ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FREEMASONRY
AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.




ELEVEN

In the Prestonian lectures, eleven was a mystical number, and was the final series of steps in the winding stairs of the Fellow Craft, which were said to consist of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. The eleven was referred to the eleven apostles after the defection of Judas, and to the eleven sons of Jacob after Joseph went into Egypt. But when the lectures were revived by Henning, the eleven was struck out. In Templar Freemasonry, however, eleven is still significant as being the constitutional number required to open a Commandery; and here it is evidently allusive of the eleven true disciples.


ELIGIBILITY FOR INITIATION

See Qualifications of Candidates


ELIHOREPH

One of Solomon's secretaries (see Ahiah)


ELIOT, JOHN

Born August 5, 1604, at Widford, near London, England. Some biographies give the place of his birth as Nazing, a few miles from Widford, but John Eliot was eight years of age when his father moved to Nazing. The date of his emigration to New England is not known but it is probable that he arrived in Boston on the ship Lyon, November 12, 1631, and by 1654 he had published a little catechism, supposed to be the first book printed in the Indian language, as well as an Indian grammar, which is now in the Harvard College Library.

Eliot completed his famous Indian Bible in 1663; he had brought out the Book of Genesis in 1655, some of the Psalrns in 1658, and the New Testament in 1661. The entire work on the Bible had to be worked out by him without the assistance of previous knowledge or record and, as stated by Edward Everett, "The history of the Christian Church does not contain an example of untiring successful labor superior to that of translating the entire Scriptures into the language of the native inhabitants of Massachusetts, a dialect as imperfect, as unformed, as unmanageable, as any spoken on earth." He endured great physical hardship in his missionary work, but great was his zeal. In 1645 he established the Roxbury Latin School and inl689 founded the Eliot School. There is no doubt but that his work among the Indians was largely instrumental in frustrating the plans of the Indian leader, King Philip, when he started out with the New York Nations to exterminate the entire Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies. The first Indian Church was founded by Eliot in the year 1660 at Natick, Massachusetts. After almost sixty years labor, during which entire time he was pastor of the church at Roxbury, near Boston, Massachusetts, he died on May 1, 1690, his remains being placed in the Ministers' Tomb in the First Burying Ground.

Masonic records during that early period of American colonization were very few and those in existence are fragmentary in the information set down. The only reference to John Eliot which has come down to us is one of the earliest we have in America containing suggestions of a Masonic type. A Minute in the Plymouth Colony Records mentions the receipt of a package of goods sent from Coopers' Hall, London, in March 1654, and received by the Colony of New Haven. This parcel was marked in a peculiar manner which identified it from among the other packages contained in the consignment and which marks seem to be intended to represent the square and compasses.

The same marks were attached to a letter of instruction which reads as follows: "Among the goods sent this year we find one, Bale, No. 19, which cost there thirty-four pounds, nine shillings, five pence, and with the advance amounts to forty-five pounds, nineteen shillings, three pence, directed to Mr. Eliote for the use of the Indian work, but why it is severed from the Rest of the psell and consigned to him is not expressed; It seems different from the course yourselves approved, and may prove inconvenient if it be continued; but this psell shall bee delivered according to your desire.... Newhaven, the 15th September, 1655." It is not unreasonable to suppose that both the sender and recipient of this parcel were familiar with the peculiar significance of the emblems marked upon the package, although nothing more definite can be said on this point (see pages 1319-20, Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry).


ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND

Anderson (Constitutions, 1738, page 80) states that the following circumstance is recorded of this sovereign: Hearing that the Freemasons were in possession of secrets which they would not reveal, and being jealous of all secret assemblies, she sent an armed force to York with intent to break up their annual Grand Lodge.

This design, however, was happily frustrated by the interposition of Sir Thomas Sackville, who took care to initiate some of the chief officers whom she had sent on this duty. They joined in communication with the Freemasons, and made so favorable a report to the queen on their return that she countermanded her orders, and never afterward attempted to disturb the meetings of the Fraternity. What authority, if any, Anderson had for the story is unknown.


ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL

In May, 1792, this queen, having conceived a suspicion of the Lodges in Madeira, gave an order to the governor to arrest all the Freemasons in the island, and deliver them over to the Inquisition. The rigorous execution of this order occasioned an emigration of many families, ten of whom repaired to New York, and were liberally assisted by the Freemasons of that city.


ELMES, JAMES

English architect. Wrote life of Sir Christopher Wren (1823).


ELOHIM

Hebrew, off. A name, pronounced El-o-heem', and applied in Hebrew to any deity, but sometimes also to the true God. According to Lanci, it means the most beware. It is not, however, much used in Freemasonry.

It is an expression used throughout the first chapter of Genesis, as applied to God in the exercise of His creative power, and signifies the Divine Omnipotence, the Source of all power, the Power of ad powers, which was in activity at the Creation. After which the expression used for Deity is Jehovah, which implies the Providence of God, and which could not have been created by Elohim.


ELOQUENCE OF FREEMASONRY

Lawyers boast of the eloquence of the bar, and point to the arguments of counsel in well-known cases; the clergy have the eloquence of the pulpit exhibited in sermons, many of which have a world-wide reputation; and statesmen vaunt of the eloquence of Congress some of the speeches, however, being indebted, it is said, for their power and beauty, to the talent of the stenographic reporter rather than to the member who is supposed to be the author. Freemasonry, too, has its eloquence, which is sometimes, although not always, of a very high order. This eloquence is to be found in the address, orations, and discourses which have usually been delivered on the great festivals of the Order, at consecrations of Lodges, dedications of halls, and the laying of foundation-stones. These addresses constitute, in fact, the principal part of the early literature of Freemasonry (see Addresses, Masonic).


ELU

The Fourth Degree of the French Rite (see Flus)


ELUL

The sixth month of the ecclesiastical and the twelfth of the civil year of the Jews. The twelfth also, therefore, of the Masonic calendar used in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It begins on the new moon of August or September, and consists of twenty-nine days.


ELUS

The French word elu means elected; and the Degrees, whose object is to detail the detection and punishment of the actors in the crime traditionally related among the Craft, are called Elus, or the Degrees of the Elected, because they referred to those of the Craft who were chosen or elected to make the discovery, and to inflict the punishment.

They form a particular system of Freemasonry, and are to be found in every Rite, if not in all in name, at least in principle. In the York and American Rites, the Elu is incorporated in the Master's Degree; in the French Rite it constitutes an independent Degree; and in the Scottish Rite it consists of three Degrees, the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh.

Ragon counts the five preceding Degrees among the Elus, but they more properly belong to the Order of Masters. The symbolism of these Elu Degrees has been greatly mistaken and perverted by anti-Masonic writers, who have thus attributed to Freemasonry a spirit of vengeance which is not its characteristic. They must be looked upon as conveying only a symbolic meaning.

Those higher Degrees, in which the object of the election is changed and connected with Templarism, are more properly called Kadoshes. Thory says that all the Elus are derived from the Degree of Kadosh, which preceded them. The reverse, we think, is the truth. The Elu system sprang naturally from the Master's Degree, and was only applied to Templarism when DeMolay was substituted for Hiram the Builder.


EMANATION

Literally, the word means a flowing forth. The doctrine of emanations was a theory predominant in many of the Oriental religions, such, especially, as Brahmanism and Parseeism, and subsequently adopted by the Cabalists and the Gnostics, and taught by Philo and Plato. It assumed that all things emanated, flowed forth, which is the literal meaning of the word, or were developed and descended by degrees from the Supreme Being.

Thus, in the ancient religion of India, the anima mundi, or soul of the word, the mysterious source of all life, was identified with Brahma, the Supreme God.

The doctrine of Gnosticism was that all things emanated from the Deity; that there was a progressive degeneration of these beings from the highest to the lowest emanation, and a final redemption and return of all to the purity of the Creator. Philo taught that the Supreme Being was the Primitive Light or the Archetype of Light, whose rays illuminate, as from a common source, all souls. The theory of emanations is interesting to the Freemason, because of the reference in many of the advanced Degrees to the doctrines of Philo, the Gnostics, and the Cabalists.


EMANUEL

A sacred word in some of the advanced Degrees, being one of the names applied in Scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a Greek form from the Hebrew, Immanuel, xxxxx, and signifies God is with us.


EMBASSY

The Embassy of Zerrubbabel and four other Jewish chiefs to the court of Darius, to obtain the protection of that monarch from the encroachments of the Samaritans, who interrupted a the labors in the reconstruction of the Temple, constitutes the legend of the Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and also of the Red Cross Degree of the American Rite, which seems borrowed from the former. The history of this Embassy is found in the eleventh book of the Antiquities of Josephus, whence the Masonic ritualists have undoubtedly taken it. The only authority of Josephus is the apocryphal record of Esdras, and the authenticity of the whole transaction is doubted or denied by modern historians.


EMBLEM

The emblem is an occult representation of something unknown or concealed by a sign or thing that is known. Thus, a square is in Freemasonry an emblem of morality; a plumb line, of rectitude of conduct; and a level, of equality of human conditions.

Emblem is very generally used as synonymous with symbol, although the two words do not express exactly the same meaning. An emblem is properly a representation of an idea by a visible object, as in the examples quoted above; but a symbol is more extensive in its application, includes every representation of an idea by an image, whether that image is presented immediately to the senses as a visible and tangible substance, or only brought before the mind by words.

Hence an action or event as described, a myth or legend, may be a symbol; and hence, too, it follows that while all emblems are symbols, all symbols are not emblems (see Symbol).


EMERALD

In Hebrew, caphak. This or the carbuncle was the first stone in the first row of the high priest's breastplate, and was referred to Levi. Adam Clarke says it is the same stone as the smaragdus, and is of a bright green color. Josephus, the Septuagint, and the Jerusalem Targum understood by the Hebrew word the carbuncle, which is red. The modern emerald, as everybody knows, is green (see Breast plate) .


EMERGENCY

The general law of Freemasonry requires a month to elapse between the time of receiving a petition for initiation and that of balloting for the candidate, and also that there shall be an interval of one month between the reception of each of the Degrees of Craft Freemasonry. Cases sometimes occur when a Lodge desires this probationary period to be dispensed with, so that the candidates petition may be received and balloted for at the same Communication, or so that the Degrees may be conferred at much shorter intervals. As some reason must be assigned for the application to the Grand Master for the Dispensation, such reason is generally stated to be that the candidate is about to go on a long journey, or some other equally valid. Cases of this kind are called, in the technical language of Freemasonry, Cases of Emergency. It is evident that the emergency is made for the sake of the candidate, and not for. that of the Lodge or of Freemasonry.

The too frequent occurrence of applications for Dispensations in cases of emergency have been a fruitful source of evil, as thereby unworthy persons, escaping the ordeal of an investigation into character. have been introduced into the Order; and even where the candidates have been worthy, the rapid passing through the Degrees prevents a due impression from being made on the mind, and the candidate fails to justly appreciate the beauties and merits of the Masonic system.

Hence, these cases of emergency have been very unpopular with the most distinguished members of the Fraternity. In the olden time the Master and the Wardens of the Lodge were vested with the prerogative of deciding what was a case of emergency; but modern law and usage, in the United States, at least, make the Grand Master the sole judge of what constitutes a case of emergency. Under the English Constitution (see Rule 185) the emergency must be real in the opinion of the Master of the Lodge concerned.


EMERGENT LODGE

A Lodge held at an emergent meeting


EMERGENT MEETING

The meeting of a Lodge called to elect a candidate, and confer the Degrees in a case of emergency, or for any other sudden and unexpected cause, has been called an Emergent Meetings The term is not very common, but it has been used by Brother W. S. Mitchell and a few other writers.


EMERITUS

Latin; plural, emeriti. The Romans applied this word which comes from the verb emerete, meaning to gain by service to a soldier who had served out his time; hence, in the Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, an active member, who resigns his seat by reason of age, infirmity, or for other cause deemed good by the Council, may be elected an Emeritus Member, and will possess the privilege of proposing measures and being heard in debate, but not of voting.


EMETH

Hebrew, not One of the words in the advanced Degrees. It signifies integrity, fidelity, firmness, and constancy in keeping a promise, and especially truth, as opposed to falsehood. In the Scottish Rite, the Sublime Knights Elect of Twelve of the Eleventh Degree are called Princes Emeth, which plainly means men of exalted character who are devoted to truth.


EMINENT

The title given to the Commander or presiding officer of a Commandery of Knights Templar, and to all officers below the Grand Commander in a Grand Commandery.

The Grand Commander is styled Right Eminent, and the Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, Most Eminent. The word is from the Latin eminens, meaning standing above, and literally signifies exalted in rank.

Hence, it is a title given to the cardinals in the Roman Church.


EMOUNAH

Fidelity, Truth. The name of the Fourth Step of the mystic ladder of the Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.


EMPEROR OF LEBANON

The French is Empereur du Liban. This Degree, says Thory (Acta Latomorum i, 311), which was a part of the collection of M. Le Rouge, was composed in the isle of Bourbon, in 1778, by the Marquis de Beurnonville, who was then National Grand Master of all the Lodges in India.


EMPERORS OF THE EAST AND WEST

In 1758 there was established in Paris a Chapter called the Council of Emperors of the East and West. The members assumed the titles of Sovereign Prince Masons Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Superintendents and OMJiDcers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodye of Saint John of Jerusalem. Their ritual, which was based on the Templar system, consisted of twenty-five Degrees, as follows:

1 to 19, the same as the Scottish Rite;
20, Grand Patriarch Noachite;
21, Key of Masonry;
22, Prince of Lebanon;
23, Knight of the Sun;
24, Kadosh;
25, Prince of the Royal Secret.

It granted Warrants for Lodges of the advanced Degrees, appointed Grand Inspectors and Deputies, and established several subordinate Bodies in the interior of France, among which was a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret, at Bordeaux. In 1763, one Princemaille, the Master of the Lodge La Candeur, meaning in French Frankness, at Metz, began to publish an exposition of these Degrees in the serial numbers of a work entitled Conversations Allégoriques sur la Franche-Maçonnerie, or Allegorical Conversation on Freemasonry. In 1764, the Grand Lodge of France offered him three hundred livres to suppress the book. Pincemaille accepted the bribe, but continued the publication, which lasted until 1766. The year of their establishment in France, in 1758, as reported bv Doctor Mackey, the Degrees of this Rite of Heredom, or of Perfection, as it was called, were carried bv Marquis de Bernez to Berlin, and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes.

Between the years 1760 and 1765, there was much dissension in the Rite. A new Council, called the Knights of the East, was established at Paris, in 1760, as the rival of the Emperors of the East and West. The controversies of these two Bodies were carried into the Grand Lodge, which, in 1766, was compelled, for the sake of peace, to issue a decree of opposition to the advanced Degrees, excluding the malcontents, and forbidding the symbolical Lodges to recognize the authority of these Chapters. But the excluded Freemasons continued to work clandestinely and to grant Warrants.

From that time until its dissolution, the history of the Council of the Emperors of the East and \Nest is but a history of continued disputes with the Grand Lodge of France. At length, in 1781, it was completely absorbed in the Grand Orient, and has no longer an existence.

The assertion of Thory (Acta Latomorum), and of Ragon (Orthodozie Maçonnique), that the Council of the Emperors of the East and West was the origin of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, although it has been denied, does not seem destitute of truth. It is very certain, if the documentary evidence is authentic, that the Constitutions of 1672 were framed by this Council; and it is equally certain that under these Constitutions a patent was granted to Stephen Morin, through whom the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was established in America.


