BIRKHEAD, MATTHEW
A Freemason who owes his reputation to the
fact that he was the author of the universally known Entered Apprentice's
song, beginning:
Come let us prepare
We Brothers that are.
Met together on merry Occasion;
Let's drink, laugh, and sing;
Our wine has a spring.
'Tis a Health to an Accepted Mason.
This song first appeared in Read's Weekly
Journal for December 1, 1722, and then was published in the Book
of Constitutions in 1723, after the death of its author, which
occurred on December 30, 1722.
Birkhead was a singer and actor at Drury
Lane Theater in London, and was Master of Lodge V when Doctor
Anderson was preparing his Constitutions, His funeral is thus
described in Read's Weekly Journal for .January 12, 1723.
"Mr.
Birkhead was last Saturday night carried from his Lodgings in
Which-street to be interred at St Clements Danes; the Pall was
supported by six Free-Masons belonging to Drury-Lane Play-house;
the other Members of that particular Lodge of which he was a Warden,
with a vast number of other Accepted-Masons, followed two and
two; both the Pall-bearers and others were in their white-aprons"
(see also Entered Apprentices's Song and
Tune, Freemasons').
BLACK
Black, in the Masonic ritual, is constantly
the symbol of grief. This is perfectly consistent with its use
in the world, where black has from remote antiquity been adopted
as the garment of mourning.
In Freemasonry this color is confined to
but a few degrees, but everywhere has the single meaning of sorrow.
Thus in the French Rite, during the ceremony of raising a candidate
to the Master's Degree, the Lodge is clothed in black strewed
with the representations of tears, as a token of grief for the
loss of a distinguished member of the fraternity, whose tragic
history is commemorated in that degree.
This usage is not, however, observed in
the York Rite. The black of the Elected Knights of Nine, the Illustrious
Elect of Fifteen, and the Sublime Knights Elected, in the Scottish
Rite, has a similar import.
Black appears to have been adopted in the
degree of Noachite, as a symbol of grief, tempered with humility,
which is the virtue principally dilated on in the ceremony.
The garments of the Knights Templar were
originally white, but after the death of their martyred Grand
Master, James De Molay, the modern Knights assumed a black dress
as a token of grief for his loss.
The same reason led to the adoption of black
as the appropriate color in the Scottish Rite of the Knights of
Kadosh and the Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret.
The modern American modification of the
Templar costume abandons all reference to this historical fact.
One exception to this symbolism of black
is to be found in the degree of Select Master, where the vestments
are of black bordered with red, the combination of the two colors
showing that the degree is properly placed between the Royal Arch
and Templar degrees, while the black is a symbol of silence and
secrecy, the distinguishing virtues of a Select Master.
BLACKBALL
The ball used in a Masonic ballot by those
who do not wish the candidate to be admitted. Hence, when an applicant
is rejected, he is said to be "blackballed."
The use of black balls may be traced as
far back as the ancient Romans. Thus, Ovid says in the Metamorphoses
(xv, 41), that in trials it was the custom of the ancients to
condemn the prisoner by black pebbles or to acquit him by white
ones: Mos erat antiquus, niveis atrisque lapillis, His dammare
reos, illis absolvere culpae.
BLACKBOARD
In German Lodges the Schwarze Tafel, or
Blackboard, is that on which the names of applicants for admission
are inscribed, so that every visitor may make the necessary inquiries
whether they are or are not worthy of acceptance.
BLACK BROTHERS, ORDER OF THE
Lenning says that the Schwarze Brüder
was one of the College Societies of the German Universities. The
members of the Order, however, denied this, and claimed an origin
as early as 1675. Thory, in the Acta Latomorum (1, 313), says
that it was largely spread through Germany, having its seat for
a long time at Giessen and at Marburg, and in 1783 being removed
to Frankfort on the Oder.
The same writer asserts that at first the
members observed the dogmas and ritual of the Kadosh, but that
afterward the Order, becoming a political society, gave rise to
the Black Legion, which in 1813 was commanded by M. Lutzow.
BLAÉRFINDY, BARON GRANT DE
Scottish officer in French army; prominent
in the French high grades and Scottish Philosophic Rite and credited
by some (see Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie Française,
Albert Lantoine, 1925, Paris, page 221) as the founder of the
grades of the Sublime Master of the Luminous Ring (Académie
des Sublimes Maitres de l'Anneau Lumineux), a system in which
Pythagoras is deemed the creator of Freemasonry.
BLAVATSKY, HELENA PETROVNA
Russian theosophist, born July 31, 1831;
died May 8, 1891, established at New York in 1875 the Theosophical
Society. A sketch of the history of the Ancient and Primitive
Rite of Masonry, published by- John Hogg at London, 1880, says
on page 58 that "The 24th of November, 1877, the Order conferred
upon Madam H. P. Blavatsky the Degrees of the Rite of Adoption.
"
BLAYNEY, LORD
Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge
of the Moderns, 1764-6.
BLAZING STAR.
The Blazing Star, which is not, however, to be confounded with the Five-Pointed Star, is one of the most important symbols of Freemasonry, and makes its appearance in several of the Degrees. Hutchinson says "It is the first and most exalted object that demands our attention in the Lodge." It undoubtedly derives this importance, first, from the repeated use that is made of it as a Masonic emblem; and secondly, from its great antiquity as a symbol derived from older systems.
Extensive as has been the application of this symbol in the Masonic ceremonies, it is not surprising that there has been a great difference of opinion in relation to its true signification. But this difference of opinion has been almost entirely confined to its use in the First Degree. In the higher Degrees, where there has been less opportunity of innovation, the uniformity of meaning attached to the Star has been carefully preserved.
In the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the explanation given of the Blazing Star, is, that it is symbolic of a true Freemason , who, by perfecting himself in the way of truth, that is to say, by advancing in knowledge, becomes like a blazing star, shining with brilliancy in the midst of darkness. The star is, therefore, in this degree, a symbol of truth.
In the Fourth Degree of the same Rite, the star is again said to be a symbol of the light of Divine Providence pointing out the way of truth.
In the Ninth Degree this symbol is called the star of direction; and while it primitively alludes to an especial guidance given for a particular purpose expressed in the degree, it still retains, in a remoter sense, its usual signification as an emblem of Divine Providence guiding and directing the pilgrim in his journey through life.
When, however, we refer to Ancient Craft Freemasonry, we shall find a considerable diversity in the application of this symbol.
It) the earliest monitors, immediately after the revival of 1717, the Blazing Star is not mentioned, but it was not long before it was introduced. In the instructions of 1735 it is detailed as a part of the furniture of a Lodge, with the explanation that the "Mosaic Pavement is the Ground Floor of the Lodge, the Blazing Star, the Centre, and the Indented Tarsel, the Border round about it!"
In a primitive Tracing Board of the Entered Apprentice, copied by Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks (i, 133), without other date than that it was "published early in the last century," the Blazing Star occupies a prominent position in the center of the Tracing Board. Oliver says that it represented Beauty, and was called the glory in the centre.
In the lectures credited to Dunckerley, and adopted by the Grand Lodge, the Blazing Star was said to represent "the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem, proclaiming to mankind the nativity of the Son of God, and here conducting our spiritual progress to the Author of our redemption."
In the Prestonian lecture, the Blazing Star, with the Mosaic Pavement and the Tesselated Border, are called the Ornaments of the Lodge, and the Blazing Star is thus explained:
"The Blazing Star, or glory in the centre, reminds us of that awful period when the Almighty delivered the two tables of stone, containing the ten commandments, to His faithful servant Moses on Mount Sinai, when the rays of His divine glory shone so bright that none could behold it without fear and trembling. It also reminds us of the omnipresence of the Almighty, overshadowing us with His divine love, and dispensing His blessings amongst us; and by its being placed in the centre, it further reminds us, t at wherever we may be assembled together, God is in the midst of us, seeing our actions, and observing the secret intents and- movements of our hearts."
In the lectures taught by Webb, and very generally adopted in the United States, the Blazing Star is said to be "commemorative of the star which appeared to guide the wise men of the East to the place of our 'Saviour's nativity," and it is subsequently explained as hieroglyphically representing Divine Providence.
But the commemorative allusion to the Star of Bethlehem seeming to some to be objectionable, from its peculiar application to the Christian religion, at the revision of the lectures made in 1843 by the Baltimore Convention, this explanation was omitted, and the allusion to Divine Providence alone retained.
In Hutchinson's system, the Blazing Star is considered a symbol of Prudence. "It is placed," says he, "in the centre, ever to be present to the eye of the Mason, that his heart may be attentive to her dictates and steadfast in her laws;-for Prudence is the rule of all Virtues; Prudence is the path which leads to every degree of propriety; Prudence is the channel where self-approbation flows for ever; she leads us forth to worthy actions, and, as a Blazing Star, enlighteneth its through the dreary and darksome paths of this life" (Spirit of Masonry, edition of 1775, Lecture v, page 111).
Hutchinson also adopted Dunckerley's allusion to the Star of Bethlehem, but only as a secondary symbolism.
In another series of lectures formerly in use in America, but which we believe is now abandoned, the Blazing Star is said to be "emblematical of that Prudence which ought to appear conspicuous in the conduct of every Mason; and is more especially commemorative of the star which appeared in the east to guide the wise men to Bethlehem, and proclaim the birth and the presence of the Son of God."
The Freemasons on the Continent of Europe, speaking of the symbol, say: "It is no matter whether the figure of which the Blazing Star forms the centre be a square, triangle, or circle, it still represents the sacred name of God, as an universal spirit who enlivens our hearts, who purifies our reason, who increases our knowledge, and who makes us wiser and better men."
And lastly, in the lectures revised by Doctor Hemming and adopted by the Grand Lodge of England at the Union in 1813, and now constituting the approved lectures of that jurisdiction, we find the following definition:
"The Blazing Star, or glory in the centre, refers us to the sun, which enlightens the earth with its refulgent rays, dispensing its blessings to mankind at large, and giving light and life to all things here below."
Hence we find that at various times the Blazing Star has been declared to be a symbol of Divine Providence, of the Star of Bethlehem, of Prudence, of Beauty, and of the Sun.
Before we can attempt to decide upon these various opinions, and adopt the true signification, it is necessary to extend our investigations into the antiquity of the emblem, and inquire what was the meaning given to it by the nations who first made it a symbol.
Sabaism, or the worship of the stars, was one of the earliest deviations from the true system of religion. One of its causes was the universally established doctrine among the idolatrous nations of antiquity, that each star was animated by the soul of a hero god, who had once dwelt incarnate upon earth. Hence, in the hieroglyphical system, the star denoted a god. To this signification, allusion is made by the prophet Amos (v, 26), when he says to the Israelites, while reproaching them for their idolatrous habits: "But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves."
This idolatry was early learned by the Israelites from their Egyptian taskmasters; and so unwilling were they to abandon it, that Moses found it necessary strictly to forbid the worship of anything "that is in heaven above"; notwithstanding which we find the Jews repeatedly committing the sin which had been so expressly forbidden. Saturn was the star to whose worship they were more particularly addicted under the names of Moloch and Chinn, already mentioned in the passage quoted from Amos. The planet Saturn was worshiped under the names of Moloch, Malcolm or Milcom by the Ammonites, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, and under that of Chinn by the Israelites in the desert. Saturn was worshiped among the Egyptians under the name of Raiphan, or, as it is called in the Septuagint, Remphan. St. Stephen, quoting the passage of Amos. says, "ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan" (see Acts vii, 43).
Hale, in his Analysis of Chronology, says in alluding to this passage: "There is no direct evidence that the Israelites worshiped the dog-star in the wilderness, except this passage; but the indirect is very strong, drawn from the general prohibition of the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, to which they must have been prone. And this was peculiarly an Egyptian idolatry, where the dog-star was worshiped, as notifying by his helical rising, or emersion from the sun's rays, the regular commencement of the periodical inundation of the Nile. And the Israelite sculptures at the cemetery of Kibroth-Hattaavah, or graves of lust, in the neighborhood of Sinai, remarkably abound in hieroglyphics of the dog-star, represented as a human figure with a dog's head. That they afterwards sacrificed to the dog-star, there is express evidence in Josiah's description of idolatry, where the Syriac Mazaloth (improperly termed planets) denotes the dog-star; in Arabic, Mazaroth."
Fellows (in his Exposition of the Mysteries, page 7) says that this dog-star, the Anubis of the Egyptians, is the Blazing Star of Freemasonry, and supposing that the latter is a symbol of Prudence, which indeed it was in some of the ancient lectures, he goes on to remark: "What connection can possibly exist between a star and prudence, except allegorically in reference to the caution that was indicated to the Egyptians by the first appearance of this star, which warned them of approaching danger."
But it will hereafter be seen that he has totally misapprehended the true signification of the Masonic symbol. The work of Fellows, it may be remarked, is an unsystematic compilation of undigested learning; but the student who is searching for truth must carefully eschew all his deductions as to the genius and spirit of Freemasonry.
Notwithstanding a few discrepancies that may have occurred in the Masonic lectures, as arranged at various periods and by different authorities, the concurrent testimony of the ancient religions, and the hieroglyphic language, prove that the star was a symbol of God. It was so used by the prophets of old in their metaphorical style, and it has so been generally adopted by Masonic instructors. The application of the Blazing Star as an emblem of the Savior has been made by those writers who give a Christian explanation of our emblems, and to the Christian Freemason such an application will not be objectionable. But those who desire to refrain from anything that may tend to impair the tolerance of our system, will be disposed to embrace a more universal explanation, which may be received alike by all the disciples of the Order, whatever may be their peculiar religious views. Such persons will rather accept the expression of Doctor Oliver, who, though much disposed to give a Christian character to our Institution, says in his Symbol of Glory (page 292), "The Great Architect of the Universe is therefore symbolized in Freemasonry by the Blazing Star, as the Herald of our salvation."
Before concluding, a few words may be said as to the form of the Masonic symbol. It is not a heraldic star or estoile, for that always consists of six points, while the Masonic star is made with five points. This, perhaps, was with some involuntary allusion to the five Points of Fellowship. But the error has been committed in all our modern Tracing Boards of making the star with straight points, which form, of course, does not represent a blazing star. John Guillim, the editor in 1610 of the book A Display of Heraldrie, says: "All stars should be made with waved points, because our eyes tremble at beholding them."
In the early Tracing Board already referred to, the star with five straight points is superimposed upon another of five waving points. But the latter are now abandoned, and we have in the representations of the present day the incongruous symbol of a blazing star with five straight points. In the center of the star there was always placed the letter G, which like the Hebrew yod, was a recognized symbol of God, and thus the symbolic reference of the Blazing Star to Divine Providence is greatly strengthened.
BLAZING STAR, ORDER OF THE
The Baron Tschoudy was the author of a work entitled The Blazing Star (see Tschoudy). On the principles inculcated in this work, he established, says Thory (Acta Latomorum i, 94), at Paris, in 1760, an Order called "The Order of the Blazing Star," which consisted of Degrees of chivalry ascending to the Crusades, after the Templar system usually credited to Ramsay. It never, however, assumed the prominent position of an active rite.
BLESINTON, EARL OF
Grand Master of Ireland, 1738-9; also of
the English Grand Lodge of the Ancient, 1756-9. The name Blesinton
has been variously spelled by members of the family but the spelling
here given is taken from the signature of the Brother in the records
of his Grand Lodge.
BLESSING
See Benediction
BLIND
A blind man cannot be initiated into Freemasonry
under the operation of the old regulation, which requires physical
perfection in a candidate. This rule has nevertheless been considerably
modified in some Jurisdictions.
BLINDNESS
Physical blindness in Freemasonry, as in
the language of the Scriptures, is symbolic of the deprivation
of moral and intellectual light. It is equivalent to the darkness
of the Ancient Mysteries in which the neophytes were enshrouded
for periods varying from a few hours to many days. The Masonic
candidate, therefore, represents one immersed in intellectual
darkness, groping in the search for that Divine light and truth
which are the objects of a Freemason's labor (see Darkness).
BLOW
The three blows given to the Builder, according
to the legend of the Third Degree, have been differently interpreted
as symbols in the different systems of Freemasonry, but always
with some reference to adverse or malignant influences exercised
on humanity, of whom Hiram is considered as the type. Thus, in
the symbolic Degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, the three blows
are said to be typical of the trials and temptations to which
man is subjected in youth and manhood, and to death, whose victim
he becomes in old age. Hence the three Assassins are the three
stages of human life. In the advanced Degrees, such as the Kadoshes,
which are founded on the Templar system commonly credited to Ramsay,
the reference is naturally made to the destruction of the Order,
which was effected by the combined influences of Tyranny, Superstition,
and Ignorance, which are therefore symbolized by the three blows;
while the three Assassins are also said sometimes to be represented
by Squin de Florean, Naffodei, and the Prior of Montfaucon, the
three perjurers who swore away the lives of DeMolay and his Knights.
In the astronomical theory of Freemasonry, which makes it a modern
modification of the ancient sun-worship, a theory advanced by
Ragon, the three blows are symbolic of the destructive influences
of the three winter months, by which Hiram, or the Sun, is shorn
of his vivifying power. Des Etangs has generalized the Templar
theory, and, supposing Hiram to be the symbol of eternal reason,
interprets the blows as the attacks of those vices which deprave
and finally destroy humanity. However interpreted for a special
theory, Hiram the Builder always represents, in the science of
Masonic symbolism, the principle of good; and then the three blows
are the contending principles of evil.
BLUE
This is emphatically the color of Freemasonry. It is the appropriate tincture of the Ancient Craft Degree. It, is to the Freemason a symbol of universal friendship and benevolence, because, as it is the color of the vault of heaven, which embraces and covers the whole globe, we are thus reminded that in the breast of every brother these virtues should be equally as extensive. It is therefore the only color, except white, which should be used in a Master's Lodge for decorations.
Among the religious institutions of the Jews, blue wss an important color. The robe of the high priest's ephod, the ribbon for his breastplate, and for the plate of the miter, were to be blue. The people were directed to wear a ribbon of this color above the fringe of their garments; and it was the color of one of the veils of the tabernacle, where, Josephus says, it represented the element of air. The Hebrew word used on these occasions to designate the color blue or rather purple blue, is tekelet; and this word seems to have a singular reference to the symbolic character of the color, for it is derived from a root signifying perfection; now it is well known that, among the ancients, initiation into the mysteries and perfection were synonymous terms; and hence the appropriate color of the greatest of all the systems of initiation may well be designated by a word which also signifies perfection.
This color also held a prominent position in the symbolism of the Gentile nations of antiquity. Among the Druids, blue was the symbol of truth, and the candidate, in the initiation into the sacred rites of Druidism, was invested with a robe composed of the three colors, white, blue, and green.
The Egyptians esteemed blue as a sacred color, and the body of Amun, the principal god of their theogony, was painted light blue, to imitate, as Wilkinson remarks, "his peculiarly exalted and heavenly nature."
The ancient Babylonians clothed their idols in blue, as we learn from the prophet Jeremiah (x, 9). The Chinese, in their mystical philosophy, represented blue as the symbol of the Deity, because, being, as they say, compounded of black and red, this color is a fit representation of the obscure and brilliant, the male and female, or active and passive principles.
The Hindus assert that their god, Vishnu, was represented of a celestial or sky blue, thus indicating that wisdom emanating from God was to be symbolized by this color.
Among the medieval Christians, blue was sometimes considered as an emblem of immortality, as red was of the Divine love. Portal says that blue was the symbol of perfection, hope, and constancy. "The color of the celebrated dome, azure," says Weale, in his treatise on Symbolic Colors, "was in divine language the symbol of eternal truth; in consecrated language, of immortality,- and in profane language, of fidelity."
Besides the three degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, of which blue is the appropriate color, this tincture is also to be found in several other degrees, especially of the Scottish Rite, where it bears various symbolic significations; all, however, more or less related to its original character as representing universal friendship and benevolence.
In the Degree of Grand Pontiff, the Nineteenth of the Scottish Rite, it is the predominating color, and is there said to be symbolic of the mildness, fidelity, and gentleness which ought to be the characteristics of every true and faithful brother.
In the Degree of Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, the blue and yellow, which are its appropriate colors, are said to refer to the appearance of Jehovah to Moses on Mount Sinai in clouds of azure and gold, and hence in this degree the color is rather a historical than a moral symbol.
The blue color of the tunic and apron, which constitutes a part of the investiture of a Prince of the Tabernacle, or Twenty-fourth Degree in the Scottish Rite, alludes to the whole symbolic character of the degree, whose teachings refer to our removal from this tabernacle of clay to "that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The blue in this degree is, therefore, a symbol of heaven, the seat of our celestial tabernacle.
Brothers John Heron Lepper and Philip Crossle contributed to Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (volume xxxvi, part 3, page 284), a discussion of Masonic Blue from which the following abstract has been made. Reference being first directed to other contributions to the subject in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (xxii, 3; xxiii); and to the Transactions, Lodge of Research (1909-10, page 109), the authors state their belief that the Gold and Blue worn by the officers of the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the members of the Grand Master's Lodge, Dublin, are symbolical of the Compasses from the very inception of a Grand Lodge in Ireland, the symbolism being introduced there from England in or before 1725. After the first dozen years some variations were made in the established forms and the opinion is hazarded that one of these changes was from sky-blue to the dark Garter Blue for the ribbons and fining of the aprons then worn by the officers of the Grand Lodge of England, afterwards the Moderns.
On Saint John's Day in June, 1725, when the Earl of Rosse was installed Grand Master of Ireland, he was escorted to the King's Inns by "Six Lodges of Gentlemen Freemasons," the members of one "wore fine Badges full of Crosses and Squares, with this Motto, Spes mea in Deo est (My hope is in God), which was no doubt very significant, for the Master of it wore a Yellow Jacket, and Blue Britches." Brethren of the Grand Lodge still wear working aprons with yellow braid and yellow fringe with skyblue border on a plain white ground with no other ornament. These are probably symbolical of the Compasses as in the following quotation from a spurious ritual published in the Dublin Intelligence, August 29, 1730:
. . . After which I was cloathed.
N.B. The cloathing is putting on the Apron and Gloves.
Q. How was the Master cloathed?
A. In a Yellow Jacket and Blue Pair of Breeches.
N.B. The Master is not otherwise Cloathed than Common; the Question and Answer are only emblematical, the Yellow Jacket, the Compass, and the Blue Breeches, the Steel Points.
