COMBINATION OF FREEMASONS.

The combination of the Freemasons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to demand a higher rate of wages, which eventually gave rise to the enactment of the Statutes of Laborers, is thus described by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (January, 1740, page 17):

"King Edward III took so great an affection to Windsor, the place of his birth, that he instituted the Order of the Garter there, and rebuilt and enlarged the castle, with the church and chapel of Saint George. This was a great work and required a great many hands; and for the carrying of it on writs were directed to the sheriffs of several counties to send thither, under the penalty of £100 each, such a number of Masons by a day appointed. London sent forty, so did Devon, Somerset, and several other counties; but several dying of the plague, and others deserting the service, new writs were issued to send up supplies. Yorkshire sent sixty, and other counties proportionably, and orders were given that no one should entertain any of these runaway Masons, under pain of forfeiture of all their goods. Hereupon, the Masons entered into a combination not to work, unless at higher wages. They agreed upon tokens, etc., to know one another by, and to assist one another against being impressed, and not to work unless free and on their own terms. Hence they called themselves Freemasons; and this combination continued during the carrying on of these buildings for several years. The wars between the two Houses coming on in the next reign, the discontented herded together in the same manner, and the gentry also underhand supporting the malcontents, occasioned several Acts of Parliament against the combination of Masons and other persons under that denomination the titles of which Acts are still to be seen in the printed statutes of those reigns."

Ashmole, in his History of the Order of the Garter (page 80), confirms the fact of the impressment of workmen by King Edward; and the combination that followed seems but a natural consequence of this oppressive act; but the assertion that the origin of Freemasonry as an organized institution of builders is to be traced to such a combination, is not supported by the facts of history, and, indeed, the writer himself admits that the Freemasons denied its truth.

COMMANDER.

1. The presiding officer in a Commandery of Knights Templar. His style is Eminent, and the jewel of his office is a cross, from which issue rays of light. In England and Canada he is now styled Preceptor.

2. The Superintendent of a Commandery, as a house or residence of the Ancient Knights of Malta, was so called.

COMMANDER, GRAND

See Grand Commander.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

The presiding officer in a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. His style is Illustrious. In a Grand Consistory the presiding officer is a Grand Commander-in-Chief, and he is styled Very Illustrious.

COMMANDER INSPECTOR

Seventh and last grade of the Philosophic Rite. Thory says this was arranged by the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree to make up Degree Thirty-one though previously used, the Metropolitan Chapter possessing one of the same name, No. 71, eighth series.

COMMANDERY.

1. In the United States all regular assemblies of Knights Templar are called Commanderies, and must consist of the following officers: Eminent Commander, Generalissimo, Captain-General, Prelate, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Treasurer, Recorder, Warder, Standard-Bearer, Sword Bearer, and Sentinel. These Commanderies derive their warrants of Constitution from a Grand Commandery, or, if there is no such body in the State in which they are organized, from the Grand Encampment of the United States. They confer the Degrees of Companion of the Red Cross, Knight of Malta, and Knight Templar. Under the present law of the Grand Encampment, Knight Templar of the United States, the Order of the Red Cross is conferred in the Council Chamber, the Order of Malta in a Priory and the Order of the Temple in the Asylum of the Commandery.

In a Commandery of Knights Templar, as familiar to Doctor Mackey, the throne is situated in the East. Above it are suspended three banners: the center one bearing a cross, surmounted by a glory; the left one having inscribed on it the emblems of the Order, and the right one, a paschal lamb. The Eminent Commander is seated on the throne; the Generalissimo, Prelate, and Past Commanders on his right; the Captain-General on his left; the Treasurer and Recorder, as in a Symbolic Lodge; the Senior Warden at the southwest angle of the triangle, and upon the right of the first division; the Junior Warden at the northwest angle of the triangle, and on the left of the third division; the Standard-Bearer in the West, between the Sword-Bearer on his right, and the Warder on his left; and in front of him is a stall for the initiate. The Knights are arranged in equal numbers on each side, and in front of the throne. In England and Canada a body of Knights Templar is called a Preceptory.

2. The houses or residences of the Knights of Malta were called Commanderies, and the aggregation of them in a nation was called a Priory or Grand Priory.

COMMANDERY, GRAND

When three or more Commanderies are instituted in a State, they may unite and form a Grand Commandery under the regulations prescribed by the Grand Encampment of the United States. They have the superintendence of all Commanderies of Knights Templar that are holden in their respective Jurisdictions.

A Grand Commandery meets at least annually, and its officers consist of a Grand Commander, Deputy Grand Commander, Grand Generalissimo, Grand Captain-General,~ Grand Prelate, Grand Senior and Junior Warden, Grand Treasurer, Grand Recorder, Grand Warder, Grand Standard-Bearer, and Grand Sword-Bearer.

COMMITTEE

To facilitate the transaction of business, a Lodge or Grand Lodge often refers a subject to a particular committee for investigation and report. By the usages of Freemasonry, committees of this character are always appointed by the presiding officer; and the Master of a Lodge, when present at the meeting of a committee, may act, if he thinks proper, as its chairman; for the Master presides over any assemblage of the Craft in his Jurisdiction.

COMMITTEE GENERAL

By the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, all matters of business to be brought under the consideration of the Grand Lodge must previously be presented to a General Committee, consisting of the President of the Board of Benevolence, the Present and Past Grand Officers, and the Master of every regular Lodge, who meet on the fourteenth day immediately preceding each quarterly communication. No such regulation prevails among the Grand Lodge of America.

COMMITTEE OF CHARITY

In most Lodges there is a standing Committee of Charity, appointed at the beginning of the year, to which, in general, applications for relief are referred by the Lodge. In cases where the Lodge does not itself take immediate action, the committee is also invested with the power to grant relief to a limited amount during the recess of the Lodge.

COMMITTEE OF FINANCE

In many Lodges the Master, Wardens, Treasurer, and Secretary constitute a Committee of Finance, to which is referred the general supervision of the finances of the Lodge.

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE

In none of the Grand Lodges of this country up to early in the eighteenth century, was such a committee as that on foreign correspondence ever appointed. A few of them had corresponding secretaries, to whom were entrusted the duty of attending to the correspondence of the Body; a duty which was very generally neglected. A report on the proceedings of other Bodies was altogether unknown. Grand Lodges met and transacted the local business of their own Jurisdictions without any reference to what was passing abroad.

But improvements in this respect began to show themselves. Intelligent Freemasons saw that it would no longer do to isolate themselves from the Fraternity in other countries, and that, if any moral or intellectual advancement was to be expected, it must be derived from the intercommunication and collision of ideas; and the first step toward this advancement was the appointment in every Grand Lodge of a committee whose duty it should be to collate the proceedings of other Jurisdictions, and to eliminate from them the most important items. These committees were, however, very slow in assuming the functions which devolved upon them, and in coming up to the full measure of their duties. At first their reports were little more than "reports of progress." No light was derived from their collation, and the Bodies which had appointed them were no wiser after their reports had been read than they were before.

As a specimen of the first condition and subsequent improvement of these committees oil foreign correspondence, let us take at random the transactions of any Grand Lodge old enough to have a history and intelligent enough to have made any progress; and, for this purpose, the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, two volumes of which lie conveniently at hand, will do as well as any other.

The Grand Lodge of Ohio was organized in January, 1803. From that time to 1829, its proceedings contain no reference to a committee on correspondence; and except a single allusion to the Washington Convention, made in the report of a special committee, the Freemasons of Ohio seem to have had no cognizance, or at least to have shown no recognition, of any Freemasonry which might be outside of their own Jurisdiction.

But in the year 1830, for the first time, a committee was appointed to report on the foreign correspondence of the Grand Lodge. This committee bore the title of the Committee on Communications from Foreign Grand Lodges, etc., and made during the session a report of eight lines in length, which contained just the amount of information that could be condensed in that brief space, and no more. In 1831, the report was fifteen lines long; in 1832, ten lines; in 1833, twelve lines; and so on for several years, the reports being sometimes a little longer and sometimes a little shorter; but the length being always measured by lines, and not by pages, until, in 1837, there was a marked falling off, the report consisting only of one line and a half. Of this report, which certainly cannot be accused of verbosity, the following is an exact copy: "Nothing has been presented for the consideration of your committee requiring the action of the Grand Lodge."

In 1842 the labors of the committee began to increase, and their report fills a page of the proceedings. Things now rapidly improved. In 1843, the report was three pages long; in 1845, four pages; in 1846, seven, in 1848, nearly thirteen; and 1853, fourteen; in 1856, thirty; and in 1857, forty-six. Thenceforward there is no more fault to be found. The reports of the future committees were of full growth, and we do not again find such an unmeaning phrase as "nothing requiring the action of the Grand Lodge."

The history of these reports in other Grand Lodges is the same as that in Ohio. Beginning with a few lines which announced the absence of all matters worthy of consideration, they have grown up to the full stature of elaborate essays in which the most important and interesting subjects of Masonic history, philosophy, and jurisprudence are discussed, generally with much ability.

At this day the reports of the committees on foreign correspondence in all the Grand Lodges of this country constitute an important portion of the literature of the Institution. The chairmen of these committees - for the other members fill, for the most part, only the post of "sleeping partners" - are generally men of education and talent, who, by the very occupation in which they are employed, of reading the published proceedings of all the Grand Lodges in correspondence with their own, have become thoroughly conversant with the contemporary history of the Order, while a great many of them have extended their studies in its previous history.

The Reportorial Corps, as these hard-laboring Brethren are beginning to call themselves, exercise, of course, a not trifling influence in the Order. These committees annually submit to their respective Grand Lodges a mass of interesting information, which is read with great avidity by their Brethren. Gradually - for at first it was not their custom - they have added to the bare narration of facts their comments on Masonic law and their criticisms on the decisions made in other Jurisdictions. These comments and critic have very naturally their weight, sometimes beyond their actual worth; and it will therefore be proper to take a glance at what ought to be the character of a report on foreign correspondence.

In the first place, then, a reporter of foreign correspondence should be, in the most literal sense of Shakespeare's words, a brief chronicler of the times. His report should contain a succinct account of everything of importance that is passing in the Masonic world, so far as his materials supply him with the information. But, remembering that he is writing for the instruction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, many of whom cannot spare much time, and many others who have no inclination to spare it, he should eschew the sin of tediousness, never forgetting that "brevity is the soul of wit." He should omit all details that have no special interest; should husband his space for important items, and be exceedingly parsimonious in the use of unnecessary expletives, whose only use is to add to the length of a line. In a word, he should remember that he is not an orator but a historian. A rigid adherence to these principles would save the expense of many printed pages to his Grand Lodge, and the waste of much time to his readers. These reports will form the germ of future Masonic history The collected mass will be an immense one, and it should not be unnecessarily enlarged by the admission of trivial items

In the next place, although we admit that these, Brethren of the reportorial corps" have peculiar advantages in reading the opinions of their contemporaries on subjects of Masonic jurisprudence, they would be mistaken in supposing that these advantages must necessarily make them Masonic lawyers. Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius, meaning in Latin, a Mercury (the Roman god of commerce) is not to be made out of any chance piece of wood. It is not every man that will make a lawyer. A peculiar turn of mind and a habit of close reasoning, as well as a thorough acquaintance with the law itself, are required to fit one for the investigation of questions of jurisprudence. Reporters, therefore, should assume the task of adjudicating points of law with much diffidence. They should not pretend to make decision ex cathedra (officially or with authority, from the Latin, meaning literally from the bishop's throne or the professor's chair), but only to express an opinion; and that opinion they should attempt to sustain by arguments that may convince their readers. Dogmatism is entirely out of place in a Masonic report on foreign correspondence.

But if tediousness and dogmatism are displeasing, how much more offensive must be rudeness and personality. Courtesy is a Masonic as well as a knightly virtue, and the reporter who takes advantage of his official position to speak rudely of his Brethren, or makes his report the vehicle of scurrility and abuse, most strangely forgets the duty and respect which he owes to the Grand Lodge which he represents and the Fraternity to which he addresses himself.

And, lastly, a few words as to style. These reports, we have already said, constitute an important feature of Masonic literature. It should be, then, the object and aim of everyone to give to them a tone and character which shall reflect honor on the society whence they emanate, and enhance the reputation of their authors. The style cannot always be scholarly, but it should always be chaste; it may sometimes want eloquence, but it should never be marked by vulgarity. Coarseness of language and slang phrases are manifestly out of place in a paper which treats of subjects such as naturally belong to a Masonic document. Wit and humor we would not, of course, exclude. The Horatian maxim bids us sometimes to unbend, and old Menander thought it would not do always to appear wise. Even the solemn Johnson could sometimes perpetrate a joke, and Sidney Smith has enlivened his lectures on moral philosophy with numerous witticisms. There are those who delight in the stateliness of Coleridge; but for ourselves we do not object to the levity of Lamb, though we would not care to descend to the vulgarity of Rabelais.

To sum up the whole matter in a few words, these reports on foreign correspondence should be succinct, and, if you please, elaborate chronicles of all passing events in the Masonic world; they should express the opinions of their authors on points of Masonic law, not as judicial dicta (Latin, verdicts), but simply as opinions, not to be dogmatically enforced, but to be sustained and supported by the best arguments that the writers can produce; they should not be made the vehicles of personal abuse or vituperation; and, lastly, they should be clothed in language worthy of the literature of the Order.

COMMITTEE, PRIVATE
The well-known regulation which forbids private committees in the Lodge, that is, select conversations between two or more members, in which the other members are not permitted to join, is derived from the Old Charges: "You are not to hold private committees or separate conversation, without leave from the Master, nor to talk of anything impertinent or unseemly, nor to interrupt the Master or Wardens, or any brother speaking to the Master" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 53).

COMMITTEE, REPORT OF

See Report of a Committee.

COMITY, LODGE AND GRAND LODGE

Contrary to a popular misunderstanding etymologists do not derive comity from such roots as co or com (as in cooperation and committee) but from an old and little used Latin word for friendliness, the means of friendliness, friendly relations.

The word belongs to the technical nomenclature of Freemasonry, and is one of the subjects in Masonic jurisprudence. It is the name for that set of means by which Masonic local bodies and Masonic Grand Bodies work in friendly co-operation with each other, within and among the recognized Rites. Comity is in two major divisions:

Internal, by which Lodges cooperate with each other and with their Grand Lodge (or Chapters, Councils, etc.) within the same Grand Jurisdiction; External, the means by which Grand Lodges (Grand Chapters, Grand Councils, etc.) cooperate with other Grand Lodges, either at home or abroad.

I. INTERNAL COMITY The means employed are in part departments or offices of Lodges and Grand Lodges, in part are voluntary activities initiated, encouraged, or sponsored by Lodges and Grand Lodges. Among these are : District Deputy systems; District Grand Lecturer Systems; Masonic periodicals; group or area assemblies of Lodges; "service committees" or departments for Masonic education, employment, and speakers bureaus, etc. The reception of visitors, the visiting of one Lodge by another, conferring of Degrees by courtesy, the right of demission (or dimission) are among the means of internal comity provided for in the Ancient Landmarks.

II. EXTERNAL COMITY

The complete system of External Comity is as yet in the making; thus far such methods as the following have been adopted .by each and every Grand Lodge or by a group of them: Official recognition of one Grand Lodge by another. The exchange of Grand Representatives. Foreign (or Fraternal) Correspondence Reports in Grand Lodge Proceedings. The visiting of a Grand Lodge by official representatives of another. Correspondence among Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries. Annual Conferences by Grand Masters, and by Grand Secretaries. Conferring of Courtesy Degrees. Demission or visiting from one Grand Jurisdiction to another. The Masonic Service Association, and similar voluntary service activities.

Periodicals of general circulation. Extra-Grand Jurisdictional services of Grand Lodge Libraries. Books, booklets, movies, etc., of one Grand Jurisdiction permitted for use in another. The sending of Masonic Committees and missions abroad. The exchange of Grand Lodge Proceedings. Etc., etc.

General agreement on some essentials of External Comity is still incomplete. Among these are: Specific conditions on which to grant official recognition to their Grand Bodies. Grand Lodge responsibility for constituting and fostering Lodges in foreign countries not already under any Grand Lodge. The true and correct Grand Lodge procedure in other countries in cases where general Masonic organization has broken down but where there are some (at least) regular Masons and Lodges. (As in Italy in the 1930's.)

The attempt to set up a single General, or National, Grand Lodge which began during the Revolutionary War and was not abandoned until after the Civil War was predicated upon the known need for ways and means to enable thousands of American Masonic Bodies and Grand Bodies to work in unity and harmony, lest the American Craft become intellectual by breaking down into self-contained, isolated, mutually exclusive local groups. That need was real but as events have proved a single American Grand Lodge could not have been the satisfaction of it; the body of means and methods which in purpose and practice comprise Comity are more extensive, more free, more adaptable, more satisfying, and more effectual than the means and methods of one Grand Lodge could have been. The system of Comity has given to American Freemasonry everything that a National Grand Lodge could have given to it; and it has given to it many things that a National Grand Lodge would have denied to it.

The Mother Grand Lodge of Speculative Freemasonry was set up in 1717 after it had been discussed by already-existing, self-constituted Lodges in London; though only four of them attended and elected the first Grand Master it is certain that others had consented and, as their actions proved, were ready to unite. In the beginning this Grand Lodge was for no purpose except to revive a general assembly, and to give the Lodges a center where they might occasionally meet. It was an act of comity. There was to be no new Freemasonry ; there was to be a means for the old Freemasonry to work more effectually.

There were many pre-1717 Lodges in England, Ireland, and Scotland; in Scotland alone there were more than 100 before 1700. When a new Lodge was formed (usually of seven or more) it was self-constituted by men who already were Masons, one from a Lodge in one place, another from a Lodge in another, and they thus had ties with other Lodges from the beginning. Each Lodge had a copy of the same old Charges that other Lodges possessed, or it had men in it who knew the essential portions by heart. A Lodge might assist a group to form a Lodge in a nearby community, help it during its formative period, and afterwards maintain close ties with it; these were daughter Lodges. Any Mason regularly made, possessed of the all-important modes of recognition, could visit in any Lodge. This was their comity, the means by which, before a Grand Lodge system was devised, separate and independent Lodges formed a single Fraternity.

COMMON GAVEL

See Gavel.

COMMON JUDGE

Found in some early writings upon Freemasonry and probably meant for Common Gauge.

COMMUNICATION

The meeting of a Lodge is so called. There is a peculiar significance in this term. To communicate, which, in the Old English form, was to cutamon, originally meant to share in common with others. The great sacrament of the Christian Church, which denotes a participation in the mysteries of the religion and a fellowship in the church, is called a communion, which is fundamentally the same as a communication, for he who partakes of the communion is said to communicate. Hence the meetings of Masonic Lodges are called communications, to signify that it is not simply the ordinary meeting of a society for the transaction of business, but that such meeting is the fellowship of men engaged in a common pursuit, and governed by a common principle, and that there is therein a communication or participation of those feelings and sentiments that constitute a true brotherhood.


