ACCEPTION or ACCEPCON.
This term occurs in the records of the Company of Masons of London in the years 1620 and 1621 aud Brother Hawkins thought it to be the name of the non-operative or speculative body attached to that Company, this being the Lodge that Ashmole visited in 1682. Brother Edward Couder, Jr., says (in his work, The Hole craft and Fellowship of Masons, page 155), "It is evident that these Accepted Masons were on a different footing to those who were admitted to the freedom of the Company by servitude or patrimony. The word Accepted only occurs a few times in the whole of the accounts, and from the inventories of the Company's goods and the other entries concerning these members, proof is obtained that the Accepted Masons who joined this London Masons' Gild, did so not necessarily for the benefit of the freedom of the Company but rather for the privilege of attending the Masous' Hall Lodge at which Ashmole was present."
Brother Conder points out that the item of 1631, referring to the Masons that were to be Accepted, together with the entries in the Minute Book of 1620, are the earliest post-reformation notices of speculative Freemasonry yet discovered in England (see Accepted).
ACCEPTION, THE
The Masous Company of London show this phrase in one of their records, 1620-1, in connection seemingly with a nonoperative or speculative body which was associated with them.
In 1682 Elias Ashmole visited this Lodge.
ACCLAMATION.
A vertain form of words used in connection with the battery. In the Scottish Rite it is hoshea; in the French vivat; in Adoptive Masonry it was Eva; and in the Rite of Misraim, hallelujàh (see Battery).
ACCOLADE.
From the Latin ad and collum, meaning around the neck. Generally but incorrectiy it is supposed that the accolade means the blow given on the neck of a newly created knight with the flat of the sword. The best authorities define it to be the embrace, or a slight blow on the cheek or shoulder, accompanied with the kiss of peace, by which the new knight was at his creation welcomed into the Order of Knighthood by the sovereign or lord who created him (see Knighthood).
ACCORD.
We get this word from the two Latin ones ad cor, meaning to the heart, and hence it means hearty consent. Thus in Wiclif's translation we find the phrase in Philippians, which in the Authorized Version is "with one accord," rendered "with one will, With one heart." Such is its signification in the Masonic formula, "free will and accord," that is, "free will and hearty consent." The blow given among the Romans to a slave was a necessary part of the manumission ceremony in bestowing freedom upon him, the very word manumit in Latin being derived from manus, hand ; and mitto, send (see Free Will and Accord).
ACCUSER.
In every trial in a Lodge for an offense against the laws and regulatious or the principies of Freemasonry any Master Mason may be the accuser of another, but a profane cannot be permitted to Prefer charges against a Freemason. Yet, if circumstances are known to a profane upon which charges ought to be predicated, a Master Mason may avail himself of that information, and out of it frame an accusation to be presented to the Lodge. Such accusation wi1l be received and investigated although remotely derived from one who is not a member of the Order.
It is not necessery that the accuser should be a member of the same Lodge. It is sufficient if he is an affiliated Freemason; but it is generaliy held that an unaffiliated Freemason is no more competent to prefer charges than a profane.
In consequence of the Junior Warden being placed over the Craft during the hours of refreshment, and of his being charged at the time of his installation to see "that none of the Craft be suffered to convert the purposes of refreshment into those of intemperance and excess," it has been very generally supposed that it is his duty, as the prosecuting officer of the Lodge, to prefer charges against any member who, by his conduct, has made himself amenable to the penal jurisdiction of the Lodge. We know of no ancient regulation which imposes this unpleasant duty upon the Junior Warden; but it does seem to be a very natural deduction, from his peculiar prerogative as the custos morum or guardian of the conduct of the Craft, that in all cases of violation of the law he should, after due efforts toward producing a reform, be the proper officer to bring the conduct of the offending Brother to the notice of the Lodge.
ACELDAMA.
From the Syro-Chaldaic, meaning field of blood, so called because it was purchased with the blood-money which was paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying his Lord (see Matthew xxvii, 7-10; also Acts 1, 19 ). The reader will note that the second letter of the word is sounded like k. It is situated on the slope of the hi1ls beyond the valley of Hinnom and to the south of Mount Zion. The earth there was believed, by early writers, to have possessed a corrosive quality, by means of which bodies deposited in it were quickly consumed; and hence it was used by the Crusaders, then by the Knights Hospitaler, and afterward by the Armenians, as a place of sepulture, and the Empress Helena is said to have built a charnel-house in its midst. Doctor Robinson (Biblical Researches, volume 1, page 524) says that the field is not now marked by any boundary to distinguish it from the rest of the field, and the former charnel-house is now a ruin. The field of Aceldama is referred to in the ritual of the Knights Templar.