At a Masonic Fete in the Theatre Royal, Dublin, December 6, 1731, we find "The Ladies all wore Yellow and Blue Ribbons on their Breasts, being the proper Colours of that Ancient and Right Worshipful Society."
From the first the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued Lodge Warrants bearing Yellow and Blue ribbons supporting the seal showing a hand and trowel, a custom continued until about 1775.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland preserves a cancelled Warrant issued June 6, 1750, to erect a Lodge No. 209 in Dublin. On the margin is a colored drawing of the Master on his throne and he wears a yellow jacket and blue breeches-with a red cloak and cocked hat-all of the Georgian period.
An old picture—said to be after Hogarth—in the Library of Grand Lodge of England shows a Freemason with a yellow waistcoat. Our late Brother W. Wonnacott, the Librarian, thought the color of this garment was no accident and is symbolical of the brass body of the Compasses.
Up to recent years the members of Nelson Lodge, No. 18, Newry, County Down, Ireland, wore blue coats and yellow waistcoats, both having brass buttons with the Lodge number thereon. The color of the breeches has not been preserved but no doubt it was intended to be the same as the coat.
Union Lodge, No. 23, in the same town, must have worn the same uniform, for there is still preserved a complete set of brass buttons for such a costume. These two Lodges, 18 and 23, wexe formed in 1809 from an older Lodge, No. 933, Newry, waxranted in 1803. But from the fact that in Newry there still works the oldest Masonic Lodge in Ulster, warranted in 1737, and also from the fact that Warrant No. 16, originally granted in 1732 or 1733, was moved to and revived at Newry in 1766, there can be no question but that Masonic customs had a very strong foothold in that town.
That this custom was an old custom in Newry is also shown by the coat and vest which the late Brother Dr. F. C. Crossle had made for himself, lie being intensely interested in Masonic lore, and having learned from the lips of many veteran Freemasons in Newry that this was the old and correct Masonic dress for festival occasions. It is true we cannot assume a general practise from a particular custom, as in the case of the Newry usage, nevertheless the latter is another link in the chain.
b>"BLUE BANNER, THE" LODGE
Gould, Hughan, Lane, and others who in the
1875-1890 period began the writing of Masonic history according
to the canons of scholarly work which elsewhere governed professional
historians, always hoped to find evidence of a great antiquity
for pre-1717 Lodges but insisted on documentary proof, and refused
to accept traditions, as they were right in doing, though it is
now believed that they were somewhat more skeptical than they
needed to have been. Also, present-day scholars know , they sometimes
overlooked data which belonged neither to the class of traditions
nor to the class of documents ; these data are present Lodge facts,
customs, or possessions which in themselves, and necessarily,
imply a long period of time.
A datum of this kind, an exceptionally interesting
one, is the Blue Banner which was possessed by an Edinburgh Lodge,
the history of which is given in Annals of Journeyman Masons,
No. 8, by Seggie and Tumbull; Thomas Allan and Sons; Edinburg;
l930. This Lodge began as a sort of offshoot, or Side Order, of
an old Operative Lodge, and is therefore reminiscent of the "Acception"
in the Mason Company of London. The history of the Blue Banner
goes back for about eight centuries ; it was given to the Scottish
Trade Gilds when they joined the Crusade under Pope Urban A, and
for centuries entitled its possessors not only to special honors
but to special privileges, and is more than once mentioned in
the early records of the burgh.
This history contains one entry of a special
interest to American Masons. In September, 1918, the Lodge was
visited by Bro. Sam Gompers, President of the American Federation
of Labor; he received the distinction for that Lodge a rare one,
of being elected an Honorary Member. His home Lodge was Dawson's
No 16 Washington D. C.
See also An Historical Account of the Blue
Blanket; or Crafts-Men's Banner. Containing the Fundamental Principles
of the Good-Town, u¤th the Powers and Prerogatives of the
Crafts of Edinburgh, Etc., by Alexander Pennecuik; Edinburgh;
1722. There were 14 incorporated Crafts in Edinburgh in 1722.
BLUE BLANKET
The Lodge of Journeymen, in the city of
Edinburgh, is in possession of a blue blanket which is used as
a banner in Masonic processions. The history of it is thus given
in the London Magazine: "A number of Scotch mechanics followed
Allan, Lord Steward of Scotland, to the holy wars in Palestine,
and took with them a banner, on which were inscribed the following
words from the 51st Psalm, the eighteenth vers, 'In bona voluntate
tua edificentur muri Hierosolymae,' meaning'ln Thy good pleasure
build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.' Fighting under the banner,
these valiant Scotchman were present at the capture of Jerusalem,
and other towns in the Holy Land; and, on their return to their
own country, they deposited the banner, which they styled The
Banner of the Holy Ghost, at the altar of St. Eloi, the patron
saint of the Edinburgh Tradesmen, in the church of Saint Giles.
It was occasionally unfurled, or worn as a mantle by the representatives
of the trades in the courtly and religious pageants that in former
times were of frequent occurrence in the Scottish capital. "In
1482, James III, in consequence of the assistance which he had
received from the Craftsmen of Edinburgh, in delivering him from
the castle in which he was kept a prisoner, and paying a debt
of 6,000 Marks which he had contracted in making preparations
for the marriage of his son, the Duke of Rothsay, to Cecil, daughter
of Edward IV, of England, conferred on the good town several valuable
privileges, and renewed to the Craftsmen their favorite banner
of The Blue Blanket. ''James's queen, Margaret of Denmark, to
show her gratitude and respect to the Crafts, painted on the banner,
with her own hands, a Saint Andrew's cross, a crown, a thistle,
and a hammer, with the following inscription : 'Fear God and honor
the king ; grant him a long life and a prosperous reign, and we
shall ever pray to be faithful for the defense of his sacred majesty's
royal person till death.' The king decreed that in all time coming,
this flag should be the standard of the Crafts within burgh, and
that it should be unfurled in defense of their own rights, and
in protection of their sovereign. The privilege of displaying
it at the Masonic procession was granted to the journeymen, in
consequence of their original connection with the Freemasons of
Mary's Chapel, one of the four men incorporated trades of the
city. "The Blue Blanket was long in a very tattered condition
; but some years ago it was repaired by lining it with blue silk,
so that it can be exposed without subjecting it to much injury.
" An interesting little book was written by Alexander pennecuik,
Burgess and Guild-Brother of Edinburgh, and published with this
title in 1722 and in later editions describing the Operative Companies
of Edinburgh. The above particulars in the London Magazine are
found in Pennecuik's work with other details.
BLUE DEGREES
The first three degrees of Freemasonry are
so called from the blue color which is peculiar to them.
BLUE LODGE
A Symbolic Lodge, in which the first three
degrees of Freemasonry are conferred, is so called from the color
of its decorations.
BLUE MASONRY
The degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow
Craft, and Master Mason an sometimes called Blue Masonry.
BLUE MASTER
In some of the advanced degrees, these words
are used to designate a Master Mason.
BOARD OF GENERAL PURPOSES
An organization attached to the Grand Lodge
of England, consisting of the Grand Master, Pro Grand Master,
Deputy Grand Master, the Grand Wardens of the year, the Grand
Treasurer, the Grand Registrar, the Deputy Grand Registrar, a
President, Past Presidents, the President of the Board of Benevolence,
the Grand Director of Ceremonies, and twenty-four other members.
The President and six of the twenty-four members are annually
nominated by the Grand Master, and the remaining eighteen are
elected by the Grand Lodge from the Masters and Past Masters of
the Lodges. This board has authority to hear and determine all
subjects of Masonic complaints, or irregularity respecting Lodges
or individual Freemasons, when regularly brought before it, and
generally to take cognizance of all matters relating to the Craft.
BOARD OF RELIEF
See Relief, Board of
BOAZ
The name of the left hand (or north) pillar
that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple. It is derived
from the Hebrew pronounced bo'-az, and signifies in strength.
Though Strong in his Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary says the root
is unused and of uncertain meaning (see Pillars of the Porch).
BOCHIM
a Hebrew word pronounced bokeem and meaning
the weepers. A password in the Order of Ishmael. An angel spoke
to Hagar as she wept at the well when in the wilderness with her
son Ishmael.
The angel is looked upon as a spiritual
being, possibly the Great Angel of the Covenant, the Michael who
appeared to Moses in the burning bush, or the Joshua, the captain
of the hosts of Jehovah.
BODE, JOHANN JOACHIM CHRISTOPH
Born in Brunswick, 16th of January, 1730.
One of the most distinguished Freemasons of his time. In his youth
he was a professional musician, but in 1757 he established himself
at Hamburg as a bookseller, and was initiated into the Masonic
Order. He obtained much reputation by the translation of Sterne's
Sentimental Journey and Tristram Shandy, of Goldsmith's Vicar
of Wakefield; Smollett's Humphrey Clinker; and of Fielding's Tom
Jones, from the English; and of Montaigne's works from the French.
To Masonic literature he made many valuable contributions; among
others, he translated from the French Bonneville's celebrated
work entitled Les Jésuites chassés de la Maçonnerie
et leur poignard bris par les Maçons, meaning The Jesuits
driven from Freemasonry and their weapon broken by the Freemasons,
which contains a comparison of Scottish Freemasonry with the Templarism
of the fourteenth century, and with sundry peculiar practices
of the Jesuits themselves.
Bode was at one time a zealous promoter
of the Rite of Strict Observance, but afterward became one of
its most active opponents. In 1790 he joined the Order of the
Illuminati, obtaining the highest Degree in its second class,
and at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad he advocated the opinions of
Weishaupt,. No man of his day was better versed than he in the
history of Freemasonry, or possessed a more valuable and extensive
library; no one was more diligent in increasing his stock of Masonic
knowledge, or more anxious to avail himself of the rarest sources
of learning. Hence, he has always held an exalted position among
the Masonic scholars of Germany. The theory which he had conceived
on the origin of Freemasonry--a theory, however, which the investigations
of subsequent historians have proved to be untenable--was, that
the Order was invented by the Jesuits, in the seventeenth century,
as an instrument for the re-establishment of the Roman Church
in England, covering it for their own purposes under the mantle
of Templarism. Bode died at Weimar on the 13th of December, 1793.
BOEBER, JOHANN
A Royal Councilor of State and Director
of the School of Cadets at St. Petersburg, during the reign of
Alexander I. In 1805 he induced the emperor to revoke the edicts
made by Paul I and himself against the Freemasons. His representations
of the true character of the Institution induced the emperor to
seek and obtain initiation.
Boeber may be considered as the reviver
of Freemasonry in the Russian dominions, and was Grand Master
of the Grand Lodge from 1811 to 1814.
BOEHMEN, JACOB
The most celebrated of the Mystics of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, born near Gorlitz, in 1575,
and died in 1624. His system attracted, and continued to attract
long after his death, many disciples in Germany. Among these,
in time, were several Freemasons, who sought to incorporate the
mystical dogmas of their founder with the teachings of Freemasonry,
so as to make the Lodges merely schools of theosophy. Indeed,
the Theosophic Rites of Freemasonry, which prevailed to a great
extent about the middle of the last century in Germany and France,
were indebted for most of their ideas to the mysticism of Jacob
Boehmen.
BOHEMANN, KARL ADOLF ANDERSON
Born in 1770, at Jönköping in
the south of Sweden. He was a very zealous member of the Order
of Asiatic Brethren, and was an active promulgator of the advanced
Degrees. Invited to Sweden, in 1802, by the Duke of Sudermania,
who was an ardent inquirer into Masonic science, he was appointed
Court Secretary.
He attempted to introduce his system of
advanced Degrees into the kingdom, but having been detected in
the effort to intermingle revolutionary schemes with his high
Degrees, he was first imprisoned and then banished from the country,
his society being interdicted. He returned to Germany, but is
not heard of after 1815, when he published at Plymouth a justification
of himself. Findel in his History of Freemasonry (page 560), calls
him an impostor, but he seems rather to have been a Masonic fanatic,
who was ignorant of or had forgotten the wide difference between
Freemasonry and political intrigue.
BOHEMIA
A Lodge named The Three Stars is said to
have been established at Prague in 1726, and other Lodges were
subsequently constituted in Bohemia, but in consequence of the
French Revolution they were closed in 1793 by the Austrian Government.
BOHMANN, F. OTTO
A merchant in Stockholm, 1695-1767, who
left a legacy of 100,000 thalers to the Asylum for the Orphans
of Freemasons that was founded in Stockholm in 1753. A medal was
struck in his honor in 1768 (see Marvin's Masonic Medals, page
172).
BOLIVIA
The third largest political division of
the continent of South America. A Lodge was chartered in Bolivia
in 1875. Three others have since been established and all four
pay allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Peru.
Brother Oliver Day Street says in his 1922
Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama: "So
far as we have been able to ascertain this State has never been
able to boast a Grand Lodge, Grand Orient or Supreme Council of
its own. Its only Masonic organizations have been Lodges chartered
by some of the Grand Lodges of the neighboring states. Indeed,
Peru and Chile are the only ones we can ascertain which have even
done this. Bolivia can scarcely be said to have a Masonic history.''
BOMBAY
A seaport on the west coast of India. The
first Lodge to be established in Bombay was opened in 1758 but
it disappeared from the register in 1813. In 1763 James Todd was
appointed Provincial Grand Master.
A Provincial Grand Master of Western India
and its Dependencies, Brother James Burnes was appointed in 1836
by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. None had been appointed by England
since the time of Brother Todd. Brother Burnes was a very active
Freemason and it is a curious fact that Brethren even left the
English Lodges to support the new Scotch Bodies.
English Freemasonry became less and less
popular and finally ceased to be practiced until 1848 when Saint
George Lodge No. 807, was revived.
In 1886 Scotland had issued nineteen Charters
to Lodges in Bombay and twelve years previously Captain Morland,
successor to Brother Burnes, was raised to the position of Grand
Master of all Scottish Freemasonry in India.
The Craft took no firm hold on the natives
of India.
Several of the princes were initiated but
the Parsees made the first real advance in the Order when Brother
Cama, one of their number, was elected Treasurer of the Grand
Lodge of England. The first Hindu to hold important office was
Brother Dutt who became head of a Lodge in 1874 (see India and
Madras).
BONAIM
Brother Hawkins was of the opinion that
the word is really an incorrect transliteration of the Hebrew
word for builders, which should be Bonim; the construct form of
which Bonai is used in 1 Kings (v, 18), to designate a portion
of the workmen on the Temple: "And Solomon's builders and
Hiram's builders did hew them." Brother Hawkins continues
to the effect that Oliver, in his Dictionary and in his Landmarks
(1, 402), gives a mythical account of them as Fellow Crafts, divided
into Lodges by King Solomon, but, by a slip in his grammar he
calls them Benai, substituting the Hebrew construct for the absolute
case, and changing the participial o into e. The Bonaim seem to
be distinguished, by the author of the Book of Kings, from the
Gibalim, and the translators of the authorized version have called
the former builders and the latter stone-squarers. It is probable
that the Bonaim were an order of workmen inferior to the Gibalim.
Anderson, in both of his editions of the Book of Constitutions,
errs like Oliver, and calls them Bonai, saying that they were
"setters, layers, or .builders, or light Fellow Crafts, in
number 80,000.''
This idea seems to have been perpetuated
in the modern rituals. From this construct plural form Bonai some
one has formed the slightly incorrect form Bonaim.
BONAPARTE, JEROME
Brother of Napoleon I. Born November 15,
1784, and died June 24, 1860. King of Westphalia from 1807 to
1813 and afterwards known as the Duc de Montfort. Grand Master
of the Grand Orient of Westphalia. After 1847 he became successively
Governor of the Invalides, Marshal of France and President of
the Senate (see also Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie, Albert
Lantoine, 1925, Paris). Jerome, son of the above, also given as
a Freemason.
BONAPARTE, JOSEPH
Elder brother of Napoleon I. Born January
7, 1768. Sent to Naples as King in 1806 and made King of Spain
in 1808. After 1815 known as Comte de Survilliers. He was a Freemason.
Appointed by Napoleon I to the office of Grand Master of the Grand
Orient of France in 1804. He died July 28, 1844.
BONAPARTE, LOUIS
Born September 2, 1778; died July 25, 1846.
Brother of Napoleon I. King of Holland in 1806. Grand Master Adjoined
of the Grand Orient of France in 1804. In 1805 became Governor
of Paris.
BONAPARTE, LUCIEN
Brother of Napoleon I. Born May 21, 1775,
and died at Rome, June 29, 1840. November 10, 1799, when Napoleon
I overthrew the National Councils of France at the Palace of Saint
Cloud, Lucien was President of the Council of Five Hundred and
able to turn the scale in favor of his brother. In 1800 was Ambassador
at Madrid, Spain. A member of the Grand Orient of France,
BONDMAN
In the fourth article of the Halliwell or
Regius Manuscript, which is the earliest Masonic document known,
it is said that the Master shall take good care that he make no
bondman an apprentice, or, as it is in the original language :
The fourth artycul thys moste be,
That the Mayster hymn wel be-se,
That he no bondemon prentys make.
The regulation is repeated in all the subsequent
regulations, and is still in force (see Freebom).
BONE
This word, which is now pronounced in one
syllable, is the Hebrew word bo-neh, , builder, from the verb
banah, to build. It was peculiarly applied, as an epithet, to
Hiram Abif, who superintended the construction of the Temple as
its chief builder. Master Masons will recognize it as part of
a significant word. Its true pronunciation would be, in English
letters, bo-nay; but the corruption into one syllable as bone
has become too universal ever to be corrected.
BONE BOX
In the early lectures of the eighteenth
century, now obsolete, we find the following catechism:
Q. Have you any key to the secrets of a
Mason?
A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a bone box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory
keys.
The bone box is the mouth, the ivory keys
the teeth.
And the key to the secrets is afterward said to be the tongue.
These questions were simply used as tests, and were subsequently
varied. In a later lecture it is called the Bone-bone Box.
BONNEVILLE, CHEVALIER DE
On the 24th of November, 1754, he founded
the Chapter of the Advanced Degrees known as the Chapter of Clermont.
All the authorities assert this except Rebold,
Histoire des Trois Grandes Loges, meaning the History of the Three
Grand Lodges, page 46, who says that he was not its founder but
only the propagator of its Degrees.
BONNEVILLE, NICOLAS DE
A bookseller and man of letters, born at
Evreux, in France, March 13, 1760. He was the author of a work,
published in 1788, entitled Les Jésuites chassés
de la Maçonnerie et leur poignard brisé par les
Maçons, meaning The Jesuits driven from Freemasonry and
their weapon broken by the Freemasons, a book divided into two
parts, of the first of which the subtitle was La Maçonnerie
écossaise comparée avec les trois professions et
le Secret des Templiers du 14e Siécle, meaning Scottish
Freemasonry compared with the three professions and the Secret
of the Templars of the Fourteenth Century, and of the second,
Mémeté des quatre voeux de la Compagnie de S. Ignace,
et des quatre grades de la Maçonnerie de S. Jean, meaning
the Identity of the four pledges of the Society of Saint Ignace,
and of the four steps of the Freemasonry of Saint John. He also
translated into French, Thomas Paine's Essay on the Origin of
Freemasonry; a work, by the way, which was hardly worth the trouble
of translation.
De Bonneville had an exalted idea of the
difficulties attendant upon writing a history of Freemasonry,
for he says that, to compose such a work, supported by dates and
authentic facts, it would require a period equal to ten times
the age of man; a statement which, although exaggerated, undoubtedly
contains an element of truth.
His Masonic theory was that the Jesuits
had introduced into the symbolic Degrees the history of the life
and death of the Templars, and the doctrine of vengeance for the
political and religious crime of their destruction; and that they
had imposed upon four of the higher Degrees the four vows of their
congregation. De Bonneville was imprisoned as a Girondist in 1793.
The Girondists or Girondins were members of a political party
during the French Revolution of 1791 to 1793, getting their name
from twelve Deputies from the Gironde, a Department of Southwestern
France. He was the author of a History of Modern Europe, in three
volumes, published in 1792. He died in 1828.
BOOKS, ANTI-MASONIC
See Anti-Masonic Books
BOOK OF CHARGES
There seems, if we may judge from the references
in the old records of Freemasonry, to have formerly existed a
book under this title, containing the Charges of the Craft; equivalent,
probably, to the Book of Constitutions. Thus, the Matthew Cooke
Manuscript of the first half of the fifteenth century (line 534)
speaks of "othere chargys mo that ben wryten in the Boke
of Chargys.''
BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS
In England of the Eighteenth Century a permanent
association or society was required to have a sponsor, the more
exalted in the rank the better, who was named as its Patron -
as the King himself was Patron of the Royal (scientific) Society;
it was also expected to have authorization in the form of a charter,
or deputation, or some similar instrument ; and the older one
of these written instruments might be, other things being equal
, the more weight it possessed. The old Masonic Lodges in London
at the beginning of the Century had Sir Christopher Wren as their
patron (so tradition affirms) and for written charter each one
had a copy of the Old Charges ; these documents attested that
their original authority had been a Royal Charter granted by a
Prince Edwin seven centuries before ; and though historians ,
for sound reasons, question this particular claim, it is important
to remember that neither the Lodges nor the public between 1700
and 1725 ever questioned it.
In 1716 representatives of some four or
five old Lodges, and Probably after discussions with other Lodges
not represented, decided to set up a Body in which each Lodge
could be a member, and which would be a central meeting place
and at the same time could bring the Lodges into a unity of work
and practice. This they called a Grand ( or chief) Lodge; and
in 1717 they erected it by official action, and put Anthony Sayer
in the Chair as Grand Master.
This new Grand Lodge was itself a Lodge
and therefore needed both a Patron and a Charter, or Old Charges,
of its own, and suitable for needs not identical with those of
a member Lodge. It found a Patron in the person of the Duke of
Montague, elected Grand Master in 1721, after a time, and especially
after the sons of George A had become Masons, it was under the
patronage of the Royal Family and has been so ever since (Queen
Victoria officially declared herself its Patroness).
