The third letter of the English alphabet,
which was not known in the Hebrew, Phoenician, or early Aryan
languages.
CAABA or KAABA
Arabic word Ka'abah for cubic building.
The square building or temple in Mecca. More especially the small
cubical oratory. within, held in adoration by the Mohammedans,
as containing the black stone said to have been given by an angel
to Abraham. The inner as well as the outer structure receives
its name from Ka'ab, meaning cube (see Allah).
CABALA
This word is frequently written Kabbala,
which see. CABALA. The mystical philosophy or theosophy of the
Jews is called the Cabala. The word is derived from the Hebrew
Kabal, signifying to receive, because it is the doctrine received
from the elders. It has sometimes been used in an enlarged sense,
as comprehending all the explanations, maxims, and ceremonies
which have been traditionally handed down to the Jews; but in
that more limited acceptation, in which it is intimately connected
with the symbolic science of Freemasonry, the Cabala may be defined
to be a system of philosophy which embraces certain mystical interpretations
of Scripture, and metaphysical and spiritual beings. In these
interpretations and speculations, according to the Jewish doctors,
were enveloped the most profound truths of religion, which, to
be comprehended by finite beings, are obliged to be revealed through
the medium of symbols and allegories.
Buxtorf (Lexicon of the Talmud) defines
the Cabala to be a secret science, which treats in a mystical
and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelical, theological,
celestial, and metaphysical; the subjects being enveloped in striking
symbols and secret modes of teaching. Much use is made of it in
the advanced degrees, and entire Rites have been constructed on
its principles. Hence it demands a place in any general work on
Freemasonry.
In what estimation the Cabala is held by
Jewish scholars, we may learn from the traditions which they teach,
and which Doctor Ginsburg has given in his exhaustive work ( Kabbalah,
page 84) in the following words:
The Cabalah was first taught by God himself
to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school
in Paradise. After the Fall, the angels most graciously communicated
this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to furnish
the protoplasts With the means of returning to their pristine
nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then
to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt,
where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine
to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some
knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce
it into their philosophical systems.
Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom
of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth,
but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the
wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of
the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of
the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science, the lawgiver
was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management
of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and the
frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles
of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch,
but withheld them from Deuteronomy.
This constitutes the former the man, and
the latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders
into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted
them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of
tradition, David and Solomon were first initiated into the Cabalah.
No one, however, dared to write it down till Simon ben Jochai,
who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple.
Having been condemned to death by Titus, Rabbi Simon managed to
escape with his son, and concealed himself in a cavern, where
he remained for twelve years. Here in this subterranean abode,
he occupied himself entirely with the contemplation of the sublime
Cabalah, and was constantly visited by the prophet Elias, who
disclosed to him some of its secrets, which were still concealed
from the theosophical Rabbi. Here, too, his disciples resorted
to be indicated by their master into these divine mysteries, and
here Simon ben Jochai expired with this heavenly doctrine in his
mouth, whilst discoursing on it to his disciples. Scarcely had
his spirit departed, when a dazzling light filled the cavern,
so that no one could look at. the Rabbi; whilst a burning fire
appeared outside, forming as it were a sentinel at the entrance
of the cave, and denying admittance to the neighbors. It was not
till the light inside, and the fire outside, had disappeared,
that the disciples perceived that the lamp of Israel was extinguished.
As they were preparing for his obsequies,
a voice was heard from heaven, saying, " Come ye to the marriage
of Simon ben Jochai; he is entering into peace, and shall rest
in his chamber!" A flame preceded the coffin, which seemed
enveloped by and burning like fire. And when the remains were
deposited in the tomb, another voice was heard from heaven, saying,
"This is he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms
to shake! " His son, Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi
Abba, as well as his disciples, then collated Rabbi Simon ben
Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work
called Sohar, that is, Splendor, which is the grand storehouse
of Cabalism.
The Cabala is divided into two kinds, the
Practical and the Theoretieal. The Practical Cabala is occupied
in instructions for the construction of talismans and amulets,
and has no connection with Masonic science.
The Theoretical Cabala is again divided
into the Dogmatic and the Literal. The Dogmatic Cabala is the
summary of the rabbinical theosophy and philosophy.
The Literal Cabala is the science which
teaches a mystical mode of explaining sacred things by a peculiar
use of the letters of words, and a reference to their value. Each
of these divisions demands a separate attention.
I. THE DOGMATIC CABALA
The origin of the Cabala has been placed
by some scholars at a period posterior to the advent of Christianity,
but it is evident, from the traces of it which are found in the
Book of Daniel, that it arose at a much earlier day. It has been
supposed to be derived originally from the system of Zoroaster,
but whether its inventors were the contemporaries or the successors
of that philosopher and reformer it is impossible to say. The
doctrine of emanation is, says King (Gnostics, page 10), "the
soul, the essential element of the Cabala; it is likewise the
essential element of Zoroastrism. " But as we advance in
the study of each we will find important differences, showing
that, while the idea of the Cabalistic theosophy was borrowed
from the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the Persian sage, it was
not a copy, but a development of it.
The Cabalistic teaching of emanation is
best understood by an examination of the doctrine of the Sephiroth.
The Supreme Being, say the Cabalists, is an absolute and inscrutable
unity, having nothing without him and everything within him. He
is called, En Soph, meaning the Infinite one. In this infinitude
he cannot be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in words
intelligible by human minds, so as to make his existence perceptible.
It was necessary, therefore, that, to render himself comprehensible,
the En Soph should make himself active and creative. But he could
not become the direct creator ; because, being infinite, he is
without will, intention, thought, desire, or action, all of which
are qualities of a finite being only. The En Soph, therefore,
was compelled to create the world in an indirect manner, by ten
emanations from the infinite light which he was and in which he
dwelt.
These ten emanations are the ten Sephiroth,
or Splendors of the Infinite One, and the way in which they were
produced was thus: - At first the En Soph sent forth into space
one spiritual emanation. This first Sephirah is called Kether,
meaning the Crown, because it occupies the highest position. This
first Sephirah contained within it the other nine, which sprang
forth in the following order: At first a male, or active potency,
proceeded from it, and this, the second Sephirah, is called Chocmah
or Wisdom. This sent forth an opposite, female or passive potency,
named Binah or Intelligence. These three Sephiroth constitute
the first triad, and out of them proceeded the other seven.
From the junction of Wisdom and Intelligence
came the fourth Sephirah, called Chesed or Mercy. This was a male
potency, and from it emanated the fifth Sephirah, named Giburah
or Justice.
The union of Mercy and Justice produced
the sixth Sephirah, Tiphereth or Beauty; and these three constitute
the second triad. From the sixth Sephirah came forth the seventh
Sephirah, Nitzach or Firmness. This was a male potency, and produced
the female potency named Hod or Splendor. From these two proceeded
Isod or Foundation; and these three constituted the third triad
of the Sephiroth. Lastly, from the Foundation came the tenth Sephirah,
called Malcuth or Kingdom, which was at the foot of all, as the
Crown was at the top.
This division of the ten Sephiroth into
three triads was arranged into a form called by the Cabalists
the Cabalistic Tree or the Tree of Life, as shown in the diagram.
In this diagram the vertical arrangement
of the Sephiroth is called Pillars. Thus the four Sephiroth in
the center are called the Middle Pillar; the three on the right,
the Pillar of Mercy; and the three on the left, the Pillar of
Justice.
They allude to these two qualities of God,
of which the benignity of the one modifies the rigor of the other,
so that the Divine Justice is always tempered by the Divine Mercy.
C. W. King, in his Gnosties (page 12), refers the right-hand pillar
to the pillar Jachin, and the left-hand pillar to the Pillar Boaz,
which stood at the porch of the Temple; and "these two pillars",
he says, "figure largely amongst all the secret societies
of modem times, and naturally so for these Illuminati have borrowed,
without understanding it, the phraseology of the Cabalists and
the Valentinians." But an inspection of the arrangement of
the Sephiroth will show, if he is correct in his general reference,
that he has transposed the pillars. Firmness would more naturally
symbolize Boaz or strength, as Splendor would Jachin or Establishment.
These ten Sephiroth are collectively denominated
the archetypal man, the Microcosm, as the Greek philosophers called
it, and each of them refers to a particular part of the body.
Thus the Crown is the head; Wisdom, the
brain; and Intelligence, the heart, which was deemed the seat
of understanding. These three represent the intellectual; and
the first triad is therefore called the Intellectual World. Mercy
is the right arm, and Justice the left arm, and Beauty is the
chest. These three represent moral qualities; and hence the second
triad is called the Moral World. Firmness is the right leg, Splendor
the left leg, and Foundation the privates. These three represent
power and stability; and hence the third triad is called the Material
World. Lastly, Kingdom is the feet, the basis on which all stand,
and represents the harmony of the whole archetypal man. Again,
each of these Sephiroth was represented by a Divine name and by
an Angelic name, which may be thus tabulated:
Sephiroth ........ Divine Names ........
Angelic Names
Crown ............. Eheyeh .................. Chajoth
Wisdom .......... Jah ........................ Ophanim
Intelligence ..... Jehova .................. Arelin
Mercy ............. El .......................... Cashmalim
Justice ............ Eloha .................... Seraphim
Beauty ............ Elohim .................. Shinanim
Firmness ......... Jehovah Sabaoth ... Tarshishim
Splendor ......... Elohim Sabaoth .... Beni Elohim
Foundation ..... El Chai ................. Ishim
Kingdom ......... Adonai ................ Cherubim
These ten Sephiroth constitute in their
totality the Atzilatic World or the World of Emanations, and from
it proceeded three other worlds, each having also its ten Sephiroth,
namely, the Briatic World or the World of Creation; the Jetziratic
World or the World of Formation ; and the Ashiatic World or the
World of Action: each inhabited by a different order of beings.
But to enter fully upon the nature of these
various worlds would carry us too far into the obscure mysticism
of the Cabala. The ten Sephiroth, represented in their order of
ascent from the lowest to the highest, from the Foundation to
the Crown, forcibly remind us of the system of Mystical Ladders
which pervaded all the ancient as well as the modern initiations;
the Brahmanical Ladder of the Indian mysteries; the Ladder of
Mithras, used in the Persian mysteries; the Scandinavian Ladder
of the Gothic mysteries, and in the Masonic mysteries the Ladder
of Kadosh; and lastly, the Theological Ladder of the Symbolical
Degrees
II. THE LITERAL CABALA
This division of the Cabala, being, as has
already been said, occupied in the explanation of sacred words
by the value of the letters of which they are composed, has been
extensively used by the inventors of the advanced degrees in the
symbolism of their significant words. It is divided into three
species : Gematria, Notaricon, and Temura.
1. Gematria. The word, which is evidently
a rabbinical corruption of the Greek geometric, is defined by
Buxtorf to be "a species of the Cabala which collects the
same sense of different words from their equal numerical value."
The Hebrews, like other ancient nations, having no figures in
their language, made use of the letters of their alphabet instead
of numbers, each having a numerical value. Gematria, is therefore,
a mode of contemplating words according to the numerical value
of their letters.
Any two words, the letters of which have
the same numerical value, are mutually convertible, and each is
supposed to contain the latent signification of the other.
Thus the words in Genesis xlix, 10, "Shiloh
shall come," are supposed to contain a prophecy of the Messiah,
because the letters of ''Shiloh shall come, " and of "Messiah,"
both have the numerical value of 358, according to the above table.
By Gematria, applied to the Greek language,
we find the identity of Abraxas and Mithras, the letters of each
word having in the Greek alphabet the equal value of 365. This
is by far the most common mode of applying the literal Cabala.
2. Notaricon is derived from the Latin notarius
a shorthand writer or writer in cipher. The Roman Notarii were
accustomed to use single letters, to signify whole words with
other methods of abbreviation, by marks called notae. Hence, among
the Cabalists, notaricon is a mode constructing one word out of
the initials or finals of many, or a sentence out of the letters
of a word, each letter being used as the initial of another word.
Thus of the sentence in Deuteronomy xxx, 12, "Who shall go
up for us to heaven?" in Hebrew, the initial letters of each
word are taken to form the word circumcision, and the finals to
form Jehovah; hence it is concluded that Jehovah hath shown circumcision
to be the way to heaven. Again : the six letters of the first
word in Genesis, ''in the beginning, " are made use of to
form the initials of six words which constitute a sentence signifying
that "In the beginning God saw that Israel would accept the
law,"
3. Temura is a rabbinical word which signifies
permutation. Hence temura is a Cabalistic result produced by a
change or permutation of the letters of a word.
Sometimes the letters are transposed to
form another word, as in the modern anagram ; and sometimes the
letters are changed for others, according to certain fixed rules
of alphabetical permutation, the first letter being placed for
the twenty-second the second for the twenty-first, the third for
the twentieth, and so on. It is in this way that Babel, is made
out of Sheshach, and hence the Cabalists say that when Jeremiah
used the word Sheshach, xxv, 26, he referred to Babel.
CABALISTIC COMPANION
A degree found in the archives of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophical Rite of France.
CABIRI, or CABEIRI.
A group of minor Greek, deities
(the name signifying great Gods) having the protection of sailors
and vessels at sea. Worshipped at Lemnos, Samothrace, Thessalia,
Bocotia, etc., as early as the fifth century. Initiation into
their mysteries portrayed passage through death to a higher live.
Many of the ancient deities believed to have been members of the
Cabiri such as Pluto, proserpine, Mercury, the sons of Vulcan,
the sons of Jupiter, etc. (see An Encyclopedia of occultism, Lewis
Spence, New York, 1920, page 83).
CABIRIC MYSTERIES
The Cabiri were gods who' worship was first
established in the island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries
were practiced. The gods called the Cabiri were originally two,
and afterward four, in number, and are supposed by Bryant (Analysis
of Ancient Mythology, iii, 342) to have referred to Noah and his
three sons, the Cabiric Mysteries being a modification of the
arkite worship.
In these mysteries there was a ceremony
called the "Cabiric Death," in which was represented
amid the groans and tears and subsequent rejoicing of the initiates,
the death and restoration to life of Cadmillus, the youngest of
the Cabiri. The legend recorded that he was slain by his three
Brethren, who afterward fled with his virile parts in a mystic
basket. His body was crowned with flowers, and was buried at the
foot of Mount Olympus. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the legend
as the sacred mystery of a brother slain by his brethren, or in
the original as frater trucidatus à fratribus.
There is much perplexity connected with
the subject of these mysteries, but it is generally supposed that
they were instituted in honor of Atys, the son of Cybele or Demeter,
of whom Cadmillus was but another name. According to Macrobius,
Atys was one of the appellations of the sun, and we know that
the mysteries were celebrated at the vernal equinox. They lasted
three days, during which they represented in the person of Atys,
or Cadmillus, the enigmatical death of the sun in winter, and
his regeneration in the spring. In all probability, in the initiation,
the candidate passed through a drama, the subject of which , was
the violent death of Atys. The Cabiric Death was, in fact, a type
of the Hiramic, and the legend, so far as it can be understood
from the faint allusions of ancient authors, was very analogous
in spirit and design to that of the Third Degree of Freemasonry.
Many persons annually resorted to Samothrace
to be initiated into the celebrated mysteries, among whom are
mentioned Cadmus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Ulysses. Jamblichus says,
in his Life of Pythagoras, that from those of Lemnos that sage
derived much of his wisdom. The mysteries of the Cabiri were much
respected among the common people, and great care was taken in
their concealment. The priests made use of a language peculiar
to the Rites. The mysteries were in existence at Samothrace as
late as the eighteenth year of the Christian era, at which time
the Emperor Germanicus embarked for that island, to be initiated,
but was prevented from accomplishing his purpose by adverse winds.
CABLE TOW
The word tow signifies, properly, a line
wherewith to draw. Richardson (Dictionary) defines it as "
The word is purely Masonic, and in some writings of the early
part of the eighteenth century we find the expression cable rope.
Prichard so uses it in 1730. The German word for a cable or rope
is kabeltauw, and thence our cable tow is probably derived.
In its first inception, the cable tow seems
to have been used only as a physical means of controlling the
candidate, and such an interpretation is still given in the Entered
Apprentice's Degree. But in the Second and Third Degrees a more
modern symbolism has been introduced, and the cable tow is in
these grades supposed to symbolize the covenant by which all Freemasons
are tied, thus reminding us of the passage in Hosea (xi, 4), "1
drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love."
CABLE TOW'S LENGTH
Gädieke says that, "according
to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend
his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow." The
old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes
called a cable's length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice.
But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by
the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable
ability.
CABUL
A district containing twenty cities which
Solomon gave to Hiram, King of Tyre, for his assistance in the
construction of the Temple. Clark (Commentary and Critical Notes)
thinks it likely that they were not given to Hiram so that they
should be annexed to his Tyrian dominions, but rather to be held
as security for the money which he had advanced.
This, however, is merely conjectural. The
district containing them is placed by Josephus in the northwest
part of Galilee, adjacent to Tyre. Hiram does not appear to have
been satisfied with the gift ; why, is uncertain. Kitto thinks
because they were not situated on the coast. A Masonic legend
says because they were ruined and dilapidated villages, and in
token of his dissatisfaction, Hiram called the district Cabul.
The meaning of this word is not known. Josephus, probably by conjecture
from the context, says it means unpleasing. Hiller and, after
him, Bates (Dictionary) suppose that the name is derived from
a combination of letters meaning as and nothing. The Talmudic
derivation from "tied with fetters", is described by
Brother Mackey as Talmudically childish. The dissatisfaction of
Hiram and its results constitute the subject of the legend of
the Degree of Intimate Secretary in the Scottish Rite.
