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THE SYSTEM TERMED HIGH-GRADE SPECULATIVE MASONRY
CHAPTER XI
the arcane schools
John Yarker
God bless the King! I mean our Faith's Defender,
God bless — no harm in blessing — the Pretender,
But who Pretender is, or who is King,
God bless us all! that's quite another thing.
JOHN BYROM, Manchester.
THE
general opinion of Freemasons will be that this Chapter should conclude the
next on the establishment of a Grand Lodge in 1717. The reason for placing it
before that event is a reasonable belief in the assertions of the ANCIENTS, as
opposed to the MODERNS, who admitted themselves the characteristic by which
the former distinguished the latter. The subject of these degrees is a very
intricate one and I am rather puzzled how to put it clearly to the reader
without much repetition.
With Chapter IX. the Gothic Builders
died out and their Lodges relaxed into small social gatherings, but in the
North of England where there were Lodges in the jurisdiction of York, the
Lodges continued the Harodim, or Masters' Fraternity, of which Gould
in his large history affords ancient proofs. What became of these bodies,
for Grand Lodge has no knowledge of them? But on the death of the Gothic
Builders and the attenuation of their Lodges there arose, temp. Jas. I., a young
Englishman of the name of Inigo Jones, whom the Earl of Pembroke took into
Italy. He studied with much interest, amongst the disciples of Palladio and
the Comicini, the classic works of Italy, and on his return reorganised such
bodies as existed on the model of the {421} Italian academies, and brought
over Italians to instruct the Guilds in the classical Masonry of old Rome, and
it became a fashion to term the magnificent Gothic erections a barbarous
style? Our principal authority for this statement is Anderson who says that
the account was recorded in a MS. by Nicholas Stone which was burnt in 1720,
in order, we may suggest, that it might not fall into his hands. He further
states that Jones held Quarterly Meetings, and Lodges of Instruction; now
there is no reason why Anderson should have falsified history on this matter,
and his statements are accepted by Preston, and by so careful a writer as the
German Findel; but the known ceremonies of the Guild is a confirmation strong
enough in itself, for they certainly represent a Guild of the classical
style. They had also the old Jewish Menatzchim or Intendents, and Harods,
termed Passed Masters, of which rank Grand Lodge has no knowledge.
The best work on the Comicini is by
"Leader Scott," she shows that on the sack of Rome by the Goths they settled
at Como, and spread their Guilds over the whole of Italy and even to France;
and retained the same style of architecture and ornamentation for centuries.
Her impression seems to be that they had added to the Collegia a reference to
Solomon's temple, and this is not improbable when we remember that the Roman
Emperor Justinian after he had completed Agia Sofia in Constantinople
exclaimed: "I have surpassed thee, O! Solomon." These Italian Academies had
their "Caput Magistrum," and their "Arch Magister," who
according to Leader Scott had to be a grandee. The head-master was no doubt
the Master of the Level Men, the Arch-Master of the Guild working curved
work. At the same time any authority that had central jurisdiction was termed
an "Arch Fraternity," and M. H. Shuttleworth mentions a reprint of 1776 at
Paris, of the 13th century Statutes of the Knights of St. John which mentions
their "Archiconfrere Royale. . . de Jerusalem." {422}
Every country had a special class to
"Pass" Masters; Scotland had its "Six Men of Ancient Memory"; Saxon England
its "Elders"; France its "Masters' Fraternities"; Germany its "Old Masters";
who assembled "Chapter-wise." The establishment of the Grand Lodge of England
and its depletion of the technical parts of the Guild, in time destroyed the
power of these Harods, Rulers, or Passed Masters, and sought to occupy their
place in a very perfunctory manner. The dissatisfaction against the Grand
Lodge was everywhere great and England, Ireland, and Scotland had its Arch
Masons in or about 1740, France had its Menatzchim, its Harods, its Provosts
and Judges, its Architects, and its Royal Arch. They were the real Grand
Lodge, with secret Rites and tokens, they formed a Court of Award, as they
united the Geomatic and Domatic Sections, until the law and the Grand Lodge
rendered their functions obsolete; chiefly held in cathedral towns, we may
find the sacred name over its gates.
Besides the feeling, engendered by
members of the old Operative Guilds, that Modern Masonry was an imperfect
system, various other ideas operated in the development of a system of
"Masters' degrees," at a later period termed High-grade Masonry. English
Masonry, in the course of ages had gathered much Christian Symbolism upon its
Semitic ceremonies, which, in certain parts, would intensify the dislike to
the Modern system.
1. On this question of teaching it
may be noted that whilst the Jacobite Masonic faction sought to strengthen the
Christianity of our Rites, the Southern Masons, had sought from the time when
Cromwell readmitted the Jews, to broaden its lines
2. In politics again there existed
great, but suppressed, antagonism between North and South; the Grand Lodge of
all England at York was essentially Jacobite, that of London, Hanoverian.
3. There was an Hermetic element,
from early times in the Guilds, and we shall see that this was well understood
{423} in 1721; for there was, as we have indicated in previous Chapters, a
very early quasi-connection.
4. There were in existence from the
time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many mystical societies, and as
these passed along the ages, they influenced the Masonic Lodges, and in some
instances were drawn upon to establish high-degrees; and we will preface the
information we can give upon some of these.
England seems to have first began an
innovation upon the system of the Modern Grand Lodge, but the hot-bed of the
high-grades was France. From 1688 when a quantity of English, Irish, and
Scottish Masons emigrated with James II. there was an ancient Masonry in
France of which Hector MacLean was Grand Master, and who was succeeded in 1725
by the Earl of Derwentwater who held that position until the Elector of
Hanover decapitated him in 1745. But a little earlier, namely in 1737, the
Duke of Richmond, who had been G.M. of England, opened a Lodge in which he
initiated the Duc d'Antin who in 1743 became Grand Master of the English Grand
Lodge of Paris; we will leave him there for the present and take a survey of
earlier matters. There is a Carbonari Certificate of 1707, printed by St.
Edme (Paris, 1821) as authentic, which says that a Count Theodore born at
Naples in 1685 had already obtained the High Grades of Free Masonry in France.
We cannot doubt, upon the evidence
afforded in Chapter VI. that the Epoptae, or higher Initiates, of the first
ages of Christianity, transmitted their Mystical Rites; these were taken up
and carried forward by Monks, Dervishes, Manichees, Catharoi, Templars,
Albigensis, Ghibellines, Friends of God, Militia of the Cross, Rosicrucians,
and sects too numerous to mention; and that such secret Schools were in
existence long prior to the Reformation in the church, as witness the labours
of such men as Fiscini, Pico de Mirandolo, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Agrippa,
Rudolphus Agricolo, and many more, and that educated Free Masons, in their
Masters' Fraternities and Fellow {424} craft Lodges, were more or less
conversant with Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Cabalism, Rosicrucianism, and that
these Societies interested themselves in Germany and elsewhere in the spread
of the doctrines of the Culdees, of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, and other
Reformers, and the Secret Society established by Cornelius Agrippa in London,
in 1510, may have been of this nature. How far these adapted the Craft guild
ceremonies, or at what date if they did so, can only be plausible conjecture.
