Lodge St. Andrew #518

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FREEMASONRY AND KINDRED SCIENCES

by ALBERT G. MACKEY M.D.

ALLIANCE, SACRED

An organization of twenty-one brethren possessing the ultimate degree of the Scottish Rite, was formed in New York September 19, 1872, to assemble annually on that day. One by one, in the due course of time, this Assembly was to decrease until the sad duty devolved on some one to banquet alone with twenty draped chairs and covers occupied by the imaginary presence of his fellows. This body was instituted to commemorate the breaking of a deadlock in the close corporation of the Supreme Council by the admission of four very prominent members of the Fraternity.

ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES

A body has been formed in England called the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees, in order to govern various Degrees or Orders having no central authority of their own. The principal degrees controlled by it are those of St. Lawrence the Martyr, Knight of Constantinople, Grand Tyler of King Solomon, Secret Monitor, Red Cross of Babylon, and Grand High Priest, besides a large number, perhaps about fifty, of side degrees, of which some are actively worked and some are not (see Council of Allied Masonic Degrees).

ALLOCUTION

A word of Latin origin and meaning something spoken to. The address of the presiding officer of a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is sometimes so called. First used by the Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, the expression is derived from the usage of the Roman Church, where certain addresses of the Pope to the Cardinals are called allocations, and this in turn is to be traced to the customs of Pagan Rome, where the harangues or forcible speeches of the Generals to their soldiers were called allocutions.

ALLOWED

In the old manuscript Constitutions, this word that is now unusual is found in the sense of accepted. Thus, "Every Mason of the Craft that is Mason allowed, ye shall do to him as ye would be done unto yourself" as in the Lansdowne Manuscript, of about 1600 A.D., Mason allowed means Mason accepted, that is, approved. Phillips, in his New World of Words, 1690, defines the verb allow, "to give or grant; to approve of; to permit or suffer".

Latimer, in one of his sermons, uses it in this sense of approving or accepting, thus: "Saint Peter, in forsaking his old boat and nets, was allowed as much before God as if he had forsaken all the riches in the world". In a similar sense is the word used in the Office of Public Baptism of Infants, in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England.

The Bible (see Romans xiv, 22), also has "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth". Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words suggests the connection of the word with the Anglo-Norman alone, meaning to praise.

ALL-SEEING EYE

An important symbol of the Supreme Being, borrowed by the Freemasons from the nations of antiquity. Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have derived its use from that natural inclination of figurative minds to select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is intended peculiarly to discharge. Thus, the foot was often adopted as the symbol of swiftness, the arm of strength, and the hand of fidelity.

On the same principle, the open eye was selected as the symbol of watchfulness, and the eye of God as the symbol of Divine watchfulness and care of the universe. The use of the symbol in this sense is repeatedly to be found in the Hebrew writers. Thus, the Psalmist says, Psalm xxxiv, 15: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry", which explains a subsequent passage (Psalm cxxi, 4), in which it is said: "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep".

In the Apocryphal Book of the Conversation of God with Moses on Mount Sinai, translated by the Rev.WT. Cureton from an Arabic manuscript of the fifteenth century, and published by the Philobibion Society of London, the idea of the eternal watchfulness of God is thus beautifully allegorized:

"Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, dost thou sleep or not? The Lord said unto Moses, I never sleep: but take a cup and fill it with water. Then Moses took a cup and filled it with water, as the Lord commanded him. Then the Lord cast into the heart of Moses the breath of slumber; so he slept, and the cup fell from his hand, and the water which was therein was spilled. Then Moses awoke from his sleep.

Then said God to Moses, I declare by my power, and by my glory, that if I were to withdraw my providence from the heavens and the earth, for no longer a space of time than thou hast slept, they would at once fall to ruin and confusion, like as the cup fell from thy hand".

On the same principle, the Egyptians represented Osiris, their chief deity, by the symbol of an open aye, and placed this hieroglyphic of him in all their Temples. His symbolic name, on the monuments, has represented by the eye accompanying a throne, to which was sometimes added an abbreviated figure of the god, and sometimes what has been called a hatchet, but which may as correctly be supposed to be a representation of a square.

The All-Seeing Eye may then be considered as a symbol of God manifested in his omnipresence - his guardian and preserving character - to which Solomon alludes in the Book of Proverbs (xv, 3), where he says: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding (or, as in the Revised Version, keeping watch upon) the evil and the good". It is a symbol of the Omnipresent Deity.

ALL SOULS' DAY

A day set apart for prayers in behalf of all the faithful dead. A festival established in 998 A.D. by an Abbot Odilo of Cluny in France.

The feast falls on the 2nd of November, or on the 3rd if the 2nd is a Sunday or a festival of the first class. The celebration of the day was abolished in the Church of England at the Reformation but has had some revival there. On the Continent of Europe the practise has been longer maintained among Protestants. The date is observed as a feast day by Chapters of Rose Croix.

ALMANAC, MASONIC

Almanacs for the special use of the Fraternity are annually published in many countries of Europe, but the custom has not been so favoured in America. As early as 1752 we find an Almanach des Francs-Maçons en Ecosse published at the Hague. This, or a similar work, continued to be published annually at the same place until the year 1778 (see Kloss, Bibliographie, Nos. 107-9). The first in English appeared in 1775, under the title of:

The Freemason's Calendar, or an Almanac for the year 1775, containing, besides an accurate and useful Calendar of all remarkable occurrences for the year, many useful and curious particulars relating to Masonry. Inscribed to Lord Petre, G.M., by a Society of Brethren. London, printed for the Society of Stationers. This work was without any official authority, but two years later the Freemason's Calendar for 1777 was Published "under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of England". A Masonic Year Book has been issued annually by the Grand Lodge of England, and most of the English Provinces have published Masonic Almanacs.

The first German work of this class was the Freimaurer Kalendar auf das Jahr 1771 and the first French was Etrennes Intéressantes, ou Almanach pour les années1796 et 1797, the latter meaning in English Interesting Gifts, or Almanac for the years 1796 and 1797. The Masonic Year, an annual digest of timely facts from reliable sources to show the scope and success of Freemasonry, was first published for the year 1920 by the Masonic History Company, Chicago, and edited by R. I. Clegg.

