In Hebrew the letter is n. Cheth; the hieroglyph
was an altar as in the illustration, and finally the Hebrew n.
The eighth letter in the alphabet, and in Hebrew has the value
in number of 8, while the Hebrew an, He, which is of the same
hieroglyphic formation, has the numerical valuation of 5.
H. . A. . B.
An abbreviation of Hiram Abif
HABAKKUK
The Hebrew is "pipan", meaning
a struggler, a favorite. The eighth of the twelve minor prophets.
No account is contained in the Book of Habakkuk, either of the
events of his life or the date when he lived. He is believed by
many to have flourished about 630 B. C. In the Thirty-second Degree
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, his name answers to
the passwords Tuesday and Xerxes.
HABERDASHERS' COMPANY, THE WORSHIPFUL
Writing in 1837 William Herbert said of
this company "They were incorporated by letters patent of
the 26th of Henry Vl Anno 1447, by the style of the Fraternity
of St. Catherine of the Virgin, of the Haberdashers of the city
of London; but at present are denominated the Master and four
Wardens of the Fraternity of the Art or Mystery of Haberdashers
in the City of London. This corporation is governed by a master,
four wardens, and ninety-three assistants, with a livery of 342
members, who, upon their admission, pay in cash a fine [fee] of
twenty-five pounds, and to whom belongs a great estate, out of
which, according to the generous benefactions of the several donors,
they annually pay to charitable uses about the sum of £3,500....
They may take each too apprentices.... There have been twenty-two
lord mayors free of this company. Their principal tenets are Serve
and Obey. Their Patroness is St. Catherine. They have had altogether
ten charters." Originally, in the Fourteenth Century, the
Haberdashers were a branch of the gild of Mercers, dealers in
merchandises, or small wares (the phrase "small mercies"
may have thus originated), but in course of time the cappers,
or hat makers, separated from them. The Haberdashers of small
wares also were called Milaners, for selling merchandise from
Milan, corrupted into milliner. (In Queen Elizabeth's time the
English paid out £60,000 per year for pins alone.) The company,
though its first charter w as received in 1447, had been organized
a century before that, and had a set of regulations, or by-laws,
as early as 1372. Having lost its old documents in the London
fire of 1666 the come pony drew up a new code, and among the judges
giving it legal sanction was the great jurisconsult Sir Matthew
Hale. The officers were named as Master, four Wardens, and 50
Assistants. By "livery" was meant the ceremonial or
symbolic clothing which a privileged number of members was entitled
to wear: such livery did not signify servitude. The Hurrers, or
hatters, and Mercers were combined. The list of the Companies
charities is a long one: it supported five schools; four almshouses;
six benefices; two lectures; three exhibitions; and paid many
pensions. Many other benefactions it administered as a trustee.
The similarities between the Haberdashers'
Company and the Masonic Fraternity are very striking; the more
so since the Company was here chosen at random as a specimen of
the Twelve Great City Companies of London and the long list of
lesser Companies, the Mason Company being among the latter. They
were ancient; had apprentices; had ceremonies; administered an
oath; the membership was divided into ranks; they were governed
by Master and Wardens (in a Masonic Lodge that still is the case,
for the appointive officers are to assist the Master and Warden,
and the Secretary and Treasurer do not govern); they had tenets;
arms; were devoted to charity; had quarterly communications and
feasts and from a very early time admitted "non-operatives"
who "were made free" of the company, so that there were
"free Haberdashers" just as there were "free Masons."
This entering of non-Operatives into Masonry, of which they were
then "free," may be one of the many original meanings
of "free Mason." The antiquity, form of organization,
oaths, non-operatives, etc., cannot therefore explain why the
Free Masons alone continued over into a worldwide fraternity,
for the other gilds or fraternities, identical in general customs,
would have done the same. It is the extraordinary similarity of
the old Free Masonry with the old gilds and companies coupled
with the fact that it alone developed into a worldwide Fraternity
which is of itself the best proof that the Freemasons also possessed
a secret of their own which none of the others ever had.
See London Companies, by William Herbert;
London; 1837. It is not as exhaustive as the large histories written
since by Hazlitt, etc., but has the advantage of having been written
by a man who got his information at first hand, and before the
new industrialism had changed the face of London commerce and
business.
HABIN
The Hebrew is p'an, Intelligus. Name of
the initiate in the Fourth Degree of the modern French Rite, sometimes
given as Johaben, or Jabin.
HABRAMAH, or JABAMIAH
The Hebrew word is probably "noan"
, the Fanum excelsum or high holy place. The French explanation
is that the word was applied to a holy place or an elevation near
the altar in the Jewish Tabernacle where a feast was prepared.
Said to be used in the Thirtieth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite in France; it is not used in America.
HACQUET, G. A.
French notary at Port-au Prince, subsequently
a member of the Grand Orient of Paris, and President of the Royal
Arch Chapter at Paris in 1814.
HADEESES
An Arabic word, signifying the traditions
handed down by Mohammed and preserved by the Mohammedan doctors.
They are said to amount to 5266 in number. Many of the traditions
of Mohammedan Freemasonry are said to be borrowed from the Hadeeses,
just as much of the legendary lore of European Freemasonry is
to be found in the Jewish Talmud.
HADLY, BENJAMIN
English Freemason said to have attended
the Occasional Lodge at The Hague for the conferring of the first
two Degrees on the Duke of Tuscany and Lorraine, afterwards Emperor
Francis I. William Preston (Illustrations of Masonry, 1812, page
231) asserts Brother Hadly then acted as a Warden.
HAFEDHA
The second of the four gods worshiped by
the Arak tribe of Ad, before the time of Mohammed, to which Hud,
or Heber, was sent. These were Sakia, the god of rain; Hafedha,
the preserver from danger; Razeka, the provider of food; and Solemn,
the god of health.
HAGAMATANA
See Echatana
HAGAR
The old lectures taught the doctrine, and
hence it was the theory of the Freemasons of the eighteenth century,
that the landmark which requires all candidates for initiation
to be free born is derived from the fact that the promise which
was given to Isaac, the free-born son of Abraham and Sarah, was
denied to Ishmael, the slave-born son of the Egyptian bondwoman
Hagar. This theory is entertained by Brother Oliver in all his
writings, as a part of the old Masonic system (see Free Born).
HAGGAI
According to Jewish tradition, Haggai was
born in Babylon during the captivity, and being a young man at
the time of the liberation by Cyrus, he came to Jerusalem in company
with Joshua and Zerubbabel, to aid in the rebuilding of the Temple.
The work being suspended during the reigns of the two immediate
successors of Cyrus, on the accession of Darius, Haggai urged
the renewal of the undertaking, and for that purpose obtained
the sanction of the king. Animated by the courage and patriotism
of Haggai and Zechariah, the people prosecuted the work with vigor,
and the second Temple was completed and dedicated in the year
516 B.C.
In the Royal Arch system of America, Haggai
represents the Scribe, or third officer of a Royal Arch Chapter.
In the English system he represents the second officer, and is
called the Prophet.
HAGUE, THE
A city of the Netherlands, formerly South
Holland. Freemasonry was introduced there in 1731 by the Grand
Lodge of England, when an occasional Lodge was opened for the
initiation of Francis, Duke of Lorraine, afterward Emperor of
Germany. Between that year and 1735 an English and a Dutch Lodge
were regularly instituted, from which other Lodges in Holland
subsequently proceeded. In 1749, the Lodge at The Hague assumed
the name of the Mother Lodge of the Royal Union, whence resulted
the National Grand Lodge, which declared its independence of the
Grand Lodge of England in 1770 (see Netherlands).
HAH
The Hebrew definite article "n"
or the. It forms the second syllable of the Substitute Word.
HAHNEMANN, SAMUEL CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH
Famous physician. Born April 10, 1755, at
Meissen, Saxony, and a member of the Lodge Minerva at Leipsic,
Germany, from 1817. Founder of the homoeopathic system. He died
at Paris on July 9, 1843.
HAIL, or HALE.
This word is used among Freemasons with
two very different significations.
l. When addressed as an inquiry to a visiting Brother it has the
same import as that in which it is used under like circumstances
by mariners. Thus: "Whence do you hail?" that is, "Of
what Lodge are you a member?" Used in this sense, it comes
from the Saxon term of salutation huel, and should be spelled
hail.
2. Its second use is confined to what Freemasons
understand by the tie, and in this sense it signifies to conceal,
being derived from the Saxon word helan, to hide, the e being
pronounced in Anglo-Saxon as a in the word fate. By the rules
of etymology, it should be written hale, but is usually spelled
hele.
The preservation of this Saxon word in the
Masonic dialect, while it has ceased to exist in the vernacular,
is a striking proof of the antiquity of the Order and its ceremonies
in England. "In the western parts of England," says
Lord King (Critical History of the Apostle's Creed, page 178),
"at this very day, to hele over anything signifies, among
the common people, to cover it; and he that covereth an house
with tile or slate is called a helliar."
"As regards the Anglo-Saxon hele, it
survives of course in the word Hellthe covered worldof
the Apostle's Creed, but," says Brother Canon J. W. Horsley,
(page 21, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume xxvi, 1913),
"I thought until lately that a hellyer, that is, a thatcher
who covers over with thatch the sticks of corn, was only North
Country. However, lately when asking who had so well covered a
stick close to Detling Church I was told it was a hellyer from
the next village. And in the best dictionary of the Kentish dialect
I find:
Hele (heel) verb, to cover
Heal (heel) verb, to hide, to cover anything up; to roof in.
''All right! I'll work Jim; I've only just got this 'ere row o
taturs to heal."
Heler (hee-ler) substantive. anything which is laid over another:
as, for instance, the cover of a thurrick, or wooden drain.
To the above information Brother Doctor
Hammond added that in the West of England, the word "hele"
is used at the present time, and its common pronunciation there
and on the moors of the Cornish Country is hale (see also Heler).
From correspondence with Brother Charles E. Funk in regard to
the pronunciation of the word, we learn he is convinced that in
most Lodges until 1750, and perhaps even later than 1800, the
words hele, conceal, reveal, were perfect rhymes pronounced hayl,
concayl, revayl, as they would be in Ireland today, but modern
dictionaries give the pronunciation as heel.
HALE, NATHAN
American patriot, born at Coventry, Connecticut,
in 1756. Gave his life for his country in 1776, when he was hanged
as a Spy by the British in New York City on September 29. He was
a member of Saint John's Regimental Lodge of New York City and
had already received recognition as a Freemason although not twenty-one
years of age (see New Age, September, 1924).
HALL COMMITTEE
A Committee established in all Lodges and
Grand Lodges which own the buildings in which they meet, to which
is entrusted the supervision of the building. The Grand Lodge
of England first appointed its Hall Committee in 1773, for the
purpose of superintending the erection of the hall which had been
projected.
HALL, MASONIC
For a long time after the revival of Freemasonry
in 1717, Masonic Lodges continued to meet, as they had done before
that period, in taverns. Thus, the Grand Lodge of England was
organized, and, to use the language of Anderson, "the Quarterly
Communications were revived" by four Lodges, whose respective
places of meeting were the Goose and Gridiron Ale-House, the Crown
Ale-House, the Apple-Tree Tavern, and the Rummer and Grapes Tavern.
For many years the Grand Lodge held its quarterly meetings sometimes
at the AppleTree, but principally at the Devil Tavern, and kept
the Grand Feast at the hall of one of the Livery Companies. The
first Lodge in Paris was organized at a tavern kept in the Rue
des Boucheries by one Hure, and the Lodges subsequently organized
in France continued to meet, like those of England, in public
houses. The custom was long followed in other countries of Europe.
In the United States the practice ceased only at a comparatively
recent period, and it is possible that in some obscure villages
it has not yet been abandoned.
At as early a period as the beginning of
the fourteenth century, the Gilds, or Livery Companies, of London,
had their halls or places of meeting, and in which they stored
their goods for sale. At first these were mean buildings, but
gradually they rose into importance, and the Goldsmith's Hall,
erected in the fifteenth century is said to have been an edifice
of large dimensions and of imposing appearance. These halls, probably,
as they were very common in the eighteenth century, were suggestive
to the Freemasons of similar edifices for their own Fraternity;
but undoubtedly the necessity, as the Association grew into importance,
of a more respectable, more convenient, and more secure locality
than was afforded by temporary resort to taverns and alehouses
must have led to the erection of isolated edifices for their own
special use.
The first Masonic Hall of which we have
any account is the one that was erected by the Lodge at Marseilles,
in France, in the year 1765. Smith describes it very fully in
his Use and Abuse of Freemasonry (page 165), and calls it "a
very magnificent hall." In 1773, the Grand Lodge of England
made preliminary arrangements for the construction of a hall,
a considerable sum having been already subscribed for that purpose.
On May 11 1775, the foundation-stone of the new edifice was laid
in solemn form, according to a ceremonial which was then adopted,
and which, with a few modifications, continues to be used at the
present day on similar occasions. On the foundation-stone it was
designated as Aula Latamorum meaning The Freemasons Hall. It was
finished in less than twelve months, and was dedicated on May
23, 1776, to Masonry, Virtue, Universal Charity and Benevolence:
a formula still adhered to without variation in the English and
American lectures.
In the same year, the Lodge at Newcastle,
stimulated by the enterprise of the London Freemasons, erected
a hall; an example which was followed, two years afterward, by
the Lodge of Sunderland. And after this the erection of isolated
halls for Masonic purposes became common not only in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, but all over the Continent, wherever the
funds of a Lodge would permit of the expenditure.
In the United States, Lodges were held in
taverns up to a comparatively recent period. It is not now considered
reputable. It is impossible to tell at what precise period and
in what locality the first Masonic Hall was erected in the United
States. It is true that in a Boston paper of 1773 we find, according
to Moore's Magazine (xv, page 162), an advertisement summoning
the Freemasons to celebrate the festival of Saint John the Evangelist
at "Freemasons Hall"; but, on examination, we learn
that this was no other than a room in the Green Dragon Tavern.
Other buildings, such as the Exchange Coffee-House, only partially
used for Masonic purposes, were subsequently erected in Boston,
and received by courtesy, but not by right, the name of Masonic
Halls: but it was not until 1832 that the first independent hall
was built in that city, which received the name of the Masonic
Temple, a title which has since been very usually conferred on
the halls in the larger cities. We may suppose that it was about
this time, when a resuscitation of Masonic energy, which had been
paralyzed by the anti-Masonic opposition, had commenced to develop
itself, that the Lodges and Grand Lodges began to erect halls
for their peculiar use. At present there is no dearth of these
buildings for Masonic use of imposing grandeur and architectural
beauty to be found scattered all over the land.
In the United States, as well as in Britain,
the construction of Masonic Halls is governed by no specific rules,
and is too often left to the judgment and taste of the architect,
and hence if that person be not an experienced Freemason, the
building is often erected without due reference to the ritual
requirements of the Order. But in these particulars, says Brother
Oliver, the Freemasons of the Continent are governed by a Ritual
of Building, and he quotes, as a specimen of the Helvetian ceremonies
in reference to the laying of the foundation-stone of a Masonic
Hall, the following directions:
A Mason, assisted by two others, if there
be a dearth of workmen, or distress, or war, or peril, or threats
of danger, may begin the work of building a Lodge; but it is better
to have seven known and sworn workmen. The Lodge is, as we know,
due east and west; but its chief window or its chief door must
look to the east. On a day allowed and a place appointed, the
whole company of builders set out after high noon to lay the first
stone.
Far more practical are the directions of
Doctor Oliver himself for the construction of a Masonic Hall,
given in his Book of the Lodge (chapter iii), which are here condensed.
A Masonic Hall should be isolated, and if possible surrounded
with lofty walls, so as to be included in a court, and apart from
any other buildings, to preclude the possibility of being overlooked
by cowans or eavesdroppers. As, however, such a situation in large
towns can seldom be obtained. the Lodge should be formed in an
upper story; and if there be any contiguous buildings, the windows
should be either in the roof, or very high from the floor.. These
windows ought to be all on one side the south, if practicable
and furnished with proper ventilation, that the Brethren be not
incommoded, when pursuing their accustomed avocations, by the
heat of the Lodge.
The room, to preserve a just proportion,
must, of course, be lofty. It should be furnished with a pitched
roof, open within, and relieved with an ornamental frame work
of oak, or painted so as to represent that species of timber.
It should be supported on corbels running along the cornice, on
which should be engraven Masonic ornaments. The dimensions of
the room, in length and breadth, will depend in a great measure
on the situation of the Lodge, or the space which is assigned
for its position; and this will often be extremely circumscribed
in a large and populous place, where building land is scarce and
dear, or the fund inadequate to any extensive operations. But
in all eases a due proportion should be observed in the several
members of the fabric wherever it is practicable, that no unsightly
appearance may offend the eye, by disturbing that general harmony
of parts which constitutes the beauty and excellence of every
architectural production.
The principal entrance to the Lodge room
ought to face the east, because the east is a place of light both
physical and moral; and therefore the Brethren have access to
the Lodge by that entrance, as a symbol of mental illumination.
The approaches to the Lodge must be angular, for a straight entrance
is un-masonic and cannot be tolerated. The advance from the external
avenue to the east ought to consist of three lines and two angles.
The first line passes through a small room or closet for the accommodation
of visitors. At the extremity of this apartment there ought to
be another angular passage leading to the Tiler's room adjacent
to the Lodge: and from thence, by another right angle, you are
admitted into the presence of the Brethren with your face to the
Light.
In every convenient place the architect
should contrive secret cryptae or closets. Then are of indispensable
utility; but in practice are not sufficiently attended to in this
country. On the Continent they are numerous and are dignified
with the name of chapels. Two of these apartments have already
been mentioned a room for visitors and the Tiler's room; added
to which there ought to be a vestry, where the ornaments. furniture
jewels, and other regalia are deposited. This is called the treasury,
or Tiler's conclave because these things are under has especial
charge, and a communication is usually made to this apartment
from the Tiler's room. There ought to be also a chapel for preparations,
hung with black and having only one small light. placed high up
near the ceiling; a chapel for the dead furnished with a table
on which are a lamp and emblems of mortality; the Master's conclave,
where the records, the Warrants, the Minutes, and every written
document are kept. To this room the Worshipful Master retires
when the Lodge is called from labor to refreshment and at other
times when his presence in the Lodge is not essential; and here
he examines the visitors, for which purpose a communication is
formed between his conclave and the visitors chapel. It is furnished
with blue. And here he transacts the Lodge business with his Secretary.
The Ark of the Covenant is also deposited in thus apartment. None
of these closets should exceed twelve feet square, and may be
of smaller dimensions, according to circumstances. In the middle
of the hall there should he a movable trapdoor in the floor, seven
feet long and three or four feet broad, opening into a small crypt,
about three feet in depth, the use of which is known to none but
perfect Freemasons, who have passed through all the symbolical
Degrees. All of these particulars may not be equally necessary
to the construction of a Masonic Hall; but a close attendance
to their general spirit and direction, or to similar regulations,
should be impressed on every Lodge that undertakes the construction
of a building exclusively for Masonic purposes; and such a building
only is entitled to be called a Masonic Hall
The division in the American Rite of the
Degrees among various Bodies imposes the necessity, or at least
the convenience, when erecting a Masonic Hall in the United States,
of appropriating some of the rooms to the uses of Ancient Craft
Lodges, some to Royal Arch Chapters, some to Royal and Select
Councils, and some to Commanderies of Knights Templars. It is
neither proper nor convenient that a Chapter should be held in
a Lodge; and it is equally expedient that the Asylum of a Commandery
should be kept separate from both. All of these rooms should be
oblong in form, lofty in height, with an elevated dais or platform
in the East, and two doors in the West, the one in the Northwest
corner leading into the preparation room, and the other communicating
with the Tiler's apartment. But in other respects they differ.
First, as to the color of the decorations. In a Lodge room the
predominating color should be blue, in a Chapter red, and in a
Council and Commandery black.
In a Lodge-room the dais should be elevated
on three steps, and provided with a pedestal for the Master, while
on each side are seats for the Past Masters, and dignitaries who
may visit the Lodge. The pedestal of the Senior Warden in the
West should be elevated on two steps, and that of the Junior Warden
in the South on one. A similar arrangement, either permanent or
temporary, should be provided in the Chapter room for working
the intermediate Degrees; but the Eastern dais should be supplied
with three pedestals instead of one, for the reception of the
Grand Council. The tabernacle also forms an essential part of
the Chapter room. This is sometimes erected in the center of the
room, although the consistency of the symbolism would require
that the whole room, during the working of the Royal Arch Degree,
shoddy be deemed a tabernacle, and then the veils would, with
propriety, extend from the ceiling to the floor, and from one
side of the room to the other. There are some other arrangements
required in the construction of a Chapter room, of which it is
unnecessary to speak.
Councils of Royal and Select Masters are
usually held in Chapter rooms, with an entire disregard of the
historical teachings of the Degrees. In a properly constructed
Council chamber which, of course, would be in a distinct apartment,
there should be no veils, but nine curtains of a stone color;
and these, except the last, starting from one side of the room,
should stop short of the other, so as to form a narrow passage
between the wall and the extremities of the curtains, reaching
from the door to the ninth curtain, which alone should reach across
the entire extent of the room. These are used only in the Select
Degree, and can be removed when the Royal Master is to be conferred.
Unlike a Lodge and Chapter, in a Council there is no dais or raised
platform; but three tables, of a triangular form, are placed upon
the level of the floor in the East. It is, however, very seldom
that the funds of a Council will permit of the indulgence in a
separate room, and those Bodies are content to work, although
at a disadvantage, in a Chapter room. It is impossible, with any
convenience, to work a Commandery in a Lodge, or even a Chapter
room. The officers and their stations are so different, that what
is suitable for one is unsuitable for the other. The dais, which
has but one station in a Lodge and three in a Chapter, requires
four in a Commandery, the Prelate taking his proper place on
the right of the Generalissimo. But there are other more important
differences. The principal apartment should be capable of a division
by a curtain, which should separate the Asylum proper from the
rest of the room, as the mystical veil in the ancient Church shut
off the prospect of the altar, during the Eucharistic sacrifice,
from the view of the catechumens. There are several other rooms
required in the Templar ritual which are not used by a Lodge,
a Chapter, or a Council, and which makes it necessary that the
apartments of a Commandery should be distinct. A banquet-room
in close proximity to the Asylum is essential; and convenience
requires that there should be an armory for the deposit of the
arms and costume of the Knights. But it is unnecessary to speak
of reflection rooms, and other places well known to those who
are familiar with the ceremonies, and which cannot be dispensed
with.
HALLELUJAH
Meaning Praise the Lord. Expression of applause
in the Degree of Sublime Ecossais, Heavenly Jerusalem, and others.
HALLIWELL MANUSCRIPT
The earliest of the old Constitutions. It
is in poetic form, and was probably transcribed in 1390 from an
earlier copy.
The manuscript is in the King's Library
of the British Museum. It was published in 1840 by James 0. Halliwell,
and again in 1844, under the title of The Early History of Freemasonry
in England. The Masonic character of the poem remained unknown
until its discovery by Halliwell, who was not a Freemason, because
it was catalogued as A Poem of Moral Duties. It is now more commonly
known as the Regius Manuscript because it formed part of the Royal
Library commenced`by Henry VII and presented to the British Museum
by George II.
What is said above by Brother Hawkins of
this early reference to the Craft does not exhibit as fully as
many may desire the peculiar features of the Hall Udell or Regius
Manuscript. The book is about four by five and a half inches,
the writing being on vellum, a fine parchment, and it was bound
in its present cover, according to Brother H. J. Whymper, about
the year 1838. The cover bears the Royal Arms stamped on both
sides with G. R. II, and the date 1757. In that year the King,
George II, b an instrument that passed the Great Seal of England
presented the Library containing the volume to the British Museum
where the present reviser of this work had the pleasure of personally
examining it. Formerly in the possession of Charles They're, a
boox collector of the seventeenth century and listed in Bernards
CatulZugous Manuscripts am Anyliac, Oxford, 1697 (page 200), and
described in David Casley s Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the
Old Royal Library, 1734 (page 259), as a Poem of Moral levities,
the contents were mistaken until J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps mentioned
it in his paper on the Introduction of Freemasonry into England,
read before the Society of Antiquaries during the session of 183tS
to 1839. Two small editions of the transcript of the poem were
published as Brother Hawkins tells us. The first edition contained
a facsimile reproduction of four lines of the manuscript, the
second similarly reproduced the first page, and he also gave a
glossary which with the transcript was published in a veritable
gem of a work in 1889, Spencer and Company with an introduction
by Brother H. J. Whymper. Halliwell-Phillipps pointed out that
the writer was probable a priest, this evidently from the allusions
in line 699 (page LI). He also calls attention to line 143 (page
XI), as intimating that a still older manuscript was in existence
when the poem was written.
The writing is done in a neat but characteristic
style of the earls period and in these modern days far from familiar
to us, the English of that generation was also very different
from that of our time. Brother Roderick H. Baxter, Past Master
of Quatuor Coronati Lodge and Past President of the Manchester
Association for Masonic Research, has carefully modernized the
transcript and permitted us to make use of his valuable labors.
Before giving the work of Brother Baxter we may submit a transcript
of the first eight lines in which may be seen some of the difficulties
met in turning such a manuscript into modern English.
Whose wol bothe wel rede and loke
He may fynde wryte yn olde boke
Of grete lord s, and eke ladyysse,
That hade mony chyldryn y-fere, y- wisse;
And hade no rentys to fynde hem wyth,
Nowther yn towne, ny felde, ny fryth:
A counsel togeder they cowthe hem take,
To ordeyne for these chyldryn sake, . . .
In the following transcript Brother Baxter
has adhered strictly to the phraseology of the original with all
its vagaries of person, tense and mood, and has retained the peculiarities
of double and sometimes even treble negatives, the only variation
being in the substitution of modern words for those now obsolete.
However, where the modern words at the ends of lines could not
have been used to preserve the jingle of the verses the old words
have been utilized with their present equivalents added in brackets
so as to avoid the necessity or referring to a glossary. The Roman
numerals on the right of the lines indicate the pages of the manuscript.
Hic incipiunt constituciones artis gemetriac
cecundum Euclydem —
Here begin the constitutions of the art
of Geometry according to Euclid.
I
Whoever will both well read and look
He may find written in old book
Of great lords and also ladies,
That had many children together, y-wisse; (certainly)
And had no income to keep them with,
Neither in town nor field nor frith: (enclosed wood)
A council together they could them take,
To ordain for these children s sake
How they might best lead their life
Without great disease, care, and strife;
And most for the multitude that was coming
Of their children after their endings
They send them after great clerks,
To teach them then good works;
II
And pray we them, for our Lords sake,
To our children some work to make
That they might get their living thereby,
both well and honestly full securely.
In that time, through good geometry,
This honest craft of good masonry
Was ordained and made in this manner,
Counterfeited of these clerks together;
At these lords' prayers they counterfeited geometry,
And gave it the name of masonry,
For the most honest craft of all.
These lords' children thereto did fall
To learn of him the craft of geometry,
The which he made full curiously;
III
Through fathers' prayers and mothers' also,
This honest craft he put them to.
He that learned best, and was of honesty
And passed his fellows in curiosity,
If in that craft he did him pass
He should have more worship than the lasse. (less)
This great clerk's name was called Euclid,
His name it spread full wonder wide.
Yet this great clerk more ordained he
To him that was higher in this degree,
That he should teach the simplest of wit
In that honest craft to be parfytte; (perfect)
And so each one shall teach the other,
And love together as sister and brother.
IV
Furthermore yet that ordained he
Master called so should he be
So that he were most worshiped,
Then should he be so called:
glut masons should never one another call,
within the craft amongst them all,
Neither subject nor servant, my dear brother
Though he be not so perfect as is another;
Each shall call other fellows by cuthe, (friendship)
Because they come of ladies' birth
On this manner, through good wit of geometry,
began first the craft of masonry:
The clerk Euclid on this Wise it found,
This craft of geometry in Egypt land.
V
In Egypt he taught it full wide,
In divers lands on every side;
Many years afterwards, I understand
Ere that the craft came into this land
This craft came into England, as I you say,
In time of good King Athelstane's day
He made then both hall and even bower,
And high temples of great honor,
To disport him in both day and night
And to worship his God with all his might.
This good lord loved this craft full well,
And purposed to strengthen it every del, (part)
For divers faults that in the craft he found;
He sent about into the land.
VI
After all the masons of the craft,
To come to him full even straghfte, Straight)
For to amend these defaults all
By good counsel, if it might fall.
An assembly then he could let make
Of divers lords in their state,
Dukes, earls, and barons also,
Knights, squires and many mo, (more)
And the great burgesses of that city,
They were there all in their degree;
These were there each one algate, (always)
To ordain for these masons' estate,
There they sought by their wit,
How they might govern it:
VII
Fifteen articles they there sought,
And fifteen points there they wrought.
Hic Incipit articulus primus.
Here begins the first article.
The first article of this geometry:
The master mason must be full securely
Both steadfast, trusty and true,
It shall him never then rue:
find pay thy fellows after the cost,
As victuals goeth then, well thou woste: (knowest)
And pay them truly, upon thy fad, (faith)
What they deserven may; (may deserve)
And to their hire take no more,
But what that they may serve for;
And spare neither for love nor drede, (dread)
VIII
Of neither parties to take no mede; (bribe)
Of lord nor fellow, whoever he be,
Of them thou take no manner of fee;
find as a judge stand upright,
And then thou dost to both good right,
And truly do this wheresoever thou gost, (goest)
Thy worship, thy profit, it shall be most.
Articulus secundus.
Second article.
The second article of good masonry,
As you must it here hear specially,
That every master, that is a mason,
Must be at the general congregation,
So that he it reasonably be told
Where that the assembly shall be holde; (held)
XI
And to that assembly he must needs gon, (go)
Unless he have a reasonable skwsacyon, (excuse)
Or unless he be disobedient to that craft
Or with falsehood is over-raft, (overtaken)
Or else sickness hath him so strong,
That he may not come them among;
That is an excuse good and able,
To that assembly without fable.
Artieulus tercius
Third article.
The third article forsooth it is,
That the master takes to no Prentice,
Unless he have good assurance to dwell
Seven years with him, as I you tell,
His craft to learn, that is profitable;
X
Within less he may not be able
To lords' profit, nor to his own
As you may know by good reason.
Articulus quartus.
Fourth article.
The fourth article this must be,
That the master him well be see,
That he no bondman Prentice make,
Nor for no covetousness do him take;
For the lord that he is bound to,
May fetch the Prentice wheresoever he go.