These Secret schools, which the
Church of Rome would term Gnostic, must have permeated the whole of Europe and
entered into the Guild life of the traders and artizans, and we cannot, well
otherwise, account for the friendliness shewn to Luther, when in 1517 he began
his fearless crusade against the overwhelming force of Rome. It is supposed
that Luther himself was a Guild member and he actually uses Guild terms in
1527, when he says that he is "already passed-Master in clock-making." It is
stated that about 15 days after the holocaust which he had the temerity to
make of the Pope's Bull, he was waited upon by a member of some Guild holding
a meeting at Wiittemberg, and induced to go to an Assembly at the Guild Hall,
where after Reception "by ancient ceremonies," he received a medal bearing
Mystic characters, and was then placed under the protection of the
Brotherhood.<<"National Freem.," Washingtorn, 1863; Row's "Masonic Biographs,"
1868; "Canadian Craftsman," 1893.>> It is quite certain that Secret Societies
of Mystics, united by ceremonies with signs, then existed; and it may be that
the Reformers strengthened themselves by such Societies, intended for mutual
protection, and the Charter of Cologne, 1535, if genuine, may represent such
Assemblies. The early Secret Societies of the Albigensis and the Ghibellines
usually represented their position under the symbol of an Egyptian or
Babylonish captivity, for both forms are used, and Luther himself adopts this
in his book entitled the "Babylonish Captivity." He says, -- "The
Christian {425} people are God's true people, carried away captives into
Babylon, where they have been robbed of that which they received at their
baptism." Salandronius the Swiss, thus writes to Vadian, -- "Oh! saw you how
the inhabitants of the mountains of Rhetia, cast away from them, the Yoke of
the Babylonish Captivity." Melancthon, in 1520, says, -- "the finger of God
is to be seen in what Luther is doing, even as the King of the Egyptians
refused to acknowledge what was done by Moses." We can even find language
amongst them, which forms the most secret part of certain Masonic high-grades,
but which we cannot repeat. Luther in 1520 thus writes to the Elector. --
"With one hand I hold the sword, and with the other I build the walls of
Zion"; similar language was used in Paris and Toussaint Farrel, 1525, says, --
"The 70th year will come at last, the year of deliverance, and then we shall
have freedom of mind and conscience." Nor is this symbolic language absent
from the works of the English Rosicrucians for John Heyden, writing in 1663,
has an allusion to it, particularly forced; speaking of Christian Rosenkreutz,
circa 1400 he says (p. 18), -- "After five years came into his mind, the
wished return of the Children of Israel out of Egypt, how God would bring them
out of bondage. Then he went to his Cloyster, to which he bare affection, and
desired three of his brethren to go with him to Moses." These he explains
were Brothers G.V., I.A., and E.O., who constructed a "Magical language."
This may be traditional or found in MSS. to which Heyden had access, if
history, it indicates a company of four working in a like direction to Luther
a century and a half before his days.
We find this symbolic language
reduced to emblems, two of these brought from Nuremberg are engraved in the
Transactions of the Newcastle College of Rosicrucians. One of these has,
on one side, the figure of a Pontiff in the act of blessing, also the figure
of a Monk with a lighted taper in his hand, and between the two an Altar with
an open Bible upon it, around the {426} border is the inscription VERBUM
DOMINI
(irradiated) MANETINAETER (nitate); the obverse has an armed man, with a drawn
sword, holding the scales of justice, in the heavier pan is a human figure,
and in the lighter pan a writhing serpent; several inscriptions appear in the
centre but are indistinct, the legend is JOSUA CONFIDE NON DIRELINQUAMTE. In
the Peasants' league against the Nobles, 1524-5, the motto of Munzer was "we
must like Joshua destroy all the nations of Canaan with the sword," and in one
of his letters he signs himself, "Munzer, armed with the sword of Gideon,"
possibly this medal is Anabaptist. The Roman Catholic clergy are very fond of
making Faustus Socinius the founder of Freemasonry, this, of course, is false,
but Socinius seems to have established a secret Society by which he spread his
views in Poland. The second medal we have named is a Jubilee one of 1617, the
obverse being precisely the same as that just described; on the reverse we
find a bee-hive, the
(irradiated), a serpent twined round a cross, three other indistinct emblems,
at the top EGYPTUS ET ISRAEL; at the bottom ANNO JUBILAEI OM; around the
border, in two lines is the legend DEMSCHWERN EGYPTISCHEN DIENSTH AUS WIE
MOYSES GEUHRTAUS VNS CFURTAVS DESBAEST FINIS TEKNU, ALSOHATT MARTIN LUTHERUS.
The Jubilee date of 1617 is about the period when the Rosicrucian Societies
began to supersede the Mystic Schools mentioned in Chapter VI., of which, to a
slight extent, this is a continuation. Although the Clerical enemies of
Masonry in France pointed out last century the bearing of all this upon the
Masonic Rites then practised, it is not in the province of a Mason to do so,
but those who have the Red Cross and its analogous grades will comprehend.
We have alluded to the Harodim, which
in France became the nucleus of the high grades, and the secret Societies from
which these latter drew some of their material. There is, however, another
Order, which the Romish Church associates with a Secret Discipline, and {427}
an enlightened purpose, which they suppose has been embodied in Freemasonry --
we allude to the Order of the Temple. The Templar origin of Masonry, or at
least one of its Rites, was quite a cardinal doctrine abroad last century; and
we have already given the facts leading to this view. Philip le Bel before he
undertook the suppression of the Templars in 1310, had, two years before this,
interdicted the trade Fraternities. Two branches of the Templars escaped
destruction, the one in Scotland the other in Portugal, and a third is
mentioned in Hungary down to 1460, these would correspond with each other, and
they could not feel any friendship for Rome. The difficulty of a widespread
continuation would arise from the vigilance, after 1313, of the priesthood,
but the Order may have been continued in spirit under other names; and we must
ask what became of the numerous bodies of Artisans expelled by this action
from the Preceptories of the Templars. Starck in his reply to Dr. Beister<<Anti
Saint Nicasse, 1786, ii, pp. 181-202.>> says: "Had he been somewhat better
acquainted with ecclesiastical history he would have found, not only one, but
several religious bodies which under far more violent oppression than those
endured by the Knights Templar, have secretly continued to exist for a far
longer period." In Scotland there was a strong leaven of Culdee opinion to
preserve the Templars, and Papal opinion was always more lightly considered by
the independent Scot than his English neighbour. Hence Scotland preserved the
name of the Templars even after the dissolution of the Chivalric Orders in
that country in 1560. These Knights were often addicted to Hermetic studies,
and may have become amalgamated with some of these. Thory points out, in
writing of the times of Lord Bacon, what he calls the singular fact that here
and there in works of the time are found allusions to the Templars, and that
Alchemical works have references to their red-cross banner.
Mere denial of some such connection
does not admit {428} of being loosely made, and Aberdeen had its share of
support as a seat of Masonic Templary. Baron Hunde inherited some such
traditionary belief and sent emissaries to investigate the belief. When the
lands of Maryculter were surrendered in 1548 the Knights took up their
residence in the city, where an old Lodge existed which embraced the noble and
gentle; and we find this Lodge meeting in Tents, or Encampments under canvas,
designated "Outfield Lodge," or held in the Bay of Nigg, "where no one could
see or hear," and hence believed to have included Templar rites. It is also
alleged that certain Templars, before 1600, united with the ancient Stirling
Lodge. For some time after the Reformation the orthodox party would seem to
have recruited themselves secretly with the sanction of the Grand Master at
Malta, and it is very probable that the same thing had place in England when
James I. was the "Mason King" and the craft included men of learning and
gentlemen. The first assimilation of Chivalry and Freemasonry would arise
within the Domus or Preceptory, amongst the Artisans and Lay-brothers there
employed; and when they were expelled together in the 16th century, there
would be a desire amongst both parties to continue the connection, and still
stronger amongst the Protestant parties; gradually, in the course of a
century, the Temple began to be looked upon as a Masonic appanage, owing to
the chief members belonging to both orders. Finally, in order to make the
Orders homogeneous, the craft and other degrees were treated as the necessary
gradation by which to become a Templar. There was undoubtedly an ancient
traditionary connection besides this, even if the Templars, as seems most
probable, did not in the 12th and 13th centuries, introduce the Rites of
Freemasonry now practised.
We will now consider the
participation of the Freemasons themselves in the aims of the old Hermetic
Schools of "Sons and Masters." We must all admit that the builders of our
ancient religious houses were men {429} of great intelligence, who would seek
to increase their knowledge from all available sources, and amongst these
sources from the Societies of Alchemists and Rosicrucians, including
Astrologers and Mathematicians. We have given instances in 1450 where
Hermetic Symbolism was identical with that of Freemasonry; but the "Ordinall
of Alchemy" compiled by Thomas Norton of Bristol, "In the yeare of Christ,
1477" (83 pp. of MS.), commences as follows: —
"To the
honour of God, one in persons three,
This
Boke is made that laie men shouldn't see."
He undertakes, "To teach by Alkimy great
riches to winn," and enumerates the great personages who have worked in the
Mysteries of Hermes, Popes, Cardinals, Byshopes, Priests, Kings, Lords,
Merchants, and adds: —
"And goldsmithes whome we should lest repreve,
For sights in their Craft move them to beleeve."
He styles Alchemy a "Noble
Craft," and says (page 2) in allusion to the Freemasons: —
"But wonder is it that Weivers deale with such worke,
Free-Masons, and Tanners, and poore P'issh Clarkes,
Stayners, and Glasiers will not thereof cease,
And yet seely Tinkers will put them in prease."
