CALIFORNIA.
When gold was discovered in California many Masonic Brethren were among the crowds that poured into the district and several Lodges began work in the early part of the year 1848.
Soon the question of establishing a Grand Lodge arose. A Convention met on April 18, 1850, of which Brother Charles Gilman of San Francisco was the Chairman and Brother Benjamin D. Hyam of Benicia was Secretary. The Lodges represented were California Lodge, No. 13, of San Francisco ; Connceticut Lodge, No. 75, of Sacramento City ; Westem Star Lodge, No. 98, of Benton City, Upper California, and New Jersey Lodge of Sacramento City. Brother Benjamin D. Hyam presented credentials from Benicia Lodge, at Benicia, but, as no Masonic information of the existence of such a Lodge could be discovered, it was not recognized. On April 19, a Constitution was adopted and Grand Officers duly elected and installed.
The first Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, namely, San Francisco, No. l, was organized by Dispensation dated May 9, 1850, and a Charter was granted to it, September 13, in the same year. Three Chapters, San Francisco, No. l, Sonora, No. 2, and Sacramento, No. 3, sent delegates to a Convention held on May 6, 1854, at Sacramento for the purpose of organizing a Grand Chapter. The meeting was adjourned, after three days' session, and met again at San Franeiseo, July 18, 1854. A Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge opened. Companion Charles M. Radeliff, of Sonora Chapter, No. 2, was the first Grand High Priest; Companion John D. Creigh, of San Francisco, No. l, Deputy Grand High Priest, and Companion Townsend A. Thomas, of Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, Grand Secretary.
Charters were granted by the Grand Council of Alabama to two Councils in California. One was chartered by the Grand Council of Tennessee and one by the Grand Council of Texas. By representatives of these four Councils the Grand Council of California was organized on Jime 26, 1860.
A Commandery of Knights Templar, San Francisco, No. l, was formed on November 10, 1852, and was chartered on November 1, 1853. Under the Warrant of Sir William Hubbard, who was then Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, the Grand Commandery of California was established, August 10 and 11, 1858, in the Asylum of San Francisco Commandery, No. I.
A Lodge of Perfection, King Solomon, No. 3, was established by a Charter dated January 3, 1866; Robert Bruce, No. 3, a Chapter of Rose Croix, January 13, 1886; Hugues de Payens, Council of Kadosh, No. 3, January 7, 1886, and Los Angeles Consistory, No. 3, October 22, 1888. These four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite labored in South California. In North Califomia a Chapter of Rose Croix and a Lodge of Perfection, both by name San Francisco, No. l, were chartered in 1868, the first on Jime 15, the second on July 13. A Council of Kadosh and a Consistory, also of the same name, were granted Charters on September 17, 1868, and Jime 30, 1897, respeetively.
CALLING OFF.
A technical term in Freemasonry which signifies the temporary suspension of labor in a Lodge without passing through the formal ceremony of closing. The full form of the expression is to call from labor to refreshment, and it took its rise from the former custom of dividing the time spent in the Lodge between the work of Freemasonry and the moderate enjoyment of the banquet.
The banquet formed in the eighteenth century an indispensable part of the arrangements of a Lodge Communication. "At a certain hour of the evening," says Brother Oliver, "with certain ceremonies, the Lodge was called from labor to refreshment, when the Brethren enjoyed themselves with decent merriment." That custom no longer exists; and although in England almost always, and in the United States occasionally, the labors of the Lodge are concluded with a banquet; yet the Lodge is formally closed before the Brethren proceed to the table of refreshment.
Calling off in American Lodges is now only used, in a certain ceremony of the Third Degree, when it is desired to have anotber meeting at a short interval, and the Master desires to avoid the tediousness of dosing and opening the Lodge.
Thus, if the business of the Lodge at its regular meeting has so accumulated that it cannot be transacted in one evening, it has become the custom to call off until a subsequent evening, when the Lodge, instead of being opened with the usual ceremony, is simply "called on," and the latter meeting is considered as only a continuation of the former.
This custom is very generally adopted in Grand Lodges at their Annual Communications, which are opened at the beginning of the session, called off from day to day, and finally closed at its end. We do not know that any objection has ever been advanced against this usage in Grand Lodges, because it seems necessary as a substitute for the adjoumment, which is resorted to in other legislative bodies, but which is not admitted in Freemasonry. But much discussion has taken place in reference to the practise of calling off in Lodges, some authorities sustaining and others condemning it. Thus, many years ago, the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi proposed this question : ''In case of excess of business, cannot the unfinished be laid over until the next or another day, and must the Lodge be closed in form, and opened the next, or the day designated for the transaction of that business?" To this question some authorities, and among others Brother C. W. Moore (Freemasons Monthly Magazine, volume xii, No,10), reply in the negative, while other equally good jurists differ from them in opinion.
