrew's Cross. This French cipher was never officially adopted by the Freemasons except in the American Royal Arch. It is, however, still recognized in all the Tuilleurs or handbooks of the French Rite. It has become so common as to be placed, as Agrippa said of the original scheme, "among profane things."
Its use would certainly no longer subserve any purpose of concealment. Rockwell openly printed it in his.
3 2 1
6 5 4
9 8 7
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A CIPHER CHART
Ahiman Rezon of Georgia,- and it is often used by those who are not initiated, as a means of amusement. However the use of these curious characters is common on the Royal Arch Ark of the Chapters and is officially recognized by the General Grand Chapter of the United States. In the instructions of the Oliver Ritual, purporting to be used in 1749 at London, there is this explanation, " You are also, my brethren, entitled as Master Masons to the use of an alphabet which our venerable Grand Master Hiram Abif employed in communications with King Solomon at Jerusalem and King Hiram at Tyre. It is geometriek in its character and is therefore eminently useful to Master Masons in general. By means of two squares and a mallet a brother may make the whole alphabet and even silently convey his ideas to another. That this geometriek alphabet may be easily learned and remembered, I will now entrust you with the key thereof."
Some present-day Lodge Boards have characters which must be read backwards. Brother Edward H. oring (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume xxix, pages 243-64) has an article on "The Evolution and development of the Tracing or Lodge Board" in which he states that this reversal took place about the year 1825, and has been perpetuated ever since. On the old-time Lodge Board the dot is not used to indicate the second time the key diagram is used, and thus each character may stand for either of two letters.
Browne and Finch printed books intended only for Freemasons, and not as expositions, invented ciphers for their own use, and supplied their initiated readers with the key. Without a key, their works are un intelligible, except by the art of the decipherer.
Although not used in the first three degrees, the cipher is common in the advanced degrees, of which there is scarcely one which has not had its peculiar cipher. But for the purposes of concealment, the cipher is no longer of any practical use. The art of deciphering has been brought to so great a state of perfection that there is no cipher so complicated as to bid defiance for many hours to the penetrating skill of the experienced decipherer. Hence, the cipher has gone out of general use in Freemasonry as it has among diplomatists, who are compelled to communicate with their respective countries by methods more secret than any that can be supplied by a dispatch written in cipher. Edgar AA Poe has justly said, in his story of The Gold Bug, that ''it may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enima of the kind, which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve. "
But there are some interesting instances of the use of a cipher outside the field of fiction (see Masonic Cipher Message, A Mysterious)
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CIRCUMSPECTION
A necessary watchfulness is recommended to every man, but in a Freemason it becomes a positive duty, and the neglect of it constitutes a heinous crime. On this subject, the Old Charges of 1722 (vi, 4) are explicit. "You shall be cautious in your words and carriage, that the most penetrating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be imitated; and sometimes you shall divert a discourse and manage it prudently for the Honor of the Worshipful Fraternity" (Constitutions, 1723, page 55).
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CITY OF DAVID
A section in the southern part of Jerusalem, embracing Mount Zion, where a fortress of the Jebusites stood, which David reduced, and where he built a new palace and city, to which he gave his own name.
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CITY OF THE GREAT KING
Jerusalem, so called in Psalm xlviii, 2, and by the Savior in Matthew v, 35.
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CIVILIZATION AND FREEMASONRY
Those who investigate in the proper spirit the history of Speculative Freemasonry will be strongly impressed with the peculiar relations that exist between the history of Freemasonry and that of civilization. They will find these facts to be patent: that Freemasonry has ever been the result of civilization ; that in the most ancient times the spirit of Freemasonry and the spirit of civilization have always gone together; that the progress of both has been with equal strides; that where there has been no appearance of civilization there has been no trace of Freemasonry; and, finally, that wherever Freemasonry has existed in any of its forms, there it has been surrounded and sustained by civilization, which social condition it in turn elevated and purified, Speculative Freemasonry, therefore, seems to have been a necessary result of civilization, It is, even in its primitive and most simple forms, to be found among no barbarous or savage people. Such a state of society has never been capable of introducing or maintaining its abstract principles of divine truth. But while Speculative Freemasonry is the result of civilization, existing only, in its bosom and never found among barbarous or savage races, it has, by a reactionary law of sociology, proved the means of extending and elevating the civilization to which it originally owed its birth. Civilization has always been progressive. That of Pelasgic Greece was far behind that which distinguished the Hellenic period of the same country. The civilization of the ancient world was inferior to that of the modern, and every century shows an advancement in the moral, intellectual, and social condition of mankind.
But in this progress from imperfection to perfection the influence of those speculative systems that are identical with Freemasonry has always been seen and felt. Let us, for an example, look at the ancient heathen world and its impure religions. While the people of Paganism bowed, in their ignorance, to a many-headed god, or, rather, worshiped at the shrines of many gods, whose mythological history and character must have exercised a pernicious effect on the moral purity of their worshipers, speculative Philosophy, in the form of the Ancient Mysteries, was exercising its influence upon a large class of neophytes and disciples, by giving this true symbolic interpretation of the old religious myths. In the adyta or secret shrines of their temples in Greece and Rome and Egypt, in the sacred caves of India; and in consecrated groves of Scandinavia and Gaul and Britain, these ancient sages were secretly divesting the Pagan faith of its polytheism and of its anthropomorphic deities, and were establishing a pure monotheism in its place, and illustrating, by a peculiar symbolism, the great dogmas-since taught in Freemasonry--of the unity of God and the immortality of the soul.
And in modern times, when the religious thought of mankind, under a better dispensation, has not required this purification, Freemasonry still, in other ways, exerts its influence in elevating the tone of civilization ; for through its working the social feelings have been strengthened, the amenities and charities of life been refined and extended, and, as we have had recent reason to know and see, the very bitterness of strife and the blood-guiltiness of war have been softened and oftentimes obliterated.
We then arrive at these conclusion, namely, that Speculative Freemasonry is a result of civilization, for it exists in no savage or barbarous state of society, but has always appeared with the advent in any country of a condition of civilization, "grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength" ; and, in return, has proved, by a reactionary influence, a potent instrument in extending, elevating, and refining the civilization which gave it birth, by advancing its moral, intellectual, and religious character.
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CLOSING
The duty of closing the Lodge is as imperative, and the ceremony as solemn, as that of opening; nor should it ever be omitted through negligence, nor hurried over with haste. Everything should be performed with order and precision, so that no Brother shall go away dissatisfied. From the very nature of our Constitution, a Lodge cannot properly be adjourned. It must be closed either in due form, or the Brethren called off to refreshment. But an adjournment on motion, as in other societies, is unknown to the Order. The Master can alone dismiss the Brethren, and that dismission must take place after a settled usage. In Grand Lodges which meet for several days successively, the session is generally continued from day to day, by calling to refreshment at the termination of each day's sitting.
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CLANDESTINE FREEMASON
One made in or affiliated with a clandestine Lodge. With clandestine Lodges or Freemasons, regular Freemasons are forbidden to associate or converse on Masonic subjects.
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CLANDESTINE LODGE
A body of Freemasons or of those improperly claiming to be Freemasons, uniting in a Lodge without the consent of a Grand Lodge, or, although originally legally constituted, continuing to work after its Charter has been revoked, is styled a Clandestine Lodge. Neither Anderson nor Entick employ the word. It was first used in the Book of Constitutions in a note by Noorthouck, on page 239 of his edition (see the Constitutions of 1784).Regular Lodge would be the better term.
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CLARE DE GILBERT
Marquis of Pembroke. According to Masonic tradition, said to have been, with Ralph Lord Monthermer. and Walter Gifford, Archbishop of York, given charge of the Operative Masons in 1272
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CLARE, MARTIN
A London schoolmaster and a celebrated Freemason of England in the eighteenth century. The date of Brother Clare's birth is not on record, but it is known that his death occurred May 19, 1751, Martin Clare served the Fraternity as Grand Steward in 1734, as Junior Warden in 1735, Deputy Grand Master in 1741, continuing his activity in the work of the Grand Lodge up to 1749. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on March 27, 1735. He was, in 1736, Master of the Lodge at the Shakespeare's Head, Saint James, which was constituted in 1721, then No. 4, and later became the Lodge of Friendship, No. 6. The Minutes of the Lodge from January, 1738, to December, 1749, were recorded in his handwriting.
He was distinguished for zeal and intelligence in Freemasonry, and it has been pretty well established that he was the author of A Defense of Masonry, which was issued in 1730 in answer to Prichard's Masonry Dissected, and which was reproduced in the 1738 Edition of the Constitutions.
Brother Henry Sadler, in his Thomas Dunckerley, his Life, Labors and Letters, tells on page 114 that on January 25, 1742, ''The Master proposed the Revival of the Lectures in this place and this seeming universally agreeable to the Society, his Worship requested the D.G.M., to entertain the Lodge this Day Fortnight at nine o'clock and the Subject was left to his own choice. After him Brother Wagg promised to read this Day Month." On page 114, Brother Sadler says, "The scientific lectures had been omitted for several months past. The word Revival was originally written Revisal by Clare, but as the proceedings were transcribed by him, from rough minutes, probably taken by some one else, he doubtless mistook the word and afterwards altered the s into a v, although at first sight and taken without the context the word might now easily be mistaken for Revisal.
This trifling error may have given rise to the tradition that Clare revised the Craft Lectures by request of the Grand Lodge; I am not, however, aware of the existence of the least evidence or indication that he did anything of the kind."
Clare's oration before the Grand Lodge on December 11, 1735, was translated into several foreign languages. A reprint of it is in the Pocket Companion and History of Freemasons for 1754, also in Oliver's Masonic Institutes, reprints of the Lodge of Research at Leicester, etc. (see the Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume iv, pages 33--li). Het translated into English a work which had been published the preceding year, in Dublin, under the title of Relation Apologique et Historique de la Société des Franc-Maçons, or A Defense and Historical Account of the Society of Freemasons.
The Freemason of June 6, 1925, says: "The second name in the roster of Old King's Arms Lodge, No. 28, London, is that of Sir Cecil Wray's Senior Warden in 1730---Martin Clare ; one of the greatest worthies the Craft in England has known, who represented the Lodge on the Board of Grand Stewards in 1734, became Junior Grand Warden in the following year, and in 1741 was appointed Deputy Grand Master to the Earl of Morton. There seems little doubt that he was initiated in the Lodge, and, although he never sat in the Master's Chair, the Minute Books contain many references which testify to his love for it and to the great services he rendered to it. When Sir Cecil Wray was invited to become the Master he accepted on condition that Martin Clare would undertake the duties of Senior Warden. Many of the Lodge Minutes are in his handwriting, and those Minutes are certainly a model, both in penmanship and composition, of what such chronicles should be. He frequently lectured at the Old King's Arms Lodge. It was the custom for many years for his Oration to be read in the Lodge annually.
He was also the author of numerous lectures or discourses dealing with Freemasonry which he delivered at various Lodges, and the Minutes intimate his keenness in promoting discussions on matters of Masonic interest. The first act of his, on rejoining the Lodge in 1747, after a short absence, was to revive the custom of lectures and papers, which he had also inaugurated in the Lodge of Friendship. Clare presided on, at least, four Communications of the Grand Lodge.''
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CLARENCE, H. R. H. THE DUKE OF
afterward King William IV, was initiated in Lodge 86, Plymouth, on March 9, 1796.
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CLASSIFICATION OF FREEMASONS
Oliver says, in his Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry, that ancient Masonic tradition informs us that the Speculative and Operative Freemasons who were assembled at the building of the Temple were arranged in nine classes, under their respective Grand Masters ; namely 30,000 Entered Apprentices, under their Grand Master Adoniram ; 80,000 Fellow-Crafts, under Hiram Abif ; 2,000 Mark Men under Stolkyn; 1,000 Master Masons under Mohabin; 600 Mark Masters, under Ghiblim; 24 Architects, under Joabert; 12 Grand Architects, under Adoniram ; 45 Excellent Masons, under Hiram Abif; 9 Super-Excellent Masons, under Tito Zadok; besides the Ish Sabbal or laborers. The tradition is, however, rather apocryphal, a matter of doubt.
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CLAVEL, F. T. BEGUE
An abbé. A French Masonic Writer, who published, in 1842, a Histoire pittoresque de la Franc-Maçonnerie et des Sociétés Secrétes Anciennes et Modernes or Picturesque History of Freemasonry and of Ancient and Modern Secret Societies. This work contains a great amount of interesting and valuable information, notwithstanding many historical inaccuracies, especially in reference to the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, of which the author was an adversary. For the publication of the work without authority he was suspended by the Grand Orient for two months, and condemned to pay a fine, clavel appealed to the intelligence of the Fraternity against this sentence. In 1844, he commenced the publication of a Masonic Journal called the Grand Orient, the title of which he subsequently changed to the Orient. As he had not obtained the consent of the Grand Orient, he was agaiq brought before that body, and the sentence of perpetual exclusion from the Grand Orient pronounced against him.
Rebold says that it was the act of a faction, and obtained by unfair means. It was not sustained by the judgment of the Craft in France, with whom Clavel gained reputation and popularity. Notwithstanding the Masonic literary labors of Clavel, an account of the time of his birth, or of his death, appears to be obscure. His desire seemed to be to establish as history, by publication, those views which he personally entertained and formed ; gathered from sources of doubtful character, he desired they should not be questioned in the future, semel pro semper, once for all.
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CLAY
See Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay
*
CLAY GROUND
In the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredatha, Hiram Abif cast all the sacred vessels of the Temple, as well as the pillars of the porch. This spot was about thirty-five miles in a northeast direction from Jerusalem ; and it is supposed that Hiram selected it for his foundry, because the clay which abounded there was, by its great tenacity, peculiarly fitted for making molds. The Masonic tradition on this subject is sustained by the authority of Scripture (see First. Kings vii, 46, and Second Chronicles iv, 17). Morris, in his Freemasonry in the Holy Land, gives the following interesting facts in reference to this locality. "A singular fact came to light under the investigations of my assistant at Jerusalem. He discovered that the jewelers of that city, at the present day, use a particular species of brown, arenaceous clay in making molds for casting small pieces in brass, etc. Inquiring whence this clay comes, they reply, 'From Seikoot, about two days' journey north-east of Jerusalem.' Here, then, is a satisfactory reply to the question, Where was the 'clay ground' of Hiram's foundries? It is the best matrix-clay existing within reach of Hiram Abif, and it is found only in 'the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredatha'; and considerable as was the distance, and extremely inconvenient as was the locality, so important did that master-workman deem it, to secure a sharp and perfect mold for his castings, that, as the Biblical record informs us, he established his furnaces there."
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CLAY, HENRY
American statesman and orator; born April 12, 1777; died June 29, 1852. At twenty-two elected delegate to Kentucky Constitutional Convention; at twenty-six to legislature, at twenty-nine United States Senator, at thirty-four Speaker of House of Representatives, Secretary of State 1825--9. "An active, zealous Mason, as the records of the Grand Lodge (Kentucky) abundantly prove" (Centennial History, Grand Secretary H. B. Grant, 1900, page 72). Elected Grand Master, August 29, 1820. He advocated a General Grand Lodge of the United States and at the Washington (D.C.) conference, March 9, 1822, offered the resolutions unanimously adopted favoring his views.
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CLEAN HANDS
Clean hands are a symbol of purity. The Psalmist says "that he only shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or shall stand in his holy place, who hath clean hands and a pure heart." Hence, the washing of the hands is an outward sign of an internal purification; and the Psalmist says in another place, "I will wash my hands in innocence. And I will encompass thine altar, Jehovah." In the Ancient Mysteries the washing of the hands was always an introductory ceremony to the initiation; and, of course, it was used symbolically to indicate the necessity of purity from crime as a qualification of those who sought admission into the sacred rites ; and hence, on a temple in the Island of Crete, this inscription was placed: "Cleanse your feet, wash your hands, and then enter." Indeed, the washing of hands, as symbolic of purity, was among the ancients a peculiarly religious rite. No one dared to pray to the gods until he had cleansed his hands. Thus, Homer (in the Iliad vi, 266) makes Hector say:
I dread with unwashed hands to bring
My incensed wine to Jove an offering.
In a similar spirit of religion, Aeneas, when leaving burning Troy, refuses to enter the Temple of Ceres until his hands, polluted by recent strife, had been washed in the living stream (see the Aeneid11, 718).
Me bello e tanto digressum et coede recenti,
Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivoAbiuero.
In me, now fresh from war and recent strife,
'Tis impious the sacred things to touch,
Till in the living stream mysef 1 bathe.
The same practice prevailed among the Jews, and a striking instance of the symbolism is exhibited in that well-known action of Pilate, who, when the Jews damored for Jesus that they might crucify him, appeared before the people, and, having taken water, washed his hands, saying at the same time, "I am innocent of the blood of this just man, see ye to it" (see Matthew xxvii, 24).
The white gloves worn by Freemasons as a part of their clothing, as well as the white gloves presented to the initiate in the Continental and Latin Rites, allude to this symbolizing of clean hands ; and what in some of the advanced Degrees has been called Masonic Baptism is nothing else but the symbolizing, by a ceremony, this doctrine of clean hands as the sign of a pure heart (see Baptism Masonic, and Lustration).
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CLEAVE
The word cleave is twice used in Freemasonry, and each time in an opposite sense. First, in the sense of adhering, where the sentence in which it is employed is in the Past Master's Degree, and is taken from the 137th Psalm: "Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;" second, in the Master's Degree, where, in the expression "The flesh cleaves from the bone," it has the intransitive meaning of to separate, and is equivalent to "the flesh parts, or separates, itself from the bone." In this latter use the word is less common, and in the above expression is used only technically as a Masonic term.
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CLECHE
Pronounced kleesh-a, and in heraldry usually described as a cross charged with another of the same figure, but, whose color is that of the field, but the reader may understand it as being a cross designed to show merely a border or outline or having the ends of the four arms enlarged, one or the other.
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CLEFTS OF THE ROCKS
The whole of Palestine is mountainous, and these mountains abound in deep clefts or caves, which were anciently places of refuge to the inhabitants in time of war, and were often used as lurking places for robbers. It is, therefore, strictly in accordance with geographical truth that the statement, in relation to the concealment of certain persons in the clefts of the rocks, is made in the Third Degree (see the latter part of the article Caverns).
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CLEMENT AUGUSTUS
Born 1700; died 1766. Duke of Bavaria and Elector of Cologne, a Freemason until 1738 when, at the publication of Pope Clement XII'S Bull, he withdrew from the Masonic Order openly although said to have privately maintained affiliation with it and to have founded the Society of Mopses.
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CLEMENT V
Before his election, as Pope of Rome, known as Bertrand d' Agoust, or Bertrand de Gôt, Archbishop of Bordeaux. As the price of the papal crown, said to have made an agreement with Philippe le Bel for the destruction of the Knights Templar. It is also recorded that either Jacques de Molay, or Guy, the Dauphin d'Auvergne, when at the stake, summoned Clement V before God in forty days. A few days after the execution, March 11, 1314, an illness began for the Pope, ending in his death on April 20, 1314.
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CLEMENT XI I
A Pope, who assumed the pontificate on the 12th of August, 1730, and died on the 6th of February, 1740. On the 24th of April, 1738, he published his celebrated Bull of Excommunication, entitled In Eminenti A postolatus Specula, in which we find these words: "For which reason the temporal and spiritual communities are enjoined, in the name of holy obedience, neither to enter the society of Freemasons, to disseminate its principles, to defend it, nor to admit nor conceal it within their houses or palaces, or elsewhere, under pain of excommunication ipso facto, for all acting in contradiction to this, and from which the pope only can absolve the dying." Clement was a bitter persecutor of the Masonic Order, and hence he caused his Secretary of State, the Cardinal Firrao, to issue on the 14th of January, 1739, a still more stringent edict for the Papal States, in which death and confiscation of property, without hope of mercy, was the penalty or, as the original has it, "sotto Pena della morte, e confiscazione de beni da incorressi, irremissibilmente senz a speranzs di grazia.''
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CLEMENT XIV
Pope of Rome, previously having the name of J. V. A. Ganganelli, who suppressed the Jesuits by his order of June 14, 1773, although it was later on revived by a successor.
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CLERKS OF STRICT OBSERVANCE
Known also as the Spiritual Branch of the Templars, or Clerici Ordinis Templarii. This was a schism from the Order or Rite of Strict Observance; and was founded by Starck in 1767. The members of this Rite established it as a rival of the latter system. They claimed a pre-eminence not only over the Rite of Strict Observance, but also over all the Lodges of ordinary Freemasonry, and asserted that they alone possessed the true secrets of the Order, and knew the place where the treasures of the Templars were deposited (for a further history of this Rite, see Starck). The Rite consisted of seven Degrees, viz.:
1, 2, and 3. Symbolic Freemasonry.
4. Junior Scottish Freemason, or Jungschotte.
5. Scottish Master, or Knight of Saint Andrew.
6. Provincial Capitular of the Red Cross.
7. Magus, or Knight of Purity and Light.
Clavel ( Histoire Pittoresque, or Picturesque History, page186) gives different names to some of these Degrees. This last was subdivided into five sections, as follows:
I. Knight Novice of the third year.
II. Knight Novice of the fifth year.
III. Knight Novice of the seventh year.
IV. Levite, and V. Priest.
Ragon errs in calling this the Rite of Lax Observance unless he said it satirically.
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CLERMONT, CHAPTER OF
On the 24th of November, 1754, the Chevalier de Bonneville established in Paris a Chapter of the Advanced Degrees under this name, which was derived from what Doctor Mackey deemed the Jesuitical Chapter of Clermont. This society was composed of many distinguished persons of the court and city, who, disgusted with the dissensions of the Parisian Lodges, determined to separate from them. They adopted the Templar system, which had been created at Lyons, in 1743, and their Rite consisted at first of but six Degrees, namely,
1, 2, 3. Saint John's Freemasonry.
4. Knight of the Eagle.
5. Illustrious Knight or Templar.
6. Sublime Illustrious Knight.
But soon after that time the number nf these Degrees was greatly extended. The Baron de Hund received the advanced Degrees in this Chapter, and derived from them the idea of the Rite of Strict Observance, which he subsequently established in Germany.
CLERMONT, COLLEGE OF
college of Jesuits in Paris, where James II, after his flight from England, in 1688, resided until his removal to St. Germain.
During his residence there, he is said to have sought the establishment of a system of Freemasonry, the object of which should be the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of England. Relics of this attempted system are still to be found in many of the advanced Degrees, and the Chapter of Clermont, subsequently organized in Paris, appears to have had some reference to it.
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CLERMONT, COUNT OF
Louis of Bourbon, prince of the blood royal and Count of Clermont, was elected by sixteen of the Paris Lodges Perpetual Grand Master, for the purpose of correcting the numerous abuses which had crept into French Freemasonry. He did not, however, fulfil the expectations of the French Freemasons; for the next year he abandoned the supervision of the Lodges, and new disorders arose. He still, however, retained the Grand Mastership, and died in 1771, being succeeded by his nephew, the Duke of Chartres.
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CLINTON, DE WITT
A distinguished statesman, who was born at Little Britain, New York, March 2, 1769, and died on the 11th of February, 1828. He entered the Masonic Order in 1793, and the next year was elected Master of his Lodge. In 1806, he was elevated to the position of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, and in 1814, to that of Grand Master of the Grand Encampment. In 1816, he was elected General Grand High Priest of the General Grand Chapter of the United States. In 1813, he became unwittingly complicated with the Spurious Consistory, established by Joseph Cerneau in the city of New York, but he took no active part in its proceedings, and soon withdrew from all connection with it. When the anti-Masonic excitement arose in this country in 1826, in consequence of the affair of William Morgan, whom the Freemasons were accused of having put to death, Brother Clinton was Governor of the State of New York, and took all the necessary measures for the arrest of the supposed criminals. But, although he offered a liberal reward for their detection, he was charged by thp Anti-Masons with official neglect and indifference, charges which were undoubtedly false and malicious. Spenser, the special attorney of the State, employed for the prosecution of the offenders, went w far as to resign his office, and to assign, as a mason for his resignation, the want of sympathy and support on the part of the Executive. But all of the accusations and insinuations are properly to be attributed to political excitement, Anti Masonry having been adopted soon after its origin by the politicians as an engine for their advancement to office. Brother Clinton was an honorable man and a true patriot, an ardent and devoted Freemason. (For details as to his farsighted and successful activity in the foundation of the Public School System in New York City and State see Public Schools.)
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CLOTHED
A Freemason in the United States of America is said to be properly clothed when he wears white leather gloves, a white apron, and the jewel of his Masonic rank.
The gloves are now often, but improperly, dispensed with, except on public occasions. "No Mason is permitted to enter a Lodge or join in its labors unless he is properly clothed.'' Lenning, speaking of Continental Freemasonry, under the article Kleidung in his Lexicon, says that the clothing of a Freemason consists of apron, gloves, sword, and hat. In the York and American Rites, the sword and hat are used only in the Degrees of chivalry. In the catechisms of the early eighteenth century the Master of a Lodge, was described as clothed in a yellow jacket and a blue pair of breeches, in allusion to the brass top and steel legs of a pair of compasses. After the middle of the century, he was said to be "clothed in the old colors, namely, purple, crimson, and blue"; and the reason assigned for it was "because they are royal, and such as the ancient kings an d princes used to wear. "
The actual dress of a Master Mason was, however, a full suit of black, with white neck-cloth, apron, gloves, and stockings; the buckles being of silver, and the jewels being suspended from a white ribbon by way of collar.
(For the clothing and decorations of the different Degrees, see Regalia. )
Brother Preston (Illustrations of Freemasonry, 1772, page 235) describes the dress of the Brethren when "properly clothed" for public processions. He says "All the Brethren, who walk in procession, should observe, as much as possible an uniformity in their dress. Decent mourning, with white stockings, gloves and aprons, is most suitable and becoming; and no person ought to be distinguished with a jewel, unless he is an officer of one of the Lodges invited to attend in form, The officers of such Lodges should be ornamented with white sashes and hatbands; as also the officers of the Lodge to whom the dispensation is granted, who should likewise be distinguished with white rods."
One of the earliest accounts of Masonic clothing and regalia in a procession on Saint John's Day is recorded in Faulkner's Dublin Journal (January 10-4, 1743--l, and on pages 98-9, Freemasonry in Ireland, Brothers Lepper and Crossle, 1925):
Saint John's Day, celebrated by the Lodge in Youghall (Ireland), No. 21.
lmprimis,
....The first Salutation on the Quay of Youghall, upon their coming out of their Lodge Chamber, was, the Ships firing their guns With their colors flying.
....Secondly. The first appearance was, a Concert of Musick with two proper Centennials with their Swords drawn.
....Thirdly. Two Apprentices, bare-headed, one with twenty four Inch Gage, the other a Common Gavel.
....Fourthly. The Royal Arch carried by two excellent Masons.
....Fifthly. Master with all his proper Instruments, his Rod gilt with Gold, his Deputy on his left with the Square and Compass.
....Sixthly. The two Wardens with their Truncheons gilt in like manner.
....Seventhly. The two Deacons with their Rods gilt after the same manner.
....Eighthly. Two Excellent Masons, one bearing a Level, and the other a Plum Rule.
....Ninthly. Then appeared all the rest most gallantly dressed, following by Couples, each of them having a Square hanging about his Neek to a blue Ribbon. From the Quay, they took the whole length of the Town, the Streets being well lined, the Gentlemen and Ladies out of their Windows constantly saluting them, until they went to Church. The two Sentinels stood at the Pues, holding the Doors open, until the Whole went in. And after Divine Service, came in the same Order, to their House of Entertainment, where at the Approach of Evening, the Windows were illuminated with Candles, and the Street with Bonfires. They were greatly applauded, and allowed to be the finest and most magnificent Sight that was ever seen in this Country.
An early reference to the clothing of the Brethren in the United States is in the By-laws adopted by the Lodge at Boston, Massachusetts, on November 14 and October 24, 1733. The thirteenth and fourteenth regulations read es follows:
Xlllthly. The Master of this Lodge, or in absence, the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master or Wardens, when there is a private Lodge ordered to be held for a Making shall be obliged to give all the Members timely notice of the time and place in writing where such Lodge is held that they may give their attendance and every member being duly warned as aforesaid and neglecting to attend on such private Making shall not be Clothed.
XIVthly. No member that is absent from the Lodge of a Lodge night when there is a Making, shall have the Benefit of being Clothed for that time.
Brother Melvin M. Johnson comments on the foregoing rules in his Beginnings of Freemasonry in America (page 107), "'Being Clothed' refers to the very ancient custom, now forgotten, of requiring the candidate to furnish each member present with an apron and a pair of white gloves" (see Clothing the Lodge).
At a celebration of the Festival of Saint John the Baptist, reported in the Boston Gazette for July 2, 1739, and also given by Brother Johnson in the above work (page 222) we learn that, At three in the Afternoon They assembled at the House of their Brother John Wagbom, from whence they walked in Procession to His Excellency's House, properly Clothed, and Distinguished, with Badges, and other Implement pertaining to the several Orders and Degrees of the Society, proceeded by a complete band of Music consisting of Trumpets, Kettle Drums, etc.
The American Apollo, a magazine printed in Boston, had an account of the procession in verse by Joseph Green, who tells us of the visit to the House of Brother Wagborn,
Here, having drank and giv'n the sign,
By which he was oblig'd to join,
From hence in leather apron drest
With tinsel ribbons on their breast
In pompous order march'd the train,
First two, then three, then two again.
The lines wind up with an allusion to the decorated ship, Hallowell, of which Brother Alexander French was part owner and in command. This vessel, trimmed with red baize on top and with colors hoisted, was given a peculiarly Masonic significance.
And on the mizzen peak was spread,
A leather apron, lin'd with red.
The men on board all day were glad,
And drank and smoked like any mad.
And from her sides three times did ring
Great guns, as loud as anything,
But at the setting of the sun,
Precisely ceas'd the noise of gun,
All ornaments were taken down,
Jack, ensign, pendant, and Apron.
A further mention of the clothing is seen in the lines written by Green to burlesque the celebration of Saint John the Evangelist's Day at Boston, December 27, 1749. These lines are entitled Entertainment for a Winter's Evening, and alluding to the public procession to and from church of the Freemasons the author speaks of them as "in scarlet aprons dressed," see the verse in this work under the heading of Sermons, Masonic. We need not speculate too curiously about the use of scarlet aprons at the time.
The suggestion may however be offered that the apron so lined was capable of being used either side to the front according to the Body or Degree in which the wearer participated. Aprons in certain cases are still so worn though not usually in connection with the first three Degrees of the Craft (see also Regalia).
The modern regalia and clothing, as for example those approved by the Constitutions and Regulations of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, as shown in the Revision adopted in 1918, may here be appropriately given. The references to saltire, or saltier, being an expression in heraldry meaning cross-wise, as in the letter x.
The Jewels of the Grand Officers shall be as follows:
That of the Grand Master, the Compasses extended to 45 , with the segment of a circle at the points and a gold plate included, on which is represented an eye, eradicated within a triangle, also eradicated.
That of the Deputy Grand Master the Compasses and square united, with a five-pointed star in the center.
That of the District Grand Masters, the Compasses and Square united, with a five-pointed star in the center upon which shall be superimposed a Roman letter D.
Those of the District Deputy Grand Masters, the Compasses extended to 45 , with the segment of a circle at the points and a crescent in the center.
Senior Grand Warden, the Level.
Junior Grand Warden, the Plumb.
Grand Treasurer, a chased Key.
Grand Secretary, two Pens in saltire tied by a ribbon.
Grand Chaplains, a Book within a Triangle, surmounting a glory.
Grand Marshal, two Rods in saltire tied by a ribbon.
Grand Lecturers, an open Book upon the Square and Compasses.
Grand Deacons, a Dove and Olive Branch.
Grand Stewards, a Cornucopia.
Grand Sword Bearer, two Swords in saltire.
Grand Standard Bearer, a Banner.
Grand Pursuivants, a Rod and a Sword saltire-wise.
Grand Organist, a Lyre.
Grand Tyler, a Sword.
Each Past Grand Officer may be distinguished by the jewel prescribed for the office he has filled, with this difference, that such jewel shall be fixed within a circle or oval, of gold or metal gilt. It shall be worn over the left breast, pendant to a purple ribbon or metal chain.
It may be suspended from the neck by a purple ribbon when another authorized jewel is worn over the left breast.
The Jewel of each Grand Officer, with the exception of the District Deputy Grand Masters, shall be enclosed within a wreath composed of a sprig of Acacia and an ear of Wheat. The Collars of the Grand Officers shall be chains of gold or metal gilt.
The Apron. of the Grand Master shall be of white lambskin, lined with purple, ornamented with the blazing Sun, embroidered in gold in the center; on the edging the pomegranate and lotus, with the seven-eared wheat at each corner, and also on the fall,-all in gold embroidery, the fringe of gold bullion, with purple edging and strings.
The Apron of the Deputy Grand Master and of a District Grand Master shall be of the same material and lining, having the emblem of his office in gold embroidery in the center, and the pomegranate and lotus alternately embroidered in gold on the edging.
The emblem of the District Grand Master shall be within a double circle bearing the name of his District.
The Aprons of the other Grand Officers shall be of white lambskin, lined with purple ; edging of purple three and a half inches wide; with purple strings; ornamented with gold, having the emblems of office, in gold, in the center.
Each officer of a Lodge shall wear a blue velvet collar trimmed with silver lace, or a white metal chain collar upon blue ribbon of such pattern or patterns as shall be approved by the Grand Master, from which shall be suspended the jewel of the office in silver. The aprons may bear the emblems of the offices and a fringe of silver.
The Jewels of the officers of a Lodge shall be as follows:
That of the Master, the Square; Senior Warden, the Level; Junior Warden, the Plumb; Treasurer, two Keys in saltire; Secretary, two Pens in saltire; Chaplain, the Bible within a circle; Marshal, a Baton within a square ; Deacons, the Square and Compasses united within a circle; Stewards, a Cornucopia within a circle; Organist, a Lyre within a circle; Inside Sentinel, two Swords in saltire within a circle; Tyler, a Sword within a circle.
The Jewel of a Past Master shall be the blazing Sun within the Square and Compasses extended on a Quadrant. This Jewel may be of gold or silver, and shall be worn over the left breast, pendant to a blue ribbon or metal chain. It may be suspended from the neck by a blue ribbon when another authorized Jewel is worn over the left breast.
The Apron of a Master Mason shall be a plain white lambskin, fourteen inches wide by twelve inches deep.
The Apron may be adorned with sky-blue lining and edging, and three rosettes of the same color. No other color shall be allowed, and no other ornament shall be worn except by officers and past officers.
The Grand Encampment of Knights Templar and the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons made a public procession in the City of New York on September 16, 1841. The notice giving the order of the procession as well as the instructions for the clothing of the Brethren is of a considerable degree of interest and appears in the History of the Origin and Development of the Royal Arch Degree, by Charles A. Conover, 1926. That portion which refers to tho clothing of the Brethren is as follows:
All Templars to appear in the following uniform. Dress Black, black stock and gloves, plain black scarf over the left shoulder; Chapeau with black satin cockade, black apron of triangular form, and straight sword. Officers and members of the Grand Encampment to wear the trimmings of the Chapeau, apron and sword of Gold, all others of Silver. No feathers to be worn by any one. Royal Arch Masons ro appear in black hat and stock, dark coat, white vest, pantaloons, and gloves, whits apron, trimmed with scarlet, scarlet sash over the left shoulder and black cane. Presiding Officers of Chapters in Chapeaus trimmed with scarlet and gold. Master Masons to appear in black hat and stock, dark coat, white vest, pantaloons, and gloves, with white apron trimmed with blue, blue sash over the left shoulders .
The Master of each Lodge to wear Chapeau trimmed with blue and silver, and the Gavel in his hand.