He closes his instruction in the Noble
Art thus: —
"All that hath pleasure in this Boke to reade,
Pray for my soule, and for all both quick and dedde;
In this yeare of Christ, one thousand four hundred
seaventy seaven,
This warke was begun, honour to God in heaven."
This participation may have gone on
for centuries, and we may feel sure that it did; various Societies of Oriental
origin then existed using symbols by which Masons would be attracted to them,
and it is in evidence that the early Rosicrucians were Initiated by the Moslem
sectaries. In 1630 we find Fludd, the chief of the Rosicrucians, using
architectural language, and there is proof that his Society was divided into
degrees, and from the fact that the Masons' Company of London had a copy {430}
of the Masonic Charges "presented by Mr. fflood," we may suppose he was a
Free-Mason before 1620. From the language of Eugenius Philalethes or Thomas
Vaughan we may assume that he also was a Mason. Sir Robert Moray and Elias
Ashmole, who were received Masons in 1641 and 1646 respectively, were both of
them diligent students of Occult matters, and it is within the bounds of
probability that the Rosicrucians may have organised a system of the Craft
degrees, upon which they superadded their own Harodim receptions long before
Free-Masonry passed to the Grand Lodge in 1717.
"The Wise Man's Crown", 1664,
has the following: "The late years of tirany admitted stocking weavers,
shoemakers, millers, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, gunsmiths, hatters,
etc., to write and teach Astrology." This latter Society Ashmole terms the
Mathematicians; it held an annual festival, which was active in London in 1648
and again in 1682. Even Wren was, more or less, a student of Hermeticism, and
if we had a full list of Freemasons and Rosicrucians we should probably be
surprised at the numbers who belonged to both systems. It included a study of
the Jewish Cabala, and a Dutch Jew was exhibiting a model of Solomon's temple
in 1675, and he would be likely to draw upon the Talmud and Cabala in his
explanatory lectures; for the Cabala has a branch which possesses a
semi-Masonic character in Architectonic Gematria, which refers to the
construction of words from the numbers given in the Bible when describing the
measurements of the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant, in relation to man
himself. Brother W. W. Westcott, M.B., has translated a very curious passage
entitled "The Secrets of Initiation, by J. J. Casanova, born 1725, Fr. R.C.
circa 1757," in which he says: "The secrets of Initiation are by their very
nature inviolable; for the Frater who knows them, can only have discovered
them by himself. He has found them whilst frequenting well-instructed Lodges,
by observing, comparing and judging the doctrines and symbols. Rest assured
then, {431} that once he has arrived at this result, he will preserve it with
the utmost care, and will not communicate it, even to those of his Fraters in
whom he has confidence, for since any Frater has been unable to discover the
secret for himself, he would be equally unable to grasp their real meaning, if
he received them only by word of mouth."
There can be no reasonable doubt from
the evidence of numerous degrees of high-grade Masonry, and their symbolism,
that what we have here described has contributed to the development of the
systems now worked, though it must always be difficult to trace the
development seriatim. These Mystical Societies had survived in various
centres of Europe down to the period when Craft Masonry underwent a revival,
and such traditional and mystical ceremonies were revised in many cases to
adapt them to a new basis in new Rites. This is proved by identity of aims
and emblems, but the system has such scant influence on the general work of
the Craft that few consider these things worthy of notice; and moreover their
ancient value as a means of uniting the forces of sectarian Brotherhoods,
ceased to exist in their new form, with the general acceptance of freedom of
conscience. The enquiry is of interest, but the secrecy of the old Mystic
Societies will ever be an obstacle to full elucidation. Thus amongst Masons
meeting together in Lodge, there were members of other Societies which had
similar Rites to themselves, and therefore every probability that one would
influence the other. The "Modern" historians, the word is used in its double
sense, have always conceded scant justice to this section of Freemasonry, and
it has been their effort to assign all degrees, above the three first, of
which the Grand Lodge, at its start, adopted two, to a foreign origin; and
although French and German systems were introduced into this country in the
18th century; the evidence goes to show that with our Craft system went the
nucleus of all the high-grades which were carried from England as early as
1688 and afterwards {432} manipulated abroad. There is far more probability
for the continuous transmission of secret societies of mystics in this country
than on foreign soil, and nothing is gained by the contention. We cannot be a
party to the insinuations that truth is found only amongst English Masons, who
are usually more ignorant than those abroad, nor concede an allseeing
infallibility to the conceited critic who imagines that he knows everything.
In affinity with this subject of the
high-grades must further be noticed, in one section at least, the essentially
Christian character of its ancient ritual. Thus in a printed Catechism we
find after a question of "How many lights?" the farther question, "What do
they represent? A. The three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Q. How
many pillars? A. Two, Jachin and Boaz. Q. What do they represent? A. A
strength and stability of the Church in all ages. Q. Who is greater than a
Freemason! A. He who was carried to the highest pinnacle of the Temple of
Jerusalem." This Christian character is found, in its strength, in the
"Dumfries MS." from which we have had quotations, and was probably the system
of such bodies as possessed the old Christian Masters' Grade of Harodim-Rosy
Cross.
The earliest printed evidence of
something beyond the then new speculative Craft is a work by Robert Samber,
written in 1721 under the nom-de-plume of Eugenius Philalethes, Junior, and
which he dedicated to the Grand Lodge of London in 1722; and there is no doubt
that much has passed out of existence that would have enlightened us upon the
writer's views, inasmuch as he claims, as did the Carpocratian Gnostics, that
Jesus established an esoteric doctrine which he communicated to his disciples,
and the possibility of such views implies a much broader field to survey than
most writers wish to concede.
This Preface of "Long Livers"
clearly refers to certain high-grades then known, and is written in the
easiest of three keys used by the Hermetic Societies, namely, the operative,
philosophic, and religious; it bears entirely {433} upon the latter, and has
no reference to operative Alchemy but uses the terms of this Craft, after the
mode of Fludd, to convey Theosophic and Masonic truths. Almost whilst we
write Brother Edward Armitage has discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford,
fragments of a Ritualistic nature which bear upon the printed Preface, and is
admitted to be in the handwriting of Samber. It is the preparatory
application of a Rosicrucian formula to something missing. It embraces a
trial by water, in washing; of fire in purification; of light
as a symbol carried to its extinguishment; of giving the coal and
chalk; the cord, or girdle, binding the recipient to the
brotherhood; the incense, the symbolism of knocking at a door;
of entrance; and the Oath which is that of secrecy, extending
even to the persons acting, and treats of the Aspirant's duties in general.<<Vide"Ars
Quat. Cor.">> As a Preparation, which it says that it is, it may bear
some relation to that which follows, as there is verbiage in common.
In the Preface of 1721, Samber
alludes to the grades of the Arcane Discipline of the early Christians as
comparable with Masonry; to a spiritual cube, and he associates Masons
spiritually with the three principles of the Hermetic Adepts, namely, salt,
sulphur, and mercury, and there are other comparisons which agree with three
Masonic grades. He claims that in all time there was a Brotherhood which
preserved true religion, essentially what Dermott claims for the Royal Arch,
and he goes on to demonstrate the doctrine of the Unity, passing from Moses
through the Schools of the Prophets, and the Rabbis. He has also three
traitors who correspond with the Cain, Achan, and Enni (Annas) of Harodim-Rosy
Cross who slew the "Beauty" of the world. He ends by making Christ the
reorganiser of a Masonic Brotherhood, and "holy brother St. Paul," is alluded
to with a marked emphasis which shews that he had a Masonic theory respecting
him. He thus leads us through the natural law exemplified in the Craft, the
Jewish law in the Arch {434} or Red Cross, to the law of grace in Christian
Masonry; for these things are fully implied though no such grades are alluded
to by name. He says that he is addressing "a higher class who are but few,"
and this is done in Hermetic language, which shows that he perfectly
understood the mystic language of that body. He speaks of those who ought to
be "erased from the Book M.," which implies here Masonry, but remotely that
mentioned in Chapter VI. We are rather concerned in defending Samber against
his critics of the last 20 years, who represent him as little better than an
idiot; the fault is theirs, for they "have eyes but see not." We will now
follow with some extracts which shew that it was a well understood thing that
there were certain degrees above the Craft system.