If in the lodge he were y-take, (taken)
Much disease it might there make,
And such ease it might befal,
That it might grieve some or all
XI
For all the masons that be there
Will stand together all y-fere. (together)
If such one in that craft should dwell
Of divers dis-eases you might tell:
For more ease then, and of honesty
Take a 'prentice of higher degree.
By old time written I find
That the Prentice should be of gentle kind
And so sometime, great lords' blood
Took this geometry that is full good
trticulus quintus.
Fifth article.
The fifth article is very good,
So that the Prentice be of lawful blood
The master shall not, for no advantage
XII
Make no Prentice that is outrage; (deformed)
It is to mean, as you may hear,
That he have his limbs whole all y-fere; (together)
To the craft it were great shame,
To make a halt man and a lame
For an imperfect man of such blood
Should do the craft but little good.
Thus you may know every one
The craft would have a mighty man;
A maimed man he hath no might
You must it know long ere night.
Articulus sextus
Sixth article.
The sixth article you must not miss
That the master do the lord no prejudice
To take the lord for his Prentice,
As much as his fellows do, in all wise.
For in that craft they be full perfect,
So is not he, you must see it.
Also it were against good reason,
To take his hire as his fellows don. (do)
This same article in this case,
Judgeth his prentice to take less
Than his fellows, that be full perfect.
In divers matters, know requite it,
The masters may his 'prentice so inform,
That his hire may increase full soon,
XIII
And ere his tertm come to an end,
His hire may full well amend.
trticulus septimus.
Seventh article.
The seventh article that is now here
Full well will tell you all y-fere (together)
That no master for favour nor dread
Shall no thief neither clothe nor feed.
Thieves he shall harbour never one,
Nor hint that hath killed a man
Nor the same that hath a feeble name
Lest it would turn the craft to shame.
Articulus octavus.
Eighth article.
The eighth article sheweth you so,
XIV
That the master may it well do.
If that he have any man of craft
And he be not so perfect as he ought,
He may him change soon anon,
And take for him a more perfect man.
Such a man through rechelaschepe, (recklessness)
Might do the craft scant worship.
Articulus nonus.
Ninth article.
The ninth article sheweth full well
That the master be both wise and felle(strong)
That he no work undertake,
Unless he can both it end and make
And that it be to the lords' profit also, XV
And to his craft, wheresoever he go;
And that the ground be well y-take, (taken)
That it neither flaw nor grake. (crack)
XV
Articulus decimus.
Tenth article.
The tenth article is fear to know,
Among the craft, to high and low,
There shall no master supplant another,
But be together as sister and brother,
In this curious craft, all and some,
That belongeth to a master mason.
Nor he shall not supplant no other man,
That hath taken a work him upon
In pain thereof that is so strong,
XVI
That weigheth no less than ten ponge, (pounds)
But if that he be guilty found,
That took first the work on hand;
For no man in masonry
Shall not supplant other securely,
But if that it be so wrought,
That in turn the work to nought;
Then may a mason that work crave,
To the lords' profit for it to save
In such a ease if it do fall,
There shall no mason meddle withal.
Forsooth he that beginneth the ground,
If he be a mason good and sound,
He hath it securely in his mind
XVII
To bring the work to full good end.
Articulus undecimus.
eleventh articie.
The eleventh article I tell thee,
That he is both fair and free;
For he teacheth, by his might,
That no mason should work by night,
But if it be in practising of wit,
If that I could amend it.
Articulus duodecimus.
Twelfth article.
The twelfth article is of high honesty
To every mason wheresoever he be,
He shall not his fellows' work deprave,
If that he will his honesty save
With honest words he it commend,
XVIII
By the wit that God did thee send;
But it amend by all that thou may.
Between you both without nay. (doubt)
Articulus XIIJus.
Thirteenth article.
The thirteenth article, so God me save,
Is if that the master a Prentice have,
Entirely then that he him teach
And measurable points that he him reche, (tell)
That he the craft ably may conne, (know)
Wheresoever he go under the sun.
Articulus XIIIJus.
Fourteenth article.
The fourteenth article by good reason,
Sheweth the master how he shall don; (do)
He shall no Prentice to him take,
XIX
Unless divers cares he have to make,
That he may within his term,
Of him divers points may learn.
Articulus quindecimus.
Fifteenth article.
The fifteenth article maketh an end,
For to the master he is a friend;
To teach him so, that for no man,
No false maintenance he take him upon,
Nor maintain his fellows in their sin,
For no good that he might win;
Nor no false oath suffer him to make,
For dread of their souls' sake,
Lest it would turn the craft to shame,
And himself to very much blame.
XX
Plures constituciones.
Plural constitutions.
At this assembly were points ordained mo, (more)
Of great lords and masters also,
That who win know this craft and come to estate,
He must love wed God and holy church algate, (always)
And his master also that he is with,
Wheresoever he go in field or frythe, (enclosed wood)
And thy fellows thou love also,
For that thy craft win that thou do
Secundus punctus.
Second point.
The second point as I you say
That the mason work upon the work day,
As truly as he can or may,
XXI
To deserve his hire for the holy-day,
And truly to labour on his deed,
Well deserve to have his mede. (reward)
Tercius punctus.
Third point.
The third point must be severele, (severely)
With the Prentice know it well,
His master's counsel he keep and close
And his fellows by his good purpose;
The privities of the chamber tell he no man,
Nor in the lodge whatsoever they don- (do)
Whatsoever thou hearest or seest them do,
Tell it no man wheresoever you go;
The counsel of hall, and even of bower,
XXII
Keep it well to great honour
Lest it would turn thyself to blame,
And bring the craft into great shame.
Quartus punctus.
Fourth point.
The fourth point teacheth us alse, (also)
That no man to his craft be false;
Error he shall maintain none
Against the craft, but let it gone; (go)
Nor no prejudice he shall not do
To his master, nor his fellow also;
And though the Prentice be under awe
Yet he would have the same law.
Quintus punctus.
Fifth point.
XXIII
The fifth point is without nay, (doubt)
That when the mason taketh his pay
Of the master, ordained to him,
Full meekly taken so must it byn; (be)
Yet must the master by good reason,
Warn him lawfully before noon,
If he will not occupy him no more
As he hath done there before;
Against this order he may not strive,
If he think well for to thrive.
Sextus punctus.
Sixth point.
The sixth point is full given to know,
Both to high and even to low,
XXIV
For such case it might befall,
Among the masons some or all
Through envy or deadly hate,
Oft ariseth full great debate.
Then ought the mason if that he may,
Put them both under a day;
But loveday vet shall they make none
Till that the work-day be clean gone;
Upon the holy-day you must well take
Leisure enough loveday to make
Lest that Il would the work-day
Hinder their work for such a fray
To such end then that you them draw.
XXV
That they stand well in God's law.
Septimus punctus.
Seventh point.
The seventh point he may well mean,
Of well long life that God us lene, (lend)
As it descrieth well openly,
Thou shalt not by thy master's wife lie,
Nor by thy fellows', in no manner wise,
Lest the craft would thee despise;
Nor by thy fellows' concubine,
No more thou wouldst he did by thine.
The pain thereof let it be sure,
That he be Prentice full seven year
If he forfeit in any of them
XXVI
So chastised then must he been (be)
Full much care might there begin,
For such a foul deadly sin.
Octavus punctus.
Eighth point.
The eighth point, he may be sure,
If thou hast taken any cure,
Under thy master thou be true,
For that point thou shalt never rue;
A true mediator thou must needs be
To thy master, and thy fellows free;
Do truly all that thou might,
To both parties, and that is good right.
Nonus punctus.
Ninth point.
XXVII
The ninth point we shall him call,
That he be steward of our hall,
If that you be in chambery-fere, (together)
Each one serve other with mild cheer;
Gentle fellows, you must it know,
For to be stewards all o-rowe, (in turn)
Week after week without doubt,
Stewards to be so all in turn about,
Amiably to serve each one other
As though they were sister and brother,
There shall never one another costage (cost)
Free himself to no advantage,
But every man shall be equally free
XXVIII.
In that cost, so must it be
Look that thou pay well every man algate, (always)
That thou hast bought any victuals ate, (eaten)
That no craving be made to thee,
Nor to thy fellows in no degree,
To man or to woman, whoever he be
Pay them well and truly, for that will we:
Thereof on thy fellow true record thou take,
For that good pay as thou dost make,
Lest it would thy fellow shame,
And bring thyself into great blame.
Yet good accounts he must make
Of such goods as he hath y-take (taken)
XXIX.
Of thy fellows' goods that thou hast spende, (spent)
Where and how and to what end;
Such accounts thou must come to,
When thy fellows wish that thou do.X
Decimus punctus.
Tenth point.
XXX
The tenth point presenteth well good life,
To live without care and strife
For if the mason live amiss,
And in his work be false y-wisse, (I know)
And through such a false skewsasyon (excuse)
May slander his fellows without reason,
Through false slander of such fame.
XXXI
May make the craft acquire blame.
If he do the craft such villainy
Do him no favour then securely,
Nor maintain not him in wicked life,
Lest it would turn to care and strife;
But yet him you shall not delayme, (delay)
Unless that you shall him constrain
For to appear wheresoever you will
Where that you will, loud or still;
To the next assembly you shall him call,
To appear before his fellows all,
And unless he will before them appear,
XXXII
The craft he must need forswear;
He shall then be punished after the law
That was founded by old dawe. (day)
Punctus undecimus.
Eleventh point.
The eleventh point is of good discrction
As you must know by good reason
A mason, if he this craft well con, (know)
That seeth his fellow hew on a stone
And is in point to spoil that stone,
Amend it soon if that thou can
And teach him then it to amend
That the lords' work be not y-schende, (spoiled)
And teach him easily it to amend,
XXXIII
With fair words, that God thee hath lender (lent)
For his sake that sit above
With sweet words nourish his love.
Punctus duodecimus.
Twelfth point.
The twelfth point is of great royalty
There as the assembly held shall be
There shall be masters and fellows also,
And other great lords many mo- (more)
There shall be the sheriff of that country,
And also the mayor of that city,
Knights and squires there shall be
And also aldermen, as you shall see:
Such ordinance as they make there,
XXXIV
They shall maintain it all y-fere (together)
Against that man, whatsoever he be
That belongeth to the craft both fair and free
If he any strife against them make
Into their custody he shall be take (taken)
XIIJus punctus.
Thirteenth point.
The thirteenth point is to us full lief,
He shall swear never to be no thief
Nor suecour him in his false craft,
For no good that he hath byraft- (bereft)
And thou must it know or sin
Neither for his good, nor for his kin.
XIIIJus punctus.
Fourteenth point.
XXXV
The fourteenth point is full good law
To him that would be under awe:
A good true oath he must there swear
To his master and his fellows that be there;
He must be steadfast and true also
To all this ordinance, wheresoever he go,
And to his liege lord the king,
To be true to him over all thing.
And all these points here before
To them thou must need be y-swore, (sworn)
And all shall swear the same oath
Of the masons, be they lief be they loath
To all these points here before,
XXXVI
That hath been ordained by full good lore.
And they shall enquire every man
Of his party, as well as he can,
If any man may be found guilty
In ante of these points specially;
And who he be, let him be sought
And to the assembly let him be brought
Quindecimus punctus.
fifteenth point.
The fifteenth point is of full lore
For them that shall be there y-swore, (sworn)
Such ordinance at the assembly was raid
Of great lords and mvsters before said
For the same that be disobedient y-wisse (I know)
XXXVII
Against the ordinance that there is,
Of these articles that were moved there,
Of great lords and masons all y-fere. (together)
And if they be proved openly
Before that assembly by and by
Befor that assembly , by and by
And for their guils no amends will make,
Then must they need the craft forsake;
And no masons craft they shall refuse,
And swear it never more to use.
But if that they will amends make,
Again to the craft they shall never take;
And if that thev will not do so
The sheriff shall come them soon to,.
XXXVIII
And put their bodies in deep prison,
For the trespass that they have done,
And take their goods and their cattle
Into the king's hand, every delle, (part)
And let them dwell there full still,
Till it be our liege king's will.
Alia ordinacio artis gemetriae.
Another ordinance of the art of geometry.
They ordained there an assembly to be y-holde, (held)
Every year, wheresoever they would,
To amend the defaults, if any were found
Among the craft within the land;
Bach year or third year it should be holde, (held)
XXIX
In every place wheresoever they would;
Time and place must be ordained also,
In what place they should assemble to.
All the men of craft there they must be,
And other great lords, as you must see,
To mend the faults that he there spoken,
If that any of them be then broken.
There they shall be all y-swore, (sworn)
That belongeth to this eraft's lore,
To keep their statutes every one
That were ordained bv King Athelstane;
These statutes that I have here found
XL
I ordain they be held through my land,
For the worship of my royalty,
That I have bv my dignity.
Also at every assembly that you hold,
That you come to your liege king bold,
Beseeching him of his high grace,
To stand with you in every place,
To confirm the statutes of King Athelstane,
That he ordained to this craft by good reason.
Ars quatuor coronatorum.
The art of the four crowned ones.
Pray we now to God almight, (almighty)
And to his mother Mary bright,
XLI
That we may keep these articles here,
And these points well all y-fere, (together)
As did these holy martyrs four,
That in this craft were of great honour;
They were as good masons as on earth shall go,
Gravers and image-makers they were also.
For they were workmen of the best,
The emperor had to them great luste; (liking)
He willed of them an image to make
That might be worshipped for his sake;
Such monuments he had in his dawe, (day)
To turn the people from Christ's law.
XLII
But they were steadfast in Christ's lay (law)
And to their craft without nay; (doubt)
They loved well God and all his lore,
And were in his service ever more.
True men they were in that dawe, (day)
And lived well in God's law;
They thought no monuments for to make
For no good that they might take,
To believe on that monument for their God,
They would not do so, though he were wod; (furious)
For they would not forsake their true fay (faith)
XLIII
And believe on his false lay. (law)
The emperor let take them soon anon,
And put them in a deep prison;
The more sorely he punished them in that place,
The more joy was to them of Crist' s grace.
Then when he saw no other one,
To death he let them then gon, (go)
Whose will of their life yet more know.
By the book he might it show
In the legend of sanetorum (holy ones)
The names of quatuor coronàtorum (four crowned ones)
XLIV
Their feast will be without nay, (doubt)
After Hallow-eten the eighth dale
You may hear as I do read,
That many years after, for great dread
That Noah's flood was all run
The tower of Babylon was begun,
As plain work of lime and stone
As any man should look upon;
So long and broad it was begun,
Seven miles the height shadoweth the sun.
King Nebuchadnezzar let it make
To great strength for man's sake,
XLV
Though such a flood again should come,
Over the work it should not nome, (take)
nor they had so high pride, with strong boast,
All that work therefore was lost;
An angel smote them so with divers speech,
That never one knew what the other should reche (tell)
Many years after, the good clerk Euclid
Taught the craft of geometry full wonder wide,
So he did that other time also,
Of divers crafts many mo. (more)
Through high grace of Christ in heaven,
He commenced in the sciences seven;
XLVI
Grammar is the first science y-wisse, (I know)
Dialect the second, so have I bliss
Rhetoric the third without nay, (doubt)
Music is the fourth, as I you say,
Astronomy is the fifth, by my snout,
Arithmetic the sixth, without doubt,
Geometry the seventh maketh an end,
For he is both meek and hende. (courteous)
Grammar forsooth is the root,
Whoever will learn on the book;
But art passeth in his degree,
As the fruit doth the root of the tree;
XLVII
Rhetoric measureth with ornate speech among,
And music it is a sweet song;
Astronomy numbereth, my dear brother,
Arithmetic sheweth one thing that is another,
geometry the seventh science it is,
That can separate falsehood from truth y-wis. (I know)
These be the sciences seven,
Who useth them well he may have heaven.
Now dear children by your wit
Pride and covetousness that you leave it,
And taketh heed to good discretion,
And to good nurture, wheresoever you come.
Now I prav you take good heed, .
XLVIII
For this vou must know nede, (needs)
But much more you must wyten, (know)
Than you find here written.
If thee fail thereto wit
Pray to God to send thee it:
For Christ himself, he teacheth out (us)
That holy church is God's house,
That is made for nothing ellus (else)
But for to pray in, as the book tellus; (tells us)
There the people shall gather in,
To pray and weep for their sln.
Look thou come not to church late
For to speak harlotry by the gate;
XLIX
Then to church when thou dost fare,
Have in thy mind ever mare (more)
To worship they lord God both day and night,
With all thy wits and even thy might.
To the church door when thou dost come
Of that holy water there some thou nome"t
For every drop thou feelest there
Quencheth a venial sin, be thou ser. (sure)
But first thou must do down thy hood,
For his love that died on the rood.
Into the ehureh when thou dost gon, (go)
Pull up thy heart to Christ, anon;
L
Upon the rood thou look up then,
And kneel down fair upon thy knew (knees)
Then pray to him so here to worche (work)
After the law of holy church,
For to keep the commandments ten,
That God gave to all men;
And pray to him with mild steven (voice)
To keep thee from the sins seven,
That thou here may, in this life,
Keep thee well from care and strife;
Furthermore he grant thee grace,
In heaven's bliss to have a place.
LI
In holy church leave trifling words
Of lewd speech and foul bordes, (jests)
find put away all vanity,
And say thy pater noster and thine ave;
Look also that thou make no bere, (noise)
But always to be in thy prayer;
If thou wilt not thyself pray,
Hinder no other man by no way.
In that place neither sit nor stand,
But kneel fair down on the ground,
And when the Gospel me read shall,
LII
Fairly thou stand up from the wall,
And bless the fare if that thou can,
When gloria tibi is begun;
And when the gospel is done,
Again thou might kneel down,
On both thy knees down thou fall,
For his love that bought us all;
And when thou hearest the bell ring
To that holy sakerynge, (sacrament)
Kneel you must both young and old,
And both your hands fair uphold,
And say then in this manner.
LIII
Fair and soft without bere; (noise)
"Jesu Lord welcome thou be,
In form of bread as I thee see,
Now Jesu for thine holy name,
Shield me from sin and shame;
Shrift and Eucharist thou grant me bo, (both)
Ere that I shall hence go,
And very contrition for my sin,
That I never, Lord, die therein;
And as thou were of maid y-bore (born)
Suffer me never to be y-lore- (dot)
But when I shall hence wend,
LIV
Grant me the bliss without end;
Amen! Amen! so mote it be!
Now sweet lady pray for me."
Thus thou might say, or some other thing
When thou kneelest at the sakerynge, (sacrament)
For covetousness after good, spare thou nought
To worship him that all hath wrought;
For glad may a man that day be,
That once in the day may him see;
It is so much worth, without nay, (doubt)
The virtue thereof no man tell may
But so much good doth that sight,
LV
That Saint Austin telleth full right,
That day thou seest God's body
Thou shalt have these full securely:
Meet and drink at thy need
None that day shalt thou gnede; (lack)
Idle oaths and words bo, (both)
God forgiveth thee also;
Sudden death that same day
Thee dare not dread by no way
Also that day, I thee plight
Thou shalt not lose thy eye sight;
And each foot that thou goest then,
LVI
That holy sight for to sen (see)
They shall be told to stand instead
When thou hast thereto great need
That messenger the angel Gabriel
Will keep them to thee full well.
From thls matter now I may pass
To tell more benefits of the mass
To church come yet, if thou may
And hear the mass each day
If thou may not come to church,
Where that ever thou dost worche, (work)
When thou hearest the mass knylle, (toll)
LVII
Pray to God with heart still
To give they part of that service,
That in church there done is.
Furthermore yet, I will you preach
To your fellows, it for to teach,
When thou comest before a lord
In hall, in bower, or at the board,
Hood or cap that thou off do,
Ere thou come him entirely to
Twice or thrice, without doubt,
To that lord thou must lowte; (bow)
With thy right knee let it be do, (done)
LVIII
Thine own worship thou save so.
Hold off thy cap and hood also,
Till thou have leave it on to do. (put)
All the time thou speakest with him,
Fair and amiably hold up thy chin
So, after the nurture of the book,
In his face kindly thou look.
Foot and hand thou keep full still
For clawing and tripping. is skill;
From spitting and sniffling keep thee also
By private expulsion let it go.
And if that thou be wise and felle, (discrete)
LIX
Thou has great need to govern thee well.
Into the hall when thou dost wend
Amongst the gentles, good and hende, (courteous)
Presume not too high for nothing
For thine high blood, nor thy cunning,
Neither to sit nor to lean,
That is nurture good and clean.
Let not thy countenance therefore abate,
Forsooth good nurture will save thy state.
Father and mother, whatsoever they be,
Well is the child that well may thee,
In hall, in chamber, where thou dost gon; (go)
LX
Good manners make a man.
To the next degree look wisely
To do them reverence by and by;
Do them yet no reverence all o-rowe, (in turn)
Unless that thou do them know.
To the meat when thou art set,
Fair and honestly thou eat it
First look that thine hands be clean,
And that thy knife be sharp and keen
And cut thy bread all at thy meat,
Right as it may be there y-ete. (eaten)
If thou sit by a worthier man.
LXI
Then thy self thou art one
Suffer him first to touch the meat,
Ere thyself to it reach.
To the fairest morsel thou might not strike,
Though that thou do it well like;
Keep thine hands fair and well
From foul smudging of thy towel;
Thereon thou shalt not thy nose smite, (blow)
Nor at the meat thy tooth thou pike- (pick)
Too deep in cup thou might not sink,
Though thou have good will to drink,
Lest thine eyes would water thereby
LXII
Then were it no courtesy.
Look in thy mouth there be no meat,
When thou beginnest to drink or speak.
When thou seest any man drinking,
That taketh heed to thy carpynge, (speech)
Soon anon thou cease thy tale
Whether he drink wine or ale,
Look also thou scorn no man
In what degree thou seest him gone:
Nor thou shalt no man deprave,
If thou wilt thy worship save
For such word might there outburst.
LXIII
That might make thee sit in evil rest
Close thy hand in thy fist,
And keep thee well from " had-y-wiste." (" had
known ")
In chamber, among the ladies bright,
Hold thy tongue and spend thy sight;
Laugh thou not with no great cry,
Nor make no lewd sport and ribaldry.
Play thou not but with thy peers
Nor tell thou not all that thou hears;
Discover thou not thine own deed,
For no mirth, nor for no mede: (reward)
With fair speech thou might have thy will,
With it thou might thy self spylle. (spoil)
LXIV
When thou meetest a worthy man,
Cap and hood thou hold not on;
In church in market or in the gate,
Do him reverence after his state.
If thou goest with a worthier man
Then thyself thou art one,
Let thy foremost shoulder follow his
For that is nurture without lack;
When he doth speak, hold thee still,
When he hath done , say for thy will
In thy speech that thou be felle, (discreet)
And what thou sayest consider thee well
But deprive thou not him his tale,
Neither at the wine nor at the ale.
Christ then of his high grace
Save you both w it and space
Bell this book to know and read,
Heaven to have for your mede. (reward)
Amen! Amen! so mote it be!
So say we all for charity.
The Manuscript has been discussed at various times by several
students. A lengthy and careful examination of it appears in volume
i of the Antigrapha of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1889, and among
the Collected Essays and Papers Relating to Freemasonry by Robert
F. Gould, 1913, published by William Tait of Belfast, Ireland.
Brother William Begernann published a discussion of it in the
German language, which is summarized by Brother George William
Speth in volume vii., Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
The name Reyius Manuscript was the suggestion
of Brother Gould as indicating its pre-eminence as a Masonic document
as well as its previous ownership by the Kings of England. The
Manuscript, as Brother Baxter well said, is of prime importance
to the Fraternity of Freemasons as being its oldest preserved
document which affords evidence of a legendary history and an
indication of a speculative origin. Brother Baxter read a paper
upon the subject before the Lodge of Research at Leicester on
November 2S, 1914. From this discussion we take the following
comments of Brother Baxter:
I should like to ask you to carefully consider
the wording of the poem, and to notice the remarkable number of
instances in which the phrases have been introduced although in
different terminology into our ritual, and the cases in which
its requirements have been incorporated with our Constitutions.
Even the last stage of the document, which deals with manners
at table and in the presence of superiors, and appears at first
sight to be quite irrelevant, may be accepted as evidence that
our present custom of celebrating special Masonic events by banqueting
and fraternizing was a feature of the Craft at the time of which
the Manuscript speaks. You will all be acquainted in some degree
with the remarkable series of documents known variously as the
Manuscript Constitutions, the Gothic Constitutions, or more commonly
nowadays as the Old Charoes of the British Freemasons and you
will further know that after an introductory prayer, of a purely
Christian character, they go on to relate how the science of geometry
(or Freemasonry) came to be founded. This same legend forms the
first part of the poem we are now considering, and as it clearly
states that the story is to be found in old books, abundantly
proves that the versifier had access to copies of the Old Charges
which are unhappily now lost to us.
I wish to use this legend as the basis of
a theory which I shall try to develop. Briefly stated, my idea
is that the poem, as well as all the other Old Charges, clearly
indicates that architectures the mistress of the arts, which is
undoubtedly founded on geometry, was developed in Egypt, the cradle
of civilization, and that its early practitioners were, as related
in these old Manuscript, of gentle birth. They must have been
the actual designers of the structures and have worked, in conjunction
so far as the execution of their projects was concerned with the
skilled craftsmen and manual laborers who were necessary to their
purpose. A gild, composed of different grades of members, would
thus be formed, possibly with different secret signs for each
class, and from this gild, through different channels of development,
would arise the present-day purely speculative form of Freemasonry,
with its system of Degrees.
Brothers Speth and Gould have labored hard
to establish the fact that prior to the institution of Grand Lodge,
and during its early regime, two Degrees only were worked, and
I have used the weight of later evidence to back up their assertion.
What is more likely than that the higher or Master's Degree was
confined to the skilled geometricians, whilst the simpler artificers
had to content themselves with the lower step? All students know
definitely, that from the earliest times of which we have any
monuments remaining, that architecture was a living art developing
along clearly defined lines, and varying in character with the
nature of the materials employed, and the climatic conditions
existing in the countries where they were used, down at least
to the close of the Gothic Era in Western Europe, and its counterpart
in Eastern countries. (I am not at all suggesting that the Renaissance
effected an arrest of creative design, although it reverted to
and made use of forms of a bygone age.) It is therefore not possible
to conceive that buildings of any architectural pretensions could
have been erected, without carefully thought-out designs having
been prepared. Dealing more particularly with the actual time
of the writing of the poem, we can only conclude that such a progression
of design as commonly proceeded over the whole of England almost
simultaneously, could only have been produced by a school of thought
and not by individual effort. My firm conviction is that this
school was composed of the Master Freemasons of the period.
Commenting on lines 143-G of the poem which
(modernized) read:
By old time written I find
That the Prentice should be of gentle kind
And so sometime great lords' blood,
Took this geometry that is full good.
The late F. J. Furnivall said, "I should
like to see the evidence of a lord's son having become a working
mason. and dwelling seven years with his master 'his craft to
learn."' All contention is that neither the poem nor any
other craft document ever suggested that a lord's son had become
a working mason. That they became students of geometry and designers
of buildings is in every way likely, and was in no way derogatory
to their dignity. I might even point out that the present Lord
Ferrers (the successor in the earldom of your own late Provincial
Grand Master) was, before his accession to the title, a practicing
architect, and that other scions of noble families are at present
similarly engaged. There seems to be good evidence of this in
the poem, particularly in Lines 279-83, which read:
The privities
of the chamber tell he no man, Nor in the lodge whatsoever they
don; Whatsoever thou hearest or seest them do Tell to no man wheresoever
you go; The counsel of hall and even of bower Steep it well to
great honor
That these gentlemen were on a different footing
from the ordinary craftsmen, and that their labors were conducted.
not in the Lodge, but in the chamber, are conditions which I suggest
are parallel to the masons' shed and the drawing office.
Reverting
now to Henry Yevley, whose name is variously spelled, but always
easily recognizable, I find on turning up his name in Kenning's
Cyclopaedia:
Said by the Revd. James Anderson, D.D. (in the first
edition of the Book of Constitutions, 1723) to have been the King's
Freemason, or general surveyor of the buildings of King Edward
III, and employed by His Majesty to 'build several abbies' and
other edifices. Unfortunately Doctor Anderson was gifted with
the imaginative faculty to an undue extent, so that such statements
as the foregoing (which are frequently met with in his work) confuse
more than they benefit the general reader, and, Masonically speaking,
have done much harm. We fail to see why Masonry requires unhistorical
statements to render it acceptable in any way."
The Reverend
Brother Woodford, who was the author and editor of the encyclopedia,
in conjunction with Brother Vaughan, who wrote the articles under
the letters U. V, W. Y. and Z. appears, however, to be wrong on
this occasion, and the imaginative doctor quite right. Doctor
Begemann contributed a note to Transactions. Quatuor Coronati
Lodge, xxi, in which he endeavored to proveand I think with
complete successthat the title of Freemason applied to Yevley
by Stow in his Survey of London, 1598, had actually been used
during the former's lifetime, and was not a posthumous description.
Doctor Begemann's note inspired an article by Brother E. W. M
Wonnacott, of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, and himself an architect
in the same volume, in which he conclusively proved from existing
documents, that as early as 1362 Yevley was described as a "
deviser of Masonry," and that William of Wykeham, generally
credited with having been a great architect, was merely mentioned
as a clerk. In 1381 Nicholas Typerton undertook to build the aisle
of Saint Dunstan's Church in Thames Street " selon ho devise
de Mestre (according to the design of Master) Henry Iveleghe,"
and in 1395 works were carried out at Westminster Hall from a
model made by the advice of Master Henri Zeveley.
" Selone
be purport d'une fourme et molde fait par conseil de mesttre Henri
Zeveley.
(According to the style of a form and mold made by counsel
of Master Henri Zeveley.)
I have not picked out the ease of Yevley
as being at all singular, but merely because it has been so fully
dealt faith in Masonic writings which are available to us all.
tn examination of the list of names in Wyatt Papworth's paper
on the Superintendents of English Buildings during the Middle
Ages, and a careful study of their records, could doubtless prove
that their duties were in every way analogous to those of the
character selected. Surely there can no longer be any doubt that
the Master Masons of the Gothic Era at least (and possibly so
long as architecture has been practiced), were architects in the
truest sense of the word, for when we consider the constructive
ingenuity of their buildings, no less than their perfect proportions
and beauty, we are compelled at once to admit, that their skill
and knowledge of geometry were profound. Thus I think you will
agree, I am quite justified in concluding that the legend of the
founding of the science of geometry by the children of great lords
and ladies, as related in the first part of the poem, is no myth,
but is founded on fact, for unlettered working masons could never
have produced the temples and churches for the worship of T. G.
A. O. T. U., which of all things that excite pleasure to the eye,
rank next only to the works of the Great Creator Himself.
