BASTARD.
The question of the ineligibility of bastards to be made Freemasons was first brought to the attention of the Craft by Brother Chalmers I.
Paton, who, in several articles in The London Freemason, in 1869, contended that they were excluded from initiation by the Ancient Regulations.
Subsequently, in his compilation entitled Freemasonry and its Jurisprudence, published in 1872, he cites several of the 0ld Constitutions as explicitly declaring that the men made Freemasons shall be "no bastards." This is a most unwarrantable interpolation not to be justified in any writer on jurisprudence; for on a careful examination of all the old manuscript copies which have been published, no such words are to be found in any one of them.
As an instance of this literary disingenuousness, to use no harsher term, we quote the following from his work (page 60) : ''The charge in this second edition [of Anderson's Constitutions] is in the following unmistakable words: 'The men made Masons must be freeborn, no bastard (or no bondmen), of mature age and of good report, hale and wund, not deformed or dismembered at the time of their making.'
Now, with a copy of this second edition lying open before him, Brother Mackey found the passage thus printed: "The men made Masons must be freeborn (or no bondmen), of mature age and of good report, hale and sound, not deformed or dismembered at the time of their making." The words "no bastard" are Paton's interpolation.
Again, Paton quotes from Preston the Ancinet .Charges at makings, in these words: "That he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, freeborn, of a good kindred, true, and no bondsman or bastard, and that he have his right limbs as a man ought to have."
But on referring to Preston (edition of 1775, and all subsequent editions) we find the passage to be correctly thus: "That he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, freeborn, of a good kindred, true, and no bondsman, and that he have his limbs as a man ought to have." Positive law authorities should not be thus cited, not merely carelessly, but with designed inaccuracy to support a theory.
But although there is no regulation in the O1d Constitutions which explicitly prohibits the initiation of bastards, it may be implied from their language that such prohibition did exist. Thus, in all the old manuscripts, we find such expressions as these : he that shall be made a Freemason "must be freeborn and of good kindred" Sloane Manuscript (No. 3323), or ''come of good kindred'' Edinburgh Kilwinning Manuscript, or, as the Roberts Print more definitely has it"of honest parentage."
It is not, we therefore think, to be doubted that formerly bastards were considered as ineligible for initiation, on the same principle that they were, as a degraded class, excluded from the priesthood in the Jewish and the primitive Christian church. But the more liberal spirit of modem times has long since made the law obsolete, because it is contrary to the principles of justice to punish a misfortune as if it was a crime.
The reader should note in addition to what Brother Mackey has said in the above article that the Illustrations of freemasonry, by William Preston, edition of 1812 (page 82), reprints a series of charges said to be contained in a manuscript in the possession of the Lodge of Antiquity at London, and to have been written in the reign of James the Second- The third charge says in part:
"And no master nor fellow shall take no apprintice for less than seaven years. And that the apprintice be free-born, and of limbs whole as a man ought to be, and no bastard. And that no master nor fellow take no allowance to be made Mason without the assent of his fellows, at the least six or seaven."
The fourth charge now goes on to say:
"That he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, free-born, of a good kindred, true, and no bondsman, and that he have his right —mbs as a man ought to have."
These charges may well be studied in connection with what Brothers Paton and Mackey have discussed in the foregoing.
BATCHELOR, JAMES CUNNINGHAM.
Born of English parents in Quebec, Canada, July 10, 1818. His parents removed during his infancy to New York. Then he received a high school education in Saint Louis, studied medicine in New Orleans, and especially distinguished himself during the yellow fever epidemic there. He received his First Degree in Freemasonry at Montgomery, Alabama, on April 11, 1846, the Honorary Thirty-third in 1857, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and became an Active in 1859. For twenty-four years he was Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana. He succeeded General AIbert Pike, who died April 2, 1891, as Grand Commander, the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Brother Batchelor died on July 28, 1893.
BATON.