The communications of Lodges are regular or stated and special or emergent. Regular communications are held under the provision of the by-laws, but special communications are called by order of the Master. It is a regulation that no special communication can alter, amend, or rescind the proceedings of a regular communication.

COMMUNICATION, GRAND

The meeting of a Grand Lodge.

COMMUNICATION OF DEGREES

When the peculiar mysteries of a Degree are bestowed upon a candidate by mere verbal description of the bestower, without his being made to pass through the constituted ceremonies, the Degree is technically said to be communicated. This mode is, however, entirely confined in America to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

The Degrees may in that Rite be thus conferred in any place where secrecy is secured; but the prerogative of communicating is restricted to the presiding officers of Bodies of the Rite, who may communicate certain of the Degrees upon candidates who have been previously duly elected, and to Inspectors and Deputy Inspectors-General of the Thirty-third Degree, who may communicate all the Degrees of the Rite, except the last, to any persons whom they may deem qualified to receive them.

COMMUNICATION, QUARTERLY

Anciently Grand Lodges, which were then called General Assemblies of the Craft, were hold annually. But it is said that the Grand Master Inigo Jones instituted quarterly communications at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which were continued by his successors, the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Christopher Wren, until the infirmities of the latter compelled him to neglect them (see Constitutions, 1738, page 99). On the revival in 1717, provision was made for the resumption; and in the twelfth of the thirty-nine Regulations of 1721 it was declared that the Grand Lodge must have a quarterly communication about Michaelmas, Christmas and Lady-Day (see Constitutions, 1723, page 61). These quarterly communications are still retained by the Grand Lodge of England, and in America by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, but all other American Grand Lodges have adopted the old system of annual communications.

COMMUNION OF THE BRETHREN

See Bread, Consecrated.

COMO

Capital of the Province of Como in Northern Italy, situated at South end of West branch of Lake of Como, about thirty miles from Milan, and today is an industrial city. Its interest to Freemasons is on account of it being the center from which radiated the Comacine Masters, who descended from the Roman Colleges of Artificers and who built for the Lombards and others during their reign and carried their Art and influence into the Cathedral building of the Renaissance (see Comacine Masters).

The archeologists have determined the form of the older city of Roman times to have been rectangular, enclosed by walls. Towers were constructed on walls in the twelfth century. Portions of the walls are now to be seen in the garden of Liceo Volta. Baths common in all Roman cities have been discovered. Fortifications erected previous to 1127 were largely constructed with Roman inscribed sepulchral urns and other remains, in which most all Roman cities were unusually rich.

It is usual to record that Como was the birthplace of the elder and younger Pliny. The younger Pliny had a villa here called Comedia and was much interested in building the city, having founded baths, a library, and aided in charity for the support of orphan children.

Of the many letters of the younger Pliny that remain, one is to his builder, Mustio, a Comacine architect, commissioning him to restore the ternple of the Eleusinian Ceres, in which, after explaining the form of design he wished it to take, he concludes: "... at least, unless you think of something better, you, whose Art can always overcome difficulties of position."

There was an early church of Saints Peter and Paul in the fifth century that stood outside of the town and the site is now occupied by the Romanesque church of Saint Abbondio, founded 1013, and consecrated 1095. There are found many interesting intrecci remains of early carvings of the Comacine or Solomon's Knot

On a site of an earlier church stands the present Cathedral of Como, which is built entirely of marble. It was begun in 1396 A.D., but was altered in the period from 1487-1526 A.D., into Renaissance. Authors disagree as to whether the church was restored or rebuilt. The faqade, 1457-86 A.D., follows in its lines the old Lombard form, but the dividing pilasters are lavishly enriched, being perpendicular niches with a statue in each.

Scott says that "During the years from 1468 to 1492 the books of the Lodge, preserved in the archivei, abound in names of Magistri from the neighborhood of Como, both architects and sculptors, and among them was Tommaso Rodari, who entered the lodge in 1490, with a letter of recommendation from the Duke, advising that he be specially trained in the Art of Sculpture. He and four others were sent to Rome to remain ten years, and perfect themselves in sculpture, to study the antique, and to return to the laborerium as fully qualified masters." Rodlari returned and sculptured a most beautiful 'North door of the Cathedral in rich ornate Renaissance style, although the lions are still under the columns, thus preserving a Cornacine symbol so universally common in earlier times of pure Lombard style.

The history of Como as a city with her famous fortunes and defeats during the invasions of barbrians and her long conflicts with her old enemy, Milan, may be found elsewhere. What interests us is the eariy colonization by Rome and her subsequent relations to Architecture at the Renaissance.

Soon after 89 B.C. Rome sent 3,000 colonist to Como, and Artificers were certainly among them, and in 59 B.C. Caesar sent 5,000 more, and the place received the name Novum comum and received Latin rights (see Comacine Masters).

COMPAGNON

In French Freemasonry, a Fellow Craft is so called, and the grade du Compagnon is the Degree of Fellow Craft.

COMPAGNONAGE

This is the name which is given in France to certain mystical associations formed between workmen of the same or an analogous handicraft, whose object is to afford mutual assistance to the members. It was at one time considered among handicraftsmen as the Second Degree of the novitiate, before arriving at the maitrise, or mastership, the first being, of course, that of apprentice; and workmen were admitted into it only after five years of apprenticeship, and on the production of a skillfully constructed piece of work, which was called their chef-d'oeuvre (the French for masterpiece).

Tradition gives to Compage a Hebraic origin, which to some extent assimilates it to the traditional history of Freemasonry as springing out of the Solomonic Temple. It is, however, certain that it arose, in the twelfth century, out of a part of the corporation of workmen. These, who prosecuted the labors of their Craft from province to province, could not shut their eyes to the narrow policy of the gilds or corporations, which the masters were constantly seeking to make more exclusive.

Thence they perceived the necessity of forming for themselves associations or confratemities, whose protection should accompany them in all their laborious wanderings, and secure to them employment and fraternal intercourse when arriving in strange towns.

The Compagnons du Tour, which has been the title assumed by those who are the members of the brotherhoods of Compagnonage, have legends, which have been traditionally transmitted from age to age, by which, like the Freemasons, they trace the origin of their association to the Temple of King Solomon.

These legends are three in number, for the different societies of Compagnonage recognize three different founders, and hence made three different associations , which are:

1. The Children of Solomon.
2. The Children of Maître Jacques,
3. The Children of Pére Soubise.

These three societies or classes of the Compagnons are irreconcilable enemies and reproach each other with the imaginary contests of their supposed founders.

The Children of Solomon pretend that King Solomon gave them their devoir, or gild, as a reward for their labors at the Temple, and that he had there limited them into a brotherhood. The Children of Maître Jacques (the French name for Master James), say that their founder, who was the son of a celebrated architect named Jacquain, or Jacques, was one of the chief Masters of Solomon, and a colleague of Hiram. He was born in a small city of Gaul named Carte, and now St. Romille, but which we should in vain look for on the maps.

From the age of fifteen he was employed in stone cutting. He traveled in Greece, where he learned sculpture and architecture; afterward went to Egypt, and thence to Jerusalem, where he constructed two pillars with so much skill that he was immediately received as a Master of the Craft. Maître Jacques and his colleague Pére Soubise, after the labors of the Temple were completed, resolved to go together to Gaul, swearing that they would never separate; but the union did not last very long in consequence of the jealousy excited in Pére Soubise by the ascendency of Maître Jacques over their disciples. They parted, and the former landed at Bordeaux, and the latter at Marseilles. One day, Maître Jacques, being far away from his disciples, was attacked by ten of those of Pére Soubise. To save himself, he fled into a marsh, where he sustained himself from sinking by holding on to the reeds, and was eventually rescued by his disciples. He then retired to St. Baume, but being soon after betrayed by a disciple, named, according to some, Jeron, and according to others, Jamais, he was assassinated by five blows of a dagger, in the forty-seventh year of his age, four years and nine days after his departure from Jerusalem. On his robe was subsequently found a reed which he wore in memory of his having been saved in the marsh, and thenceforth his disciples adopted the reed as the emblem of their Order.

Pére Soubise is not generally accused of having taken any part in the assassination. The tears which he shed over the tomb of his colleague removed in part the suspicions which had at first rested on him. The traitor who committed the crime, subsequently, in a moment of deep contrition, cast himself into a well, which the disciples of Maître Jacques filled up with stones. The relics of the martyr were long preserved in a sacred chest, and, when his disciples afterward separated into different crafts, his hat was given to the hatters, his tunic to the stone-cutters, his sandals to the locksmiths, his mantle to the joiners, his girdle to the carpenters, and his staff to the cartwrights.

According to another tradition, Maître Jacques was no other than Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, who had collected under his banner some of the Children of Solomon that had separated from the parent society, and who, about 1268 A.D., conferred upon them a new devoir or gild.

Pére Soubise is said, in the same legend, to have been a Benedictine monk, who gave to the carpenters some special statutes. This second legend is generally recognized as more truthful than the first. From this it follows that the division of the society of Compagnonage into three classes dates from the thirteenth century, and that the Children of Maître Jacques and of Pére Soubise are more modern than the Children of Solomon, from whom they were a dismemberment.

The organization of these associations of Compagnonage reminds one very strongly of the somewhat similar organization of the Stonemasons of Germany and of other countries in the Middle Ages. To one of these classes every handicraftsman in France was expected to attach himself. There was an initiation, and a system of Degrees which were four in number: the Accepted Companion, the Finished Companion, the Initiated Companion, and, lastly, the Affiliated Companion. There were also signs and words as modes of recognition, and decorations, which varied in the several devoirs; but to all, the square and compasses was a common symbol.

As soon as a Craftsman had passed through his apprenticeship, he joined one of these gilds, and commenced his journey over France, which was called the tour de France, in the course of which he visited the principal cities, towns, and villages, stopping for a time wherever he could secure employment. In almost every town there was a house of call, presided over always by a woman, who was affectionately called la Mére, or the Mother, and the same name was given to the house itself. There the Compagnons held their meetings and annually elected their officers, and traveling workmen repaired there to obtain food and lodging, and the necessary information which might lead to employment. When two Companions met on the road, one of them addressed the other with the topage, or challenge, being a formula of words, the conventional reply to which would indicate that the other was a member of the same devoir. If such was the case, friendly greetings ensued. But if the reply was not satisfactory, and it appeared that they belonged to different associations, a war of words, and even of blows, was the result. Such was formerly the custom, but through the evangelic labors of Agricol Perdiquier, a journeyman joiner of Avignon, who traveled through France inculcating lessons of brotherly love, a better spirit later on existed.

In each locality the association has a chief, who is annually elected by ballot at the General Assembly of the Craft. He is called the First Compagnon of Dignity.

He presides over the meetings, which ordinarily take place on the first Sunday of every month, and represents the society in its intercourse with other Bodies, -with the Masters, or with the municipal authorities.

Compagnonage has been exposed, at various periods, to the persecutions of the Church and the State, as well as to the opposition of the Corporations of Masters, to which, of course, its designs were antagonistic, because it opposed their monopoly. Unlike them, and particularly the Corporation of Freemasons, it was not under the protection of the Church. The practice of its mystical receptions was condemned by the Faculty of Theology at Paris, in 1655 A.D., as impious. But a hundred years before, in 1541, a decree of Francis I had interdicted the Compagnons du Tour from binding themselves by an oath, from wearing swords or canes, from assembling in a greater number than five outside of their Masters' houses, or from having banquets on any occasion. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the parliaments were continually interposing their power against the associations of Compagnonage, as well as against other fraternities. The effects of these persecutions, although embarrassing, were not absolutely disastrous. In spite of them, Compagnonage was never entirely dissolved, although a few of the trades abandoned their devoirs ; some of which, however---such as that of the shoemakers-were subsequently removed.

And at more recent times the gilds of the workmen existed in France having lost, it is true, much of their original code of religious dogmas and symbols, and, although not recognized by the law, always tolerated by the municipal authorities and undisturbed by the police.

To the Masonic scholar, the history of these devoirs or gilds is peculiarly interesting. In nearly all of them the Temple of Solomon prevails as a predominant symbol, while the square and compass, their favorite and constant device, would seem, in some way, to identify them with Freemasonry so far as respects the probability of a common origin.

COMPAGNONS DU TOUR

This title was assumed by the workmen in France who belong to the several gilds of Compagnonage, which see. The French expression, Compagnons du Tour, or Companions of the Tour, may be understood in two different ways according to the meaning applied to the last word. Tour is used in French as it is also freely employed in English to indicate a round trip, a rambling and returning excursion of some extent. The word might well fit those who traveled around for employment or for instruction as did the Brethren of old. Tour is also the French for tower and towers or castles were represented on .the coat of arms of the Masons Company of London. In both of these meanings the allusion has a significance easily understood.

COMPANION

A title bestowed by Royal Arch Masons upon each other, and equivalent to the word "Brother" in Symbolic Lodges. It refers, most probably, to the companionship in exile and captivity of the ancient Jews, from the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to its restoration by Zerubbabel, under the auspices of Cyrus. In using this title in a higher Degree, the Freemasons who adopted it seem to have intimated that there was a shade of difference between its meaning and that of Brother. The latter refers to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man; but the former represents a companionship or common pursuit of one object-the common endurance of suffering or the common enjoyment of happiness. Companion represents a closer tie than Brother. The one is a natural relation shared by all men ; the other a connection, the result of choice and confined to a few. All men are our Brethren, not all our companions.

COMPANIONS OF PENELOPE

Also known as the Palladium of Ladies. Said to have been established in 1740 by "seven wise men" at Paris. Both men and women were admitted to membership and the candidate when being initiated was conducted by two members of the Order into the center of the Temple where was a table on which was a white cloth with three candles placed around a statue of Minerva, where the Oath of Secrecy, was administered.

COMPANIONS, THE TWELVE

George F. Fort says that "the twelve Companions of Master Hiram correspond unquestionably to the twelve zodiacal signs, or the twelve months of the year.

The groundwork of this tradition is a fragment of ancient natural religion, common to both Oriental and European nations; or, more properly, was derived from identical sources. The treacherous Craftsmen of Hiram the Good are the three winter months which slew him.

He is the sun surviving during the eleven consecutive months, but subjected to the irresistible power of three ruffians, the winter months ; in the twelfth and last month, that luminary, Hiram, the good, the beauteous, the bright, the sun god, is extinguished" (The Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, page 408).

COMPASSES

As in Operative Freemasonry, the compasses are used for the measurement of the architect's plans, and to enable him to give those just proportions which will ensure beauty as well as stability to his work; so, in Speculative Freemasonry, is this important implement symbolic of that even tenor of deportment, that true standard of rectitude which alone can bestow happiness here and felicity hereafter.

Hence are the compasses the most prominent emblem of virtue, the true and only, measure of a Freemason's life and conduct. As the Bible gives us light on our duties to God, and the square illustrates our duties to our neighborhood and Brother, so the compasses give that additional light which is to instruct us in the duty we owe to ourselves-the great, imperative duty of circumscribing our passions, and keeping our desires within due bounds. "It is ordained," says the philosophic Burke, "in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate passions cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters." Those Brethren who delight to trace our emblems to an astronomical origin, find in the compasses a symbol of the sun, the circular pivot representing the body of the luminary, and the diverging legs his rays.

In the earliest rituals of the eighteenth century, the compasses are described as a part of the furniture of the Lodge, and are said to belong to the Master.

Some change will be found in this respect in the ritual of the present day (see Square and Compasses).
The word is sometimes spelled and pronounced compass, which is more usually applied to the magnetic needle and circular dial or card of the mariner from which he directs his course over the seas, or the similar guide of the airman when seeking his destination across unknown territory.

COMPOSITE

One of the five orders of architecture introduced by the Romans, and compounded of the other four, whence it derives its name. Although it combines strength with beauty, yet, as it is a comparatively modern invention, it is held in little esteem among Freemasons.

CONCEALMENT OF THE BODY

See Aphanism.

CONCLAVE

Commanderies of Knights Templar in England and Canada were called Conclaves, and the Grand Encampment, the Grand Conclave' but the terms now in use are Preceptory and Great Priory respectively. The word is also applied to the meetings in some other of the advanced Degrees. The word is derived from the Latin con, meaning ulith, and clavis, a key, to denote the idea of being locked up in seclusion, and in this sense was first applied to the apartment in which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are literally locked up when they are assembled to elect a Pope.

CONCORDISTS

A secret order established in Prussia, by M. Lang, on the wreck of the Tugendverein (Tugendverein, German for the Union of the Virtuous), which latter Body was instituted in 1790 as a successor of the Illuminati, and suppressed in 1812 by the Prussian Government, on account of its supposed political tendencies.

CONFEDERACIES

A title given to the yearly meetings of the Freemasons in the time of Henry VI, of England, and usedit in the celebrated statute passed in the third year of his reign, which begins thus: "Whereas, by the yearly congregations and confederacies made by the Masons in their General Chapiters assembled, etc." (see Laborers, Statutes of).

CONFERENCE LODGES

Assemblies of the members of a Lodge sometimes held in Germany. Their object is the discussion of the financial and other private matters of the Lodge. Lodges of this kind held in France are said to be en famille, meaning in the family. There is no such arrangement in English or American Freemasonry.

CONFERRING DEGREES

When a candidate is initiated into any Degree of Freemasonry in due form, the Degree is said to have been conferred, in contradistinction to the looser mode of imparting its secrets by communication.

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

This is usually understood as being to ensure the accuracy of the statements made, the reading of the Minutes enabling the Brethren to know that the proceedings have been recorded and the judgment of those present being expressed in some way as to the correctness of the statements but the proceedings may serve a further purpose and that is to express approval of what has been previously done. In fact, Rule 130 of the English Book of Constitutions provides that the Minutes regarding the election oi a Worshipful Master must be confirmed before he can be installed.

In English Lodges any action regarding a money grant, alteration of by-laws or the election of a Master must be confirmed after the recording of the Minutes at the first subsequent regular meeting in order to become legally operative, All other points are merely confirmed for accuracy and are considered legal regardless.

CONFRATERNITY OF SAINT PAUL

The Italian name is La Confraternita di San Paolo. See Paul, Confraternity of Saint Paul.