The learned Dr. Stukeley states in
his "Autobiography," "7 Novr. 1722. The Order of the Book instituted,"
he terms it also "Roman Knighthood," and says, 28th December that he admitted
to it Lords Hertford and Winchelsea. There is nothing to shew the nature of
it, and it is not probable that it survived as a Masonic degree.
Bro. R. F. Gould has stated, in one
of his papers, that there is an advertisement in the Daily Mail of 1724
announcing that a new Lodge is to be opened at St. Alban's Tavern for
regulating the modern abuses which had crept into the fraternity, and "all the
old real Masons are invited to attend." It is evidently the beginning of the
agitation which led to "Ancient" Masonry, and the role of the Royal Arch.
In the years 1724 and 1725 there
appeared two editions of a pamphlet entitled "Two Letters to a Friend,"
in which are allusions to Dr. Thomas Rawlinson, a leading Freemason, who left
the Craft some documents referring to this period. In this print it is stated
that the Brother styles himself R.S.S. and LL.D., and "he makes wonderful
Brags of being of the Fifth Order. . . . The Doctor pretends that he has found
out a mysterious hocus pocus {435} Word . . . that against whomsoever
he (as a member of the Fifth Order) shall pronounce the terrible word the
person shall instantly drop down dead." To whatever degree Rawlinson really
belonged it is certain that the allusion is to the Jewish tetragrammaton, and
that the worthy doctor had been incautiously airing his knowledge of the "Essays"
of Reuchlin and Agrippa upon the "Cabala," and the Mirific Word. There
is no reason why the "fifth order," should not mean the 5th Degree which it is
known the Arch was a little later. The nom-de-plume of the writer of the
pamphlet is "Verus Commodus," and he mentions that some of the Masons "write
themselves STP," after their names, which in his blatant fashion he tries to
make a profanation of the Trinity; from this it may be inferred that a civil
reference was not to be understood by him but that it represented something
Masonic, and we know, later on in the Century, that the Templar grade was
abbreviated T.P. either as here, or with the crossed {symbol: "P" with
vertical extended below and crossed as a Greek cross} and is so found on the
1791 Seal of Grand Conclave. The writer also says: "they tell strange foppish
stories of a tree that grew out of Hiram's tomb."
In Ireland there seems an incipient
reference to the Christian grades in the newspaper report of the Installation
at Dublin of Lord Rosse as Grand Master, 24th June, 1725. The representatives
of six Lodges of "Gentlemen Masons" were present, and it is said: "The
Brothers of one Lodge wore fine Badges painted full of crosses and squares,
with this Motto Spes meo in Deo est, which was no doubt very
significant, for the Master of it wore a yellow jacket and Blue Britches."<<"Caementaria
Hibernica," fasc. II.>> It was well known that the clothing refers to the
brass handle and steel legs of a pair of compasses. The reporter also speaks
of the "Mystical table" being in form of a Mason's square.
There is a burlesque advertisement of
the tailors, 24 Dec. 1725, which accuses their "whimsical kinsmen of {436} the
hod and trowel," with having changed their day of meeting and Patron, "on new
light received from some worthy Rosicrucians."
On the 31st Dec. 1728, Brother Edward
Oakley delivered an address at London, in which he quotes largely from
Samber's Preface to "Long Livers," so that it must have had some
Masonic importance given to it, and its references understood. Also, in 1729,
Ephraim Chambers mentions in his "Cyclopoedia" that there are certain
Free-Masons who "have all the characters of Rosicrucians," or "as retainers to
the art of building."
There is a still more precise
statement signed A.Z. in the "Daily Journal" of 5th Septr., 1730, from
which we extract a small portion: -- "It must be confessed that there is a
society abroad, from which the English Freemasons have copied a few
ceremonies, and take pains to persuade the world, that they are derived from
them. These are called Rosicrucians from their Prime Officers (such as our
Brethren call Grand Masters, Wardens, etc.), being distinguished on their High
days by Red Crosses."
The "Gentlemans' Magazine,"
April 1737, contains a long attack upon Masonry signed JACHIN, in which he
says: -- "They make no scruple to acknowledge that there is a distinction
between Prentices and Master Masons, and who knows whether they
have not a higher Order of Cabalists who keep the grand secret
of all entirely to themselves." It looks very like an intimation of the Royal
Arch degree.
All this points out that prior even
to 1717 the mixed Lodges possessed a higher section, whether known to the
Grand Lodge or not, which could be spoken of in Rosicrucian Jargon, thus
raising the question whether there was not then a Freemasonry that had been
passing as Rosicrucian during the previous century; even the Chapter of
Clermont, a Templar system, asserted that the system of Solomon, contained 7
degrees, and other books asserted that they had received a 7 degree system
"from the very heart of Albion, the sanctuary of the high degrees." {437}
One of the earliest bodies of which
we know something was the following:
THE GORMOGONS It is possible that the Gormogons had
some relations with the Jacobite Lodges of Harodim, as they used pseudonyms
like the latter, and were equally attached to the Stuarts. Prichard, who
wrote in 1730 hints that they had pre-1717 or Ancient Masons in their ranks.
Particulars of the body is found in the 1724 pamphlet entitled "Two Letters
to a Friend," from which it appears that they had an Emissary at Rome, and
Samber the author of "Long Livers," is identifiable under the
designation of a "Renegade Papist." Ramsay was with the Pretender at Rome in
1724, and the Duke of Wharton, P.G.M. of England is evidently alluded to as a
Peer who had suffered himself "to be degraded" by having his apron burnt in
order that he might join the Gormogons, was with the Pretender at Parma in
1728, and had received the title of Duke of Northumberland from him about
fourteen years previously. They had a secret reception and cypher of their
own, and Kloss considers, no doubt rightly, that in their jargon "China" meant
Rome.
Brother R. F. Gould has been at great
pains to disentangle the history of the Gormogons, and has made it clear that
not only was Wharton a member, but probably founded the Society on an older
Jacobite plan; and he shows that the dates of its activity syncronises with
the events of Wharton's life; and the lampoon may very probably be Wharton's
own composition, in which case it throws added light upon the matter in
reference to Dr. Rawlinson. The "two unhappy busy persons" who obtained their
idle notions . . . "about Adam, Solomon, and Hiram being Craftsmen," and who
abused, "a venerable old gentlewoman under the pretence of making her a
European Hiramite," is interpreted to signify Anderson and Desaguliers in the
new Constitution, whilst the venerable old gentlewoman is the old Operative
{438} Charges. The whole satire was embodied by William Hogarth in a plate
designated "The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by ye Gormogons." which
went through three editions, the last about 1742; in this plate the old woman
upon an ass who is about to be saluted by a man with his head in a ladder is
thus explicable. As to Duke Philip, his father Thomas was somewhat to blame,
Dr. Johnston flings the most opprobrious epithets at him.
THE NORTHERN HARODIM This degree was at one time very
popular in the County of Durham, and may be supposed to be a part of the work
of the Gateshead body to whom the Count Bishop granted a Charter in 1681.
Bro. F. F. Schnitger was well acquainted with the last surviving Harod Bro. R.
R. Read, a D.P.G.M. of the Mark, who received the degree from his father at
Gateshead, where his grandfather also conferred it, and he had been received
in the Lodge in youth as an Apprentice and it is said that the Lodge possessed
his operative Indentures. Bro. Read made over all his privileges "free from
Harodim," to the Newcastle high grades.
Bro. Robert Whitfield first mentioned
the Swalwell Minutes of the degree in the "Freemason" of 11th Decr.,
1880, and says that the Lodges claimed important privileges from former ages;
the appointment of the P.G.M., and the wearing of hats at the P.G.L. meetings.
The first mention of it, if it can be
called so, is the quotation by Bro. Joseph Laycock, who brought the Swalwell,
and the Gateshead Lodges under the G.L. in 1735, and was appointed P.G. Master
of the Co. of Durham in that year. On these occasions he gave a quotation, in
an Oration he then made, and which is printed in the "Book M., or Masonry
Triumphant," in 1736 at Newcastle. He terms these "old verses," and they are
yet a part of the 4th section of the Jacobite Harodim-Rosy-Cross.