ALMANACS

The annual almanac was the Eighteenth Century's monthly magazine, encyclopedia, calendar, a repository of literature, and what not, and is the mirror of the American mind between 1700 and the Revolution. Benjamin Franklin made his name with one, but his Poor Richard was not the first of the species nor, by long odds, was it the last (it is impossible to draw a line between almanacs and magazines in the history of American journalism).

James Franklin issued his Rhode Island Almanac five years before Poor Richard appeared in Philadelphia; and Nathaniel Ames, of Dedham, Mass., issued his eight years before, in 1725. This last was, except for Poor Richard, the most famous of the almanacs, and it was among the longest lived. Its author was physician, inn-keeper, scholar, wit, orator, and one of the brightest stars in the constellation of the famous Ames family. His biography was written and his works edited in 1891, in a volume entitled The Essays, Humor, and Poems of Nathaniel Ames, father and son, of Dedham, Mass., from their Almanacs, 1726-1775 with notes and comments, by Sam Briggs (Cleveland, Ohio). From this delicious old volume which should be read with a pipe and bowl of apples in front of the fireplace, it transpires that Bro. Ames was a member of Constellation Lodge in Dedham, and more than once aimed his skits and verses at the Fraternity. Thus, on page 116, in a poem are the lines: "So Masonry and Death are both the same, Tho' of a different name"; meaning that a man knows nothing of either until be bas been initiated.

Of these words Editor Briggs notes that "These few lines of verse are the first I have noticed in any publication of the kind, adverting to the institution, which had been but lately introduced to the [New England] Colonists, through the office of Henry Price, who established the first Lodge in New England, in 1733". On page 203 is a verse for the month of October, not easily construed:

"Heaven's Candidates go clothed with foul Disguise,
And Heaven's Reports are damned for senseless lies:
Tremendous Mysteries are (so Hell prevails)
Lampooned for Jargon and fantastic Tales".

Bro. Briggs says be can make nothing of this. As a guess Ames bad been reading exposés and Anti-Masonic lampoons brought over from England. Beginning on page 464 is a long Hudibrastic poem entitled "Entertainment for a Winter's Evening" which runs to six pages, describes a Masonic church service with wit and satire, and contains dozens of topical allusions, some very obscure; it was written by Joseph Greene, an alumnus of Harvard University of the class of 1726, a Tory who fled to England, where he resided until his death in 1780. It is recommended to some member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research that he edit this (in its way) important document and publish it in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.

On page 34: Vol. I of The Book-worm (A. C. Armstrong & Son; 1888) is a paragraph about the first American almanac:

"It is a fact upon which most bibliographers are agreed, that the first almanac printed in America came out in 1639, and was entitled 'An Almanac Calculated for New England,' by Mr. Pierce, Mariner: The printer was Stephen Day, or Daye, to whom belongs the title of first printer in North America. The press was at Cambridge, Mass., and its introduction was effected mainly through the Rev. Jesse Glover, a wealthy Non-conformist minister who had only recently left England. Some Amsterdam gentlemen 'gave towards furnishing of a printing-pre' with letters, forty-nine pounds and something more'. The first book issued was the 'Bay Psalm-Book,' in 1640".

(Day is a famous and frequent name in the history of printing. The John Day Company of New York was named in honor of one of them)

ALMIGHTY

In Hebrew, pronounced Ale Shad-dahee. The name by which God was known to the patriarchs before He announced Himself to Moses by His Tetragrammatonic name of Jehovah (see Exodus vi, 3). Almighty refers to His power and might as the Creator and Ruler of the universe, and hence is translated in the Septuagint by, and in the Vulgate by Omnipotens. The word Tetragrammaton is used for the four consonants of the sacred name YHVH.

ALMOND TREE

When it is said in the passage of Scripture from the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, sometimes read during the ceremonies of the Third Degree, "the almond tree shall flourish", reference is made to the white flowers of that tree, and the allegory signification is to old age, when the hairs of the head shall become gray.

But the pinkish tinge of the flower has aroused some criticism of the above explanation. However, Doctor Mackey's study of the allegory is supported by Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible which says, "Probably the whiteness of the blossom from a little distance, the delicate pink at the bases of the petals being visible only on closer inspection-suggested its comparison to the white hair of age" (see Ecclesiastes xii, 5).

A poetic view of the flower is to be seen in Edwin Arnold's Light of the World (book 1, page 57), thus:

"The almond's crimson snow, rained upon crocus, lily, and cyclamen, at feet of feathery palms'."

There is another Bible reference in Jeremiah (1,11, 12), where we find a curious play upon the Hebrew word for almond, meaning also to watch, and in the same language an almost identical word, save only for a slight alteration of a vowel sound, meaning I will hasten.

From these noteworthy examples the Freemason may make his own choice of the most useful instruction for practical application, though the suggestion given by Doctor Mackey has received general favor.

ALMONER

An officer elected or appointed in the Continental Lodges of Europe to take charge of the contents of the alms-box, to carry into effect the charitable resolutions of the Lodge, and to visit sick and needy brethren. A physician is usually selected in preference to any other member for this office. An Almoner may also be appointed among the officers of an English Lodge. In the United States the officer does not exist, his duties being performed by a Committee of Charity. However, it is an important office in all bodies of the Scottish Rite.

ALMS-BOX

A box which, toward the close of the Lodge, is handed around by an appropriate officer for the reception of such donations for general objects of charity as the brethren may feel disposed to bestow. This laudable custom is very generally practiced in the Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland and universally in those of the Continent. The newly initiated candidate is expected to contribute.

Brother Hyde Clarke says in the Freemasons' Magazine (London, 1859, page 1166) that "Some brethren are in the habit, on an occasion of thanksgiving with them, to contribute to the box of the Lodge more than on other occasions".

This custom has not been adopted in the Lodges of America, except in those of French origin and in those of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

ALMSGIVING

Although almsgiving, or the pecuniary relief of the destitute, was not one of the original objects for which the Institution of Freemasonry was established, yet, as in every society of men bound together by a common tie, it becomes incidentally, yet necessarily, a duty to be practiced by all its members in their individual as well as in their corporate capacity.

In fact, this virtue is intimately interwoven with the whole superstructure of the Institution, and its practice is a necessary corollary from all its principles. At an early period in his initiation the candidate is instructed in the beauty of charity by the most impressive ceremonies, which are not easily to be forgotten, and which, with the same benevolent design, are repeated from time to time during his advancement to higher degrees, in various forms and under different circumstances.