The three Committees appointed by the three Grand Bodies are to act as Marshals to their respective Grand Bodies in the uniform of their constituents, with Chapeaus and swords, and are to be distinguished by a thin white rod and acorn, with bow of ribbon of three colors (Blue, Scarlet, and Black), and a Rosette of five inches, of the same three colors on the left breast. Each subordinate Body will appoint two Marshals to assist the Grand Marshals, to be distinguished by a truncheon or scroll, trimmed with ribbon of the color of his grade.
An early reference to Aprons is in the Book of Constitutions (1738, page 153). On March 17, 1731, it was resolved that "Masters and Wardens of particular Lodges may line their white Leather Aprons with "white Silk, and may hang their Jewels at white Ribbons about their Necks." Article xxiii also records that "The Stewards for the Year were allowed to have Jewels of Silver, tho not guilded, pendent to Red Ribbons about their Necks, to bear White Rods, and to line their White Leather Aprons with Red Silk. Former Stewards were also allowed to wear the same Sort of Aprons, White and Red."
Laurence Dermott (Ahiman Rezon, 1764) gives a regulation of Grand Lodge that blue or purple, is the peculiar badge of Grand Officers. However, he states that he "is certain that every member of the Grand Lodge has an undoubted right to wear purple, blue, white or crimson." From this time blue seems the Masonic color except for Grand Stewards, who wear crimson.
Another exception was the Grand Lodge at York, which used only white and pink; no other color is named. In the schedule of January 1, 1776, of Grand Lodge Regalia, we read ''one Grand Master's Apron, five Aprons lined with pink silk and ten common Aprons," and again in 1779, "An Apron for the Grand Master, four Aprons lined with pink silk, five Aprons."
None of the early Aprons had tassels and Brother Fred J. W. Crowe declares it is certain that these were never intended, as is so frequently asserted, to represent the two great Pillars. He says they are neither more nor less than the ends of broadened strings ornamented with fringe and that the fringe on the Apron is coeval with fringing the ends of strings.
Down to the Union in 1813, many engraved, painted and embroidered Aprons were in common use. At the Union, however, the clothing under the United Grand Lodge of England was clearly laid down. The same Apron was sometimes used for the Craft and Royal Arch during the eighteenth century, the distinguishing mark being the binding of purple and crimson when used for the latter.
The Collar was originally a simple ribbon supporting the jewel of office. This ribbon was white in 1727, except in the case of Stewards, when it was red.
But in 1731 it was ordered that Grand Officers wear their jewels of gold suspended from blue ribbons.
From the ribbon has gradually evolved the broad, decorative collar worn so generally in Great Britain.
Gloves were a part of the Freemason's clothing from the earliest time, but gauntlets, although Brother Crowe says these were undoubtedly worn before the Union, were only comparatively recently authoritatively laid down as a part of the regalia.
In Scotland, the clothing of Grand Lodge and of Provincial and District Grand Lodges is of thistlegreen, doubtless from the color used in the national Order of the Thistle; but private Lodges may select any color they please, and may also add a considerable amount of ornament and embellishment, which is usually on the fall or flap. This fall in Scottish Aprons is circular, not triangular as in English and American Aprons. The Grand Lodge in 1736 ordered that the jewels of the Grand Master and Wardens shall be worn "at a green ribbon." Embroidered Aprons with Officers' emblems were introduced in 1760, and in 1767, the "garters," which in the days of knee-breeches formed part of the regalia, and the ''ribbands for the jewels" were ordered to be renewed. Sashes for office-bearers were adopted in 1744, jewels in 1760. The Lodge of Dundee wore white Aprons in 1733, and the Lodge of Edinburgh in 1739 ordered "a new blew ribband for the whole five jewels."
In Ireland, most Lodges wear very simple cotton Aprons, edged with blue, and bearing the number of the Lodge, but at their annual Festivals, the Brethren wear lambskin Aprons almost identical with the English Master Mason's Apron, except that there is a narrow silver braid in the center of the ribbon. The Grand Lodge Clothing is of the same color, with gold fringe, but the bottom of the fall is squared off, and curiously enough, there are no tassels. The rank of the wearer is indicated by the number and width of the rows of gold braid. Although the Grand Lodge of Ireland was formed in 1725 or earlier, there has never been any regulation as to Clothing in its Constitutions, the only authority, until quite recently, being in a book entitled Clothing and Insignia, with colored plates, first published in 1860. Brother F. C. Crossle says that in days gone by the Worshipful Master in many parts of Ireland, if not everywhere, was always attired in a red cloak and top hat, and this custom had obtained even within the memory of living Brethren, although now obsolete.
The only jewels which may be worn in English Craft Lodges are those of Craft and Royal Arch Masonry, including Past Master, Past Zerubbabel, Grand and Provincial Lodge jewels, Presentation jewels of Craft or Royal Arch offices, Founders' jewels and Charity jewels. All others are illegal.
In Denmark all the Brethren wear small trowels; that of the Entered Apprentice is of rough silver on a string of leather, that of the Fellow Craft of polished silver on white silk, that of the Master Mason of gold on a blue ribbon. Brethren who have taken Degrees above the seventh, wear a special attire in Bodies of their own Order, which is not allowed to be seen by Brethren of the lower Degrees.
In the case of the Grand Lodges of Norway and Sweden, the Clothing is practically identical with that of Denmark. It also includes a Collarette, trowel, and an ivory key. The latter is still worn in many Grand Lodges as it was once in England, and a reference to it is found in some old ''catch'' questions of the Fraternity. In Sweden, the brotherhood is so highly esteemed, that it has its own Order of Knighthood, that of Charles XIII, and membership of the higher Degrees also carries civil nobility.
Under the Grand Orient of France the Aprons are elaborately embroidered or painted, and edged sometimes with crimson or with blue. Blue embroidered Sashes, lined with black for the Third Degree, are in common use.
In ltaly, the Entered Apprentice Apron is a plain white skin; the Fellow Craft has one edged and lined with green, and with a square printed in the center; the Master Mason wears one lined and edged with crimson, bearing the square and compasses. Master Masons also wear a handsome sash of green silk, edged with red, richly embroidered in gold, and lined with black silk on which are embroidered the emblems of mortality in silver. Members of the Third Degree can wear more elaborately ornamented Aprons.
In Greece, Master Masons formerly wore silk or satin Aprons, painted or embroidered, and edged with crimson, with a beautiful sash similar to that worn in Italy, but of blue and red instead of green; later on the clothing became identical with that worn in England.
In Holland, a custom similar to that in Scotland prevails, and each Lodge selects its own color or colors for the clothing and the ribbons to which seals are attached. Considerable additional ornament in embroidery, painting, fringes, etc., is freely employed at the pleasure of the Lodge or the individual.
In Belgium, the Grand Lodge clothing is of light blue silk bordered with gold fringe, and without tassels. The collars are embroidered in gold with the jewel of the office to which they pertain, and with acacia and other emblems.
In Switzerland, under the Grand Lodge Alpina, the clothing is simple. The Entered Apprentice Apron is of white leather, and only varied from the English one in having the lower corners round. That of Fellow Craft has blue silk edging and strings. The Master Mason Apron has a wider border, with three rosettes on the body of the Apron, whilst the flap is entirely covered with blue silk ; a small blue sash, with a white rosette at the point is also worn with this. The Apron of a Grand Officer is edged with crimson, and has neither tassels nor rosettes, except in the case of the Grand Master, distinguished by three crimson rosettes; the collar is of crimson watered ribbon, edged with white, from which is suspended the jewel, a gold square and compasses, enclosing a star, on which is enameled the white Geneva Cross on a red field, the shield of the Republic. Each Lodge has its own distinctive jewel.
In Hungary, the members of the Grand Lodge wear collars of light blue watered silk, with a narrow edging of red, white and green-the national colors- from which is suspended a five-pointed star, enameled in the center with a number of emblems, and bearing the inscription Magnus Latom Hunc Coetus Symbolicus.
The Grand Officers wear collars or orange-colored ribbon, with a narrow edging of dark green, lined with white silk, and embroidered with the emblem of office and acacia leaves. The Aprons are simple, with blue edging, and, for Master Masons, three rosettes; that of the Grand Master is the same.
In Germany, the various Grand Lodges exhibit considerable variation in size and shape of Aprons; some are diminutive, others large, whilst the shape varies, square, rounded or shield-shaped. Some bear rosettes, others levels, the latter even on the Entered Apprentice Apron, so that obviously their symbolism is not the same as in England, where they designate Past Masters only. Each German Lodge possesses its own distinctive jewel.
Under the Grande Oriente Nacionale of Spain, the Entered Apprentice Apron is of white leather, rounded at the bottom, but with a pointed flap, worn raised; that of Fellow Craft is identical, the flap being turned down; the Master Mason Apron is of white satin, with curved flap, edged with crimson, and embroidered with square and compasses, enclosing the letter G., the letters M.'. and B:. and three stars. The Apron is lined with black brocaded silk, and embroidered with skull, cross-bones and three stars, for the Third Degree. The Officers' jewels are identical with those of England.
In Portugal, the Grand Officers wear white satin Aprons edged with blue and gold, and with three rosettes. The collar is of blue watered silk embroidered with acacia in gold. The gauntlets have also G. O. L. U., Grande Oriente Lusitania Unido, embroidered on them, with the date of its formation, 1869. The ordinary Craft clothing is simple.
The clothing of the Grand Orient of Egypt is practically identical with that of England, but the colors are thistle and sea-green instead of dark and light blue.
The Organists' jewel is an od, a kind of guitar, instead of a lyre, and the rank of the wearer is indicated by the number of stars embroidered on the collar.
For the above information regarding European procedure we are indebted to a paper by Brother Fred J. W. Crowe (Transactions, 1901-2, page 81, Lodge of Research, Leicester, England; see also American Union Lodge).
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CLOTHING AND WAGES
As a modern student reads the Fabric Rolls, Borough Records, and Statutes of the Middle Ages he sees that nothing burned itself more deeply into the minds of Operative Masons (and other workers) than the bitter and brutal question of wages, and it is little wonder that the "wages of a Master Mason" was a theme carried over into the symbolism of Speculative Freemasonry centuries afterwards. There were three reasons for this : the amount of pay was unjustly small, unbelievably so; wages were not adjusted to a worker's ability or production but were by the state socialism so long in vogue fixed by civil Statutes, and were arbitrarily fixed ; and workers resented the loss of so many days of work each year because of the senseless multiplication of holidays, an evil owed directly to the monks and priests who never tired of their endeavor to have a new workless day set aside for each new saint. A table covering 1351 A.D. (about the time when the first permanent Lodges were formed) to 1495 (the period of the discovery of America) shows that in 1351 a "Master freemason" received 4sh a day; in 1361 the same; in 1495 his summer wages were 6 or 4d, and his winter wages, 5 or 3cl. An "ordinary mason" in 1351 received 3d per day; a "Mason's servant" (or helper) 1,5d; a tiler (or roofer) 3d; a tiler's helper, 1,5d.
The clothing worn by Masons and their wives, sons, and daughters also was prescribed by law, partly to prevent those of the "lower orders" from dressing as well as "their betters," partly because in the Middle Ages liveries or costumes were worn in order to show what craft, profession, art, or class a man belonged to.
Gilbert Stone writes: "Thus by 37 Edw. III, C. 9, it was provided that 'people of handicraft and yeomen' were not to wear cloth of a higher price than forty shillings and their wives and daughters were only permitted to wear, so far as furs were concerned, some of the cheapest kinds . . ." This wearing of a prescribed costume also bit deeply into the minds of Masons, and it helps to explain why in the earliest Lodges so much stress was laid on "being properly clothed," and why gloves were so important-a sign of equality then ; it also helps to explain the proud boast that a Mason's apron, once a badge which proclaimed him a member of the "lower orders" and a workman, was now an honor, more ancient than the Golden Fleece, more honorable than the Star and Garter---as in literal truth it was.
(A History of Labor, by Gilbert Stone; London; George C. Harrap & Co., London; 1921, is not a Masonic book yet few books throw a clearer light on early Masonic history. Where other historians of Medieval Masons and kindred craftsmen fit their narrative into a framework of general or political history, or write of the subject in the terms of an art, Stone primarily sees in the Medieval craftsman a man, and brings his abundance of data to bear on the question, "What was it like to be a workman?" "A List of Selected Books" beginning on Stone's page 403 is one of the best bibliographies ever published in this field.)
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CLUBS, AND FREEMASONRY
The formation of the first Grand Lodge of Speculative Freemasonry in 1717 coincided with a sudden and almost explosive multiplication of clubs. They broke out like a rash over the whole of England. In every village or town was at least one tavern or inn and one or more clubs were sure to meet in it. There was an amazing number of categories of clubs, from clubs for elderly high churchmen to the most outer extravagances of those eccentrics who in France and Italy wonder travelers the soubriquet of "mad Englishmen" : political clubs, scientific clubs (the Royal Society had one), betting clubs, bottle clubs, shooting clubs, music clubs, coffee clubs, odd fellows clubs, clubs for fat men, bald men, dwarfs, hen-pecked men, one-eyed men, insurance clubs, burial clubs, clubs male and female, clubs that were a sort of lay church, and clubs for opium smokers, etc., etc. When the first of the new Lodges of Speculative Freemasonry began to at tract attention the populace took them for a new species of clubs.
More than one attempt has been made to turn that popular impression into an argument, more often by social historians than by Masonic writers; it has never succeeded, because while a Lodge may often have been a clubbable society, few things could be less alike in substance or in purpose than a club and a Lodge. The truth of th at statement is proved by the fact that even in cities with hundreds of Lodges their members form Masonic clubs on the side.
See Club Makers and Club Members, by T. H. S. Escott; Sturgis & Walton Co.1914.
NOTE. Side Orders and Masonic clubs have the same status in the eyes of Masonic law. When Masonic clubs first began to be formed about the beginning of this century their officers and members took the ground that since they were not Lodges, were not, properly speaking, Masonic organizations, and acted independently of Lodges and Grand Lodges, neither Masters nor Grand Masters held any authority over them ; and in the beginning the majority of Grand Masters agreed with this opinion. But after some twenty years of experience with them Grand Masters and Grand Lodges began to hold that while a Masonic officer cannot supervise a club as such, a Lodge or a Grand Lodge can discipline club members in their capacity as Masons. A Grand Master of Masons in Iowa notified the members of a Side Order that if they held a street carnival of a kind as planned he would order them tried for un-Masonic conduct; one or two years later a Grand Master of Masons in Michigan followed a similar course with another Side Order because of the indecent posters with which it was advertising an indoor circus. Grand Lodges uphold that reading of the Question ; if a man is guilty of conduct unbecoming a Mason he is subject to discipline without regard to where he was guilty.
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CLOTHING THE LODGE
In the General Regulations, approved by the Grand Lodge of England in 1721, it is provided in article seven that "Every new Brother at his making is decently to cloth the Lodge, that is, all the Brethren present ; and to deposit something for the relief of indigent and decayed Brethren.'' By "clothing the Lodge" was meant the furnishing of the Brethren with gloves and aprons. The regulation no longer exists. It is strange that Oliver should have quoted as the authority. for this usage a subsequent regulation of 1767. In Scotland this was practiced in several Lodges to a comparatively recent date and continues to be frequently observed in many Lodges in South and Central America, the Continent of Europe, and in Lodges receiving their Masonic customs therefrom.
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CLOUDED CANOPY
See Canopy, Clouded
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CLOUD, PILLAR OF
See Pillars of Cloud and Fire
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CLOUDY
A word sometimes improperly used by the Wardens of a Lodge when reporting an unfavorable result of the ballot. The proper word on such an occasion is foul.
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CLUBS
The eighteenth century was distinguished in England by the existence of numerous local and ephemeral associations under the name of Clubs, where men of different classes of society met for amusement and recreation. Each profession and trade had its club, and "whatever might be a man's character or disposition," says Oliver, ''he would find in London a club that would square with his ideas." Addison, in his paper on the origin of clubs (Spectator, No. 9) remarks: "Man is said to be a social animal, and as an instance of it we may observe that we take all occasions and. pretenses of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies which are commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a set of men find themselves agreed in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of Fraternity and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance." Hard drinking was characteristic of those times, and excesses too often marked the meetings of these societies. It was at this time that the Institution of Freemasonry underwent its revival commonly known as the revival of 1717, and it is not strange that its social character was somewhat affected by the customs of the day. The Lodges therefore assumed at that time too much of a convivial character, derived from the customs of the existing clubs and coteries; but the moral and religious principles upon which the Institution was founded prevented any undue indulgence; and although the members were permitted the enjoyment of decent refreshment, there was a standing law which provided against all excess (see Masonic Clubs, National League of).
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COAT OF THE TILER
In olden times it was deemed proper that the Tiler of a Lodge, like the beadle of a parish--whose functions were in some respects similar-should be distinguished by a tawdry dress. In a schedule of the regalia, records, etc., of the Grand Lodge of all England, taken at York in 1779, to be found in Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Reprints (page 33), we find the following item; "a blue cloth coat with a red collar for the Tyler."
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COCHIN CHINA
A country in the southeast of Asia in the extreme south of French Indo-China. The name was formerly applied to the whole Annamese Empire but is now usually applied to the six southern provinces annexed by France in 1862 and 1867. The Grand Orient of France opened a Lodge in Cochin China, at Saigon, Le Réveil de l'orient, meaning The Awakening of the East, in 1868. The Grand Lodge of France in 1908 also established a Lodge at Saigon, La Ruche d'orient, meaning The Beehive of the East (see Indo-China, French).
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COCHLEUS
A very corrupt word in the Fourth Degree of the Scottish Rite; there said to signify in the form of a. screw, and to be the name of the winding staircase which led to the middle chamber. The true Latin word is cochlea. But the matter is so historically absurd that the word ought to be and is rejected in the modern rituals.
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COCK
The ancients made the cock a symbol of courage, and consecrated him to Mars, Pallas, and Bellona, deities of war. Some have supposed that it is in reference to this quality that the cock is used in the jewel of the Captain-General of an Encampment of Knights Templar. Reghellini, however, gives a different explanation of this symbol. He says that the cock was the emblem of the sun and of life, and that as the ancient Christians allegorically deplored the death of the solar orb in Christ, the cock recalled its life and resurrection. The cock, we know, was a symbol among the early Christians, and is repeatedly to be found on the tombs in the catacombs of Rome. Hence it seems probable that we should give a Christian interpretation to the jewel of a Knight Templar as symbolic of the resurrection.
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COCKADE
Some few of the German Lodges have a custom of permitting their members to wear a blue cockade in the hat as a symbol of equality and freedom-a symbolism which, as Lenning says, it is difficult to understand, and the decoration is in appropriate as a part of the clothing of a Freemason. Yet it is probable that it was a conception of this kind that induced Cagliostro to prescribe the cockade as a part of the investiture of a female candidate in the initiation of his Lodges. Clavel says the Venerable or Master of a French Lodge wears a black cockade.
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COCKLE-SHELL
The cockle-shell was worn by pilgrims in their hats as a token of their profession; later on was used in the ceremonies of Templarism.
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CODY, COLONEL WILLIAM FREDERICK
Born February 26, 1845; died January 10, 1917. Famous American scout and showman, pony express mail carrier covering seventy-five miles daily in wild country among hostile Indians; served as cavalry man and guide through Civil War; contracted to supply laborers on construction of Kansas-Pacific railroad with meat and in eighteen months killed four thousand buffaloes and became known as Buffalo Bill; served as army scout against Sioux and Cheyennes, 1868-72, and again in 1876, when in single combat he killed Chief Yellow Hand; member of Nebraska Legislature ; again serving as scout against Sioux Indians, 1890-1. A member of Platte Valley Lodge No 32, North Platte, Nebraska, Initiated March 5,1870; Passed April 2, 1870; Raised January 10, 1871. Became Mark Alaster, Past Master and Most Excellent Master, November 14, 1888, and was exalted on November 15, 1888, in Euphrates Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons at North Platte, Companion Cody selecting as his Mark a buffalo's head. He was created a Knight Templar, April 2, 1889, in Palestine Commandery No. 13, at North Platte. This information sent to us by Worshipful Master Abner J. Wessling of Platte Valley Lodge. Brother Cody was given Masonic burial by Golden City Lodge No, 1 at Golden, Colorado, and his remains rest on Lookout Mountain where there is also a Memorial Museum in that State.
COETUS
Latin word meaning an assembly. It is incorrectly used in some old Latin Masonic diplomas for a Lodge. It is used by Laurence Dermott in a diploma dated September 10, 1764, where he signs himself Sec. JI. Coetus, or Secretary of the Grand Lodge.
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COFFIN
In the Ancient Mysteries the aspirant could not claim a participation in the highest secrets until he had been placed in the Pastos, a bed or coffin. The placing him in the coffin was called the symbolical death of the mysteries, and his deliverance was termed a raising from the dead. "The mind,'' says an ancient writer, quoted by Stobaeus, "is affected in death just as it is in the initiation into the mysteries. And word answers to word, as well as thing to thing; for is to die, and to be initiated." The coffin in Freemasonry is found on tracing boards of the early part of the eighteenth century, and has always constituted a part of the symbolism of the Third Degree, where the reference is precisely the same as that of the Pastos in the Ancient Mysteries.
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COGHLAN, REVEREND L
Grand Chaplain of England in 1814
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COHEN
A Hebrew word pronounced kohane, signifying a priest. The French Masonic writers, indulging in a Gallic custom of misspelling all names derived from other languages, universally spell it coën.
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COHENS, ELECTED
See Paschalis, Martinez
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COLE, BENJAMIN
He published at London, in 1728, and again in 1731, the Old Constitutions, engraved on thirty copper plates, under the title of "A Book of the Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons." In 1751, Cole printed a third edition with the title of The Ancient Constitutions and Charges of Freemasons, with a true representation of their noble Art in several Lectures or Speeches. Subsequent editions were published up to 1794. Brother Richard Spencer, the well-known Masonic bibliographer, says that Cole engraved his plates from a manuscript which he calls the Constitutions of 1726, or from a similar manuscript by the same scribe. Brother Hughan published in 1869 in his Constitutions of the Freemasons, in a limited edition of seventy copies, a lithographed facsimile of the 1729 edition of Cole, and in 1897 a facsimile of the 1731 edition, which was limited to 200 copies, was published by Richard Jackson of Leeds, with an introduction by Brother Hughan.
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COLE, SAMUEL
He was at one time the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, and the author of a work entitled The Freemason's Library, or General Ahiman Rezon, the first edition of which appeared in 1817, and the second in 1826. It is something more than a mere monitor or manual of the Degrees, and in Brother Mackey's opinion greatly excels in literary pretensions the contemporary works of Webb and Cross.
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COLE'S MANUSCRIPT
The record from which Cole is supposed to have made his engraved Constitutions, now known as the Spencer Manuscript. It was in the possession of Brother Richard Spencer, who published it in 1871, under the title of A Book of the Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons. Anno Dom., 1726. The subtitle is The Beginning and First Foundation of the Most Worthy Craft of Masonry, with the charges thereunto belonging. In 1875 it was bought by Brother E. T. Carson of Cincinnati, Ohio.
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COLLAR
An ornament worn around the neck by the officers of Lodges, to which is suspended a jewel indicative of the wearer's rank. The color of the collar varies in the different grades of Freemasonry. That of a symbolic Lodge is blue; of a Past Master, purple; of a Royal Arch Mason, scarlet; of a Secret Master, white bordered with black; of a Perfect Master, green, etc. These colors are not arbitrary, but are each accompanied with a symbolic signification. In the United States, the collar worn by Grand Officers in the Grand Lodge is, properly, purple edged with gold. In the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Officers wear chains of gold or metal gilt instead of collars, but on other occasions, collars of ribbon, garter blue, four inches broad, embroidered or plain. The use of the collar in Freemasonry, as an official decoration, is of very old date. It is a regulation that its form should be triangular; that is, that it should terminate on the breast in a point. The symbolical reference is evident. The Masonic collar is derived from the practices of heraldry; they are worn not only by municipal officers and officers of State, but also by knights of the various orders as a part of their investiture.
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COLLEGE
The regular Convocation of the subordinate bodies of the Society of Rosicrucians is called an Assemblage of the College, at which their mysteries are celebrated by initiation and advancement, at the conclusion of which the Mystic Circle is broken.
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COLLEGES IRISH
These were established in Paris between 1730 and 1740, and were rapidly being promulgated over France, when they were superseded by the Scottish Chapters.
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COLLEGES, MASONIC
There was at one time a great disposition exhibited by the Fraternity of the United States to establish Colleges, to be placed under the supervision of Grand Lodges. The first one ever endowed in this country was that at Lexington, in Missouri, established by the Grand Lodge of that State, in October, 1841, which for some time pursued a prosperous career. Other Grand Lodges, such as those of Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida, and a few others, subsequently either actually organized or took the preliminary steps for organizing Masonic colleges in their respective Jurisdictions. But experience has shown that there is an incongruity between the official labors of a Grand Lodge as the Masonic head of the Order, and the superintendence and support of a college. Hence, these institutions have been very generally discontinued, and the care of providing for the education of indigent children of the Craft has been wisely committed to the subordinate Lodges and other branches of the Masonic Institutions. Brother Thomas Brown, a distinguished Grand Master of Florida, thus expressed the following views on this subject: "We question if the endowment of colleges and large seminaries of learning, under the auspices and patronage of Masonic bodies, be the wisest plan for the accomplishment of the great design, or is in accordance ,with the character and principles of the Fraternity. Such institutions savor more of pageantry than utility; and as large funds, amassed for such purposes, must of necessity be placed under the control and management of comparatively few, it will have a corrupting influence, promote discord, and bring reproach upon the craft. The principles of Freemasonry do not sympathize with speculations in stock and exchange brokerage. such, we fear, will be the evils attendant on such institutions, to say nothing of the questionable right and policy of drawing funds from the subordinate Lodges, which could be appropriated by their proper officers more judiciously, economically, and faithfully to the accomplishment of the same great and desirable object in the true Masonic spirit of charity, which is the bond of peace." The above summary' of the situation by Doctor Mackey may be extended to the extent of a few comments on. some of the enterprises of the past in which the Craft was interested for substantially the same benevolent reasons that in these modern days of ours prompt the Brethren to suggest somewhat similar activities. Stephen W. B. Carnemegy, born 1797, died 1892, Grand Master in 1836-8, was the author of a resolution at the Grand Lodge Communication of 1841 to establish a Masonic College in Missouri "for the education of the sons of indigent Masons and others'' and this was approved. Subscriptions were reported at the Communication of 1842 as $3,556.25 for sons, and $3,926.25 for daughters, and $185 for the erection of a Masonic Hall. Brother Carnegy was an active force. We find him in attendance at the Grand Lodge of Kentucky in 1844 and on being invited at 3:30 to make any desired suggestions, he asked aid for the Masonic College then under construction in his State and "a voluntary collection was taken up" (Doings of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, 1800--1900, H. B. Grant). In all likelihood this enthusiasm encouraged the Kentucky Brethren to undertake a Masonic College of their own. The regulations for the Masonic College in Missouri required a preparatory school and a collegiate department, the Faculty to consist of a Professor for each of the following departments: ''On Natural Philosophy and Astronomy,'' ''On Mathematics," "On Mental and Moral Science," and "Ancient Languages and Literature.'' This is some course, even if not a very practicable one, as seen in the eyes of this age. The conditions were : six months' tuition free, but charges for board; the Grand Lodge to designate the number of students each subordinate Lodge could send free of charge. The College was chartered by. the State. In those days $25 paid the board and washing of a student for a whole Session, and a cord of good wood could be purchased for a dollar.
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COLLEGES, ROMAN
See Roman Colleges of Artificers
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COLLEGIA ARTIFICUM
Colleges of Artificers. See Roman Colleges of Artificers.
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COLLEGIUM
In Roman jurisprudence, a collegium, or college, expressed the idea of several persons united together in any office or for any common purpose. It required not less than three to constitute a college, according to the Latin law maxim, Tres faciunt collegium, meaning Three make a college, and hence, perhaps, the Masonic rule that not fewer than three Master Masons can form a Lodge.
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COLLOCATIO
The Greek custom of exposing the corpse on a bier over night, near the threshold, that all might be convinced of the normal death.
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COLOGNE, CATHEDRAL OF
The city of Cologne, on the banks of the Rhine, is memorable in the history of Freemasonry for the connection of its celebrated Cathedral with the labors of the Steinmetzen of Germany, whence it became the seat of one of the most important Lodges of that period. It has been asserted that Albertus Magnus designed the plan, and that he there also altered the Constitution of the Fraternity, and gave it a new code of laws. It is at least clear that in this Cathedral the symbolic principles of Gothic architecture, the distinguishing style of the Traveling Freemasons, were carried out in deeper significance than in any other building of the time. Whether the document known as the Charter of Cologne be authentic or not, and it is fairly well established that it is not, the fact that it is claimed to have emanated from the Lodge of that place, gives to the Cathedral an importance in the views of the Masonic student. The Cathedral of Cologne is one of the most beautiful religious edifices in the world, and the vastest construction of Gothic architecture. The primitive Cathedral, which was consecrated in 873, was burned in 1248. The present one was commenced in 1249, and the work upon it continued until 1509. But during that long period the labors were often interrupted by the sanguinary contests which raged between the city and its archbishops, so that only the choir and the chapels which surrounded it were finished. In the eighteenth century it suffered much from the ignorance of its own canons, who subjected it to unworthy mutilations, and during the French Revolution it was used as a military depot. In 1820, this edifice, ravaged by men and mutilated by time, began to excite serious anxieties for the solidity of its finished portions. The debris of the venerable pile were even about to be overthrown, when archeologic zeal and religious devotion came to the rescue. Societies were formed for its restoration by the aid of permanent subscriptions, which were liberally supplied; and it was resolved to finish the gigantic structure according to the original plans which had been conceived by Gerhard de Saint Trond, the ancient master of the works. The works were renewed under the direction of M. Zwiner. The building is now completed; Seddon says in his Rambles on the Rhine (page 16), "It is without question, one of the most stupendous structures ever conceived." There is a story, that may be only a tradition, that there was a book written by Albertus Magnus called Liber Constructionum Alberti, which contained the secrets of the Operative Freemasons, and particularly giving directions of how to lay the foundations of cathedrals. Even though these builders had a special treatise on laying the foundations of cathedrals, they had not made provision for inventions which came later. It has been shown that within these modern days the foundations of the Cathedral were being loosened by the constant shaking from the railway trains that now run near, so that they became unsafe and seriously threatened the destruction of this wonderful masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The German Government came to the relief and saved the structure.
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COLOGNE, CHARTER OF
this is an interesting Masonic document, originally written in Latin, and purporting to have been issued in 1535. Its history, as given by those who first offered it to the public, and who claim that it is authentic, is as follows: From the year 1519 to 1601, there existed in the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, a Lodge whose name was Het Vredendall, or The Valley of Peace. In the latter year, circumstances caused the Lodge to be closed, but in 1637 it was revived by four of its surviving members, under the name of Frederick's Vredendall, or Frederick's Valley of Peace. In this Lodge, at the time of its restoration, there was found a chest, bound with brass and secured by three locks and three seals, which, according to a protocol published on the 29th of January, 1637, contained the following documents:
1. The original warrant of constitution of the Lodge Het Vredendall, written in the English language.
2. A roll of all the members of the Lodge from 1519 to 1601.
3. The original charter given to the Brotherhood at the City of Cologne, and which is now known among Masonic historians as the Charter of Cologne.
It is not known how long these documents remained in possession of the Lodge at Amsterdam. But they were subsequently remitted to the charge of Brother James Van Vasner, Lord of Opdem, whose signature is appended to the last attestation of The Hague register, under the date of the 2d of February, 1638. After his death, they remained among the papers of his family until 1790, when M. Walpenaer, one of his descendants, presented them to Brother Van Boetzelaer, who was then the Grand Master of the Lodges of Holland. Subsequently they fell into the hands of some person whose name is unknown, but who, in 1816, delivered them to Prince Frederick.
There is a story that the Prince received these documents accompanied by a letter, written in a female hand, and signed "C., child of V. J." In this letter the writer states that she had found the documents among the papers of her father, who had received them from Brother Van Boetzelaer. It is suspected that the authoress of the letter was the daughter of Brother Van Jeylinger, who was the successor of Van Boetzelaer as Grand Master of Holland. Another version of the history states that these documents had long been in the possession of the family of Wassenaer Van Opdem, by a member of which they were presented to Van Boetzelaer, who subsequently gave them to Van Jeylinger, with strict injunctions to preserve them until the restitution of the Orange regency.
The originals are now, or were very lately, deposited in the archives of a Lodge at Namur, on the Meuse ; but copies of the charter were given to the Fraternity under the following circumstances: In the year 1819, Prince Frederick of Nassau, who was then the Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Holland, contemplating a reformation in Freemasonry, addressed a circular on this subject to all the Lodges under his Jurisdiction, for the purpose of enlisting them in behalf of his project, and accompanied this circular with copies of the charter, which he had caused to be taken in facsimile, and also of the register of the Amsterdam Lodge, Valley of Peace, to which Brother Hawkins has already referred as contained in the brass-mounted chest.
A transcript of the charter in the original Latin, with all its errors, was published, in 1818, in the Annales Maçonniques. The document was also presented to the public in a German version, in 1819, by Dr. Fred Heldmann; but his translation has been proved, by Lenning and others, to be exceedingly incorrect. In 1821, Doctor Krause published it in his celebrated work entitled The Three oldest Masonic Documents. It has been frequently published since in a German translation, in whole or in part, but is accessible to the English reader only in Burnes' Sketch of the History of the Knights Templar, published at London in 1840; in the English translation of Findel's History of Freemasonry, and in the American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry, where it was published with copious notes by Brother Mackey.
P. J. Schouten, a Dutch writer on the history of Freemasonry, who had undoubtedly seen the original document, describes it as being written on parchment in Masonic cipher, in the Latin language, the characters uninjured by time, and the subscription of the names not in cipher, but in the ordinary cursive character. The Latin is that of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished by many incorrectly spelled words, and frequent grammatical solecisms. Thus, we find bagistri for magistri, trigesimo for tricesimo, ad nostris ordinem for ad nostrum ordinem, etc. Brother Hawkins who prepared this article concluded, that of the authenticity of this document, it is but fair to say that there are well-founded doubts among many Masonic writers. The learned antiquaries of the University of Leyden have testified that the paper on which the register of the Lodge at The Hague is written, is of the same kind that was used in Holland at the commencement of the seventeenth century, which purports to be its date, and that the characters in which it is composed are of the same period. This register, it will be remembered, refers to the Charter of Cologne as existing at that time ; so that if the learned men of Leyden have not been deceived, the fraud---supposing that there is one in the charter-must be more than two centuries old. Doctor Burnes professes to have no faith in the document, and the editors of the Hermes at once declare it to be surreptitious. But the condemnation of Burnes is too sweeping in its character, as it includes with the charter all other German documents on Freemasonry ; and the opinion of the editors of the Hermes must be taken with some grains of allowance, as they were at the time engaged in a controversy with the Grand Master of Holland, and in the defense of the Advanced Degrees, whose claims to antiquity this charter would materially impair. Doctor Oliver, on the other hand, quotes it unreservedly, in his Landmarks, as a historical document worthy of credit; and Reghellini treats it as authentic. In Germany, the Masonic authorities of the highest reputation, such as Heldermann, Morsdorf, Kloss, and many others, have repudiated it as a spurious production, most probably of the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Kloss objects to the document, that customs are referred to in it that were not known in the rituals of initiation until 1731; that the Advanced Degrees were nowhere known until 1725 ; that none of the eighteen copied documents have been found; that the declaimer against Templar Freemasonry was unnecessary in 1535, as no Templar Degrees existed until 1741; that some of the Latin expressions are not such as were likely to have been used; and a few other objections of a similar character. Bobrik, who published, in I840, the Text, Translation, and Examination of the Cologne Document, also advances some strong critical arguments against its authenticity. Summing up the above' evidence, Brother E. L. Hawkins was convinced that on the whole, the arguments to disprove the genuineness of the charter appear to be very convincing, and are strong enough to throw at least great doubt upon it as being anything else but -a modern forgery. See Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry (page 780) and Gould's History of Freemasonry (1, 496), where the question of the authenticity of the document is examined, and it is classed among the doubtful manuscripts.