The next reference is a minute of the
Swalwell Lodge {439} as follows: "July 1st 1746. Enacted at a Grand Lodge
held this evening that no brother mason shall be admitted into the dignity of
a Highrodiam under less than a charge of 2s. 6d.; or as Domaskin or Forin as
John Thomson of Gateside paid at the same night 5s. Memorandum: Highrodiams to
pay for making in that order only 1s. 6d." (8 names follow and 9th line
closes) Paid 2s 6d. English, William Ogden. N.B. The English Masters to pay
for entering into the said Master-ship 2s. 6d., per Majority."
Of course the "English Masters"
refers to the Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of London, introduced by Laycock,
and as they style themselves a Grand Lodge, and as the name of Joseph Laycock
does not appear as a Harod at any time, it seems very clear that the object
was a semi-rebellion of the old operative Masons against the innovations of
1735. A man who spells Harodim as Highrodiam may be excused for spelling
Domatic as Domaskin, but Bro. Schnitger seems to think it may mean Damascus.
The Lodge was mostly composed of the men employed at Cowley's foundry, and he
brought over from Solingen, steel workers who claimed that they had inherited
their method of working the metal from Damascus, as the Markgrave had brought
instructions thence in the time of the Crusades.
The Ceremonial was a system of secret
receptions in points, similar to the Jacobite Harodim-Rosy-Cross to which we
will shortly refer. They were the custodians of the Ritual of all Masonry,
which was what Oliver invariably termed the "Old York Ritual," and which
certainly contains Harodim points, and no doubt York at one time had the
ceremony. The two Trollopes who were part of the Gateshead foundation of 1681
were Stone-Masons of the city of York. Its position in Masonry is precisely
that which we have described as Passed Masters, in the old pre-1717 London
Guild. In operative times the Ritual, of which they claimed to have been the
custodians, was doubtless the yearly Drama; it is the key {442} to all York
Masonry after 1725, and begins with the 7th Degree and goes down even to the
Apprentice.
They had oversight of all the Lodges
of their jurisdiction, there were 9 of them, and they travelled in groups of 3
to punish irregularities, and reconcile differences. At receptions there were
to be 9 present, but 6 and 3 candidates would suffice in emergencies.
At Sunderland Bro. Hudson states that
the Harodim was conferred from the first establishment of the Phoenix Lodge,
and that between 1755 and 1811 they received 150 members. In 1787 R. Markham
"Passed the Bridge," and a month later was made a Royal Arch Mason. Bro.
Logan has shown that Palatine Lodge, 97, had the Harodim. In each case
members visited from neighbouring towns.
HARODIM-ROSY-CROSS This was a London version, clearly of
Jacobite derivation, which in 1743 claimed a time immemorial origin; we would
suggest that it might have been carried to France from the North by
Derwentwater who belonged to this part of the country. It is clearly the
grade which Baron Scheffer had from him, in two sections, when he gave him
authority to establish Lodges in Sweden 25 Nov. 1737. Ramsay in his speech of
1737 alludes to the old Arcane Discipline of the Alexandrian Church when he
says: "We have amongst us three classes of confreres, the "Novice or
Apprentice; the Companion or Professed; the Master or the Perfected. We
explain to the first the moral virtues; to the second the heroic virtues, and
to the last the Christian virtues. . . the fourth quality is a taste for the
useful sciences and the liberal arts. . . . Religious discords caused us to
change and to disguise, and to suppress, some of our Rites and usages, which
were opposed to the prejudices of the times." He also alludes to the Jews
working with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other, which are the
lines quoted by Laycock in 1735. Dean Swift must have had some {441}
knowledge of this, and he was acquainted with Ramsay in 1728; and he thus
writes in 1731, -- "the famous old Lodge of Kilwinin, of which all the Kings
of Scotland have been, from time to time, Grand Masters without interruption,"
and he speaks of the adornment of "Ancient Jewish and Pagan Masonry, with many
religious and Christian Rites," by the Knights of St. John and of Malta.
It is quite possible that Scotland
may have had the Rite of Harodim-Rosy-Cross at an early date. There is a
curious passage in the "Muses Threnody," a metrical account of Perth,
published in 1638 for Henry Adamson, M.A. The extract may mean much or little
in the argument, according to the idea in the mind of the student, for he
says:<<"Ars Quat. Cor.," 1898, p. 196. Vide also the writer's paper in
A.Q.C., 1903.>>
"For we be brethren of the Rosie Cross,
We have the Masons word and second sight,"
The claim is made for this Metrical
system of Lectures that it is of Culdee origin, and had I-colm-Kill for its
birth place.
The following list of London Chapters
has been carefully preserved at Edinburgh, and does not come down later than
1744:
1. Grand Lodge at the Thistle and
Crown in Chandos Street, Immemorial.
2. Grand Chapter "
" " "
3. Coach and Horses in Welbeck
St. Immemorial.
4. Blue Boar's Head, Exeter
St. "
5. Golden Horse Shoe, Cannon St.,
Southwark, December 11th, 1743.
6. The Griffin, Deptford, in Kent,
December 20th, 1744.
In 1750 there is a petition of Sir
William Mitchell, FDLTY to Sir Robert RLF, Provincial Grand Master of the Most
Ancient and Honourable Order of the HRDM of KLWNNG in South Britain; Sir Henry
Broomont, FRDM, Deputy Grand Master; Sir William {442} PRPRTN; and Sir
Richard, TCTY Grand Wardens; and the rest of the Right Worshipful Grand
Officers of the said orders."
It is said that the Grand Master had
held his office since 1741, so that is probably the date when the Rite was
reconstituted as here given. A Charter was granted to the Hague in 1751, and
this was carried to Edinburgh in 1763, since which period the Rite has handed
down the Lectures intact. It is likely however that some revision may have
been made about 1740 say in the last section and the title. It has since 1767
been termed the "Royal Order of Scotland." In 1786 they Chartered a body at
Rouen, when an interesting correspondence ensued between Wm. Mason the Grand
Deputy Master, and Murdoch the Grand Secretary, in which the latter speaks of
the dormancy of the Order for some time in Scotland, in a light that scarcely
agrees with the facts of the case. Rebold says that the ceremonies of the
Royal Order were revived on the formation of the Grand Lodge of St. John's
Masonry the Mastership of the Jacobite Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, and it is a
fact that in 1735 that Lodge had, as is proved by the Minutes, a Masters'
Lodge quite distinct from the Craft, and which in its work and
organisation, was identical with the London Lodge, No. 115, designated in 1733
a "Scotts Masons Lodge," and Brother John Lane holds that this was identical
in Constitution with certain Lodges established as "Master Masons Lodges"
conferring that degree only of the English Ritual, that therefore the so
called Scotts Lodges differed only in this that their members were Scottishmen.
But though this be so it is no proof that the Rituals were the same, and it
may well be that the actual Scots Lodges had a special ceremony such as the
Mastership of Harodim. It is probable therefore that there is truth in
Rebold's statement that the Cannongate Kilwinning Lodge, which was a Jacobite
Lodge, was the Christian Harodim which expired, as the Scotch Rite contends
with the ruin which befel that political sect. Thory who was {443}
Atharsata, or Most Wise, of the French Branch in 1807 makes the Mason of
Heredom; the Knight of the Tower; and the Rosy Cross to correspond. — as they
clearly do, — with the degrees of Scotch Master; Knight of the East; and the
Prince Rose Croix; the fourth and last step termed the Sanhedrin he considers
"the figurative banquet of the Pascal lamb," we rather consider it was
converted into the Templar Kadosh.
