AUSTRIA.
Freemasonry was introduced into Austria in 1742 by the establishment at Vienna of the Lodge of the Three Cannons. But it was broken up by the government in the following year, and thirty of its members were imprisoned for having met in contempt of the authorities. Maria Theresa was an enemy of the Institution, and prohibited it in 1764. Lodges, however, continued to meet secretly in Vienna and Prague. In 1780, Joseph II ascended the throne, and under his liberal administration Freemasonry, if not actually encouraged, was at least tolerated, and many new Lodges were eatablished in Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Transylvania, under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Germany, in Berlin. Delegates from these Lodges met at Vienna in 1784, and organized the Grand Lodge of Austria, electing the Count of Dietrichstein, Grand Master. The attempt of the Grand Lodge at Berlin to make this a Provincial Grand Lodge was succesful for only a short time, and in 1785 the Grand Lodge of Austria again proclaimed its independence.
During the reign of Joseph II, Austrian Freemasonry was prosperous. Notwithstanding the efforts of its enemies, the monarch could never be persuaded to prohibit it. But in 1785 he was induced to issue instructions by which the number of the Lodges was reduced, so that not more than three were permitted to exist in each eity ; and he ordered that a list of the members and a note of the times of meeting of each Lodge should be annually delivered to the magistrates.
Joseph died in 1790, and Leopold II expressed himself as not unfriendly to the Fraternity, but his successor in 1792, Francis II, yielded to the machinations of the anti-Freemasons, and dissolved the Lodges. In 1801 he issued a decree which forbade the employment of anyone in the public service who was attached to any secret society. Freemasonry has continued in operation in Austria, as it is in most non-Masonic countries. The World War developed the activities of the Grand Lodge of Vienna which received recognition abroad, the Grand Lodge of Kentucky so voting on October 20, 1926.
AUSTRIA HUNGARY AND CZECHO-SLOVAKIA.
Freemasonry in these countries began when Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, husband of the Empress Maria Theresia was made Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft in 1731 in a Lodge of which Doctor Desaguliers was Worshipful Master. On September 17, 1742, a Lodge was instituted at Vienna but it was closed during the following year by order of the Empres. Various Lodges were established by German authority but in 1764 a Royal Decree was issued against Freemasonry, although the Emperor Francis was at the time Worshipful Master of the first Lodge at Vienna.
By 1784, 45 Lodges under six Provincial Grand Lodges had been instituted in Austria. The Provincial Grand Lodges of Vienna, Bohemia, Hungary and Sieberburgen formed a National Grand Lodge of the Austrian States. Count Dietrichstein was elected Grand Master but when the new body was opposed by the National Grand Lodge at Berlin he accepted the rank of Provincial Grand Master. In 1785 the Emperor ordered the new Grand Lodge to be independent and he was obeyed. During the next few years edicts directed against secret societies were issued by the Emperor and all activity of the Craft ceased. Some Lodges were formed or revived but they soon disappeared again.
In 1867 Austria and Hungary were separated into two Kingdoms and the Brethren took advantage of there being no law in Hungary against Freemasonry to open several Lodges. A Convention of Unity Lodge and others at Temesvar, Oedenburg, Baja, Pressburg, Budapst and Arad met on January 30, 1870 and established the National Grand Lodge of Hungary.
For the Austrian Freemasons the only thing left to do was to form social clubs which, when they met as Lodges, were convened in the neighboring country of Hungary. The great World War changed these conditions. A Grand Lodge of Vienna was formed on December 8, 1918.
The formation in 1919 of the Republie of Czecho-Slovakia resulted in the establishment of the National Grand Lodge of Jugoslavia for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
AUTHENTIC.
Formerly, in the science of diplomatica, ancient manuscripts were termed authentic when they were originals, and in opposition to copies.
But in modern times the acceptation of the word has been enlarged, and it is now applied to instruments which, although they may be copies, bear the evidence of having been executed by proper authority.
So of the old records of Freemasonry, the originals of many have been lost, or at least have not yet been found. Yet the copies, if they can be traced to unsuspected sources within the body of the Craft and show the internal marks of historical accuracy, are to be reckoned as authentic. But if their origin is altogether unknown, and their statements or style conflict with the known character of the Order at their assumed date, their authentieity is to be doubted or denied-
AUTHENTICITY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
A belief in the authenticity of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a religious qualification of initiation does not constitute one of the laws of Freemasonry, for such a regulation would destroy the universality of the Institution, and under its action none but Christians could become eligible for admission. But in 1856 the Grand Lodge of Ohio declared "that a distinct avowal of a belief in the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures should be required of every one who is admitted to the privileges of Masonry, and that a denial of the same is an offence against the Institution, calling for exemplary discipline.'' It is hardly necessary to say that the enunciation of this principle met with the almost universal condemnation of the Grand Lodges and Masonic jurists of this country. The Grand Lodge of Ohio subsequently repealed the regulation. In1857 the Grand Lodge of Texas adopted a similar resolution; but the general sense of the Fraternity has rejected all religious tests except a belief in God.
AUTOPSY.
Greek, a.....a, meaning a seeing with one's own eyes. The complete communication of the secrets in the Ancient Mysteries, when the aspirant was admitted into the sacellum, or most sacred place, and was invested by the hierophant with all the aporrheta, or sacred things, which constituted the perfect knowledge of the initiate. A similar ceremony in Freemasonry is called the Rite of Intrusting (see Mysteries).