CADET-GASSICOURT, CHARLES LOUIS
The author of the celebrated work entitled
Le Tombeau de Jacques de Molay, which was published at Paris,
in 1796, and in which he attempted, like Barmel and Robison, to
show that Freemasonry was the source and instigator of all the
political revolutions which at that time were convulsing Europe.
Cadet-Gassicourt was himself the victim of political persecution,
and, erroneously attributing his sufferings to the influences
of the Masonic Lodges in France, became incensed against the Order,
and this gave birth to his libelous book. But subsequent reflection
led him to change his views, and he became an ardent admirer of
the Institution which he had formerly maligned. He sought initiation
into Freemasonry, and in 1805 was elected as Master of the Lodge
l'Abeille in Paris. He was born at Paris. January 23, 1769, and
died in the same city November 21, 1821.
CADMILLUS
The youngest of the Cabiri, and as he is
slain in the Cabiric Mysteries, he becomes the analogue or representative
of the Builder in the legend of Freemasonry. '
CADUCEUS
The Caduceus was the magic wand of the god
Hermes. It was an olive staff twined with fillets, which were
gradually converted to wings and serpents. Hermes, or Mercury,
was the messenger of Jove. Among his numerous attributes, one
of the most important was that of conducting disembodied spirits
to the other world, and, on necessary occasions, of bringing them
back. He was the guide of souls, and the restorer of the dead
to life.
Thus, Horace, in addressing him, says:
Unspotted spirits you consign
To blissful seats and joys divine,
And powerful with your golden wand
The light unburied crowd command.
Vergil also alludes to this attribute of
the magic wand
when he is describing the flight of
Mercury on his way to bear Jove's warning message to Aeneas:
His wand he takes ; with this pale ghost he calls
From Pluto's realms, or sends to Tartarus' shore.
And Statius, imitating this passage, makes
the same allusion in his Thebaid (1, 314), thus translated by
Lewis:
He grasps the wand which draws from hollow graves,
Or drives the trembling shades to Stygian waves ;
With magic power seals the watchful eye
In slumbers soft or causes sleep to fly.
The history of this Caduceus, or magic wand,
will lead us to its symbolism. Mercury, who had invented the lyre,
making it out of the shell of the tortoise, exchanged it with
Apollo for the latter's magical wand. This wand was simply an
olive branch around which were placed two fillets of ribbon. Afterward,
when Mercury was in Arcadia, he encountered two serpents engaged
in deadly combat. These he separated with his wand; hence the
olive wand became the symbol of peace, and the two fillets were
replaced by the two serpents, thus giving to the Caduceus its
well-known form of a staff, around which two serpents are entwined.
Such is the legend; but we may readily see
that in the olive, as the symbol of immortality, borne as the
attribute of Mercury, the giver of life to the dead, we have a
more ancient and profounder symbolism. The serpents, symbols also
of immortality, are appropriately united with the olive wand.
The legend also accounts for a later and secondary symbolism-that
of peace.
The Caduceus then-the original meaning of
which word is a herald's staff-as the attribute of a life-restoring
God, is in its primary. meaning the symbol of immortality; so
in Freemasonry the rod of the Senior Deacon, or the Master of
Ceremonies, is but an analogue or representation of the Hermean
Caduceus. This officer, as leading the aspirant through the forms
of initiation into his new birth or Masonic regeneration, and
teaching him in the solemn ceremonies of the Third Degree the
lesson of eternal life, may well use the magic wand as a representation
of it, which was the attribute of that ancient deity who brought
the dead into life.
CAEMENTARIUS
Latin. A builder of walls, a mason, from
caemantum, a rough, unhewn stone as it comes from the quarry.
In medieval Latin, the word is used to designate an Operative
Mason.
Du Cange cites Magister Caementariorum as
used to designate him who presided over the building of edifices,
that is, the Master of the works. It has been adopted by some
modern writers as a translation of the word Freemason. Its employment
for that purpose is perhaps more correct than that of the more
usual word latomus, which owes its use to the authority of Thory.
CAGLIOSTRO IN ANTIQUITY
Beginning on page 170 is down in more than
needed volume the wretched story of Cagliostro, and now that this
glossy charlatan, the gold frogs on his clothes and the self-invented
title on his visiting card , has become a ghost in which no living
interest remains there would be no warrant to add further facts
to a surfeit of facts were it not that the article on page 170
does not contain one fact which was not available before Bros.
Rylands and Firebrace published their great two-volume history
of the Lodge of Antiquity.
This fact is important, and is here emphasized
as such, because it sets the records straight as regards what
regular Freemasonry felt about Cagliostro When Cagliastro was
bodily present.
Because he had been made a Mason in a French
speaking Lodge in London (see page 170) Cagliostro felt he had
the right to visit Antiquity, and did so on the night of Nov.
1, 1786. This year fell in that (for Antiquity ) unhappy period
when there were two Antiquity Lodges; one under the leadership
of William Preston and comprising the larger and most solid portion
of the membership and which was acting as head of the Grand Lodge
of all England South of the River Trent; the other "the Northouck
Lodge," so-called from the leader who had occasioned the
division. Cagliostro was accompanied by a train of his friends,
some of them, had only the Brethren known it at the time, not
regular Masons but members of Cagliostro's Clandestine Egyptian
Rite, which he had invented as a scheme for exploiting Masons,
and made, up, as were his other claims and titles, out of his
own head. A newspaper reported the meeting, in substance, thus:
A few at least among "Northouck's members" resented
the charlatan's presence, and one of them, Bro. Marsh, found ingenious
means of saving his Lodge from a compromising and embarrassing
contretemps.
Bro. Marsh, called upon for a song, with
a devilishly witty ingenuity substituted an act, which portrayed
a "traveling physician" (a quack) and played it out
at Cagliostro's elbow. The effect was devastating; the audience
(except for the visitors) was in an uproar of laughter. Cagliostro
withdrew.
This was a cartoon in prose, and the Lodge
passed a formal Resolution to condemn it as a misrepresentation.
What actually occurred in the Meeting the Minums do not tell,
but whatever it was the "Count's" prestige, gold frogs
and all, was ruined Masonically.
(The Trowbridge book referred to on page 171
continues to be among the best-read, but to it may be added other
titles: Romantic Rascals, by Charles J. Finger; MacBride; New
York. Count Cagliostro, by Constantin Photiades; Rider & Co.
; 1932. Le Matre Inconnu Cagliostro, by Dr. Marc Haven; Dorbon-Aire;
Paris; a very elaborate bibliography. See Vol. II, by Firebrace,
in Records of the Lodge of Anliquily.)
Aside from manufacturing his spurious Egyptian
Rite, Cagliostro had no part in regular Freemasonry except to
join a French-speaking London Lodge. What the Inquisition found
out about him nobody knows, but the trial itself shocked France
by exposing the sinister methods still in use by the Roman hierarchy,
and in its total effects, and as precipitating a nation-wide social
crisis, ranks with the Dreyfus, Rasputin (Russian), and Taxil
cases. Dumas wrote a novel about Cagliostro in The Diamond Necklace;
and Frank King collects a number of illuminating facts in The
Last of the Sorcerers. To a Masonic community as far from Paris
as is American Masonry there is not much of either profit or comfort
in the case, unless it be that at this distance it lays a red
underline beneath the danger confronting any Masonic Jurisdictions
which permit degree making and degree mongering, disguised as
Masonry, to go unchecked or unchallenged. Bro. Marsh's performance
was a commentary not altogether malapropos.
CAGLIOSTRO
Of all the Masonic persons of romantic celebrity
who flourished in the eighteenth century the Count Cagliostro
was most prominent, whether we consider the ingenuity of his schemes,
the extensive field of his operations through almost every country
of Europe, or the distinguished character and station of many
of those whose credulity made them his enthusiastic supporters.
The history of Freemasonry in that century would not be complete
without a reference to this personage. To write the history of
Freemasonry in the eighteenth century and to leave out Cagliostro,
would be like enacting the play of Hamlet and leaving out the
part of the Prince of Denmark. And yet Carlyle has had occasion
to complain of the paucity of materials for such a work.
Indeed, of one so well known as Cagliostro
comparatively little is to be found in print. Doctor Mackey held
that there was sufficient published to prove him to be a "charlatan"
and a "prince of Masonic impostors."
The authorities on which Brother Mackey
rested his belief are mentioned in his following sentence. The
only works upon which he who would write his life must depend
are a Life of him published in London, 1787; Memoirs, in Paris,
1786 ; and Memoirs Authentiques, Strasbourg, 1786; a Life, in
Germany, published at Berlin, 1787; another in Italian, published
at Rome in 1791; and a few fugitive pieces, consisting chiefly
of manifestoes of himself and his disciples. The widest differences
exist among writers as to Cagliostro's true standing, the majority
following the lead of Doctor Mackey, whose account is appended.
Joseph Balsamo, subsequently known as Count
Cagliostro, was the son of Peter Balsamo and Felicia Braconieri,
both of mean extraction, and was born on the 8th of June, 1743,
in the city of Palermo. Upon the death of his father, he was taken
under the protection of his maternal uncles, who caused him to
be instructed in the elements of religion and learning, by both
of which he profited so little that he eloped several times from
the Seminary of St. Roch, near Palermo, where he had been placed
for his instruction.
At the age of thirteen he was carried to
the Convent of the Good Brotherhood at Castiglione. There, having
assumed the habit of a novice, he was placed under the tuition
of the apothecary, from whom he learned the principles of chemistry
and medicine. His brief residence at the convent was marked by
violations of many of its rules; and finally, abandoning it altogether,
he returned to Palermo. There he continued his vicious courses,
and was frequently seized and imprisoned for infractions of the
law. At length, having cheated a goldsmith, named Marano, of a
large amount of gold, he was compelled to flee from his native
country.
He then repaired to Messina, where he became
acquainted with one Altotas, who pretended to be a great chemist.
Together they proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, where, by means
of certain chemical, or perhaps rather by financial, operations,
they succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of money.
In 1776 Cagliostro appeared in London. During
this visit, Cagliostro become connected with the Order of Freemasonry.
In the month of April he received the degrees in Esperance Lodge,
No. 289, which then met at the King's Head Tavern. Cagliostro
did not join the Order with disinterested motives, or at least
he determined in a very short period after his initiation to use
the Institution as an instrument for the advancement of his personal
interests. Here he is said to have invented, in 1777, that grand
scheme of imposture under the name of Egyptian Freemasonry, by
the propagation of which he subsequently became so famous as the
great Masonic charlatan of his age.
London did not fail to furnish him with
a fertile field for his impositions, and the English Freemasons
seemed no way reluctant to become his dupes; but, being ambitious
for the extension of his Rite, and anxious for the greater income
which it promised, he again passed over to the Continent, where
he justly anticipated abundant success in its propagation. This
Egypt Freemasonry constituted the great pursuit of the rest of
his life, and was the instrument which he used for many years
to make dupes of thousands of credulous persons.
During Cagliostro's residence in England,
on his last visit, he was attacked by the editor Morand, in the
Courier de l'Europe, in a series of abusive articles, to which
Cagliostro replied in a letter to the English people. But, although
he had a few Egyptian Lodges in London under his government, he
appears, perhaps from Morand's revelations of his character and
life, to have lost his popularity, and he left England permanently
in May, 1787. He went to Savoy, Sardinia, and other places in
the south of Europe, and at last, in May, 1789, by an act of rash
temerity, proceeded to Rome, where he organized an Egyptian Lodge
under the very shadow of , the Vatican. But this was more than
the Church, which had been excommunicating Freemasons for fifty
years, was willing to endure. On the 27th of December of that
year, on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, to whom he had
dedicated his Lodges, the Holy Inquisition arrested him, and locked
him up in the castle of San Angelo.
There, after such a trial as the Inquisition
is wont to give to the accused-in which his wife is said to have
been the principal witness against him-he was convicted of having
formed'' societies and conventicles of Freemasonry." His
manuscript entitled Maçonnerie Egyptienne was ordered to
be burned by the public executioner, and he himself was condemned
to death; a sentence which the Pope subsequently commuted for
that of perpetual imprisonment. Cagliostro appealed to the French
Constituent Assembly, but of course in vain.
Thenceforth no more is seen of him. For
four years this adventurer, who had filled during his life so
large a space in the world's history-the associate of princes,
prelates, and philosophers; the inventor of a spurious Rite, which
had, however, its thousands of disciples-languished within the
gloomy walls of the prison of St. Leo, in the Duchy of Urbino,
and at length, in the year 1795, in a fit of apoplexy, bade the
world adieu. But there is another side to the foregoing account
by Doctor Mackey. Some more recent writers have seriously questioned
the identity of Cagliostro and Balsamo.
Both Trowbridge and Spence deem the later
evidence to have proven that Cagliostro was not Balsamo. Lewis
Spenee sums up the situation thus in his Encyclopedia of Occultism
after a lengthy review of the various assertions of the authorities
and the test of them by the ascertained facts:
"It is distinctly no easy matter to get at the bedrock truth
regarding Cagliostro or to form any just estimate of his true
character. That he was vain, naturally pompous, fond of theatrical
mystery, and of the popular side of occultism, is most probable.
Another circumstance which stands out in
relation to his personality is that he was vastly desirous of
gaining cheap popularity. He was probably a little mad. On the
other hand he was beneficent, and felt it his mission in the then
king-ridden state of Europe to found Egyptian Masonry for the
protection of society in general, and the middle and lower classes
in particular. A born adventurer, he was by no means a rogue,
as his lack of shrewdness has been proved on many occasions. There
is small question either that the various Masonic lodges which
he founded and which were patronized by persons of ample means,
provided him with extensive funds and it is a known fact that
he was subsidized by several extremely wealthy men, who, themselves
dissatisfied by the state of affairs in Europe, did not hesitate
to place their riches at his disposal for the purpose of undermining
the tyrannic powers which then wielded sway.
There is reason to believe that he had in
some way and at some period of his life acquired a certain working
knowledge of practical occultism, and that he possessed certain
elementary psychic powers of hypnotism and telepathy. His absurd
account of his childhood is almost undoubtedly a plagiarism of
that stated in the first manifesto to the public of the mysterious
Rosicrucian Brotherhood, as containing an account of the childhood
of their Chief. But on the whole he is a mystery, and in all likelihood
the clouds which surround his origin and earlier years will never
be dispersed. It is probably better that this should be so, as
although Cagliostro was by no means an exalted character, he was
yet one of the most picturesque figures in the later history of
Europe; and assuredly not the least aid to his picturesqueness
is the obscurity in which his origin is involved."
For further reading on the career of Cagliostro,
a showing to the effect that if he was not of unalloyed honor,
he was not altogether an impostor and scoundrel, consult Cagliostro:
The Splendor and Mystery of a Master of Magic by W. R H, Trowbridge,
and An Encyclopedia of Occukism by Lewis Spence.
Other books of reference are Cagliostro
and Company, by Franz Funck-Brentano, and the Life of Joseph Balsamo,
published at Dublin in 1792, the latter being translated from
the original proceedings published at Rome by order of the Apostolic
Chamber and therefore of especial interest as the Roman Catholic
argument against one condemned by the Inquisition for being a
Freemason. This report (page 239), asserts that the judgment entirely
accords with justice, equity, prudence, religion, and public tranquillity.
It then runs thus: "Joseph Balsamo,
attainted and convected of many crimes, and having incurred the
censures and penalties pronounced against formal heretics, dogmatists,
heresiarchs, and propagators of magic and superstition, has been
found guilty, and condemned to the censures and penalties denounced
as well by the apostolic laws of Clement XII and of Benedict XIV
against those who in any manner whatever favor or form societies
and conventicles of Free Masons, as by the edict of the Council
of State against those who are guilty of this crime at Rome, or
any other place under the dominion of the Pope.
Notwithstanding this, by way of special
grace and favor, this crime, the expiation of which demands the
delivery of the culprit over to the secular arm, to be by it punished
with death, is hereby changed and commuted into perpetual imprisonment,
in a fortress where the culprit is to be strictly guarded, without
any hope of pardon whatever."
This order was carried into effect as was
also the burning by "the hand of the hangman" of Cagliostro's
manuscript on Egyptian Freemasonry as were all his other books,
instruments, symbols, etc., relating thereto. The order also confirmed
and renewed the laws of the Roman Catholic Church prohibiting
societies and conventicles of Freemasons, and winds up by declaring
"We shall enact the most grievous corporal punishments, and
principally those provided for heresies, against whosoever shall
associate, hold communication with, or protect, these societies."
CAHIER
French. A number of sheets of parchment
or paper fastened together at one end. The word is used by French
Freemasons to designate a small book printed, or in manuscript,
containing the ritual of a Degree. The word has been borrowed
from French history, where it denotes the reports and proceedings
of certain assemblies, such as the clergy, the States-General,
etc.
CAIRNS
Derived from the Gaelic can, meaning a mound,
and applied thus to heaps of stones of a conical form erected
by the Druids. Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments,
others altars. They were undoubtedly of a religious character,
since sacrificial fires were lighted upon them, and processions
were made around them.
These processions were analogous to the
circumambulations in Freemasonry, and were conducted, like them,
with reference to the apparent course of the sun. Thus, Toland,
in his Letters on the Celtic Religion, II, xvii, says of these
mystical processions, that the people of the Scottish islands
"never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing
Cams but they walk three times round them from east to west, according
to the course of the sun. This sanctified tour, or round by the
south, is called Deaseal, as the unhallowed contrary one by the
north, Tuapholl"; and he says that Deaseal is derived from
"Deas, the right (understanding hand), and soil, one of the
ancient names of the sun, the right hand in this round being ever
next the heap." In all this the Freemason will be reminded
of the Masonic ceremony of circumambulation around the altar and
the rules which govern it.