"The true Freemason," says Brother Pike, '"must be, and must have a right to be, content with himself; and he can be so only when he lives not for himself alone, but for others who need his assistance and have a claim upon his sympathy".

The same eloquent writer lays down this rule for a Freemason's almsgiving: "Give, looking for nothing again, without consideration of future advantages; give to children, to old men, to the unthankful, and the dying, and to those you shall never see again; for else your alms or courtesy is not charity, but traffic and merchandise. And omit not to relieve the needs of your enemy and him who does you injury" ( see Exclusiveness of Freemasonry).

ALNWICK MANUSCRIPT

This manuscript is written on twelve quarto pages as a preface to the Minute Book of the Company and Fellowship of Freemasons of a Lodge held at Alnwick, where it appears under the heading of The Masons' Constitutions. The document tells us of the "Orders to be observed by the Company and Fellowship of Freemasons at a Lodge held at Alnwick, September 29, 1701, being the General Head Meeting Day".

Among the items are the fifth and ninth which are of especial interest to us:

"No mason shall take any Apprentice (but he must) enter him and give him his charge within one whole year after".

"There shall no apprentice after he have served seven years be admitted or accepted but upon the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel".

But, the festival was in 1704 changed to that of Saint John the Evangelist and later entries of "made Free December 27th" indicate clearly that those, who had served their time were admitted or accepted on that date according to the purpose of the ninth "Order".

This record was first published in 1871 in Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Reprints, American edition, and again in 1872 by, the same author in his Old Charges of the British Freemasons. In this latter work, Brother Hughan says of the records of this old Lodge that, "ranging from 1703 to 1757 they mostly, refer to indentures, fines, and initiations, the Lodge from first to last remaining true to its operative origin.

The members were required annually to 'appear at the Parish Church of Alnwicke with their aprons on and common squares as aforesaid on Saint John's Day in Christmas, when a sermon was provided and preached by some clergyman at their appointment'. A. D. 1708." The manuscript was reproduced in facsimile by the Newcastle College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1895.

AL-OM-JAH

In the Egyptian mysteries, this is said to have been the name given to the aspirant in the highest degree as the secret name of the Supreme Being. In its component parts we may recognize the ALE or EL of the Hebrews, the AUM or trilateral name of the Indian mysteries, and the JAH of the Syrians.

ALOYAU, SOCIETE DE L

The word Atoyau is the French name for a sirloin of beef and hence the title of this society in English would be The Society of the Sirloin. This was a Masonic association, which existed in France before the Revolution of 1789, until its members were dispersed at that time.

They professed to be possessors of many valuable documents relating to the Knights Templar and, according to the Acta Latomorum (i, page 292), they claimed to be their successors (see Temple Order of the ).

ALPHA AND OMEGA

The first, and last letters of the Greek alphabet, referred to in the Royal Master and some of the advanced degrees. They are explained by this passage in Revelations; xxii, 13 '1: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last". Alpha and Omega is, therefore, one of the appellations of God, equivalent to the beginning and end of all things, and so referred to in Isaiah (xiiv, 6), "I am the first and I am the last".

ALPHABET, ANGELS

In the old rituals of the Fourth or Secret Master's Degree of the Scottish and some other Rites, we find this passage: "The seventy-two names, like the name of the Divinity, are to be taken to the Caballstic Tree and the Angels' Alphabet". The Caballstic Tree is a name given by the Cabalists to the arrangement of the ten Sephiroth (which see). The Angels' Alphabet is called by the Hebrews, chetab hamalachim, or the writing of the angels.

Gabffarel (Curios. Inouis., xiii, 2) says that the stars, according to the opinion of the Hebrew writers, are ranged in the heavens in the form of letters, and that it is possible to read there whatsoever of importance is to happen throughout the universe.

The great English Hermetic philosopher, Robert Fludd, says, in his Apology for the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, that there are characters in the heavens formed from the disposition of the stars, just as geometric lines and ordinary letters are formed from points; and he adds, that those to whom God has granted the hidden knowledge of reading these characters will also know not only whatever is to happen, but all the secrets of philosophy. The letters thus arranged in the form of stars are called the Angels' Alphabet. They have the power and articulation but not the form of the Hebrew letters, and the Cabalists say that in them Moses wrote the Tables of the Law.

The astrologers, and after them the alchemists, made much use of this alphabet; and its introduction into any of the high degree rituals is an evidence of the influence exerted on these degrees by the Hermetic philosophy.

Agrippa, in his Occult Philosophy, and Kircher, in his Oedipus Egyptiacus, and some other writers, have given copies of this alphabet. lt may also be found in Johnson's Typographia. But it is in the mystical books of the Cabalists that we must look for full instructions on this subject.

ALPHABET, HEBREW

Nearly all of the significant words in the Masonic Rituals are of Hebraic origin, and in writing them in the rituals the Hebrew letters are frequently used. For convenience of reference, that alphabet is here given. The Hebrews, like other ancient nations, had no figures, and therefore made use of the letters of their alphabet instead of numbers, each letter having a particular numerical value.

ALPHABET, MASONIC

See Cipher Writing

ALPHABET, NUMBER OF LETTERS IN

In the Sandwich Island alphabet there are 12 letters;
the Burmese, 19;
Italian, 20;
Bengalese, 21;
Hebrew, Syrian, Chaldee, Phoenician, and Samaritan, 22 each;
Latin, 23;
Greek, 24;
French, 25;
German, Dutch, and English, 26 each;
Spanish and Sclavonic, 27 each;
Persian and Coptic, 32 each;
Georgian, 35;
Armenian, 35;
Russian, 41;
Muscovite, 43;
Sanskrit and Japanese, 50 each;
Ethiopic and Tartarian, 202 each.

ALPHABET, SAMARITAN

It is believed by Scholars that, previous to the captivity, the alphabet now called the Samaritan was employed by the Jews in transcribing the copies of the law, and that it was not until their return from Babylon that they adopted, instead of their ancient characters, the Chaldee or square letters, now called the Hebrew, in which the sacred text, as restored by Ezra, was written. Hence, in some rituals, especially those used in the United States, the Samaritan characters find use. For convenience of reference, the Samaritan alphabet is therefore here inserted. The letters are the same in number as the Hebrew, with the same power and the same names; the only difference is in form.