HAMALIEL
The name of the angel that, in accordance
with the Cabalistical system, governs the planet Venus.
HAMBURG
In 1733, the Earl of Strathmore, Grand Master
of England, granted a Deputation "to eleven German gentlemen,
good Brothers, for constituting a Lodge at Hamburg" (see
Anderson, Constitutions, 1738, page 194). of the proceedings of
this Lodge we have no information. In 1740, Brother Luettman brought
from England a Warrant for the establishment of a Lodge, and a
Patent for himself, as Provincial Grand Master of Hamburg and
Lower Saxony. In October, 1741, it assumed the name of Absalom,
and in the same year the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg and
Saxony was opened, a Body which, Lindel says (on page 239 of his
History) was the oldest Mother Lodge in Germany. About the year
1787, the Provincial Grand Lodge adopted the newly invented Rite
of Frederick L. Schroder, consisting of only three Degrees. In
1801, it declared itself an independent Grand Lodge, and has so
continued. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg practices Schroder's Rite
(see Schroder). There is also in Hamburg a sort of Chapter, which
was formed by Schroder, under the title of Geschichtliche Engbund,
or Historical Select Union. It was intended as a substitute for
Fessler's Degrees of Knowledge, the members of which employ their
time in studying the various systems of Freemasonry. The Mutter-Bund
of the Confederacy of Hamburg Lodges, which make up this system,
is independent of the Grand Lodge. The two authorities are entirely
distinct, and bear much the same relation to each other as the
Grand Lodges and Grand Chapters of the United States.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER
American economist and statesman, born January
11, 1757, in West Indies, and as the result of a duel with Aaron
Burr at Weehawken, New Jersey, died, July 12, 1804. Organized
an artillery company in Revolutionary War, became private secretary
to Washington. Brilliant as a soldier, he was equally effective
in organizing the United States Government under the 1787 Constitution
and became Secretary of State. His able reports cover a wide range
of investigation and he bestowed order and confidence to national
finances. His name is recorded among those visiting American Union
Lodge at Morristown, New Jersey, December 27, 1779, and is identified
because the only one of that name then holding a commission in
the Army under General Washington.
HAMILTON, HON. ROBERT, M.A., M.D.
Born 1820; died May, 1880, at Jamaica, of
which island he was District Grand Master. This English gentleman
was a member of the Queen's Body Guard. He was appointed District
Grand Master of Jamaica, November 5, 1858; District (brand Superintendent
of Royal Arch Masons, January 10, 1859; Provincial Grand Master
of Mark Masons, 1877; and was a supernumerary member of the Supreme
Council, 33 , of England, and Provincial Grand Master of the Royal
Order of Scotland.
HANCOCK, JOHN
Born January 12, 1737; died October 8, 1793.
President of the Continental Congress from May 1775, to October
1777, and the first to attach his name to the Declaration of Independence.
He took the Masonic Degrees in Merchants Lodge No. 277, Quebec,
Canada, in 1762, and on October 14, 1762, affiliated with the
Lodge of Saint Andrew, Boston, Massachusetts (see New Age, October,
1925; Masonic Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Signers, Wm. L.
Bovden; Masonry in the Formation of our Government 1761-99, Philip
A. Roth, page 40).
HAND
In Freemasonry, the hand as a symbol holds
a high place, because it is the principal seat of the sense of
feeling so necessary to and so highly revered by Freemasons. The
same symbol is found in the most ancient religions, and some of
their analogies to Masonic symbolism are peculiar. Thus, Horapollo
says that among the Egyptians the hand was the symbol of a builder,
or one fond of building, because all labor proceeds from the hand.
In many of the Ancient Mysteries the hand, especially the left,
was deemed the symbol of equity. In Christian art a hand is the
indication of a holy person or thing. In early medieval art, the
Supreme Being was always represented by a hand extended from a
cloud, and generally in the act of benediction.
The form of this act of benediction, as
adopted by the Roman Church, which seems to have been borrowed
from the symbols of the Phrygian and Eleusinian priests or hierophants,
who used it in their mystical processions, presents a singular
analogy, which will be interesting to Mark Master Masons who will
recognize in it a symbol of their own ceremonies. In the benediction
referred to, as given in the Latin Church, the thumb, index, and
middle fingers are extended, and the two others bent against the
palm as in the illustration. The church explains this position
of the extended thumb and two fingers as representing the Trinity;
but the older symbol of the Pagan priests, which was precisely
of the same form, must have had a different meaning.
A writer in the British Magazine (volume
I, page 565) thinks that the hand, which was used in the Mithraic
mysteries in this position, was symbolic of the Light emanating
not from the sun, but from the Creator, directly as a special
manifestation; and he remarks that chiromancy or divination by
the hand is an art founded upon the notion that the human hand
has some reference to the decrees of the supreme power peculiar
to it above all other parts of the microcosmus—man. Certainly,
to the Freemason, the hand is most important as the symbol of
that mystical intelligence by which one Freemason knows another
"in the dark as well as in the light."
To the above observations by Doctor Mackey
we may add that scores of references in the Bible attest the important
significance that from the earliest times has been associated
with the hand. As a pledge of fidelity the hand is frequently
employed in all religious rites, old or new. The sign of a covenant
indicated by a movement of the hand is noted by several authors,
notably in a chapter on the subject in the Threshold Covenant,
H. Clay Trumbull, 1896 (pages 74 to 94).
This authority says "It is a notes worthy fact that the uplifted
hand is prominent in the representation of the deities of Babylonia,
Assyria, Phenicia, and Egypt, especially of the gods of life or
of fertility, who have covenant relations with men. And the same
is true of the representations of sovereigns, in the ancient East,
who are supposed to be in peculiar relations with the gods. Thus
on the seal of Urgur, the earliest ruler of Ur of the Chaldees
(see Genesis xi 31 and xv 7), the ruler and his attendants appear
with uplifted hands before the moon-god Sin, who in turn is represented
with his hand uplifted, as if he were making covenant with him.
This is from Perrot and Chipiez's History of Art in Chaldea and
Assyria (i, pages 38 and 84). It is the same with the sun-god
Shamash and his worshipers, Sayce's Social Life Arrow the Assyrians
aru] Babylonians (page 52)."
Professor Trumbull submits numerous instances
of the kind in records from various parts of the world and also
makes the fact clear that the uplifted hands in the representations
of deities and their worshipers was not the attitude of adoration
nor of supplication but a symbol of covenanting, the showing of
a pledge, a formal act of visible consecration. Of the importance
of such an act with the hand there are frequent allusions in the
Scriptures. Trumbull (page 82) says, "There is a clear recognition
of this idea in many Bible references to the lifting up of the
hands unto God, as if in covenant relations with him.
Thus Abraham says to the King of Sodom,
'I have lift up my hand to the Lord,' Genesis xiv 22, as if he
would say I have pledged myself to Him. I have given him my hand.
And the Psalmist lxiii 4, says 'I will lift up my hand in Thy
name.' God Himself says, by His prophet, Isaiah il 22, 'I will
lift up Mine hand to the nations;' that is I will covenant with
them. Compare Exodus vi 8, Numbers xiv 30, and Nehemiah ix 15.
And 80 in many another case. Indeed the Assyrian word for swearingnishis
literally lifting up the hand, and the Hebrew word nasa means
to lift up the hand or to swear (see Tallquist's Die Sprague Contracte
Nabu Naido, page 108, and Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon). Again, there
may be a reference to the 'hand of might' in a covenant relation,
in those passages where God is spoken of as bringing His people
out of Egypt by 'a strong hand' or 'a mighty hand,' and as dealing
with them afterwards in the same way (see, for example, Exodus
ui 19; xiii 3, 14, 16; xxxii ll; Deuteronomy iii 24; iv 34; v
15, vi 21; vii 8, 19; ix 26; xi 2, etc.; Second Chronicles vi
3'' Ezekiel xx 34; Daniel ix 15). An uplifted hand is a symbol
found also on the stepped pyramid temples of Polynesia (see Ellis's
Polynesian Researches ii, page 207, illustration)."
Attention may be directed to the additional
authority given in the signing of a document by one's own hand.
Even where a person cannot write for himself, a mark made by the
one attesting to the truth of the rest of the writing is acceptable
and customary. To pass a coin from hand of the one party to a
contract into the hand of another person involved in the matter
has been accepted as a mutual pledge of the good faith of both
concerned to carry out the terms of the undertaking. An English
expression about "taking a shilling" refers to the binding
of the bargain when a soldier enlists in the British Array. All
refer to the covenant authorized by a sign made by the hand. We
must not forget the common expressions relating to the hand as
an agency, a source, an authority, and so on, as in "at first
hand," "by hand," "in hand," "in
the hands of," etc. Nor may we overlook the use of blood
to emphasize the importance of a contract. Professor Trumbull
offers a suggestive comment on the relation of this to an oath
or obligation. "The very term sign manual, employed for a
veritable signature, may point to an origin in this custom. Indeed,
may it not be that the large red seal attached to important documents,
at the present time, is a survival of the signature and seal of
the bloody hand?" (Threshold Covenant, page 94).
Of such gestures as are made by the laying
on of hands in Church ceremonies and elsewhere in sealing a covenant
there are many pregnant allusions in the Bible and other places.
Compare Genesis it 8, 94; Numbers xxvii, 8 to 23; Acts vi 6; viii
18, xiii 3; xix 6; First Timothy iv 14; vi 2; viii 9; Hebrews vi
2; viii 9 (see Covenant and Oath, also Penalty).
HAND, LEFT
See Left Hand
HAND, RIGHT
See Right Hand
HANDS, CLEAN
See Clean Hands
HANDS, UNITED
Clasped hands are a symbol of fidelity and
trust. A Spanish work was published at Vittoria, in 1774, where
three hands are shown united in the vignette on the title.
HAND TO BACK
See Points of Fellowship
HAND TO HAND
See Points of Fellowship
HANOVER
Freemasonry was introduced into Hanover,
in the year 1744, by the organization of the Lodge Frederick;
which did not, however, get into active operation, in consequence
of the opposition of the priests, until two years after. A Provincial
Grand Lodge was established in 1755, which in 1828 became an independent
Grand Lodge. In 1866, in consequence of the war between Austria
and Prussia, Hanover was annexed to the latter country. There
being three Grand Lodges at that time in Prussia, the King deemed
it inexpedient to add a fourth, and, by a cabinet order of February
17, 1867, the Grand Lodge of Hanover was dissolved. Most of the
Hanoverian Lodges united with the Grand Lodge Royal York at Berlin,
and a few with the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes.
HAPHTZIEL
The Hebrew word 17N'XEN, in Latin Voluntas
Dei. A covered word used in the Twenty-third Degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite.
HAR
The name of the second king in the Scandinavian
Mysteries.
HARAM, GRAND
The Seventy-third Degree of the Rite of
Mizraim
HARBINGER
The title of an officer in the Knights of
the Holy Sepulcher, and also in the Knights of Saint John the
Evangelist.
HARDIE, JAMES
A Freemason of New York, who published,
in 1818, a work entitled The New Freemasons' Monitor and Masonic
Guide. It evinces considerable ability, was in Brother Mackey's
opinion more valuable than the Monitors of Webb and Cross, and
deserved a greater popularity than it seems to have received.
HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPTS
An old record of the Constitutions of Freemasonry,
so called because it forms No. 2054 of the collection of manuscripts
in the British Museums which were originally collected by Robert
Harley, Earl of Oxford, the celebrated Prime Minister of Queen
Anne, and known as the Bibliotheca Harleian, or Harleian Labrary.
The Manuscript consists of four leaves, containing six and a half
pages of close writing in a cramped hand, said to be that of Randle
Holmes, Chester Herald, who died in 1699. The Manuscript has first
published by Brother William James Hughan, in his Masonic Sketches
and Reprints. The Manuscript was carefully transcribed for Brother
Hughan by a faithful copyist, and its correctness was verified
by Sims, of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum. Brother
Hughan places the date of the record in the middle of the seventeenth
century, and in this he is probably correct.
The two following folios says the Reverend
Brother Woodford in the volume (namely 33 and 34) are of a very
important character, inasmuch as the secrets of Freemasonry are
referred to in the "obligation" taken by Initiates and
the sums are recorded which "William Wade give to be a Freemason,"
and others who were admitted members of the Lodge. The amounts
varied from five shillings to a pound the majority being ten shillings
and upwards. The fragment on folio 33 is as follows and was written
about the same time as the Manuscript Constitutions; There is
several words & signs of a free mason to be received to be reveiled
to yu wch as will answr before God at the Great & terrible
day of Judgment you keep secret & not to revile the same in
the hears of any person or to any but to the Mrs& fellows
of the said society of free masons so help me God, etc.
A facsimile of the Manuscript has been published
by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge. There is another Manuscript in
the same collection marked No. 1492, the date of which is conjectured
to be about 1650! or rather later. It was copied by Brother Henry
Phillips, and first published in the Freemasons Quarterly Retnew
in 1836 (pages 288 to 295). The copy, however, unfortunately,
is not an exact one, as E. A. Bond, of the Museum, who compared
a part of the transcript with the original, says that "the
copyist has overlooked peculiarities in many instances."
It is important in containing an Oath of Secrecy, which is in
the following words:
I (giving full name) in the presence of
Almighty God, and my fellows and Brethren here present, promise
and declare that I will not at any time hereafter, by any Act,
or Circumstance whatsoever, directly or indirectly publish, discover,
reveal, or make known any of the Secrete privileges, or Counsels
of the Fraternity or fellowship of Freemasonry, which at this
time, or any time hereafter shall be made known unto me; so help
me God and the holy contents of this book. .
A facsimile of this
manuscript also has been published by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
HARMONY
It is a duty especially entrusted to the
Senior Warden of a Lodge, who is figuratively supposed to preside
over the Craft during the hours of labor, so to act that none
shall depart from the Lodge dissatisfied or discontented, that
harmony may be thus preserved, because, as the instruction expresses
it, harmony is the strength and support of all well-regulated
institutions.
HARMONY, BRETHREN OF
See Brethren of Harmony
HARMONY, KNIGHT
See Knight of Harmony
HARMONY, UNIVERSAL
See Mesmeric Free masonry
HARNETT, CORNELIUS
See Montfort, Colonel Joseph
HARNOUESTER
Lord Harnouester is said to have been elected
by the four Lodges of Paris, as the second Grand Master of France,
in 1736, succeeding the Earl of Derwentwater. Nothing is known
of this nobleman in contemporary history. Burke makes no allusion
to him in his Extinct Peerages, and probably the name has undergone
one of those indecipherable mutations to which French writers
are accustomed to subject all foreign names; indeed, Brother R.
F. Gould, in his Concase History of Freemasonry (page 355), considers
that the name may even be a corruption of Derwentwater.
HARODIM
We owe the Masonic use of this word to Anderson,
who first employed it in the Book of Constitutions, where he tells
us that "there were employed about the Temple no less than
three thousand and six hundred Princes or Master Masons to conduct
the work," and in a note he says that "in First Kings
(v, 16) they are called Harodim, Rulers or Provosts" (see
Constitutions, 1723, page 10). The passage here alluded to may
be translated somewhat more literally than in the authorized version,
thus: "Besides from the chiefs or princes appointed by Solomon
who were over the work, there were three thousand and three hundred
harodim over the people who labored at the work."
Harodim, in Hebrew os , is a grammatically
compounded word of the plural form, and is composed of the definite
article if, HAR the or those, and a participle of the verb rho,
radah, to rule over, and means therefore, those who rule over,
or overseers. In the parallel passage of Second Chronicles (ii,
18), the word used is Menatzchim, which has a similar meaning.
But from the use of this word Harodim in First Kings, and the
commentary on it by Anderson, it has come to pass that Harodim
is now technically used to signify Princes in Masonry. They were
really overseers of the work, and hence the Masonic use of the
term is not altogether inappropriate. Whoever inspects the two
parallel passages in First Kings (v, 16) and Second Chronicles
(ii, 18), will notice an apparent discrepancy. In the former it
is said that there were three thousand and three hundred of these
overseers, and in the latter the number is increased to three
thousand and six hundred. The commentators have noted but not
explained the incongruity. Lee, in his Temple of Solomon, attempts
to solve it by supposing that "possibly three hundred at
a second review might be added to the number of officers for the
greater care of the business." This is not satisfactory;
not more so is the explanation offered by myself, continues Brother
Mackey, many years ago, in the Lexicon of Freemasonry. It is much
more reasonable to suspect a clerical error of some old copyist
which has been perpetuated. There is room for such an inadvertence,
for there is no very great difference between wIw, the Hebrew
for three, and wwt, which is six. The omission of the central
letter would create the mistake. Masonic writers have adhered
to the three thousand and six hundred, which is the enumeration
in Chronicles.
Brother E. L. Hawkins tells us that a Degree
bearing this name was commonly conferred by the Lodges in the
County of Durham, England, during the latter half of the eighteenth
century, but what its exact nature was has now been forgotten.
HARODIM, GRAND CHAPTER OF
An institution under the title of the Grand
Chapter of the Ancient and Venerable Order of Harodim was established
in London, in the year 1787, by the celebrated Masonic lecturer,
William Preston. He thus defines, in his Illustrations, its nature
and objects (see twelfth edition, page 310):
The mysteries of this Order are peculiar
to the Institution itself; while the lectures of the Chapter include
every branch of the Masonic system, and represent the art of Masonry
in a finished and complete form.
Different classes are established, and particular
lectures restricted to each class. The lectures are divided into
sections, and the sections into clauses. The sections are annually
assigned by the Chief Harod to a certain number of skillful Companions
in each class, who are denominated Sectionists; and they are empowered
to distribute the clauses of their respective sections, with the
approbation of the Chief Harod and General Director, among the
private companions of the Chapter, who are denominated Clauseholders.
Such Companions as by assiduity become possessed of all the sections
in the lecture are called Lecturers; and out of these the General
Director is always chosen.
Every Clauseholder, on his appointment,
is presented with a ticket, signed by the Chief Harod, specifying
the clause allotted to him. This ticket entitles him to enjoy
the rank and privileges of a Clauseholder in the Chapter; and
no Clauseholder can transfer his ticket to another Companion,
unless the consent of the Council has been obtained for that purpose,
and the General Director has approved the Companion to whom it
is to be transferred as qualified to hold it. In case of the death,
sickness, or non-residence in London of any Lecturer, Sectionist,
or Clauseholder, another Companion is appointed to fill up the
vacancy for the time being, that the lectures may be always complete,
and during the session a public lecture is usually delivered at
stated times. The Grand Chapter is governed by a Grand Patron,
two Vice Patrons, a chief Ruler, and two Assistants, with a Council
of twelve respectable Companions, who are chosen annually at the
Chapter nearest to the festival of Saint John the Evangelist.
The whole system was admirably adapted to
the purposes of Masonic instruction, and was intended for propagating
the Prestonian system of lectures.
HARODIM, PRINCE OF
In the old lectures of the Ineffable Degrees,
it is said that Tito, the oldest of the Provosts and Judges, was
the Prince of Harodim, that is, chief of the three hundred architects
who Caere the Harodim, or additional three hundred added to the
thirty-three thousand Menatzchim mentioned in Chronicles, and
who thus make up the number of three thousand six hundred recorded
in the First Book of Kings, and who in the old lecture of the
Degree of Provost and Judge are supposed to have been the Harodim
or Rulers in Masonry. The Statement is a myth; but it thus attempts
to explain the discrepancy alluded to in our article on Harodim.
HARPER, EDWARDS
There were two Grand secretaries acting
together from the Union of the Grand Lodges of England in 1813,
Brother Edwards Harper officiating from 1813 to 1838. For twelve
years previously to 1813 Brother Harper had been Deputy Grand
Secretary and on December 1, 1813, he was given a gold jewel or
medal by the Grand Lodge for "eminent services rendered the
Ancient Craft" during that period. Brother William Henry
White, who became Grand Secretary of the Moderns in 1810, continued
from 1813 with Brother Harper until 1838 and then acted alone
as Grand Secretary up to 1856 (see Memorials of the Masonic Union,
W. J. Hughan-John T. Thorp, 1913, pages 11 and 185.
HARPER, THOMAS
Deputy Grand Master of the Athol Lodge and
an ardent Freemason. Published an edition of the Ahiman Rezon
in 1800 and two others in 1807 and 1813. At the Union of the two
Grand Lodges he opened the Especial Grand Lodge as Deputy Grand
Master and by unanimous accord was fraternally requested to continue
in office and fulfil the duties until the appointment and installation
of a Grand Master, the Duke of Kent, who subsequently appointed
and installed Brother Harper as his Deputy (see Memorials of the
Masonic Union, W. J. Hughan, John T. Thorp, 1913, pages 17-20)
.
HARPOCRATES
The Greek god of silence and secrecy. He
was, however, a divinity of the Egyptian mythology; his true name
being, according to Bunsen and Lepsius, Har-pi-krati, that is,
Horus the child; and he is supposed to have been the son of Osiris
and Isis. He is represented as a nude figure, sitting sometimes
on a lotus flower, either bareheaded or covered by an Egyptian
miter, but always with his finger pressed upon his lips. Plutarch
thinks that this gesture was an indication of his childlike and
helpless nature; but the Greeks, and after them the Romans, supposed
it to be a symbol of silence; and hence, while he is sometimes
described as the god of the renewed year, whence peach blossoms
were consecrated to him because of their early appearance in spring,
he is more commonly represented as the god of silence and secrecy.
Thus, Ovid says of him:
Quique premit vocem digitoque silentia suadet.
He who controls the voice and persuades to silence with his finger.
In this capacity, his statue was often placed
at the entrance of temples and places where the mysteries were
celebrated, as an indication of the silence and secrecy that should
there be observed. Hence the finger on the lips is a symbol of
secrecy, and has so been adopted in Masonic symbolism.
HARRIS, THADDEUS MASON
The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, D.D., an
American Masonic writer of high reputation, was born in Charlestown,
Massachusetts, July 7, 1767, and graduated at Harvard University
in 1787. He was ordained as minister of a church in Dorchester
in 1793, and died at Boston, April 3, 1842. He held at different
times the offices of Deputy Grand Master, Grand Chaplain, and
Corresponding Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
Huntoon says (in his Eulogy):
His first great Masonic work was the editing
of a collation revision, and publication of the Constitutions
of the ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons,
a quarto volume, printed at Worcester, Massachusetts 1792: a work
which he accomplished with the accustomed diligence and fidelity
with which he performed every enterprise confided to his care.
His various occasional addresses while Grand Chaplain of the Grand
Lodge, Masonic defenses and his volume of Masonic Discourses,
published in 1801, constitute a large and valuable portion of
the Masonic classic literature of America.
HARUGARI, ORDER OF
Secret society founded in New York City
in 1847 or 1848 among immigrants from Germany to preserve the
use of the German language and to mutually assist the needy and
aid the widows and orphans of the members. The name is thought
to be derived from an old German word, harur, meaning grove or
forest, and the title itself to have been that of an ancient organization.
The Order teaches Friendship, Love and Humanity (see Cyclopedia
of Fraternities, Albert C. Stevens, and the Deutsch-Amerikanisches
Conversations-Lexikon).
HARUSPICES, ORDER OF
The word Haruspet comes from a Sanskrit
word hira, meaning entrails; therefore implying a soothsayer or
arus pice. The founder of the Etruscan Order was Tages, doubtless
a myth of self-creative power. This Order is claimed to have been
re-established in Rome at the time of the foundation of the city.
It embraced two divisions, those who formed their judgment from
the movements and habits of animals as well as the flight of birds,
and those who judged and foretold events by the inspection of
the entrails of newly killed animals. These were the precursors,
the forerunners, of naturalists and physiologists.
HASIDIM, SOVEREIGN PRINCE
The Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth Degrees
of the Rite of Mizraim. It should be Chasidim, which see.
HAT
To uncover the head in the presence of superiors
has been, among all Christian nations, held as a mark of respect
and reverence. The Eastern nations uncover the feet when they
enter a place of worship; the Western uncover the head. The converse
of this is also true; and to keep the head covered while all around
are uncovered is a token of superiority of rank or office. The
king remains covered, the courtiers standing around him take off
their hats.
To wear the hat in an assemblage has been
thus done as a sign of equality and it is so worn in the English
Parliament and in certain Masonic Lodges on the Continent of Europe.
So very common is the ceremonial use of the hat when at labor
by the presiding officers of a Masonic Body in the United States
and to a far less frequent extent elsewhere, Bristol, in England,
where a hat is worn being an exception to the general rule there,
that one naturally looks for instances of any similar character
in other directions. Among the Romans we are told in Fiske's Classical
Antiquities (page 237) that they prayed with the head covered
or veiled, capite velato. The woolen cap, the pileus (page 298)
was allowed only to the free by birth or manumission, but forbidden
to slaves. Fiske says (page 289):
The liberating of slaves took place in several
ways. The most ancient mode seems to have been by will manumissio
per testamentum, on the decease of the master. There were two
other modes, censu, and per vindictam; the former was when the
slave, with the master's consent, was enrolled in the taxation
list as a freedman, the latter was a formal and public enfranchisement
before the praetor. In the last case, the master appeared with
his slave, before the tribunal, and commenced the ceremony by
striking him with a rod, vindicta; thus treating him as still
his slave. Then a protector or defender, assertor liberntatis
steps forward and requests the liberation of the Slave by saying
hunc hominen liberum esse aio, jure Quiritium, the last nord referring
to the inhabitants of Cures a Sabine town, after the union of
the Romans and Sabines, being equivalent to meaning citizenship.
The first of the two similar expressions
was followed by the other, indicating that it was the owners will
the slave should be freed. Then the master, who has hitherto kept
hold of the slave, lets him go, e manu emittebat, and gives up
his right over him with the words, hunc hominem libertum esse
volo. A declaration by the praeter that the slave should be free
formed the conclusion. To confirm this manumission the freed slave
sometimes went to Terracina and received in the temple of Feronia
a cap or hat, pious, as a badge of liberty. The slave to be freed
must not be under twenty years of age, nor the person setting
him free under thirty.
The goddess of fruits, nurseries, and groves,
Feronia, had a Temple on Mount Soracte where a grove was especially
sacred to her. She was honored as the patroness of enfranchised
slaves, who ordinarily received their liberty in her Temple.
Another, and a custom that prevails in our
own times, is mentioned by Dr. George C. Williamson, Cunous Survivals
(page 92), writing of the House of Commons, London, "A member
has to wear his hat when he is to address the House, and there
is often confusion when the member is unable to find his hat at
the moment, and to put it on, before he addresses the Speaker,
but, were he to rise without his hat, he would be greeted immediately
with cries of 'Order, Order'!"
Pascal's Provincial Letters, American edition
of 1850 translated by Rev. Thomas McCrie of Edinburgh, Scotland
(page 79), gives a curious reference to the old Paris proverb
about voting without speaking, Il opine du bonnet comme un moine
en sorbonne, means literally: "He votes with his cap like
a monk in the Sorbonne" alluding to the custom in that place
of learning of taking off the cap when a member was not disposed
to speak, or in token of agreement with the rest (see also Nicole
i, page 184, Ludovici Montaltii Litterae Provintciales).
HAT, THE MASTER'S
History has more than one device for creating
its romantic effects, but none more surprising than inversion
which is to have something occur where its opposite would be expected.
The universal American custom of the Master's Hat is such an inversion
(see page 445); for it is not the custom in contemporary England,
where ancient usages are to be expected, yet is required in America,
where custom has least weight. American Masons can be glad that
this inversion has occurred because there is in craft practice
in general and in Masonic practice in particular no custom more
honored or more ancient.
The Greeks crowned their poets, their victorious
generals, and the winners of the games with wreaths; at Delphi
with one of apple boughs, at Olympia with laurel, at Corinth with
pine. Even the gods in time came to be represented with a wreath
of light or sun rays, the corona, origin of the saints' halo.
At a Roman general's Triumph he was crowned with a laurel wreath,
called corona triumphalts; in later times a wreath of gold A citizen
who had won a peace-time triumph received an ovation, and a crown
for his head. Anglo-Saxons had similar customs; so also the French,
who crowned graduates of their Universities with caps; and the
Italians who set a cap of fur on a man's head when he was made
Duke (not the same as duce!). In England a Duke, Marquis, Earl,
Viscount, and Baron received a cap. So also did the alderman or
master of a gild or a City Company. Such a cap came to be called
"a cap of maintenance," and the coat of arms of the
City of London is topped with such a cap. The helmet in military
arms is an adaptation of the same custom; the King's "cap"
is a six-barred helmet. While Henry VIII was still loyal to the
Vatican he was presented with a consecrated cap of maintenance
by Pope Leo X. The wearing of such a cap, with its ceremonial
significance, was so closely connected with the ceremonial wearing
of a sword that the two became enshrines together in the phrase
"cap and sword."
It would thus appear that the wreath, cap,
or hat began as a badge of honor; perhaps it became afterwards
identified with the idea of authority, and then with the idea
of a presiding officer, because in so many cases it was the head
or chief or leader who was honored. The Master's Hat has both
ideas combined in it; it represents his authority to preside;
it represents also the fact that he has received the highest honors
of his Lodge and it is because it thus is a symbol of that honor
that he will not, if he rightly understands his art, take it off
and put it aside, as if the honor meant nothing to him; certainly
he will not lay it on the floor.
HAUPT-HUETTE
Among the German Stone Masons of the Middle
Ages, the original Lodge at Strasburg was considered as the head
of the Craft, under the title of the Haupt-Hutte, the Head Lodge,
or Grand Lodge.
HAUTES GRADES
French, meaning High Degrees, which see
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
See Oceania
HAWKINS, EDWARD LOVELL
Author of the Concise Cyclopedia and founder
of the Miscellanea Latomorum, died on April 17, 1913, and was
at the time of his death Senior Warden of Quatuor Coronati Lodge,
being appointed to that office on November 8, 1912.
Born on August 10, 1851, initiated in the
Apollo University Lodge No. 357 at Oxford, England, and was its
Worshipful Master in 1881. He also served as Provincial Grand
Steward of Oxfordshire in 1879, becoming Grand Registrar in 1880,
Grand Warden in 1882, and was Grand .Secretary of the Province
from 1883 to 1885. In the Province of Sussex he was Grand Steward
in 1910 and Senior Grand Warden in 1912. In other Bodies he also
held prominent rank. one of the earliest joining members of Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, on April 7, 1882, the first meeting after the
consecration, and on November 8 , 1912, he was appointed Senior
Warden of Lodge 2076. Among his literary works are a History of
Freemasonry in Oxfordshire, 1882; A Concise Cyclopedia, or Handbook
of Masonic References, 1908, and also he took an active part in
the preparation of the new and revised edition of Doctor Mackey's
monumental Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences
published in 1912. He conceived the idea of a periodical treating
of Masonic notes and queries and in Mail, 1911, the first number
of Miscellanea Latomorum appeared and was continued up to his
death, then the editorial labor was carried on by Brother F. W.