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COLOGNE, CONGRESS OF
A Congress which is said to have been convened in 1525, by the most distinguished Freemasons of the time, in the City of Cologne, as the representatives of nineteen Grand Lodges, who are said to have issued the celebrated manifesto, in defense of the character and aims of the Institution, known as the Charter of Cologne. Whether this Congress was ever held is a moot point among Masonic writers, most of them contending that it never was, and that it is simply an invention of the early part of the nineteenth century (see Cologne, Charter of).
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COLOMBIA
A republic in the northwestern part of South America. In 1824 Colonel James Hamilton was appointed by England head of the Masonic Province of Colombia.
The Republic of Colombia consisted at first of New Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In 1831, however, all these became independent and in 1861 Colombia was constituted by New Granada.
Concord Lodge, No. 792, was established by England in 1824 but its authority was withdrawn in 1862. A Scotch Lodge, Eastern Star of Colombia, was opened the same year as Concord Lodge.
On June19, 1833, the Grand Orient of New Granada was established at Carthagena and has continued work up till the present day. Towards a Grand Orient founded June 13, 1864, at Bogota for the southern states of the Republic, it maintained, with occasional interruptions, a friendly attitude. A Supreme Council of Colombia had existed at Bogota as early as 1825 but ceased work.
The present Supreme Council was created later. v The Grand Lodge of Colombia was opened on November 30, 1919, with all due ceremony by delegates from the four Lodges, Astrea, No. 56; Siglo XX, No. 61: Libertad, No. 54, and Luz de la Verdad, No. 46, at Barranquilla.
Three other Bodies, the National Grand Lodge of Colombia at Barranquilla, the Most Serene National Grand Lodge of Colombia at Carthagena and the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Colombia, at Carthagena, established in 1918, 1920 and 1922 respectively, are still in existence and all six, according to Brother Oliver Day Street, are more or less independent.
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COLONIAL LODGES
Lodges in the colonies of Great Britain are under the immediate supervision and jurisdiction of District Grand Lodges, to which title the reader is referred.
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COLONIAL MASTERS, ORDER OF
This organization was instituted at Ha1ifax, North Carolina. December 30, 1912, and comprises in its membership Worshipful Masters and Past Masters of Colonial Lodges. No application on the part of such Brethren was ever to be required but whenever such a Brother shall present himself and pay the fee he is to be initiated without ballot and that no objection shall debar him except for non-affiliation with some Lodge. The first lesson of the Order was to honor the Fathers by perpetuating and building up their Colonial Lodges and not only to glorify the early guardians of Freemasonry on the Continent of America but to -also listen to the call for service, fidelity and faith, and to be pledged to a higher consecration and a more vivid realization of duty.
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COLORADO
When Auraria, or Denver as it later came to be called, sprang up in consequence of the discovery of gold in Jefferson Territory, the Brethren in the town applied to the Grand Master of Kansas for a Dispensation to open a Lodge. This was granted on October 1, 1859. While their request for a Charter, granted on October 15, 1862, was being considered by the Grand Lodge of Kansas they resigned the Dispensation from that State and as Denver Lodge accepted one, and in due course received a Charter, December 11, 1861, from the Grand Lodge of Colorado. The Grand Lodge of Colorado was organized by representatives of Golden City Lodge, No. 34; Summit Lodge, No. 7, and Rocky Mountain Lodge, no. 8, who met on August 2, 1861. Brother Eli Carter of Golden City presided over the Convention and Brother Whittemore acted as secretary. A Constitution drawn up by a Committee composed of Brothers J. A. Moore, C. F. Holly, and S. M. Robbins was submitted and approved. John M. Chivington was elected Grand Master and O. A. Whittemore, Grand Secretary. The first Chapter in Colorado was Central City, No. l, in Central City. Its Dispensation, dated March 23, 1863, was granted by the General Grand King. On May 11, 1875, a Convention was held at Denver City by authority of Elbert H. English, the General Grand High Priest, and the Grand Chapter of Colorado was duly established. Companion William II. Byers was the first Grand High Priest, Companion Irving W. Stanton, Deputy Grand High Priest, and Companion Francis E. Everett, Grand Secretary. The General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters issued a Dispensation to Denver, No. l, at Denver, on January 16, 1892, and a Charter on August 21, 1894. Denver, No. l, with Rocky Mountain, No. 2, and Durango, No. 3, met and organized the Grand Council of Colorado on December 6, 1894.
In the year 1866 a Commandery, namely Colorado, No, l, was established by Dispensation dated January 13. On September 10, two years later, a Charter was granted and it was constituted on January 26, 1869. With Central City, no. 2, and Pueblo, No. 3, Colorado, No. l, organized a Grand Commandery which was opened on March 14, 1876. A Lodge of Perfection, Delta, No. l, was chartered at Denver on January 26, 1877; a Chapter of Rose Croix, Mackey, No. l, on April 11, 1878; a Council of Kadosh, Denver, No, l, on September 3, 1888, and a Consistory, Colorado, No. l, on October 17, 1888.
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COLORED FRATERNITIES
The secret societies of negroes claiming to be Masonic are quite extensive, embracing Grand Lodges in practically every State (see Negro Masonry).
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COLORS, SYMBOLISM OF
Wemyss, in his Clavis Symbolica, the Latin meaning Symbolic Key, says: "Color, which is outwardly seen on the habit of the body, is symbolically issued to denote the true state of the person or subject to which it is applied, according to its nature." This definition may appropriately be borrowed on the present occasion, and applied to the system of Masonic colors. The color of a vestment or of a decoration is never arbitrarily adopted in Freemasonry. Every color is selected with a view to its power in the symbolic alphabet, and it teaches the initiate some instructive moral lesson, or refers to some important historical fact in the system. Frederic Portal, a French archeologist, has written a valuable treatise on the symbolism of colors, under the title of Des Couleurs Symboliques dans l'antiquité, le moyen âge et les temps modernes, meaning Symbolic Colors in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times, which is well worth the attention of Masonic students.
The Masonic colors are seven in number, namely:
1. blue
2. purple
3. red
4. white
5. black
6. green
7. yellow
8. violet (see those respective titles in this Encyclopedia).
About the Church of God as well as the Bodies of Freemasonry has clustered a rich store of symbolism.
Their foundation is the same. Writers through the centuries have found peculiar significance galore in the various features of church construction and adornment. Among these the symbolism of colors has been prominently mentioned. Bishop William Durandus, was born at Puy-moisson in Province about the year 1220 A.D., and died at Rome in 1296.
A book of his dealing freely with symbolism was finished in 1286 and from it we take the following item to illustrate the early ceremonial symbolism of colors:
On festivals, curtains are hung up in churches, for the sake of the ointment they give; and that by visible, we may be led to invisible beauty. These curtains are sometimes tinctured with various hues, as is said afore; so that by the diversity of the colors themselves we may be taught that man, who is the temple of God, should be ordained by the variety and diversity of virtues. A white curtain signifieth pureness of living, a red, charity; a green, contemplation; a black, mortification of the flesh: a livid-colored, tribulation. Besides this, over white curtains are sometimes suspended hangings of various colors: to signify that our hearts ought to be purged from vices: and that in them should be the curtains of virtues, and the hangings of good works. We must not overlook the authorities whose comments on the symbolism of colors are not in complete accord with the findings of Bishop Durandus and with those who have accepted and continued his conclusions. While an exact meaning may not universally have been applied to the individual colors there is found a striking correspondence with several of them.
Anyway, a difference in the symbolic meanings does not destroy or even impair the circumstance that colors have long been and are now freely employed as Symbols. The preface to English Liturgical Colors, by Sir Wm. St. John Hope and E. G. Cuthbert F. Atchley, published in 1918 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, refers to the discussion of the subject in 1860 in the Ecclesiologist (volume xxi, pages 133--i), by a writer over the initials J. C. J, who, after showing the considerable variety of the colors recorded, and that no strict rule for their use was possible, pointed out that
In early times richness of material seems to have been the chief point aimed at: a good deal being left to the fancy and taste of the donors, most of all to the bishops, sacristans, and clergy. This commentator arrives at the following conclusion:
First of all then, it is quite clear that the English did not bind themselves down to the so-Called ecclesiastical colors. By this I do not mean to say that they never had particular colors for particular days, but that they allowed themselves much more liberty than modem Rome allows to her members.
Of the growth of such symbolism and the outcome, Messrs. Hope and Atchley have this to say on page viii:
As soon as churches began to acquire more vestments than a set for everyday use, a second set for Sundays, and a best set for festivals, it was natural that different colors should be appropriated to the various festivals and several classes of saints, and the choice of the color was determined in each country in western Europe by the prevailing ideas of fitness. In point of fact, however, there was a fairly general unanimity in the schemes which developed everywhere outside the Roman diocese, while within that a scheme of another type gradually took shape. No color has any essential and necessary meaning, consequently a "teaching sequence" rests on purely arbitrary conventions.
Durandus and other Writers have explained at length from Holy Writ and elsewhere how ''each hue mysteriously is meant,'' but it is perfectly easy to put together quite as plausible a set of reasons for precisely the opposite or any other signification. At the same time it is not to be denied that there are a few quasi-natural symbolical meanings which have obtained for so many centuries that they have now become common ideas of Western Europe. Such are the use of black or dark colors for mourning and sadness, of white as a symbol of purity and innocence, and of bright red for royalty; as well as the ideas connoted by such phrases as "in the blues," and the like. Medieval writers, as is shown in Essays on Ceremonial, differ widely among themselves in the significance that they attribute to different colors, and no certainty is anywhere to be found.
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COLUMN
A round pillar made to support as well as to adorn a building, whose construction varies in the different orders of architecture. In Freemasonry, columns have a symbolic signification as the supports of a Lodge, and are known as the Columns of Misdom, Strength, and Beauty. The broken column is also a symbol in Freemasonry (see the titles Supports of the Lodge and Broken Column).
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COLUMNS, THE WARDENS
In Freemasonry the Senior Warden's Column represents the pillar Jachin while the Junior Warden's Column represents the pillar Boaz. The Senior Warden's Column is in an erect position and the Junior Warden's placed horizontally during labor, these positions being reversed during refreshment.
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COMACINE MASTERS
It has long been a theory of some writers, secular and Masonic, that there was a direct succession of the Operative Gilds from the Roman Colleges to those who merged into Speculative Freemasonry in 1717, and as investigation proceeded, the proofs became stronger and stronger until now it can no longer reasonably be doubted.
At first it was not attempted to prove the succession it was only inferred, but recently more careful investigators have come to view, whose results go far in establishing the direct succession from Roman Colleges to speculative Freemasonry.
The principal purpose of this article is to put a link in the chain of Operative Gilds and establish a continuous connection from the oldest Gild formation, that of the Roman Colleges, which see, through the Lombard period and Renaissance to the formation of Speculative Freemasonry by the English Gilds.
Before beginning the description of the Comacine Masters, which, from the controversial character of the subject, must of necessity be kindred to a discussion resting heavily on citations and quoted authorities who have worked in this special field, it will be necessary to draw a fair picture of the Roman possessions and civilization at this period.
When Rome had passed the zenith of her power and had begun to decline from internal and external causes, it is but natural to suppose that her neighboring enemies noticed this, and as they had long looked upon Italy with avaricious eyes, felt the time had arrived for them to attain what they had most desired. The year 476 A.D.,when the last of the nominal Caesars ceased to rule in the West, is usually taken by historians as marking the fall of the Roman Empire.
However true that may be, the falling began when Constantine established the seat of his empire at Constantinople, in 327, and drew much strength from Rome, thereby making it easier for the Vandals and Goths to renew their attacks.
For five centuries horde after horde of barbarians flung themselves against the Roman frontiers, each striking deeper than the last, and being repelled with greater and greater difficulty, the Empire sinking beneath internal decay more than from her external enemies.
When the Western Empire ceased in the fifth century and Europe was plunged into what has been called The Dark Ages and all progress in letters and the arts of peace is supposed to have ceased, it is refreshing to quote what John Fiske said in Old and New Ways of Treating History, when speaking of that period: "In truth the dull ages which no Homer has sung or Tacitus described, have sometimes been critical ages for human progress. . . . This restriction of the views to literary ages has had much to do with the popular misconception of the 1,000 years that elapsed between the reign of Theodoric the Great and the Discovery of America.
For many reasons that period might be called the Middle Ages ; but the popular mind is apt to lump these ten centuries together, as if they were all alike, and apply to them the misleading epithet Dark Ages. A portion of the darkness is in the minds of those ,,who use the epithet.
" Brother E. E. Cauthorne who wrote this article says he also wishes to take exception to their position and conclusions, for in the success of these exceptions lies the potency and possibility of the subject, the Comacine Masters, who lived and built at this period, having descended from branches of the Roman Colleges of Artificers who had come to Como as colonists or had fled to this free republic for safety during barbaric invasions, creating and developing what is called Lombard architecture, and forming a powerful gild which later not only influenced, but had a connection with the gilds of France and Germany at the Renaissance, thereby establishing a direct line of descent of Roman Colleges to the Operative Gilds that grew into speculative Freemasonry.
It can be understood how a tribe or a small section of people may, from various causes, recede in letters, science and civilization, but how the world could do so is difficult to, comprehend, yet the historians and literature attempted to confirm this in describing the "gloom when the sun of progress was in a total or partial eclipse from the fifth to the twelfth centuries,'' or, between the period of ancient Classic Art of Rome and that early rise of Art in the twelfth century, which led to the Renaissance. Leader Scott says that "this hiatus is supposed to be a time when Art was utterly dead and buried, its corpse in Byzantine dress lying embalmed in its tomb at Ravenna. But all death is nothing but the germ of new life. Art was not a corpse ; it was only a seed laid in Italian soil to germinate and it bore several plants before the great deflowering period of the Renaissance."
Those who produced these several plants which it bore before the great Cathedral Building period that followed the Renaissance, will furnish the subject of this article, and trust it will be as interesting and important to the Masonic student as it is new in the literature of Freemasonry. Most things will become more and more clear as we follow up the traces of the Comacine Gild from the chrysalis state, in which Roman Art hibernated during the dark winter of the usually called Dark Ages, as Scott says "through the grub state of the Lombard period to the glorious winged flight of the full Gothic of the Renaissance." Many historians, Masonic and profane, who wrote as long as a generation ago, are inclined to give the impression that there was but little or nothing that transpired during the so-called Dark Ages which was essential to the world's progress' at the time, or worthy of contemplation at present.
Had their views of the importance of historical matter prevailed, we would now know very little of what transpired from the Fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. We know that many cities in Italy were rebuilt after they had been sacked and partly destroyed by the Goths and Huns. Many cathedrals were built during this period, some of which work lasts till today, and is worthy workmanship. The historical architects have approached this period from another angle and the results of their efforts now make this article possible and open up a new and important field for Masonic students.
Toward the end of the fifth century a new wave of barbaric invasions swept over the West. North and East Gaul-all not previously held by the Visigoths fell into the hands of the Franks in 486 A. D. Theodoric and the Ostrogoths wrested Italy from Odoacer and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, with its capital at Ravenna. This kingdom was established and governed on exceptionally enlightened lines.
Theodoric, often called The Great, was the most broad-minded and advanced of all the German conquerors.
He was a man of culture, yet some have said that he could not read. He had been educated from his eighth to his eighteenth year at Constantinople. His rule was, therefore, more like the revival of Roman ideas than a barbarous conquest.
Accordingly we need not be surprised to find him decorating his capital city, Ravenna, during the period of his occupation, 493-526, A.D., with a series of monuments which, although strongly tinctured with Byzantine fluence, yet constitute, perhaps, the finest examples .we possess of the early Christian style.
Theodoric was an Aryan and opposed to the Bishop of Rome.
This fact and his education at Constantinople are sufficient to explain the strong Byzantine elements so noticeable even in those monuments at Ravenna, which antedate the Byzantine conquest. Charles A. Cummings in his History of architecture in Italy says: "One of the earliest acts of Theodoric after his accession to the throne was the appointment of an architect to have charge of all the public buildings-including the aqueducts and the city walls-of Ravenna and Rome, putting at his disposal for this purpose, yearly, twelve hundred pounds of gold, two hundred and fifty thousand bricks, and the income of the Lucrine Haven. A remarkable letter from Theodoric to this official on his appointment is preserved by Cassiodorus, who was the minister of the Empire. 'These excellent buildings,' he says, 'are my delight. They are the noble image of the power of the Empire, and bear witness to its grandeur and glory. The palace of the sovereign is shown to ambassadors as a monument worthy of their admiration, and seems to declare to them his greatness. It is then a great pleasure for an enlightened prince to inhabit a palace where all the perfections of art are united, and to find there relaxation from the burden of public affairs. . . . I give you notice that your intelligence and talents have determined me to confide to your hands the care of my palace. It is my wish that you preserve in its original splendor all which is ancient, and that whatever you add to it may be comfortable to it in style. It is not a work of small importance which I place in your hands, since it will be your duty to fulfill by your art the lively desire which I feel to illustrate my reign by many new edifices; so that whether the matter in hand be the rebuilding of a city, the construction of new castles, or the building of a Pretorium, it will be for you to translate my projects into accomplished realities.
And this is a service highly honorable and worthy of any man's ambition:-to leave to future ages the monuments which shall be the admiration of new generations of men. It will be your duty to direct the mason, the sculptor, the painter, the worker in stone, in bronze, in plaster, in mosaic. What they know not, you will teach them. The difficulties which they find in their work, you will solve for them.
But behold what various knowledge you must possess, thus to instruct artificers of so many sorts. But … you can direct their work to a good and satisfactory end, their success will be your eulogy, and will form the most abundant and flattering reward you could desire.'" From this it may be seen that an architect of those days was a complete Master of the art of building.
He was required to be able to construct a building from foundation to roof and also to be able to decorate it with sculpture and painting, mosaics and bronzes.
This broad education prevailed in all the schools or Lodges up to 1335, when the painters seceded, which was followed by other branches separating themselves into distinct gilds. It is a well-known fact that when the barbarians were sacking and carrying away the riches of many Italian cities and particularly of Rome, people fled to more secure places for the better protection of their lives and property. Of the various places to which they fled only one interests us in this article. Como was a free republic and many fled there for the protection it afforded. Rome had previously colonized many thousands in Como before the Christian Era (see Como). The first we hear of the Comacines was that they were living on an island called Isola Comacina in Lake Como, that most beautiful of lakes. They were so well fortified that it was years before the island was captured and then only by treachery. Their fortifications and buildings were similar to those built by the Colleges of Artificers at Rome, which gave rise to the belief that they were the direct descendants from these Roman builders, who had built for the Roman Empire for several centuries.
In offering the form of building as best evidence of the descent of the Comacines from the Roman Colleges, it is appreciated how recorded literature, which is usually the word and opinions of one person, can be biased, changed and often wrong. But all who have studied a people in their social, political or religious aspects, know how permanent these things are and how subject to slow changes.
Their forms of dress, songs, folklore and language undergo changes but slowly, climate, unsuccessful wars and amalgamation proving the most disastrous. But probably none of these change so slowly as forms of building, unless the latter be subjected to a marked change of climate from migration. Architecture is one of the noblest and most useful of arts and one of the first to attract the attention of barbarous people when evolution into higher civilization, and is at all times an accurate measure of a people's standing in civilization.
A law we learn from biology in the morphology of animals is, that nature never makes a new organ when she can modify an old one so as to perform the required functions. New styles of architecture do not spring from human intellect as creations. Cattaneo says: "Monuments left by a people are truer than documents, which often prove fallacious and mislead and prove no profit for those who blindly follow them.
The story of a people or a nation, if not known by writings, might be guessed through its monuments and works of art."
The Lombards, who had come from northern Germany and settled in northern Italy in 568 A.D., at once began to develop along many lines which made Lombardy known all over Europe---the result of which influence Europe feels today. They developed along lines which in our everyday parlance may be called business. They were not primarily architects or builders and they employed the Comacines for this kind of work and it was the Comacines who developed what is known today as Lombard architecture, covering a period that we may roughly put as from the seventh century to the Renaissance.
The first to draw attention to the name Magistri Comacini was the erudite Muratori, that searcher out of ancient manuscripts, who unearthed from the archives an edict, dated November 22, 643 A.D., signed by Rotharis, in which are included two clauses treating of the Magistri Comacini and their colleagues The two clauses, Nos. 143 and 144, out of the 386 inscribed in cribbed Latin, says Leader Scott, are, when anglicized, m the following intent:
Art. 143. Of the Magister Comacinus. If the Comacine Master with his colleagues shall have contracted to restore or build a house of any person whatsoever, the contract for payment being made, and it chances that someone shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stone from it, the owner of said house shall not be cited by the Master Comacinus or his Brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they just sustain the risk and injuries thereof.
Art. 144. of the engaging and hiring of Magistri. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work, or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it shall happen by reason of the house some Comacine shall be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible; but if a pole or stone shall injure some extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation.
Charles A. Cummings says: "The code of Luitprand, eighty years later, contains further provisions regulating the practice of Comacini, which had now become much more Ilumerous and important. Fixed rates of payment were established for their services, varying according to the kind of building on which they were engaged; definite prices being allowed for walls of various thicknesses, for arches and vaults, for chimneys, plastering and joiners' work. The difficulty which these early builders found in the construction of vaults is indicated by the allowance of a charge per superficial foot, from fifteen to eighteen times as great as in the case of a wall. The price of provisions and wine furnished to the workmen is also determined and is counted as part of their pay."
Scott maintains that "these laws prove that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact and powerful gild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the gild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could 'design' or 'undertake' a work; that is, act as architects ; and that the colligate or colleagues worked under, or with, them. In fact, a powerful organization altogether so powerful and so solid that it spoke of a very ancient foundation. Was it a surviving branch of a Roman Collegium? Or a decadent group of Byzantine artists stranded in Italy?"
Professor Merzario says: "In this darkness which extended all over Italy, only one small lamp remained alight, making a bright spark in the vast Italian metropolis. It was from the Magistri Comacini. Their respective names are unknown, their individual work unspecialized, but the breath of their spirit might be felt all through those centuries and their names collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art between 800 and 1000 A.D., the greater and better part are due to that brotherhood-always faithful and often secret-of the Magistri Comacini. The authority and judgment of learned men .justify the assertion."
Quaternal de Quincy, in his Dictionary of Architecture, under the heading Comacines, remarks that "to these men who were both designers and executors, architects, sculptors and mosaicists, may be attributed the Renaissance of art and its propagation in the southern countries, where it marched with Christianity.
Certain it is that we owe to them that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely lost, and it is only by their tradition and imitation that the art of building was kept alive, producing works which we still admire and which become surprising when we think of the utter ignorance of all science in those Dark Ages."
Hope, in his well-balanced style, draws quite a picture of the gilds at this period which, upon the whole, is fairly accurate. He says: "When Rome, the Eternal City, was first abandoned for Milan, Ravenna and other cities in the more fertile North, which became seats of new courts and the capitals of new kingdoms, we find in northern Italy a rude and barbarous nation-the Lombards-in the space of two short centuries, producing in trade, in legislation, in finance, in industry of every description, new developments so great, that from them, and from the regions to which they attach their names, has issued the whole of that ingenious and complex system of bills of exchange, banks, insurance, double sentry bookkeeping, commercial and marine laws and public loans, since adopted all over Europe---all over Europe retaining, in their peculiar appellations the trace and landmarks of their origin-and all over Europe affording to capital and commerce an case of captivity and a security unknown before.
"To keep pace with this progress, kings, lesser lords and the municipalities that by degrees arose, were induced, at one time from motives of public policy, at others, of private advantage, to encourage artificers of different professions. Thus of their own accord, they granted licenses to form associations possessed of the exclusive privilege of exercising their peculiar trades, and making them an object of profit; of requiring that youths anxious to be associated with their body, and ultimately to be endowed with the mastery of the profession, should submit to a fixed and often severe course of study, under the name of apprenticeship, for their master's profit, and in addition should frequently be compelled to pay a considerable premium; and of preventing any individual not thus admitted into their body, from establishing a competition against them. These associations were called Corporations or Gilds.
"These Bodies in order to enjoy exclusive exercise of their profession, and that its profits should be secure to them, not only by law, but by the inability of others to violate it, by degrees made their business, or craft, as they called it, a profound mystery from the world at large, and only suffered their own apprentices to be initiated in its higher branches and improvements, most gradually; and in every place where a variety of paths of industry and art were struck out, these crafts, these corporations, these masterships and these mysteries became so universally prevalent, that not only the arts of a wholly mechanical nature, but even those of the most exalted and intellectual nature---those which in ancient times had been considered the exclusive privilege of freemen and citizens, and those dignified with the name liberal-were submitted to all those narrow rules of corporations and connected with all the servile offices of apprenticeship.'' While Hope and writers of his time recognized that some well-organized body of workers had dominated the building trades at the Lombard period of history, they never attempted to trace their genealogy. Later historical critics of architecture have given some attention to origin and succession of these building crafts. One of the latest Italian students, Rivoiri, has devoted a separate chapter to the Comacine Masters.
As his extensive work on Lombard Architecture, Its Origin, Development and Derivatives may be accessible to but few, we shall give a generous quotation from him for the importance of his sound conclusions:
"The origin of the Comacine Masters in the diocese of Como is explained quite naturally, according to De Dartein, Merzario, and others, by the custom, which has always existed among the craftsmen and workmen of that region, of leaving their native places in order to betake themselves in gangs wherever building works are about to be or have been begun, urged thereto by their barren mountain soil, pecuniary gain, their innate ability and enterprising character.
Another explanation is to be found in the presence on the shores of the lakes of Como, Lugano and the Maggiore, of numerous stones, marble and timber yards which furnished building material for the cities of the plains. These yards gave scope for the practice of the crafts of carver, carpenter, builder, etc. ; and these, in their turn, by constant practice and continuous progress, ultimately developed architects and sculptors.
"And here we may naturally feel surprise at the appearance, amid the darkness of the early centuries of the Middle Ages, of a corporation of craftsmen who, though of Roman origin, none the less enjoyed Lombard citizenship and the rights belonging to it; while the Roman or Italian subjects of Lombard rule were, if not slaves, nothing better than 'aldi,' that is to say, midway between freedmen and serfs, manumitted on the condition of performing the manual tasks assigned them by the manumitter, A corporation, too, which had a legal monopoly of public and private building work within the territories occupied by the Lombards, as the code of Rotharis proves, and can claim the honor of filling up the gap which for so long was believed, especially by non-Italian writers, to exist between the incorporated artisans of the Roman epoch, supposed to have vanished with the fall of the Empire, and the gilds of craftsmen which sprang up so luxuriantly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Such surprise, however, may easily be allayed if we consider that in reality the fraternity of craftsmen, in Italy at least, by no means came to an end with the barbarian invasions, and particularly that of the Lombards, who actually preserved those Roman institutions which best fulfilled their aim of keeping the conquered people in subjection. Accordingly, they would have maintained the corporation of artisans in order to make the exaction of tribute easier, and at the same time to be able to keep a hold over the individuals composing them.
"Hence we have good grounds for inferring that the corporation of 'Comacini,' who apparently were neither more nor less than the successors of the Master Masons who in the days of the Empire had directed the operations of the collegia specially devoted to building, survived the barbarian invasions which were so disastrous to Italy in the centuries preceding , the accession of Rotharis to the Lombard throne.
This view is confirmed by the undoubted fact that from this time onwards the 'Comacini' formed a very important Gild, as is shown by the need which he felt of making regulations for it in his laws. This Gild cannot have sprung into existence full grown, and, as it were, by magic, just when the Code of Rotharis made its appearance in 643 A. D. It must have already been in existence and have attained some degree of importance well before Alboin's descent on Italy in 568 A.D. Troya, in fact, remarks that when the Lombards of the time of Autharis in 583-590 A.D., and of Agilulf and Theodelinda from 590--625 A.D., wanted to erect buildings, they must have made use of it ; and that everything leads one to think that before the promulgation of the Code of Rotharis, some of the members, those of the highest capacity and reputation had already been enfranchised by 'impans' or express grace of the King. However that may be, the mention of the associations of Comacini in the reign of Rotharis and Luitprand is one of the earliest in the barbarian world, and earlier than that of any Gild of architects or builders belonging to the Middle Ages. . . . Whatever may have been the organization of the Comacine or Lombard Gilds, and however these may have been affected by outward events, they did not cease to exist in consequence of the fall of the Lombard kingdom. With the first breath of municipal freedom, and with the rise of the new brotherhoods of artisans, they, too, perhaps, may have reformed themselves like the latter, who were nothing but the continuation of the 'collegium' of Roman times preserving its existence through the barbarian ages, and transformed little by little into the mediaeval corporation. The members may have found themselves constrained to enter into a more perfect unity of thought and sentiment, to bind themselves into a more compact body, and thus put themselves in a condition to maintain their ancient supremacy in carrying out the most important building works in Italy. But we cannot say anything more.
And even putting aside all tradition, the monuments themselves are there to confirm what we have said.
"Finally, toward the end of the eleventh century, the Comacine brotherhoods began to relax their bonds of union, to make room gradually for personality, and for artistic and scientific individuality, till at length they vanish at the close of the fifteenth century, with the disappearance of the Lombardic style which they had created, and the rise of the architecture of the Renaissance." Leader Scott has reasonably inferred: "
1. That the architects of the same Gild worked at Rome and in Ravenna in the early centuries after Christ.
2. That though the architects were Roman, the decorations up to the fourth century were chiefly Byzantine, or had imbibed that style, as their paintings show.
3. That in the time when Rome lay in a heap of ruins under the barbarians, the Collegium, or a Collegium, I know not which, fled to independent Como, and there, in after centuries they were employed by the Lombards, and ended in again becoming a powerful Gild."
There was the greatest similarity in form of the cathedrals of this period and when changes were introduced they became general thereby creating a unity of purpose and an interchange of ideas, which spoke the existence of some kind of Gild or fraternity with a perfected organization. That the Comacines received ideas which somewhat influenced their building art is probably true, particularly their decorations.
On the latter question Muller in his Archaeology der Kunst says: "From constantinople as a center of mechanical skill, a knowledge of art radiated to distant countries, and corporations of builders of Grecian birth were permitted to exercise a judicial government among themselves, according to the laws of the country to which they owed allegiance."
This was the age when more symbolism was made use of than at any other period, the reason being that the Christian religion having so lately supplanted Paganism, and as most converts could not read, the Bible was spread over the front of the cathedrals in the form of sculptured saints, animals, and symbolic figures. Hope says: "Pictures can always be read by all people and when symbolic uses are made and once explained will be ever after understood."
The Eastern branch of the Church at Constantinople prohibited imagery and other forms of adornment of their churches, and like disputants, when one denies, the other affirms, the Western branch of Rome espoused the carving of images and beautiful sculpture.
This caused the Eastern sculptors to come to Italy, where they were welcomed by the Roman branch of the Church. That policy of the Roman branch was carried throughout the cathedral building period that followed in Europe for several centuries and to this day is a dominant element with them, for they still believe that properly to spread their religion, noble architecture, fine sculpturing and painting, and inspiring music are prime requisites. We Speculative Freemasons should give full credit to the Roman Catholic Church for employing and fostering our Operative Brethren through many centuries and making possible Speculative Freemasonry of today, even though the Church is now our avowed enemy.
Combining some arguments that have been reasonably put forward for the maintenance of this theory, and adding others, it may be pointed out that the identical form of Lodges in different cities is a strong argument that the same ruling Body governed them all. An argument equally strong is the ubiquity of the members. We find the same men employed in one Lodge after another, as work required. Not only were these changes or migrations from one cathedral to another accomplished in Italy, but we have many examples of Masters and special workmen going into France, Germany, and other countries. Unfortunately no documents exist of the early Lombard times, but the archives of the Opera, which in most cities have been faithfully kept since the thirteenth century, would, if thoroughly examined, prove to be valuable stores from which to draw a history of the Masonic Gild. They have only begun to examine carefully these records, and when completed we may reasonably expect to learn much concerning this period. Leader Scott has examined several and gives continuous lists of Masters of the School or Lodge in different cities. In Sienese School, a list of sixty-seven Masters in continuous succession from 1259-1423; at Florence Lodge, seventy-eight Masters from 1258-- 1418; at Milan Lodge; seventy-nine Masters from 1387 - 647. She, for Leader Scott was a woman, whose real name was Mrs. Luey Baxter, gives headings of laws for these Lodges, and it may be interesting to glance over the headings of statutes of these Masonic Gilds, which will throw light on all the organizations. The Sienese Gild is a typical one. There are forty-one chapters, but the headings of only twelve will be selected:
C. 1. One who curses God or the Saints. A fine of 25 lira.
C. 2. One who opposes the Signora of city. A fine of 25 lira.
C. 5. How to treat underlings (sottoposti or apprentices).
C. 11. That no one take work from another Master.
C. 13. How the feast of the Four Holy Martyrs is to be kept. Feast of the Dead, November Two half-pound candles and offering ; grand fête of the Gild in June.
C.16. The camerlingo shall hand all receipts to Grand Master.
C.19. One who is sworn to another Gild cannot be either Grand Master or camerlingo.
C.22. How members are to be buried.
C.23. How to insure against risks.
C.24. No argument or business discussion to be held in public streets.
C.30. That no Master shall undertake a second work till the first has been paid.
C.34. On those who lie against others.
These statutes are very fair and well composed and must certainly have been made from long experience in the Gild.
The genealogy of the styles of architecture has baffled many. Leader Scott believes this to be the line of descent: First, the Comacines continued Roman traditions, as the Romans continued Etruscan ones; next, they orientalized their style by their connection with the East through Aquileia, and the influx of the Greek exiles into the Gild. Later came a different influence through the Saracens into the South, and the Italian-Gothic was born. In the old times (sixth to the tenth centuries) before the painters and sculptors, and after them the metal workers, split off and formed companies of their own, every kind of decoration was practiced by the Masters, as the letter of Theodoric plainly shows. A church was not complete unless it was adorned in its whole height and breadth with sculpture on the outside, mosaics or paintings on the inside, and in its completeness formed the peoples' Bible and dogma of religious belief, and this from the very early times of Constantine and his Byzantine mosaicists, and of Queen Theolinda and her fresco-painters, up to the revival of mosaics by the Cosmati and the fresco-painting in the Tuscan schools, but never were these arts entirely lost.
For the first, we have the identity of form and ornamentation in their works and the similarity of nomenelature and organization between the Roman Collegio and the Lombard Gild of Magistri. Besides this, the well-known fact that the free republic of como was used as a refuge by Romans who fled from barbaric invasions makes a strong argument. For the second, we may plead again the same identity of form and organization and a like similarity of ornamentation and nomenclature. Just as King Luitprand's architects were called Magistri, and the Grand Master the Gadtaldo, so we have the great architectural Gilds in Venice, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, using the very same titles and having the very same laws. Again the hereditary descent is marked by the patron saints of the Lombard and Tuscan Lodges, being the Four Martyr Brethren from a Roman Collegio (see four Crowned Martyrs). All these and other indications are surely as strong as documental proof, and are practically the summary of the conclusions of Leader Scott and are not overdrawn, being amply home out by facts already known.
Older writers recognized the presence of a compact gild in the work, but did not connect them with the builders of the Renaissance. More recent writers, such as Rivoira, Porter, and others declare the connection. This connection is probably without the field of historical architects, whose work is the study of the product of the workmen, and not the workmen themselves, while our interest is centered on the workmen and their relations to those who follow them in connected sequence, and not on the product of their work, further than to show and prove relationships of the building crafts.