RED AND ROSY CROSS In the absence of any old Minutes of
these two degrees, it may perhaps be thought idle to express an opinion that
they may have had an existence amongst Hermetic Masons long prior to the
establishment of Modern Freemasonry. Ramsay told to Geusau, when occasionally
visiting him at Paris in 1741, that General Monck had used the Lodges as
meetings at which to promote the return of Charles II. Geusau's Diary passed
into the keeping of the Prince of Reuss, and it is held that at this period it
was sought to further ally the Hermetic associations of London with the Craft
for the same purpose. There is this further to be said on the matter that the
quaint old rhyming ritual of Heredom-Rosy Cross would seem to be a system of
Lectures referring to these two degrees, which constituted with the Craft a
Rite of themselves, the only qualification for the Rosy Cross being the Red
Cross, -- sometimes termed the "Mysterious Red Cross of Babylon." When
Harodim-Rosy Cross was carried to France by the followers of James II. the
title was translated into "Rose Croix of Heredom," and the Red Cross was
designated Knight of the East, and in 1744, Knight of the Sword, whilst the
Rosy Cross is the Rose Croix. In the Red Cross there are three points,
namely: -- (1) The Obligation of the 3 Sojourners, Shadrach, Mesech, and
Abadnigo, who have escaped the "fiery furnace of affliction"; (2) the Arch
Chapter of Jerusalem, which includes the Passing of the Bridge on the way to
and from Darius; (3) the Council of the Persian Monarch. There are many
points {444} in the degree which have reference to the Harodim Lectures; such
as passing the Bridge; the dungeon of the Tower; the journey of Zerrubabel,
and the essays on the respective strength of Wine, Women, and the King, when
Truth is said to be mighty above all things. Would that it applied to Masonry
and Masons! There is one curious thing in this portion, in which it is said
that the Lord will provide a victim, and it probably alludes to the ancient
Guild Rite of a human sacrifice. Whilst the Red Cross is a mystery of the
second temple added to that of Solomon, the Rosy Cross of Harodim is the
erection of a spiritual temple not made with hands, the Mystery of the ancient
Gnostics -- "God with us" in the bodily temple. There is an ancient alphabet
given in Barrett's Magus called "Passing the River," having much
similarity to Masons' Marks, which may be allied with "Passing of the Bridge."
It is, to say the least, somewhat
singular that so favourite a symbol, in all time, as the Rose has been, in
both religious and civil architecture, should have been neglected by the
modern Freemasons, and proves that it must have lost much of its symbolism.
We have mentioned that Bishop Theodoratus connects mystically Ros with
the Rose, which was a Gnostic emblem of the Saviour; and applies equally to
the Arcane Discipline and the Rosy Cross — Ros, or dew, implying
regeneration, and the Rose the thing regenerated. Shall I say it? The writer
has seen an old Rosy Cross ritual, where the Adonisian fable that a drop of
blood from the slain god, sprang up a rose, is applied to the Christian
Saviour. In Egypt the Rose was consecrated to Isis or Mother Nature, and
Apuleius fables himself as drawn from brute nature, or an Ass, by eating
roses. Chaucer translated the Romance of the Rose, wherein a pilgrim is
represented as going in search of roses. We have mentioned the Girdles of the
Guild Mason, John Cadeby, of Beverley: a much worn one contains the letters J
and B, whilst another is embroidered with roses, in the manner of modern Rose
{445} Croix clothing. The Arms of William of Wykeham were two carpenters --
couples between three roses. The emblem was often carved in the centre of the
ceilings of mansions to symbolise that what passed at the table was "under the
rose." One other example we will mention: the Chapter House of York Minster,
which is octagonal, and therefore based on the eight pointed Cross of the
Temple, has upon the lintel of the entrance door the following Latin couplet,
which, though it looks modern, is said to be ancient, but renewed when
necessary: —
"Ut Rosa flos florum
Sic est domus ista domorum."
As the Rose is the flower of flowers, so
this house is the house of houses.
Under the name of Macons Ecossois,
Harodim, the "Parfait Macon," 1743, gives the degree of Knight of the
Sword, or of the East, our Red Cross, as of the time of Darius and Zerrubabel,
but in 1766 "Le Plus Secrets des Hauts Grades," omits Darius and adopts
Cyrus, and terms the degree a military ceremony, which goes to prove that the
Army was employed to spread these degrees. Out of these two versions arose
the Royal Arch, and other degrees.
The 4th point of Harodim-Rosy Cross
was made Scottish by claiming Bruce as founder of it as a Knighthood, but
Gould has shown that in ancient times, in the primitive Guilds of Paris, the
Masters and Wardens were Esquires, and the Provosts (our Harods) Chevaliers.
They also elected a Chief who had the title of Prince or King.
HOLY ROYAL ARCH, KNIGHT TEMPLAR, PRIEST This Rite is that of the Ancient
Masons of York and London; yet although we have information that in or about
1740, it was known in London, Dublin, York, Stirling, very little that is
reliable has appeared to show its actual origin. It is usually held that it
originated with the dissident Ancients; yet as there was no Ancient Grand
Lodge at the time when it had some prominence, it could {446} only have been
established by the numerous Lodges of Masons which then existed, and which did
not recognise the Grand Lodge of London. When Rawlinson brags of a 5th Order
in 1724 it is just possible he may have belonged to such degree whether then
termed the Red Cross or the Royal Arch. Only one thing is historically
certain, sometime between 1723 and 1740 there were ancient pre-1717 Guild
Masons, who were dissatisfied with the "digestive" faculties of Anderson and
Desaguliers, and made up their minds to restore to Modern Masonry some part of
what it had lost. There are so many features in common between the Red Cross
of Babylon and the modern Royal Arch degree, that we are quite safe in
assuming that there was a primitive Ritual from which both were evolved, and
we can easily prove what that primitive ritual was. The term Red Cross seems
to be far the most appropriate name for the degree, and for this reason that
the term Royal Arch refers to a special Guild which members of this degree are
not, they are essentially Craft Masons.
Both York and Dermott practised the
Templar degree, but it seems never to have assumed the rank of Masonry, but
was occasionally, in all parts, at times, conferred on non-Masons; whilst the
Priest was essentially a Protestant ceremonial.
THE ARCH. We have previously
alluded to the ancient drama, or annual Commemorative Ceremonies, of the
primitive Guilds. We have also mentioned that in laying the Foundation Stone
of the temple of Solomon, a vault was constructed 1 Reed, or 6 cubits, below
the floor, where, over the centre, was erected a Pedestal, in which were the
plans and a scroll with the first lines of Genesis. This Foundation is laid
on the "Five point method," and the instant the centre is fixed it is guarded
by four men armed with swords in one hand and building tools in the other.
When the fugitives returned from Babylon the centre of Solomon had to be
found, and the labourers were set to find the vault and report to the duly
Passed Masters {447} who had to report to the three Grand Masters. The vault
being found, three Passed Masters descended and brought away the plans and the
scroll which every modern Arch man brings away also. Nor did these revisers
end here; they could not understand why modern Masons had only one Grand
Master, whilst the Guilds had three, and they therefore gave the three
Principals all the attributes of the original builders of the first temple;
these held as their attributes three Rods by which to form a square building,
or oblong as the 3 to 1 temple; the Arch Principals instead of rods have
sceptres; the private receptions of these principals, and their secrets, are
all but identical with those possessed by the representatives of S.K.J., H.K.T.,
and H.A.B. Masons are so utterly careless about historical truth, that we
might safely have left them to puzzle out the origin of the Arch degree for
themselves, but what we have written, we have written.
There is no doubt that the old
northern Harodim gave much of this information owing to their having been of
Operative origin before they joined the Grand Lodge of London. The author of
"The Illustrations of Masonry," William Preston, who was sometimes a Modern
and sometimes an Ancient, reorganised the system of the Lectures in 1786 under
the designation of the "Grand Chapter of Harodim," and established them in
London 4th January, 1787; he claims that "it is of ancient date in different
parts of Europe. . . . The Mysteries are peculiar to the Institution, and the
Lectures of a Chapter include every branch of the Masonic System." The Rulers
were a General Director and a Grand Harod, of which Harodim is the plural.
The members were divided into Clause-holders, Sectionists and Lecturers. Thus
the 5 first sections would carry a member to the Royal Arch; and four more
sections conducted to the Ne plus ultra, in a total of 81 points.
The Arch of the Ancients represents
the Sanhedrin, composed of 72 members, as a Supreme Court of Judicature
amongst the ancient Jews, so also does the Red Cross, {448} Knight of the
Sword, and Prince of Jerusalem. Hence it is supposed to have a standing
superior to that of a Grand Lodge which has irregularly usurped its
functions. Although the ritual has undergone many changes, since none of its
tinkers seem to have understood what it was, there is no doubt that it had
developed into a stately reception before the year 1750. Brother A. J. Cooper
Oakley has gone so far as to suggest a more ancient origin for the Arch
Pedestal than any previous writer, namely, that it is the Yantram or
symbol of the Temple of Jehovah, for the temple of every Hindu deity is bound
to have a Yantram composed of a geometrical or monogrammatic emblem upon which
the god is placed.