Lavender, and after his death, by Brother Lionel Vibert.
HAYS, MOSES MICHAEL
Born 1739 in Lisbon, Portugal, his parents
were Jews. In 1761, while in Jamaica, he secured the appointment
of Deputy Inspector-General for North America for the Masonic
Rite of Perfection. From Jamaica Brother Hays went to the West
Indies and thence to Newport, Rhode Island, where he became active
in the Fraternity. November 5, 1782, Brother Hays was proposed
as a member of Massachusetts Lodge, Boston. He was elected Master,
December 3, 1782, held this office until 1785, when he was appointed
Junior Grand Warden and he served as Grand Master of the Massachusetts
Grand Lodge from July 24, 1788, until March 5, 1792, at which
time the union was effected between the two Grand Lodges of Massachusetts.
which unity was due in a large way to the efforts of Brother Hays.
His death occurred May 9, 1805, and the
Columbian Sentinel, Boston, published the following obituary notice
ore May 11:
In the character of the deceased there is
much worth of our admiration much for our imitation. Possessed
by nature of a strong interest there was a vigor in his conception
of men and things which gave a seeming asperity to his conversation,
which was ever frank anal lucid. He walked abroad fearing no man,
but loving all. Under his roof dwelt hospitality, it was an asylum
of friendship, the mansion of peace. He was without guile. despising
hypocrisy as he despised meanness. Take hint for all in all, he
was A MAN. In his death society wills mourn the loss of a most
estimable citizen, his family the kindest of husbands, the most
indulgent of fathers. But what consolation shall we offer to assuage
the violence of their grief? Why this is allthe recollection
of his virtues, and that as he lived, so he died, that to his
last moment the cheerfulness and benevolence of his whole life
wasted not on his falling brow. Calm and without a sign he sunk
to rest. and is non secure in the bosom of his Father and our
Father, of his God and our God.
HAYTI
Freemasonry, which had been in existence
for several years in the island of Hayti, was entirely extinguished
by the revolution which drove out the white inhabitants. In 1809,
the Grand Lodge of England granted a Charter for a Lodge at Port
au-princes and for one at Cayes. In 1817, the same authority constituted
two others, at Jeremias and at Jacmel Subsequently, a Provincial
Grand Lodge was established under obedience to England. January
25, 1824, this Provincial Grand Lodge declared its independence
and organized the Grand Orient of Hayti.
HEAL
A technical Masonic term which signifies
to make valid or legal. Hence one who has received a Degree in
an irregular manner or from incompetent authority is not recognized
until he has been healed. The precise mode of healing depends
on circumstances If the Lodge which conferred the Degree was clandestine,
the whole ceremony of initiation would have to be repeated. If
the authority which conferred the Degree was only irregular, and
the question was merely a technical one of legal competence, it
is only necessary to exact an obligation of allegiance, or in
other words to renew the covenant.
HEARING
One of the five senses, and an important
symbol in Freemasonry, because it is through it that we receive
instruction when ignorant, admonition when in danger, reproof
when in error, and the claim of a Brother who is in distress.
Without this sense, the Freemason would be crippled in the performance
of all his duties; and hence deafness is deemed a disqualification
for initiation.
HEART
Notwithstanding that all the modern American
Masonic Manuals and Masters Carpets from the time of Jeremy L.
Cross exhibit the picture of a heart among the emblems of the
Third Degree, there is no such symbol in the instructions except
as a part of the stern injunction that justice will sooner or
later overtake the wrongdoer. But the theory that every man who
becomes a Freemason must first be prepared in his heart was advanced
among the earliest lectures of the eighteenth century, and demonstrates,
as Krause properly remarks, in Speculative Freemasonry, an internal
principle which addresses itself not simply to the outward conduct,
but to the inner spirit and conscience of all men who seek its
instructions.
HEART OF HIRAM ABIF
There is a legend in some of the advanced
Degrees and in Continental Freemasonry, that the heart of Hiram
Abif was deposited in an urn and placed upon a monument near the
Holy of Holies; and in some of the Tracing Boards it is represented
as a symbol. The myth, for such it is, was probably derived from
the very common custom in the Middle Ages of persons causing their
bodies to be dismembered after death for the purpose of having
parts of them buried in a church, or some place which had been
dear to them in life. Thus Hardynge, in his Metrical Chronicle
of England, tells us of Richard I that
He queathed his corpse then to be buried
At Fount Everard, there at his father's feete;
His herte invyneyb!e to Rome he sent full
mete
For their great truth and stedfast great Constance.
The medieval idea has descended to modern times; for our present
instructions in the United States say that the ashes of Hiram
were deposited in an urn.
HEBREW CHRONOLOGY
The ecclesiastical year commences with the
first Nisan, March, but the civil reckoning begins with the first
Tishri, September, which is New Year's Day.
The following dates are accepted by the Hebrews, as given by Doctor
Zunz in Remarks prefacing The 24 Books of the Holy Scriptures
according to the Massoretic Text:
BEFORE COMMON ERA.
3988, Creation.
2332, Flood.
2040, Abraham born.
1575, Moses born.
1495, Exodus.
1051, David acknowledged as King.
1015, First Temple commenced.
586, First Temple destroyed.
536, Cyrus Decree.
516, Second Temple completed.
330, Alexander conquers Palestine.
The succeeding dates are in accord with
the research of other authorities.
The Temple was dedicated on five occasions:
1. 1004 B.C., fifteenth day of Tishri- Ethanim and Abib. First
Kings via 2 to 62.
2. 726 B. C., when purified from the abominations of Ahaz.
3. 516 B.C., third Adar, upon completion of Zerubbabel's Temple.
4. 164 B.C., twenty-fifth Kislev, after the victory of Judas Maceabaeus
over the Syrians the service lasted eight days.
5. 22 B.C., upon completion of Herod's Temple.
The three Temples were destroyed on the same day and month of
the year
The " three-fold destruction " of the Temple took place
on the ninth Ab, or fifth ecclesiastical month.
Destruction of Temple, by Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B.C., or four hundred
and sixteen years after dedication.
Taking the city of Jerusalem by Titus is commemorated as a fast
day on the seventeenth Tamuz.
Passover, fourteenth Nisan- Little Passover, fifteenth Iyar.
Pentecost, or First Fruits, commemorating the giving of the law
on Mount Sinai sixth Sivan Great Day of Atonement, tenth Tishli.
Feast of Tabernaeles, fifteenth to twenty-first Tishri.
Fast for commencement of siege of Jenasalem by Nebuchadnezzar,
tenth day of Tebeth.
Feast of Purim, fourteenth and fifteenth Adar.
King Cyrus liberated the Jews, 538 B.C.
King Darius confirmed the Deeree, 520 B. C. (see Cyrus) .
HEBREW FAITH
See Talmud
HEBREW WORDS IN MASONRY
"Ahiman Rezon," the name given
by Laurence Dermott to his edition of the Book of Constitutions
for the Ancient Grand Lodge, was intended to be Hebrew but to
date Hebraists are not certain of its meaning; it is believed
to mean "Worthy Brother Secretary," or "Help to
a Scribe," but the earliest editions carried on the title
page the sub-title "Help to a Brother," and that may
have been Grand Secretary Dermott's own translation. But why use
a Hebrew title? No answer to this question has ever been found.
Dermott himself had some Hebrew. There must have been a special
interest in Hebrew by members of the Grand Lodge of Ireland at
about the time of the writing of the Constitution of the Ancient
Grand Lodge, which was Irish Masonry transplanted to England,
because Irish Grand Lodge medals of the period occasionally carried
Hebrew words. A Side Order or High Degree (it is impossible to
tell which) was practiced in Ireland, England, and Scotland under
the Hebrew name of Herodim (or Harodim, or Highrodim, or Highrodian);
Preston called a little society for the study of Masonry which
he organized, "Order of Herodim." This word was lifted
bodily from I Kings, Ch. 5, of the Hebrew Old Testament, where
it meant provosts, or "officers which were over the work."
Giblim, another word in Masonic usage, was taken from the same
chapter. It is possible that a certain word in the Third Degree
which cannot be spoken or written is an altered form of a third
Hebrew word from that same chapter.
The whole subject of a Hebrew influence
at work in the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Century Freemasonry
is a still-virgin field for Masonic research. There were professors
and specialists in Hebrew at Oxford, Cambridge, and the University
of Dublin; the making of the Authorized Version under King James
in 1611 was much discussed everywhere among educated men, and
inspired many amateurs to study the language of the Old Testament.
Public exhibition at two different times in English cities of
models of Solomon's Temple aroused a popular interest in the Book
of Kings. The Allegory of the Temple in the Second Degree may
have been added to the Ritual in that period; at least an amplification
of it. The Raising, which bears the Hebrew name of HA.-. may have
originated in the same period (the oldest known Lodge of Master
Masons is dated at 1725); this is doubtful because the rite bears
internal evidence of having originated much earlier, but it is
possible that its general popularity may have been owing to the
current of Hebrew interests. The Holy Royal Arch, which in some
forms was probably known in Ireland in Time Immemorial Lodges,
is Old Testament in spirit and reference; also, if "Arch"
meant "chief" or "overseer" the Rite may at
one time have been called Herodim.
Thus far no historian has discovered any
connection between the origin of Speculative Freemasonry and the
Jews. Such Hebraic elements as are found in the Craft Degrees
and the High Grades are derived from Hebrew sources at second
or at third hand, from the English Bible, from Old Testament traditions
and stories, and also, perhaps, and over a roundabout route, from
the Kabbala (or Cabala, or Kabbalah). There was much interest
in the Kabbala during the early period of the Reformation; Reuchlin,
one of Luther's forerunners, was familiar with it; Luther and
Melanchton both studied it; there was even a Christian Kabbala.
If Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Masons took a lively interest
in Hebrew matters it is not to be wondered at the Hebrew Old Testament
comprises two-thirds of the English Bible; and British and European
culture, as Matthew Arnold was to remind everybody in the Nineteenth
Century, was in origin a blend of Hellenism (Greek, and to some
extent, Roman) and of Hebraism.
HECART, GABRIEL ANTOINE JOSEPH
A French Masonic writer, who was born at
Valenciennes in 1755, and died in 1838. He made a curious collection
of Degrees; and invented a system of five, namely:
1. Knight of the Prussian Eagle;
2. Knight of the Comet;
3. The Scottish Purifier;
4. Victorious Knight;
5. Scottish Trinitarian, or Grand Master Commander of the Temple.
This cannot be called a Rite, because it was never accepted and
practised by any Masonic authority. It is known in nomenclatures
as Nécart's System. He was the author of many dissertations
and didactic essays on Masonic subjects. He at one time proposed
to publish his collection of Degrees with a full explanation of
each, but did not carry his design into execution. Many of them
are cited in this work.
HECATOMB
The Greek compound word hecatotombe, from
hecaton, meaning one hundred, and bous, ox. and therefore strictly
speaking a reference to the sacrifice of one hundred oxen. But
the allusion to a sacrifice, formerly of one hundred bulls, and
in later expressions referring probably only to an indefinitely
large number of victims, is also capable of being applied and
was frequently so employed, to mean any great sacrifice. In this
latter sense should the word be understood by Freemasons. Pythagoras
was a vegetarian who taught that killing was wicked and to him
the sacrifice of a hecatomb could have meant no loss of animal
life in the offering (see Forty-seventh Problem).
HEDGE MASONS
This expression has been believed to be
applied to a secret society, probably Masonic, but meeting without
Warrant or authority. In Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge,
1913 (volume xxvi, part 2, page 197), we find that a letter of
Amicus to the Editor of the Northern Star, Ireland, dated March
21, 1792, mentions that all disorders and mischiefs in the country
are being hatched by those who associate under the description
of Hedge Masons.
HEIGHT OF THE LODGE
From the earth to the highest heavens. A
symbolic expression (see Form of the Lodge).
HELDMANN, DR. FRIEDRICH
A Professor of Political Science in the
Academy of Bern, in Switzerland, and was born at Margetshochheim,
in Franconia, November 24, 1770. He was one of the most profound
of the German investigators into the history and philosophy of
Freemasonry. He was initiated into the Order at Freiburg, in 1809,
and, devoting himself to the study of the works of Fessler and
other eminent scholars, he resolved to establish a system founded
on a collation of all the rituals, and which should be more in
accordance with the true design of the Institution. For this purpose,
in 1816, he organized the Lodge zur Brudertreue at Aarau, in Switzerland,
where he then resided as a professor. For the Lodge he prepared
a Manual, which he proposed to publish. But the Helvetian Directory
demanded that the manuscript should be given to that Body for
inspection and correction, which the Lodge, unwilling to submit
to such a censorship, refused to do. Heldmann, being reluctant
to involve the Lodge in a controversy with its superiors, withdrew
from it. He subsequently published a valuable work entitled Die
drei altesten geschichtlichen Denkmale der deutschen Freimaurerbruderschaft;
meaning, The three oldest Memorials of the German Masonic Brotherhood,
which appeared at Aarau in 1819. In this work, which is chiefly
founded on the learned researches of Krause, the Constitutions
of the Stone-Masons of Strasburg were published for the first
time.
HELE
The curious word in the OB which is pronounced
to rhyme with fail and which appears to be contradictive of the
pledge of which it is a part has been in continuous use in England
since the early Middle Ages. In his comments on "Notes on
Some Trade Guilds at Ludlow," in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,
Vol. XXXII., 1919, page 149 (page 14 in reprint) Canon Horsley
writes:
" The old Saxon word Helyer is still in use. I asked my church
warden who thatched his ricks. 'A helyer from Bearsted ' (the
next village), he said. The helyer heles or covers the rick. A
gardener heles the potato plants he earths up, and so Hell in
the Apostles' Creed is the covered place, the unseen world, the
ancient conception of the world being that of a flat place with
the river of ocean running round it, while above there was a hemisphere
heaved up and hence called heaven, and correspondingly beneath
there was the heled or covered place. Men could look up and understand
something of the star-spangled arch of blue, but the reversed
arch or crypt beneath was to the eyes of flesh 'heled, concealed,
and never revealed,' or, as some would I suppose say, 'hailed,
concealed, and never reviled '."
HELER
A tiler or teghtor. From the AngloSaxon
Helan. Also written Hillyar and Hilliar.
HELE, TO
See Heler
HELMET
A defensive weapon wherewith the head and
neck are covered. In heraldry, it is a mark of chivalry and nobility.
It was, of course, a part of the armor of a knight, and therefore,
whatever may be the head covering adopted by modern Knights Templar,
it is in the instructions called a helmet.
HELMETS, TO DEPOSIT
In quaint old Templar ritualism, to lay aside the covering of
the head.
HELMETS, TO RECOVER
In the early Templar ritualism, to resume
the covering of the head.
HELP
See Aid and Assistance
HEMMING, SAMUEL, D.D.
Previous to the Union of the two Grand Lodges
of England in 1813, the Prestonian system of lectures was practiced
by the Grand Lodge of Modern Freemasons, while the Atholl Freemasons
recognized higher Degrees, and varied somewhat in their ritual
of the lower. When the Union was consummated, and the United Grand
Lodge of England was organized, a compromise was effected, and
Doctor Hemming, who was the Senior Grand Warden, and had been
distinguished for his skill as the Master of a Lodge and his acquaintance
with the ritual, was appointed to frame a new system of lectures.
The Prestonian system was abandoned, and the Hemming lectures
adopted in its place, not without the regret of many distinguished
Freemasons, among whom was Doctor Oliver. Among the innovations
of Doctor Hemming, which are to be regretted, are the abolition
of the dedication to the two Saints John, and the substitution
for it of a dedication to Solomon. In Brother Mackey's opinion,
some other changes that were made were certainly not improvements.
HENNE-AM-RHYM, O.
Editor of the fourth volume of the German
Encyclopadie (see Lenning) .
HENRIETTA MARIA
The widow of Charles I, of England It is
asserted, by those who support the theory that the Master's Degree
was invented by the adherents of the exiled house of Stuart, and
that its legend refers to the death of Charles I and the restoration
of his son, that in the technical Masonic expression of the "Widow's
Son," the allusion is to the widow of the decapitated monarch.
Those who look further for the foundation of the legend give,
of course, no credence to a statement whose plausibility depends
only on a coincidence.
HENRY PRICE MEDAL
See Price, Henry
HENRY VI
King of England from 1422 to 1461. This
monarch is closely connected with the history of Freemasonry because,
in the beginning of his reign and during his minority, the celebrated
Statute of Laborers, which prohibited the congregations of the
Freemasons, was passed by an intolerant Parliament, and because
of the questions said to have been proposed to the Freemasons
by the king, and their answers, which are contained in what is
called the Leland Manuscript, a document which, if authentic,
is highly important; but of whose authenticity there are as many
oppugners as there are defenders.
HEREDOM
In what are called the High Degrees of the
Continental Rites, there is nothing more puzzling than the etymology
of this word. We have the Royal Order of Heredom, given as the
ne plus ultra, meaning nothing farther or nothing beyond, of Freemasonry
in Scotland, and in almost all the Rites the Rose Croix of Heredom,
but the true meaning of the word is apparently unknown. Ragon,
in his Orthodoxie Maçonnique (page 91), asserts that it
has a political signification, and that it was invented between
the years 1740 and 1745, by the adherents of Charles Edward the
Pretender, at the Court of Saint Germain, which was the residence,
during that period, of the unfortunate prince, and that in their
letters to England, dated from Heredom, they mean to denote Saint
Germain. He supposes it to be derived from the medieval Latin
word hoeredum, signifying a heritage, and that it alludes to the
Castle of Saint Germain, the only heritage left to the dethroned
sovereign But as Ragon's favorite notion was that the Hautes Grades
or High Degrees, were originally instituted for the purpose of
aiding the house of Stuart in its restoration to the throne, a
theory not now generally accepted, at least without modification,
this etymology must be taken with some grains of allowance The
suggestion is, however, an ingenious one.
In some of the old manuscripts the word
Heroden is found as the name of a mountain in Scotland; and we
sometimes find in the French Cahiers the title of Rose Croiz de
Heroden. There is not a very great difference in the French pronunciation
of Heredom and Heroden, and one might be a corruption of the other.
Brother Mackey says he was once inclined to this theory; but even
if it were the correct one we should gain nothing, for the same
difficulty would recur in tracing the root and meaning of Heroden.
The most plausible derivation is one given in 1858, by a writer
in the London Freemasons Magazine. He thinks it should be spelled
Heredom, and traces it to the two Greek words, repass hieros,
meaning holy, and biros, domos, meaning house. It would thus refer
to Freemasonry as symbolically the Holy House or Temple. In this
way the title of Rose Croiz of Heredom would signify the Rosy
Cross of the Holy House of Freemasonry. This derivation is now
very generally recognized as the true one.
So far Brother Mackey's explanation of the
word, but at this point Brother Hawkins observes that according
to the view taken in the last paragraph the word should be Hierodom
(see also Royal Order of Scotland ).
HERALDRY, MASONRY AND
Heraldry in Britain was an art or science,
professed by learned specialists and officials, with its foundation
in civil law. A coat of arms was in essence a patent in the firm
of pictures and devices, it was an official and attestation about
a family's origin and past; and since special privileged often
of large value, might go with such an origin, a coat of arms was
more than a badge or a decoration; just as a deed was a legal
Charter confirming ownership of a property, a coat of arms was
a deed confirming ownership in certain honors, privileges, and
titles. Since the Constitution of the United States recognized
the existence of no classes or titles, heraldry in America has
been either a hobby or a minor branch of the arts.
The Grand Lodge of England (1717) adopted
as its seal the old seal of the Masons Company of London; Laurence
Dermott adopted for the Ancient Grand Lodge (1751) a seal which
he found in a work by Jehudah ben Leon, a Hebrew scholar for whom
he felt a great reverence; perhaps the device thus chosen also
recommended itself because it contained a plain hint of the Royal
Arch Degree. Each of the Grand Lodges in the United States has
an official seal; some are designed according to the strict rules
of heraldry; others are intended to be so, but without any strictness
in the rules; still others are rather wide departures from that
art. one of the seals that have been used by California, and the
seal of New York are similar to the Ancient Grand Lodge seal.
Landscapes are used in Montana, Vermont,
Kansas, North Dakota the Montana picture suggesting High Hills
and Low Dales, the North Dakota suggesting Fords of the Jordan.
Great Pillars are conspicuous in the designs used by Connecticut,
Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana,
and some nine or ten others. In some designs the Pillars are surmounted
by Globes, in others are not. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, and
Utah have two Pillars joined at the top by a round arch; Wisconsin
has the Five Orders of Architecture. These lists are suggestive,
not exhaustive, and the designs are subject to change. Two blunders
are repeated in some ten or twelve designs: inch marks on the
square, which make it a carpenter's square; and dividers used
where compasses were intended.
See illustrated essay on "The Heraldry
of Masonry," by Walter F. Meier, P. G. M., page 3; Masonic
Papers; Research Lodge, No. 281; Seattle, Washington; 1943. John
Ross Robertson has a characteristically scholarly chapter on Masonic
heraldry in his History of Freemasonry in Canada. For general
works see: Heraldry, Historical and Popular, by Charles Boutell;
3rd Ed.; illustrated; Richard Bentley, London, Eng.; 1864. A Complete
Guide to Heraldry, by Arthur C. Fox Davis; Dodge Pub. Co.; New
York. Heraldry in America, by Eugene Ziebler; Bailey, Banks &
Biddle Co.; 1895. For an account of the seals of Canadian Grand
Lodges see The Builder; August, 1929; page
HERMAIMES
A corruption of Hermes, found in some of
the old Constitutions (see Hermes).
HERMANDAD
The Spanish word for Brotherhood. An association
of the principal cities of Castile and Aragon bound by a solemn
league for the defense of their liberties in time of trouble.
The sovereigns approved this brotherhood as agents for suppressing
w the increasing power of the nobles, and without cost to the
government. The Hermandad was first established in Aragon in the
thirteenth century, and in Castile about thirty years later, while,
in 1295, thirty-five cities of Castile and Leon formed a joint
confederacy, pledging themselves to take summary vengeance on
every robber noble who injured a member of the association. The
Santa, or Holy Brotherhood, finally checked so effectually the
outrages of the nobles, that Isabella of Castile, in 1496, obtained
the sanction of the Cortez to reorganize and extend it over the
whole kingdom.
HERMES
In all the old manuscript records which
contain the Legend of the Craft, mention is made of Hermes as
one of the founders of Freemasonry. Thus, in the Grand Lodge Manuscript,
No. 1, whose date is 1583 and the statement is substantially and
almost verbally the same in all the others that "The great
Hermarines that was Cubys sonne, the which Cubye was Semmes sonne,
that was Noes sonne. This same Hermarines was afterwards called
Hernes the father of Wysdome; he found one of the two pillars
of stone, and found the science written therein, and he taught
it to other men."
There are two persons of the name of Hermes
mentioned in sacred history. The first is the divine Hermes, called
by the Romans Mercury. Among the Egyptians he was known as Thoth.
Diodorus Siculus describes him as the Secretary of Osiris; he
is commonly supposed to have been the son of Mizraim, and Cumberland
says that he was the same as Osiris. There is, however, much confusion
among the mythologists concerning his attributes.
The second was Hermes Trismegistus or the
Thrice Great, who was a celebrated Egyptian legislator, priest,
and philosopher, who lived in the reign of Ninus, about the year
of the world 2670. He is said to have written thirty-six books
on theology and philosophy, and six upon medicine, all of which
are lost. There are many traditions of him; one of which, related
by Eusebius, is that he introduced hieroglyphics into Egypt. This
Hermes Trismegistus, although the reality of his existence is
doubtful, was claimed by the alchemists as the founder of their
art, whence it is called the Hermetic Science, and whence we get
in Freemasonry, Hermetic Rites and Hermetic Degrees.
It is to him that the Legend of the Craft
refers; and, indeed, the York Constitutions, which are of importance,
though not probably of the date of 926, assigned to them by Krause,
give him that title, and say that he brought the custom of making
himself understood by signs with him to Egypt. In the first ages
of the Christian church, this mythical Egyptian philosopher was
in fact considered as the inventor of everything known to the
human intellect. It was fabled that Pythagoras and Plato had derived
their knowledge from him, and that he had recorded his inventions
on pillars. The Operative Masons, who wrote the old Constitutions,
obtained their acquaintance with him from the Polycromycon of
the monk Ranulf Higden, which was translated from the Latin by
Trevisa, and printed by William Caxton in 1482. It is repeatedly
quoted in the Cooke Manuscript, whose probable date is the latter
part of the fifteenth century, and was undoubtedly familiar to
the writers of the other Constitutions.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS
Under the head of "Hermes," reference
is made to Hermes (or Mercury), a mythologic character, and to
Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary wise man of ancient Egypt. At
the time those paragraphs were written it was still generally
believed that Medieval occultism consisting of alchemy, astrology,
and the Kabbala, was collectively called Hermetism because it
claimed a mythologic descent from the god Hermes, or else from
the ancient Egyptian sage; it is now al most certain that the
reference was to neither but to a book or collection of writings
entitled Hermes Trismegtstus, a fact which explains why a majority
of the Medieval occultists (there never were any large number
of them) gave as their authority fragments of old texts. They
could not have read Egyptian hieroglyphics; a god would have written
no book; but they could read fragments or chapters of a book that
had been written in Greek and translated into Latin, Arabic, and
Hebrew.
When the early bishops of Christian Churches
in Italy and Greece began their systematic destruction of Greek
and Latin schools and colleges, arts, sciences, and books, believing
it their mission to destroy the "old world" in order
to build a new one in its place, mathematicians, scientists, artists,
architects, scholars, and philosophers became greatly alarmed
lest the whole of civilization be obliterated. This alarm reached
such a height at Alexandria, Egypt, the Greek-speaking city which
was the center of civilization at the time, that a group of scholars
there began a counter-propaganda; and one of them, or possibly
a group of them, collected or wrote and published the Hermes Trismegistus
as a defense of civilization and as a plea to men-everywhere not
to destroy the age old culture of the Mediterranean world.
This attempt to save civilization did not
succeed; even the thousand-year-old University at Athens was destroyed;
Alexandria itself was burned; illiteracy became universal in Europe;
the Dark Ages came on, and lasted between two and three hundred
years. But the Hermes did not disappear. It was a favorite book
among some of the Post-Nicene Fathers of the Church, who had not
approved the destruction of civilization, and in after times a
homily modeled on one chapter of it, called Postor Hermes, became
one of those pseudepigraphical books which are still ranked second
only to the Bible; and it was read by Arabic scholars, from whom
portions of it made their way into Europe through Spain.
Hermes was a name given to the mind, and
in its larger and more usual sense denoted intelligence, skill,
culture. Trismegistus, which etymologically meant "thrice-greatest,"
was a eulogistic adjective meaning fine, or very fine; the title
Hermes Trismegistus carried the general meaning of fine arts,
of culture, of civilization. Men of many parties and religions
"believed in Hermes"; that is, they fought to save civilization
against fanatics in the Church, who were followed by the barbarians
from the north. Perhaps the best nontechnical account of Hermes
Trismegistus is the essay in Literary Remains of the Late Emanuel
Deutsch, published by Henry Holt; New York; 1874. Deutsch, on
the staff of the British Museum for some sixteen years, was one
of the most brilliant scholars of Nineteenth Century England.
Two chapters in his book on the Talmud and four papers on the
Vatican Council of 1870 which declared the infallibility of the
Pope also are of exceptional value to Masons. It may be taken
as a practical certainty that the source of the reference to Hermes
in the Masonic Old Charges was Hermes Trismegistus the book, and
not faint rumors of an ancient Greek god. At the period when the
Old Manuscripts were written very few Freemasons had ever heard
of Greek mythology, and least of all of a god named Hermes.
HERMETIC ART
The art or science of Alchemy, so termed
from Hermes Trismegistus, who was looked up to by the alchemists
as the founder of their art. The Hermetic philosophers say that
all the sages of antiquity, such as Plato, Socrates, Aristotle,
and Pythagoras, were initiated into the secrets of their science;
and that the hieroglyphics of Egypt and all the fables of mythology
were invented to teach the dogmas of Hermetic philosophy (see
Alchemy).
HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY
Pertaining or belonging to that species
of philosophy which pretends to solve and explain all the phenomena
of nature from the three chemical principles, salt, sulphur, and
mercury. Also that study of the sciences as pursued by the Rosicrucian
Fraternity. A practice of the arts of alchemy and similar pursuits,
involving a duplex symbolism with their peculiar distinctions.
HERMETIC RITE
A Rite established by Pernetty at Avignon,
in France, and more commonly called the Illuminati of Avignon
(see Avignon, Illuminati of).
HERMETIC STUDENTS
See Isis-Uranea Temple
HERODEM
See Heredom
HERODEM, ROYAL ORDER OF
See Royal Order of Scotland
HERODEN
"Heroden," says a manuscript of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, iris a mountain situated
in the northwest of Scotland, where the first or metropolitan
Lodge of Europe was held." The word is not now used by Masonic
writers, and was, undoubtedly, a corruption of Heredom or Harodim,
which see.
HEROINE OF JERICHO
An androgynous (for both sexes) Degree conferred,
in America, on Royal Arch Masons, their wives, and daughters.
It is intended to instruct its female recipients in the claims
which they have upon the protection of their husbands' and fathers'
companions, and to communicate to them an effectual method of
proving those claims. An instance of friendship extended to the
whole family of a benefactress by those whom she had benefitted,
and of the influence of a solemn contract in averting danger,
is referred to in the case of Rahab, the woman of Jericho, from
whom the Degree derives its name; and for this purpose the second
chapter of the Book of Joshua is read to the candidate. When the
Degree is received by a male, he is called a Knight of Jericho,
and when by a female, she is termed a Heroine. It is a side or
honorary Degree, and may be conferred by any Royal Arch Mason
on a candidate qualified to receive it.
HERRING, JAMES
Born in London, England, January 12, 1794;
died in France, October 8, 1867; buried in Greenwood Cemetery,
New York, October 27, 1867. The family emigrated to America in
1805. James Herring was initiated in Solomon's Lodge, Somerville,
New Jersey, in 1816. He was Master of Clinton Lodge, New York
City, in 1827, 1828, 1832, and 1834, a period when the anti-Masonic
spirit was in its zenith. He, with the remaining members of Clinton
Lodge, united with Saint John's, No. 1, and met in union December
18, 1834. He instituted the formation of the Lodge of Strict Observance,
which was constituted by Grand Lodge, December 27, 1843, Right
Worshipful Brother Herring being the Master, with which Lodge
he remained until his death. On September 3, 1528, he was appointed
Assistant Grand Secretary, and on June 3, 1829, was elected Grand
Secretary, which office he retained until 1846. He sided with
the Phillips or Herring Grand Body at the split in Grand Lodge
on June 5, 1849, and remained its Grand Secretary until 1858,
when, in June, the two Grand Lodges were fused. He was a delegate
to the Convention of Grand Lodges held in Washington on March
7, 1842.