EMULATION LODGE OF IMPROVEMENT

At the time of the Union of the English Lodges in 1813, a Lodge of Reconciliation was constituted with an equal number of chosen workers from each Constitution for the purpose of arranging a uniformity in the Making, Passing, and Raising of Freemasons in all of England. After this was done, the ritual and ceremonies established, the Lodge was dissolved in 1816, having received the authority and sanction of the United Grand Lodge. For making these known to the Craft generally a system of Lodges of Instruction was set up and Past Masters who were qualified went from Lodge to Lodge as teachers or Preceptors as they were later called. The most eminent and earliest of these was Peter Gilkes (which see). As a continuation of the work of the Lodge of Reconciliation the Emulation Lodge of Improvement for Master Freemasons was formed for instruction in 1823 with government entrusted to a Committee of Lecturers. The Committee is elected annually by the working members of the Lodge, the senior member acting as leader. About 1830 the Lectures began to give place to rehearsal of ceremonies. Minute Books prior to 1859 were destroyed by fire.

Therefore such records as are available are from pages of the Freemasons Quarterly Review, the Public Ledger and the Minutes of various Lodges with which Peter Gilkes was associated. The celebration of the Centenary of this School of Masonic ritualism was held in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street, London, on March 2, 1993, presided over by the Pro Grand Master, the Right Honorable Lord Ampthill. No English Lodge is compelled to conform to Emulation working and there are Lodges working independently, but for over a hundred years the ritual and ceremonies as taught by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement have been the standard recognized method. We are indebted to Brother George Rankin, Senior Member of Committee of Lecturers, London, for the above details (see also Illustrated history of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, Henry Sadler, London, 1904).


EMUNAH

A Hebrew word, pronounced em-oo-naw. Sometimes spelled Amunah, but not in accordance with the Masonic points. A significant word in the advanced Degrees signifying Alelity, especially in fulfilling one's promises.


ENCAMPMENT

All the regular assemblies of Knights Templar were formerly called Encampments. They are now styled Commanderies in America, and Grand Encampments of the States are called Grand Commanderies. In other countries they are now known as Preceptories (see Commandery and Commandery, Grand).


ENCAMPMENT, GENERAL GRAND

The old title, before the adoption of the Constitution in 1856, of the Grand Encampment of the United States.


ENCAMPMENT, GRAND

The Grand Encampment of the United States was instituted on June 22, 1816, in the city of New York. It consists of a Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and other Grand Officers who are` similar to those of a Grand Commandery, with Past Grand Officers and the representatives of the various Grand Commanderies, and of the subordinate Commanderies deriving their Warrants immediately from it. It exercises jurisdiction over all the Templars of the United States, and meets triennially.

The term Encampment is borrowed from military usage, and is very properly applied to the temporary congregation at stated periods of the army of Templars, who may be said to be, for the time being, in camp.


ENCYCLICAL

Circular communication; sent to many places or persons. Encyclical letters, containing information, advice, or admonition, are sometimes issued by Grand Lodges or Grand Masters to the Lodges and Freemasons of a jurisdiction. The word is not in very common use; but in 1848 the Grand Lodge of South Carolina issued "an enevelieal letter of advice, of admonition, and of direction" to the subordinate Lodges under her jurisdiction; and a similar letter was issued in 1865 by the Grand Master of Iowa.


ENDLESS SERPENT

The serpent with its tail in its mouth was an ancient emblem of eternity and chosen therefore as a pattern for the English centenary jewel.


EN FAMILLE

French, meaning as a family. In French Lodges, during the reading of the Minutes, and sometimes when the Lodge is engaged in the discussion of delicate matters affecting only itself, the Lodge is said to meet en Camille, at which time visitors are not admitted.


ENGBUND

Close union. The German Brethren organized in 1797 to restrict the esoteric teaching to the three Symbolic Degrees, eliminating higher grades and returning to the purest and simplest forms. Brothers Mossdorf, Fessler, Schroder, Schneider, Krause, and Bode were interested in the movement. At one time the society was also called Vertrauten Bruder, or Trusty Brethren. See Schroeder, Diedrich Ludwig.


ENGLAND

The following is a brief review of she history of Freemasonry in England as it has hitherto been written, and is now generally received by the Fraternity. It is but right, however, to say that recent researches have thrown doubts on the authenticity of many of the statements—that the legend of Prince Edwin has been doubted; the establishment of Grand Lodge at York in the beginning of the eighteenth century denied; and the existence of anything but Operative Masonry before 1717 is controverted. These questions are still in dispute; but the labors of Masonic antiquaries, through which many old records and ancient constitutions are being continually exhumed from the British Museum and from Lodge libraries, will eventually enable us to settle upon the truth. According to Anderson and Preston, the first Charter granted in England to the Freemasons, as a Body, was bestowed by King Athelstan, in 926, upon the application of his brother, Prince Edwin. "Accordingly," says Anderson, quoting from the Old Constitutions (see the Constitutions of 1738, page 64), "Prince Edwin summoned all the Free and Accepted Masons in the Realm, to meet him in a Congregation at York, who came and formed the Grand Lodge under him as their Grand Master, 926 A.D.

"They brought with them many old Writings and Records of the Craft, some in Greek, some in Latin, some in French, and other Languages; and from the Contents thereof, they framed the Constitutions of the English Lodges, and made a Law for Themselves, to preserve and observe the same in all Time coming, Ac, &c, &c."

From this assembly at York, the rise of Freemasonry in England is generally dated; from the statutes there enacted are derived the English Masonic Constitutions; and from the place of meeting, the ritual of the English Lodges is designated as the Ancient York Rite. For a long time the York Assembly exercised the Masonic jurisdiction over all England; but in 1567 the Freemasons of the southern part of the island elected Sir Thomas Gresham, the celebrated merchant, their Grand Master, according to Anderson (see Constitutions, 1738, page 81). He was succeeded by the Earl of Effingham, the Earl of Huntington, and by the illustrious architect, Inigo Jones.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Freemasonry in the south of England had fallen into decay. The disturbances of the revolution, which placed William III on the throne, and the subsequent warmth of political feelings which agitated the two parties of the state, had given this peaceful society a wound fatal to its success. But in 1716 "the few Lodges at London finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, thought fit to cement under a Grand Master as the Center of Union and Harmony," and so four of the London Lodges "met at the AppleTree Tavern; and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason, now the Master of a Lodge, they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge, pro tempore, Latin for the time being, in due form, and forthwith revived the quarterly communication of the officers of Lodges, called the Grand Lodge, resolved to hold the annual assembly and feast, and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves, till they should have the honor of a noble brother at their head" (according to Anderson, Constitutions, 1738, page 109).

Accordingly, on John the Baptist's Day, 1717, the annual assembly and feast were held, and Brother Anthony Sayer duly proposed and elected Grand Master. The Grand Lodge adopted, among its regulations, the following: "That the privileges of assembling as Masons, which had hitherto been unlimited, should be vested in certain Lodges or assemblies of Masons convened in certain places; and that every Lodge to be hereafter convened, except the four old Lodges at this time existing, should be legally authorized to act by a warrant from the Grand Master for the time being, granted to certain individuals by petition, with the consent and approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication; and that, without such warrant no Lodge should be hereafter deemed regular or constitutional.

In compliment, however, to the four old Lodges, the privileges which they had always possessed under the old organization were particularly reserved to them; and it was enacted that "no law, rule, or regulation, to be hereafter made or passed in Grand` Lodge, should deprive them of such privilege, or encroach on any landmark which was at that time established as the standard of Masonic government" (as recorded by Preston, Illustrations, edition of 1792, pages 248 and 249).
The Grand Lodges of York and of London kept up a friendly intercourse, and mutual interchange of recognition, until the latter Body, in 1725, granted a Warrant of constitution to some Freemasons who had seceded from the former. This un-Masonic act was severely reprobated by the York Grand Lodge, and produced the first interruption to the harmony that had long subsisted between them. It was, however, followed some years after by another unjustifiable act of interference. In 1735, the Earl of Crawford, Grand Master of England, constituted two Lodges within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of York, and granted, without its consent, Deputations for Lancaster, Durham, and Northumberland. "This circumstance," says Preston (Illustrationa; edition of 1792, page 279), "the Grand Lodge at York highly resented, and ever afterward viewed the proceedings of the Brethren in the south with a jealous eye. All friendly intercourse ceased, and the York Masons, from that moment, considered their interests distinct from the Masons under the Grand Lodge in London."

Three years after, in 1738, several Brethren, dissatisfied with the conduct of the Grand Lodge of England, seceded from it, and held unauthorized meetings for the purpose of initiation. Taking advantage of the breach between the Grand Lodges of York and London. they assumed the character of York Freemasons. On the Grand Lodge's determination to put strictly in execution the laws against such seceders, they still further separated from its jurisdiction, and assumed the appellation of Ancient York Masons. They announced that the ancient landmarks were alone preserved by them; and, declaring that the regular Lodges had adopted new plans, and sanctioned innovations, they branded them with the name of Modern Masons. In 1739, they established a new Grand Lodge in London, under the name of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York: Masons, and, persevering in the measures they had adopted, held communications and appointed annual feasts. They were soon afterward recognized by the Freemasons of Scotland and Ireland, and were encouraged and fostered by many of the nobility. The two Grand Lodges continued to exist, and to act in opposition to each other, extending their schisms into other countries, especially into America, until the year 1813, when, under the Grand Mastership of the Duke of Sussex, they were united under the title of the United Grand Lodge of England. Such is the history of Freemasonry in England as uninterruptedly believed by all Freemasons and Masonic writers for nearly a century and a half.

Recent researches have thrown great doubts on its entire accuracy. Until the year 1717, the details are either traditional, or supported only by manuscripts whose authenticity has not yet been satisfactorily proved. Much of the history is uncertain; some of it, especially as referring to York, is deemed apocryphal by Brother Hughan and other industrious writers, and Brother Henry Sadler in his Masonic Facts and Fictions has proved that the Ancients were not really a schismatic body of seceders from the Premier Grand Lodge of England, but were Irish Freemasons settled in London, who, in 1751, established a body which they called the Grand Lodge of England according to the 011 Institutions, maintaining that they alone preserved the ancient tenets and practices of Freemasonry (see Ancient Masons).


ENGLAND, GRAND LODGES IN

During one period of the eighteenth century there existed four Grand Lodges in England:

1. The Grand Lodge of England, located at London.
2. The Grand Lodge of all England, located at York.
3. The Grand Lodge of England according to the Old Institutions.
4. The Grand Lodge of England south of the river Trent.

The last two organizations had their Grand east at London

Here we may appropriately insert the significant information (see the Constitution of 1738, page 109):

And after the Rebellion was over, A.D. 1716, the few lodges at London, finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, thought fit to cement under a Grand Master, as the Center of Union and Harmony, viz., the Lodges that met
At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Pauls Churchyards
At the Crown Ale-house in Parkers Lane near Drury Lane.
At the Apple Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
At the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel Rosy, Westminster.

They and some old Brothers met at the said Apple Tree, and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge), they constituted a Grand Lodge pro tempore in due form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of Lodges (called the Grand Lodge), resolved to hold the annual Assembly and Feast and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves till they should have the Honor of a noble Brother at their Head.

Accordingly on St. John Baptist day, in the 3rd year of King George the 1st, A.D., 1717, The Assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the for said Goose and Gridiron Alehouse.

The Four Old Lodges is also the title of a book by Brother Robert F. Gould, London, 1879, treating of the Bodies founding modern Freemasonry, and of their descendants, the progress of the Craft in England and of the career of every regular Lodge down to the Union of 1813.

The first Grand Lodge was formed in 1717. The second Grand Lodge bears date 1725, and emanated from the immemorial Masonic Lodge that gave such reverence to the city of York. The third was established in 1751 by some Irish Freemasons settled in London (see Ancient Masons). And the fourth, whose existence lasted from 1779 to 1789, was instituted by the York Grand Lodge in compliance with the request of members of the Lodge of Antiquity, of London; but its existence was ephemeral, in consequence of the removal of the disturbing cause with the regular Grand Lodge. Recently evidence has been found pointing to the existence in London from 1770 to 1775 of a fifth Grand Lodge, formed by Scotch Freemasons, with some four or five Lodges under its control (see ATS Quatuor Coronatorum xviii, pages 69 to 90).

All subordinate Lodges existing at present, which had their being prior to the Union, in December, 1813, were subjects of either the first or third of the above designated four Grand Lodges, and known respectively as the Moderns or the Ancient, these titles, however, having no recognized force as to the relative antiquity of either.


ENGLAND, THE FIRST RECORD OF GRAND LODGE OF

Brother R. F. Gould (History of Freemasonry ii, page 373) furnishes the valuable information that the Minutes of Grand Lodge commence 24th June, 1723, and those bearing such date are signed by "John Theophilus Desaguliers, Deputy Grand Master." They are entered in a different handwriting, under date of 25th November, 1723, 19th February, 1723/4, 28th "April 1724," and are not signed at foot. On 24th June, 1724, the Earl of Dalkeith presided in Grand Lodge, and the following signatures are appended to the recorded Minutes thus:

Dalkeith, G. M., 1724.
J. T Desaguliers,
G. M. Fra Sorrell, Senr., G. W.
John Senex, Junr.

The Minutes of 21st November, 1724, 17th March, 20th May, 24th June, and 27th November, 1725, are unsigned. But to those of 27th December, 1725, are appended the signatures of

Richmond & Lenox, G. M., 1725,
M. ffolkes, D. G. M., and
two Grand Wardens.

Signatures are again wanting to the proceedings of 28th February and 12th December, 1726, but reappear under date of 27th February 1726," or 1727, namely:

Paisley, G. Mr., 1726, and the next three succeeding officers.

The Minutes of the following 10th May, 1727, were signed by "Inchiquin, G. M., 1727," and the three officers next in rank.

The earliest Minutes were not signed on confirmation at the next meeting but were verified by the four Grand Officers, or such of them as took part in the proceedings recorded. In consequence of the re-selection of Doctor Desaguliers as Deputy Grand Master, the Minutes say that "the late Grand Master went away from the Hall without any ceremony."


ENGLET

A corruption of Euclid, found in the Old Constitutions known as the Matthew Cooke,"wherefore ye forsayde maister Englet ordeynet thei were passing of conying schold be passing honored" (see lines 674 to 677). Perhaps the copyist mistook a badly made old English u for an n, and the original had Euglet, which would be a nearer approximation to Euclid.


ENGRAVE

In French Lodges, buriner, meaning to engrave, is used instead of écrire, to write. The engraved tablets are the written records.


ENLIGHTENED

This word, equivalent to the Latin illuminatus, is frequently used to designate a Freemason as one who has been rescued from darkness, and received intellectual light. Webster's definition shows its appositeness: "Illuminated; instructed; informed; furnished with clear views." Many old Latin Diplomas commence with the heading, Omnibus illuminatis, meaning that it is addressed to ad the enlightened.


ENLIGHTENMENT, SHOCK OF

See Shock of Enlightenment


ENOCH

Though the Scriptures furnish but a meager account of Enoch, the traditions of Freemasonry closely connect him, by numerous circumstances, with the early history of the Institution. All, indeed, that we learn from the Book of Genesis on the subject of his life is, that he was the seventh of the patriarchs; the son of Jared, and the great-grandfather of Noah; that he was born in the year of the world 622; that his life was one of eminent virtue, so much so, that he is described as "walking with God"; and that in the year 987 his earthly pilgrimage was terminated, as the commentators generally suppose, not by death, but by a bodily translation to heaven. In the very commencement of our inquiries, we shall find circumstances in the life of this great patriarch that shadow forth, as it were, something of that mysticism with which the traditions of Freemasonry have connected him.