ACERRELLOS, R. S.
A nom de plume or pen name assumed by Carl Rössler, a German Masonic writer (see Rossler).
ACHAD.
One of the names of God. The word Achad, in Hebrew signifies one or unity. It has been adopted by Freemasons as one of the appellations of the Deity from the passage in Deuteronomy (vi, 4) : "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is (Achad) one Lord''; which the Jews wear on their phylacteries, and pronounce with great fervor as a confession of their faith in the unity of God. Speaking of God as Achad, the Rabbis say, "God is one (Achad) and man is one (Achad). Man, however, is not purety one, because he is made up of elements and has another like himself; but the oneness of God is a oneness that has no boundery.,,
ACHARON SCHILTON.
In Hebrew signifying the new kingdonç Significant words in some of the advanced degrees. The Latin term is given in the Manuel Maçonnique (1830, page 74) as Novissimus lmperium
ACHIAS.
A corruption of the Hebrew Achijah the brother of Jah; a significant word in some of the advanced degrees.
ACHISHAR.
Mentioned in first Kings iv, 6, under the name of Ahishar, and there described as being "over the household" of King Solomon. This was a situation of great importance in the East, and equivalent to the modern office of Chamberlain. The Steward in a Council of Select Masters is said to represent Achishar. In Hebrew the word is pronounced ak-ee-shawr.
ACHMETA.
See Echatana.
ACHTARIEL.
A Cabalistic name of God belonging to the Crown or first of the ten sephiroth ; and hence signifying the Crown or God. The sephiroth refer in the Cabalistic system to the ten persons, intelligences or attributes of God.
ACKNOWLEDGED.
When one is initiated into the degree of Most Excellent Master, he is tecbnically said to be received and acknowledged as a Most Excellent Master. This expression refers to the tradition of the degree which states that when the Temple had been completed and dedicated, King Solomon received and acknowledged the most expert of the Craftsmen as Most Excellent Masters. That is, he received them into the exalted rank of perfect and acknowledged workmen, and acknowledged their right to that title. The verb to acknowledge here means to own or admit, to belong to, as, to acknowledge a son.
ACOUSMATICI.
The primary class of the discipies of Pythagoras, who served a five years' probation of silence, and were hence called acousmatici or hearers. According to Porphyry or Porphyrius, a Greek philosopher who lived about 233-306 A.D., they received only the elements of intellectual and moral instruction, and, after the expiration of their term of probation, they were advanced to the rank of Mathematici (see Pythagoras).
ACQUITTAL.
Under this head it may be proper to discuss two questious of Masonic law.
l. Can a Freemason, having been acquitted by the ceurts of the country of an offense with which he has been charged, be tried by his Lodge for the same offense?
2. Can a Freemason, having been acquitted by his Lodge on insuflicient evidence, be subjected, on the discovery and production of new and more complete evidence, to a second trial for the same offense?
To both of these questions the correct answer would seem to be in the affirmative.
l. An acquittal of a crime by a temporal court does not relieve a Freemason from an inquisition into the same offense by his Lodge. Acquittals may be the result of some technicality of law, or other cause, where, although the party is relieved from legal punishment, his guilt is still manifest in the eyes of the community. If the Order were to be controlled by the action of the courts, the character of the Institution might be injuriously affected by its permitting a man, who had escaped without honor from the punishment of the law, to remain a member of the Fraternity.
In the language of the Grand Lodge of Texas, "an acquittal by a jury, while it may, and should, in some circumstances, have its infiuence in deciding on the course to be pursued, yet has no binding force in Masonry. We decide on our own rules, and our own view of the facts" (Proceedings, Grand Lodge of Texas, volume ii page 273).
The Code Governing Procedure and Practice in Masonic Trials, in the Book of Constitutions edited by Brother Henry Pirtle for the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, says, on page 195, fifth edition, "Conviction or acquittal by a civil or military court for the same offense can not be pleaded in bar of trial by a Masonic Lodge.
"2. To come to a correct apprehension of the second question, we must remember that it is a long-settled principle of Masonic law, that every offense which a Freemason commits is an injury to the whole Fraternity, inasmuch as the bad conduct of a single member reflects discredit on the whole Institution. This is a very old and well-established principle of the Institution. Hence we find the Old Constitutions declaring that Freemasons ''should never be thieves nor thieves' maintainers''(Cooke Manuscript line 916 ).