The difficulty seems to be in this, that if the regular meeting of the Lodge is closed in form, the subsequent meeting becomes a special one, and many things which could be done at a regular communication cease to be admissible. The recommendation, therefore, of Brother Moore, that the Lodge should be closed, and, if the business be unfinished, that the Master shall call a special meeting to complete it, does not meet the difficulty, because it is a wellsettled principle of Masonic law that a special meeting cannot interfere with the business of a preceding regular one.
As, then, the mode of briefly closing by adjournment is contrary to Masonic law and usage, and cannot, therefore, be resorted to, as there is no other way except by calling off to continue the character of a regular meeting, and as, during the period that the Lodge is called off, it is under the government of the Junior Warden, and Masonic discipline is thus continued, Doctor Mackey, for the reasons cited by him in regard to Brother Moore, was clearly of opinion that calling off from day to day for the purpose of continuing work or business is, as a matter of convenience, admissible.
The practise may indeed be abused. But there is a well-known legal maxim which says, Ez abusu non arguitur in usum. "No argument can be drawn from the abuse of a thing against its use. " Thus, a Lodge cannot be called off except for continuance of work and business, nor to an indefinite day, for there must be a good reason for the exercice of the practise, and the Brethren present must be notified before dispersing of the time of reassembling; nor can a Lodge at one regular meeting be called off until the next, for no regular meeting of a Lodge is permitted to run into another, but each must be closed before its successor can be opened.
CALLING ON.
When a Lodge that is called off at a subsequent time resumes work or business, it is said to be called on. The full expression is called on from refreshment to labor.
CALUMNY.
See Back.
CALVARY.
Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated due west from Mount Moriah, on which the Temple of Solomon was built. It was originally a hillock of notable size, but has, in more modern times, been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
There are several coincidences which identify Mount Calvary with the small hill where the "newlymade grave," referred to in the Third Degree, was discovered by the weary Brother. Thus, Mount Calvary was a small hill ; it was situated in a westward direction from the Temple, and near Mount Moriah; and it was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and is the very spot where a weary brother, traveling on that road, would find it convenient to sit down to rest and refresh himself; it was outside the gate of the Temple; it has at least one cleft in the rock, or cave, which was the place which subsequently became the sepulcher of our Lord. Hence Mount Calvary has always retained an important place in the legendary history of Freemasonry, and there are many traditions connected with it that are highly interesting in their import.
One of the traditions is, that it was the burialplace of Adam, in order, says the old legend, that where he lay, who effected the ruin of mankind, there also might the Savior of the world suffer, die, and be buried. Sir R. Torkington, who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1517, says that ''under the Mount of Calvary is another chapel of our Blessed Lady and St. John the Evangelist, that was called Golgatha;
and there, right under the mortise of the cross, was found the head of our forefather, Adam." Golgotha, it will be remembered, means, in Hebrew, the place of a skull ; and there may be some connection between this tradition and the name of Golgotha, by which, the Evangelists inform us, in the time of Christ, Mount Calvary was known. Calvary, or Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin.
Another tradition states that it was in the bowels of Mount Calvary that Enoch erected his nine-arched vault, and deposited on the foundation-stone of Freemasonry that Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a symbol of Divine truth, is the great object of Speculative Freemasonry.
A third tradition details the subsequent discovery of Enoch's deposit, by King Solomon, whilst making excavations in Mount Calvary during the building of the Temple.
On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer slain and buried. It was there that, rising on the third day from his sepulcher, He gave, by that act the demonstrative evidence of the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.
And it is this spot that has been selected, in the legendary history of Freemasonry, to teach the same sublime truth, the development of which by a symbol evidently forms the design of the Third or Master's Degree.
CAMORRA.
A secret society of gangsters organized about 1820 at Naples. The name is a Spanish word meaning quarrel and similar societies are reported as active in Spain before they were heard of in ltaly. From local organized criminals the society grew to revolutionary power in elections and from 1848 exercised a control only broken by the government in 1877. Still powerful in defeat, the municipality of Naples as recently as 1900 was set aside by a Royal Commission.
A double murder in 1911 resulted in the arrest and trial of forty conspirators, several condemned to long imprisonment. The initiation is said to have required the candidate to pick up a coin while the others present struck at it with daggers.
Later there was a fight or duel instead of this. Training of new members lasted three years and at reception the initiate was pledged to loyalty by an oath repeated while his uplifted hand was wet with his own blood. Today the Camorra is curbed, but mysterious crimes in other lands and at home are sometimes credited to its venom (see Carbonari, Mafia, and Secret Societies).