His name, in the Hebrew language, Sol, Henoch, signifies to initiate and to instruct, and seems intended to express the fact that he was, as Oliver remarks, the first to give a decisive character to the rite of initiation and to add to the practice of Divine worship the study and application of human science. In confirmation of this view, a writer in the Freemasons Quarterly Review says, on this subject, that "it seems probable that Enoch introduced the speculative principles into the Masonic creed, and that he originated its exclusive character," which theory must be taken, if it is accepted at all, with very considerable reservations.

The years of his life may also be supposed to contain a mystic meaning, for they amounted to three hundred and sixty-five, being exactly equal to a solar revolution. In all the ancient rites this number has occupied a prominent place, because it was the representative of the annual course of that luminary which, as the great fructifier of the earth, was the peculiar object of divine worship.<

Of the early history of Enoch, we know nothing. It is, however, probable that, like the other descendants of the pious Seth, he passed his pastoral life in the neighborhood of Mount Moriah. From the other patriarchs he differed only in this, that, enlightened by the Divine knowledge which has been imparted to him, he instructed his contemporaries in the practice of those rites, and in the study of those sciences, with which he had himself become acquainted.

The Oriental writers abound in traditionary evidence of the learning of the venerable patriarch. One tradition states that he received from God the gift of wisdom and knowledge, and that God sent him thirty volumes from heaven, filled with all the secrets of the most mysterious sciences. The Babylonians supposed him to have been intimately acquainted with the nature of the stars; and they attribute to him the invention of astrology. The Rabbis maintain that he was taught by God and Adam how to sacrifice, and how to worship the Deity aright. The Cabalistic book of Raziel says that he received the Divine mysteries from Adam, through the direct line of the preceding patriarchs.

The Greek Christians supposed him to have been identical with the first Egyptian Hermes, who dwelt at Sais. They say he was the first to give instruction on the celestial bodies; that he foretold the deluge that was to overwhelm his descendants; and that he built the Pyramids, engraving thereon figures of artificial instruments and the elements of the sciences, fearing lest the memory of man should perish in that general destruction. Eupolemus, a Grecian writer, makes him the same as Atlas, and attributes to him, as the Pagans did to that deity, the invention of astronomy. Wait (Oriental Antiquities) quotes a passage from Bar Hebraeus, a Jewish writer, which asserts that Enoch was the first who invented books and writing; that he taught men the art of building cities; that he discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac and the course of the planets; and that he inculcated the worship of God by fasting, prayer, alms, votive offering, and tithes. Bar Hebraeus adds, that he also appointed festivals for sacrifices to the sun at the periods when that luminary entered each of the zodiacal signs; but this statement, which would make him the author of idolatry, is entirely inconsistent with all that we know of his character, from both history and tradition, and arose, as Oliver supposes, most probably from a blending of the characters of Enos and Enoch.

In the study of the sciences, in teaching them to his children and his contemporaries, and in instituting the Tites of initiation, Enoch is supposed to have passed the years of his peaceful, his pious, and his useful life, until the crimes of mankind had increased to such a height that, in the expressive words of holy Writ, "every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." It was then, according to a Masonic tradition, that Enoch, disgusted with the wickedness that surrounded him, and appalled at the thought of its inevitable consequences, fled to the solitude and secrecy of Mount Moriah, and devoted himself to prayer and pious contemplation. It was on that spot then first consecrated by this patriarchal hermitage, and afterward to be made still more holy by the sacrifices of Abraham, of David, and of Solomon—that we are informed that the Shekinah, or sacred presence, appeared to him, and gave him those instructions which were to preserve the wisdom of the antediluvians to their posterity when the world, with the exception of but one family, should have been destroyed by the forthcoming flood. The circumstances which occurred at that time are recorded in a tradition which forms what has been called the great Masonic legend of Enoch, and which runs to this effect: Enoch, being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple underground, and dedicated it to God. His son, Methuselah, constructed the building; although he was not acquainted with his father's motives for the erection. This temple consisted of nine brick vaults, situated perpendicularly beneath each other and communicating by apertures left in the arch of each vault.

Enoch then caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate of the same form. On the grave he engraved, in ineffable characters, the true name of Deity, and, placing it on a cubical pedestal of white marble, he deposited the whole within the deepest arch. When this subterranean building was completed, he made a door of stone, and attaching to it a ring of iron, by which it might be occasionally raised, he placed it over the opening of the uppermost arch, and so covered it over that the aperture could not be discovered. Enoch himself was permitted to enter it but once a year; and on the death of Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, and the destruction of the world by the deluge, all knowledge of this temple, and of the sacred treasure which it contained, was lost until, in after times, it was accidentally discovered by another worthy of Freemasonry, who, like Enoch, leas engaged in the erection of a temple on the same spot.

The legend goes on to inform us that after Enoch had completed the subterranean temple, fearing that the principles of those arts and sciences which he had cultivated with so much assiduity would be lost in that general destruction of which he had received a prophetic vision, he erected two pillars—the one of marble, to withstand the influence of fire, and the other of brass, to resist the action of water. On the pillar of brass he engraved the history of creation, the principles of the arts and sciences, and the doctrines of Speculative Freemasonry as they were practiced in his times; and on the one of marble he inscribed characters in hieroglyphics, importing that near the spot where they stood a precious treasure was deposited in a subterranean vault.

Josephus gives an account of these pillars in the first book of his Antiquities. He ascribes them to the children of Seth, which is by no means a contradiction of the Masonic tradition, since Enoch was one of these children. "That their inventions," says the historian, "might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars—the one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day."

Enoch, having completed these labors, called his descendants around him on Mount Moriah, and having warned them in the most solemn manner of the consequences of their wickedness, exhorted them to forsake their idolatries and return once more to the worship of the true God. Masonic tradition informs us that he then delivered up the government of the Craft to his grandson, Lamech, and disappeared from earth.

Doctor Mackey refers above to the discoveries made at the attempt by Julian the Apostate to rebuild the Temple. These are of especial interest to Brethren of various Degrees and the two leading accounts of these legends may well be included here as a matter of information. First we have the one given by the Greek historian Nicephorus Calistus in the fourteenth century, in his Ecclesiastical Histories. He records the following remarkable details of an occurrence that happened at the attempt to rebuild the Temple:

When the foundations were being laid, as has been said one of the stones attached to the lowest part of the foundation was removed from its place and showed the mouth of a cavern which had been cut out of the rock. But as the cave could not be distinctly seen, those who had charge of the work, wishing to explore it that they might be better acquainted with the place, sent one of the workmen down tied to a long rope. When he got to the bottom he found water up to his legs. Searching the cavern on every side, he found, by touching with his hands, that it was of a quadrangular form. When he was returning to the mouth, he discovered a certain pillar standing up scarcely above the water. Feeling with his hand. he found a little book placed upon it, and wrapped up in very fine and clean linen. Taking possession of it, he gave the signal with the rope that those who had sent him down, should draw him up. Being received above, as soon as the book was shown, all were struck with astonishment, especially as it appeared untouched and fresh notwithstanding that it had been found in so dismal and dark a place. But when the book was unfolded, not only the Jews but the Greeks were astounded. For even at the beginning it declared in large letters: " In the beginning was the Word with God, and the Word was God." To speak plainly, the writing embraced the whole Gospel which was announced in the divine tongue of the (beloved) disciple and the Virgin.

This legend as here quoted is in the Ecclesiasticae Historicae, Nicephori Callisti, tome ii, lib. x, cap. xxxiii, and is also in the Patrologza Graeca, Migne, volume cxlvi, pages 542-3. Another description of the same occurrence is given in the Epitome of the Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, compiled by Photius in the ninth century and translated by Edward Walford; published by Henry G. Bohn at London, 1855, chapter xiv, page 482, and this reads: T

he work of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem by Julian was checked by many prodigies from Heaven; and especially during the preparation of the foundations, one of the stones which was placed at the lowest part of the base suddenly started from its place and opened the door of a certain cave hollowed out in the rock. Owing to its depth, it was difficult to see what was within this cave; so persons were appointed to investigate the matter, who, being anxious to find out the truth, let down one of their workmen by means of a rope. On being lowered down he found stagnant water reaching to his knees; and having gone around the place and felt the walls on every side, he found the cave to be a perfect square. Then, in his return, he stood near about the middle, and struck his foot against a column which stood rising slightly above the water. As soon as he touched this pillar, he found lying upon it a book wrapped up in a very fine and thin linen cloth; and as soon as he had lifted it up just as he had found it, he gave a signal to his companions to draw him up again. As soon as he regained the light, he showed them the book, which struck them all with astonishment, especially because it appeared so new and fresh, considering the place where it had been found. This book, which appeared such a mighty prodigy in the eyes of both heathens and Jews, as soon as it was opened, showed the following words in large letters. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ' In fact the volume contained that entire Gospel which had been declared by the divine tongue of the (beloved) disciple and the Virgin.




ENOCH, BROTHER The French expression is Frére Enoch. Evidently the nom de plume, or pen name, of a French writer and the inventor of a Masonic rite. He published at Liege, in 1773, two works:

1. Le Vrai Franc Maçon, meaning The True Freemason, in 276 pages.
2. Let1eres Mafonniques pour servir de Sup payment au Vrai Franc-Maf on, or Masonic Letters supplementing the True Freemason.

The design of the former of these works was to give an account of the origin and object of Freemasonry, a description of all the Degrees, and an answer to the objections urged against the Institution. The historical theories of Frere Enoch were exceedingly fanciful and wholly untenable. Thus, he asserts that in the year 814, Louis the Fair of France, being flattered by the fidelity and devotion of the Operative Masons, organized them into a society of four Degrees, granting the Masters the privilege of wearing swords in the Lodge a custom still continued in French Lodges— and, having been received into the Order himself, accepted the Grand Mastership on the festival of Saint John the Evangelist in the year 814. Other equally extravagant opinions make his book rather a source of amusement than of instruction. His definition of Freemasonry is, however, good. He says that it is "a holy and religious society of men who are friends, which has for its fourtion, discretion; for its object, the service of God, fidelity to the sovereign, and love of our neighbor; and for its doctrine, the erection of an allegorical building dedicated to the virtues, which it teaches with certain signs of recognition.


ENOCH, LEGEND OF

This legend is detailed in a preceding article. It never formed any part of the old system of Freemasonry, and was first introduced from Talmudic and Rabbinical sources into the advanced Degrees, where, however, it is really to be viewed rather as symbolical than as historical. Enoch himself is but the symbol of initiation, and his legend is intended symbolically to express the doctrine that the true Word or Divine truth was preserved in the ancient initiations.


ENOCHIAN ALPHABET

One of the most important alphabets, or ciphers, known to historic Freemasons is the Enochian, in consequence of the revelations made in that character. Tradition says the Christian princes were accompanied in their journey to Palestine by Freemasons, who fought by their side, and who, when at the Holy City, discovered important manuscripts, on which some of the historic Degrees were founded; that some of these manuscripts were in Syriac and others in Enochian characters; and that on their return, when at Venice, it was ascertained that the characters were identical with those in the Syriac column, spoken of by Josephus, and with the oldest copies in which the Book of Enoch was written, and are of great antiquity The Brethren in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are largely instructed as to matters pertaining hereto in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Degrees.

We present an exact copy of the alphabet, as may be found by comparison with that in the Bodleian Library.

The name He No C H. in Hebrew, signifies taught, or, more properly, dedicated. In the Koran Enoch is called Edris, from darasa, to study, which word, more liberally translated, means, to read or to study With attention (see Enoch).


ENOCH, RITE OF

A Rite attempted to be established at Liege, in France, about the year 1773. It consisted of four Degrees, namely:

1. Manouvre, or Apprentice, whose object was friendship and benevolence.
2. Ouvrier, or Fellow Craft, whose object was fidelity to the Sovereign.
3. Maître, or master, whose object was submission to the Supreme Being.
4. Architecte, whose object was the perfection of all the virtues.

The Rite never made much progress.


EN SOPH

The pronunciation of the Hebrew DID AH. In the Cabalistic doctrines, the Divine Word, or Supreme Creator, is called the En Soph, or rather the Or En Soph, the Infinite Intellectual Light. The theory is, that all things emanated from this Primeval Light (see Cabala).


ENTERED APPRENTICE'S SONG

The author was Matthew Birkhead and his effort appeared in print, Read's Weekly Journal, December 1, 1722, and has continued to be popular ever since, being frequently sung in British Lodges (see Birkhead, Matthew). The song is also called The Freemasons Health. Brother Birkhead, a singer and actor, Drury Lane Theater, was Worshipful Master, Lodge V, London. The words and music of the song were printed in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions published by the Freemasons in 1723. Under the reference Tune, Freemasons, in this Encyclopedia we give an account of the various appearances of it in print. While the verses are frequently printed with alteration 3 according to the taste of their respective editors, their first appearance was as follows:

Come let us prepare,
We Brothers that are
Met together on merry Occasion;
Let's drink, laugh and sing,
Our Wine has a Spring
'Tis a Health to an accepted Mason.

The World is in pain
Our secret to gain,
But still let them wonder and gaze on;
Till they're shown the Light
They'l ne'er know the Right
Word or Sign of an accepted Mason. <

'Tis this, and 'tis that,
They cannot tell what
Why so many great Men of the Nation,
Should Aprons put on,
To make themselves one,
With a Free or an accepted Mason.


Great Kings, Dukes and Lords,
Have laid by their swords
This our Mistry to put a good Grace on
And neter been ashamed
To hear themselves named
With a Free or an accepted Mason.


Antiquity's pride
We have on our side
It makes each Man just in his station
There's nought but what's good
To be understood,
By a Free or an accepted Mason.


Then joyn Hand in Hand,
T'each other firm stand
Let's be merry, and put a bright Face on;
What mortal can boast
So noble a Toast
As a Free or an accepted Mason?

Another verse was added to the original by Brother Springett Penn, who became Deputy Grand Master of Munster, Ireland, and was also a member of a Lodge at London. This addition to the song was made about 1730 and printed by Dr. James Anderson in his edition of 1738. Brother Penn's version runs thus:

We're true and sincere
And just to the Fair
They'll trust us on any Occasion:
No Mortal can more
The Ladies adore,
Than a Free and an Accepted Mason.

So rousing a song did not fail of attack by the enemy and a parody upon it with the venom of the time appeared in the London Journal of 1725 entitled An Answer to the Freemasons Health, as follows:

Good people give ear
And the truth shall appear,
For we scorn to put any grimace on:
We've been bammed long enough
With this damn'd silly stuff
Of a Free and an Accepted Mason.

The dear Brotherhood,
As they certainly shou'd,
Their follies do put a good face on:
But it's only a gin,
To draw other fools in,
So sly is an Accepted Mason.

With their aprons before 'em,
For better decorum,
Themselves they employ all their praise on:
In aprons array'd,
Of calves leather made
True type of an Accepted Mason.

They know this and that,
The devil knows what,
Of secrets they talk wou'd amaze one
But know by the by,
That no one can Iye
Like a Free and an Accepted Mason.

On a house ne'er so high,
If a Brother they spy
As his trowel he dext'rousiy lays on:
He must leave off his work,
And come down with a jerk
At the sign of an Accepted Mason.

A Brother one time,
Being hang'd for some crime
His Brethren did stupidly gaze on:
They made signs without end,
But fast hung their friend
Like a Free and an Accepted Mason.

