ANTON, DR. CARL GOTTLOB VON
A German Masonic writer of considerable
reputation, who died at Gorlitz on the 17th of November, 1818.
He is the author of two historical works on Templarism, both of
which are much esteemed.
l. Versuch einer Geschichte des Tempelherren
ordens, that is, An Essay on the Order of Knights Templar, at
Leipzig, 1779.
2. Untersuchung uber das Gehemniss und die
Gebrauche der Tempelherren, that is, An Inquiry into the Mystery
and Usages of the Knights Templar, at Dessau, 1782.
He also published at Gorlitz, in 1805, and
again in 1819, a brief essay on the Culdees, entitled Ueber die
Culdeer.
ANTON HIERONYMUS
In the examination of a German stanmetz,
or stonemason, this is said to have been the name of the first
Freemason. The expression is unquestionably a corruption of Adon
Hiram.
ANTRIM, EARL WILLIAM OF
Brother W. J. Hughan's Memorials of the
Union says the Earl of Antrim was Grand Master from 1782 to 1790
of the Ancient or Athol Masters.
ANUBIS OR ANEPU
Egyptian deity, son of Osiris and Nephthys.
He was an equivalent to the Greek Hermes. Having the head of a
jackal, with pointed ears and snout, which the Greeks frequently
changed to those of a dog. At times represented as wearing a double
crown. His duty was to accompany the souls of the deceased to
Hades or Amenthes, and assist Horus in weighing their actions
under the inspection of Osiris.
APE AND LION, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the Ape and Lion.
APEX, RITE OF
See Sat B'hai, Order of
APHANISM
In the Ancient Mysteries there was always
a legend of the death or disappearance of some hero god, and the
subsequent discovery of the body and its resurrection.
The concealment of this body by those who
had slain it was called the aphanism, from the Greek, abavatw,
to conceal. As these Mysteries may be considered as a type of
Freemasonry, as some suppose, and as, according to others, both
the Mysteries and Freemasonry are derived from one common and
ancient type, the aphanism, or concealing of the body, is of course
to be found in the Third Degree. Indeed, the purest kind of Masonic
aphanism is the loss or concealment of the word (see Mysteries,
and Euresis).
APIS
The sacred bull, held in high reverence
by the Egyptians as possessing Divine powers, especially the gift
of prophecy. As it was deemed essential the animal should be peculiarly
marked by nature, much difficulty was experienced in procuring
it. The bull was required to be black, with a white triangle on
its forehead, a white crescent on its side, and a knotted growth,
like a scarabaeus or sacred beetle, under the tongue. Such an
animal being found, it was fed for four months in a building facing
the East. At new moon it was embarked on a special vessel, prepared
with exquisite care, and with solemn ceremony conveyed to Heliopolis,
where for forty days it was fed by priests and women. In its sanctified
condition it was taken to Memphis and housed in a temple with
two chapels and a court wherein to exercise. The omen was good
or evil in accordance with which chapel it entered from the court.
At the age of twenty-five years it was led to its death, amid
great mourning and lamentations. The bull or apis was an important
religious factor in the Isian worship, and was continued as a
creature of reverence during the Roman domination of Egypt.
APOCALYPSE, FREEMASONRY OF THE
The Greek word apocalypsis means a revelation
and thus is frequently applied to the last book of the New Testament.
The adoption of Saint John the Evangelist as one of the patrons
of our Lodges, has given rise, among the writers on Freemasonry,
to a variety of theories as to the original cause of his being
thus , connected with the Institution. Several traditions have
been handed down from remote periods, which claim him as a brother,
among which the Masonic student will be familiar with that which
represents him as having assumed the government of the Craft,
as Grand Master, after the demise of John the Baptist.
We confess that we are not willing to place
implicit confidence in the correctness of this legend, and we
candidly subscribe to the prudence of Dalcho's remark, that ''it
is unwise to assert more than we can prove, and to argue against
probability."
There must have been, however, in some way,
a connection more or less direct between the Evangelist and the
institution of Freemasonry, or he would not from the earliest
times have been so universally claimed as one of its patrons.
If it was simply a Christian feeling-a religious veneration-which
gave rise to this general homage, we see no reason why Saint Matthew,
Saint Mark, or Saint Luke might not as readily and appropriately
have been selected as one , of the lines parallel.
But the fact is that there is something,
both in the life and in the writings of Saint John the Evangelist,
which closely connects him with our mystic Institution. He may
not have been a Freemason in the sense in which we now use the
term.
But it will be sufficient, if it can be
shown that he was familiar with other mystical institutions, which
are themselves generally admitted to have been more or less intimately
connected with Freemasonry by deriving their existence from a
common origin.
Such a society was the Essenian Fraternity-a
mystical association of speculative philosophers among the Jews,
whose organization very closely resembled that of the Freemasons,
and who are even supposed by some to have derived their tenets
and their discipline from the builders of the Temple. As Oliver
observes, their institution "may be termed Freemasonry, retaining
the same form but practised under another name." Now there
is little doubt that Saint John the Evangelist was an Essene.
Calmet positively asserts it; and the writings and life of Saint
John seem to furnish sufficient internal evidence that he was
originally of that brotherhood. Brother Dudley Wright has taken
the position that Jesus was also an Essene and that the baptism
of Jesus by John marked the formal admission of the former into
the Essenic community at the end of a novitiate or, as it may
be termed, an apprenticeship (see page 25, Was Jesus an Essene
? ). Brother Wright says further (page 29) that when Jesus pronounced
John the Baptist to be Elijah there was evidently intended to
be conveyed the information that he had already attained to that
acquisition of spirit and degree of power which the Essenes strove
to secure in their highest state of purity.
But it seemed to Doctor Mackey that Saint
John the Evangelist was more particularly selected as a patron
of Freemasonry in consequence of the mysterious and emblematic
nature of the Apocalypse, which evidently assimilated the mode
of teaching adopted by the Evangelist to that practised by the
Fraternity. If anyone who has investigated the ceremonies performed
in the Ancient Mysteries, the Spurious Freemasonry, as it has
been called, of the Pagans, will compare them with the mystical
machinery used in the Book of Revelations, he will find himself
irresistibly led to the conclusion that Saint John the Evangelist
was intimately acquainted with the whole process of initiation
into these mystic associations, and that he has selected its imagery
for the ground-work of his prophetic book.
George S. Faber, in his origin of Pagan
idolatry (volume ii, book vi, chapter 6), has, with great ability
and deftness, shown that Saint John in the Apocalypse applies the
ritual of the ancient initiations to a spiritual and prophetic
purpose.
"The whole machinery of the Apocalypse,"
says Faber, "from beginning to end, seems to me very plainly
to have been borrowed from the machinery of the Ancient Mysteries;
and this, if we consider the nature of the subject, was done with
the very strictest attention to poetical decorum. "Saint
John himself is made to personate an aspirant about to be initiated;
and, accordingly, the images presented to his mind's eye closely
resemble the pageants of the Mysteries both in nature and in order
of succession.
"The prophet first beholds a door opened
in the magnificent temple of heaven; and into this he is invited
to enter by the voice of one who plays the hierophant.
Here he Witnesses the unsealing of a sacred
book, and forthwith he is appalled by a troop of ghastly apparitions,
which flit in horrid succession before his eyes.
Among these are pre-eminently conspicuous
a vast serpent, the well-known symbol of the great father; and
two portentous wild beasts, which severally come up out of the
sea and out of the earth.
Such hideous figures correspond with the canine phantoms of the
Orgies, which seem to rise out of the ground, and With the polymorphic
images of the hero god who was universally deemed the offspring
of the sea.
"Passing these terrific monsters in
safety, the prophet, constantly attended by his angel hierophant,
who acts the part of an interpreter, is conducted into the presence
of a female, who is described as closely resembling the great
mother of pagan theology. Like Isis emerging from the sea and
exhibiting herself to the aspirant Apuleius, this female divinity,
up born upon the marine wild beast, appears to float upon the
surface of many waters. She is said to be an open and systematical
harlot, just as the great mother was the declared female principle
of fecundity; and as she was always propitiated by literal fornication
reduced to a religious system, and as the initiated were made
to drink a prepared liquor out of a sacred goblet, so this harlot
is represented as intoxicating the kings of the earth with the
golden cup of her prostitution. On her forehead the very name
of MYSTERY is inscribed; and the label teaches us that, in point,
of character, she is the great universal mother of idolatry.
"The nature of this mystery the officiating
hierophant undertakes to explain; and an important prophecy is
most curiously and artfully veiled under the very language and
imagery of the Orgies. To the sea-born great father was ascribed
a threefold state---he lived, he died, and he revived; and these
changes of condition were duly exhibited in the Mysteries. To
the sea-born wild beast is similarly ascribed a threefold state---he
lives, he dies, he revives.
While dead, he lies floating on the mighty
ocean, just like Horus or Osiris, or Siva or Vishnu. When he revives
again, like those kindred deities, he emerges from the waves;
and, whether dead or alive, he bears seven heads and ten horns,
corresponding in number with the seven ark-preserved Rishis and
the ten aboriginal patriarchs. Nor is this all : as the worshipers
of the great father bore his special mark or stigma, and were
distinguished by his name, so the worshipers of the maritime beast
equally bear his mark and are equally decorated by his appellation.
''At length, however, the first or doleful
part of these Sacred Mysteries draws to a close, and the last
or joyful part is rapidly approaching.
After the prophet has beheld the enemies
of God plunged into a dreadful lake or inundation of liquid fire,
which corresponds with the infernal lake or deluge of the Orgies,
he is introduced into a splendidly-illuminated region, expressly
adorned with the characteristics of that Paradise which was the
ultimate scope of the ancient aspirants ; while without the holy
gate of admission are the whole multitude of the profane, dogs,
and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. "
Such was the imagery of the Apocalypse.
The close resemblance to the machinery of the Mysteries, and the
intimate connection between their system and that of Freemasonry,
very naturally induced our ancient brethren to claim the patronage
of an apostle so pre-eminently mystical in his writings, and whose
last and crowning work bore so much of the appearance, in an outward
form, of a ritual of initiation.
APOCALYPSE, ORDER OF THE
An Order instituted about the end of the seventeenth century,
by one Gabrino, who called himself the Prince of the Septenary
Number or Monarch of the Holy Trinity.
He enrolled a great number of artisans in
his ranks who went about their ordinary- occupations with swords
at their sides. According to Thory, some of the provincial Lodges
of France made a degree out of Gabrino's system. The arms of the
Order were a naked sword and a blazing star (see the Acta Latomorum,
1, 294). Reghellini, in Freemasonry considered as a result of
the Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian Religions, or La Maçonnerie
considérée comme le résultat des religions
égyptienne, juive et chrêtienne (iii, 72), thinks
that this Order was the precursor of the degrees afterward introduced
by the Freemasons who practised the Templar system.
APOCALYPTIC DEGREES
Those degrees which are founded on the Revelation
of Saint John, or whose symbols and machinery of initiation are
derived from that work, are called Apocalyptic Degrees.
Of this nature are several of the advanced
degrees: such, for instance, as the Seventeenth, or Knight of
the East and West of the Scottish Rite.
APORRHETA
Greek, . The holy things in the Ancient
Mysteries which were known only to the initiates, and were not
to be disclosed to the profane, were called the aporrheta.
What are the aporrheta of Freemasonry? What
are the arcana of which there can be no disclosure? These are
questions that for years past have given rise to much discussion
among the disciples of the Institution. If the sphere and number
of these aporrheta be very considerably extended, it is evident
that much valuable investigation by public discussion of the science
of Freemasonry will be prohibited. On the other hand, if the aporrheta
are restricted to only a few points, much of the beauty, the permanency,
and the efficacy of Freemasonry which are dependent on its organization
as a secret and mystical association will be lost.
We move between Scylia and Charybdis, between
' the rock and the whirlpool, and it is difficult for a Masonic
writer to know how to steer so as, in avoiding too frank an exposition
of the principles of the Order, not to fall by too much reticence,
into obscurity. The European Freemasons are far more liberal in
their views of the obligation of secrecy than the English or the
American. There are few things, indeed, which a French or German
Masonic writer will refuse to discuss with the utmost frankness.
It is now beginning to be very generally admitted, and English
and American writers are acting on the admission, that the only
real aporrheta of Freemasonry are the modes of recognition, and
the peculiar and distinctive ceremonies of the Order; and to these
last it is claimed that reference may be publicly made for the
purpose of scientific investigation, provided that the reference
be so made as to be obscure to the profane, and intelligible only
to the initiated.
APPEAL, RIGHT OF
The right of appeal is an inherent right
belonging to every Freemason, and the Grand Lodge is the appellate
body to whom the appeal is to be made.
Appeals are of two kinds: first, from the
decision of the Master; second, from the decision of the Lodge.
Each of these will require a distinct consideration.
1. Appeals from the Decision of the Master.
It is now a settled. doctrine in Masonic law that there can be
no appeal from the decision of a Master of a Lodge to the Lodge
itself. But an appeal always lies from such decision to the Grand
Lodge, which is bound to entertain the appeal and to inquire into
the correctness of the decision.
Some writers have endeavored to restrain
the despotic authority of the Master to decisions in matters strictly
relating to the work of the Lodge, while they contend that on
all questions of business an appeal may be taken from his decision
to the Lodge.
But it would be unsafe, and often impracticable,
to , draw this distinction, and accordingly the highest Masonic
authorities have rejected the theory, and denied the power in
a Lodge to entertain an appeal from any decision of the presiding
officer.
The wisdom of this law must be apparent
to anyone who examines the nature of the organization of the Masonic
Institution. The Master is responsible to the Grand Lodge for
the good conduct of his Lodge. To him and to him alone the supreme
Masonic authority looks for the preservation of order, and the
observance of the Constitutions and the Landmarks of the Order
in the body over which he presides. It is manifest, then, that
it would be highly unjust to throw around a presiding officer
so heavy a responsibility, if it were in the power of the Lodge
to overrule his decisions or to control his authority.
2. Appeals from the Decisions of the Lodge.
Appeals may be made to the Grand Lodge from the decisions of a
Lodge, on any subject except the admission of members, or the
election of candidates; but these appeals are more frequently
made in reference to conviction and punishment after trial.
When a Freemason, in consequence of charges
preferred against him, has been tried, convicted, and sentenced
by his Lodge, he has an inalienable right to appeal to the Grand
Lodge from such conviction and sentence.
His appeal may be either general or specific.
That is, he may appeal on the ground, generally, that the whole
of the proceedings have been irregular or illegal, or he may appeal
specifically against some particular portion of the trial ; or
lastly, admitting the correctness of the verdict, and acknowledging
the truth of the charges, he may appeal from the sentence, as
being too severe or disproportionate to the offense.
APPENDANT ORDERS
In the Templar system of the United States,
the degrees of Knight of the Red , Cross and Knight of Malta are
called Appendant Orders because they are conferred as appendages
to that of the Order of the Temple, or Knight Templar, which is
the principal degree of the Commandery.
APPLE-TREE TAVERN
The place where the four Lodges of London
met in 1717, and organized the Grand Lodge of England. This tavern
was situated in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
APPRENTI
French for Apprentice
APPRENTI ET COMPAGNON DE SAINT
APPRENTICE
See Apprentice, Entered
APPRENTICE ARCHITECT
The French expression is Apprenti Architecte.
A degree in the collection of Fustier.
APPRENTICE ARCHITECT, PERFECT
The French being Apprenti Architecte, Parfait.
A degree in the collection of Le Page.
APPRENTICE ARCHITECT, PRUSSIAN
The French being Apprenti Architecte, Prussien.
A degree in the collection of Le Page.
APPRENTICE, CABALISTIC
The French is Apprenti Cabalistique. A
degree in the collection of the Archives of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophic Rite.
APPRENTICE COHEN
The French being Apprenti Coën. A degree
in the collection of the Archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic
Rite.
APPRENTICE DEGREES
Thory gives this list of the various rites:
1. Apprentice Architect; Apprenti Architecte,
a Grade in title collection of Fustier.
2. Apprentice Perfect ,Architect; Apprenti Architecte Parfait,
in Le Page's collection.
3. Apprentice Prussian Architect ; Apprenti Arehitecte Prussien,
in Le Page's collection.
4. Apprentice Cabalistic; Apprenti Cabalistique.
5. Apprentice Cohen; Apprenti Coën: these two in the archives
of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
6. Apprentice Egyptian ; Apprenti Egyptien, the First Degree of
the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro.
7. Apprentice of Paracelsus; Apprenti de Paracelse, found in the
collection of Peuvret.
8. Apprentice of Egyptian Secrets; Apprenti des Secrets Egyptiens,
the First Grade of the African Architects.
9. Apprentice Scottish; Apprenti Ecossais.
10. Apprentice Scottish Trinitarian ; Apprenti Ecossais Trinitaire,
in the collection of Pyron.
11. Apprentice Hermetie; Apprenti Hermétique, the Third
Grade, Ninth Series, of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
12. Apprentice Mystical; Apprenti Mystique, grade in the collection
of Pyron.
13. Apprentice Philosophical, or Number Nine; Apprenti Philosophique
ou Nombre Neuf, a Grade in Peuvret's collection.
14. Apprentice Philosophical Hermetic; Apprenti Philosophique Hermétique.
15. Apprentice Philosophical by the Number Three; Apprenti Philosophique
par le Nombre Trois.
16. Apprentice Theosophical; Apprenti Théosophe, name of
a Swedenborgian Rite.
APPRENTICE, EGYPTIAN
The French being Apprenti, Egyptien. The
First Degree of the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro.
APPRENTICE, ENTERED
The First Degree of Freemasonry, in all
the rites, is that of Entered Apprentice. In French it is called
apprenti; in Spanish, aprendiz; in Italian, apprendente; and in
German, lehrling; in all of which the radical or root meaning
of the word is a learner.
Like the lesser Mysteries of the ancient
initiations, it is in Freemasonry a preliminary degree, intended
to prepare the candidate for the higher and fuller instructions
of the succeeding degrees. It is, therefore, although supplying
no valuable historical information, replete, in its lecture, With
instructions on the internal structure of the Order.
Until late in the seventeenth century, Apprentices
do not seem to have been considered as forming any part of the
confraternity of Free and Accepted Masons.
Although Apprentices are incidentally mentioned
in the old Constitutions of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
centuries, these records refer only to Masters and Fellows as
constituting the Craft, and this distinction seems to have been
one rather of position than of degree. The Sloane Manuscript,
No. 3,329, which Findel supposes to have been written at the end
of the seventeenth century, describes a just and perfect Lodge
as consisting of "two Entered apentics, two Fellow Crafts,
and two Masters," which shows that by that time the Apprentices
had been elevated to a recognized rank in the Fraternity.
In the Manuscript signed "Mark Kipling,''
which Hughan entitles the York Manuscript, No. 4, the date of
which is 1693, there is a still further recognition in what is
there called "the Apprentice Charge," one item of which
is, that "he shall keep council in all things spoken in Lodge
or chamber by any Masons, Fellows, or Freemasons." This indicates
they had close communion with members of the Craft. But notwithstanding
these recognitions, all the manuscripts up to 1704 show that
only "Masters and Fellows" were summoned to the Assembly.
During all this time, when Freemasonry was
in fact an operative art, there was but one Degree in the modern
sense of the word. Early. in the eighteenth century, if not earlier,
Apprentices must have been admitted to the possession of this
Degree ; for after what is called the revival of 1717, Entered
Apprentices constituted the bulk of the Craft, and they only were
initiated in the Lodges, the Degrees of Fellow Craft and Master
Mason being conferred by the Grand Lodge.
This is not left to conjecture. The thirteenth
of the General Regulations, approved in 1721, says that "Apprentices
must be admitted Masters and Fellow Crafts only in the Grand Lodge,
unless by a Dispensation."
But this in practice, having been found
very inconvenient, on the 22nd of November, 1725, the Grand Lodge
repealed the article, and decreed that the Master of a Lodge,
with his Wardens and a competent number of the Lodge assembled
in due form, can make Masters and Fellows at discretion.
The mass of the Fraternity being at that time composed of Apprentices,
they exercised a great deal of influence in the legislation of
the Order; for although they could not represent their Lodge in
the Quarterly Communications of the Grand Lodge---a duty which
could only be discharged by a Master or Fellow-yet they were always
permitted to be present at the grand feast, and no General Regulation
could be altered or repealed Without their consent; and, of course,
in all the business of their particular Lodges, they took the
most prominent part, for there were but few Masters or Fellows
in a Lodge, in consequence of the difficulty and inconvenience
of obtaining the Degree, which could only be done at a Quarterly
Communication of the Grand Lodge.
But as soon as the subordinate Lodges were invested with the power
of conferring all the Degrees, the Masters began rapidly to increase
in numbers and in corresponding influence. And now, the bulk of
the Fraternity consisting of Master Masons, the legislation of
the Order is done exclusively by them, and the Entered Apprentices
and Fellow Crafts have sunk into comparative obscurity, their
Degrees being considered only as preparatory to the greater initiation
of the Master's Degree.
APPRENTICE, HERMETIC
The French is Apprenti Hermétique.
The Thirteenth Degree, ninth series, of the collection of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
APPRENTICE MASON
The French is Apprenti Maçon. The
Entered Apprentice of French Freemasonry.
APPRENTICE MASONESS
The French is Apprentie Maçonne.