Brother Herring delivered the oration, on
August 25, 1847, in Saint John's Lodge, in commemoration of the
Most Worshipful Grand Masters, Morgan Leavis and Alex. H. Robertson,
and other eminent Freemasons, on the occasion of the First Lodge
of Sorrow held in America in the English language. He was exalted
in Jerusalem Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons, New York City,
January 5, 1817, dubbed a Knight Templar in Columbian Commandery,
No. 1, New York, and was received a Sovereign Grand Inspector
General, Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite. Brother Herring was a Past High Priest and Past Grand Secretary
of the General Grand Chapter of the United States, Past Grand
Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, and Past
Grand Representative of the Orients of Brazil and France. Grand
Historian Ossian Lang on page 126, History of Freemasonry in the
State of New York, 1922, says "James Herring proved a tower
of strength in the trying days. His untiring zeal and masterly
management did much to pilot the Grand Lodge through the night
of storm."
HESED
A corruption of Chesed, which see.
HESSE
Said to be the real name of the author of
the Encyclopadie des Freemaurerei (see Lenning)
HESSE-CASSEL
Freemasonry appears to have been founded
in this Electorate in 1743, by a Lodge at Marburg, called Zu den
drei Löwen, or Three Lions, which afterward took the name
of Marc Aurel zum flammenden Stern, or of the Blazing Star. A
Lodge also appears to have existed in 1771, at Cassel, called
Zum blauen Lowen. In 1817 the Grand Mother Lodge of Hesse-Cassel
was founded, which lasted until 1821, when the government closed
all Lodges. In 1849 one was reopened by General von Helmschwerdt,
but it was closed in 1855. It is now understood that this Lodge
has been reopened.
HESSE DARMSTADT, GRAND DUCHY OF
German state. An early Masonic Lodge, Die
drei Disteln, or Three Thistles, here said to have been first
organized at Mayence in 1765. The Lodges in Darmstadt were in
the Frankfort Eclectic Union and formed the Grand Lodge Zur Eintracht
or of Concord, at Darmstadt in 1845, which is now called Die grosse
Loge des Freimaurer Bundes zur Eintracht in Darns stadt or The
Grand Lodge of Masonic Bodies of Concord at Darmstadt.
HEXAGON
A figure of six equal sides constitutes
a part of the Camp in the Scottish Degree of Sublime Princes of
the Royal Secret. Stieglitz, in an essay on the symbols of Freemasonry,
published in 1825, in the Altenburg Zeitschrift, says that the
hezagon formed by six triangles, whose apices converge to a point,
making the accompanying figure, is a symbol of the universal creation,
the six points crossing the central point; thus assimilating the
hexagon to the older symbol of the point within a circle.
HEXAGRAM
From two words of the Greek language meaning
siz and written. A geometrical figure made up of two interlaced
equilateral triangles, supposed to possess mysterious powers and
frequently used as a symbol of the Pythagorean school. It is also
known as the Seal of Solomon and the Shield of David (see Magic
Squares).
HEXAPLA
Greek for sixfold. A Bible arranged with
six versions in parallel columns, sometimes spoken of as the Hexaplar.-Text
of the Holy Scriptures.
H. G. W.
Initials of an expression frequently used
by visiting English Brethren to convey the hearty good wishes
of the Master and Brethren of their own Lodge to the officers
and members of the Lodge visited.
HIBBUT-HAKKEBER
Means the Beating of the sepulcher. A Mohammedan
belief as to the state of the soul after death. The form and mode
of judgment is explained in Al Koran. The sarcophagus of an orthodox
Moslem is so constructed that the deceased can sit upright when
notified by his angel of the approach of the examiners, who question
him as to his faith in the unity of God and the mission of Mohammed
Satisfactory answers insure peace; but if to the contrary, he
is beaten on the temples with iron maces until he roars with anguish.
The two angels, Monker and Naku, then press the earth upon the
body, which is gnawed and stung by ninety-nine seven-headed dragons
until the day of resurrection. As the Mohammedan was an imitative
religion, we naturally look for the origin of its customs and
beliefs in older faiths; thus the Hibbut-Hakkeber is found in
the Jewish, which taught that the angel of death would sit on
a new-made grave, the soul would return to the body, which would
stand up, the angel striking it thrice with a chain, half iron
and half fire; at the sirst blow all the limbs were loosened,
at the second the bones were dispersed, but gathered again by
angels, and the third stroke reduces it to dust. This need not
occur to those who died on the Sabbath or in the land of Israel
(see Gilgul).
HIEROGLYPHICS
From the two Greek words which signify the
engraving of sacred things. Hieroglyphics are properly the expressions
of ideas by representations of visible objects, and the word is
more peculiarly applied to that species of picture writing which
was in use among the ancient Egyptians, whose priests by this
means concealed from the profane that knowledge which they communicated
only to their initiates. Browne says (Master Rey, page 87), "The
usages amongst Masons have ever corresponded with those of the
ancient Egyptians. Their Philosophers, unwilling to expose their
Mysteries to vulgar Curiosity, couched the Principles of their
Learning and Philosophy under Hieroglyphical Figures and Allegorical
Emblems, and expressed their notions of Government by Signs and
Symbols, which they communicated to the Magic or wise Men only,
who were solemnly obligated never to reveal them."
HIEROGRAMMATISTS
The title of those priests in the Egyptian
mysteries to whom were confided the keeping of the sacred records.
Their duty was also to instruct the neophytes in the ritual of
initiation, and to secure its accurate observance.
HIERONYMITES
A Hermit Order established in the fourteenth
century, formed from the third Order of Saint Francis. Followers
of Thomas of Siena, who established themselves among the wild
districts of the Sierra Morena, and so forming a community, obtained
approval of Pope Gregory XI in 1374.
HIEROPHANT
From the Greek, tepo¡ß ¥¢
which signifies one who explains the sacred things. The Hierophant
was, in the Ancient Mysteries, what the Master is in a Masonic
Lodgehe who instructed the neophyte or candidate in the
doctrines which it was the object of the Mysteries to inculcate.
HIEROPHANT or MYSTAGOG
The Chief Priest of the Eleusinians, selected
from the grade of Eumolpidens He was selected for his imposing
personal presence, and his dignity was sustained by the grandeur
of his attire, his head encircled with a costly diadem. He was
required to be perfect in animal structure, without blemish, and
in the vigor of life, with a commanding voice. He was presumed
to be surrounded by a halo of holiness. His duty was to maintain
and also expound the laws. He was the introductor of the novices
into the Eleusinian Temple, and passed them from the lesser into
the greater mysteries, where he became the Demiurg, and Impressed
the initiate, while instructing him, by his manner and voice.
His title of Mystagog was awarded because he alone revealed the
secret or mystery.
HIEROPHYLAX
Title of the Guardian of the holy vessels
and vestments, as used in several Rites.
HIGDEN, RANULF
Ranulf (or Ralph) Higden between 1320 and
1360 (the year of his death) wrote and published in eight books
a history of the world, or "universal chronicle," entitled
Polychronicon, one of the most famous of the Medieval attempts
at an encyclopedic narrative of world events, and used as an authority
until some three centuries ago. It was twice translated out of
Latin into English; once in the Fifteenth Century; once, in 1387,
by John Trevisa.
In 1857 the Archivist of the British Parliament,
called Master of the Rolls, proposed the publishing of a series
of Medieval chronicles; the most accurate text was to be found
by an expert collation of the MSS., and each book was to have
a historical and biographical introduction. In the following pear,
publication began under the general head of Rerum Brita7z1ticorum
Alvi Scriptores, popularly called the Roll Series. By 1915 some
250 volumes had been published. After World War I the series was
renewed but came to a temporary halt with World War II. Among
the titles was John Capgrave's chronicles of England to 1417,
a source book for Medieval Masonic history. Higden's Polychronicon
was one of the earliest works thus published, in nine volumes,
and contained the abovementioned two English translations in addition
to the Latin original.
The Cooke MS., the second oldest existing
version of the Old Charges, which was dated at 1450 until 3 few
years ago but is now believed to have been written as early as
1410 or 1420, quotes from a Polychronicon some seven times (along
with four other sources) and manuscript authorities have taken
this to have been Higden's work; but Knoop, Jones & Hamer
in their The Two Earliest Masonic MSS. (Manchester University
Press; 1938) raise some doubt about this and think the scribe
may possibly have used some other polychronicon, a title used
regularly for general chronicles. In his treatise on The 'Naimus
Grecus' Legend (A.Q.C.; XVIII; 1905; p. 178) Bro. E. H. Dring
in speaking of one of the Coolte MS. polychronicon quotations
which he could not find in the Rolls Series version of Higden
suggests that the seribe may have had another "one of the
numerous MSS. of Higden which are scattered all over England ...."
Wynkyn de Worde began as an apprentice under Caxton, England's
first printer, and became his foreman. After Caxton's death he
tool; over the business, and printed about 100 titles in Caxton's
old shop, then moved to London where before his death in 1534
he printed 500 more. In 1435, only three years after Columbus
landed in the West Indies, he published an edition of Higden's
Polychronicon. It is famous for having in it the first musical
notes ever printed in England.
Higden, after long neglect, is becoming
studied by historical scholars in the United States, and by Masonic
specialists also, as ought to have been done long ago, seeing
that in the Polgchronicon is a better exhibit of what men of Britain
and Europe knew, thought, and believed in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries than the popular Medieval romances which have received
so much attention. (As this is written Mr. Dawson, rare book dealer
of Los Angeles, announces for sale a copy of Higden, "Imprinted
in Southwerke by my Peter Treveris at the essences of John Reynes
bookeseller, 1527," priced at $300.00.)
HIGH DEGREES
Not long after the introduction of Freemasonry
on the Continent, in the beginning of the eighteenth century,
three new Degrees were invented and named, Ecossais, Novice, and
Knight Templar. These gave the impulse to the invention of many
other Degrees, all above the Master's Degree. To these the name
of Hautes Grades or High Degrees was given. Their number is very
great. Many of them now remain only in the catalogues of Masonic
collectors, or are known merely by their titles; while others
still exist, and constitute the body of the different rites. The
word is not properly applicable to the Royal Arch or Degrees of
the English and American systems, which are intimately connected
with the Master's Degree, but is confined to the additions made
to Ancient Craft Freemasonry by continental ritualists. These
Degrees have, from time to time, met with great opposition as
innovations on Ancient Freemasonry, and some of the Grand Lodges
have not only rejected them, but forbidden their cultivation by
those who are under their obedience. But, on the other hand, they
have been strenuously supported by many who have believed the
Ancient Craft Degrees do not afford a sufficient field for the
expansion of Masonic thought. A writer in the London Freemasons
Magazine (of 1858, I, 1167) has expressed the true theory on this
subject in the following language:
It is the necessary consequence of an exclusive
addition to Craft Masonry that the intellectual and artistic development
of the minds of the members must suffer the ritual sink to formalism,
and the administration fail into the hands of the lower members
of the Order, by a diminution in the initiations of men of high
intellectual caliber, and by the inactivity, or practical secession,
of those within the Order. The suppression of the higher Degrees,
that is, of the higher Masonry, may be agreeable to those who
are content to possess the administrative functions of the Order
without genuine qualifications for their exercise, but it is a
policy most fatal to the true progress of the Order. When Masonry
has so fallen, to restore the higher Degrees to their full activity
is the measure essential for restoring the efficacy of Masonry
within and without. Thus, in the last century when Craft Masonry
had spread rapidly over the whole of Europe, a reaction set in,
till the heads of the Order brought the high Degrees into vigor,
and they continued to exercise the most powerful influence..
HlGH HILLS
In the oldest North Ireland records of Freemasonry
are references to "Priests Pillar Lodges" and to "Hedge
Masons"; these are taken by the historians of the Irish Craft,
Crawley, Lepper, and Crossle, to denote "Lodges" or
"makings' out of doors. The Work Book of 1670 of the Lodge
Aberdeen 1e of Scotland has a passage connecting the Irish custom
with a Scottish one: "We ordain likewise that all entering
Prentices be entered in our ancient outfield lodge in the Mearns
in the parish of Nigg at the sources at the point of the Ness."
The Weekly Journal or British Gazeteer,
April 11, 1730, published this item: "A few days since, their
Graces the Dukes of Richmond and Montague, accompanied by several
gentlemen who were all Free and Accepted Masons, according to
ancient custom, formed a lodge upon the top of a hill near the
Duke of Richmond's seat, at Goodwood in Sussex, and made the Right.
Hon. the Lord Baltimore a Free and Accepted Mason." The Duke
of Montague (not to be confused with the Duke of Montagtle who
was Grand Master in 1721) was Grand Master in 1732 A Duke of Richmond
was Grand Master in 1724.
Bro. R. J. Meekren, a former editor of The
Builder, contributed to the interpretation of the history of
the Ritual the valuable suggestion that there is a distinct element
in the Ritual which is clearly distinguished in 1721 from the
rest; that does not appear to be of architectural origin but is
more like certain anthropologic ceremonies, of the sort so abundantly
illustrated in Frazer's Golden Bough; that the elite of HA.-.
is one of them; that it sounds like an old "cultural survival";
and that it may have been the rite enacted outdoors "on the
highest hills or in the lowest vales."
HIGHEST OF HILLS
In the Old York Lectures was the following
passage: "Before we had the convenience of such well-formed
Lodges, the Brethren used to meet on the highest of hills and
in the lowest of valleys. And if they were asked why they met
so high, so low, and so very secret, they replied the better to
see and observe all that might ascend or descend; and in case
a Cowan should appear, the Tiler might give timely notice to the
Worshipful Master, by which means the Lodge might be closed, the
jewels put by, thereby preventing any unlawful intrusion."
In commenting on this, Doctor Oliver (Landmarks I, page 319) says:
"Amongst other observances which were common to both the
true and spurious Freemasonry, we find the practice of per forming
commemorative rites on the highest of hills and in the lowest
of valleys. This practice was in high esteem amongst all the inhabitants
of the ancient world, from a fixed persuasion that the summit
of mountains made a nearer approach to the celestial deities,
and the valley or holy cavern to the infernal and submarine gods
than the level country; and that, therefore, the prayers of mortals
were more likely to be heard in such situations." Hutchinson
also says: "The highest hills and the lowest valleys were
from the earliest times esteemed sacred, and it was supposed that
the Spirit of God was peculiarly diffusive in those places."
The sentiment was expressed in the language
of the earliest lectures of the eighteenth century, and is still
retained, without change of words, in the lectures of the present
day. But introduced, at first, undoubtedly with special reference
to the ancient worship on high places, and the celebration of
the mysteries in the caverns of initiation, it is now retained
for the purpose of giving warning and instruction as to the necessity
of security and secrecy in the performance of our mystical rites,
and this is the reason assigned in the modern lectures. And, indeed,
the notion of thus expressing the necessity of secrecy seems to
have been early adopted, while that of the sacredness of these
places was beginning to be lost sight of; for in a lecture of
the middle of the eighteenth century, or earlier, it was said
that "the Lodge stands Upon holy ground, or the highest hill
or lowest vale, or in the Vale of Jehosophat, or any other secret
place." The sacredness of the spot is, it is true, here adverted
to, but there is an emphasis given to prentices secrecy.
This custom of meeting on the "highest
hills and in the lowest valleys," says Brother E. E. Cawthorne,
seems to have prevailed at Aberdeen, Scotland, for they say: "We
ordain that no Lodge be holden within a dwelling-house where there
is people living in it, but in the open fields, except it be ill
weather, and then let a house be chosen that no person shall heir
or see us." Also, "We ordain lykewayes that all entering
prentices be entered in our ancient outfield Lodge in the mearnes
in the Parish of Negg, at the Stonnies at the point of the Ness."
It is also of interest that Montandon Lodge No. 22, Grand Lodge
of Chile, was consecrated in November 1927, at Potrerillos, some
ten thousand feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains and named
after George Montandon, the constructing engineer who lost his
life in building the railroad there in 1908. The Revisor is reminded
of attending the consecration of a Masonic Lodge on the top floor
of the pioneer skyscraper, the old Masonic Temple, later the Capitol
building, a 355 foot structure, at Chicago, Illinois.
HIGH GRADES
Sometimes used for High Degrees, which see.
HIGH PRIEST
The presiding officer of a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons according to the American system. His title is Most Excellent, and he represents Joshua, or Jeshua, who was the son of Josedech, and the High Priest of the Jews when they returned from the Babylonian exile. He is seated in the east, and clothed in the apparel of the ancient High Priest of the Jews. He wears a robe of blue, purple, scarlet, and white linen, and is decorated with a breastplate and miter. On the front of the miter is inscribed the words, Holiness to the Lord. His jewel is a miter.
HIGH PRIESTHOOD, ORDER OF
. This Order is an honorarium, gift of honor, to be bestowed upon the High Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter in the United States, and consequently no one is legally entitled to receive it until he has been duly elected to preside as High Priest in a regular Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. It should not be conferred when a less number than three duly qualified High Priests are present. Whenever the ceremony is performed in ample form, the assistance of at least nine High Priests, who have received it, is requisite. The General Grand Chapter of the United States has decided that although it is highly expedient that every High Priest should receive the order, yet its possession is not essentially necessary as a qualification for the discharge of his official duties.
The jewel of the Degree consists of a plate of gold in the form of a triple triangle, a breastplate being placed over the point of union. In front, the face of each triangle is inscribed with the Tetragrammaton, on the other side, the upper triangle has the following mystical notation, (symbols).; the two lower triangles have the Hebrew letters n and p inserted upon them. Each side of each triangle should be one inch in length, and may be ornamented at the fancy of the wearer. The breastplate may be plainly engraved or set with stones. It was adopted in 1856, on the suggestion of the author of this work, at a very general but informal meeting of Grand and Past Grand High Priests during the session of the General Grand Chapter held at Hartford, Connecticut. It is now in general use.
It is impossible, from the want of authentic documents, to throw much light upon the historical origin of this Degree. No allusion to it can be found in any ritual out of America, nor even here before the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century. Webb is the first who mentions it, and gives it a place in the series of capitular Degrees. The question was, however, exhaustively examined by Brother William Hacker, Past Grand High Priest of Indiana, who has paid much attention to the subject of American Masonic archeology. In a letter to the author in August, 1873, he sought to investigate the
origin of this Order, and Brother Mackey gladly availed himself of the result of his inquiries. Brother Hacker compiled the following details for us:
Thomas Smith Webb, in the first edition of his Monitor, published in 1797, makes no mention of it. But in the second edition, published in 1802, he gives a monitorial ritual for the Order; or, as he terms it, Observations on the Order of High Priests. Now, I infer, as we find no mention of the Order in the edition of 1797, and a monitorial ritual appearing in the edition of 1802, that at some time between those dates we must look for the true origin of the Order.
Turning then to the, proceedings of the General Grand Chapter of the, United States, we find that at the Communication held in the city of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, on January 9, 1799, Benjamin Hurd Jr., Thomas Smith Webb, and James Harrison were appointed "a Committee to revise the Constitution, and report ouch alterations and amendments thereto as they shall find necessary to be made." The next day, January 10, 1799, Webb, as chairman of the committee, submitted their report, which was adopted as reported. In Article IV of that Constitution, we find the forms for constituting new Chapters and installing High Priests fully laid down and provided for. In those forms, after certain ceremonies had been gone through with, "All the Companions, except High Priests and Past High Priests, are requested to withdraw, while the new High Priest is solemnly bound to the performance of his duties; and after the performance of other necessary ceremonies, not proper to be written, they are permitted to return."
Now, right here the question naturally arises, What were those "other necessary ceremonies not proper to be written"? A few lines farther on we find this language laid down: "In consequence of your cheerful acquiescence with the charges and regulations just recited, I now declare you duly installed and anointed High Priest of this now Chapter." Now do not the words "and anointed," as here used, fully answer the question as to what those "other necessary ceremonies" were? It seems so to me. Upon this theory, then, we have Thomas Smith Webb, and his associates on the committee, Benjamin Hurd, Jr., and James Harrison, as the authors of the Order. It was adopted by the General Grand Chapter on January 10, 1799, when it became a part of the constitutional requirements of Royal Arch Masonry, so far, at least, as the authority of the General Grand Chapter extended. Following this matter out, we find that this provision of the Constitution was retained until the Triennial Communication held in the city of Lexington, Kentucky, on September 19, 1853, when, on motion of Companion Gould, the section was repealed; thus leaving the Order of High Priesthood the exclusive property of those who were in possession of it.
Where these Excellent Companions got the original thought or germ out of which the Order was formed will have, perhaps, to be left to conjecture; yet even here I think we may find some data upon which to found a conclusion. In setting about the formation of an Order suitable for the office of High Priest, what could be more natural or appropriate than to take the scriptural history of the meeting of Abraham with Melchizedek, Priest of the Most, High God; the circumstances which brought that meeting about; the bringing forth the bread and wine; the blessing, etc.; and the anointing of Aaron and his sons to the Priesthood under the Mosaic Dispensations. It does seem to me that these would be the most natural sources for any one to go to for facts and circumstances to work into an Order of this kind. We can illustrate this point farther by reference to a note found in in old ritual of the "Mediterranean Pass," as then—and perhaps it may be so now—conferred under the Grand Priory of England and Wales, preparatory to the Order of Malta. That note read as follows:
"In some Priories the candidate partakes of bread from the point of a sword, and wine from a chalice placed upon the blade, handed to him by the Prelate."
Again, in an old manuscript of the ritual of the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland, now also lying before me, I find similar language used in the ritual of the Templars Order. How well the thoughts contained in these extracts have been worked into the Order of High Priest, every well-informed High Priest must very well understand.
But the question now comes up: were Webb and his associates in possession of these rituals at the time they originated the Order of High Priesthood? I think they were, and for these reasons: In these rituals to which I have referred I find these expressions used: "That I will not shed the blood of a K. T. unlawfully"; "the skull to be laid open, and all the brains to be exposed to the scorching rays of the sun"; with several other familiar expressions, which every Royal Arch Mason will readily recognize as appropriately wrought into Webb's Royal Arch Degree.
From the foregoing facts, as well as others not stated, I infer that Thomas Smith Webb, with his co-advisers, Benjamin Hurd, Jr., and James Harrison, were the true authors of the Order; that it dates from January 10, 1799, at which time it was adopted by the General Grand Chapter, and became a part of the constitutional regulations and requirements of Royal Arch Masonry so far as the authority of the General Grand Chapter extended, and that it continued as such until the 19th day of September, 1853, when it was repealed, as before stated.
A thought or two further, and I will have done. Webb, in arranging the Order, evidently intended that it should be conferred as a part of the installation ceremonies of a High Priest; and whether he ever conferred it at any other time or in any other manner I have been unable to learn, as I have never met with any one who claimed to have received the Order from him. At what time and by whom it was first conferred as a separate ceremonial is equally unknown to me. All I have yet been able to find upon this point is in Cross's Chart, where, in the edition of 1826, and it may also be in the earlier editions, I find it arranged as a separate ceremonial, and disconnected with the ceremonies of installation.
The earliest authentic record of the organization of a Council of High Priests I have yet found is in the proceedings of the Grand Chapter of Ohio in 1828, where it appears that a Council was duly formed, rules adopted for its government, and a full list of officers elected, with Companion John Snow as President. It is more than probable that the Order has always been conferred, west of the mountains, as a separate ceremonial, and never as a part of the installation ceremonies. It is well known that John Snow, who no doubt brought it with him when he came to the West, always so conferred it, and not then until the applicant had been regularly elected and installed as High Priest of his Chapter. I have also met with those who clairned to have received it from the celebrated Lorenzo Dow, of whom it is further alleged that he always required an election and installation as a prerequisite to the Order.
With these facts before us, and I have no doubt of the truth of every word of them, I would ask of those who have attempted to heap such obloquy and derision upon the Order, as Doctor Mitchell and others who followed him, to point us to any other single Order or Degree of Masonry that can be traced so successfully to the source from whence it came; that has in it more of the elements of sublimity and impressiveness, and that is more scripturally and Masonically appropriate for that for which it was intended, than has this much-maligned Order of High-Priesthood; remembering also that it was established upon the constitutional authority of he General Grand Chapter of the United States, which is, and ever has been, the highest authority in Royal Arch Masonry in the United States. And again, among the names of those zealous companions who participated in its adoption stands that of the Honorable DeWitt Clinton, for so many years the zealous and efficient General Grand High Priest. Then I say, when we take all these facts together, as they stand recorded before us, I think the question as to the origin and authenticity may be considered as fully settled.
For additional information consult Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry (pages 1705-14).
HIGH PRIEST OF THE JEWS
The important office of the High Priesthood was instituted by Moses after the completion of the directions for erecting the tabernacle, and was restricted to Aaron and his descendants, and was so confined until the time of the Asmonean dynasty, when it passed into the family of Judas Maccabaeus. The High Priest was at the head not only of ecclesiastical but of civil affairs, presiding in the Sanhedrim and judging the people. He superintended the Temple, directing the mode of worship, and preserving the building from profanation. He was inducted into his office by anointment and sacrifices, and was invested with a peculiar dress. This dress, as the Rabbis describe it, consisted of eight parts, namely, the breastplate, the ephod, with its curious girdle, the robe of the ephod, the miter, the broidered coat, and the girdle. The materials of which these were composed were gold, blue, red, purple, and fine white linen. As these garments are to a certain extent represented in the vestment of a High Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter, a brief description of them may be expedient:
The High Priest was first clothed in a pair of linen drawers. Over this was a coat or shirt of fine ,non reaching to his feet, and with sleeves extending to his wrists. Over this again was a robe of blue, called the Coat of Ephod. It was without sleeves, but consisted of two pieces, one before and another behind, having a large opening in the top for the passage of the head, and another on each side to admit the arms. It extended only to the middle of the legs, and its skirt was adorned with little golden bells and pomegranates. Above all these vestments was placed the ephod, which has already been described as a short garment coming down only to the breast before, but somewhat longer behind, without sleeves, and artificially wrought with gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, in embroidery of various figures. It was looped on the shoulders with two onyx stones, on each of which was inscribed the names of six of the tribes. On the front of the ephod he wore the breastplate; at solemn ministrations a miter of fine linen of a blue color. This was wrapped in several folds, and worn about his head in the manner of a Turkish turban except that it was without a crown, being open on top: and sitting on his head like a garland. In front of it there hung down upon his forehead a square plate of gold, called the plate of the golden crown, upon which were inscribed the words Holiness to the Lord, which were engraved in the ancient Hebrew or Samaritan characters. The vestments of a High Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter are intended to represent-though the representation is imperfect-the gorgeous apparel of the Jewish Pontiff. They axe a miter, breastplate, and a robe of four colors. To these the Masonic ritualists have ascribed a symbolic signification. The miter teaches the High Priest the dignity of his office; the breastplate, his responsibility to the laws and ordinances of the Institution, and that the honor and interest of the Chapter should be always near his heart; and the robe, the different graces and virtues which axe symbolized by the various colors of which it is composed.
HIGH TWELVE
The hour of noon or twelve o'clock in the day, when the sun is high in the heavens, in contradistinction to low twelve, or midnight, when the sun is low down beneath the earth. The expression is always used, in Masonic language, to indicate the hour of noon, at which time, as the tradition tells us, the Craft in the Temple were called from labor to refreshment. The phrase was used in the earliest lectures of the eighteenth century. The answer in the catechisms to the question, "What's a clock?" was always, "High Twelve."
HINDUS IN FREEMASONRY
When Freemasonry was carried into India early in the Nineteenth
Century the bearers of it in the majority of instances were military
Lodges; and as they gave way to permanent, local Lodges the latter
were composed almost w holly of English, Scottish, and Irish Brethren
for in that period the so-called "color line" was strictly
drawn; but after many years one Indian after another was admitted,
some of them of the Hindu religion, some of them Mohammedans,
with a sprinkling from any one of the other numerous Indian faiths.
Masons from America, Britain, and Europe watched this experiment
with an abiding interest; when the Fraternity of Anglo-Saxondom,
which long had kept the Holy Bible on the altar, became admixed
with Hindus, Brahmins, Mohammedans, Jains, Parsees, with believers
in the Vedas, the Gita, the Tripitaka, etc., what would be the
amalgam thus formed? Would Oriental Freemasonry become transformed
out of recognition? Would it preserve its forms but lose its original
substance? Not all the returns are in as yet, but after a half-century
of the experiment there are a sufficient number of them to make
clear at least one verdict: that Freemasonry is capable of becoming
universal in the most literal sense without being altered in Landmarks
or purposes. An ever-growing Masonic literature out of India attests
that fact.
A representative of that literature which
already is out-dated in India but would be new if it could be
widely read in America is an extraordinary book: The K. 1V. Cama
Masonic Jubilee Volume, Containing Papers on Masonic Subjects
Written by Varuxus Freemasons in Honour of Bro. Kharshedji Rustaniji
Cama on his completing 50 years of Masonic Life in the year 1904,
edited by Jivanji Jamshedji Modi (Fellow of the University of
Bombay); 1907; Bombay.
Bro. Cama was Made a Mason in Rising Star
of Western India, No. 342, S. C., August 24, 1856, and to honor
his many years of service in Craft work and to recognize his fame
as an authority on Indian literature and also in Iranian literature,
the Lodge proposed a banquet, but he demurred, and in lieu of
it his Brethren prepared this volume in his honor. The volume
consists of eighteen contributions, along with two or three poems.
Among the authors are such names as Mills, Harley, Dover, co-mingled
with such names as Wadia, Ghose, Dass; the concluding contribution
is a paper on "Zoroaster and Euclid," by Bro. Jivanji
Jamshedji Modi. American readers will be pleased to discover one
of our own Brothers in this symposium, R.-. W. . William C. Prime,
of the Grand Lodge of New York. (The translator has him a resident
of the city of Tonkers instead of Yonkers. Yonkers is a large
industrial city and Masonic center which would be known the world
over were it not smothered by New York City.)