They tell us fine things
How yt lords, dukes, and kings,
Their mis'tries have put a good grace on:
For their credit be't said
Many a skip has been made
A Free and an Accepted Mason.

From whence I conclude
Tho' it seem somewhat rude
No credit their tribe we should piace on:
Since a cool we may see
Of any degree,
May commence an Accepted Mason.


ENTERED

When a candidate receives the First Degree of Freemasonry he is said to be entered. It is used in the sense of admitted, or introduced; a common as well as a Masonic employment of the word, as when we say, "the youth entered college" or, "the soldier entered the service."


ENTERED APPRENTICE

See Apprentice, Entered


ENTICK, JOHN

An English clergyman, born about 1703, who took much interest in Freemasonry about the middle of the eighteenth century. He revised the third edition of Anderson's Constitutions by order of the Grand Lodge, which was published in 1756. The next issue of the Book of Constitutions, in 1767, also has his name on the title page as successor to Doctor Anderson, and is often attributed to him, but it is described as "A new edition . . . by a Committee appointed by the Grand Lodge," and it does not appear that he had anything to do with its preparation (see Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, 1908, xxi, paps 80).

Entick was also the author of many Masonic sermons, a few of which were published. Oliver speaks of him as a man of grave and sober habits, a good Master of his Lodge, a fair disciplinarian, and popular with the Craft. But Entick did not confine his literary labors to Freemasonry. He was the author of a History of the War which ended in 1763, in five volumes, and a History of London, in four volumes. As an orthoepist he had considerable reputation and published a Latin and English Dictionary, and an English Spelling Dictionary. He died in 1773.


ENTOMBMENT

An impressive ceremony in the degree of Perfect Master of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.


ENTRANCE, POINTS OF

See Points of Entrance, Perfect


ENTRANCE, SHOCKS OF

See Shock of Entrance


ENTRUSTING

That portion of the ceremony of initiation which consists in communicating to the candidate the modes of recognition.


ENVY

This meanest of vices has always been discouraged in Freemasonry. The fifth of the Old Charges says: "None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 53).


EONS

In the doctrine of Gnosticism, Divine spirits occupying the intermediate state which was supposed to exist between the Supreme Being and the Jehovah of the Jewish theology, whom the Gnostics called only a secondary deity. These spiritual beings were indeed no more than abstractions, such as Wisdom, Faith, Prudence, etc. They derived their name from the Greek azure, meaning an age, in reference to the long duration of their existence. Valentinius said there were but thirty of them; but Basilides reckons them as three hundred and sixty-five, which certainly has an allusion to the days of the solar year.

In some of the philosophical degrees, references are made to the Eons, whose introduction into them is doubtless to be attributed to the connection of Gnosticism with certain of the advanced degrees.


EONS, RITE OF THE

Ragon (Juilleur General, a handbook of the Degrees, page 186) describes this rite as one full of beautiful and learned instruction, but scarcely known, and practiced only in Asia, being founded on the religious dogmas of Zoroaster. The existence of it as a genuine rite is doubtful, for Ragon's information is very meager.


EOSTRE

Easter, the usual word in French is Pâque, a name given to the day when the resurrection of Christ is celebrated by a festival, in the spring of the year. Sometimes called the Paschal Festival but paschal refers to the Jewish Passover as well as the Christian Easter.


EPHOD

The sacred vestment worn by the high priest of the Jews over the tunic and outer garment. It was without sleeves, and divided below the arm pits into two parts or halves, one falling before and the other behind, and both reaching to the middle of the thighs. They were joined above on the shoulders by buckles and two large precious stones, on which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes, six on each.

The ephod was a distinctive mark of the priesthood. It was of two kinds, one of plain linen for the priests, and another, richer and embroidered, for the high priest, which was composed of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen. The robe worn by the High Priest or First Principal in a Royal Arch Chapter is intended to be a representation, but hardly can be called an imitation, of the ephod.


EPHRAIMITES

The descendants of Ephraim. They inhabited the center of Judea between the Mediterranean and the river Jordan. The character given to them in a certain degree of being a stiff necked and rebellious people, coincides with history which describes them as haughty, tenacious to a fault of their rights, and ever ready to resist the pretensions of the other tribes, and more especially that of Judah, of which they were peculiarly jealous. The circumstance in their history which has been appropriated for a symbolic purpose in the ceremonies of the Second Degree of Freemasonry, may be briefly related thus. The Ammonites, who were the descendants of the younger son of Lot, and inhabited a tract of country east of the river Jordan, had been always engaged in hostility against the Israelites. On the occasion referred to, they had commenced a war on the pretext that the Israelites had deprived them of a portion of their territory. Jephthah, having been called by the Israelites to the head of their army, defeated the Ammonites, but had not called upon the Ephraimites to assist in the victory.

Hence, that high-spirited people were incensed, and more especially as they had no share in the rich spoils obtained by Jephthah from the Ammonites.

They accordingly gave him battle, but were defeated with great slaughter by the Gileadites, or countrymen of Jephthah, with whom alone he resisted their attack. As the land of Gilead, the residence of Jephthah, was on the west side of the Jordan, and as the Ephraimites lived on the east side, in making their invasion it was necessary that they should cross the river, and after their defeat, in attempting to effect a retreat to their own country, they were compelled to recross the river. But Jephthah, aware of this, had placed forces at the different fords of the river, who intercepted the Ephraimites, and detected their nationality by a peculiar defect in their pronunciation. For although the Ephraimites did not speak a dialect different from that of the other tribes, they had a different pronunciation of some words and an inability to pronounce the letter r or sh, which they pronounced as if it were D or s. Thus, when called upon to say Shibboleth, they pronounced it Sibboleth, "which trifling defect," as we are told, "proved them to be enemies." The test to a Hebrew was a palpable one, for the two words have an entirely different signification; shibboleth meaning an ear of corn, and sibboleth, a burden. The biblical relation will be found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Judges (see Shibboleth).


EPOCH

In chronology, a certain point of time marked by some memorable event at which the calculation of years begins. The various peoples have different epochs or epocha. Thus, the epoch of Christians is the birth of Christ; that of Jews, the creation of the world; and that of Mohammedans, the flight of their prophet from Mecca (see Calendar).


EPOPT

This was the name given to one who had passed through the Great Mysteries, and been permitted to behold what was concealed from the mystoe, who had only been initiated into the Lesser. It signifies an eye-untness, and is derived from the Greek, esoofax, to look over, to behold. The epopts repeated the oath of secrecy which had been administered to them on their initiation into the Lesser Mysteries, and were then conducted into the lighted interior of the sanctuary and permitted to behold what the Greeks emphatically termed the sight, abrofta. The epopts alone were admitted to the sanctuary, for the mystae were confined to the vestibule of the temple. The epopts were, in fact, the Master Masons of the Mysteries, while the mystae were the Apprentices and Fellow Crafts; these words being used, of course, only in a comparative sense.


EPREMENIL, JEAN JACQUES DUVAL D'

Surname sometimes spelled Esprémesnil, also Eprémesnil. French magistrate. Born at Pondicherry, India, December 5, 1745; educated at Paris; member of French Parliament, he vigorously defended its rights against royalty and was imprisoned on the Island of Saint Marguerite for four months. Brother Amiable says he was there a year. He returned to Paris a popular hero but on being chosen first deputy by the nobility he defended monarchy and the rising tide of revolution engulfed him.

Publicly attacked by a mob, wounded seriously, rescued by the National Guard, he escaped to his property near Havre. He was arrested there, condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal at Paris, and was guillotined on April 22, 1794. He was a member of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters at Paris, his name being on the calendar for 1788 where he ranked as the Deputy of the Lodge (see Une Loge Magonnique d' AvanX 1789, Louis Amiable, Paris, 1897, page 268).


EQUALITY

Among the ancient iconologists, students of likenesses, equality was symbolized by a female figure holding in one hand a pair of scales equipoised and in the other a nest of swallows. The moderns have substituted a level for the scales. And this is the Masonic idea. In Freemasonry, the level is the symbol of that equality which, as Godfrey Higgins (Anacalypsis i, 790) says, is the very essence of Freemasonry. "All, let their rank in life be what it may, when in the Lodge are brothers—brethren with the Father at their head. No person can read the Evangelists and not see that this is correctly Gospel Christianity."


EQUERRY

An officer in various royal courts who has the charge of horses. For some now unknown reason the title has been introduced into certain of the advanced degrees.


EQUES.

A Latin word signifying knight. Every member of the Rite of Strict Observance, on attaining to the seventh or highest degree, received what has been termed a characteristic name, which was formed in Latin by the addition of a noun in the ablative case, governed by the preposition a or ab, to the word Eques, as Eques à Serpente, or Knight of the Serpent, Eques ab Aquila, or Knight of the Eagle, etc., and by this name he was ever afterward known in the Order.

Thus Bode, one of the founders of the Rite, was recognized as Eques à Lilio Convallium, or Knight of the icily of the Valleys, and the Baron Hund, another founder, as Eques ab Ense, or Knight of the Sword. A similar custom prevailed among the Illuminati and in the Royal Order of Scotland. Eques signified among the Romans a knight, but in the Middle Ages the knight was called miles; although the Latin word mites denoted only a soldier, yet, by the usage of chivalry, it received the nobler signification. Indeed, NIuratori says, on the authority of an old inscription, that Eques was inferior in dignity to Miles (see Miles).


EQUES PROFESSUS

A Latin expression for Professed Rnight. The seventh and last degree of the Rite of Strict Observance. This ceremony was added, it is said, to the original series by Von Hund.


EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE

See Triangle


EQUITY

The equipoised balance, an instrument for weighing, is an ancient symbol of equity. On the medals, this virtue is represented by a female holding in the right hand a balance, and in the left a measuring wand, to indicate that she gives to each one his just measure. In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the thirty-first Degree, or Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander, is illustrative of the virtue of equity; and hence the balance is a prominent symbol of that degree, as it is also of the Sixteenth Degree, or Princes of Jerusalem, because according to the old books, the members were Chiefs in Freemasonry, and administered justice to the inferior degrees.


EQUIVOCATION

Derived from two Latin words meaning equal and voice, and indicating doubtful interpretation, something most questionable. To equivocate is to say something with the intention to deceive. The words of the covenant of Freemasonry require that it should be made without evasion, equivocation or mental reservation. This is exactly in accordance with the law of ethics in relation to promises made.

And it properly applies in this case, because the covenant, as it is called, is simply a promise, or series of promises, made by the candidate to the Fraternity to the Brotherhood into whose association he is about to be admitted. In making a promise, an evasion is the eluding or avoiding the terms of the promise; and this is done, or attempted to be done, by equivocation, which is by giving to the words used a secret signification, different from that which they were intended to convey by him who imposed the promise, so as to mislead, or by a mental reservation, which is a concealment or withholding in the mind of the promiser of certain conditions under which he makes it, which conditions are not known to the one to whom the promise is made.

All of this is in direct violation of the law of veracity. The doctrine of the Jesuits is very different. Suarez, one of their most distinguished casuists, lays it down as good law, that if any one makes a promise or contract, he may secretly understand that he does not sincerely promise, or that he promises without any intention of fulfilling the promise. This is not the rule of Freemasonry, which requires that the words of the covenant be taken in the patent sense which they were intended by the ordinary use of language to convey. It adheres to the true rule of ethics, which is, as Paley says, that a promise is binding in the sense in which the promiser supposed the promisee to receive it (see Mental Reservation).


ERANOI

Among the ancient Greeks there were friendly societies, whose object was, like the modern Masonic Lodges, to relieve the distresses of their necessitous members. They were permanently organized, and had a common fund by the voluntary contributions of the members. If a member was reduced to poverty, or was in temporary distress for money, he applied to the eranos, and, if worthy, received the necessary assistance, which was, however, advanced rather as a loan than a gift, and the amount was to be returned when the recipient was in better circumstances. In the days of the Roman Empire these friendly societies were frequent among the Greek cities, and were looked on with suspicion by the emperors, as tending to political combinations. Smith says (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities) that the Anglo-Saxon gilds, or fraternities for mutual aid, resembled the eranoi of the Greeks. In their spirit, these Grecian confraternities partook more of the Masonic character, as charitable associations, than of the modern friendly societies, where relief is based on a system of mutual insurance; for the assistance was given only to cases of actual need, and did not depend on any calculation of natural contingencies.


ERECTING LODGES

To erect a Lodge is the authorized and time-honored formula to denote the foundation of a new Lodge of Freemasons. It is so employed in the earliest Lodge Charters, or Warrants, as they are styled nowadays, ever issued by any Grand Lodge. The very first of them opens as follows: whereas our Trusted and Well-Beloved Brothers have besought us that we would be pleased to Erect a Lodge off tree Masons, etc., etc.

This is in the Warrant of Lodge No. 1, Grand Lodge of Ireland, February 1, 1731-2. Thus sanctioned by authority, and approved by usage, the phrase held the field among English-speaking Freemasons at home and abroad during the half century that preceded the Union of 1813, and still remains a constitutional formula among Grand Lodges that derive their powers from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, or from its step-daughter, the Grand Lodge of the Ancient. In view of such unfamiliarity with the documents that embody the history of our organization, it is well to bear in mind that in 1748 there were no Lodge Charters in existence, save those issued under the seal of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. Several years had to elapse before the Irish practice, now so universal, was followed by the Grand Lodge of England.

These comments were made by Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley, 1901 (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume xiv, page 15).


ERI, ROYAL ORDER OF

The legendary founder in 1695 B.C. of this organization comprising Freemasons only, was Eremon, King of Ulster, Ireland, and the Order is reputed to have ceased its military activities sometime about 1649 to 1659 A.D.

An ancient book Annals of the Four Masters of Ireland, tells of the Knights of the Collar of Eri as instituted by King Eamhuin and his eight princes, the chiefs of the armies of the four provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught. Headquarters were at the city of Armagh, where a palace and royal court existed until destroyed by fire in 332 A.D. The palace of the early kings of Ireland and the Great Hall of the Knights were then located at Tara in the County Meath, with a military hospital, named Bronbheagor or House of the Sorrowful Soldier, and a famous college, a noted seat of Celtic learning.

This ancient Order comprised knights and teachers, the Ollamhs, Brehons or judges, Crimtears or priest-astronomers, and Bards, poets and musicians. The modern ceremonies include the grades in order of Man-at-Arms, Esquire, and Knight, Knights Commanders, who are chosen by the Knights Grand Cross, and the latter selected by the Senior Grand Cross who represents the Sovereign, for whom an empty chair is placed at every Assembly. The latter is called the Faslairt, or Camp, and represents a green field. The General Assembly is termed the Foleith.


ERICA

The Egyptians selected the erica as a sacred plant.

The origin of the consecration of this plant will be peculiarly interesting to the Masonic student
There was a legend in the mysteries of Osiris, which related that Isis, when in search of the body of her murdered husband, discovered it interred at the brow of a hill near which an erica grew; and hence, after the recovery of the body and the resurrection of the god, when she established the mysteries to commemorate her loss and her recovery, she adopted the erica as a sacred plant, in memory of its having pointed out the spot where the mangled remains of Osiris were concealed
Ragon (Cours des Initiations, page 151) thus alludes to this mystical event:

Isis found the body of Osiris in the neighborhood of Biblos, and near a tall plant called the Erica.
Oppressed with grief, she seated herself on the margin of a fountain whose waters issued from a rock.
This rock is the small hill familiar to Freemasons; the Ertca has been replaced by the Acacza. and the grief of Isis has been changed for that of the Fellow Craits.