There are many most interesting and important things pertaining to the Conacines that must be omitted in a cyclopedia article. Their rich, varied, and curious symbolism, which even Ruskin failed to understand, would furnish matter for a fair-sized volume.
While it is recognized that history should always be written from as nearly original sources as is possible it has not been realized in this instance, as Brother Cauthome had to rely solely on those who have made their investigations at first-hand, and while some liberties have been taken, no violence has been done to their conclusions.
The reader will find a rich field in the following bibliography: The Cathedral Builders, The Story of a Great Masonic Guild, by Leader Scott. The Comacines, Their Predecessors and their Successors, by W. Ravencroft. Lombard Architecture, Its Origin, Development and Derivatives, by G. T. Rivoira. A History of Architecture in Italy, from the Time of Constantine to the Dawn of the Renaissance, by Charles A. Cummings. Medieval Architecture, by A. K. Porter.
Architecture in Italy from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, Historical and Critical Researches, by Raflaele Cattaneo. Historical Essay on Architecture, by Thomas Hope. These are English works or have been translated into English. From them an extensive bibliography embracing other languages will be found.
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COMACINE THEORY, THE
The article on Comacine Masters beginning on page 221 sets forth fairly and adequately the arguments in favor of the theory that the Magistri Comacimi were a school, or Compactly organized Brotherhood of Master Masons with a center and training school on Lake Como ; that this Comacine Brotherhood was the founder of Freemasonry, and that an unbroken continuity exists between it and the English Lodges out of which modern speculative Freemasonry arose. Mrs. Webster, writing under the name of Leader Scott, constructed this theory and published it in her Cathedral Builders, a work earnestly and competently written, supported by a wide knowledge of the literature; printed, bound, and illustrated magnificently.
Bro. Joseph Fort Newton epitomized the argument of her book in one chapter of his The Builders, and gave it a wide circulation because his book, "the Blue Lodge classic," had a large reading among American Masons. Bro. W. R. Rafenscroft followed this with two small books in which he restated or rehearsed Leader Scott's arguments with an audience of English Masons in mind (though he published much of his material in The Builder, Journal of the National Masonic Research Society). With this presentation, so rapidly successful, and accompanied as it was by innumerable speeches in Lodge Rooms and articles in the Masonic press throughout English-speaking Freemasonry, the Comacine Theory ceased to be a tentative and exploratory hypothesis constructed by one woman, and became a subject or discussion by the whole Fraternity.
One of the extraordinary features of this Masonry wide presentation and of the almost enthusiastic popularizing of it was the failure of both the proponents of the argument and of the popularizers of it to see that they were asking the Fraternity to abandon wholly, and at one stroke, the great structure of Masonic history which had been built up slowly and laboriously from 1870 to 1920 by some two hundred or so of the most learned scholars the Craft had or possibly ever can have. Beginning in the 1860's and 1870's Gould, Findel, Fort, Hughan, Crawley, Speth, Sadler, Lane, Lyon, the Rylands, E. H. Dring, etc., etc., had patiently pieced together evidences to show that Speculative Freemasonry had begun in England, that it was initiated by four or five Lodges in London out of some hundreds of Time Immemorial Lodges in England, Scotland and Ireland which had been at work during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century ; and that these in turn were the descendants of Lodges of Operative Freemasons of which the history was very old, dating at least from the Twelfth Century.
They knew that Operative Freemasonry in general, as the art of architecture, was flourishing during those years throughout Europe, but they could find no traces on the Continent of that particular and almost singular special development among Operative Freemasons which gave rise to modern Speculative Freemasonry, general Operative Freemasonry had been as much European as British, but speculative Freemasonry from its first small beginnings was English; and it was from England that it went across to the Continent in the 1720's. If Leader Scott's argument had been sound, if Speculative Freemasonry had originated not in England (as each copy of the Old Charges clearly showed) but had been founded and propagated by a school of Operative Masons at Lake Como in Italy, then Gould's History, Mackey's History, the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, and the body of English and American scholarship had made a vast, fatal, wholesale mistake, and the whole work would have to be done over again de novo.
l. There is nothing in the cathedrals, and other structures designed, constructed, and ornamented by the Medieval English Freemasons nor anything in the MSS., traditions, customs, rites, or symbols, or in the records of the oldest Lodges, which anywhere mentions the Comacine Masters, or looks backward toward Italy; nor were the truths, ideas, symbols which were perpetuated by the Time Immemorial Lodges such as could have originated in Medieval northern Italy; they bear on them everywhere the stamp of England.
Around and behind early Medieval Freemasonry in England lay the European milieu, the long history of the Continent, and the traditions of Antiquity, of early Christianity, and the Bible; but the elements drawn from this enveloping background which appear in the first forms of Speculative Freemasonry were demonstrably never drawn at first hand, not even from the Bible, but were mediated to the Craft through the reports, and rumors, and traditions of such things as they had come to England. Moreover, the genius of Medieval Operative Freemasonry was that of the Gothic architecture ; whereas in Italy, and including Como, the Gothic was only half accepted, and was mixed with elements of alien styles imported from Greece and the Arabs (via Sicily).
2. Leader Scott defines the phrase Magistri Comacini as meaning Masters of Como; she then employs this word itself as a principal support of her argument, and takes it that wherever Magistri Comacini appears in the records it refers to the school at Como. Since the phrase appears first in the Fifth Century, and was in wide use in following centuries, and hence was in use many centuries before there was any architecture or architects at Lake Como, Magislri Comacini is not Masters of "Como" etymologically. In the Low Latin in use at the period of which Leader Scott writes co-macioncs, frequently used, meant brothers, or gilds, of Masons, and hence could be applied to Masons anywhere; and Rivoira so applies it in the work referred to by Bro. Cauthorne in his paragraphs at page 221 of this Encyclopedia. Thus the Masons at any Italian center, at Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Venice, Rome, often were called como magistri. Moreover, Leader Scott takes it, or so to a reader it appears, that a schola was a school; in the Low Latin just mentioned schola was a gild.
3. Although she did not appear to note it herself, Leader Scott constructs not one Comacine Theory but two:
a) She attempts to show that the "school at Como'' was the center from which the whole Lombardic style had originated and been directed This theory cannot be sustained on historical grounds. Moreover, it repeats a fallacy which characterizes European theories about Freemasonry of both its origin and its present organization: viz, that it had (and has) some one center of control, and that this alone explains why it maintained its unity (and still does) everywhere, and from age to age. Medieval Freemasonry (as now) never had a center but maintained its unity by its modes of recognition, the movement of workers from one place to another, the prevalence of a single architectural style, and-above other means-by its training of apprentices, each of whom received his knowledge of the art and his practices of the Fraternity from a Master Mason who in turn had received the same from his own inlender, and so on backwards. b) Leader Scott's second Comacine Theory was that modern Speculative Freemasonry originated in her hypothetical school at Como. Rivoira says that this theory was not original with her, but was picked up by her from an Italian book which had never carried weight with Italian scholars; he himself dismisses the theory as not worth detailed investigation.
NOTE. In private correspondence Bro. Lionel Vibert, and writing as Secretary of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, stated that he had dismissed the Comacine Theory after finding that Leader Scott had misused the name Magistri Comacini, a keystone in her arch ; Bro. Ravenscroft Wrote not long before his death that he wished he could recall his two brochures because he had "come to see that the Comacine Theory was without foundation."
In addition to books mentioned above see : Medieval Architecture, by Arthur Kingsley Porter: vol. I, page 134. The Calhedral Builders, by Leader Scott, was published by Sampson, Low, Marston & Co.; London ; 80 illustrations; 435 pages. Lombardic Architecture, by G. T. Rivoira; two volumes. The Gilds of Florence, by Edgcumbe Staley; Methuen & Co.; London; 1906 ; 622 pages. (He has an interesting note about the Masons at Lincoln, England, as having had a social and religious Fraternity in 1313.) Arl and The Re-formation, by G. G. Coulton; ch. X. Medieval Italy, by H. B. Cotterill; Geo. C. Harrap; 1915. The Renaissance of The Twelfth Century, by Charles Homer Haskins, Harvard University Press; 1928. Medieval Europe, by Lynn Thorndike; Geo. C. Harrap & Co.; London; 1920. A History of Freemasonry, by H. L. Haywood and James E. Craig.
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COMITY, LODGE AND GRAND LODGE
Contrary to a popular misunderstanding etymologists do not derive comity from such roots as co or com (as in cooperation and committee) but from an old and little used Latin word for friendliness, the means of friendliness, friendly relations.
The word belongs to the technical nomenclature of Freemasonry, and is one of the subjects in Masonic jurisprudence. It is the name for that set of means by which Masonic local bodies and Masonic Grand Bodies work in friendly co-operation with each other, within and among the recognized Rites. Comity is in two major divisions:
Internal, by which Lodges cooperate with each other and with their Grand Lodge (or Chapters, Councils, etc.) within the same Grand Jurisdiction; External, the means by which Grand Lodges (Grand Chapters, Grand Councils, etc.) cooperate with other Grand Lodges, either at home or abroad.
I. INTERNAL COMITY
The means employed are in part departments or offices of Lodges and Grand Lodges, in part are voluntary activities initiated, encouraged, or sponsored by Lodges and Grand Lodges. Among these are : District Deputy systems; District Grand Lecturer Systems; Masonic periodicals; group or area assemblies of Lodges; "service committees" or departments for Masonic education, employment, and speakers bureaus, etc. The reception of visitors, the visiting of one Lodge by another, conferring of Degrees by courtesy, the right of demission (or dimission) are among the means of internal comity provided for in the Ancient Landmarks.
II. EXTERNAL COMITY
The complete system of External Comity is as yet in the making; thus far such methods as the following have been adopted .by each and every Grand Lodge or by a group of them: Official recognition of one Grand Lodge by another. The exchange of Grand Representatives. Foreign (or Fraternal) Correspondence Reports in Grand Lodge Proceedings. The visiting of a Grand Lodge by official representatives of another. Correspondence among Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries. Annual Conferences by Grand Masters, and by Grand Secretaries. Conferring of Courtesy Degrees. Demission or visiting from one Grand Jurisdiction to another. The Masonic Service Association, and similar voluntary service activities.
Periodicals of general circulation. Extra-Grand Jurisdictional services of Grand Lodge Libraries. Books, booklets, movies, etc., of one Grand Jurisdiction permitted for use in another. The sending of Masonic Committees and missions abroad. The exchange of Grand Lodge Proceedings. Etc., etc.
General agreement on some essentials of External Comity is still incomplete. Among these are: Specific conditions on which to grant official recognition to their Grand Bodies. Grand Lodge responsibility for constituting and fostering Lodges in foreign countries not already under any Grand Lodge. The true and correct Grand Lodge procedure in other countries in cases where general Masonic organization has broken down but where there are some (at least) regular Masons and Lodges. (As in Italy in the 1930's.)
The attempt to set up a single General, or National, Grand Lodge which began during the Revolutionary War and was not abandoned until after the Civil War was predicated upon the known need for ways and means to enable thousands of American Masonic Bodies and Grand Bodies to work in unity and harmony, lest the American Craft become intellectual by breaking down into self-contained, isolated, mutually exclusive local groups. That need was real but as events have proved a single American Grand Lodge could not have been the satisfaction of it; the body of means and methods which in purpose and practice comprise Comity are more extensive, more free, more adaptable, more satisfying, and more effectual than the means and methods of one Grand Lodge could have been. The system of Comity has given to American Freemasonry everything that a National Grand Lodge could have given to it; and it has given to it many things that a National Grand Lodge would have denied to it.
The Mother Grand Lodge of Speculative Freemasonry was set up in 1717 after it had been discussed by already-existing, self-constituted Lodges in London; though only four of them attended and elected the first Grand Master it is certain that others had consented and, as their actions proved, were ready to unite. In the beginning this Grand Lodge was for no purpose except to revive a general assembly, and to give the Lodges a center where they might occasionally meet. It was an act of comity. There was to be no new Freemasonry ; there was to be a means for the old Freemasonry to work more effectually.
There were many pre-1717 Lodges in England, Ireland, and Scotland; in Scotland alone there were more than 100 before 1700. When a new Lodge was formed (usually of seven or more) it was self-constituted by men who already were Masons, one from a Lodge in one place, another from a Lodge in another, and they thus had ties with other Lodges from the beginning. Each Lodge had a copy of the same old Charges that other Lodges possessed, or it had men in it who knew the essential portions by heart. A Lodge might assist a group to form a Lodge in a nearby community, help it during its formative period, and afterwards maintain close ties with it; these were daughter Lodges. Any Mason regularly made, possessed of the all-important modes of recognition, could visit in any Lodge. This was their comity, the means by which, before a Grand Lodge system was devised, separate and independent Lodges formed a single Fraternity.
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CONSERVATOR MOVEMENT THE
In 1860 M.·. W.·. Robert Morris established a secret society of Masons styled by him as The Conservator Movement, and its members were called Conservators. The purposes of this organization were stated by Morris with his characteristic prolixity in a secret circular which he mailed to Grand Masters, Grand Secretaries, Grand Lecturers, and other Grand Lodge leaders in the middle of 1860, and which he signed as "Chief Conservator." He set down ten objects:
To disseminate the Webb-Preston Work.
To "discountenance" innovations in the Ritual.
To establish national uniformity of "means of recognition," etc.
To establish "a School of Instruction in every Lodge.''
To train Masonic [Ritualistic] Lecturers.
To train Masons to pass examinations when visiting.
To strengthen "the ties that bind Masons generally together."
To detect and expose impostors. To hold conferences among Conservators themselves.
To "open the way for a more intimate communion between the Masons of Europe and America."
The recipient was asked to keep the circular ''strictly confidential" ;
To fill in answers to form questions ;
To sign on a dotted line; and to return the document to Morris in ten days. If a recipient expressed a desire to become a Conservator he received next "Communication No. 2," also "strictly confidential." It set forth "The Seven Details or Features of the Plan" which were expected to govern the work of each Conservator:
1. The scheme was to be a closely-guarded secret among the few men in each Lodge who were active Conservators.
2. Each Conservator was to keep in close touch with the Chief Conservator, and carry out the latter's order. "A journal, styled The Conservator" was to be sent to each member of the organization.
3. The "great aim" was "National Harmony in the Work and Lectures on Symbolical Masonry." All forms of "Bastard" Work were to be opposed.
4. The "Conservator's Degree'' was to be conferred on each Conservator, "devised for the express purpose.
5. A Vice Chief Conservator was to be present at each Grand Communication of each and every Grand Lodge.
6. "We adopt the mode of disseminating the Work and Lectures which was adopted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1728."
7. "We require a contribution of Ten Dollars in advance from each Conservator. During the years between 1860 and 1863 Morris issued his journal styled The Conservator some four or five times ; afterwards he addressed his followers through the pages of his magazine, The Voice of Masonry. The "society" was so loosely administered that Morris himself did not know how many were in it, but "guessed" that it may at one time have had 2,795 members. It transpired that the "mode of disseminating" as mentioned under "detail" number 6 was a printed cipher, a tiny book entitled Written Mnemonics Illustrated By Copious Examples From Moral Philosophy, Science, And Religion. The association was governed by Morris himself according to "eight regulations." The "era" of the association was to begin June 24, 1860, and last until June 24, 1865, at which latter date it would everywhere automatically cease to exist ; this period of 1826 days was described as the Conservator's Era, or C. E., and letters were to be dated according to it. A secret language, cabalistic signs, etc., were much used. Morris officially declared the termination of the "Society" in the first issue of The Voice of Masonry after June 24, 1860. For the members of his association Morris prepared the "Conservator of Symbolic Masonry" Degree. There could be only one Conservator in each Lodge, but he could confer this Degree on any Master Mason deemed suitable by himself.
The Conservator Movement has thus a secret society. It had national and local officers; its own constitution and rules; its own modes of recognition and a secret language; and though it has to work in a Lodge and on a Lodge; a Lodge had no say about it, and no control over it. It had in effect two general purposes: first, to establish a standard work uniform throughout the Grand Jurisdictions; second, to make the Webb-Preston Work that Standard version. Once they had discovered its existence and had become aware of its nature and purpose Grand Lodges began a determined campaign to abolish the Movement.
It was intolerable to have a secret society at work within the Fraternity itself; it was for a Grand Lodge, not for a voluntary society of outsiders, to determine what its own Standard Work was to be; a Lodge could not permit one of its own members to have more authority than its own Master; nor was Morris himself able to prove that he, and he alone, possessed the Webb-Preston Work in its original form.
In 1866 Morris stated, as already noted, that at its height his association numbered 2,795 members, but it is probable that at least a thousand of these were inactive, or else were prevented by Lodge and Grand Lodge opposition from accomplishing their purposes; moreover Civil War conditions hampered them. The whole movement was quickly aborted and soon passed out of the memory of the American Craft.
NOTE. The most complete set of Conservator literature and correspondence, including a number of private letters from Morris, is in the vaults of the Iowa Grand Lodge Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The most complete published account is The Masonic Conservators, by Ray V. Denslow; Grand Lodge of Missouri; St. Louis; 1931; cloth ; 132 pages. It contains a list of members Lodge by Lodge, and State by State.
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CONSOLIDATION OF LODGES
If in the same Masonic community two sister Lodges find that they are duplicating each other, or if one finds itself too weak to continue, either of two courses is followed in American practice. The weaker of the two Lodges can surrender its Charter, and its members can affiliate with the other Lodge. Or, the two Lodges can consolidate. A comparison of the forty-nine Codes of American Grand Jurisdictions shows that the Code of Iowa comes close to being perfectly typical of the rules governing consolidation as generally they are in use. The Iowa Code calls for a written ballot; for a majority decision; if the smaller of the two Lodges cannot assemble a quota the Grand Master and other members of Grand Lodge accompanying him can constitute one. (See Sections 188 and 190 of revised Masonic Code of Iowa.)
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CONSTANTINE, THE CROSS OF
The paragraph entitled Labarum on page 557 was based on Eusebius, the earliest of the chroniclers of the Christian Church, and the biographer of the Emperor Constantine. Since that paragraph was written a very large quantity of Greek (Koine) MSS. dating from the First to the Fifth Centuries have been recovered by archeologists, notably in the Fayum, once a prosperous Greek-speaking district in an irrigated tract on the Egyptian border. Since these were records written at the time their weight as evidence cannot be ignored.
These documents sustain Eusebius in general outline, but make the story of Constantine's use of the monogram much more complex. He did not originate it.
The legend of his vision rests on very insecure grounds, partly because though the Athanasians won control at the Council of Nicea, which Constantine had called, and had condemned the Arians as non-Christians, Constantine himself remained an Arian throughout his life until shortly before his death.
The original labarum was not so much a banner as a portrait on cloth, showing Constantines head surrounded by a halo, which was probably designed to be carried as a substitute for his own presence. The halo and the monogram together may have denoted that he was head of the whole Christian world. An old legend has it that his mother, Queen Helen, was an English woman, and that she had discovered the true cross. Long after the death of Constantine the Bishop of Rome produced a document in which the Emperor had willed his headship of the Christian world to Rome; the authenticity of this "Donation of Constantine" was upheld by Rome for centuries. It is proved to have been a forgery, written two hundred years after Constantine; Roman Catholic scholars themselves are agreed on this. For a succinct account see last edition of Encyclopedia Britannia. For full details see Medieval Italy, a brilliant work, by H. B. Cotterill; London; Geo. C. Harrap; 1915.
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CO-MASONRY
There is a distinction to be drawn between that which is claimed to be the same thing and that which only resembles something else.
Between identity and mere similarity there is a great difference. This fact is to be kept in mind when considering the past and present organizations allied in appearance or purpose with Freemasonry and those that are but imitating the Institution in greater or less degree. Of these we may instance the curious development known now as Co-Masonry. An extensive discussion of the subject has appeared in the French journal Symbolisms, beginning in 1920, written by Brother Albert Lantoine with the title La Femme dans la Franc-Maçonnerie, meaning Woman in Freemasonry. There is also an article in the Builder April, 1917, by Brother Arthur Edward Waite, dealing more exclusively but briefly with Co-Masonry. There has also been published in the United States the American Co-Mason, Larkspur, Colorado, as the Official organ of this system in America.
Some differences arose among members of the Supreme Council of France, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and sundry Bodies withdrew in 1879 to form the Symbolic Grand Lodge, Le Grande Loge Symbolique de France, the assumption being that the ceremonies conferred in this newly-organized Body were the three fundamental Degrees of the Craft and not the advanced grades of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Lodges and not Chapters being governed by the central authority. However, this is not so important as the action of an independent Lodge, Les Libres Penseurs, a name meaning the freethinkers, and quite expressive of the attitude of the members, well illustrated in the course of subsequent events. This Lodge met at Pecq, a small town north of Paris in the Department Seine et Oise. Mademoiselle (Miss) Maria Dcsraimes was on November 25, 1881, proposed at the Lodge Les Libres Penseurs for membership. She was a well-known French writer upon woman's suffrage and other sociological questions. Proposed by the Master, Hubron, and half a dozen other members, she was initiated on January 14, 1882, in a large gathering of the Brethren of this organization, the Symbolic Grand Lodge. Presumably the candidate was passed and raised. Of this Lodge we learn that it soon went out of existence and Lantoine (Symbolism, February, 1921, page 54) records that on November 17, 1882, the Master was expelled from Freemasonry. He tells us that at her initiation, Maria Desraimes, in an address of gratitude after the ceremony, pronounced these words:
If the feeble support that I may be able to render you cannot be effective, that fact in itself is small and of little import, but it well has another importance. The door that you have opened to me will not be closed upon me and all the legion that follows me.
The prophecy did not materialize for that Lodge at least. However, the Worshipful Master of the Lodge at Pecq in order to hold his Brethren in hand had not only threatened he would dimit if the admission of the woman was not voted but had also announced that four or five other Lodges, one of which was the Lodge La Justice, would follow the example they set for the Fraternity. But the anticipations were not soon to be realized. Disturbances had arisen in the Lodge. A profession of faith had been uttered there "that no profane should enter the Lodge if he was not imbued with the principles of forethought, utter atheism," double d'athéisme is the expression. On June 15, 1882, a majority of the Brethren forming this Lodge demanded a restoration of their old discipline.
They exhibited a sentiment of submission and the authorities, June 15, 1883, were assured that "a Lodge is not possessed of self-control to the extent that it steps aside from the General Laws of the constitution." Lantoine explains that this is to say that they had stricken from their program the proposed admission of women and in their list of regular members the name of Maria Desraimes does not figure:
In 1890 the Lodge La Jerusalem Ecossaise of the Symbolic Grand Lodge already mentioned, at the instigation of Dr. Georges Martin who was a member of this Lodge, addressed to all the other Lodges of France a circular letter inviting them to study the question of the admission of women through the creation of mixed or joint Lodges of both the sexes. The Lodges so approached do not appear to have well understood the purpose. Then the Lodge La Jerusalem Ecossaise decided to pass on to action. Its order of the day, the program or agenda for the Communication of May 8, 1891, bore among the items a "Project of Constituting Mixed Lodges." The proposition was handled with more restraint than at Pecq.
The Lodge La Jerusalem Ecossaise would not itself initiate women but she would create at her side a mixed or joint, both sexes, Lodge called Le Droit Humain, Human Right, of which the by-laws had already been discussed and determined.
This latter organization under cover of adoption, somewhat modernized, was, Lantoine affirms, a means of attaining the desired end. But the Symbolic Grand Lodge did not fail to take heed of these tactics. The Commission denotative, a species of Board of General Purposes of which the prominent Brother Gustave Mesureur was Chairman, assigned the duty of examining the proposition as regularly submitted and disposed of the matter in dispute by an altogether unfavorable report which occasioned a rather stormy debate. Here are sundry extracts from the official report:
Brother Le Metayer evidenced the regret " that the Brother Georges Martin as a Mason and as a Past Master of a Lodge violated the Constitution in a style so vigorous.'' Brother Friquet "did not understand how the Brother Georges Martin and the brethren who collaborated with him in the founding of a mixed Lodge had the pretension to pass outside the opinion plainly established by the great majority of Lodges and of Masons. In all assemblages, the advice of the majority ought to prevail and be respected ; the promoters of the foundation of a mixed Lodge when they wished to give coherency to a project like that, should forthwith quit the confederation which does not propose to enter that road.
What could be said to Brother Georges Martin was that the new mixed Lodge would not be a regular Lodge and that no one has the right to make known the Masonic words and signs to any associations whatever; that would violate the Constitution; that would be the worst yet, for nobody has the right to take that which does not belong to him." Dr. Georges Martin, observes Lantoine, took some exception to the revolutionary idea inspired by the foundation of the organization and to explain and excuse his undertaking said, "that he had never taken an obligation which prevented him from the creation of a Rite different from those already existing," but the hostile arguments followed fast upon the lips of his opponents. Brother Rosenwald remarked that each Freemason at the moment of his initiation took a pledge that he would not reveal any of the Masonic secrets that are confided to him unless to a good and lawful Freemason or in a regularly constituted Lodge, and that a Brother had not the right to make any use of his Masonic equipment for creation of another Rite or of a mixed Lodge. Brother Friquet, member of the Executive Commission, took anew the opportunity for a word of warning. He besought the Brother Georges Martin to consider the consequences of his determination. The Symbolic Grand Lodge would be obliged to give heed to his actions. They would be forced, in order to safeguard their relations with other Masonic Powers, and to exact obedience to the Constitution freely voted, to take necessary measures.
Making an appeal to his Masonic sentiment, and to his well-known devotion, he prayed the Brother, Georges Martin, to have the wisdom of giving up his plan.
Here Brother Georges Martin seemed touched by this avowal. But the sentiment evaporated and three votes, of which his was one, refused to adopt the decision rejecting his project. The result was officially made known in the report of the proceedings of May 11, 1891, to the effect, "The Brother Georges Martin replied that the discussion came too late and the plans were made; he added that there was only one means of hindering that creation and that was to go before the public powers for the purpose of having them refuse the authorization that was going to be asked." Seemingly they did not intervene before the public authorities and the project was apparently abandoned, at least in the form that had been the purpose to realize it.
They returned in a fresh way. Brothers Goumain-Corneille, Andrien, Schafer and Georges Martin deposited at the office of the Grand Lodge a proposition planned to admit women into Freemasonry. This plan came as an order of the day, a programmed item, on the agenda of July 6, 1891, but as none of the proposers were there to defend it, the project was unanimously rejected.
Was the Symbolic Grand Lodge opposed to feminine initiation? Did she evidence any retrograde spirit? Yes and no. As we have said above, she was tied by international relations to a conformity with the Landmarks. She had existed for a dozen years.
She was treated as an equal with rival Obediences, even with the Supreme Council which finally had recognized her, says Lantoine, and it displeased her to compromise her situation by an experience, however interesting, but which might by a single stroke set her aside from the Freemasonry of the world. The gesture that she had been able to make at her birth, in adopting a program clearly new, might be more difficult for accomplishment, when, as something altogether revolutionary came along, she struggled to show herself worthy of the consideration that was accorded other Powers. For that reason from year to year, far from permitting conviction by the perseverance of Doctor Martin, she opposed him to the end. When the mixed Lodge at last was created without the guardianship of a masculine Lodge, and announced officially its existence in January, 1894, under the title of "Le Droit Humain-Grand Lodge Symbolique Ecossaise," not only did she refuse to enter into relations with it but she was abusive under a plea that might lead to confusion. She sent to all the affiliations the following communication under date of March 21, 1894:
We have been informed by a letter from Madame Maria Desraimes notifying us of the foundation of an Obedience entitled Grande Lodge Symbolique écossaise de France: Le Droit Humain and requesting of us an exchange of fraternal relations.
The Symbolic Grand Lodge, faithful to its previous Pledges, which have always refused the admission of women in Freemasonry, has refused to take that request into consideration. We have ascertained with surprise that this new Association has borrowed, without our consent or our counsel, the same title as our Confederation and of a certain number of the articles of our Constitution ; this proceeding compels us to inform you that in spite of this similarity we have not taken any part in the creation of that Society and we mean to remain strangers to its operation. The following month the Lodge La Jerusalem Ecossaise carried on its agenda the notice of a discussion on Secret Societies by the Brother Mayer, "active member of the mixed Lodge Le Droit Humain," and the Grand Lodge, not satisfied with calling the attention of the Lodge to the observation of the rules, voted also the preparation of a circular letter calling upon the Lodges "not to admit to their solemn sessions the members, men or women, of the mixed Lodge Le Droit Humain."
Needless to say that the supreme council did not accept with any more favor the birth of the mixed Lodge. The Lodges were told "that they ought to deem as nothing the communication addressed to it by the new group and to avoid all relations with it."
One may remark, says Lantoine, that the request for recognition had been made by Maria Desraimes.
Brethren felt that Georges Martin was the true founder of the Lodge La Droit Humain and he doubtless it was that the Brother Dequinsieux had in view when, at the session of June 12, 1894, of the Symbolic Grand Lodge, he demanded, "that the Symbolic Grand Lodge proceed to an investigation to ascertain who is the Brother who has given the Masonic signs and words to women, and that Brother be put on trial."
But the defensive argument was given by a Deputy, Brother Serin, who explained by a report, probably by the Secretary of the session. "It is the Sister Maria Desraimes who had received the three symbolic degrees at the Lodge, The Freethinkers, at the East of Pecq, Seine and Oise, having grouped around her a selection of women and conferred upon them the symbolic degrees, as was incontestably her right, and in due course founded the mixed Lodge Le Droit Humain with the cooperation of a Brother"
This explanation was perhaps satisfactory to the hearers but far from acceptable to most Freemasons elsewhere. Perhaps the strain of these discussions was too severe for the continued existence of the Symbolic Grand Lodge itself, which expired, that is to say since 1896, when agreeably to a sovereignty granted by the Supreme Council to the Symbolic Lodges, these were fused with the others into the Grand Lodge of France.
After the initiating, passing and raising, on March 14, April 1 and April 4, 1893, according to Brother Waite, of some seventeen candidates, in which ceremonies Miaria Desraimes and Georges Martin seem to have participated, in the year 1900 the Lodge claimed to possess and have the right to confer the whole Thirty-Three Degrees, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite series united with those previously assumed. The title of Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise continued in use and the movement then spread from France to India, Great Britain and the United States. About 1902 the name Maçonnerie Mixte, or Joint Masonry, seems to have given way to Co-Masonry. There were Lodges at Benares, Paris and London by 1903. The name of the first English Lodge was Human Duty. In 1908 there was a division, one party being headed by Mrs. Annie Besant, prominent in public life in Great Britain and India.
The reader will have noticed in this survey of the situation that the initiating ceremonies practiced by these bodies were not claimed to be other than those pertaining to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and which are not authorized by this organization to be used in the United States of America nor in Great Britain. whatever the ritual may have been originally, when used for the initiation of Maria Desraimes, there have been intimations that it has been materially changed, though to what extent these alterations have gone is impossible for us to determine with accuracy.
Brother George Fleming Moore printed articles entitled Notes from India and Co-Masonry in the October, 1910, and February, 1911, issues of the New Age, of which he then was the editor. These essays examined various assertions that have been circulated, one being that made in the columns of the Cherag, of July, 1910, this being a journal published at Bombay, India, in the interests of a society calling itself Masonic and using the name Universal Masonry. This magazine published a claim that Madame H. P. Blavatsky was a Thirty-third Degree Mason. In proof of this statement reference is made to the Franklin Register of February 8, 1878, for a copy of her Diploma which is reprinted as follows:
To the Glory of the Sublime Architect of the Universe.
Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, Derived through the Charter of the Sovereign Sanctuary of America, From the Grand Council of the Grand Lodge of France.
Salutation on all points of the triangle. Respect to the Order. Peace, Tolerance, Truth.
To all illustrious and enlightened Masons throughout the World-Union, Prosperity, Friendship. Fraternity.
We, the Thrice-Illustrious Sovereign Grand Master General, and we, the Sovereign Grand Conservators, thirty-third and last degree of the Sovereign Sanctuary of England, Wales, etc., decorated the Grand Star of Sirius, etc., Grand Commanders of the Three Legions of the Knights of Masonry, by virtue of the high authority with which we are invested, have declared and proclaimed and by these presents do declare and proclaim our illustrious and enlightened Brother, H. P. Blavatsky, to be an Apprentice, Companion, Perfect Mistress, Sublime Elect Scotch Lady, Grand Elect, Chevaliere de Rose Croix, Adoniramite Mistress. Perfect Venerable Mistress, and a crowned Princess of Rite of Adoption.
Given under our hands and the seals of the Sovereign Sanctuary for England and Wales, sitting in the Valley of London, this 24th day of November, 1877, year of true Light 000,000,000.
John Yarker, 33 Sovereign Grand Master.
M. Caspari. 33 Grand Secretary.
A. D. Loewenstark, 33 Grand Secretary.
Brother Moore comments on the above document thus :
A paper signed by John Yarker, M. Caspari, and A. D.Loewenstark, which shows on its very face that it is merely a certificate of membership in the Rite of Adoption. The very names of the Degrees given in this diploma show that it was and is not a Masonic document. and that the men who gave it had no intention of creating any such false impression by it. If Brother Wadia had known anything of Masonry he would have seen and known that the Rite of Adoption was made for women and is only an adjunct to regular Masonry and not in any sense a part of it. The degrees which Madame Blavatsky received according to this paper were those of Apprentice Companion, Perfect Mistress, Sublime Elect Scotch Lady, etc., etc., of the Rite of Adoption. To put forward such a document as evidence that a woman is a Mason is the various trifling and seems to us unworthy of serious comment. Thousands of women have been members of the Rite of Adoption and have not claimed to be Masons, because .they knew better, and it has been reserved for a man to put forward such an utterly absurd claim for a woman who is dead and whose good friends say that she never claimed to be a Mason.
When we say the good friends of Madame Blavatsky assert that she never claimed to be a Mason we refer to members of the Theosophical Society.
Shortly after the issuance of our article, Notes from India, we received a letter from Brother J. H. Fussell, of Point Loma, California, taking us to task for intimating that Madame Blavatsky ever claimed to be a Mason and urging us in the strongest terms to correct what he deemed an error and one that is unfair to the memory of H. P. Blavatsky.
In view of what is here said about Theosophy, it is but fair to add a frank statement bearing the imprint of the Aryan Theosophical Press at Point Loma and credited to Madame Katherine Tingley of the International Headquarters there. She states :
Let me first state what is my attitude toward Masonry.
Many of the happiest recollections of my childhood are associated with my dear grandfather, who was one of the best-known Masons in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and received some of the highest Masonic honors in these States.
It was from him that I received my earliest education. It was from his Masonic books that I learned to read and spell and draw, and from his noble and sweet character I came to regard Masonry as associated with the best in life. ln fact, I came to think that all the best men in the world must be Masons.
Now it does not necessarily follow that this last statement is true, for some of the noblest men 1 have met have not been Masons ; still, on the other hand many of the best men I have known have belonged to the Masonic Order, and I have seen nothing but the best results flow from a deep interest in Masonry wherever I have known of it, and from my knowledge and acquaintance of Masons I regard Masonry and the principles which underlie it as a great force for good in the world.
I cannot understand how any true woman would wish to intrude into an Order held to be exclusively for men.
There are lines of work which I hold are exclusively in the province of men, just as there are lines of work which are exclusively in the province of women. I hold that woman can only wield her full share of influence in the world from a knowledge gained by using and fulfilling her opportunities as a woman, and in her own sphere. I consider that she steps away from her true position and greatly lessens her influence by seeking to invade the sphere of man.
Why should women be disturbed that men have an organization which is exclusively for men? As I understand Masonry it seems to inculcate all the virtues, honor, rectitude, chastity, etc., for this much has often been publicly stated by Masons ; and speaking generally, I have no hesitation in saying that from my experience, the majority of them, to a degree, at least, try to exemplify these virtues in their lives. There may be some who fall far short of the Masonic ideals--in our present disturbed civilization it can hardly be expected otherwise--but that cannot be laid at the door of Masonry, but of human frailty, and as a result of men's failing to grasp their higher opportunities in life.