An old catechism printed in 1723 asks
the question, "Whence comes the pattern of an Arch?" and the answer is, "From
the rainbow." Another printed Catechism of 1730 but grounded on the modern
system of 1717, speaks of a word "which was lost, is now found," and there are
French tracing boards of the Craft for 1743, which contain the word "Jehovah,"
and the Rituals of that period say that a word was substituted out of fear
lest Hiram should have been induced to reveal the genuine one. We must bear
in mind that the work of the Grand Lodge was not that of the Harods, though
Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 has the representation of an Arch.
Oliver in his "Discrepancies"
embodies the excellent authority of the late Peter Gilkes that the lost
secrets of the Moderns, for the Guild had no lost secrets, were anciently
given to the newly received Master after an interval of 15 days, and the old
French ritual, before quoted, gives them at the close of the ceremony. There
is a symbolism at York and Stirling which seems to make the Arch and the
Rainbow synonymous. The minutes of Dermott's Grand Lodge in 1752 mentions the
"absurdities" of Dr. Macky, of London, "one of the leg of mutton Masons," so
called because they made Masons for that useful joint, "who gave a long story
about twelve marble stones, &c., and that the rainbow was the Royal {449}
Arch." Yet Oliver in confirmation of this quotes "an old Masonic work," in
which the Royal Arch is carried up from the building of the second temple to
Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel, and from thence to the Altar and Sacrifice of
Noah, under the Rainbow as an Arch, and with the Altar as a Pedestal, thence
to the expulsion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden.<<"Landmarks,"
ii, p. 350.>> Similar matter is referred to in the Old York Lectures, and its
2nd Degree has a legend of 12 stones erected in the river Jordan.
Dr. Crawley thinks that an incipient
form of the Arch degree can be traced in Anderson's Constitutions of 1723,<<"Cem.
Hib.">> and that this is hinted at in two parts of the ceremony of
Installation of Master, sanctioned by the Duke of Wharton in 1722, where he
speaks of the "cement of the Brotherhood," and of the "cement of the Lodge,"
when the "well built" Arch was formed, and the word may have been then given.
It is a very plausible theory and the only thing against it is that the oldest
rituals we have give no hint of it. The Arch degree, by written evidence,
first consisted of three steps or Veils, entitled the Excellent,
Super-Excellent, and the Royal Arch itself.
In the "Impartial Enquiry" of
Dr. D'Assigny, printed at Dublin in 1744, he makes allusions to the Arch
degree as composed of a body of men who had passed the Chair of Master, and
alludes to some propagator of degrees in Dublin who claimed to have the York
system "a few years before" (1744), and that his want of knowledge was exposed
by some brother who was acquainted with the Royal Arch degree as it was
practised in London, which is prima facia evidence that it was widely
spread. He adds in a note: "I am told in that city (York) is held an assembly
of Master Masons, under the title of Royal Arch Masons, who as their
qualifications and excellencies are superior to others, they receive a larger
pay than working Masons, of which more hereafter." This seems to allude to an
Operative Arch Guild at York, as it is doing violence to his language to read
it that whilst the Craft was the {450} initiation of working Masons, the Arch
was intended for Initiates and Rulers of a higher standing.
At the "General Assembly on St.
John's day," there may have been practised ceremonies of which we are allowed
to have no written knowledge, and which may have been discontinued in the
sleep into which it fell between 1740 and 1760; their old Lectures ask the
question: "Who amongst Masons are entitled to knowledge?" A. "Those who are
justly considered Free and Accepted, and have been Exalted to the Royal Arch
Degree, and Knighted in a Masonic Encampment."
D'Assigny goes on to say that there
had lately arrived in Dublin some itinerant Mason, evidently a
different person to those he had mentioned, who offered to add three more
degrees to the Craft, of some "Italic" Order, and he warns his brethren
against foreign schemers. When Lord Sandwich asked a definition of
"Orthodoxy" from Bishop Warburton, the latter wittily replied, "Well, my Lord,
Orthodoxy is my doxy, but Heterodoxy is another man's doxy." Hence we need
not worship D'Assigny's doxy; what we learn from his remarks is that about
1740 there had entered Dublin two systems of working the Arch, one of York,
and a London one which D'Assigny favoured, and that these were, in some
respects, opposed to each other. The three grades of an "Italic" system may
have been Clermont Templary, Jacobite and Romish.
For some 15 or 20 years the Grand
Lodge of all England at York was dormant, but was revived in 1762 by one of
its old Grand Masters., Francis Drake, Jacobite in his leanings. The Grand
Lodge formally recognised the Arch, and there are minutes which show that in
1778 the Templar was a ceremony equally recognised. It would seem, however,
that the officers named, 7th Feb., 1762, are H.Z.J., so that the Arch degree
related to the 2nd temple as with Dermott, but that in 1776 it referred to
Solomon's temple, and would therefore be the "Arch of Enoch," and Oliver says
that he saw an old {451} ritual of 1778 in which this ceremony appears as
introductory to the Arch of the 2nd temple, and that after his own Exaltation
in 1813 he saw another ritual in which the portion relating to Enoch's Arch
was struck out. At a later period, however, the officers are those of the 2nd
temple as in Dermott's System.
The actual earliest mention of the
Royal Arch in print is at Youghall in
1743, where there was a procession of
Lodge 21, with display, amongst these particulars we have: "Fourthly, the
Royal Arch, carried by two Excellent Masons."<<"Faulkner's Dublin Journal,"
10-14, Jany. 1743 (1744) quoted by Dr. Crawley.>>
If these grades were given at York
before 1740, it is curious to note that degrees, or systems, called "Scotch
Masters," are alluded to in minutes. Thus in Royal Cumberland Lodge, 41,
Bath, appears the following, 8th January 1746: "Brothers Thomas Naish and John
Berge were this day, made Scotch Masters, and paid for makeing 2s. 6d."; five
others were received 27th Novr., 1754. In the minutes of the Salisbury Lodge,
19th October, 1746, we find this: "At this Lodge were made Scotts Masons, five
brethren of the Lodge," one of them being the W.M. The Lodge of Longnor, Co.
Derby, claim that they received the method of the secrets from the rebel Army
whilst in Derby. Kloss quotes J. F. Pollett as saying, 25th April, 1763, that
the Scotts' degree was the same as that known as the Royal Arch of France,
where it dates from the raising of the Scottish Regiment Ogilvy in 1746, and
he gives the clothing as green and red, which is that of the Red Cross, and
the two, crossed, of Harodim-Rosy Cross. This would render it probable that
"Scotts" in England went with the rebellion of 1745. The old Scottish Minute
books show Initiations of military men, many of whom joined James II., and
established these degrees in the Army and on the Continent.
Lawrence Dermott, to whose labours
London was indebted for the establishment of the Grand Lodge of the
"Ancients," who termed themselves York Masons also, {452} had no doubt
received the London version of the Royal Arch in Dublin apparently in 1746.
In his "Ahiman Rezon" of 1764 is a note, not found in any earlier or
later edition<<Reprinted "Ars Quat. Cor." vi.>> in reference to the
Arms, quarterly, a lion, ox, man, and eagle, which he says were found in the
collection of the Architect and Brother, Rabbi Jacob Jehudah Leon, who had
constructed in 1641 a model of Solomon's temple, for the States of Holland,
which he exhibited in Paris, Vienna, and in London under the great seal and
the signature of Killigrew. At the same time Leon published a description of
his labours entitled "A relation of the most memorable things in the
Tabernacle of Moses, and the temple of Solomon, 1675," and dedicated it to
King Charles II., and Dermott adds that in 1759 and 1760 he had examined and
perused such curiosities, and he concludes, "As these were the Arms of the
Masons who had built the Tabernacle and Temple, there is not the least doubt
of their being the proper Arms of the most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity
of Free and Accepted Masons, and the continual practice and formalities, and
tradition, in all regular Lodges, from the lowest degree to the most high,
"i.e.," THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH, confirms the practice thereof."
Dermott in his "Constitutions"
seems to follow the lines indicated by Samber in 1721, and he informs us that
the Arch degree possessed (circa 1740) the peculiar square alphabet, which he
says that he had known for over 30 years. A similar alphabet was in use
amongst the Occultists, who termed it the "Aiq Bekar," or Cabala of
nine chambers; it is found in Barrett's "Magus," and when dissected
gives an alphabet of 9 characters increased to 27 by adding to the first
series one and two dots respectively; Trithemius, the friend of Cornelius
Agrippa, is known to have possessed it.