To prepare a Grand Lodge equivalent of the
Old Charges was a more difficult matter. Veteran Masons were consulted; old manuscripts were borrowed from Lodges (and sometimes not
returned, as when Desaguliers forgot to return documents to the
Lodge of Antiquity). Some of the Lodges which were opposed to
the whole Grand Lodge plan destroyed their documents. An unknown
group of Masons forestalled the Grand Lodge by having J. Roberts
print a version, now called the Roberts Constitutions, dated 1722
(of the two existing copies one is in the Iowa Masonic Library).
From the Lodges in favor of the Grand Lodge plan fourteen veteran
Masons acted as an advisory committee. By 1722 George Payne, a
Grand Master, had prepared an acceptable version of that part
of the Old Charges, the important half, which was called the Old
Regulations. By the following year, Grand Lodge, reporting through
a Committee headed by James Anderson, adopted a completed manuscript,
entitled it The Constitution of Freemasons, and had James Anderson
print it. Why this book has been accredited to the authorship
of James Anderson is a mystery; he is called "author"
at one or two places but as then used the word could mean "editor"
or "scribe"; and his name does not appear on the title
page. Payne wrote about one-half of it. J. T. Desaguliers wrote
the dedication; the rest of it was the joint work of many hands
and at least two Committees. The so-called historical part was
collected-the record says "collated''-from Lodge copies of
the Old Charges which differed much among themselves in detail.
The title is a complete description of the book :
"The Constitution, History, Laws, Charges,
Orders, Regulations, and Usages of the Right Worshipful FRATERNITY
of Accepted Free MASONS; collected From their general RECORDS
and their faithful TRADITIONS of many Ages.
To be Read At the Admission of a NEW BROTHER,
when the Master or Warden shall begin, or order some other Brother
to read as follows."
then follows the text, in the first sentence
of which reference is made to ''God, the great Architect of the
Universe,'' and Geometry is named as the Masonic art par excellence,
because it was the art used in architecture.
The publisher's signature on the title page:
"London, Printed by William Hunter,
for John Senex at the Globe, and John Hooke at the Flower-de-luce
over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-Street. In the Year
of Masonry 5723. Anno Domini 1723."
This dating is a fact of prime importance,
for it proves that the Freemasons identified their Fraternity
with architecture which they rightly assumed to be as old as man.
Theorists who have argued for another origin' of Freemasonry,
among the Ancient Mysteries, or in occult circles, or in political
circles, etc., will first have to explain why the founders of
the Speculative Craft had not even heard of such origins ; and
one may safely assume that they knew more about the founding of
Speculative Masonry than theorism two hundred years afterwards.
As time passed, and Lodges increased, amendments and revisions
were called for; this was satisfied by the issuance of new editions.
NOTE. The Fifth, or 1784, Edition is there
accredited to John Northouck, in reality it should have been named
after William Preston because he did the work on it. As each new
Grand Lodge was erected in one Country after another, and in America
in one State after another, it wrote or adopted a Book of its
own. Such a Book dated as of today bears on the face of it little
resemblance to the Edition of 1723 ; but the change from decade
to decade has been a gradual one, always made in response to new
needs, and in their principles and every other fundamental any
regular Constitution of today is a direct descendant of the Constitution
of 1723. The Ancient Grand Lodge, erected in London in 1751, which
was to become a rival of the 1717 Grand Body until 1813, published
in 1756 a Book of its own, which it called Ahiman Rezon ; this
also was in substance a repetition of the Book of 1723. Considered
as a work of literature the most masterly version is the original
Constitution of Ireland, a re-writing of the 1723 Edition by John
Pennell, published in 1730.
A half century ago a number of writers proposed
the theory that "Operative" Masonry had become defunct;
that Desaguliers, Anderson, Payne, Montague, and a number of other
''gentlemen,'' "captured" the machinery of organization,
and turned it into a Speculative Fraternity. This theory went
to pieces against such facts as:
first, that the Grand Lodge began in 1716-not
1717- and that those gentlemen were not Masons for some time afterwards,
at least not London Masons, and were not among the founding fathers,
second, the old Lodges were not "Operative'' but only partly
so, and one of them was wholly composed of Speculatives. Desaguliers
and his colleagues were architects of the Grand Lodge system;
they did not create anything new, they only found a new way for
carrying on what was already very old. This is made clear by the
Book of 1723 itself, and by the circumstances under which it was
prepared.
BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS (2)
The Book of Constitutions is that work in
which is contained the rules and regulations adopted for the government
of the Fraternity of Freemasons. Undoubtedly, a society so orderly
and systematic must always have been governed by a prescribed
code of laws; but, in the lapse of ages, the precise regulations
which were adopted for the direction of the Craft in ancient times
have been lost. The earliest record that we have of any such Constitutions
is in a manuscript, first quoted, in 1723, by Anderson( Constitutions,
1723, pages 32-3), which he said was written in the reign of Edward
IV.
Preston (page 182, edition of 1788) quotes
the same record, and adds, that "it is said to have been
in the possession of the famous Elias Ashmole, and unfortunately
destroyed,'' a statement which had not been previously made by
Anderson. To Anderson, therefore, we must look in our estimation
of the authenticity of this document ; and that we cannot too
much rely upon his accuracy as a transcriber is apparent, not
only from the internal evidence of style, but also from the fact
that he made important alterations in his copy of it in his edition
of 1738. Such as it is, however, it contains the following particulars:
"Though the ancient records of the Brotherhood in England
were many of them destroyed or lost in the wars of the Saxons
and Danes, yet King Athelstan (the grandson of King Alfrede the
Great, a mighty Architect), the first anointed king of England,
and who translated the Holy Bible into the Saxon tongue, 930 A.
D., when he had brought the land into Rest and Peace, built many
great works, and encouraged many Masons from France, who were
appointed Overseers thereof, and brought with them the Charges
and Regulations of the Lodges preserved since the Roman times,
who also prevailed with the King to improve the Constitution of
the English Lodges according to the foreign Model, and to increase
the Wages of Working Masons.
"The said king's youngest son, Prince
Edwin, being taught Masonry, and taking upon him the Charges of
a Master Mason, for the love he had to the said Craft and the
honorable Principles whereon it is grounded, purchased a free
charter of King Athelatan his Father, for the Masons having a
Correction among themselves (as it was anciently expressed), or
a Freedom and Power to regulate themselves, to amend what might
happen amiss, and to hold a yearly Communication and General Assembly.
"Accordingly, Prince Edwin summoned
all the Masons in the Realm to meet him in a Congregation at York,
who came and composed a General Lodge, of which he was Grand Master;
and having brought with them all the Writings and Records extant,
some in Greek, some in Latin, some in French, and other languages,
from the Contents thereof that Assembly did frame the Constitution
and Charges of an English Lodge, and made a law to preserve and
observe the same in all time coming, and ordained good Pay for
Working Masons, ac."
Other records have from time to time been
discovered, most of them recently, which prove beyond a1l doubt
that the Fraternity of Freemasons was, at least in the fourteenth,
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, in possession
of manuscript Constitutions containing the rules and regulations
of the Craft.
In the year 1717, Freemasonry, which had
somewhat fallen into decay in the south of England, was revived
by the organization of the Grand Lodge at London; and, in the
next year, the Grand Master having desired, says Anderson, "any
brethren to bring to the Grand Lodge any old writings and records
concerning Freemasons and Freemasonry, in order to show the usages
of ancient times, several old copies of the Gothic Constitutions
were produced and collated" (see Constitutions, 1738, page
110).
But these Constitutions having been found
to be very erroneous and defective, probably from carelessness
or ignorance in their frequent transcription, in September, 1721,
the Duke of Montagu, who was then Grand Master, ordered Brother
James Anderson to digest them "in a new and better method"
(see Constitutions, 1738, page 113).
Anderson having accordingly accomplished
the important task that had been assigned him, in December of
the same year a committee, consisting of fourteen learned Brethren,
was appointed to examine the book ; and, in the March Communication
of the subsequent year, having reported their approbation of it,
it was, after some amendments, adopted by the Grand Lodge, and
published, in 1723, under the title of The Constitutions of the
Freemasons, containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc.,
of that Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the
use of the Lodges. A second edition was published in 1738, under
the superintendence of' a committee of Grand Officers (see the
Constitutions of that year, page 133). But this edition contained
so many alterations, interpolations, and omissions of the Charges
and Regulations as they appeared in the first, as to show the
most reprehensible inaccuracy in its composition, and to render
it utterly worthless except as a literary curiosity. It does not
seem to have been very popular, for the printers, to complete
their sales, were compelled to commit a fraud, and to present
what they pretended to be a new edition in 1746, but which was
really only the edition of 1738, with a new title page neatly
pasted in, the old one being canceled.
In 1754, Brother Jonathan Scott presented
a memorial to the Grand Lodge, ''showing the necessity of a new
edition of the Book of Constitutions.'' It was then ordered that
the book "should be revised, and necessary alterations and
additions made consistent with the laws and rules of Masonry"
; all of which would seem to show the dissatisfaction of the Fraternity
with the errors of the second edition. Accordingly, a third edition
was published in 1756, under the editorship of the Rev. John Entick.
The fourth edition, prepared by a Committee, was published in
1767.
In 1769, G. Kearsly, of London, published
an unauthorized edition of the 1767 issue, with an appendix to
1769 ; this was also published by Thomas Wilkinson in Dublin in
the same year, with several curious plates ; both issues are now
very scarce. And an authorized supplement appeared in 1776.
John Noorthouck published by authority the
fifth edition in 1784. This was well printed in quarto, with numerous
notes, and is considered the most valuable edition ; it is the
last to contain the historical introduction.
After the Union of the two rival Grand Lodges
of England (see Ancient Masons) in 1813, the sixth edition was
issued in 1815, edited by Brother William Williams, Provincial
Grand Master for Dorsetshire; the seventh appeared in 1819, being
the last in quarto ; and the eighth in 1827; these were called
the Second Part, and contained only the Ancient Charges and the
General Regulations. The ninth edition of 1841 contained no reference
to the First or Historical Part, and may be regarded as the first
of the present issue in octavo with the plates of jewels at the
end.
Numerous editions have since been issued.
In the early days of the Grand Lodge of England in all processions
the Book of Constitution was carried on a cushion by the Master
of the Senior Lodge (Constitution, 1738, pages 117-26), but this
was altered at the time of the union and it is provided in the
Constitutions of 1815 and in the subsequent issues that the Book
of Constitutions on a cushion shall be carried by the Grand Secretary.
BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS GUARDED BY THE TILER'S
SWORD
An emblem painted on the Master's carpet,
and intended to admonish the Freemason that he should be guarded
in all his words and actions, preserving unsullied the Masonic
virtues of silence and circumspection. Such is Webb's definition
of the emblem in the Freemasons monitor (edition of 1818, page
69), which is a very modern one, and Brother Mackey was inclined
to think it was introduced by that lecturer. The interpretation
of Webb is a very unsatisfactory one in the opinion of Brother
Mackey. He held that the Book of Constitutions is rather the symbol
of constituted law than of silence and circumspection, and when
guarded by the Tiler's sword it would seem properly to symbolize
regard for and obedience to law, a prominent Masonic duty.
BOOK OF GOLD
In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
the volume in which the transactions, statutes, decrees, balusters,
and protocols of the Supreme Council or a Grand Consistory are
contained is called the Book of Gold.
BOOK OF MORMON
This sacred book of the Mormons was first
published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who claimed to have translated
it from gold plates which he had found under Divine guidance secreted
in a stone box. The seat of their organization is at Salt Lake
City, Utah. In this connection, Mormonism and Masonry, by Brother
S. H. Goodwin, Grand Secretary of Utah, is a detailed and excellent
work of reference.
BOOK OF THE DEAD
By some translated the Book of the Master,
containing the ancient Egyptian philosophy as to death and the
resurrection. A portion of these sacred writings was invariably
buried with the dead. The book in facsimile has been published
by Doctor Lepsius, and translated by Doctor Birch. The story of
the judgment of Amenti forms a part of the Book of the Dead, and
shadows forth the verities and judgments of the unseen world.
The Amenti was the Place of Judgment of
the Dead, situated in the West, where Osiris was presumed to be
buried. There were forty-two assessors of the amount of sin committed,
who sat in judgment, and before whom the adjudged passed in succession.
There seems to be a tie which binds Freemasonry
to the noblest of the cults and mysteries of antiquity.
The most striking exponent of the doctrines
and language of the Egyptian Mysteries of Osiris is this Book
of the Dead, or Ritual of the Underworld, or Egyptian Bible of
165 chapters, the Egyptian title of which was The Manifestation
to Light, or the Book Revealing Light to the Soul. Great dependence
was had, as to the immediate attainment of celestial happiness,
upon the human knowledge of this wonderful Book, especially of
the principal chapters.
On a sarcophagus or tomb of the eleventh
dynasty, according to the chronology of Professor Lepsius, say
2420 B.C., is this inscription: "He who knows this book is
one who, in the day of the resurrection of the underworld, arises
and enters in; but he does not know this chapter, he does not
enter in so soon as he arises. " The conclusion of the first
chapter says: "If a man knows this book thoroughly, and has
it inscribed upon his sarcophagus, he will be manifested in the
day in all the forms that he may desire, and entering into his
abode will not be turned back" (see Tiele's History of Religions,
page 25).
The Egyptian belief was that portions of
the Book of the Dead were written by the finger of Thoth, that
being the name of the Egyptian god of letters, invention and wisdom,
the mouthpiece and recorder of the gods, and umpire of their disputes,
back in the mist of time, 3000 B.C. The one hundred and twenty-fifth
chapter describes the last judgment. The oldest preserved papyrus
is of the eighteenth dynasty. Professor Lepsius fixes the date
at 1591 BC.
The most perfect copy of this Book of the
Dead is in the Turin Museum, where it covers one side of the walls,
in four pieces, 300 feet in length.
The following extract is from the first
chapter: "Says That to Osiris, King of Eternity, I am the
great God in the divine boat; I fight for thee; I am one of the
divine chiefs who are the TRUE LIVING WORD of Osiris. I am That,
who makes to be real the word of Horus against his enemies. The
word of Osiris against his enemies made truth in That, and the
order is executed by That. I am with Horus on the day of celebrating
the festival of Osiris, the good Being, whose Word is truth; I
make offerings to Ra (the Sun) ; I am a simple priest in the underworld,
anointing in Abydos, elevating to higher degrees of initiation;
I am prophet in Abydos on the day of opening or up heaving the
earth. I behold the mysteries of the door of the underworld; I
direct the ceremonies of Mendes; I am the assistant in the exercise
of their functions; I AM GRAND MASTER OF THE CRAFTSMEN WHO SET
UP THE SACRED ARCH FOR A SUPPORT" (see Truth).
BOOK OF THE FRATERNITY OF STONE MASONS
Years ago, a manuscript was discovered in
the archives of the City of Cologne bearing the title of Brüderschaftsbuch
der Steinmetzen, meaning the Brotherhood Book of the Stonecutters,
with records going back to the year 1396. Steinbrenner (Origin
and Early History of Masonry, page 104), says: "It fully confirms
the conclusions to be derived from the German Constitutions, and
those of the English and Scotch Masons, and conclusively proves
the in authenticity of the celebrated Charter of Cologne."
BOOK OF THE LAW
The Holy Bible, which is always open in
a Lodge as a symbol that its fight should be discussed among the
Brethren. The passages at which it is opened differ in the various
Degrees (see Scriptures, Reading of the).
Masonically, the Book of the Law is that
sacred book which is believed by the Freemason of any particular
religion to contain the revealed will of God; although, technically,
among the Jews, the Torah, or Book of the Law, means only the
Pentateuch or five books of Moses. Thus, to the Christian Freemason
the Book of the Law is the Old and New Testaments; to the Jew,
the Old Testament; to the Mussulman, the Koran ; to the Brahman,
the Vedas ; and to the Parsee, the Zendavesta.
The Book of the Law is an important symbol
in the Royal Arch Degree, concerning which there was a tradition
among the Jews that the Book of the Law was lost during the captivity,
and that it was among the treasures discovered during the building
of the second Temple. The same opinion was entertained by the
early Christian fathers, such, for instance, as Irenaeus, Tertullian,
and Clemens Alexandrinus; "for," says Prideaux, "they
(the Christian fathers) hold that all the Scriptures were lost
and destroyed in the Babylonish captivity, and that Ezra restored
them all again by Divine revelation." The truth of the tradition
is very generally denied by Biblical scholars, who attribute its
origin to the fact that Ezra collected together the copies of
the law, expurgated them of the errors which had crept into them
during the captivity, and arranged a new and correct edition.
But the truth or falsity of the legend does not affect the Masonic
symbolism. The Book of the Law is the will of God, which, lost
to us in our darkness, must be recovered as precedent to our learning
what is Truth. As captives to error, truth is lost to us ; when
freedom is restored, the first reward will be its discovery.
BOOK, ORDER OF THE
See Stukely, Doctor
BOOKPLATES, MASONIC
Masonic Bookplates, by J. Hugo Tatsch and
Winwood Prescott (The Masonic Bibliophiles; Cedar Rapids, Ia.
; 1928), lays down the accepted rules for a correct and (by connoisseurs)
acceptable Masonic Ex Libris, or bookplate. Taking it for granted
that a skilled artist will draw or paint it, and that it will
be well engraved, the two authors advise: first, that the Mason
who is to use it shall include in it only such emblems and symbols
as represent the Rite (or Rites) to which he belongs ; second,
that it be "personalized" by including in the design
something to represent his own vocation, avocation, hobby, special
interest, etc.
Shute, who wrote and published the first
book on architecture ever to be printed in England, is said to
have been also the first engraver in England. After the Grand
Lodge was formed in 1717 a long line of famous engravers were
active members of the Craft; John Pine, William Hogarth, Francesco
Bartolozzi, John Baptist Cipriani, Benjamin and John Cole, and
our American Grand Master, inventor of a new process of engraving,
Paul Revere. Their work, and especially their Masonic designs,
should be studied by Masonic bookplate engravers. A Grand Lodge
usually employs its own coat-of-arms in its bookplate. Pine was
the first to make an engraved list of Lodges. (See also Book Plates
and Their Value, J. H. Slater, Henry Grant; 1898. In addition
to collectors' prices it contains a history of the development
of Ex Libris art. Some publishers spell ''bookplate'' as one word,
others as two. The Tatsch and Prescott volume contains a full
bibliography. Ex Libris Lodge, No. 3765, was founded . in London,
1915, by bookplate enthusiasts.)
BOONE, DANIEL
Ray V. Denslow, specialist in early Middle
Western Masonry, reported to The Builder, January, 1925, that
"in his opinion" Boone had not been a Mason. He added
however that "a very good friend" had in earlier days
heard Boone spoken of as a Mason. Both the Grand Lodges of Kentucky
and of Tennessee have searched the old membership rolls but have
not found his name. When appropriating a sum toward the Boone
monument at Frankfort the resolution passed by the Grand Lodge
of Kentucky made no mention of Boone's possible membership. At
least one pall-bearer at Boone's funeral wore a Masonic collar.
(It is interesting to note that "Boone" is a corruption
of "Bohun," a family name of King Henry VII.)
BORDER, TESSELATED
See Tesselated Border
BORNEO
An island in the Malay Archipelago, a great
group of islands southeast of Asia. On August 13, 1885, Elopura
Lodge, No. 2106, was chartered by the Grand Lodge of England in
North Borneo at Elopura. It was, however, never constituted as
the petitioners had left before the Lodge could be opened, and
it was erased from the register on January 2, 1888.
Borneo Lodge of Harmony was chartered on
May 6, 1891, and constituted at Sandakan on June 7, the same year.
BOSONIEN, THE
The name is sometimes given as Bossonius.
The Fourth Degree of the African Architects, also called the Christian
Philosopher. The latter reference is by Thory (Acta Latomorum,
1, 297).
BOSTON TEA PARTY
England in 1773 passed a law levying a tax
on all tea shipped into the American Colonies by the East India
Tea Company.
Three cargoes of tea were in Boston harbor
when from a meeting of citizens, December 16, 1773, held at the
Old South Church, forty or fifty men disguised as Indians emerged
and in two or three hours three hundred and forty-two chests of
tea valued at about eighteen hundred pounds sterling were emptied
into the sea (see Brother Elroy McKendree Avery's History of the
United States and Its People, volume v, page 166). The secrecy
and dispatch of the whole affair definitely indicates previous
rehearsals under competent leadership. On that very night the
records written by the Secretary state that Lodge of Saint Andrew
closed until the next night "On account of the few members
in attendance" and then the entire page is filled up with
the letters T made large (see Centennial Memorial of Saint Andrew's
Lodge, page 347, also Green Dragon Tavern).
BOSWELL, JOHN
A Scottish Laird, of Auchinleck, and of
the family of the biographer of Doctor Johnson. Laird means the
proprietor of a landed estate; occasionally, merely a landlord.
His appearance in the Lodge of Edinburgh at a meeting held at
Holyrood in June, 1600, affords a very early authentic instance
of a person being a member of the Masonic Fraternity who was not
an architect or builder by profession. Brother Boswell signed
his name and made his mark-as did the Operatives.
BOURBON, PRINCE LOUIS DE, COMTE DE CLERMONT
Said to have been elected December 2, 1743,
the fourth Grand Master in France. At first he was energetic and
in 1756 the name of the Grand Lodge was changed from that of the
English Grand Lodge of France to the Grand Lodge of France.
He died in 1771, leaving Freemasonry in
a much less flourishing condition as he neglected it during the
latter part of his life, delegating his work to others (see Histoire
de la Franc-Maçonnerie Française, Albert Lantoine,
1925, Paris, pages 64-9, etc.).
BOURN
A limit or boundary; a word familiar to
the Freemason in the Monitorial Instructions of the Fellow Craft's
Degree, where he is directed to remember that we are traveling
upon the level of time to that undiscovered country from whose
bourn no traveler returns; and to the reader of Shakespeare, from
whom the expression is borrowed, in the beautiful soliloquy of
Hamlet:
Who would fardels bear;
To grunt and sweat under a wearly life ;
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns-puzzles the will. Act III, Scene 1. Fardels
here means burdens.
BOX-MASTER
Sometimes in the Lodges of Scotland the
Treasurer was formerly so called. Thus, in the Minutes of the
Lodge of Journeymen Freemasons of Edinburgh, it was resolved,
on December, 27, 1726, that the Warden be instructed "to
uplift and receive for the use of the society all such sum or
sums of money which are due and indebted to them or their former
Box-masters or his predecessors in office."