AUXILIARY DEGREES.
According to Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks, ii, page 345, the Supreme Council of France, in addition to the thirty-three regular degrees of the Rite, confers six others, which he calls Auxiliary Degrees. They are,
1. Elu de Perignan.
2. Petit Architecte.
3. Grand Architecte, or Compagnon Ecossais.
4. Maitre Ecossais.
5. Knight of the East.
6. Knight Rose Croix.
AVENUE.
Forming an avenue is a ceremony sometimes practised in the lower degrees, but more generally in the higher ones, on certain occasions of paying honors to superior officers. The Brethren form in two ranks facing each other. If the degree is one in which swords are used, these are drawn and elevated, being crossed each with the opposite sword- The swords thus crossed constitute what is called the arch of steel. The person to whom honor is to be paid passes between the opposite ranks and under the arch of steel.
AVIGNON.
Town on the River Rhone in the south of France about 75 miles north-west of the seaport of Marseilles which was the headquarters of the Hermetic Grades from 1740 to the French Revolution. A drastic persecution was set in motion in 1757 by the Archbishop J. de Guyon de Crochans and the Inquisitor P. Mabille, at which time the Mother Lodge was dissolved as the result of a direct attack by these two.
AVIGNON, ILLUMINATI OF.
The French ex-pression is Illuminés d'Avignon. A rite instituted by Pernetti at Avignon, in France, in 1770, and transferred in the year 1778 to Montpellier, under the name of the Academy of True Masons The Academy of Avignon consisted of only four degrees, the three of symbolic or St. John's Freemasonry, and a fourth called the True Freemason, which was made up of instructions, Hermetical and Swedenborgian (see Pernetti).
AVOUCHMENT.
See Vouching.
AWARD.
In law, the judgment pronounced by one or more arbitrators, at the request of two parties who are at variance. "If any complaint be brought," say the Charges published by Anderson, "the brother found guilty shall stand to the award and determination of the Lodge" (see the Constitutions, edition of 1723, page 54).
AYES AND NOES.
It is not according to Masonic usage to call for the ayes and nosses on any question pending before a Lodge. By a show of hands is the old and usual custom of determining the will of the Brethren.
AYNON.
Aynon, Agnon, Ajuon, and Dyon are all used in the old manuscript Conatitutions for one whom they call the son of the King of Tyre, but it is evidently meant for Hiram Abif. Each of these words is most probably a corruption of the Hebrew Adon or Lord, so that the reference would clearly be to Adon Hiram or Adoniram, with whom Hiram was often confounded; a confusion to be found in later times in the Adonhiramite Rite.
AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE.
Poet and humorist. Studied law but said "though he followed the law, he could never overtake it.'' Professor of rhetoric and literature, University of Edinburgh.
Active member of the Scottish Grand Lodge and representative there of the Grand Lodge Royal York of Germany. Born June 21, 1813, his poetry brought him world-wide fame, the most popular being Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers.
Brother Aytoun died on August 4, 1865.
AZARIAH.
The old French rituals have Azarias.
A name in the advanced degrees signifying Helped of God. ',
AZAZEL.
Scapegoat, the demon of dry places.
Understood by others to be the fallen angel mentioned in the Book of Enoch, and identical with Sammael, the Angel of Death. Symmachus says, the goat that departs; Josephus, the averter of ills, caper emissarius.
Two he-goats, in all respects alike and equal, were brought forward for the day of atonement. The urn was shaken and two lots cast; one was For the Name, and the other For Azazel. A scarlet tongue-shaped piece of wood was twisted on the head of the goat to be sent away, and he was placed before the gate and delivered to his conductor. The High Priest, placing his two bands on the goat, made confession for the people, and pronounced THE NAME clearly, which the people hearing, they knelt and worshiped, and fell on their faces and mid, Blessed be the Name.
The Honor of His kingdom forever and ever.
The goat was then led forth to the mountainside and rolled down to death.
AZRAEL.
From the Hebrew, meaning Help of God. In the Jewish and the Mohammedan mythology, the name of the angel who watches over the dying and separates the soul from the body. Prior to the intercession of Mohammed, Azrael inflicted the death penalty visibly, by striking down before the eyes of the living those whose time for death was come (see Henry W. Longfellow's exquisite poem Azrael).
Azrael is also known as Raphael, and with Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel, identified as the four archangels. As the angel of death to the Moslems, he is regarded as similar to Fate, and Jewish. tradition almost makes him an evil genius.
AZTECS.
Native name of one of the tribes in Mexico at the arrival of the Spaniards in America, and frequently used as meaning Mexicans. Early records and other remains of the Aztecs studied by Nuttall, Peabody Museum Papers (volume ii, pages 522, 525, 532, 535, 538, and elsewhere), show a striking similarity of civilization to that from Phoenician sources and may be due to the migrations of the Men of Tyre.
AZURE.
The clear blue color of the sky. Cerulean is also used to mean sky-blue but is really from a Latin word, Caeruleus, meaning dark blue. The appropriate color of the symbolic degrees; sometimes termed Blue Degrees. Azure means blue in heraldry and in the engraving to show coats of arms it is represented by horizontal lines of shading.
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