The First Degree of the French Rite of Adoption. The word Masoness
is a neologism, perhaps an unsanctioned novelty, but it is in
accordance with the genius of our language, and it is difficult
to know how else to translate into English the French word Maçonne,
which means a woman who has received the Degrees of the Rite of
Adoption, unless by the use of the awkward phrase, Female Freemason.
To express this idea, we might introduce as a technicality the
word Masoness.
APPRENTICE MASONESS, EGYPTIAN
The French is Apprentie Maçonne Egyptienne.
The First Degree of Cagliostro's Egyptian Rite of Adoption.
APPRENTICE, MYSTIC
The French is Apprenti Mystique. A Degree
in the collection of M. Pyron.
APPRENTICE OF PARACELSUS.
The French is Apprenti de Paracelse. A Degree
in the collection of M. Peuvret. There existed a series of these
Paracelsian Degrees---Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master. They
were all most probably forms of Hermetic Freemasonry.
APPRENTICE OF THE EGYPTIAN SECRETS
The French is Apprenti des secrets Egyptiens.
The First Degree of the Order of African Architects.
APPRENTICE PHILOSOPHER, BY THE NUMBER 3
The French is Apprenti Philosophe par le
Nombre 3. A Degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.
APPRENTICE PHILOSOPHER, HERMETIC
The French is Apprenti Philosophe Hermtique.
A degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.
APPRENTICE PHILOSOPHER TO THE NUMBER 9
The French is Apprenti Philosophe au Nombre
9. A Degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.
APPRENTICE PILLAR
See Prentice Pillar
APPRENTICE, SCOTTISH
The French is Apprenti Ecossais. This Degree
and that of Trinitarian Scottish Apprentice, which in French is
Apprenti Ecossais Trinitaire, are contained in the collection
of Pyron.
APPRENTICE THEOSOPHIST
The French is Apprenti Théosophe.
The First Degree of the Rite of Swedenborg.
APPRENTI ET COMPAGNON DE SAINT ANDRE
French for Apprentice and Companion of Saint
Andrew, the Fourth Grade of the Swedish system. The Fifth Grade
is known as Maître de Saint André or Master of Sint
Andrew, and the Ninth Degree being known as Les Favoris de Saint
Andréé (the Favored of Saiut Andrew), sometimes
called Knight of the Purple Band or Collar.
APRON
There is no one of the symbols of Speculative
Freemasonry more important in its teachings, or more interesting
in its history, than the lambskin, or white leathern apron. Commencing
its lessons at an early period in the Freemason's progress, it
is impressed upon his memory as the first gift which he receives,
the first symbol which is explained to him, and the first tangible
evidence which he possesses of his admission into the Fraternity.
Whatever may be his future advancement in
the "royal art," into whatsoever deeper arcana his devotion
to the mystic Institution or his thirst for knowledge may subsequently
lead him, with the lambskin apron-his first investiture---he never
parts. Changing, perhaps, its form and its decorations, and conveying,
at each step, some new but still beautiful allusion, its substance
is still there, and it continues to claim the honored title by
which it was first made known to him, on the night of his initiation,
as the badge of a Mason.
If in less important portions of our ritual
there are abundant allusions to the manners and customs of the
ancient world, it is not to be supposed that the Masonic Rite
of investiture-the ceremony of clothing the newly initiated candidate
with this distinctive badge of his profession-is Without its archetype
in the times and practices long passed away. It would, indeed,
be strange, while all else in Freemasonry is covered with the
veil of antiquity, that the apron alone, its most significant
symbol, should be indebted far its existence to the invention
of a modern mind.
On the contrary, we shall find the most
satisfactory evidence that the use of the apron, or some equivalent
mode of investiture, as a mystic symbol, was common to all the
nations of the earth from the earliest periods.
Among the Israelites the girdle formed a
part of the investiture of the priesthood. In the mysteries of
Mithras, in Persia, the candidate was invested with a white apron.
In the initiations practiced in Hindostan, the ceremony of investiture
was preserved, but a sash, called the sacred zennar, was substituted
for the apron.
The Jewish sect of the Essences clothed
their novices with a white robe. The celebrated traveler Kaempfer
informs us that the Japanese, who practice certain rites of initiation,
invest their candidates with a white apron, bound round the loins
with a zone or girdle. In the Scandinavian Rites, the military
genius of the people caused them to substitute a white shield,
but its presentation was accompanied by an emblematic instruction
not unlike that which is connected with the Freemason's apron.
''The apron,'' says Doctor Oliver (Signs
and Symbols of Freemasonry, lecture and, page 196),
"appears
to have been, in ancient times, an honorary badge of distinction.
In the Jewish economy, none but the superior orders of the priesthood
were permitted to adorn themselves with ornamented girdles, which
were made of blue, purple, and crimson, decorated with gold upon
a ground of fine white linen; while the inferior priests wore
only plain white. The Indian, the Persian, the Jewish, the Ethiopian,
and the Egyptian aprons, though equally superb, all bore a character
distinct from each other. Some were plain white, others striped
with blue, purple, and crimson; some were of wrought gold, others
adorned and decorated with superb tassels and fringes."
In a word, though the principal honor of the apron may consist
in its reference to innocence of conduct, and purity of heart,
yet it certainly appears, through all ages, to have been a most
exalted badge of distinction. In primitive times it was rather
an ecclesiastical than a civil decoration, although in some cases
the apron was elevated to great superiority as a national trophy.
The Royal Standard of Persia was originally an apron in form and
dimensions. At this day it is connected with ecclesiastical honors;
for the chief dignitaries of the Christian church, wherever a
legitimate establishment, with the necessary degrees of rank and
subordination is formed, are invested with aprons as a peculiar
badge of distinction; which is a collateral proof of the fact
that Freemasonry was originally incorporated with the various
systems of divine worship used by every people in the ancient
world. Freemasonry retains the symbol or shadow; at cannot have
renounced the reality or substance."
A curious commentary by Thomas Carlyle upon
the apron is worth consideration and is found in his Sartor Resartus
(chapter vi), and is as follows : "One of the most unsatisfactory
sections in the whole volume is that upon aprons. What though
stout old Gao, the Persian blacksmith, 'whose apron now indeed
hidden under jewels, because raised in revolt which proved successful,
is still the royal standard of that country'; what though John
Knox's daughter, 'who threatened Sovereign Majesty that she would
catch her husband's head in her apron, rather than he should be
and be a bishop'; what though the Landgravine Elizabeth, with
many other apron worthies-figure here? An idle, wire-drawing spirit,
sometimes even a tone of levity, approaching to conventional satire,
is too clearly dissemble. What, for example, are we to make of
such sentences as the following:
Aprons are defenses, against injury to cleanliness, to
safety, to modesty, sometimes to roguery.
From the thin slip of notched silk (as it were, the emblem and
beatified ghost of an apron), which some highest-bred housewife,
sitting at Nurnberg Workboxes and Toy-boxes, has gracefully fastened
on, to the thick-tanned hide, girt around him with thongs, wherein
the Builder builds, and at evening sticks his trowel, or in these
jingling sheet-iron aprons, wherein your otherwise half-naked
Vulcans hammer and swelter in their smelt furnace---is there not
range enough in the fashion and uses of this vestment'?
How much has been concealed, how much has
been defended in Aprons! Nay, rightfully considered, what is your
whole Military and Police establishment, charged at uncalculated
millions, but a huge scarlet-colored, iron-fastened Apron, wherein
Society works (uneasily enough), guarding itself from some soil
and stithy-sparks in this Devil's smithy of a world? But of all
aprons the most puzzling to me hitherto has been the Episcopal
or Cassock. Wherein consists the usefulness of this Apron?
The Overseer of Souls, I notice, has tucked
in the corner of it, as if his day's work were done. What does
he shadow forth thereby?
Brother John Barr read a paper on The Whys
and Wherefores of the Masonic Apron before the Masters and Past
Masters Lodge No. 130, Christ Church, New Zealand, from which
(Transactions, May, 1925) we take the following information:
" What we know as Freemasonry today
can fairly easily be traced, with but slight breaks, to what is
known in history as the Comacini Gild, or what Leader Scott, in
her very interesting work calls The Cathedral Builders. Their
officers were similar to our own, that is, with respect to the
most important; they had the signs, symbols and secrets used in
the main by us today; and, what affects this article, they wore
white aprons, not only while actively engaged as operatives, but
when meeting together for instruction and improvement in their
Lodges. When members of the Fraternity first landed in Britain
is not known. We have evidence that 'Benedict, the Abbot of Wearmouth,
676 A.D., crossed the ocean to Gaul and brought back stone-masons
to make a church after the Roman fashion.' It is also known that
stone-masons, that is members of the Comacini Gild, were in Britain
before that date, and it is assumed that Benedict had to go for
more, as all in Britain were fully employed.
One could dwell on that part of our history
at considerable length; but my object is not that of tracing the
history of the old operative mason, whether Comacini or Gild Mason.
I have merely touched on it for the reason that I believe it to
be the stream or spring that is the source of the goodly river
whose waters it should be our endeavor to keep dear and pure.
It is to the ancient Operative Masons we go for the origin of
the present apron.
" Our apron is derived from that of
the Mason who was a master of his Craft, who was free-born and
at liberty to go where he chose in the days when it was the rule
that the toiler was either a bondsman or a gildsman, and, in each
case, as a rule, confined to one locality.
He was one who had a true love for his art,
who designed the structure and built it, and whose anxiety to
build fair work and square work was greater than his anxiety to
build the greatest number of feet per day. He was skilled in the
speculative, or religious and educative side of the craft as well
as the operative, and, in the absence of what we know as the three
R's, was yet highly educated, was able to find sermons in stone,
and books in the running brooks.
He was one to whom the very ground plan
of his building was according to the symbolism of his belief,
and he was able to see, in the principal tools of his calling,
lessons that enabled him to guide his footsteps in the paths of
rectitude and science. If from his working tools he learned lessons
that taught him to walk upright in the sight of God and man, why
not from the apron that was always with him during his working
hours, no matter how he changed tool for tool' It was part of
him, one may say, while he converted the rough stone into a thing
of beauty, fit for its place in the structure designed by the
Master, or fitted it to its place in the building.
According to Leader Scott, there is 'In
the Church of Saint Clemente, Rome, an ancient fresco of the eighth
century.
Here we see a veritable Roman Magister,
Master Mason, directing his men. He stands in Magisterial Toga,
and surely one may descry a Masonic Apron beneath it, in the moving
of a marble column.' The apron referred to by Leader Scott, seems,
judging by the photograph, to have a certain amount of ornamentation,
but the ordinary aprons of the brethren while working were akin
to that worn by Masons to this day, that is operative Masons.
As I know from tools found during the demolishing of old buildings,
the tools were the same as the principal ones used today by the
operative.
From my knowledge of the Operative side
of Masonry, I feel sure the apron was substantially the same also.
Many Masons wear today at the banker, aprons not only similar
in form to those worn by our ancient brethren, but symbolically
the same as those worn by brethren around me.
Let us examine an Operative Mason's Apron.
The body shows four right angles, thus forming a square, symbolical
of matter. The bib, as it is called in Operative Masonry, runs
to the form of an equilateral triangle, symbolizing spirit. When
used to moralize upon, the flap is dropped, thereby representing
the descent of spirit into matter-the soul to the body.
In Operative Masonry the apex of the triangle
was laced or buttoned to the vest, according to the period ; in
due course this was altered,.and the apex of the triangle was
cut away, while the strings, which were long enough to go around
the body and finish at the front, were tied there. So that it
is just possible, as one writer surmises, that the strings hanging
down with frayed edges, may have their representation in the tassels
of our Master Masons' Aprons.
"While we have no proof, so far as
I know, that is written proof, that our ancient operative brethren
lid moralize on the Apron after the manner of the working tool,
there is nothing to show that he did not. To me the weight of
evidence is in favor of an educational value being attached to
the Apron, or, to use our usual term, a symbolical value.
The more we study and the more we read,
the more we become impressed with the idea that symbolism was
the breath of life to the ancient Mason; he was cradled in it,
brought up in it; he was hardly able to build a fortification
without cutting symbols somewhere on it. He never erected a temple
or church but what he make of it a book, so clear and plentiful
were his symbols. In addition to the evidence one may glean from
the writings of various investigators, one can see the tatters
of what was once a solemn service in a custom in use amongst Operative
Masons a generation back.
The custom was that of 'The washing of the
apron.' This custom is referred to by Hugh Miller in his Schools
and Schoolmasters. In the days referred to by Miller, the Apprentice
was seldom allowed to try his hand on a stone, during his first
year, as during that time he helped, if at the building, in carrying
mortar and stone, and setting out the tools as they came from
the blacksmith.
If in the quarry, he might in addition to
doing odd jobs, be allowed to block out rubble or a piece of rough
ashlar. If he shaped well and was to be allowed to proceed, the
day came when he was told he could bring out his Apron. This was
a big day for him, as now he was really to begin his life's work,
and you may be sure it was a white apron, for it was an unwritten
law, even in my day, that you started your week's work with your
apron as white as it was possible to make it. The real ceremony
had of course disappeared, and all that took its place were the
tatters I referred to, which consisted principally of the providing
of a reasonable amount of liquid refreshment with which the Masons
cleared their throats of the stone dust. If a serious minded journeyman
was present, certain advice was given the young Mason about the
importance of the Craft, and the necessity for good workmanship
and his future behavior. Unfortunately, there was a time when
the washing of the apron was rather overdone, even in Speculative
Masonry.
With regard to the above custom, I having
referred to it in a paper read before the members of Lodge Sumner,
No. 242, the worthy and esteemed Chaplain of the Lodge Brother
Rev. W McAra, informed me that as a young man, close on sixty
years ago, he attended with the grownup members of his family,
who were builders in Scotland, the washing of the Apprentices'
Aprons; and according to the Rev. Brother, there was 'a very nice
little ceremony, although he could not mind the particulars,'
and he added, 'Although I was a total abstainer in those days,
they were not all that, for I can mind that the apron was well
washed.'
" I am further of opinion that, had
there not been great importance attached to the apron, it would
have been set aside, at least among English Masons, shortly after
the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, as a certain section
who got into the order at that time took strong exception to the
apron on the plea that 'It made them look like mechanics.' lt
must be remembered it was full length at that time, and remained
so for considerable period after the formation of the first Grand
Lodge.
"The material also differed in early
days, both in the purely operative and in the early speculative.
It was not that it differed according to the country, as both
linen and cotton and skin were used in different parts of the
one country.
One who has studied the operative side and
who, as I am, is himself an Operative Mason, can fully understand
the reason for the different materials being used, although they
have caused some little confusion amongst the purely speculative
investigators. I feel convinced that, in purely operative times,
among the Cathedral Builders and those who carried on the Craft
working after them, both materials were used, as both materials
were used by Masons outside the Craft Lodges at a later stage.
The cloth apron was used largely by the
Mason who never left the banker, that is, by him who kept to the
work of hewing or carving. I can hardly fancy a hewer polishing
a column, a panel, or any piece of work and drying his hands on
a leather apron.
They would be full of cracks the second
day in cold weather, and in the early days there was a considerable
amount of polished work. Take, for instance, the churches built
by Wilfrid Bishop of York.
The one built at Hexham in A.D. 674--680
had 'Round headed arches within the church supported by lofty
columns of polished stone. The walls were covered with square
stones of divers colors, and polished.'
''At ordinary unpolished work, all that
was required was protection from dust. On the other hand, the
skin apron was largely used by him who had to fix or build the
stone. In those early days the builder had to do more heavy lifting
than in later years, when derricks and cranes came into more common
use.
What happened was just what may be experienced
on a country job at a present day. If your wall were, say, three
feet high, and a heavy bondstone is to be lifted, you may have
to lift it and steady it on your knee and then place it on the
wall, or the wall may be of such a height as necessitates your
lifting the stone first on the knee, then on the breast, and from
there to the wall. Cloth being a poor protection where such work
had to be done frequently, skin was used. " We must remember
also that so far as the Cathedral Builders were concerned in Britain,
as elsewhere, all building tradesmen were within the guild, carpenters
and tylers; while the mason could never do without his blacksmith,
and the aprons were doubtless of material suitable to their departments.
Skin aprons were worn by operative masons well into the 19th century.
R. W. Portgate, who refers to the matter in his Builder's History,
page 19, writes: 'In 1824 nearly all the Glasgow Master Masons
employed between 70 and 170 Journeymen Masons each. One of them,
noted as very droulhy, is marked as being the last to wear a leather
apron.' "That is the last of the masters who had now become
what we know as 'the employer,'but, from reminiscences of old
Masons I have listened to, it was used by setters and builders
throughout Scotland up to a much later period.
" At the date of the formation of the
Grand Lodge of England, the apron was white-no ornaments at first,
and full size, similar in every respect to that of the Operative.
In the first public account of a Masonic funeral, which appears
in Read's Weekly Journal for January 12th, 1723, it is set forth
that, 'Both the pallbearers and others were in their white aprons;'and
in Hogarth's picture of Night, the Tyler is shown conducting the
newly installed Master to his home, both wearing the long Apron
of the Operative and with what appears to be the flap bundled
or rolled snugly among the top, with strings coming to the front
and keeping the whole in place.
"The first attempt to create uniformity
in the apron appears to have been in 1731, when a motion covering
the whole question was submitted to the Grand Lodge of England
by Dr. Desagulier. The motion was submitted on March 17, and was
carried unanimously. As that, however, only referred to one section
of the Freemasons, even in England, it lid not appear to effect
much alteration. At that time many of the aprons varied in form,
and some were very costly and elaborately decorated, according
to the fancy of the owners. But all this was altered at the Union
of Grand Lodges in 1813, and as Brother F. J. W. Crowe points
out, 'The clothing to be worn under the United Grand Lodge of
England was clearly laid down according to present usage.'"
In the Masonic apron two things are essential to the due preservation
of its symbolic character-its color and its material.
1. As to its color. The color of a Freemason's
apron should be pure unspotted white. This color has, in all ages
and countries, been esteemed an emblem of innocence and purity.
It was with this reference that a portion of the vestments of
the Jewish priesthood was directed to be white. In the Ancient
Mysteries the candidate was always clothed in white. "The
priests of the Romans,''says Festus, ''were accustomed to wear
white garments when they sacrificed.'' In the Scandinavian Rites
it has been seen that the shield presented to the candidate was
white. The Druids changed the color of the garment presented to
their initiates with each degree; white, however, was the color
appropriated to the last, or degree of perfection. And it was,
according to their ritual, intended to teach the aspirant that
none were admitted to that honor but such as were cleansed from
all impurities both of body and mind.
In the early ages of the Christian church
a white garment was always placed upon the catechumen who had
been newly baptized, to denote that he had been cleansed from
his former sins, and was thence-forth to lead a life of purity.
Hence it was presented to him with this solemn charge: "Receive
the white and undefiled garment, and produce it unspotted before
the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may obtain eternal
life."
From all these instances we learn that white
apparel was anciently used as an emblem of purity, and for this
reason the color has been preserved in the apron of the Freemason.
2. as to its material. A Freemason's apron
must be made of lambskin. No other substance, such as linen, silk,
or satin, could be substituted without entirely destroying the
emblematic character of the apron, for the material of the Freemason's
apron constitutes one of the most important symbols of his profession.
The lamb has always been considered as an appropriate emblem of
innocence. Hence we are taught, in the ritual of the First Degree,
that, "by the lambskin, the Mason is reminded of that purity
of life and rectitude of conduct which is so essentially necessary
to his gaining admission into the Celestial Lodge above, where
the Supreme Architect of the Universe forever presides.''
The true apron of a Freemason must, then,
be of unspotted lambskin, from fourteen to sixteen inches wide,
from twelve to fourteen deep, with a fall about three or four
inches deep, square at the bottom, and without device or ornament
of any kind. The usage of the Craft in the United States of America
has, for a few years past, allowed a narrow edging of blue ribbon
in the symbolic degrees, to denote the universal friendship which
constitutes the bond of the society, and of which virtue blue
is the Masonic emblem. But this undoubtedly is an innovation,
in the opinion of Doctor Mackey, for the ancient apron was without
any edging or ornament. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts has adopted
a law that "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.
In the Royal Arch Degree the lambskin, of
course, continues to be used, but, according to the same modern
custom, there is an edging of red, to denote the zeal and fervency
which should distinguish the possessors of that degree.
All extraneous ornaments and devices are
in bad taste, and detract from the symbolic character of the investiture.
But the silk or satin aprons, bespangled and painted and embroidered,
which have been gradually creeping into our Lodges, have no sort
of connection with Ancient Craft Freemasonry. They are an innovation
of our French Brethren, who are never pleased with simplicity,
and have, by their love of display in their various newly invented
ceremonies, effaced many of the most beautiful and impressive
symbols of our Institution. A Freemason who understands and appreciates
the true symbolic meaning of his apron, would no more tolerate
a painted or embroidered satin one than an artist would a gilded
statue. By him, the lambskin, and the lambskin alone, would be
considered as the badge "more ancient than the Golden Fleece,
or Roman Eagle, and more honorable than the Star and Garter. "
The Grand Lodge of England is precise in its regulations for the
decorations of the apron which are thus laid down in its Constitution:
"Entered Apprentices.-A plain white
lambskin, from fourteen to sixteen inches wide, twelve to fourteen
inches deep, square at bottom, and without ornament ;white strings.