CALATRAVA, MILITARY ORDER OF
Instituted 1158, during the reign of Sancho
III, King of Castile, who conquered and gave the Castle of Calatrava,
an important fortress of the Moors of Andalusia, to the Knights
Templar, who subsequently relinquished their possession of it
to the king.
The king, being disappointed in the ability
of the Templars to retain it, then offered the defense of the
place to Don Raymond of Navarre, Abbot of St. Mary of Hitero,
a Cistercian convent, who accepted it. Don Raymond being successful,
the king gave the place to him and his companions, and instituted
the Order of Calatrava. A Grand Master was appointed and approved
of by the Pope, Alexander III, 1164, which was confirmed by Innocent
III in 1198.
The knights had been granted the power of
electing their own Grand Master; but on the death of Don Gareias
Lopez de Pardella, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella annexed the Grand
Mastership to the Crown of Castile, which was sanctioned by Pope
Innocent VIII.
CALCOTT, WELLINS
A distinguished Masonic writer of the eighteenth
century, and the author of a work published in 1769, under the
title of A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices
of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted
Masons; together with some Strictures on the Origin, Nature, and
Design of that Institution, in which he has traced Freemasonry
from its origin, explained its symbols and hieroglyphics, its
social virtues and advantages, suggested the propriety of building
halls for the peculiar and exclusive practice of Freemasonry and
reprehended its slanderers with great but judicious severity.
This was the first extended effort to illustrate
philosophically the science of Freemasonry, and was followed,
a few years after, by Hutchinson's admirable work ; so that Oliver
justly says that ''Calcott opened the mine of Freemasonry, and
Hutchinson worked it."
CALEDONIA, NEW
See Oceania
CALENDAR
Freemasons, in affixing dates to their official
documents, never make use of the Common Epoch or Vulgar Era, but
have one peculiar to themselves, which, however, varies in the
different rites. Era and epoch are, in this sense, synonymous.
Strictly, the epoch is an important point
in history beginning a period termed an era, as the epoch of the
Crucifixion followed by the Christian Era.
Freemasons of the York, American, and French
Rites, that is to say, the Freemasons of England, Scotland, Ireland,
France, Germany, and America, date from the creation of the world,
calling it Anno Lucis, which they abbreviate A. . L. ., signifying
in the Year of Light. Thus with them the year 1872 is A.'. L.'.
5872. This they do, not because they believe Freemasonry to be
coeval with the Creation, but with a symbolic reference to the
light of Freemasonry.
In the Scottish Rite, the epoch also begins
from the date of the creation, but Freemasons of that Rite, using
the Jewish chronology, would call the year 1872 A.'. M.'. or Anno
Mundi meaning in the Year of the World, 5632. They sometimes use
the initials A.'. H. '., signifying Anno Hebraico, or, in the
Hebrew year.
They have also adopted the Hebrew months,
and the year, therefore, begins with them in the middle of September
(see Months, Hebrew).
Freemasons of the York and American Rites
begin the year on the 1st of January, but in the French Rite it
commences on the 1st of March, and instead of the months receiving
their usual names, they are designated numerically, as first,
second, third, etc. Thus, the 1st of January, 1872, would be styled,
in a French Masonic document, the 1st day of the 11th Masonic
month, Anno Lucis, 5872. The French sometimes, instead of the
initials A.'. L.'., use L'an de la V.'. L. '., or Vraie Lumiére,
that is, Year of True Light.
Royal Arch Masons commence their epoch with
the year in which Zerubbabel began to build the second Temple,
which was 530 years before Christ.
Their style for the year 1872 is, therefore,
A.'. Inv.'., that is, Anno Inventionis, or, in the Year of the
Discovery, 2402.
Royal and Select Masters very often make
use of the common Masonic date, Anno Lucis, but properly they
should date from the year in which Solomon's Temple was completed;
and their style would then be, Anna Depositionis, or, in the Year
of the Deposit, and they would date the year 1872 as 2872.
Knights Templar use the epoch of the organization
of their Order in 1118. Their style for the year 1872 is A.'.
O.'., Anno 0rdinis, or, in the Year of the 0rder, 754.
We subjoin, for the convenience of reference,
the rules for discovering these different dates.
l. To find the Ancient Craft date. Add 4000
to the Vulgar Era. Thus 1872 and 4000 are 5872.
2. To find the date of the Scottish Rite. Add 3760 to the Vulgar
Era. Thus 1872 and 3760 are 5632. After September add one year
more.
3. To find the date of Royal Arch Masonry. Add 530 to the Vulgar
Era. Thus 530 and 1872 are 2402.
4. To find the Royal and Select Masters' date. Add 1000 to the
Vulgar Era. Thus 1000 and 1872 are 2872.
5. To find the Knights Templar's. Subtract 1118 from the Vulgar
Era. Thus 1118 from 1872 is 754. The following will show, in one
view, the date of the year 1872 in all the branches of the Order:
Year of the Lord, 1872 A.D.-Vulgar Era.
Year of Light, A.'. L.'. 5872-Ancient Craft Masonry.
Year of the World, A.'. M.'. 5632-Scottish Rite.
Year of the Discovery, A.'. L.'. 2402-Royal Arch Masonry.
Year of the Deposit, A.'. Dep.'. 2872-Royal and Select Masters.
Year of the Order, A.'. O.'. 754-Knights Templar.
CALENDARS, MASONIC
The calendars given on page 172 ff. are
in use by modern bodies of Speculative Freemasonry, and the datings
are self-confessedly of modern origin. They are based on the date
of the Creation as 4004 B.C. as written into the margin of the
Authorized Version of the Bible by Archbishop Usher in 1611. This
date had been nowhere in general use prior to that time, and afterwards
was never accepted by many chronologists. A work of encyclopedic
informativeness on the calendars in use during the whole of the
Operative and the Transition Periods of Freemasonry is Mediaeval
Kalendarium, by R. F. Hampton, two volumes; London; 1841. It covers
the Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries. In a period before calendars
and almanacs came into general use it was widely employed as a
handbook on matters of many kinds which have to do with the calendar.
It contains much folklore; many pages on the Sts. John, lists
of Saints' Days; and, as illustrative of what was said above,
gives in one chapter a long list of the estimates of the date
of Creation as computed by authorities at different times, among
them being: Scaliger, 3950 B.C.; Petavius, 3984 B.C.; Ricciola,
4063 B.C.; Eusebius, 5200 B.C.; Alphonsine Tables, 6934 B.C.
There is no evidence to show that Operative
Masons ever adopted a given date, or ever found use for one; moreover
they had scarcely any conception of such a thing as a calendar,
but fixed dates by reference to Saints' Days, Church festivals,
the reign of Kings, and memorable local events-a flood, a fire,
a battle, etc.
CALIFORNIA
When gold was discovered in California many
Masonic Brethren were among the crowds that poured into the district
and several Lodges began work in the early part of the year 1848.
Soon the question of establishing a Grand Lodge arose. A Convention
met on April 18, 1850, of which Brother Charles Gilman of San
Francisco was the Chairman and Brother Benjamin D. Hyam of Benicia
was Secretary. The Lodges represented were California Lodge, No.
13, of San Francisco; Connecticut Lodge, No. 75, of Sacramento
City ; Western Star Lodge, No. 98, of Benton City, Upper California,
and New Jersey Lodge of Sacramento City. Brother Benjamin D. Hyam
presented credentials from Benicia Lodge, at Benicia, but, as
no Masonic information of the existence of such a Lodge could
be discovered, it was not recognized. On April 19, a Constitution
was adopted and Grand Officers duly elected and installed.
The first Chapter of Royal Arch Masons,
namely, San Francisco, No. l, was organized by Dispensation dated
May 9, 1850, and a Charter was granted to it, September 13, in
the same year. Three Chapters, San Francisco, No. l, Sonora, No.
2, and Sacramento, No. 3, sent delegates to a Convention held
on May 6, 1854, at Sacramento for the purpose of organizing a
Grand Chapter. The meeting was adjourned, after three days' session,
and met again at San Francisco, July 18, 1854. A Constitution
was adopted and the Grand Lodge opened. Companion Charles M. Radeliff,
of Sonora Chapter, No. 2, was the first Grand High Priest; Companion
John D. Creigh, of San Francisco, No. l, Deputy Grand High Priest,
and Companion Townsend A. Thomas, of Sacramento Chapter, No. 3,
Grand Secretary.
Charters were granted by the Grand Council
of Alabama to two Councils in California. One was chartered by
the Grand Council of Tennessee and one by the Grand Council of
Texas. By representatives of these four Councils the Grand Council
of California was organized on June 26, 1860.
A Commandery of Knights Templar, San Francisco,
No. l, was formed on November 10, 1852, and was chartered on November
1, 1853. Under the Warrant of Sir William Hubbard, who was then
Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, the
Grand Commandery of California was established, August 10 and
11, 1858, in the Asylum of San Francisco Commandery, No. 1.
A Lodge of Perfection, King Solomon, No.
3, was established by a Charter dated January 3, 1866; Robert
Bruce, No. 3, a Chapter of Rose Croix, January 13, 1886; Hugues
de Payens, Council of Kadosh, No. 3, January 7, 1886, and Los
Angeles Consistory, No. 3, October 22, 1888. These four Bodies
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite labored in South California.
In North California a Chapter of Rose Croix and a Lodge of Perfection,
both by name San Francisco, No. l, were chartered in 1868, the
first on June 15, the second on July 13. A Council of Kadosh and
a Consistory, also of the same name, were granted Charters on
September 17, 1868, and June 30, 1897, respectively.
CALIPH OF BAGDAD, THE
This most Widely-read of Masonic novels
was written by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. He was born at Waterville, Maine
(the native State of a score of eminent Masons), June 5, 1823,
the first of nine children. He moved to Malden, Mass., where his
father was Universalist pastor, and a friend of Bro. Hosea Ballou,
and lived there ten years ; in 1838 he moved to Waltham, Mass.,
from which, in 1841, he joined the Navy. Returned, he took up
journalism, and for forty years was on the staff of the New York
Ledger, an old-fashioned newspaper which published stories and
essays. He was made a Mason in Oxford Lodge, Norway, Me., in 1854,
and was its Worshipful Master five times. He was exalted in 1859;
Knighted in Boston in 1872, and in 1874 was made 32 in the same
city. He published three Masonic stories in the New York Ledger
in 1858-1874. Sea stories, Oriental stories, Masonic stories,
and religious stories were his forte. A new edition of the Caliph
of Bagdad was published by Geo. H. Doran; New York.
CALLING OFF
A technical term in Freemasonry which signifies
the temporary suspension of labor in a Lodge without passing through
the formal ceremony of closing. The full form of the expression
is to call from labor to refreshment, and it took its rise from
the former custom of dividing the time spent in the Lodge between
the work of Freemasonry and the moderate enjoyment of the banquet.
The banquet formed in the eighteenth century an indispensable
part of the arrangements of a Lodge Communication. "At a
certain hour of the evening," says Brother Oliver, "with
certain ceremonies, the Lodge was called from labor to refreshment,
when the Brethren enjoyed themselves with decent merriment."
That custom no longer exists; and although in England almost always,
and in the United States occasionally, the labors of the Lodge
are concluded with a banquet; yet the Lodge is formally closed
before the Brethren proceed to the table of refreshment.
Calling off in American Lodges is now only
used, in a certain ceremony of the Third Degree, when it is desired
to have another meeting at a short interval, and the Master desires
to avoid the tediousness of dosing and opening the Lodge.
Thus, if the business of the Lodge at its
regular meeting has so accumulated that it cannot be transacted
in one evening, it has become the custom to call off until a subsequent
evening, when the Lodge, instead of being opened with the usual
ceremony, is simply "called on," and the latter meeting
is considered as only a continuation of the former.
This custom is very generally adopted in
Grand Lodges at their Annual Communications, which are opened
at the beginning of the session, called off from day to day, and
finally closed at its end. We do not know that any objection has
ever been advanced against this usage in Grand Lodges, because
it seems necessary as a substitute for the adjournment, which
is resorted to in other legislative bodies, but which is not admitted
in Freemasonry. But much discussion has taken place in reference
to the practice of calling off in Lodges, some authorities sustaining
and others condemning it. Thus, many years ago, the Committee
of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi proposed this
question : ''In case of excess of business, cannot the unfinished
be laid over until the next or another day, and must the Lodge
be closed in form, and opened the next, or the day designated
for the transaction of that business?" To this question some
authorities, and among others Brother C. W. Moore (Freemasons
Monthly Magazine, volume xii, No,10), reply in the negative, while
other equally good jurists differ from them in opinion.
The difficulty seems to be in this, that if the regular meeting
of the Lodge is closed in form, the subsequent meeting becomes
a special one, and many things which could be done at a regular
communication cease to be admissible. The recommendation, therefore,
of Brother Moore, that the Lodge should be closed, and, if the
business be unfinished, that the Master shall call a special meeting
to complete it, does not meet the difficulty, because it is a
well settled principle of Masonic law that a special meeting cannot
interfere with the business of a preceding regular one. As, then,
the mode of briefly closing by adjournment is contrary to Masonic
law and usage, and cannot, therefore, be resorted to, as there
is no other way except by calling off to continue the character
of a regular meeting, and as, during the period that the Lodge
is called off, it is under the government of the Junior Warden,
and Masonic discipline is thus continued, Doctor Mackey, for the
reasons cited by him in regard to Brother Moore, was clearly of
opinion that calling off from day to day for the purpose of continuing
work or business is, as a matter of convenience, admissible.
The practice may indeed be abused. But there
is a well-known legal maxim which says, Ez abusu non arguitur
in usum. "No argument can be drawn from the abuse of a thing
against its use. " Thus, a Lodge cannot be called off except
for continuance of work and business, nor to an indefinite day,
for there must be a good reason for the exercise of the practice,
and the Brethren present must be notified before dispersing of
the time of reassembling; nor can a Lodge at one regular meeting
be called off until the next, for no regular meeting of a Lodge
is permitted to run into another, but each must be closed before
its successor can be opened.
CALLING ON
When a Lodge that is called off at a subsequent
time resumes work or business, it is said to be called on. The
full expression is called on from refreshment to labor.
CALUMNY
See Back
CALVARY
Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence,
situated due west from Mount Moriah, on which the Temple of Solomon
was built. It was originally a hillock of notable size, but has,
in more modern times, been greatly reduced by the excavations
made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
There are several coincidences which identify
Mount Calvary with the small hill where the "newly made grave,"
referred to in the Third Degree, was discovered by the weary Brother.
Thus, Mount Calvary was a small hill ; it was situated in a westward
direction from the Temple, and near Mount Moriah; and it was on
the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and is the very spot
where a weary brother, traveling on that road, would find it convenient
to sit down to rest and refresh himself; it was outside the gate
of the Temple; it has at least one cleft in the rock, or cave,
which was the place which subsequently became the sepulcher of
our Lord. Hence Mount Calvary has always retained an important
place in the legendary history of Freemasonry, and there are many
traditions connected with it that are highly interesting in their
import.
One of the traditions is, that it was the
burial place of Adam, in order, says the old legend, that where
he lay, who effected the ruin of mankind, there also might the
Savior of the world suffer, die, and be buried. Sir R. Torkington,
who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1517, says that ''under
the Mount of Calvary is another chapel of our Blessed Lady and
St. John the Evangelist, that was called Golgatha; and there,
right under the mortise of the cross, was found the head of our
forefather, Adam." Golgotha, it will be remembered, means,
in Hebrew, the place of a skull ; and there may be some connection
between this tradition and the name of Golgotha, by which, the
Evangelists inform us, in the time of Christ, Mount Calvary was
known. Calvary, or Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin.
Another tradition states that it was in
the bowels of Mount Calvary that Enoch erected his nine-arched
vault, and deposited on the foundation-stone of Freemasonry that
Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a symbol of Divine truth,
is the great object of Speculative Freemasonry. A third tradition
details the subsequent discovery of Enoch's deposit, by King Solomon,
whilst making excavations in Mount Calvary during the building
of the Temple.
On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer
slain and buried. It was there that, rising on the third day from
his sepulcher, He gave, by that act the demonstrative evidence
of the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.
And it is this spot that has been selected,
in the legendary history of Freemasonry, to teach the same sublime
truth, the development of which by a symbol evidently forms the
design of the Third or Master's Degree.
CAMORRA
A secret society of gangsters organized
about 1820 at Naples. The name is a Spanish word meaning quarrel
and similar societies are reported as active in Spain before they
were heard of in Italy. From local organized criminals the society
grew to revolutionary power in elections and from 1848 exercised
a control only broken by the government in 1877. Still powerful
in defeat, the municipality of Naples as recently as 1900 was
set aside by a Royal Commission.
A double murder in 1911 resulted in the
arrest and trial of forty conspirators, several condemned to long
imprisonment. The initiation is said to have required the candidate
to pick up a coin while the others present struck at it with daggers.
Later there was a fight or duel instead
of this. Training of new members lasted three years and at reception
the initiate was pledged to loyalty by an oath repeated while
his uplifted hand was wet with his own blood. Today the Camorra
is curbed, but mysterious crimes in other lands and at home are
sometimes credited to its venom (see Carbonari, Mafia, and Secret
Societies).
CAMP
A portion of the paraphernalia decorated
with tents, flags, and pennons of a Consistory of Sublime Princes
of the Royal Secret, or Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite.