The lexicographers define ApeA77 as the heath or heather; but it is really, as Plutarch asserts, the tamarisk tree; and Schwenk tDie Mythologie der Semiten, The Semitic Mythology, relating to the Assyrians, Arameans, Hebraeo-Phenicians, Arabs and Abyssinians, page 248) says that Phyloe, so renowned among the ancients as one of the burial places of Osiris, and among the moderns for its wealth of architectural remains, contains monuments in which the grave of Osiris is overshadowed by the tamarisk.


ERITREA

This country is on the western shores of the Red Sea, and on the northeastern coast of Africa, between Egypt and Abyssinia. The Grand Orient off Italy instituted one Lodge in this country at Asmara.


ERLKING

A name found in one of the sacred sagas of the Scandinavian mythology, entitled Sir Olaf and the Erlking's Daughter, and applied to the mischievous goblin haunting the black forest of Thuringia.


ERNEST AND FALK

More fully in German, Ernst und Falk, Gesprache .fur Frei1naurer, meaning "Ernest and Falk. Conversations for Freemasons," is the title of a work written by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and first published in 1778. Ernest is an inquirer, and Falk a Freemason, who gives to his interlocutor a very philosophical idea of the character, aims, and objects of the Institution. The work has been faithfully translated by Brother Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, F.S.A., in the London Freemasons Quarterly Magazine, in 1854, and continued and finished, so far as the author had completed it, in the London Freemason in 1872. Findel says ( History of Freemasonry, page 373) of this work, that it "is one of the best things that has ever been written upon Freemasonry." A translation of it also appeared in the Builder (1915, volume i, pages 20 and 59), by Brother Louis Block, P. G. M. of Iowa.


ERWIN VON STEINBACH

A distinguished German, who was born, as his name imports, at Steinbach, near Buhl, about the middle of the thirteenth century. He was the master of the works at the Cathedral of Strasburg, the tower of which he commenced in 1275. He finished the tower and doorway before his death, which was in 1318. He was at the head of the German Fraternity of Stonemasons, who were the precursors of the modern Freemasons (see Strasburg).


ESOTERIC MASONRY

That secret portion of Freemasonry which is known only to the initiates as distinguished from Esoteric Freemasonry, or monitorial, which is accessible to all who choose to read the manuals and published works of the Order.

The words are from the Greek, bxreptzAs, internal, and rKeptK85, external, and were first used by Pythagoras, whose philosophy was divided into the exoteric, or that taught to all, and the esoteric, or that taught to a select few; and thus his disciples were divided into two classes, according to the Degree of initiation to which they had attained, as being either fully admitted into the society, and invested with all the knowledge that the Master could communicate, or as merely postulants, enjoying only the public instructions of the school, and awaiting the gradual reception of further knowledge. This double mode of instruction was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests, whose theology was of two kinds—the one exoteric, and addressed to the people in general; the other esoteric, and confined to a select number of the priests and to those who possessed, or were to possess, the regal power.

And the mystical nature of this concealed doctrine was expressed in their symbolic language by the images of sphinxes placed at the entrance of their temples. Two centuries later, Aristotle adopted the system of Pythagoras, and, in the Lyceum at Athens, delivered in the morning to his select disciples his subtle and concealed doctrines concerning God, Nature, and Life, and in the evening lectures on more elementary subjects to a promiscuous audience. These different lectures he called his Morning and his Evening Walk.


ESPERANCE

Under the name of Cheualiers et Dames de l'Esperance, a French expression meaning Knights and Lazifes of Hope, was founded first in France, and subsequently and androgynous, both sexes, order in Germany. It is said to have been instituted by Louis XV, at the request of the Marquis de Chatelet, and was active about 1750. The Lodge Irene, at Hamburg, was founded in 1757.


ESSENES

Lawrie, in his History of Freemasonry, in replying to the objection, that if the Fraternity of Freemasons had flourished during the reign of Solomon, it would have existed in Judea in after ages, attempts to meet the argument by showing that there did exist, after the building of the Temple, an association of men resembling Freemasons in the nature, ceremonies, and object of their institution (see his page 33). The association to which he here alludes is that of the Essenes, whom he subsequently describes as an ancient Fraternity originating from an association of architects who were connected with the building of Solomon's Temple.

Lawrie evidently seeks to connect historically the Essenes with the Freemasons, and to impress his readers with the identity of the two Institutions. Brother Mackey was not prepared to go so far; but there is such a similarity between the two, and such remarkable coincidences in many of their usages, as to render this Jewish sect an interesting study to every Freemason, to whom therefore some account of the usages and doctrines of this holy brotherhood will not, perhaps, be unacceptable.

At the time of the advent of Jesus Christ, there were three religious sects in Judea—the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes; and to one of these seets every Jew was compelled to unite himself. The Savior has been supposed by many writers to have been an Essene, because, while repeatedly denouncing the errors of the two other sects, he has nowhere uttered a word of censure against the Essenes; and because, also, many of the precepts of the New Testament are to be found among the laws of this sect.

In ancient authors, such as Josephus, Philo, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Pliny, who have had occasion to refer to the subject, the notices of this singular sect have been so brief and unsatisfactory, that modern writers have found great difficulty in properly understanding the true character of Essenism. And yet our antiquaries, never weary of the task of investigation, have at length, succeeded in eliciting, from the collation of all that has been previously written on the subject, very correct details of the doctrines and practices of the Essenes. Of these writers none have been more successful than the laborious German cities Frankel and Rappaport. Their investigations have been ably and thoroughly condensed by Dr. Christian D. Ginsburg, whose essay on The Essenes, their History and Doctrines, published at London in 1864, has supplied the most material facts contained in the present article.

It is impossible to ascertain the precise date of the development of Essenism as a distinct organization. The old writers are so exaggerated in their statements, that they are worth nothing as historical authorities. Philo says, for instance, that Moses himself instituted the order, and Josephus that it existed ever since the ancient time of the Fathers; while Pliny asserts, with mythical liberality, that it has continued for thousands of ages. Doctor Ginsburg thinks that Essenism was a gradual development of the prevalent religious notions out of Judaism, a theory which Doctor Döllinger repudiates.

But Rappaport, who was a learned Jew, thoroughly conversant with the Talmud and other Hebrew writings, and who is hence called by Ginsburg the Corypheus (meaning Leader or Chief, from the Latin and Greek) of Jewish critics, asserts that the Essenes were not a distinct sect, in the strict sense of the word, but simply an order of Judaism, and that there never was a rupture between them and the rest of the Jewish community. This theory is sustained by Frankel, a scholarly German, who maintains that the Essenes were simply an intensification of the Pharisaic sect, and that they were the same as the Chasidim, whom Lawrie calls the Rasstdeans, and of whom he speaks as the guardians of King Solomon's Temple.

If this view be the correct one, and there is no good reason to doubt it, then there will be another feature of resemblance and coincidence between the Freemasons and the Essenes; for, as the latter was not a religious sect, but merely a development of Judaism, an order of Jews entertaining no heterodox opinions, but simply carrying out the religious dogmas of their faith with an unusual strictness of observance, so are the Freemasons not a religious sect, but simply a development of the religious idea of the age.

The difference, however, in Brother Mackey's opinion, between Freemasonry and Essenism lies in the spirit of universal tolerance prominent in the one and absent in the other. Freemasonry is Christian as to its membership in general, but recognizing and tolerating in its bosom all other religions: Essenism, on the contrary, was exclusively and intensely Jewish in its membership, its usages, and its doctrines. The Essenes are first mentioned by Josephus as existing in the days of Jonathan the Maccabean, one hundred and sixty-six years before Christ. The Jewish historian repeatedly speaks of them at subsequent periods; and there is no doubt that they constituted one of the three sects which divided the Jewish religious world at the advent of our Savior, and of this sect he is supposed, as has been already said, to have been a member.

On this subject, Ginsburg says: "Jesus, who in all things conformed to the Jewish law, and who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, would, therefore, naturally associate himself with that order of Judaism which was most congenial to his holy nature. Moreover, the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was not heard of in public till his thirtieth year, implying that he lived in seclusion with this Fraternity, and that, though he frequently rebuked the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly confirms this decision." But he admits that Christ neither adopted nor preached their extreme doctrines of asceticism. After the establishment of Christianity, the Essenes fade out of notice, and it has been supposed that they were among the earliest converts to the new faith. Indeed, De Quincey rather paradoxically asserts that they were a disguised portion of the early Christians.

The etymology of the word has not been settled. E et, among the contending opinions, the preferable one seems to be that it is derived from the Hebrew Chasid meaning holy out which connects the Essenes with the Chasidim, a sect which preceded them, and of whom Lawrie says, quoting from Scaliger, that they were "an order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, who bound themselves to adorn the porches of that magnificent structure, and to preserve it from injury and decay" (see LanTie's History of Freemasonry, page 38).

The Essenes were so strict in the observance of the Mosaic laws of purity, that they were compelled for the purpose of avoiding contamination, to withdraw altogether from the rest of the Jewish nation and to form a separate community, which thus became a brotherhood. The same scruples which led them to withdraw from their less strict Jewish Brethren induced most of them to abstain from marriage, and hence the unavoidable depletion of their membership by death could only be repaired by the initiation of converts.

They had a common treasury, in which was deposited whatever anyone of them possessed, and from this the wants of the whole community were supplied by stewards appointed by the brotherhood, so that they had everything in common. Hence there was no distinction among them of rich and poor, or masters and servants; but the only gradation of rank which they recognized was derived from the Degrees or orders into which the members were divided, and which depended on holiness alone. They lived peaceably with all men, reprobated slavery and war, and would not even manufacture any warlike instruments. They were governed by a president, who was elected by the whole community; and members who had violated their rules were, after due trial, excommunicated or expelled.

As they held no communication outside of their own fraternity, they had to raise their own supplies, and some were engaged in tilling, some in tending flocks, others in making clothing, and others in preparing food They got up before sunrise, and, after singing a hymn of praise for the return of light, which they did with their faces turned to the East, each one repaired to his appropriate task. At the fifth hour, or eleven in the forenoon, the morning labor terminated. The Brethren then again assembled, and after a lustration in cold water, they put on white garments and proceeded to the refectory, where they partook of the common meal, which was always of the most frugal character. A mysterious silence was observed during this meal, which, to Some extent, had the character of a sacrament. The feast being ended, and the priest having returned thanks, the Brethren withdrew and put off their white garments, resumed their working-clothes and their several employments until evening, when they again assembled as before, to partake of a common meal.

They observed the Sabbath with more than Judaic strictness, regarding even the removal of a vessel as a desecration of the holy day. On that day, each took his seat in the synagogue in becoming attire; and, as they had no ordained ministers, any one that liked read out of the Scriptures, and another, experienced in spiritual matters, expounded the passages that had been read. The distinctive ordinances of the brotherhood and the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton and the angelic worlds were the prominent topics of Sabbatical instruction. In particular, did they pay attention to the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton, or the Shem hamphorash, the Expository Name, and the other names of God which plays so important a part in the mystical theosophy of the Jewish Cabalists, a great deal of which has descended to the Freemasonry of our own age.

Josephus describes them as being distinguished for their brotherly love, and for their charity in helping the needy, and showing mercy. He says that they are just dispensers of their anger, curbers of their passions, representatives of fidelity, ministers of peace, and every word with them is of more force than an oath.

They avoid taking an oath, and regard it as worse than perjury; for they say that he who is not believed without calling on God to witness, is already condemned of perjury. Josephus also states that they studied with great assiduity the writings of the ancients on distempers and their remedies, alluding, as it is supposed, to the magical works imputed by the Talmudists to Solomon.

It has already been observed that, in consequence of the celibacy of the Essenes, it was found necessary to recruit their ranks by the introduction of converts, who were admitted by a solemn of initiation. The candidate, or aspirant, was required to pass through a novitiate of two stages, which extended over three years, before he was admitted to a full participation in the privileges of the Order. Upon entering the first stage, which lasted for twelve months, the novice cast all his possessions into the common treasury. He then received a copy of the regulations of the brotherhood, and was presented with a spade, and apron, and a white robe. The spade was employed to bury excrement, the apron was used at the daily illustrations, and the white robe was worn as a symbol of purity.

During all this period the aspirant was considered as being outside the Order, and, although required to observe some of the ascetic rules of the society, he was not admitted to the common meal. At the end of the probationary year, the aspirant, if approved, was advanced to the second stage, which lasted two years, and was then called an Approacher. During this period he was permitted to unite with the Brethren in their illustrations, but was not admitted to the common meal, nor to hold any office. Should this second stage of probation be passed with approval, the approacher became an Associate, and was admitted into full membership, and at length allowed to partake of the common meal.

There was a third rank or Degree called the Disciple or Companion, in which there was a still closer union. Upon admission to this highest grade, the candidate was bound by a solemn oath to love God, to be just to all men, to practice charity, maintain truth, and to conceal the secrets of the society and the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton and the other names of God. These three sections of Degrees, of Aspirant, Associate and Companion, were subdivided into four orders or ranks, distinguished from each other by different Degrees of holiness; and so marked were these distinctions, that if one belonging to a higher Degree of purity touched one of a lower order, he immediately became impure, and could only regain his purity by a series of illustrations.

The earnestness and determination of these Essenes says Ginsburg, to advance to the highest state of holiness, were seen in their self-denying and godly life; and it may fairly be questioned whether any religious system has ever produced such a community of saints. Their absolute confidence in God and resignation to the dealings of Providence; their uniformly holy and unselfish life; their unbounded love of virtue and utter contempt for worldly fame, riches, and pleasures; their industry, temperance, modesty, and simplicity of life; their contentment of mind and cheerfulness of temper; their love of order, and abhorrence of even the semblance of falsehood; their benevolence and philanthropy; their love for the Brethren, and their following peace with all men; their hatred of slavery and war; their tender regard for children, and reverence and anxious care for the aged; their attendance on the sick, and readiness to relieve the distressed; their humility and magnanirnity; their firmness of character and power to subdue their passions; their heroic endurance under the most agonizing sufferings for righteousness' sake; and their cheerfully looking forward to death, as releasing their immortal souls from the bonds of the body, to be forever in a state of bliss with their Creator,—have hardly found a parallel in the history of mankind.

Lawrie, in his History of Freemasonry, gives (see pages 34 and 35) on the authority of Pictet, of Basnage, and of Philo, the following condensed recapitulation of what has been said in the preceding pages of the usages of the Essences:

When a candidate was proposed for admission the strictest scrutiny nas made into his character. If his life had hitherto been exemplary and if he appeared capable of curbing his passions, arid regulating his conduct. according to the virtuous, though austere maxims of their Order, he was presented at the expiration of his novitiate, with a white garment as an emblem of the regularity of his conduct and the purity of his heart. A solemn oath was then administered to him, that he would never divulge the mysteries of the Order: that he would make no innovations on the doctrines of the society and that he would continue in that honorable course of piety and virtue which he had begun to pursue. Like Frees masons they instructed the young member in the knowledge which they derived from their ancestors They admitted no women into their order. They had particular signs for recognizing each other, which have a strong resemblance to those of Freemasons. They had colleges or places of retirement, where they resorted to practice their rites and settle the affairs of the society and, after the performance of these duties, they assembled in a large hall, where an entertainment was provided for them by the president, or master of the college who allotted a certain quantity of provisions to every individual. They abolished all distinctions of rank and if preference was ever given, it was given to piety, liberality, and virtue. Treasurers were appointed in every town, to supply the wants of indigent strangers.