Many a woman has known of the uplifting and refining power, tending toward self-restraint and nobility and virtue, which Masonry has exercised in the life of brother, husband, or son; and without in any way encroaching on Masonry or seeking to pry into its secrets, every true woman, in the light of the knowledge that is publicly given out by Masons themselves of Masonic principles, can, if she will, help brother, husband, son, or friend, to be true to these principles and be a true Mason. What is needed today by both men and women is a greater respect, first for themselves, in their true natures as man and woman, and following that a greater respect each for the other--of women for men and of men for women.
Such respect implies no invasion of one another's sphere, but the very contrary, and in fact can only suffer terribly from such invasion. There is a common ground on which men and women can meet, which is pre-eminently in the home.
lt is also in the world of art, music, literature, education, and all the highest ideals of social, civic, and national life.
l have had many letters from all classes, asking questions as to my attitude in this matter, seeing that the name Theosophy has most unfortunately and without any warrant become associated with Co-Masonry.
Such association is absolutely unwarranted, and I hold that no true Theosophist will give his adherence or support to Co-Masonry. The fact that any person or body of persons should attempt to attach themselves to an organization from which, by the rules of that organization, they are excluded, would make me seriously question their motives, and one would probably find such people to be either fanatics or extremely credulous, or --------! Whatever knowledge such people may think they have in the matter, it must indeed be very limited, or rather no knowledge at all, for otherwise they would see the absurdity of trying to attach themselves to an organization in which, in the very nature of things, they would be cut of place. If it were possible to conceive of the secrets of Masonry being given to a woman, from my understanding of the matter it could be only through some one unfaithful to his vows as a Mason, and no true or self-respecting woman would think of availing herself of such information; nor could it, by the nature of things be held to be reliable, for he who is unfaithful in one thing will be unfaithful in others, and I prophesy that this attempt of certain women to seek admission where they do not belong can result only in confusion, disaster, and serious embarrassment for all such women.
Let me say one other word. We know there is true coin and counterfeit, and I am inclined to think that this Co-Masonry is a counterfeit, and that it is not based on true Masonry. Whatever the basis on which it is founded, it is my opinion that most probably it has grown out of some pseudo-Masonic body. Theosophy has its counterfeits, and all truth has, and this I know from my own personal experience. And just as there are certain small coteries which use the name Theosophy and seek to impress the public as being a part of the Theosophical Movement founded by Madame H. P. Blavatsky, and against which all true Theosophists protest, so, too, I hold that the attempt to use the word Masonry by one not entitled to its use, in the manner in which it is so used, should also call forth protest. Every Theosophist will protest against the attempt to relate Co-Masonry with Theosophy, and as all true Masons repudiate Co-Masonry, so will all members of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosopllical Society, the faithful followers of H. P. Blavatsky repudiate the so-called Theosophy with which the alleged Co-Masonry is claimed to be associated.
The subject in general of Woman in Freemasonry is examined freely in this work (see Woman).
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COMBINATION OF FREEMASONS
The combination of the Freemasons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to demand a higher rate of wages, which eventually gave rise to the enactment of the Statutes of Laborers, is thus described by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (January, 1740, page 17): "King Edward III took so great an affection to Windsor, the place of his birth, that he instituted the Order of the Garter there, and rebuilt and enlarged the castle, with the church and chapel of Saint George. This was a great work and required a great many hands ; and for the carrying of it on writs were directed to the sheriffs of several counties to send thither, under the penalty of £ 100 each, such a number of Masons by a day appointed. London sent forty, so did Devon, Somerset, and several other counties; but several dying of the plague, and others deserting the service, new writs were issued to send up supplies. Yorkshire sent sixty, and other counties proportionably, and orders were given that no one should entertain any of these runaway Masons, under pain of forfeiture of all their goods. Hereupon, the Masons entered into a combination not to work, unless at higher wages. They agreed upon tokens, etc., to know one another by, and to assist one another against being impressed, and not to work unless free and on their own terms. Hence they called themselves Freemasons; and this combination continued during the carrying on of these buildings for several years. The wars between the two Houses coming on in the next reign, the discontented herded together in the same manner, and the gentry also underhand supporting the malcontents, occasioned several Acts of Parliament against the combination of Masons and other persons under that denomination the titles of which Acts are still to be seen in the printed statutes of those reigns.''
Ashmole, in his History of the Order of the Garter (page 80), confirms the fact of the impressment of workmen by King Edward ; and the combination that followed seems but a natural consequence of this oppressive act; but the assertion that the origin of Freemasonry as an organized institutions of builders is to be traced to such a combination, is not supported by the facts of history, and, indeed, the writer himself admits that the Freemasons denied its truth.
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COMMANDER
l. The presiding officer in a Commandery of Knights Templar. His style is Eminent, and the jewel of his office is a cross, from which issue rays of light. In England and Canada he is now styled Preceptor.
2. The Superintendent of a Commandery, as a house or residence of the Ancient Knights of Malta, was so called.
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COMMANDER, GRAND
See Grand Commander
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COMMANDER- IN- CHIEF
The presiding officer in a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. His style is Illustrious. In a Grand Consistory the presiding officer is a Grand Commander-in-Chief, and he is styled Very Illustrious.
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COMMANDER INSPECTOR
Seventh and last grade of the Philosophic Rite. Thory says this was arranged by the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree to make up Degree Thirty-one though previously used, the Metropolitan Chapter possessing one of the same name, No. 71, eighth series.
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COMMANDERY
l. In the United States all regular assemblies of Knights Templar are called Commanderies, and must consist of the following officers: Eminent Commander, Generalissimo, Captain-General, Prelate, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Treasurer, Recorder, Warder, Standard-Bearer, Sword Bearer, and Sentinel. These Commanderies derive their warrants of Constitution from a Grand Commandery, or, if there is no such body in the State in which they are organized, from the Grand Encampment of the United States. They confer the Degrees of Companion of the Red Cross, Knight of Malta, and Knight Templar.
Under the present law of the Grand Encampment, Knight Templar of the United States, the Order of the Red Cross is conferred in the Council Chamber, the Order of Malta in a Priory and the Order of the Temple in the Asylum of the Commandery.
In a Commandery of Knights Templar, as familiar to Doctor Mackey, the throne is situated in the East.
Above it are suspended three banners : the center one bearing a cross, surmounted by a glory; the left one having inscribed on it the emblems of the Order, and the right one, a paschal lamb. The Eminent Commander is seated on the throne; the Generalissimo, Prelate, and Past Commanders on his right; the Captain-General on his left; the Treasurer and Recorder, as in a Symbolic Lodge; the Senior Warden at the southwest angle of the triangle, and upon the right of the first division; the Junior Warden at the northwest angle of the triangle, and on the left of the third division; the Standard-Bearer in the West, between the Sword-Bearer on his right, and the Warder on his left ; and in front of him is a stall for the initiate. The Knights are arranged in equal numbers on each side, and in front of the throne. In England and Canada a body of Knights Templar is called a Preceptory.
2. The houses or residences of the Knights of Malta were called Commanderies, and the aggregation of them in a nation was called a Priory or Grand Priory.
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COMMANDERY, GRAND
When three or more Commanderies are instituted in a State, they may unite and form a Grand Commandery. under the regulations prescribed by the Grand Encampment of the United States. They have the superintendence of all Commanderies of Knight's Templar that are holden in their respective Jurisdictions.
A Grand Commandery meets at least annually, and its officers consist of a Grand Commander, Deputy Grand Commander, Grand Generalissimo, Grand Captain-General, Grand Prelate, Grand Senior and Junior Warden, Grand Treasurer, Grand Recorder, Grand Warder, Grand Standard-Bearer, and Grand Sword-Bearer.
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COMMITTEE
To facilitate the transaction of business, a Lodge or Grand Lodge often refers a subject to a particular committee for investigation and report. By the usages of Freemasonry, committees of this character are always appointed by the presiding officer; and the Master of a Lodge, when present at the meeting of a committee, may act, if he thinks proper, as its chairman; for the Master presides over any assemblage of the Craft in his Jurisdiction.
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COMMITTEE GENERAL
By the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, all matters of business to be brought under the consideration of the Grand Lodge must previously be presented to a General Committee, consisting of the President of the Board of Benevolence, the Present and Past Grand Officers, and the Master of every regular Lodge, who meet on the fourteenth day immediately preceding each quarterly communication.
No such regulation prevails among the Grand Lodge of America.
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COMMITTEE OF CHARITY
In most Lodges there is a standing Committee of Charity, appointed at the beginning of the year, to which, in general, applications for relief are referred by the Lodge. In cases where the Lodge does not itself take immediate action, the committee is also invested with the power to grant relief to a limited amount during the recess of the Lodge.
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COMMITTEE OF FINANCE
In many Lodges the Master, Wardens, Treasurer, and Secretary constitute a Committee of Finance, to which is referred the general supervision of the finances of the Lodge.
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
In none of the Grand Lodges of this century up to early in the eighteenth century, wall such a committee as that on foreign correspondence ever appointed. A few of them had corresponding secretaries, to whom were entrusted the duty of attending to the correspondence of the Body; a duty which was very generally neglected. A report on the proceedings of other Bodies was altogether unknown.
Grand Lodges met and transacted the local business of their own Jurisdictions without any reference to what was passing abroad.
But improvements in this respect began to show themselves. Intelligent Freemasons saw that it would no longer do to isolate themselves from the Fraternity in other countries, and that, if any moral or intellectual advancement was to be expected, it must be derived from the intercommunication and collision of ideas ; and the first step toward this advancement was the appointment in every Grand Lodge of a committee whose duty it should be to collate the proceedings of other Jurisdictions, and to eliminate from them the most important items. These committees were, however, very slow in assuming the functions which devolved upon them, and in coming up to the full measure of their duties.
At first their reports were little more than "reports of progress." No light was derived from their collation, and the Bodies which had appointed them were no wiser after their reports had been read than they were before.
As a specimen of the first condition and subsequent improvement of these committees on foreign correspondence, let us take at random the transactions of any Grand Lodge old enough to have a history and intelligent enough to have made any progress; and, for this purpose, the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, two volumes of which lie conveniently at hand, will do as well Many other.
The Grand Lodge of Ohio was organized in January, 1808. From that time to 1829, its proceedings contain no reference to a committee on correspondence; and except a single allusion to the Washington Convention, made in the report of a special committee, the Freemasons of Ohio seem to have had no cognizance, or at least to have shown no recognition, of any Freemasonry which might be outside of their own Jurisdiction.
But in the year 1830, for the first time, a committee was appointed to report on the foreign correspondence of The Grand Lodge. This committee bore the title of the Committee on Communications from Foreign Grand Lodges, etc., and made during the session a report of eight lines in length, which contained just the amount of information that could be condensed in that brief space, and no more.
In 1831, the report was fifteen lines long ; in 1832, ten lines; in 1833, twelve lines; and so on for several years, The reports being sometimes a little longer and sometimes a little shorter; but the length being always measured by lines, and not by pages, until, in 1837, there was a marked falling off the report consisting only of one line and a half. Of this report, which certainly cannot be accused of verbosity, the following is an exact copy: "Nothing has been presented for the consideration of your committee requiring the action of the Grand Lodge. "
In 1842 the labors of the committee began to increase, and their report fills a page of the proceedings.
Things now rapidly improved. In 1843, the report was three pages long ; in 1845, four pages; in 1846, seven, in 1848, nearly thirteen; and 1853, fourteen.; in 1856, thirty; and in 1857, forty-six. Thenceforward there is no more fault to be found.
The reports of the future committees were of full growth, and we do not again find such an unmeaning phrase as ''nothing requiring the action of the Grand Lodge."
The history of these reports in other Grand Lodges is the same as that in Ohio.
Beginning with a few lines which announced the absence of all matters worthy of consideration, they have grown up to the full stature of elaborate essays in which the most important and interesting subjects of Masonic history, philosophy, and jurisprudence are discussed, generally with much ability.
At this day the reports of the committees on foreign correspondence in all the Grand Lodges of this country constitute an important portion of the literature of the Institution. The chairmen of these committees for the other members fill, for the most part, only the post of "sleeping partners"-are generally men of education and talent, who, by the very occupation in which they are employed, of reading the published proceedings of all the Grand Lodges in correspondence with their own, have become thoroughly conversant with the contemporary history of the Order, while a great many of them have extended their studies in its previous history. The Reportorial Corps, as these hard-laboring Brethren are beginning to call themselves, exercise, of course, a not trifling influence in the Order. These committees annually submit to their respective Grand Lodges a mass of interesting information, which is read with great avidity by their Brethren. Gradually -for at first it was not their custom-they have added to the bare narration of facts their comments on Masonic law and their criticisms on the decisions made in other Jurisdictions. These comments and criticisms have very naturally their weight, sometimes beyond their actual worth; and it will therefore be proper to take a glance at what ought to be the character of a report on foreign correspondence.
In the first place, then, a reporter of foreign correspondence should be, in the most literal sense of Shakespeare's words, a brief chronicler of the times. His report should contain a succinct account of everything of importance that is passing in the Masonic world, so far as his materials supply him with the information.
But, remembering that he is writing for the instruction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, many of whom cannot spare much time, and many others who have no inclination to spare it, he should eschew the sin of tediousness, never forgetting that ''brevity is the soul of wit." He should omit all details that have no special interest; should husband his space for important items, and be exceedingly parsimonious in the use of unnecessary expletives, whose only use is to add to the length of a line. In a word, he should remember that he is not an orator but a historian. A rigid adherence to these principles would save the expense of many printed pages to his Grand Lodge, and the waste of much time to his readers.
These reports will form the germ of future Masonic history. The collected mass will be an immense one, and it should not be unnecessarily enlarged by the admiration of trivial items. In the next place, although we admit that these "Brethren of the reportorial corps" have peculiar advantages in reading the opinions of their contemporaries on subjects of Masonic jurisprudence, they would be mistaken in supposing that these advantages must necessarily make them Masonic lawyers. Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius, meaning in Latin, a Mercury (the Roman god of commerce) is not to be made out of any chance piece of wood. It is not every man that will make a lawyer. A peculiar turn of mind and a habit of close reasoning, as well as a thorough acquaintance with the law itself, are required to fit one for the investigation of questions of jurisprudence.
Reporters, therefore, should assume the task of adjudicating points of law with much diffidence. They should not pretend to make a decision ex cathedra (officially or with authority, from the Latin, meaning literally from the bishop's throne or the professor's chair), but only to express an opinion ; and that opinion they should attempt to sustain by arguments that may convince their readers.
Dogmatism is entirely out of place in a Masonic report on foreign correspondence. But if tediousness and dogmatism are displeasing, how much more offensive must be rudeness and personality. Courtesy is a Masonic as well as a knightly virtue, and the reporter who takes advantage of his official position to speak rudely of his Brethren, or makes his report the vehicle of scurrility and abuse most strangely forgets the duty and respect which he owes to the Grand Lodge which be represents and the Fraternity to which be addresses himself.
And, lastly, a few words as to style. These reports we have already said, constitute an important feature of Masonic literature. It should be, then, the object and aim of everyone to give to them a tone and character which shall reflect honor on the society whence they emanate, and enhance the reputation of their authors. The style cannot always be scholarly, but it should always be chaste ; it may sometimes want eloquence, but it should never be marked by vulgarity. Coarseness of language and slang phrases are manifestly out of place in a paper which treats of subjects such as naturally belong to a Masonic document.
Wit and humor we would not, of course, exclude. The Horatian maxim bids us sometimes to unbend and old Menander thought it would not do always to appear wise. Even the solemn Johnson could sometimes perpetrate a joke, and Sidney Smith has enlivened his lectures on moral philosophy with numerous witticisms.
There are those who delight in the stateliness of Coleridge; but for ourselves we do not object to the levity of Lamb, though we would not care to descend to the vulgarity of Rabelais. To sum up the whole matter in a few words these reports on foreign correspondence should be succinct, and, if you please, elaborate chronicles of all passing events in the Masonic world; they should express the opinions of their authors on points of Masonic law, not as judicial dicta (Latin, verdicts), but simply as opinions, not to be dogmatically enforced, but to be sustained and supported by the best arguments that the writers can produce; they should not be made the vehicles of personal abuse or vituperation; and, lastly, they should be clothed in language worthy of the literature of the Order:
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COMMITTEE, PRIVATE
The well-known regulation which forbids private committees in the Lodge, that is, select conversations between two or more members, in which the other members are not permitted to join, is derived from the Old Charges: "You are not to hold private committees or separate conversation, without leave from the Master nor to talk of anything impertinent or unseemly, nor to interrupt the Master or Wardens, or any brother speaking to the Master" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 53).
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COMMITTEE, REPORT OF
See Report of a committee
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COMMON GAVEL
See Gavel
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COMMON JUDGE
Found in some early meetings .Freemasonry and probably meant for common
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COMMUNICATION
The meeting of a Lodge is so called. There is a peculiar significance in this term. To communicate, which, in the Old English form, was to common, originally meant to share in common with others. The great sacrament of the Christian Church, which denotes a participation in the mysteries of the religion and a fellowship in the church, is called a communion, which is fundamentally the same as a communication, for be who partakes of the communion is said to communicate. Hence the meetings of Masonic Lodges are called communications, to signify that it is not simply the ordinary meeting of a society for the transaction of business, but that such meeting is the fellowship of men engaged in a common pursuit, and governed by a common principle, and that there is therein a communication or participation of those feelings and sentiments that constitute a true brotherhood.
The communications of Lodges are regular or stated and special or emergent. Regular communications are held under the provision of the by-laws, but special communications are called by order of the Master. It is a regulation that no special communication can alter, amend, or rescind the proceedings of a regular communication.
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COMMUNICATION, GRAND
The meeting of a Grand Lodge
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COMMUNICATION OF DEGREES
When the peculiar mysteries of a Degree are bestowed upon a candidate by mere verbal description of the bestower, without his being made to pass through the constituted ceremonies, the Degree is technically said to be communicated. This mode is, however, entirely confined in America to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Degrees may in that Rite be thus conferred in any place where secrecy is secured; but the prerogative of communicating is restricted to the presiding officers of Bodies of the Rite, who may communicate certain of the Degrees upon candidates who have been previously duly elected, and to Inspectors and Deputy Inspectors-General of the Thirty-third Degree, who may communicate all the Degrees of the Rite, except the last, to any persons whom they may deem qualified to receive them.
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COMMUNICATION, QUARTERLY
Anciently Grand Lodges, which were then called General Assemblies of the Craft, were held annually. But it is said that the Grand Master Inigo Jones instituted quarterly communications at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which were continued by his successors, the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Christopher Wren, until the infirmities of the latter compelled him to neglect them (see Constitutions, 1738, page 99). On the revival in 1717, prevision was made for the resumption ; and in the twelfth of the thirty-nine Regulations of 1721 it was declared that the Grand Lodge must have a quarterly communication about Michaelmas, Christmas and Lady-Day (see Constitutions, 1723, page 61). These quarterly communications are still retained by the Grand Lodge of England, and in America by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, but all other American Grand Lodges have adopted the old system of annual communications.
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COMMUNION OF THE BRETHREN
See Bread, Consecrated
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COMO
Capital of the Province of Como in Northern Italy, situated at South end of West branch of Lake of Como, about thirty miles from Milan, and today is an industrial city. Its interest to Freemasons is on account of it being the center from which radiated the Comacine Masters, who descended from the Roman Colleges of Artificers and who built for the Lombards and others during their reign and carried their Art and influence into the Cathedral building of the Renaissance (see Comacinc Masters).
The archeologists have determined The form of the older city of Roman times to have been rectangular,
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COMACINE EMBLEMS OF NINTH CENTURY CARVED IN CHURCH OF SAINT ABBONDIO AT MILAN, ITALY
enclosed by walls. Towers were constructed on walls in the twelfth century. Portions of the walls are now to be seen in the garden of Liceo Volta. Baths common in all Roman cities have been discovered. Fortifications erected previous to 1117 were largely cunstructed with Roman inscribed sepulchral urns and other remains, in which most all Roman cities were unusually rich.
It is usual to record that Como was the birthplace of the elder and younger Pliny. The younger Pliny had a villa here called Comedia and was much interested in building the city having founded baths, a library, and aided in charity for the support of orphan children. Of the many letters of the younger Pliny that remain, one is to his builder, Mustio, a Comacine architect, commissioning him to restore the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, in which, after explaining the form of design he wished it to take, he concludes : ''. . . at least, unless you think of something better, you, whose Art can always overcome difficulties of position. " There was an early church of Saints Peter and Paul in the fifth century that stood outside of The town, and the site is now occupied by the Romanesque church of Saint Abbondio, founded 1013, and consecrated 1095.
There are found many interesting intrench remains of early carvings of the Comacine or Solomon's Knot (see the illustration of parapet).
On a site of an earlier church stands the present Cathedral of Como, which is built entirely of marble.
It was begun in 1396 A.D., but was altered in the period from 1487-1526 A.D., into Renaissance. Authors disagree as to whether the church was restored or rebuilt. The façade, 1457-86 A.D., follows in its lines the old Lombard form, but the dividing pilasters are lavishly enriched, being perpendicular niches with a statue in each.
Scott says that ''During the years from 1468 to 1492 the books of the Lodge, preserved in the archives, abound in names of Magistri from the neighborhood of Como, both architects and sculptors, and among them was Tommaso Rodari, who entered the Lodge in 1490, with a letter of recommendation from the Duke, advising that he be specially trained in the Art of Sculpture. He and four others were sent to Rome to remain ten years, and perfect themselves in sculpture, to study the antique, and to return to the laborerium as fully qualified masters."
Rodari returned and sculptured a most beautiful North door of the Cathedral in rich ornate Renaissance style, although the lions are still under the columns, thus preserving a Comacine symbol so universally common in earlier times of pure Lombard style.
The history of Como as a city with her various fortunes and defeats during the invasions of barbarians and her long conflicts with her old enemy, Milan, may be found elsewhere. What interests us is the early colonization by Rome and her subsequent relations to Architecture at the Renaissance.
Soon after 89 B.C. Rome sent 3,000 colonists to Como, and Artificers were certainly among them, and in 59 B.C. Caesar sent 5,000 more, and the place received the name Novum comum and received Latin rights (see Comacine Masters).
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COMPAGNON
In French Freemasonry, a Fellow Craft is so called, and the grade du Compagnon is the Degree of Fellow Craft.
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COMPAGNONAGE
This is the name which is given in France to certain mystical associations formed between workmen of the same or an analogous handicraft, whose object is to afford mutual assistance to the members. It was at one time considered among handicraftsmen as the Second Degree of the novitiate, before arriving at the maitrise, or mastership, the first being, of course, that of apprentice; and workmen were admitted into it only after five years of apprenticeship, and on the production of a skillfully constructed piece of work, which was called their chef-d'oeuvre (the French for masterpiece).
Tradition gives to Compage a Hebraic origin, which to some extent assimilates it to the traditional history of Freemasonry as springing out of the Solomonic Temple. It is, however, certain that it arose, in the twelfth century, out of a part of the corporation of workmen. These, who prosecuted the labors of their Craft from province to province, could not shut their eyes to the narrow policy of the gilds or corporations, which the masters were constantly seeking to make more exclusive.
Thence they perceived the necessity of forming for themselves associations or confratemities, whose protection should accompany them in all their laborious wanderings, and secure to them employment and fraternal intercourse when arriving in strange towns.
The Compagnons du Tour, which has been the title assumed by those who are the members of the brotherhoods of Compagnonage, have legends, which have been traditionally transmitted from age to age, by which, like the Freemasons, they trace the origin of their association to the Temple of King Solomon.
These legends are three in number, for the different societies of Compagnonage recognize three different founders, and hence made three different associations , which are:
1. The Children of Solomon.
2. The Children of Maître Jacques,
3. The Children of Pére Soubise.
These three societies or classes of the Compagnons are irreconcilable enemies and reproach each other with the imaginary contests of their supposed founders.
The Children of Solomon pretend that King Salomon gave them their devoir, or gild, as a reward for their labors at the Temple, and that he had there limited them into a brotherhood. The Children of Maître Jacques (the French name for Master James), say that their founder, who was the son of a celebrated architect named Jacquain, or Jacques, was one of the chief Masters of Solomon, and a colleague of Hiram. He was born in a small city of Gaul named Carte, and now St. Romille, but which we should in vain look for on the maps.
From the age of fifteen he was employed in stone cutting. He traveled in Greece, where he learned sculpture and architecture; afterward went to Egypt, and thence to Jerusalem, where he constructed two pillars with so much skill that he was immediately received as a Master of the Craft. Maître Jacques and his colleague Pére Soubise, after the labors of the Temple were completed, resolved to go together to Gaul, swearing that they would never separate; but the union did not last very long in consequence of the jealousy excited in Pére Soubise by the ascendency of Maître Jacques over their disciples. They parted, and the former landed at Bordeaux, and the latter at Marseilles. One day, Maître Jacques, being far away from his disciples, was attacked by ten of those of Pére Soubise. To save himself, he fled into- a marsh, where he sustained himself from sinking by holding on to the reeds, and was eventually rescued by his disciples. He -then retired to St. Baume, but being soon after betrayed by a disciple, named, according to some, Jeron, and according to others, Jamais, he was assassinated by five blows of a dagger, in the forty-seventh year of his age, four years and nine days after his departure from Jerusalem. On his robe was subsequently found a reed which he wore in memory of his having been saved in the marsh, and thenceforth his disciples adopted the reed as the emblem of their Order.
Pére Soubise is not generally accused of having taken any part in the assassination. The tears which he shed over the tomb of his colleague removed in part the suspicions which had at first rested on him. The traitor who committed the crime, subsequently, in a moment of deep contrition, cast himself into a well, which the disciples of Maître Jacques filled up with stones. The relics of the martyr were long preserved in a sacred chest, and, when his disciples afterward separated into different crafts, his hat was given to the hatters, his tunic to the stone-cutters, his sandals to the locksmiths, his mantle to the joiners, his girdle to the carpenters, and his staff to the cartwrights.
According to another tradition, Maître Jacques was no other than Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, who had collected under his banner some of the Children of Solomon that had separated from the parent society, and who, about 1268 A.D., conferred upon them a new devoir or gild .
Pére Soubise is said, in the same legend, to have been a Benedictine monk, who gave to the carpenters some special statutes. This second legend is generally recognized as more truthful than the first. From this it follows that the division of the society of Compagnonage into three classes dates from the thirteenth century, and that the Children of Maître Jacques and of Pére Soubise are more modern than the Children of Solomon, from whom they were a dismemberment.
The organization of these associations of Compagnonage reminds one very strongly of the somewhat similar organization of the Stonemasons of Germany and of other countries in the Middle Ages. To one of these classes every handicraftsman in France was expected to attach himself. There was an initiation, and a system of Degrees which were four in number: the Accepted Companion, the Finished Companion, the Initiated Companion, and, lastly, the Affiliated Companion. There were also signs and words as modes of recognition, and decorations, which varied in the several devoirs ; but to all, the square and compasses was a common symbol.
As soon as a Craftsman had passed through his apprenticeship, he joined one of these gilds, and commenced his journey over France, which was called the tour de France, in the course of which he visited the principal cities, towns, and villages, stopping for a time wherever he could secure employment. In almost every town there was a house of call, presided over always by a woman, who was affectionately called la Mére, or the Mother, and the same name was given to the house itself. There the Compagnons held their meetings and annually elected their officers, and traveling workmen repaired there to obtain food and lodging, and the necessary information which might lead to employment. When two Companions met on the road, one of them addressed the other with the topage, or challenge, being a formula of words, the conventional reply to which would indicate that the other was a member of the same devoir. If such was the case, friendly greetings ensued. But if the reply was not satisfactory, and it appeared that they belonged to different associations, a war of words, and even of blows, was the result. Such was formerly the custom, but through the evangelic labors of Agricol Perdiquier, a journeyman joiner of Avignon, who traveled through France inculcating lessons of brotherly love, a better spirit later on existed.
In each locality the association has a chief, who is annually elected by ballot at the General Assembly of the Craft. He is called the First Compagnon of Dignity.
He presides over the meetings, which ordinarily take place on the first Sunday of every month, and represents the society in its intercourse with other Bodies, -with the Masters, or with the municipal authorities.
Compagnonage has been exposed, at various periods, to the persecutions of the Church and the State, as well as to the opposition of the Corporations of Masters, to which, of course, its designs were antagonistic, because it opposed their monopoly. Unlike them, and particularly the Corporation of Freemasons, it was not under the protection of the Church. The practice of its mystical receptions was condemned by the Faculty of Theology at Paris, in 1655 A.D., as impious. But a hundred years before, in 1541, a decree of Francis I had interdicted the Compagnons du Tour from binding themselves by an oath, from wearing swords or canes, from assembling in a greater number than five outside of their Masters' houses, or from having banquets on any occasion. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the parliaments were continually interposing their power against the associations of Compagnonage, as well as against other fraternities. The effects of these persecutions, although embarrassing, were not absolutely disastrous. In spite of them, Compagnonage was never entirely dissolved, although a few of the trades abandoned their devoirs ; some of which, however---such as that of the shoemakers-were subsequently removed.
And at more recent times the gilds of the workmen existed in France having lost, it is true, much of their original code of religious dogmas and symbols, and, although not recognized by the law, always tolerated by the municipal authorities and undisturbed by the police.
To the Masonic scholar, the history of these devoirs or gilds is peculiarly interesting. In nearly all of them the Temple of Solomon prevails as a predominant symbol, while the square and compass, their favorite and constant device, would seem, in some way, to identify them with Freemasonry so far as respects the probability of a common origin.
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COMPAGNONS DU TOUR
This title was assumed by the workmen in France who belong to the several gilds of Compagnonage, which see. The French expression, Compagnons du Tour, or Companions of the Tour, may be understood in two different ways according to the meaning applied to the last word. Tour is used in French as it is also freely employed in English to indicate a round trip, a rambling and returning excursion of some extent. The word might well fit those who traveled around for employment or for instruction as did the Brethren of old. Tour is also the French for tower and towers or castles were represented on .the coat of arms of the Masons Company of London. In both of these meanings the allusion has a significance easily understood.
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COMPANION
A title bestowed by Royal Arch Masons upon each other, and equivalent to the word "Brother" in Symbolic Lodges. It refers, most probably, to the companionship in exile and captivity of the ancient Jews, from the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to its restoration by Zerubbabel, under the auspices of Cyrus. In using this title in a higher Degree, the Freemasons who adopted it seem to have intimated that there was a shade of difference between its meaning and that of Brother. The latter refers to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man; but the former represents a companionship or common pursuit of one object-the common endurance of suffering or the common enjoyment of happiness. Companion represents a closer tie than Brother. The one is a natural relation shared by all men ; the other a connection, the result of choice and confined to a few. All men are our Brethren, not all our companions.
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COMPANIONS OF PENELOPE
Also known as the Palladium of Ladies. Said to have been established in 1740 by "seven wise men" at Paris. Both men and women were admitted to membership and the candidate when being initiated was conducted by two members of the Order into the center of the Temple where was a table on which was a white cloth with three candles placed around a statue of Minerva, where the Oath of Secrecy, was administered.
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COMPANIONS, THE TWELVE
George F. Fort says that "the twelve Companions of Master Hiram correspond unquestionably to the twelve zodiacal signs, or the twelve months of the year.
The groundwork of this tradition is a fragment of ancient natural religion, common to both Oriental and European nations; or, more properly, was derived from identical sources. The treacherous Craftsmen of Hiram the Good are the three winter months which slew him.
He is the sun surviving during the eleven consecutive months, but subjected to the irresistible power of three ruffians, the winter months ; in the twelfth and last month, that luminary, Hiram, the good, the beauteous, the bright, the sun god, is extinguished" (The Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, page 408).
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COMPASSES
As in Operative Freemasonry, the compasses are used for the measurement of the architect's plans, and to enable him to give those just proportions which will ensure beauty as well as stability to his work; so, in Speculative Freemasonry, is this important implement symbolic of that even tenor of deportment, that true standard of rectitude which alone can bestow happiness here and felicity hereafter.
Hence are the compasses the most prominent emblem of virtue, the true and only, measure of a Freemason's life and conduct. As the Bible gives us light on our duties to God, and the square illustrates our duties to our neighborhood and Brother, so the compasses give that additional light which is to instruct us in the duty we owe to ourselves-the great, imperative duty of circumscribing our passions, and keeping our desires within due bounds. "It is ordained," says the philosophic Burke, "in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate passions cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters." Those Brethren who delight to trace our emblems to an astronomical origin, find in the compasses a symbol of the sun, the circular pivot representing the body of the luminary, and the diverging legs his rays.
In the earliest rituals of the eighteenth century, the compasses are described as a part of the furniture of the Lodge, and are said to belong to the Master.
Some change will be found in this respect in the ritual of the present day (see Square and Compasses).
The word is sometimes spelled and pronounced compass, which is more usually applied to the magnetic needle and circular dial or card of the mariner from which he directs his course over the seas, or the similar guide of the airman when seeking his destination across unknown territory.
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COMPOSITE
One of the five orders of architecture introduced by the Romans, and compounded of the other four, whence it derives its name. Although it combines strength with beauty, yet, as it is a comparatively modern invention, it is held in little esteem among Freemasons.
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CONCEALMENT OF THE BODY
See Aphanism
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CONCLAVE
Commanderies of Knights Templar in England and Canada were called Conclaves, and the Grand Encampment, the Grand Conclave, but the terms now in use are Preceptory and Great Priory respectively. The word is also applied to the meetings in some other of the advanced Degrees. The word is derived from the Latin con, meaning with, and clavis, a key, to denote the idea of being locked up in seclusion, and in this sense was first applied to the apartment in which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are literally locked up when they are assembled to elect a Pope.
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CONCORDISTS
A secret order established in Prussia, by M. Lang, on the wreck of the Tugendverein (Tugendverein, German for the Union of the Virtuous), which latter Body was instituted in 1790 as a successor of the Illuminati, and suppressed in 1812 by the Prussian Government, on account of its supposed political tendencies.
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CONFEDERACIES
A title given to the yearly meetings of the Freemasons in the time of Henry VI, of England, and used it in the celebrated statute passed in the third year of his reign, which begins thus: "Whereas, by the yearly congregations and confederacies made by the Masons in their General Chapiters assembled, etc." (see Laborers, Statutes of).
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CONFERENCE LODGES
Assemblies of the members of a Lodge sometimes held in Germany. Their object is the discussion of the financial and other private matters of the Lodge. Lodges of this kind held in France are said to be en famille, meaning in the family. There is no such arrangement in English or American Freemasonry.
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CONFERRING DEGREES
When a candidate is initiated into any Degree of Freemasonry in due form, the Degree is said to have been conferred, in contradistinction to the looser mode of imparting its secrets by communication.
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CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES
This is usually understood as being to ensure the accuracy of the statements made, the reading of the Minutes enabling the Brethren to know that the proceedings have been recorded and the judgment of those present being expressed in some way as to the correctness of the statements but the proceedings may serve a further purpose and that is to express approval of what has been previously done. In fact, Rule 130 of the English Book of Constitutions provides that the Minutes regarding the election of a Worshipful Master must be confirmed before he can be installed.
In English Lodges any action regarding a money grant, alteration of by-laws or the election of a Master must be confirmed after the recording of the Minutes at the first subsequent regular meeting in order to become legally operative. All other points are merely confirmed for accuracy and are considered legal regardless.
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CONFRATERNITY OF SAINT PAUL
The Italian name is La Confraternita di San Paolo. See Paul, Confratemity of Saint Paul.