"Fellow Craft.-A plain white lambskin, similar to that of
the Entered Apprentices, with the addition only of two sky-blue
rosettes at the bottom.
"Master Masons.-The same, with sky-blue
lining and edging, not more than two inches deep, and an additional
rosette on the fall or flap, and silver tassels.
No other color or ornament shall be allowed
except to officers and past officers of Lodges who may have the
emblems of their offices in silver or white in the center of the
apron ; and except as to the members of the Prince of Wales Lodge,
No. 259, who are allowed to wear the internal half of the edging
of garter-blue three-fourths of an inch wide.
"Grand Stewards, present and past-Aprons
of the same dimensions lined with crimson, edging of the same
color three and a half inches, and silver tassels.
Provincial and District Grand Stewards,
present and past, the same, except that the edging is only two
inches wide. The collars of the Grand Steward's Lodge to be crimson
ribbon, four inches broad.
"Grand Officers of the United Grand
Lodge, present and past.-Aprons of the same dimensions, lined
with garter-blue, edging three and a half inches, ornamented with
gold, and blue strings; and they may have the emblems of their
offices, in gold or blue, in the center.
"Provincial Grand Officers, present
and past.- Aprons of the same dimensions, lined with garter-blue,
and ornamented with gold and with blue strings :
they must have the emblems of their offices
in gold or blue in the center within a double circle, in the margin
of which must be inserted the name of the Province.
The garter-blue edging to the aprons must
not exceed two inches in width.
"The apron of the Deputy Grand Master
to have the emblem of his office in gold embroidery in the center,
and the pomegranate and lotus alternately embroidered in gold
on the edging.
"The apron of the Grand Master is 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 comer, and also on the fall; all in gold embroidery; the
fringe of gold bullion. "The apron of the Pro Grand Master
the same.
''The Masters and Past Masters of Lodges
to wear, in the place of the three rosettes on the Master Mason's
apron, perpendicular lines upon horizontal lines, thereby forming
three several sets of two right angles ; the length of the horizontal
lines to be two inches and a half each, and of the perpendicular
lines one inch; these emblems to be of silver or of ribbon, half
an inch broad, and of the same color as the lining and edging
of the apron. If Grand Officers, similar emblems of garter-blue
or gold."
In the United States, although there is
evidence in some old aprons, still existing, that rosettes were
formerly worn, there are now no distinctive decorations for the
aprons of the different symbolic degrees.
The only mark of distinction is in the mode
of wearing ; and this differs in the different jurisdictions,
some wearing the Master's apron turned up at the corner, and others
the Fellow Craft's. The authority of Cross, in his plate of the
Royal Master's Degree in the older editions of his Hieroglyphic
Chart, conclusively shows that he taught the former method.
As we advance to the higher degrees, we
find the apron varying in its decorations and in the color of
in border, which are, however, always symbolical of some idea
taught in the degree.
APRON LECTURE
The coming years may bring to you success,
The victory laurel wreath may deck your brow,
And you may feel Love's hallowed caress,
And have withal domestic tenderness,
And fortune's god may smile on you as now,
And jewels fit for Eastern potentate
Hang over your ambitious heart, and Fate
May call thee ''Prince of Men,'' or ''King of Hearts,''
While Cupid strives to pierce you with his darts.
Nay, even more than these, with coming light
Your feet may press fame's loftiest dazzling height,
And looking down upon the world below
You may exclaim, "I can not greater grow!"
But, nevermore, O worthy Brother mine,
Can innocence and purity combine
With all that's sweet and tender here below
As in this emblem which I now bestow.
'Tis yours to wear throughout a life of Love,
And when your spirit wings to realms above
'Twill with your cold clay rest beneath the sod,
While breeze-kissed flowers whisper of your God.
O, may its stainless, spotless surface be
An emblem of that perfect purity
Distinguished far above all else on earth
And sacred as the virtue of the hearth,
And when at last your naked soul shall stand
Before the throne in yon great temple grand,
O, may it be your portion there to hear"Well done,"
and find a host of brothers near
To join the angel choir in glad refrain
Till Northeast comer echoes come again
Then while the hosts in silent grandeur stand
The Supreme Builder smiling in command
Shall say to you to whom this emblem's given,
"Welcome art thou to all the joys of heaven."
And then shall dawn within your 'lightened soul
The purpose divine that held control-
The full fruition of the Builder's plan-
The Fatherhood of God-The Brotherhood of man.
The above lines were written by Captain
Jack Crawford for Dr. Walter C. Miller of Webb's Lodge No. 166,
Augusta, Georgia.
" . . . Lambskin or white leathern
apron. It is an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Mason:
more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, and when worthily
worn, more honorable than the Star and a Garter, or any other
Order that can be conferred upon you at this or any future period
by king, prince, potentate, or any other person, except he be
a Mason and within the Body of a just and legally constituted
Lodge of such.
"It may be that, in the years to come,
upon your head shall rest the laurel wreaths of victory ;
pendant from your breast may hang jewels fit to grace the diadem
of an eastern potentate ; yea, more than these : for with the
coming light your ambitious feet may tread round after round the
ladder that leads to fame in our mystic circle, and even the purple
of our Fraternity may rest upon your honored shoulders; but never
again by mortal hands, never again until your enfranchised spirit
shall have passed upward and inward through the gates of pearl,
shall any honor so distinguished, so emblematic of purity and
all perfection, be bestowed upon you as this, which I now confer.
It is yours; yours to wear through an honorable life, and at your
death to be placed upon the coffin which contains your earthly
remains, and with them laid beneath the silent clods of the
valley.
"Let its pure and spotless surface
be to you an ever-present reminder of 'purity of life, of rectitude
of conduct, a never-ending argument for higher thoughts, for
nobler deeds, for greater achievements; and when at last your
weary feet shall have reached the end of their toilsome journey,
and from your nerveless grasp forever drop the working tools of
a busy life, may the record of your life and conduct be as pure
and spotless as this fair emblem which I place within your hands
tonight; and when your trembling soul shall stand naked and alone
before the great white throne, there to receive judgment for the
deeds done while here in the body, may it be your portion to hear
from Him who sitteth as Judge Supreme these welcome words: 'Well
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy
of thy Lord.'
"I charge you - take it, wear it with
pleasure to yourself and honor to the Fraternity."
The above is from the New Kentucky Monitor
arranged by Brother Henry Pirtle, 1918, for the Grand Lodge of
that State.
"This emblem is now yours ; to wear,
we hope, with equal pleasure to yourself, and honor to the Fraternity.
If you disgrace it, the disgrace will be
augmented by the consciousness that you have been taught, in this
Lodge, the principles of a correct and manly life. It is yours
to wear as a Mason so long as the vital spark shall animate your
mortal frame, and at last, whether in youth, manhood or age, your
spirit having Winged its flight to that 'House not made with hands,'
when amid the tears and sorrows of surviving relatives and friends,
and by the hands of sympathizing Brother Masons, your body shall
be lowered to the confines of that narrow house appointed for
all living, it will still be yours, yours to be placed with the
evergreen upon the coffin that shall enclose your remains, and
to be buried with them.
"My Brother, may you so wear this emblem
of spotless white that no act of yours shall ever stain its purity,
or cast a reflection upon this ancient and honorable institution
that has outlived the fortunes of Kings and the mutations of Empires.
May you so wear it and "
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
The above extract is from the Shaver Monitor,
compiled by Brothers William M. Shaver, Past Grand Master, and
Albert K. Wilson, Grand Secretary, of the Grand Lodge of Kansas.
The concluding lines of verse are from William Cullen Bryant's
famous poem Thanatopsis.
APRONS, GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MASONIC
Two aprons of a Masonic and historic character
were owned by General George Washington. One of these was brought
to this country by our Masonic Brother, the Marquis de Lafayette,
in 1784.
An object of his visit was to present to General Washington a
beautiful white satin apron bearing the National colors, red,
white and blue, and embroidered elaborately with Masonic emblems,
the whole being the handiwork of Madame la Marquise de Lafayette.
This apron, according to Brother Julius
F. Sachse in his book, History of Brother General Lafayette's
Fraternal Connections with the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (page
5), was enclosed in a handsome rosewood box when presented to
Brother George Washington.
Another apron was presented to General Washington.
This gift was also made in France and the similarity of purpose
and of origin has caused some confusion as to the identity of
the two aprons that happily were preserved and proudly cherished
by their later owners after the death of Brother Washington.
The gift of the second apron was due to
the fraternal generosity of Brother Elkanah Watson and his partner,
M. Cassoul, of Nantes, France. The name Cassoul in the old records
is also spelled Cossouland Cosson. Watson and Cassoulacted as
confidential agents abroad for the American Government during
the revolutionary period, the former being also a bearer of dispatches
to Dr. Benjamin Franklin.
Brother Sachse, in the above-mentioned work,
quotes Brother Watson from a book Men and Times of the Revolution,
or Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, (New York, 1856, pages 135-6), as
follows: "Wishing to pay some mark of respect to our beloved
Washington, I employed, in conjunction with my friend M. Cossoul,
nuns in one of the convents at Nantes to prepare some elegant
Masonic ornaments and gave them a plan for combining the American
and French flags on the apron designed for this use.
They were executed in a superior and expensive
style. We transmitted them to America, accompanied by an appropriate
address."
An autograph reply to the address was written
by Brother Washington and this letter was purchased from the Watson
family and thus came into the possession of the Grand Lodge of
New York.
The Washington apron owned by the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania was first given by the legatees of Brother
George Washington to the Washington Benevolent Society on October
26, 1816, sind was presented to the Grand Lodge on July 3, 1829.
The other Washington apron and sash came
into the possession of Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22, at
Alexandria, Virginia, on June 3, 1812, and as recorded in the
Lodge of Washington (page 90), were presented, with the box made
in France which contained them, by Major Lawrence Lewis, a nephew
of Washington, on behalf of his son, Master Lorenzo Lewis. The
pamphlet, George Washington the Man and the Mason, prepared by
the Research Committee, Brother C. C. Hunt, Chairman, of the Grand
Lodge of Iowa, 1921, raises the question as to the number of degrees
conferred upon Brother Washington.
Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, Fredericksburg,
Virginia, where Brother Washington received his Masonic Degrees,
conferred the Royal Arch Degree under the authority of its Lodge
Warrant. In fact, the first known record of this degree being
conferred anywhere is in the Minutes of this Lodge under date
of December 22, 1753.
There is a reference to the degree by the
Grand Committee of the Ancient, September 2, 1752, and the books
of Vernon Lodge, No. 123, Coleraine in Ireland, show that "a
Master and Royal Arch Mason" was proposed for membership,
April 16, 1752, and also that a Royal Arch reception was held
on March 11, 1745 (see Miscellanea Latomorum, volume ix, page
138). On the flap of the apron presented to Washington are the
familiar letters H T W S S T K S arranged in the usual circular
form. Within the circle is a beehive which may indicate the Mark
selected by the wearer.
The above pamphlet points out that as this
apron was made especially for Washington it is probable that he
was a Mark Master Mason at least, and that it is not likely that
this emblem would have been placed on the apron had the facts
been otherwise. Certainly the beehive as an emblem of industry
was an appropriate Mark for Washington to select.
APULEIUS, LUCIUS
Roman author, born at Madaura in northern
Africa about 125 to 130 A.D. Well educated, widely traveled, he
became notable as lecturer and advocate at Rome and Carthage.
Accused of Witchcraft by the relatives of
a rich widow he had married, he made a spirited and entertaining
defense that is still in existence, and tells us something of
his life. His chief work, the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass, tells
of the adventures of the hero in the form of an ass but who is
restored to human shape by the goddess Isis, his initiation into
the Mysteries as is is described and his progress in the priesthood
discussed; he became a provincial priest, collected the temple
funds and administered them. The works of Apuleius are valuable
for the light they throw upon ancient manners and references to
them during the centuries by Saint Augustine and others show the
interest this writer excited in his studies of religion, philosophy
and magic.
ARABIA
This country is a peninsula forming the
southwestern extreme of Asia. The Lodge of Integrity attached
to the 14th Regiment of Foot, warranted June 17, 1846, and constituted
on October 20 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the same year, min 1878878
at Aden.
There is at present in existence a Lodge at Aden chartered by
the Grand Lodge of Scotland under the name of Felix Lodge.
ARABICI
An Arabian sect of the second century, who
believed that the soul died with the body, to be again revived
with it at the general resurrection.
ARANYAKA
An appendage to the Veda of the Indians
supplementary to the Brahmanas, but giving more prominence to
the mystical sense of the rites of worship.
ARAUNAH
See Ornan
ARBITRATION
In the Old Charges Freemasons are advised,
in all cases of dispute or controversy, to submit to the arbitration
of the Masters and Fellows, rather than to go to law.
For example, the Old Charges, adopted by
the Grand Lodge of Ohio as part of the Constitution of that Masonic
Jurisdiction, provide in the Code and Supplement of 1914 and 1919 (page 16), that
"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 Cap-stone, 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 listening 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 continued; 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."
ARBROATH, ABBEY OF
Erected in Scotland during the twelfth century.
Rev. Charles Cordinet, in his description of the mins of North
Britain, has given an account of a seal of the Abbey Arbroath
marked ''Initiation.'' The seal was ancient before the abbey had
an existence, and contains a perfectly distinct characteristic
of the Scottish Rite. The town is also known as Aberbrotack and
is a seaport in Forfarshire.
ARCADE DE LA PELLETERIE
The name of derision even to the Orient
Clermont in France, that is to say, to the Old Grand Lodge,
before the union in 1799.
ARCANA
Latin, meaning secrets or inner mystery.
ARCANI DISCIPLINA
The mode of initiation into the primitive
Christian church (see Discipline of the Secret).
ARCH, ANTIQUITY OF THE
Writers on architecture have, until within
a few years, been accustomed to suppose that the invention of
the arch and keystone was not before the era of Augustus. But
the researches of modern antiquaries have traced the existence
of the arch as far back as 460 years before the building of King
Solomon's Temple, and thus rescued Masonic traditions from the
charge of anachronism or error in date (see Keystone).
ARCH, CATENARIAN
See Catenarian Arch
ARCH OF ENOCH
The Thirteenth Degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite is sometimes so called (see Knight of the
Ninth Arch).
ARCH OF HEAVEN
Job (xvi, 11) compares heaven to an arch
supported by pillars. "The pillars of heaven tremble and
are astonished at his reproof."
Doctor Cutbush, on this passage, remarks,
"The arch in this instance is allegorical, not only of the
arch of heaven, but of the higher degree of Masonry, commonly
called the Holy Royal Arch. The pillars which support the arch
are emblematical of Wisdom and Strength; the former denoting the
wisdom of the Supreme Architect, and the latter the stability
of the Universe" (see the American edition of Brewster's
Encyclopedia).
ARCH OF SOLOMON, ROYAL
The Thirteenth Degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite is sometimes so called, by which it is distinguished
from the Royal Arch Degree of the English and American systems.
ARCH OF STEEL
The grand honors are conferred, in the French
Rite, by two ranks of Brethren elevating and crossing their drawn
swords. They call it in French the Voute d'Acier.
ARCH OF ZERUBBABEL, ROYAL
The seventh Degree of the American Rite
is sometimes so called to distinguish it from the Royal Arch of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which is called the Royal
Arch of Solomon.
ARCH, ROYAL
See Royal Arch Degree
ARCHEOLOGY
The science which is engaged in the study
of those minor branches of antiquities which do not enter into
the course of general history, such as national architecture,
genealogies, manners, customs heraldic subjects, and others of
a similar nature.'The archaeology of Freemasonry has been made
within a recent period, a very interesting study, and is much
indebted for its successful pursuit to the labors of Kloss, Findel,
and Begemann in Germany, and to Thory and Ragon in France, and
to Oliver, Lyon, Hughan, Gould, Sadler, Dr. Chetwode Crawley,
Hawkins, Songhurst, and others in Great Britain.
The scholars of this science have especially
directed their attention to the collection of old records, and
the inquiry into the condition and organization of Masonic and
other secret associations during the Middle Ages. In America,
William S Rockwell, Albert Pike and Enoch Carson were diligent
students of Masonic archeology, and several others in the United
States have labored assiduously in the same inviting field.
ARCHEOLOGY AND FREEMASONRY
Archeology underwent at about the turn of
the century a transformation which turned it from an almost esoteric
specialty or hobby, engaged in by a small number of experts, into
a large and ever-expanding profession which has covered the world
with a network of activities, and is about to take its place alongside
history and literature as one of the subjects for every well-read
man to know. This transformation came about when a number of very
highly specialized sciences and forms of research found in it
a center and a meeting place. In consequence, archeology is now
being carried on by a combined corps of specialists or experts
in philology, in the history of art, in geology in paleontology,
in philology, in ethnology, in chemistry, in geography, of experts
on documents, of symbologists, of specialists in ethnic literatures,
and of technologists who manage and carry on the work of expeditions,
explorations, and excavations.
The public is not yet aware of the immensity
of the findings, or to what an extent those findings are already
effecting fundamental revisions in the writing of political, religions,
and social history. Archeology has not absorbed antiquarianism
on the one hand, nor historical research on the other, but it
has become so dove-tailed into both that it is impossible to draw
sharp boundaries between them. Masonic research under a have debt
to this new archeology ;especially is so, when antiquarian and
historical research are added to it. In it Masonic students possess
new bodies of facts which belong to their own field.
Among these are such as: masses of data
about the Ancient Mysteries in general and about Mithraism in
particular; about the Collegia; about the origins of the gild
system ; about the beginnings of European architecture; about
the documents, customs, and practices of the earliest stages of
Freemasonry; about the earliest Medieval social and cultural system
in which the earliest Freemasonry was molded; about the arts,
the engineering, and the mathematics of the period when Freemasonry
began ; and about rites, societies, symbols, etc., which alliterate
Freemasonry or were in action in other parts of the World ; about
the Crusades ; and about the earliest present time larger part
of the findings of archeology are in the form of reports of archaeological
societies or expeditions, in archaeological journals, and in brochures
and treatises not often found in bookstores. Only a small portion
of this material has any bearing on the origin and history of
Freemasonry ; but that portion is decisive for many questions
and in the future must be included among the sources for Masonic
history and research.
ARCHETYPE
The principal type, figure, pattern, or
example whereby and whereon a thing is formed. In the science
of symbolism, the archetype is the thing adopted as a symbol,
whence the symbolic idea is derived. Thus, we say the Temple is
the archetype of the Lodge, because the former is the symbol whence
all the Temple symbolism of the latter is derived.
ARCHIMAGUS
The chief officer of the Mithraic Mysteries
in Persia. He was the representative of Ormudz, or Ormazd, the
type of the good, the true, and the beautiful, who overcame Ahriman,
the spirit of evil, of the base, and of darkness.
ARCHITECT
In laying the corner-stones of Masonic edifices,
and in dedicating them after they are finished, the architect
of the building, although he may be a profane, is required to
take a part in the ceremonies. In the former case, the square,
level, and plumb are delivered to him with a charge by the Grand
Master; and in the latter case they are returned by him to that
officer.
ARCHITECT, AFRICAN
See African Architects
ARCHITECT AND MASTER OF MASONS
Medieval Freemasons were organized as a
body when employed on a cathedral, a castle, an abbey, or any
other large building. This body, or Lodge, though its own officers
were members of it, and though it as a body made many decisions,
was not a soviet, or commune, nor was it a "democratic"
body working through committees, but it worked under and was sworn
to obey a chief officer, or Master of Masons (called by a number
of titles). This Master of Masons, however, was not an architect,
but rather was a superintendent ; the making of plans and specifications
was done by the Lodge itself, and in many places it had a separate
room or building for that purpose.
In the course of time, however, the development
of architectural practices brought about a divorce between the
making of plans, designs, and specifications, and the carrying
on of the daily work called for by the plans. The modern office
of architect came into use.
This architect might have his own quarters
at a distance from the building; he need not be a member of the
Craft ; after he had made the drawings, models, and plans, the
Craftsmen were then to carry them out under a Master who had become
merely a superintendent of workmen. It is impossible to mark the
new system with a date but the beginning of the office of architect
as a profession may be signalized (in England) by the career of
Inigo Jones (z.d) This transition to an entirely new basis for
the art was essentially brought about by an intellectual advance,
which can be best described briefly by comparing it with a similar
revolution more than 2,000 years before. In Egypt many trained
workmen were employed by the state or by cities to do surveying,
to measure the water allotments for irrigation, to lay off building
sites, etc. This called for geometry, and especially for trigonometry; but the Egyptians had their knowledge of these things only in
an empirical, piecemeal, rule-of-thumb form, and did not try to
dissociate geometry from surveying and empirical measurements
and calculations. The Greeks discovered that these surveying formulas
and rules could be divorced from surveying land, could be cast
in abstract form, and could then be used for countless purposes.
They transferred geometry from the land to the mind; found it
to power certain necessities in thought; made of it a system of
principles; perfected it as a pure science. what had begun as
land-surveying became geometry.
The Medieval Mason is comparable to the
Egyptian surveyor. He was trained, rather than educated ; was
an apprentice rather than a student ; and was taught how to perform
certain given tasks. These were empirical. He did not dissociate
them from the style and structure of the type of building on which
he was working. Then came the discovery that there are a number
of principles, formulas, and processes which hold not for one
type of building but for any building. Then architecture became
independent, free, an art, a science, and men could study it in
universities and learn it in architects' offices. In both cases
there was, as it were, a transition from an Operative (or empirical)
Craft to a Speculative one.