CONFUSION OF TONGUES

The Tower of Babel is referred to in the ritual of the Third Degree as the place where language was confounded and Masonry lost. Hence, in Masonic symbolism, as Freemasonry professes to possess a universal language, the confusion of tongues at Babel is a symbol of that intellectual darkness from which the aspirant is seeking to emerge on his passage to that intellectual light which is imparted by the Order (see Threshing Floor)

CONGREGATIONS

In the Old Records and Constitutions of Freemasonry the yearly meetings of the Craft are so called. Thus, in the Halliwell or Regius Manuscript it is said, "Every Master that is a Mason must be at the General Congregation" (see line 107). What are now called Communications of a Grand Lodge were then called Congregations of the Craft. (see Assembly).

CONGRESSES, MASONIC

At various times in the history of Freemasonry conferences have been held in which, as in the General Councils of the Church, the interests of the Institution have been made the subject of consideration. These conferences have received the name of Masonic Congresses. Whenever a respectable number of Freemasons invested with deliberative powers, assemble as the representatives of different countries and Jurisdictions to take into consideration matters relating to the Order, such a meeting will be properly called a Congress. Of these Congresses some have been productive of little or no effect, while others have undoubtedly left their mark; nor can it be doubted, that if a General or Ecumenical Congress, consisting of representatives of all the Masonic powers of the world, were to meet, with an eye single to the great object of Masonic reform, and were to be guided by a liberal and conciliatory spirit of compromise, such a Congress might be of incalculable advantage.

The most important Congresses that have met since the year 926 A.D. are those of York, Strassburg, Ratisbon, Spire, Cologne, Basle, Jena, Altenberg, Brunswick, Lyons, Wolfenbuttel. Wilhelmsbad, Paris, Washington, Baltimore, Lexington, and Chicago (see them as listed under their respective titles).

CONGRESSES OF FREEMASONS

See Conventions.

CONNECTICUT

On August 12,1750, the Saint John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts granted a Charter to Hiram Lodge, at New Haven, and David Wooster was installed as Master. A Convention held on March 13, 1783, discussed the formation of a Grand Lodge of Connecticut. Nothing definite was completed and another Convention, held on April 29, 1783, again had no result. A third Convention, however, on May 14, 1789, composed of representatives of twelve Lodges, made some progress in the necessary arrangements but adjourned the meeting until July 8, 1789, when a Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge of Connecticut duly opened. The Anti-Masonic Movement had a serious effect upon the Craft in Connecticut. Up to the year 1800 Freemasonry had flourished exceedingly in the district. During the next thirty years, however, it was calumniated to such an extent that, at the annual session of 1831, all the officers of the Grand Lodge, except the Grand Treasurer, resigned and new officers were elected in their places. At the next annual session only the Grand Master and the Grand Treasurer were present. For several years Freemasonry lay under a cloud, but at last, towards 1840, the agitation began to subside and after another five years the Craft in this State was once more possessed of its early vigor.

The first Chapter in the district seems to have comprised six members of Saint John's Lodge, No. 2, of Middletown. These six Brethren opened the first regular Grand Chapter of Connecticut on September 12, 1783.

In 1818, Jeremy L. Cross, a prominent authority on Masonic Ritual in his day and author of The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor and of The Templars' Chart, formed a Council of Royal and Select Masters. On May 18, 1819, ten of the eleven Councils which had been formed in 1818 and 1819 met at Hartford for the purpose of establishing a Grand Council. Two days later a Constitution was adopted, the Grand Officers elected and the Council duly constituted.

The first Encampment of Knights Templar was formed at Colchester in July, 1796, and was granted a Charter from London on September 5, 1803. New Haven Encampment took the initiative in adopting a resolution to join with other Encampments in forming a Commandery in the State. Washington and Clinton sent representatives and the meeting was held at the Masonic Hall on September 13, 1827. A Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the State of Connecticut was formed and Sir John Watrous was installed Grand Master.

The year 1858 saw the establishment of four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Connecticut. Three were chartered on June 1: namely, Lafayette Consistory, Peciounnock Chapter of Rose Croix, Washington Council of Princes of Jerusalem. The fourth, the De Witt Clinton Lodge of Perfection, was granted a Charter on May 11.

CONSECRATION

The appropriating or dedicating, with certain ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices by separating it from common use. Hobbes, in his Leviathan (part iv, chapter 44), gives the best definition of this ceremony. "To consecrate is, in Scripture, to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any other thing, to God, by separating it from common use." Masonic Lodges, like ancient temples and modern churches, have always been consecrated. The rite of consecration, is performed by the Grand Master, when the Lodge is said to be consecrated in ample form; by the Deputy Grand Master, when it is said to be consecrated in due form; or by the proxy of the Grand Master, when it is said to be consecrated in form. The Grand Master, accompanied by his officers, proceeds to the hall of the new Lodge, where, after the performance of those ceremonies which are described in all manuals and monitors, he solemnly consecrates the Lodge with the elements of corn, wine, and oil, after which the Lodge is dedicated and constituted and the officers installed.

CONSECRATION, ELEMENTS OF

Those things, the use of which in the ceremony as constituent and elementary parts of it, are necessary to the per. fecting and legalizing of the act of consecration. In Freemasonry, these elements are corn, wine, and oil, which see in this work listed under their respective names.

CONSERVATORS, GRAND

See Grand Conservators.

CONSERVATOR MOVEMENT THE

In 1860 M. W. Robert Morris established a secret society of Masons styled by him as The Conservator Movement, and its members were called Conservators. The purposes of this organization were stated by Morris with his characteristic prolixity in a secret circular which he mailed to Grand Masters, Grand Secretaries, Grand Lecturers, and other Grand Lodge leaders in the middle of 1860, and which he signed as "Chief Conservator." He set down ten objects:

To disseminate the Webb-Preston Work.
To "discountenance" innovations in the Ritual.
To establish national uniformity of "means of recognition," etc.
To establish "a School of Instruction in every Lodge.''
To train Masonic [Ritualistic] Lecturers.
To train Masons to pass examinations when visiting.
To strengthen "the ties that bind Masons generally together."
To detect and expose impostors. To hold conferences among Conservators themselves.
To "open the way for a more intimate communion between the Masons of Europe and America."
The recipient was asked to keep the circular ''strictly confidential" ;
To fill in answers to form questions ;
To sign on a dotted line; and to return the document to Morris in ten days.

If a recipient expressed a desire to become a Conservator he received next "Communication No. 2," also "strictly confidential." It set forth "The Seven Details or Features of the Plan" which were expected to govern the work of each Conservator:

1. The scheme was to be a closely-guarded secret among the few men in each Lodge who were active Conservators.

2. Each Conservator was to keep in close touch with the Chief Conservator, and carry out the latter's order. "A journal, styled The Conservator" was to be sent to each member of the organization.

3. The "great aim" was "National Harmony in the Work and Lectures on Symbolical Masonry." All forms of "Bastard" Work were to be opposed.

4. The "Conservator's Degree'' was to be conferred on each Conservator, "devised for the express purpose.

5. A Vice Chief Conservator was to be present at each Grand Communication of each and every Grand Lodge.

6. "We adopt the mode of disseminating the Work and Lectures which was adopted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1728."

7. "We require a contribution of Ten Dollars in advance from each Conservator.

During the years between 1860 and 1863 Morris issued his journal styled The Conservator some four or five times ; afterwards he addressed his followers through the pages of his magazine, The Voice of Masonry. The "society" was so loosely administered that Morris himself did not know how many were in it, but "guessed" that it may at one time have had 2,795 members. It transpired that the "mode of disseminating" as mentioned under "detail" number 6 was a printed cipher, a tiny book entitled Written Mnemonics Illustrated By Copious Examples From Moral Philosophy, Science, And Religion. The association was governed by Morris himself according to "eight regulations." The "era" of the association was to begin June 24, 1860, and last until June 24, 1865, at which latter date it would everywhere automatically cease to exist ; this period of 1826 days was described as the Conservator's Era, or C. E., and letters were to be dated according to it. A secret language, cabalistic signs, etc., were much used. Morris officially declared the termination of the "Society" in the first issue of The Voice of Masonry after June 24, 1860. For the members of his association Morris prepared the "Conservator of Symbolic Masonry" Degree. There could be only one Conservator in each Lodge, but he could confer this Degree on any Master Mason deemed suitable by himself.

The Conservator Movement has thus a secret society. It had national and local officers; its own constitution and rules; its own modes of recognition and a secret language; and though it has to work in a Lodge and on a Lodge; a Lodge had no say about it, and no control over it. It had in effect two general purposes: first, to establish a standard work uniform throughout the Grand Jurisdictions; second, to make the Webb-Preston Work that Standard version. Once they had discovered its existence and had become aware of its nature and purpose Grand Lodges began a determined campaign to abolish the Movement.

It was intolerable to have a secret society at work within the Fraternity itself; it was for a Grand Lodge, not for a voluntary society of outsiders, to determine what its own Standard Work was to be; a Lodge could not permit one of its own members to have more authority than its own Master; nor was Morris himself able to prove that he, and he alone, possessed the Webb-Preston Work in its original form.

In 1866 Morris stated, as already noted, that at its height his association numbered 2,795 members, but it is probable that at least a thousand of these were inactive, or else were prevented by Lodge and Grand Lodge opposition from accomplishing their purposes; moreover Civil War conditions hampered them. The whole movement was quickly aborted and soon passed out of the memory of the American Craft.

NOTE. The most complete set of Conservator literature and correspondence, including a number of private letters from Morris, is in the vaults of the Iowa Grand Lodge Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The most complete published account is The Masonic Conservators, by Ray V. Denslow; Grand Lodge of Missouri; St. Louis; 1931; cloth ; 132 pages. It contains a list of members Lodge by Lodge, and State by State.

CONSISTORY

The meetings of members of the Thirty-second Degree, or Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, are called Consistories. The elective officers are, according to the ritual of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, a Commander-in-Chief, Seneschal, Preceptor, Chancellor, Minister of State, Almoner, Registrar, and Treasurer. In the Northern Jurisdiction it is slightly different, the second and third officers being called Lieutenant-Commanders. A Consistory confers the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Degrees of the Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction; in the Northern Jurisdiction the Consistory confers the Degrees from the nineteenth to the thirty-second inclusive.

CONSISTORY, GRAND

See Grand Consistory

CONSOLIDATION OF LODGES

If in the same Masonic community two sister Lodges find that they are duplicating each other, or if one finds itself too weak to continue, either of two courses is followed in American practice. The weaker of the two Lodges can surrender its Charter, and its members can affiliate with the other Lodge. Or, the two Lodges can consolidate. A comparison of the forty-nine Codes of American Grand Jurisdictions shows that the Code of Iowa comes close to being perfectly typical of the rules governing consolidation as generally they are in use. The Iowa Code calls for a written ballot; for a majority decision; if the smaller of the two Lodges cannot assemble a quota the Grand Master and other members of Grand Lodge accompanying him can constitute one. (See Sections 188 and 190 of revised Masonic Code of Iowa.)

CONSTABLE, GRAND

The fourth officer in a Grand Consistory. It is the title which was formerly given to the leader of the land forces of the Knights Templar.

CONSTANTINE

See Red Cross of Rome and Constantine.

CONSTANTINE, THE CROSS OF

The paragraph entitled Labarum on page 557 was based on Eusebius, the earliest of the chroniclers of the Christian Church, and the biographer of the Emperor Constantine. Since that paragraph was written a very large quantity of Greek (Koine) MSS. dating from the First to the Fifth Centuries have been recovered by archeologists, notably in the Fayum, once a prosperous Greek-speaking district in an irrigated tract on the Egyptian border. Since these were records written at the time their weight as evidence cannot be ignored.

These documents sustain Eusebius in general outline, but make the story of Constantine's use of the monogram much more complex. He did not originate it.

The legend of his vision rests on very insecure grounds, partly because though the Athanasians won control at the Council of Nicea, which Constantine had called, and had condemned the Arians as non-Christians, Constantine himself remained an Arian throughout his life until shortly before his death.

The original labarum was not so much a banner as a portrait on cloth, showing Constantines head surrounded by a halo, which was probably designed to be carried as a substitute for his own presence. The halo and the monogram together may have denoted that he was head of the whole Christian world. An old legend has it that his mother, Queen Helen, was an English woman, and that she had discovered the true cross. Long after the death of Constantine the Bishop of Rome produced a document in which the Emperor had willed his headship of the Christian world to Rome; the authenticity of this "Donation of Constantine" was upheld by Rome for centuries. It is proved to have been a forgery, written two hundred years after Constantine; Roman Catholic scholars themselves are agreed on this. For a succinct account see last edition of Encyclopedia Britannia. For full details see Medieval Italy, a brilliant work, by H. B. Cotterill; London; Geo. C. Harrap; 1915.

CONSTANTINOPLE, KNIGHT OF

In the year 1864 Brother F. G. Irwin, a distinguished Freemason, lived at Devonport, England. He became a welcome visitor to, and subsequently a member of the then recently established Lodge, Saint Aubyn, No. 954. Among other Masonic acquirements he had authority to establish the Order of the Knights of Constantinople. It was found that other authority to establish this Order did not exist in England, although it had been conferred on a few individual by Brother Irwin, and according to the usages of the Fraternity, those who first established an Order became the ruling power. The ground being thus clear, the authority of Brother Irwin, Past Junior Warden of the Province of Andalusia, Past Grand Master Overseer of Mark Masonry in England, First Grand standard Bearer of Knights Templar in England, and past Most Wise Sovereign Rose Croix, &c., was brought into operation. He accordingly presided over a meeting of Freemasons in the Saint Aubyn Lodge, No. 954, at Morice Town, Devonport, on January 18, 1865, and after intrusting them with the secrets of the Order and elevating to the honor of Knighthood, appointed the following Brethren as Officers of the First or Saint Aubyn Council of Knights of Constantinople, namely : Samuel Chapple, Horace Byron Kent, John R. H. Spry, Vincent Bird, Philip B. Clemens.

At this meeting several prominent Freemasons were admitted, Brother Shuttleworth, Thirty-third Degree, the Grand Vice-Chancellor of the Knights Templar of England, being among the number. At the February meeting several active Freemasons were admitted, amongst them Brother W. J. Hughan, initiated in Lodge No. 954, and who later attained world-wide Masonic fame. At the January meeting, 1866, a Warrant was granted to certain distinguished Freemasons in Cornwall to open a Council at Truro, the Fortitude, Brother W. J. Hughan to be first Illustrious Sovereign, and a number of Cornish Freemasons were enlisted. The Saint Aubyn Council of the Knights of Constantinople developed into a Grand Council of Sovereigns of the Order and exercised such functions as organizing subordinate bodies. It became afflicted and a part of the organization at Mark Masons Hall, England, the Grand Council of the Allied Degrees. The Order of Knights of Constantinople is of a Christian character, associated in legend with the Emperor Constantine, and teaches the lesson of universal equality The jewel of the organization is a Cross surmounted by a Crescent.

CONSTITUTED, LEGALLY

The phrase, a legally constituted Lodge, is often used Masonically to designate any Lodge working under proper authority, which necessarily includes Lodges working under Dispensation, although, strictly, a Lodge cannot be legally constituted until it has received its warrant or Charter from the Grand Lodge. But so far as respects the regularity of their work, Lodges under Dispensation and Warranted Lodges have the same standing.

CONSTITUTION OF A LODGE

Any number of Master Masons, not less than seven, being desirous of forming a new Lodge, having previously obtained a Dispensation from the Grand Master, must apply by petition to the Grand Lodge of the State in which they reside, praying for a Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, to enable them to assemble as a regular Lodge. Their petition being favorably received, a Warrant or Charter for the Lodge is immediately granted, and the Grand Master appoints a day for its consecration and for the installation of its officers.

The Lodge having been consecrated, the Grand Master, or person acting as such, declares the Brethren "to be constituted and formed into a regular Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons," after which the officers of the Lodge are installed. In this declaration of the Master, accompanied with the appropriate ceremonies, consists the constitution of the Lodge. Until a Lodge is thus legally constituted, it forms no component of the constituency of the Grand Lodge, can neither elect officers nor members, and exists only as a Lodge under dispensation at the will of the Grand Master.

CONSTITUTION, PARIS

See Paris Constitutions

CONSTITUTIONS, BOOK OF

See Book of Constitutions

CONSTITUTIONS OF 1762

This is the name of one of that series of Constitutions, or Regulations, which have always been deemed of importance in the history of the Ancient and accepted Scottish Rite; although the Constitutions of 1762 have really nothing to do with that Rite, having been adopted long before its establishment. In the year 1758, there was founded at Paris a Masonic Body which assumed the title of the Chapter or Council, of Emperors of the East and West, and which organized a Rite known as the Rite of Perfection, consisting of twenty-five Degrees, and in the same year the Rite was carried to Berlin by the Marquis de Bernez.

In the following year, a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret, the highest Degree conferred in the Rite, was established at Bordeaux. On September 21, 1762, nine Commissioners met and drew up Constitutions for the government of the Rite of Perfection, which have been since known as the Constitutions of 1762. Of the place where the Commissioners met, there is some doubt. Of the two copies, hereafter to be noticed, which are in the archives of the Southern Supreme Council, that of Delahogue refers to the Orients of Paris and Berlin, while that of Aveilhé‚ says that they were made at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux.

Thory also (Acta Latomorum, 1, 79), names Bordeaux as the place of their enactment, and so does Ragon (Orthodoxie Maçonnique, 133); although he doubts their authenticity, and says that there is no trace of any such document at Bordeaux, nor any recollection there of the Consistory which is said to have drawn up the Constitutions.

To this it may be answered, that in the Archives of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston there are two manuscript copies of these Constitutions--one written by Jean Baptiste Marie Delahogue in 1798, which is authenticated by Count de Grasse, under the seal of the Grand Council of the Princes of the Royal secret, then sitting at Charleston; and another, written by Jean Baptiste Aveilhé in 1797.

This copy is authenticated by Long, Delahogue, De Grasse, and others. Both documents are written in French, and are almost substantially the same. The translated tittle of Delahogue's copy is as follows : Constitutions and Regulations drawn up by nine Commissioners appointed by the Grand Council of the Sovereign- Princes of the Royal Secret at the Grand Orients of Paris and Berlin, by virtue of the deliberation of the fifth day of the third week of the seventh Month of the Hebrew Era, 1662, and of the Christian Era, 1762. To be ratified and observed by the Grand Councils of the sublime Knights and Princes of Masonry as well as by the particular Councils and Grand Inspectors regularly constituted in the two Hemispheres.

The title of Aveilhé's manuscript differs in this, that it says the Constitutions were enacted "at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux, " and that they were "transmitted to our Brother Stephen Morin, Grand Inspector of all the Lodges in the New World." Probably this is a correct record, and the Constitutions were prepared at Bordeaux. The Constitutions of 1762 consist of thirty-five articles, and are principally occupied in providing for the government of the Rite established by the Council of Emperors of the East and West and of the Bodies under it.