BOX OF FRATERNAL ASSISTANCE
A box of convenient shape and size under
the charge of the Hospitaler or Almoner, in the Modern French
and Scottish Rites, wherein is collected the obligatory contributions
of the duly assembled Brethren at every convocation, which collections
can only be used for secret charitable purposes, first among the
members, but if not there required, among worthy profane; the
Master and the Hospitaler being the only ones cognizant of the
name of the beneficiary, together with the Brother who suggests
an individual in need of the assistance.
BOYDEN LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION
Brother William L. Boyden, librarian for
the Supreme Council, A.&A.S.R.,S.J., at Washington, D.C.,
after years of experience and experiment, perfected a library
classification system for Masonic books. He divided titles under
ten general heads, in 400 classes and subclasses. He made the
system available to Masonic librarians in a brochure of twenty-two
pages, a working manual: Classification of the Literature of Freemasonry
and Related Societies, by W. L. Boyden; Washington, D.C., 1915;
e/o The Supreme Council A.&.A.S.R.,S.J.
BOYDEN MS., THE
A manuscript of the Old Charges, nine feet
long and about eight and one-half inches wide, belonging to the
Supreme Council, A.& A.S.R.,S.J., and in the vaults of the
House of the Temple, Washington, D.C.; it was discovered (presumably
in 1925) by the late W. L. Boyden, Librarian of the Supreme Council
Library at the time, in North Riding of Yorkshire near Yorkshire,
Eng. Boyden published the text in The New Age, February, 1926;
page 77. The text accompanied by critical notes is given in The
Old 'Yorkshire' Old Charges of Masons, by H. Poole and F. R. Worts;
published by Installed Masters' Association, Leeds, England ;
1935 ; page 171.
Some English Brothers have expressed regret
(and not always un-spiced with resentment) that a Yorkshire MS.
should "have been sold off to America."
American Masons can understand that feeling,
and the more so in the case of Yorkshire which was the favorite
field of Hughan and of Thorp, who are both as well remembered
and as much revered by Masons on this side of the Atlantic as
on that ; but at the same time they feel that the strictures often
expressed, and especially the harshness in some instances, by
Whymper, Gould, and Lane, are based on a misunderstanding of facts.
The strictures have arisen from the assumption that a sizable
number of precious, old, and oftentimes unique Masonic books and
MSS. have been drained off out of England into America; but there
has never been such a drain. The Boyden is the only MS. of which
there is not at least one copy left in England. The printed Roberts
MS. owned by the Grand Lodge of Iowa is one of two copies. The
Carmick MS. owned by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was written
in Pennsylvania. The American craft, and considering that save
for a very few years it is as old as the English Craft, and is
in the same Masonic family, is peculiarly poverty-stricken in
MSS. and rare books. Nor have the great and wealthy American collectors
Huntington, Morgan, etc., collected Freemasoniana; Rosenbach,
famous for so many years as their agent, told the writer that
he had never included Masonic items in his search lists. If harsh
complaints were in order American Masons themselves have a large
ground for them ; during the French and Indian wars, the Revolutionary
War, and the War of 1812 America was "drained" of the
larger part of its early Masonic records, a fact which helps to
account for the emptiness of the history of pre-Revolutionary
Masonry in America.
The same holds for the old charge of "piracy."
A small number of Eighteenth Century books (Oliver, presston,
etc.) were published here without permission and without payment
to their British authors; to do so was both piratical and inexcusable.
But there was as quite as much piracy from the British end. Books
by Harris Town, Mackey, Morris, etc., were extensively pirated
in England right down to the middle of the Nineteenth Century:
this Encyclopedia was pirated in a half dozen languages.
BOYLE, JOHN
Grand Chaplain of Scotland.
May 8, 1843, delivered the oration on the death of the Duke of
Sussex.
BOYS' SCHOOL
The Royal Masonic Institution for Boys is
a charity of the Freemasons of England.
It was founded in the year 1798 by a number
of Brethren belonging to the Ancient Constitution who were members
of the Lodge of United Mariners, No. 23, now No. 30. This benevolence
was for clothing and educating the sons of indigent and deceased
Brethren, according to the situation in life they are most probably
destined to occupy, and inculcating such religious instruction
as may be conformable to the tenets of their parents, and ultimately
apprenticing them to suitable trades.
Brother Francis Columbine Daniel, of the
Royal Naval Lodge of the Moderns, started a somewhat similar Institution,
but the two were happily united in 1817 to the lasting benefit
of the Craft at large.
Similar schools have been established by
the Freemasons of France, Germany, and other countries.
Ossian Lang's History of Freemasonry in
the State of New York says: "It will be of interest to many
to learn that the common school system of New York is directly
indebted to the Masonic Fraternity of that state for its founding.
In 1810 the Grand Lodge determined to provide for the free education
of children of Freemasons in non-sectarian schools, facilities
which had theretofore been lacking. Free schools financed by the
Lodges were established, which rapidly grew in popularity, and
these attracted so much attention that in 1817 the legislature
enacted laws providing for the assumption by the State Government
for the growing system, and its extension to meet the requirements
of the entire public."
BRAHMANISM
The religious system practiced by the Hindus. It presents a profound
and spiritual philosophy, strangely blended with the basest superstitions.
The Veda is the Brahmanical Book of the Law, although the older
hymns springing out of the primitive Aryan religion have a date
far anterior to that of comparatively modern Brahmanism. The Laws
of Menu is really the text-book of Brahmanism; yet in the Vedic
hymns we find the expression of that religious thought that has
been adopted by the Brahmans and the rest of the modern Hindus.
The learned Brahmans have a bidden or esoteric
faith, in which they recognize and adore one God, without form
or quality, eternal, unchangeable, and occupying all space; but
confining this concealed doctrine to their interior schools, they
teach, for the multitude, an open or exoteric worship, in which
the incomprehensible attributes of the supreme and purely spiritual
God are invested with sensible and even human forms. In the Vedic
hymns all the powers of nature are personified, and become the
objects of worship, thus leading to an apparent polytheism.
But, as J. F. Clarke in his Ten Great Religions
(page 90) remarks, "behind this incipient polytheism lurks
the original monotheism ; for each of these gods, in turn, becomes
the Supreme Being." And Max Müller says (Chips, 1, 2)
that "it would be easy to find in the numerous hymns of the
Veda passages in which almost every important deity is represented
as supreme and absolute."
This most ancient religion-believed in by
one seventh of the world's population, that fountain from which
has flowed so much of the stream of modem religious thought, abounding
in mystical ceremonies and ritual prescriptions, worshiping, as
the Lord of all, "the source of golden fight," having
its ineffable name, its solemn methods of initiation, and its
symbolic rites-is well worth the serious study of the Masonic
scholar, because in it he will find much that will be suggestive
to him in the investigations of the dogmas of his Order.
In speaking of the Brahmins, or Brahmans
(Kenning's Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry), Brother A. F. A. Woodford
tells us, " It has been said, and apparently on good authority,
that they have a form of Masonic initiation and recognition amongst
them"
BRANT, JOSEPH
A Mohawk Indian Chief, made a Freemason
"and admitted to the Third Degree" at London, England,
on April 26, 1776. This was in a Lodge of the Moderns, the Falcon,
in Princess Street, Leicester Fields.
Brother Hawkins records that during the
War of American Independence Brant was in command of some Indian
troops on the British side, by whom Captain McKinsty, of the United
States Army, had been captured. The Indians had tied their prisoner
to a tree and were preparing to torture him, when he made the
mystic appeal of a Freemason in the hour of danger. Brant interposed
and rescued his American brother from his impending fate, took
him to Quebec, and placed him in the hands of some English Freemasons,
who returned him, uninjured, to the American outposts. Clavel
has illustrated the occurrence on page 283 of his Histoire Pittoresque
de la Franc-Maçonnerie. Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea,
to use his native name, was born on the banks of the Ohio River
in 1742 and was educated at Lebanon, Connecticut.
He was a member of Lodge No. 11 at the Mohawk
village, about a mile and a half from Brantford, and was also
affiliated with Barton Lodge No. 10 at Hamilton, Canada. Brother
Robertson, History of Freemasonry in Canada, records (on page
687) that Brother Brant translated the Gospel of St. Mark into
the Mohawk language and this was published in 1787.
BRAY, REGINALD
Brother A. F. A. Woodford, Kenning's Cyclopoedia,
says that he has been reported as Grand Master in England in 1502
and was probably connected with the Operative Lodges.
BRAZEN LAVER
See Laver
BRAZEN PILLARS
See Pillars of the Porch
BRAZEN SERPENT
See Serpent and Cross
BRAZEN SERPENT, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the Brazen Serpent
BRAZIL
The largest state and republic in South
America. The first Lodge in Brazil is said to have been established
by French authority as early as 1815. At any rate it was at work
in 1820 and was divided into three parts which in 1821 met and
formed the Grand Orient of Brazil according to the French Rite.
In October, however, it was closed by order of the Emperor of
Brazil, then Grand Master, and lay dormant for ten years.
Eight years later a Grand Orient of Brazil
was formed with José Bonefacio de Andrada e Silva as Grand
Master. In November, 1832, the Supreme Council of Belgium instituted
a Supreme Council, Thirty-third Degree, which in 1832 was divided
into three parts, each of which deemed to be a Supreme Grand Council.
In 1835 there existed two Grand Orients and four Supreme Councils.
Out of these several Bodies there finally
emerged the original Grand Orient which in 1863 divided into two,
the Grand Orient of Lavrado Valley and the Grand Orient of Benedictino
Valley, the former inclined to Roman Catholicism, the latter opposed
to it.
In 1872 the two parties united ; the following
year they divided again. An attack by the Bishop of Pemambuco
was the indirect cause of a movement towards Masonic union in
1877, and on January 18, 1883, the union was achieved in a Body
which recognized the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Modem
French Rite and the Adonhiramite Rite.
In 1914 the Grand Orient exercised authority
over 390 constituent Lodges, while England, Germany, and Italy
were also represented in this territory. A further 50 Lodges paid
allegiance to the Grand Orients of Parana and Rio Grande do Sul,
the former of which has since united with the Grand Orient at
Rio de Janeiro.
There are two German Lodges at Porto Alegre,
and one each at Sertas S. Anna, Sapyranga, Santa Cruz, Candelaria,
and Joinville. The Grand Orient of Italy has a Lodge at Botucatu,
and one at San Paolo.
Eugene Seeger, formerly Consul-General of
the United States at Rio de Janeiro, in an article on Brazil (see
Current History, July, 1923), referred to the popularity of Freemasonry
there and asserted that it was largely due to the great number
of free public schools established and supported by the Freemasons
for educating future citizens of that republic.
BREAD, CONSECRATED
Consecrated bread and wine, that is to say,
bread and wine used not simply for food, but made sacred by the
purpose of symbolizing a bond of brotherhood, and the eating and
drinking of which are sometimes called the Communion of the Brethren,
is found in some of the advanced Degrees, such as the Order of
High Priesthood in the American Rite, and the Rose Croix of the
French and Scottish Rites.
It was in ancient times a custom religiously
observed, that those who sacrificed to the gods should unite in
partaking of a part of the food that had been offered. And in
the Jewish Church it was strictly commanded that the sacrificers
should ''eat before the Lord," and unite in a feast of joy
on the occasion of their offerings. By this common partaking of
that which had been consecrated to a sacred purpose, those who
partook of the feast seemed to give an evidence and attestation
of the sincerity with which they made the offering ; while the
feast itself was, as it were, the renewal of the covenant of friendship
between the parties.
BREADTH OF THE LODGE
See Form of the Lodge
BREAST
In one of the Old Lectures, quoted by Doctor
Oliver, it is said : ''A Mason's breast should be a safe and sacred
repository for all your just and lawful secrets. A brother's secrets,
delivered to me as such, I would keep as my own; as to betray
that trust might be doing him the greatest injury he could sustain
in this mortal life; nay, it would be like the villainy of an
assassin who lurks in darkness to stab his adversary when unarmed
and least prepared to meet an enemy."
It is true, that the secrets of a Freemason,
confided as such, should be as inviolate in the breast of him
who has received them as they were in his own before they were
confided. But it would be wrong to conclude that in this a Freemason
is placed in a position different from that which is occupied
by every honorable man. No man of honor is permitted to reveal
a secret which he has received under the pledge of secrecy.
Nevertheless, it is as false as it is absurd,
to assert that either the man of honor or the Freemason is bound
by any such obligation to protect the criminal from the vindication
of the law. It must be left to every man to determine by his own
conscience whether he is at liberty to betray a knowledge of facts
with which he could not have become acquainted except under some
such pledge. No court of law would attempt to extort a communication
of facts made known by a penitent to his confessor or a client
to his lawyer for such a communication would make the person communicating
it infamous. In this case, Freemasonry supplies no other rule
than that which is found in the acknowledged codes of Moral Ethics.
BREASTPLATE
Called in Hebrew kho'shen, or kho-shen mish-pow,
the breastplate of judgment, because through it the High Priest
received divine responses, and uttered his decisions on all matters
relating to the good of the commonwealth. It was a piece of embroidered
cloth of gold, purple, scarlet, and fine white, twined linen.
It was a span, or about nine inches square, when doubled, and
made thus strong to hold the precious stones that were set in
it. It had a gold ring at each corner, to the uppermost of which
were attached golden chains, by which it was fastened to the shoulder
pieces of the ephod-the vestment worn by the High Priest over
his tunic; while from the two lowermost went two ribbons of blue,
by which it was attached to the girdle of the ephod, and thus
held secure in its place.
In the breastplate were set twelve precious
jewels, on each of which was engraved the name of one of the twelve
tribes. The stones were arranged in four rows, three stones in
each row. As to the order of arrangement and the names of the
stones, there has been some difference among the authorities.
The authorized version of the Bible gives them in this order:
Sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire,
diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, jasper.
This is the pattern generally followed in
the construction of Masonic breastplates, but modem researches
into the true meaning of the Hebrew names of the stones have shown
its inaccuracy.
Especially must the diamond be rejected,
as no engraver could have cut a name on this impenetrable gem,
to say nothing of the pecuniary value of a diamond of a size to
match the rest of the stones.
EMERALD, TOPAZ, SARDIUS,
JASPER, SAPPHIRE, CARBUNCLE,
AMETHYST AGATE, LIGURE,
BERYL ONYX, CHRYSOLITE,
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (III,
vii), gives the stones in the following order: Sardonyx, topaz,
emerald; carbuncle, jasper, sapphire ; ligure, amethyst, agate;
chrysolite, onyx, beryl. Kalisch, in his Colmmentary on Exodus,
gives a still different order: Cornelian (or sardius), topaz,
smaragdus; carbuncle, sapphire, emerald; ligure, agate, amethyst;
chrysolite, onyx, jasper. But perhaps the Vulgate translation
is to be preferred as an authority, because it was made in the
fifth century, at a time when the old Hebrew names of the precious
stones were better understood than now. The order given in that
version is shown in the diagram Fig. I. A description of each
of these stones, with its symbolic signification, with be found
under the appropriate head.
On the stones were engraved the names of the twelve tribes, one
on each stone. The order in which they were placed, according
to the Jewish Targums--various ancient forms of the Hebrew Scriptures
in Aramaic or Chaldee language, was as Fig. 2, having a reference
to the respective ages of the twelve sons of Jacob.
LEVI ............. SIMEON ............ REUBEN
ZEBULUN ..... ISSACHAR ........ JUDAH
GAD ............. NAPHTALI ......... DAN
BENJAMIN .. JOSEPH .............. ASHER
The differences made by various writers
in the order of the names of the stones arise only from their
respective translations of the Hebrew words. These original names
are detailed in Exodus (xxviii), and admit of no doubt, whatever
uncertainty there may be as to the gems which they were intended
to represent. Fig. 3 illustrates the Hebrew names of the stones.
A description of the breastplate is given
in chapters xxviii and xxxix of Exodus. From the former, authorized
version of the Bible, we take the following four verses (17-21)
: "And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four
rows of stones ; the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and
a carbuncle : this shall be the first row. And the second row
shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third
row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx,
and a jasper : they shall be set in gold in their enclosings.
And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel,
twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet
; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve
tribes." In the margin the word ruby is given instead of
sardius in the first row of stones. The revised version suggests
that ruby be substituted for sardius, emerald for carbuncle, carbuncle
for emerald, sardonyx for diamond, amber for ligure or jacinth,
chalcedony for beryl, and beryl for onyx, in the list found in
Exodus xxviii.
Students of the Scriptures conclude that
from the dimensions of the breastplate, given in Exodus (chapter
xxviii ), a span which would be equivalent to eight or nine inches,
the twelve stones even after allowing some reasonable space for
their setting must have been of considerable size and therefore
of only moderate rarity. Furthermore, as they were engraved with
the names of the twelve tribes they could have been of only moderate
hardness; and finally, preference may well be given to stones
which research has shown to have been actually used for ornamental
purposes in early bible times. In regard to this matter the article
by Professor Flinders Petrie is of especial importance (see Hasting's
Dictionary of the Bible, iv, pages 619-21).
The breastplate which was used in the first
Temple does not appear to have been returned after the Captivity,
for it is not mentioned in the list of articles sent back by Cyrus.
The stones, on account of their great beauty and value, were most
probably removed from their original arrangement and reset in
various ornaments by their captors. A new one was made for the
services of the second Temple, which, according to Josephus, when
worn by the High Priest, shot forth brilliant rays of fire that
manifested the immediate presence of Jehovah. But Josephus adds
that two hundred years before his time this miraculous power had
become extinct in consequence of the impiety of the nation. It
was subsequently carried to Rome together with the other
spoils of the Temple.
Of the subsequent fate of these treasures,
and among them the breastplate, there are two accounts: one, that
they were convoyed to Carthage by Genseric after his sack of Rome,
and that the ship containing them was lost on the voyage; the
other, and, as King thinks, in Antique Gems (page 137), the more
probable one, that they had been transferred long before that
time to Byzantium, and deposited by Justinian in the treasury
of Saint Sophia.
The breastplate is worn in American Chapters
of the Royal Arch by the High Priest as an essential Part of his
official vestments. The symbolic reference of it, as given by
Webb, is that it is to teach him always to bear in mind his responsibility
to the laws and ordinances of the Institution, and that the honor
and interests of his Chapter should be always near his heart.
This does not materially differ from the
ancient symbolism, for one of the names given to the Jewish breastplate
was the memorial, because it was designed to remind the High Priest
how dear the tribes whose names it bore should be to his heart.
The breastplate does not appear to have
been original with or peculiar to the Jewish ritual. The idea
was, most probably, derived from the Egyptians.
Diodorus Siculus says (in his book 1, chapter
75), that among them the chief judge bore about his neck a chain
of gold, from which hung a figure or image , composed of precious
stones, which was called Truth, and the legal proceedings only
commenced when the chief judge had assumed this image.
Aelian (book xxxiv), confirms this account
by saying that the image was engraved on sapphire, and hung about
the neck of the chief judge with a golden chain.
Peter du Val says that he saw a mummy at
Cairo, round the neck of which was a chain, to which a golden
plate was suspended, on which the image of a bird was engraved
(see Urim and Thummim).
BREAST, THE FAITHFUL
One of the three precious jewels of a Fellow
Craft. It symbolically teaches the initiate that the lessons which
he has received from the instructive tongue of the Master are
not to be listened to and lost, but carefully treasured in his
heart, and that the precepts of the Order constitute a covenant
which he is faithfully to observe.
BREAST TO BREAST
See Points of Fellowship
BRETHREN
This word, being the plural of Brother in
the solemn style, is more generally used in Masonic language,
instead of the common plural, Brothers. Thus Freemasons always
speak of The Brethren of the Lodge, and not of The Brothers of
the Lodge.
BRETHREN OF HARMONY
Identical with the Fréres Noirs,
or Black Brethren.
BRETHREN OF THE BRIDGE
See Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages.
BRETHREN OF THE MYSTIC TIE
The term by which Freemasons distinguish
themselves as the members of a confraternity or brotherhood united
by a mystical bond (see Mystic Tie).
BRETHREN ROSE CROIX OF THE EAST
See Marconis, also Memphis, Rite of
BREWSTER, SIR DAVID
See Lawrie, Alexander
BRIDGE
A most significant symbol in the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth Degrees of the Scottish Rite, at which an important
event transpires. The characteristic letters which appear on the
Bridge, L. O. P., refer to that liberty of thought which is ever
thereafter to be the inheritance of those who have been symbolically
captive for seven weeks of years.
It is the new era of the freedom of expression,
the liberation of the former captive thought. Liberty, but not
License. It is also a symbol in the Royal Order (see Lakak Deror
Pessah; also Liber; also Liberty of Passage).
BRIDGE BUILDERS
In the article which begins on page 151
it is stated that the Gild of Bridge Builders was a religious
fraternity. Since that article written (it was based on the then
most reliable authorities) what may be called the archeology of
bridge building has put that ancient craft in a new light. Just
as some bishop or abbot was given credit for almost every cathedral,
large church, or abbey, and even though the prelate might not
have been born when the construction was begun, so did the same
chroniclers make out that almost every other concerted public
activity, association, etc., had been either an action by the
Church or else one directed by it.
Even a local gild of six or seven blacksmiths
in a French town of the year 1200 A.D. may appear in the monkish
chronicles as having been a Holy Brotherhood of the Church of
St. Paul Dedicated to St. Dominic, etc., the whole of it sounding
as if black smithing had been a holy rite. Everything in the Twelfth
Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Centuries was, as it were, asserted
with the appearance of religion-it was then as it is now with
the Mexican language in which "good-bye" becomes "God
go with you," and a man asks for a match "in the name
of God," and a mother names a son Jesus and a Daughter Holy
Annunciation.<
There were fraternities of Bridge Builders in the Middle Ages;
they had their Patron Saints; they went by religious names;
but bridge building per se was no more religious than it is now.
A bridge was build at need, and often at the expense of the taxpayers
in a town; its construction might be entrusted to a special gild
formed for the purpose; it might be paid for by gifts or by tolls;
but the Masons who built it usually were ordinary Masons. Its
was only when great bridges were built, like London Bridge (which
was a row of buildings erected across the Thames) or when one
was ornamented with carving or with Sculpture, or involved difficult
problems of engineering, that Freemasons were called in; but it
is doubtful if in many instances they formed fraternities qua
bridge builders, after the fashion of the separate associations
of castle builders, military architects, tilers, etc.