The truncheon or staff of a Grand Marshal, and always carried by him in processions as the ensign uf his office. It is a wooden rod about eighteen inches long. In the military usage of England, the baton of the Earl Marshal was originally of wood, but in the reign of Richard II it was made of gold, and delivered to him at his creation, a custom which has been continued. In the patent or commission granted by that monarch to the Duke of Surrey the baton is minutely described as baculum aureum circa utramque finem de nigro annulatum, meaning a golden wand, hacing black rings around each end- a description that wil1 very well serve for a Masonic baton.
BATS, PARLIAMENT OF.
The Parliament which assembled in England in the year 1426, during the minority of Henry VI, to settle the disputes between the Duke of Gloucester, the Regent, and the Bishop of Winchester, tbe guardian of the young king's person, and which was so called because the members, being forbidden by the Duke of Gloucester to wear swords, armed themselves with clubs or bats.
It has been stated by Preston (Illustrations of Masonry, edition of 1812, page 165), that it was in this Parliament that the Act forbidding Freemasons to meet in Chapters or Congregations was passed; but this is erroneous, for that act was passed in 1425 by the Parliament at Westminster, while the Parliament of Bats met at Leicester in 1426 (see Laborers, Statutes of).
BATTERY.
A given number of blows by the gavels of the officers, or by the hands of the Brethren, as a mark of approbation, admiration, or reverence, and at times accompanied by the acclamation.
BAVARIA.
Freemasonry was introduced into Bavaria, from France, in 1737. However, the Handbuch of Schletter and Zille declares that 1777 was the beginning of Freemasonry in Bavaria proper. The meetings of the Lodges were suspended in 1784 by the reigning duke Charles Theodore, and the act of suspension was renewed in 1799 and 1804 by Maximilian Joseph, the King of Bavaria.
The Order was subsequently revived in 1812 and in 1817. The Grand Lodge of Bayreuth was constituted in 1811 under the appellation of the Grossloge zur Sonne. In 1868 a Masonic conference took place of the Lodges under its jurisdiction, and a constitution was adopted, which guarantees to every confederated Lodge perfect freedom of ritual and govemment, provided the Grand Lodge finds these to be Masonic.
BAY-TREE.
An evergreen plant, and a symbol in Freemasonry of the immortal nature of Truth. By the bay-tree thus referred to in the old instructions of the Knight of the Red Cross, is meant the laurel, which, as an evergreen, was among the ancients a symbol of immortality. It is, therefore, properly compared with Truth, which Josephus makes Zerubbabel say is "immortal and etemal. "
BAZOT, ETIENNE FRANÇOIS.
A French Masonic writer, bom at Nievre, March 31, 1782. He published at Paris a Vocabulaire des Francs-Maçons in 1810. This Freemasons' Dictionary was translated into Italian. In 1811 he published a Manuel du Franc-maçon, or Freemason's Manual, one of the most judicious works of the kind published in France.
He was also the author of Morale de la Franc-maçonnerie, or Masonic Ethics, and the Tuileur Expert des 33 degrés, or Tiling for Thirty-three Degrees, which is a complement to his Manuel. Bazot was distinguished for other fiterary writings on subjects of general literature, such as two volumes of Tales and Poems, A Eulogy on the Abbé de l'Epée, and as the editor of the Biographic Nouvelle des Contemporaires, in twenty volumes.
B. D. S. P. H. G. F.
In the French instructions of the Knights of the East and West, these letters are the initials of Beauté, Divinité, Sagesse, Puissance, Honneur, Gloire, Force, which correspond to the letters of the English monitors B. D. W.P.H.G.S., which are the initials of equivalent words, Beauty, Divinity, Wisdom, Power, Honor, Glory, Strength.
BEADLE.
An officer in a Council of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, corresponding to the Junior Deacon of a Symbolic Lodge. The Beadle is one, say‚ Junius, who proclaims and executes the wilI of superior powers. The word is similar to the old French bedel, the Latin bedellus, and is perhaps a corrupted form of the Anglo-Saxon bydel, all of which have the meaning of messenger.