An account of the rise of the profession
of architect is invariably given in any one of the modern standard
histories of architecture. See in addition The Cathedral Builders
in England, by Edward S. Prior; E. P. Dutton & Co.; New York;
1905. The Builders of Florence, by J. Wood Brown; Methuen &
Co; London; 1909. Notes on the Superintendents of English Buildings
in the Middle Ages, by Wyatt Papworth. An Historical Essay on
Architecture, by Thomas Hope ; John Murray; London. Medieval Architecture.
by Arthur Kingsley Porter. The Guilds of Florence, by Edgcumbe
Staley. Westminster Abbey and the Kings' Craftsmen, and Architecture,
both by W. R. Lethaby. Gothic Architecture in England, by Francis
Bond ; B. T. Bostfood; London; 1905. A Short History of the Building
Crafts, by Martin S. Briggs, Oxford; 1925. The Master Masons to
the Croun of Scotland, by Robert Scott Myine; Scott & Ferguson;
1893.
ARCHITECT, ENGINEER AND
An officer in the French Rite, whose duty,
it is to take charge of the furniture of the Lodge. In the Scottish
Rite such officer in the Consistory has charge of the general
arrangement of all preparatory matters for the working or ceremonial
of the degrees.
ARCHITECT BY 3, 5, AND 7, GRAND
The French expression is Grande Architecte
par 3, 5, et 7. A degree in the manuscript of Peuvret's collection.
ARCHITECT, GRAND
The French expression is Grande Architecte
and is used in reference to the following:
1. The Sixth Degree of the Rite of Martinism.
2. The Fourth Degree of the Rite of Elect Cohens.
3. The Twenty-third Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
4. The Twenty-fourth Degree of the third series in the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
ARCHITECT, GRAND MASTER
See Grand Master Architect
ARCHITECT, LITTLE
The French expression is Petit Architecte
and refers to the following :
1. The Twenty-third Degree of the third series of the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of Franee.
2. The Twenty-second Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
ARCHITECT OF SOLOMON
The French expression is Architecte de Salomon. A degree in the
manuscript collection of M. Peuvret.
ARCHITECT, PERFECT
The French phrase is, Parfait Architecte.
The Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Degrees of
the Rite of Mizraim are Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Perfect
Architect.
ARCHITECT, PERFECT AND SUBLIME GRAND
The French is Parfait et Sublime Grande
Architecte. A degree in the collection of the Loge de Saint Louis
des Amis Réunis at Calais.
ARCHITECTONICUS
A Greek word, adopted in Latin, signifying
belonging to architecture. Thus, Vitruvius writes, rationes architectonicae,
meaning the rules of architecture.
But as Architecton signifies a Master Builder,
the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in some Latin inscriptions, has used
the word architectonicus, to denote Masonic or relating to Freemasonry.
In the inscription on the corner-stone of the Royal Exchange of
Edinburgh, we find fratres architectonici used for Freemasons;
and in the Grand Lodge diplomas, a Lodge is called societas architectonica;
but the usage of the word in this sense has not been generally
adopted.
ARCHITECTURE
The urge toward art of constructing dwellings,
as a shelter from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, must
have been resorted to from the very first moment in which man
became subjected to the power of the elements. Architecture is,
therefore, not only one of the most important, but one of the
most ancient of sciences. Rude and imperfect must, however, have
been the first efforts of the human race, resulting in the erection
of huts clumsy in their appearance, and ages must have elapsed
ere wisdom of design combined strength of material with beauty
of execution.
As Geometry is the science on which Freemasonry is founded, Architecture
is the art from which it borrows the language of its symbolic
instruction. In the earlier ages of the Order every Freemason
was either an operative mechanic or a superintending architect.
Therefore something more than a superficial
knowledge of the principles of architecture is absolutely essential
to the Freemason who would either understand the former history
of the Institution or appreciate its present objects.
There are five orders of architecture: the
Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, the Tuscan, and the Composite.
The first three are the original orders, and were invented in
Greece; the last two are of later formation, and owe their existence
to Italy. Each of these orders, as well as the other terms of
architecture, so far as they are connected with Freemasonry, will
be found under its appropriate head throughout this work.
The Books of Constitutions, commenced by
Anderson and continued by Entick and Noorthouck, contain, under
the title of a History of Freemasonry, in reality a history of
the progress of architecture from the earliest ages. In the older
manuscript, Constitutions, the science of Geometry, as well as
Architecture, is made identical with Freemasonry; so that he who
would rightly understand the true history of Freemasonry must
ever bear in mind the distinction between Geometry, Architecture,
and Freemasonry, which is constantly. lost sight of in these old
records.
ARCHITECTURE, FIRST & CHIEF GROUNDES
OF
In the year of our Lord 1912 Laurence Weaver,
F.S.A., Hon. A.R.I.B.A., set up for himself a fair and durable
monument by reproducing an exact facsimile of the original edition
of The First & Chief Grounds of Architecture, by John Shute,
Paynter and Archytecte.' First Printed in 1663. lt is the first
book, known to exist, to have been printed on architecture in
England. In 1550, the Duke of Cumberland sent Shute "to confer
with the doings of the skilful masters in architecture" in
Italy, and he was probably abroad for two or three years.
He had his book ready for print in 1553,
but the Duke losing his head that year for a conspiracy against
Bloody Queen Mary it was delayed until 1563, the year of its author's
own death. This was seven years before the publication of Palladio's
treatise at Venice in 1570 (sundry old London Lodges studied Palladio),
which, when Inigo Jones brought it back with him from his tour
in Italy, was, via Jones' own genius, to transform English architecture
; and incidentally was to leave certain permanent traces in the
Ritual of Speculative Masonry. lt is very curious that Shute wrote
out a " Discourse on the beginnings of Architecture"
which is reminiscent of the Legend in our Old Charters, one that
is equally fabulous, though from Greek sources, and doubtless
picked up in Italy.
The extraordinary interest of Shute's book
to Freemasons is that it consists wholly (after an Introductory
treatise) of chapters illustrated by himself (it is thought he
may have been the first English engraver) on the Five Orders,
one to each Order in turn.
A path of history lies from Shute to Inigo
Jones to Sir Christopher Wren, and-very possibly-to William Preston
! In the Minutes of Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2, Nov. 27,1839 is
this entry: "Mr. Elmes, the Architect," gave 'the Lodge
the opportunity of buying, "a set of Five Columns representing
the five Orders in Architecture which belonged originally to Brother
Sir Christopher Wren, and were made use of by him at the time
he presided over the Lodge of Antiquity as W. Master." (The
price asked was 5200.) Preston was Master of the same Lodge ;
he and its members studied Palladio together ; it is easy to believe
that the lecture he wrote on the Five Orders, still in our Webb
Preston work, was there and then suggested.
ARCHITECTURE, PIECE OF
The French expression is Morçeau
d'architecture. The name given in French Lodges to the Minutes
and has also been applied to the literary, musical, or other contributions
of any Brother and especially to such offerings by a new member.
ARCHIVES
This word means, properly, a place of deposit
for records; but it means also the records themselves. Hence the
archives of a Lodge are its records and other documents. The legend
in the Second Degree, that the pillars of the Temple were made
hollow to contain the archives of Freemasonry is simply a myth,
and a modern one.
ARCHIVES, GRAND GUARDIAN OF THE
An officer in the Grand Council of Rites
of Ireland who performs the duties of Secretary General.
ARCHIVES, GRAND KEEPER OF THE
An officer in some of the Bodies of the
advanced degrees a whose duties are indicated by the name. In
the Grand Orient of France he is called Grand Garde des Timbres
et Sceaux, as he combines the duties of a keeper of the archives
and a keeper of the seals.
ARCHIVISTE
An officer in French Lodges who has charge
of the archives. The Germans call him the Archivar.
ARDAREL
A word in the advanced degrees, used as
the name of the angel of fire. It is a distorted form of Adariel,
or aw-dar-ale, meaning in Hebrew the splendor of God.
ARELIM
A word used in some of the rituals of the
advanced degrees. It is found in Isaiah (xxxiii, 7), where it
is translated, in the authorized version, "valiant ones,"
and by Lowth, ''mighty men.'' It is a doubtful word, and is probably
formed from Ariel, meaning in Hebrew the lion of God. D'Herbelot
says that Mohammed called his uncle Hamseh, on account of his
valor, the lion of God. In the Cabala, Arelim is the name of the
third angel or sephirah, one of the ten attributes of God.
AREOPAGUS
The third apartment in a Council of Kadosh
is so called. The place represents a tribunal, and the name is
derived from the celebrated court of Athens.
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
A federal republic of south America. The
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania granted a Charter on September 5,
1825, to Southern Star Lodge, No. 205, at Buenos Aires. This was
the first Lodge established in the Argentine Republic, but in
1846, with other Lodges which had been formed, it was suppressed.
It was reported that a Grand Lodge of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite had existed in 1856 but it
did not flourish for long. On April 22, 1858, however, the Supreme
Council and Grand Orient of Uruguay constituted a Body similar
to itself at Montevideo. About this time it is said that a Roman
Catholic Bishop in Buenos Aires was active against the Freemasons
to such an extent that an appeal was made against one of his Degrees
to Pope Pius IX at Rome. As a result of the appeal it was claimed
that a the Pope had, when a young man, taken the Degrees in 1816.
This story, however, is also told with some variations in reference
to there people and places.
In 1861 the Grand Lodge of England and the
Grand Orient of the Argentine agreed that the latter had the power
to establish Lodges in La Plata and to appoint a District Grand
Master to preside over the District Grand Lodge.
The Grand Orient of Spain has chartered
two Lodges at Buenos Aires, the Grand Orient of Italy has authorized
three Lodges at Bahia Blanca, four at Buenos Aires, two at Boca
del Riachuclo, and one at La Plata ; the Grand Lodge of Hamburg
has a Lodge at Rosario de Santa Fe and another at Buenos Aires;
the Grand Orient of France has also one at Buenos Aires which
has been active since July 8, 1852, and the Grand Lodge of England
has twenty-two 'scattered through the country, two being at Rosario,
and seven at the capital. .
ARGONAUTS, ORDER OF
A German androgynous or male and female
society founded in 1775, by Brethren of the Rite of Strict Observance.
The name is from a Greek myth of those who
sailed with Jason on the ship Argo in search of the golden fleece.
Much of the myth of the Argonauts was introduced into the forms
and ceremonies, and many of the symbols taken from this source,
such as meeting upon the deck of a Vessel, the chief officer being
called Grand Admiral, and the nomenclature of parts of the vessel
being used. The motto was Es Lebe die Freude, or Joy forever.
ARIEL
In the demonology of the Cabala, the word
is applied to the spirit of air; the guardian angel of innocence
and purity : hence the Masonic aynonym.
A name applied to Jerusalem ; and to a water
spirit.
ARITHMETIC
That science which is engaged in considering
the properties and powers of numbers, and ,which, from its manifest
necessity in all the operations of weighing, numbering, and measuring,
must have had its origin in the remotest ages of the world.
In the lecture of the degree of Grand Master
Architect, the application of this science to Freemasonry is made
to consist in its reminding the Freemason that he is continually
to add to his knowledge, never to subtract anything from the character
of his neighbor, to multiply his benevolence to his fellow creatures,
and to divide his means with a suffering Brother.
ARIZONA
The year 1866 saw the first Lodge established
in Arizona when, on October 11, Aztlan Lodge at Prescott was chartered
by the Grand Lodge of California. On March 23, 1882, delegates
of three Lodges : Arizona, No. 257 ; Tucson, No. 263, and White
Mountain, No. 5, held a Convention at Tucson, and the representatives
of Solomon Lodge, under dispensation, were invited to take part
in the proceedings. After adopting a Constitution a Lodge of Master
Masons was opened, and the Grand Officers were elected.
Two days later the Grand Officers were installed,
the Convention closed, and the Grand Lodge duly opened.
A Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Arizona
No. l, at Phoenix, Maricopa County, was chartered August 24, 1880.
On the invitation of Companion Past High
Priest George J. Roskruge, of Tucson Chapter, No. 3, a Convention
of Royal Arch Masons met in the hall of Tucson Lodge, No. 4, on
November 13, 1889, to consider the organization of a Grand Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons for the Territory of Arizona. Five Chapters
were represented: Arizona, No. l ; Preseott, No. 2; Tucson, No.
3; Cochise, No. 4 and Flagstaff No. 5. The Grand Chapter of Arizona
was opened in Ample Form, Martin W. Kales was elected Grand High
Priest, and G. J. Roskruge. Grand Secretary.
By a Dispensation dated July 1, 1893, a
Council of Royal and Select Masters, Olive No. l, was organized
at Prescott. It was chartered on August 22, 1893 but this Charter
was annulled on October 6, 1903. Phoenix Council at Phoenix had
a Dispensation dated April 4 1895, but this was surrendered, February
17, 1897, and a Dispensation dated April 5, 1895, was surrendered
on September 2, 1897, by Tucson Council at Tucson. At a Convention
in Tucson, February 14, 1922, General Grand Master Fay Hempstead
presiding, representatives from Huachuca Council No. l, chartered
August 31, 191a of Bisbee; Hiram Council No. 2, chartered August
31, 1915, of Prescott; Gila Council No. 3, chartered September
27, 1921, of Globe, and Phoenix Council No. 4, chartered September
27, 1921, of Phoenix, formed the Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters of Arizona, with M. I. Riekmer N. Frederieks of Preseott
as Grand Master, and R. I. George J. Roakruge of Tuewn as Grand
Recorder. "
On February 22, 1883, Arizona Commandery,
No. l, was established by Dispensation at Tuewn, Pima County.
Its Charter was granted on August 23, 1883. The Grand Commandery
of Arizona was formed by Warrant from the Grand Encampment of
the United States on November 16, 1893. Sir George J. Roskruge,
acting as proxy for Sir Hugh Mccurdy, Grand Master of Knights
Templar, summoned together on November 14, 1893, in the Asylum
of Phoenix Commandery, No. 3, the representatives of the three
chartered Commanderies in Arizona-Arizona, No. l; Ivanhoe, No.
2; Phoenix, No. 3. A Constitution was adopted and Grand Officers
elected. The following day at the same place the Grand Officers
were installed and Sir George J. Roskruge declared the Grand Commandery
then assembled to be duly constituted. A Charter was granted to
Arizona, No. l, as a Consistory of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, at Tucson on October 20, 1909, and on the same date to a
Council of Kadosh, Santa Cruz, No. I. A Chapter of Rose Croix,
Santa Catalina, No. l, was chartered on October 23, 1907, and
a Lodge of Perfection, Santa Rita, No. l, on April 25, 1883.
ARJUNA SOCIETY
Arjuna is the name of a personification
in the Sanskrit poem, the Bhagavad Gita, and was given to a society
formed at Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 1, 1893, for archeological
studies, by S. C. Gould who became president. The latter published
Notes and Queries monthly up to his death in 1909, some thirty-seven
volumes, and in this publication only a few meetings of the Arjuna
Society are recorded.
ARK
In the ritual of the American Royal Arch
Degree three arks are mentioned:
1. The Ark of Safety, or of Noah ;
2. The Ark of the Covenant, or of Moses;
3. The Substitute Ark, or the Ark of Zerubbabel. In what is technically
called the passing of the veils, each of these arks has its commemorative
illustration, and in the order in which they have been named.
The first was constructed by Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, the sons of Noah; the second by Moses, Aholiab, and
Bezaleel ; and the third was discovered by Joshua, Haggai, and
Zerubbabel.
ARK AND ANCHOR
See Anchor and Ark
ARK AND DOVE
An illustrative Degree, preparatory to the
Royal Arch, and usually conferred, when conferred at all, immediately
before the solemn ceremony of exaltation.
The name of Noachite, sometimes given to
it, is incorrect, as this belongs to a Degree in the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. It is very probable that the Degree, which
now, however, has lost much of its significance, was derived from
a much older one called the Royal Ark Mariners, to which the reader
is referred.
The legend and symbolism of the ark and
dove formed an important part of the spurious Freemasonry of the
ancients.
ARKANSAS
The modern school of historians, Masonic
and profane, write history, from original sources when possible,
but in this case that method is no longer possible, as all the
records of the Grand Lodge of this State were burned in 1864 and
again in 1876 when all records gathered since 1864 were destroyed-depriving
them of all early records.
On November 29, 1819, the Grand Lodge of
Kentucky issued a Dispensation to Arkansas Lodge, at the Post
of Arkansas. Its Charter was granted on August 29, 1820, but was
surrendered on August 28, 1822. Brother Robert Johnson was named
in the Charter as Worshipful Master. Representatives of four Lodges,
Washington, Morning Star, Western Star, and Mount Horeb, under
dispensation, attended a Convention on November 21, 1838, and
adopted a Constitution. Officers were elected and the Grand Lodge
duly constituted.
The first Chapter in Arkansas was chartered
by the General Grand Chapter of the United States on September
17, 1841. With three others this Chapter organized the Grand Chapter
of Arkansas, at a Convention held on April 28, 1851. Far West
Chapter, No. l, joined in 1852.
Companion Elbert H. English was elected
the first Grand High Priest, and when the General Grand Chapter
of the United States held its Convocation at Nashville on November
24, 1874, he was elected General Grand High Priest. Companion
Albert Pike, elected Grand High Priest on November 10, 1853, and
also on November 11, 1854, is said to have originated the Ritual
employed in Arkansas, which is somewhat different from that in
general use.
The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction chartered five Councils
in the State of which four formed the Grand Council, November
6, 1860. The Convention is said by Brother Robertson to have been
called at the invitation of the Southern Supreme Council, one
provision of its Constitution being that all members of that Supreme
Council, resident in the State, and all the members of the Convention,
should be members of the Grand Council as long as they were members
of Councils in the State (see History of the Cryptic Rite, page
95).
The Hugh de Payens, No. l, Commandery was
organized at Little Rock, December 20, 1853, and received a Charter
September 10, 1856. On May 23, 1872, the Grand Commandery of Arkansas
was constituted.
Arkansas, No. l, was established a Consistory
at Little Rock by Charter dated October 10, 1892. On September
10, 1891, Charters were granted to a Council of Kadosh, Godfrey
de Saint Omar, No. l, to a Chapter of Rose Croix, Excelsior, No.
1, and to a Lodge of Perfection, Acacia, No. l, all of which were
located at Little Rock.
ARKITE WORSHIP
The almost universal prevalence among the
nations of antiquity of some tradition of a long past deluge,
gave rise to certain mythological doctrines and religious ceremonies,
to which has been given the name of Arkite Worship, which was
Very extensively diffused.
The evidence of this is to be found in the
neared feeling which was entertained for the sacredness of high
mountains, derived, it is supposed, from recollections of an Ararat,
and from the presence in all the Mysteries of a basket, chest,
or coffer, whose mystical character bore apparently a reference
to the ark of Noah.
On the subject. of this Arkite Worship,
Jacob Bryant in A New System or an analysis of ancient Mythology,
George Stanley Faber in a Dissertation on the Mysteries of the
Cabiri, Godfrey Higgins in the Anacalypas, the Abbé Antoine
de Banier, and many other writers, have made learned investigations,
which may be consulted with advantage by the Masonic archeologist.
ARK MARINER, JEWEL OF ROYAL
The jewel of this Degree prefigures the
teachings, which are unique, and draws their symbols from the
sea, rain, ark, dove, olive-branch, and Rainbow. This last symbol,
as the Almighty's sign, overshadows the ark, which really is the
sign of Ishtar.
The ark is said to have contained all the
elements of Elohim's creative power, and in ''about nine months
and three days there came forth the pent-up energies of Maiya"
; her symbol is the dove with the mystic olive, which are sacred
to her. The whole underlying thought is that of creation.
ARK MARINERS
See Royal Ark Mariners
ARK, NOAH'S
Known also as the Ark of Safety. Constructed
by Shem, Ham, and Japheth, under the superintendence of Noah,
and in it, as a chosen tabernacle of refuge, the patriarch's family
took refuge. This ark has been called by many commentators a tabernacle
of Jehovah ; and Doctor Jarvis, speaking of the Hebrew word ,
pronounced Zo-har, which has been translated window, says that,
in all other passages of Scripture where this word occurs, it
signifies the meridian light, the brightest effulgence of day,
and therefore it could not have been an aperture, but a source
of light itself. He supposes it therefore to have been the Divine
Shekinah, or Glory of Jehovah which afterward dwelt between the
cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle and the
Temple (see the Church of the Redeemed, 1, 20).
ARK OF THE COVENANT
The Ark of the Covenant or of the Testimony
was a chest, originally constructed by Moses at God's command
(Exodus xxv, 10), in which were kept the two tables of stone,
on which were engraved the Ten Commandments.
This ark contained, likewise, a golden pot
filled with manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the covenant.
It was at first deposited in the most sacred
place of the tabernacle and afterward placed by Solomon in the
Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple, and was lost upon the destruction
of that building by the Chaldeans.
The later history of this ark is buried
in obscurity.
It is supposed that, upon the destruction
of the first Temple by the Chaldeans, it was carried to Babylon
among the other sacred utensils which became the spoil of the
conquerors. But of its subsequent fate all traces have been lost.