The Constitutions of 1762 were published at Paris, in 1832, in the Recueil des Actes du Conscil Suprême de France or Collected Proceedings of the Supreme Council of France. They were also published, in 1859, in America; but the best printed exemplar of them is that published in French and English in the Book of Grand Constitutions, edited by Brother Albert Pike, which is illustrated with copious and valuable annotations by the editor, who was the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council.

CONSTITUTIONS OF 1786

These have been generally regarded by the members of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as the fundamental law of their Rite. They are said to have been established by Frederick II, of Prussia, in the last year of his life ; a statement, however, that has been denied by some writers (see Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry under Early History of the Scottish Rite; Findel's History of Freemasonry under Declaration of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes at Berlin; also Gould's History of Freemasonry under The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite). The controversies as to their authenticity have made them a subject of interest to all Masonic scholars. Brother Albert Pike, the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, published them, in 1872, in Latin, French, and English; and his exhaustive annotations are valuable because he has devoted to the investigation of their origin and their authenticity more elaborate care than any other writer.

Of these Constitutions, there are two exemplars, one in French and one in Latin, between which there are, however, some material differences. For a long time the French exemplar only was known in this country. It is supposed by Brother Pike that it was brought to Charleston by Count de Grasse, and that under its provisions he organized the Supreme Council in that place. They were accepted by the Southern Supreme Council, and have been regard… by the Northern Supreme Council as the only authentic Constitutions. But there is abundant internal evidence of the incompleteness and incorrectness of the French Constitutions, of whose authenticity there is no proof, nor is it likely that they were made at Berlin and approved by Frederick, as they profess.

The Latin Constitutions were probably not known in France until after the Revolution. In 1834, they were accepted as authentic by the Supreme Council of France, and published there in the same year. A copy of this was published in America, in 1859, by Brother Pike. These Latin Constitutions of 1786 have been accepted by the Supreme Council of the Southern jurisdiction in preference to the French version. Most of the other Supreme Councils-those, namely, of England and Wales, of Italy, and of South America have adopted them as the law of the Rite, repudiating the French version as of no authority.

The definite and well-authorized conclusions to which Brother Pike has arrived on the subject of these Constitutions have been expressed by that eminent Freemason in the following language :

"We think we may safely say, that the charge that the Grand Constitutions were forged at Charleston is completely disproved, and that it will be contemptible hereafter to repeat it. No set of speculating Jews constituted the Supreme Council established there; and those who care for the reputations of Colonel Mitchell, and Doctors Dalcho, Auld, and Moultrie, may well afford to despise the scurrilous libels of the Ragons, Clavels, and Folgers. "And, secondly, that it is not by any means proven or certain that the Constitutions were not really made at Berlin, as they purport to have been, and approved by Frederick. We think that 'the preponderance of evidence, internal and external, is on the side of their authenticity, apart from the positive evidence of the certificate of 1832. "And, thirdly, that the Supreme Council at Charleston had a perfect right to adopt them as the law of the new Order; no matter where, when, or by whom they were made, as Anderson's Constitutions were adopted in Symbolic Masonry; that they are and always have been the law of the Rite, because they were so adopted ; and because no man has ever lawfully received the degrees of the Rite without swearing to maintain them as its supreme law; for as to the articles themselves, there is no substantial difference between the French and Latin copies. "And, fourthly, that there is not one particle of proof of any sort, circumstantial or historical, or by argument from improbability, that they are not genuine and authentic. In law, documents of great age, found in the possession of those interested under them, to whom they rightfully belong, and with whom they might naturally be expected to be found, are admitted in evidence without proof, to establish title or facts. They prove themselves, and to be avoided must be disproved by evidence. There is no evidence against the genuineness of these Grand Constitutions.''

We have alluded to the controversies aroused by the historical concepts formed of these documents. But we must warn the readers against assuming that this was ever understood by the leading disputants as any argument against the legality of them. That was quite another thing.

Both Brothers Pike and Carson, differing widely as they did upon the source of the Constitutions in 1786, were agreed upon the legal aspect. Brother Enoch Terry Carson, then Deputy of the Scottish Rite for Ohio, says, "We shall not enter into a discussion of the question as to whether these Constitutions had the origin claimed for them or not, it is sufficient to say that they were recognized, and that under and by authority of them the Southern Supreme Council, at Charleston, the first in the world, was organized and until 1813, possessed exclusive jurisdiction over the United States; and all other regular Supreme Councils from that day down to the present have, and still recognize them. If they, the Constitutions of 1786, ever were irregular, they ceased to be so to any and every Supreme Council the very moment they recognized and adopted them. Without , them there can be no Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.''

Brother Albert Pike is equally direct to the point where he says very plainly, "But the validity and effect of these Constitutions did not depend on their emanating from Frederick. On the contrary, he had no power to make any such laws. Their force and effect as law depended on their adoption as such by the first Body of the Rite" (see Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry, pages 1836-7).

CONSTITUTIONS, OLD

See Records, Old

CONSUMMATUM EST

Latin, meaning it is finished. A phrase used in some of the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is borrowed from the expression used by our Lord when He said, on the cross, "It is finished," meaning that the work which had been given him to do had been executed. It is, therefore, appropriately used in the closing ceremonies to indicate that the sublime work of the degrees is finished, so that all may retire in peace.

CONTEMPLATIVE

To contemplate is, literally, to watch and inspect the Temple. The augur, or prophet, among the Romans, having taken his stand on the Capitoline Hill, marked out with his wand the space in the heavens he intended to consult. This space he called the templum, the Latin word for a designated or marked-off area. Having divided his templum into two parts from top to bottom, he watched to see what would occur. The watching of the templum was called contemplating; and hence those who devoted themselves to meditation upon sacred subjects assumed this title. Thus, among the Jews, the Essenes and the Therapeutists, and, among the Greeks, the school of Pythagoras, were contemplative sects. Among the Freemasons, the word speculative is used as equivalent to contemplative (see Speculative Freemasonry).

CONTINENTAL LODGES

This expression is used throughout this work, as it constantly is by English writers, to designate the Lodges on the Continent of Europe which retain many usages which have either been abandoned by, or never were observed in, the Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the United States of America. The words Continental Freemasonry are employed in the same sense.

CONTUMACY

In civil law, contumacy, or stubbornness, is the refusal or neglect of a party accused to appear and answer to a charge preferred against him in a court of justice. In Masonic jurisprudence, it is disobedience of or rebellion against superior authority, as when a Freemason refuses to obey the edict of his Lodge, or a Lodge refuses to obey that of the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge. The punishment, in the former case, is generally suspension or expulsion ; in the latter, arrest of Charter or forfeiture of Warrant.

CONVENTION


In a state or territory where there is no Grand Lodge, but three or more Lodges holding their Warrants of Constitution from Grand Lodges outside of the territory, these Lodges may meet together by their representatives - who should Properly be the first three officers of each Lodge - and take the necessary steps for the organization of a Lodge in that state or territory. This preparatory meeting is called a Contention. A President and Secretary are chosen, and a Grand Lodge is formed by the election of a Grand Master and other proper officers, when the old Warrants are returned to the Grand Lodges, and new ones taken out from the newly formed Grand Lodge. Not less than three Lodges are required to constitute a Convention. The first Convention of this kind ever held was that of the four old Lodges of London, which met at the Apple-Tree Tavern, in 1716, and in the following year formed the Grand Lodge of England.

CONVENTION NIGHT

A title sometimes given in the Minutes of English Lodges to a Lodge of Emergency. Thus, in the minutes of Constitution Lodge, No. 390 (London), we read: "This being a Convection Night to consider the state of the Lodge," etc. (see Sadler's History and Records of the Lodge of Emulation, page 64).

CONVENTIONS or CONGRESSES

of Freemasons, arranged in chronological order:

926. York, under Prince Edwin of England.
1275. Strassburg,under Edwin Von Steinbach
1459. Ratisbon, under Jost Dolzinger.
1464. Ratisbon, under Grand Lodge of Strassburg.
1469. Spire,under Grand Lodge of Strassburg.
1535. Cologne, by Hermann, Bishop of Cologne.
1563. Basle, by Grand Lodge of Strassburg.
1717. London, by the Four Old Lodges. Organization of Grand Lodge.
1730. Dublin, by the Dublin Lodges.
1736. Edinburgh. Organization and institution of Grand Lodge.
1756. Hague, by the Royal Union Lodge.
1762. Paris and Berlin, by nine commissioners nominated by the Sovereign Grand Council of Princes of Freemasonry.
1763. Jena, by the Lodge of Strict Observance.
1764. Jena, by Johnson or Beeker, denounced by Baron Hund.
1765. Altenberg, a continuation wherein Hund was elected Grand Master of the Rite of Strict Observance.
1772. Kohl, by Ferdinand of Brunswick and Baron Hund, without success.
1775. Brunswick, by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick.
1778. Lyons, by Lodge of Chevaliers Bienfaisants.
1778. Wolfenbuttel, by Duke of Brunswick.
1782. Wilhelmsbad, and impotent session for purification.
1784. Paris, a medley of Lovers of Truth and United Friends.
1786. Berlin, alleged to have been convened by Frederick II of Prussia.
1822. National Masonic Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, March 9.
1842. National Masonic Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, March 7.
1843. National Masonic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, May 8,
1847. National Masonic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, September 23,
1853. National Masonic Convention, Lexington, Kentucky, September 17,
1855. Paris, by Grand Orient of France.
1855. National Masonic Convention, Washington, District of Columbia, Jan 3-4
1859. National Masonic Convention, Chicago, Illinois, September 13,
1893. Masonic Congress, Chicago, Illinois, August 14-17,
1909. Conference of Grand Masters, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 1,
1909. Conference of Grand Masters, Baltimore, Maryland, November 16,
1913. Conference of Grand Masters, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 17.
1914. Conference of Grand Masters, St. Louis, Missouri, May 14-16.
1918. Conference of Grand Masters, New York City, New York, May 9-10,
1918. Conference of Grand Masters, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 26-28,
1919. Masonic Service Association, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 11-13,
1920. Masonic Service Association, St. Louis, Missouri, November 9-10,
1921. Masonic Service Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 9-11,
1922. Masonic Service Association, Kansas City, Missouri, November 17-19,
1923. Masonic Service Association, Washington, Distr. of Col., Oct. 29-30.
1924. Masonic Service Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 11-12.

Following the meeting at Cedar Rapids in 1919, Masonic Service Association has met at St. Louis, Mo., November 9-10, 1920; Chicago, Ill., November 9-11, 1921; Kansas City, Mo., November 17-19, 1922; Washington, D. C., October 29-30, 1923; Chicago, Ill., November 11-12, 1924, and so on annually, a Conference of Grand Masters usually being held at the same place conveniently about that time. 1875. Lausanne. A Convention of the Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the World, which subsequently led to an eternal bond of unity both offensive and defensive.

Conversation among the Brethren during Lodge hours is forbidden by the Charges of 1722 in these words: "You are not to hold private committees or separate conversation without leave from the Master" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 53).

CONVOCATION

The meetings of Chapters of Royal Arch Freemasons are so called from the Latin convocation, meaning a calling together. It seems very properly to refer to the convoking of the dispersed Freemasons at Jerusalem to rebuild the second Temple, of which every Chapter is a representation.

CONVOCATION, GRAND

The meeting of a Grand Chapter is so styled.

COOKE, MATTHEW

English Masonic writer; edited an early prose Masonic Constitutions known as the Additional Manuscript, 1861. Brother Cooke arranged a number of musical scores for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, United States.

COOKE'S MANUSCRIPT

The old document commonly known among Masonic scholars as Matthew Cooke's Manuscript, because it was first given to the public by that distinguished Brother, was published by him, in 1861, from the original in the British Museum, which institution purchased it, on the 14th of October, 1859, from Mrs. Caroline Baker. It was also published in facsimile by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, London, in 1890. Its principal value is derived from the fact, as Brother Cooke remarks, that until its appearance ''there was no prose work of such undoubted antiquity known to be in existence on the subject.''
Brother Cooke gives the following account of the Manuscript in his preface to its republication:

By permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, the following little work has been allowed to be copied and published in its entire form. The original is to be found among the additional manuscripts in that national collection, and is numbered 23,198. Judging from the character of the handwriting and the form of contractions employed by the scribe, it was most probably written in the litter portion of the fifteenth century, and may be considered a very clear specimen of the penmanship of that period. By whom or for whom it was originally penned there is no means of ascertaining; but from the style, it may be conjectured to have belonged to some Master of the Craft, and to have been used in assemblies of Freemasons as a text-book of the traditional history and laws of the Fraternity.

COPELAND, PATRICK

A native of Udaught, Scotland. In 1590, by Royal Patent, because his ancestors had held the same office, he was made Patron for life of the Freemasons of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine.

COPE-STONE

See Capstone

CORD, HINDU SACRED

See Zennaar

CORD, SILVER

See Silver Cord

CORD, THREEFOLD

See Threefold Cord

CORDON

The Masonic decoration, which in English is called the collar, is styled by the French Freemasons the cordon.

CORINTHIAN ORDER

This is the lightest and most ornamental of the pure orders, and possesses the highest degree of richness and detail that architecture attained under the Greeks. Its capital is its great distinction, and is richly adorned with leaves of acanthus, olive, etc., and other ornaments. The column of Beauty which supports the Lodge is of the Corinthian Order, and its appropriate situation and symbolic officer are in the South.

CORK, ORDER OF THE

A side Degree found in British Masonic circles and practiced with that excellent conviviality characteristic of the Brethren. The main object is to provide an opportunity for the display of high spirits on some especial occasion. Significant of the membership is a jewel, a section or slice of cork, usually enclosed in a metal band for attachment to the watch-chain as a charm or pendant, or carried as a pocket-piece. The absence of this emblem or pledge when a member is challenged by another one subjects the corkless Brother to a forfeit, which again is commonly and appropriately the cause of mutual enjoyment.

CORNER, NORTHEAST

See Northeast Corner

CORNER-STONE, SYMBOLISM OF THE

The corner-stone is the stone which lies at the corner of two walls and forms the corner of the foundation of an edifice. In Masonic buildings it is now always placed in the Northeast; but this rule was not always formerly observed. As the foundation on which the entire structure is supposed to rest, it is considered by Operative Freemasons as the most important stone in the edifice. It is laid with impressive ceremonies; the assistance of Speculative Freemasons is often, and ought always to be, invited to give dignity to the occasion; and for this purpose Freemasonry has provided an especial ritual which is to govern the proper performance of that duty.

Among the ancients the corner-stone of important edifices was laid with impressive ceremonies. These are well described by Tacitus in the history of the rebuilding of the Capital. After detailing the preliminary ceremonies, which consisted of a procession of vestals, who with chaplets of flowers encompassed the ground and consecrated it by libations of living water, he adds that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius Priscus, to whom the care of rebuilding the Capitol had been committed, "laid his hand upon the fillets that adorned the foundation stone, and also the cords by which it was to be drawn to its place. In that instant the magistrates, the priests, the senators, the Roman knights, and a number of citizens, all acting with one effort and general demonstrations of joy, laid hold of the ropes and dragged the ponderous load to its destined spot. They then threw in ingots of gold and silver, and other metals which had never been melted in the furnace, but still retained, untouched by human art, their first formation in the bowels of the earth" (see Histories iv, 53).

The symbolism of the corner-stone when duly laid with Masonic rites is full of significance, which refers to its form, to its situation, to its permanence, and to its consecration.

As to its form, it must be perfectly square on its surfaces, and in its solid contents a cube. Now the square is a symbol of morality, and the cube, of truth.

In its situation it lies between the north, the place of darkness, and the east, the place of light; and hence this position symbolizes the Masonic progress from darkness to light, and from ignorance to knowledge.

The permanence and durability of the corner-stone, which lasts long after the building in whose foundation it was placed has fallen into decay, is intended to remind the Freemason that, when this earthly house of his tabernacle shall have passed away, he has within him a sure foundation of eternal life-a corner-stone of immortality-an emanation from that Divine Spirit which pervades all nature, and which, therefore, must survive the tomb, and rise, triumphant and eternal, above the decaying dust of death and the grave.

The stone, when deposited in its appropriate place, is carefully examined with the necessary implements of Operative Freemasonry-the square, the level, and the plumb, themselves all symbolic in meaning-and is then declared to be "well formed, true, and trusty.'' Thus the Freemason is taught that his virtues are to be tested by temptation and trial, by suffering and adversity, before they can be pronounced by the Master Builder of souls to be materials worthy of the spiritual building of eternal life, fitted, "as living stones, for that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And lastly, in the ceremony of depositing the cornerstone, the elements of Masonic consecration are produced, and the stcne is solemnly set apart by pouring corn, wine, and oil upon its surface, emblematic of the Nourishment, Refreshment, and Joy which are to be the rewards of a faithful performance of duty.

The comer-stone does not appear to have been adopted by any of the heathen nations, but tc have been as the eben pinah, peculiar to the Jews, from whom it descended to the Christians. In the Old Testament, it seems always to have denoted a prince or high personage, and hence the Evangelists constantly use it in reference to Christ, who is called the Chief Comer-stone. In Masonic symbolism, it signifies a true Freemason, and therefore it is the first character which the Apprentice is made to represent after his initiation has been completed.

Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, perhaps the best known church in London, was the first in England to have its foundation stone laid with special Masonic ceremony after the coming into existence of the Grand Lodge there. This event took place in 1724, in the reign of King George I, whose direct descendant, the Duke of Connaught, was Grand Master two hundred years later (see Freemason, March 7, 1925).

The first or cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was laid by the Grand Master of Maryland with the Grand Masters of Pennsylvania and Virginia co-operating with the Brethren of Maryland.

The stone was laid on July 4, 1824, in Carroll's Field at Baltimore and the first spading of the ground where the stone was to rest was dug by the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, then the only living signer of the Declaration of Independence. Brother E. T. Schultz (Freemasonry in Maryland, pages 562-79) says that the first train over this new railroad reached the bank of the Ohio River, January 11, 1853. The several city trades took part in the procession and presented gifts to Mr. Carroll, one from the Weavers and Tailors was "a coat made on the way."