BEATON, MRS.
One of those fortunate female‚ who are said to have obtained possession of the Freemasons' secrets. The following account of her is given in A General History of the County of Norfolk, published in 1829 (see volume ii, page 1304) :
"Died in St. John's, Maddermarket, Norwich, July, 1802, aged 85, Mrs. Beaton, a native of Wales. She was commonly called the Freemason, from the circumstance of her having contrived to conceal herself one evening, in the wainscoting of a Lodge-room where she learned the secret-at the knowledge of which thousands of her sex have in vain attempted to arrive. She was, in many respects, a very singular character, of which one proof adduced is that the secret of the Freemasons died with her."
There is no official confirmation of this story.
BEAUCENIFER.
From Beauseant, and fero meaning to carry. The officer among the old Knight Templar whose duty it was to carry the Beausean in battle. The office is still retained in some of the high Degrees which are founded on Templarism.
BEAUCHAINE.
The Chevalier Beauchaine was one of the most fanatical of the irremovable Mastersof the Ancient Grand Lodge of France. He has established his Lodge at the Golden Sun, an inn in the Rue St. Victor, Paris, where he slept, and for six francs conferred all the Degrees of Freemasonry. On August 17, 1747, he organized the Order of Fendeurs or Woodcutters, at Paris.
BEAUSEANT.
The vexillum belli, or war-banner of the ancient Templars, which is also used by the modem Masonic Order. The upper half of the banner was black, and the lower half white: black, to typify terror to foes, and white, fairness to friends. It bore the pious inscription, Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam. This is the beginning of the first verse of Psalm cxv, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory."
The Beauseant is frequently, says Barrington in his Introduction to Heraldry (page 121), introduced among the decorations in the Temple Church, and on one of the paintings on the wall, Henry I is represented with this banner in his hand.
As to the derivation of the word, there is some doubt among writers. Bauseant or bausant was, in old French, a piebald or party-colored horse; and the word bawseant is used in the Scottish dialect with similar reference to two colors. Thus, Burns says :
His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,
where Doctor Currie, in his Glossary of Burns, explans bawsent as meaning "having a white stripe down the face." It is also supposed by some that the word bauseant may be only a form, in the older language, of the modern French word bienséant, which signifies something decorous or becoming; but the former derivation is preferable, in which bealmeant would signify simply a party-colored banner.
With regard to the double signification of the white and black banner, the Orientalists have a legend of Alexander the Great, which may be appropriately quoted on the present occasion, as given by Weil in his Biblical Legends ( page 70) :
"Alexander was the lord of light and darkness:
when he went out with his army the light was before him, and behind him was the darkness, so that he was secure against all ambuscades; and by means of a miraculous white and black standard he had also the power to transform the clearest day into midnight and darkness, or black night into noonday, just as he unfurled the one or the other. Thus he was unconquerabIe, since he rendered his troops invisible at his pleasure, and came down suddenly upon his foes.
Might there not have been some connection between the mythical white and black standard of Alexander and the Beauseant of the Templars? We know that the latter were familiar with Oriental symbolism.''
Beauseant was also the war-cry of the ancient Templars and is pronounced bo-say-ong.
BEAUTY.
Said to be symbolically one of the three supports of a Lodge. It is represented by the Corinthian column, because the Corinthian is the most beautiful of the ancient orders of architecture; and by the Junior Warden, because he symbolizes the meridian sun-the most beautiful object in the heavens. Hiram Abif is also said to be represented by the Column of Beauty, because the Temple was indebted to his skill for its splendid decorations. The idea of Beauty as one of the supports of the Lodge is found in the earliest rituals of the eighteenth century, as well as the symbolism which refers it to the Corinthian column and the Junior Warden. Preston first introduced the reference to the Corinthian column and to Hiram Abif.