It is of interest that the first great Modern
bridge (at least it is so claimed by historians of it) was to
a peculiar extent almost an event in the history of Speculative
Freemasonry. The engineer and constructor of the famous Wearmouth
Bridge in England (pages are given to it in a number of histories
of engineering) was Bro. Rowland Burdon. He was made a Mason in
Phoenix Lodge, no. 94, Sunderland ; he joined Palatine Lodge in
1791; in 1793 was elected Master, and served several years. The
foundation of the Bridge was laid with Masonic ceremonies by the
Provincial Grand Lodge, September 24, 1793; its completion was
also celebrated by ceremonies by the Provincial Grand Lodge on
August 9, 1796 (during Washington's second term, it may be said
to help Americans to place the date).
(It happens that the builders of the Brooklyn
Bridge were Masons, as may be found in an article in the New York
Masonic Outlook. See History of Phoenix Lodge; see also other
bridge items in History of Britannia Lodge, page 104.)
NOTE. Apropos of the typical Medieval custom
of clothing everything with a religious guise it is interesting
to observe that ordinary business documents such as deeds, bills
of sales, contracts, or legal documents, or a physician's prescription,
or a parchment roll of kitchen recipes might be decorated with
religious emblems and begin-like the Old Charges-with a religious
invocation.
Bishops often were educated and trained
in cathedral schools at a prince's or king's expense expressly
to hold positions in what is now the civil service. Even the since-canonized
Thomas à Beeket served for years in that capacity, and
was made a bishop for political reasons! Thousands of tonsured
clerics were trained to work in offices, government bureaus, etc.,
as clerks, bookkeepers, etc., and never performed religious services
in their lives. It is not out of any desire to disparage religion,
or to discredit the church, but solely in obedience to the facts
as found, that historians are agreed that the Ages of Faith were
not more faithful than other ages, and that the men were in their
spirit, thought, and conduct no more religious, or pious, in the
Thirteenth Century than they are now. The fact is important for
Masonic history, because a reader of it may gain the impression
that because so many Medieval Freemasons worked on churches, cathedrals,
abbeys, priories, monasteries, chapels, etc., they were in some
peculiar sense a religious fraternity. They were men in religion,
but no more so than other men; ran their own affairs ; excluded
priests from control over their Lodges ; and had no religious
rites, practices, or doctrines peculiar to themselves.
BRIDGE BUILDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Before speaking of the Pontifices, or the
Fraternity of Bridge Builders, whose history is closely connected
with that of the Freemasons of the Middle Ages, it will be as
well to say something of the word which they assumed as the title
of their brotherhood.
The Latin word pontifex, with its equivalent
English pontiff, literally signifies the builder of a bridge,
from pons, meaning a bridge, and facere, to make. But this sense,
which it must have originally possessed, it seems very speedily
to have lost, and we, as well as the Romans, only recognize pontifex
or pontiff as significant of a sacerdotal priestly character.
Of all the Colleges of Priests in ancient
Rome, the most illustrious was that of the Pontiffs. The College
of Pontiffs was established by Numa, and originally consisted
of five, but was afterward increased to sixteen. The whole religious
system of the Romans, the management of all the sacred rites,
and the government of the priesthood, was under the control and
direction of the College of Pontiffs, of which the Pontifex Maximus,
or High Priest, was the presiding officer and the organ through
which its decrees were communicated to the people. Hence, when
the Papal Church established its seat at the City of Rome, its
Bishop assumed the designation of Pontifex Maximus as one of his
titles, and Pontiff and Pope are now considered equivalent terms.
The question naturally arises as to what
connection there was between religious rites and the building
of bridges, and why a Roman priest bore the name which literally
denoted a bridge builder. Etymologists have in vain sought to
solve the problem, and, after all their speculation, fail to satisfy
us.
One of the most tenable theories is that
of Schmitz, who thinks the Pontifices were so called because they
superintended the sacrifices on a bridge, alluding to the Argean
sacrifices on the Sublician Bridge.
But Varro gives a more probable explanation
when he tells us that the Sublician Bridge was built by the pontifices;
and that it was deemed, from its historic association, of so sacred
a character, that no repairs could be made on it without a previous
sacrifice, which was to be conducted by the Chief Pontiff in person.
The true etymology is, however, undoubtedly
lost; yet it may be interesting, as well as suggestive, to know
that in old Rome there was, even in a mere title, supposing that
it was nothing more, some sort of connection between the art or
practice of bridge building and the mysterious sacerdotal rites
established by Numa, a connection which was subsequently again
developed in the Masonic association which is the subject of the
present article.
Whatever may have been this connection in
Pagan Rome, we find, after the establishment of Christianity and
in the Middle Ages, a secret Fraternity organized, as a branch
of the Traveling Freemasons of that period, whose members were
exclusively devoted to the building of bridges, and who were known
as Pontifices, or Bridge Builders, and styled by the French les
Fréres Pontifes, or Pontifical Brethren, and by the Germans
Brückenbrüder, or Brethren of the Bridge. It is of this
Fraternity that, because of their association in history with
the early corporations of Freemasons, it is proposed to give a
brief sketch.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the
methods of intercommunication between different countries were
neither safe nor convenient. Travelers could not avail themselves
of the comforts of either macadamized roads or railways. Stage-coaches
were unknown. He who was compelled by the calls of business to
leave his home, trudged as a pedestrian wearily on foot, or on
horseback, if his means permitted that mode of journeying; made
his solitary ride through badly constructed roads, where he frequently
became the victim of robbers, who took his life as well as his
purse, or submitted to the scarcely less heavy exactions of some
lawless Baron, who claimed it as his high prerogative to levy
a tax on every wayfarer who passed through his domains. Inns were
infrequent, incommodious, and expensive, and the weary traveler
could hardly have appreciated Shenstone's declaration, that:
Whoever has traveled life's dull round,
Wherever his stages may have been,May sigh to think he still has
found
His warmest welcome at an inn.
But one of the greatest embarrassments to
which the traveler in this olden time was exposed occurred when
there was a necessity to cross a stream of water.
The noble bridges of the ancient Greeks
and Romans had been destroyed by time or war, and the intellectual
debasement of the dark ages had prevented their renewal. Hence,
when refinement and learning began to awaken from that long sleep
which followed the invasion of the Goths and Vandals and the decline
and fall of the Roman Empire, the bridge less rivers could only
be crossed by swimming through the rapid current, or by fording
the shallow places.
The earliest improvement toward a removal
of these difficulties consisted in the adoption of rafts or boats,
and gilds or corporations of raftsmen and boatmen, under the names
of Linuncularii, Lintrarii, and Utricularii, were formed to transport
travelers and merchandise across rivers. But the times were lawless,
and these watermen oftener plundered than assisted their patrons.
Benevolent persons, therefore, saw the necessity of erecting hostelries
on the banks of the rivers at frequented places, and of constructing
bridges for the transportation of travelers and their goods.
All the architectural labors of the period
were, as is well known, entrusted to the gilds or corporations
of builders who, under the designation of Traveling Freemasons,
passed from country to country, and, patronized by the Church,
erected those magnificent cathedrals, monasteries, and other public
edifices, many of which have long since crumbled to dust, but
a few of which still remain to attest the wondrous ability of
these Operative Brethren. Alone skilled in the science of architecture,
from them only could be derived workmen capable of constructing
safe and enduring bridges.
Accordingly, a portion of these Freemasons,
withdrawing from the general body, united, under the patronage
of the Church, into a distinct corporation of Fréres Pontifes,
or Bridge Builders. The name which they received in Germany was
that of Brückenbrüder, or Brethren of the Bridge. A
legend of the Church attributes their foundation to Saint Benezet,
who accordingly became the patron of the Order, as Saint John
was of the Freemasons proper. Saint Benezet was a shepherd of
Avilar, in France, who was born in the year 1165.
"He kept his mother's sheep in the
country," says Butler, the historian of the saints, "being
devoted to the practices of piety beyond his age; when moved by
charity to save the lives of many poor persons, who were frequently
drowned in crossing the Rhone, and, being inspired by God, he
undertook to build a bridge over that rapid river at Avignon.
He obtained the approbation of the Bishop, proved his mission
by' miracles, and began the work in 1177, which he directed during
seven years. He died when the difficulty of the undertaking was
over, in 1184.
His body was buried upon the bridge itself,
which was not completely finished till four years after his decease,
the structure whereof was attended with miracles from the first
laying of the foundations till it was completed, in 1188.''
Divesting this account, which Butler has
drawn from the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, of the miraculous,
the improbable, and the legendary, the naked fact remains that
Benezet was engaged, as the principa1 conductor of the work, in
the construction of the magnificent bridge at Avignon, with its
eighteen arches. As this is the most ancient of the bridges of
Europe built after the commencement of the restoration of learning,
it is most probable that he was, as he claimed to have been, the
founder of that Masonic corporation of builders who, under the
name of Brethren of the Bridge, assisted him in the undertaking,
and who, on the completion of their task, were engaged in other
parts of France, of Italy, and of Germany, in similar labors.
After the death of Saint Benezet, he was
succeeded by Johannes Benedictus, to whom, as Prior of the Bridge,
and to his Brethren, a charter was granted in 1187, by which they
obtained a chapel and cemetery, with a chaplain.
In 1185, one year after the death of Saint
Benezet, the Brethren of the Bridge commenced the construction
of the Bridge of Saint Esprit, over the Rhone at Lyons. The completion
of this work greatly extended the reputation of the Bridge Builders,
and in 1189 they received a charter from Pope Clement III. The
City of Avignon continued to be their headquarters, but they gradually
entered into Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.
The Swedish chronicles mention one Benedict,
between the years 1178 and 1191, who was a bishop and bridge builder
at Skara, in that kingdom. Could he have been the successor, already
mentioned, of Benezet, who had removed from Avignon to Sweden?
As late as 1590 we find the Order existing
at Lucca, in Italy, where, in 1562, John de Medicis exercised
the functions of its chief under the title of Magister, or Master.
How the Order became finally extinct is not known; but after its
dissolution much of the property which it had accumulated passed
into the hands of the Knights Hospitalers or Knights of Malta.
The gild or corporation of Bridge Builders,
like the corporation of Traveling Freemasons, from which it was
an offshoot, was a religious institution, but admitted laymen
into the society. In other words, the workmen, or the great body
of the gild, were of course secular, but the patrons were dignitaries
of the Church.
When by the multiplication of bridges the
necessity of their employment became less urgent, and when the
numbers of the workmen were greatly increased, the patronage of
the Church was withdrawn, and the association was dissolved, or
soon after fell into decay; its members, probably, for the most
part, reuniting with the corporations of Freemasons from whom
they had originally been derived.
Nothing has remained in modern Freemasonry
to preserve the memory of the former connection of the Order with
the bridge builders of the Middle Ages, except the ceremony of
opening a bridge, which is to be found in the rituals of the last
century; but even this has now become almost obsolete. Lenning,
who has appropriated a brief article in his Encydopädie der
Freimaurerei to the Brückenbrüder, or Brethren of the
Bridge, incorrectly calls them an Order of Knights. They took,
he says, vows of celibacy and poverty, and also to protect travelers,
to attend upon the sick, and to build bridges, roads, and hospitals.
Several of the inventors of advanced degrees
have, he thinks, sought to revive the Order in some of the degrees
which they have established, and especially in the Knights of
the Sword, which appears in the Ancient and Accepted Rite as the
Fifteenth Degree, or Knights of the East; but Brother Mackey could
find no resemblance except that in the Knights of the Sword there
is in the ritual a reference to a river and a bridge.
He was more inclined to believe that the
Nineteenth Degree of the same Rite, or Grand Pontiff, was once
connected with the Order we have been considering; and that, while
the primitive ritual has been lost or changed so as to leave no
vestige of a relationship between the two, the name which is still
retained may have been derived from the Fréres Pontifes
of the twelfth century. This, however, is mere conjecture, without
any means of proof. Accordingly Brother Mackey was of the opinion
that all that we do positively know is, that the bridge builders
of the Middle Ages were a Masonic association, and as such are
entitled to a place in all Masonic histories.
BRIEF
The dipioma or certificate in some of the
advanced degrees is so called.
BRIGHT
A Freemason is said to be bright who is
well acquainted with the ceremonies, the forms of opening and
closing, and the ceremonies of initiation. This expression does
not, however, in its technical sense, appear to include the superior
knowledge of the history and science of the Institution, and many
bright Freemasons are, therefore, not necessarily learned; and,
on the contrary, some learned Freemasons are not well versed in
the exact phraseology of the ceremonies. The one knowledge depends
on a retentive memory, the other is derived from deep research.
It is scarcely necessary to say which of the two kinds of knowledge
is the more valuable. The Freemason whose acquaintance with the
Institution is confined to what he learns from its esoteric ceremonies
will have but a limited idea of its science and philosophy. And
yet a knowledge of the ceremonies as the foundation of higher
knowledge is essential.
BRITHERING
The Scotch term for Masonic initiation.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
A province in the western Dominion of Canada. The first Lodge
established in this province was Victoria, No. 783, by the Grand
Lodge of England, March 19, 1859. In 1871 the Grand Lodge of England
had four Lodges and the Grand Lodge of Scotland five Lodges. A
Convention was held on October 21, 1871; eight out of the nine
Lodges were represented, and the Grand Lodge of British Columbia
was duly organized. Brother Israel Wood Powell, M. D., Provincial
Grand Master of Scotland, was elected the first Grand Master.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
or KENYA COLONY. The Grand Lodges of England
and Scotland have each chartered a Lodge in this district at Nairobi.
BRITISH GUIANA
A country in South America. The Grand Lodge
of Holland warranted Lodge Saint Juan de la Ré-Union in
1771 at Georgetown. It did not however survive very long. Lodges
were also chartered by the Grand Lodges of New York, England,
Scotland, etc. The Grand Lodge of Scotland has two Lodges at Georgetown.
BRITISH HONDURAS
Known also as Belize, a British colony in
Central America. Amity Lodge, No. 309, was chartered at St. George's
Quay by the Grand Lodge of England, but as it did not succeed
it was dropped from the Register in 1813. In 1820 British Constitution
Lodge was warranted by the United Grand Lodge of England at Honduras
Bay but, with that of another Lodge chartered in 1831, its name
was omitted from the Register on June 4, 1862.
BRITISH LODGE
English Red Apron Lodge, now No. 8, founded
1722, having Centenary Warrant but no special jewel. Officers
permitted golden or gilt jewels, same as Lodge of Antiquity. This
honor conferred when Lord Cranstoun became Grand Master, 1745.
He was a member of the British Lodge and the jewels used by its
Master and Wardens were those worn by the Grand Master and the
Grand Wardens and these jewels were gilded before they were returned
to the owners, who were permitted to continue their use of them
in gold or gilded metal.
BROACHED THURNEL
In the lectures of the early part of the
eighteenth century the Immovable Jewels of the Lodge are said
to be "the Tarsel Board, Rough Asmar, and Broached Thurnel";
and in describing their uses it is taught that "the Rough
Ashlar is for the Fellow Crafts to try their jewels on, and the
Broached Thurnel for the Entered Apprentices to learn to work
upon."
Much difficulty has been met with in discovering
what the Broached Thurnel really was. Doctor Oliver, most probably
deceived by the use to which it was assigned, says in his Dictionary
of Symbolic Masonry that it was subsequently called the ' Rough
Asmar. This is evidently incorrect, because a distinction is made
in the original lecture between it and the Rough Asmar, the former
being for the Apprentices and the latter for the Fellow Crafts.
Krause (Kunsturkenden,1, 73), has translated it by Drehbank, which
means a turning-lathe, an implement not used by Operative Freemasons.
Now what is the real meaning of the word? If we inspect an old
tracing board of the Apprentice's Degree of the date when the
Broached Thurnel was in use, we shall find depicted on it three
symbols, two of which will at once be recognized as the Tarsel,
or Trestle Board, and the Rough Ashlar, just as we have them at
the present day; while the third symbol will be that depicted
in the margin, namely, a cubical stone with a pyramidal apex.
This is the Broached Thurnel. It is the
symbol which is still to be found, with precisely the same form,
in all French tracing boards, under the name of the pierre cubique,
or cubical stone, and which has been replaced in English and American
tracing boards and rituals by the Perfect Ashlar.
For the derivation of the words, we must
go to old and now almost obsolete terms of architecture. On inspection,
it will at once be seen that the Broached Thurnel has the form
of a little square turret with a spire springing from it. Now,
broach, or broche, says Parker in the Glossary of Terms in Architecture
(page 97), is "an old English term for a spire, still in
use in some parts of the country, as in Leicestershire, where
it is said to denote a spire springing from the tower without
any intervening parapet. Thurnel is from the old French tournelle,
a turret or little tower.
The Broached Thurnel, then, was the Spired
Turret. lt was a model on which apprentices might learn the principles
of their art, because it presented to them, in its various outlines,
the forms of the square and the triangle, the cube and the pyramid."
Brother Hawkins had somewhat different conclusions
about the matter and added the following comments:
In Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (xii, 205), Brother
G. W. Speth quotes from the Imperial Dictionary: "Broach,
in Scotland, a term among masons, signifying to rough hew. Broached
Work, in Scotland, a term among masons, signifying work or stones
that are rough-hewn, and thus distinguished from Ashlar or polished
work. Broaching-Thurmal, Thurmer, Turner, names given to the chisels
by which broached work is executed."
And therefore Brother Speth suggests that
the Broached Thurnel was really a chisel for the Entered Apprentices
to learn to work with. We find that the new English Dictionary
explains Broached as a term used "of stone; chiselled with
a broach," or narrow-pointed chisel used by Freemasons; but
Brother Hawkins points out that this still leaves it uncertain
what a "Thurnel" is.
Brother Clegg has had the advantage of actually
working with broaching tools and therefore ought to know something
about broached work. The word broach in the industries is usually
applied to the operation of shaping or forming some part by special
tools made to produce some particular shape or design. A triangular
hole in a piece of metal or any other material can for example
be furnished to a considerable degree of accuracy by simply forcing
the cutting tool through it as a final operation. This is called
broaching and the tools for the purpose are known as broaches.
A tool that is used to smooth out, a small opening by being rotated
within it is often called a broach and, as will be seen, the idea
is that the broach is used to form a special shape. These special
shapes therefore are known as work which is broached and this
agrees very closely with the understanding that underlies each
of the comments made above.
The exact meaning of Thurnel or Thurmal
is not any too clear but has evidently been applied to the instrument
as well as the product of its work. Brother Charles E. Funk of
the Editorial Department of the Funk & Wagnalls New Standard
Dictionary of the English Language has very kindly read the above
article and favors us with the following comments:
I have gone through fifteen or more dictionaries
from 1643 up to Murray's New English Dictionary, including several
dialectical dictionaries and one on archaisms. None of them record
any such spelling as thurnel, thurmal, nor thurmer.
Broach or broche, broch, broache, broych,
brooch, brotch - are not so obscure. Five centuries and more of
usage still find the early senses preserved. But even so, ambiguity
is not avoided in attempting to determine the expression broached
thurnel, for broach may refer either (1) to the mason's tool,
a narrow pointed chisel by which he furrowed the surface of stone,
as in the quotation of 1703, "to broych or broach, as Masons
an Atchler or ashlar when with the small point of their ax (?)
they make it full of little pits or small holes;" also that
of 1544, " In hewinge, brochinge, and scaplyn of stone for
the chapell ;'' or
(2) to the name of the spire itself, a current
form in England today which dates from 1501, " For trassying
& makyn moldes to the brooch."
With this second and still current usage
of broach, then, and assuming that thumel is a variant spelling
of tournelle, as it might well have been, we can derive a thoroughly
satisfactory explanation of the expression and one which also
agrees with the old illustrations, a spired turret. This view
may be further supported while we recall the old German form Thurm
or tower.
Murray lends further support to this view
in his record of the variants of tournelle, which appeared variously
from 1400 to the middle of the seventeenth century as tornel,
turnelle, tornelle, toumel, tornil, and tournell.
A1l of this may lend weight to the theory
as given by Mackey. But if this theory is accepted, the mystery
is still unsolved, for by which logic would the symbol of Fellow
Craft be the Rough Ashlar and that of the Apprentice be such a
highly finished work as the Spired Turrett One would expect a
reversal of such symbolism at the least.
It seems, therefore, that the explanation
as a spired turret is inappropriate---one would not expect an
apprentice " to learn to work upon" such a structure.
We are forced, then, to consider the first definition of broach
and to do some more or less etymological guesswork with thurnel,
which I am offering as a possible clue-I can not locate the missing
link to make it conclusive, for we have no reference books covering
the subject of stone-dressing tools on our shelves. Dialectically
th was occasionally substituted for f.
We have such instances as thane for fane,
thetch for fetch, and thurrow for furraw, and others. I would
expect, therefore, to find some dressing tool, no longer employed,
perhaps, or now under another name, which was called a furnel,
fournel, fornel, or even firnel, perhaps with an m in place of
the n. It may be that the firming-chisel is the present type.
This tool would be a tapered handtool, set in a flat head to receive
blows from a hammer, and would be used for rough dressing. Possibly
it might be the former which was thus described in 1688:
" The second is termed a Former, it
is a Chissel used before the Paring Chissel in all works. The
Clenser, or Former, is a broad ended Iron Plate, or Old-Cold?
Chessel with a broad bottom, set in an Handle; with which Tool
they smooth and make even the Stone after it is cut into that
form and Order, as the Work-man will have it."
Again it may have been a development from
the formal referred to by Bossewell in 1572:
" A Sledge or a Hammer, of some called a formal,'' ( fore-mall,
later called a forehammer). A broached formal would then have
been a tool, perhaps a hammer head, shaped something like the
blacksmith's set hammer, with one broad flat face, the other tapering
to a point. The pointed end would be used for broaching, and the
flat end for hammer finishing. Note that both these descriptions
might well refer to the ax in the quotation of 1703.
And further, although the members of the
family give Fourneaux or Fournivalle as the original form of the
name. I offer the conjecture that the name Furnald, Fernald may
have had its original from the occupational term furnel (thurnel).