Allusions to public ceremonies by the Craft are frequent in the old records. One of Tuesday, August 27, 1822, deserves mention, not because of the distance in elapsed time from that date to the present, but by reason of the close identity of the custom in Great Britain and in other Countries during these many years. The occasion was the laying of the Foundation-stone of the National Monument of Scotland, at Edinburgh, and after describing the usual procession, and the placing of coins, newspapers, plans, etc., in the cavities of the stone, these were covered with inscribed plates. 'the first being headed "To the Glory of God-In honor of the King-For the Good of the People." Then Laurie's History of Free Masonry and the Grand Lodge of Scotland (1849, page 201) continues:

The Most Worshipful the Grand Master proceeded with the ceremony, and having applied the square, the plumb, and the level respectively to the stone, with the mallet he gave three knocks, saying,-"May the Almighty Architect of the Universe look down with benignity upon our present undertaking, and crown this splendid edifice with every success; and may it be considered, for time immemorial, a model of taste and genius and serve to transmit with honor to posterity the names of the artists engaged in it"; followed by the Grand Honors from the Brethren, and the Band playing "On. on my dear Brethren. " When the music ceased, the cornucopia with corn, and the cups with wine and oil were delivered by the Grand Wardens to the Substitute Grand Master, who in succession handed them to the Most Worshipful the Grand Master, when he, according to ancient custom, poured out the corn, the wine, and the oil upon the stone, saying, "Praise be to the Lord immortal and eternal, Who formed the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and extended the waters beyond it, Who supports the pillars of Nations, and maintains in order and harmony surrounding Worlds: We implore Thy aid, and may the continued blessings of an all bounteous Providence be the lot of these our native shores. Almighty Ruler of Events, deign to direct the hand of our gracious Sovereign, so that he may pour down blessings upon his people; and may they, living under sage laws and a free government, ever feel grateful for the blessings they enjoy'': Which was followed by the Grand Honors from the Brethren, and prolonged cheering from the Royal Commissioners and spectators.

Brother Laurie also tells on page 207 of the curious fact that on April 30, 1824, "the Foundation-stone of the new road or approach to Glasgow from London was laid, by sanction of the Grand Lodge, by the Right Honorable Lord Provost Smith of Glasgow, Depute Provincial Grand Master of the Lower Ward of Lancanshire, in presence of a large assemblage of the Brethren and a great number of spectators."

An unusual method of laying the Foundation-stone of a Masonic Temple took place in London on July 14, 1927. The site of the Temple in Great Queen Street, Ringsway, would not accommodate a large crowd, so it was arranged that the Grand Master of English Freemasons, the Duke of Connaught, should perform the ceremony at Royal Albert Hall, nearly three miles away. A replica of the stone was laid on a specially erected platform in the great hall where some ten thousand Freemasons from all parts of the Empire attended in their regalia. The ceremony in Albert Hall was performed simultaneously with the laying of the actual stone in Great Queen Street by means of special electrical contrivances.

A distinction should be made between Comer-stone and Foundation Stone. Doctor Mackey was emphatic on this point and it is well to have the matter in mind. But the two are not always distinguished definitely in the records. We have placed several items together here which the reader can list as he personally may choose. The precise classification of comer-stones of railroads and foundation stones of highways, judged by any Masonic requirement, is probably best left to individual taste. The subject may be considered under the several heads, Foundation Stone, and Stone of Foundation.

CORN OF NOURISHMENT

One of the three elements of Masonic consecration (see Corn, Wine, and Oil).

CORNUCOPIA

The horn of plenty. The old Pagan myth tells us that Zeus was nourished during his infancy in Crete by the daughters of Melissus, with the milk of the goat Amalthea. Zeus, when he came to the empire of the world, in gratitude placed Amalthea in the heavens as a constellation, and gave one of her horns to his nurses, with the assurance that it should furnish them with a never-failing supply of whatever they might desire. Hence it is a symbol of abundance, and as such has been adopted as the jewel of the Stewards of a Lodge, to remind them that it is their duty to see that the tables are properly furnished at refreshment, and that every Brother is suitably served. Among the deities whose images are to be found in the ancient Temples at Elora, in Hindustan, is the goddess Ana Purna, whose name is compounded of Ana, signifying corn, and Puma, meaning plenty. She holds a corn measure in her hand, and the whole therefore very clearly has the same allusion as the Masonic Horn of plenty.

CORN, WINE, AND OIL

Corn, wine, and oil are the Masonic elements of consecration. The adoption of these symbols is supported by the highest antiquity. Corn, wine, and oil were the most important productions of Eastern countries; they constituted the wealth of the people, and were esteemed as the supports of life and the means of refreshment David enumerates them among the greatest blessings that we enjoy, and speaks of them as "wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart" (Psalm civ., 15). In devoting anything to religious purposes, the anointing with oil was considered as a necessary part of the ceremony, a rite which has descended to Christian nations. The tabernacle in the wilderness, and all its holy vessels, were, by God's express command, anointed with oil; Aaron and his two sons were set apart for the priesthood with the same ceremony ; and the prophets and kings of Israel were consecrated to their offices by the same rite.

Hence, Freemasons' Lodges, which are but temples to the Most High, are consecrated to the sacred purposes for which they were built by strewing corn , wine, and oil upon the Lodge, the emblem of the Holy Ark. Thus does this mystic ceremony instruct us to be nourished with the hidden manna of righteousness, to be refreshed with the Word of the Lord, and to rejoice with joy unspeakable in the riches of divine grace. "Wherefore, my brethren," says the venerable Harris (Discourse iv, 81), "wherefore do you carry corn, wine, and oil in your processions, but to remind you that in the pilgrimage of human life you are to impart a portion of your bread to feed the hungry, to send a cup of your wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil of your consolation into the wounds which sickness hath made in the bodies, or afflictions rent in the heart, of your fellow-travelers?"

In processions, the corn alone is carried in a golden pitcher, the wine and oil are placed in silver vessels, and this is to remind us that the first, as a necessity and the "staff of life," is of more importance and more worthy of honor than the others, which are but comforts.

CORONET, DUCAL

Italian, Coronetta. An inferior crown worn by noblemen; that of a British duke is adorned with strawberry leaves; that of a marquis has leaves with pearls interposed; that of an earl has the pearls above the leaves ; that of a viscount is surrounded with pearls only; that of a baron has only four pearls. The ducal coronet is a prominent symbol in the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

CORPORATION OF SQUAREMEN

See Squaremen, Corporation of

CORRESPONDENCE

See Committee on Foreign Correspondence

CORRESPONDING GRAND SECRETARY

An officer of a Grand Lodge to whom was formerly entrusted, in some Grand Lodges, the Foreign Correspondence of the Body. The office is now disused, a temporary appointment being made when familiarity with a foreign language may require the services of an assistant to the Grand Secretary.

CORYBANTES, MYSTERIES OF

Rites instituted in Phrygia in honor of Atys, the lover of Cybele. The goddess was supposed first to bewail the death of her lover, and afterward to rejoice for his restoration to life. The ceremonies were a scenical representation of this alternate lamentation and rejoicing, and of the sufferings of Atys, who was placed in an ark or coffin during the mournful part of the orgies. If the description of these rites, given by Sainte-Croix from various ancient authorities, be correct, they were but a modification of the Eleusinian mysteries.

COSMIST

A religious faith of late recognition, having for its motto, Deeds, not Creeds, and for its principle the service of humanity is the supreme duty.

The design of Cosmism is to join all men and women into one family, in which the principle of equality, together with that of brotherly love, that is, love of the human race, is the predominant one, and the moral and material welfare of all, the sole aim and purpose.

The Cosmists are enjoined to act as follows: To give one another encouragement and aid, both material and moral, to cultivate all their faculties, to contemplate all mankind as Brethren; to be courteous and forbearing to each and all; to practice charity without publicity or ostentation. Freemasonry is an intensely theistical institution; but its principles could scarcely be better expressed than tho se above enumerated as the foundation of the Cosmistic faith; more especially in the motto, Deeds, not Creeds.

COSMOPOLITE

The Third Degree of the Second Temple of the Rite of African Architects, which see in this Encyclopedia.

COSTA RICA

The most southern state of Central America. The first Masonic Lodge in Costa Rica was instituted by the Grand Orient of New Granada at San José in 1867. On December 7, 1899, the Grand Lodge was formed at San José. Oliver Day Street, in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama, 1922 states: "This Grand Lodge must be moribund, if not defunct, as after repeated efforts this scribe has not been able to get into communication with it. Not a word has been received from it during the seven years he has been Foreign Correspondent." The Grand Lodge is credited by the Annuaire in 1923 as having seven Lodges, with 206 members, three Lodges being at San José and one each at Port Limon and Alajuela being named. Nos. 5 and 6 not located.

COUNCIL

In several of the advance Degrees of Freemasonry the meetings are styled Councils; as, a Council of Royal and Select Masters, or Princes of Jerusalem, or Companions of the Red Cross

COUNCIL CHAMBER

A part of the room in which the ceremonies of the Companions of the Red Cross are performed.

COUNCIL, GRAND

See Grand Council

COUNCIL OF ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES

An organization formed in England in 1880 to embosom, protect, and promulgate all side Degrees of a Masonic or other secret character, and those otherwise unclaimed that may appear as waifs. The central organization is termed the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees.

The Sovereign College of the Allied Masonic Degrees of America was organized on February 1, l892, at Richmond, Virginia, and the first officers of this Body were chosen as follows:

Hartley Carmichael, 33 , Sovereign Grand Master.
Wm. Ryan, 33 , Deputy Grand Master, C.J.S.
Right Rev. A. M. Randolph, Bishop of Southern Virginia, Grand Abbot
Frederick Webber, 33 , Grand Senior Warden
Alfred R. Courtney 32 , Grand Junior Warden
W. O. English, 32 , K.C. , Grand Chancellor.
Charles A. Nesbitt, 33 , Grand Recorder-General,
John F. Mayer. 33 , Grand Bursar.
Josiah Drummond, 33 , Grand Almoner.
R. P. Williams. 33 , Grand Prefect of Rites.
Beverly R. Welford, Jr. 32 , Grand Magister non regens
R. H. Hall, 33 , Grand Deacon.
O. W. Budd, 32 , S. Fellow.
Thomas Whittet, 33 , Grand Verger.
Jacob Reinhardt, 32 , Grand Chief of Musisians.
Ernest T. Walthall, Grand Printer.
H. F. W, Southern, 32 , Grand Tiler.

Brother Nesbitt, the Grand Recorder-General who was also Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Virginia, was elected Deputy Grand Master of the Sovereign College in 1901, Brother Howard D. Smith, Norway, Maine, at the same time being chosen Grand Recorder-General. This Sovereign College was organized for the purpose of uniting under Masonic government a number of Degrees hitherto not so controlled. The object of the Sovereign College was two-fold-to work with proper rituals such as were, from their importance or beauty, worthy of propagation, and to lay on the shelf such Degrees, possessed by it, as were merely Masonic absurdities. This Grand Body assumed the care of several Degrees of interest and importance to earnest and progressive Freemasons. It governs the Ark Mariner or Ark and Doye, Secret Monitor, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, Tilers of King Solomon, Knights of Constantinople, the Holy Order of Wisdom, and the Trinitiam Knights of Saint John of Patmos. From the archives we obtain the following particulars;

For the Degree of Ark Mariner all Master Masons in good standing are eligible, and all Ark Mariners are eligible for the Monitor Degree. The Ark Degree ought to be possessed by every well-equipped Freemason. In England the synonymous Degree of Royal Ark Mariner is exceedingly popular. Though it is not necessary in America to possess the Mark Degree before receiving that of the Ark, yet it is well for all Freemasons, who are likely to travel, to take the Mark Degree in the Chapter also,-as the qualification for the English Royal Ark Mariner's Degree is that the candidate must be a Mark Mason. The Degrees of Tiler of Solomon, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, and the Knight of Constantinople are only conferred on those who are already Ark Mariners and Secret Monitors.

The Holy Order of Wisdom is one of the finest and most impressive Degrees in Freemasonry. The qualification is that the candidate must be a Knight Templar of the American Rite, or a. Knight Rose Croix of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

The Knight of Patmos is conferred only once a year, and then sparingly. It is given only to Freemasons of some mark and learning.

From the Knights of Patmos the officers of the Sovereign College are elected.

The Degrees of the Order of Wisdom, and the Knight of Patmos, are essentially Christian and Trinitarian. For the latter Degree the Candidate must be a Prince of the Royal secret of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

The Grand Bodies with which the Sovereign College is in amity:

In the Ark Mariner Degree: In England, The Royal Ark Council of England. In Scotland, The Supreme Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.

In the other Degrees, in England, The Grand Council Of Allied Masonic Degrees for England, Wales and the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown. In Scotland, The Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees for Scotland.

The Festival of the Order is Saint Paul's Day. The Prayer Book Commentary (Maemillan, 1922, page 26) says, "In the ease of Saint Paul we have the festival of his conversion, January 25, commemorating an event standing on a totally different footing from every other conversion, which was divinely destined to alter the whole tone of Christianity,. Our earliest notices of this festival carry it, we believe, to about the middle of the ninth century."

COUNCIL OF COMPANIONS OF THE RED CROSS

A body in which the First Degree of the Templar system in the United States of America is conferred. It is held under the Charter of a Commandery of Knights Templar, which, when meeting as a Council, is composed of the following officers: A Sovereign Master, Chancellor, Master of the Palace, Prelate, Master of Despatches, Master of Cavalry, Master of Infantry, Standard-Bearer, Sword-Bearer, Warder and Sentinel.

COUNCIL OF ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS

United Body conferring Royal and Select Degrees. In some Jurisdictions this Council confers also the Degree of a Super-Excellent Master.

COUNCIL OF ROYAL MASTERS

The Body in which the Degree of Royal Master, the eighth in the American Rite, is conferred. It receives its Charter from a Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters, and has the following officers: Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works, Master of the Exchequer, Master of Finances, Captain of the Guards, Conductor of the Council, and Steward.

COUNCIL OF SELECT MASTERS

The body in which the Degree of Select Masters, the ninth in the American Rite, is conferred. It receives its Charter from a Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters. Its officers are: Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works, Treasurer, Recorder, Captain of the Guards, Conductor of the Council, and Steward.

COUNCIL OF THE TRINITY

An independent Masonic Jurisdiction, in which are conferred the Degrees of Knight of the Christian Mark, and Guard of the Conclave, Knight of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Holy and Thrice Illustrious Order of the Cross. They are conferred after the Encampment Degrees. They are Christian Degrees, and refer to the crucifixion. COUNCIL, SUPREME

See Supreme Council

COUNTRY STEWARDS' LODGE

An old English Lodge which met first at the Guildhall Coffee House and afterwards at Freemasons Tavern. It was known as No. 540, having been constituted in 1789. The members were made up of Freemasons who had served as Stewards at the "Country Feast of the Society," a festival held every several years after 1732. A special jewel with a green collar was assigned for their use by the Grand Lodge in 1789 and in 1795 they were permitted to line their aprons with green silk. As a result of this ruling they were frequently called the Green Apron Lodge, but in 1797 this ruling was withdrawn. The Lodge lapsed about 1802.

COURT DE GEBELIN, ANTOINE

French author; a founder of the Rite des Philaletes in 1773; Secretary of the famous Lodge of Nine Sisters, Paris. in 1779. President of the Apolionian Society and author of Primitive World Analyzed and Compared with the Modern World. Although a Protestant his literary work secured for him the office of Royal Censor. At the time Voltaire was initiated into the Lodge of Nine Sisters, Court de Gebelin assisted and also presented a copy of his new book mentioned above and read that part of it concerning the ancient mysteries of Eleusis. He died in 1784 (see Lodge of Nine Sisters).

COURT OF HONOR

The letters K.C.C.H., stand for Knight Commander of the Court of Honor. The Court of Honor is an honorary body between the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Degrees of the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It was established to confer honor on certain Brethren whose zeal and work for Scottish Rite Freemasonry have entitled them to recognition. This Court of Honor is composed of all Thirty-third Degree Freemasons whether active or honorary, and also such Thirty-second Degree Freemasons as the Supreme Council may select. In the Court of Honor there are two ranks, that of Knight Commander and that of Grand Cross. No more than three Grand Crosses can be selected at each regular session of the Supreme Council, but the Knight Commander rank is not so restricted. At least two weeks before each regular session of the Supreme Council, each active Thirty-third Degree member may nominate one Thirty-second Degree member for the honor and decoration of Knight Commander.

In addition to this he is entitled to nominate for this honor one candidate for every forty Freemasons of the Fourteenth Degree in his Jurisdiction, who has received that Degree since the preceding regular session of the Supreme Council. This does not mean that a Fourteenth Degree Freemason is entitled to the honor.

On the contrary, the honor can only be conferred on one who has received the Thirty-second Degree at least two years prior to his nomination, but the number of such Thirty-second Degree Freemasons who may receive the honor is limited by the number of those who have received the Fourteenth Degree in the Jurisdiction of the member making the nomination. However, if in the judgment of the Supreme Council there are others not so nominated who should receive the honor, the Supreme Council may elect without such nomination. The rank of Knight Commander or Grand Cross cannot be applied for and if applied for, must be refused. The Court of Honor assembles as a body when called to gather by the Grand Commander, and is presided over by the Grand Cross named by the Grand Commander.

COURTESY

Politeness of manners, as the result of kindness of disposition, was one of the peculiar characteristics of the knights of old. "No other human laws enforced," says M. de Saint Palaye, "as chivalry did, sweetness and modesty of temper, and that politeness which the word courtesy was meant perfectly to express" We find, therefore, in the language of Templarism, the phrase "a true and courteous knight" ; and Knights Templar are in the habit of closing their letters to each other with the expression, Yours in all knightly courtesy. Courtesy is also a Masonic virtue, because it is the product of a feeling of kindness; but it is not so specifically spoken of in the symbolic degrees, where brotherly love assumes its place, as it is in the orders of knighthood.

COUSINS, LES BONS or COUSINS CHARBONNIERS.

A secret society of France in the eighteenth century (see Carbonari).

COUSTOS, JOHN

The sufferings inflicted, in 1743, by the Inquisition at Lisbon, on John Coustos, a Freemason, and the Master of a Lodge in that city; and the fortitude with which he endured the severest tortures, rather than betray his trusts and reveal the secrets that had been confided to him, constitute an interesting episode in the history of Freemasonry. Coustos, after returning to England, published, in 1746, a book, detailing his sufferings, from which the reader is presented with the folio wing abridged narrative.

John Coustos was born at Berne, in Switzerland, but emigrated, in 1716, with his father to England, where he became a naturalized subject. In1743 he removed to Lisbon, in Portugal, and began the practice of his profession, which was that of a lapidary or dealer in precious stones. In consequence of the bull or edict of Pope-Clement XXII denouncing the Masonic Institution, the Lodges at Lisbon were not held at public houses, as was the custom in England and other Protestant countries, but privately, at the residences of the members. Of one of these Lodges, Coustos, who was a zealous Freemason, was elected the Master. A female, who was cognizant of the existence of the Lodge over which Coustos presided, revealed the circumstance to her confessor, declaring that, in her opinion, the members were "monsters in nature, who perpetrated the most shocking crimes." In consequence of this information, it was resolved, by the Inquisition, that Coustos should be arrested and subjected to the tender mercies of the Holy Office. He was accordingly seized, a few nights afterwards, in a coffee-house--- the public pretense of the arrest being that he was privy to the stealing of a diamond, of which they had falsely accused another jeweler, friend and warden of Coustos, whom they had previously arrested. Coustos was then carried to the prison of the Inquisition, and after having been searched and deprived of all his money, papers, and other things that he had about him, he was led to a lonely dungeon, in which he was immured, being expressly forbidden to speak aloud or knock against the walls, but if he required anything, to beat with a padlock that hung on the outward door, and which he could reach by thrusting his arm through the iron grate. "It was there," says he, "that, struck with the horrors of a place of which I had heard and read such baleful descriptions, I plunged at once into the blackest melancholy; especially when I reflected on the dire consequences with which my confinement might very possibly be attended."