It constitutes the Tracing Board and is
worn on the apron of the degree. It is highly symbolic, and represents
an imaginary Masonic camp. Its symbolism is altogether esoteric.
CAMPE, JOACHIM HEINRICH
A Doctor of Theology, and Director of Schools
in Dessau and Hamburg, who was born in 1746 and died October 22,
1818. He was the author of many works on philosophy and education,
and was a learned and zealous Freemason, as is shown in his correspondence
with Lessing.
CANADA
Upon the advent of Confederation, July 1,
1867, local control in each Province for the government of the
Masonic Fraternity of the Dominion took a strong hold as a predominant
idea, and prevailed. Each Province has now a Grand Lodge, and
in order of their organization are as follows:
Canada, having jurisdiction only in Ontario,
1855; Nova Scotia, 1866; New Brunswick, 1867; Quebec, 1869; British
Columbia, 1871; Manitoba, 1875; Prince Edward Island, 1875; Alberta,
1905; Saskatchewan, 1906.
Brother Will H. Whyte, P. G. M., says
the first marks of the ancient craftsmen have been found in Nova
Scotia A mineralogical survey in 1827 found on the shore of Goat
Island in the Annapolis Basin, partly covered with sand, a slab
of rock 2,5 by 2 feet, bearing on it those well-known Masonic
emblems, the Square and Compasses, and the date 1606. Brother
Whyte concluded that who were the craftsmen and how the stone
came there, must be left to conjecture.
CANAL ZONE
Sojourners Lodge was originally constituted
by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the Republic of Panama. When
the Canal Zone was acquired by the Government of the United States
of America this Lodge, in 1912, came under the control of the
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1912. In 1915 the Canal Zone Lodges
were erected into a District Grand Lodge. A treaty was concluded
in 1917 between the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and Panama whereby
the former had sole jurisdiction over the Canal Zone. In 1921,
the Canal Zone District Grand Lodge comprised six Lodges: Sojourners
at Cristobal, Canal Zone at Ancon, Army at Corozal, Isthmian at
Paraiso, Darien at Balboa and Sibert at Gatun.
On February 9, 1911, a Dispensation was
issued by the General Grand Council to a Council in the Canal
Zone at Ancon. This was chartered as Canal Zone Council, No. l,
on September 12, 1912. The Grand Encampment of the United States
authorized the Canal Zone Commandery, No. l, at Ancon, Panama,
on August 14, 1913.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was
first established here when Panama, No. l, at Cristoal, was constituted
a Consistory, a Council of Kadosh, a Chapter of Rose Croix, and
a Lodge of Perfection by Charters from the Supreme Council, Southern
Jurisdiction, dated October 22, 1915.
CANCELLARIUS
An office of high rank and responsibility
among the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, performing the duties
of, or similar to, the Chancellor.
CANDIDATE
An applicant for admission into Masonry
is called a candidate. The Latin candidatus means one who is clothed
in white, candidis vestibus indutus. In ancient Rome, he who sought
office from the people wore a white shining robe of a peculiar
construction, flowing open in front, so as to exhibit the wounds
he had received in his breast. From the color of his robe or toga
candida, he was called candidatus, whence the word candidate.
The derivation will serve to remind the Freemason of the purity
of conduct and character which should distinguish all those who
are candidates for admission into the Order.
The qualifications of a candidate in Freemasonry
are somewhat peculiar. He must be free-born-under the English
Constitution it is enough that he is a Freeman, under no bondage,
of at least twenty-one years of age, in the possession of sound
senses, free from any physical defect or dismemberment, and of
irreproachable manners, or, as it is technically termed, under
the tongue of good report. No atheist, eunuch, or Woman can be
admitted. The requisites as to age, sex, and soundness of body
have reference to the operative character of the Institution.
We can only expect able workmen in able-bodied men.
The mental and religious qualifications
refer to the duties and obligations which a Freemason contracts.
An idiot could not understand them, and an atheist would not respect
them. Even those who possess all these necessary qualifications
can be admitted only under certain regulations which differ under
the several Masonic Constitutions.
CANDIDATES, ADVANCEMENT OF
See Advancement, Hurried
CANDID DISQUISITION, A
Wellins Calcott (see page 172) saw in Freemasonry
something more than a museum of Medieval relics, and more than
a set of convivial clubs, and undertook to write a rational, or
philosophy, on the Craft, becoming thereby the first of a line
of greatly distinguished Craftsmen, in which were to stand Hutchinson,
Preston, Oliver, Mackey. He was born at a date not discoverable
in available books; in the Minutes of one Lodge he is described
as "a native of Shrewsbury, county of Salop," in another
as from "Salop in Cheshire." At some date in probably
the late 1750's he published A Collection of Thoughts, a volume
half of quotations and half of his own meditations, a type of
book dear to readers in that period. He had 1600 subscriptions
for it before printing; and it went through five editions. In
1769 (and with 1200 subscribers) he published A Candid Disquisition
of the Principles and Practices of the Most Honorable society
of Free and Accepted Masons, etc. Oliver described this book,
so simple, so gentle in spirit, and with few obvious displays
of the classical learning behind it, "the gem of the period."
Kenning describes Calcott: "Indeed he may fully be called
the father of the Masonic philosophical and didactic school."
Hughan characteristically valued it because it contained a list
of Boston Lodges, as follows : under the Provincial Grand Lodge
headed by John Rowe: Master's, First, Second, Rising Sun; and
under the Scottish Provincial Grand Lodge under Joseph Warren:
St. Andrew's, Lodge No. 2: and under an Ancient Grand Lodge Warrant:
Ancient York, No. 169. Calcott was twice in America, both times
in the Carolinas, possibly in New York or Boston. He must have
been a wandering man, perhaps one of those impracticable, learned
men ungifted with the sense of trade or of money, for we can track
him in Scotland and England from Lodge to Lodge, going about like
a colporteur to distribute his Candid Disquisitions. He was three
times in St. David Lodge, No. 30, and became member by affiliation,
during 1761 and 1762. Was Worshipful Master of Holywell Lodge,
in England. He visited Lodge St. John Kilwinning, Haddington,
No. 57, in 1761. He was in Phoenix Lodge, No. 94, in Sunderland,
in 1779, when the Minutes describe him as "from Carolina,"
and gave a Third Degree Lecture. In his Preston Lecture for 1928,
John Stokes says: "Many of the words and phrases used in
his lectures were adopted by Hemming and made part of the Ritual
which we use today." It is a romantic fact (and Freemasonry
is full of them) that words written down in 1750 or 1760 by this
only half-known, gentle, much wandering man, two or three times
described in Lodge Minutes as "in unfortunate circumstances,"
should afterwards be on the tongues of millions of men who have
never so much as heard his name !
CANDLESTICK, GOLDEN
The golden candlestick of seven branches,
which is a part of the furniture of a Royal Arch Chapter, is derived
from the holy candlestick which Moses was instructed to construct
of beaten gold for the use of the tabernacle.
Smith (Dictionary of the Bible) thus abbreviates
Lightfoot's explanation of the description given in Exodus:
"The foot of it was gold, from which
went up a shaft straight, which was the middle light. Near the
foot was a golden dish wrought almondwise; and a little above
that a golden knop, and above that a golden flower. Then two branches
one on each side bowed,- and coming up as high as the middle shaft.
On each of them were three golden cups placed almondwise, in sharp,
scallop-shell fashion; above which was a golden knop, a golden
flower, and the socket. Above the branches on the middle shaft
was a golden boss, above which rose two shafts more, above the
coming out of these was another boss and two more shafts, and
then on the shaft upwards were three golden scallop-cups, a knop,
and a flower, so that the heads of the branches stood an equal
height."
In the tabernacle, the candlestick was placed opposite the table
of shewbread, which it was intended to illumine, in an oblique
position, so that the lamps looked to the east and south. What
became of the candlestick between the time of Moses and that of
Solomon is unknown. The first Temple was lighted by ten golden
candlesticks similarly embossed, which were connected by golden
chains and formed a sort of railing before the veil.
These ten candlesticks became the spoil
of the Chaldean conqueror at the time of the destruction of the
Temple, and could not have been among the articles afterward restored
by Cyrus; for in the second Temple, built by Zerubbabel, we find
only a single candlestick of seven branches, like that of the
tabernacle. Its form has been perpetuated on the Arch of Titus,
on which it was sculptured with other articles taken by that monarch,
and carried to Rome as special plunder, spolia opima, after he
had destroyed the Herodian Temple. This is the candlestick which
is represented as a decoration in a Royal Arch Chapter.
In Jewish symbolism, the seven branches
were supposed by some to refer to the seven planets, and by others
to the seventh day or Sabbath. The primitive Christians made it
allusive to Christ as the Light of the World, and in this sense
it is a favorite symbol in early Christian art.
Brother C. C. Hunt, Grand Secretary of Iowa,
instructively discussed this subject in the Quarterly Bulletin,
January, 1924, and says, in part: "
The use of the seven-branched
candlestick in the Most Excellent Degree is correct according
to the General Grand Chapter ritual, and has, I believe, an important
symbolical reference in the work of that degree.
There is no reason why the seven-branched
candlestick should not be used in the Most Excellent Degree as
well as in the Royal Arch. It is not necessary to duplicate the
elaborate furniture of the Temple in our Most Excellent Degree.
The single table and candlestick of the Tabernacle and the second
Temple has the same symbolism as the ten of the first Temple.
It is true that no symbolic meaning is attached to the candlestick
in the ritual, but the very fact that it is used as part of the
furniture of the degree indicates that it has the same symbolism
there that it had in its place in the Temple, which is, that the
seven lights represent the seven planets, which, regarded as the
eyes of God, behold everything.
The light in the center signifies the sun,
the chief of the planets. The other six planets represented by
the three lamps on each side of the central light are Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus was first recognized as
a planet by Sir William Herschel in 1781 A.D. and the earth was
looked upon as receiving light from the planets instead of being
considered a planet itself. The seven-branched candlestick was
especially holy, and it was forbidden to make copies of it for
general purposes.
The fourth chapter of Zechariah gives a
symbolical meaning to the seven branched candlestick which is
very appropriate to our Chapter work. In fact, part of this very
Chapter is quoted in the work of the Degrees. How fitting it is
that this candlestick, the symbol of the spirit of the Lord and
the light of his countenance shining upon us through his eyes
beholding and encouraging us in the noble and glorious work of
fitting ourselves as living stones for the spiritual building
which is to be our eternal dwelling place, should have a place
in the ceremonies of the Most Excellent Master's Degree, the degree
which symbolizes the completion of that work and the dedication
of the Temple to the service of the only true and living God."
CANNING, GEORGE
English statesman and orator, born April
4, 1770; died August 8, 1827; member of Parliament, 1793 ; Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs, 1807; Prime Minister of England,
1827. Brother Canning was made a Freemason in Prince of Wales
Lodge, London, in 1810 (see New Age, August, 1924).
CANOPY
Oliver says that in the Masonic processions
of the Continent the Grand Master walks under a gorgeous canopy
of blue, purple, and crimson silk, with gold fringes and tassels,
borne upon staves, painted purple and ornamented with gold, by
eight of the oldest Master Masons present ; and the Masters of
private Lodges walk under canopies of light blue silk with silver
tassels and fringes, borne by four members of their own respective
companies.
The canopies are in the form of an oblong
square, and are in length six feet, in breadth and height three
feet, having a semicircular covering. The framework should be
of cedar, and the silken covering ought to hang down two feet
on each side. This is, properly speaking, a Baldachin (see Baldachin).
CANOPY, CELESTIAL
Ritualists seem divided in the use of the
terms Clouded Canopy and Celestial Canopy in the Entered Apprentice
Degree (for the former, see Canopy, Clouded, and Covering of the
Lodge). It would seem that the unclouded grandeur of the heavens
should not be without advocates. Sir John Lubbock gives the following
description of the heavens filled with stars in connection with
the latest discoveries: "Like the sand of the sea, the stars
of heaven are used as a symbol of numbers. We now know that our
earth is but a fraction of one part of, at least 75,000,000 worlds.
But this is not all.
In addition to the luminous heavenly bodies,
we cannot doubt there are countless others invisible to us from
their great distance, smaller size, or feebler light; indeed,
we know that there are many dark bodies which now emit no light,
or comparatively tittle.. Thus the floor of heaven is not only
'thick , inlaid with patinas of bright gold,' but studded also
with extinct stars, once probably as brilliant as our own sun."
CANOPY, CLOUDED
The clouded canopy, or starry-decked heaven,
is a symbol of the Entered Apprentice Degree, and is of such important
significance that Lenning calls it a "fundamental symbol
of Freemasonry." In the lectures of the York Rite, the clouded
canopy is described as the covering of the Lodge, teaching us,
as Krause says, "that the primitive Lodge is confined within
no shut up building, but that it is universal, and reaches to
heaven, and especially teaching that in every clime under heaven
Freemasonry has its seat." Gädieke says, "Every
Freemason knows that by the clouded canopy we mean the heavens,
and that it teaches how widely extended is our sphere of usefulness.
There is no portion of the inhabited world in which our labor
cannot be carried forward, as there is no portion of the globe
without its clouded canopy."
Hence, then, the German interpretation of
the symbol is that it denotes the universality of Freemasonry,
an interpretation that does not precisely accord with the English
and American systems, in which the doctrine of universality is
symbolized by the form and extent of the Lodge. The clouded canopy
as the covering of the Lodge seems rather to teach the doctrine
of aspiration for a higher sphere; it is thus defined in this
work under the head of Covering of the Lodge, which see.
CANZLER, CARL CHRISTIAN
A librarian of Dresden, born September 30,
1733, died October 16, 1786. He was an earnest, learned Freemason,
who published in a literary journal, conducted by himself and
A. G. Meissner at Leipsic, in 1783-5, under the title of Für
ältere Litteratur und neuere Lectüre, many interesting
articles on the subject of Freemasonry.
CAPE COLONY
In the days when this district belonged
to the Dutch two Lodges were established by them, both of which
have had successful careers.
The first of these, Lodge of Good Hope,
dates from ,1772. The Grand Lodge of England established British
Lodge in 1811 and the Athol Grand Lodge followed suit iu 1812
with a Lodge attached to the Tenth Battalion of the Royal Artillery.
The first Lodge erected in 1821 after the
arrival of the English colonists was Hope, No. 727. South Africa
is divided into Provinces, the Eastern, Western and Central Divisions,
Natal and the Transvaal, by the first two of which Freemasonry
in Cape Colony is controlled. There are also Provincial Grand
Lodges under the Scotch, Irish and Dutch Jurisdictions. Throughout
the history of the Colony there has been no antagonism between
the Dutch and English Freemasons and many Brethren attend Lodges
under both systems. The first Provincial Grand Master under the
English Constitution was the Deputy Grand Master of the Netherlands
who continued to hold both offices until he died.
CAPE VERDE ISLANDS
Praia and St. Vincent each has possessed
a Lodge, chartered by the Grand Orient of Portugal.
CAPITULAR DEGREES
The degrees conferred under the charter
of an American Royal Arch Chapter, which are Mark Master, Past
Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. The Capitular
Degrees are almost altogether founded on and composed of a series
of events in Masonic history. Each of them has attached to it
some tradition or legend which it is the design of the degree
to illustrate, and the memory of which is preserved in its ceremonies
and instructions. Most of these legends are of symbolic signification.
But this is their interior sense. In their outward and ostensible
meaning, they appear before us simply as legends.
To retain these legends in the memory of
Freemasons appears to have been the primary design in the establishment
of the advanced Degrees; and as the information intended to be
communicated in these Degrees is of a historical character, there
can of course be but little room for symbols or for symbolic instruction;
the profuse use of which would rather tend to an injury than to
a benefit, by complicating the purposes of the ritual and confusing
the mind of the aspirant. These remarks refer exclusively to the
Mark and Most Excellent Master's Degree of the American Rite,
but are not so applicable to the Royal Arch, which is eminently
symbolic. The legends of the second Temple, and the lost word,
the peculiar legends of that degree, are among the most prominent
symbols of the Masonic system.
CAPITULAR MASONRY
The Freemasonry conferred in a Royal Arch
Chapter of the York and American Rites. There are Chapters in
the Ancient and Accepted, Scottish, and in the French and other
Rites ; but the Freemasonry therein conferred is not called capitular.
CAPRIPEDE RATIER ET LUCIFUGE
A burlesque dining degree, mentioned in
the collection of Fustier. The title is a significant allusion
to the goat-footed horned satyrs, minor deities of the Roman mythology,
companions of Bacchus, living in the depths of the forest, shunning
the light (see Thory, Acta Latomorum,1, 298).
CAPSTONE
or, as it might be called, the cope-stone,
the topmost brick or stone in building (but the former word has
been consecrated to us by universal Masonic usage), is the topmost
stone of a building. To bring it forth, therefore, and to place
it in its destined position, is significative that the building
is completed, which event is celebrated, even by the Operative
Freemasons of the present day, with great signs of rejoicing.
Flags are hoisted on the top of every edifice
by the builders engaged in its construction, as soon as they have
reached the topmost post, and thus finished their labors. This
is the celebration of the capstone---the celebration of the completion
of the building----when tools are laid aside, and rest and refreshment
succeed, for a time, labor. This is the event in the history of
the Temple which is commemorated in the Degree of Most Excellent
Master, the sixth in the American Rite. The day set apart for
the celebration of the capstone of the Temple is the day devoted
to rejoicing and thanksgiving for the completion of that glorious
structure.