In the latter part of Brother Funk's consideration
of this matter he had in mind the name of James C.Femald, who
was editorially connected with his company and a distinguished
author.
BROKEN COLUMN
Among the Hebrews, columns, or pillars, were used metaphorically
to signify princes or nobles, as if they were the pillars of a
state. Thus (in Psalm xi, 3), the passage, reading in our translation,
"If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?"
is, in the original, "when the columns are overthrown,"
that is, when the firm supporters of what is right and good have
perished.
So the passage in Isaiah (xix, 10), should read: "her (Egypt's)
columns are broken down," that is, the nobles of her state.
In Freemasonry, the broken column is, as
Master Freemasons well know, the emblem of the fall of one of
the chief supporters of the Craft. The use of the column or pillars
as a monument erected over a tomb was a very ancient custom, and
was a very significant symbol of the character and spirit of the
person interred. It is accredited to Jeremy L. Cross that he first
introduced the Broken Column into the ceremonies, but this may
not be true (see Monument).
BROMWELL, HENRY P. H
Born at Baltimore, Maryland, August, 1823,
died at Denver, Colorado, January 9, 1903. Admitted to the bar
in Vandalia, Illinois, 1853. Representative to Congress from 1865
to 1869 from that State-went to Colorado in 1870 and in 1879 elected
a member of the Legislature and in 1881 appointed Commissioner
to revise the laws of the State.
Made a Freemason at Vandalia in 1854 and
chosen Grand Master in 1864. Served as Grand Orator of the Grand
Lodge of Colorado in 1874, and was elected Honorary Grand Master
of that Body in 1889 in consideration of his distinguished services
to the Craft. He was the originator of what has been styled a
new branch of Freemasonry, known as the Free and Accepted Architects,
the object of which was to restore and preserve the lost work
of the ancient Craft. At one time there were five Lodges of Architects
in the United States, and also a Grand Lodge.
The instruction embodied in the Degrees
was in no sense an innovation, but designed to impart to students
of the Craft a knowledge of Masonic symbolism not otherwise obtainable.
His famous book entitled Restorations of Masonic Geometry and
Symbol, being a dissertation on the lost knowledge of the Lodge,
was begun in 1884 and on it he worked for sixteen hours a day
for six years and two months.
One Chapter, devoted to the floors of the
three Lodges, occupied two years and two months in its preparation,
while the book was read and re-read fourteen times for correction
and revision.
BROTHER
The term which Freemasons apply to each
other. Freemasons are Brethren, not only by common participation
of the human nature, but as professing the same faith; as being
jointly engaged in the same labors, and as being united by a mutual
covenant or tie, whence they are also emphatically called Brethren
of the Mystic Tie (see Companion and Mystic Tie).
BROTHERHOOD
When our Savior designated his disciples
as his Brethren, he implied that there was a close bond of union
existing between them, which idea was subsequently carried out
by Saint Peter in his direction to "Love the Brotherhood."
Hence the early Christians designated themselves
as a brotherhood, a relationship unknown to the Gentile religions;
and the ecclesiastical and other confraternities of the Middle
Ages assumed the same title to designate any association of men
engaged in the same common object, governed by the same rules,
and united by an identical interest. The association or Fraternity
of Freemasons is in this sense called a brotherhood.
BROTHERING
Admission to the Craft. Cunningham's Diary,
the diary and general expenditure book of William Cunningham of
Craigends, edited by the Reverend James Dodd, D.D., 1887, and
published by the Scottish Historical Society., has the following
entries:
June 17, 1676.
To my mail to pay his traveling. . . . . . . . . 01 2 0
June 26, 1677.
To Andrew Greg his servant in part of
his fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . .
. . 02 0 0
To him to pay his Brothering with. . . . . . . . 01 4 0
Glossary at end of book explains that Brothering
means admission to the Craft Fellowship.
BROTHERLY KISS
See Kiss, Fraternal
BROTHERLY LOVE
At a very early period in the course of
his initiation, a candidate for the mysteries of Freemasonry is
informed that the great principles of the Order are Brotherly
Love, Relief, and Truth. These virtues are illustrated, and their
practice recommended to the aspirant, at every step of his progress;
and the instruction, though continually varied in its mode, is
so constantly repeated, as infallibly to impress upon his mind
their absolute necessity in the constitution of a good Freemason.
Brotherly Love might very well be supposed to be an ingredient
in the organization of a society so peculiarly constituted as
that of Freemasonry. But the Brotherly Love which we inculcate
is not a mere abstraction, nor is its character left to any general
and careless understanding of the candidate, who might be disposed
to give much or little of it to his Brethren, according to the
peculiar constitution of his own mind, or the extent of his own
generous or selfish feelings. It is, on the contrary, closely
defined; its object plainly denoted; and the very mode and manner
of its practice detailed in words, and illustrated by symbols,
so as to give neither cause for error nor apology for indifference.
Every Freemason is acquainted with the Five
Points of Fellowship-he knows their symbolic meaning-he can never
forget the interesting incidents that accompanied their explanation;
and while he has this knowledge, and retains this remembrance,
he can be at no loss to understand what are his duties, and what
must be his conduct, in relation to the principle of Brotherly
Love (see Points of Fellowship).
BROTHERS OF THE BRIDGE
See Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages
BROTHERS OF THE ROSY CROSS
See Rosicrucianism
BROWN, DR. JOHN
See Latin Lodge
BROWNE, JOHN
In 1798, John Browne published, in London,
a work entitled The Master Key through all the Degrees of a Freemason's
Lodge, to which is added, Eullogiums and Illustrations upon Freemasonry.
In 1802, he published a second edition under the title of Browne's
Masonic Master Key through the three degrees, by way of polyglot.
Under the sanction of the Craft in general, containing the exact
mode of working, initiation, passing and raising to the sublime
Degree of a Master. Also, the several duties of the Master, officers,
and Brethren while in the Lodge, with every requisite to render
the accomplished Mason an explanation of all the hieroglyphics.
The whole interspersed with illustrations
on Theology, Astronomy, Architecture, Arts, Sciences, many of
which are by the editor. Browne had been, he says, the Past Master
of six Lodges, and wrote his work not as an offensive exposition,
but as a means of giving Freemasons a knowledge of the ritual.
It is considered to be a very complete representation of the monitorial
Prestonian lectures, and as such was incorporated by Krause in
his Drei altesten Kunsturkuenden.
The work by Browne is printed in a very
complicated cipher, the key to which, and without which the book
is wholly unintelligible, was, by way of caution, delivered only
personally and to none but those who had reached the Third Degree.
The explanation of this "mystical key," as Browne calls
it, is as follows:
The word Browne supplies the vowels, thus:
br o w n e.
a e i o u y
These six vowels in turn represent six letters,
thus:
a e i o u y.
k c o l n u
Initial capitals are of no value, and supernumerary
letters are often inserted. The words are kept separate, but the
letters of one word are often divided between two or three. Much
therefore is left to the shrewdness of the decipherer. The initial
sentence of the work may be adduced as a specimen: Ubs Rplrbsrt
wbss ostm ronwprn Pongth Mrlwdgr, which is thus deciphered: Please
to assist me in opening the Lodge. The work is now exceedingly
rare.
BRU
See Vielle Bru, Rite of
BRUCE
See Robert I, also Royal Order of Scotland.
BRUCE, ROBERT
The introduction of Freemasonry into Scotland
has been attributed by some writers to Robert, King of Scotland,
commonly called Robert Bruce, who is said to have established
in 1314 the Order of Herodom, for the reception of those Knights
Templar who had taken refuge in his dominions from the persecutions
of the Pope and the King of France. Thory (Acta Latomorum,1, 6),
copies the following from a manuscript in the library of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophical Rite:
"Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, under
the name of Robert the First, created, on the 24th June, 1314,
after the battle of Bannockburn, the Order of Saint Andrew of
the Thistle, to which has been since united that of Herodom (H-D-M)
for the sake of the Scotch Masons, who composed a part of the
thirty thousand men with whom he had conquered an army of a hundred
thousand Englishmen. He reserved, in perpetuity, to himself and
his successors, the title of Grand Master. He founded the Royal
Grand Lodge of the Order of H-D-M at Kilwinning, and died, full
of glory and honors, the 9th of July, 1329."
Doctor Oliver (Landmarks,11, 13), referring
to the abolition of the Templar Order in England, when the Knights
were compelled to enter the Preceptories of the Knights of Saint
John, as dependents, says:
"In Scotland, Edward, who had overrun
the country at the time, endeavored to pursue the same course;
but, on summoning the Knights to appear, only two, Walter de Clifton,
the Grand Preceptor, and another, came forward. On their examination,
they confessed that all the rest had fled; and as Bruce was advancing
with his army to meet Edward, nothing further was done.
The Templars, being debarred from taking
refuge either in England or Ireland, had no alterative but to
join Bruce, and give their active support to his cause. Thus,
after the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, Bruce granted a charter
of lands to Walter de Clifton, as Grand Master of the Templars,
for the assistance which they rendered on that occasion. Hence
the Royal Order of H-R-D-M was frequently practiced under the
name of Templary."
Lawrie, or the author of Lawrie's History
of Freemasonry, who is excellent authority for Scottish Freemasonry,
does not appear, however, to give any credit to the narrative.
Whatever Bruce may have done for the advanced Degrees, there is
no doubt that Ancient Craft Freemasonry was introduced into Scotland
at an earlier period. But it cannot be denied that Bruce was one
of the patrons and encouragers of Scottish Freemasonry.
BRÜN, ABRAHAM VAN
A wealthy Freemason of Hamburg, who died
at an advanced age in 1748. For many years he had been the soul
of the Société des ancients Rose-Croix in Germany,
which soon after his death was dissolved. This is on the authority
of Thory (Ada Latomorum ii, 295).
BRUNSWICK, CONGRESS OF
Convoked in 1775, by Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick. Its object was to effect a fusion of the various Rites;
but it terminated its labors, after a session of six weeks, without
success.
BRUNSWICK, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, PRINCE OF
Born 1740, second son of Duke Charles I.
In 1769 he affiliated with a Chapter of the Strict Observance;
declared National Grand Master of Prussia, 1772, serving until
1799. Rendered distinguished service in the Seven Years' War,
and said to have written much on Rosicrucianism, alchemy and magic.
BRUNSWICK, FERDINAND, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBUETTEL
Born 1721 and died July 3, 1792. Served
in several wars with Frederick the Great, resigning his military
command in 1766 and devoting himself to Freemasonry.
Initiated in 1740 in the Lodge Three Globes
at Berlin ; in 1743 received his Master's Degree at Breslau; became
Protector of the Lodge Saint Charles, Brunswick, in 1764; and
English Past Grand Master of Brunswick in 1770; Protector of Von
Hund's Strict Observance in 177; declared Grand Master of the
Scottish Lodges in 1772. In 1782 the Duke of Brunswick was present
at the Convent at Whelmsbad when the Templar system is supposed
to have been given up and when there he was declared General Grand
Master of the assembled Lodges. Patronized the Nluminati and said
to have been General Obermeister (Overseer) of the Asiatic Brethren.
An eminent German Craftsman, presiding at the Saint John's Festival
at Brunswick in 1792, when he declared that he had been a Freemason
fifty years
BRUNSWICK, MAXIMNIAN J. L., PRINCE OF
Admitted in the Saint Charles Lodge, Brunswick,
Germany, in 1770, becoming its Protector. Youngest son of Duke
Charles I, educated at the Collegium Carolinum and went to Italy,
1775, with the German literary Freemason, Lessing. Served Frederick
the Great with military honors and lost his life trying to save
a drowning man in the River Oder.
BRUNSWICK, WNLIAM A, PRINCE OF
Third son of Duke Charles I of Brunswick,
Germany, known to have joined the Lodge Saint Charles in 1769.
Died in 1770.
BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS
American statesman and orator, born March
19, 1860; died July 26, 1925. Three times nominated for presidency
of the United States, 1896, 1900, and 1908, and twice defeated
by Brother McKinley, and lastly by Brother Taft. In Spanish-American
War, 1898, he became Colonel of the Third Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer
Infantry. Secretary of State, 1913. He was a member of Lincoln
Lodge No. 19, Lincoln, Nebraska (see New Age, March, 1925).
BUCHANAN MANUSCRIPT
This parchment roll---one of the "Old
Charges"-is so named because it was presented to the Grand
Lodge of England in 1880 by Mr. George Buchanan, of Whitby, by
whom it was found amongst the papers of a partner of his father's.
It is considered to be of the latter part of the seventeenth century-say
from 1660 to 1680. This manuscript was first published at length
in Gould's History of Freemasonry (volume 1, page 93), being adopted
as an example of the ordinary class of text, and since then has
been reproduced in facsimile by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London
in volume iv of the Masonic reprints published by this scholarly
body.
BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VALIERS, DUKE OF
Poet, playwright, statesman, described by
Dryden as the "epitome of mankind," but really a spendthrift
of time. Doctor Anderson says he was Grand Master of England in
1674. Born January 30, 1628, and died April16, 1687.
BUDDHISM
The religion of the disciples of Buddha. It prevails over a great
extent of Asia, and is estimated to be equally popular with any
other form of faith among mankind. Its founder, Buddha-a word
which seems to be an appellative, as it signifies the enlightened-lived
about five hundred years before the Christian era, and established
his religion as a reformation of Brahmanism.
The moral code of Buddhism is excellent,
surpassing that of any other heathen religion. But its theology
is not so free from objection. Max Müller admits that there
is not a. single passage in the Buddhiat canon of scripture which
presupposes the belief in a personal God or a Creator, and hence
he concludes that the teaching of Buddha was pure atheism.
Yet Upham (Histom and Doctrine of Buddhimn,
page 2 ), thinks that, even if this be capable of proof, it also
recognizes ''the operation of Faith called Damam, whereby much
of the necessary process of conservation or government is infussed
into the system."
The doctrine of Nirvana, according to Burnouf,
taught that absolute nothing or annihilation was the highest aim
of virtue, and hence the belief in immortality was repudiated.
Such, too, has been the general opinion of Oriental scholars;
but Müller (science of Religion, page 141), adduces evidence,
from the teachings of Buddha, to show that Nirvana may mean the
extinction of many things---of selfishness, desire, and sin-without
going so far as the extinction of subjective consciousness.
The sacred scripture of Buddhisin is the
Tripitaka, literally, the Three Baskets. The first, or the Vinaya,
comprises all that relates to moralityy ; the second, or the Sitras,
contains the discourses of Buddha; and the third, or Abhidharma,
includes all works on metaphysics and dogmatic phnosophy. The
first and second Baskets also receive the general name of Dharma,
or the Law. The principal seat of Buddhism is the island of Ceylon,
but it has extended into China, Japan, and many: other countries
of Asia (see Aranyaka, Aryan, Atthakatha, Mahabharata, Mahadeva,
Mahak asyapa, Pitaka, Puranas, Ramayana, Sakti, Sastra, Sat B'hai,
Shaster, Shesha, Sruti, Upanishad, Upadevas, Vedas, Vedanga, Zenana
and Zennaar).
BUENOS AYRES
A Lodge was chartered in this city, and named the Southern Star,
by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1825. Others followed, but
in 1846 in consequence of the unsettled state of affairs their
labors were suspended. A revival occurred in 1852, when a Lodge
named L'Ami des Naufragés was established in Buenos Ayres
by the Grand Orient of France; and in 1853 the Grand Lodge of
England erected a Lodge named Excelsior (followed in 1859 by the
Teutonia, which worked in German and was erased in 1872), and
in 1864 by the Star of the South. In 1856 there was an irregular
Body working in the Ancient and the Accepted Scottish Rite, which
claimed the prerogatives of a Grand Lodge, but it was never recognized,
and soon ceased to exist. On September 13, 1858, a Supreme Council
and Grand Orient was established by the Supreme Council of Uruguay.
In 1861 a treaty was concluded between the
Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Orient of the Argentine Republic,
which empowered the former to establish Lodges in La Plata and
to constitute a District Grand Lodge therein, which had some Lodges
under its rule, when many more acknowledged the authority of the
"Supreme Council and Grand Orient of the Argentine Republic
in Buenos Ayres," which was formed in 1895 by combination
of the Grand Orient and Supreme Council.
BUFFALO BILL
See Cody, Colonel William Frederick
BUH
A corruption, in the American Royal Arch,
of the word Bel. Up to a comparatively recent period says Doctor
Mackey, it was combined with another corruption, Lun, in the mutated
form of Buh-Lun, under which disguise the words Bel and On were
presented to the initiate.
BUHLE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB
Professor of Phnosophy in the University,
of Güttingen, who, not being himself a Freemason, published,
in 1804, a work entitled Ueber den Ursprung und die vornehmsten
Schieksale des Ordens der Rosenkreuzer und Freimaurer, that is,
On the Origin and the Principal Events of the Orders of Rosicrucianism
and Freemasonry. This work, logical in its arguments, false in
many of its statements, and confused in its arrangement, was attacked
by Frederick Nicolai in a critical review of it in 1806, and is
spoken of very slightingly even by De Quincey, himself no very
warm admirer of the Masonic Institution, who published, in 1824,
in the London Magazine (volume ix), a loose translation of it,
"abstracted, re-arrenged, and improved," under the title
of Historicocritical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians
and the Freemasons. Buhle's theory was that Freemasonry was invented
in the year 1629, by John Valentine Andreä. Buhlu was born
at Brunswick in 1753, became Professor of Phnosophy at Güttingen
in 1787, and, having afterward taught in his native city, died
there in 1821.
BUILDER
The chief architect of the Temple of Solomon
is often called the Builder. But the word is also applied generally
to the Craft; for every speculative Freemason is as much a builder
as was his operative predecessor. An American writer, F. S. Wood,
thus alludes to this symbolic idea: "Freemasons are called
moral builders.
In their rituals, they declare that a more
noble and glorious purpose than squaring stones and hewing timbers
is theirs,- fitting immortal nature for that spiritual building
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And he adds,
"The builder builds for a century; Freemasons for eternity.''
In this sense, the Builder is the noblest title that can be bestowed
upon a Freemason.
BUILDERS, CORPORATIONS OF
See Stone Masons o f the Middle Ages
BUILDER GILDS, ANCIENT
Some thirty miles southwest of Cairo, west
of the Nile, and on the Libyan desert, is an oasis in a sunken
depression of many hundreds of square miles, in which from 300
B.C. to 300 A.D. circa existed a number of cities and a rich civilization.
This region was sustained by an irrigation system comparable in
size and as an engineering achievement with our TVA; when that
irrigation system was destroyed the Fayum, as its name was, reverted
to desert, and its towns were covered by sand. In 1888 Dr. W.
M. Flinders Petrie excavated a tomb at Hawara and made the astounding
discovery that mummy cases there were built up of and stuffed
with written papyri. Later on he had among his assistants B. P.
Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt. These two young men began in 1896
to excavate the whole Fayum, and with such success that in 1897
in the ruins of the town of Oxyrhynchus they came upon the greatest
find of written manuscripts ever made in the whole history of
archeology, and sent back to England tons of documents.
These had been written, most of them, in
the Koine, a form of Greek in use throughout the Eastern Mediterranean
during the general period of the first three centuries of our
era.
These documents were not of scholarly writings
but were such as could be recovered from the wastebaskets of any
modern city: letters, business ledgers, wills, recipes, poems,
and songs, daily papers, sermons, pamphlets, financial reports,
tax receipts, etc., etc.
For the first time they gave historians
a detailed, day by-day picture of men and their affairs in Egypt,
Palestine, Greece, and Rome as things were in the first centuries
of the Christian era. The students and historians of Freemasonry
will henceforth have to examine the Fayum papyri in their studies
of ancient builder gilds and of that once favorite subject of
Masonic writers, the Ancient Mysteries, because among these tens
of thousands of documents are many which for the first time furnish
written records of gilds of that period and of the Ancient Mystery
cults. In the volumes of the papyri published in 1907 and in 1910
by the British Museum are a number of documents relating to the
mason crafts. Legal forms used by the ironworkers, the carpenters,
and the gild of masons show that such gilds (or collegia) of the
years 100 A.D. to 200 A.D. were very like the gilds of masons
in the Middle Ages.
It is only now beginning to be realized
that the Mason gilds of the Middle Ages from which our Fraternity
is descended were of dual nature, a fact made especially evident
in the body of Medieval law ; on the one side a Mason gild was
a trade association for the purpose of controlling hours, wages,
the rules of daily work, etc. ; on the other side it was a fraternity,
with a Patron Saint, a chapel to attend, with feasts at set times,
with relief for widows, orphans, etc., and for Masons in distress.
The Oxyrynchus manuscripts make it clear that the builder gilds
of 2000 years ago also were dual organizations of the same kind
; they met in their own rooms, had the equivalent of masters and
wardens, gave relief, had feasts, also acted as burial clubs,
and also were trade, or craft, organizations.
The Egypt Exploration Fund (Graeeo-Roman
Branch) published Part I of the documents found by Hunt and Grenfell
as The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, by Grenfell and Hunt; London; 1898;
37 Great Russell St., W.C., and 59 Temple Street, Boston, Mass.
The latest volume at hand is Greek Shorthand Manuals, edited by
H. J. M. Milne (from a family famous in Freemasonry for three
centuries) ; London ; 1934. For non-archeologists one of the best
introductions is the fascinatingly-written The New Archaeological
Discoveries, and Their Bearing Upon the New Testalnent, etc.,
by Camden M. Cobem; Fttnk & Wagnalls Co. ; New York; 1917.
The Twentieth Century New Testament was based on the Fayum discoveries
; some authorities believe that the books of the New Testament
were written in the Koine, others that it was written first in
Aramaic and then translated into the Koine, in either event New
Testarnent Greek was the Koine instead of the Greek of Plato and
Euripides.
(The shiploads of documents unearthed since
1885 in Egypt, Palestine, and Greece have swept away once and
forever mountains of nonsense about the pyramid builders and the
Egyptian Mysteries. Scores of Masonic writers, exercising their
rights to guess, wrote pseudo-learned volumes to prove that Freemasonry
began with the pyramids [a very common type of structure] or the
Book of the Dead, etc. ; their theories are now rendered forever
impossible. It is not an exaggeration to say that when the last
of the tons of mss. are translated, edited, and published scholars
can write a day-by-day history of the eastern Mediterranean countries
from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. It is an astonishing fact that less
is known about the Twelfth Century in England and Europe than
about that much more ancient period.)