ALPHA LODGE

Shortly after the Civil War a constitutional number of white citizens asked for a Dispensation to organize a Lodge at Newark, New Jersey. The Grand Master issued such authority. In due course the Grand Lodge authorized a Charter to Alpha Lodge No. 116 under date of January 19, 1871. At the time following the war many negroes found a haven in the neighborhood and petitions were received from them by the Lodge. Some of these petitioners were elected by the Lodge to membership. As a result several Grand Lodges withdrew their recognition from New Jersey but they all subsequently rescinded this action, Mississippi finally agreeing in 1927 to renew former relations.

ALPINA

Refers to the Grand Lodge of Switzerland. A Lodge was organized at Geneva in 1736, the Worshipful Master, a Scotchman, being the following year appointed a Provincial Grand Master by the Grand Lodge of England. This Lodge was forbidden by the Government to initiate native citizens. Notwithstanding this handicap, the Institution thrived. Nine Lodges met in Convention on June 1, 1769, and on June 24 of that year they formed the Independent Grand Lodge of Geneva. Another Lodge, named Espérance, meaning Hope, was chartered at Berne by the Grand Orient of France on September 14, 1802.

This became a Provincial Grand Lodge under an English Warrant in 1815. The Helvetic Grand Orient was formed in 1810. Several of the Lodges working under these two organizations founded the National Grand Lodge of Switzerland. There were also some other Lodges using the ritual of the Rectified Rite under the control of a Grand Directorate. This lack of unity led to various efforts at organized cooperation and several General Assemblies of Freemasons in Switzerland were held at Zurich, Bern and Basle in 1836 and for some years later. The union so long patiently sought was perfected at a Convention held at Zurich, July 22 to 24, 1844, when fourteen Lodges agreed to a Constitution and organized the Grand Lodge Alpina, the name being a happy allusion to the Alps, a picturesque mountain range.

ALTAR

The most important article of furniture in a Lodge-room is undoubtedly the altar. It is worth while, then, to investigate its character and its relation to the altars of other religious institutions.

The definition of an altar is very simple. It is a structure elevated above the ground, and appropriated to some service connected with worship, such as the offering of oblations, sacrifices, or prayers.

Altars, among the ancients, were generally made of turf or stone when permanently erected and not on any sudden emergency, they were generally built in regular courses of Freemasonry, and usually in a cubical form. Altars were erected long before temples. Thus, Noah is said to have erected one as soon as he came forth from the ark. Herodotus gives the Egyptians the credit of being the first among the heathen nations who invented altars.

Among the ancients, both Jews and Gentiles, altars were of two kinds-for incense and for sacrifice. The latter were always erected in the open air, outside and in front of the Temple. Altars of incense only were permitted within the Temple walls. Animals were slain, and offered on the altars of burnt-offerings. On the altars of incense, bloodless sacrifices were presented and incense was burnt to the Deity.

The Masonic altar, which, like everything else in Freemasonry, is symbolic, appears to combine the character and uses of both of these altars. It is an altar of sacrifice, for on it the candidate is directed to lay his passions and vices as an oblation to the Deity, while he offers up the thoughts of a pure heart as a fitting incense to the Grand Architect of the Universe.

The altar is, therefore, the most holy place in a Lodge.

Among the ancients, the altar was always invested with peculiar sanctity. Altars were places of refuge, and the supplicants who fled to them were considered as having placed themselves under the protection of the Deity to whom the altar was consecrated, and to do violence even to slaves and criminals at the altar, or to drag them from it, was regarded as an act of violence to the Deity himself, and was hence a sacrilegious crime.

The marriage covenant among the ancients was always solemnized at the altar, and men were accustomed to make all their solemn contracts and treaties by taking oaths at altars. An oath taken or a vow made at the altar was considered as more solemn and binding than one assumed under other circumstances.

Hence, Hannibal's father brought him to the Carthaginian altar when he was about to make him swear eternal enmity to the Roman power.

In all the religions of antiquity, it was the usage of the priests and the people to pass around the altar in the course of the sun, that is to say, from the east, by the way of the south, to the west, singing paeans or hymns of praise as a part of their worship.

From all this we see that the altar in Freemasonry is not merely a convenient article of furniture, intended, like a table, to hold a Bible. It is a sacred utensil of religion, intended, like the altars of the ancient temples, for religious uses, and thus identifying Freemasonry, by its necessary existence in our Lodges, as a religious institution. Its presence should also lead the contemplative Freemason to view the ceremonies in which it is employed with solemn reverence, as being part of a really religious worship.

The situation of the altar in the French and frequently in the Scottish Rites is in front of the Worshipful Master, and, therefore, in the East. In the York Rite, the altar is placed in the center of the room, or more property a little to the East of the center.

The form of a Masonic altar should be a cube, about three feet high, and of corresponding proportions as to length and width, having, in imitation of the Jewish altar, four horns, one at each corner.

The Holy Bible with the Square and Compasses should be spread open upon it, while around it are to be placed three lights.

These lights are to be in the East, West, and South, and should be arranged as in the annexed diagram. The stars show the position of the lights in the East, West, and South. The black dot represents the position North of the altar where there is no light, because in Freemasonry the North is the place of darkness.

ALTENBURG, CONGRESS OF

Altenburg is a town in Germany about twenty-three miles south of Leipzig and capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Aitenburg. Here in the month of June, 1764, the notorious Johnson, or Leucht, who called himself the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and the head of the Rite of Strict Observance, assembled a Masonic Congress for the purpose of establishing this Rite and its system of Templar Freemasonry.

But he was denounced and expelled by the Baron de Hund, who, having proved Johnson to be an impostor and charlatan, was himself proclaimed Grand Master of the German Freemasons by the Congress (see Johnson and Hund; also Strict Observance, Rite of).