Dr. W. Wynn Westcott (page 72, volume xxviu, 1915, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge) takes exception to Brother Lawrie's claim that the Essences "had particular signs for recognizing each other, which have a strong resemblance to those of Freemasons." Brother Westcott could find no such statement made either by Philo, Josephus, or Pliny.

Lawrie thinks that this remarkable coincidence between the chief features of the Masonic and Essenian fraternities can be accounted for only by referring them to the same origin; and, to sustain this view, he attempts to trace them to the Rasideans, or Assideans, more properly the Chassidim, "an association of architects who were connected with the building of Solomon's Temple " But, aside from the consideration that there is no evidence that the Chassidirn were a Body of architects for they were really a sect of Jewish puritans, who held the Temple in especial honor—we cannot conclude, from a mere coincidence of doctrines and usages, that the origin of the Essenes and the Freemasons is identical. Such a course of reasoning would place the Pythagoreans in the same category: a theory that has been rejected by the best modern critics.

The truth appears to be that the Essenes, the School of Pythagoras, and the Freemasons, derive their similarity from the spirit of brotherhood which has prevailed in all ages of the civilized world, the inherent principles of which, as the results of any fraternity all the members of which are engaged in the same pursuit and assenting to the same religious creed are brotherly love, charity, and that secrecy which gives them their exclusiveness. And hence, between all fraternities, ancient and modern, these remarkable coincidences will be found. The intricate and most interesting aspect of the Essences as a monastic sort of order within the pale of Judaism is examined in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible. Brother Dudley Wright considers this difficult angle of the subject in his book Was Jesus an Esserze?


ES SELAMU ALEIKUM

See SeZamu Aleikum, Es: also Salaam


ESTHER

The Third Degree of the American Adoptive Rite of the Eastern Star. It is also called the Wife's Degree, and in its ceremonies comprises the history of Esther the wife and queen of Ahasuerus, fling of Persia, as related in the Book of Esther.


ETERNAL LIFE

The doctrine of eternal life is taught in the Master's Degree, as it was in the Ancient Mysteries of all nations (see Immortality of the Soul).


ETERNITY

The ancient symbol of eternity was a serpent in the form of a circle, the tail being placed in the mouth. The simple circle, the figure which has neither beginning nor end, but returns continually into itself, was also a symbol of eternity.


ETHANIM OR TISHRI

The seventh sacred month, or the first month of the Hebrew civil year, commencing with the new moon in September.


ETHICS OF FREEMASONRY

There is a Greek word, Sos, ethos, which signifies custom, from which Aristotle derives another word Pros, ethos, which means ethics; because, as he says, from the custom of doing good acts arises the habit of moral virtue. Ethics, then, is the science of morals teaching the theory and practice of all that is good in relation to God and to man, to the state and the individual; it is, in short, to use the emphatic expression of a German writer, "the science of the good." Ethics being thus engaged in the inculcation of moral duties, there must be a standard of these duties, an authoritative ground-principle on which they depend, a doctrine that requires their performance, making certain acts just those that ought to be done, and which, therefore, are duties, and that forbid the performance of others which are therefore, offenses.

Ethics, therefore, as a science, is divisible into several species, varying in name and character, according to the foundation on which it is built.

Thus we have the Ethics of Theology, which is founded on that science which teaches the nature and attributes of God; and, as this forms a part of all religious systems, every religion whether it be Christianity or Judaism, Brahmanism or Buddhism, or any other form of recognized worship, has within its bosom a science of theological ethics which teaches, according to the lights of that religion, the duties which are incumbent on man from his relations to a Supreme Being. And then we have the Ethics of Christianity, which being founded on the Scriptures, recognized by Christians as the revealed will of God, is nothing other than theological ethics applied to and limited by Christianity.

Then, again, we have the Ethics of Philosophy, which is altogether speculative, and derived from and founded on man's speculations concerning God and himself. There might be a sect of philosophers who denied the existence of a Superintending Providence; but it would still have a science of ethics referring to the relations of man to man, although that system would be without strength, because it would have no Divine sanction for its enforcement.

Lastly, we have the Ethics of Freemasonry, whose character combines those of the three others. The first and second systems in the series above enumerated are founded on religious dogmas; the third on philosophical speculations. Now, as Freemasonry claims to be a religion, in so far as it is founded on a recognition of the relations of man and God, and a philosophy in so far as it is engaged in speculations on the nature of man, as an immortal, social, and responsible being, the ethics of Freemasonry will be both religious and philosophical.

The symbolism of Freemasonry, which is its peculiar mode of instruction, inculcates all the duties which we owe to God as being his children, and to men as being their Brethren. "There is," says Doctor Oliver, "scarcely a point of duty or morality which man has been presumed to owe to God, his neighbor, or himself, under the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, or the Christian dispensation, which, in the construction of our symbolical system, has been left untouched." Hence, he says, that these symbols all unite to form "a code of moral and theological philosophy" the term of which expression would have been better if he had called it a "code of philosophical and theological ethics." At a very early period of his initiation, the Freemason is instructed that he owes a threefold duty to God, his neighbor, and himself—and the inculcation of these duties constitutes the ethics of Freemasonry.

Now, the Tetragrammaton, the letter G. and many other symbols of a like character, impressively inculcate the lesson that there is a God in whom "we live, and move, and have our being," and of whom the apostle, quoting from the Greek poet, tells us that "we are His offspring." To Him, then, as the Universal Father, does the ethics of Freemasonry teach us that we owe the duty of loving and obedient children.

And, then, the vast extent of the Lodge, making the whole world the common home of all Freemasons, and the temple, in which we all labor for the building up of our bodies as a spiritual house, are significant symbols, which teach us that we are not only the children of the Father, but fellow-workers, laboring together in the same task and owing a common servitude to God as the Grand Architect of the universe —the Algabil or Master Builder of the world and all that is therein; and thus these symbols of a joint labor, for a joint purpose, tell us that there is a brotherhood of man: to that brotherhood does the ethics of Freemasonry teach us that we owe the duty of fraternal kindness in all its manifold phases.

And so we find that the ethics of Freemasonry is really founded on the two great ideas of the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.


ETHIOPIA

A tract of country to the south of Egypt, and watered by the upper Nile. The reference to Ethiopia, familiar to Freemasons, as a place of attempted escape for certain criminals, is not to be found in the English or French accounts, and Brother Mackey was inclined to think that this addition to the Hiramic legend is an American interpolation. The selection of Ethiopia, by the old authorities, as a place of refuge, seems to be rather inappropriate when we consider what must have been the character of that country in the age of Solomon.


ETYMOLOGY

For the etymology of the word Masons see Mason, Derivation of the Word.


EUCLID

In the Year of the World, 3650, Anno Mundi, which was 646 years after the building of King Solomon's Temple, Euclid, the celebrated geometrician, was born. His name has been always associated with the history of Freemasonry, and in the reign of Ptolemy Soter, the Order is said to have greatly flourished in Egypt, under his auspices. The well-known forty-seventh problem of his first book, although not discovered by him, but long credited to Pythagoras, has been adopted as a symbol in Masonic instruction.


EUCLID, LEGEND OF

All the old manuscript Constitutions contain the well known legend of Euclid, whose name is presented to us as the Worthy Clerk Euclid in every conceivable variety of corrupted form. The legend as given in the Dowland Manuscript is in the following words:

Moreover, when Abraham and Sara his wife went into Egypt, there he taught the Seven Sciences to the Egiptians and he had a worthy Scoller that height Ewelyde, and he learned right well, and was a master of all the vij Sciences liberal. And in his days it befell that the lord and the estates of the realms had so many sons that they had gotten some by their wives and some by other ladies of the realm, for that land is a hot land and a plenteous of generation. And they had not competent livelode to find with their children; wherefore they made much care. And then the King of the land made a great Counsel and a parllament to witt, how they might find their children honestly as gentlemen; And they could find no manner of good way And then they did cry through all the realms. if their were any man that could inform them, that he should come to them, and he should be so awarded for his travail that he hold him pleased. After that this cry was made, then came this worthy Clarke Ewclyde and said to the King and to all his great lords: If yee will, take me your children to govern, and to teach them one of the Seven Scyences wherewith they may live honestly as gentlemen should, under a condicion, that yee will grant me and them a commission that I may have power to rule them after the manner that the science ought to be ruled. And that the King and all his counsel granted to him alone, and sealed their communion. And then this worthy Doctor took to him these lords' sons, and taught them the science of Geometric in practice, for to work in stones all manner of worthy works that belongeth to buildings churches temples, castles, towers, and manors. and all other manner of buildings; and he gave them a charge on this manner.

Here follow the usual "charges" of a Freemason as given in all the old Constitutions; and then the legend concludes with these words: "And thus was the science grounded there; and that worthy Mr. Ewelyde gave it the name of Geo7netrie. And now it is called through all this land Masonry" (see Brother Hughan's Old Charges, edition of 1872, page 26).

This legend, considered historically, is certainly absurd, and the anachronism which makes Euclid the contemporary of Abraham adds, if possible, to the absurdity. But interpreted as all Masonic legends should be interpreted, as merely intended to convey a Masonic truth in symbolic language, it loses its absurdity, and becomes invested with an importance that we should not otherwise attach to it.

Euclid is here very appropriately used as a type of geometry, that science of which he was so eminent a teacher; and the myth or legend then symbolizes the fact that there was in Egypt a close connection between that science and the great moral and religious system which was among the Egyptians, as well as other ancient nations, what Freemasonry is at the present day—a secret institution, established for the inculcation of the same principles, and inculcating them in the same symbolic manner. So interpreted this legend corresponds to all the developments of Egyptian history, which teach us how close a connection existed in that country between the religious and scientific systems. Thus Kenrick (Ancient egypt i, 383) tells us that "when we read of foreigners in Egypt being obliged to submit to painful and tedious ceremonies of initiation, it was not that they might learn the secret meaning of the rites of Osiris or Isis but that they might partake of the knowledge of astronomy, physic, geometry, and theology." The legend of Euclid belongs to that class of narrations which, in another work, Doctor Mackey calls The Mythical Symbols of Freemasonry.


EULOGY

Spoken or written praise of a person's life or character. Freemasonry delights to do honor to the memory of departed Brethren by the delivery of eulogies of their worth and merit, which are either delivered at the time of their burial, or at some future period. The eulogy forms the most important part of the ceremonies of a Sorrow Lodge. But the language of the eulogist should be restrained within certain limits; while the veil of charity should be thrown over the frailties of the deceased, the praise of his virtues should not be expressed with exaggerated adulation, slavish flattery Eulogy, just and affectionate is one thing; panegyric, suggesting hypocritical compliment, is something else.


EUMOLPUS

A king of Eleusis, who founded, about the year 1374 B.C., the Mysteries of Eleusis. His descendants, the Eumoipidae, presided for twelve hundred years over these Mysteries as Hierophants.


EUNUCH

It is usual, in the most correct Masonic instruction, especially to name eunuchs as being incapable of initiation. In none of the old Constitutions and Charges is this class of persons alluded to by name, although of course they are comprehended in the general prohibition against making Freemasons of persons who have any blemish or maim. However, in the Charges which were published by Doctor Anderson, in his second edition (see Constitution, 1738, page 144) they are included in the list of prohibited candidates. It is probable from this evidence that at the time it was usual to name them in the point of obligation above referred to; and this presumption derives strength from the fact that Dermott, in copying his Charges from those of Anderson's second edition, added a note complaining of the Moderns for having disregarded this ancient law, in at least one instance (see Brother Lawrence Dermott's Ahiman Rezon, edition of 1778). The question is, however, not worth discussion, except as a matter of interest in the history of our ceremonies, since the legal principle is already determined that eunuchs cannot be initiated because they are not perfect men, "having no maim ox defect in their bodies."


EUPHRATES

One of the largest and most celebrated rivers of Asia. Rising in the mountains of Armenia and flowing into the Persian gulf, it necessarily lies between Jerusalem and Babylon. In the advanced degrees it is referred to as the stream over which the Knights of the East won a passage by their arms in returning from Babylon to Jerusalem.


EURESIS

From the Greeli, xxpfatS, meaning a discovery. That part of the initiation in the Ancient Masteries which represented the finding of the body of the god or hero whose death and resurrection was the subject of the initiation. The Euresis has been adopted in Freemasonry, and forms an essential incident of Craft instruction.


EUROPE

An appellation or name at times given to the west end of the Lodge.


EVA

The acclamation or cry used in the French Rite of Adoption.


EVANGELICON

The gospel belonging to the so-called Ordre du Temple at Paris, and professedly a relic of the real Templars. Some believe in its antiquity; but others, from external and internal evidence, fix its date subsequent to the fifteenth century. It is apparently a garbled version of Saint John's Gospel. It is sometimes confounded with the Leviticon but, though bound up in the same printed volume, it is entirely distinct.


EVANGELIST

See Saint John the Evangelist.


EVATES

The second Degree in the Druidical system. Of the three Degrees the first was the Bards, the second Evates or Prophets, and the third Druids or Sanctified Authorities.


EVEILLES, SECTE DES

Meaning in French, Sect of the Enlightened. According to Thory (Acta Latomorum i, 31?) a society presumed to be a branch of Weishaupt's Illumines that existed in Italy.


EVERGETEN, BUND DER

A German expression meaning League of Doers of Good, a term taken from the Greek word fVfpefmS, a benefactor. A secret order after the manner of the Illuminati. It was founded in Silesia about 1792, by a certain Zerboni of Glogau, Lieut. von Leipzinger, the merchant Contessa, Herr von Reibnitz, and five others; that Fessler worked in it- that it used Masonic forms. Some of the members were imprisoned at Breslau in 1796, and about 1801 the society became defunct.


EVERGREEN

An evergreen plant is a symbol of the immortality of the soul. The ancients, therefore, as well as the moderns, planted evergreens at the heads of graves. Freemasons wear evergreens at the funerals of their Brethren, and cast them into the graves. The acacia is the plant which should be used on these occasions, but w here it cannot be obtained, some other evergreen plant, especially the cedar, or box, is used as a substitute (see Acacia).


EVORA, KNIGHTS OF

There is a very ancient city in Portugal, of 1200 population, bearing the name of Evora. Quintus Sertorius took it 80 B.C. The Roman antiquities are unrivaled. The aqueduct erected by Sertorius has at one end a marvelous architectural tower rising high above the city, perfect in its condition as when built, 70 B.C. In 1147, King Alfonso I, of Portugal, instituted the Order of the New Militia in consequence of the prowess exhibited by the troops in the siege of Lisbon against the Moors. When they conquered Evora in 1166, the king by decree changed their name to Knights of Evora.


EXALTED

A candidate is said to be exalted, when he receives the Degree of Holy Royal Arch, the seventh in American Freemasonry. Exalted means elevated or lifted up, and is applicable both to a peculiar ceremony of the Degree, and to the fact that this Degree, in the Rite in which it is practiced, constitutes the summit of ancient Freemasonry.

The rising of the sun of spring from his wintry sleep into the glory of the vernal equinox was called by the old sun-worshipers his exaltation; and the Fathers of the Church afterward applied the same term to the resurrection of Christ. Saint Athanasius says that by the expression, "God hath exalted him," Saint Paul meant the resurrection. Exaltation, therefore, technically means a rising from a lower to a higher sphere, and in Royal Arch Masonry may be supposed to refer to the being lifted up out of the first temple of this life into the second temple of the future life. The candidate is raised in the Master's Degree, he is exalted in the Royal Arch. In both the symbolic idea is the same.


EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES

It is an almost universal rule of the modern Constitutions of Freemasonry, that an examination upon the subjects which had been taught in the preceding Degree shall be required of every Brother who is desirous of receiving a further Degree; and it is directed that this examination shall take place in an open Lodge of the Degree upon which the examination is made, that all the members present may have an opportunity of judging from actual inspection of the proficiency and fitness of the candidate for the advancement to which he aspires.

The necessity of an adequate comprehension of the mysteries of one Degree, before any attempt is made to acquire a further one, seems to have been duly appreciated from the earliest times; and hence the 13th Article of the Regius Manuscript requires that if a Master has an Apprentice he shall teach him fully, that he may know his Craft ably wherever he may go. (see lines 239 to 244). But there is no evidence that the system of examining candidates as to their proficiency, before their advancement, is other than a modern improvement, and first adopted not very early in the last century.


EXAMINATION OF THE BALLOT BOX

This is sometimes done after the ballot for a candidate, by presenting the box first to the Junior Warden, then to the Senior, and lastly to the Master, each of whom proclaims the result as clear or foul. This order is adopted so that the declaration of the inferior officer, as to the state of the ballots, may be confirmed and substantiated by his superior.


EXAMINATION OF VISITORS

The due examination of strangers who claim the right to visit, should be entrusted only to the most skillful and prudent Brethren of the Lodge. And the examining committee should never forget, that no man applying for admission is to be considered as a Freemason, however strong may be his recommendations, until by undeniable evidence he has proved himself to be such. All the necessary forms and antecedent cautions should be observed. Inquiries should be made as to the time and place of initiation, as a preliminary step the Tiler's pledge, of course, never being omitted.

Then remember the good old rule of "commencing at the beginning." Let everything proceed in regular course, not varying in the slightest degree from the order in which it is to be supposed that the information sought was originally received. Whatever be the suspicions of imposture, let no expression of those suspicions be made until the final decree for rejection is uttered. And let that decree be uttered in general terms, such as, "I am not satisfied," or "I do not recognize you," and not in more specific language, such as, "You did not answer this inquiry," or thou are ignorant on that point," The candidate for examination is only entitled to know that he has not complied generally with the requisitions of his examiner. To descend to particulars is always improper and often dangerous.

Above all, never ask what the lawyers call leading questions, which include in themselves the answers, nor in any manner aid the memory or prompt the forgetfulness of the party examined, by the slightest hints. If he has it in him it will come out without assistance, and if he has it not, he is clearly entitled to no aid. The Freemason who is so unmindful of his obligations as to have forgotten the instructions he has received, must pay the penalty of his carelessness, and be deprived of his contemplated visit to that society whose secret modes of recognition he has so little valued as not to have treasured them in his memory.

And, lastly, never should an unjustifiable delicacy weaken the rigor of these rules. Remember, that for the wisest and most evident reasons, the merciful maxim of the law, which says that it is better that ninety-nine guilty men should escape than that one innocent man should be punished, is with us reversed, and that in Freemasonry it is better that ninety anal nine true men should be turned away from the door of a Lodge than that one cowan should be admitted.


EXCALIBAR

King Arthur's famous sword, which he withdrew from a miraculous stone after the unavailing efforts of 200 of his most puissant barons. Hence, Arthur was proclaimed King. When dying, Arthur commanded a servant to throw the sword into a neighboring lake, but the servant twice eluded this command. When he finally complied, a hand and arm arose from the water, seized the sword by the hilt, waved it thrice, then sinking into the lake, was seen no more.


EXCAVATIONS

Excavations beneath Jerusalem have for years past been in progress, under the direction of the English society, which controls the "Palestine Exploration Fund," and many important discoveries, especially interesting to Freemasons, have been made.


EXCELLENT

A title conferred on the Grand Captain of the Host, and Grand Principal Sojourner of a Grand Chapter, and on the King and Scribe of a subordinate Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in America.


EXCELLENT MASONS

Doctor Oliver ( Historical Landmarks I, 420-8) gives a tradition that at the building of Solomon's Temple there were several Lodges of Excellent Masons, having nine members in each, which were distributed as follows: six Lodges, or fifty-four Excellent Masons in the quarries; three Lodges, or twenty-seven Excellent Masons in the forest of Lebanon; eight Lodges, or seventy-two Excellent Masons engaged in preparing the materials; and nine Lodges, or eighty-one Excellent Masons subsequently employed in building the Temple. Of this tradition there is not the lightest support in authentic history, and it must have been invented altogether for 3 symbolic purpose, in reference perhaps to the musical numbers which it details.


EXCELLENT MASTER

A Degree which, with that of Super-Excellent blaster, was at one time given as preparatory to the Royal Arch. The latter Degree nova forms part of what is known as Cryptic Masonry. Crypt is a word from the Latin language as well as the Greek, meaning hidden, and frequently applied to a vault or secret chamber.


EXCELLENT, MOST

See Most Excellent


EXCELLENT, RIGHT

See Right Excellent


EXCELLENT, SUPER

See Super-Excellent Masons


EXCLUSION

In England the Grand Lodge alone can expel from the rights and privileges of Freemasonry. But a subordinate Lodge may exclude a member after giving him due notice of the charge preferred against him and of the time appointed for its consideration.

The name of any one so excluded, and the cause of his exclusion must be sent to the Grand Secretary and to the Provincial or District Grand Secretary if the Lodge be in a Province or District. No Freemason excluded is eligible to any other Lodge until the Lodge to which he applies has been made acquainted with his exclusion, and the cause, so that the Brethren may exercise their discretion as to his admission (Constitutions, Rules 210 and 212). However, it was enacted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1902 that when a member is three years in arrears he ceases to hold membership in his Lodge and can regain his former standing only by submitting a regular petition and passing the ballot (see Book of Constitutions, Article 175).

In the United States of America the expression used as synonymous with Exclusion is striking from the roll, except that the latter punishment is inflicted for non-payment of Lodge dues. The general practice is to suspend for non-payment of dues, the Brother regaining his standing, if there be no other objection to him, by paying the arrearages that he owed.


EXCLUSIVENESS OF FREEMASONRY

The exclusiveness of Masonic benevolence is a charge that has frequently been made against the Order; and it is said that the charity of which it boasts is always conferred on its own members in preference to strangers. It cannot be denied that Freemasons, simply as Freemasons, have ever been more constant and more profuse in their charities to their own Brethren than to the rest of the world; that in apportioning the alms which God has given them to bestow, they have first looked for the poor in their own home before they sought those who were abroad; and that their hearts have felt more deeply for the destitution of a Brother than a stranger.

The principle that governs the Institution of Freemasonry, in the distribution of its charities, and the exercise of all the friendly affections, is that which was laid down by Saint Paul for the government of the infant church at Galatia: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Galatians vi, 10).

This sentiment of preference for those of one's own faith, thus sanctioned by apostolic authority, is the dictate of human nature, and the words of Scripture find their echo in every heart. "Blood," says the Spanish proverb, "is thicker than water," and the claims of kindred, of friends and comrades to our affections, must not be weighed in the same scale with those of the stranger, who has no stronger tie to bind him to our sympathies, than that of a common origin from the founder of our race. All associations of men act on this principle. It is acknowledged in the church which follows with strict obedience the injunction of the apostle; and in the relief it affords to the distressed, in the comforts and consolations which it imparts to the afflicted, and in the rights and privileges which it bestows upon its own members, distinguishes between those who have no community with it of religious belief, and those who, by worshiping at the same altar, have established the higher claim of being of the household of faith.

It is recognized by all other societies, which, however they may, from time to time, and under the pressure of peculiar circumstances, extend temporary aid to accidental cases of distress, carefully preserve their own peculiar funds for the relief of those who, by their election as members, by their subscription to a written constitution, and by the regular payment of arrears, have assumed the relationship which Saint Paul defines as being of the household of faith.

It is recognized by governments, which, however liberally they may frame their laws, so that every burden may bear equally on all, and each may enjoy the same civil and religious rights, never fail, in the privileges which they bestow, to discriminate between the alien and foreigner, whose visit is but temporary or whose allegiance is elsewhere, and their own citizens.

This principle of preference is universally diffused, and it is well that it is so. It is well that those who are nearer should be dearer; and that a similitude of blood, an identity of interest, or a community of purpose, should give additional strength to the ordinary ties that bind man to man. man, in the weakness of his nature, requires this security by his own unaided efforts, he cannot accomplish the objects of his life nor supply the necessary wants of his existence. In this state of utter helplessness, God has wisely and mercifully provided a remedy by implanting in the human breast a love of union and an ardent desire for society.

Guided by this instinct of preservation, man eagerly seeks communion of man, and the weakness of the individual is compensated by the strength of association. It is to this consciousness of mutual dependence, that nations are indebted for their existence, and governments for their durability. And under the impulse of the same instinct of society, brotherhoods and associations are formed, whose members, concentrating their efforts for the attainment of one common object, bind themselves by voluntary ties of love and friendship, more powerful than those which arise from the ordinary feelings of human nature.


EXCLUSIVE TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION

Grand Lodges in the United States have adhered to State lines as the limits of their activities, but this has not been so strictly the custom elsewhere. Some particulars of the situations arising from the contact of different practices may be seen in the following statement of the action taken by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania against the Grand Orient of France.

At the Annual Grand Communication of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia, December 27, 1924, Right Worshipful Past Grand Master Brother Abraham M. Beitler, Chairman of Committee on Clandestine Lodges in Pennsylvania, presented the following report, when, on motion, the resolutions attached thereto were unanimously adopted.

The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana at its fifty-seventh Annual Communication held February, 1869, delivered an address, in the course of which he said:

"It has become my painful duty to bring to your notice the action of the Grand Orient of France, with whom we have for many years been upon the most friendly and brotherly terms of esteem and regard. The Grand Orient of France has aided and assisted this Grand Lodge in times of trouble and anxiety, by her firm adherence to constitutional law and Masonic justice. In the month of December I received from the office of the Grand Orient through the post office an official bulletin containing a decree which certainly surprised me. It has, with a strange perversion, and unaccountable want of consistency, recognized a clandestine body in this city, calling itself the Supreme Council of the Sovereign and Independent State of Louisiana.

"It will become your painful duty to take notice of this action of the Grand Orient of France, and make such decree as in your wisdom may be found expedient and necessary, to sustain the dignity of this Grand Lodge and maintain its authority over Craft Masonry in this Jurisdiction. There can be no divided authority. Upon one principle we are all agreed, and while we have life we will sustain it. The Grand Lodge of Louisiana will never submit to a divided jurisdiction, and in this position she will be sustained by every Grand Lodge in North America, for all are interested alike in sustaining each other. This principle once abandoned, the power of Masonry for good is gone. Discord and confusion will reign supreme, and the sun of Masonry will set in a sea of darkness."

The Committee on Foreign Correspondence submitted a report on the Grand Orient's action, with full translations of the decrees and debates relating to its recognition of the "Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in and for the Sovereign State of Louisiana" and entering into fraternal relations with that clandestine Body. The report concluded with these words:

"This spirit, which seeks to impair the honor and subvert the dignity of this Grand Lodge, will, we doubt not, be properly appreciated by our sister Grand Lodges, and in submitting the following resolutions, your committee feel confident that the Grand Lodge will receive from her American sisters the same sympathy and support which they so generously extended to the Grand Lodge of New York, when her jurisdiction was invaded by the Grand Lodge of Hamburg."

The resolutions offered with the above report were:

RESOLVED, I
That all Masonic correspondence and fraternal relations between the Grand Lodge of Louisiana and the Grand Orient of France cease and be discontinued and no Mason owing allegiance to that Grand Body be recognized as such in this jurisdiction

RESOLVED, II
That a duly authenticated copy of the above report and resolution be transmitted to the Grand Orient of France and to all regularly constituted American and European Grand Lodges. The report and the resolutions were adopted.

In his address at the Annual Grand Communication of the same Grand Lodge, December 27, 1869, the retiring Right Worshipful Grand Master Brother Richard Vaux, said:

"Within the past year, the action of the Grand Orient of France in recognizing a spurious Grand Lodge within the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, has been considered by most of the Grand Lodges of the United States. In each case our sister Grand Lodges have denounced this action as un-masonic. New York and Massachusetts have exhaustively discussed the question and acted accordingly. I am most happy to find that the principle the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania has ever proclaimed, that a Grand Lodge must be supreme and sovereign within its jurisdiction, is thus acknowledged. But in the case before us, another principle which this Grand Lodge has maintained is also accepted as Masonic law. We have asserted that one Grand Lodge will not permit any interference, by any other Grand Lodge, with her sovereignty as a Grand Body; that her power within her jurisdiction tolerates no rival; and when an effort is made to that end, it is the solemn duty of all Grand Lodges to protest, and take such other action as the ease demands. The facts are so clear, in this unjustifiable interference in Louisiana, that I deem it proper to state, that all correspondence between the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Grand Orient of France should cease, till the latter recalls its presumptuous interceding with the affairs of our sister Grand Lodge of Louisiana, and yields assent to that paramount principle of American Free masonry, which lies at the foundation of the supreme sovereignty of Grand Lodges of Freemasons in the United States."

The Grand Master of Louisiana at the fifty-eighth Annual Communication, held February 14, 1870, said:

"The Grand Orient of France still maintains the anomalous position which it so unwisely assumed now more than a year ago, and still holds in its embrace a spurious and clandestine body, without any legal title whatever to be called Masonic. From our Brethren in every quarter of the globe come messages of approval of the course taken by our Grand Lodge and in no instance, where the matter of difference has been clearly understood, has Louisiana been condemned for the firm stand she has taken. Even the Supreme Council of England, of the Scottish Rite, has adopted resolutions censuring the Grand Orient of France for having accorded recognition to a spurious body of men, who indeed claim to be Masons, but who have never been elsewhere recognized as such, and who have no legal or proper right to the title, upon so specious and so false a plea as that given by Grand Master Mellinet, and for its improper infringement of the jurisdiction rights of our Grand Lodge." At that Annual Communication the Committee on Foreign Correspondence in its report said: "The action of our Grand Lodge, suspending fraternal relations with the Grand Orient of France on account of its recognition of the spurious Supreme Council of Louisiana, which has established Symbolic Lodges in our jurisdiction, has been fully sustained at home and abroad. The principle, that the Grand Lodge of each state has exclusive jurisdiction over the symbolic degrees within its territorial limits, is so well established in the United States, that we confidently relied on our sister Grand Lodges extending to us the same generous sympathy and support which New York received when its jurisdictional rights were invaded by the Grand Lodge of Hamburg.

"Nor have we been disappointed; New York led the van in declaring non-intercourse with the foreign invader. Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin have followed its example; Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Ohio have protested in a firm, butt courteous manner, against the act of the Grand Orient; Vermont and a number of other states have also spoken in terms not to be misunderstood, but we have not yet received official notice of their action. So far as the proceedings received in season for this report give the action of the Grand Lodges or the views of their committees on the subject, we have submitted them without note or comment the able manner in which the question has been discussed from every point of view, precluding any remarks of our own.

"Here, however, we may be permitted to remark that the question is one which appeals to every Grand Lodge, for if the act of the Grand Orient had been permitted to pass unrebuked, the sovereignty of each Grand Lodge would have been endangered, as what is our case today may be theirs tomorrow and in defending our rights they are maintaining their own. yet not the less gratefully do we acknowledge the fraternal spirit which has been displayed in sustaining the action of our Grand Lodge, and, while we regret the occasion ever arose, it is a matter of congratulation that it has shown to the Masonic powers of the world that the Grand Lodges of the United States will submit to no foreign interference with their rights. It has demonstrated that any attempt in that direction will only unite them more closely together in the bonds of Masonic fellowship, and that, while "separate as the billows, they are one as the sea."