Beauty, in the Hebrew, n~x~n, pronounced tif-eh-reth, was the sixth of the Cabalistic Sephiroth, and, with Justice and Mercy, formed the second Sephirotic triad; and from the Cabalists the Freemasons most probably derived the symbol (see Supports of the Lodge).
BEAUTY AND BANDS.
The names of the two rods spoken of by the prophet Zechariah ( xi, 7, 10, 14), as symbolic of his pastoral office. This expression was in use in portions of the old Masonic ritual in England; but in the system of Doctor Hemming, which was adopted at the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813, this symbol, with all reference to it, was ex-punged. As Doctor Oliver says in his Dictionary of symbolic Masonry, "it is nearly forgotten, except by a few old Masons, who may perhaps recollect the illustration as an incidental subject of remark among the Fratemity of that period."
BECKER.
BECKER, HEINRICH,
BECKER, KARL FRIEDRICH,
See Johnson.
BECKER, RUDOLPH ZACHARIAS.
A very zealous Freemason of Gotha, who published, in 1786, a historical essay on the Bavarian Illuminati, under the title of Grundsatze Verfassung und Schicksale in Illulninatens 0rder in Baiern. He was a very popular writer on educational subjects; his Instructive Tales of Joy and Sorrouw was so highly esteemed, that a half million copies were printed in German and other languages. He died in 1802.
BEDARRIDE, THE BROTHERS.
Mackey was convinced that the Brothers Marc, Michel, and Joseph Bédarride were Masonic charlatans, notorious for their propagation of the Rite of Mizraim, having established in 1813, at Paris, under the partly real and partly pretended authority of Lechangeur, the inventor of the Rite, a Supreme Puissance for France, and organized a large number of Lodges.
In this opinion Brother Mackey is supported by Clavel who says the founders, including Marc Bédarride, were not of high character. This is repeated by Brother Woodford in the Cyclopedia of Freemasonry. But Brother Mackenzie, Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, says the evidence is insufficient to prove them charlatans. He further asserts :
"There is nothing to distinguish in point of verity between the founder or introducer of one rite above another. It must depend upon the coherence and intellectual value of the rite, which becomes quite superfluous where there is no substantial advantage gained for the true archeological and scientific value of Freemasonry, under whatever name the rite may be formulated. It is in this sense that the authorities of the Grand Lodge of EngIand--ever the honorable custodians of Freemasonry-have most properly resisted innovations. But there are several quasi-Masonic bodies in this country, England, let in as it were by a side door. Hence the brethren Bédarride had as much right to carry their false ware to market as these."
Of these three brothers, Bédarride, who were Jews, Michel, who assulaed the most prominent position in the numerous controversies which arose in French Freemasonry on account of their Rite, died February 16, 1856. Marc died ten years before, in April, 1846.
Of Joseph, who was never very prominent, we have no record as to the time of his death (see Mizraim Rite of).
BEEHIVE.
The bee was among the Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people, because, says Horapollo, "of all insects, the bee alone had a king. " Hence looking at the regulated labor of these insects when congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a beehive should have been deemed an appropriate emblem of systematized industry. Freemasonry has therefore adopted the beehive as a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the instructions, which says that a Master Mason "works that he may receive wages, the better to support himself and family, and contribute to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother, his widow and orphans" ; and in the OId Charges, which tell us that "all Masons shall work honestly on working days, that they may live creditably on holidays."
There seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning connected with this symbol. The ark has already been shown to have been an emblem common to Freemasonry and the Ancient Mysteries, as a symbol of regeneration--of the second birth from death to life. Now, in the Mysteries, a hive was the type of the ark. "Hence," says Faber (0rigin of Pagan Idolatry, volume ii, page 133), "both the diluvian priestesses and the regenerated souls were called bees; hence, bees were feigned to be produced from the carcass of a cow, which also symbolized the ark;
and hence, as the great father was esteemed an infernal god, .honey was much used both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries." This extract is from the article on the bee in Evans' Animl Symbolisln in Ecclesiastical Architecture.
BEGTASCHI.
See Turkey.
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