BUILDERS' RITES AND CEREMONIES
These have been summarized in two lectures
published at Margate, England, 1894, by Brother George IV. Speth
on October 30, and November 13, 1893, in discussing the Folklore
of Freemasonry. Brother Speth says that for those of his Brethren
who would take the trouble to read between the lines, a matter
by no means difficult, he ventures to hope that the facts may
not prove dumb guides, but direct their thoughts to the true significance
of our ceremonial customs, and confirm in their minds the certainty
of the marvelous antiquity, in its essence, although perhaps not
in its exact outward form, of the solemn climax of our beloved
ritual. Many of us have seen a foundation-stone laid, and more
have read of the proceedings. When conducted by Freemasons the
ceremony includes much beautiful symbolism, such as trying and
pronouncing the stone well laid, pouring wine and on and corn
over it, and other similar rites: but in almost all cases, whether
the ancient Craft be concerned in the operation or not, there
are placed in a cavity beneath the stone several objects, such
as a list of contributors to the funds, a copy of the newspaper
of the day, and above all, one or more coins of the realm. Should
you ask the reason for this deposit, you will probably hear that
these objects were placed there for a future witness and reference.
Although this alleged motive is apparently
reasonable, yet it is obviously absurd for surely the hope of
all concerned is that the foundation-stone never would be removed
and that the witness would for ever remain dumb.
Grimm puts it in this way. " It was
often though necessary to immure live animals and even men in
the foundation on which the structure was to be raised, as if
they were a sacrifice offered to the earth, who had to bear the
load upon her: by this inhuman rite they hoped to secure immovable
stability or other advantages." (See Teutonic Mythology,
1884, translated, Stalleybrass, 1883 page 1141.) Baring-Gould
says, "When the primeval savage began to build he considered
himself engaged on a serious undertaking. He was disturbing the
face of Mother Earth, he was securing to himself in permanency
of portion of that surface which had been given by her to all
her children in common. Partly with the notion of offering a propitiatory
sacrifice to the Earth, and partly also with the idea of securing
to himself for ever a portion of son by some sacramental act,
the old pagan laid the foundation of his house and fortress in
blood." (See On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, 1887)
In Bomeo, among the Mnanau Dyaks, at the
erection of a house, a deep hole was dug to receive the first
post, which was then suspended over it ; a slave girl was placed
in the excavation; at a signal the lashings were cut, and the
enormous timber descended, crushing the girl to death (see E.
B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1871, page 96).
The following accounts would show how widespread
was this sacrificial rite. It was, in fact, universal: a rite
practiced apparently by all men at all times in all places. King
Dako bunt his palace on the body of Danh. The name of his chief
town, Dahomey, means on the body of Danh (see F. Liebrecht, Zur
Folkskunde, 1879, page 287).
In Polynesia, the central pillar of one
of the temples at Maeva was planted on the body of a human victim
(see G. L. Gomme, Folklore Relics of Early Vnlage Life, 1883,
page 27).
A seventeenth century account of Japan mentions
the belief there that a wall laid upon the body of a willing human
victim would be secure from accident: accordingly when a great
wall was to be bunt, some wretched slave would offer himself as
a foundation, lying down in the trench to be crushed by the heavy
stones lowered upon him (see Tyler, Primitive Culture, 1871, page
87).
Formerly in Siam, when a new city gate was
being erected, it was customary for a number of officers to lie
in wait and seize the first four or eight persons who happened
to pass by, and who were then buried alive under the gate posts
to serve as guardian angels (see Folk-lore Relics, page 28).
In the year 1876, the old church at Brownsover,
about two miles from Rugby, England, was restored: The earlier
parts of the building were of Norman, the later of early 13th
century architecture. It was found necessary to lower the foundations
of the north and south walls of the church, and in doing so, two
skeletons were discovered, one under each wall, about one foot
below the original foundations, exactly opposite each other and
about six feet from the chancel wall which crosses the north and
south walls at right angles. Each skeleton was covered with an
oak slab about six feet in length by ten inches wide and two inches
thick of the color of bog-oak. These pieces of plank had evidently
been used as carpenters' benches, from the fact that each of them
had four mortice holes cut in such a form as to throw the legs
outwards, and from the cuts made in them by edged tools. The skeletons
were found in a space cut out of the solid clay which had not
been moved on either side, just large enough to take the bodies
placed in them. The skeletons were seen in situ: they could not
have been placed there after the original walls were bunt (see
Antiquary iii, page 93).
Some substitutions are curious. Animals
are to be met with of many kinds. In Denmark a lamb used to be
bunt in under the altar, that the church might stand.
Even under other houses swine and fowls
are buried alive. (See Grimm page 1142.) The lamb was of course
very appropriate in a Christian Church, as an allusion to "
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
In the Book of Revelation this epithet is
only a metaphor, yet Brother Speth says it would scarcely have
been understood unless the rite we are treating of had been known
to the Jews. That it was known, the curse pronounced by Joshua
upon the man who should adventure to rebuild Jericho, proves to
demonstration. "And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying,
Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth
this city of Jericho ; he shall lay the foundation thereof in
his first-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates
thereof,'' (See Joshua vi, 26, also First Kings xvi, 34.)
The population of India believe at the present
day that to give stability to new construction, a human being
should be sacrificed and buried in the foundations (see Folk-lore
Journal, 1, page 23). All the great engineering works are believed
by the common people to be protected against the angry gods of
winds and rivers by animal and human sacrifices being performed
under the direction of English officers at the beginning or conclusion
of the undertaking (see Folk-lore Journal 1, page 92). A correspondent
of the Times, dating from Calcutta, August 1, 1880, writes: "A
murmur has got abroad and is firmly believed by the lower classes
of the natives, that the government is about to sacrifice a number
of human beings in order to ensure the safety of the new harbor
works, and has ordered the police to seize victims in the streets.
So thoroughly is the idea implanted, that people are afraid to
venture out after nightfall.
There was a similar scare in Calcutta some
seven or eight years ago, when the Hooghly bridge was being constructed.
The natives then got hold of the idea that Mother Ganges, indignant
at being bridged, had at last consented to submit to the insult
on the condition that each pier of the structure was founded on
a layer of children's heads''
(see Folk-lore Record iii, page 283).
But we need not go to India for such accusations.
In Nature, under date June 15, 1871, we find: " It is not
many years since the present Lord Leigh was accused of having
built an obnoxious person-one account, if we remember right, said
eight obnoxious persons-into the foundation of a bridge at Stoneleigh."
In Scotland there is a current belief that
the Picts, to whom local legend attributes building of prehistoric
antiquity, bathed their foundation stones with blood (see Folk-lore
Relics, page 29). Brother Speth heard people in Kent, of certainly
not the least educated classes, assert that both the strength
and the peculiar pink tinge which may sometimes be detected in
Roman cement, is owing to the alleged practice of the Romans mixing
their cement with blood. Did Shakespeare speak only metaphorically,
or was he aware of the custom when he makes Clarence say,
I will not ruinate my father's house,
Who gave his blood to lime the stones together,
And set up Lancaster.
Henry vi, part iii, act v, scene 1.
Note the words of King John as given by
Shakespeare,
There is no sure foundation set in blood,
No certain life achieved by others' death.
King John iv, 2.
Brother Speth gives an experience of the
Rev. Baring-Gould. " It is said in Yorkshire," he writes,
" that the first child baptized in a new font is sure to
die---a reminiscence of the sacrifice which was used at the consecration
of every dwelling and temple in heathen times, and of the pig
or sheep killed and laid at the foundation of churches. When I
was incumbent at Dalton a new church was built. A blacksmith in
the village had seven daughters, after which a son was born, and
he came to me a few days before the consecration of the new church
to ask me to baptize his boy in the old temporary church and font.
'Why, Joseph,' said I, 'if you will only wait till Thursday the
boy can be baptized in the new font on the opening of the new
church.' 'Thank you, Sir,' said the blacksmith, with a wriggle,'but
you see it's a lad, and we should be sorry if he were to deem,
if he'd been a lass instead, why then you were welcome, for 'twouldn't
ha' mattered a ha'penny. Lasses are ower mony and lads ower few
wi' us'."
Now, it is surely unnecessary, continues
Brother Speth, to explain why we bury coins of the real under
orum foundation stones. ''Our forefathers, ages ago, buried a
living human sacrifice in the same place to ensure the stability
of the structure: their sons substituted an animal: their sons
again a mere effigy or other symbol: and we, their children, still
immure a substitute, coins bearing the effigy, impressed upon
the noblest of metals, the pure red gold, of the one person to
whom we all are most loyal, and whom we all most love, our gracious
Queen. I do not assert that one in a hundred is conscious of what
he is doing: if you ask him, he will give some different reason:
but the fact remains that unconsciously, we are following the
customs of our fathers, and symbolically providing a soul for
the structure. 'Men continue to do what their fathers did before
them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have been
long forgotten.'
A ship could not be launched in the olden
times without .a human sacrifice: the neck of the victim was broken
across the prow, and his blood besprinkled the sides, while his
soul entered the new home provided for it to ensure its safety
amid storm and tempest: to-day we symbolize unconsciously the
same ceremony, but we content ourselves with a bottle of the good
red wine, slung from the dainty fingers of English womanhood."
Brother Speth gives numerous facts from
various parts of the world and of widely separated times.
Perhaps as significant as any and certainly
as interesting are the particulars brought to his attention by
Brother William Simpson and dealing with Old Testament days. Referring
to Assyrian foundation stones in the reign of Sennacherib who
was on the throne 705-681 B.C., we have the roya1 message from
Records of the Past (new series, volume vi, page 101), the words
"my inscription" relating in Brother Simpson's note
to the foundation stone, the latter probably being a brick or
clay cylinder:
I bunt that palace from foundation to roof
and finished it. My inscription
I brought into it. For future days,
whoever-among the kings, my successors, whom
ASSUR and ISTAR
Shall call to the rule over the land and the people--
the prince may he, if this palace
becomes old and mined, who builds it anew
May he preserve my inscription,
anoint it with oil, offer sacrifices, return it to its place ;
then will Assur and Istar hear his prayer.
The same work (Records of the Past, new
series, volume v, page 171) contains an inscription of Cyrus the
Persian King mentioning his discovery of the foundation stone
of the Assyrian Assurbanipal, 668-626 B.C., usually identified
with the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10. Here we find a foundation stone
instead of the "inscription" and a significant ceremony
is described that agrees with that of Sennacherib's and is truly
very like the modern Masonic Rite when dedicating hall or temple
or laying a corner-stone:
. . . . the foundation-stone of Assur-bani-pal
King of Assyria,
who had discovered the foundation stone of Shalmaneser son of
Assur-natsir-pal,
I laid its foundation and made firm its bricks. With beer, wine,
on (and) honey.
A similar announcement by Cyrus is also given
on page 173 of the above work :
. . . . the inscription containing the name of Assan-bani-pal
I discovered anddid not change ; with oil I annointed (it) ; sheep
I sacrificed ;
with my own inscription I placed (it) and restored (it) to its
place.
Foundation sacrifices and the substitution
of various kinds used for them are considered freely by several
authorities and there is a bibliography. of them to be found in
Burdick's Foundation Rites, 1901. We may note that in folklore
customs persist and explanations change or as Sir J. G. Frazer
(Golden Bough, 1890, ii, page 62) says "Myth changes while
custom remains constant; men continue to do what their fathers
did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted
have long been forgotten." That so many legends contain allusions
to foundation sacrifices is ample proof that such existed. Brother
Speth says further "Had we never found one single instance
of the rite actually in practice, we might still have inferred
it with absolute certainty from the legends, although these do
not always give us the true motive."
When it may have become unlawful or otherwise
impracticable to bury a body, then an image, a symbol of the living
or the dead, was laid in the walls or under them. The figure of
Christ crucified has been found built into an old church wall.
Representations of children, candles-the flame being a symbol
of life even as a reversed torch is a type of death, empty coffins,
bones of men and animals, and so on, have been discovered in or
under the masonry when taking down important structures. Freemasons
will understand the significance of these old customs. Every laying
of a corner-stone with Masonic ceremonies is a reminder of them,
and every completed initiation a confirmation.
The subject may be studied further in Jew
and Human Sacrifice, Herman L. Strack, English translation of
eighth edition, page 138, with bibliographical notes on page 31;
Blood Covenant, H. Clay Trumbull, and particularly pages 45-57
of his other book the Threshold Covenant, the first of these works
discussing the origin of sacrifice and the significance of transferred
or proffered blood or life, and the second treating of the beginning
of religious rites and their gradual development ; Foundation
Rites, Louis Dayton Burdick ; Bible Sidelights, Dr. R. A. Stewart
Macalister, Director of Excavations for the Palestine Exploration
Fund; James Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, page 368, and in
Doctor Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry, page 1072.
BUILDER, SMITTEN
See Smitten Builder
BUL
The primitive designation of the month Marchesvan
(see Zif). Doctor Oliver says in his Landmarks (11, 551), that
this is one of the names of God among the ancients. It is also
said to be an Assyrian word signifying Lord or Powerful.
BULL, OLE BORNEMANN
Famous Norwegian violinist. Born at Bergen,
February 5, 1810, and died near there on August 17, 1880. After
brilliant concert tours in Europe, was in the United States, 1843-5,
and again, 1852-7. James Herring, formerly Grand Secretary of
the Grand Lodge of New York, gave an address at the celebration
of the centennial anniversary of Saint John's Lodge No. 1, New
York, December 7, 1857, showing that Ole Bull was a Freemason.
He gave his farewell concert in New York, October 30, 1845, for
Masonic charitable purposes, the Grand Lodge Widows' and Orphans'
Fund, which netted the Craft $1,427.55.
BULL, PAPAL
An edict or proclamation issued from the
Apostolic Chancery, with the seal and signature of the Pope, written
in Gothic letters and upon coarse parchment. This derives its
name from the leaden seal which is attached to it by a cord of
hemp or silk, and which in medieval Latin is called bulla. Several
of these Bulls have from time to time been aimed against Freemasonry
and other secret societies, subjecting them to the heaviest ecclesiastical
punishments, even to the greater excommunication. According to
these Bulls, a Freemason is by reason of that fact excommunicated
by continuing his membership in the Society, and is thus deprived
of all spiritual privileges while living, and the rites of burial
when dead.
The several important Bulls which have been
issued by the Popes of Rome intended to affect the Fraternity
of Freemasons are as follows: the Bull In Eminenti of Clement
XII, dated 24th of April, 1738. This Bull was confirmed and renewed
by that beginning Providas, of Benedict XIV, 18th of May, 1751;
then followed the edict of Pius VII, 13th of September, 1821;
the apostolic edict Quo Graviora of Leo XII, 13th of March, 1825; that of Pius VIII, 21st of May, 1829; that of Gregory XVI,
15th of August, 1832; Pius IX in 1846 and 1865; and finally that
of Leo XIII, who ascended to the papacy in 1878, and issued his
Bull, or encyclical letter, Humanum Genus, on April 20, 1884.
Whatever may have been the severity of the Bulls issued by the
predecessors of Leo XIII, he with great clearness ratifies and
confirms them all in the following language: "Therefore,
whatsoever the popes our predecessors have decreed to hinder the
designs and attempts of the sect of Freemasons; whatsoever they
have ordained to deter or recall persons from societies of this
kind, each and all do we ratify and conform by our Apostolic authority,"
at the same time acknowledging that this "society of men
are most widely spread and firmly established."
This letter of the Roman hierarchy thus
commences :
"The human race, after its most miserable defection,
through the wiles of the devil, from its Creator, God, the giver
of celestial gifts, has divided into two different and opposite
factions, of which one fights ever for truth and virtue, the other
for their opposites.
One is the kingdom of God on earth . . ,
the other is the kingdom of Satan."
That, "by accepting any that present
themselves, no matter of what religion, they (the Freemasons)
gain their purpose of urging that great error of the present day,
viz., that questions of religion ought to be left undetermined,
and that there should be no distinction made between varieties.
And this policy aims at the destruction of all religions, especially
at that of the Catholic religion, which, since it is the only
true one, cannot be reduced to equality with the rest without
the greatest injury."
"But, in truth, the sect grants great
license to its initiates, allowing them to defend either position,
that there is a God, or that there is no God."
Thus might we quote continuous passages,
which need only to be stated to proclaim their falsity, and yet
there are those who hold to the doctrine of the infallibility
of the Pope.
BULLETIN
The name given by the Grand Orient of France
to the monthly publication which contains the official record
of its proceedings. A similar work has been issued by the Supreme
Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States of America, and by several other Supreme
Councils and Grand Orients.
BULLETINS, LODGE
During the first two or three decades after
the forming of the first Grand Lodge of Speculative Masons in
London, in 1717, the daily papers of London, and to a lesser extent
in Edinburgh, Dublin, and other cities, published news about Freemasonry
on the same footing as other news . In its earliest years the
new Grand Lodge published no Proceedings, and did not even keep
Minutes; after the Lodges had multiplied not only in London, but
elsewhere they began to demand reports from the Quarterly Grand
Communications. The earliest Grand Lodge Minutes (reproduced in
facsimile in Quatuor Coronati Antigrapha) were in reality not
Minutes but reports, and in them the list of Lodges were deemed
the most important portion. It was to save the Grand Secretary
the drudgery of making many copies by hand that the "Minutes"
were for some years engraved by Pine with his successors hence
the origin of the famous "Engraved Lists"upon which
Bro. John Lane was the first and most eminent authority. (See
Lane's Lists of Lodges.)
The earliest Lodges demanded that their
members should attend, and in many instances fined them for non-attendance;
to make this rule "all-square" the Lodge in turn had
its Tiler (who was paid) go in person to notify each member of
the next Lodge meeting.
This method gradually gave way to the issuing
of printed summons, for which an engraved plate was made, leaving
a blank for the date ; a number of these plates were masterpieces
of the engraver's art---an art which had a large vogue in the
Eighteenth Century.
The same methods were used in general by
American Lodges until after the Revolution, when for about a quarter
of a century they made a large use of newspapers. With the sudden
explosion of the Anti-Masonic Crusade after the so-called "Morgan
Affair"this publicity was stopped, and for many years was
not encouraged even after the crusade had died away because it
had been abused.
From the Civil War to the first decade of
the Twentieth Century a Lodge either sent out no notices, or spread
them by word of mouth, or published very brief and formal notices
in papers.
In the beginning of this Century Lodges
began the issuing of Bulletins, a method being used, or being
adopted, by an ever-increasing number. In majority of instances
a Bulletin is printed by the Lodge and prepared and mailed by
the Secretary; in a minority of instances, especially in cities,
either Bulletins or small periodicals are privately prepared and
published by local printers who cover their costs and a very small
margin of profits with an income from local advertising.
The typical Lodge Bulletin is a printed
two or four pages leaflet, of envelope size; in it are names,
addressed, and telephone numbers of Lodge officers, and oftentimes
of Committee chairmen, or Committee members; notices of regular
or special Communications, and of special occasions; and in some
instances a small number of news items.
Lodge Bulletins have been discussed in Masonic
jurisprudence; and both Grand Lodges and Grand Masters have made
rules or decisions to regulate them.
It is generally accepted and established
that a Lodge, or the Worshipful Master, or both, have the authority
to exercise complete control of any information or news which
emanates from or about a Lodge, whether published by the Lodge
itself or by a private printer or publishing company.
BUNYAN, JOHN
The well-known author of the Pilgrim's Progress.
He lived in the seventeenth century, and was the most celebrated
allegorical writer of England. His work entitled Solomon's Temple
Spiritualized will supply the student of Masonic symbolism with
many valuable suggestions.
BURBANK, LUTHER
Famous horticulturist, born March 7, 1849;
died April 11, 1926. Became a Freemason in Santa Rosa Lodge No.
57, in California, on August 13, 1921. His successful experiments
with fruits and flowers gave him an international reputation (see
New Age, March, 1925).
BURDENS, BEARERS OF
A class of workmen at the Temple mentioned
in Second Chronicles (11. 18), and referred to by Doctor Anderson
(Constitutions 1738, page i i), as the Ish Sabbal, which see.
BUREAU INTERNATIONAL DE RELATIONS MAÇONNIQUE
See International Bureau for Masonic affairs
BURI or BURE
The first god of Norse mythology. In accordance
with the quaint cosmogony of the ancient religion of Germany or
that of Scandinavia, it was believed that before the world came
into existence there was a great void, on the north side of which
was a cold and dark region, and on the south side one warm and
luminous. In Niflheim was a well, or the "seething caldron,"
out of which flowed twelve streams into the great void and formed
a huge giant.
In Iceland the first great giant was called
Ymir, by the Germans Tuisto (Tacitus, Germania, chapter 2), whose
three grandchildren were regarded as the founders of three of
the German races. Contemporary with Ymir, and from the great frost
blocks of primeval chaos, was produced a man called Buri, who
was wise, strong, and beautiful. His son married the daughter
of another giant, and their issue were the three sons Odin, Wili,
and We, who ruled as gods in heaven and earth. By some it has
been earnestly believed that upon these myths and legends many
symbols of Freemasonry were founded.
BURIAL
The right to be buried with the set ceremonies
of the Order is one that, under certain restrictions, belongs
to every Master Mason.
None of the ancient Constitutions contain
any law upon this subject, nor can the exact time be now determined
when funeral processions and a burial service were first admitted
as regulations of the Order.
The first official notice, however, that
we have of funeral processions is in November, 1754. A regulation
was then adopted which prohibited any Freemason from attending
a funeral or other procession clothed in any of the jewels or
clothing of the Craft, except by dispensation of the Grand Master
or his Deputy (see Constitutions, 1756, page 303).
There are no further regulations on this
subject in any of the editions of the Book of Constitutions previous
to the modern code which is now in force in the Grand Lodge of
England. But Preston gives us the rules on this subject, which
have now been adopted by general consent as the law of the Order,
in the following words:
"No Mason can be interred with the
formalities of the Order unless it be by his own special request
communicated by the Master of the Lodge of which he died a member,
foreigners and sojourners excepted; nor unless he has been advanced
to the third degree of Masonry, from which restriction there can
be no exception.
Fellow Crafts or Apprentices are not entitled
to the funeral obsequies'' (see Illustrations, 1792, page 118).