The following further comments were made by Brother Beitler:

"Your Committee on Clandestine Lodges in Pennsylvania have within the past month learned that a clandestine body in our State calling itself Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Universal Free Masonry' and claiming the right to confer the first three degrees in Freemasonry has been taken under the wind of the Grand Orient of France. The two bodies have entered into formal contract, some of the provisions of which were interesting.

"It provides that the body in our State shall pay annually to the Grand Orient of France the sum of $10, for each active lodge; that it shall buy all diplomas it may require of the Grand Orient at the price of 15 francs each, the diplomas to be on parchment, printed in both English and French. "The body working under the Grand Orient is to have the right to institute new Lodges in the United States wherever it may deem convenient. It shall receive for them warrants issued from the Grand Orient of France, but it is not to be permitted to create Lodges in territories of the United States outside of Pennsylvania with which the Grand Orient of France is in fraternal relations. These territories are stated as being Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

"lt is further provided that should there be at any time in the future a cessation of the relations of the Grand Orient of France with one or more of these states, then the body in Pennsylvania shall have 'plenitude of action.'

"The body in Pennsylvania is given the right to practice the Scottish Rite including the Symbolic Degrees.

"In the official records of the Grand Orient of France for December, 1923, the Grand Secretary submits a report which was adopted. In it he said:

"'The Regional Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was abandoned by the Grand Orient of Spain. They now ask the Grand Orient of France to take it under its wings. You will recall that we entered into relations with the Grand Master of this Grand Lodge through the intermediation of our Brother Beni, Past Master of L'Atlantide.... The correspondence with the Pennsylvania Brethren was through a Brother Gould, Lawyer.

"We feel that Pennsylvania should with the utmost emphasis denounce this action of the Grand Orient of France. We cannot acknowledge the right of any other Grand Body outside of our Grand Jurisdiction (whether regarded by us as legitimate or not—whether in fraternal relations with us or not) to invade the territory of our Grand Lodge.

"The association which the Grand Secretary of the Grand Orient of France styles the 'Regional Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania' and which we have called the 'Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Universal Freemasonry,' is not lawfully in possession of the rights which the Grand Orient attempted to give.

"We deem it our duty to call the matter to the attention of the Grand Lodge. We ask the adoption of the following:

RESOLVED, III
That the Grand Secretary forward to each of the Grand Lodges in the United States a copy of this report, calling their attention to the fact that the body which the Grand Orient of France has "taken under its wings is authorized by the Grand Orient of France to create Lodges in every State, excepting Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Rhode Island and New Jersey, and that its power is to extend to those States if and when the fraternal relations nos existing between the several Grand Lodges of those States and the Grand Orient of France cease.

RESOLVED FURTHER
That this Grand Lodge, which has always firmly held and still holds the views expressed by our Right Worshipful Grand Plaster Brother Richard Vaux (set out in the foregoing report) respectfully and confidently asks its sister jurisdictions to adopt those views as fundamental in Freemasonry and requests those Grand Lodges which are in fraternal relations with the Grand Orient of France to give their adherence to those views and sever further relations with the said Grand Orient.

The above resolutions presented by Brother Beitler, Chairman of the Committee on Clandestine Lodges in Pennsylvania, were unanimously adopted by the Grand Lodge of that State (see Territorial Jurisdiction).


EXCUSE

Lodges in the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth inflicted fines for nonattendance at Lodge meetings, and of course excuses were then required to avoid the penalty. But this has now grown out of use. Freemasonry being considered a voluntary institution, fines for absence are not inflicted, and excuses are therefore not now required. The infliction of a fine would, it is supposed, detract from the solemnity of the obligation which makes attendance a duty. The old Constitutions, however, required excuses for non-attendance, although no penalty was prescribed for a violation of the rule. Thus, in the Matthew Cooke Manuscript (of the fifteenth century) it is said, "that every master of this art should be warned to come to his congregation that they come duly, but if (unless) they may be excused by some manner of cause" (see lines 7404). And in the Regius Manuscript (lines 107-12) it is written: That every master, that is a Mason;

Must ben at the generate congregaeyon
So that he hyt resonebly y-tolde
Where that the semble shall be holde;
And to that semble he must nede gon
But he have a resenabul skwsacyon.


EXECUTIVE POWERS OF A GRAND LODGE

See Grand Lodge


EXEGETICAL AND PHILANTHROPICAL SOCIETY

According to Thory (Acta Latomorumi i 312) founded at Stockholm in 1787. It united Magnetism to Swedenborgianism, the religious doctrines of the celebrated Swedish philosopher; it was at first secret, but when it became known it was killed by ridicule.


EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE WORK

This term is of frequent use in American Freemasonry. When a lecturer or teacher performs the ceremonies of a Degree for instruction, using generally one of the Freemasons present as a substitute for the candidate, he is said "to exemplify the work." It is done for instruction, or to enable the members of the Grand or subordinate Lodge to determine on the character of the ritual that is taught by the exemplifies..


EXODUS

The date of the Exodus has been determined by the excavations recently made at Tel elMaskhtta. This is the name of large mounds near Tel el-Reber, excavated by M. Naville for the Egyptian Exploration Fund, wherein he found inscriptions showing that they represent the ancient City of Pithom or Succoth, the "treasure-cities" (Exodus i, 11), and that Ramses II, was the founder. This was the Pharaoh of the oppression. The walls of the treasure chambers were about six hundred and fifty feet square and twenty-two feet thick. From Pithom, or Succoth, where the Israelites were at work, they started on their exodus toward Etham (Khetam), then to Pihachiroth (Exodus xiv, 2), and so on north and east. The exodus took place under Meneptah II, who ascended the throne 1325 B.C., and reigned but a short period. It was along the isthmus that the Egyptian army perished pursuing the retreating Israelites as they crossed between Lake Serbonis and the waters of the Mediterranean, amidst the "sea of papyrus reeds," the yam suph, that has often proved disastrous to single or congregated travelers (see S. Birch, LL.D., in Ancient History from the Monuments, Brugsch-Bey's lecture, 17th September, 1874; but more particularly the discoveries above referred to, in Fresh Lights, etc., by A. H. Sayce).


EXOTERIC

From the Greek combining word, ego, meaning outside. Public, not secret, belonging to the uninitiated (see also Esoteric).


EXPERT

In Lodges of the French Rite, there are two officers called First and Second Experts, whose duty it is to assist the Master of Ceremonies in the initiation of a candidate. In Lodges of Perfection of the Scottish Rite, there are similar officers who are known as the Senior and Junior Expert.


EXPERT, PERFECT

Conferred in three grades, and cited in Fustier's collection (see Thory, Acta Latomorum i, 312).


EXPERT, SUBLIME ENGLISH

Mentioned in Fustier's collection (see Thory, Acta Latomorum i, 312).


EXPOSITIONS

Very early after the revival of Freemasonry, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, pretended expositions of the ritual of Freemasonry began to be published.

There have been several American expositions but the compilers have only been servile copyists of Morgan, Bernard, and Allyn. The undertaking has been, and continues to be, simply the pouring out of one vial into another.

The expositions which abound in the French, German, and other continental languages, are not attacks upon Freemasonry, but are written often under authority, for the use of the Fraternity.

The usages of continental Freemasonry permit a freedom of publication that would scarcely be tolerated by the English or American Craft.


EXPULSION

Expulsion is, of all Masonic penalties, the most severe that can be inflicted on a member of the Order, and hence it has been often called a Masonic death. It deprives the expelled of all the rights and privileges that he ever enjoyed, not only as a member of the particular Lodge from which he has been ejected, but also of those which were inherent in him as a member of the Fraternity at large. He is at once as completely divested of his Masonic character as though he had never been admitted, so far as regards his rights, while his duties and obligations remain as firm as ever, it being impossible for any human power to cancel them. He can no longer demand the aid of his Brethren nor require from them the performance of any of the duties to which he was formerly entitled, nor visit any Lodge, nor unite in any of the public or private ceremonies of the Order. He is considered as being without the pale, and it would be criminal in any Brother, aware of his expulsion, to hold communication with him on Masonic subjects.

The only proper tribunal to impose this heavy punishment is a Grand Lodge. A subordinate Lodge tries its delinquent member, and if guilty declares him expelled. But the sentence is of no force until the Grand Lodge, under whose jurisdiction it is working, has confirmed it. And it is optional with the Grand Lodge to do so. or, as is frequently done, to reverse the decision and reinstate the brother. Some of the Lodges in this country claim the right to expel independently of the action of the Grand Lodge, but the claim in Brother Mackey's opinion is not valid. He held that the very fact that an expulsion is a penalty, affecting the general relations of the punished Brother with the whole Fraternity, proves that its exercise never could with propriety be entrusted to a Body so circumscribed in its authority as a subordinate Lodge. Besides, the general practice of the Fraternity is against it. The English Constitutions vest the powers to expel exclusively in the Grand Lodge. A Private Lodge has only the power to exclude an offending member from its own meetings.

All Freemasons, whether members of Lodges or not, are subject to the infliction of this punishment when found to merit it. Resignation or withdrawal from the Order does not cancel a Freemason's obligations, nor exempt him from that wholesome control which the Order exercises over the moral conduct of its members. The fact that a Freemason, not a member of any particular Lodge, who has been guilty of immoral or un-masonic conduct, can be tried and punished by any Lodge within whose jurisdiction he may be residing, is a point on which there is no doubt.

Immoral conduct, such as would subject a candidate for admission to rejection, should be the only offense visited with expulsion. As the punishment is general, affecting the relation of the one expelled with the whole Fraternity, it should not be lightly imposed for the violation of any Masonic act not general in its character. The commission of a grossly immoral act is a violation of the contract entered into between each Freemason and his Order. If sanctioned by silence or impunity, it would bring discredit on the Institution, and tend to impair its usefulness. A Freemason who is a bad man is to the Fraternity what a mortified limb is to the body, and should be treated with the same mode of cure he should be cut off, lest his example spread, and disease be propagated through the constitution.

Expulsion from one of what is called the higher Degrees of Freemasonry, such as a Chapter or an Encampment, does not affect the relations of the expelled party to Blue Masonry. A Chapter of Royal Arch Masons is not and cannot be recognized as a Masonic Body by a Lodge of Master Masons by any of the modes of recognition known to Freemasonry. The acts, therefore, of a Chapter cannot be recognized by a Master Mason's Lodge any more than the acts of a literary or charitable society wholly unconnected with the Order.

Besides, by the present organization of Freemasonry, Grand Lodges are the supreme Masonic tribunals. If, therefore, expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons involved expulsion from a Blue Lodge, the right of the Grand Lodge to hear and determine causes, and to regulate the internal concerns of the Institution, would be interfered with by another Body beyond its control. But the converse of this proposition does not hold good. Expulsion from a Blue Lodge involves expulsion from all the other Degrees; because, as they are composes of what Brother Mackey here terms Blue Masons, the members could not of right sit and hold communications on Masonic subjects with one who was an expelled Freemason.


EXTENDED WINGS OF THE CHERUBIM

An expression used in the ceremonies of Royal Master, a Degree of the American Rite, and intended to teach symbolically that he who comes to ask and to seek Divine Truth symbolized by the True Word, should begin by placing himself under the protection of that Divine Power who alone is Truth, and from whom alone Truth can be obtained. Of Him the cherubim with extended wings in the Holy of Holies were a type.


EXTENT OF THE LODGE

The extent of a Freemason's Lodge is said to be in height from the earth to the highest heavens; in depth, from the surface to the center; in length, from east to west; and in breadth, from north to south. The expression is a symbolic one, and is intended to teach the extensive boundaries of Freemasonry and the in terminal extension of Masonic charity (see Form of the Lodge).


EXTERIOR

The name of the First Degree of the Rite d'Orient, or East, according to the nomenclature of M. Fustier (see Thory, Acta Latomarum i, 31 ).


EXTERNAL QUALIFICATIONS

The eternal qualifications of candidates for initiation are those which refer to their outward fitness, based upon the exhibited moral and religious character, the established reputation, the frame of body, the constitution of the mind, and social position. Hence they are divided into Moral, Religious, Physical, Mental, and Political for which see Qualifications of Candidates.
The expression in the instruction, that "it is the internal and not the external qualifications that recommend a man to be made a Freemason," it is evident, from the context, refers entirely to "worldly wealth and honors," which, of course, are not to be taken into consideration in inquiring into the qualifications of a candidate.


EXTINCT LODGE

A Lodge is said to be extinct which has ceased to exist and work, which is no longer on the registry of the Grand Lodge, and whose Charter had been revoked for misuse or forfeited for non-use.


EXTRA COMMUNICATION

The same as Special Communication (see Communication).


EXTRANEOUS

From the Latin and applied to that which is outside, and thus said among the Craft to be not regularly made; clandestine. The word is now obsolete in this signification, but was so used by the Grand Lodge of England in a motion adopted March 31, 1735, and reported by Anderson in his 1738 edition of the Constitutions (page 182). "No extraneous brothers, that is, not regularly made, but clandestinely, . . . shall be ever qualified to partake of the Mason's general charity."


EXTRUSION

Used in the Constitution of the Royal Order of Scotland for expulsion. "If a brother shall be convicted of crime by any Court of Justice, such brother shall be permanently extruded" (see Section 29). Not in use elsewhere as a Masonic term.


EYE

See All Seeing Eye


EZEKIEL, TEMPLE OF

See Temple of Ezekiel


EZEL

In Hebrew, iRK-U t:R eben hahezel, meaning the stone of departure, namely, a mile-stone. n old testimonial stone in the neighborhood of Saul's residence, the scene of the parting of David and Jonathan, and the mark beyond which the falling of Jonathan's arrow indicated danger (see First Samuel xx, 19). Hence, a word adopted in the honorary Degree that is called the Mason's XVife and Daughter.


EZRA

There are two persons named Etra who are recorded in Scripture.

1. Etra, a leading priest among the first colonists who came up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, and who is mentioned by Nehemiah (xii, i); and, 2. Ezra, the celebrated Jewish scribe and restorer of the law, who visited Jerusalem forty-two years after the second temple had been completed. Calmet, however, says that this second Ezra had visited Jerusalem previously in company with Zerubbabel. Some explanation of this kind is necessary to reconcile an otherwise apparent inconsistency in the English system of the Royal Arch, which makes two of its officers represent Ezra and Nehemiah under the title of scribes, while at the same time it makes the time of the ceremony refer to the laying of the foundation of the second Temple, and yet places in the scene, as a prominent actor, the later Ezra, who did not go up to Jerusalem until more than forty years after the completion of the building. It is more probable that the Ezra who is said in the work to have wrought with Joshua, Haggai, and Zerubbabel, was intended by the original framer of the ceremony to refer to the first Ezra, who is recorded by Nehemiah as having been present; and that the change was made in the reference without due consideration, by some succeeding author whose mistake has been carelessly perpetuated by those who followed him. Dr. George Oliver (see Historical Landmarks ii, 428) attempts to reconcile the difficulty, and to remove the anachronism, by saying that Esdras was the scribe under Joshua, Haggai, and Zerubbabel, and that he was succeeded in this important office by Ezra and Nehemiah. But the English ceremonies make no allusion to this change of succession; and if it did, it would not enable us to understand how Ezra and Nehemiah could be present as scribes when the foundations of the second Temple were laid, and the important secrets of the Royal Arch Degree were brought to light, unless the Ezra meant is the one who came to Jerusalem with Nehemiah. Brother Mackey suggested that there is a confusion in all this which should be rectified.


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