HINDUSTAN, MYSTERIES OF
Of all the ethnic religions, that of Hindustan
is admitted to be the oldest, for its Vedas or sacred books claim
an antiquity of nearly forty centuries. However Brahmanism may
have been corrupted in more modern times, in its earliest state
it consisted of a series of doctrines which embraced a belief
in a Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul. All primitive
religions were more or less mystical, and that of India formed
no exception to the rule. Brother Oliver, in his History of Initiation,
has given a very succinct account of the Brahmanical mysteries,
collected from the most authentic sources, such as Maurice, Colebrook,
Jones, and Faber. His description refers almost exclusively to
the reception and advancement of a Brahman in his sacred profession;
for the initiations of India, like those of Egypt, were confined
to the priesthood. All Brahmans, it is true, do not necessarily
belong to the sacerdotal order, but every Brahman who has been
initiated, and thus been made acquainted with the formulas of
worship, may at any time become an officiating priest.
The ceremonies of initiation, as they have
been described by Brother Oliver, were celebrated in spacious
caverns, the principal of which were Elephanta and Salsette, both
situated near Bombay. The mysteries were divided into four Degrees,
and the candidate was permitted to perform the probation of the
first at the early age of eight years. It consisted simply in
the investiture with the linen garment and Zennar or sacred cord;
of sacrifices accompanied by ablutions; and of an explanatory
lecture. The aspirant was now delivered into the care of a Brahman,
who thenceforth became his spiritual guide, and prepared him by
repeated instructions and a life of austerity for admission into
the Second Degree. To this, if found qualified, he was admitted
at the requisite age. The probationary ceremonies of this Degree
consisted in an incessant occupation in prayers, fastings, ablutions,
and the study of astronomy. Having undergone these austerities
for a sufficient period, he was led at night to the gloomy caverns
of initiation, which had been duly prepared for his reception.
The interior of this cavern was brilliantly
illuminated, and there sat the three chief hierophants, in the
east, west, and south, representing the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva, surrounded by the attendant mystagogues, dressed in appropriate
vestments. After an invocation to the sun, the aspirant was called
upon to promise that he would be obedient to his superiors, keep
his body pure, and preserve inviolable secrecy on the subject
of the mysteries. He was then sprinkled with water, an invocation
of the Deity was whispered in his ear; he was divested of his
shoes, and made to circumambulate the cavern three times, in imitation
of the course of the sun, whose rising was personated by the hierophant
representing Brahma, stationed in the east, whose meridian height
by the representative of Siva in the south, and whose setting
by the representative of Vishnu in the west. He was then conducted
through seven ranges of dark and gloomy caverns, during which
period the wailing of Mahadeva for the loss of Siva was represented
by dismal howlings.
The usual paraphernalia of dashes of light,
of dismal sounds and horrid phantoms, was practised to intimidate
or confuse the aspirant. After the performance of a variety of
other ceremonies, many of which we can only conjecture, the candidate
reached the extremity of the seven caverns; he was now prepared
for enlightenment by requisite instruction and the administration
of a solemn oath. This part of the ceremonies concluded, then
the sacred conch or horn was blown, the folding-doors were suddenly
thrown open, and the aspirant was admitted into a spacious apartment
filled with dazzling light, ornamented with statues and emblematical
figures, richly decorated with gems, and scented with the most
fragrant perfumes. This was a representation of Paradise.
The candidate was now supposed to be regenerated,
and he was invested by the chief Brahman with the white robe and
tiara; a cross was marked upon his forehead, and a tau upon his
breast, and he was instructed in the signs, tokens, and lectures
of the Order. He was presented with the sacred belt, the magical
black stone, the talismanic jewel to be worn upon his breast,
and the serpent stone, which, as its name imported, was an antidote
against the bite of serpents. And, lastly, he was entrusted with
the sacred name, known only to the initiated. This ineffable name
was Aum, which, in its trilateral form, was significant of the
creative, preservative, and destroying power, that is, of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva. It could not be pronounced, but was to be the
subject of incessant silent contemplation. The symbols and the
aporrheta, or secret things of the mysteries, were now explained.
Here ended the Second Degree.
The Third took place when the candidate
had grown old, and his children had all been provided for. This
consisted in a total exclusion in the forest, where, as an anchored
withdrawn from the world, a hermit, he occupied himself in ablutions,
prayers, and sacrifices. In the Fourth Degree he underwent still
greater austerities, the object of which was to impart to the
happy sage who observed them a portion of the Divine nature, and
to secure him a residence among the immortal gods.
The object of the Indian mysteries appears,
says Brother Oliver, to have been to teach the unity of God and
the necessity of virtue. The happiness of our first parents, the
subsequent depravity of the human race, and the universal deluge
were described in a manner which showed that their knowledge must
have been derived from an authentic source.
HINNOM
A deep valley south of Mount Moriah, known
as Gehenna; in which carrion was cast as food for vultures. The
holy Valley of Judgment, Jehoshaphat, has been improperly substituted
for Hinnom.
HIRAM
The gavel, when wielded by the Master of the Lodge, is sometimes called the Hiram, because as the workmen at the Temple were controlled and directed by Hiram, the chief builder, so the Master keeps order in the Lodge by proper use of the gavel.
HIRAM or HURAM
In Hebrew, uvri or meaning noble-born. The more correct pronunciation, according to the true value of the Hebrew letters, is Khuram or Khurum; but universal Masonic usage renders it now impossible, or, at least, inexpedient, to make the change. The name of the King of Tyre is spelled Hiram everywhere in Scripture except in First Chronicles (xiv, 1), where it occurs as Huram. In First Chronicles xiv, 1, the original Hebrew text has Hiram, but the Masorites in the margin direct it to be read Huram. In our authorized version, the name is spelled Hiram, which is also the form used in the Vulgate and in the Targums; the Septuagint has Xctpay, or Cheiram.
HIRAM ABIF
There is no character in the annals of Freemasonry whose life is so dependent on tradition as the celebrated architect of King Solomon's Temple. Profane history is entirely silent in respect to his career, and the sacred records supply us with only very unimportant items. To fill up the space between his life and his death, we are necessarily compelled to resort to those oral legends which have been handed down from the ancient Freemasons to their successors. Yet, looking to their character, I should be unwilling, says Brother Mackey, to vouch for the authenticity of all; most of them were probably at first symbolical in their character; the symbol in the lapse of time having been converted into a myth, and the myth, by constant repetition, having assumed the formal appearance of a truthful narrative. Such has been the case in the history of all nations. But whatever may have been their true character, to the Freemason, at least, they are interesting, and cannot be altogether void of instruction.
When King Solomon was about to build a temple to Jehovah, the difficulty of obtaining skilful workmen to superintend and to execute the architectural part of the undertaking was such, that he found it necessary to request of his friend and ally, Hiram, King of Tyre, the use of some of his most able builders; for the Tyrians and Sidonians were celebrated artists, and at that time were admitted to be the best mechanics in the world. Hiram willingly complied with his request, and despatched to his assistance an abundance of men and materials, to be employed in the construction of the Temple, and among the former, a distinguished artist, to whom was given the superintendence of all the workmen, both Jews and Tyrians, and who was in possession of all the skill and learning that were required to carry out, in the most efficient manner, all the plans and designs of the King of Israel.
Of this artist, whom Freemasons recognize sometimes as Hiram the Builder, sometimes as the Widow's Son, but more commonly as Hiram Abif, the earliest account is found in the First Book of Kings (vii, 13,14), where the passage reads as follows:
And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass, and he was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to King Solomon and wrought all his work.
He is next mentioned in the Second Book of Chronicles (ii, 13, 14), in the following letter from Hiram of Tyre to King Solomon:
Arid now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Hurarn my father's. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple, in blue and in fine linen and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David, thy father.
In reading these two descriptions, everyone will be at once struck with an apparent contradiction in them in relation to the parentage of their subject. There is no doubt—for in this both passages agree—that his father was a man of Tyre; but the discrepancy is in reference to the birthplace of his mother, who in one passage is said to have been "of the tribe of Naphtali," and in the other, "of the daughters of Dan." Commentators have, however, met with no difficulty in reconciling the contradiction, and the suggestion of Bishop Patrick is now generally adopted on this subject. He supposes that she herself was of the tribe of Dan, but that her first husband was of the tribe of Naphtali, by whom she had this son; and that when she was a widow, she married a man of Tyre, who is called Hiram's father because he brought him tip and was the husband of his mother.
Hiram Abif undoubtedly derived much of his knowledge in mechanical arts from that man of Tyre who had married his mother, and we may justly conclude that he increased that knowledge by assiduous study and constant intercourse with the artisans of Tyre, who were greatly distinguished for their attainments in architecture, Tyre was one of the principal seats of the Dionysiae fraternity of artificers, a society engaged exclusively in the construction of edifices, and living under a secret organization, which was subsequently imitated by the Operative Freemasons. Of this association, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Hiram Abif was a member, and that on arriving at Jerusalem he introduced among the Jewish workmen the same exact system of discipline which he had found of so much advantage in the Dionysiac associations at home, and thus gave, under the sanction of King Solomon, a peculiar organization to the Freemasons who were engaged in building the Temple.
Upon the arrival of this celebrated artist at Jerusalem, which was in the year 1012 B.C, he was at once received into the intimate confidence of Solomon, and entrusted with the superintendence of all the workmen, both Tyrians and Jews, who were engaged in the construction of the building. He received the title of Principal Conductor of the Works, an office which, previous to his arrival, had been filled by Adonira , and, according to Masonic tradition, formed with Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre, his ancient patron, the Supreme Council of Grand Masters, in which everything was determined in relation to the construction of the edifice and the government of the workmen.
The Book of Constitutions, as it was edited by Entick (edition of 1756, page 19), speaks of him in the following language:
This inspired Master was, without question, the most cunning, skilful, and curious workman that ever lived; whose abilities were not confined to building only, but extended to all kinds of work, whether in gold, silver, brass or iron; whether in linen, tapestry or embroidery; whether considered as architect, statuary, founder or designer, separately or together, he equally excelled. From his designs and under his direction, all the rich and splendid furniture of the Temple and its several appendages were begun, carried on, and finished, Solomon appointed him, in his absence, to fill the Chair as Deputy Grand Master, and in his presence, Senior Grand Warden, Master of Work, and general overseer of all artists, as well those whom David had formerly procured from Tyre and Sidon, as those Hiram should now send.
This statement requires some correction. According to the most consistent systems and the general course of the traditions, there were three Grand Masters at the building of the Temple, of whom Hiram Abif was one, and hence in our Lodges he
always receives the title of a Grand Master. We may, however, reconcile the assertion of Anderson, that he was sometimes a Deputy Grand Master, and sometimes a Senior Grand Warden, by supposing that the three Grand Masters were, among the Craft, possessed of equal authority, and held in equal reverence, while among themselves there was an acknowledged subordination of station and power. But in no way can the assertion be explained that he was at any time a Senior Grand Warden, which would be wholly irreconcilable with the symbolism of the Temple. In the mythical Master's Lodge, supposed to have been bold in the Temple, and the only one ever held before its completion, at which the three Grand Masters alone were present, the office of Junior Warden is assigned to Hiram Abif.
According to Masonic tradition, which is in part supported by Scriptural authority, Hiram was charged with all the architectural decorations and interior embellishments of the building. He cast the various vessels and implements that were to be used
in the religious service of the Temple, as well as the pillars that adorned the porch, selecting as the most convenient and appropriate place for the scene of his operations, the clay grounds which extend between Succoth and Zaredatha; and the old lectures state that the whole interior of the house, its posts and doors, its very floors and ceilings, which were made
of the most expensive timber, and overlaid with plates of burnished gold, were, by his exquisite taste, enchased with magnificent designs and adorned with the most precious gems.
Even the abundance of these precious jewels, in the decorations of the Temple, is attributed to the foresight and prudence of Hiram Abif; since a Masonic tradition, quoted by Doctor Oliver, informs us, that about four years before the Temple was begun, he,
as the agent of the Tyrian king, purchased some precious stones from an Arabian merchant, who told him, upon inquiry, that they had been found by accident on an island in the Red Sea. By the permission of King Hiram, he investigated the truth of this
report, and had the good fortune to discover many precious gems, and among the rest an abundance of the topaz. They were subsequently imported by the ships of Tyre for the service of King Solomon.
In allusion to these labors of taste and skill displayed by the widow's son, our lectures say, "that
while the wisdom of Solomon contrived the fabric, and the strength of King Hiram's wealth and-power supported the undertaking, it was adorned by the beauty of Hiram Abif's curious and cunning workmanship.
In the character of the chief architect of the Temple, one of the peculiarities which most strongly attract attention was the systematic manner in which he conducted all the extensive operations which were placed under his charge. In the classification of the workmen, such arrangements were made, by his advice, as to avoid any discord or confusion; and although about two hundred thousand craftsmen and laborers were employed, so complete were his arrangements, that the general harmony was never once disturbed. In the payment of wages, such means were, at his suggestion, adopted, that every one's labor was readily distinguished, and his defects ascertained, every attempt, at imposition detected, and the particular amount of money due to each workman accurately determined and easily paid, so that, as Brother Webb remarks, "the disorder and confusion that might otherwise have attended so immense an undertaking was completely prevented." It was his custom never to put off until tomorrow the work that might have been accomplished today, for he was as remarkable for his punctuality in the discharge of the most trifling duties, as he was for his skill in performing the most important. It was his constant habit to furnish the Craftsmen every morning with a copy of the plans which he had, on the previous afternoon, designed for their labor in the course of the ensuing day. As new designs were thus furnished by him from day to day, any neglect to provide the workmen with them on each successive morning would necessarily have stopped the labors of the whole body of the workmen for that day; a circumstance that in so large a number must have produced the greatest disorder and confusion. Hence the practise of punctuality was in him a duty of the highest obligation, and one which could never for a moment have been neglected without leading to immediate observation, Such is the character of this distinguished personage, whether mythical or not, that has been transmitted by the uninterrupted stream of Masonic tradition.
The Trestle-board used by him in drawing his designs is said to have been made, as the ancient tablets were, of wood, and covered with a coating of wax. On this coating he inscribed his plans with a pen or stylus of steel, which an old tradition, preserved by Brother Oliver, says was found upon him when he was raised, and ordered by King Solomon to be deposited in the center of his monument. The same tradition informs us that the first time he used this stylus for any of the purposes of the Temple was on the morning that the foundation-stone of the building was laid, when he drew the celebrated diagram known as the forty-seventh problem of Euclid, and which gained a prize that Solomon had offered on that occasion. But this is so evidently a mere myth, invented by some myth-maker of the last century, without even the excuse of a symbolic meaning, that it has been rejected or, at least, forgotten by the Craft.
Another and more interesting legend has been preserved by Brother Oliver, which may be received as a mythical symbol of the faithful performance of duty. It runs thus:
It was the duty of Hiram Abif to superintend the workmen, and the reports of his officers were always examined with the most scrupulous exactness. At the opening of the day, when the sun was rising in the east, it was his constant custom, before the commencement of labor, to go into the Temple, and offer up his prayers to Jehovah for a blessing on the work; and in like manner when the sun was setting in the west. And after the labors of the day were closed, and the workmen had left the Temple, he returned his thanks to the Great Architect of the Universe for the harmonious protection of the day. Not content with this devout expression of his feelings, he always went into the Temple at the hour of high twelve, when the men were called off from labor to refreshment, to inspect the work, to draw fresh designs upon the trestleboard, if such were necessary, and to perform other scientific labors, never forgetting to consecrate the duties by solemn prayer. These religious customs were faithfully performed for the first six years in the secret recesses of his Lodge, and for the last year in the precincts of the Most Holy Place.
While assiduously engaged in the discharge of these arduous duties, seven years passed rapidly away, and the magnificent Temple at Jerusalem was nearly completed. The Fraternity were about to celebrate the capstone with the greatest demonstrations of joy; but, in the language of the venerable Book of Constitutions, "their joy was soon interrupted by the sudden death of their dear and worthy Master, Hiram Abif." On the very day appointed for celebrating the capstone of the building, says one tradition, he repaired to his usual place of retirement at the meridian hour, and did not return alive. On this subject we can say no more. This is neither the time nor the place to detail the particulars of his death. It is enough to say that the circumstance filled the Craft with the most profound grief, which was deeply shared by his friend and patron, King Solomon, who, according to the Book of Constitutions, "after some time allowed to the Craft to vent their sorrow, ordered his obsequies to be performed with great solemnity and decency, and buried him in the Lodge near the Temple—according to the ancient usages among Masons—and long mourned his loss."
Thus far Brother Mackey to whose observations a few suggestions from more recent writers may be added.
Brother John Yarker had in the American Freemason (June, 1910, page 344), some comments upon Hiram Abif. He alludes to the belief of some students that there were two Hirams, father and son, employed in the building of King Solomon's Temple. The latter Craftsman on the death of the elder one was, according to this belief, brought from Tyre to finish the father's work. This understanding of the situation can, it is claimed, be proved in the testimony of the Bible itself.
Brother Joel Nash in 1836 printed at Colchester three lectures entitled Light from the Lebanon Lodge. In the second lecture of this series Brother Nash presents the proofs of his claim that there were two Hirams employed at the building of the Temple. Briefly his arguments are as follows: Hiram the King writes as follows in Second Chronicles (ii, 13-14), "Now I have sent you a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram. my father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre." This Abif, or father, was an all round man, a designer, skilful to work in all arts and sciences. Nash argues that something happened to him, for as related in First Kings (vii, 13), "And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was the son of a widow woman of the Tribe of Naphtah." Brother Yarker points out, following Brother Nash, that the work done by this man was that of a brass-smith, and that he could not be born both of a woman of Dan and of Naphtali. Moreover, this last was the son of a widow, not the former.
A little further on in his lecture Brother Nash says that Succoth means booths or lodges, and that Zaradatha is the place of sorrow or trouble, but we may here venture to suggest that the reader does not too hastily assume too much upon the usual meaning applied to the word lodges. So far as Succoth goes this means any easily put together shelter, and those who give the word a more extended Masonic significance than this are really placing a greater burden upon the word than it is intended to carry.
H. W. Brewer, a writer on architecture, agrees with Brother Nash, uses the same arguments, and is of the opinion that much of our confusion has arisen over the introduction of the word was in the expression from Second Chronicles (ii, 14), "His father was a man of Tyre." A commentary by Rabbi Melbim, taking the same view was printed in a German Masonic magazine Die Bauhutte (volume xxii, numbers 39-40), and there is a pamphlet entitled Masonic Lectures by Brother Morris Rosenbaum, published at London, 1904, in which the whole subject is carefully examined at length. He points out that the worker in brass of the Book of Kings is termed Ch-i-ram, but in the original Hebrew of Chronicles Ch-u-ram made the pots, etc., but Ch-i-ram finished the work. Also in Second Chronicles (jv, 16) we read: "The pots also, and the shovels, and the flesh-hooks, and all their instruments did Huram his father make to King Solomon for the house of the Lord."
To those who accept the Masonic tradition, and the verbal accuracy of the Bible, it is impossible to refute this criticism. On the other hand much might be said against it by the skeptic. The two Kings and Hurain the Father, Abif, must have been Freemasons of the Cabiric cult; and Ezra, the Jews say, re-edited the Bible on his return from Babylon. Now the King of Tyre was a builder seven years before Solomon. He erected the temple of Melkarth, with the two great pillars which Herodotus saw, and he walled Tyre around with wrought stone. His chief man, according to Josephus, who quotes Dius and Menander, was the father of Abdemon, who was an intimate of Solomon, The inference that the two Abilemons, father and son, for there appears to have been two, were the Tyrian names of these Jewish Hirams, and that the Bible simply refers, in mysterious tones, to the traditions prevalent in Babylon. The echo of the name, or names, Abdemon, may perhaps be found in the Amon, Adon, Anon, etc., of the Charges of 1535-60.
Brother J. S. M. Ward in his book Who was Hiram A biff ?, 1925 (page 5), holds that Hiram represented a popular Syrian god against whom the champions of Jehovah strove ceaselessly. He aJso quotes appreciatively from Brother Sidney Smith, "The Relation of Marduk, Ashur and Osiris," Journal of Egyptian Archeology (volume viii, April, 1922), substantially as follows:
Certain texts from Nineveh and Ashur describe cult ceremoniQs performed at the New Year Festival. The part of Marduk was played by the King, that of Nabu was enacted by the High Priest, and the rest of the worshippers also took part in a dramatic ritual of death and resurrection. The ceremonies covered twelve days, just as did those connected with the Lord of Alisrule at Yule-tide in England, and the number no doubt refers to the Signs of the Zodiac and the months of the year, The opening days were taken up by a drama of the Creation, and then the god Zu stole from Marduk "the Table of Destiny" whose possession was essential to the god who would rule the universe. It was a End of Palladium, the image of Pallas at Troy on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend, and its form suggests a "Word of Power," and its loss, the "Lost Word." This loss led to the downfall of Marduk, who was buried in the "mountain," which represents the "Underworld": A message was sent out, asking for s9meono to bring Marduk out. Nabu came from Borsippa to save his father. A goddess (almost certainly Beltis, the spouse of Marduk) appealed to Sin and Shamash to bring Bel to life; then went to the gate of the grave seeking him, where he was guarded by two watchmen in a prison, without sun or light: the goddess descended into the grave to save him. While Marduk was thus imprisoned, apparently with the actual evil doer, confusion fell upon Babylon. Further details of the ritual are not easy to work into a story, but it is clear that Nabu and Beltis were both active in their endeavours to aid Marduk. Finally, Anshar sent Enurta out to capture Zu and he captured him; and then the gods bored through the door of the prison and brought Marduk out. It should be noted that the Colophon of the tablet shows that it was intended only for the eyes of those initiated into these religious mysteries.
Brother Ward notes on page 28 that Nabu is the Freemason god and had as his emblem the square, which he further explains on page 231 consisted of a right-angled triangle with the proportions 3, 4 and 5, His account brings up some curious comparisons of the Syrian legends with those of the Egyptian Osiris. Brother Ward gives high praise to Sir J. G. Frazer whose studies, as in Adonis, Altis, and Osiris merit careful examination, and sums up his researches with the claim that the Hiramic Legend is based on a tragedy involving a willing sacrifice, the pre-arranged consecration of a Temple by voluntary loss of life. Of ancient comparisons with certain ceremonies there are not a few, striking and suggestive (see Brother Ernest E. Thiemeyer's Article, "Hiramic Legend and the Medieval Stage," Builder, volume xii). The reader may glance to advantage at the third book of Vergil's Aeneid. He can also look over the four Gospels, the trial and death, the burial, the search for the body of the Savior and its raising for more fitting interment. If he reflects that in the early days of the Christian Church such instructions were often conveyed by dramatic means, he will be brought nearer to an understanding of the fundamental considerations and he may go further as his opportunities shall permit into these alluring avenues leading to the relative estimate of Jewish, Grecian, Roman, Mexican, and other legendary lore of the ancients discussed so interestingly by Brother Ward.
HIRAM INTERNATIONAL CLUBS
At a convention of Brethren at Phoenix, Arizona, in August, 1923, the name Hiram was chosen to apply to a civic organization exclusively of Freemasons aiming to follow the example of one who was a master builder and a creator of the beautiful. Branches developed from the parent Body, No. 1, at Phoenix and the principles of the members of the organization are: ''As a Hiram, I know it to be my duty to live a clean, moral life; cultivate my neighbor and cherish my fellow Hirams, socially and fraternally; be tolerant the opinions of others and charitable in my views and those who disagree with me; uphold in all its sacred purity, the religion of the one, true Jehovah, and attend at some church regularly; conduct all my business dealings on the basis of the Square Deal; give expression only to clean, wholesome thoughts, encourage others so to do; strengthen the hands of the officers of my Lodge, and attend as regularly I can; patriotically and vigorously uphold and support the laws of my country; actively support and maintain the free public school; help the underprivileged child to a better opportunity; fight unceasingly against the narcotic evil until it shall be utterly suppressed; ever serve as a true apostle of progress in the upbuilding of my community; and strive to leave a life record of usefulness and real achievement. Practise in my everyday life the principles and tenets of Freemasonry."
HIRAMITES
In the Degree of Patriarch Noachites, the legend is, that the Freemasons of that Degree are descended from Noah through Peleg. Distinguishing themselves, therefore, as Noachites, they call the Freemasons of the other Degrees Hiramites, as being descended from Hiram Abif. The word is not elsewhere used.
HIRAM, KING OF TYRE
He was the son of Abibal, and the contemporary of both David and Solomon. In the beginning of the former's reign, he sent messengers to him, and Hiram supplied the Israelitish king with "cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David a house" (see Second Samuel v, 11). Nearly forty years afterward when Solomon ascended the throne and began to prepare for building the Temple, he sent to the old friend of his father for the same kind of assistance. The King of Tyre gave a favorable response, and sent workmen and materials to Jerusalem, by the aid of which Solomon was enabled to carry out his great design. Historians celebrate the friendly intercourse of these monarchs, and Josephus says that the correspondence between them in respect to the building of the Temple was, in his days, preserved in the archives of the kingdom of Tyre. The answer of Hiram to the application of Solomon is given in the First Book of Kings (v, 8, 9), in the following language: "I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea; and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them; and thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household." In return for this kindness, Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures, or corn, of wheat and the same quantity of oil, which was nearly 200,000 bushels of one and 1,500,000 gallons of the other; an almost incredible amount, but not disproportioned to the magnificent expenditure of the Temple in other respects. After Solomon had finished his work, he presented the King of Tyre with twenty towns in Galilee; but when Hiram viewed these places, he was so dissatisfied with their appearance that he called them the Land of Cabul—which signifies barren, desolate-saying reproachfully to Solomon, "Are these, my brother, the towns which you have given me?" On this incident the Scottish Rite Freemasons have founded their Sixth Degree, or Intimate Secretary.
Hiram appears, like Solomon, to have been disposed to mysticism, for Dius and Menander, two Greek historians, tell us that the two kings proposed enigmas to each other for solution. Dius says that Solomon first sent some to Hiram; and that the latter king, being unable to solve them, paid a large sum of money as a forfeit, but that afterward he explained them with the assistance of one Abdernon; and that he in turn proposed some to Solomon, who, not being able to solve them, paid a much greater sum to Hiram than he had himself received on the like occasion.
The connection of the King of Tyre with King Solomon in the construction of the Temple has given him a great importance in the legendary history of Freemasonry. Anderson says in the Constitutions of 1738 (page 15), "The tradition is that King Hiram had been Grand Master of all Freemasons; but when the Temple was finished, Hiram came to survey it before its consecration, and to commune with Solomon about wisdom and art; and finding that the Great Architect of the Universe had inspired Solomon above all mortal men, Hiram very readily yielded the pre-eminence to Solomon Jedediah, the beloved of God." He is called in the Masonic instructions one of our Ancient Grand Masters, and when the mythical Master's Lodge was held in the Temple is supposed to have acted as the Senior Warden. It is said, too, that in the symbolic supports of Freemasonry he represented the pillar of strength, because "by his power and wealth he assisted the great undertaking" of constructing the Temple. He is reported, also, to have visited Jerusalem several times (a fact on which profane history is silent), for the purpose of consultation with Solomon and his great architect on the symbolism of the Word, and to have been present at the time of the death of the latter. Many other legends are related of him in connection with the Master's Degree and those connected with it, but he is lost sight of after the completion of the first Temple, and is seldom heard of in the high Degrees.
Hiram reigned over the Tyrians for thirty-four years; he permitted Solomon's ships to participate in the profitable trade of the Mediterranean, and Jewish sailors, under the instructions of Tyrian mariners, were taught how to bring from India the gold to enrich their people and beautify the temple of their king. Tradition says that Hiram gave his daughter in marriage to King Solomon.
Near Tyre there is a tomb which, to this day, has been pointed out as that of Hiram, King of Tyre, as in the illustration.
HIRSCHAU, WILHELM VON
The Abbot Wilhelm von Hirschau, Count Palatine
of Scheuren, is said to have been the founder, at the close of
the eleventh century, of the German Bauhütten. Having been
previously the Master of the Bauhütte, or Lodge of St. Emmerau,
in Ratisbon, when he became Abbot of Hirschau, he collected together
in 1080-91 the Freemasons for the purpose of enlarging the Convent.
He incorporated the workmen, says Findel ( History, page 54),
with the monastery, as lay Brethren, and greatly promoted their
instruction and general improvement. Their social life was regulated
by special laws; and the one most frequently inculcated by him
was that brotherly concord should prevail, because only by working
together and lovingly uniting all their strength would it be possible
to accomplish such great works as were these undertakings for
the public benefit.
HITTITES
A powerful nation, whose two chief seats
were at Kadesh, on the Orontes, and Carchemish, on the River Euphrates,
and who subjected as allies, forces from Palestine, Lydia, and
the Troad. This great empire had at times contended with the Egyptian
monarchs before the days of the Exodus. The Assyrians also had
felt their power. They were foremost in arms and in the arts,
and carried their religion to the shores of the Aegean Sea; in
fact, as shown by the explorations and discoveries of 1879, the
early civilization of Greece and other European nations was as
much indebted to them as it was to the Phoenicians. Egyptian inscriptions
bear out the truth of these discoveries, and more firmly establish
Biblical history. Jerusalem came within the influence of this
great empire. The Hittites were finally subdued by the capture
of their famous capital Carchemish, by Sargon, 717 B.C. For Biblical
references, see Judges (i, 26!; First Kings (x, 28-29); Second
Kings (vii, 6).
The system of writing by the Hittites was
unique; their letters were hieroglyphic and their sculptures a
peculiar and curious style of art, some of which may be found
in the British Museum (see Fresh Lights, etc., by Sayce, chapter
5).
H.-. K.-. T.-.
The abbreviation for Hiram, King of Tyre
HOBEN
The name given, in some of the advanced
Degrees, to one of the three conspirators commemorated in the
Master's Degree. The derivation is uncertain. Oben, in Hebrew,
means a stone: or it may be a corruption of Habbone, the Builder
or Mason.
HODIN
The Blind Fate mentioned in the Scandinavian
Mysteries (see Balder).
HOGARTH, WILLIAM
Artist and engraver. Born November 10, 1697,
and died on October 25, 1767, London. He was a member of the Masonic
Lodge at the Hand and Apple Tree Tavern on Little Queen Street
at London. This Lodge was organized and constituted in 1725 and
erased in 1737. Hogarth, according to the Grand Lodge Register,
was also a member of the Lodge at the Bear and Harrow Tavern in
1731 and was a Grand Steward in 1735. His father-in-law, Sir J.
Thornhill, was Senior Grand Warden in 1728.