Hence there seems to be an impropriety in
the ordinary use of the Mark Master's keystone in the ceremonies
of the Most Excellent Master. That keystone was deposited in silence
and secrecy; while the capstone, as the legend and ceremonies
tell us, was placed in its position in the presence of all the
Craft.
CAPTAIN-GENERAL
The third officer in a Commandery of Knights,
Templar. He presides over the Commandery in the absence of his
superiors, and is one of its representatives in the Grand Commandery.
His duties are to see that the Council Chamber and Asylum are
duly prepared for the business of the meetings, and to communicate
all orders issued by the Grand Council. His station is on the
left of the Grand Commander, and his jewel is a level surmounted
by a cock or rooster (see Cock).
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
The sixth officer in a Council of Royal
and Select Masters. In the latter degree he is said to represent
Azariah, the son of Nathan, who had command of the officers of
the king's household (First Kings iv, 5). His duties correspond
in some measure with those of a Senior Deacon in the primary.
degrees. His post is, therefore, on the right of the throne, and
his jewel is a trowel and battle-ax within a triangle.
CAPTAIN OF THE HOST
The fourth officer in a Royal Arch Chapter.
He represents the general or leader of the Jewish troops who returned
from Babylon, and who was called Sar el hatzba, and was equivalent
to a modern general. The word Host in the title means army. He
sits on the right of the Council in front, and wears a white robe
and cap or helmet, with a red sash, and is armed with a sword.
His jewel is a triangular plate, on which an armed soldier is
engraved.
CAPTIVITY
The Jews reckoned their national captivities
as four: the Babylonian, Medean, Greeian, and Roman.
The present article will refer only to the
first, when there was a forcible deportation of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan, the general of King Nebuchadnezzar,
and their detention at Babylon until the reign of Cyrus, which
alone is connected with the history of Freemasonry, and is commemorated
in the Royal Arch Degree.
Between that portion of the ritual of the
Royal Arch which refers to the destruction of the first Temple,
and that subsequent part which symbolizes the building of the
second, there is an interregnum or halt, if we may be allowed
the term, in the ceremonial of the degree, which must be considered
as a long interval in history, the filling up of which, like the
interval between the acts of a play, must be left to the imagination
of the spectator. This interval represents the time passed in
the captivity of the Jews at Babylon. That captivity lasted for
seventy years-from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar until that of Cyrus-although
but fifty-two of these years are commemorated in the Royal Arch
Degree. This event took place in the year 585 B.C. It was not,
however, the beginning of the '"seventy years' captivity,"
which had been foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, which commenced
eighteen years before.
The captives were conducted to Babylon.
What was the exact number removed we have no means of ascertaining.
'We are led to believe, from certain passages
of scripture, that the deportation was not complete. Calmet says
that Nebuchadnezzar carried away only the principal inhabitants,
the warriors and artisians of every kind, and that he left the
husbandmen, the laborers, and in general, the poorer classes,
that constituted the great body of the people. Among the prisoners
of distinction, Josephus mentions the high priest, Seraiah, and
Zephaniah, the priest that was next to him, with the three rulers
that guarded the Temple, the eunuch who was over the armed men,
seven friends of Zedekiah, his scribe, and sixty other rulers.
Zedekiah, the king, had attempted to escape previous to the termination
of the siege, but being pursued, was captured and carried to Riblah,
the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar, where, having first been compelled
to behold the slaughter of his children, his eyes were then put
out, and he was conducted in chains to Babylon. A Masonic tradition
informs us that the captive Jews were bound by their conquerors
with triangular chains, and that this was done by the Chaldeans
as an additional insult, because the Jewish Freemasons were known
to esteem the triangle as an emblem of the sacred name of God,
and must have considered its appropriation to the form of their
fetters as a desecration of the Tetragammaton.
Notwithstanding the ignominious mode of
their conveyance from Jerusalem and the vindictiveness displayed
by their conqueror in the destruction of their city and Temple,
they do not appear, on their arrival at Babylon, to have been
subjected to any of the extreme rigors of slavery. They were distributed
into various parts of the empire, some remaining in the city,
while others were sent into the provinces.
The latter probably devoted themselves to
agricultural pursuits, while the former were engaged in commerce
or in the labors of architecture. Smith says that the captives
were treated not as slaves but as colonists. They were permitted
to retain their personal property, and even to purchase lands
and erect houses. Their civil and religious government was not
utterly destroyed, for they kept up a regular succession of kings
and high priests, one of each of whom returned with them, as will
be seen hereafter, on their restoration. Some of the principal
captives were advanced to offices of dignity and power in the
royal palace, and were permitted to share in the councils of state.
Their prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel, with
their associates, preserved among their countrymen the pure doctrines
of their religion. Although they had neither place nor time of
national gathering, nor temple, and therefore offered no sacrifice,
yet they observed the Mosaic laws with respect to the rite of
circumcision. They preserved their tables of genealogy and the
true succession to the throne of David.
The rightful heir was called the Head of
the Captivity. So says the Talmud, but Smith, Dictionary of the
Bible, affirms that the assertion is unsupported by proof. The
Masonic legends conform to the Talmudic statement. However that
may be, Jehoiachin, who was the first king of Judea carried captive
to Babylon, was succeeded by his son Shealtiel, and he by his
son Zerubbabel, who was the Head of the Captivity, or nominal
prince of Judea at the close of the captivity, The due succession
of the high priesthood was also preserved, for Jehosadek, who was
the high priest carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, where he
died during the captivity, was succeeded by his eldest son, Joshua.
The Jewish captivity terminated in the first
year of the reign of Cyrus, 536 B.c. Cyrus, from his conversations
with Daniel and the other Jewish captives of learning and piety,
as well as from his perusal of their sacred books, more especially
the prophecies of Isaiah, had become imbued with a knowledge of
true religion, and hence had even publicly announced to his subjects
his belief in the God "which the nation of the Israelites
worshipped." He was consequently impressed with an earnest
desire to fulfil the prophetic declarations of which he was the
subject, and to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. Cyrus therefore
issued a decree by which the Jews were permitted to return to
their country. According to Milman, 42,360, besides servants,
availed themselves of this permission, and returned to Jerusalem
under Zerubbabel, their prince, and Joshua, their high priest,
and thus ended the first or Babylonian captivity, the only one
which has any connection with the legends of Freemasonry as commemorated
in the Royal Arch Degree.
CAPUCHIN
one of the monks of the order of St. Frances. They went barefoot,
were long bearded, and wore a gown or cloak of dark color made
like a woman's garment with a hood.
CARAUSIUS
A Roman emperor, who assumed the purple
287 A.D. Of him Preston gives the following account, which may
or may not be deemed apocryphal, according to the taste and inclination
of the reader:
"By assuming the character of a Freemason,
he acquired the love and esteem of the most enlightened part of
his subjects.
He possessed real merit, encouraged learning
and learned men, and improved the country in the civil arts. In
order to establish an empire in Britain, he brought into his dominions
the best workmen and artificers from all parts ; all of whom,
under his auspices, enjoyed peace and tranquillity. Among the
first class of his favorites he enrolled the Freemasons: for their
tenets he professed the highest veneration, and appointed Albanus,
his steward, the principal superintendent of their assemblies.
Under his patronage, Lodges and Conventions of the Fraternity
were formed, and the rites of Freemasonry regularly practiced.
To enable the Freemasons to hold a general council, to establish
their own government and correct errors among themselves, he granted
to them a charter, and commanded Albanus to preside over them
in person as Grand Master" (see Illustrations, edition of
1812, page 142).
Anderson also gives the legend of Carausius
in the second edition of his Constitutions, and adds that "this
is asserted by all the old copies of the Constitutions, and the
old English Masons firmly believed it" (Constitutions, 1738,
page 57). But the fact is that Anderson himself does not mention
the tradition in his first edition, published in 1723 nor is any
reference to Carausius to be found in any of the old manuscripts
now extant. The legend is, it is true, inserted in Krause's Manuscript;
but this document is of very little authority, having been,
most probably, a production of the early part of the eighteenth
century, and of a contemporary of Anderson, written perhaps between
1723 and 1738, which would account for the omission of it in the
first edition of the Book of Constitutions, and its insertion
in the second.
The reader may hence determine for himself
what authenticity is to be given to the Carausian legend.
CARBONARI
The name in Italian means Charcoal Burners,
applied to some revolutionary secret societies particularly active
in Italy and France, having their principal inspiration during
the reign of King Joachim Murat of Naples, and aiming to free
themselves from foreign rule and establish democratic government.
Murat, a Frenchman and a Freemason, the dashing cavalry leader
of Napoleon's army, was rewarded with the throne. Luigi Villari
says (Encyclopedia Britannica): ''The Carbonari were probably
an offshoot of the Freemasons, from whom they differed in important
particulars," a suggestion and admission meaning little more
than similarity, both being secret societies. However, the Carbonari
had its significant words: a Lodge was baracca or a hut; an ordinary
meeting was venidita, a sale; an important meeting, alta vendita;
God was Grand Master of the Universe. The ritual had four grades
and the ceremonies had typical allusions, as "clearing the
forest of wolves" was said to be the aim, and there were
references to the lamb torn by wild animals, tyranny. Carbonarism
was declared high treason by 1821. While many prominent persons
were members, Lord Byron of England and Louis, afterwards Napoleon
III, of France, yet the strength of the movement waned and died
in France about 1830, and soon afterwards a like end came to it
in Italy, the Camorristi in the former country accepting generally
the government then at work, and in the latter instance associating
with Mazzini and his followers (see Camorra, Mafia, and Secret
Societies).
CARBUNCLE
In Hebrew, baw-rek-ath, the third stone
in the first row of the high priest's breastplate, according to
the authorized version, but the first stone in the second row,
according to the Septuagint. Braun, a writer on the sacerdotal
vestments of the Hebrews, Amsterdam, 1680 supposes that the baw-rek-ath
was a smaragdus or emerald, which view is sustained by Kalisch,
and is in accordance with the Septuagint translation. The Talmudists
derive baw-rek-ath from a word signifying to shine with the brightness
of fire, which would seem to indicate some stone of a coruscate
or sparkling color, and would apply to the bright green of the
emerald as well as to the bright red of the carbuncle. The stone,
whatever it was, was referred to the tribe of Judah.
The carbuncle in Christian iconography signifies blood and suffering,
and is symbolical of the Lord's passion. Five carbuncles placed
on a cross symbolize the five wounds of Christ.
CARDINAL POINTS
The North, West, East and South are so called
from the Latin cardo, meaning a hinge, because they are the principal
points of the compass on which all the others hinge or hang.
Each of them has a symbolic signification
in Freemasonry which will be found under their respective heads.
Doctor Brinton, in an interesting Treatise on the Symbolism and
Mythology of the Red Race of America, has a chapter on the sacred
number four; the only one he says, that has any prominence in
the religious of the red race, and which he traces to the four
cardinal points. The reason, he declares, is to be "found
in the adoration of the cardinal points," and he attributes
to this cause the prevalence of the cross as a symbol among the
aborigines of America, the existence of which so surprised the
early missionaries that they "were in doubt whether to ascribe
the fact to the pious labors of Saint Thomas or the sacrilegious
subtlety of Satan."
The arms of the cross referred to the cardinal
points, and represented the four winds, the bringers of rain.
The theory is an interesting one, and the author supports it with
many ingenious illustrations. In the symbolism of Freemasonry
each of the cardinal points has a mystical meaning. The East represents
Wisdom ; the west, Strength; the South, Beauty and the North,
Darkness.
CARDINAL VIRTUES
The pre-eminent or principal virtues on
which all the others hinge or depend.
They are temperance, fortitude, prudence,
and justice.
They are referred to in the ritual of the
Entered Apprentice Degree, and will be found in this work under
their respective heads. Oliver says (Revelations of a Square,
chapter 1) that in the eighteenth century the Freemasons delineated
the symbols of the four cardinal virtues by an acute angle variously
disposed.
Thus, suppose you face the east, the angle
symbolizing temperance will point to the south.
It was called a Guttural.
Fortitude was denoted by a saltire, or Saint
Andrew's Cross, X. This was the Pectoral.
The symbol of prudence was an acute angle
pointing toward the southeast, and was denominated a Manual; and
justice had its angle toward the north, and was called a Pedestal
or Pedal.
The possession of cardinal virtues is no
special distinction of Freemasons, for other societies have had
them.
They are in evidence in the Christian church.
The fifteen cardinal virtues, in mosaic,
in the dome of Ascension of Saint Mark's at Venice is a famous
example.
CARIBBEE ISLANDS OR LESSER ANTILLES
A name sometimes applied to the whole of
the West Indies, strictly comprising only the chain of islands
from Porto Rico to the Venezuelan coast of South America. Three
Lodges were at work in 1739 at Antigua. Others had been chartered
and were on the Grand Lodge Books but they had ceased to exist
and were dropped from the Register.
In 1738 Governor Matthews was appointed
by the Grand Lodge of England Provincial Grand Master of the Leeward
Islands. A Masonic Province was also established by Scotland in
1769. A Provincial Grand Lodge was opened at the Windward Islands
in 1740 and Brother Thomas Baxter was first Provincial Grand Master.
In the same year the "Moderns"
Grand Lodge of England authorized Lodge No. 186. The Grand Lodge
of Ireland established another Provincial Grand Lodge at Barbados,
but it was soon abandoned.
A Lodge, Albion, was opened at Bridgetown,
Barbados, in 1790 by the "Ancient" and it remained in
existence although three others warranted by the same authority'
soon ceased work. Other Lodges were chartered in the Islands by
the Grand Lodges of England, Holland, France, Pennsylvania, etc.
CARLILE, RICHARD
A printer and bookseller of London, who
in 1819 was fined and imprisoned for the publication of Paine's
Age of Reason, and Palmer's Light of Nature.
He also wrote and published several pretended
expositions of Freemasonry, which, after his death, were collected,
in 1845, in one volume, under the title of a Manual of Freemasonry,
in three parts.
Carlile was a professed atheist, and, although
a fanatical reformer of what he supposed to be the errors of the
age, was a man of some ability.
His Masonic works are interspersed with
considerable learning, and are not as abusive of the Order as
expositions generally are. He was born in 1790, and died in 1843,
in London. For ten years before his death his religious opinions
had been greatly modified.
CARMELITES
Monks of an Order established on Mount Carmel,
in Syria, during the twelfth century. They wore a brown scapular
passing over the shoulder and diagonally across the back and body,
thus crossing the gown from right to left.
CARNARVON, MARQUIS OF
Grand Master of England, March, 1754, to
May 18, 1757. Afterwards known as Duke of Chandos.
CARPENTERS, ORDER OF
An organized body in Holland and Belgium,
with central point of assembly at Antwerp. Their gatherings were
at night in some neighboring forest.
CARPET
The chart or Tracing Board on which the
emblems of a degree are depicted for the instruction of a candidate.
Carpets were originally drawn on the floor
with chalk or charcoal, and at the close of the Lodge obliterated
by the use of a mop and pail.
To avoid this trouble, they were subsequently
painted on cloth, which was laid on the floor ; hence they were
called carpets.
Carpets, or charts, as they are at the present
time commonly designated, are now generally suspended from the
wall, or from a framework in the Lodge (see Steps on Master's
Carpet).
CARSON, ENOCH TERRY
Initiated in 1846 and became Past Master
of Cynthia Lodge No. 155, as well as founder and First Worshipful
Master of Kilwinning Lodge, No. 356, warranted in 1865, both Lodges
being at Cincinnati, Ohio, and he was active and scholarly in
all branches of the Fraternity. He printed at his own expense
several important works of interest and value to the Fraternity.
The first facsimile of the Book of Constitutions
of 1723 was published by him in 1855 from the copy in his own
library and in the same year he had a catalog of his collection
printed in the American Freemason at Louisville.
Doctor Oliver's Historical Landmarks was
also issued in like manner in 1855.
He established the Masonic Archeological
Society, of which he was really the whole organization and mainspring
and which did good work, producing the very rare works, the Grand
Mystery of 1724 and Prichard's Masonry Dissected, of 1730, and
publishing them iu 1868.
Eight years later, what is known as Mrs.
Dodds Manuscripts of 1739 was issued. In 1889 an artistic facsimile
reproduction of the very valuable engraved list of 1736 by Pine
was published by him and from 1872 he was at work on the production
of a sumptuous catalog of his Masonic library, which was begun
in the Masonic Review of Cincinnati and then reprinted in book
form from 1874.
It was not completed, however, much to the
regret of his many friends, the important bibliography ending
with No. 1134 Picart, pages 1 to 224.
Brother Carson also wrote and published
much other material respecting the Craft, and, as with the previously
mentioned books, all was at his own expense; the whole of the
works being presented to his literary friends and Brethren.
He died on February 23, 1899.
His fine library is now, through the generosity
of General Lawrence, possessed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
CARSON, KIT
Famous American scout, born in Madison County,
Kentucky, December 24, 1809. In his childhood, his parents moved
to Missouri.
Carson became guide and hunter, accompanied
the Fremont expeditions, took part in the Mexican War, and become
Indian Agent at Taos, New Mexico, in 1854.
Made a Master Mason on December 26, 1854,
in Montezuma Lodge at Santa Fe, in what was then a Territory but
is now the State of New Mexico, Montezuma Lodge was No, 109 on
the roster of the Grand Lodge of Missouri and was one of the Lodges
organizing the Grand Lodge of New Mexico in 1877.
He demitted from this Lodge on April 30,
1860, but affiliated again a few years later and remained a member
until his death which occurred, May 24, 1868, at Santa Fe, New
Mexico. The Grand Lodge of Arizona has taken charge of the grave
lot and the monument which was erected to this early American,
pioneer (see also New Age Magazine, May, 1925).