On the next day he was led, bareheaded, before the President and four Inquisitors, who, after having made him reply on oath to several questions respecting his name, his parentage, his place of birth, his religion, and the time he had resided in Lisbon, exhorted him to make a full confession of all the crimes he had ever committed in the whole course of his life; but, as he refused to make any such confession, declaring that, from his infancy, he had been taught to confess not to man but to God, he was again remanded to his dungeon.

Three days after, he was again brought before the Inquisitors, and the examination was renewed. This was the first occasion on which the subject of Freemasonry was introduced, and there Coustos for the first time learned that he had been arrested and imprisoned solely on account of his connection with the forbidden Institution.

The result of this conference was that Coustos was conveyed to a deeper dungeon, and kept there in close confinement for seven weeks, during which period he was taken three times before the Inquisitors. In the first of these examinations they again introduced the subject of Freemasonry, and declared that if the Institution was as virtuous as their prisoner contended that it was, there was no occasion for concealing so industriously the secrets of it. Coustos did not reply to this objection to the Inquisitorial satisfaction, and he was remanded back to his dungeon, where a few days after he fell sick.

After his recovery, he was again taken before the Inquisitors, who asked him several new questions with regard to the tenets of Freemasonry - among others, whether he, since his abode in Lisbon, had received any Portuguese into the society. He replied that he had not. When he was next brought before them, "they insisted," he says, "upon my letting them into the secrets of Freemasonry; threatening me, in case I did not comply." But Coustos firmly and fearlessly refused to violate his obligations.

After several other interviews, in which the effort was unavailingly made to extort from him a renunciation of Freemasonry, he was subjected to the torture, of which he gives the following account:

I was instantly conveyed to the torture-room, built in form of a square tower, where no light appeared but what two candles gave; and to prevent the dreadful cries and shocking groans of the unhappy victims from reaching the ears of the other prisoners, the doors are lined with a sort of quilt.

The reader will naturally suppose that I must be seized with horror, when, at my entering this infernal place, I saw myself, on a sudden, surrounded by six wretches, who, after preparing the tortures, stripped me naked, all to linen drawers, when, laying me on my back, they began to lay hold of every part of my body. First, they put around my neck an iron collar, which was fastened to the scaffold; they then fixed a ring to each foot; and this being done, they stretched my limbs with all their might. They next wound two ropes round each arm, and two round each thigh, which ropes passed under the scaffold through holes made for that purpose, and were all drawn tight at the same time, by four men, upon a signal made for this purpose.

The reader will believe that my pains must be intolerable, when I solemnly declare that these ropes, which were of the size of one's little finger, pierced through my flesh quite to the bone, making the blood gush out at eight different places that were thus bound. As I persisted in refusing to discover any more than what has been seen in the interrogatories above, the ropes were thus drawn together four different times. At my' side stood a physician and a surgeon, who often felt my temples, to judge of the danger I might be in-by which means my tortures were suspended, at intervals, that I might have an opportunity of recovering myself a little Whilst I was thus suffering, they were so barbarously unjust as to declare, that, were I to die under the torture, I should be guilty, by my obstinacy, of self-murder. In fine, the last time the ropes were drawn tight, I grew so exceedingly weak, occasioned by the blood's circulation being stopped, and the pains I endured, that I fainted quite away; insomuch that I was carried back to my dungeon, without perceiving it.

These barbarians, finding that the tortures above described could not extort any further discovery from me; but that, the more they made me suffer, the more fervently I addressed my supplications, for patience, to heaven. they were so inhuman, six weeks after, as to expose me to another kind of torture, more grievous, if possible, than the former. They made me stretch my arms in such a manner that the palms of my hands were turned outward; when, by the help of a rope that fastened them together at the wrist, and which they turned by an engine, they drew them gently nearer to one another behind, in such a manner that the back of each hand touched and stood exactly parallel one to another; whereby both my shoulders were dislocated, and a considerable quantity of blood issued from my mouth.

This torture was repeated thrice; after which I was again taken to my dungeon, and put into the hands of physicians and surgeons, who, in setting my bones, put me to exquisite pain. Two months after, being a little recovered, I was again conveyed to the torture-room, and there made to undergo another kind of punishment twice. The reader may judge of its horror, from the following description thereof :

" The torturers turned twice around my body a thick iron chain, which, crossing upon my stomach, terminated afterwards at my wrists. They next set my back against a thick board, at each extremity whereof was a pulley, through which there ran a rope, that caught the ends of the chains at my wrists. The tormentors then stretched these ropes, by means of a roller, pressed or bruised my stomach, in proportion as the means were drawn tighter. They tortured me on this occasion to such a degree, that my wrists and shoulders were put out of joint. The surgeons, however, set them presently after; but the barbarians not yet having satiated their cruelty, made me undergo this torture a second time, which I did with fresh pains, though with equal consistency and resolution. I was then remanded back to my dungeon, attended by the surgeons, who dressed my bruises; and here I continued until their auto-da-fé, or gaol delivery.

On that occasion, he was sentenced to work at the galleys for four years.

Soon, however, after he had commenced the degrading occupation of a galley slave, the injuries which he had received during his inquisitorial tortures having so much impaired his health, that he was unable to undergo the toils to which he had been condemned, he was sent to the infirmary, where he remained until October, 1744, when he was released upon the demand of the British minister, as a subject to the King of England. He was, however, ordered to leave the country. This, it may be supposed, he gladly did, and repaired to London, where he published the account of his sufferings in a book entitled The Sufferings of John Coustos for Freemasonry, and for refusing to turn Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon, etc., etc. London, 1746; 8vo , 400 pages. This work was reprinted at Birmingham in 1790. Such a narrative is well worthy of being read. John Coustos has not, by his literary researches, added anything to the learning or science of our Order; yet, by his fortitude and fidelity under the severest sufferings, inflicted to exhort from him a knowledge he was bound to conceal, he has shown that Freemasonry makes no idle boast in declaring that its secrets "are locked up in the depository of faithful breasts."

COUVREUR

The title of an officer in a French Lodge, equivalent to the English Tiler.

COUVRIR LE TEMPLE

A French expression for the English one to close the Lodge. But it has also another signification. To cover the Temple to a Brother, means in French Masonic language, to exclude him from the Lodge.

COVENANT OF FREEMASONRY

As a covenant is defined to be a contract or agreement between two or more parties on certain terms, there can be no doubt that when a man is made a Freemason he enters into a covenant with the Institution. On his part he promises to fulfil certain promises, and to discharge certain duties, for which, on the other part, the Fraternity bind themselves by an equivalent covenant of friendship, protection, and support. This covenant must of course be repeated and modified with every extension of the terms of agreement on both sides.

The covenant of an Entered Apprentice is different from that of a Fellow Craft, and the covenant of the latter from that of a Master Mason. As we advance in Freemasonry our obligations increase, but the covenant of each Degree is not the less permanent or binding because that of a succeeding one has been super-added. The second covenant does not impair the sanctity of the first.

This covenant of Freemasonry is symbolized and sanctioned by the most important and essential of all the ceremonies of the Institution. It is the very foundation-stone which supports the whole edifice, and, unless it be properly laid, no superstructure can with any safety be erected. It is indeed the covenant that makes the Freemason.

A master so important as this, in establishing the relationship of a Freemason with the Craft-this baptism, so to speak, by which a member is inaugurated into the Institution-must of course be attended with the most solemn and binding ceremonies. Such has been the case in all countries. Covenants have always been solemnized with certain solemn forms and religious observances which gave them a sacred sanction in the minds of the contracting parties. The Hebrews, especially, invested their covenants with the most imposing ceremonies.

The first mention of a covenant in form that is met with in Scripture is that recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, where, to confirm it, Abraham, in obedience to the Divine command, took a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, "and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another" (see Genesis v, 10). This dividing a victim into two parts, that the covenanting parties might pass between them, was a custom not confined to the Hebrews, but borrowed from them by all the heathen nations.

In the Book of Jeremiah it is again alluded to , and the penalty for the violation of the covenant is also expressed.

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.

The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf.

I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their live; and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth" (Jeremiah xxxiv, 18, 19, 20).

These ceremonies, thus briefly alluded to in the passages which have been quoted, were performed in full, as follows. The attentive Masonic student will observe the analogies to those of his own Order.

The parties entering into a covenant first selected a proper animal, such as a calf or a kid among the Jews, a sheep among the Greeks, or a pig among the Romans. The throat was then cut across, with a single blow, so as to completely divide the windpipe and arteries, without to touching the bone. This was the first ceremony of the covenant. The second was, to tear open the breast, to take from thence the heart and vitals, and if on inspection the least imperfection was discovered, the body was considered unclean, and thrown aside for another. The third ceremony was to divide the body in twain, and to place the two parts to the north and south, so that the parties to the covenant might pass between them, coming from the east and going to the west. The carcass was then left as a prey to the wild beasts of the field and the vultures of the air, and thus the covenant was ratified (see Hand, also Oath and Penalty).

COVERING OF THE LODGE

As the lectures tell us that our ancient Brethren met on the highest hills and lowest vales, from this it is inferred that, as the meetings were thus in the open air, the only covering must have been the overarching vault of heaven. Hence, in the symbolism of Freemasonry the covering of the Lodge is said to be a clouded canopy or starry-decked heaven. The terrestrial Lodge of labor is thus intimately connected with the celestial Lodge of eternal refreshment. The symbolism is still further extended to remind us that the whole world is a Freemason's Lodge, and heaven its sheltering cover.

COWAN

This is a purely Masonic term, and signifies in its technical meaning an intruder, whence it is always coupled with the word eavesdropper. It is not found in any of the old manuscripts of the English Freemasons anterior to the eighteenth century, unless we suppose that lowen, met with in many of them, is a clerical error of the copyists. It occurs in the Schaw Manuscript, a Scotch record which bears the date of 1598, in the following passage: "That no Master or Fellow of Craft receive any cowans to work in his society or company, nor send none of his servants to work with cowans." In the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions, published in 1738 (page 146), we find the word in use among the English Freemasons, thus : ''But Free and Accepted Masons shall not allow cowans to work with them ; nor shall they be employed by cowans without an urgent necessity; and even in that case they must not reach cowans, but must have a separate communication." There can be but little doubt that the word, as a Masonic term, comes to us from Scotland, and it is therefore in the Scotch language that we must look for its signification. Now, Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, gives us the following meanings of the word: Cowans.

l. A term of contempt ; applied to one who does the work of a mason, but has not been regularly bred.
2. Also used to denote one who builds dry walls, otherwise denominated a dry diker.
3. One unacquainted with the secrets of Freemasonry.

And he gives the following examples as his authorities: A boat-carpenter, joiner, cowan (or builder of stone without mortar), get ls. at the minimum and good maintenance. P. Morven, Argyles. Statistic, Acct., X, 267. N.

Cowans. Masons who build dry-stone dikes or walls. P. Halkirk, Carthn, Statistic. Acct., XIX, 24. N.

In the Rob Roy of Scott, the word is used by Allan Inverach, who says: She does not value a Cawmill mair as a cowan.

The word has therefore, in the opinion of Brother Mackey, come to the English Fraternity directly from the Operative Freemasons of Scotland, among whom it was used to denote a pretender, in the exact sense of the first meaning of Jamieson.

There is no word that has given Masonic scholars more trouble than this in tracing its derivation. By some it has been considered to come from the Greek meaning a dog; and referred to the fact that in the early ages of the Church, when the mysteries of the new religion were communicated only to initiates under the veil of secrecy, infidels were called dogs, a term probably suggested by such passages as (Matthew vii 6), "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs"; or (Philippians iii 2), "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision'' (see also Revelations xxii 15). This derivation has been adopted by Oliver, and many other writers.

Jamieson's derivations are from the old Swedish kujon, kuzhjohn, meaning a silly fellow, and the French coion, coyon, signifying a coward, a base fellow. No matter how we get the word, it seems always to convey an idea of contempt. The attempt to derive it from the chouans of the French Revolution is manifestly absurd, for it has been shown that the word was in use long before the French Revolution was even meditated.

However, Brother Hawkins points out that Doctor Murray in the New English Dictionary says that the derivation of the word is unknown.

Notwithstanding the above reference by Brother Hawkins we may venture to consider another objective.

There is a possibility of the word common presenting an explanation of our word cowan. Common is found frequently in use by the trade Gilds. Usually it means the citizens as a body. Today the English Commons is the assembled representatives of the people. Several instances of its use are to be found in Jupps' History of the Carpenters Company. Sometimes it is spelled Coen and then Comon, and so on as the habit or fancy of the writer moved him. About half a dozen of them are given in the book by Jupp.

To the Masonic student of philology we would submit these considerations as it is just possible that cowan is but a variant of common. Workmen raised by a skilled knowledge of their trade above the ordinary level could not directly stigmatize those not in their class by any more descriptive word than that which briefly scored them as of merely ordinary qualifications. Do the contemptuous not still so speak of the common herd, and has not the outraged "cullud pussun" been reported by the freely descriptive novelist as retorting on occasion with the saying of "common white trash?"

COWPER, WILLIAM

Deputy Grand Master, 1726-7, under Lord Inchiquin.

CRAFT

It is from the Saxon craft, which indirectly signifies skill or dexterity in any art. In reference to this skill, therefore, the ordinary acceptation is a trade or mechanical art, and collectively, the persons practicing it. Hence, the Craft, in Speculative Freemasonry, signifies the whole body of Freemasons, wherever dispersed.

CRAFT MASONRY, ANCIENT

See Ancient Craft Masonry

CRAFTED

A word sometimes colloquially used, instead of the Lodge term passed, to designate the advancement of a candidate to the Second Degree.

CRAFTSMAN

A Freemason. The word originally meant anyone skillful in his art, and is so used by our early writers. Thus Chaucer, in his Knights' Tale (v 1897), says:

For in the land there was no craftsman,
That geometry or arsmetrike can,
Nor pourtrayor, nor carver of images,
That Theseus ne gave him meat and wages.
The theatre to make and to devise.

CRAFTSMEN, CLEVELAND FEDERATION OF

See Universal Craftsmen Council of Engineers

CRATA REPOA

See Egyptian Priests, Initiations of the.

CREATE

In chivalry, when anyone received the order of knighthood, he was said to be created a knight. The word dub had also the same meaning. The word created is used in Commanderies of Knights Templar to denote the elevation of a candidate to that Degree (see Dub).

CREATION

Preston (Illustrations of Masonry, Book I, Section 3) says: "From the commencement of the world, we may trace the foundation of Masonry.

Ever since symmetry began, and harmony displayed her charms, our Order has had a being." Language like this has been deemed extravagant, and justly, too , if the words are to be taken in their literal sense. The idea that the Order of Freemasonry is coeval with the creation is so absurd that the pretension cannot need refutation. But the fact is, that Anderson, Preston, and other writers who have indulged in such statements, did not mean by the word Masonry anything like an organized Order or Institution bearing any resemblance to the Freemasonry of the present day.

They simply meant to indicate that the great moral principles on which Freemasonry is founded, and by which it professes to be guided, have always formed a part of the Divine government, and been presented to man from his first creation for his acceptance. The words quoted from Preston may be subject to criticism, because they are liable to misconstruction. But the symbolic idea which they intended to convey, namely, that Freemasonry is truth, and that truth is coexistent with man's creation, is correct, and cannot be disputed.

CREED, A FREEMASON'S

Although Freemasonry is not a dogmatic theology, and is tolerant in the admission of men of every religious faith, it would be wrong to suppose that it is without a creed.

On the contrary, it has a creed, the assent to which it rigidly enforces, and the denial of which is absolutely incompatible with membership in the Order, This creed consists of two articles: First, a belief in God, the Creator of all things, who is therefore recognized as the Great Architect of the Universe; and secondly, a belief in the eternal life, to which this present life is but a preparatory and probationary state. To the first of these articles assent is explicitly required as soon as the threshold of the Lodge is crossed. The second is expressively taught by legends and symbols, and must be implicitly assented to by every Freemason, especially by those who have received the Third Degree, which is altogether founded on the doctrine of the resurrection to a second life.

At the revival of Freemasonry in 1717, the Grand Lodge of England set forth the law, as to the religious creed to be required of a Freemason, in the following words, to be found in the Charges approved by that body.

In ancient times, Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was; yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves (see Constitutions, 1723, page 50). This is now considered universally as the recognized law on the subject.

CRESSET

An open lamp formerly having a crosspiece filled with combustible material, such as naphtha, and recognized as the symbol of Light and Truth.

CREUZER, GEORG FRIEDERICH

George Frederick Creuzer, who was born in Germany in 1771, and was a professor at the University of Heidelberg, devoted himself to the study of the ancient religions, and, with profound learning, established a peculiar system on the subject. His theory was, that the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks were borrowed from a far more ancient people - -a body of priests coming from the East-who received them as a revelation. The myths and traditions of this ancient people were adopted by Hesiod, Homer, and the later poets, although not without some misunderstanding of them ; and they were finally preserved in the Mysteries, and became subjects of investigation for the philosophers. This theory Creuzer has developed in his most important work, entitled Symbolik und Archäologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen, which was published at Leipsic in 1819--21. There is no translation of this work into English; but Guigniaut published at Paris, in 1829, a paraphrastic translation of it, under the title of Religions de l'Antiquité considerées principalement dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques (Religions of Antiquity, considered principally under their Symbolical and Mythological Forms). Creuzer's views throw much light on the symbolic history of Freemasonry. He died in1858.

CRIMES, MASONIC

In Freemasonry, every offense is a crime, because, in every violation of a Masonic law there is not only sometimes an infringement of the rights of an individual, but always, superinduced upon this, a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community of the Order considered as a community.

The first class of crimes which are laid down in the Constitutions, as rendering their perpetrators liable to Masonic jurisdiction, are offenses against the moral law. "Every Mason," says the Old Charges of 1722, "is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law." The same charge continues the precept by asserting, that if he rightly understands the art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine. Atheism, therefore, which is a rejection of a supreme, superintending Creator, and irreligious libertinism, which, in the language of that day, signified a denial of all moral responsibility, are offenses against the moral law, because they deny its validity and contemn its sanctions ; and hence they are to be classed as Masonic crimes.