Brother George W. Speth was of the opinion
that the date of Hogarth's famous picture Night, that is the occurrence
it celebrates, was intended to be May 29, the anniversary of the
Restoration of Charles II, as shown by the oak-leaves over the
barber's sign and in the hats of two of the figures. The street
is probably Hartshorn Lane, Charing Cross, opening into what is
now Trafalgar Square and which was Northumberland Street but is
now North Avenue in London. Brother Speth suggests the principal
figure is that of Sir Thomas de Veil, a member of Hogarth's first
Lodge, the one meeting at the Vine in 1729. A sword under the
arm of the boon companion and the Masonic apron, large in size,
as was typical of these times, are suggestive of the Tyler and
have been taken to mean a caricature of Brother Montgomery. the
Grand Tyler, or, as he was then called, "garder of ye Grand
Lodge." Note the snuffers, useful where candles were a common
source-of illumination, to be seen hanging at the Tyler's belt
in the picture representing Night. This engraving was published
in 1837.
Brother Hogarth married Jane Thornbill in
1729, daughter of Sir James Thornbill, at whose art school he
studied for a time, and who for a long time refused to admit his
genius and skill as an artist. It was not until Hogarth finished
his series of six pictures depicting A Harlot's Progress that
his father-in-law was entirely reconciled to the painter who had
finally attained the fame warranted by his art. Hogarth painted
a number of these series or pictures or illustrated stories, among
the most popular being Marriage à la mode, A Rake's Progress
and Four Times a Day. Hogarth also met with success as a portrait
painter and in 1746 he painted Garrick as Richard III, for which
he wages handsomely paid for that day and age. His celebrated
portrait of himself with his dog Trump is now in the National
Gallery at London.
Hogarth died at the age of sixty-eight years
and was buried in Chiswick, a tomb having since been erected to
him, in 1771, by his admirers. A private house in which he spent
many of his summers was purchased in 1902 by Lieutenant-Colonel
Shipway of Chiswick and turned into a Hogarth Museum.
HOGG, JAMES
Famous Scottish poet, born 1770; died 1835.
Became a Freemason in Canongate Kilwinning Lodge in Scotland,
May, 1835 (see New Age, May, 1925).
HO-HI
A combination of the two Hebrew pronouns
m, ho, meaning He, and of, hi, meaning 'n; thus mystically representing
the twofold sex of the Creator, and obtained by a Cabalistic transposition
or inversion of the letters of the Tetragrammaton nln' or Ihoh.
Ho-hi, therefore, thus Cabalistically obtained, denotes the male
and female principle, the vis genitrix, the phallus and lingam,
the point within the circle; the notion of which, in some one
form or another of this double gender, pervades all the ancient
systems as the representative of the creative power Thus, one
of the names given by the mythological writers to the Supreme
Jupiter was appevo9vXvs, the man-woman. In one of the Orphic hymns
we find the following line:
Zeus QpO7/V, yevero, Zfus vS3poros e7rXero Wag. Jove is a male,
Jove is all immortal virgin.
Plutarcht in his Isis and Osiris, says,
"God, wbo is a male and female intelligence, being both Life
and Light, brought forth another intelligence, the Creator Of
the world." All the Paean gods and goddesses, however various
their appellation, were but different expressions for the male
and female principle. "In feet," says Russel, "they
may all be included in the one great Hermaphrodite, the appevoinaus
who combines in His nature all the elements of production, and
who continues to support the vast creation which originally proceeded
from His will." And thus, too, may we learn something of
the true meaning of the passage in Genesis (I, 27), where it is
said, "So God created man in His own image, in the image
of God created He him; male and female created He them."
The suggestion of this working of Ho-hi out of Oh- Ho was put
forward by George R. Gliddon, the Egyptologist, who had obtained
it from the writings of Lanzi, the Italian antiquary.
HOLINESS TO THE LORD
In Hebrew, Kodesh Layehovah. It was the
inscription on the plate of gold that was placed in front of the
High Priest's miter. The letters were in the ancient Samaritan
character (see Exodus xxix, 30).
HOLLAND
The first mention of the Craft in Holland
belongs properly to the history of Freemasonry in Austria. In
1731 Francis, Duke of Lorraine, later Emperor of Austria and Germany,
was initiated by Doctor Desaguliers at a special Lodge at the
Hague. The first regular Dutch Lodge was the Loge du Grand Maitre
des Provinces Réunies, Grand Masters Lodge of the Reunited
Provinces, instituted at the Hague with Count Vincent de la Chapelle
as Worshipful Master. Freemasonry in Holland was regarded with
disfavor by the Government and suffered much persecution. On December
25, 1756, however, fourteen Lodges attended a Convention to constitute
a Grand Lodge and two days later Baron Aerssen Beyeren was elected
Grand Master. A separate Grand Lodge was formed by the Belgian
Lodges in 1817 and between the two Grand Bodies there was some
dissension. In 1835 a state of peace was at last attained under
the leadership of Prince Frederick Wilhelm Karl of the Netherlands. See Netherlands
HOLY CITY, KNIGHT OF THE
The Fifth and last of the Degrees of the
rectified Rite of the Benevolent Knights of the Holy City, or
the Rite of Strict Observance, settled at Wilhelmsbad in 1782.
HOLY GRAAL
See San Graal
HOLY GROUND
A Masonic Lodge is said to be held on holy
ground, according to the Prestonian lecture, because the first
regularly constituted Lodge was held on that holy, consecrated
ground wherein the first three grand offerings were made, which
afterward met with Divine approbation (see Ground Floor of the
Lodge and Grand offerings).
HOLY LODGE
The lectures of the eighteenth century taught
symbolically that there were three Lodges opened at three different
periods in Masonic history; these were the Holy Lodge, the Sacred
Lodge, and the Royal Lodge. The Holy Lodge was opened in the tabernacle
in the wilderness, and over it presided Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel;
the Sacred Lodge was opened on Mount Moriah during the building
of the first Temple, and was presided over by Solomon, King of
Israel, Hiram, the King of Tyre, and Hiram the Builder; the Royal
Lodge was opened among the ruins of the first Temple, at the building
of the second, and was presided over by Joshua, Zerubbabel, and
Haggai. Though presented as a tradition, it is really only a symbol
intended to illustrate three important events in the progress
of Masonic science.
HOLY NAME
Freemasonry teaches, in all its symbols
and rituals, a reverence for the name of God, which is emphatically
caned the " Holy Name." In the prayer .Ahabath Olam,
first introduced by Dermott, it is said, "because we trusted
in Thy holy, great, mighty, and terrible Name"; and in the
introductory prayer of the Royal Arch, according to the American
system, similar phraseology is employed: "Teach us, we pray
Thee, the true reverence of Thy great, mighty, and terrible Name."
The expression, if not the sentiment, is borrowed from the Hebrew
mysteries.
HOLY OF HOLIES
Every student of Jewish antiquities knows
and every Freemason who has taken the Third Degree ought to knows,
what was the peculiar construction, character, and uses of the
Sanctum Sanctorum or Holly of Holies in King Solomon's Temple.
Situated in the western end of the Temple, separated from the
rest of the building by a heavy curtain, and enclosed on three
sides by dead walls without any aperture or window, it contained
the sacred Ark of the Covenant, and was secluded and set apart
from all intrusion save of the High Priest, who only entered it
on certain solemn occasions. As it was the most sacred of the
three parts of the Temple, so has it been made symbolic of a Master's
Lodge, in which are performed the most sacred rites of initiation
in Ancient Craft Freemasonry.
But as modern horologists have found in
all the Hebrew rites and ceremonies the traces of more ancient
mysteries, from which they seem to have been derived, or on which
they have been modified, whence we trace also to the same mysteries
most of the Masonic forms which, of course, are more immediately
founded on the Jewish Scriptures, so we shall find in the ancient
Gentile temples the type of this same Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy
of Holies, under the name of Adyton or Adytum. And what is more
singular, we shall find a greater resemblance between this Adytum
of the Pagan temples and the Lodge of Master Masons, than we will
discover between the latter and the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Solomonic
Temple. It will be curious and interesting to trace this resemblance,
and to follow up the suggestions that it offers in reference to
the antiquity of Masonic rites.
The Adytum was the most retired and secret
part of the ancient Gentile temple, into which, as into the Holy
of Holies of the Jewish Temple, the people were not permitted
to enter, but which was accessible only to the priesthood. And
hence the derivation of the word from the Greek Adoein, meaning
not to enter, or that which it is not permitted to enter. Seclusion
and mystery were always characteristic of the Adytum, and therefore,
like the Holy of Holies, it never admitted of windows.
In the Adytum was to be found a taphos or
tomb, and some relic or image or statue of the god to whom the
temple was dedicated. The tomb reminds us of the characteristic
feature of the Third Degree of Freemasonry; the image or statue
of the god finds its analogue or similarity in the Ark of the
Covenant and the overshadowing Cherubim.
It being supposed that temples owed their
first origin to the reverence paid by the ancients to their deceased
friends, and as it was an accepted theory that the gods were once
men who had been deified on account of their heroic virtues, temples
were, perhaps, in the beginning only stately monuments erected
in honor of the dead. Hence the interior of the temple was originally
nothing more than a cell or cavity, that is to say, a grave regarded
as a place of deposit for the reception of a person interred,
and, therefore, in it was to be found the soros or coffin, and
the taphos or tomb, or, among the Scandinavians, the barrow or
mound grave. In time the statue or image of a god took the place
of the coffin; but the reverence for the spot, as one of peculiar
sanctity, remained, and this interior part of the temple became
among the Greeks the sekos or chapel, among the Romans the AdyEum
or forbidden place, and among the Jevvs the kodesh kodashim, or
Holy of Holies.
"The sanctity thus acquired,"
says Dudley in his Naology (page 393), "by the cell of interment
might readily and with propriety be assigned to any fabric capable
of containing the body of the departed friend, or relic, or even
the symbol of the presence or existence, of a divine personage."
Thus it happened that there was in every ancient temple an Adytum
or Most Holy Place.
There was in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish
Temple, it is true, no tomb nor coffin containing the relics of
the dead. But there was an Ark of the Covenant which was the recipient
of the Rod of Aaron, and the Pot of Manna, which might well be
considered the relics of the past life of the Jewish nation in
the wilderness. There was an analogy easily understood according
to the principles of the science of symbolism. There was no statue
or image of a god, but there were the sacred cherubim, and, above
all, the Shekinah or Divine Presence, and the bathkol or Voice
of God.
But when Freemasonry established its system
partly on the ancient rites and partly on the Jewish ceremonies,
it founded its Third Degree as the Adytum or holy of holies of
all its mysteries, the exclusive place into which none but the
most worthy the priesthood of Freemasonry the Masters in Israel
were permitted to enter; and then going back to the mortuary idea
of the ancient temple, it recognized the reverend for the dead
which constitutes the peculiar characteristic of that Degree.
And, therefore, in every Lodge of Master Masons there should be
found, either actually or allegorically, a grave, or tomb, and
coffin, because the Third Degree is the inmost sanctuary, the
kodesh kodashim, the Holy of Holies of the Masonic temple.
HOLY PLACE
Called also the Sanctuary. It was that part
of the Temple of Solomon which was situated between the Porch
and Holy of Holies. It was appropriated to the purposes of daily
worship, and contained the altars and utensils used in that service.
It has no symbolic meaning in Freemasonry; although really, as
it occupied the ground floor of the Temple, it might be properly
considered as represented by an Entered Apprenticed Lodge, that
is to say, by the Lodge when occupied in the ceremonies of the
First Degree.
HOLY SEPULCHER, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the Holy Sepulcher
HOM
The tree of life and man in the Zoroastrian
doctrine of the Persians.
HOMAGED
First employed by Entick, in his edition
of the Constitutions, in reference to the installation of the
Earl of Kintore, in 1740, as Grand Master: "Who having been
homaged and duly congratulated according to the forms and solemnity
of Masonry." He never repeats the word, using afterward the
expression, "received the homage." Noorthouck adopts
this latter expression in three or four instances, but more generally
employs the word "recognized" or "selected."
The expression "to do homage" to the Grand Master at
his installation, although now generally disused, is a correct
one not precisely in the feudal sense of homagium, the service
of a bondman, but in the more modern one of cheerful reverence,
obedience, and loyalty.
HONEST MASON CLUB
An early organization formed by certain
members of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the middle of the eighteenth
century for the purpose of instructing the Scottish Brethren in
the practice and history of Freemasonry and holding its meetings
in Edinburgh. This club, while enthusiastically supported by its
projectors, did not meet with success and went out of existence
shortly after its inception, only to be revived about twenty-five
years later by the forming of a group of Masonic Clubs in various
parts of Scotland. These clubs were prohibited by the Grand Lodge
because of their unfavorable criticism of the Grand Lodge transactions
but in order to further the stated objects of the organization,
Grand Lodge resolved to issue "temporary warrants, without
fee, for holding Lodges of Instruction in any district or province
when a majority of the Masters of the Lodges in the province should
petition for it" (see History of the Lodge of Edinburgh,
Mary's Chapel, Brother David Murray Lyon, 1873, page 402). This
offer has never been taken advantage of to any extent which, as
Brother Lyon observes, leaves the Brethren of Scotland without
any centralized method for the giving and receiving of instruction.
HONORABLE
This was the title formerly given to the
Degree of Fellow Craft.
HONORARIUM
When a Degree of Freemasonry is conferred
honoris causa, that is, as a mark of respect, and without the
payment of a fee, it is said to be conferred as an honorarium.
This is seldom done in Ancient Craft Freemasonry; but it is not
unusual in the advanced Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, which have sometimes been bestowed by Inspectors on distinguished
Freemasons as an honorarium.
HONORARY DEGREES
1. The Mark Master's Degree in the American
system is called the honorary Degree of Mark Master, because it
is traditionally supposed to have been conferred in the Temple
upon a portion of the Fellow Crafts as a mark of honor and of
trust. The Degrees of Past Master and of High Priesthood are also
styled honorary, because each is conferred as an honorarium or
reward attendant upon certain offices; that of Past Master upon
the elected Master of a Symbolic Lodge, and that of High Priesthood
upon the elected High Priest of a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.
2. These Degrees which are outside of the regular series, and
which are more commonly known by the epithet Side Degrees, are
also sometimes called Honorary Degrees, because no fee is usually
exacted for them.
HONORARY MASONS
A schismatic Body which arose soon after
the revival in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the members
of which rejected the established formula of an obligation, and
bound themselves to secrecy and obedience by a pledge of honor
only. Lilie the Gregorians and the Gormogons, who arose about
the same time, they soon died a natural death. A song of theirs,
preserved in Carey's Musical Century, is almost the only record
left of their existence.
HONORARY MEMBERS
It is a custom in some Lodges to invest
distinguished Freemasons with the rank and title of honorary membership.
This confers upon them, as the by-laws may prescribe, sometimes
all the rights of active membership and sometimes only the right
of speaking, but always without the exaction of annual dues. Nor
does honorary membership subject the person receiving it to the
discipline of the Lodge further than to a revocation of the honor
bestowed. The custom of electing honorary members is a usage of
very modern date, and has not the sanction of the old Constitutions.
It is common in France; less so, but not altogether unknown, in
America and England. Oliver, in the title of one of his works,
claimed honorary membership in more than nine Lodges. It may be
considered unobjectionable as a method of paying respect to distinguished
merit and Masonic services, when it is viewed only as a local
regulation, and does not attempt to interfere with Masonic discipline.
A Freemason who is expelled forfeits, of course, with his active
membership in his own Lodge, his honorary membership in any other
Lodge.
HONORARY THIRTY-THIRDS
The Supreme Councils of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States have adopted the custom
of electing honorary members, who are sometimes called Honorary
Thirty-Thirds. They possess none of the rights of Inspectors-General
or Active Members, except that of being present at the meetings
of the Council, taking part to a limited extent in its deliberations,
except when it holds an Executive Session.
The earliest record that we have been able
to discover is a letter of Morris Holbrook; December 24, 1897
(volume x, page 208), Official Bulletins, Supreme Council Southern
Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. This letter
was written to Brother J. J. J. Gourgas and, among other things,
he says that Jeremy L. Cross was made an honorary member of this
Supreme Council. The same Supreme Council provided for Honorary
Thirty-thirds in the Statutes of 1855. Probably the specific idea
in this particular case was to make honorary members of those
Brethren of the Supreme Council of Louisiana who surrendered their
Supreme Council in that year and amalgamated with the Southern
Jurisdiction. From that time onward the Statutes contain provisions
for Honorary Members.
The original number of Honorary Members
in the United States of America was nine Sovereign Grand Inspectors-Central
comprising a Supreme Council. The additional Thirty-third Degree
Members were made only by vacancies occasioned by the death of
one of the original nine.
The necessity arising from the circulation
of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Degrees in America brought
about the appointment of Deputy Inspectors-General, assigned sometimes
to States; at other times at large. Some of the records of these
Deputy Inspectors-General notably omitted the numerical designation
of Degree. As time passed on and the organization of Supreme Councils
by the several factions proceeded, the number of Thirty-thirds
grew. Thirty-three was the number set for a "regular"
Supreme Council. After the union of the two Supreme Councils of
the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in 1867, sixty-six was set as
the limit and these were expressly defined to be Active Members.
The proceedings of the early seventies indicate the differences
of opinion resulting in the adjustment of the rite privileges
to Honorary Members of the Supreme Council.
In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite there is but one Thirty-third
Degree and persons elected under the provisions of Article 17
of the Constitution became honorary members of the Supreme Council,
not Honorary Thirty-third Degree Membersand this subject
was carefully dealt with in the Proceedings of 1923 (pages 48
to 50).
Practically the same rule governs in the
Southern Jurisdiction except that Honorary Members are invested
with a different title, Inspectors-General Honorary (see Article
4, Section 8, of The Statutes).
HONOR, FEES OF
See Fees of Honor
HONORS, GRAND
The Grand Honors of Freemasonry are those
peculiar acts and gestures by which the Craft have always been
accustomed to express their homage, their joy, or their grief
on memorable occasions. In the Symbolic Degrees of the American
Rite, they are of two kinds, the private and public, which are
used on different occasions and for different purposes.
The Private Grand Honors of Freemasonry
are performed in a manner known only to Master Masons, since they
can only be used in a Master's Lodge. They are practiced by the
Craft only on four occasions; when a Masonic Hall is to be consecrated,
a new Lodge to be constituted, a Master Elect to be installed,
or a Grand Master, or his Deputy, to be received on an official
visitation to a Lodge. They are used at all these ceremonies as
tokens of congratulation and homage. And as they can only be given
by Master Masons, it is evident that every consecration of a hall,
or constitution of a new Lodge, every installation of a Worshipful
Master, and every reception of a Grand Master, must be done in
the Third Degree. It is also evident, from what has been said,
that the mode and manner of giving the private Grand Honors can
only be personally communicated to Master Masons. They are among
the aporrheta the things forbidden to be divulged.
The Public Grand Honors, as their name imports,
do not partake of this secret character. They are given on all
public occasions, in the presence of the profane as well as the
initiated. They are used at the laying of corner-stones of public
buildings, or in other services in which the ministrations of
the Fraternity are required, and especially in funerals. They
are given in the following manner: Both arms are crossed on the
breast, the left uppermost, and the open palms of the hands sharply
striking the shoulders; they are then raised above the head, the
palms striking each other, and then made to fall smartly upon
the thighs. This is repeated three times, and as there are three
blows given each time, namely, on the breast, on the palms of
the hands, and on the thigh making nine concussions in all, the
Grand Honors are technically said to be given "by three times
three." On the occasion of funerals, each one of these honors
is accompanied by the words, The will of God is accomplished;
so mote it be, audibly pronounced by the Brethren.
These Grand Honors of Freemasonry have undoubtedly
a classical origin, and are but an imitation of the plaudits and
acclamations practiced by the ancient Greeks and Romans in their
theaters, their senates, and their public games. There is abundant
evidence in the writings of the ancients, that in the days of
the empire, the Romans had circumscribed the mode of doing homage
to their emperors and great men when they made their appearance
in public, and of expressing their approbation of actors at the
theater, within as explicit rules and regulations as those that
govern the system of giving the Grand Honors in Freemasonry. This
was not the case in the earlier ages of Rome, for Ovid, speaking
of the Sabines, says that when they applauded, they did so without
any rules of art, In medio plausu, plausus tunc arte carebat.
Propertius speaks, at a later day, of the
ignorance of the country people, who, at the theaters, destroyed
the general harmony by their awkward attempts to join in the modulated
applause of the more skillful citizens.
The ancient Romans had carried their science
on this subject to such an extent as to have divided these honors
into three kinds, differing from each other in the mode in which
the hands were struck against each other, and in the sound that
thence resulted. Suctonius, in his life of Nero (chapter xx),
gives the names of these various kinds of applause, which he says
were called bombi, imbrices, testoe, and Seneea, in his Quaestionum
Naturalium, gives a description of the manner in which they were
executed. The bombi, or hums, were produced by striking the palms
of the hands together, while they were in a hollow or concave
position, and doing this at frequent intervals, but with little
force, so as to imitate the humming sound of a swarm of bees.
The imbrices, or tiles, were made by briskly striking the flattened
and extended palms of the hands against each other, so as to resemble
the sound of hail pattering upon the tiles of a roof. The testae,
or earthen vases, were executed by striking the palm of the left
hand, with the fingers of the right collected into one point.
By this blow a sound was elicited which imitated that given out
by an earthen vase when struck by a stick.
The Romans, and other ancient nations, having
invested this system of applauding with all the accuracy of a
science, used it in its various forms, not only for the purpose
of testifying their approbation of actors in the theater, but
also bestowed it, as a mark of respect or a token of adulation,
on their emperors, and other great men, on the occasion of their
making their appearance in public. Huzzas and cheers have, in
this latter case, been generally adopted by the moderns, while
the manual applause is only appropriated to successful public
speakers and declaimers.
The Freemasons, however, have altogether
preserved the ancient custom of applause, guarding and regulating
its use by as strict, though different rules as did the Romans;
and thus showing, as another evidence of the antiquity of their
Institution, that the Grand Honors of Freemasonry are legitimately
derived from the plausus, or applaudings, practiced by the ancients
on public occasions. In the advanced Decrees, and in other Rites,
the Grand Honors are different from those of Ancient Craft Freemasonry
in the American Rite as, indeed, are those of England from those
of the United States.
HOODWINK
A symbol of the secrecy, silence, and darkness
in which the mysteries of our art should be preserved from the
unhallowed gaze of the profane. It has been supposed to have a
symbolic reference to the passage in Saint John's Gospel (I, 5),
"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not." But it is more certain that there is in the hoodwink
a representation of the mystical darkness which always preceded
the rites of the ancient initiations.
HOPE
The second round in the theological and
Masonic ladder, and symbolic of a hope in immortality. It is appropriately
placed there, for, having attained the first, or faith in God,
we are led by a belief in His wisdom and goodness to the hope
of immortality. This is but a reasonable expectation; without
it, virtue would lose its necessary stimulus and vice its salutary
fear; life would be devoid of joy, and the grave but a scene of
desolation. The ancients represented Hope by a nymph or maiden
holding in her hand a bouquet of opening flowers, indicative of
the coming fruit; but in modern and Masonic iconology, the science
of Craft illustrations and likenesses, it is represented by a
virgin leaning on an anchor, the anchor itself being a symbol
of hope (see Immortality of the Soul).
HOPE MANUSCRIPT
A manuscript cops of the old Constitutions,
which is in the possession of the Lodge of Hope at Bradford, in
England. The parchment roll on which this Constitution is written
is six feet long and six inches wide, and is defaced and worn
away at the lower edge. Its date is supposed to be about l680.
From a transcript in the possession of the late Brother A. F.
A. Woodford, whose correctness is certified to by the Master of
the Lodge, Brother Hughan first published it in his Old Charades
of the British Freemasons.
HORN OF PLENTY
The jewel of the Steward of a Lodge (see
Cornucopia).
HORNS OF THE ALTAR
In the Jewish Temple, the altars of burnt-offering
and of incense had each at the four corners four horns of shittim
wood, shittim being a species of acacia having yellowish wood.
Among the Jews, as well as all other ancient peoples, the altar
was considered peculiarly holy and privileged; and hence, when
a criminal, fleeing took hold of these horns, he found an asylum
and safety. As the Masonic altar is a representation of the altar
of the Solomonic member, it should be constructed with these horns;
and Brother Cross has very properly so represented it in his Hieroglyphic
Chart.
HOSCHEA
The word of acclamation used by the French
Freemasons of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In some
of the Cahiers it is spelled Ozee. It is, as Brother Mackey believed,
a corruption of the word Huzza, which has been used by the English
and American Freemasons of the same Rite.
HOSMER, HESIKIAH LORD
First Chief Justice of Montana, appointed
by President Lincoln, 186S, he organized orderly justice from
frontier violence. Born at Hudson, New York, December 10, 1814,
he died at San Francisco, California, October 31, 1893. Studied
law at Cleveland, Ohio; was editor of the Toledo Blade, and author
of the novel "Octoroon," 1859, prompting Boucicault's
play of that name. Hosmer in 1861 was at Washington as Secretary
of House Committee on Territories. Judge Hosmer published in 1887
"Bacon and Shakespeare in the Sonnets." Made a Freemason
in Wood County Lodge No. 112, Ohio, 1843, going ten miles into
the forest for the Degrees, the Morgan excitement still causing
much bitterness; exalted in Circleville Chapter No. 20, Ohio,
1845, and knighted, Toledo Commandery No. 7, 1847. At Toledo he
was Master of Rubicon Lodge No. 237; High Priest, Fort Meigs Chapter
No. 29, and for several years Eminent Commander, Toledo Commandery
No. 7. He became Grand King, Grand Chapter of Ohio; Grand Orator
and then Deputy Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Ohio; at Cleveland,
1851, delivering an eloquent address to the Grand Lodge. In Montana
in 1865 he was first Master of Montana Lodge No. 2, and six years
Eminent Commander of Virginia City Commandery No. 1. In the Grand
Lodge of Montana he was for several years Chairman, Foreign Correspondence
Committee, and for two years, 1870-1, Grand Secretary. At death
he had been thirteen years Prelate of Golden Gate Commandery No.
16, San Francisco, and ten years Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery
of California. An accomplished and impressive ritualist, an able
civic and Masonic official (see Proceedings, Grand Lodge of Montana,
1903, page 62, and volume ui, Transactions, Historical Society
of Montana, 1890).
HOSPITALER
An officer in each of the Bodies of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and in the Modern French Rite,
one whose duty it is to collect obligatory contributions of the
members, and, as the custodian, to disburse the sane, under the
advisement of the Master, to needy Brethren, or even worthy profanes
who may be in distress. The fund is entirely a secret one, and
is reserved apart from all other receipts and disbursements.
HOSPITALER, KNIGHT
See Knight Hospzfaler
HOSPITALERS OF JERUSALEM
In the middle of the eleventh century, some
merchants of Amalfi, a rich city of the kingdom of Naples, while
trading in Egypt, obtained from the Calif Monstaser Billah permission
to establish hospitals in the city of Jerusalem for the use of
poor and sick Catholic pilgrims. A site was assigned to them close
to the Holy Sepulcher, on which they erected a chapel dedicated
to the Virgin, giving it the name of Saint Mary ad Latinos, to
distinguish it from those churches where the service was performed
according to this Greek ritual.
The building was completed in the year 1048;
and at the same time two hospitals, one for either sex, were erected
in the vicinity of the chapel for the reception of pilgrims. Subsequently
each of these hospitals had a separate chapel annexed to it; that
for the men being dedicated to Saint John the Almoner, and that
for the women to Saint Mary Magdalen. Many of the pilgrims who
had experienced the kindness so liberally bestowed upon all wayfarers,
abandoned all idea of returning to Europe, and formed themselves
into a band of charitable assistants, and, without assuming any
regular, religious profession, devoted themselves to the service
of the hospital and the care of its sick inmates. The chief cities
of the south of Europe subscribed liberally for the support of
this institution; and the merchants of Amalfi who were its original
founders acted as the stewards of their bounty, which was greatly
augmented from the favorable reports of grateful pilgrims who
had returned home, and the revenues of the hospital were thus
much increased. The associates assumed the name of Hospitalers
of Jerusalern. Afterward, taking up arms for the protection of
the holy places against the Saracens, they called themselves Knights
Hospitalers, a title which they subsequently changed to that of
Knights of Rhodes, and finally to that of Knights of Malta.
HOSPITALITY
This virtue has always been highly esteemed
among Freemasons. Nothing is more usual in diplomas or certificates
than to recommend the bearer "to the hospitality of all the
Brethren wheresoever dispersed over the globe"; a recommendation
that is seldom disregarded. All of the old Constitutions detail
the practice of hospitality, as one of the duties of the Craft,
in language like this: "Every Mason shall receive and cherish
strange fellows when they come over the countries."
HOST, CAPTAIN OF THE
See Captain of the Host
HOUDON, JEAN ANTOINE
Celebrated French sculptor; born March 20,
1741, at Versailles; died at Paris on July 16, 1828. His name
appears on the list of members of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters
at Paris for 1779, 1783, 1784 and those of 1806, where he is designated
as the "Imperial Sculptor, Member of the Institute, and Professor."
At twelve entered the Royal School of Sculpture, won the Prize
of Rome at twenty, and became famous for his statues and busts
of prominent people. Came to the United States with Franklin and
was for a time with Washington at Mount Vernon His statues of
Washington and Voltaire are especially well known.
HOUEL
An officer of the Grand Orient of France
in 1804. Grand Orator of the Grand Chapter in 1814.
HOUEL, JEAN PIERRE LOUIS LAURENT
French engraver and painter, born at Rouen
about 1735, studied painting and engraving in Italy, and also
wrote four volumes entitled voyage Pittoresque de Sicile, de Malte,
et de Lipari, 1782-7. His name is listed on the rosters of the
Lodge of the Nine Sisters at Paris for the years 1783, 1784, 1806.
Brother Houël died on November 14, 1813, at Paris.
HOUR-GLASS
An emblem connected with the Third Degree,
according to the Webb lectures, to remind us by the quick passage
of its sands of the transitory nature of human life. As a Masonic
symbol it is of comparatively modern date, but the use of the
hourglass as an emblem of the passage of time is older than our
oldest known rituals. Thus, in a speech before Parliament, in
1627, it is said: "We may dan dandle and play with the hour-glass
that is in our power, but the hour will not stay for us; and an
opportunity once lost cannot be regained." We are told in
Notes and Queries (First Series, v, page 223) that in the early
part of the eighteenth century it was a custom to inter an hour-glass
with the dead, as an emblem of the sand of life being run out.
There is in Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's
Inn Fields, London, a manuscript account book, of 1614- 41, once
owned by Nicholas Stone, Mason to King James I and Charles I,
which on the title page has the following written note:
In time take time while time doth last,
For time is no time wheel time is past.