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CONFUSION OF TONGUES
The Tower of Babel is referred to in the ritual of the Third Degree as the place where language was confounded and Masonry lost. Hence, in Masonic symbolism, as Freemasonry professes to possess a universal language, the confusion of tongues at Babel is a symbol of that intellectual darkness from which the aspirant is seeking to emerge on his passage to that intellectual light which is imparted by the Order (see Threshing-Floor).
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CONGREGATIONS
In the Old Records and Constitutions of Freemasonry the yearly meetings of the Craft are so called. Thus, in the Halliwell or Regius Manuscript it is said, "Every Master that is a Mason must be at the General Congregation" (see line 107).
What are now called Communications of a Grand Lodge were then called Congregations of the Craft (see Assembly).
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CONGRESSES, MASONIC
At various times in the history of Freemasonry conferences have been held in which, as in the General Councils of the Church, the interests of the Institution have been made the subject of consideration. These conferences have received the name of Masonic Congresses. Whenever a respectable number of Freemasons invested with deliberative powers, assemble as the representatives of different countries and Jurisdictions to take into consideration matters relating to the Order, such a meeting will be properly called a Congress. Of these congresses some have been productive of little or no effect, while others have undoubtedly left their mark ; nor can it be doubted, that if a General or Ecumenical congress, consisting of representatives of all the Masonic powers of the world, were to meet, with an eye single to the great object of Masonic reform, and were to be guided by a liberal and conciliatory spirit of compromise, such a Congress might be of incalculable advantage.
The most important Congresses that have met since the year 926 A.D. are those of York, Strassburg, Ratisbon, Spire, Cologne, Basle, Jena, Altenberg, Brunswick, Lyons, Wolfenbuttel. Wilhelmsbad, Paris, Washington, Baltimore, Lexington, and Chicago (see them as listed under their respective titles).
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CONGRESSES OF FREEMASONS
See Conventions
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CONNECTICUT
On August 12, 1750, the Saint John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts granted a charter to Hiram Lodge, at New Haven, and David Wooster was installed as Master. A Convention held on March 13, 1783, discussed the formation of a Grand Lodge of Connecticut. Nothing definite was completed and another Convention, held on April 29, 1783, again had no result. A third Convention, however, on May 14, 1789, composed of representatives of twelve Lodges, made some progress in the necessary arrangements but adjourned the meeting until July 8, 1789, when a Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge of Connecticut duly opened. The Anti-Masonic Movement had a serious effect upon the Craft in Connecticut. Up to the year 1800 Freemasonry had flourished exceedingly in the district.
During the next thirty years, however, it was calumniated to such an extent that, at the annual session of 1831, all the officers of the Grand Lodge, except the Grand Treasurer, resigned and new officers were elected in their places. At the next annual session only the Grand Master and the Grand Treasurer were present. For several years Freemasonry lay under a cloud, but at last, towards 1840, the agitation began to subside and after another five years the Craft in this State was once more possessed of its early vigor.
The first Chapter in the district seems to have comprised six members of Saint John's Lodge, No.2, of Middletown. These six Brethren opened the first regular Grand Chapter of Connecticut on September 12, 1783.
In 1818, Jeremy L. Cross, a prominent authority on Masonic Ritual in his day and author of The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor and of The Templars' Chart, formed a Council of Royal and Select Masters. On May 18, 1819, ten of the eleven Councils which had been formed in 1818 and 1819 met at Hartford for the purpose of establishing a Grand Council. Two days later a Constitution was adopted, the Grand Officers elected and the Council duly constituted. The first Encampment of Knights Templar was formed at Colchester in July, 1796, and was granted a Charter from London on September 5, 1803. New Haven Encampment took the initiative in adopting a resolution to join with other Encampments in forming a Commandery in the State. Washington and Clinton sent representatives and the meeting was held at the Masonic Hall on September 13, 1827. A Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the State of Connecticut was formed and Sir John Watrous was installed Grand Master.
The year 1858 saw the establishment of four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Connecticut. Three were chartered on June 1: namely, Lafayette Consistory, Peqounnock Chapter of Rose Croix, Washington Council of Princes of Jerusalem. The fourth, the De Witt Clinton Lodge of Perfection, was granted a Charter on May 11.
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CONSECRATION
The appropriating or dedicating, with certain ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices by separating it from common use. Hobbes, in his Leviatian (part1v chapter 44), gives the best definition of this ceremony. "To consecrate is, in Scripture, to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any other thing, to God, by parting it from common use."
Masonic Lodges, like ancient temples and modern churches, have always been consecrated. The rite of consecration is performed by the Grand Master, when the Lodge is said to be consecrated in ample form; by the Deputy Grand Master, when it is said to be consecrated in due form; or by the proxy of the Grand Master, when it is said to be consecrated in form. The Grand Master, accompanied by his officers, proceeds to the hall of the new Lodge, where, after the performance of those ceremonies which are described in all manuals and monitors, he solemnly consecrates the Lodge with the elements of corn, wine, and oil, after which the Lodge is dedicated and constituted and the officers installed.
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CONSECRATION, ELEMENTS OF
Those things, the use of which in the ceremony as constituent and elementary parts of it, are necessary to the perfecting and legalizing of the act of consecration. In Freemasonry, these elements are corn, wine, and oil, which see in this work listed under their respective names.
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CONSERVATORS, GRAND
See Grand Conserfators
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CONSERVATORS OF FREEMASONRY
About the year 1859 Brother Rob Morris, a Freemason of some distinction in America, professed to have discovered, by his researches, what he called the true Preston Webb Work, and attempted to introduce it into various Jurisdictions, sometimes in opposition to the wishes of the Grand Lodge and leading Freemasons of the State. To aid in the propagation of this ritual he communicated it to several persons, who were bound to use all efforts-to some, indeed, of questionable propriety to secure its adoption by their respective Grand Lodges. These Freemasons were called by him Conserfators, and the order or society which they constituted was called the Conserfators Association.
This association, and the efforts of its chief to extend his ritual, met with the general disapproval of the Freemasons of the United States, and in some Jurisdictions led to considerable disturbance and bad feeling.
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CONSISTORY
The meetings of members of the Thirty-second Degree, or Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, are called Consistories. The elective officers are, according to the ritual of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, a Commander-in-Chief, Seneschal, Preceptor, Chancellor, Minister of State, Almoner, Registrar, and Treasurer. In the Northern Jurisdiction it is slightly different, the second and third officers being called Lieutenant-Commanders. A Consistory confers the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Degrees of the Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction, in the Northern Jurisdiction the Consistory confers the Degrees from the nineteenth to the thirty-second inclusive.
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CONSISTORY, GRAND
See Grand Consistory
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CONSTABLE, GRAND
The fourth officer in a Grand Consistory. It is the title which was formerly given to the leader of the land forces of the Knights Templar.
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CONSTANTINE
See Red Cross of Rome and Constantine
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CONSTANTINOPLE, KNIGHT OF
In the year 1864 Brother F. G. Irwin, a distinguished Freemason, lived at Devonport, England. He became a welcome visitor to, and subsequently a member of the then recently established Lodge, Saint Aubyn, No. 954. Among other Masonic acquirements he had authority to establish the Order of the Knights of Constantinople. It was found that other authority to establish this Order did not exist in England, although it had been conferred on a few individual by Brother Irwin, and according to the usages of the Fraternity, those who first established an Order became the ruling power. The ground being thus clear, the authority of Brother Irwin, Past Junior Warden of the Province of Andalusia, Past Grand Master Overseer of Mark Masonry in England, First Grand standard Bearer of Knights Templar in England, and past Most Wise Sovereign Rose Croix, &c., was brought into operation. He accordingly presided over a meeting of Freemasons in the Saint Aubyn Lodge, No. 954, at Morice Town, Devonport, on January 18, 1865, and after intrusting them with the secrets of the Order and elevating to the honor of Knighthood, appointed the following Brethren as Officers of the First or Saint Aubyn Council of Knights of Constantinople, namely : Samuel Chapple, Horace Byron Kent, John R. H. Spry, Vincent Bird, Philip B. Clemens.
At this meeting several prominent Freemasons were admitted, Brother Shuttleworth, Thirty.-third Degree, the Grand Vice-Chancellor of the Knights Templar of England, being among the number. At the February meeting several active Freemasons were admitted, amongst them Brother W. J. Hughan, initiated in Lodge No. 954, and who later attained world-wide Masonic fame. At the January meeting, 1866, a Warrant was granted to certain distinguished Freemasons in Cornwall to open a Council at Truro, the Fortitude, Brother W. J. Hughan to be first Illustrious Sovereign, and a number of Cornish Freemasons were enlisted. The Saint Aubyn Council of the Knights of Constantinople developed into a Grand Council of Sovereigns of the Order and exercised such functions as organizing subordinate bodies. It became afflicted and a part of the organization at Mark Masons Hall, England, the Grand Council of the Allied Degrees. The Order of Knights of Constantinople is of a Christian character, associated in legend with the Emperor Constantine, and teaches the lesson of universal equality The jewel of the organization is a Cross surmounted by a Crescent.
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CONSTITUTED, LEGALLY
The phrase, a legally constituted Lodge, is often used Masonically to designate any Lodge working under proper authority, which necessarily includes Lodges working under Dispensation, although, strictly, a Lodge cannot be legally constituted until it has received its warrant or Charter from the Grand Lodge. But so far as respects the regularity of their work, Lodges under Dispensation and Warranted Lodges have the same standing.
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CONSTITUTION OF A LODGE
Any number of Master Masons, not less than seven, being desirous of forming a new Lodge, having previously obtained a Dispensation from the Grand Master, must apply by petition to the Grand Lodge of the State in which they reside, praying for a Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, to enable them to assemble as a regular Lodge. Their petition being favorably received, a Warrant or Charter for the Lodge is immediately granted, and the Grand Master appoints a day for its consecration and for the installation of its officers.
The Lodge having been consecrated, the Grand Master, or person acting as such, declares the Brethren "to be constituted and formed into a regular Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons," after which the officers of the Lodge are installed. In this declaration of the Master, accompanied with the appropriate ceremonies, consists the constitution of the Lodge. Until a Lodge is thus legally constituted, it forms no component of the constituency of the Grand Lodge, can neither elect officers nor members, and exists only as a Lodge under dispensation at the will of the Grand Master.
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CONSTITUTION, PARIS
See Paris Constitutions
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CONSTITUTIONS, BOOK OF
See Book of Constitutions
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CONSTITUTIONS OF 1762
This is the name of one of that series of Constitutions, or Regulations, which have always been deemed of importance in the history of the Ancient and accepted Scottish Rite; although the Constitutions of 1762 have really nothing to do with that Rite, having been adopted long before its establishment. In the year 1758, there was founded at Paris a Masonic Body which assumed the title of the Chapter or Council, of Emperors of the East and West, and which organized a Rite known as the Rite of Perfection, consisting of twenty-five Degrees, and in the same year the Rite was carried to Berlin by the Marquis de Bernez.
In the following year, a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret, the highest Degree conferred in the Rite, was established at Bordeaux. On September 21, 1762, nine Commissioners met and drew up Constitutions for the government of the Rite of Perfection, which have been since known as the Constitutions of 1762. Of the place where the Commissioners met, there is some doubt. Of the two copies, hereafter to be noticed, which are in the archives of the Southern Supreme Council, that of Delahogue refers to the Orients of Paris and Berlin, while that of Aveilhé‚ says that they were made at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux.
Thory also (Acta Latomorum, 1, 79), names Bordeaux as the place of their enactment, and so does Ragon (Orthodoxie Maçonnique, 133); although he doubts their authenticity, and says that there is no trace of any such document at Bordeaux, nor any recollection there of the Consistory which is said to have drawn up the Constitutions.
To this it may be answered, that in the Archives of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston there are two manuscript copies of these Constitutions--one written by Jean Baptiste Marie Delahogue in 1798, which is authenticated by Count de Grasse, under the seal of the Grand Council of the Princes of the Royal secret, then sitting at Charleston; and another, written by Jean Baptiste Aveilhé in 1797.
This copy is authenticated by Long, Delahogue, De Grasse, and others. Both documents are written in French, and are almost substantially the same. The translated tittle of Delahogue's copy is as follows :
Constitutions and Regulations drawn up by nine Commissioners appointed by the Grand Council of the Sovereign- Princes of the Royal Secret at the Grand Orients of Paris and Berlin, by virtue of the deliberation of the fifth day of the third week of the seventh Month of the Hebrew Era, 1662, and of the Christian Era, 1762. To be ratified and observed by the Grand Councils of the sublime Knights and Princes of Masonry as well as by the particular Councils and Grand Inspectors regularly constituted in the two Hemispheres.
The title of Aveilhé's manuscript differs in this, that it says the Constitutions were enacted "at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux, " and that they were "transmitted to our Brother Stephen Morin, Grand Inspector of all the Lodges in the New World." Probably this is a correct record, and the Constitutions were prepared at Bordeaux. The Constitutions of 1762 consist of thirty-five articles, and are principally occupied in providing for the government of the Rite established by the Council of Emperors of the East and West and of the Bodies under it.
The Constitutions of 1762 were published at Paris, in 1832, in the Recueil des Actes du Conscil Suprême de France or Collected Proceedings of the Supreme Council of France. They were also published, in 1859, in America; but the best printed exemplar of them is that published in French and English in the Book of Grand Constitutions, edited by Brother Albert Pike, which is illustrated with copious and valuable annotations by the editor, who was the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council.
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CONSTITUTIONS OF 1786
These have been generally regarded by the members of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as the fundamental law of their Rite. They are said to have been established by Frederick II, of Prussia, in the last year of his life ; a statement, however, that has been denied by some writers (see Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry under Early History of the Scottish Rite; Findel's History of Freemasonry under Declaration of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes at Berlin; also Gould's History of Freemasonry under The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite). The controversies as to their authenticity have made them a subject of interest to all Masonic scholars. Brother Albert Pike, the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, published them, in 1872, in Latin, French, and English; and his exhaustive annotations are valuable because he has devoted to the investigation of their origin and their authenticity more elaborate care than any other writer. Of these Constitutions, there are two exemplars, one in French and one in Latin, between which there are, however, some material differences. For a long time the French exemplar only was known in this country. It is supposed by Brother Pike that it was brought to Charleston by Count de Grasse, and that under its provisions he organized the Supreme Council in that place. They were accepted by the Southern Supreme Council, and have been regard… by the Northern Supreme Council as the only authentic Constitutions. But there is abundant internal evidence of the incompleteness and incorrectness of the French Constitutions, of whose authenticity there is no proof, nor is it likely that they were made at Berlin and approved by Frederick, as they profess. The Latin Constitutions were probably not known in France until after the Revolution. In 1834, they were accepted as authentic by the Supreme Council of France, and published there in the same year. A copy of this was published in America, in 1859, by Brother Pike. These Latin Constitutions of 1786 have been accepted by the Supreme Council of the Southern jurisdiction in preference to the French version. Most of the other Supreme Councils-those, namely, of England and Wales, of Italy, and of South America have adopted them as the law of the Rite, repudiating the French version as of no authority. The definite and well-authorized conclusions to which Brother Pike has arrived on the subject of these Constitutions have been expressed by that eminent Freemason in the following language : "We think we may safely say, that the charge that the Grand Constitutions were forged at Charleston is completely disproved, and that it will be contemptible hereafter to repeat it. No set of speculating Jews constituted the Supreme Council established there; and those who care for the reputations of Colonel Mitchell, and Doctors Dalcho, Auld, and Moultrie, may well afford to despise the scurrilous libels of the Ragons, Clavels, and Folgers. "And, secondly, that it is not by any means proven or certain that the Constitutions were not really made at Berlin, as they purport to have been, and approved by Frederick. We think that 'the preponderance of evidence, internal and external, is on the side of their authenticity, apart from the positive evidence of the certificate of 1832. "And, thirdly, that the Supreme Council at Charleston had a perfect right to adopt them as the law of the new Order; no matter where, when, or by whom they were made, as Anderson's Constitutions were adopted in Symbolic Masonry; that they are and always have been the law of the Rite, because they were so adopted ; and because no man has ever lawfully received the degrees of the Rite without swearing to maintain them as its supreme law; for as to the articles themselves, there is no substantial difference between the French and Latin copies. "And, fourthly, that there is not one particle of proof of any sort, circumstantial or historical, or by argument from improbability, that they are not genuine and authentic. In law, documents of great age, found in the possession of those interested under them, to whom they rightfully belong, and with whom they might naturally be expected to be found, are admitted in evidence without proof, to establish title or facts. They prove themselves, and to be avoided must be disproved by evidence. There is no evidence against the genuineness of these Grand Constitutions.'' We have alluded to the controversies aroused by the historical concepts formed of these documents. But we must warn the readers against assuming that this was ever understood by the leading disputants as any argument against the legality of them. That was quite another thing. Both Brothers Pike and Carson, differing widely as they did upon the source of the Constitutions in 1786, were agreed upon the legal aspect. Brother Enoch Terry Carson, then Deputy of the Scottish Rite for Ohio, says, "We shall not enter into a discussion of the question as to whether these Constitutions had the origin claimed for them or not, it is sufficient to say that they were recognized, and that under and by authority of them the Southern Supreme Council, at Charleston, the first in the world, was organized and until 1813, possessed exclusive jurisdiction over the United States; and all other regular Supreme Councils from that day down to the present have, and still recognize them. If they, the Constitutions of1786, ever were irregular, they ceased to be so to any and every Supreme Council the very moment they recognized and adopted them. Without , them there can be no Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.'' Brother Albert Pike is equally direct to the point where he says very plainly, "But the validity and effect of these Constitutions did not depend on their emanating from Frederick. On the contrary, he had no power to make any such laws. Their force and effect as law depended on their adoption as such by the first Body of the Rite" (see Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry, pages 1836-7).
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CONSTITUTIONS, OLD
See Records, Old
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CONSUMMATUM EST
Latin, meaning it is finished. A phrase used in some of the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is borrowed from the expression used by our Lord when He said, on the cross, "It is finished," meaning that the work which had been given him to do had been executed. It is, therefore, appropriately used in the closing ceremonies to indicate that the sublime work of the degrees is finished, so that all may retire in peace.
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CONTEMPLATIVE
To contemplate is, literally, to watch and inspect the Temple. The augur, or prophet, among the Romans, having taken his stand on the Capitoline Hill, marked out with his wand the space in the heavens he intended to consult. This space he called the templum, the Latin word for a designated or marked-off area. Having divided his templum into two parts from top to bottom, he watched to see what would occur. The watching of the templum was called contemplating; and hence those who devoted themselves to meditation upon sacred subjects assumed this title. Thus, among the Jews, the Essenes and the Therapeutists, and, among the Greeks, the school of Pythagoras, were contemplative sects. Among the Freemasons, the word speculative is used as equivalent to contemplative (see Speculative Freemasonry).
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CONTINENTAL LODGES
This expression is used throughout this work, as it constantly is by English writers, to designate the Lodges on the Continent of Europe which retain many usages which have either been abandoned by, or never were observed in, the Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the United States of America. The words Continental Freemasonry are employed in the same sense.
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CONTUMACY
In civil law, contumacy, or stubbornness, is the refusal or neglect of a party accused to appear and answer to a charge preferred against him in a court of justice. In Masonic jurisprudence, it is disobedience of or rebellion against superior authority, as when a Freemason refuses to obey the edict of his Lodge, or a Lodge refuses to obey that of the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge. The punishment, in the former case, is generally suspension or expulsion ; in the latter, arrest of Charter or forfeiture of Warrant.
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CONVENTION
In a state or territory where there is no Grand Lodge, but three or more Lodges holding their Warrants of Constitution from Grand Lodges outside of the territory, these Lodges may meet together by their representatives-who should Properly be the first three officers of each Lodge-and take the necessary steps for the organization of a Lodge in that state or territory. This preparatory meeting is called a Contention. A President and Secretary are chosen, and a Grand Lodge is formed by the election of a Grand Master and other proper officers, when the old Warrants are returned to the Grand Lodges, and new ones taken out from the newly formed Grand Lodge. Not less than three Lodges are required to constitute a Convention. The first Convent1oll of this kind ever held was that of the four old Lodges of London, which met at the Apple-Tree Tavern, in 1716, and in the following year formed the Grand Lodge of England.
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CONVENTION NIGHT
A title sometimes given in the Minutes of English Lodges to a Lodge of Emergency. Thus, in the minutes of Constitution Lodge, No. 390 (London), we read: "This being a Convection Night to consider the state of the Lodge," etc. (see Sadler's History and Records of the Lodge of Emulation, page 64).
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CONVENTIONS or CONGRESSES
of Freemasons, arranged in chronological order: 926. York, under Prince Edwin of England. 1275. Strassburg, under Edwin Von Steinbach- 1459. Ratisbon, under Jost Dolzinger. 1464. Ratisbon, under Grand Lodge of Strassburg. 1469. Spire, under Grand Lodge of Strassburg. 1535. Cologne, by Hermann, Bishop of Cologne. 1563. Basle, by Grand Lodge of Strassburg. 1717. London, by the Four Old Lodges. Organization of Grand Lodge. 1730. Dublin, by the Dublin Lodges. 1736. Edinburgh. Organization and institution of Grand Lodge. 1756. Hague, by the Royal Union Lodge. 1762. Paris and Berlin, by nine commissioners nominated by the Sovereign Grand ..........Council of Princes of Freemasonry. 1763. Jena, by the Lodge of Strict Observance. 1764. Jena, by Johnson or Beeker, denounced by Baron Hund. 1765. Altenberg, a continuation wherein Hund was elected Grand Master of the ..........Rite of Strict Observance. 1772. Kohl, by Ferdinand oi Brunswick and Baron Hund, without success. 1775. Brunswick, by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. 1778. Lyons, by Lodge of Chevaliers Bienfaisants. 1778. Wolfenbuttel, by Duke of Brunswick. 1782. Wilhelmsbad, and impotent session for purification. 1784. Paris, a medley of Lovers of Truth and United Friends. 1786. Berlin, alleged to have been convened by Frederick II of Prussia. 1822. National Masonic Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, March 9. 1842. National Masonic Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, March 7. 1843. National Masonic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, May 8, 1847. National Masonic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, September 23, 1853. National Masonic Convention, Lexington, Kentucky, September 17, 1855. Paris, by Grand Orient of France. 1855. National Masonic Convention, Washington, District of Columbia, Jan.3-4 1859. National Masonic Convention, Chicago, Illinois, September 13, 1893. Masonic Congress, Chicago, Illinois, August 14-17, 1909. Conference of Grand Masters, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1909. Conference of Grand Masters, Baltimore, Maryland, November 16, 1913. Conference of Grand Masters, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 17. 1914. -Conference of Grand Masters, St. Louis, Missouri, May 14-16. 1918. Conference of Grand Masters, New York City, New York, May 9-10, 1918. Conference of Grand Masters, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 26-28, 1919. Masonic Service Association, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 11-13, 1920. Masonic Service Association, St. Louis, Missouri, November 9-10, 1921. Masonic Service Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 9-11, 1922. Masonic Service Association, Kansas City, Missouri, November 17-19, 1923. Masonic Service Association, Washington, Distr. of Col., Oct. 29-30. 1924. Masonic Service Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 11-12. ..........Following the meeting at Cedar Rapids in 1919, Masonic Service Association has met at St. Louis, Mo., November 9-10, 1920; Chicago, Ill., November 9-11, 1921; Kansas City, Mo., November 17-19, 1922; Washington, D. C., October 29-30, 1923; Chicago, Ill., November 11-12, 1924, and so on annually, a Conference of Grand Masters usually being held at the same place conveniently about that time. 1875. Lausanne. A Convention of the Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the World, which subsequently led to an eternal bond of unity both offensive and defensive.
Conversation among the Brethren during Lodge hours is forbidden by the Charges of1722 in these words: "You are not to hold private committees or separate conversation without leave from the Master" (see Constimions, 1723, page 53).
*
CONVOCATION
The meetings of Chapters of Royal Arch Freemasons are so called from the Latin convocation, meaning a calling together. It seems very properly to refer to the convoking of the dispersed Freemasons at Jerusalem to rebuild the second Temple, of which every Chapter is a representation.
*
CONVOCATION, GRAND
The meeting of a Grand Chapter is so styled.
*
COOKE, MATTHEW
English Masonic writer; edited an early prose Masonic Constitutions known as the Additional Manuscript, 1861. Brother Cooke arranged a number of musical scores for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, United States.
*
COOKE'S MANUSCRIPT
The old document commonly known among Masonic scholars as Matthew Cooke's Manuscript, because it was first given to the public by that distinguished Brother, was published by him, in 1861, from the original in the British Museum, which institution purchased it, on the 14th of October, 1859, from Mrs. Caroline Baker. It was also published in facsimile by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, London, in 1890. Its principal value is derived from the fact, as Brother Cooke remarks, that until its appearance ''there was no prose work of such undoubted antiquity known to be in existence on the subject.'' Brother Cooke gives the following account of the Manuscript in his preface to its republication: By permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, the following little work has been allowed to be copied and published in its entire form. The original is to be found among the additional manuscripts in that national collection, and is numbered 23,198. Judging from the character of the handwriting and the form of contractions employed by the scribe, it was most probably written in the litter portion of the fifteenth century, and may be considered a very clear specimen of the penmanship of that period. By whom or for whom it was originally penned there is no means of ascertaining; but from the style, it may be conjectured to have belonged to some Master of the Craft, aud to have been used in assemblies of Freemasons as a text-book of the traditional history and laws of the Fraternity.
*
COPELAND, PATRICK
A native of Udaught, Scotland. In 1590, by Royal Patent, because his ancestors had held the same office, he was made Patron for life of the Freemasons of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine.
*
COPE-STONE
See Capstone
*
CORD, HINDU SACRED
See Zennaar
*
CORD, SILVER
See Silver Cord
*
CORD, THREEFOLD
See Threefold Cord
*
CORDON
The Masonic decoration, which in English is called the collar, is styled by the French Freemasons the cordon.
*
CORINTHIAN ORDER
This is the lightest and most ornamental of the pure orders, and possesses the highest degree of richness and detail that architecture attained under the Greeks. Its capital is its great distinction, and is richly adorned with leaves of acanthus, olive, etc., and other ornaments. The column of Beauty which supports the Lodge is of the Corinthian Order, and its appropriate situation and symbolic officer are in the South.
*
CORK, ORDER OF THE
A side Degree found in British Masonic circles and practiced with that excellent conviviality characteristic of the Brethren. The main object is to provide an opportunity for the display of high spirits on some especial occasion. Significant of the membership is a jewel, a section or slice of cork, usually enclosed in a metal band for attachment to the watch-chain as a charm or pendant, or carried as a pocket-piece. The absence of this emblem or pledge when a member is challenged by another one subjects the corkless Brother to a forfeit, which again is commonly and appropriately the cause of mutual enjoyment.
*
CORNER, NORTHEAST
See Northeast Corner
*
CORNER-STONE, SYMBOLISM OF THE
The corner-stone is the stone which lies at the corner of two walls and forms the corner of the foundation of an edifice. In Masonic buildings it is now always placed in the Northeast; but this rule was not always formerly observed. As the foundation on which the entire structure is supposed to rest, it is considered by Operative Freemasons as the most important stone in the edifice. It is laid with impressive ceremonies; the assistance of Speculative Freemasons is often, and ought always to be, invited to give dignity to the occasion; and for this purpose Freemasonry has provided an especial ritual which is to govern the proper performance of that duty.
Among the ancients the corner-stone of important edifices was laid with impressive ceremonies. These are well described by Tacitus in the history of the rebuilding of the Capital. After detailing the preliminary ceremonies, which consisted of a procession of vestals, who with chaplets of flowers encompassed the ground and consecrated it by libations of living water, he adds that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius Priscus, to whom the care of rebuilding the Capitol had been committed, "laid his hand upon the fillets that adorned the foundation stone, and also the cords by which it was to be drawn to its place. In that instant the magistrates, the priests, the senators, the Roman knights, and a number of citizens, all acting with one effort and general demonstrations of joy, laid hold of the ropes and dragged the ponderous load to its destined spot. They then threw in ingots of gold and silver, and other metals which had never been melted in the furnace, but still retained, untouched by human art, their first formation in the bowels of the earth" (see Histories iv, 53).
The symbolism of the corner-stone when duly laid with Masonic rites is full of significance, which refers to its form, to its situation, to its permanence, and to its consecration.
As to its form, it must be perfectly square on its surfaces, and in its solid contents a cube. Now the square is a symbol of morality, and the cube, of truth.
In its situation it lies between the north, the place of darkness, and the east, the place of light; and hence this position symbolizes the Masonic progress from darkness to light, and from ignorance to knowledge.
The permanence and durability of the corner-stone, which lasts long after the building in whose foundation it was placed has fallen into decay, is intended to remind the Freemason that, when this earthly house of his tabernacle shall have passed away, he has within him a sure foundation of eternal life-a corner-stone of immortality-an emanation from that Divine Spirit which pervades all nature, and which, therefore, must survive the tomb, and rise, triumphant and eternal, above the decaying dust of death and the grave.
The stone, when deposited in its appropriate place, is carefully examined with the necessary implements of Operative Freemasonry-the square, the level, and the plumb, themselves all symbolic in meaning-and is then declared to be "well formed, true, and trusty.'' Thus the Freemason is taught that his virtues are to be tested by temptation and trial, by suffering and adversity, before they can be pronounced by the Master Builder of souls to be materials worthy of the spiritual building of eternal life, fitted, "as living stones, for that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And lastly, in the ceremony of depositing the cornerstone, the elements of Masonic consecration are produced, and the stcne is solemnly set apart by pouring corn, wine, and oil upon its surface, emblematic of the Nourishment, Refreshment, and Joy which are to be the rewards of a faithful performance of duty.
The comer-stone does not appear to have been adopted by any of the heathen nations, but tc have been as the eben pinah, peculiar to the Jews, from whom it descended to the Christians. In the Old Testament, it seems always to have denoted a prince or high personage, and hence the Evangelists constantly use it in reference to Christ, who is called the Chief Comer-stone. In Masonic symbolism, it signifies a true Freemason, and therefore it is the first character which the Apprentice is made to represent after his initiation has been completed.
Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, perhaps the best known church in London, was the first in England to have its foundation stone laid with special Masonic ceremony after the coming into existence of the Grand Lodge there. This event took place in 1724, in the reign of King George I, whose direct descendant, the Duke of Connaught, was Grand Master two hundred years later (see Freemason, March 7, 1925).
The first or cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was laid by the Grand Master of Maryland with the Grand Masters of Pennsylvania and Virginia co-operating with the Brethren of Maryland.
The stone was laid on July 4, 1824, in Carroll's Field at Baltimore and the first spading of the ground where the stone was to rest was dug by the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, then the only living signer of the Declaration of Independence. Brother E. T. Schultz (Freemasonry in Maryland, pages 562-79) says that the first train over this new railroad reached the bank of the Ohio River, January 11, 1853. The several city trades took part in the procession and presented gifts to Mr. Carroll, one from the Weavers and Tailors was "a coat made on the way."
Allusions to public ceremonies by the Craft are frequent in the old records. One of Tuesday, August 27, 1822, deserves mention, not because of the distance in elapsed time from that date to the present, but by reason of the close identity of the custom in Great Britain and in other Countries during these many years. The occasion was the laying of the Foundation-stone of the National Monument of Scotland, at Edinburgh, and after describing the usual procession, and the placing of coins, newspapers, plans, etc., in the cavities of the stone, these were covered with inscribed plates. 'the first being headed "To the Glory of God-In honor of the King-For the Good of the People." Then Laurie's History of Free Masonry and the Grand Lodge of Scotland (1849, page 201) continues:
The Most Worshipful the Grand Master proceeded with the ceremony, and having applied the square, the plumb, and the level respectively to the stone, with the mallet he gave three knocks, saying,-"May the Almighty Architect of the Universe look down with benignity upon our present undertaking, and crown this splendid edifice with every success; and may it be considered, for time immemorial, a model of taste and genius and serve to transmit with honor to posterity the names of the artists engaged in it"; followed by the Grand Honors from the Brethren, and the Band playing "On. on my dear Brethren.
" When the music ceased, the cornucopia with corn, and the cups with wine and oil were delivered by the Grand Wardens to the Substitute Grand Master, who in succession handed them to the Most Worshipful the Grand Master, when he, according to ancient custom, poured out the corn, the wine, and the oil upon the stone, saying, "Praise be to the Lord immortal and eternal, Who formed the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and extended the waters beyond it, Who supports the pillars of Nations, and maintains in order and harmony surrounding Worlds: We implore Thy aid, and may the contintled blessings of an allbounteous Providence be the lot of these our native shores.
Almighty Ruler of Events, deign to direct the hand of our gracious Sovereign, so that he may pour down blessings upon his people; and may they, living under sage laws and a free government, ever feel grateful for the blessings they enjoy'': Which was followed by the Grand Honors from the Brethren, and prolonged cheering from the Royal Commissioners and spectators.
Brother Laurie also tells on page 207 of the curious fact that on April 30, 1824, "the Foundation-stone of the new road or approach to Glasgow from London was laid, by sanction of the Grand Lodge, by the Right Honorable Lord Provost Smith of Glasgow, Depute Provincial Grand Master of the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire, in presence of a large assemblage of the Brethren and a great number of spectators."
An unusual method of laying the Foundation-stone of a Masonic Temple took place in London on July 14, 1927. The site of the Temple in Great Queen Street, Ringsway, would not accommodate a large crowd, so it was arranged that the Grand Master of English Freemasons, the Duke of Connaught, should perform the ceremony at Royal Albert Hall, nearly three miles away. A replica of the stone was laid on a specially erected platform in the great hall where some ten thousand Freemasons from al1 parts of the Empire attended in their regalia. The ceremony in Albert Hall was performed simultaneously with the laying of the actual stone in Great Queen Street by means of special electrical contrivances.
A distinction should be made between Comer-stone and Foundation Stone. Doctor Mackey was emphatic on this point and it is well to have the matter in mind. But the two are not always distinguished definitely in the records. We have placed several items together here which the reader can list as he personally may choose. The precise classification of comer-stones of railroads and foundation stones of highways, judged by any Masonic requirement, is probably best left to individual taste. The subject may be considered under the several heads, Foundation Stone, and Stone of Foundation.
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CORN OF NOURISHMENT
One of the three elements of Masonic consecration (see Corn, Wine, and Oil).
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CORNUCOPIA
The horn of plenty. The old Pagan myth tells us that Zeus was nourished during his infancy in Crete by the daughters of Melissus, with the milk of the goat Amalthea. Zeus, when he came to the empire of the world, in gratitude placed Amalthea in the heavens as a constellation, and gave one of her horns to his nurses, with the assurance that it should furnish them with a never-failing supply of whatever they might desire. Hence it is a symbol of abundance, and as such has been adopted as the jewel of the Stewards of a Lodge, to remind them that it is their duty to see that the tables are properly furnished at refreshment, and that every Brother is suitably served. Among the deities whose images are to be found in the ancient Temples at Elora, in Hindustan, is the goddess Ana Purna, whose name is compounded of Ana, signifying corn, and Puma, meaning plenty.
She holds a corn measure in her hand, and the whole therefore very clearly has the same allusion as the Masonic Horn of plenty.
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CORN, WINE, AND OIL
Corn, wine, and oil are the Masonic elements of consecration. The adoption of these symbols is supported by the highest antiquity. Corn, wine, and oil were the most important productions of Eastern countries; they constituted the wealth of the people, and were esteemed as the supports of life and the means of refreshment David enumerates them among the greatest blessings that we enjoy, and speaks of them as "wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart" (Psalm civ., 15). In devoting anything to religious purposes, the anointing with oil was considered as a necessary part of the ceremony, a rite which has descended to Christian nations. The tabernacle in the wilderness, and all its holy vessels, were, by God's express command, anointed with oil; Aaron and his two sons were set apart for the priesthood with the same ceremony ; and the prophets and kings of Israel were consecrated to their offices by the same rite.