ALTENBURG, LODGE AT

One of the oldest Lodges in Germany is the Lodge of Archimedes of the Three Tracing Boards, or Archimedes zu den drei Reissbrettern, in Altenburg. This Lodge was instituted on January 31, 1742, by a Deputation from Leipzig. In 1775 the Lodge joined the Grand Lodge of Berlin, but in 1788 attached itself to the Eclectic Union at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which body it left in 1801, and established a Directorate of its own, and installed a Lodge at Gera and another at Scheeberg. The Lodge published a Book of Constitutions in the year 1803 in a folio of 244 pages, a work which is now rare, and which Lenning says is one of the most valuable contributions to Masonic literature. Three Masonic journals were also produced by the Altenburg school of historians and students , one of which -the Bruderblatter, Fraternal Periodical-continued to appear until 1854. The Lodge struck a medal in 1804 upon the occasion of erecting a new hall, ln 1842 the Lodge celebrated its centennial anniversary.

AMAI SAGGHI

Great labor. The name of the fifth step of the mystic ladder of Kadosh, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

AMARANTH

A plant well known to the ancients, the Greek name of which signifies never withering. It is the Cetosia cristata of the botanists. The dry nature of the flowers causes them to retain their freshness for a very long time, and Pliny says, although incorrectly, that if thrown into water they will bloom anew.

Hence it is a symbol of immortality and was used by the ancients in their funeral rites.

The flower is often placed on coffins at the present day with a like symbolic meaning, and therefore is one of the decorations of a Lodge of Sorrow.

AMARANTH, ORDER OF THE

An organization instituted by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1653 and numbering thirty-one members, there being fifteen knights and fifteen ladies, and the Queen officiating as Grand Mistress. The insignia consisted two letters A interlaced, one being inverted, within a laurel crown, and bearing the motto Dolce nella memoria, these Words being the Italian for Sweet to the memory. The annual festival of this equestrian and chivalric Order was held at the Epiphany. A society of a similar name was arranged by J. B. Taylor at Newark, New Jersey, and was developed by Robert Macoy of New York City in 1883. A Supreme Council was organized June 14, 1883 with Brother Robert Macoy as Supreme Patron and Dr. Rob Morris as Supreme Recorder. In 1887 he published the Rite of Adoption containing the standard ritual of Degrees of the Eastern Star, the Queen of the South, and the Amaranth. Brother Willis D. Engle, in his History of the Order of the Eastern Star (page 135), says that the Amaranth was intended by Brother Macoy as the Third and Highest Degree in his revised system of Adoptive Masonry.

The ritualistic ceremonies planned by Brother Macoy were changed in 1915. The work is military in character. The object of the instruction is charity.

The organization has been incorporated, owns its own ritual and emblem, and has Courts in the several States of the Union, and in Canada, British Columbia, and the Philippines. The membership comprises Master Masons and their Wives, Mothers, Sisters, Widows, and Daughters.

AMAR-JAH

Hebrew, God spake; a significant word in the high degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Strong prefers the pronunciation am-ar-yaw- or am-ar-yaw-hoo for the expression in Hebrew of God has said.

AMEN

Sometimes used as a response to a Masonic prayer, though in England, as well as in the United States, The formula is so mote it be. The word Amen signifies in Hebrew verily, truly, certainty. "Its proper place", says Gesenius, "is where one person confirms the words of another, and adds his wish for success to the others vows". It is evident, then, that it is the brethren of the Lodge, and not the Master or Chaplain, who should pronounce the word. Yet the custom in the United Sates is for the Master or Captain to say "Amen" and the brethren respond, "So mote it be". It is a response to the prayer.

We note with interest that line 793 of the Regius Manuscript, that the ancient Masonic poem of about 1390 says: Amen, Amen! so mot it be!"

The word in old English manuscripts is spelled mot or mote and in each case means may or must, from the Anglo Saxon motan, meaning to be obliged or compelled. The Talmudists have many superstitious notions in respect to this word, thus in one trease (Uber musar) it is said that whosoever pronounces the word with fixed attention and devotion, to him the gates of Paradise will be opened; and, again, Whosoever enunciates the Word rapidly, his days shall pass rapidly away, and whosoever dwells upon it, pronouncing it distinctly and slowly, his life shall be prolonged.

AMENDMENT

All amendments to the by-laws of a Lodge must be submitted to the Grand or Provincial or District Lodge for its approval.

An amendment to a motion pending before a Lodge takes precedence of the original motion, and the question must be put upon the amendment first. If the amendment be lost, then the question will be on the motion; if the amendment be adopted, then the question will be on the original motion as so amended ; and if then this question be lost, the whole motion falls to the ground.

The principal parliamentary rules in relation to amendments which are applicable to the business of a Masonic Lodge are the following:

An amendment must be made in one of three ways:
1. by adding or inserting certain words
2. by striking out certain words
3. by striking out certain words and inserting others.
Every amendment is susceptible of an amendment of itself, but there can be no amendment of the amendment of an amendment; such a piling of questions one upon another would tend to embarrass rather than to facilitate business. The object which is proposed to be effected by such a proceeding must be sought by rejecting the amendment to the amendment, and then submitting the proposition in the form of an amendment of the first amendment in the form desired.
Luther S. Cushing (Lex parliamentaria Americana; elements of the law and practice of legislative assemblies in the United States) illustrates this as follows:
- "If a proposition consists of AB, and it is proposed to amend by inserting CD, it may be moved to amend the amendment by inserting EF; but it cannot be moved to amend this amendment, as, for example, by inserting G. The only mode by which this can be reached is to reject the amendment in the form in which it is presented, namely, to insert EF, and to move it in the form in which it is desired to be amended, namely, to insert EFG."
An amendment once rejected cannot be again proposed.
An amendment to strike out certain words having prevailed, a subsequent motion to restore them is out of order.
An amendment may be proposed which will entirely change the character and substance of the original motion. The inconsistency or incompatibility of a proposed amendment with the proposition to be amended, though an argument, perhaps, for its rejection by the Lodge, is no reason for its suppression by the presiding officer.
Of course an amendment is not in order if it fails to relate to the question to be amended; if it is merely equal to the negative of the original question; if it is identical with a question previously decided; if it only changes one form of amendment or motion to another form.
An amendment, before it has been proposed to the body for discussion, may be withdrawn by the mover; but after it has once been in possession of the Lodge, it can only be withdrawn by leave of the Lodge. In the Congress of the United States, leave must be obtained by unanimous consent but the usage in Masonic bodies is to require only a majority vote.
An amendment having been withdrawn by the mover, may be again proposed by another member.
Several amendments may be proposed to a motion or several amendments to an amendment, and the question will be put on them in the order of their presentation. But as an amendment takes precedence of a motion, so an amendment to an amendment takes precedence of the original amendment.
An amendment does not require a seconder, although an original motion always does. There are many other rules relative to amendments which prevail in parliamentary bodies, and are discussed in detail in General Henry M. Robert's Rules of Order Revised (page 134, edition 1921), but these appear to be the principal ones which regulate this subject in Masonic assemblies.