The only restrictions prescribed by Preston
are, it will be perceived, that the deceased must have been a
Master Mason, that he had himself made the request and that he
was affiliated, which is implied by the expression that he must
have made the request for burial to the Master of the Lodge of
which he was a member.
The regulation of 1754, which requires a
Dispensation from the Grand Master for a funeral procession, is
not considered of force in the United States of America, where,
accordingly, Freemasons have generally been permitted to bury
their dead without the necessity of such Dispensation.
BURKE, EDMUND
Born January 12, 1729, new style, at Dublin,
Ireland, and died July 8, 1797, in England. Famous statesman,
writer and orator who championed the cause of the American Colonists
on the floor of the English Parliament, April 19, 1774.
His father, a Protestant attorney, his mother
a Roman Catholic Published in 1756 the satire A Vindication of
Natural Society, then his Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful, translated into German
and annotated by another Freemason, Lessing; a series of Hints
on the Drama and an Abridgment of the History of England; and
became interested in America and wrote an Account of the European
Settlements. Brother George W. Baird (Builder, October, 1923)
says that Burke was a member of Jerusalem Lodge No. 44, Clerkenwell,
London. In Builder (July, 1923), Brother Arthur Heiron mentions
Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Sir William Forbes, Richard Savage,
Alexander Pope, Richard Garriek, Jonathan Swift, close friends
or contemporaries of Burke, as active and proven Freemasons. There
is an impressive statue of Edmund Burke at Washington, District
of Columbia (see also New Age, January, 1924).
BURNES, SIR JAMES
A distinguished Freemason, and formerly
Provincial Grand Master of Western India under the Grand Lodge
of Scotland from 1836 to 1846. In 1846 he was appointed Grand
Master of Scottish Freemasons in India. He returned home in 1849,
and died in 1862, after serving for thirty years in the Indian
Medical Service. He was the author of an interesting work entitled
a Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars. By James Burnes,
LLD., F.R.S., Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; published
at London, in 1840, in 74 + 60 pages in small quarto.
BURNING BUSH
In the third chapter of Exodus it is recorded
that, when Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro on Mount Horeb,
"the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire
out of the midst of a bush," and there communicated to him
for the first time his ineffable Name. This occurrence is commemorated
in the Burning Bush of the Royal Arch Degree. In all the systems
of antiquity, fire is adopted as a symbol of Deity ; and the Burning
Bush, or the bush filled with fire which did not consume, whence
came forth the Tetragrammaton, the symbol of Divine Light and
Truth, is considered in the advanced degrees of Freemasonry, like
the Orient in the lower, as the great source of true Masonic light; wherefore Supreme Councils of the Thirty-Third Degree date their
balustres, or official documents, "near the B.'. B.'.,"
or Buming Bush, to intimate that they are, in their own rite,
the exclusive source of all Masonic instruction.
BURNS AS MASONIC LAUREATE
On page 164 of this Encyclopedia Bro. Dudley
Wright is quoted in a passage which tries to show that the long
tradition that Robert Burns had been named Poet-Laureate of Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge was "a happy delusion" ; and Bro. Robert
I. Clegg, when quoting him, makes use of a pamphlet which that
Lodge had published in 1925. It is possible that both of these
cautious editors overlooked the detailed and exhaustive History
of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning No. 2, by Allan MacKenzie; Edinburgh;
1888 Bro. MacKenzie devotes the whole of one chapter to the Laureateship.
Out of Lodge records, personal correspondence, the recollections
of old members, newspapers, reports, and by use of internal evidence
he constructs an argument solid enough and cogent enough to convince
a Supreme Court.
Bro. Wright uses as an argument the fact
that no record was made in the Lodge Minutes. It was never suggested
that the naming of Burns as Poet Laureate had ever been made by
the Lodge in an official action, and hence it naturally would
not go into the Minutes ; it is more likely that it was made at
a banquet, informally, by the body of the members acting spontaneously.
Even so, Burns accepted it in all seriousness; as did also the
Lodge, which went to great expense to have the painting made which
is reproduced on the sheet following page 156.
As will be seen in the key on the sheet
opposite that reproduction one of the notables whose portrait
stands out conspicuously from a circle of notables is James Boswell,
biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Boswell was made a Mason in
the Lodge in 1759 ; was Junior Warden in 1761; was Depute Master
in 1767-1768 ; and Right Worshipful Master from 1773 to 1775.
Bro. MacKenzie's book is a wonderfully moving
picture of Lodge life in Eighteenth Century Scotland.
Through it move James Hogg, the ''Atrox
Shepherd, " successor to Bums as Scotland's poet, celebrated
in a stanza by Wordsworth, who when asked to be Masonic Poet Laureate
first refused, then relented and wrote a Masonic "shepherd's
song" for his Lodge; Sir Wm. Forbes; the tremendous Lord
Mondobbo; Henry Erskine ; some princes from Russia, etc. ; the
Lockharts, father and son, the latter Sir Walter Scott's son-in-law
and biographer ; and Professor Wilson, better known as Christopher
North, author of the Noctes A Ambrosianae, which American book lovers
still read ; and in the background, Sir Walter Scott and his father,
both enthusiastic Craftsmen in their own Lodge.
BURNS, ROBERT
One of the most celebrated and best loved
of Scottish poets. William Pitt has said of his poetry, "that
he could think of none since Shakespeare's that had so much the
appearance of sweetly coming from nature." Robert Burns,
or Robert Burness, as the name was originally spelled, was born
at Kirk Alloway, near the town of Ayr, January 25, 1759. His father
was a religious peasant-farmer living in a humble cottage on the
banks of the Doon, the river destined to be eulogized so touchingly
in many of Burns' verses in after life. Burns died in the thirty-seventh
year of his life on July 21, 1796, broken in health. For years
he had been feted, lionized and honored by the entire Scottish
nation.
At the age of twenty-three he became closely
associated with the local Freemasonry, being initiated July 4,
1781, in Saint David's Lodge, Tarbolton, shortly after the two
Lodges of Saint David, No. 174, and Saint James, No. 178, in the
town were united.
He took his Second and Third Degrees in
the month of October following his initiation. In December Saint
David's Lodge was divided and the old Lodge of Saint James was
reconstituted, Burns becoming a member. Saint James' Lodge has
still in its keeping, and we have personally inspected the Minute
Books containing items written in Burns' own handwriting, which
Lodge he served as Depute Master in 1784.
From this time on Freemasonry became to
the poet a great and propelling power. At the time of his initiation
into Saint David's Lodge Burns was unnoticed and unknown and,
it must be admitted, somewhat unpolished in manner, although he
had managed to secure before his sixteenth year what was then
considered to be an "elegant" education.
With almost no exceptions his boon companions
were all Freemasons and this close association with Brethren,
many of whom were high in the social scale, but who recognized
his talents and ability, did much to refine and stimulate him
intellectually, influence his thought, inspire his muse, and develop
that keen love of independence and brotherhood which later became
the predominant factors of his life. The poet held the position
of Depute Master of Saint James' Lodge until about 1788, at which
time he read his famous Farewell to the Brethren of Saint James'
Lodge, Tarbolton, given below:
Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu !
Dear Brothers of the Mystic tie!
Ye favoured, ye enlighten'd few,
Companions of my social joy!
Tho' I to foreign lands must hie,
Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry ba',
With melting heart, and brimful eye,
I'll mind you still, tho' far awa'.
Oft have I met your social band
And spent the cheerful, festive night ;
Oft honoured with supreme command,
Presided o'er the Sons of Light;
And by that Hierog1yphic Bright,
Which none but craftsmen ever saw!
Strong Mem'ry on my heart shall write
Those happy scenes, when far awa'!
May Freedom, Harmony, and Love,
Unite you in the Grand Design,
Beneath th' Omniscient Eye above--
The glorious Architect Divine--
That you may keep th' Unerring Line,
Still rising by the Plummet's Law,
Till ORDER bright completely shine,
Shall be my pray'r when far awa'.
And you, FAREWELL! whose merits claim
Juatly the Highest Badge to wear !
Heav'n bless your honour'd, noble NAME,
To Masonry and Scotia dear.
A last request permit me here,
When yeany ye assemble a',
One round, I ask it with a tear,
To him, the Bard that's far awa'.
About this same time the poet presided as
Master over a Lodge at Mauchline, which practice was, as a matter
of fact, irregular, as the Charter of the Lodge covered only meetings
held in Tarbolton, but, it is stated, Burns' zeal in the furthering
of Freemasonry was so great that he even held Lodges in his own
house for the purpose of admitting new members.
Mention is also made, however, that Lodges'
were not then tied to a single meeting place as now. Regarding
this, Professor Dugald Stewart, the eminent philosophic writer
and thinker, and himself an Honorary Member of the Saint James
Lodge, says, "In the course of the same season I was led
by curiosity to attend for an hour or two a Masonic Lodge in Mauchline,
where Bums presided.
He had occasion to make some short, unpremeditated
compliments to different individuals from whom he had no reason
to expect a visit, and everything he said was happily conceived
and forcibly as well as fluently expressed."
Burns found himself in need of funds about
this time and it was due to the suggestions and assistance of
Gavin Hamilton, a prominent member of the Order and a keen admirer
of Bums, that the poet collected his first edition of poems and
was able to have them published through the able assistance of
such eminent Fellow Craftsmen as Aiken, Goudie, John Ballantine,
and Gavin Hamilton. A Burns Monument has since been erected, in
August, 1879, in Kay Park, which overlooks the little printing
office where the first Kilmarnoek edition of his poems was published.
Dr. John Mackenzie, a man of fine literary
taste and of good social position, whom Bums mentions in several
of his Masonic poems, lid much at this period by. way of kindly
and discerning appreciation to develop the poet's genius and make
it known to the world. It was due to a generous loan made by.
John Ballantine, before mentioned, that Burns was able to make
the trip to Edinburgh and have a second edition of his poems published.
At Edinburgh, due to the good offices of the Masonic Brethren
there, Burns was made acquainted with and was joyously accepted
by the literary leaders of the Scottish capital. Reverend Thomas
Blacklock, a member of the Lodge of Saint David, Edinburgh, No.
36, and afterwards Worshipful Master of Ayr Kilwinning Lodge,
received Burns on his arrival, lavished upon him all the kindness
of a generous heart, introduced him into a circle of friends worthy
and admiring, and did all possible to further the interest of
the young poet. Brother Sir Walter Scott, the novelist, addressed
a letter to this Lodge of Saint David, Edinburgh, which is now
in their possession in which he pays rare tribute to Robert Burns.
On October 26, 1786, Burns was made an Honorary
Member of the Saint John Lodge, No. 22, Kilmarnock, the first
of the Masonic Orders to designate him as their Poet and honor
him with honorary membership. Just previous to this he joined
the Saint Jolln's Knwinning Lodge, Kilmarnock, warranted in 1747
but not coming under Grand Lodge until 1808, on which occasion
in the Lodge was presided over by his friend, Gavin Hamilton.
On February 1, 1787, Burns became a member of the Lodge of Canongate
Kilwinning, No. 2, Edinburgh, which possesses the most ancient
Lodge-room in the world, and this Lodge is said to have invested
Burns with the title of the Poet-Laureate of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning
on March 1, 1787, from which time on Burns affixed the word Bard
to his signature. This Lodge issued a booklet on Saint John's
Day 1925, from which we quote the following: '
T
he fact of the inauguration of Burns as
Poet.-Laureate was, some time ago, finally and judicially established
after an elaborate and exhaustive inquiry by the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, which possesses the well-known historic Painting representing
the scene, painted by Brother Stewart Watson, and presented to
Grand Lodge by Dr. James Burness, the distinguished Indian traveler
and administrator, and a distant relative of Burns through his
ancestry in Kincardineshire, from which Burns' father migrated
to Ayrshire.
On the other hand, Brother Dudley Wright,
in the Freemason, London, February 7, 1925, says:
The principal fallacy, which has lately
found frequent repetition even in some Scottish Lodges, is the
statement that Robert Burns was on a certain night installed or
invested as the Poet Laureale of canongate Kilwinning Lodge, No.
2.
Bums became a member of this Lodge on February
1, 1787, as testified by the following Minute: " The Right
Worshipful Master, having observed that Brother Burns was present
in the Lodge, who is well known as a great poetic writer and for
a late publication of his works which have been universally commended,
Submitted that he should be assumed a member of this Lodge, which
was unanimously agreed to and he was assumed accordingly."
The story runs that exactly a month afterwards,
on March 1, 1787, Burns paid a second visit to Lodge canongate
Kilwinning, when he was invested as Poet Laureate of this famous
Lodge, and there is in existence a well-known painting of the
supposed scene, which has been many times reproduced. The picture,
however, is only an imaginary one, for one of the characters depicted
as being present-Grose, the Antiquarian-did not become a Freemason
until 1791. James Marshall, a member of the craft, published,
in 1846, a small volume entitled A Winter with Robert Burns, in
which he gave a full account of the supposed investiture, with
biographical data of the Brethren stated to have been present
on that occasion.
Robert Wylie, also, in his History of Mother
Lodge Kilwinning, of which he was Secretary, published in 1878,
has repeated the story, and added that " Burns was very proud
of the honor''; while Dr. Rogers, in The Book of Robert Burns,
volume I, page 180 has also repeated the story, giving the date
of the event as June 25, 1787, and adding the information that
Lord Torpichen was then Depute Master, and that in compliment
to the occasion, and as a token of personal regard, on the following
day he despatched to the poet at his lodgings in the Lawnmarket
a handsome edition of Spenser's works, which the poet acknowledged
in a letter.
There was a meeting of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning
on March 1, 1787, the Minute of which is in existence, but it
contains no reference to the investiture of Burns as Poet Laureate
of the Lodge. It reads as follows: " St. Johns chapel, March
1, 1787. The Lodge being duly constituted it was reported that
since last meeting R. Dalrymple Esq., F. T. Hammond Esq., R. A.
Maitland Esq., were entered apprentices; and the following brethren
passed and raised : R. Sinclair Esq., Z. M'Donald Esq., C. B.
Cleve Esq., captain Dalrymple, R. A. Maitland Esq., F. T. Hammond
Esq., Mr. Clavering, Mr. M'Donald, Mr. Millar, Mr. Hine, and Mr.
Gray, who all paid their fees to the Treasurer. No other business
being before the meeting, the Lodge adjourned."
It is not a pleasing task to dispel such
a happy delusion, but it must be admitted that the investiture
certainly did not take place on that occasion, when there is no
record that Burns was even present. Had the investiture taken
place, it would certainly have been recorded on the Minutes, especially
when regard is had to the fact that his very admission to the
Lodge a month previously was made the subject of so special a
note. There were only three meetings of the Lodge held in 1786-7
session, and at one of these only,-that of the night of his admission
as a Joining Member -is there any record of the presence of Robert
Burns. But did not Burns call himself Laureated, somebody may
ask. Certainly he did, particularly in the following stanza:
T
o please you and praise you,
Ye ken your Laureate scorns ;
The prayer still you share still
Of grateful Robert Burns.
But those words were written on May 3, 1786,
before the date of his admission into Lodge, Canongate Kilwinning.
While Brother Burns may not have actually been appointed Poet
Laureate of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, and the account of the
meeting of February 1 does not indicate anything more than that
he was "assumed" a member, yet later mention of Brother
Burns in the Minutes does suggest that the Brethren in some degrees
considered our Brother as Poet Laureate.
For instance, on February 9, 1815, the Lodge
resolved to open a subscription among its members to aid in the
erection of a "Mausoleum to the memory of Robert Burns who
was a member and Poet Laureate of this Lodge. " There is
the further allusion on January 16, 1835, in connection with the
appointment of Brother James Hogg, the ''Ettrick Shepherd"
to the "honorary office of Poet Laureate of the Lodge, which
had been in abeyance since the death of the immortal Brother Robert
Burns" (see also Lodge).
Shortly after the publication of the second
edition of his verse at Edinburgh, Burns set out on a tour with
his friend, Brother Robert Ainslie, an Edinburgh lawyer. Brother
A. M. Mackay tells us in a pamphlet issued by Lodge Saint David,
Edinburgh, No. 36, on the Festival of Saint John, December 19,
1923, that "Burns visited the old fishing town during the
course of a tour through the Border Counties in the early summer
of 1787." The records of the Lodge contain no reference to
the Poet, or to the Royal Arch Degree of which Burns and his friend
became members, but several prominent Brethren in Saint Ebbe were
Royal Arch Masons and, although working under no governing authority,
appear to have occasionally admitted candidates into that Order.
Brothers Burns and Ainslie arrived at Eyemouth on Friday, May
18, and took up their abode in the house of Brother William Grieve,
who was, the Poet informs us, "a joyous, warm hearted, jolly,
clever fellow." It was, no doubt, at the instigation of their
host that the meeting of Royal Arch Masons, held on the following
day, was arranged:
Eyemouth 19th May 1787. At a general encampment
held this day, the following Brethren were made Royal Arch Masons,
namely:
Robert Burns, from Lodge Saint James, Tarbolton,
Ayrshire; and Robert Ainslie from the Lodge of Saint Luke, Edinburgh,
by James Carmichael, William Grieve, Donald Dow, John Clay, Robert
Grieve, etc., etc.
Robert Ainslie paid one guinea admission
dues, but, on account of Brother Bum's remarkable poetical genius,
the encampment unanimously agreed to admit him gratis and considered
themselves honored by having a man of such shining annuities for
one of their companions.
It is suggested by Brother A. Arbuthnot
Murray, formerly Grand Scribe E. of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of Scotland, who is an authority on the old working of
the Scottish Royal Arch Chapters, that Burns was probably made
a Knight Templar as well, as under the old regime the two ceremonies
were always given together (see also Mark).
Dudley Wright in Robert Burns and Freemasonry
says, "On December 27, 1788, Burns was unanimously assumed,
being a Master Masson' a member of the Saint Andrews Lodge, No.
179, Dumiries. The Secretary wrongly described him as of 'Saint
David Strabolton Lodge, No. 178.'" The poet's last attendance
at this Lodge was in 1796, a few months after which he contracted
the fatal fever which led to his death.
A word should be said here in refutation
of the slanderous charge that Burns acquired the habits of dissipation,
to which he was unfortunately addicted, at the festive meetings
of the Masonic Lodges (see Freemasons Magazine, London, volume
v, page 291), and his brother, Gilbert's, testimony is given below,
"Towards the end of the period under review, in his, twenty-fourth
year, and soon after his father's death, he was furnished with
the subject of his epistle to John Rankin. During this period,
also, he became a Freemason, which was his first introduction
to the life of a boon companion. Yet, notwithstanding these circumstances,
and the praise he has bestowed on Scotch drink, which seems to
have misled his historians, I do not recollect during these seven
years, nor till towards the end of his commencing author, when
his growing celebrity occasioned his often being in company, to
have ever seen him intoxicated ; nor was he at all given to drinking."
Notwithstanding this, however, the poet
undoubtedly enjoyed convivial gatherings and he wrote to a friend,
James Smith, "I have yet fixed on nothing with respect to
the serious business of life. I am, as usual, a rhyming, Mason-making,
rattling, aimless, idle fellow." In spite of this "idleness,"
Burns was very prolific in verse and especially did he give of
his genius liberally in service to the Masonic Order, an example
of one of these verses being given below:
A' ye whom social pleasure charms,
Whose heart the tide of kindness warms,
Wha hold your being on the terms,
Each aid the others,
come to my bowl, come to my arms, My friends, my Brothers.
Among the various poetic Masonic effusions
of this "heaven-taught plowman" is the following, which
was written in memory of his beloved friend, a fellow-poet and
Brother, Robert Ferguson:
Curse on ungrateful man that can be pleased,
And yet can starve the author of his pleasure .
Oh, thou, my Elder Brother in misfortune,
By far my elder Brother in the Muses,
With tears I pity thy unhappy fate !
Why is the bard unfitted for the wond,
Yet has so keen a relish of its pleasures?
Part of the proceeds of the Edinburgh edition
of Burns' poems was used in the erection of a tombstone over the
remains of this same Scottish poet, Robert Ferguson, on which
he inscribed the stanza:
No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
No storied um, nor animated bust,
This simple stone directs pale Scotis's way,
To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.
A monument was erected for Robert Burns,
himself, by public subscription, at his birthplace, January 25,
1820. The corner-stone was laid with appropriate Masonic honors
by the Deputy Grand Master of the Ancient Mother Lodge at Kilwinning,
assisted by all 'the Masonic Lodges in Ayrshire.
At a meeting in 1924 of the Scots Lodge
of London in honor of Robert Burns, Sir John A. Cockbum, M.D.,
in the address of the evening explained to us that the poet when
young had suffered from a rheumatic fever that frequently resulted
in a condition peculiarly liable at any time later to sudden fatal
consequences. Sir John also urged that due consideration should
be given to the tendency and practice of the era when Burns flourished,
when a free use of intoxicants was common.
BUSINESS
Everything that is done in a Masonic Lodge,
relating to the initiation of candidates into the several degrees,
is called its work or labor; all transactions such as are common',to
other associations and societies come under the head of business,
and they are governed with some peculiar differences by rules
of order, as in other societies (see 0rder, Rules of).
BYBLOS
An ancient city of Phenicia, celebrated
for the mystical worship of Adonis, who was slain by a wild boar.
It was situated on a river of the same name, whose waters, becoming
red at a certain season of the year by the admixture of the clay
which is at its source, were said by the celebrants of the mysteries
of Adonis to be tinged with the blood of that god.
This Phoenician city, so distinguished for
the celebration of these mysteries, was the Gebal of the Hebrews,
the birthplace of the Giblemites, or stone-squarers, who wrought
at the building of King Solomon's Temple; and thus those who have
advanced the theory that Freemasonry is the successor of the Ancient
Mysteries, think that they find in this identity of Byblos and
Gebal another point of connection between these Institutions.
BY-LAWS
Every subordinate Lodge is permitted to
make its own by-laws, provided they do not conflict with the regulations
of the Grand Lodge, nor with the ancient usages of the Fraternity.
But of this, the Grand Lodge is the only judge, and therefore
the original by-laws of every Lodge, as well as all subsequent
alterations of them, must be submitted to the Grand Lodge for
approval and confirmation before they can become valid, having
under the English Constitution previously been approved by the
Provincial or District Grand Master.
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