Hence, Freemasons' Lodges, which are but temples to the Most High, are consecrated to the sacred purposes for which they were built by strewing corn , wine, and oil upon the Lodge, the emblem of the Holy Ark. Thus does this mystic ceremony instruct us to be nourished with the hidden manna of righteousness, to be refreshed with the Word of the Lord, and to rejoice with joy unspeakable in the riches of divine grace. "Wherefore, my brethren," says the venerable Harris (Discourse iv, 81), "wherefore do you carry corn, wine, and oil in your processions, but to remind you that in the pilgrimage of human life you are to impart a portion of your bread to feed the hungry, to send a cup of your wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil of your consolation into the wounds which sickness hath made in the bodies, or afflictions rent in the heart, of your fellow-travelers?"
In processions, the corn alone is carried in a golden pitcher, the wine and oil are placed in silver vessels, and this is to remind us that the first, as a necessity and the "staff of life," is of more importance and more worthy of honor than the others, which are but comforts.
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CORONET, DUCAL
Italian, Coronetta. An inferior crown worn by noblemen; that of a British duke is adomed with strawberry leaves; that of a marquis has leaves with pearls interposed; that of an earl has the pearls above the leaves ; that of a viscount is surrounded with pearls only; that of a baron has only four pearls. The ducal coronet is a prominent symbol in the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
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CORPORATION OF SQUAREMEN
See Squaremen¸ Corporation of
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CORRESPONDENCE
See Committee on Foreign Correspondence
*
CORRESPONDING GRAND SECRETARY
An officer of a Grand Lodge to whom was formerly entrusted, in some Grand Lodges, the Foreign Correspondence of the Body. The office is now disused, a temporary appointment being made when familiarity with a foreign language may require the services of an assistant to the Grand Secretary.
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CORYBANTES, MYSTERIES OF
Rites instituted in Phrygia in honor of Atys, the lover of Cybele. The goddess was supposed first to bewail the death of her lover, and afterward to rejoice for his restoration to life. The ceremonies were a scenical representation of this alternate lamentation and rejoieing, and of the sufferings of Atys, who was placed in an ark or coffin during the mournful part of the orgies. If the description of these rites, given by Sainte-Croix from various ancient authorities, be correct, they were but a modification of the Eleusinian mysteries.
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COSMIST
A religious faith of late recognition, having for its motto, Deeds, not Creeds, and for its principle the service of humanity is the supreme duty.
The design of Cosmism is to join all men and women into one family, in which the principle of equality, together with that of brotherly love, that is, love of the human race, is the predominant one, and the moral and material welfare of all, the sole aim and purpose.
The Cosmists are enjoined to act as follows: To give one another encouragement and aid, both material and moral, to cultivate all their faculties, to contemplate all mankind as Brethren; to be courteous and forbearing to each and all; to practice charity without publicity or ostentation. Freemasonry is an intensely theistical institution; but its principles could scarcely be better expressed than tho se above enumerated as the foundation of the Cosmistic faith; more especially in the motto, Deeds, not Creeds.
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COSMOPOLITE
The Third Degree of the Second Temple of the Rite of African Architects, which see in this Encyclopedia.
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COSTA RICA
The most southern state of Central America. The first Masonic Lodge in Costa Rica was instituted by the Grand Orient of New Granada at San José in 1867. On December 7, 1899, the Grand Lodge was formed at San José. Oliver Day Street, in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama, 1922 states: "This Grand Lodge must be moribund, if not defunct, as after repeated efforts this scribe has not been able to get into communication with it. Not a word has been received from it during the seven years he has been Foreign Correspondent." The Grand Lodge is credited by the Annuaire in 1923 as having seven Lodges, with 206 members, three Lodges being at San José and one each at Port Limon and Alajuela being named. Nos. 5 and 6 not located.
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COUNCIL
In several of the advance Degrees of Freemasonry the meetings are styled Councils; as, a Council of Royal and Select Masters, or Princes of Jerusalem, or Companions of the Red Cross
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COUNCIL CHAMBER
A part of the room in which the ceremonies of the Companions of the Red Cross are performed.
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COUNCIL, GRAND
See Grand Council
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COUNCIL OF ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES
An organization formed in England in 1880 to embosom, protect, and promulgate all side Degrees of a Masonic or other secret character, and those otherwise unclaimed that may appear as waifs. The central organization is termed the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees.
The Sovereign College of the Allied Masonic Degrees of America was organized on February 1, l892, at Richmond, Virginia, and the first officers of this Body were chosen as follows:
Hartley Carmichael, 33 , Sovereign Grand Master.
Wm. Ryan, 33 , Deputy Grand Master, C.J.S.
Right Rev. A. M. Randolph, Bishop of Southern Virginia, Grand Abbot
Frederick Webber, 33 , Grand Senior Warden
Alfred R. Courtney 32 , Grand Junior Warden
W. O. English, 32 , K.C. , Grand Chancellor.
Charles A. Nesbitt, 33 , Grand Recorder-General,
John F. Mayer. 33 , Grand Bursar.
Josiah Drummond, 33 , Grand Almoner.
R. P. Williams. 33 , Grand Prefect of Rites.
Beverly R. Welford, Jr. 32 , Grand Magister non regens
R. H. Hall, 33 , Grand Deacon.
O. W. Budd, 32 , S. Fellow.
Thomas Whittet, 33 , Grand Verger.
Jacob Reinhardt, 32 , Grand Chief of Musisians.
Ernest T. Walthall, Grand Printer.
H. F. W, Southern, 32 , Grand Tiler.
Brother Nesbitt, the Grand Recorder-General who was also Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Virginia, was elected Deputy Grand Master of the Sovereign College in 1901, Brother Howard D. Smith, Norway, Maine, at the same time being chosen Grand Recorder-General. This Sovereign College was organized for the purpose of uniting under Masonic government a number of Degrees hitherto not so controlled. The object of the Sovereign College was two-fold-to work with proper rituals such as were, from their importance or beauty, worthy of propagation, and to lay on the shelf such Degrees, possessed by it, as were merely Masonic absurdities. This Grand Body assumed the care of several Degrees of interest and importance to earnest and progressive Freemasons. It governs the Ark Mariner or Ark and Doye, Secret Monitor, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, Tilers of King Solomon, Knights of Constantinople, the Holy Order of Wisdom, and the Trinitiam Knights of Saint John of Patmos. From the archives we obtain the following particulars;
For the Degree of Ark Mariner all Master Masons in good standing are eligible, and all Ark Mariners are eligible for the Monitor Degree. The Ark Degree ought to be possessed by every well-equipped Freemason. In England the synonymous Degree of Royal Ark Mariner is exceedingly popular. Though it is not necessary in America to possess the Mark Degree before receiving that of the Ark, yet it is well for all Freemasons, who are likely to travel, to take the Mark Degree in the Chapter also,-as the qualification for the English Royal Ark Mariner's Degree is that the candidate must be a Mark Mason. The Degrees of Tiler of Solomon, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, and the Knight of Constantinople are only conferred on those who are already Ark Mariners and Secret Monitors.
The Holy Order of Wisdom is one of the finest and most impressive Degrees in Freemasonry. The qualification is that the candidate must be a Knight Templar of the American Rite, or a. Knight Rose Croix of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Knight of Patmos is conferred only once a year, and then sparingly. It is given only to Freemasons of some mark and learning.
From the Knights of Patmos the officers of the Sovereign College are elected.
The Degrees of the Order of Wisdom, and the Knight of Patmos, are essentially Christian and Trinitarian. For the latter Degree the Candidate must be a Prince of the Royal secret of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Grand Bodies with which the Sovereign College is in amity:
In the Ark Mariner Degree: In England, The Royal Ark Council of England. In Scotland, The Supreme Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.
In the other Degrees, in England, The Grand Council Of Allied Masonic Degrees for England, Wales and the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown. In Scotland, The Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees for Scotland.
The Festival of the Order is Saint Paul's Day. The Prayer Book Commentary (Maemillan, 1922, page 26) says, "In the ease of Saint Paul we have the festival of his conversion, January 25, commemorating an event standing on a totally different footing from every other conversion, which was divinely destined to alter the whole tone of Christianity,. Our earliest notices of this festival carry it, we believe, to about the middle of the ninth century."
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COUNCIL OF COMPANIONS OF THE RED CROSS
A bo dy in which the First Degree of the Templar system in the United States of America is conferred. It is held under the Charter of a Commandery of Knights Templar, which, when meeting as a Council, is composed of the following officers: A Sovereign Master, Chancellor, Master of the Palace, Prelate, Master of Despatches, Master of Cavalry, Master of Infantry, Standard-Bearer, Sword-Bearer, Warder and Sentinel.
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COUNCIL OF ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS
United Body conferring Royal and Select Degrees. In some Jurisdictions this Council confers also the Degree of a Super-Excellent Master.
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COUNCIL OF ROYAL MASTERS
The Body in which the Degree of Royal Master, the eighth in the American Rite, is conferred. It receives its Charter from a Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters, and has the following officers: Thrice Iliustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works, Master of the Exchequer, Master of Finances, Captain of the Guards, Conductor of the Council, and Steward.
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COUNCIL OF SELECT MASTERS
The body in which the Degree of Select Masters, the ninth in the American Rite, is conferred. It receives its Charter from a Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters. Its officers are: Thrice Iliustrios Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works, Treasurer, Recorder, Captain of the Guards, Conductor of the Council, and Steward.
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COUNCIL OF THE TRINITY
An independent Masonic Jurisdiction, in which are conferred the Degrees of Knight of the Christian Mark, and Guard of the Conclave, Knight of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Holy and Thrice Illustrious Order of the Cross. They are conferred after the Encampment Degrees. They are Christian Degrees, and refer to the crucifixion.
COUNCIL, SUPREME
See Supreme Council
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COUNTRY STEWARDS' LODGE
An old Eng1ish Lodge which met first at the Guildhall Coffee House and afterwards at Freemasons Tavern. It was known as No. 540, having been constituted in 1789. The members were made up of Freemasons who had served as Stewards at the "Country Feast of the Society," a festival held every several years after 1732. A special jewel with a green collar was assigned for their use by the Grand Lodge in 1789 and in 1795 they were permitted to line their aprons with green silk. As a result of this ruling they were frequently called the Green Apron Lodge, but in 1797 this ruling was withdrawn. The Lodge lapsed about 1802.
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COURT DE GEBELIN, ANTOINE
French author; a founder of the Rite des Philaletes in 1773; Secretary of the famous Lodge of Nine Sisters, Paris. in 1779. President of the Apolionian Society and author of Primitive World Analyzed and Compared with the Modern World. Although a Protestant his literary work secured for him the office of Royal Censor. At the time Voltaire was initiated into the Lodge of Nine Sisters, Court de Gebelin assisted and also presented a copy of his new book mentioned above and read that part of it concerning the ancient mysteries of Eleusis. He died in 1784 (see Lodge of Nine Sisters).
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COURT OF HONOR
The letters K.C.C.H., stand for Knight Commander of the Court of Honor. The Court of Honor is an honorary body between the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Degrees of the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It was established to confer honor on certain Brethren whose zeal and work for Scottish Rite Freemasonry have entitled them to recognition. This Court of Honor is composed of all Thirty-third Degree Freemasons whether active or honorary, and also such Thirty-second Degree Freemasons as the Supreme Council may select. In the Court of Honor there are two ranks, that of Knight Commander and that of Grand Cross. No more than three Grand Crosses can be selected at each regular session of the Supreme Council, but the Knight Commander rank is not so restricted. At least two weeks before each regular session of the Supreme Council, each active Thirty-third Degree member may nominate one Thirty-second Degree member for the honor and decoration of Knight Commander.
In addition to this he is entitled to nominate for this honor one candidate for every forty Freemasons of the Fourteenth Degree in his Jurisdiction, who has received that Degree since the preceding regular session of the Supreme Council. This does not mean that a Fourteenth Degree Freemason is entitled to the honor.
On the contrary, the honor can only be conferred on one who has received the Thirty-second Degree at least two years prior to his nomination, but the number of such Thirty-second Degree Freemasons who may receive the honor is limited by the number of tho se who have received the Fourteenth Degree in the Jurisdiction of the member making the nomination. However, if in the judgment of the Supreme Council there are others not so nominated who should receive the honor, the Supreme Council may elect without such nomination. The rank of Knight Commander or Grand Cross cannot be applied for and if applied for, must be refused. The Court of Honor assembles as a body when called to gather by the Grand Commander, and is presided over by the Grand Cross named by the Grand Commander.
*
COURTESY
Politeness of manners, as the result of kindness of disposition, was one of the peculiar characteristics of the knights of old. "No other human laws enforced," says M. de Saint Palaye, "as chivalry did, sweetness and modesty of temper, and that politeness which the word courtesy was meant perfectly to express" We find, therefore, in the language of Templarism, the phrase "a true and courteous knight" ; and Knights Templar are in the habit of closing their letters to each other with the expression, Yours in all knightly courtesy. Courtesy is also a Masonic virtue, because it is the product of a feeling of kindness; but it is not so specifically spoken of in the symbolic degrees, where brotherly love assumes its place, as it is in the orders of knighthood.
*
COUSINS, LES BONS
or COUSINS CHARBONNIERS.
A secret society of France in the eighteenth century (see Carbonari).
*
COUSTOS, JOHN
The sufferings inflicted, in 1743, by the Inquisition at Lisbon, on John Coustos, a Freemason, and the Master of a Lodge in that city; and the fortitude with which he endured the severest tortures, rather than betray his trusts and reveal the secrets that had been confided to him, constitute an interesting episode in the history of Freemasonry. Coustos, after returning to England, published, in 1746, a book, detailing his sufferings, from which the reader is presented with the folio wing abridged narrative.
John Coustos was born at Berne, in Switzerland, but emigrated, in 1716, with his father to England, where he became a naturalized subject. In l743 he removed to Lisbon, in Portugal, and began the practice of his profession, which was that of a lapidary or dealer in precious stones. In consequence of the bull or edict of Pope-Clement XXII denouncing the Masonic Institution, the Lodges at Lisbon were not held at public houses, as was the custom in England and other Protestant countries, but privately, at the residences of the members. Of one of these Lodges, Coustos, who was a zealous Freemason, was elected the Master. A female, who was cognizant of the existence of the Lodge over which Coustos presided, revealed the circumstance to her confessor, declaring that, in her opinion, the members were "monsters in nature, who perpetrated the most shocking crimes." In consequence of this information, it was resolved, by the Inquisition, that Coustos should be arrested and subjected to the tender mercies of the Holy Ofice. He was accordingly seized, a few nights afterwards, in a coffee-house--- the public pretense of the arrest being that he was privy to the stealing of a diamond, of which they had falsely accused another jeweler, friend and warden of Coustos, whom they had previously arrested. Coustos was then carried to the prison of the Inquisition, and after having been searched and deprived of all his money, papers, and other things that he had about him, he was led to a lonely dungeon, in which he was immured, being expressly forbidden to speak aloud or knock against the walls, but if he required anything, to beat with a padlock that hung on the outward door, and which he could reach by thrusting his arm through the iron grate. "It was there," says he, "that, struck with the horrors of a place of which I had heard and read such baleful descriptions, I plunged at once into the blackest melancholy; especially when I reflected on the dire consequences with which my confinement might very possibly be attended."
On the next day he was led, bareheaded, before the President and four Inquisitors, who, after having made him reply on oath to several questions respecting his name, his parentage, his place of birth, his religion, and the time he had resided in Lisbon, exhorted him to make a full confession of all the crimes he had ever committed in the whole course of his life ; but, as he refused to make any such confession, declaring that, from his infancy, he had been taught to confess not to man but to God, he was again remanded to his dungeon.
Three days after, he was again brought before the Inquisitors, and the examination was renewed. This was the first occasion on which the subject of Freemasonry was introduced, and there Coustos for the first time learned that he had been arrested and imprisoned solely on account of his connection with the forbidden Institution.
The result of this conference was that Coustos was conveyed to a deeper dungeon, and kept there in close confinement for seven weeks, during which period he was taken three times before the Inquisitors. In the first of these examinations they again introduced the subject of Freemasonry, and declared that if the Institution was as virtuous as their prisoner contended that it was, there was no occasion for concealing so industriously the secrets of it. Coustos did not reply to this objection to the Inquisitorial satisfaction, and he was remanded back to his dungeon, where a few days after he fell sick.
After his recovery, he was again taken before the Inquisitors, who asked him several new questions with regard to the tenets of Freemasonry-among others, whether he, since his abode in Lisbon, had received any Portuguese into the society. He replied that he had not. When he was next brought before them, "they insisted," he says, "upon my letting them into the secrets of Freemasonry; threatening me, in case I did not comply." But Coustos firmly and fearlessly refused to violate his obligations.
After several other interviews, in which the effort was unavailingly made to extort from him a renunciation of Freemasonry, he was subjected to the torture, of which he gives the following account:
I was instantly conveyed to the torture-room, built in form of a square tower, where no light appeared but what two candles gave; and to prevent the dreadful cries and shocking groans of the unhappy victims from reaching the ears of the other prisoners, the doors are lined with a sort of quilt.
The reader will naturally suppose that I must be seized with horror, -when, at my entering this infernal place, I saw myself, on a sudden, surrounded by six wretches, who, after preparing the tortures, stripped me naked, all to linen drawers, when, laying me on my back, they began to lay hold of every part of my body. First, they put around my neck an iron collar, which was fastened to the scaffold; they then fixed a ring to each foot; and this being done, they stretched my limbs with all their might. They next wound two ropes round each arm, and two round each thigh, which ropes passed under the scaffold through holes made for that purpose, and were all drawn tight at the same time, by four men, upon a signal made for this purpose.
The reader will believe that my pains must be intolerable, when I solemnly declare that these ropes, which were of the size of one's little finger, pierced through my flesh quite to the bone, making the blood gush out at eight different places that were thus bound. As I persisted in refusing to discover any more than what has been seen in the interrogatories above, the ropes were thus drawn together four different times. At my' side stood a physician and a surgeon, who often felt my temples, to judge of the danger I might be in-by which means my tortures were suspended, at intervals, that I might have an opportunity of recovering myself a little Whilst I was thus suffering, they were so barbarously unjust as to declare, that, were I to die under the torture, I should be guilty, by my obstinacy, of self-murder. In fine, the last time the ropes were drawn tight, I grew so exceedingly weak, occasioned by the blood's circulation being stopped, and the pains I endured, that I fainted quite away; insomuch that I was carried back to my dungeon, without perceiving it.
These barbarians, finding that the tortures above described could not extort any further discovery from me; but that, the more they made me suffer, the more fervently I addressed my supplications, for patience, to heaven. they were so inhuman, six weeks after, as to expose me to another kind of torture, more grievous, if possible, than the former. They made me stretch my arms in such a manner that the palms of my hands were turned outward; when, by the help of a rope that fastened them together at the wrist, and which they turned by an engine, they drew them gently nearer to one another behind, in such a manner that the back of each hand touched and stood exactly parallel one to another; whereby both my shoulders were dislocated, and a considerable quantity of blood issued from my mouth.
This torture was repeated thrice; after which I was again taken to my dungeon, and put into the hands of physicians and surgeons, who, in setting my bones, put me to exquisite pain. Two months after, being a little recovered, I was again conveyed to the torture-room, and there made to undergo another kind of punishment twice. The reader may judge of its horror, from the following description thereof :
" The torturers turned twice around my body a thick iron chain, which, crossing upon my stomach, terminated afterwards at my wrists. They next set my back against a thick board, at each extremity whereof was a pulley, through which there ran a rope, that caught the ends of the chains at my wrists. The tormentors then stretched these ropes, by means of a roller, pressed or bruised my stomach, in proportion as the means were drawn tighter. They tortured me on this occasion to such a degree, that my wrists and shoulders were put cut of joint. The surgeons, however, set them presently after; but the barbarians not yet having satiated their cruelty, made me undergo this torture a second time, which I did with fresh pains, though with equal consistency and resolution. I was then remanded back to my dungeon, attended by the surgeons, who dressed my bruises; and here I continued until their auto-da-fé, or gaol delivery. On that occasion, he was sentenced to work at the galleys for four years.
Soon, however, after he had commenced the degrading occupation of a galley slave, the injuries which he had received during his inquisitorial tortures having so much impaired his health, that he was unable to undergo the toils to which he had been condemned, he was sent to the infirmary, where he remained until October, 1744, when he was released upon the demand of the British minister, as a subject to the King of England. He was, however, ordered to leave the country. This, it may be supposed, he gladly did, and repaired to London, where he published the account of his sufferings in a book entitled The Sufferings of John Coustos for Freemasonry, and for refusing to turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon, etc., etc. London, 1746; 8vo , 400 pages. This work was reprinted at Birmingham in 1790. Such a narrative is well worthy of being read. John Coustos has not, by his literary researches, added anything to the learning or science of our Order; yet, by his fortitude and fidelity under the severest sufferings, inflicted to exhort from him a knowledge he was bound to conceal, he has shown that Freemasonry makes no idle boast in declaring that its secrets "are locked up in the depository of faithful breasts."
*
COUVREUR
The title of an officer in a French Lodge, equivalent to the English Tiler.
*
COUVRIR LE TEMPLE
A French expression for the English one to close the Lodge. But it has also another signification. To cover the Temple to a Brother, means in French Masonic language, to exclude him from the Lodge.
*
COVENANT OF FREEMASONRY
As a covenant is defined to be a contract or agreement between two or more parties on certain terms, there can be no doubt that when a man is made a Freemason he enters into a covenant with the Institution. On his part he promises to fulfil certain promises, and to discharge certain duties, for which, on the other part, the Fraternity bind themselves by an equivalent covenant of friendship, protection, and support. This covenant must of course be repeated and modified with every extension of the terms of agreement on both sides.
The covenant of an Entered Apprentice is different from that of a Fellow Craft, and the covenant of the latter from that of a Master Mason. As we advance in Freemasonry our obligations increase, but the covenant of each Degree is not the less permanent or binding because that of a succeeding one has been super-added. The second covenant does not impair the sanctity of the first.
This covenant of Freemasonry is symbolized and sanctioned by the most important and essential of all the ceremonies of the Institution. It is the very foundation-stone which supports the whole edifice, and, unless it be properly laid, no superstructure can with any safety be erected. It is indeed the covenant that makes the Freemason.
A master so important as this, in establishing the relationship of a Freemason with the Craft-this baptism, so to speak, by which a member is inaugurated into the Institution-must of course be attended with the most solemn and binding ceremonies. Such has been the case in all countries. Covenants have always been solemnized with certain solemn forms and religious observances which gave them a sacred sanction in the minds of the contracting parties. The Hebrews, especially, invested their covenants with the most imposing ceremonies.
The first mention of a covenant in form that is met with in Scripture is that recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, where, to confirm it, Abraham, in obedience to the Divine command, took a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, "and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another" (see Genesis v, 10). This dividing a victim into two parts, that the covenanting parties might pass between them, was a custom not confined to the Hebrews, but borrowed from them by all the heathen nations.
In the Book of Jeremiah it is again alluded to , and the penalty for the violation of the covenant is also expressed.
And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.
The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf.
I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their live; and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth" (Jeremiah xxxiv, 18, 19, 20).
These ceremonies, thus briefly alluded to in the passages which have been quoted, were performed in full, as follows. The attentive Masonic student will observe the analogies to those of his own Order.
The parties entering into a covenant first selected a proper animal, such as a calf or a kid among the Jews, a sheep among the Greeks, or a pig among the Romans. The throat was then cut across, with a single blow, so as to completely divide the windpipe and arteries, without to touching the bone. This was the first ceremony of the covenant. The second was, to tear open the breast, to take from thence the heart and vitals, and if on inspection the least imperfection was discovered, the body was considered unclean, and thrown aside for another. The third ceremony was to divide the body in twain, and to place the two parts to the north and south, so that the parties to the covenant might pass between them, coming from the east and going to the west. The carcass was then left as a prey to the wild beasts of the field and the vultures of the air, and thus the covenant was ratified (see Hand, also Oath and Penalty).
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COVERING OF THE LODGE
As the lectures tell us that our ancient Brethren met on the highest hills and lowest vales, from this it is inferred that, as the meetings were thus in the open air, the only covering must have been the overarching vault of heaven. Hence, in the symbolism of Freemasonry the covering of the Lodge is said to be a clouded canopy or starry-decked heaven. The terrestrial Lodge of labor is thus intimately connected with the celestial Lodge of eternal refreshment. The symbolism is still further extended to remind us that the whole world is a Freemason's Lodge, and heaven its sheltering cover.
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COWAN
This is a purely Masonic term, and signifies in its technical meaning an intruder, whence it is always coupled with the word eavesdropper. It is no t fo und in any of the old manuscripts of the English Freemasons anterior to the eighteenth century, unless we suppose that lowen, met with in many of them, is a clerical error of the copyists. It occurs in the Schaw Manuscript, a Scotch record which bears the date of 1598, in the following passage: "That no Master or Fellow of Craft receive any cowans to work in his society or company, nor send none of his servants to work with cowans." In the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions, published in 1738 (page 146), we find the word in use among the English Freemasons, thus : ''But Free and Accepted Masons shall not allow cowans to work with them ; nor shall they be employed by cowans without an urgent necessity; and even in that case they must not reach cowans, but must have a separate communication." There can be but little doubt that the word, as a Masonic term, comes to us from Scotland, and it is therefore in the Scotch language that we must look for its signification. Now, Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, gives us the following meanings of the word: Cowans.
l. A term of contempt ; applied to one who does the work of a mason, but has not been regularly bred.
2. Also used to denote one who builds dry walls, otherwise denominated a dry diker.
3. One unacquainted with the secrets of Freemasonry.
And he gives the following examples as his authorities:
A boat-carpenter, joiner, cowan (or builder of stone without mortar), get ls. at the minimum and good maintenance. P. Morven, Argyles. Statistic, Acct., X, 267. N.
Cowans. Masons who build dry-stone dikes or walls. P. Halkirk, Carthn, Statistic. Acct., XIX, 24. N. In the Rob Roy of Scott, the word is used by Allan Inverach, who says:
She does not value a Cawmill mair as a cowan.
The word has therefore, in the opinion of Brother Mackey, come to the English Fraternity directly from the Operative Freemasons of Scotland, among whom it was used to denote a pretender, in the exact sense of the first meaning of Jamieson.
There is no word that has given Masonic scholars more trouble than this in tracing its derivation. By some it has been considered to come from the Greek meaning a dog; and referred to the fact that in the early ages of the Church, when the mysteries of the new religion were communicated only to initiates under the veil of secrecy, infidels were called dogs, a term probably suggested by such passages as (Matthew vii 6), "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs"; or (Philippians iii 2), "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision'' (see also Revelations xxii 15). This derivation has been adopted by Oliver, and many other writers.
Jamieson's derivations are from the old Swedish kujon, kuzhjohn, meaning a silly fellow, and the French coion, coyon, signifying a coward, a base fellow. No matter how we get the word, it seems always to convey an idea of contempt. .The attempt to derive it from the chouans of the French Revolution is manifestly absurd, for it has been shown that the word was in use long before the French Revolution was even meditated.
However, Brother Hawkins points out that Doctor Murray in the New English Dictionary says that the derivation of the word is unknown.
Notwithstanding the above reference by Brother Hawkins we may venture to consider another objective.
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DESCRIPTIVE
There is a possibility of the word common presenting an explanation of our word cowan. Common is found frequently in use by the trade Gilds. Usually it means the citizens as a body. Today the English Commons is the assembled representatives of the people.
Several instances of its use are to be found in Jupps' History of the Carpenters Company. Sometimes it is spelled Coen and then Comon, and so on as the habit or fancy of the writer moved him. About half a dozen of them are given in the book by Jupp.
To the Masonic student of philology we would submit these considerations as it is just possible that cowan is but a variant of common. Workmen raised by a skilled knowledge of their trade above the ordinary level could not directly stigmatize those not in their class by any more descriptive word than that which briefly scored them as of merely ordinary qualifications. Do the contemptuous not still so speak of the common herd, and has not the outraged "cullud pussun" been reported by the freely descriptive novelist as retorting on occasion with the saying of "common white trash?"
*
COWPER, WILLIAM
Deputy Grand Master, 1726-7, under Lord Inchiquin.
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CRAFT
It is from the Saxon craft, which indirectly signifies skill or dexterity in any art. In reference to this skill, therefore, the ordinary acceptation is a trade or mechanical art, and collectively, the persons practicing it. Hence, the Craft, in Speculative Freemasonry, signifies the whole body of Freemasons, wherever dispersed.
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CRAFT MASONRY, ANCIENT
See Ancient Craft Masonry
*
CRAFTED
A word sometimes colloquially used, instead of the Lodge term passed, to designate the advancement of a candidate to the Second Degree.
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CRAFTSMAN
A Freemason. The word originally meant anyone skillful in his art, and is so used by our early writers. Thus Chaucer, in his Knights' Tale (v 1897), says:
For in the land there was no craftsman,
That geometry or arsmetrike can,
Nor pourtrayor, nor carver of images,
That Theseus ne gave him meat and wages.
The theatre to make and to devise.
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CRAFTSMEN, CLEVELAND FEDERATION OF
See Universal Craftsmen Council of Engineers
*
CRATA REPOA
See Egyptian Priests, Initiations of the.
*
CREATE
In chivalry, when anyone received the order of knighthood, he was said to be created a knight. The word dub had also the same meaning. The word created is used in Commanderies of Knights Templar to denote the elevation of a candidate to that Degree (see Dub).
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CREATION
Preston (Illustrations of Masonry, Book I, Section 3) says: "From the commencement of the world, we may trace the foundation of Masonry.
Ever since symmetry began, and harmony displayed her charms, our Order has had a being." Language like this has been deemed extravagant, and justly, too , if the words are to be taken in their literal sense. The idea that the Order of Freemasonry is coeval with the creation is so absurd that the pretension cannot need refutation. But the fact is, that Anderson, Preston, and other writers who have indulged in such statements, did not mean by the word Masonry anything like an organized Order or Institution bearing any resemblance to the Freemasonry of the present day.
They simply meant to indicate that the great moral principles on which Freemasonry is founded, and by which it professes to be guided, have always formed a part of the Divine government, and been presented to man from his first creation for his acceptance. The words quoted from Preston may be subject to criticism, because they are liable to misconstruction. But the symbolic idea which they intended to convey, namely, that Freemasonry is truth, and that truth is coexistent with man's creation, is correct, and cannot be disputed.
*
CREED, A FREEMASON'S
Although Freemasonry is not a dogmatic theology, and is tolerant in the admission of men of every religious faith, it would be wrong to suppose that it is without a creed.
On the contrary, it has a creed, the assent to which it rigidly enforces, and the denial of which is absolutely incompatible with membership in the Order, This creed consists of two articles: First, a belief in God, the Creator of all things, who is therefore recognized as the Great Architect of the Universe ; and secondly, a belief in the eternal life, to which this present life is but a preparatory and probationary state. To the first of these articles assent is explicitly required as soon as the threshold of the Lodge is crossed. The second is expressively taught by legends and symbols, and must be implicitly assented to by every Freemason, especially by those who have received the Third Degree, which is altogether founded on the doctrine of the resurrection to a second life.
At the revival of Freemasonry in 1717, the Grand Lodge of England set forth the law, as to the religious creed to be required of a Freemason, in the following words, to be found in the Charges approved by that body.
In ancient times, Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was; yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves (see Constitutions, 1723, page 50). This is now considered universally as the recognized law on the subject.
*
CRESSET
An open lamp formerly having a crosspiece filled with combustible material, such as naphtha, and recognized as the symbol of Light and Truth.
*
CREUZER, GEORG FRIEDERICH
George Frederick Creuzer, who was born in Germany in 1771, and was a professor at the University of Heidelberg, devoted himself to the study of the ancient religions, and, with profound learning, established a peculiar system on the subject. His theory was, that the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks were borrowed from a far more ancient people - -a body of priests coming from the East-who received them as a revelation. The myths and traditions of this ancient people were adopted by Hesiod, Homer, and the later poets, although not without some misunderstanding of them ; and they were finally preserved in the Mysteries, and became subjects of investigation for the philosophers. This theory Creuzer has developed in his most important work, entitled Symbolik und Archäologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen, which was published at Leipsic in 1819--21. There is no translation of this work into English; but Guigniaut published at Paris, in 1829, a paraphrastic translation of it, under the title of Religions de l'Antiquité considerées principalement dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques (Religions of Antiquity, considered principally under their Symbolical and Mythological Forms). Creuzer's views throw much light on the symbolic history of Freemasonry. He died in1858.
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CRIMES, MASONIC
In Freemasonry, every offense is a crime, because, in every violation of a Masonic law there is not only sometimes an infringement of the rights of an individual, but always, superinduced upon this, a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community of the Order considered as a community.
The first class of crimes which are laid down in the Constitutions, as rendering their perpetrators liable to Masonic jurisdiction, are offenses against the moral law. "Every Mason," says the Old Charges of 1722, "is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law." The same charge continues the precept by asserting, that if he rightly understands the art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine. Atheism, therefore, which is a rejection of a supreme, superintending Creator, and irreligious libertinism, which, in the language of that day, signified a denial of all moral responsibility, are offenses against the moral law, because they deny its validity and contemn its sanctions ; and hence they are to be classed as Masonic crimes.
Again: the moral law inculcates love of God, love , of our neighbor, and duty to ourselves. Each of these embraces other incidental duties which are obligatory on every Freemason, and the violation of any one of which constitutes a Masonic crime.
The love of God implies that we should abstain from all profanity and irreverent use of his name. Universal benevolence is the necessary result of love of our neighbor. Cruelty to one's inferiors and dependents, uncharitableness to the poor and needy, and a general misanthropical neglect of our duty as men to our fellow-beings, exhibiting itself in extreme selfishness and indifference to the comfort or happiness of all others, are offenses against the moral law, and therefore Masonic crimes.
Next to violations of the moral law, in the category of Masonic crimes, are to be considered the transgressions of the municipal law, or the law of the land.
Obedience to constituted authority is one of the first duties which is impressed upon the mind of the candidate; and hence he who transgress the laws of the government under which he lives violates the teachings of the Order, and is guilty of a Masonic crime.
But the Order will take no cognizance of ecclesiastical or political offenses. And this arises from the very nature of the society, which eschews all controversies about national religion or state policy. Hence apostasy, heresy, and schisms, although considered in some governments as heinous offenses, and subject to severe punishment, are not viewed as Masonic crimes Lastly, violations of the Landmarks and Regulations of the Order are Masonic crimes. Thus, disclosure of any of the secrets which a Freemason has promised to conceal; disobedience and want of respect to Masonic superiors; the bringing of "private piques or quarrels" into, the Lodge; want of courtesy and kindness to the Brethren ; speaking calumniously of a Freemason behind his back, or in any other way attempting to injure him, as by striking him except in self-defense, or violating his domestic honor, is each a crime in Freemasonry. Indeed, whatever is a violation of fidelity to solemn engagements, a neglect of prescribed duties, or a transgression of the cardinal principles of friendship, morality, and brotherly love, is a Masonic crime.
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CRIMSON
Crimoysin is Old English. A deep-red color tinged with blue, emblematical of fervency and zeal; belonging to several degrees of the Scottish Rite as well as to the Holy Royal Arch.
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CROMLECH
A large stone resting on two or more stones, like a table. Cromlechs are found in Brittany, Denmark, Germany, and some other parts of Europe, and are supposed to have been used in the Celtic Mysteries.
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CROMWELL
The Abb‚ Larudan published at Amsterdarn, in 1746, a book entitled Les Francs Maçons Ecrasés, meaning the Freemasons Crushed, of which Klos says in his Bibliographie der Freimaurerei No. 1874, that it is the armory from which all the abuse of Freemasonry by its enemies has been derived.