AMENTI

See Book of the Dead

AMERICANISMS

In an article contributed to the New York Masonic Outlook, in 1931, Brother Sir Alfred Robbins, President of the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge of England, and present in America at the time as personal representative of the Grand Master of Masons in England, the Duke of Connaught, commented on certain "Americanisms" which he had observed in his visits to Lodges and Grand Lodges.

He singled out the Ancient Land- marks, which he said the English Craft seldom mentioned; and the Doctrine of Exclusive Territorial Jurisdiction. He could have included the "Due guard," the Weeping Virgin symbol, the Working Tool of the Third Degree, etc. In discussing these points Bro. Robbins was carrying on what had come to be almost a tradition among English Brothers of animadverting upon what they have called "Americanisms", a tradition as old as the Rev. George Oliver's works. Usually, by an Americanism bas been meant some symbol, rite, rule, etc., invented here in this country, and in the majority of instances, in British eyes, a corruption of the original design of Masonry.

When making his comments Bro. Robbins apparently had not familiarized himself with the researches made in that particular subject by a large number of Masonic scholars in America over a quarter of a century. Those findings connect themselves with a carefully-considered statement which Sir Alfred made in a conversation with the writer during the two or three days be spent at the headquarters of the National Masonic Research Society; and, considering Sir Alfred's own great Masonic experience, and his authorship of a history of English-speaking Masonry, is of an importance which calls for its being permanently recorded in print: not in his own words but with the following unambiguous meaning, Sir Alfred said that after witnessing the conferring of Degrees in Lodges and Grand Lodges be was both surprised and gratified to discover that we in the United States are still using the original Ritual practiced by English Lodges in the middle of the Eighteenth Century; and that if American ceremonies differ from those used in present-day English Lodges the difference is not because we have altered the old Working, but because we have not altered it.

The majority of those elements of American Lodge practice and ceremonies which so many English writers have called, and often (vide Hughan !) have stigmatized, as "Americanisms", turn out to be a continuation of sound Lodge working in England as it was a half century or so before the Union of 1813. Interest in the Ancient Landmarks is not peculiar to America; the Minutes of the oldest English Lodges refer to them a large number of times, they were the whole point at issue in the controversy between the Ancient and the Modern Grand Lodges, and English Lodges give as much attention to them as do American Lodges but not by name. The Doctrine of Exclusive Territorial Jurisdiction is not peculiar to us; the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland practice it.

The now obsolescent "York" as a name for the Craft and Royal Arch Degrees came into use here from Britain via Canada. The Weeping Virgin symbol, which a few Grand Lodges retain as a relic in memory of Jeremy Cross, was not invented in America. Cross may have found it in some old French engravings which he took to be of English origin. "Due guard" appears to be Peculiar to American working but certainly is not an "Americanism"; it also is very possibly of French origin. In many early Eighteenth Century English and Irish engravings and portraits the Trowel is a jewel hung round the neck, and appears in a majority of old Tracing Boards; its prominence in the Third Degree is not modern but old, is not American but is British.

Our English colleagues, having what they have taken to be Americanisms in the forefront of their minds, refer again and again to "American" Masonry as if it differed from their Masonry. They speak of French Masonry, because the French altered Masonry, because the French altered Masonry (and War hatreds was one of the reasons for their unwisely doing so) and of Swedish Masonry, because the Swedes altered Masonry. In that sense there is no "American" Masonry; there is Freemasonry in America and it is the same, unaltered Freemasonry that it was in England about 1750.

Apropos of the subject of so-called "Americanisms" as a whole and in principle, as it is referred to, and somewhat frequently, by British Bothers in their Masonic magazines and Research Lodge Transactions, it may be recalled to them that they continually overlook the fact that the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Ancient Grand Lodge of England together, both directly and indirectly, bad a larger part in shaping pre-Revolutionary American Masonry than did the Modern Grand Lodge of England. And not only because Modern Lodges in the Colonies were filled with members on the Tory side for years before 1775, but more largely because the Ancient and Ireland sent over so many military and naval Lodges; and because so many of the Masons among the immigrants between 1760 and 1775 were members of Ancient and Irish Lodges. What often may appear as an "Americanism" or an innovation to an English student whose mind is saturated with the history of the Modern Grand Lodge, is neither an Americanism nor an innovation but is a continuation of the standard Working in the Ancient and Irish Lodges of that period; and which at that time differed so essentially from Modern Workings that it took nearly twenty years to bring Moderns and Ancient into Union.

The true basis for an understanding of the history of Freemasonry in America is not in the history of the Modern Grand Lodge, for Masonry in America from 1760 on differed from Modern practices fundamentally; it is in the history of Ireland, and of the Ancient Grand Lodge which was Irish in origin. Bro. Melvin M. Johnson spoke truly when in his Foreword to Gould's History of Freemasonry (Scribners'; New York) he wrote: "Gould was the Thucydides of Masonic history"; but the true Thucydides for the student specializing in American Masonic history is not Gould but is a double-headed Thucydides in the persons of Chetwode Crawley and Henry Sadler. Gould suffered from fundamental misunderstandings of Freemasonry in Colonial and Revolutionary America because be hated the Ancient, and against the pleas of his own colleagues stubbornly insisted on calling them Schismatics; and because be left out of account the role of Ireland in the establishment of American Lodges and practices, so that it is necessary for American students of Masonic history to keep revising Gould in the act of reading him whenever what be is writing bears on the American Craft.

AMERICAN BRETHREN

See Free and Accepted Americans

AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION

See Clandestine

AMERICAN MERCURY ARTICLE

In its issue for February, 1941 (page 184), the American Mercury, a national monthly magazine specializing in non-fiction articles for the well educated, published "The Annihilation of Freemasonry", by Sven Lunden.