However, it is certain that it was not brought
back to Jerusalem by Zerubbabel. The Talmudists say that there
were five things which were the glory of the first Temple that
were wanting in the second; namely, the Ark of the Covenant, the
Shekinah or Divine Presence, the Urim and Thummim, the holy fire
upon the altar, and the spirit of prophecy. The Rev. Salem Towne,
it is true, has endeavored to Prove, by a Very ingenious argument,
that the original Ark of the Covenant was concealed by Josiah,
or by others, at some time previous to the destruction of Jerusalem,
and that it was afterward, at the building of the second Temple,
discovered and brought to light.
But such a theory is entirely at Variance
with all the legends of the Degree of Select Master and of Royal
Arch Freemasonry. To admit it would lead to endless confusion
and contradictions in the traditions of the Order. Besides, it
is in conflict with the opinions of the Rabbinical Writers and
every Hebrew scholar. Josephus and the Rabbis allege that in the
second Temple the Holy of Holies was empty, or contained only
the Stone of Foundation which marked the place which the ark should
have occupied.
The ark was made of shittim wood, which is a species of acacia,
overlaid, within and without, with pure gold, and was about three
feet nine inches long, two feet three inches wide, and of the
same extent in depth. It had on the side two rings of gold, through
which were placed staves of shittim wood, by which, when necessary,
the ark was home by the Levites.
Its covering was of pure gold, over which
was placed two figures called cherubim, an order of exalted angelic
beings, with expanded wings. The covering of the ark was called
nana, a Hebrew word pronounced kap-po-reth, from the word ana,
pronounced kaw-far and meaning to blot out or pardon, and hence
its English name of mercy-seat, as being the place where the intercession
for sin was made.
The researches of archeologists in the last
few years have thrown much light on the Egyptian mysteries. Among
the ceremonies of that ancient people was one called the Procession
of Shrines, which is mentioned in the Rosetta stone, and depicted
on the Temple walls. One of these shrines was an ark, which was
carried in procession by the priests, who supported it on their
shoulders by staves passing through metal rings.
This ark was thus brought into the Temple
and deposited on a stand or altar, that the ceremonies prescribed
in the ritual might be performed before it. The contents of these
arks were various, but always of a mystical character. Sometimes
the ark would contain symbols of Life and Stability; sometimes
the sacred beetle, the symbol of the Sun; and there was always
a representation of two figures of the goddess Theme or Truth
and Justice, which overshadowed the ark with their wings. These
coincidences of the Egyptian and Hebrew arks must have been more
than accidental.
ARK, SUBSTITUTE
The chest or coffer which constitutes a
part of the furniture, and is used in the ceremonies of a Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons, and in a Council of Select Masters according
to the American system, is called by Freemasons the Substitute
Ark, to distinguish it from the other ark, that which was constructed
in the wilderness under the direction of Moses, and which is known
as the ark of the Covenant. This the Substitute Ark was made to
represent under circumstances that are recorded in the Masonic
traditions, and especially in those of the Select Degree.
The ark used in Royal Arch and Cryptic Freemasonry
in the United States is generally of this form:
Prideaux, on the authority of Lightfoot, contends that, as an
ark was indispensable to the Israelitish worship, there was in
the second Temple an ark which had been expressly made for the
purpose of supplying the place of the first or original ark, and
which, without possessing any of its prerogatives or honors, was
of precisely the same shape and dimensions, and was deposited
in the same place. The Masonic legend, whether authentic or not,
is simple and connected. It teaches that there was an ark in the
second Temple, but that it was neither the Ark of the Covenant,
which had been in the Holy of Holies of the first Temple, nor
one that had been constructed as a substitute for it after the
building of the second Temple. It was that ark which was presented
to us in the Select Master's Degree, and which being an exact
copy of the Mosaical ark, and intended to replace it in case of
its loss, which is best known to Freemasons as the Substitute
Ark.
Lightfoot gives these Talmudic legends,
in his Prospect of the Temple, in the following language:
"It is fancied by the Jews, that Solomon, when he built the
Temple, foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed, caused
very obscure and intricate vaults under ground to be made, wherein
to hide the ark when any such danger came; that howsoever it went
with the Temple, yet the ark, which was the very life of the Temple,
might be saved. And they understand that passage in the Second
Chronicles ixxxv, 3), 'Josiah said unto the Levites, Put the holy
ark into the house which Solomon, the son of David, did build,
etc., as if Josiah, having heard by the reading of Moses' manuscript,
and Huldah's prophecy of the danger that hung over Jerusalem,
commanded to convey the ark into this vault, that it might be
secured; and with it, say they, they laid up Aaron's rod, the
pot of manna, and the anointing oil. For while the ark stood in
its place upon the stone mentioned-they hold that Aaron's rod
and the pot of manna stood before it ; but, now, were all conveyed
into obscurity-and the stone upon which the ark stood lay over
the mouth of the Vault. But Rabbi Solomon, which useth not, ordinarily,
to forsake such traditions, hath given a more serious gloss upon
the place ; namely, that whereas Manasseh and Amon had removed
the ark out of its habitation, and set up images and abominations
there of their own-Joshua speaketh to the priests to restore it
to its please again.
What became of the ark, at the burning of
the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, we read not; it is most likely it
went to the fire also. However it sped, it was not in the second
Temple; and is one of the five choice things that the Jews reckon
wanting there. Yet they had an ark there also of their own making,
as they had a breastplate of judgment; which, though they both
wanted the glory of the former, which was giving of oracles, yet
did they stand current as to the other matters of their worship,
as the former breastplate and ark had done."
The idea of the concealment of an ark and
its accompanying treasures always prevailed in the Jewish church.
The account given by the Talmudists is undoubtedly mythical; but
there must, as certainly, have been some foundation for the myth,
for every myth has a substratum of truth. The Masonic tradition
differs from the Rabbinical, but is in every way more reconcilable
with truth, or at least with probability. The ark constructed
by Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel was burned at the destruction
of the first Temple; but there was an exact representation of
it in the second.
ARMENBUCHSE
The poor-box; the name given by German Freemasons
to the box in which collections of money are made at a Table-Lodge
for the relief of poor Brethren and their families.
ARMES
A corrupted form of Hermes, found in the Lansdowne and some other
old manuscripts.
ARMIGER
1. A bearer of arms. The title given by
Heralds to the Esquire who waited on a Knight. 2. The Sixth Degree
of the Order of African Architects.
ARMOR
In English statutes, the word armor means
the whole apparatus of war ; offensive and defensive arms. In
the Order of the Temple pieces of armor are used to a limited
extent. In the Chivalric Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, in order to carry out the symbolism as well as to render
effect to its dramas, armor pieces and articles for the use of
knights become necessary, with mantling, crest, mottoes, etc.
Some of these are herein enumerated as follows:
AILLETTES-Square shields for the shoulders,
the original of the present epaulet.
ANLACE-A broad two-edged dagger or short sword once hung at the
belt or girdle.
BALDRIC-Belt diagonally crossing the body.
BATTLE-Ax-Weapon with ax blade and spearhead. ,
BEAVER-Front of helmet, which is raised to admit food and drink
or permit the recognition by a View Of the face.
BEAKER-The drinking-cup with mouth-lip.
BELT-For body. Badge of knightly rank.
BRASSARD-armor to protect the arm from elbow to shoulder.
BUCKLER-A round shield for protecting the body.
CORSELET-Breastplate or body armor.
CREST-Ornament on helmet designating rank and in heraldry as well
to show identity.
CUIRASS-Defensive armor covering the entire upper part of the
trunk and including breastplate and backplate, but has also been
applied to breastplate alone.
GADLING-Sharp metallic knuckles on gauntlet.
GAUNTLET-Mailed gloves.
GORGET-Armor between the neck guard and breastplate.
GREAVES-Guards for calves of legs.
HALBERD-Battle-ax and spearhead on long staff formerly used as
weapon but later became an emblem of authority at ceremonials.
HAUBERK-Shirt of mail, of rings or scales.
HELMET or CASQUE-Armor for the head.
JAMBEUX-Armor for the legs.
JUPON-Sleeveless jacket, to the hips.
LANCE-Long spear with metallic head and pennon or small pointed
flag bearing personal device.
MACE-Heavy short staff of metal, ending with spiked ball.
MANTLE-Outer cloak.
MORION-Head armor without vizor.
PENNON-A pennant, or short streamer, pointed or forked.
PLUME-The designation of knighthood.
SALLET-Light helmet for foot-soldiers.
SOLLERETS-Shoes of mail.
VIZOR-Front of helmet (slashed), moving on pivots.
ARMORY
An apartment attached to the asylum of a
Commandery of Knights Templars, in which the swords and other
parts of the costume of the knights are deposited for safe-keeping.
ARMS OF FREEMASONRY
Stow says that the Freemasons were incorporated
as a company in the twelfth year of Henry 1412. Their arms
were granted to them, in 1472, by William Hawkesloe, Clarenceux
King-at-Arms, and are azure on a chevron between three castles
argent; a pair of compasses somewhat extended, of the first. Crest,
a castle of the second. They were adopted, subsequently, by the
Grand Lodge of England.
The Atholl Grand Lodge objected to this
as an unlawful assumption by the Modern Grand Lodge of Speculative
Freemasons of the arms of the Operative Freemasons.
They accordingly adopted another coat, which
Laurence Dermott blazons as follows: Quarterly per squares, counter changed
vert. In the first quarter, azure, a lion rampant, or. In the
second quarter, or, an ox passant sable. In the third quarter,
or, a man with hands erect proper, robed crimson and ermine. In
the fourth quarter, azure, an eagle displayed or. Crest, the holy
ark of the covenant proper, supported by cherubim. Motto, Kodes
la Adonai, that is, Holiness to the Lord.
The reader in following the above language
of heraldry will note, with reference to the colors, that of the
words in French, taking them in order, azure means blue, argent
means silver, vert means green, or means gold, sable means black.
These arms as described by Dermott and adopted
by his Grand Lodge are derived from the tetrarchical, as Sir Thos.
Browne calls them, or general banners of the four principal tribes
; for it is said that the twelve tribes, during their passage
through the wilderness, were encamped in a hollow square, three
on each side, as follows : Judah, Zebulun, and Issachar, in the
East, under the general banner of Judah ; Dan, Asher, and Naphtali,
in the North; under the banner of Dan; Ephraim, Manasseh, and
Benjamin, in the West, under the banner of Ephraim; and Reuben,
Simeon, and Gad, in the South, under Reuben (see Banners).
ARNOLD, BENEDICT
Born at Norwich, Connecticut, January 14,
1741, and died at London, England, June l4, 1801. Settled in New
Haven, 1762, and as captain of the local militia offered his services
in Revolutionary War, becoming Major-General in 1777, and a trusted
associate of Washington but his progress embroiled by several
serious conflicts with other officers and his sensitive waywardness
matching his bravery, his vexations resulted in an attempt to
betray West Point to the British. The plot was discovered but
Arnold escaped and as Brigadier-General led an attack upon the
Americans at Richmond, Virginia, and New London, Connecticut.
The same year, 1781, he removed to England. The published history,
1917, Hiram Lodge No. l, New Haven, Connecticut, page 20, Past
Grand Master Wallace S. Moyle writes, "The first record in
Book 2 states that "Br. Benedict Arnold is by R. W. (Nathan
Whiting) proposed to be made a member (i.e. an affiliate) of this
R. W. Lodge. . . and is accordingly made a member in this Lodge."
Arnold is recorded as being present as a visiting Brother. Page
82 of the history gives the date as April 10, 1765. Past Master
George E. Frisbie, Secretary of Hiram Lodge, was, however, of
the opinion (letter dated October 21, 1926) ArnoldAmold was made
a Freemason in Hiram Lodge and held membership there until his
death.
A temperate account is the Life of Benedict
Arnold by Isaac N. Arnold, 1880, Chicago. Nathan Whiting was Master
for several years, was with the Colonial Army in the wars against
Canada, was at the fall of Quebec, 1761, and from the outbreak
of hostilities to the end Whiting, with other members of the Lodge,
was at the front.
AROBA
Pledge, covenant, agreement. Latin, Arrhabo,
a token or pledge. Hebrew, Arab, pronounced aw-rab, which is the
root of Arubbah, pronounced ar-oob-baw, surety, hostage. This
important word, in the Fourteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, is used when the initiate partakes of the Ancient
Aroba, the pledge or covenant of friendship, by eating and drinking
with his new companions. The expression is of greater import than
that implied in mere hospitality. The word aroba appears nowhere
in English works, and seems to have been omitted by Masonic writers.
The root arab is one of the oldest in the
Hebrew language, and means to interweave or to mingle, to exchange,
to become surety for anyone, and to pledge even the life of one
person for another, or the strongest pledge that can be given.
Judah pleads with Israel to let Benjamin go with him to be presented
in Egypt to Joseph, as the latter had requested. He says:
"Send the lad with me; I will be surety
for him" (Genesis xliii, 9) ; and before Joseph he makes
the same remark in Genesis (xliv, 32). Job (xvii, 3), appealing
to God, says: "Put me in a surety with thee ; who is he that
will strike hands with me?" (see also First Samuel xvii,
18). In its pure form, the word arubbah occurs only once in the
Old Testament (Proverbs xvii, 18) : "A man void of understanding
striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend."
In Latin, Plautus makes use of the following phrase : Hunc arrhabonem
amoris a me accipe, meaning Accept from me this pledge of love,
or more freely, Accept this pledge of my love.
ARRAS, PRIMORDIAL CHAPTER OF
Arras is a town in France in the department
of Pas de Calais, where, in the year 1747, Charles Edward Stuart,
the Pretender, is said to have established a Sovereign Primordial
and Metropolitan Chapter of Rosicrucian Freemasons. A portion
of the charter of this body is given by Ragon in his Orthodoxie
Maçonnique. In 1853, the Count de Hamel, prefect of the
department, discovered an authentic copy, in parchment, of this
document bearing the date of April 15, 1747, which he deposited
in the departmental archives. This document is as follows:
We, Charles Edward, King of England, France,
Scotland, and Ireland, and as such Substitute Grand Master of
the Chapter of H., known by the title of Knight of the Eagle and
Pelican, and since our sorrows and misfortunes by that of Rose
Cross, wishing to testify our gratitude to the Masons of Artois,
and the officers of the city of Arras, for the numerous marks
of kindness which they in conjunction with the officers of the
garricon of Arras have lavished upon us, and their attachment
to our person, shown during a residence of six months in that
city.
We have in favor of them created and erected,
and do create and erect by the present Bull, in the aforesaid
city of Arras, a Sovereign Primordial Chapter of Rose Croix, under
the distinctive title of Scottish Jacobite, to be ruled and governed
by the Knights Lagneau and Robespierre; Avocats Hazard, and his
two sons, physician ; J. B. Luoet, our upholsterer, and Jérome
Cellier. our clockmaker, giving to them and to their successors
the power not only to make knights, but even to create a Chapter
in whatever town they may thank fit, provided that two Chapters
shall not be created in the same town however populous it may
be.
And that credit may be given to our present
Bull, we have signed it with our hand and caused to be affixed
there unto the secret seal, and countersigned by the Secretary
of our Cabinet, Thursday, 15th of the second month of the Year
of the Incarnation, 1747.
ARREARS, EXCLUSION FOR
See Exclusion
ARREST OF CHARTER
To arrest the Charter of a Lodge is a technical
phrase by which is meant to suspend the work of a Lodge, to prevent
it from holding its usual communications, and to forbid it to
transact any business or to do any work. A Grand Master cannot
revoke the Warrant of a Lodge; but if, in his opinion, the good
of Freemasonry or any other sufficient cause requires it, he may
suspend the operation of the Warrant until the next Communication
of the Grand Lodge, which Body is alone competent to revise or
approve of his action.
ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum are the volumes
of Transactions published each year since its constitution in
1886 by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, No. 2076, London,
England.
They contain the treatises read before the Lodge, discussions,
Minutes of the Lodge, miscellaneous short articles, many illustrations as informative
as the text, book reviews, obituaries, lists of members, etc.
The typical treatise is a one-part essay (though some are of two
or more parts) prepared with much care and labor by a specialist
in some chosen field of Masonic study or research; it usually
contains a bibliography, and is followed by discussions, written
out with care and oftentimes in advance, which have in many instances
been as weighty and as instructive as the treatise they have criticized.
Treatises and discussions both are independent,
responsible, uncolored by personal feelings ; are critical of
each other. With their more than fifty volumes the Ars are now
a larger set of books than the Encyclopedia Britannica, and perform
the function for Masonic knowledge that is performed by the Britannica
and similar works for general knowledge; since almost every contributor
to the Ars has been a trained scholar, at least has been a specialist
in some field of scholarship, the academic standards are higher
than those of popular encyclopedias.
Book dealers' catalogs for 1945 (to give
one year for purposes of comparison) list complete sets at from
$500 to $ 1200. Masonic students however need not wholly deny
themselves ownership of Ars because the lack of early volumes
has created a scarcity value for the whole set ; there is no continuity
from one volume to another, therefore without reader's loss he
can start with whatever earliest volume he can find.
In its Masonic Papers, Vol. l, page 263,
Research Lodge, No. 281, Seattle, Washington, publishes a complete
Index of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum; Part I, an index of titles;
Part II, an index of authors. The last item in Part I is numbered
770 ; this is somewhat in excess of the total number of treatises
in A.C. because of cross-indexing and because inaugural Addresses,
etc., are included. The treatises on Freemasonry in the United
States (which is 200 years old and in which are some 90% of the
Masons of the world) are: "Freemasonry in America,"
by C. P. Maccalla (very brief) ; III, p. 123. "The Carmick
MS." (of Philadelphia), by WV. J. Hughan; XXII, pg 5.
"Distribution in the U. S. of Anderson's Constitutions"
(brief and incomplete), by Charles S. Plumb; XLIII, p. 227. "Josiah
H. Drummond" (a short biographical sketch), by R. F. Gould
; X, p. 165. "Benjamin Franklin" (brief), by H. C. de
Lafontaine ; XLI, p. 3. "Masonry in West Florida and the
31st Foot" (brief), by R. F. Gould; XIII, p. 69. "Morgan
Incident of 1826," by J. Hugo Tatsch; XXXIV, p. 196. "Theodore
Sutton Parvin" (brief biographical sketch), by R. F. Gould;
XV, p. 29. "Albert Pike" (brief biographical sketch),
by R. F. Gould ; lV, p. 116.
ARTHUSIUS, GOTTHARDUS
A learned native of Dantzic, Rector of the
Gymnasium at Frankfort-the-Main, who wrote many works on Rosicrucianism,
under the assumed name of Irenaeus Agnostus (see agnostus).
ARTILLERY COMPANY, ANCIENT
Like the Worshipful Company of Musicians
(which see) the history of the Ancient and Honorary Artillery
Company of England runs a cotirse singularly parallel with the
course of Masonic history, so that each throws light on the other.
The parent Company received its charter
in England, in 1537. Because artillery was a modern invention
(first used by the Turks when they captured Constantinople) this
gild, "art," or society was not as ancient as others,
but it claimed to be an integral part of the art of war, and on
that ground had traditions and legends as old as any and older
than most. A branch company was set up in Boston, Mass with a
charter from the parent company dated January 13, 1638; the relation
between the two was similar to the relations between an American
Provincial Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodge at London. (see The
Historic Book, by Justin H. Smith ; printed privately, by the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. .in Town of Boston ; 1903.
)
ARTISAN, CHIEF
An officer in the Council of Knights of Constantinople.
ART, ROYAL
See Royal art
ARTS
In the Masonic phrase, "arts, parts,
and points of the Mysteries of Freemasonry" ; arts means
the knowledge, or things. made known, parts the degrees into which
Freemasonry is divided, and points the rules and usages (see Parts,
and also Points).
ARTS, LIBERAL
See Liberal Arts and Sciences.
ARUNDEL, THOMAS HOWARD, EARL OF
Tradition places Arundel as the Grand Master
of English Freemasons from 1633 to 1635. This claim is in accordance
with the accounts of Anderson and Preston.
ARYAN
One of the three historical divisions of
religion - the other two being the Turanian and the Shemitic. It
produced Brahmanism, Buddism, and the Code of Zoroaster.
ASAROTA
A variegated pavement used for flooring in temples and ancient edifices.
ASCENSION DAY
Also called Holy Thursday. A festival of
the Christian church held in commemoration of the ascension of
our Lord forty days after Easter. It is celebrated as a feast
day by Chapters of Rose Croix.
ASES
The twelve gods and as many goddesses in the Scandinavian mythology.
ASHE, D.D., REV. JONATHAN
A literary plagiarist who resided in Bristol,
England. In 1814 he published The Masonic Manual; or Lectures
on Freemasonry. Ashe does not, it is true, pretend to originality,
but abstains from giving credit to Hutchinson, from whom he has
taken at least two-thirds of his book. A second edition appeared
in 1825, and in 1843 an edition was published by Spencer, with
valuable notes by Dr. Oliver.
ASHER, DR. CARL WILHELM
The first translator into German of the
Halliwell or Regius Manuscript, which he published at Hamburg,
in 1842, under the title of Alteste Urkunde der Freimaurerei in
England. This work contains both the original English document
and the translation.
ASHLAR
This is defined by Bailey as "Freestone
as it comes out of the quarry." In speculative Freemasonry
we adopt the ashlar, in two different states, as symbols in the
Apprentice's Degree. The Rough Ashlar, or stone in its rude and
unpolished condition, is emblematic of man in his natural state---ignorant,
uncultivated, and vicious. But when education has exerted its
wholesome influence in expanding his intellect, restraining his
passions, and purifying his life, he then is represented by the
Perfect Ashlar, which, under the skillful hands of the workmen,
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted for its place in the
building. In the older lectures of the eighteenth century the
Perfect Ashlar is not mentioned, but its place was supplied by
the Broached Thurnel.