The safety of the Institution requires that no evil-disposed member should be tolerated with impunity in bringing disgrace on the Craft. Therefore, although it is a well-known maxim of the common law- Nemo debet bis puniri pro uno delicto---that is, No one should be twice placed in peril of punishment for the same crime, yet we must also remember that other and fundamental maxim - Salus populi suprema lex-which may, in its application to Freemasonry, be well transiated The . well-being of the Order is the first great law. To this everything else must yield.
Therefore, if a member, having been accused of a heinous offense and tried, shall, on his trial, for want of sufficient evidence, be acquitted, or, being convicted, shall, for the same reason, be punished by an inadequate penalty-and if he shall thus be permitted to remain in the Institution with the stigma of the crime upon him, ''whereby the Craft comes to shame, " then, if new and more sufficient evidence shall be subsequentiy discovered, it is just and right that a new trial shall be had, so that he may, on this newer evidence, receive that punishment which will vindicate the reputation of the Order. No technicalities of law, no plea of autrefois acquit, already acquitted, nor mere verbal exception, should be allowed for the escape of a guilty member ; for so long as he lives in the Order, every man is subject to its discipline. A hundred wrongful acquittals of a bad member, who still bears with him the reproach of his evil life, can never discharge the Order from its paramount duty of protecting its own good fame and removing the delinquent member from its fold. To this great duty all private and individual rights and privileges must succumb, for the well-being of the Order is the first great law in Freemasonry.
ACTA LATOMORUM,
ou Chronologie de l'Histoire de la Franche-Maçonnerie française et étrangére, etc. That is: The Acts of the Freemasons, or a Chronological History of French and Foreign Freemasonry, etc. This work, written or complied by Claude Antoine Thory, was published at Paris, in two volumes, octavo, in 1815. It contains the most remarkable facts in the history of the Institution from obscure times to the year1814; the succession of Grand Masters; a nomenciature of rites, degrees, and secret associations in all the countries of the world ; a bibliography of the principal works on Freemasonry published since 1723; and a supplement in which the author has collected a variety of rare and important Masonic documents. Of this work, which has never been translated into English, Lenning says in his Encyclopädie der Freimaurerei that it is, without dispute, the most scientific work on Freemasonry that French literature has ever produced. It must, however, be confessed that in the historical portion Thory has committed many errors in respect to English and American Freemasonry, and therefore, if ever translated, the work wi1l require much emendation (see Thory)
ACTING GRAND MASTER.
The Duke of Cumberland, grandson of George II, brother of George III, having, in April, 1782, been elected Grand Master of England, it was resolved by the Grand Lodge "that whenever a prince of the blood did the Society the honour to accept the office of Grand Master, he should be at liberty to nominate any peer of the reaim to be the Acting Grand Master" (Constitutions of Grand Lodge of England, edition 1784, page 341). The officer thus provided to be appointed was subsequentiy called in the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England (edition 1841), and is now called the Pro Grand Master.
In the American system, the officer who performs the duties of Grand Master in case of the removal, death, or inability of that officer, is known as the Acting Grand Master. For the regulatious which prescribe the proper person to perform these duties, see Grand Master.
ACTIVE LODGE.
A Lodge is said to be active when it is neither dormant nor suspended, but regularly meets and is occupied in the labors of Freemasonry.
ACTIVE MEMBER.
An active member of a lodge is one who, in contradistinction to an honorary member, assumes all the burdens of membership, such as contributions, arrears, and participation in its labors, and is invested with all the rights of membership, such as speaking, voting, and holding office.
ACTUAL PAST MASTERS.
This term is sometimes applied to those who have actually served as Master of a Craft Lodge in order to distinguish them from those who have been made Virtual Past Masters, in Chapters of the United States, or Past Masters of Arts and Sciences, in English Chapters, as a preliminary to receiving the Royal Arch degree (see Past Master). ,
ADAD.
The name of the principal god among the Syrians, and who, as representing the sun, had, according to Macrobius, a Roman author of about the early part of the fifth century, in the Saturnaliorum (i, 23), an image surrounded by rays.
Macrobius, however, is wrong, as Selden has shown, De Diis Syris, volume i, page 6, in confounding Adad with the Hebrew Achad, or one-a name, from its signification of "unity, applied to the Great Architect of the Universe.
The error of Macrobius, however, has been perpetuated by the inventors of the high degrees of Freemasonry, who have incorporated Adad, as a name of God, among their significant words. |