The article in itself was sound, competent, unexceptionable, but is here placed on record among the memorabilia of the Fraternity not for its content but because it marks a mile-stone in the history of American Freemasonry. For the whole length of the period between World War I and World War II Freemasonry was publicly and freely discussed in Europe in books, newspapers, magazines, and from the platform by Masons and non-Masons alike, and in the same manner as any other subject important to the public; but during the same period in the United States Masonry almost never appeared in the public prints except incidentally, and in what journalists call "spot news"; certainly its principles were not discussed nor was there any public awareness of its role in American ways of life. The American Mercury article was the first of its kind; it is possible that it may be one of very few; it is more probable that by 1950 it will be proved to have been the first of innumerable instances.

One of the indications of this latter probability is the rapidly increasing number of books in which Freemasonry is discussed (most of them by anti-masons) that are appearing on the shelves of public libraries.

Mr. H. L. Mencken, the founder-editor of The American Mercury, once undertook a campaign of derision against those whom he described as "joiners", but his campaign recoiled upon his own head because be discovered that more than thirty million American men and women held membership in at least one fraternity, and be was unable even to convince himself that almost one-third of the population could be "playing at Indian" or belonged to "the booboisie".

AMERICAN MYSTERIES

Among the many evidences of a former state of civilization among the aborigines of America which seem to prove their origin from the races that inhabit the Eastern hemisphere, not the least remarkable is the existence of Fraternities bound by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons, to possess an esoteric knowledge, which they carefully conceal from all but the initiated.

De Witt Clinton relates, on the authority of a respectable native minister, who had received the signs, the existence of such a society among the Iroquois. The number of the members was limited to fifteen, of whom six were to be of the Seneca tribe, five of the Oneidas, two of the Cayugas, and two of the St. Regis. They claimed that their institution had existed from the era of the creation. The times of their meeting they kept secret, and threw much mystery over all their proceedings.

Brinton tells us in his interesting and instructive work on The Myths of the New World (page 285), that among the red race of America

"the priests formed societies of different grades of illumination, only to be entered by those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose secrets were not to be revealed under the severest penalties. The Algonkins had three such grades-the waubeno, the meda, and the jossakeed, the last being the highest. To this no white man was ever admitted. All tribes appear to have been controlled by these secret societies. Alexander von Humboldt mentions one, called that of the Botuto, or Holy Trumpet, among the Indians of the Orinoco, whose members must vow celibacy, and submit to severe scourgings and fasts. The Collahuayas of Peru were a gild of itinerant quacks and magicians, who never remained permanently in one spot".

Brother Robert C. Wright has, in a later work (Indian Masonry, 1907, Ann Arbor, Michigan), made a collection of information on this subject enriched with many shrewd and helpful comments by way of comparison and appraisal of Freemasonry among the aboriginal races of the new world and those who practice the rites from other lands. Brother Wright cherishes no illusions and in regard to claims that Masonic signs have been observed among Indians says:

"Masonic signs, which are simply gestures given to convey ideas, no doubt have taken their origin from the same signs or like signs now corrupted but which meant something different in the beginning. Were we able to trace these signs we would then at once jump to the conclusion that the people who used them were Freemasons the same as we ourselves. The signs which have just been mentioned as given by the Indians could easily be mistaken for Masonic signs by an enthusiastic Freemason, more anxious to find what he thinks is in them than to indulge in sober analysis of the sign and its meaning".

Brother Wright shows clearly how the like sentiments and aspirations among mankind are exhibited in signs and ceremonies and his book is a mine of useful information.

Another instructive work of great value is that by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, 1901, published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican religions, sociological and calendrical systems. The work is elaborate and leads to the conclusion that the Men of Tyre, the Phoenicians, had a greater part in the civilization of the world than has been supposed and that they even established colonies in America.

Much that has long been mysterious in the prehistoric remains discovered in America is given light by this book. That there were analogies and resemblances of old and new world civilizations has often been claimed but the work in question does pioneer service in showing how the American continent could have become an area of preservation of primitive forms of civilization, religious cults, symbolism and industries, drawn at different epochs, from the centers or the outposts of old world culture.

AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION

European and American Roman Catholic writers link the American Protective Association with Freemasonry, and classify it as either a camouflaged "political arm" of the Craft or as a Side Order. This is not true. It is a matter of known history, of which the records are preserved, that the A.P.A, was never in any manner either connected with Masonry or encouraged by it. The A.P.A, was founded in Clinton, Iowa (a small town in an agricultural district), by seven men "to combat Roman Catholic influence in public schools and in politics". Its founders announced that they did not oppose Roman Catholicism as a religion; nor Roman Catholics as foreigners; they denied that theirs was a "nativistic" movement, or that it was based on racial issues like the Ku Klux Klan; and insisted that they were only opposed to church interference in politics and the schools. The founder, H. F. Bowers, a Clinton attorney and a Methodist, was Supreme President until 1893, when he was succeeded by W. J. H. Traynor. The A.P.A. was an active force in politics throughout the 1890's, and established branches in Canada, England, and Mexico. It was at one period closely connected with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.

Though not one of the "nativistic" crusades it nevertheless followed the same curve as they of rapid early development followed by a general decline, of which the typical case was the once famous Know-Nothing Party. Historians recognize four well-established reasons for the general lack of success of patriotic secret societies: their field is too narrow to keep members interested; they are captured by professional politicians; they tend to split up; and Americans, like English-speaking peoples everywhere, dislike secret political or patriotic organizations and prefer to keep their politics in the public forum of open discussion.

AMERICAN SYSTEM, THE

The once universally established custom of describing the branches of Freemasonry as the York Rite and the Scottish Rite is falling into a disuse which an increasing number of Grand Bodies are hoping will become complete.

The two names have always been anomalous, ambiguous, confusing, and mistaken in fact. Knight Templarism was never in one "Rite" with the Royal Arch, and of itself had never been associated with York; neither the Royal Arch itself nor the Craft Degrees to which it once belonged had originated in York or, if a Mason prefers to accept the Prince Edwin tradition, they had no connection with it for centuries.

The Scottish Rite had not originated in Scotland; moreover a number of its Degrees are themselves Royal Arch or Knight Templar in character. To add to the confusion, the Lodges under the Ancient Grand Lodge of England (1751) called themselves York Masonry, and the name as thus used is still incorporated in the titles of two or three American Grand Lodges. In the process of taking on so many meanings the name "York" lost any meaning that may ever have properly belonged to it. There was once a Grand Lodge of All England at York, but it did not last many years, and Chartered no Lodges in America; a second Grand Lodge sponsored by it, and called the Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent, lasted for an even shorter time. If the tradition about Prince Edwin which is enshrined in the Old Charges is accepted as historical (as is seldom done) it gives no peculiar precedence to Freemasonry in York, because the City of York was merely the place where a General Assembly was held, and the Fraternity said to have been Chartered there had no more connection with Freemasonry in York than with Freemasonry in London.