ASHLAR, PERFECT
The publication of a number of Minute Books
of old Lodges since it was written calls for a revision of the
paragraph on ASHLAR, on page 107. In one of his memoranda on the
building of St. Paul s, Sir Christopher Wren shows by the context
that as the word was there and then used an ashlar was a stone,
ready-dressed from the quarries (costing about $5.00 in our money),
for use in walls ; and that a "perpend asheler" was
one with polished ends each of which would lie in a surface of
the wall ; in that case a "rough" ashlar was not a formless
mass of rock, but was a stone ready for use, no surface of which
would appear in the building walls; it was unfinished in the sense
of unpolished. In other records, of which only a few have been
found, a "perpend" ashlar was of stone cut with a key
in it so as to interlock with a second stone cut correspondingly.
It is doubtful if the Symbolic Ashlars were
widely used among the earliest Lodges; on the other hand they
are mentioned in Lodge inventories often enough to make it certain
that at least a few of the old Lodges used them ; and since records
were so meagerly kept it is possible that their use may have been
more common than has been believed. On April 11, 1754, Old Dundee
Lodge in Wapping, London, "Resolved that A New Perpend Ashlar
Inlaid with Devices of Masonry Valued at £2 12s. 6d. be
purchased. " The word ''new'' proves that the Lodge had used
an Ashlar before 1754, perhaps for many years before; the word
"devices" suggests long years of symbolic use.
It is obvious that the Ashlars as referred to in the above were
not like our own Perfect and Imperfect Ashlars. It is certain
that our use of them did not originate in America ; there are
no known data to show when or where they originated, but it is
reasonable to suppose that Webb received them from Preston, or
else from English Brethren in person who knew the Work in Preston's
period. Operative Masons doubtless used the word in more than
one sense, depending on time and place ; and no rule can be based
on their Practice.
The Speculative Masons after 1717, as shown
above, must have used "Perfect Ashlar" in the sense
of "Perpend Ashlar" ; nevertheless the general purpose
of the symbolism has been the same throughout - a reminder to
the Candidate that he is to think of himself as if he were a building
stone and that he will be expected to polish himself in manners
and character in order to find a place in the finished Work of
Masonry. The contrast between the Rough Ashlar and the Perfect
Ashlar is not as between one man and another man, thereby generating
a snobbish sense of superiority; but as between what a man is
at one stage of his own self-development and what he is at another
stage.
In Sir Christopher Wren's use of "ashlar"
(he was member of Lodge of Antiquity) the stone had a dimension
of 1 x 1 x 2 feet; and many building records, some of them very
old, mention similar dimensions; certainly, the "perpend"
or "perfect" ashlar almost never was a cube, because
there are few places in a wall where a cube will serve. Because
in our own symbolism the Perfect Ashlar is a cube, a number of
commentators on symbolism have drawn out of it pages of speculation
on the properties of the cube, and on esoteric meanings they believe
those properties to possess; the weight possessed by those theorizing
is proportionate to the knowledge and intelligence of the commentator;
but in any event these cubic interpretations do not have the authority
of Masonic history behind them.
NOTE. During the many years of building
and re-building at Westminster Abbey the clerk of the works kept
a detailed account of money expended, money received, wages, etc.
These records, still in existence, are called Fabric Rolls. In
the Fabric Roll for 1253 the word "asselers" occurs
many times, and means dressed stones, or ashlars. A "perpens"
or "parpens," or "perpent-stone" was "a
through stone," presumably because it was so cut that each
end was flush with a face of the wall. It proves that "perpend
ashlar" was not a "perfect ashlar" in the present
sense of being a cube.
ASHMOLE, ELIAS
A celebrated antiquary, celebrated author
of, among other works, the well-known History of the Order of
the Garter, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He
was born at Litchfield, in England, on the 23d of May, 1617, and
23rd at London on the 18th of May, 1692. He was made a Freemason
on the 16th of October, He gives the following account
of his reception in his Dairy page 303:
"1646. Oct: 16. 4,30 P.M., I was made
a Freemason at Warington, in Lancashire, with Colonel Henry Mainwaring,
of Karincham, in Cheshire. The names of those that were then of
the Lodge, Mr. Richard Penket Warden, Mr. James Collier, Mr. Rich:
Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Rich: Ellam and Hugh Brewer."
In his Diary, page 362, he again speaks
of his attendance at a meeting, and thirty-six years afterward
makes the following entry:
"1682. March 10. About 5 PM, I received
a summons to appear at a Lodge to be held the next day at Masons'
Hall, London.
". Accordingly, I went, and about
Noone [sic] were admitted into the Fellowship of Freemasons, Sir William
Wilson, knight, Capt. Richard Borthwick, Mr. William Woodman,
Mr. William Wise" I was the senior fellow among them, (it
being thirty-five years since I was admitted;) there was present
besides myself the Fellows after named: Mr. Thomas Wise, Master
of the Masons company this present year; Mr. Thomas Shorthofe,
Mr. Thomas Shadbolt,-Waindsford, Esq., Mr. Nicholas Young, Mr.
John Shorthofe, Mr. William Hamon, Mr. John Thompson, and Mr.
William Stanton. We all dined at the half Moone Taveme in Cheapeside,
at a noble dinner prepared at the charge of the new Accepted'
Masons."
It is to be regretted that the intention
expressed by Ashmole to write a history of Freemasonry was never
carried into effect. His laborious research as evinced in his
exhaustive work on the Order of the Garter, would lead us to have
expected from his antiquarian pen a record of the origin and early
progress of our Institution more valuable than any that we now
possess. The following remarks on this subject, contained in a
letter from Doctor Knipe, of Christ Church, Oxford, to the publisher
of Asmole's Life, while it enables us to form some estimate of
the loss that Masonic literature has suffered, supplies interesting
particulars which are worthy of preservation.
"As to the ancient society of Freemasons, concerning whom
you are desirous of knowing what may be known with certainty,
I shall only tell you, that if our worthy Brother, E. Ashmole,
Esq., had executed his intended design, our Fraternity had been
as much obliged to him as the Brethren of the most noble Order
of the Garter. I would not have you surprised at this expression,
or think it all too assuming.
The sovereigns of that Order have not disdained
our fellowship, and there have been times when emperors were also
Freemasons. What from Mr. E. Ashmole's collection I could gather
was, that the report of our society's taking rise from a bull
granted by the Pope, in the reign of Henry III, to some Italian
architects to travel over all Europe, to erect chapels, was ill-founded. Such a bull there was, and those architects were Masons;
but this bull, in the opinion of the learned Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative only, and did not by any means create our Fraternity, or even
establish them in this kingdom.
But as to the time and manner of that establishment,
something I shall relate from the same collections. Saint Alban
the Proto-Martyr of England, established Masonry here; and from
his time it flourished more or less, according as the world went,
down to the days of King Athelstan, who, for the sake of his brother
Edwin, granted the Masons a charter.
Under our Norman princes, they frequently received extraordinary marks
of royal favor. There is no doubt to be made, that the skill of
Masons, which was always transcendent, even in the most barbarous
times,-their wonderful kindness and attachment to each other,
how different soever in condition, and their inviolable fidelity
in keeping religiously their secret, must expose them in ignorant,
troublesome, and suspicious times to a vast variety of adventures,
according to the different fate of parties and other alterations
in government.
By the way, I shall note that the Masons
were always loyal, which exposed them to great severities when
power wore the trappings of justice, and those who committed treason
punished true men as traitors.
Thus, in the third year of the reign of
Henry VI, an act of Parliament was passed to abolish the society
of Masons, and to hinder, under grievous penalties, the holding
Chapters, Lodges, or other regular assemblies.
Yet this act was afterwards repealed, and
even before that, King Henry VI, and several of the principal
Lords of his court, became fellows of the Craft."
But the most difficult question for the
student is to find an answer to the following: What induced men
like Ashmole and others to be made Masons early in the seventeenth
century? Was it for 'cake and ale'? Surely not. Was it for company
sake? perhaps; but then why so much mystery ?
It is certain that men like Dr. Plot, John
Aubrey, Randle Holme, and Elias Ashmole were attracted to the
subject for something more than what we find given at length in
the Manuscript Constitutions."-Edward Conder, in Transactions,
Quatuor Coronati Lodge (volume xvi, page 15, 1903). Another question
a the influence exerted by such Brethren at and after their initiation
and possibly up .to the time of the notable organization of the
Grand Lodge of 1717. Our old friend Brother Trevaman W. Hugo wrote
among his last contributions---printed after his death-for the
Daluth Masonic Calendar (March, 1923), a biographical article
on Elias Ashmole and he concludes thus:
" The object of going into those details
is to enable the writer, and you who may read it, to have in mind
the personage for whom we want to find a place between the date
of his death, 1687 and 1717. We do not know whether there is some
place in between there where such a personage could have made
an impression on the Operative Masons at that time, so that his
influence, when the time came, would make them willing to fall
in and join with the Speculative Brethren, or vice versa, or whether
the Speculative Brethren were able to deliver to the Operative
Masons in 1717, the Astrologic, Philosophic, Symbolic Lore, which
they held in regard to the order of Free Masons. There is an unquestionable
'hole in the Ballad' somewhere between 1646 and 1717."
ASHMOLE'S LODGE
Elias Ashmole was made a Mason in the Lodge
at Warrington, in Lancashire, England, October 16, 1646. This
event was for some decades given prominent space in Masonic histories,
partly because of the great eminence of Ashmole himself (see page
107), more largely because in records then known Ashmole was the
first of non-Operatives to be admitted to a Masonic Lodge.
It is odd that those who attributed this seniority to Ashmole
did not see that the very document which proved Ashmole's acceptance
proved also, and in the act, that others had been accepted before
Ashmole! For in his Diary he writes that Col. Henry Mainwaring
was accepted at the same time (thereby making him coeval) and
also that other non-operatives already were in the Lodge and had
been so from the beginning of it, among them Sankey, Littler,
Ellam, etc., each one "a gentleman."
Ashmole's Diary therefore did not prove
him to be the first, but proved the latter men to have been before
him. (Richard Ellam described himself in his will as "Freemason.")
Whence came this Lodge? A reasonable answer
is given on page 10 of The Time Immemorial Lodge at Chester, by
John Armstrong (Chester; 1900) : "From the magnitude of the
buildings in Chester we may safely assume that the Old Chester
Lodge was of such strength, that like the Old Scotch Lodges, it
threw off branches, and in this way the Old Warrington Lodge of
Elias Ashmole would originate about the time the old church was
built in that town. A number of Masons proceeding from Chester
to Warrington, and as was the custom in those days would meet
as a Lodge, looking up to Chester as the mother Lodge; here also
when building operations ceased, non- Operatives were admitted
and ultimately in 1646 we find it purely speculative and presided
over by the gentry of the district.
The Warrington Lodge with its 7 members
in 1646 as against 26 in the Chester Lodge points to Chester as
being then the great seat of Masonry, as it had been from Roman
times, the chief town and only borough in the North Western Provinces
of England." The 26 members of the Lodge at Chester struck
Bro. Armstrong as a show of "great strength" ; at the
present remove in time it strikes a Mason by its smallness; for
either there were few Masons in the county, or else only a small
number belonged to the Lodge. If the latter was the case, perhaps
the Lodge at Chester was itself "Speculative,'' or at least
partly so? Of one fact it is reasonable to feel certain : the
old Lodge at Chester would have neither approved nor countenanced
a Speculative daughter Lodge at Warrington had it been an innovation
; which would mean that (a reasonable guess) at least as early
as 1625 Speculative Freemasonry was nothing new in that area.
Why did Ashmole join the Lodge? It is known
that he was interested in Rosicrucianism; Bro. Arthur Edward Waite
argued from this that the Lodge itself must therefore have been
a Rosicrucian center, and sought thereby to bolster his thesis
that it had been an infiltration of Rosicrucianism and other forms
of mysticism and occultism which had transformed the Craft from
within from an Operative into a Speculative Fraternity. But why
should he thus arbitrarily select Ashmole's interest in Rosicrucianism?
Ashmole was also an encyclopedist, a natural museum maker, who
had a long chain of interests ; any one of them as dear to him
as what was the then (miscalled) Rosicrucianism, such as heraldry,
rare books, Medieval manuscripts, alchemy;. astrology, Kabbalism,
medals, ruins, folk-lore, old sciences, botany, old customs, architecture,
and so on through half a hundred.
Perhaps, and remembering that he was both
an intelligent and a sincere man, he joined the Lodge solely because
he believed in Freemasonry itself as it already was; the fact
would be consonant with his known plan to write a history of the
Fraternity. Ashmole neither made nor changed the Lodge at Warrington; and there were other members there and at Chester who were not
Rosicrucians. It can be argued that Ashmole's own interest in
Rosicrucianism was academic, and not for practice, like his interest
in other subjects, and pursued in the spirit of the antiquarian,
the lover of erudition, the seeker for curio sa, moreover he was
a Christian, and was not likely to take up with heresies.
Against the notion that he was credulous,
occultistic, superstitious in practice is a description of him
when a student in Oxford: he "applied himself vigorously
to the sciences, but more particularly to natural philosophy [physics
and chemistry], mathematics and astronomy." The entry in
the Diary begins: "1646. Oct. 16, 4 :30 P.M." (In his
brochure, Elias Ashmole, Bro. Dudley Wright twice makes the error
of giving the year as 1645.) The practices found in Lodges a half
century later suggest that the ceremonies were followed by a dinner,
or feast ; that the Brethren remained at table until late at night;
and that portions of the ceremonies were given while seated. In
their books and treatises Bros. Knoop and Jones have advanced
the theory that in the Seventeenth Century the Ritual was a brief
and bare ceremony, consisting of an oath and the giving of the
Mason Word ; if that had been true it is difficult to understand
why, as at Warrington, the "making" took so much time
(that is but one of many difficulties in their theory). It is
not likely that a group of seven men would meet together for six
or seven hours as a Lodge merely to eat, drink, and talk together,
because "gentlemen" of the times had large houses staffed
with servants and were much given to entertainment where a mere
social gathering would have been more convenient. It is more reasonable
to believe that there were more ceremonies in 1646 than in 1746,
not fewer ; the old Lodges kept no minutes or other records or
else made them so brief that they are almost cryptic, but it does
not follow that because the records were brief and bare, therefore
the ceremonies had been brief and bare.
The entry also shows that Ashmole "was
made a Free Mason" during this one meeting, and there is
nothing to indicate that the ceremonies were shortened especially
for him ; in the language of a later period he was Entered, Passed,
and Raised at one time.
From this record, and from others like it,
Hughan argued that the pre-1717 Lodges had only one Degree; Gould
argued that there had been two Degrees but that they had been
conferred one after the other at the same Communication, and that
the names Fellowcraft and Master Mason were used interchangeably
for the second step; and they both repeated at different places
in their books the since-familiar phrases about how the pre-1717
ceremonies must have been pure, simple, brief, etc. It is a curious
quirk of the historical fancy to assume that what came first always
must have been rudimentary. In history it is often the other way
about-the first Gothic building was extraordinarily large and
rich and complex; the first printed books were better works of
printing than any since, etc., etc. ; and it is certain that in
the sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries men were much more given
to elaborateness of ceremony than they ever have been since. (Read
a detailed description of the ceremonies of receiving the Spanish
Ambassador in which Shakespeare had a part ; it lasted four days.)
It is more reasonable to believe that the Warrington Lodge met
for five or six hours because the Masonic ceremonies were so full
and rich than to believe that they consisted of nothing more than
a password and an oath. When the post-1717 Lodges divided their
ceremonies into three Degrees, the last was of itself so long
that it contained what later was separated off into the Royal
Arch Degree ; any student who is familiar with the workings of
the Masonic mind in the earliest Lodges. knows that Masons did
not manufacture hours of new ceremonies within eight or ten years
of time, for one of their most powerful instincts was to preserve
and to perpetuate the old.
The Hughan-Gould debate as between the ''one
Degree " theory and the " two Degree " theory continues
to be argued. As against both of those theories may be presented
a third which shifts the argument to another ground, and for which
(in these pages) the writer is solely responsible; it is more
reasonable to think that until the approach of the 1717 period
the Lodges did not have any Degrees-that is, separately organized
and complete units of ceremonies, each with its own name; but
that they had a large and indeterminate number of ceremonies,
rites, symbols, among them being an oath for Apprentices, an oath
for Fellowcrafts, etc. . that these ceremonies were used very
flexibly so that a Lodge might use twice as many in one meeting
as at another; and that they differed from one Lodge to another
in many details, so that one Lodge might employ a ceremony (such
as Installation of the Master) which another would not. This last
named supposition would explain why there were side degrees and
intimations of "higher" degrees (vide Dr. Stukeley;
early records in Ireland, etc. ) before or at 1717. This theory
would explain why it was that, soon after 1717, so many Lodges
made Prentices and Fellows in one sitting, conducted Lodge business
with Prentices present, had separate Masters' Lodges, and in the
very early years of Speculative Lodges gave an immediate welcome
to the formation of a separate Royal Arch Degree, to the Scotch
Mason rites, etc. The probabilities are that on the day after
his making Ashmole lid not think of himself as having passed through
one Degree, or two Degrees, or even three, but as having been
''made a Free Mason " by the total (whatever it was) of the
ceremonies used; it is also reasonable to believe that by "
acceptance into Masonry " he would have thought not of architectural
ceremonies but of his acceptance into a new circle of friends
and associates.
(It is not to be supposed that even in the earliest Operative
periods, and when a Lodge was still a mere adjunct to a building
enterprise, such ceremonies, etc., as were used therefore were
solely utilitarian; every skilled Craft was organized as a gild,
fraternity, company, and each had a rich array of ceremonies,
symbols, rites, etc., even the blacksmiths; and it was a common
practice for them to admit Honorary Members from outside their
own " operative " ranks. Symbolical ceremonies and ''accepted''
members in Seventeenth Century Lodges were not innovations.)
ASIA
In the French Rite of Adoption, the East
end of the Lodge is called Asia. The Lodge-room is divided into
quarters called Realms, the French word being Climat, the East
is Asia; the West, Europe; the North, America, and the South,
Africa.
ASIA, INITIATED KNIGHTS AND BROTHERS OF
This Order was introduced in Berlin, or,
as some say, in Vienna, in the year 1780, by a schism of several
members of the German Rose Croix. They adopted a mixture of Christian,
Jewish, and Mohammedan ceremonies, to indicate, as Ragon supposes,
their entire religious tolerance. Their object was the study of
the natural sciences and the search for the universal panacea
to prolong life. Thory charges them with this ; but may it not
have been, as with the Alchemists, merely a symbol of immortality?
They forbade all inquiries into the art
of transmutation of metals. The Grand Synédrion, properly
the Grand Sanhedrim, which consisted of seventy-two members and
was the head of the Order, had its seat at Vienna.
The Order was founded on the three symbolic
degrees, and attached to them nine others, as follows :
4 Seekers;
5. Sufferers;
6. Initiated Knights and Brothers of Asia in Europe;
7. Masters and Sages;
8. Royal Priests, or True Brothers of Rose Croix;
9. Melchizedek.
The Order no longer exists. Many details
of it will be found in Luchet's Essai sur les Illumines.
AISIA, PERFECT INITIATES OF
A rite of very little importance, consisting of seven Degrees,
and said to have been invented at Lyons. A very voluminous manuscript,
translated from the German, was sold at Paris, in 1821, to M.
Bailleul, and came into the possession of Ragon, who reduced its
size, and, with the assistance of Des Etangs, modified it. We
have no knowledge that it was ever worked.
ASIATIC TURKEY
The dominions of Turkey in Asia. Smyrna
has one Lodge under the Grand Lodge of England and two under the
Grand Orient of France. There are two Italian Lodges in the town
and several others throughout the country.
ASK, SEEK, KNOCK
In referring to the passage of Matthew (vii,
7), "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you " Doctor Clarke says
: "These three words ask, seek, knock---include the ideas
of want loss, and earnestness." The application made to the
passage theologically is equally appropriate to it in a Masonic
Lodge. You ask for acceptance, you seek for light, you knock for
initiation, which includes the other two.
ASPIRANT
One who eagerly seeks to know or to attain
something. Thus, Warburton speaks of "the aspirant to the
Mysteries." The word is applied also to one about to be initiated
into Freemasonry. There seems, however, to be a shade of difference
in meaning between the words candidate and aspirant. The candidate
is one who asks for admission ; so called from the Latin word
candidatus, meaning one who is clothed in white, because candidates
for office at Rome wore a white dress. The aspirant is one already
elected and in process of initiation, and coming from aspiro,
to seek eagerly, refers to the earnestness with which he prosecutes
his search for light and truth.
ASSASSINS
The Ishmaelites, or Assassins, constituted
a sect or confraternity, which was founded by Hassan Sabah, about
the year 1090, in Persia. The name is derived, it is supposed,
from their immoderate use of the plant haschish, or henbane, which
produced a delirious frenzy. The title given to the chief of the
Order was Scheikh-el-Jebel, which has been translated the Old
Man of the Mountain, but which Higgins has shown in his Anacalypsis
(i, 700) to mean literally The Sage of the Cabala or Traditions.