Again: the moral law inculcates love of God, love , of our neighbor, and duty to ourselves. Each of these embraces other incidental duties which are obligatory on every Freemason, and the violation of any one of which constitutes a Masonic crime.

The love of God implies that we should abstain from all profanity and irreverent use of his name. Universal benevolence is the necessary result of love of our neighbor. Cruelty to one's inferiors and dependents, uncharitableness to the poor and needy, and a general misanthropical neglect of our duty as men to our fellow-beings, exhibiting itself in extreme selfishness and indifference to the comfort or happiness of all others, are offenses against the moral law, and therefore Masonic crimes.

Next to violations of the moral law, in the category of Masonic crimes, are to be considered the transgressions of the municipal law, or the law of the land.

Obedience to constituted authority is one of the first duties which is impressed upon the mind of the candidate; and hence he who transgress the laws of the government under which he lives violates the teachings of the Order, and is guilty of a Masonic crime.

But the Order will take no cognizance of ecclesiastical or political offenses. And this arises from the very nature of the society, which eschews all controversies about national religion or state policy. Hence apostasy, heresy, and schisms, although considered in some governments as heinous offenses, and subject to severe punishment, are not viewed as Masonic crimes Lastly, violations of the Landmarks and Regulations of the Order are Masonic crimes. Thus, disclosure of any of the secrets which a Freemason has promised to conceal; disobedience and want of respect to Masonic superiors; the bringing of "private piques or quarrels" into, the Lodge; want of courtesy and kindness to the Brethren ; speaking calumniously of a Freemason behind his back, or in any other way attempting to injure him, as by striking him except in self-defense, or violating his domestic honor, is each a crime in Freemasonry. Indeed, whatever is a violation of fidelity to solemn engagements, a neglect of prescribed duties, or a transgression of the cardinal principles of friendship, morality, and brotherly love, is a Masonic crime.

CRIMSON

Crimoysin is Old English. A deep-red color tinged with blue, emblematical of fervency and zeal; belonging to several degrees of the Scottish Rite as well as to the Holy Royal Arch.

CROMLECH

A large stone resting on two or more stones, like a table. Cromlechs are found in Brittany, Denmark, Germany, and some other parts of Europe, and are supposed to have been used in the Celtic Mysteries.

CROMWELL

The Abb‚ Larudan published at Amsterdarn, in 1746, a book entitled Les Francs Maçons Ecrasés, meaning the Freemasons Crushed, of which Klos says in his Bibliographie der Freimaurerei No. 1874, that it is the armory from which all the abuse of Freemasonry by its enemies has been derived. Larudan was the first to advance in this book the theory that Oliver Cromwell was the founder of Freemasonry. He says that Cromwell established the Order for the furtherance of his political designs; adopting with this view, as its governing principles, the doctrines of liberty and equality, and bestowed upon its members the title of Freemasons, because his object was to engage them in the building of a new edifice, that is to say, to reform the human race by the extermination of kings and all regal powers. He selected for this purpose the design of rebuilding the Temple of Solomon. This Temple, erected by Divine command, had been the sanctuary of religion. After years of glory and magnificence, it had been destroyed by a formidable army. The people who there worshiped had been conveyed to Babylon, whence, after enduring a rigorous captivity, they had been permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. This history of the Solomonic Temple Cromwell adopted, says Larudan, as an allegory on which to found his new Order. The Temple in its original magnificence was man in his primeval state of purity; its destruction and the captivity of its worshipers typified pride and ambition, which have abolished equality and introduced dependence among men; and the Chaldean destroyers of the glorious edifice are the kings who have trodden on an oppressed people.

It was, continues the Abbé, in the year 1648 that Cromwell, at an entertainment given by him to some of his friends, proposed to them, in guarded terms, the establishment of a new society, which should secure a true worship of God, and the deliverance of man from oppression and tyranny. The proposition was received with unanimous favor; and a few days after, at a house in King Street, and at six o'clock in the evening, for the Abbé is particular as to time and place, the Order of Freemasonry was organized, its Degrees established, its ceremonies and ritual prescribed, and several of the adherents of the future Protector initiated.

The Institution was used by Cromwell for the advancement of his projects, for the union of the contending parties in England, for the extirpation of the monarchy, and his own subsequent elevation to supreme power. It extended from England into other countries, but was always careful to preserve the same doctrines of equality and liberty among men, and opposition to all monarchical government.

Such is the theory of the Abbé Larudan, who, although a bitter enemy of Freemasonry, writes with seeming farness and mildness. But it is hardly necessary to say that this theory of the origin of Freemasonry finds no support either in the legends of the Institution, or in the authentic history that is connected with its rise and progress.

CROMWELL, THOMAS, EARL OF ESSEX

Doctor Anderson says that Thomas Cromwell was Grand Master of England, 1534-40 (see also William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry, section iv).

CROSIER

The staff surmounted by a cross carried before a bishop on occasions of solemn ceremony. They are generally gilt, and made light; frequently of tin, and hollow. The pastoral staff has a circular head.

CROSS

We can find no symbolism of the cross in the primitive Degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry. It does not appear among the symbols of the Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, the Master, or the Royal Arch. This is undoubtedly to be attributed to the fact that the cross was considered, by those who invented those Degrees, only in reference to its character as a Christian sign. The subsequent archeological investigations that have given to the cross a more universal place in iconography were unknown to the old rituals. It is true, that it is referred to, under the name of the rode or rood, in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, published by Halliwell; this was, however, one of the Constitutions of the Operative Freemasons, who were fond of the symbol, and were indebted for it to their ecclesiastical origin, and to their connection with the Gnosties, among whom the cross was a much used symbol. But on the revival in 1717, when the ritual was remodified, and differed very greatly from that meager one in practice among the medieval Freemasons, all allusion to the cross was left out, because the revivalists laid down the principle that the religion of Speculative Freemasonry was not sectarian but universal. And although this principle was in some points, as in the lines parallel, neglected, the reticence as to the Christian sign of salvation has continued to the present day so that the cross cannot be considered as a symbol in the primary and original Degrees of Freemasonry.

But in the advanced Degrees, the cross has been introduced as an important symbol. In some of them - those which are to be traced to the Temple system of Ramsay - it is to be viewed with reference to its Christian origin and meaning.

Thus, in the original Rose Croix and Kadosh-no matter what may be the modern interpretation given to it - it was simply a representation of the cross of Christ. In others of a philosophical character, such as the ineffable Degrees, the symbolism of the cross was in all probability borrowed from the usages of antiquity, for from the earliest times and in almost all countries the cross has been a sacred symbol.

It is depicted on the oldest monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Hindustan.

It was, says Faber (Mysteries of the Cabiri 11, 390), a symbol throughout the Pagan world long previous to its becoming an object of veneration to Christians.

In ancient symbology it was a symbol of eternal life.

M. de Mortillet, who, in 1866, published a work entitled Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianism (The Sign of the Cross before Christianity), found in the very earliest epochs three principal symbols of universal occurrence: namely, the circle, the pyramid, and the cross. Leslie (Man's 0rigin and Destiny, page 312) quoting from him in reference to the ancient worship of the cross, says: "It seems to have been a worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of idols." This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one reason why its form was often adopted, especially by the Celts, in the construction of their temples.

Of the Druidical veneration of the cross, Higgins quotes from the treatise of Schedius, De Moribus Germanorum xxiv, the following remarkable paragraph:

The Druids seek studiously for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up with two principal arms in the form of a cross, beside the main, upright stem. If the two horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten a cross beam to it. This tree they consecrate in this manner. Upon the right. branch they cut in the bark, in fair characters, the word Hesus; upon the middle or upright stem, the word Taramis; upon the left branch, Belenus; over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut the name of God, Thau. Under all the same repeated, Thau. This tree, so inscribed, they make their kebla in the grove, cathedral, or summer church, towards which they direct their faces in the offices of religion.

Brinton, in his interesting work entitled Symbolism; The Myths of the New World (page 95) has the following remarks:

The symbol that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, the cross, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing interpretations. it is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of its use and meaning in America.

Brinton gives many instances of the religious use of the cross by several of the aboriginal tribes of this continent, where the allusion, it must be confessed, seems evidently to be to the four cardinal points, or the four winds, or four spirits of the earth. If this be so, and if it is probable that a similar reference was adopted by the Celtic and other ancient peoples, then we would have in the cruciform temple as much a symbolism of the world, of which the four cardinal points constitute the boundaries, as we have in the square, the cubical, and the circular.

CROSS-BEARING MEN

The Latin is Viri Crucigeri. A name sometimes assumed by the Rosicrucians. Thus, in the Miracula Naturae of the year 1619, there is a letter addressed to the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, which begins with a Latin phrase: Philesophi Fratres, Viri Crucigeri, meaning Brother Philosophers, Cross-Bearing Men.

CROSS, DOUBLE

See Cross, Patriarchal

CROSS, JEREMY L

A teacher of the Masonic ritual, who, during his lifetime, was extensively known, and for some time very popular. He was born June 27, 1783, at Haverhill, New Hampshire, and died at the same place in 1861. Cross was admitted into the Masonic Order in 1808, and soon afterward became a pupil of Thomas Smith Webb, whose modifications of the Preston lectures and of the advanced Degrees were generally accepted by the Freemasons of the United States. Cross, having acquired a competent knowledge of Webb's system, began to travel and disseminate it throughout the country. In 1819 he published The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor, in which he borrowed liberally from the previous work of Webb.

In fact, the Chart of Cross is, in nearly all its parts, a mere transcript of the Monitor of Webb, the first edition of which was published in 1797. Webb, it is true, took the same liberty with Preston, from whose Illustrations of Masonry be borrowed largely. The engraving of the emblems constituted, however, an entirely new and original feature in the Hieroglyphic Chart, and, as furnishing aids to the memory, rendered the book of Cross at once very popular; so much so, indeed, that for a long time it almost altogether superseded that of Webb. In 1820 Cross published The Templars Chart, which, as a monitor of the Degrees of chivalry, met with equal success. Both of these works have passed through numerous editions.

Cross received the appointment of Grand Lecturer from many Grand Lodges, and traveled for many years very extensively through the United States, teaching his system of lectures to Lodges, Chapters, Councils, and Encampments.

He possessed few or no scholarly attainments, and his contributions to the literature of Freemasonry are confined to the two compilations already cited. In his latter years he became involved in an effort to establish a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. But he soon withdrew his name, and retired to the place of his nativity, where he died at the advanced age of seventy-eight.

Although Cross was not a man of any very original genius, yet a more recent writer has announced the fact that the symbol in the Third Degree, the broken column, unknown to the system of either Preston or Webb, was invented by him (see Monument).

CROSS, JERUSALEM

A Greek cross between four crosslets. It was adopted by Baldwyn as the arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and has since been deemed a symbol of the Holy Land. It is also the jewel of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. Symbolically, the four small crosses typify the four wounds of the Savior in the hands and feet, and the large central cross shows forth his death for that world to which the four extremities point.

CROSS, MALTESE

A cross of eight points, worn by the Knights of Malta. It is heraldically described as "a cross pattée, but the extremity of each pattée notched at a deep angle." The eight points are said to refer symbolically to the eight beatitudes (see Matthew v, 3 to II ).

CROSS OF CONSTANTINE

See Labarum

CROSS OF SALEM

Called also the Pontifical Cross, because it is borne before the Pope. It is a cross, the upright piece being crossed by three lines, the upper and lower shorter than the middle one. It is the insignia of the Grand Master and Past Grand Masters of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. The same cross placed on a slant is the insignia of the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

CROSS, PASSION

The cross on which Jesus suffered crucifixion. It is the most common form of the cross. When rayonnant, or having rays issuing from the point of intersection of the limbs, it is the insignia of the Commander of a Commandery of Knights Templar, according to the American system.

CROSS, TEMPLAR

André Favin, a French heraldic writer, says that the original badge of the Knights Templar was a Patriarchal Cross, and Clarke, in his History of Knighthood, makes the same statement, but this is an error. At first, the Templars wore a white mantle without any cross. But in 1146 Pope Eugenius III prescribed for them a red cross on their breasts, as a symbol of the martyrdom to which they were constantly exposed. The cross of the Hospitalers was white on a black mantle, and that of the Templars was different in color but of the same form, namely, a cross pattée, pattée meaning the arms broad and spreading at the outer ends. In this it differed from the true Maltese Cross, worn by the Knights of Malta, which was a cross pattée, the limbs deeply notched so as to make a cross of eight points. Sir Walter Scott, with his not unusual heraldic inaccuracy, and Godfrey Higgins, who is not often inaccurate, but only fanciful at times, both describe the Templar cross as having eight points, thus confounding it with the Cross of Malta. In the statutes of the Order of the Temple, the cross prescribed is that depicted in the Charter of Transmission, and is a cross pattée.

CROSS, TEUTONIC

The cross formerly worn by the Teutonic Knights. It is described in heraldry as "a cross potent, sable (or black), charged with another cross double potent or (or gald), and surcharged with an escutcheon argent (or silver), bearing a double-headed eagle sable (or black). " It has been adopted as the jewel of the Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States, but the original jewel of the degree was a Latin or Passion Cross.

CROSS, THRICE ILLUSTRIOUS ORDER OF THE

A Degree formerly conferred in this country on Knights Templar, but now extinct. Its meetings were called Councils, and under the authority of a body which styled itself the Ancient Council of the Trinity.

The Degree is no longer conferred.

CROSS, TRIPLE

See Cross of Salem

CROSSES

In referring to the philosophic triads and national crosses, there will be found in a work entitled The Celtic Druids, by Godfrey Higgins, the following: "Few causes have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient history than the idea, hastily formed by all ages, that every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of those symbols which they' conceived to be monograms of Christ the Savior, was of Christian origin. The cross is as common in India as in Egypt or Europe."

The Rev. Mr. Maurice remarks (Indian Antiquities): "Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended at the assertion that the cross was one of the most usual symbols of Egypt and India. The emblem of universal nature is equally honored in the Gentile and Christian world. In the Cave of Elephanta, in India, over the head of the principal figure may be seen the cross, with other symbols."

Upon the breast of one of the Egyptian mummies in the museum of the London University is a cross upon a Calvary or mount. People in those countries marked their sacred water-jars, dedicated to Canopus, with a Tau cross, and sometimes even that now known as the Teutonic cross. The fertility of the country about the river Nile, in Egypt, was designated, in distance on its banks from the river proper, by the Nilometer, in the form of a cross.

The erudite Dr. G. L. Ditson says: "The Rabbins say that when Aaron was made High Priest he was marked in the forehead by Moses with a cross in the shape of that now known as Saint Andrew's. "

Proselytes, when admitted into the religious mysteries of Eleusis, were marked with a cross

CROSSING THE RIVER

The Cabalists have an alphabet so called, in allusion to the crossing of the river Euphrates by the Jews on their return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It has been adopted in some of the advanced Degrees which refer to that incident. Cornelius Agrippa gives a copy of the alphabet in his Occult Philosophy.

CROSS-LEGGED KNIGHTS

In the Middle Ages it was the custom to bury the body of a Knight Templar with one leg crossed over the other; and on any monuments in the churches of Europe, the effigies of these knights are to be found, often in England, of a diminutive size, with the legs placed in this position. The cross-legged posture was not confined to the Templars, but was appropriated to all persons who had assumed the cross and taken a vow to fight in defense of the Christian religion. The posture, of course, alluded to the position of the Lord while on the cross.

CROSS-LEGGED MASONS

A name given to the Knights Templar, who, in the sixteenth century, united themselves with the Masonic Lodge at Sterling, in Scotland. The allusion is evidently to the funeral posture of the Templars, so that a cross-legged Mason must have been at the time synonymous with a Masonic Knight Templar.

CROTONA

One of the most prominent cities of the Greek colonists in Southern Italy, where, in the sixth century, Pythagoras established his celebrated school. As the early Masonic writers were fond of citing Pythagoras as a Brother of their Craft, Crotona became connected with the history of Freemasonry, and was often spoken of as one of the most renowned seats of the Institution. Thus, in the Leland Manuscript, whose authenticity is now, however, doubted, it is said that Pythagoras "framed a grate Lodge at Groton, and made many Maconnes," in which sentence Groton, it must be remarked, is an evident corruption of Crotona.

CROW

An iron implement used to raise heavy stones. It is one of the working tools of a Royal Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him to raise his thoughts above the corrupting influence of worldly-mindedness.

CROWN

A portion of Masonic regalia worn by officers who represent a king, more especially King Solomon. In Ancient Craft Freemasonry, however, the crown is frequently displaced by the hat.

CROWN, KNIGHT OF THE

See Knight of the Crown

CROWN, PRINCESSES OF THE

The French phrase is Princesses de la Couronne. A species of androgynous or female Freemasonry established in Saxony in 1770 (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 1, 303). It existed for only a brief period.

CROWNED MARTYRS

See Four Crowned Martyrs

CROWNING OF MASONRY

The French expression is Le couronnement de la Maçonnerie. The Sixty-first Degree, seventh series, of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 1, 303).

CROWNS

As the result of considerable classification, Brother Robert Macoy presents nine principal crowns recognized in heraldry and symbolism:

1. The Triumphal Crown, of which there were three kinds---a laurel wreath, worn by a General while in the act of triumph; a golden Crown, in imitation of laurel leaves ; and the presentation golden Crown to a conquering General.
2. The Blockade Crown of wild flowers and grass, presented by the army to the Commander breaking and relieving a siege.
3. The Civic Crown of oak leaves, presented to a soldier who saved the life of his comrade.
4. The Olive Crown, conferred upon the soldiery or commander who consummated a triumph.
5. The Mural Crown, which rewarded the soldier who first sealed the wall of a besieged city.
6. The Naval Crown, presented to the Admiral who won a naval victory.
7. The Vallary Crown, or circlet of gold, bestowed on that soldier who first surmounted the stockade and forced an entrance into the enemy's camp.
8. The Ovation Crown, or chaplet of myrtle, awarded to a General who had destroyed a despised enemy and thus obtained the honor of an ovation.
9. The Eastern or Radiated Crown, a golden circle set with projecting rays.

The crown of Darius, used in Red Cross knighthood and in the Sixteenth Degree, Scottish Rite, was one of seven points, the central front projection being more prominent than the other six in size and height.

CRUCEFIX, ROBERT T.

An English Freemason, distinguished for his services to the Craft. Robert Thomas Crucefix, M.D., I. D., was born in Holborn, England, in the year 1797, and received his education at Merchant Tailors' School. After leaving school, he became the pupil of Doctor Chamberlayne, a general and celebrated practitioner of his day, at Clerkenwell; he afterward became a student at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital and was a pupil of the celebrated Abernathy.