The phrases "York Rite" and "Scottish Rite" are giving way to the more descriptive and historically correct phrase of The American Masonic System.

This System consists of a set of five Rites in which each maintains undivided its own independence and its own sovereignty, and yet are bound together by the rules of comity; these rules rest on the authority of honor, general agreement, and common consent.

These five are:

Ancient Craft (or Symbolic - "Blue Lodge" is slang) Masonry;
Royal Arch Masonry;
Cryptic Masonry;
Knight Templarism;
the Scottish Rite (with 29 Degrees, not including the 33 ).

Each of the latter four Rites requires that any one of its own members must be also a member in good standing in a Regular Lodge of Ancient Craft Masonry, thereby guaranteeing that American Freemasonry shall not split into a number of separate Freemasonries as has occurred in European countries. The Ancient Craft Rite is organized under forty-nine Grand Lodges, each one independent and sovereign.

The Royal Arch and Cryptic Rites and the Knight Templar Orders are organized under State and National Grand Bodies;
the Scottish Rite is organized under Consistories which belong to either of two Jurisdictions: the Northern with its seat at Boston, Mass.; the Southern with its seat at Washington, D.C.
Of the "Side Orders" the largest are the Shrine, the Order of the Eastern Star, and the Grotto;
no one of these belongs to the American System but each and every one, and of its own volition, has made it a qualification that each of its own members shall have some connection, by membership or by family relationship, with one or more of the five Rites in The American System.

No satisfactory adjectival phrase for distinguishing the Degrees after the Third from Ancient Craft Masonry bas as yet been found; at least, none has been officially adopted. They are called "Concordant Orders", "High Degrees", etc.; according to the canons of historical usage "High Grades" would be most nearly correct; but the "high" has a special sense and does not mean that other Degrees are higher than the Master Mason Degree, except as 32 is a "higher" number than three. In two respects Ancient Craft Masonry is in a unique position by comparison with the other four Rites: it guards the doors to Freemasonry as a whole, so that no Mason can be in any Rite unless be is a member in it; and its own Ritual was that out of which the other Rituals were formed, or which they elaborated and expanded, or served as their point of departure: and in addition it bolds a great primacy in antiquity, for while there are existing records of Craft Lodges at least as early as the Fourteenth Century the oldest known record of any High Grade is of the 1740's.

AMERICAN RECTIFIED MARTINIST ORDER

This Body was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, at a General Convocation held on June 2, 1902. The Martinist Body from which this American organization obtained its powers was established at Paris in 1887, and traces its ancestry to Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, who initiated M. de Chaptal and the Dr. Gerard Encausse, best known under his pen name as Papus. The organizer in America was Dr. Edouard Blitz. The American Body separated from the Supreme Martinist Council of France, and among other differences of action restricted itself to admitting Freemasons exclusively. A manifesto explaining the attitude of the American organization was issued under the direction of the Brethren who met at Cleveland on the above date. An Independent and Rectified Rite of Martinism was constituted in England the same year, 1902, but while in sympathy with the American project was not restricted to Freemasons. See also a paper, Martinisine, by Brother N. Choumitsky, of Saint Claudius Lodge No. 21, Paris, June 4, 1926, where the author discusses the periods of Dom Martines de Pasqualiy (1767-74); J. B. Villermo (1752-80); Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1805), and their successors, Doctors Encausse (Papus), M. Detre (Jeder) and others.

Martinism has three principal degrees:

Associate
Initiate
Secret Superior.

Members in session wear red cloaks and masks. To elevate the soul toward heaven, to labor for the good of humanity, and all to the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe, were the avowed purposes of the Order.

AMERICAN RITE

The argument for the use of this term is given by Doctor Mackey thus:

"It has been proposed, and I think with propriety, to give this name to the series of degrees conferred in the United States. The York Rite, which is the name by which they are usually designated, is certainly a misnomer, for the York Rite properly consists of only the degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, including in the last degree the Holy Royal Arch. This was the Freemasonry that existed in England at the time of the revival of the Grand Lodge in 1717.

The abstraction of the Royal Arch from the Master's Degree, and its location as a separate degree, produced that modification of the York Rite which now exists in England, and which should properly be called the Modern York Rite, to distinguish it from the Ancient York Rite, which consisted of only three degrees. But in the United States still greater additions have been made to the Rite, through the labors of Webb and other lecturers, and the influence insensibly exerted on the Order by the introduction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite into the United States. The American modification of the York Rite, or the American Rite, consists of nine degrees, namely:

Entered Apprentice.

Fellow Craft.

Master Mason.
Given in Symbolic Lodges, and under the control of Grand Lodges.

Mark Master.

Past Master.

Most Excellent Master.

Holy Royal Arch.
Given in Chapters, and under the control of Grand Chapters.

Royal Master.

Select Master.
Given in Councils, and under the control of Grand Councils.

"A tenth degree, called Super-Excellent Master, is conferred in some Councils as an honorary rather than as a regular degree; but even as such it has been repudiated by many Grand Councils. To these, perhaps, should be added three more degrees, namely, Knight of the Red Cross, Knight of Malta, and Knight Templar, or Order of the Temple, which are given in Commanderies, and are under the control of Grand Commanderies, or, as they are sometimes called, Grand Encampments. But the degrees of the Commandery, which are also known as the Degrees of Chivalry, can hardly be called a part of the American Rite. The possession of the Eighth and Ninth Degrees is not considered a necessary qualification for receiving them. The true American Rite consists only of the nine degrees above enumerated.

"There is, or may be, a Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Grand Council, Grand Commandery in each State, whose jurisdiction is distinct and sovereign within its own territory. There has been no General Grand Lodge, or Grand Lodge of the United States, though several efforts have been made to form one (see General Grand Lodge). There is a General Grand Chapter, but all Grand Chapters have not been subject to it, and a Grand Encampment to which Grand commanderies of the States are subject".