Von Hammer has written a History of the Assassins, but his opposition
to secret societies has led him to speak with so much prejudice
that, although his historical statements are interesting, his
philosophical deductions have to be taken with many grains of
allowance.
Godfrey Higgins has probably erred on the other side, and by a
too ready adherence to a preconceived theory has, in his Annacalypsis,
confounded them with the Templars, whom he considers as the precursors
of the Freemasons. In this, as in most things, the middle course
appears to be the most truthful.
The Assassins were a secret society, that
is to say, they had a secret esoteric doctrine, which was imparted
only to the initiated. Hammer says that they had a graduated series
of initiations, the names of which he gives as Apprentices, Fellows,
and Masters ; they had, too, an oath of passive obedience, and
resembled, he asserts, in many respects, the secret societies
that subsequently existed in Europe. They were governed by a Grand
Master and Priors, and had regulations and a special religious
code, in all of which Von Hammer finds a close resemblance to
the Templars, the Hospitalers, and the Teutonic Knights. Between
the Assassins and the Templars history records that there were
several amicable transactions not at all consistent with the religious
vows of the latter and the supposed religious faith of the former,
and striking coincidences of feeling, of which Higgins has not
been slow to avail himself in his attempt to prove the close connection,
if not absolute identity, of the two Orders.
It is most probable, as Sir John Malcolm
contends, that they were a race of Sofis, the teachers of the
secret doctrine of Mohammed.
Von Hammer admits that they produced a great
number of treatises on mathematics and jurisprudence ; and, forgetting
for a time his bigotry and his prejudice, he attributes to Hassan,
their founder, a profound knowledge of philosophy and mathematical
and metaphysical sciences, and an enlightened spirit, under whose
influence the civilization of Persia attained a high degree ;
so that during his reign of forty-six years the Persian literature
attained a point of excellence beyond that of Alexandria under
the Ptolemies, and of France under Francis I.
The old belief that they were a confederacy
of murderers-whence we have taken our English word assassins---must
now be abandoned as a figment of the credulity of past centuries,
and we must be content to look upon them as a secret society of
philosophers, whose political relations, however merged them into
a dynasty. If we interpret Freemasonry as a generic term, signifying
a philosophic sect which teaches truth by a mystical initiation
and secret symbols, then Higgins was not very far in error in
calling them the Freemasons of the East.
ASSASSINS, CULT OF
At the time he wrote the article about the
Assassins on page 108 Dr. Albert G. Mackey was endeavoring to
enlarge the scope of Masonic studies, to open up new paths in
many directions. The article has been taken by some critics of
the Craft in too narrow a sense; perhaps because Mackey used the
word "Freemasonry " in a sense too broad. One of the
legends about a so-called Cult of Assassins stems from a story
about Omar Khayyam, author of The Rubaiyat, and tells how a boyhood
friend of his, a certain Hassan, became a sort of Persian Robin
Hood. Another legend is that Crusaders were harassed by an organized
band of land pirates, who were a species of dacoits; in one version
of this story the leader was named Hassan, hence his followers
were Called Hassanites, or Assassins; also he was called the Old
Man of the Mountains, fabled never to die.
Another version is that the Assassins were
so called from their use of hashish, or Indian hemp (indicans
cabanis), an opiate. But there is the fourth possibility that
no such man as Hassan ever lived, but was created, like our Paul
Bunyan, out of those tall tales which Near Eastern peoples have
vastly preferred to history; countenance is given to this theory
by the fact that a tale about The Old Man of the Mountains was
one of the stock-in trade of minstrels before the Crusades went
into the Holy land. In a Thirteenth Century Romance in verse by
a pupil of Chrestien of Troyes entitled Flamenica one of the sections
is little more than an inventory of that stock; one title is listed
as "The Old Man of the Mountains and his Assassins,"
wedged in among such other fabulous tales as the Fisher King,
the Fall of Lucifer, and how Icarus was drowned. Of only one thing
can any Masonic student be certain : whether he was legend or
was history the Fraternity never had any connection, not even
a remote one, or any similarity, with the Old Man of the Mountains.
Note. Anacalypsis, by Godfrey Higgins, quoted
by Mackey on page 108, is a monster of a book, ''With a million
of quotations in it," somewhat on the order of Burton's Anotomy
of Melancholy; of it a cynical critic has said : "a Mason
should read all of it and believe none of it"-which is perhaps
too harsh, though Higgins' philology is one long verbal insanity.
ASSASSINS OF THE THIRD DEGREE
There is in Freemasonry a legend of certain
unworthy Craftsmen who entered into a conspiracy to extort from
a distinguished Brother a secret of which he was the possessor.
The legend is altogether symbolic, and when its symbolism is truly
comprehended, becomes a surpassingly beautiful. By those who look
at it as having the pretension of an historical fact, it is sometimes
treated with indifference, and sometimes considered an absurdity.
But it is not thus that the legends and
symbols of Freemasonry must be read, if we would learn their true
spirit. To behold the goddess in all her glorious beauty, the
veil that conceals her statue must be withdrawn. Masonic writers
who have sought to interpret the symbolism of the legend of the
conspiracy of the three assassins, have not agreed always in the
interpretation, although they have finally arrived at the same
result, namely, that it has a spiritual signification. Those who
trace Speculative Freemasonry to the ancient solar worship, of
whom Ragon may be considered as the exponent, find in this legend
a symbol of the conspiracy of the three winter months to destroy
the life-giving heat of the sun.
Those who, like the disciples of the Rite
of Strict Observance, trace Freemasonry to a Templar origin, a
explain the legend as referring to the conspiracy of the three
renegade knights who falsely accused the Order, and thus aided
King Philip and Pope Clement to abolish Templarism, and to slay
its Grand Master. Hutchinson and Oliver, who labored to give a
Christian interpretation to all the symbols of Freemasonry, referred
the legend to the crucifixion of the Messiah, the type of which
is, of course, the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain.
Others, of whom the Chevalier Ramsay has
been set forth as the leader, sought to give it a political significance;
and, making Charles I the type of the Builder, symbolized Cromwell
and his adherents as the conspirators.
The Masonic scholars whose aim has been
to identify the modern system of Freemasonry with the Ancient
Mysteries, and especially with the Egyptian, which they supposed
to be the germ of all the others, interpret the conspirators as
the symbol of the Evil Principle, or Typhon, slaying the Good
Principle, or Osiris; or, when they refer to the Zoroastic Mysteries
of Persia, as Ahriman contending against Ormuzd.
Lastly, in the Philosophic Degrees, the
myth is interpreted as signifying the war of Falsehood, Ignorance,
and Superstition against Truth. Of the supposed names of the three
Assassins, there is hardly any end of variations, for they materially
differ in all the principal rites. Thus, we have Jubela, Jubelo,
and Jubelum in the York and American Rites. In the Adonhiramite
system we have Romvel, Gravelot, and Abiram. Romvel has been claimed
as a corruption of Cromwell. In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite we find the names given in the old rituals as Jubelum Akirop,
sometimes Abiram, Jubelo Romvel, and Jubela Gravelot. Schterke
and Oterfut are in some of the German rituals, while other Scottish
rituals have Abiram, Romvel, and Hobhen. In all these names there
is manifest corruption, and the patience of many Masonic scholars
has been well-nigh exhausted in seeking for some plausible and
satisfactory derivation.
ASSEMBLY
The meetings of the Craft during the operative
period in the Middle Ages, were called Assemblies, which appear
to have been tantamount to the modern Lodges, and they are constantly
spoken of in the Old Constitutions. The word Assembly was also
often used in these documents to indicate a larger meeting of
the whole Craft, which was equivalent to the modern Grand Lodge,
and which was held annually. The York Manuscript No. l, about
the year 1600, says ''that Edwin procured of ye King his father
a charter and commission to hold every year an assembly wherever
they would within ye realm of England,'' and this statement, whether
true or false, is repeated in all the old records. Preston says,
speaking of that medieval period, that''a sufficient number of
Masons met together within a certain district, with the consent
of the sheriff or chief magistrate of the place, were empowered
at this time to make Masons, etc. To this assembly, every Freemason
was bound, when summoned, to appear.
Thus, in the Harleian Manuscript, about
1660, it is ordained that "every Master and Fellow come to
the Assembly, if it be within five miles about him, if he have
any warning." The term General Assembly, to indicate the
annual meeting, is said to have been first used at the meeting,
held on December 27, 1663, as quoted by Preston. In the Old Constitutions
printed in 1722 by Roberts, and which claims to be taken from
a manuscript of the eighteenth century, the term used is Yearly
Assembly. Anderson speaks of an Old Constitution which used the
word General; but his quotations are not always verbally accurate.
ASSISTANCE
See Aid and Assistance
ASSOCIATES OF THE TEMPLE
During the Middle Ages, many persons of
rank, who were desirous of participating in the spiritual advantages
supposed to be enjoyed by the Templars in consequence of the good
works done by the Fraternity, but who were unwilling to submit
to the discipline of the Brethren made valuable donations to the
Order, and were, in consequence, admitted into a sort of spiritual
connection with it.
These persons were termed Associates of
the Temple. The custom was most probably confined to England,
and many of these Associates had monuments and effigies erected
to them in the Temple Church at London
ASSOCIATION
Although an association a properly the union
of men into society for a common purpose, the word is scarcely
ever applied to the Order of Freemasonry. Yet its employment,
although unusual, would not be incorrect, for Freemasonry is an
association of men for a common purpose. Washington uses the term
when he calls Freemasonry "an association whose principles
lead to purity of morals, and are beneficial of action,"
from his letter to the Grand Lodge of South Carolina.
ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE
The discovery in 1882 of the remains of
a town, cloto and north of Nineveh, built by Sargon, about 721
B.C., in size about a mile square, with its angles facing the
cardinal points, and the enclosure containing the finest specimens
of their architecture, revived much interest in archeologists.
The chief place of regard is the royal palace, which was like
unto a city of itself, everything being on a colossal scale. The
walls of the town were 45 feet thick. The inclined approach to
the palace was flanked by strangely formed bulls from 15 to 19
feet high. There were terraces, courts, and page-ways to an innermost
square of 150 feet, surrounded by state apartments and temples.
The Hall of Judgment was prominent, as also the astronomical observatory.
All entrances to great buildings were ornamented by colossal animals
and porcelain decorations and inscriptions.
ASTOR, JOHN JACOB
Born in lvaldorf, Germany, July 17, 1763,
left an orphan as a boy, Astor came to New York City to join a
brother, working his way, and arrived in 1784. He was founder
of the American fur trade, a founder of the Territory of Oregon
where Astoria is named after him, was in the "fur wars "
with Indians and with Canadian trappers, was pioneer and founder
of the American trade with China, as a real estate dealer was
a founder of Greater New York, was founder of the Astor Library,
was the largest financial backer of the War of 1812, and in his
will left $400,000 for building the Astor Library, equivalent
to one million at present money values. He was one of the first
founders of Holland Lodge, No. 8; and was Worshipful Master in
1798. From June 6, 1798, to .June 25, 1801, he was Grand Treasurer
of the Grand Lodge; the books which he wrote out in his own copper-plate
hand are still in the vaults of Masonic Hall, New York City.
ASTRAEA
The Grand Lodge established in Russia, on
the 30th of August, 1815, assumed the title of the Grand Lodge
of Astraea. It held its Grand East at St. Petersburg, and continued
in existence until 1822, when the Czar issued a Ukase, or proclamation
dated August 1, 1822, closing all Lodges in Russia and forbidding
them to reopen at any future time.
ASTROLOGY
The word astrology is not a true term because
it always has been ambiguous, meaning one thing in one country
or period of time, another thing in some other country or time,
and one contradicting the other. The nearest to any acceptable
definition is to say that there has never been astrology, there
have been astrologies, these astrologies among themselves vary
from a form of astromical book-keeping practiced in China for
calendar purposes, to the pseudo-religion which, to judge from
the newsstands, has become a flourishing and also a financially
profitable cult in America. As a further complication, at one
or two periods in the late Middle Ages the word astrology was
a synonym for astronomy. As a generalization it may be said that
any particular astrology will teach the notion that a star is
not what an astronomer says it is but is something more or something
other; such as, that it is a god (or goddess!), or a saint, or
an angel, or a fate, or possesses magical powers, etc. and that
what it is, or some attribute it possesses, has some direct influence
on men.
There is nowhere any trace of evidence to
show that at any time astrology has been accepted by Freemasonry,
or taught by it, or is one of the elements in the Ritual. If the
mere mention of the skies, or the sun, or moon, etc., were to
be considered to be astrology, then each and every man is an astrologist;
so is each and every astronomer, every maker of calendars, almost
every poet, the majority of composers of music, and many historians.
The sun and moon are conspicuous in the Ritual, but not with any
astrology meanings. For five or six centuries it was a "custom
" of the Craft to work from sunrise to sunset, and usually
contracts would set two lengths of work days for the year, the
midpoint of one set falling on St. John the Baptist's Day when
the daylight was longest, one on the Evangelist's Day when it
was shortest ; and the moon represented the night; this old "custom"
very probably was the origin of the two Masonic symbols of the
Sun and the Moon.
Amateur Masonic occultists have attempted
to connect Masonry with the zodiac, one of the conspicuous features
of astrologies ; but here again there is no one zodiac, but many
zodiacs throughout the world. The idea of a zodiac itself is one
of the largest hoaxes with which men have ever befuddled themselves,
and could never have been true to facts. The discovery of dark
stars of great magnitude; that what in ancient times was taken
for one star was two or more or even a whole galaxy; and the discovery
of the precession of the equinoxes, has made the zodiac meaningless.
It is a toy of the mind. There is nothing of the zodiac in the
present Masonic Ritual; there was never a mention of it in the
oldest Speculative Lodges ; in Medieval times it was a heresy,
and Operative Freemasons would have abhorred the thought of it.
It can safely be laid down as a law of the
Fraternity that anything and everything in the Ritual is understandable
and knowable by any normal man, and nothing in it calls for erudition;
it could not be otherwise where so many millions are admitted
to membership. When the Candidate is told that if he finds anything
puzzling he can consult well-informed Brethren it is presupposed
that in any Lodge there will be such Brethren. This principle,
which also is a practice, disposes at a stroke the notion that
there has ever been in the Craft any form of occultism which calls
for erudition, or for adepts specially trained, or for a kind
of knowledge not available to the rank and file of ordinary Masons.
Astrology, in its present-day American form, is self-confessedly
not open to common knowledge but is understandable only by experts,
who for that reason charge a fee for the use of their supposedly
erudite knowledge ; and it shares that practice with the majority
of other forms of occultism.
ASTROLOGY
A whence demanding the respect of the scholar,
notwithstanding its designation as a black art, and, in a reflective
sense, an occult science; a system of divination foretelling results
by the relative positions of the planets and other heavenly bodies
toward the earth. Men of eminence have adhered to the doctrines
of astrology as a science. It is a study well considered in, and
forming an important part of, the ceremonies of the Philosophus,
or fourth grade of the First Order of the Society of Rosicrucians.
Astrology has been deemed the twin science of astronomy, grasping
knowledge from the heavenly bodies, and granting a proper understanding
of many of the startling forces in nature. It is claimed that
the constellations of the zodiac govern the earthly animals, and
that every star has its peculiar nature, property, and function,
the seal and character of which it impresses through its rays
upon plants, minerals, and animal life. This science was known
to the ancients as the divine art (see Magic).
The word astrology is not a true term because
it always has been ambiguous, meaning one thing in one country
or period of time, another thing in some other country or time,
and one contradicting the other. The nearest to any acceptable
definition is to say that there has never been astrology, there
have been astrologies, these astrologies among themselves vary
from a form of astromical book-keeping practiced in China for
calendar purposes, to the pseudo-religion which, to judge from
the newsstands, has become a flourishing and also a financially
profitable cult in America. As a further complication, at one
or two periods in the late Middle Ages the word astrology was
a synonym for astronomy. As a generalization it may be said that
any particular astrology will teach the notion that a star is
not what an astronomer says it is but is something more or something
other; such as, that it is a god (or goddess !), or a saint, or
an angel, or a fate, or possesses magical powers, etc. ; and that
what it is, or some attribute it possesses, has some direct influence
on men.
There is nowhere any trace of evidence to
show that at any time astrology has been accepted by Freemasonry,
or taught by it, or is one of the elements in the Ritual. If the
mere mention of the skies, or the sun, or moon, etc., were to
be considered to be astrology, then each and every man is an astrologist;
so is each and every astronomer, every maker of calendars, almost
every poet, the majority of composers of music, and many historians.
The sun and moon are conspicuous in the Ritual, but not with any
astrologic meanings. For five or six centuries it was a "custom
" of the Craft to work from sunrise to sunset, and usually
contracts would set two lengths of work days for the year, the
midpoint of one set falling on St. John the Baptist's Day when
the daylight was longest, one on the Evangelist's Day when it
was shortest ; and the moon represented the night; this old "custom"
very probably was the origin of the two Masonic symbols of the
Sun and the Moon.
Amateur Masonic occultists have attempted
to connect Masonry with the zodiac, one of the conspicuous features
of astrologies ; but here again there is no one zodiac, but many
zodiacs throughout the world. The idea of a zodiac itself is one
of the largest hoaxes with which men have ever befuddled themselves,
and could never have been true to facts. The discovery of dark
stars of great magnitude; that what in ancient times was taken
for one star was two or more or even a whole galaxy; and the discovery
of the precession of the equinoxes, has made the zodiac meaningless.
It is a toy of the mind. There is nothing of the zodiac in the
present Masonic Ritual ; there was never a mention of it in the
oldest Speculative Lodges ; in Medieval times it was a heresy,
and Operative Freemasons would have abhorred the thought of it.
It can safely be laid down as a law of the
Fraternity that anything and everything in the Ritual is understandable
and knowable by any normal man, and nothing in it calls for erudition
; it could not be otherwise where so many millions are admitted
to membership. When the Candidate is told that if he finds anything
puzzling he can consult well-informed Brethren it is presupposed
that in any Lodge there will be such Brethren. This principle,
which also is a practice, disposes at a stroke the notion that
there has ever been in the Craft any form of occultism which calls
for erudition, or for adepts specially trained, or for a kind
of knowledge not available to the rank and file of ordinary Masons.
Astrology, in its present-day American form, is self-confessedly
not open to common knowledge but is understandable only by experts,
who for that reason charge a fee for the use of their supposedly
erudite knowledge ; and it shares that practice with the majority
of other forms of occultism.
ASTRONOMY.
The science which instructs us in the laws that govern the heavenly
bodies. Its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity ; for the
earliest inhabitants of the earth must have been attracted by
the splendor of the glorious firmament above them, and would have
sought in the motions of its luminaries for the readiest and most
certain method of measuring time. With astronomy the system of
Freemasonry is intimately connected. From that science many of
our most significant emblems are borrowed.
The Lodge itself is a representation of
the world; it is adorned with the images of the sun and moon,
whose regularity and precision furnish a lesson of wisdom and
prudence; its pillars of strength and establishment have been
compared to have two columns which the ancients placed at the equinoctial
points as supporters of the arch of heaven; the blazing star which
was among the Egyptians a symbol of Anubis, or the dog-star, which
sitting foretold the overflowing of the Nile, shines in the East;
while the clouded canopy is decorated with the beautiful Pleiades,
a group of stars in the constellation Taurus, or the Bull, about
seven of which are visible to the naked eye.
The connection between our Order and astronomy
is still more manifest in the .spurious Freemasonry of antiquity,
where, the pure principles of our system being lost, the symbolic
instruction of the heavenly bodies gave place to the corrupt Sabean
worship of the sun, and moon, and stars-a worship whose influences
are seen in all the mysteries of Paganism.
ASYLUM. During the session of a Commandery of Knights Templar,
a part of the premises is called the asylum; the word has been
adopted, by the figure in rhetoric synecdoche, in which the whole
may be represented by a part, to signify the place of meeting
of a Commandery.
ASYLUM
During the session of a Commandery of Knights Templar, a part of the premises is called the asylum; the word has hence been adopted, by the figure in rhetoric synecdoche, in which the whole may be represented by a part, to signify the place of meeting of a Commandery.
ASYLUM FOR AGED FREEMASONS
The Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons
is a magnificent edifice at Croydon in Surrey, England. The charity
was established by Doctor Crucefix, after sixteen years of herculean
toil, such as few men but himself could have sustained. He did not live to see it in full operation,
but breathed his last at the very time when the capstone was placed
on the building (see Annuities).
ATELIER.
The French thus call the place where the Lodge meets, or the Lodge-room. The word signifies
a workshop or place where several workmen are assembled under
the same master. The word is applied in French Freemasonry not
only to the place of meeting of a Lodge, but also to that of a
Chapter, Council, or any other Masonic body. Bazot says in the
Manual du Franc-Maçon (page 65) that atelier is more particularly
applied to the Table Lodge, or Lodge when at banquet, but that
the word is also used to designate any reunion of the Lodge.
ATHEIST.
One who does not believe in the existence of God. Such a state
of mind can only arise from the ignorance of stupidity or a corruption
of principle, since the whole universe is filled with the moral
and physical proofs of a Creator. He who does not look to a superior
and superintending power as his maker and his judge, is without
that coercive principle of salutary fear which should prompt him
to do good and to eschew evil, and his oath can, of necessity,
be no stronger than his word. Freemasons, looking to the dangerous
tendency of such a tenet, have wisely discouraged it, by declaring
that no atheist can be admitted to participate in their Fraternity;
and the better to carry this law into effect, every candidate,
before passing through any of the ceremonies of initiation, is
required, publicly and solemnly, to declare his trust in God.