CARTHUSIANS
A religious Order founded by Bruno in 1080,
and named from Chartreux, in France, the place of their institution.
They were noted for their austerity.
CARTULARY
An officer who has charge of the register
or other books of record.
CARYSFORT, JOHN PROBY, LORD
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England,
March 10, 1752, to 1754
CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, GIOVANNI JACOPO
Usually mentioned by the word Casanova. An
Italian adventurer, born at Venice, 1725, died in Bohemia 1798,
noted particularly for his Memoirs, a spirited boastful autobiography
so romantic and improbable in his numerous detailed successes
among the opposite sex that doubt attaches to almost all his claims.
Allowing freely for the widespread social evils of his day, we
shall the better understand his sneering frankness about vice.
Several reliable authorities agree that his eleven writings are
trustworthy accounts of the morals and manners of the society
he usually frequented.
Among his acquaintances were the most notable
people, Rousseau, D'Eon, Frederick the Great, Suvaroff, Empress
Catherine of Russia, Voltaire, Cagliostro, and as a prominent
Roman Catholic, he received from the Pope the distinction of the
Order of the Golden Spur.
Expelled from school, he entered the service
of Cardinal Acquavisa, began his travels; returning to Venice
in 1755, was denounced as a spy and imprisoned; escaped to Paris
and gained a fortune directing the State Lotteries, again traveled
to Florence; whence he was banished, thence to Rome.
After further journeys he was. forced to
flee from Poland.
Arriving at Paris he found a warrant for
his arrest awaiting him and he took refuge in Spain, but was ejected
from Madrid in 1769, and going again to Italy was exiled from
Venice, ending his turbulent career as librarian from 1785 to
his death in 1798 at Dux in Bohemia. Here he wrote his famous
Memoirs, published first in twelve volumes at Leipzig and then
in eight at Paris.
Brilliant as any romantic fiction, their
worth as sober truth has not been above suspicion and his acknowledged
exploits in knavery demonstrate that anything he said or did was
subject to question.
Casanova claims to have been initiated in
the latter part of 1750 at Lyons, on his way to Paris, where he
was made a Master Mason.
At Venice in 1755 he was arrested on charges
of sorcery and of being a Freemason, his Masonic clothing being
found by police and deemed incriminating.
Not only does he tell of meeting prominent
Freemasons in various countries but in Rome itself he asserts
that several prelates and cardinals were secretly members of the
Craft.
References to the Craft are sprinkled freely
through his Memoirs, one of them (pages 276-9, Librarie Garnier
Freres edition in French, Paris, tome II, chapter xiii) we translate
as follows:
At Lyons there was an estimable personage
with whom I became acquainted through M. de Rochebaron, and who
obtained the favor for me of being admitted to participate in
the sublime trifles of Freemasonry. Arriving as an Apprentice
at Paris, some months afterwards, I there planned to become a
Fellow Craft and Master.
The Master is certainly the supreme degree
of Freemasonry, for all the others that are in the series taken
by me are only pleasing inventions which, good enough in symbolism,
add nothing to the dignity of Master.
There is no one person in the world who
may succeed in knowing everything, but men sensible of their faculties
and who know how to take account the more closely of their moral
powers, should seek to know all that is possible. A young man,
well born, who plans to travel and acquaint himself with the world,
and what we call society, who does not wish to find himself in
certain circumstances the inferior of his equals and to be excluded
from participation in all their pleasures, ought to have himself
initiated into what they call Freemasonry, even though it would
only be to know superficially what it is.
Freemasonry is an Institution of Benevolence
which, in certain times and in certain places, may serve as a
pretext for plots criminal and subversive of good order; but good
God, what has not been abused? Have not the Jesuits been seen,
under the sacred guise of religion, to furnish weapons for the
parricidal arms of blind enthusiasts to strike Kings'? All men
of some importance, I wish to say those whose social existence
is marked by merit, knowledge or fortune, should be Freemasons,
and a great number are ; why infer that the democratic communications,
where the members impose on themselves the law of never speaking
intramuros (within the walls in a tiled place) neither of politics,
religion, nor government, who only converse about emblems, or
morals, or puerilities; why infer, I say, that these reunions
where the governments may have their creatures, can offer such
dangers that Sovereigns forbid therein and that popes entertain
themselves by excommunicating?
Besides that it is a failure of purpose
and the Pope, notwithstanding his infallibility, trips up himself
by the persecutions, giving only to Freemasonry an importance
that it would never perhaps have acquired without them. Mystery
is in the nature of man, and all that presents itself to the crowd
under a mysterious aspect always excites curiosity and will be
sought, many convinced that there something substantial awaits
them. though the veil often hides but a zero. After all, I advise
every well-born young man who wishes to see the world to be accepted
a Freemason, but I urge him to choose well the Lodge; for, although
bad company cannot work in the Lodge, it may however be found
there, and the candidate ought to guard himself from dangerous
associations.
Men who only plan to be accepted as Freemasons,
with the purpose of coming to know the secret of the Order, run
great risk of growing old under the trowel without ever attaining
their object. However, there is a secret but it is so inviolable
that it has never been told nor confided to anyone.
Those who grasp at the superficiality of
things believe that the secret consists in words, signs and grips,
or that in the final analysis it is the grand word of the last
degree. A mistake!
He who discovers the secret of Freemasonry,
for they never know where they are finding it, will not arrive
at that knowledge by reason of frequenting Lodges.
He gains it only by the strength of reflecting,
of reasoning, of comparing, and of deducing. He will not confide
it to his best friend in Freemasonry, for he knows that if that
brother does not find it for himself as did he, the friend will
not have the talent to extract the means to do so from what shall
be said in the ear.
He who has it remains silent and this secret
is always secret.
All that is done in the Lodge ought to be
secret; but those who by dishonest indiscretion make no scruple
of revealing what is done there, have never revealed the essential:
they do not know. it; and if they have not known, truly they cannot
reveal the ceremonies.
The sensation experienced today by the profane,
that is to say by those who are not Freemasons, is of the same
kind as that experienced in times of yore by those who were not
admitted to the mysteries that were celebrated at Eleusis in honor
of the goddess Cérés. But the mysteries of Eleusis
interested all Greece, and all they had there of eminence then
in society aspired to be made a party to them : so it is with
Freemasonry., in the midst of a great number of men of premier
merit, enclosed by a crowd of scamps that no society would acknowledge,
because they are the rubbish of the human species under the moral
accounting.
In the mysteries of Cérés
they long kept an impenetrable silence to cause the reverence
of which these mysteries were the object.
Moreover, what could they reveal? The three
words that the hierophant said to the initiates! But to what would
that lead? To the dishonor of the indiscreet, because he would
only reveal barbarous language unknown by the vulgar, the common
herd.
I have read somewhere what is meant by the
three sacred and secret words of the mysteries of Eleusis : Be
watchful and do nu evil.
The sacred and secret words of the several
Masonic degrees are nearly all as criminal!
The Eleusian initiation lasted nine days;
the ceremonies very impressive, and the company very respectable.
Plutarch informs us that Alcibiades was condemned to death and
all his goods confiscated for having dared in company with Polition
and Theodore against the Eumolpides to turn into ridicule the
great mysteries.
They even intended that Alcibiades should
be cursed by the priests and priestesses.
But the curse was never uttered because
a priestess opposed it, saying. " I am a priestess for blessing,
not cursing." Sublime words!
Here is a lesson of morality and of wisdom
that the Pope despises, but the Gospels taught and the Savior
of the world ordained.
There is an allusion (page 286, tome VIII,
chapter xi) to the prominent Roman Catholics of the eighteenth
century ignoring privately in practice what they said publicly
and officially against Freemasonry.
Of course there are instances of Roman Catholics of prominence
being admitted openly into Masonic Lodges during that century-
and later. Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, as he was called,
also active in the Grand Lodge of Ireland, found the two pursuits,
Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, were deemed inconsistent and
he eventually resigned his membership in the Craft. But others,
as the Abbe Cordier at Paris, a leader in the famous Lodge of
the Nine Sisters, and with Benjamin Franklin, supporting Voltaire
when he was initiated, paid little or no heed to the threats from
the head of the Roman Catholic Church against Freemasonry.
What Casanova says gives a hint as to the
position of those attempting to be on both sides of the fence
and his introduction of a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church
as a Freemason is a curious commentary on the situation in question:
The first day of the year 1772, I presented
myself to the Cardinal Brancafarte, Legate of the Pope, who I
had known at Paris twenty years previously when he was sent by
Benoit (Benedict XIV) to carry the blessed linen clothes to the
new-born Duke de Bourgoyne. We had been together in a Lodge of
Freemasons, for the members of the Sacred College who thundered
against the Freemasons knew well that their anathemas (solemn
curses) impressed only the weak, whom a too lively light might
dazzle.
CASMARAN
The Angel of Air. Referred to in the Degree
of Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew. The etymology is uncertain.
CASSIA
A corruption of acacia, which undoubtedly
arose from the common habit, among illiterate people, of sinking
the sound of the letter A in the pronunciation of any word of
which it constitutes the initial syllable, as pothecary for apothecary,
and prentice for apprentice, The word prentice, by the way, is
almost altogether used in the old records of Freemasonry, which
were, for the most part, the productions of uneducated men. Unfortunately,
however, the corruption of acacia into cassia has not always been
confined to the illiterate; but the long employment of the corrupted
form has at length introduced it, in some instances, among a few
of our writers. Even Doctor Oliver has sometimes used the objectionable
corruption, notwithstanding he has written so much upon the symbolism
of the acacia.
He refers to the Sprig of Cassia in Revelations
of a Square (page 113).
There is a plant which was called by the
ancients cassia, but it is entirely- different from the acacia.
The acacia was a sacred plant; the caisson
ignoble plant, having no sacred character. The former is in Freemasonry
profoundly symbolic; the latter has no symbolism whatever.
The cassia is only three times mentioned
in Scripture, but always as an aromatic plant forming a portion
of some perfume.
There is, indeed, strong reason for believing
that the cassia was only a coarse kind of cinnamon, and that it
did not grow in Palestine, but was imported from the East.
Casia, therefore, has no rightful place
in Masonic language, and its use should be avoided as a vulgar
corruption.
CASTELLAN
In Germany, the Superintendent or Steward
of a Lodge building, in which he resides.
He is either a serving brother or an actual member of the Lodge,
and has the care of the building and its contents.
CASTING VOICE or VOTE
The twelfth of the thirty-nine General Regulations
prescribes that "All matters are to be determined in the
Grand Lodge by a majority of votes, each member having one vote
and the Grand Master having two votes" (see Constitutions,
1723, page 61). From this law has arisen the practice of giving
to the Master of the Lodge a costing vote in addition to his own
when there is a tie.
"The custom is so universal, and has
been so long practiced, that, although I can find no specific
law on the subject, the right may be considered as established
by prescription" says Doctor Mackey.
But there are exceptions.
These are given in the revised edition of
Doctor Mackey's Jurisprudence of Freemasonry (chapter iii).
It may be remarked that the Masonic usage
is probably' derived from the custom of the London Livery Companies
or Gilds, where the casting vote has always been given by the
presiding officers in all cases of equality, a rule that has been
recognized by Act of Parliament.
CATACOMB
A grotto for burial; a sepulchral vault.
A subterranean place for the burial of the
dead, consisting of galleries or passages with recesses excavated
at their sides for tombs.
Later applied in the plural to all the subterranean
cemeteries lying around Rome which, after having been long covered
up and forgotten, were fortuitously discovered in 1578.
They are found elsewhere, as, at Naples,
at Syracuse, in Egypt, at Paris, etc.
The term is chiefly applied to those lying
about Rome, the principal ones lying along the Appian Way.
The accompanying engraving shows a small
portion of the Northern section of the Catacomb of Saint Calixtus.
There seems to have been no plan for these
excavations, for they shoot off in the most unexpected directions,
forming such a labyrinth of connected passages that persons often
have been lost for several days at a time, giving the monk attendants
much trouble.
They are several miles in extent.
Those about Rome are under the care of various
monks of the church, and are a source of considerable revenue
from tourists.
They are now entered by narrow passages
and some, as in the case of Saint Calixtus, descend to considerable
depth.
Along the passages are small chambers at
the sides for tombs, one above another, each of which generally
closed by a slab of stone on which was placed the letters D. M.,
the initials of Dea Maximo, or X. P., the Greek letters for Christ.
Tombs of saints bore inscriptions of identification.
The passages are generally three or four
feet wide and were at intervals along their course enlarged into
chambers, usually square or rectangular, that were used for worship.
One in Saint Calixtus was an irregular semicircle and about thirty-two
feet in diameter.
In these chambers is usually found a stone
bench or chair for the bishop or teacher.
They were ventilated and partially lighted by shafts that extended
to the surface of the ground. Some frescoes were found on the
walls.
Many catacombs were destroyed and traces
of them lost when the Goths, Lombards, and others besieged Rome
at various times.
The foregoing would not justify a place
in a work of this character, were it not for the influence it
sheds on the beginning of Christian architecture, as for three
centuries Pagan Rome would not permit Christians to meet above
ground.
The Twenty-sixth Degree in the Ancient and
Accepted Rite refers to catacombs (see also Labyrinth).
CATAFALQUE
From an Italian word meaning scaffold. A
temporary structure of wood, appropriately decorated with funereal
symbols and representing a tomb or cenotaph. It forms a part of
the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge, and is also used in the ceremonies
of the Master Mason's Degree in Lodges of the French Rite.
CATASTROPHES, MASONIC RELIEF OF
During the period of five years from 1923
to 1928 inclusive the Fraternity in the United States was called
upon to raise funds for relief no fewer than five times: the Japanese
earthquake of 1923; the Florida hurricane of 1926; the Mississippi
flood of 1927; the Porto Rico hurricane of 1928; the Florida hurricane
of 1928. on each of these occasions the Masonic Service Association
acted as a unit for the Grand Lodges holding membership in it;
other non-member Grand Lodges used it as an agency through which
to distribute their funds; the remaining Grand Lodges sent their
funds directly to Masonic bodies or other agencies at the scene
of the disaster. The total amount of monies raised by Masonic
Bodies of each and every Rite has never been computed; the amounts
reported as passing through the hands of the Masonic Service Association,
or passing through other hands but reported by it were as follows
: for the Japanese earthquake, $15,777 the Florida hurricane of
1926, $111,652; the Mississippi flood in 1927, $605,603; the Porto
Rico hurricane of 1928, $81,774; the Florida hurricane of 1828
$107,622.
CATCH QUESTIONS
Questions not included in the Catechism,
but adopted from an early period to try the pretensions of a stranger,
such as this used by American Freemasons: "Where does the
Master hang his hat?" and by the French, "Comment êtes
vous entré dans le Temple de Salomon (how are you admitted
into the Temple of Solomon)?"
Such as these are of course unsanctioned
by authority.
But Doctor Oliver, in an essay on this subject
preliminary to the fourth volume of his Golden Remains, gives
a long list of these "additional tests," which had been
reduced to a kind of system, and were practiced by the English
Freemasons of the eighteenth century. Among them were such as
these : "What is the punishment of a cowan?" "What
does this stone smell of?" "If a brother were lost,
where would you look for him?" "How blows a Mason's
wind?" and many others of the same kind.
Of these tests or catch questions, Doctor
Oliver says "that they were something like the conundrums
of the present day-difficult of comprehension; admitting only
of one answer, which appeared to have no direct correspondence
with the question, and applicable only in consonance with the
mysterious terms and symbols of the Institution."
Catch questions in the United States, at
least, seem to be getting out of use, and some of the most learned
Freemasons at the present day would find it difficult to answer
them.
CATECHISM
From the earliest times the oral instructions of Freemasonry have
been communicated in a catechetical form.
Each degree has its peculiar catechism,
the knowledge of which constitutes what is called a bright Freemason.
The catechism, indeed, should be known to
every Freemason, for every aspirant should be thoroughly instructed
in that of the degree to which he has attained before he is permitted
to make further progress.
The rule, however, is not rigidly observed;
and many Freemasons, unfortunately, are very ignorant of all but
the rudimentary parts of their catechism, which they derive only
from hearing portions of it communicated at the opening and closing
of the Lodge, or from careless Brethren freely using Masonic expressions
publicly.
CATECHISMS, THE OLD
The Early Masonic Calechismus by Douglas
Knoop, G. P. Jones, and Douglas Harner (Manchester University
Press; 1043) is the first book-length (200 pages) analysis of
those unfamiliar but important documents which are called the
Old Catechisms. The authors describe them as having been originally
"mainly conceded with the form of giving the Mason Word,
and the question and answers used to test persons claiming to
have the Mason Word." There are Masons still living in America
who can recall a wide-spread use of "test questions,"
some of which were of archaic form, and which on the surface had
no apparent connection with the Ritual. Something of the same
sort was in use in the Eighteenth Century (and perhaps a half
century or so earlier); a few of them, and possibly the elaborate
ones, were written or printed. They are useful for the data they
contain, or imply, about the Esoteric Work. The authors of Early
Masonic Catechisms have collected everything thus far discovered
about nine written catechisms and seven printed ones. Of the former:
Edinburgh Register House MS., 1696. Chetwode Crawley MS., circa
1700. Sloane MS. 3529, Circa. 1700. Dumfries No. 4 MS., circa
1700 Trinity College Dublin MS., 1711. Institution of Free Masons
circa 1725. Graham MS., 1726. Chesham MS., circa 1740. Essex MS.,
circa 1750. Of the printed ones: A Mason's Examination, 1723.