Larudan was the first to advance in this book the theory that 01iver Cromwell was the founder of Freemasonry. He says that Cromwell established the Order for the furtherance of his political designs; adopting with this view, as its governing principles, the doctrines of liberty and equality, and bestowed upon its members the title of Freemasons, because his object was to engage them in the building of a new edifice, that is to say, to reform the human race by the extermination of kings and all regal powers. He selected for this purpose the design of rebuilding the Temple of Solomon. This Temple, erected by Divine command, had been the sanctuary of religion. After years of glory and magnificence, it had been destroyed by a formidable army. The people who there worshiped had been conveyed to Babylon, whence, after enduring a rigorous captivity, they had been permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. This history of the Solomonic Temple Cromwell adopted, says Larudan, as an allegory on which to found his new Order. The Temple in its original magnificence was man in his primeval state of purity; its destruction and the captivity of its worshipers typified pride and ambition, which have abolished equality and introduced dependence among men; and the Chaldean destroyers of the glorious edifice are the kings who have trodden on an oppressed people.
It was, continues the Abbé, in the year 1648 that Cromwell, at an entertainment given by him to some of .his friends, proposed to them, in guarded terms, the establishment of a new society, which should secure a true worship of God, and the deliverance of man from oppression and tyranny. The proposition was received with unanimous favor; and a few days after, at a house in King Street, and at six o'clock in the evening, for the Abbé is particular as to time and place, the Order of Freemasonry was organized, its Degrees established, its ceremonies and ritual prescribed, and several of the adherents of the future Protector initiated.
The Institution was used by Cromwell for the advancement of his projects, for the union of the contending parties in England, for the extirpation of the monarchy, and his own subsequent elevation to supreme power. It extended from England into other countries, but was always careful to preserve the same doctrines of equality and liberty among men, and opposition to all monarchical government.
Such is the theory of the Abbé Larudan, who, although a bitter enemy of Freemasonry, writes with seeming farness and mildness. But it is hardly necessary to say that this theory of the origin of Freemasonry- finds no support either in the legends of the Institution, or in the authentic history that is connected with its rise and progress.
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CROMWELL, THOMAS, EARL OF ESSEX
Doctor Anderson says that Thomas Cromwell was Grand Master of England, 1534-40 (see also William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry, section iv).
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CROSIER
The staff surmounted by a cross carried before a bishop on occasions of solemn ceremony. They are generally gilt, and made light; frequently of tin, and hollow. The pastoral staff has a circular head.
*
CROSS
We can find no symbolism of the cross in the primitive Degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry. It does not appear among the symbols of the Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, the Master, or the Royal Arch. This is undoubtedly to be attributed to the fact that the cross was considered, by those who invented those Degrees, only in reference to its character as a Christian sign. The subsequent archeological investigations that have given to the cross a more universal place in iconography were unknown to the old rituals. It is true, that it is referred to, under the name of the rode or rood, in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, published by Halliwell; this was, however, one of the Constitutions of the Operative Freemasons, who were fond of the symbol, and were indebted for it to their ecclesiastical origin, and to their connection with the Gnosties, among whom the cross was a much used symbol. But on the revival in I7I7, when the ritual was remodified, and differed very greatly from that meager one in practice among the medieval Freemasons, all allusion to the cross was left out, because the revivalists laid down the principle that the religion of Speculative Freemasonry was not sectarian but universal. And although this principle was in some points, as in the lines parallel, neglected, the reticence as to the Christian sign of salvation has continued to the present day so that the cross cannot be considered as a symbol in the primary and original Degrees of Freemasonry.
But in the advanced Degrees, the cross has been introduced as an important symbol. In some of them - those which are to be traced to the Temple system of Ramsay-it is to be viewed with reference to its Christian origin and meaning.
Thus, in the original Rose Croix and Kadosh-no matter what may be the modern interpretation given to it-it was simply a representation of the cross of Christ. In others of a philosophical character, such as the ineffable Degrees, the symbolism of the cross was in all probability borrowed from the usages of antiquity, for from the earliest times and in almost all countries the cross has been a sacred symbol.
It is depicted on the oldest monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Hindustan.
It was, says Faber (Mysteries of the Cabiri 11, 390), a symbol throughout the Pagan world long previous to its becoming an object of veneration to Christians.
In ancient symbology it was a symbol of eternal life.
M. de Mortillet, who, in 1866, published a work entitled Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianism (The Sign of the Cross before Christianity), found in the very earliest epochs three principal symbols of universal occurrence: namely, the circle, the pyramid, and the cross. Leslie (Man's 0rigin and Destiny, page 312) quoting from him in reference to the ancient worship of the cross, says: "It seems to have been a worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of idols." This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one reason why its form was often adopted, especially by the Celts, in the construction of their temples.
Of the Druidical veneration of the cross, Higgins quotes from the treatise of Schedius, De Moribus Germanorum xxiv, the following remarkable paragraph:
The Druids seek studiously for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up with two principal arms in the form of a cross, beside the main, upright stem. If the two horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten a cross beam to it. This tree they consecrate in this manner. Upon the right. branch they cut in the bark, in fair characters, the word Hesus; upon the middle or upright stem, the word Taramis; upon the left branch, Belenus; over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut the name of God, Thau. Under all the same repeated, Thau. This tree, so inscribed, they make their kebla in the grove, cathedral, or summer church, towards which they direct their faces in the offices of religion.
Brinton, in his interesting work entitled Symbolism; The Myths of the New World (page 95) has the following remarks:
The symbol that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, the cross, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing interpretations. it is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of its use and meaning in America.
Brinton gives many instances of the religious use of the cross by several of the aboriginal tribes of this continent, where the allusion, it must be confessed, seems evidently to be to the four cardinal points, or the four winds, or four spirits of the earth. If this be so, and if it is probable that a similar reference was adopted by the Celtic and other ancient peoples, then we would have in the cruciform temple as much a symbolism of the world, of which the four cardinal points constitute the boundaries, as we have in the square, the cubical, and the circular.
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CROSS-BEARING MEN
The Latin is Viri Crucigeri. A name sometimes assumed by the Rosicrucians. Thus, in the Miracula Naturae of the year 1619, there is a letter addressed to the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, which begins with a Latin phrase: Philesophi Fratres, Viri Crucigeri, meaning Brother Philosophers, Cross-Bearing Men.
*
CROSS, DOUBLE
See Cross, Patriarchal
*
CROSS, JEREMY L
A teacher of the Masonic ritual, who, during his lifetime, was extensively known, and for some time very popular. He was born June 27, 1783, at Haverhill, New Hampshire, and died at the same place in I86I. Cross was admitted into the Masonic Order in 1808, and soon afterward became a pupil of Thomas Smith Webb, whose modifications of the Preston lectures and of the advanced Degrees were generally accepted by the Freemasons of the United States. Cross, having acquired a competent knowledge of Webb's system, began to travel and disseminate it throughout the country. In 1819 he published The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor, in which he borrowed liberally from the previous work of Webb.
In fact, the Chart of Cross is, in nearly all its parts, a mere transcript of the Monitor of Webb, the first edition of which was published in 1797. Webb, it is true, took the same liberty with Preston, from whose Illustrations of Masonry be borrowed largely. The engraving of the emblems constituted, however, an entirely new and original feature in the Hieroglyphic Chart, and, as furnishing aids to the memory, rendered the book of Cross at once very popular; so much so, indeed, that for a long time it almost altogether superseded that of Webb. In 1820 Cross published The Templars Chart, which, as a monitor of the Degrees of chivalry, met with equal success. Both of these works have passed through numerous editions.
Cross received the appointment of Grand Lecturer from many Grand Lodges, and traveled for many years very extensively through the United States, teaching his system of lectures to Lodges, Chapters, Councils, and Encampments.
He possessed few or no scholarly attainments, and his contributions to the literature of Freemasonry are confined to the two compilations already cited. In his latter years he became involved in an effort to establish a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. But he soon withdrew his name, and retired to the place of his nativity, where he died at the advanced age of seventy-eight.
Although Cross was not a man of any very original genius, yet a more recent writer has announced the fact that the symbol in the Third Degree, the broken co1umn, unknown to the system of either Preston or Webb, was invented by him (see Monument).
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CROSS, JERUSALEM
A Greek cross between four crosslets. It was adopted by Baldwyn as the arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and has since been deemed a symbol of the Holy Land. It is also the jewel of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. Symbolically, the four small crosses typify the four wounds of the Savior in the hands and feet, and the large central cross shows forth his death for that world to which the four extremities point.
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CROSS, MALTESE
A cross of eight points, worn by the Knights of Malta. It is heraldically described as "a cross pattée, but the extremity of each pattée notched at a deep angle." The eight points are said to refer symbolically to the eight beatitudes (see Matthew v, 3 to II ).
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CROSS OF CONSTANTINE
See Labarum
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CROSS OF SALEM
Called also the Pontifical Cross, because it is borne before the Pope. It is a cross, the upright piece being crossed by three lines, the upper and lower shorter than the middle one. It is the insignia of the Grand Master and Past Grand Masters of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. The same cross placed on a slant is the insignia of the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
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CROSS, PASSION
The cross on which Jesus suffered crucifixion. It is the most common form of the cross. When rayonnant, or having rays issuing from the point of intersection of the limbs, it is the insignia of the Commander of a Commandery of Knights Templar, according to the American system.
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CROSS, PATRIARCHAL
A cross, the upright piece being twice crossed, the upper arms shorter than the lower. It is so called because it is borne before a Patriarch in the Roman Church.
It is the insignia of the officers of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. The same cross placed on a slant is the insignia of all possessors of the Thirty-third Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
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CROSS, SAINT ANDREW'S
A saltier or cross whose decussation or crossing of the arms is in the form of the letter X. Said to be the form of cross on which Saint Andrew suffered martyrdom. As he is the patron saint of Scotland, the Saint Andrew's cross forms a part of the jewel of the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which is "a star set with brilliants having in the center a field azure (blue), charged with Saint Andrew on the cross, gold this is pendant from the upper band of the collar, while from the lower band is pendant the jewel proper, the Compasses extended, with the Square and Segment of a Circle of 90, the points of the Compasses resting on the Segment, and in the center, the Sun between the Square and Compasses.'' The Saint Andrew's cross is also the jewel of the Twenty-ninth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or Grand Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew.
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CROSS, TAU
The cross on which Saint Anthony is said to have suffered martyrdom. It is in the form of the letter T (see Tau).
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CROSS, TEMPLAR
André Favin, a French heraldic writer, says that the original badge of the Knights Templar was a Patriarchal Cross, and Clarke, in his History of Knighthood, makes the same statement, but this is an error. At first, the Templars wore a white mantle without any cross. But in 1146 Pope Eugenius III prescribed for them a red cross on their breasts, as a symbol of the martyrdom to which they were constantly exposed. The cross of the Hospitalers was white on a black mantle, and that of the Templars was different in color but of the same form, namely, a cross pattée, pattée meaning the arms broad and spreading at the outer ends. In this it differed from the true Maltese Cross, worn by the Knights of Malta, which was a cross pattée, the limbs deeply notched so as to make a cross of eight points. Sir Walter Scott, with his not unusual heraldic inaccuracy, and Godfrey Higgins, who is not often inaccurate, but only fanciful at times, both describe the Templar cross as having eight points, thus confounding it with the Cross of Malta. In the statutes of the Order of the Temple, the cross prescribed is that depicted in the Charter of Transmission, and is a cross pattée.
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CROSS, TEUTONIC
The cross formerly worn by the Teutonic Knights. It is described in heraldry as "a cross potent, sable (or black), charged with another cross double potent or (or gald), and surcharged with an escutcheon argent (or silver), bearing a double-headed eagle sable (or black). " It has been adopted as the jewel of the Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States, but the original jewel of the degree was a Latin or Passion Cross.
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CROSS, THRICE ILLUSTRIOUS ORDER OF THE
A Degree formerly conferred in this country on Knights Templar, but now extinct. Its meetings were called Councils, and under the authority of a body which styled itself the Ancient Council of the Trinity.
The Degree is no longer conferred.
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CROSS, TRIPLE
See Cross of Salem
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CROSSES
In referring to the philosophic triads and national crosses, there will be found in a work entitled The Celtic Druids, by Godfrey Higgins, the following: "Few causes have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient history than the idea, hastily formed by all ages, that every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of those symbols which they' conceived to be monograms of Christ the Savior, was of Christian origin. The cross is as common in India as in Egypt or Europe."
The Rev. Mr. Maurice remarks (Indian Antiquities): "Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended at the assertion that the cross was one of the most usual symbols of Egypt and India. The emblem of universal nature is equally honored in the Gentile and Christian world. In the Cave of Elephanta, in India, over the head of the principal figure may be seen the cross, with other symbols."
Upon the breast of one of the Egyptian mummies in the museum of the London University is a cross upon a Calvary or mount. People in those countries marked their sacred water-jars, dedicated to Canopus, with a Tau cross, and sometimes even that now known as the Teutonic cross. The fertility of the country about the river Nile, in Egypt, was designated, in distance on its banks from the river proper, by the Nilometer, in the form of a cross.
The erudite Dr. G. L. Ditson says: "The Rabbins say that when Aaron was made High Priest he was marked in the forehead by Moses with a cross in the shape of that now known as Saint Andrew's. "
Proselytes, when admitted into the religious mysteries of Eleusis, were marked with a cross
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CROSSING THE RIVER
The Cabalists have an alphabet so called, in allusion to the crossing of the river Euphrates by the Jews on their return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It has been adopted in some of the advanced Degrees which refer to that incident. Cornelius Agrippa gives a copy of the alphabet in his Occult Philosophy.
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CROSS-LEGGED KNIGHTS
In the Middle Ages it was the custom to bury the body of a Knight Templar with one leg crossed over the other; and on any monuments in the churches of Europe, the effigies of these knights are to be found, often in England, of a diminutive size, with the legs placed in this position. The cross-legged posture was not confined to the Templars, but was appropriated to all persons who had assumed the cross and taken a vow to fight in defense of the Christian religion. The posture, of course, alluded to the position of the Lord while on the cross.
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CROSS-LEGGED MASONS
A name given to the Knights Templar, who, in the sixteenth century, united themselves with the Masonic Lodge at Sterling, in Scotland. The allusion is evidently to the funeral posture of the Templars, so that a cross-legged Mason must have been at the time synonymous with a Masonic Knight Templar.
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CROTONA
One of the most prominent cities of the Greek colonists in Southern Italy, where, in the sixth century, Pythagoras established his celebrated school. As the early Masonic writers were fond of citing Pythagoras as a Brother of their Craft, Crotona became connected with the history of Freemasonry, and was often spoken of as one of the most renowned seats of the Institution. Thus, in the Leland Manuscript, whose authenticity is now, however, doubted, it is said that Pythagoras "framed a grate Lodge at Groton, and made many Maconnes," in which sentence Groton, it must be remarked, is an evident corruption of Crotona.
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CROW
An iron implement used to raise heavy stones. It is one of the working-tools of a Royal Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him to raise his thoughts above the corrupting influence of worldly-mindedness.
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CROWN
A portion of Masonic regalia worn by officers who represent a king, more especially King Solomon. In Ancient Craft Freemasonry, however, the crown is frequently displaced by the hat.
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CROWN, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the Crown
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CROWN, PRINCESSES OF THE
The French phrase is Princesses de la Couronne. A species of androgynous or female Freemasonry established in Saxony in 1770 (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 1, 303). It existed for only a brief period.
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CROWNED MARTYRS
See Four Crowned Martyrs
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CROWNING OF MASONRY
The French expression is Le couronnement de la Maçonnerie. The Sixty-first Degree, seventh series, of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 1, 303).
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CROWNS
As the result of considerable classification, Brother Robert Macoy presents nine principal crowns recognized in heraldry and symbolism:
1. The Triumphal Crown, of which there were three kinds---a laurel wreath, worn by a General while in the act of triumph; a golden Crown, in imitation of laurel leaves ; and the presentation golden Crown to a conquering General.
2. The Blockade Crown of wild flowers and grass, presented by the army to the Commander breaking and relieving a siege.
3. The Civic Crown of oak leaves, presented to a soldier who saved the life of his comrade.
4. The Olive Crown, conferred upon the soldiery or commander who consummated a triumph.
5. The Mural Crown, which rewarded the soldier who first sealed the wall of a besieged city.
6. The Naval Crown, presented to the Admiral who won a naval victory.
7. The Vallary Crown, or circlet of gold, bestowed on that soldier who first surmounted the stockade and forced an entrance into the enemy's camp.
8. The Ovation Crown, or chaplet of myrtle, awarded to a General who had destroyed a despised enemy and thus obtained the honor of an ovation.
9. The Eastern or Radiated Crown, a golden circle set with projecting rays.
The crown of Darius, used in Red Cross knighthood and in the Sixteenth Degree, Scottish Rite, was one of seven points, the central front projection being more prominent than the other six in size and height.
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CRUCEFIX, ROBERT T.
An English Freemason, distinguished for his services to the Craft. Robert Thomas Crucefix, M.D., I. D., was born in Holborn, England, in the year 1797, and received his education at Merchant Tailors' School. After leaving school, he became the pupil of Doctor Chamberlayne, a general and celebrated practitioner of his day, at Clerkenwell; he afterward became a student at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital and was a pupil of the celebrated Abernathy.
On receiving his diploma as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1810, he went out to India, where he remained but a short time; upon his return he settled in London, and he continued to reside there till the year 1845, when he removed to Milton-on-Thames, where he spent the rest of his life till within a few weeks before his decease, when he removed, for the benefit of his declining health, to Bath, where he expired February 25, 1850.
Doctor Crucefix was initiated into Freemasonry in 1829, and during the greater part of his life discharged the duties of important offices in the Grand Lodge of England, of which he was a Junior Grand Deacon in 1836, and in several subordinate Lodges, Chapters, and Encampments. He was an earnest promoter of all the Masonic charities of England, of one of which, the Asylum for Aged and Decrepit Freemasons, he was the founder. In 1834 he established the Freemasons Quarterly Review, and continued to edit it for six years, during which period he contributed many valuable articles to its pages.
Brother Mackey says that in 1840, through the machinations of his enemies, for he was too great a man not to have had some, he incurred the displeasure of the ruling powers; and on charges which, undoubtedly, were not sustained by sufficient evidence, he was suspended by the Grand Lodge for six months, and retired from active Masonic life. But he never lost the respect of the Craft, nor the affection of the leading Freemasons who were his contemporaries. On his restoration, he again began to labor in behalf of the Institution, and spent his last days in advancing its interests.
The belief of Brother Mackey was founded upon evidence that however satisfactory to him is not wholly in agreement with that given by Brother Hawkins, whose account in his Concise Cyclopedia of Freemasonry (page 60), is as follows:
Brother Crucefix set on foot a movement in favor of a charity for Aged Freemasons; he advocated the erection of an asylum, while others urged that a system of annuities was a preferable scheme. The matter was keenly discussed for several years, and at a meeting on November 13, 1839, at which Doctor Crucefix was presiding some intemperate language was employed, as to which a complaint was made to the Board of General Purposes, and Crucefix was suspended for six months for not having checked the speakers; his suspension was confirmed at a Grand Lodge in June, 1840, and he then wrote a vehement letter to the Grand Master and published it in the Freemasons' Quarterly Review with many improper editorial observations; the letter was laid before the Board of General Purposes, and he was summoned to show cause at a Special Grand Lodge why he should not be expelled from the Craft; accordingly, on October 30, he attended and made a very. humble apology, which was accepted. Doctor Crucefix died in 1550, in which year also the Asylum and Annuity Funds for Aged Freemasons and their Widows were amalgamated.
To his character, his long-tried friend, the venerable Oliver, pays this tribute:
Doctor. Crucefix did not pretend to infallibility, and , like all other public men he might. be sometimes wrong ; but his errors were not from the heart, and always leaned to the side of virtue and beneficence. He toiled incessantly for the benefit of his Brethren, and was anxious that all inestimable blessings should be conveyed by Freemasonry on mankind. In sickness or in health he was ever found at his post, and his sympathy was the most active in behalf of the destitute brother, the widow, and the orphan. His perseverance never flagged for a moment; and he acted as though he had made up his mind to live and die in obedience to the calls of duty.
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CRUCIFIX
A cross with the image of the Savior suspended on it. A part of the furniture of a Commandery of Knights Templar and of a Chapter of Princes of Rose Croix.
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CRUDELI, DOCTOR
Master of the Lodge at Florence, Italy, victim of the Inquisition, arrested in 1739, in Florence, on the charge of having held a Masonic Lodge in his house in spite of the Roman Catholic edict against Freemasons. He was tortured ans sentenced to a long imprisonment. The Grand Lodge of England transmitted to him twenty pounds to provide the necessities of life, and exerted every effort toward securing his liberation, which they succeeded in doing in December of that year (see Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, Dudley Wright, London, 1922, page 27).
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CRUSADES
There was between Freemasonry and the Crusades a much more intimate relation than has generally been supposed. In the first place, the communications frequently established by the Crusaders, and especially the Knights Templar, with the Saracens, led to the acquisition, by the former, of many of the dogmas of the secret societies of the East, such as the Essenes, the Assassins, and the Druses.
These were brought. by. the knights to Europe, and subsequently, as was believed by Brother Mackey, on the establishment by Ramsay and his contemporaries and immediate successors of Templar Freemasonry, were incorporated into the high degrees, and still exhibit their influence. Indeed, it is scarcely to be doubted that many of these degrees were invented with a special reference to the events which occurred in Syria and Palestine. Thus, for instance, the Scottish Degree of Knights of the East and West must have originally alluded, as its name imports, to the legend which teaches a division of the Freemasons after the Temple was finished, when the Craft dispersed-a part remaining in Palestine, as the Assideans, whom Lawrie, citing Scaliger, calls the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, and another part passing over into Europe, whence they returned on the breaking out of the Crusades.
This, of course, is but a legend, yet the influence is felt in the invention of the advanced Degrees rituals. But the influence of the Crusades on the Freemasons and the architecture of the Middle Ages is of a more historical character. In 1836, Westmacott, in a course of lectures on art before the Royal Academy, remarked that the two principal causes which materially tended to assist the restoration of literature and the arts in Europe were Freemasonry and the Crusades.
The adventurers, he said, who returned from the Holy Land brought back some ideas of various improvements, particularly in architecture, and, along with these, a strong desire to erect castellated, ecclesiastical and palatial edifices, to display the taste they had acquired; and in less than a century from the first crusade about six hundred buildings of the above description had been erected in Southern and Western Europe. This taste was spread into almost all countries by the establishment of the Fraternity of Freemasons, who, it appears, had, under some peculiar form of brotherhood, existed for an immemorial period in Syria and other parts of the East, from whence some bands of them migrated to Europe, and after a time a great efflux of these ingenious men-Italian, German, French, Spanish, etc.-had spread themselves in communities through all civilized Europe; and in all countries where they settled we find the same style of architecture from that period, but differing in some points of treatment, as suited the climate.
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CRUX ANSATA
This signifies, in Latin, the cross with a handle. It is formed by a Tau cross surmounted by a circle or, more properly, an oval. It was one of the most significant of the symbols of the ancient Egyptians, and is depicted repeatedly on their monuments borne in the hands of their deities, and especially Phtha. Among them it was the symbol of life, and with that meaning it has been introduced into some of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonry.
The Crux Ansata, surrounded by a serpent in a circle, is the symbol of immortality, because the cross was the symbol of life, and the serpent of eternity.
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CRYPT
From the Greek, Ke meaning to hide. A concealed place, or subterranean vault. The caves, or cells underground, in which the primitive Christians celebrated their secret worship, were called cryptae; and the vaults beneath our modern churches receive the name of crypts. The existence of crypts or vaults under the Temple of Solomon is testified to by the earliest as well as by the most recent topographers of Jerusalem. Their connection with the legendary history of Freemasonry is more fully noticed under the head of Vault, Secret.
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CRYPTIC DEGREES
The degrees of Royal and Select Master. Some modern ritualists have added to the list the Degree of Super-excellent Master ; but this, although now often conferred in a Cryptic Council, is not really a Cryptic Degree, since its legend has no connection with the crypt or secret vault.
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CRYPTIC FREEMASONRY
That division of the Masonic system which is directed to the investigation and cultivation of the Cryptic Degrees. It is, literally, the Freemasonry of the Secret Vault.
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CTEIS
Greek, Ke". The female personification of the productive principle. It generally accompanied the phallus, as the Indian yoni did the lingam; and as a symbol of the prolific powers of nature, was extensively venerated by the nations of antiquity (see Phallic Worship).
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CUBA
The Historia de la Masoneria Cubana by Ricards A. Byrne, quoted freely in Symbolisme, November, 1925, and translated by us for the Builder, April, 1926, page 115, indicated that an Irish military Lodge was working at Havana from 1762. The 1798 insurrection drove some French Brethren to Santiago de Cuba from Santo Domingo where Lodges existed since 1748. These immigrants erected Lodges, Perseverance and Concord, Friendship and Benevolent Concord, in 1802 and 1803. Next year the Lodge Le Temple des Virtus Theologales was instituted at Havana by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania but the Franco-Spanish War in 1809 forced the French to leave for Louisiana.
On March 27, 1818, a Grand Lodge was organized, and April 2, General Louis de Clonet, a Frenchman, founded at Havana a Grand Consistory, Princes of the Royal Secret. But Masonic progress was hindered in 1823 by the arrest and execution of many Brethren, victims of the bloody persecutions ordered by Ferdinand VII. Masonic meetings were forbidden and only allowed after many years, in 1859. Again the War of Independence exposed Freemasonry once more to the attacks of the authorities and it survived in secret to resume open freedom on March 26, 1899, through intervention by the United States. Lodges resumed labor, others were organized, and the Gran Logia de la Isla de Cuba, founded in 1859, of which Brother Byme has been Grand Master, thrived accordingly. There is also recorded by the Annual an Oriental Grand Lodge, dating from I921, with headquarters at Santiago de Cuba but this is not mentioned in the data credited to Brother Byrne.
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CUBICAL STONE
This symbol is called by the French Freemasons pierre cubique, and by the German, cubik stein. It is the Perfect Ashlar of the English and American systems (see Ashlar).
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CUBIT
A measure of length, originally denoting the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, or the fourth part of a well-proportioned man's stature. The Hebrew cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland, was twenty-one inches ; but only eighteen according to other authorities. There were two kinds of cubits, the sacred and profane---the former equal to thirty-six, and the latter to eighteen inches. It is by the common cubit that the dimension of the various parts of the Temple are to be computed.
Hastings Dictionary of the Bible (page 967) declares that ''we have at present no means of ascertaining the exact dimensions of the Hebrews ordinary and royal cubits. The balance of evidence is certainly in favor of a fairly close approximation to the Egyptian system." This being the case, we may take the common cubit as 17.52 inches and the royal cubit as 20.67 inches as in the Egyptian system of measurements, these dimensions being taken from actual measuring rods. Hastings points out a curious result of the Rabbinical tradition being subjected to scientific experiment, the traditional dimension being that a cubit equaled so many grains of barley. This number, 144 of grains of barley of medium size were laid side by side carefully and measured as accurately as possible, the result being 17.77 inches long or equal in length substantially to the Egyptian common cubit.
Another suggestion that has been offered is that Josephus when giving Jewish measures, which differ from the Greek or Roman, is usually careful to explain that fact to his readers, but this he does not do in the case of the cubit, thus arousing a conviction that he regarded the Roman and the Hebrew as the same, the Roman Attic cubit being 17.57 inches according to Hastings. But it is well to remember that we are dealing with a period in which handbreadths and finger spans were probably the common units of length, and the decimal parts of inches and perhaps the inches themselves mentioned in the above comments need to be deemed mere approximations, an average sort of survey of a situation not likely to have had in the ancient times any close accuracy about it.
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CULDEES
When Saint Augustine came over, about the beginning of the sixth century, to Britain, for the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity, he found the country already occupied by a Body of priests and their disciples, who were distinguished for the pure and simple apostolic religion which they professed. These were the Culdees, a name said by some to be derived from Cultores Dei, or worshipers of God ; but by others, with perhaps more plausibility, from the Gaelic, Cuildich, which means a secluded corner, and evidently alludes to their recluse mode of life. The Culdees are said to have come over into Britain with the Roman legions; and thus it has been conjectured that these primitive Christians were in some way connected with the Roman Colleges of Architects, blanches of which Body, it is well known, everywhere accompanied the legionary armies of the empire.
The chief seat of the Culdees was in the island of Iona, where Saint Culumba, coming out of Ireland, with twelve Brethren, in the year 563 A.D., established their principal monastery. At Avernethy, the capital of the kingdom of the Picts, they founded another in the year 600 A.D., and subsequently other principal seats at Dunkeld, St. Andrew's, Brechin, Dunblane, Dunfermline, Kirkaldy, Melrose, and many other places in Scotland.
A writer in the London Freemasons Quarterly Review (1842, page 36) says they were little solicitous to raise architectural structures, but sought chiefly to civilize and socialize mankind by imparting to them the knowledge of those pure principles which they taught in their Lodges. Lenning and Gädieke, however, both state that the Culdees had organized within themselves, and as a part of their social system, Corporations of Builders; and that they exercised the architectural art in the construction of many sacred edifices in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and even in other countries of Northern. Europe. Gädicke also claims that the York Constitutions of the tenth century were derived from them. But neither of these German lexicographers has furnished us With authorities upon which these statements are founded. It is, however, undeniable, that Masonic writers have always claimed that there was a connection---it might be only a mythical one---between these apostolic Christians and the early Freemasonry of Ireland and Scotland. The Culdees were opposed and persecuted by the adherents ofi Saint Augustine, and were eventually extinguished in Scotland. But their complete suppression did not take place until about the fourteenth century.
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CUMBERLAND, HENRY F., DUKE OF
Grand Master of England, 1782-90, being initiated in 1767. He was own brother of King George III.
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CUMULATION OF RITES
The practice by a Lodge of two or more Rites, as the American or York and the Ancient Accepted Scottish, or the Scottish and French Modern Rites. This accumulation of Rites has been practiced to a considerable extent in France, and in Louisiana in the United States. The word comes from the Latin comulus, a heap.
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CUNNING
Used by old English writers in the sense of skillful. Thus, in First Kings (vii, 14), it is said of the architect who was sent by the King of Tyre to assist King Solomon in the construction of his Temple, that he was "cunning to work all works in brass.''
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CUP OF BITTERNESS
The French expression is Calice d'Amertume. A ceremony in the First Degree of the French Rite. It is a symbol of the misfortunes and sorrows that assail us in the voyage of life, and which we are taught to support with calmness and resignation.
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CURETES
Priests of ancient Crete, whose mysteries were celebrated in honor of the Mother of the Gods, and bore, therefore, some resemblance to the Eleusinian Rites. The neophyte was initiated in a cave, where he remained closely confined for thrice nine days. Porphyry tells us that Pythagoras repaired to Crete to receive initiation into their rites.
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CURIOSITY
It is a very general opinion among Freemasons that a candidate should not be actuated by curiosity in seeking admission into the Order. But, in fact, there is no regulation nor landmark on the subject, An idle curiosity is, it is true, the characteristic of a weak mind. But to be influenced by a laudable curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of an Institution venerable for its antiquity and its universality, is to be controlled by a motive which is not reprehensible, an impulse to be esteemed and welcomed. There are, indeed, in legends of the advanced degrees, some instances where curiosity is condemned; but the curiosity, in these instances, led to an intrusion into forbidden places, and is very different from the curiosity or desire for knowledge which leads a profane to seek fairly and openly an acquaintance with mysteries which he has already leamed to respect.
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CURIOUS
The Latin word is curious, from cura, meaning care. An archaic expression for careful. Thus in Masonic language, which abounds in archaisms, an evidence, indeed, of its antiquity, Hiram Abif is described as a curious and cunning workman, that is to say, careful and skillful.
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CUSTOMS, ANCIENT
See Usages
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CYNOCEPHALUS
The figure of a man with the head of a dog. A very general and important hieroglyphic among the ancient Egyptians. It was with them a symbol of the sun and moon; and in their mysteries they taught that it had indicated to Isis the place where the Body of Osiris lay concealed. The possessor of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonry will be familiar with the symbol of a dog, which is used in those Degrees because that animal is said to have pointed out on a certain occasion an important secret.
Hence the figure of a dog is sometimes found engraved among the symbols on old Masonic diplomas.
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CYRUS
Cyrus, King of Persia, was a great conqueror, and after having reduced nearly all Asia, he crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Babylon, which he took by diverting the course of the river which ran through it. The Jews, who had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar on the destruction of the Temple, were then remaining as captives in Babylon. These Cyrus released 3466 AM., or 538 B.C., and sent back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God, under the care of Joshua, Zerubbabel, and Haggai.
Hence, from this connection of Cyrus with the history of Freemasonry, he plays an important part in the rituals of many of the advanced Degrees. But from late discoveries of inscriptions pertaining to Cyrus as mentioned in the excellent little London work called Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments (pages 166-86), A. H. Sayce, M.A., it would appear that this king was a polytheist, and that he was not a king of Persia, although he acquired that country after his Conquest of Asiyages, 559 B.C., between the sixth and ninth years of Nabonidos. Cyrus was king of Elam. The empire he founded was not a Persian one; Darius, the son of Hystaspes, at a subsequent period, was the real founder of that kingdom. Professor Sayce continues: ''It was only as the predecessor of Darius, and for the sake of intelligibility. to the readers of a later day, that Cyrus could be called a king of Persia" (see Ezra1, 2).
The original words of his proclamation ''King of Elam,'' have been changed into the more familiar and intelligible "King of Persia." Elsewhere in the Bible (Isaiah xxi, 1-10), when the invasion of Babylon is described, there is no mention of Persia, only of Elam and Media, the ancestral dominions of Cyrus. This is in strict accordance with the revelations of the monuments, and testifies to the accuracy of the Old Testament records.
Cyrus Dever besieged Babylon, a city fifteen miles square. It opened its gates to his general without battle, 538 B.C. The description by Herodotus belongs to the reign of Darius. Bosanquet asserts that the Darius of the Book of Daniel is Darius the son of Hystaspes.
Cyrus had learned that a disaffected conquer people imported into a kingdom was a constantly menace and danger, and he returned the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and be a fortress and check upon Egypt. The nations which had been brought from East and West were restored to their lands along with their gods. So it was with the captives of Judah. His dominions extended from the Hellespont almost to India. Cyrus was a worshiper of Merodach, originally the Sun-god, who is mentioned and intended by the name Bel, and Nebo, his prophet (see Isaiah xlvi, 1). His first act after acquiring Babylonia was to restore the Babylonian gods to their shrines, from which they has been removed by Nabonidos, and further asks for their intercession. The theory that Cyrus believed in but one supreme god---Ormudz-must be abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be His instrument in restoring His chosen people to their land, not because the King of Elam was a monotheist, but because the period of prophecy, "ten weeks of years,'' was closing. These statements are made upon the authority of the three inscriptions among the clay documents lately discovered in Babylonia by Rassam, and translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Pinches. The first of these is a cylinder, inscribed by order of Cyrus ; the second a tablet, which describes the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus; while the third is an account given by Nabonidos of his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Haran, and of the temples of the sun-god and of Anunit at Sepharvaim.
Cyrus ascended the throne 559 B.C., and was slain in battle against the Massagetae, 529 B.C. He was followed by Cambyses, his son, until 521 B.C., when he was succeeded by Smerdis (or Bardiya), a Magian usurper, who reigned seven months. Darius I, son of Hystaspes, a nobleman, conspired with six others and murdered Smerdis, when, by device, Darius obtained the throne over his companions, 521 B.C. The celebrated siege of Babylon lasted two years; the city finally succumbed to the strategy of General Zopyrus, in the year 516.
Darius reigned 36 years, died 485 B.C. This article is mainly due to the industrious researches of Brother Charles T. McClenachan to whom the subject made an especial appeal (see also Zendavesta).
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