On receiving his diploma as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1810, he went out to India, where he remained but a short time; upon his return he settled in London, and he continued to reside there till the year 1845, when he removed to Milton-on-Thames, where he spent the rest of his life till within a few weeks before his decease, when he removed, for the benefit of his declining health, to Bath, where he expired February 25, 1850.

Doctor Crucefix was initiated into Freemasonry in 1829, and during the greater part of his life discharged the duties of important offices in the Grand Lodge of England, of which he was a Junior Grand Deacon in 1836, and in several subordinate Lodges, Chapters, and Encampments. He was an earnest promoter of all the Masonic charities of England, of one of which, the Asylum for Aged and Decrepit Freemasons, he was the founder. In 1834 he established the Freemasons Quarterly Review, and continued to edit it for six years, during which period he contributed many valuable articles to its pages.

Brother Mackey says that in 1840, through the machinations of his enemies, for he was too great a man not to have had some, he incurred the displeasure of the ruling powers; and on charges which, undoubtedly, were not sustained by sufficient evidence, he was suspended by the Grand Lodge for six months, and retired from active Masonic life. But he never lost the respect of the Craft, nor the affection of the leading Freemasons who were his contemporaries. On his restoration, he again began to labor in behalf of the Institution, and spent his last days in advancing its interests.

The belief of Brother Mackey was founded upon evidence that however satisfactory to him is not wholly in agreement with that given by Brother Hawkins, whose account in his Concise Cyclopedia of Freemasonry (page 60), is as follows:

Brother Crucefix set on foot a movement in favor of a charity for Aged Freemasons; he advocated the erection of an asylum, while others urged that a system of annuities was a preferable scheme. The matter was keenly discussed for several years, and at a meeting on November 13, 1839, at which Doctor Crucefix was presiding some intemperate language was employed, as to which a complaint was made to the Board of General Purposes, and Crucefix was suspended for six months for not having checked the speakers; his suspension was confirmed at a Grand Lodge in June, 1840, and he then wrote a vehement letter to the Grand Master and published it in the Freemasons' Quarterly Review with many improper editorial observations; the letter was laid before the Board of General Purposes, and he was summoned to show cause at a Special Grand Lodge why he should not be expelled from the Craft; accordingly, on October 30, he attended and made a very humble apology, which was accepted. Doctor Crucefix died in 1850, in which year also the Asylum and Annuity Funds for Aged Freemasons and their Widows were amalgamated.

To his character, his long-tried friend, the venerable Oliver, pays this tribute:

Doctor Crucefix did not pretend to infallibility, and , like all other public men he might be sometimes wrong ; but his errors were not from the heart, and always leaned to the side of virtue and beneficence. He toiled incessantly for the benefit of his Brethren, and was anxious that all inestimable blessings should be conveyed by Freemasonry on mankind. In sickness or in health he was ever found at his post, and his sympathy was the most active in behalf of the destitute brother, the widow, and the orphan. His perseverance never flagged for a moment; and he acted as though he had made up his mind to live and die in obedience to the calls of duty.

CRUCIFIX

A cross with the image of the Savior suspended on it. A part of the furniture of a Commandery of Knights Templar and of a Chapter of Princes of Rose Croix.

CRUDELI, DOCTOR

Master of the Lodge at Florence, Italy, victim of the Inquisition, arrested in 1739, in Florence, on the charge of having held a Masonic Lodge in his house in spite of the Roman Catholic edict against Freemasons. He was tortured ans sentenced to a long imprisonment. The Grand Lodge of England transmitted to him twenty pounds to provide the necessities of life, and exerted every effort toward securing his liberation, which they succeeded in doing in December of that year (see Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, Dudley Wright, London, 1922, page 27).

CRUSADES

There was between Freemasonry and the Crusades a much more intimate relation than has generally been supposed. In the first place, the communications frequently established by the Crusaders, and especially the Knights Templar, with the Saracens, led to the acquisition, by the former, of many of the dogmas of the secret societies of the East, such as the Essenes, the Assassins, and the Druses.

These were brought. by. the knights to Europe, and subsequently, as was believed by Brother Mackey, on the establishment by Ramsay and his contemporaries and immediate successors of Templar Freemasonry, were incorporated into the high degrees, and still exhibit their influence. Indeed, it is scarcely to be doubted that many of these degrees were invented with a special reference to the events which occurred in Syria and Palestine. Thus, for instance, the Scottish Degree of Knights of the East and West must have originally alluded, as its name imports, to the legend which teaches a division of the Freemasons after the Temple was finished, when the Craft dispersed, a part remaining in Palestine, as the Assideans, whom Lawrie, citing Scaliger, calls the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, and another part passing over into Europe, whence they returned on the breaking out of the Crusades.

This, of course, is but a legend, yet the influence is felt in the invention of the advanced Degrees rituals. But the influence of the Crusades on the Freemasons and the architecture of the Middle Ages is of a more historical character. In 1836, Westmacott, in a course of lectures on art before the Royal Academy, remarked that the two principal causes which materially tended to assist the restoration of literature and the arts in Europe were Freemasonry and the Crusades.

The adventurers, he said, who returned from the Holy Land brought back some ideas of various improvements, particularly in architecture, and, along with these, a strong desire to erect castellated, ecclesiastical and palatial edifices, to display the taste they had acquired; and in less than a century from the first crusade about six hundred buildings of the above description had been erected in Southern and Western Europe. This taste was spread into almost all countries by the establishment of the Fraternity of Freemasons, who, it appears, had, under some peculiar form of brotherhood, existed for an immemorial period in Syria and other parts of the East, from whence some bands of them migrated to Europe, and after a time a great efflux of these ingenious men-Italian, German, French, Spanish, etc.-had spread themselves in communities through all civilized Europe; and in all countries where they settled we find the same style of architecture from that period, but differing in some points of treatment, as suited the climate.

CRUX ANSATA

This signifies, in Latin, the cross with a handle. It is formed by a Tau cross surmounted by a circle or, more properly, an oval. It was one of the most significant of the symbols of the ancient Egyptians, and is depicted repeatedly on their monuments borne in the hands of their deities, and especially Phtha. Among them it was the symbol of life, and with that meaning it has been introduced into some of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonry.

The Crux Ansata, surrounded by a serpent in a circle, is the symbol of immortality, because the cross was the symbol of life, and the serpent of eternity.

CRYPT

From the Greek, Ke meaning to hide. A concealed place, or subterranean vault. The caves, or cells underground, in which the primitive Christians celebrated their secret worship, were called cryptae; and the vaults beneath our modern churches receive the name of crypts. The existence of crypts or vaults under the Temple of Solomon is testified to by the earliest as well as by the most recent topographers of Jerusalem. Their connection with the legendary history of Freemasonry is more fully noticed under the head of Vault, Secret.

CRYPTIC DEGREES

The degrees of Royal and Select Master. Some modern ritualists have added to the list the Degree of Super-excellent Master ; but this, although now often conferred in a Cryptic Council, is not really a Cryptic Degree, since its legend has no connection with the crypt or secret vault.

CRYPTIC FREEMASONRY

That division of the Masonic system which is directed to the investigation and cultivation of the Cryptic Degrees. It is, literally, the Freemasonry of the Secret Vault.

CTEIS

Greek, Ke". The female personification of the productive principle. It generally accompanied the phallus, as the Indian yoni did the lingam; and as a symbol of the prolific powers of nature, was extensively venerated by the nations of antiquity (see Phallic Worship).

CUBA

The Historia de la Masoneria Cubana by Ricards A. Byrne, quoted freely in Symbolisme, November, 1925, and translated by us for the Builder, April, 1926, page 115, indicated that an Irish military Lodge was working at Havana from 1762. The 1798 insurrection drove some French Brethren to Santiago de Cuba from Santo Domingo where Lodges existed since 1748. These immigrants erected Lodges, Perseverance and Concord, Friendship and Benevolent Concord, in 1802 and 1803. Next year the Lodge Le Temple des Virtus Theologales was instituted at Havana by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania but the Franco-Spanish War in 1809 forced the French to leave for Louisiana.

On March 27, 1818, a Grand Lodge was organized, and April 2, General Louis de Clonet, a Frenchman, founded at Havana a Grand Consistory, Princes of the Royal Secret. But Masonic progress was hindered in 1823 by the arrest and execution of many Brethren, victims of the bloody persecutions ordered by Ferdinand VII. Masonic meetings were forbidden and only allowed after many years, in 1859. Again the War of Independence exposed Freemasonry once more to the attacks of the authorities and it survived in secret to resume open freedom on March 26, 1899, through intervention by the United States. Lodges resumed labor, others were organized, and the Gran Logia de la Isla de Cuba, founded in 1859, of which Brother Byme has been Grand Master, thrived accordingly. There is also recorded by the Annual an Oriental Grand Lodge, dating from 1921, with headquarters at Santiago de Cuba but this is not mentioned in the data credited to Brother Byrne.

CUBICAL STONE

This symbol is called by the French Freemasons pierre cubique, and by the German, cubik stein. It is the Perfect Ashlar of the English and American systems (see Ashlar).

CUBIT

A measure of length, originally denoting the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, or the fourth part of a well-proportioned man's stature. The Hebrew cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland, was twenty-one inches ; but only eighteen according to other authorities. There were two kinds of cubits, the sacred and profane---the former equal to thirty-six, and the latter to eighteen inches. It is by the common cubit that the dimension of the various parts of the Temple are to be computed.

Hastings Dictionary of the Bible (page 967) declares that ''we have at present no means of ascertaining the exact dimensions of the Hebrews ordinary and royal cubits. The balance of evidence is certainly in favor of a fairly close approximation to the Egyptian system." This being the case, we may take the common cubit as 17.52 inches and the royal cubit as 20.67 inches as in the Egyptian system of measurements, these dimensions being taken from actual measuring rods. Hastings points out a curious result of the Rabbinical tradition being subjected to scientific experiment, the traditional dimension being that a cubit equaled so many grains of barley. This number, 144 of grains of barley of medium size were laid side by side carefully and measured as accurately as possible, the result being 17.77 inches long or equal in length substantially to the Egyptian common cubit.

Another suggestion that has been offered is that Josephus when giving Jewish measures, which differ from the Greek or Roman, is usually careful to explain that fact to his readers, but this he does not do in the case of the cubit, thus arousing a conviction that he regarded the Roman and the Hebrew as the same, the Roman Attic cubit being 17.57 inches according to Hastings. But it is well to remember that we are dealing with a period in which handbreadths and finger spans were probably the common units of length, and the decimal parts of inches and perhaps the inches themselves mentioned in the above comments need to be deemed mere approximations, an average sort of survey of a situation not likely to have had in the ancient times any close accuracy about it.

CULDEES

When Saint Augustine came over, about the beginning of the sixth century, to Britain, for the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity, he found the country already occupied by a Body of priests and their disciples, who were distinguished for the pure and simple apostolic religion which they professed. These were the Culdees, a name said by some to be derived from Cultores Dei, or worshipers of God ; but by others, with perhaps more plausibility, from the Gaelic, Cuildich, which means a secluded corner, and evidently alludes to their recluse mode of life. The Culdees are said to have come over into Britain with the Roman legions; and thus it has been conjectured that these primitive Christians were in some way connected with the Roman Colleges of Architects, blanches of which Body, it is well known, everywhere accompanied the legionary armies of the empire.

The chief seat of the Culdees was in the island of Iona, where Saint Culumba, coming out of Ireland, with twelve Brethren, in the year 563 A.D., established their principal monastery. At Avernethy, the capital of the kingdom of the Picts, they founded another in the year 600 A.D., and subsequently other principal seats at Dunkeld, St. Andrew's, Brechin, Dunblane, Dunfermline, Kirkaldy, Melrose, and many other places in Scotland.

A writer in the London Freemasons Quarterly Review (1842, page 36) says they were little solicitous to raise architectural structures, but sought chiefly to civilize and socialize mankind by imparting to them the knowledge of those pure principles which they taught in their Lodges. Lenning and Gädieke, however, both state that the Culdees had organized within themselves, and as a part of their social system, Corporations of Builders; and that they exercised the architectural art in the construction of many sacred edifices in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and even in other countries of Northern. Europe. Gädicke also claims that the York Constitutions of the tenth century were derived from them. But neither of these German lexicographers has furnished us With authorities upon which these statements are founded. It is, however, undeniable, that Masonic writers have always claimed that there was a connection---it might be only a mythical one---between these apostolic Christians and the early Freemasonry of Ireland and Scotland. The Culdees were opposed and persecuted by the adherents ofi Saint Augustine, and were eventually extinguished in Scotland. But their complete suppression did not take place until about the fourteenth century.

CUMBERLAND, HENRY F., DUKE OF

Grand Master of England, 1782-90, being initiated in 1767. He was only brother of King George III.

CUMULATION OF RITES

The practice by a Lodge of two or more Rites, as the American or York and the Ancient Accepted Scottish, or the Scottish and French Modern Rites. This accumulation of Rites has been practiced to a considerable extent in France, and in Louisiana in the United States. The word comes from the Latin comulus, a heap.

CUNNING

Used by old English writers in the sense of skillful. Thus, in First Kings (vii, 14), it is said of the architect who was sent by the King of Tyre to assist King Solomon in the construction of his Temple, that he was "cunning to work all works in brass.''

CUP OF BITTERNESS

The French expression is Calice d'Amertume. A ceremony in the First Degree of the French Rite. It is a symbol of the misfortunes and sorrows that assail us in the voyage of life, and which we are taught to support with calmness and resignation.

CURETES

Priests of ancient Crete, whose mysteries were celebrated in honor of the Mother of the Gods, and bore, therefore, some resemblance to the Eleusinian Rites. The neophyte was initiated in a cave, where he remained closely confined for thrice nine days. Porphyry tells us that Pythagoras repaired to Crete to receive initiation into their rites.

CURIOSITY

It is a very general opinion among Freemasons that a candidate should not be actuated by curiosity in seeking admission into the Order. But, in fact, there is no regulation nor landmark on the subject, An idle curiosity is, it is true, the characteristic of a weak mind. But to be influenced by a laudable curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of an Institution venerable for its antiquity and its universality, is to be controlled by a motive which is not reprehensible, an impulse to be esteemed and welcomed. There are, indeed, in legends of the advanced degrees, some instances where curiosity is condemned; but the curiosity, in these instances, led to an intrusion into forbidden places, and is very different from the curiosity or desire for knowledge which leads a profane to seek fairly and openly an acquaintance with mysteries which he has already learned to respect.

CURIOUS

The Latin word is curious, from cura, meaning care. An archaic expression for careful. Thus in Masonic language, which abounds in archaisms, an evidence, indeed, of its antiquity, Hiram Abif is described as a curious and cunning workman, that is to say, careful and skillful.

CUSTOMS, ANCIENT

See Usages

CYNOCEPHALUS

The figure of a man with the head of a dog. A very general and important hieroglyphic among the ancient Egyptians. It was with them a symbol of the sun and moon; and in their mysteries they taught that it had indicated to Isis the place where the Body of Osiris lay concealed. The possessor of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonry will be familiar with the symbol of a dog, which is used in those Degrees because that animal is said to have pointed out on a certain occasion an important secret.

Hence the figure of a dog is sometimes found engraved among the symbols on old Masonic diplomas.

CYRUS

Cyrus, King of Persia, was a great conqueror, and after having reduced nearly all Asia, he crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Babylon, which he took by diverting the course of the river which ran through it. The Jews, who had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar on the destruction of the Temple, were then remaining as captives in Babylon. These Cyrus released 3466 AM., or 538 B.C., and sent back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God, under the care of Joshua, Zerubbabel, and Haggai.

Hence, from this connection of Cyrus with the history of Freemasonry, he plays an important part in the rituals of many of the advanced Degrees. But from late discoveries of inscriptions pertaining to Cyrus as mentioned in the excellent little London work called Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments (pages 166-86), A. H. Sayce, M.A., it would appear that this king was a polytheist, and that he was not a king of Persia, although he acquired that country after his Conquest of Asiyages, 559 B.C., between the sixth and ninth years of Nabonidos. Cyrus was king of Elam. The empire he founded was not a Persian one; Darius, the son of Hystaspes, at a subsequent period, was the real founder of that kingdom. Professor Sayce continues: ''It was only as the predecessor of Darius, and for the sake of intelligibility. to the readers of a later day, that Cyrus could be called a king of Persia" (see Ezra1, 2).

The original words of his proclamation ''King of Elam,'' have been changed into the more familiar and intelligible "King of Persia." Elsewhere in the Bible (Isaiah xxi, 1-10), when the invasion of Babylon is described, there is no mention of Persia, only of Elam and Media, the ancestral dominions of Cyrus. This is in strict accordance with the revelations of the monuments, and testifies to the accuracy of the Old Testament records.

Cyrus Dever besieged Babylon, a city fifteen miles square. It opened its gates to his general without battle, 538 B.C. The description by Herodotus belongs to the reign of Darius. Bosanquet asserts that the Darius of the Book of Daniel is Darius the son of Hystaspes.

Cyrus had learned that a disaffected conquer people imported into a kingdom was a constantly menace and danger, and he returned the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and be a fortress and check upon Egypt. The nations which had been brought from East and West were restored to their lands along with their gods. So it was with the captives of Judah. His dominions extended from the Hellespont almost to India. Cyrus was a worshiper of Merodach, originally the Sun-god, who is mentioned and intended by the name Bel, and Nebo, his prophet (see Isaiah xlvi, 1). His first act after acquiring Babylonia was to restore the Babylonian gods to their shrines, from which they has been removed by Nabonidos, and further asks for their intercession. The theory that Cyrus believed in but one supreme god---Ormudz-must be abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be His instrument in restoring His chosen people to their land, not because the King of Elam was a monotheist, but because the period of prophecy, "ten weeks of years,'' was closing. These statements are made upon the authority of the three inscriptions among the clay documents lately discovered in Babylonia by Rassam, and translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Pinches. The first of these is a cylinder, inscribed by order of Cyrus ; the second a tablet, which describes the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus; while the third is an account given by Nabonidos of his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Haran, and of the temples of the sun-god and of Anunit at Sepharvaim.

Cyrus ascended the throne 559 B.C., and was slain in battle against the Massagetae, 529 B.C. He was followed by Cambyses, his son, until 521 B.C., when he was succeeded by Smerdis, a Magian usurper, who reigned sev CZECHO-SLOVAKIA. en months. Darius I, son of Hystaspes, a nobleman, conspired with six others and murdered Smerdis, when, by device, Darius obtained the throne over his companions, 521 B.C. The celebrated siege of Babylon lasted two years; the city finally succumbed to the strategy of General Zopyrus, in the year 516.

Darius reigned 36 years, died 485 B.C. This article is mainly due to the industrious researches of Brother Charles T. McClenachan to whom the subject made an especial appeal (see also Zendavesta).

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