The grand Mystery of Free-Masons Discovered , 1725. The Whole
Institutions of Free-Masons Opened 1725. The Grand Mustery Laid
Open, 1726. A Masons Confession, 1725. The Mystery of Freemasonry,
1730 Prichards Masonry Dissected, 1730.
CATECHUMEN
One who had attained the Second Degree of
the Essenian or early Christian Mysteries and assumed the name
of Canstans.
There were three degrees in the ceremonies,
which, to a limited extent, resembled the Pagan services.
Of the three classes, the first were Auditors,
the second Catechumens, and the third the Faithful.
The Auditors were novices, prepared by ceremonies
and instruction to receive the dogmas of Christianity.
A portion of these dogmas was made known
to the Catechumens, who, after particular purifications, received
baptism, or the initiation of the theogenesis Divine regeneration;
but in the grand mysteries of that religion-the incarnation, nativity,
passion, and resurrection of Christ-none were initiated but the
Faithful.
The Mysteries were divided into two parts
-the first, styled the Mass of the Catechumens; the second, the
Mass of the Faithful.
Many beautiful ceremonies and much instruction
touching these matters will be found in that most enticing Degree
called Prince of Mercy, and known as the Twenty-sixth in the Scottish
Rite services.
CATENARIAN ARCH
If a rope be suspended loosely by its two
ends, the curve into which it falls is called a catenarian curve,
and this inverted forms the catenarian arch, which is said to
be the strongest of all arches. As the form of a symbolic Lodge
is an oblong square, that of a Royal Arch Chapter, according to
the English Ritual, is a catenarian arch.
CATHARINE II
Catharine the Great, Empress of Russia,
in 1762, prohibited by an edict all Masonic meetings in her dominions.
But subsequently better sentiments prevailed,
and having learned the true character of the Institution, she
not only revoked her order of prohibition, but invited the Freemasons
to re-establish their Lodges and to constitute new ones, and went
so far in 1763 as to proclaim herself the Protectress of the Order
and Tutrice of the Lodge of Clio at Moscow (see Thory, Acta Latamorum,
1, 82),
During the remainder of her reign Freemasonry
was in a flourishing condition in Russia, and many of the nobles
organized Lodges in their palaces. But in 1794 her feelings changed
and she became suspicious that the Lodges of Moscow were intriguing
against the Court and the Ministers ; this idea, coupled with
the horrors of the French Revolution and other crimes said to
be due to secret societies, caused her to cease to protect the
Order, and without any express prohibition emanating from her,
the Lodges ceased to work (see Thory, Acta Latomorum, 1, 195).
She died November 6, 1796, and in 1797 her successor, Paul I,
forbade all secret societies in Russia.
CATHEDRAL
"The use of the word Cathedral is improper
as applied to Scottish Rite buildings. It is only in recent years
that the word has come into use in this Jurisdiction, presumably
from the purchase of some church building by Scottish Rite Bodies,
and remodeling it to Scottish Rite uses.
Strictly speaking, the Cathedral is the
Bishop's Church ; that is, there may be many Churches in the diocese
of a Bishop, but the one he uses to preach in regularly is called
the Cathedral."-John H. Cowles, Sovereign Grand Commander,
Transactions of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction (page
99) of 1923.
CATHEDRALS, AMERICAN
The Cathedral of St. John The Devine In
New York City was built according to the designs and methods used
by Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages as nearly as modern
knowledge, skill and circumstances made it possible. Except that
its founder, Bishop Henry C Potter, of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, was an active Freemason, this first American cathedral,
properly and strictly so called (architecturally), has received
little attention from the American Fraternity, though each year
an increasing number of Masons visit it to see with their own
eyes what kind of work had been done by the founders of their
own Craft. The second genuinely Gothic cathedral to be erected
on the Continent, the National Cathedral at Washington, has been
in a different case, for so many Grand Bodies have taken a share
in building it that they must in the future ever feel a small
sense of proprietorship in it.
A charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral
Foundation was granted by Congress in 1893. A cathedral close
of 65 acres was purchased on Mount Saint Alban, 400 feet above
the general level of Washington, D.C. Its central tower will stand
higher in the sky than the Washington Monument ; it and the Washington
Masonic Memorial (Freemasonry's own national cathedral) will be
in full view of each other. Washington had expressed a hope for
"a church for national purposes," I'Enfant had embodied
it in his city plan; the National Cathedral is a realization of
their dreams.
The bodies of Admiral Dewey, President Wilson,
and Bishop Satterlee already are entombed in it; in the course
of time it may become another Westminster Abbey. There will be
in it a Masonic Section, as planned for by Bro. and Bishop James
E. Freeman; hundreds of Masons or Masonic Bodies have paid for
stones to be used in it. A Masonic Committee of the National Cathedral
Association was formed, led by Bro. John H. Cowles, head of the
Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction; the Rt. Rev. James E. Freeman,
Bishop of Washington, Honorary Chairman.
CATHEDRAL BUILDERS
Some Masonic students have thought, although
the opposition holds that there does not seem to be any specific
documentary evidence to warrant such belief, that in the Middle
Ages there was a separate class of Freemasons known as Cathedral,
or Church, Builders who worked on ecclesiastical structures only
and were distinct from the town guilds or companies.
These students are of the opinion that the
so-called Old Charges were originally intended as rules for use
among this church building class of Freemasons.
Leader Scott (the pen name of the author,
Mrs. Baxter of Florence, Italy) has in her book, Cathedral Builders,
unearthed from Muratori's collection of ancient manuscripts an
edict signed by King Rotharis of November 22, 643, containing
the following clauses:
If the Comacine Master with his colleagues
shall have contracted to restore or build the house of any person
whatsoever, the contact far payment being made, and it chances
that some one shall die by the fall of the said house, or any
material or stones from it, the owner of the said house shall
not be cited by the Magister Comacinus or his brethren to compensate
them for homicide or injury ; because having for their own gain
contracted for the payment of the building, they must sustain
the risks and injuries thereof. If any person has engaged or hired
one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work (conduxerit
ad operam dictandam), or to daily assist his workmen in building
a palace or a house, and it should happen that by reason of the
house some Comacine should be killed, the owner of the house is
not considered responsible; but if a pole or a stone shall kill
or injure any extraneous person, the Master builder shall not
bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation.
Mrs. Baxter says:
"These laws prove
that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact
and powerful guild, capable of asserting their rights, and that
the guild was properly organized, having degrees of different
ranks; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could
'design' or 'undertake' a work; i.e., act as architects; and that
the colleagues worked under, or with them.
In fact, a powerful organization altogether;
so powerful and so solid, that it speaks of a very ancient foundation"
(see Cathedral Builders, the Story of a Great Masonic Guild, 1899,
London, pages 5-7, 423-6; also the Comacines, their Predecessors
and their Successors, Brother W. Ravenscroft, 1910, London, pages
54-64, and the astride on Comacine Masters in this work).
CAUTION
It was formerly the custom to bestow upon
an Entered Apprentice, on his initiation, a new name, which was
Caution.
The custom is now very generally discontinued,
although the principle which it inculcated should never be forgotten.
Similar instruction is still given in the Bristol Working but
without the foregoing name.
The Old Charges of 1723 impress upon a Freemason
the necessity, when in the presence of strangers not Freemasons,
to be "cautious in your words and carriage, that the most
penetrating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out
what is not proper to be intimated''; as these Charges were particularly
directed to Apprentices, who then constituted the great body of
the Fraternity, it is possible that the "new name" gave
rise to the Charge, or, more likely, that the Charge gave rise
to the "new name."
CAVERN
In the Pagan mysteries of antiquity the
initiations were often performed in caverns, of which a few, like
the cave of Elephanta in India, still remain to indicate by their
form and extent the character of the rites that were then performed.
The Cavern of Elephanta, which was the most
gorgeous temple in the world, is one hundred and thirty feet square,
and eighteen feet high. It is supported by four massive pillars,
and its walls are covered with statues and carved symbolic decorations.
The sacellum, or sacred place, which contained
the phallic symbol, was in the western extremity, and accessible
only to the initiated.
The caves of Salsette greatly exceeded in
magnitude that of Elephanta, being three hundred in number, all
adorned with symbolic figures, among which the phallic emblems
were predominant, which were placed in the most secret recesses,
accessible only by private entrances.
In every cave was a basin to contain the
consecrated water of ablution, on the surface of which floated
the sacred lotus flower.
All these caves were places of initiation
into the Hindu mysteries, and every arrangement was made for the
performance of the most impressive ceremonies.
Faber (Dissertatian an the Mysteries of
the Cabiri, ii, 257) says that "wherever the Cabiric Mysteries
were practiced, they were always in some manner or other connected
with caverns," and he mentions, among other instances, the
cave of Zirinthus, within whose dark recesses the most mysterious
Rites of the Samothracian Cabiri were performed.
Maurice (Indian Antiquities, iii, 536),
speaking of the subterranean passages of the Temple of Isis, in
the island of Phile in the river Nile, says "it was in these
gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess
were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymns
of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony
recesses."
Many of the ancient orates, as, for instance,
that of Trophonius in Boeotia, were delivered in caves.
Hence, the cave - subterranean, dark, and
silent - was mingled in the ancient mind with the idea of mystery.
In the ceremonies of Freemasonry, we find
the cavern or vault in what is called the Cryptic Freemasonry
of the American Rite, and also in the advanced Degrees of the
French and Scottish Rites, in which it is a symbol of the darkness
of ignorance and crime impenetrable to the light of truth.
In reference to the practical purposes of
the cavern, as recorded in the legend of these Degrees, it may
be mentioned that caves, which abounded in Palestine in consequence
of the geological structure of the country, are spoken of by Josephus
as places of refuge for banditti; and Phillott says, in Smith's
Bible Dictionary, that it was the caves which lie beneath and
around so many of the Jewish cities that formed the last hiding-places
of the Jewish leaders in the war with the Romans.
CAYENNE or FRENCH GUIANA
A country in South America. Lodge No. 204,
L'Anglaise, at Bordeaux, France, warranted a Lodge at Cayenne
in 1755 and gave it its own name. Other Lodges were organized
by French authority, both of the Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient,
at different times throughout the years.
CEDARS OF LEBANON
In Scriptural symbology, the cedar-tree,
says Wemyss (Symbolic Language of Scripture), was the symbol of
eternity, because its substance never decays nor rots.
Hence, the Ark of the Covenant was made
of cedar; and those are said to utter things worthy of cedar who
write that which no time ought to obliterate.
The Cedars af Lebanan are frequently referred
to in the legends of Freemasonry, especially in the advanced Degrees;
not, however, on account of any symbolical signification, but
rather because of the use made of them by Solomon and Zerubbabel
in the construction of their respective Temples.
Phillott (Smith's Bible Dictionary) thus
describes the grove so Celebrated in Scriptural and Masonic history:
"The grove of trees known as the Cedars
of Lebanon consists of about four hundred trees, standing quite
alone in a depression of the mountain with no trees near, about
six thousand four hundred feet above the sea, and three thousand
below the summit.
About eleven or twelve are very large and
old, twenty-five large, fifty of middle size, and more than three
hundred younger and smaller ones.
The older trees have each several trunks
and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are
of cone-like form, and do not send out wide lateral branches.
In 1550 there were twenty-eight old trees,
in 1739, Pococke counted fifteen, but the number of trunks makes
the operation of counting uncertain.
They are regarded with much reverence by
the native inhabitants as living records of Solomon's power, and
the Maronite patriarch was formerly accustomed to celebrate there
the festival of the Transfiguration at an altar of rough stones."
CELEBES
An island in the East Indies
The Grand Lodge of Holland chartered a Lodge
at Macassar in 1883 called Arbeid Adelt (Ennobled Labor).
CELEBRATION
The Third Degree of Fessler's Rite (see
Fessler, Rite of)
CELESTIAL ALPHABET
See Alphabet, Angels
CELTIC MYSTERIES
See Druidical Mysteries
CELTS
The early inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, Spain,
and Britain.
They are supposed to have left Asia during
one of the Aryan emigrations, and, having traveled in a westerly
direction, to have spread over these countries of Europe. The
Celtic Mysteries or the Sacred Rites which they instituted are
known as Druidical Mysteries, which see.
CEMENT
The cement which in Operative Freemasonry
is used to unite the various parts of a building into one strong
and durable mass, is borrowed by Speculative Freemasonry as a
symbol to denote that brotherly love which binds the Freemasons
of all countries in one common brotherhood. As this brotherhood
is recognized as being perfected among Master Masons only, the
symbol is very appropriately referred to the Third Degree.
CEMETERIES, MASONIC
The desire to select some suitable spot
wherein to deposit the remains of our departed kindred and friends
seems almost innate in the human breast.
The stranger's field was bought with the
accursed bribe of betrayal and treason, and there is an abhorrence
to depositing our loved ones in places whose archetype was so
desecrated by its purchase-money.
The churchyard, to the man of sentiment,
is as sacred as the church itself.
The cemetery bears a hallowed character,
and we adorn its graves with vernal flowers or with evergreens
to show that the dead, though away from our presence visibly,
still live and bloom in our memories.
The oldest of all the histories that time
has saved to us contains an affecting story of this reverence
of the living for the dead, when it tells us how Abraham, when
Sarah, his beloved wife, had died in a strange land, reluctant
to bury her among strangers, purchased from the sons of Heth the
cave of Machpelah for a burial-place for his people.
It is not, then, surprising that Freemasons,
actuated by this spirit, should have been desirous to consecrate
certain spots as resting-places for themselves and for the strange
Brethren who should die among them
A writer in the London Freemason's Magazine
for 1858 complained that there was not then in England a Masonic
cemetery, nor portion of an established cemetery especially dedicated
to the interment of the Brethren of the Craft. This neglect cannot
be charged against the Freemasons of America, for there is scarcely
a city or town of considerable size in which the Freemasons have
not purchased and appropriated a suitable spot as a cemetery to
be exclusively devoted to the use of the Fraternity.
These cemeteries are often, and should always
be, dedicated with impressive ceremonies; and it was long to be
regretted that our rituals provided no sanctioned form of service
for these occasions.
CENSER
A small vessel of metal fitted to receive
burning coals from the altar, and on which the incense for burning
was sprinkled by the priest in the Temple. Among the furniture
of a Royal Arch Chapter is to be found the censer, which is placed
upon the altar of incense within the sanctuary, as a symbol of
the pure thoughts and grateful feelings which, in so holy a place,
should be offered up as a fitting sacrifice to the great I AM.
In a similar symbolic sense, the censer
under the name of the pot of incense, is found among the emblems
of the Third Degree (see Pot of Incense).
The censer also constitutes a part of the
Lodge furniture in many of the advanced Degrees.
CENSOR
Gädicke says he is not an officer,
but is now and then introduced into some of the Lodges of Germany.
He is commonly found where the Lodge has
its own private house, in which, on certain days, mixed assemblies
are held of Freemasons and their families and friends. Of those
assemblies the Censor has the superintendence.
CENSORSHIP
The Roman Popes set up systems of censorship
long before the invention of printing, and when even hand-written
manuscripts were very scarce and were too expensive for general
use ; it censored also symbols, statues, pictures, music, speeches,
ceremonies and pageants-it even tried to censor games and dances,
and more than once went so far as to undertake the censorship
of women's dress!-one of the favorite subjects of many of the
bachelor Popes, and a principal theme of the sermons of the great
preacher, Chrysostom. From the early days of the Christian religion
down to the present moment the system of censorship of the Roman
Church has rested on a single principle : it claims for itself
the exclusive right to decide what is true and what is not true.
Kings, princes, barons, Lords, the heads of great commercial companies,
and the heads of colleges and universities, these also have employed
censorship as a means of control and of preventing unorthodox
words or practices. The American Revolution and the French Revolution
between them were the first to overthrow this system which is
as pernicious and inhuman in its own way as slavery was in another
way. Today the bureau of the Roman Censorship publishes thick
volumes of its Index, which are little more than titles of condemned
books; many Masonic titles are among them, as also are titles
by Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke,
and a long list of names equally celebrated of men who have believed
that facts and realities decide what is true and is not true (the
many Papal condemnations of the doctrine of the sphericity of
the earth had no effect on the shape of the planet)!
When the Mother Grand Lodge of England (1717)
set up a censorship of Masonic books, that is, books about Masonry
written by Masons, it was acting according to received custom.
That censorship continued until late in the century, when it went
by default, and is not likely ever to be revised, because a censored
Mason and a Freemason are a contradiction in terms; for if a Mason
can be trusted to be loyal to the Craft in his behavior, so can
he be trusted not to betray or to misrepresent it in what he says
and writes. (On Church censorship the standard work is Censorship
of the Church of Rome, by George Haven Putnam; S. P. Putnam's
Sons; New York; 1906.)
CENSURE
In Masonic Law, the mildest form of punishment
that can be inflicted, and may be defined to be a formal expression
of disapprobation, without other result than the effect produced
upon the feelings of him who is censured. It is adopted by a resolution
of the Lodge on a motion made at a regular communication; it requires
only a bare majority of votes, for its passage does not affect
the Masonic standing of the person censured, and may be revoked
at any subsequent regular communication.
CENTAINE, ORDER OF
A mystical society of the eighteenth century
which admitted females.
It was organized at Bordeaux in 1735 (see
Thory, Acta Latamorum 1, 298).
CENTENARY JEWELS AND WARRANTS
In England when a Lodge celebrates the hundredth
year of its anniversary it is permitted to choose a special jewel
for the occasion.