A few sad and studious lines written in his Bible by Sir Falter
Raleigh are found in Cayley's biography of him (volume in, chapter
ix):
E'en such is time! which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and an we have
And pays us naught but age and dust,
Which, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
And from which grave, and earth, and dust
The Lord will raise me up, I trust.
Longfellow, in his "Sand of the Desert in an Hour glass,"
has written thus:
A handful of red sand from the hot clime
Of Arab deserts brought
Within the glass comes the spy of Time,
The minister of Thought.
An hour-glass is in the possession of the
Lodge at Alexandria, Virginia, of which our Brother George Washington
was Master.
That old treasure, a measure of the flying
moments, well exhibits the changing methods brought about in time.
HOURS, MASONIC
The language of Freemasonry, in reference
to the hours of labor and refreshment, is altogether symbolical.
The old lectures contained a tradition that our ancient Brethren
wrought six days in the week and twelve hours in the day, being
called off regularly at the hour of high twelve from labor to
refreshment. In the French and German systems, the Craft were
said to be called from labor at low twelve, or midnight, which
is therefore the supposed or fictitious time at which a French
or German Lodge is closed. But in the English and American systems
the Craft are supposed to be called off at high twelve, and when
called on again the time for recommencing labor is said to be
"one hour past high twelve": all this refers to Ancient
Craft Freemasonry. In some of the advanced Degrees the hours designated
for labor or rest are different. So, too, in the different Rites:
thus, in the system of Zinnendorf, it is said that there are in
a Mason's Lodge five hours, namely, twelve struck, noon, high
noon, midnight, and high midnight; which are thus explained: Twelve
struck, is before the Lodge is opened and after it is closed;
noon is when the Master is about to open the Lodge; high noon,
when it is duly open; midnight, when the Master is about to close
it; and high midnight, when it is closed and the uninitiated are
permitted to draw near.
HOURS OF INITIATION
In Masonic Lodges, as they were in the Ancient
Mysteries, initiations are always at night. No Lodges ever meet
in the daytime for that purpose, if it can be avoided.
More recently than the time of brother Mackey
there have been in the United States and in Europe a number of
Masonic Bodies which meet in the afternoon because of greater
convenience, the majority of the members being connected with
the Stage, the Press, and similar businesses (see Night).
HOUSTON, SAM
Born March 2, 1792; died July 26, 1863. First president of the
Republic of Texas in 1836 and later governor of Texas under American
rule in 1861. Made a Freemason in 1817, in Cumberland Lodge No.
8, Nashville, Tennessee, and became affiliated with Holland Lodge
No. 1, Houston, in 1837. He presided over the Masonic Convention
held to create the first Grand Lodge of Texas (see NeuJ Age Magazine,
March, 1924; also Mackey's History of Freemasonry, page 1613).
HOW GO SQUARES
The question was one of the earliest of
the tests which were common in the eighteenth century. In the
Grand Mystery, published in 1724, we find it in the following
form:
Q. :How go squares?
A. Straight.
It is noteworthy, that this phrases has an earlier date than the
eighteenth century, and did not belong exclusively to the Freemasons.
In Thomas May's comedy of The Old Couple, published in 1658, Act
iv, scene I (see also Dodsley's Colkstion of Old Plays, volume
10), will be found the following passage:
Sir Argent Scrape. Ha! Mr. Frightful, welcome.
How go squares? What do you think of me to make a bridegroom?
Do I look young enough?
H.-. R.-. D.-. M.-.
An abbreviation of Heredom or Herodem
HU
The name of the chief god among the Druids,
commonly called Hu Gadarn, or Hu the Mighty. He is thus described
by one of the Welsh bards: "The smallest of the small, Hu
is the mighty in the world's judgment; yet he is the greatest
and Lord over us and our God of mystery. His course is light and
swift, his car is a particle of bright sunshine. He is great on
land and sea, the greatest whom I shall behold, greater than the
worlds. Offer not indignity to him, the Great and Beautiful."
Bryant and Davies, in accordance with their arkite theory, think
that he was Noah deified; but the Masonic scholar will be reminded
of the Hi-hu taken by the Cabalists out of the name of Jehovah.
HUETTE
A word equivalent among the Stone Masons
of Germany, in the Middle Ages, to the English word Lodge. Findel
defines it as "a booth made of boards erected near the edifice
that was being built, where the stone-cutters kept their tools,
carried on their work, assembled, and most probably occasionally
ate and slept." These Hütten accord exactly with the
Lodges which Wren describes as having been erected by the English
Masons around the edifice they were constructing.
HUGHAN, WILLIAM JAMES
This able and well-known Masonic scholar
was born on February 13, 1841, and died on May 20, 1911. His father
vas a native of Dunscore, in Scotland, who had settled at East
Stonehouse in Devonshire, where Brother Hughan was born. At the
age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a draper at Devonport; at
nineteen he entered a wholesale firm at Plymouth, going thence
to Manchester and Truro, at which latter place he remained until
1883, when he retired from business and settled at Torquay, where
he died.
He was initiated in 1863 in the Saint Aubyn
Lodge, No. 954, at Devonport; in the following year he joined
the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London, and on removing
to Truro in 1864 he joined the Phenix Lodge of Honor and Prudence,
No. 331, of which he was for a time Secretary, and in 1866 the
Fortitude Lodge, No. 131, of which he was Worshipful Master in
1868 and 1878. In 1865 he was exalted in the Glasgow Chapter,
No. 60, and joined Kilwinning Chapter, Ayr, No. 80, in 1868, becoming
its Z., the chief officer, in 1873, and he was appointed Past
Assistant Grand Sojourner of England in 1883; at various times
he took most, if not all, of the Degrees worked in England and
Scotland. In 1869 he was appointed Provincial Grand Secretary
for Cornwall, which post he held for two years, and in 1874 he
received the rank of Past Senior Grand Deacon of England, in recognition
of his literary labors in the service of the Craft, this honor
being the first of its kind to be so bestowed. In 1876 he was
given the rank of Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge
of Egypt, which was followed by many similar honors from various
foreign Masonic Bodies, including Senior Grand Warden of the
Grand Lodge of Iowa.
Brother Hughan was devoted to Masonic study
and research ever since he first saw the light of Freemasonry,
and the Masonic periodicals of both hemispheres contain innumerable
articles from his pen. His chief published works are: Constitutions
of the Freemasons, 1869; History of Freemasonry in York, 1871;
Unpublished Records of the Craft, 1871- Old Charges of British
Freemasons, 1872; Memorials of the Masonic Union of ISIS, 1874;
Numerical and Medallic Register of Lodges, 1878; Origin of the
English Rite of Freemasonry, 1884 and 1909; Engraved List of Regular
Lodges for 1734, 1889; History of the Apollo Lodge and the R.
A. York, 1889; History of the Lion and Lamb Lodge, 1894; Old Charges
of British Freemasons, 1895; Constitutions of the Freemasons,
1725-1896, 1899 and The Jacobite Lodge at Rome, 1756-7, 1910.
His writings cover the whole range of Freemasonry, but he gave
special attention to the Old Charges, in the search for which
he was indefatigable. The copyright in his books now belongs to
the Lodge of Research, Leicester, England.
HUMILITY
The Divine Master has said, "He that
humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke, xiv 2), and the
lesson is emphatically taught by a portion of the instructions
of the Royal Arch Degree. Indeed, the first step toward the acquisition
of truth is a humility of mind which teaches us our own ignorance
and our necessity for knowledge, so that thus we may be prepared
for its reception. Doctor Oliver has erred in saying (Landmarks
ii 471) that bare feet are a Masonic symbol of humility. They
are properly a symbol of reverence. The true Masonic symbol of
humility is bodily prostration, and it is so exemplified in the
Royal Arch Degree.
HUMMELL, JOHANN NEPOMU
German composer. Born on November l4, 1778,
at Pressburg, Hungary, and died at Weimar, Germany, in 1837. Member
of the Lodge Amalia at Weimar and a pupil of Mozart's. Sesame
celebrated pianoforte player and composer and in the music hook
published by the Lodge where he was initiated, 1820, there are
two songs by him.
HUND, BARON VON
Carl Gotthelf, Baron von Hund, was born
in Oberlausitz, in Germany, on September ll, 1722. He was a nobleman
and hereditary landed proprietor in the Lautsitz. He is said to
have been upright in his conduct, although beset by vanity and
a love of adventure. But Findel if scarcely correct in characterizing
him as a man of moderate understanding, since the position which
he took among his Masonic contemporaries many of whom were of
acknowledged talent and the ability with which he defended and
maintained his opinions, would indicate the possession of very
respectable intelligence. In religious faith he was a Protestant.
That rare work, the Anti-Saint-Nicaise, contains in its first
volume a brief biography of Brother von Hund, from which some
details of his personal appearance and character may be obtained
he was of middling stature, but well formed; never dressed sumptuously,
but always with taste and neatness; and although himself a moderate
liver, was distinguished for his hospitality , and his table was
always well supplied for the entertainment of friends and visitors.
The record that his servants were never changed, but that those
who were employed in his domestic service constantly remained
with him, is a simple but conclusive testimony to the amiability
of his character
The scanty details of the life of Hund,
which are supplied by Clavel in his Histoire Pittoresque; by Thory,
in acta Latomorum; by Ragon, in his Orthordoxie Maconnique;
by Robinson, in his Proofs of Conspiracy; by Lenning and Gadicke,
in the Encyclopedia of each; by Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks,
and by Findel, in his History, vary so much in dates and in
the record of events that he who should depend on their conflicting
authority for information would be involved in almost inextricable
confusion in attempting to follow any connected thread of a narrative.
As Thory, however, writes as an annalist,
in chronological order, it may he presumed that his dates are
more to be depended on than those of the looser compilers of historical
essays. He, therefore will furnish Liz with at least an outline
of the principal Masonic events in the life of Hund, while from
other writers we may derive the material facts which the brevity
of Thory does not provide. But even Thory must sometimes be abandoned,
where he has evidently neglected to note a particular circumstance,
and his omission must be supplied from come other source. On the
20th of March, 1742, when still lacking some months of being twenty
years of age, he was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry,
in the Lodge of the Three Thistles at Frankfort-on-the Main. Findel
places the date of his initiation in the year 1741; but, for the
reason already assigned, Brother Mackey preferred the authority
of Thory, with whom Lenning concurs. The First and Second Degrees
were conferred on the same day, and in due time his initiation
into the Symbolic Degrees was completed.
Soon after his initiation, the Baron von
Hund traveled through England and Holland, and paid a visit to
Paris. Robison, who speaks of the Baron as "a gentleman of
honorable character," and whose own reputation secures him
from the imputation of wilful falsehood, although it could not
preserve him from the effects of prejudice, says that Hund, while
in Paris, became acquainted with the Earl of Kilmarnock and some
other gentlemen, who were adherents of the Pretender, and received
from them the new Degrees, which had been invented, it is said,
for political purposes by the followers of the exiled house of
Stuart. Gadicke states that while there he also received the Order
of the Mopses, which he afterward attempted, but without success,
to introduce into Germany. This must, however, be an error; for
the Order of the Mopses, an androgynous institution, which subsequently
gave birth to the French Lodges of Adoption, was not established
until 1776, long after the return of Hund to his native country.
This entire article is by Brother Mackey
except where otherwise plainly indicated and here we may insert
a comment by Brother Hawkins who says the Order of the Mopses
was established in 1738 (see Mopses).
While he resided in Paris he received, says
Findel, some intimations of the existence of the Order of Knights
Templar in Scotland. The legend, which it is necessary to say
has been deemed fabulous, is given to us by Clavel (Histoire Pittoresque,
page 184), who tells us that, after the execution of Jacques de
Molay, Pierre d'Aumont, the Provincial Grand Master of Auvergne,
accompanied by two Commanders and five Knights, escaped to Scotland,
assuming during their journey, for the purpose of concealment,
the costume of Operative Masons. Having landed on one of the Scottish
Islands, they met several other companions, Scottish Knights,
with whom they resolved to continue the existence of their Order,
whose abolition had been determined by the Pope and the King of
France. At a Chapter held on Saint John's Day, 1313, Aumont was
elected Grand Master, and the Knights, to avoid in future the
persecutions to which they had been subjected, professed to be
Freemasons, and adopted the symbols of that Order. In 1361, the
Grand Master transported his See to the city of Aberdeen, and
from that time the Order of the Temple spread, under the guise
of Freemasonry, throughout the British Islands and the Continent.
The question now is not as to the truth
or even the probability of this legend. It is sufficient for our
present purpose to say, that the Baron von Hund accepted it as
a veritable historical fact. He was admitted, at Paris, to the
Order of Knights Templar, Clavel says, by the Pretender, Charles
Edward, who was the Grand Master of the Order. Of this we have
no other evidence than the rather doubtful authority of Clavel.
Robison intimates that he was inducted by the Earl of Kilmarnock,
whose signature was attached to his diploma. Gadicke says that
he traveled over Brabant to the French army, and was there made
a Templar by high chiefs of the Order. And this statement might
be reconciled with that of Robinson, for the high chiefs, hohe
Obere, of Gädicke were possibly the followers of the Pretender,
some of whom were likely to have been with the French army. The
point is not, however, worth the trouble of an investigation.
Two things have been well settled, namely:
That in 1743 von Hund was initiated as a Knights Templar, and
that at the same time he received the appointment of a Provincial
Grand Master, with ample powers to propagate the Order in Germany.
He returned to his native country, but does not appear to have
been very active at first as a missionary of Templarism, although
he continued to exhibit his strong attachment to Ancient Craft
Freemasonry. In the year 1749 he erected, at his own expense,
a Lodge on his estates at Kittlitz, near Lobau, to which he gave
the name of the lodge of the Three Pillars. At the same time he
built there a Protestant church, the corner-stone of which was
laid by the Brethren, with the usual Masonic ceremonies.
We are compelled to suppose, from incidents
in his life which subsequently occurred, that Hund must have visited
Paris a second time, and that he was there in the year 1754. On
November 24, in that year, the Chevalier de Bonneville, supported
by some of the most distinguished Freemasons of Paris, instituted
a Chapter of the High Degrees, which received the name of the
Chapter of Clermont, and into which he introduced the Templar
system, that is, the system which finds the origin of Freemasonry
in Templarism. In this Chapter Baron von Hund, who was then in
Paris, received the Degrees of the Clermont system, and there,
says Thory, he learned the doctrine upon which he subsequently
founded his new Rite of Strict Observance. This doctrine was,
that Freemasonry owes its existence to Knights Templarism, of
which it is the natural successor; and, therefore, that every
Freemason is a Templar, although not entitled to all the privileges
of the Order until he has attained the highest Degree.
Von Hund returned to Germany possessed of
powers, or a Deputation granted to him in Paris by which he was
authorized to disseminate the advanced Degrees in that country.
He was not slow to exhibit these documents, and soon collected
around him a band of adherents. He then attempted what he termed
a reform in primitive Freemasonry or the simple English system
of the three Symbolic Degrees, which alone most of the German
Lodges recognized. The result was the establishment of a new system,
well known as the Rite of Strict Observance.
But here we again encounter the embarrassments
of conflicting authorities. The distinctive feature of the Rite
of Strict Observance was, that Freemasonry is the successor of
Templarism; the legend of Aumont being unhesitatingly accepted
as authentic. The author of Anti-Saint-Nicaise, the book already
referred to, asserted that between the years 1730 and 1740, there
was already in Lusatia a Chapter of Templars; that he knew one,
at least, who had been there initiated before the innovation of
the Baron von Hund; and that the dignities of Prior, Sub-Prior,
Prefect, and Commander, which he professed to introduce into Germany
for the first time, had been known there at a long antecedent
period. Ragon also asserts that the Templar system of Ramsay was
known in Germany before the foundation of the Chapter of Clermont,
whence von Hund derived his information and his powers; that it
consisted of six Degrees, to which Hund added a seventh; and that
at the time of von Hund's arrival in Germany this regime had Baron
von Marshall as its head, to whom Hund's superiors in Paris had
referred him. This seems to be the correct version of the affair;
and so the Rite of Strict Observance was not actually established,
but only reformed and put into more active operation, by von Hund.
One of the peculiarities of this Rite was,
that every member was called a Knight, or Eques; the classical
Latin for a Roman knight being, by a strange inconsistency, adopted
by these professed Templars, instead of the medieval word Miles,
which had been always appropriated to the military knights of
chivalry. To this word was appended another, and the title thus
formed was called the characteristic name. Lists of these characteristic
names, and of the persons whom they represented, are given in
all the registers and lists of the Rite. Von Hund selected for
himself the title of Eques ab Ense, or Knight of the Sword, and,
to show the mixed military and Masonic character of his regime,
chose for his seal a square and sword crossed, or, in heraldic
language, saltierwise. Von Hund divided Europe into nine provinces,
and called himself the Grand Master of the Seventh Province, which
embraced Lower Saxony, Prussian Poland, Livonia, and Courland.
He succeeded in getting the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick to place
himself at the head of the Rite, and secured its adoption bv most
of the Lodges of Berlin and of other parts of Prussia. After this
he retired into comparative inactivity, and left the Lodges of
his Rite to take care of themselves.
But in 1763 he was aroused by the appearance
of one, Johnson, on the Masonic stage. This man, whose real name
was Leucht, was a Jew, and had formerly been the secretary of
the Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, under the assumed name of Becker.
But, changing his name again to that of Johnson, he visited the
city of Jena, and proclaimed himself to the Freemasons there as
possessed of powers far more extensive than those of von Hund,
which he pretended to have received from "Unknown Superiors"
at Aberdeen, Scotland, the supposed seat of the Templar Order,
which had been revived by Aumont. Von Hund at first admitted the
claims of Johnson, and recognized him as the Grand Prior of the
Order.
Ragon says that this recognition was a fraud
on the part of von Hund, who had really selected Johnson as his
agent, to give greater strength to his Rite. I am reluctant to
admit the truth of this charge, and am rather disposed to believe
that the enthusiasm and credulity of von Hund had made him for
a time the victim of Johnson's ostentatious pretensions. If this
be so, he was soon undeceived, and, discovering the true character
as well as the dangerous designs of Johnson, he proclaimed him
to be an adventurer. He denied that Johnson had been sent as a
delegate from Scotland, and asserted anew that he alone was the
Grand Master of the Order in Germany, with the power to confer
the high Degrees. Johnson, accused of abstracting the papers of
a Lord of Courland, in whose service he had been, and of the forgery
of documents, was arrested at Magdeburg through the influence
of von Hund, on the further charges of larceny and counterfeiting
money, and died in 1775 in prison.
Von Hund now renewed his activity as a Freemason,
and assembled a Congress of the Rite at Altenberg, Where he was
recognized as Grand Master of the Templars, and augmented his
strength by numerous important initiations. His reappearance among
the Brethren exerted as much surprise as joy, and its good effects
were speedily seen in a large increase of Chapters; and the Rite
of Strict Observance soon became the predominating system in Germany.
But dissatisfaction began to appear as a consequence of the high
claims of the members of the Rite to the possession of superior
knowledge. The Knights looked haughtily upon the Freemasons who
had been invested only with the primitive Degrees, and these were
offended at the superciliousness with which they were treated.
A Mother Lodge was established at Frankfort, which recognized
and worked only the three Degrees. Other systems of advanced Degrees
also arose as rivals of the Rite, and von Hund's regime began
to feel sensibly the effects of this compound antagonism.
Hitherto the Rite of Strict Observance had
been cosmopolitan in its constitution, admitting the believers
in all creeds to its bosom, and professing to revive only the
military and chivalric character of the ancient Templars, without
any reference to their religious condition. But in 1767, von Starck,
the Rector at Wismar, proposed to engraft upon the Rite a new
branch, to be called the clerical system of Knights Templar. This
was to be nominally spiritual in character; and, while announcing
that it was in possession of secrets not known to the chivalric
branch of the Order, demanded as preliminary to admission, that
every candidate should be a Roman Catholic, and have previously
received the Degrees of the Strict Observance. Starck wrote to
von Hund, proposing a fusion of the two branches; and he, "because,"
to borrow the language of Findel (History of Freemasonry, page
279), "himself helpless and lacking expedients, eagerly stretched
out his hand to grasp the offered assistance, and entered into
connection with the so-called clergy." He even, it is said,
renounced Protestantism and became a Catholic, so as to qualify
himself for admission.
In 1774, a Congress assembled at Kohlo,
the object of which was to reconcile the difference between these
two branches of the Rite. Here von Lund appears to have been divested
of some portion of his digmties, for he was appointed only Provincial
Superior of Upper and Lower Alsace,.of Denmark and of Courland,
while the Grand Mastership of the Rite was conferred on Frederick,
Duke of Brunswick.
Another Congress was held in 1775, at Brunswick,
where Hund again appeared. Here Findel, who seems to have no friendly
disposition toward von Hund, charges him with "indulgence
in his love of outward pomp and show," a charge that is not
consistent with the character given him by other writers, who
speak of his modesty of demeanor. The question of the Superiores
Incogniti, or Unknown Superiors, from whom von Hund professed
to derive his powers, came under consideration. He denied that
he was bound to give any explanations at all, and asserted that
his oath precluded him from saying anything more. Confidence in
him now declined, and the Rite to which he was so much attached,
and of which he had been the founder and the chief supporter,
began to lose its influence. The clerical branch of the Rite seceded,
and formed an independent Order, and the Lodges of Strict Observance
thenceforward called themselves the United German Lodges.
With his failure at Brunswick, the functions
of von Hund ceased. He retired altogether from the field of Masonic
labor, and died in the fifty-fifth year of his life, on November,
1776, at Meiningen, in Prussia.
The members of the Lodge Minerva, at Leipsic,
struck a medal in commemoration of him, which contains on the
obverse an urn encircled by a serpent, the symbol of immortality
and on the reverse a likeness of him, which is said to be exceedingly
accurate.
A copy of it may be found in the Taschenbuche
der Freimaurerei, and in the American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry.
For this amiable enthusiast, as he certainly was credulous but
untiring in his devotion to Freemasonry; deceived but enthusiastic;
generous and kind in his disposition; whose heart was better than
his head we may not entertain the profoundest generation; but
we cannot but feel an emotion of sympathy. We know not how much
the antagonism and contest of years, and final defeat and failure,
may have embittered his days or destroyed his energy; but we do
know that he ceased the warfare of life while still there ought
to have been the promise of many years of strength and vigor.
HUNGARY, NATIONAL GRAND LODGE OF
See Austria Hungary and Czecho Slovacia
HUR
The Hebrew word nm, liberty. A term used
in the Fourth Degree of Perfect Mistress in the French Rite of
Adoption.
HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM
Of all the Masonic writers of the eighteenth
century there was no one who did more to elevate the spirit and
character of the Institution than William Hutchinson of Barnard
Castle, in the county of Durham, England. To him are we indebted
for the first philosophical explanation of the symbolism of the
Order, and his Spirit of Masonry still remains a priceless boon
to the Masonic student. Hutchinson was born in 173 , and died
April 7, 1814, at the ripe age of eighty-two years. He was by
profession a solicitor; but such was his literary industry, that
a were extensive practice did not preclude his devotion to more
liberal studies.
He published several works of fiction, which,
at the time, were favorably received. His first contribution to
literature was The Hermitage, a British Story, which was published
in 1772. This was followed, in 1773, by a descriptive work, entitled
An Excursion to the Lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland. In 1775,
he published The Doubtful Marriage, and in 1776 A Week in a Cottage
and A Romance after the Fashion of the Castle of Ontranto. In
1778, he commenced as a dramatic writer, and besides two tragedies,
Pygmalion, King of Tyre and The Tyrant of Onia, which were never
acted, he also wrote The Princess of Zanfara which was successfully
performed at several of the provincial theaters.
Hutchinson subsequently devoted himself
to archeological studies, and became a prominent member of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries. His labors in this direction were
such as to win for him from Nichols the title of "an industrious
antiquary." He published in 1776, A View of Northumberland;
in two volumes; in 1785, 17&7, and 1794, three consecutive
quarto volumes of The History and Antiquities of the County Palatinate
of Durilam; and in 1794, in two quarto volumes, A History of Cumberland
works which are still referred to by scholars as containing valuable
information on the subjects of which they treat, and are an evidence
of the learning and industry of the author. But it is as a Masonic
writer that Hutchinson has acquired the most lasting reputation,
and his labors as such have made his name a household word in
the Order. He was for some years the Master of Barnard Castle
Lodge, where he sought to instruct the members by the composition
and delivery of a series of Lectures and Charges, which were so
far superior to those then in use as to attract crowds of visitors
from neighboring Lodges to hear him and to profit ban his instructions.
Some of these were from time to time printed, and won so much
admiration from the Craft that he was requested to make a selection,
and publish them in a permanent form.
Accordingly, he applied, in 1774, for permission
to publish, to the Grand Lodge which then assumed to be a rigid
censor of the Masonic press and, having obtained it, he gave to
the Masonic world the first edition of his now celebrated treatise
entitled The Spzrat of Masonry, in Moral and Elvzidatory Lectures;
but the latter part of the title was omitted in all the subsequent
editions. The sanction for its publication, prefixed to the first
edition, has an almost supercilious sound, when we compare the
reputation of the work which at once created a revolution in Masonic
literature with that of those who gave the sanction, and whose
names are preserved only by the official titles, which were affixed
to them. The sanction is in these words:
Whereas, Brother William Hutchinson has
compiled a book, entitled The Spirit of Masonry, and has requested
our sanction for the publication thereof, we, having perused the
said book and finding it will be of use to this Society, do recommend
the same.
This approval is signed by the Grand Master and
his Deputy, also by the Grand Wardens, and the Grand Treasurer
and Secretary. But their judgment, though tamely expressed, was
not amiss. A century has since shown that the book of Hutchinson
has really been "of use to the Society." It opened new
thoughts on the symbolism and philosophy of Freemasonry, which,
worked out by subsequent writers, have given to Freemasonry the
high rank it now holds, and has elevated it from a convivial association,
such as it was in the beginning of the eighteenth century, to
that school of religious philosophy which it now is. To the suggestions
of Hutchinson, Hemming undoubtedly owed that noble definition,
that "Freemasonry was a science of morality veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols."
The first edition of The Spirit of Masonry
was published in 1775, the second in 1795, the third in 1809,
the fourth in 1813, the fifth in 1814, and the sixth in 1815,
all except the last in the lifetime of the author. Several subsequent
editions have been published both in the United States and in
Great Britain. In 1780, it was translated into German, and published
at Berlin under the title of Der Geist der Freimaurerei, in moralischen
und erlauternden Vortragen. Of this great work the Craft appear
to have had but one opinion. It was received on its first appearance
with enthusiasm, and its popularity among Masonic scholars has
never decreased. Doctor Oliver says of it:
It was the first efficient attempt to explain,
in a rational and scientific manner, the true philosophy of the
Order. Doctor Anderson and the writer of the Gloucester sermon
indicated the mine. Calcott opened it, and Hutchinson worked it.
In this book he gives to the science its proper value. After explaining
his design, he enters copiously on the rites, ceremonies and institutions
of ancient nations. Then he dilates on the Lodge, with its ornaments,
furniture, and jewels, the building of the Temple; geometry and
after explaining the Third Degree with a minuteness which is highly
gratifying, he expatiates on secrecy, charity, and brotherly love,
and sets at rest all the vague conjectures of cowans and unbelievers,
by a description of the occupations of Masons and a masterly defense
of our peculiar rites and ceremonies.
The peculiar theory of Hutchinson in reference
to the symbolic design of Freemasonry is set forth more particularly
in his ninth lecture, entitled "The Master Mason's Order."
His doctrine was that the Lost Word was typical of the lost religious
purity, which had been occasioned by the corruptions of the Jewish
faith. The piety which had planted the Temple at Jerusalem had
been expunged, and the reverence and adoration due to God had
been buried in the filth and rubbish of the world, so that it
might well be said "that the guide to heaven was lost, and
the master of the works of righteousness was smitten." In
the same way he extends the symbolism. "True religion,"
he says, "was fled. Those who sought her through the wisdom
of the ancients were not able to raise her. She eluded the grasp,
and their polluted hands were stretched forth in vain for her
restoration. Those who sought her by the old law were frustrated,
for death had stepped between, and corruption defiled the embrace."
Hence the Hutchinsonian theory is, that
the Third Degree of Freemasonry symbolizes the new law of Christ,
taking the place of the old law of Judaism, which had become dead
and corrupt. With him, Hiram or Huram is only the Greek huramen,
meaning I have found it, and acacia, from the same Greek, signifies
freedom from sin; and "thus the Master Mason represents a
man, under the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity
and raised to the faith of salvation. " Some of Hutchinson's
etymologies are unquestionably inadmissible; as, when he derives
Tubal Cain from a corruption of the Greek, tumbon choeo, "I
prepare my sepulcher," and when he translates the Substitute
Word as meaning "I ardently wish for life." But fanciful
etymologies are the besetting sin of all antiquaries.
So his theory of the exclusive Christian
application of the Third Degree will not be received as the dogma
of the present day. But such was the universally recognized theory
of all his contemporaries. Still, in his enlarged and elevated
views of the symbolism and philosophy of Freemasonry as a great
moral and religious science, he was immeasurably in advance of
his age. In his private life, Hutchinson was greatly respected
for his cultivated mind and extensive literary acquirements, while
the suavity of his manners and the generosity of his disposition
secured the admiration of all who knew him. He had been long married
to an estimable woman, whose death was followed in only two days
by his own, and they were both interred in the same grave.
HUZZA
The acclamation in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. In the old French manuscripts it is generally written
Hoschea.
HYMNS, MASONIC
In the History of the Provincial Grand Lodge
of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, England, by Brother Phipps
Doran, 1912, we are told that Brother W. Clegg, a member of the
Lodge of Harmony, No. 279, Boston, Lincolnshire, was the author
of the hymns Hail Eternal and Now the Evening Shadows Falling,
which are in frequent use at the opening and closing of many Lodges.
HAIL ETERNAL
Hail, Eternal! by whose aid
All created things are made
Heav'n and earth thy vast design;
Hear us, Architect Divine!
May our work begun in Thee
Ever blest with order be.
And may we, when labors cease,
Part in harmony and peace,
By Thy glorious Majesty
By the trust we place in Thee
By the badge and mystic sign
Hear us Architect Divine!
NOW THE EVENING SHADOWS FALLING
Now the evening shadows falling
Warn from toil to peaceful rest
Mystic arts and rites reposing
Sacred in each faithful breast.
God of Light! whose love unceasing,
Doth to all Thy works extend
Crown our Order with Thy blessing;
Build, sustain us to the end.
Humbly now we bow before Thee,
Grateful for Thine aid Divine;
Everlasting pow'r and glory,
Mighty Architect! be Thine.
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