In reference to Dermott's claim to
the Arms used by Rabbi Leon, it is easy to prove that they were not used by
Craft Lodges, unless it might have been by some unknown {453} Speculative
branch. All the ancient Guild MSS., which add Arms, use those granted to the
London Company of Masons in 1472, or a variation of them. Randal Holme gives
these in his "Acadamie of Armorie," with triple towers, according to
the original grant, but he adds as supporters, which are not in the Grant, two
pillars of the Corinthian Order, "or," or gold. But we cannot hastily dismiss
Dermott's contention, for Leon's Arms of the Masons were used by the Grand
Chapter of York, and Bro. W. H. Rylands posesses an old panel brought from St.
Albans, of date circa 1675-80 which gives these Arms over the interlaced
square, level, and plumb of the Masons. There are moreover Rosicrucian and
Cabalistic works which treat of these symbols, and it is probable, as they
represent the banners of the four leading Hebrew tribes, that Leon might
derive them from the Cabala or Talmud, or he might have been a member of the
ancient Jewish Guild. In Masonry peculiar systems are taken up by small
bodies, then die out, to be revived in another part of the country. The "Book
of Razael," alluded to by Cornelius Agrippa in his book on Magic,
affords evidence of the signs used in the Arch degree, and the Exagogue
of the Jew Ezekiel, written, so Wharton thinks, after the destruction of
Jerusalem, and translated into Latin by Fr. Morellus at Paris in 1580, gives
details which have reference to the Signs of the Veils, omitted from the
modern ceremony, but which gave the titles of Excellent and Super-excellent.
Clemens and Eusebius give portions of the drama, so its great antiquity is
unquestionable. The following seems to have been the general practice before
the modern revision; Masons under the G.L. of the Ancients prefaced the Arch
ceremony by the Mosaical Veils; those under the G.L. of the Moderns prefaced
it with the Arch of Enoch. France at the same period had a degree said to
refer to the time of Vespasian which they termed the Royal Arch of York.
A London Lodge of 1754 practised
degrees to which the ordinary Mason was not admitted; Dermott terms it {454}
Ancient Masonry held every third Lodge night, on account of extraordinary
benefits its members had received abroad. The Lodge met at the Ben Johnson's
Head in Spitalfields, and Grand Lodge censured them. Moderns, however, became
members of both the Royal Arch and Templar, but without the sanction of their
Grand Lodge. They sought and obtained from Lord Blaney, 22nd July, 1767, a
Charter of Institution and Protection, formulated a "Charter of Compact" in
1778, and printed an "Abstract of Laws for the Society of Royal Arch Masons in
London," 1778, and followed by a 2nd edition in 1782. Bristol had a Lodge
founded in 1757 and erased in 1769, in which the Arch degree was worked. A
Charter was granted in 1769 to Manchester under the title of "The Euphrates
Lodge, or Chapter of the Garden of Eden, No. 2"; the writer tried to save it
from erasure in 1854, but the old members were indifferent to its fate. At
Bristol on 7th August, 1758. Bro. Henry Wright gave a "Crafts Lecture," and
on the 13th of the same month "Brothers Gordon and John Thompson were raised
to the degree of Royal Arch Masons"; on the 31st of the same month, "Brother
Peter Fooks requested to be raised to the degree of Royal Arch and accepted,"
and this was done on the 3rd Septr., 1758, along with two others, "and a
Lecture on the degree was given by Brother James Barnes"; the minutes are
headed "A Royal Arch Lodge,"<<W. J. Hughan, "Freemason," 17 Dec.
1898.>> and there are other receptions down to 1759.
From recent discoveries it appears
that Brother Thos. Dunckerley, a scion of royalty on the wrong side of the
blanket, was Exalted to the Royal Arch degree at Portsmouth in 1754, as he
states in a letter of 14th January, 1792. Bro. Alexr. Howell discovered at
Portsmouth, in recent years, an old Minute book in cypher of the Chapter of
Friendship, No. 3, chartered 11th August, 1769. We read: 1st Septr., 1769 --
"The Bro. G.M. Thomas Dunckerley bro't the Warrant of the Chapter, and having
lately received {455} the Mark, he made the Bre'n Mark Masons and Mark
Masters, and each chuse their Mark, &c. He also told us of this mann'r of
writing which is to be used in the degree, which we may give to others, so
that they be F.C. for Mark Masons, and Master M. for Mark Masters." In Novr.
1770, the degrees of Excellent and Super Excellent Masons are mentioned, to
pay 10s. for two steps and two guineas for the Arch as before. In Octr. 1778,
the term Companion is used, and Dunckerley gives the Chapter permission to
make Knights Templars.
In 1769 the Arch was known at
Darlington, Co. of Durham. as the "Hierarchal Lodge"; and Lodge 124, Durham
possessed the Mark as we read 21st Decr., 1773, "Brother Barwick was also made
a Mark'd Mason, and Bro. James MacKinlay raised to the degree, of a Master
Mason, and also made a Mark Mason, and paid accordingly."
In Scotland the Mark was usually
recognised by the Arch authority, and Stirling has a very old Chapter named
the "Stirling Rock Chapter" which possesses two old and rudely engraved brass
plates which alludes to the REDD-CROSS or ARK. The Chapter has been admitted
to date from 1743, and they had minutes from that period, but we will allude
to this when we reach the Templar.
At Dumfries some interesting matter
has been discovered by Bro. James Smith. The Register of Passings to the
Royal Arch degree begin in 1756, with a form of Certificate after a Minute of
"Passing the Chair," and the "Sublime degrees of Excellent, Super-Excellent,
and Royal Arch Mason" of the 8th October 1770, in which the degree of Mark
Mason is mentioned. <<"Freemason," 17th March, 1894.>> There was also
a Royal Arch Chapter at Montrose in 1765. In the "Pocket Companion" of
Joseph Galbraith, printed at Glasgow in 1765, is a song of which a verse
follows; it also contains a letter on the Acts of the Associated Synod, which
first appeared in the "Edinburgh Magazine" for October, 1757, under the
signature of "R.A., M.T.L., Edin. {456} Oct. 25th, 1757." The Chapter
mentioned in this verse would be the "Enoch": —
"May every loving Brother,
Employ his thoughts, and search,
How to improve, in peace and love,
The GLASGOW ROYAL ARCH."
A Glasgow Templar was "remade" in the
Manchester Royal Encampment in 1786, the year chartered by the G.L. of All E.
at York.<<Notes on the Temple and St. John, 1869 - Yarker.>> There are
minutes at Banff, 1765-78, of the Arch and of the Mark, when the two steps of
the latter were conferred on F.C. and M.M. The Scoon and Perth Lodge, which
claims our "British Solomon," James I. of England, as one of its members, had
these degrees, as we learn from the Minutes of the Edinburgh Chapter, No. 1,
2nd Decr. 1778, when they were conferred on members of the St. Stephen's
Lodge. Certain brethren were made Passed Masters, and 4th Decr. 1778, the
Officers received — "Ex. and Sup. Ex. Mason, Arch and Royal Arch Masons," and
lastly Knights of Malta.<<"Scoltish Freem.," Aug. 1894.>>
In Ireland it has hitherto been
difficult to obtain information as to Lodge work, but we have already
mentioned allusions to it, in Dublin, circa 1740, and elsewhere four years
later. It was generally worked under the Craft Charter, as was equally the
case, under authorisation of Dermott's G.L., from 1751. The Red Cross was
required, but it has now been divided into three sections since they accepted
the Scottish Rite of 33 degrees, and they professed to claim it from the 1515
Order of Kt. of the Sword of Gustavus Vasa.
In America the Arch degree was
practised early. At Virginia, U.S.A., there is a record that, 22nd Dec.,
1753, a "Royall Arch Lodge" was held, when "three brethren were raised to the
degree of Royal Arch Mason." Philadelphia has had a Chapter since 1758. At
Boston. U.S.A., the "St. Andrews" has a Minute that Wm. Davies was {457} "made
by receiving the four steps, that of an Excellt., Sup.-Excellt., Royal Arch,
and Kt. Templar," and it is afterwards said these are "the four steps of a
Royal Arch Mason."<<Hughan's "Englsh Rite.">> Brother Benjamin Deane,
Past Gd. Master of Templars, has lithographed a certificate which says that,
1st Augt., 1783, a brother was "pass'd |