In 1867 the particular design to be used
was authorized and illustrated for the first time in 1871 when
the Book of Constitutions was issued.
Before that time each Lodge was permitted
to select its own design, securing the approval of the Grand Master
before using the jewel.
As a result of this method there are forty-two
of the older Lodges now in possession of Special Centenary Jewels
of different designs and which may, be worn by all subscribing
members of the particular Lodge.
Many Centenary Warrants were issued before
1871 but it is during that year that the first special provision
was made for them. In order to secure one of the Warrants a Lodge
must prove uninterrupted existence for one hundred years.
The English Royal Arch Chapters come under
this same ruling.
CENTENNIAL
That which happens every hundred years.
Masonic Bodies that have lasted for that
period very generally celebrate the occasion by a commemorative
festival.
On the 4th of November, 1852, almost all
of the Lodges of the United States celebrated the centennial anniversary
of the initiation of George Washington as a Freemason.
CENTER, OPENING ON THE
In the English instructions, a Master Mason's
Lodge is said to be opened on the center, because the Brethren
present, being all Master Masons, are equally near and equally
distant from that imaginary central point which among Freemasons
constitutes perfection.
Neither of the preliminary Degrees can assert
the same conditions, because the Lodge of an Entered Apprentice
may contain all the three classes, and that of a Fellow Craft
may include some Master Masons; and therefore the doctrine of
perfect equality is not carried out in either. An attempt was
made, but without success, in the Trestle Board, published under
the sanction of the Baltimore Masonic Convention, to introduce
the custom into the American Lodges.
CENTRALISTEN
Meaning Centralists. Lenning says such a
society existed in Europe between 1770 and 1780, pursuing alchemical,
political and religious studies and operating under Masonic forms.
CENTRALISTS
A society which existed in Europe from 1770
to 1780. It made use of Masonic forms at its meetings simply to
conceal its secrets.
Lening calls it an alchemical association,
but says that it had religious and political tendencies.
Glädicke thinks that its object was to propagate Jesuitism.
CENTRAL POINT
See Point within a Circle
CEPHAS
A word which in the Syriac signifies a rock
or stone, and is the name which was bestowed by Christ upon Simon,
when he said to him, "Thou art a rock," which the Greeks
rendered by nirpo, and the Latins by Petrus, both words meaning
a rock.
It is used in the Degree of Royal Master,
and there alludes to the Stone of Foundation, which see.
CEREMONIES
The outer garments which cover
and adorn Freemasonry as clothing does the human body. Although
ceremonies give neither live nor truth to doctrines or principles,
yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use certain
things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would
not otherwise have had; and hence, Lord Coke has most wisely said
that "prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better
memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances
under ceremonies. "
CEREMONIES, MASTER OF
See Master of Ceremonies
CERES
Among the Romans, the goddess of agriculture;
but among the more poetic Greeks she was worshiped under the name
of Demeter, as the symbol of the prolific earth.
To her is attributed the institution of
the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the
ancient initiations.
CERIDWEN
The Isis of the Druids
CERNEAU, JOSEPH
A jeweler, born at Villeblevin, in Yonne,
a department of central France. A register of the Lodge Reunion
des Coeurs at Port Republican (Port-au-Prince) in Santo Domingo,
West Indies, was in the possession of General Albert Pike ,and
in 1886 he quotes from it in publishing the report to him of the
Supreme Council of France in regard to Joseph Cerneau (see page
29): "Joseph Cerneau appears on the same (the register for
1801) as Keeper of the Seals and Archives, the entry as to him,
signed manu propria (by his own hand) being 'Garde de Sceaux et
Archives: Joseph Cerneau, Marchand Orfevre, ne a Villeblerin,
age de 37 ans R. .A. .R. . (i. e. Royal Arch (of Heredom) and
Rose Croix)'" the other words not commented upon specifically
by Brother Pike meaning Joseph Cerneau, merchant goldsmith, born
at Villeblerin (the v in this word being copied as r), aged 87
years, etc. Cerneau was active in Cuba later on and we find that
on December 17, 1804, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania received
a petition from several Brethren for a Warrant to hold a Lodge
at Havana and that Brother Joseph Cerneau might be named Master,
a request which was granted on that date, the "Petition being
duly recommended according to the Regulations of this Grand Lodge."
Antonie-Mathieu Dupotet was Master of Lodge
No. .47, Reunion des Coeurs, and in the register of that Lodge
his name is followed by the same initials of Degrees or titles
as in the case of Cerneau, but with this important addition "et
P. . du R. . S. .," meaning and Prince af the Royal Secret.
Brother Pike in his Memoir, af Cerneauism
(page 6, Supplement, 1885) says. "
In July, 1806, he (Dupotet) gave Cerneau,
at Baracoa, in Cuba, the Degrees of the Rite of Heredom à
Perfection, from 19 to 25.''
The Appendix to this Memoir, contains a
copy of the Patent of the Twenty-fifth Degree to Joseph Cerneau,
16 July, 1806, signed by Dupotet, giving him power for the Northern
part of the Island of Cuba to initiate and promote Brother Masons
from the fourth to the twenty-fourth, and on one only a year the
remaining Degree was permitted.
The Patent was said by General Pike in this
Memoir to be " from papers belonging to Bro. . Charles Laflon
de Ladebat, who was, prior to 1857, a member of the Supreme Council
for the State of Louisiana, at New Orleans (claiming to be the
Hicks-Laurent United Sup. Council continued), of which Jacques
Foulhouze had been Grand Commander."
The Patent not only specifically restricted
the conferring of Degrees by Joseph Cerneau as Deputy Grand Inspector
to the northern part of the Island of Cuba and only to such in
the series as are enumerated, namely from the fourth to the twenty-fourth
and once a year not more than one in the twenty-fifth, but provides
further that these candidates " shall have been officers
of a Lodge regularly constituted and recognized, and in places
only where there may not be found Sacred and Sublime and regularly
constituted Asyla."
Dr. Robert B. Folger, Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, 1881 (page 337) says "Joseph Cerneau established
his Sovereign Grand Consistory, in New York City in 1807.
He pretended to no more than the Rite of
Perfection in Twenty-five degrees.''
There is another allusion by the author (page 157), "
It will be found that the name of The Most
Potent Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted
Masonry, according to the Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite
of Heredom was continued up to the end of the time---viz., 1827."
Doctor Folger mentions the activity of Cerneau
in promoting various branches of the Masonic Institution and says
in his history, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (second edition,
1881, page 128), " Mr. Cerneau also established a Degree
called Aaron's Band which continued to be worked as a detached
Degree for many years, in a separate Body; but eventually about
the year 1825, was stopped by the interference of the Grand Chapter,
which Body stated that it was an infringement upon the Degree
of High Priesthood."
We may fix the time when Cerneau came to
New York from Cuba by a report made by Brother Duplessis, the
proxy of Lodge No. 103 at Havana, to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
on January 5, 1807. In this statement (see page 244, Reprint of
the Minutes, volume 11, 1801-10), "It appears from said papers
that difficulties of the highest importance had happened in that
Lodge.
That unworthy Brethren had denounced the
Lodge to the Governor of Havana and that Bro. Cerneau had been
Ordered to quit the Island and was arrived at New York in the
beginning of November last with his Family. That the worthy Brethren
of the said Lodge No. 103, had proceeded to the choice of New
Officers agreeably to the Communications and Returns aforesaid,
and were Obliged to use the greatest caution in their work, &c.;
that the Lodge had lost above Three Thousand Dollars by the unfortunate
circumstance aforesaid, and our worthy Brother Cerneau had also
met with a heavy loss by his being obliged to remove with his
Family, though he had received from the Governor every mark of
regard that could be expected by the most respectable Character,
&c., and that the said Bro. Cerneau had previous to his departure
given to the Brethren the most wholesome advice and Assisted them
in reorganizing the said Lodge, which now consists of the most
respectable Characters of the Island."
We find later on, April 6, 1807, the Grand
Lodge authorizing a letter of sympathy to the " late and
present Worshipful Masters and Worthy Brethren of Lodge No. 103.''
Brothers Emanuel De La Motta, M. J. Maduro Peixotto, J. J. J.
Gourgas and Sampson Simson, the first being Treasurer-General
of the Supreme Council having its Grand East at Charleston, South
Carolina, visited Joseph Cerneau in New York on September 14,
1813, and as a result of that investigation he was denounced and
he and his associates declared expelled from every lawful Degree
or Masonic Society in which they may have been received or admitted
(see page 25, Documents, Joseph M'cosh).
Joseph M'cosh states in Documents upon sublime
Freemasonry in the United States of America (page vii), "
Of J. C.'s Masonic conduct in Havana de Cuba, we have many facts
before us which would blacken any thing we have before communicated.
His labors were conduced by his being expelled
from the island by the governor, at the request of the fraternity
who resided there."
There is in the report of the Supreme Council
for France, published in 1886, a reference that would indicate
action against Joseph Cerneau had been taken by the Masonic authorities
in Cuba as well as in the United States.
The item mentioning the decree issued at
Charleston in 1813, says (page 31).
It declares him unworthy to be a Mason,
annuls as irregular his Masonic operations, and demolishes the
Consistories and Councils which he may have established. It thus
approves the Masonic decisions made in 1805, by the Metropolitan
Grand Lodge of Havana, Island of Cuba, against this Ver I1l:.
Brother."
In the business recorded of the Adjourned
Grand Quarterly Communication at Philadelphia on January 16, 1809
(page 381, Reprint) the Grand Secretary "Brother Baker stated
that he had been informed that Bro. Joseph Cerneau, formerly J.
G. W. of the Provincial Lodge of St. Domingo and afterwards Master
of Lodge No. 103, held at Havannah, and now residing in the City
of New York, had been Guilty of Un-masonic Conduct.
Whereupon, On Motion made and Seconded,
Resolved, that Brothers Duplessis, Chaudron and Baker be a Committee
to Examine respecting the premises and make Report thereon. "
But the details of this affair must be left
to conjecture as we do not discover the Committee to have brought
in any report.
In a footnote by General Pike to the report
of the Supreme Council for France, July 7, 1886, published at
Washington by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States (page 29), we read of Cerneau's claims.
" He did not style himself to be an
Inspector-General 'of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.'
The Body that he established did not pretend to be a body, and
he did not pretend to be an Inspector; of that Rite; but of 'the
Ancient Constitutional Rite of Heredom.
He went back to France in December, 1827,
and was no more heard of: and no Body claiming to be a Supreme
Council of the 33rd Degree, with any powers, was established by
him until November 28, 1827.
Before then the 32nd of his Grand Consistory
elected 33rds from among themselves, the title being merely honorary,
and with no powers attached." As to the date when Joseph
Cerneau left New York for France there is some uncertain, Doctor
Folger intimating a later time than General Pike. Doctor Folger
alludes in his History, 1881, to his personal acquaintance with
Joseph Cerneau and in regard to his circumstances and movements
in later years has this to say (page 117), " For, in the
latter part of the time - from 1832 onward - he was in poor circumstances,
and made application to the Supreme Council for assistance.
That body made some considerable purchases
of him, which relieved his necessities. He returned to his native
land in comparative poverty, and died there, between the years
1840 and 1845, while filling a small public office, under wretched
pay."
CERTIFICATE
A Diploma issued by a Grand Lodge or by
a subordinate Lodge under its authority, testifying that the holder
thereof is a true and trusty Brother, and recommending him to
the hospitality of the Fraternity abroad. The character of this
instrument has sometimes been much misunderstood. It is by no
means intended to act as a voucher for the bearer, nor can it
be allowed to supersede the necessity of a strict examination.
A stranger, however, having been tried and proved by a more unerring
standard, his Certificate then properly comes in as an auxiliary
testimonial, and will be permitted to afford good evidence of
his correct standing in his lodge at home; for no Body of Freemasons,
true to the principles of their Order, would grant such an instrument
to an unworthy Brother, or to one who, they feared, might make
an improper use of it.
But though the presence of a Grand Lodge
Certificate be in general required as collateral evidence of worthiness
to visit, or receive aid, its accidental absence, which may arise
in various ways, as from fire, captivity, or shipwreck, should
not debar a strange Brother from the rights guaranteed to him
by our Institution, provided he can offer other evidence of his
good character.
The Grand Lodge of New York has, upon this subject, taken the
proper stand in the following regulation:
'
'That no Freemason be admitted to any subordinate
Lodge under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, or receive the
charities of any Lodge, unless he shall, on such application,
exhibit a Grand Lodge certificate, duly attested by the proper
authorities, except he is known to the Lodge to be a worthy brother."
The Certificate system has been warmly discussed
by the Grand Lodges of the United States, and considerable opposition
to it has been made by some of them on the ground that, it is
an innovation.
If it is an innovation, it certainly is
not one of the present day, as we may learn from the Regulations
made in General Assembly of the Masons of England, on Saint John
the Evangelist's day, 1663, during the Grand Mastership of the
Earl of St. Albans, one of which reads as follows: "That
no person hereafter who shall be accepted a Freemason shall be
admitted into any Lodge or Assembly, until he has brought a certificate
of the time and place of his acceptation from the Lodge that accepted
him, unto the Master of that limit or division where such Lodge
is kept" (see Constitution, 1738, page 101).
Among the General Regulations " made
at a Grand Lodge held in Corke, on Saint John ye Evangelist's
Day, 1728," is the following:
" That no person pretending to be a
Mason shall be considered as such within ye precincts of our Grand
Lodge or deemed duly matriculated into ye Society of Freemasons,
until he hath subscribed in some Lodge to these regulations and
obliged himself to sign ye before mentioned Duplicate (a copy
of the General Regulations possessed by all Lodges), at which
time he shall be furnished with proper means to convince the authentic
Brethren the hath duly complied."
Brother WT. J. Chetwode Crawley (Caementaria
Hibernica, Fasciculus1, pages 11 and 12), says further that "In
this clause we descry the germ of the Certificate now issued to
every Master Mason.
The proper means to convince the authentic Brethren' supplies
the earliest intimation in the history of the Craft of a practice
which, originating with the Grand Lodge of Munster, has been adopted
by every Grand Lodge in the World.
The first Grand Lodge Certificate ever heard
of in England seems to have been that brought with him to England
by Lawrence Dermott, and proudly exhibited by him to his Grand
Lodge (see the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient for March
2, 1757, as given in Brother Sadler's Masonic Facts and Fictions).
The Premier Grand Lodge (Moderns) borrowed
the practice from Lawrence Dermott and began to make use of Certificates
in the year 1755."
CEYLON
An island in the Indian Ocean. In 1771 Freemasonry
was introduced to Ceylon with the establishment by the Grand Lodge
of Holland of Fidelity Lodge at Colombo, the capital of the island,
in 1771. Sir Alexander Johnston was appointed Provincial Grand
Master by the Grand Lodge of England in 1810. Oliver Day Street
says of Ceylon in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge
of Alabama in 1922 :
"On this island are nine Lodges subject
to the Grand Lodge of England and three subject to that of Ireland.
Four of these are at Colombo and one each
at Badulla, Galle, Halton, Kandy, Kurunegala, Nuwara Ebya, and
Tolowakello."
CHAILLOU DE JOINVILLE
He played an important part in the Freemasonry
of France about the middle of the eighteenth century, especially
in the schisms which at that time existed in the Grand Lodge.
In 1761, he was an active member of the Council of Emperors of
the East and West, or Rite of Perfection, which had been established
in 1758.
Under the title of Substitute General of
the Order, Venerable Master of the First Lodge in France, called
Saint Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent Degrees, Cammander, and
Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, etc.,etc., etc., he signed
the Patent of Stephen Morin, authorizing him to extend the Royal
Order in America, which was the first step that subsequently led
to the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Rite in the United
States.
In 1762, the Prince of Clermont, Grand Master
of the Grand Lodge of France, removed the dancing-master Lacorne,
whom he had previously appointed his Substitute General and who
had become distasteful to the respectable members of the Grand
Lodge, and put Chaillau de Jainville in his place.
This action created a schism in the Grand
Lodge, during which De Jainville appears to have acted with considerable
energy, but eventually he became almost as notorious as his predecessor,
by issuing irregular charters and deputations.
On the death of the Prince of Clermont,
in 1771, the Lacornists regained much of their influence, and
De Jainville appears quietly to have passed away from the field
of French Freemasonry and Masonic intrigues.
CHAIN, MYSTIC
To form the Mystic Chain is for the Brethren
to make a circle, holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding
a grave, etc.
Each Brother crosses his arms in front of
his body, so as to give his right hand to his left-hand neighbor,
and his left hand to his right-hand neighbor.
The French call it Chaine d'Union. It is
a symbol of the close connection of all Freemasons in one common
brotherhood.
CHAIN OF FLOWERS
In French Freemasonry, when a Lodge celebrates
the day of its foundation, or the semicentennial membership of
one of the Brethren, or at the initiation of a louveteau (which
see) the room is decorated with wreaths of flowers called chaine
de fleurs.
CHAIN OF UNION
See Chain, Mystic
CHAIN, SOCIETY OF THE
In German, Gessellschaft der Kette.
Also known as Order of the Chain of the Pilgrims. A German society
of both sexes, founded, 1758, in Hamburg.
Comprised persons of high social position
and among its benevolent work was an Institute for the Blind.
The letters W, . B and S were used by the
members as signs of recognition, signifying the German equivalents
for the words Camplaisance, Constancy and Silence.
The jewel was a chain of three links with
the three letters W, B and S, and the members were called Knights
of the Chain; their meetings were called Unions and the assembled
members were known as Favorites.
There was a similar society founded in Denmark
in 1777.
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