ATHELSTAN
The grandson of the great Alfred ascended the throne
of England in 924, and died in 940. The Old Constitutions describe
him as a great patron of Freemasonry. Thus, one of them, the Roberts
Manuscript, printed in 1722, and claiming to be five hundred years
old, says: "He began to build many Abbeys, Monasteries, and
other religious houses, as also castles and divers Fortresses
for defense of his realm. He loved Masons more than his father;
he greatly studied Geometry, and sent into many lands for men
expert in the science. He gave them a very large charter to hold
a yearly assembly, and power to correct offenders in the said
science; and the king himself caused a General Assembly of all
Masons in his realm, at York, and there made many Masons, and
gave them a deep charge for observation of all such articles as
belonged unto Masonry, and delivered them the said Charter to
keep.''
ATHELSTAN AND THE OLD CHARGES
On Page 110 is given a quotation from the
Roberts MS. to the effect that Athelstan (King in England, 924-940)
was a great lover of Masonry and gave Masons their Charter. In
other versions of the Old Charges it is said that Athelstan made
his son Prince Edwin Patron, or head, of the Masons. Scholars
have not accepted the historicity of this tradition because of
difficulties and self-contradictions in the text itself, because
there is no supporting evidence in chronicles of the Tenth Century,
and also because they have not believed that Masonry was as widely
developed at the time as the Old Charges presuppose, or that Athelstan
himself took any interest in the Craft. As regards the first two
difficulties they continue in force, and make it hard to take
seriously the confused or garbled accounts in the versions of
the Old Charges; but as regards the last-named difficulty, that
Athelstan himself had no interest in the Craft, there are data
to show that the Old Charges have the support of historical evidence.
In his History of the Norman Conquest Prof.
Henry A. Freeman (Vol. I ; page 190) writes: "Among the Laws
of Athelstan none are more remarkable than those which deal with
the internal affairs of London and with the regulation of her
earliest commercial corporations." These laws are given in
Thorpe's Laws and Institutes; Vol. I; page 228. They show that
London was being built up, with walls, bridges, churches and many
new buildings, and that King Athelstan took a large personal interest
in the building, and that among his laws were regulations for
the builders.
Athelstan must also have had an equally active interest in the
builders at York, always a great architectural center and a free
city from time immemorial ; in Vol. V, page 316, Prof. Freeman
says, "The men of York had their Hanse-house." A hansa
was a gild (hence "Hanseatic League'') and if the crafts
in York had a building of their own, it means that they were strong
and well organized, the Masons among them. Even more striking
is Prof. Freeman's account of Exeter. This had been a Welsh city,
or town, at least partly so. Athelstan removed the Welsh and rebuilt
it as an English town, "surrounded by a wall of dressed stone."
He helped to lay out the city, and supervised its building, which
would include the supervision of its builders.
These data prove that Athelstan was both
practically and intellectually interested in the arts of building
and took an active part in its practice, not only once but in
three cities ; and to that extent they give some foundation to
the tradition embedded in the Old Charges.
See The History of the Norman Conquest in
England, and its Resutts, by Henry A. Freeman; six volumes; Oxford; 1873 ; revised American Edition.
ATHOLL MASONS
The Ancient Freemasons are sometimes called
Atholl Freemasons, because they were presided over by the Third
Duke of Atholl as their Grand Master from 1771 to 1774, and by
the Fourth Duke from 1775 to 1781, and also from 1791 to 1813
(see Ancient Freemasons).
ATOSSA.
The daughter of King Cyrus of
Persia, queen of Cambyses, and afterward of Darius Hystaspes,
to whom she bore Xerxes. Referred to in the degree of Prince of
Jerusalem, the Sixteenth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite.
ATTENDANCE.
See Absence.
ATTOUCHEMENT.
The name given by the French Freemasons to what the English brethren call the grip.
ATTRIBUTES.
The collar and jewel appropriate to an officer are
called his attributes. The working tools and implements of Freemasonry
are also called its attributes. The word in these senses is much
more used by French than by English Freemasons.
ATWOOD, HENRY C.
At one time of considerable prominence in the Masonic history
of New York. He was born in Connecticut about the beginning of
the nineteenth century, and removed to the city of New York about
1825, in which year he organized a Lodge for the purpose of introducing
the system taught by Jeremy L. Cross, of whom Atwood was a pupil.
This system met with great opposition from some of the most distinguished
Freemasons of the State, who favored the ancient ritual, with
had existed before the system of Webb had been invented, from
whom Cross received his lectures. Atwood, by great diplomacy and
untiring energy, succeeded in a making the system which he taught
eventually popular. He took great interest in Freemasonry, and
being intellectually clever, although not learned, he collected
a great number of admirers, while the tenacity with which he maintained
his opinions, however unpopular they might be, secured for him
as many enemies. He was greatly instrumental in establishing,
in 1837, the independent body known as the St. John's Grand Lodge,
and was its Grand Master at the time of its union, in 1850, with
the legitimate Grand Lodge of New York. Atwood edited a small
periodical called The Sentinel, which was remarkable for the Virulent
and un-Masonic tone of its articles. He was also the author of
a Masonic Monitor of some pretensions. He died in 1860.
ATYS
The Mysteries of Atys in Phrygia, and those
of Cybele his mistress, like their worship, much resembled those
of Adonis and Bacchus, Osiris and Isis. Their Asiatic origin is
universally admitted, and was with great plausibility claimed
by Phrygia, which contested the palm of antiquity with Egypt.
They, more than any other people, mingled allegory with their
religious worship, and were great inventors of fables; and their
sacred traditions as to Cybele and Atys, whom all admit to be
Phrygian gods, were very various. In all, as we learn from Julius
Firmicus, they represented by allegory the phenomena of nature
and the succession of physical facts under the veil of a marvelous
history. Their feasts occurred at the equinoxes, commencing with
lamentation, mourning, groans, and pitiful cries for the death
of Atys, and ending with rejoicings at his restoration to life.
AUDI, VIDE, TACE.
Latin, meaning Hear, see, and be silent. A motto
frequently found on Masonic medals, and often appropriately used
in the documents of the Craft.
It was adopted as its motto by the United
Grand Lodge of England at the union between the Antients and the
Moderns in 1813.
AUDITOR.
An officer in the Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States. His duty is, with the Committee on Finance,
to examine and report on the accounts of the Inspector and other
officers. This duty of auditing the accounts of the Secretary
and Treasurer is generally entrusted, in Masonic bodies, to a
special committee appointed for the purpose. In the Grand Lodge
of England, the accounts are examined and reported upon annually
by a professional auditor, who must be a Master Mason.
AUDITORS.
The first class of the secret system adopted by the Christians
in their early days. The second class were Catechumens, and the
third were The Faithful.
AUDLEY, LORD JOHN TOUCHET.
Anderson gives him as Grand Master of England, 1540-8, a patron of the building
art in Magdalen College.
AUFSEHER
The German name for the Warden
of a Lodge. The Senior Warden is called Erste Aufseher, and the
Junior Warden, Zweite Aufseher. The word literally means an overseer.
Its Masonic application is technical.
AUGER
An implement used as a symbol in the Ark Mariners Degree.
AUGUSTINE, ST.
See Saint Augustine.
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM, PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.
Born in 1722, died in 1758. Brother of Frederick the Great,
and father of King Frederick William II. A member of Lodge Drei
WeltkugeIn, or Three Globes, Berlin.
AUM
A mystic syllable among
the Hindus, signifying the Supreme God of Gods, which the Brahmans,
from its awful and sacred meaning, hesitate to pronounce aloud,
and in doing so place one of their hands before the mouth so as
to deaden the sound. This triliteral name of God which is as
sacred among the Hindus as the Tetragrammaton is among the Jews,
is composed of three Sanskrit letters, sounding Aum. The first
letter, A, stands for the Creator; the second, U, for the Preserver;
and the third, M, for the Destroyer, or Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
Benfey, in his Sanskrit English Dictionary, defines the word as
"a particle of reminiscence" ; and this may explain
the Brahmanical saying, that a Brahman beginning or ending the
reading of a part of the Veda or Sacred Books, must always pronounce,
to himself, the syllable Aum; for unless that syllable precede,
his learning will slip away from him, and unless it follow, nothing
will be long retained. An old passage in the Parana says, "All
the rites ordained in the Vedas, the sacrifices to fire, and all
sacred purifications, shall pass away, but the word Aum shall
never pass away, for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things.
" The word has been indifferently spelled, O'm, Aom, and
Aum; but the last is evidently the most proper, as the second
letter is in the Sanskrit alphabet (see On).
AUMONT
Said to have been the successor of Molay as Grand Master, and hence called
the Restorer of the Order of the Templars. There is a tradition,
altogether fabulous, however, which states that he, with seven
other Templars, fled, after the dissolution of the Order, into
Scotland, disguised as Operative Freemasons, and there secretly
and under another name founded a new Order ; and to preserve as
much as possible the ancient name of Templars, as well as to retain
the remembrance of the clothing of Freemasons, in which disguise
they had fled, they chose the name of Freemasons, and thus founded
Freemasonry. The society thus formed, instead of conquering or
rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, was to erect symbolical temples.
This is one of the forms of the Templar theory of the origin of
Freemasonry.
AURORA
In Hebrew the light is called Aur, and in
its dual capacity Aurim. Hence Urim, lights-as, Thme, Thummim,
perfections. Ra is the sun, the symbolic god of the Egyptians,
and Ouro, royalty. Hence we have Aur, Ouro, Ra, which is the double
symbolic capacity of Light. Referring to the Urim and Thummim,
Re is physical and intellectual light, while Thme is the divinity
of truth and justice. Aurora is the color of the baldric worn
by the Brethren in the Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, which in the legend is said to have been presented
by King Darius to the captive Zerubbabel on presentation of his
liberty, and that of all his people, who had been slaves in Babylon
for seventy years.
AUSERWAHLTEN
German for Elu or Elect. AUSTIN. See Saint Augustine.
AUSTRALASIA.
The first Masonic Lodge in this region was held in
1803 at Sydney, but was suppressed by the Governor, and it was
not until the year 1820 that the parent Lodge of Australasia was
warranted to meet at Sydney by the Grand Lodge of Ireland; it
is now No. l on the New South Wales register and named the Australian
Social Mother Lodge. After that many Lodges were warranted under
the three Constitutions of England, Scotland and Ireland, out
of which in course of time no less than six independent Grand
Lodges have been formed, viz., South Australia founded in 1884,
New South Wales 1888; Victoria, 1889 ; Tasmania, 1890; New Zealand,
1890, and Western Australia, 1900.
AUSTRIA
Freemasonry was introduced into Austria
in 1742 by the establishment at Vienna of the Lodge of the Three
Cannons. But it was broken up by the government in the following
year, and thirty of its members were imprisoned for having met
in contempt of the authorities. Maria Theresa was an enemy of
the Institution, and prohibited it in 1764. Lodges, however, continued
to meet secretly in Vienna and Prague. In 1780, Joseph II ascended
the throne, and under his liberal administration Freemasonry,
if not actually encouraged, was at least tolerated, and many new
Lodges were established in Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Transylvania,
under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Germany, in Berlin.
Delegates from these Lodges met at Vienna in 1784, and organized
the Grand Lodge of Austria, electing the Count of Dietrichstein,
Grand Master. The attempt of the Grand Lodge at Berlin to make
this a Provincial Grand Lodge was successful for only a short
time, and in 1785 the Grand Lodge of Austria again proclaimed
its independence.
During the reign of Joseph II, Austrian
Freemasonry was prosperous. Notwithstanding the efforts of its
enemies, the monarch could never be persuaded to prohibit it.
But in 1785 he was induced to issue instructions by which the
number of the Lodges was reduced, so that not more than three
were permitted to exist in each city ; and he ordered that a list
of the members and a note of the times of meeting of each Lodge
should be annually delivered to the magistrates.
Joseph died in 1790, and Leopold II expressed
himself as not unfriendly to the Fraternity, but his successor
in 1792, Francis II, yielded to the machinations of the anti-Freemasons,
and dissolved the Lodges. In 1801 he issued a decree which forbade
the employment of anyone in the public service who was attached
to any secret society. Freemasonry has continued in operation
in Austria, as it is in most non-Masonic countries. The World
War developed the activities of the Grand Lodge of Vienna which
received recognition abroad, the Grand Lodge of Kentucky so voting
on October 20, 1926.
AUSTRIA HUNGARY AND CZECHO-SLOVAKIA
Freemasonry in these countries began when
Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, husband of the Empress Maria
Theresia was made Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft in 1731
in a Lodge of which Doctor Desaguliers was Worshipful Master.
On September 17, 1742, a Lodge was instituted at Vienna but it
was closed during the following year by order of the Empires.
Various Lodges were established by German authority but in 1764
a Royal Decree was issued against Freemasonry, although the Emperor
Francis was at the time Worshipful Master of the first Lodge at
Vienna.
By 1784, 45 Lodges under six Provincial
Grand Lodges had been instituted in Austria. The Provincial Grand
Lodges of Vienna, Bohemia, Hungary and Sieberburgen formed a National
Grand Lodge of the Austrian States. Count Dietrichstein was elected
Grand Master but when the new body was opposed by the National
Grand Lodge at Berlin he accepted the rank of Provincial Grand
Master. In 1785 the Emperor ordered the new Grand Lodge to be
independent and he was obeyed. During the next few years edicts
directed against secret societies were issued by the Emperor and
all activity of the Craft ceased. Some Lodges were formed or revived
but they soon disappeared again.
In 1867 Austria and Hungary were separated
into two Kingdoms and the Brethren took advantage of there being
no law in Hungary against Freemasonry to open several Lodges.
A Convention of Unity Lodge and others at Temesvar, Oedenburg,
Baja, Pressburg, Budapest and Arad met on January 30, 1870 and
established the National Grand Lodge of Hungary. For the Austrian
Freemasons the only thing left to do was to form social clubs
which, when they met as Lodges, were convened in the neighboring
country of Hungary. The great World War changed these conditions.
A Grand Lodge of Vienna was formed on December 8, 1918. The formation
in 1919 of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia resulted in the establishment
of the National Grand Lodge of Jugoslavia for the Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes.
AUTHENTIC
Formerly, in the science of diplomatica,
ancient manuscripts were termed authentic when they were originals,
and in opposition to copies.
But in modern times the acceptation of the
word has been enlarged, and it is now applied to instruments which,
although they may be copies, bear the evidence of having been
executed by proper authority.
So of the old records of Freemasonry, the
originals of many have been lost, or at least have not yet been
found. Yet the copies, if they can be traced to unsuspected sources
within the body of the Craft and show the internal marks of historical
accuracy, are to be reckoned as authentic. But if their origin
is altogether unknown, and their statements or style conflict
with the known character of the Order at their assumed date, their
authenticity is to be doubted or denied.
AUTHENTICITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
A belief in the authenticity of the Scriptures
of the Old and New Testament as a religious qualification of initiation
does not constitute one of the laws of Freemasonry, for such a
regulation would destroy the universality of the Institution,
and under its action none but Christians could become eligible
for admission. But in 1856 the Grand Lodge of Ohio declared "that
a distinct avowal of a belief in the Divine authority of the Holy
Scriptures should be required of every one who is admitted to
the privileges of Masonry, and that a denial of the same is an
offence against the Institution, calling for exemplary discipline.''
It is hardly necessary to say that the enunciation of this principle
met with the almost universal condemnation of the Grand Lodges
and Masonic jurists of this country. The Grand Lodge of Ohio subsequently
repealed the regulation. In 1857 the Grand Lodge In 1857 was adopted
a similar resolution; but the general sense of the Fraternity
has rejected all religious tests except a belief in God.
AUTOPSY
Greek, meaning a seeing with one's
own eyes. The complete communication of the secrets in the Ancient
Mysteries, when the aspirant was admitted into the sacellum, or
most sacred place, and was invested by the hierophant with all
the aporrheta, or sacred things, which constituted the perfect
knowledge of the initiate. A similar ceremony in Freemasonry is
called the Rite of Intrusting (see Mysteries).
AUXILIARY DEGREES
According to Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks,
ii, page 345, the Supreme Council of France, in addition to the
thirty-three regular degrees of the Rite, confers six others,
which he calls Auxiliary Degrees. They are,
1. Elu de Perignan.
2. Petit Architecte.
3. Grand Architecte, or Compagnon Ecossais.
4. Maitre Ecossais.
5. Knight of the East.
6. Knight Rose Croix.
AVENUE
Forming an avenue is a ceremony sometimes
practiced in the lower degrees, but more generally in the higher
ones, on certain occasions of paying honors to superior officers.
The Brethren form in two ranks facing each other. If the degree
is one in which swords are used, these are drawn and elevated,
being crossed each with the opposite sword- The swords thus crossed
constitute what is called the arch of steel. The person to whom
honor is to be paid passes between the opposite ranks and under
the arch of steel.
AVIGNON
Town on the River Rhone in the south of
France about 75 miles north-west of the seaport of Marseilles
which was the headquarters of the Hermetic Grades from 1740 to
the French Revolution. A drastic persecution was set in motion
in 1757 by the Archbishop J. de Guyon de Crochans and the Inquisitor
P. Mabille, at which time the Mother Lodge was dissolved as the
result of a direct attack by these two.
AVIGNON, ILLUMINATI OF
The French expression is Illuminés
d'Avignon. A rite instituted by Pernetti at Avignon, in France,
in 1770, and transferred in the year 1778 to Montpellier, under
the name of the Academy of True Masons The Academy of Avignon
consisted of only four degrees, the three of symbolic or St. John's
Freemasonry, and a fourth called the True Freemason, which was
made up of instructions, Hermetical and Swedenborgian (see Pernetti).
AVOUCHMENT
See Vouching
AWARD
In law, the judgment pronounced by one or
more arbitrators, at the request of two parties who are at variance.
"If any complaint be brought," say the Charges published
by Anderson, "the brother found guilty shall stand to the
award and determination of the Lodge" (see the Constitutions,
edition of 1723, page 54).
AYES AND NOES
It is not according to Masonic usage to
call for the ayes and noes on any question pending before a
Lodge. By a show of hands is the old and usual custom of determining
the will of the Brethren.
AYNON
Aynon, Agnon, Ajuon, and Dyon are all used
in the old manuscript Constitutions for one whom they call the
son of the King of Tyre, but it is evidently meant for Hiram Abif.
Each of these words is most probably a corruption of the Hebrew
Adon or Lord, so that the reference would clearly be to Adon Hiram
or Adoniram, with whom Hiram was often confounded; a confusion
to be found in later times in the Adonhiramite Rite.
AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE
Poet and humorist. Studied law but said
"though he followed the law, he could never overtake it.''
Professor of rhetoric and literature, University of Edinburgh.
Active member of the Scottish Grand Lodge
and representative there of the Grand Lodge Royal York of Germany.
Born June 21, 1813, his poetry brought him world-wide fame, the
most popular being Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers.
Brother Aytoun died on August 4, 1865.
AZARIAH
The old French rituals have Azarias.
A name in the advanced degrees signifying Helped of God.
AZAZEL
Scapegoat, the demon of dry places.
Understood by others to be the fallen angel
mentioned in the Book of Enoch, and identical with Sammael, the
Angel of Death. Symmachus says, the goat that departs; Josephus,
the averter of ills, caper emissarius.
Two he-goats, in all respects alike and
equal, were brought forward for the day of atonement. The urn
was shaken and two lots cast; one was For the Name, and the other
For Azazel. A scarlet tongue-shaped piece of wood was twisted
on the head of the goat to be sent away, and he was placed before
the gate and delivered to his conductor. The High Priest, placing
his two bands on the goat, made confession for the people, and
pronounced THE NAME clearly, which the people hearing, they knelt
and worshiped, and fell on their faces and mid, Blessed be the
Name.
The Honor of His kingdom forever and ever.
The goat was then led forth to the mountainside
and rolled down to death.
AZRAEL
From the Hebrew, meaning Help of God. In
the Jewish and the Mohammedan mythology, the name of the angel
who watches over the dying and separates the soul from the body.
Prior to the intercession of Mohammed, Azrael inflicted the death
penalty visibly, by striking down before the eyes of the living
those whose time for death was come (see Henry W. Longfellow's
exquisite poem Azrael).
Azrael is also known as Raphael, and with
Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel, identified as the four archangels.
As the angel of death to the Moslems, he is regarded as similar
to Fate, and Jewish. tradition almost makes him an evil genius.
AZTECS
Native name of one of the tribes in Mexico
at the arrival of the Spaniards in America, and frequently used
as meaning Mexicans. Early records and other remains of the Aztecs
studied by Nuttall, Peabody Museum Papers (volume ii, pages 522,
525, 532, 535, 538, and elsewhere), show a striking similarity
of civilization to that from Phoenician sources and may be due
to the migrations of the Men of Tyre.
AZURE
The clear blue color of the sky. Cerulean
is also used to mean sky-blue but is really from a Latin word,
Caeruleus, meaning dark blue. The appropriate color of the symbolic
degrees; sometimes termed Blue Degrees. Azure means blue in heraldry
and in the engraving to show coats of arms it is represented by
horizontal lines of shading.
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