CAMP.
A portion of the paraphernalia decorated with tents, flags, and pennons of a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, or Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
It constitutes the Tracing Board and is worn on the apron of the degree. It is highly symbolic, and represents an imaginary Masonic camp. Its symbolism is altogether esoteric.
CAMPE, JOACHIM HEINRICH.
A Doctor of Theology, and Director of Schools in Dessau and Hamburg, who was born in 1746 and died October 22, 1818. He was the author of many works on philosophy and education, and was a learned and zealous Freemason, as is shown in his correspondence with Lessing.
CANADA.
Upon the advent of Confederation, July 1, 1867, local control in each Province for the government of the Masonic Fraternity of the Dominion took a strong hold as a predominant idea, and prevailed. Each Province has now a Grand Lodge, and in order of their organization are as follows:
Canada, having jurisdiction only in Ontario, 1855; Nova Scotia, 1866; New Brunswick, 1867; Quebec, 1869; British Columbia, 1871; Manitoba, 1875; Prince Edward Island, 1875; Alberta, 1905; Saskatchewan, 1906. Brother Will H.Whyte, P. G. M., says the first marks of the ancient craftsmen have been found in Nova Scotia A mineralogical survey in 1827 found on the shore of Goat Island in the Annapolis Basin, partly covered with sand, a slab of rock 2,5 by 2 feet, bearing on it those well-known Masonic emblems, the Square and Compasses, and the date 1606. Brother Whyte concluded that who were the craftsmen and how the stone came there, must be left to conjecture.
CANAL ZONE.
Sojourners Lodge was originally constituted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the Republic of Panama. When the Canal Zone was acquired by the Government of the United States of America this Lodge, in I912, came under the controle of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1912. In 1915 the Canal Zone Lodges were erected into a District Grand Lodge. A treaty was concluded in 1917 between the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and Panama whereby the former had sole jurisdiction over the Canal Zone. In 1921, the Canal Zone District Grand Lodge comprised six Lodges: Sojourners at Cristobal, Canal Zone at Aneon, Army at Corozal, Isthmian at Paraiso, Darien at Balboa and Sibert at Gatun.
On February 9, 1911, a Dispensation was issud by the General Grand Council to a Council in the Canal Zone at Ancon. This was chartered as Canal Zone Council, No. l, on September 12, 1912.
The Grand Encampment of the United States authorized the Canal Zone Commandery, No. l, at Ancon, Panama, on August 14, 1913.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was first established here when Panama, No. l, at Cristoal, was constituted a Consistory, a Council of Kadosh, a Chapter of Rose Croix, and a Lodge of Perfection by Charters from the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, dated October 22, 1915.
CANCELLARIUS.
An office of high rank and responsibility among the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, performing the duties of, or similar to, the Chancellor.
CANDIDATE.
An applicant for admission into Masonry is called a candidate. The Latin candidatus means one who is clothed in white, candidis vestibus indutus. In ancient Rome, he who sought office from the people wore a white shining robe of a peculiar construction, flowing open in front, so as to exhibit the wounds he had received in his breast. From the color of his robe or toga candida, he was called candidatus, whence the word candidate. The derivation will serve to remind the Freemason of the purity of conduct and character which should distinguish all those who are candidates for admission into the Order.
The qualifications of a candidate in Freemasonry are somewhat peculiar. He must be free-born-under the English Constitution it is enough that he is a Freeman, under no bondage, of at least twenty-one years of age, in the possession of sound senses, free from any physical defect or dismemberment, and of irreproachable manners, or, as it is technically termed, under the tongue of good report. No atheist, eunuch, or Woman can be admitted. The requisites as to age, sex, and soundness of body have reference to the operative character of the Institution. We can only expect able workmen in able-bodied men.
The mental and religious qualifieations refer to the duties and obligations which a Freemason contracts. An idiot could not understand them, and an atheist would not respect them. Even those who possess all these necessary qualifieations can be admitted only under certain regulations which differ under the several Masonic Constitutions.
CANDIDATES, ADVANCEMENT OF.
See Advancement, Hurried.
CANDLESTICK, GOLDEN.
The golden candlestick of seven branches, which is a part of the furniture of a Royal Arch Chapter, is derived from the holy candlestick which Moses was instructed to construct of beaten gold for the use of the tabernacle.
Smith (Dictionary of the Bible) thus abbreviates Lightfoot's explanation of the description given in Exodus :
"The foot of it was gold, from which went up a shaft straight, which was the middle light. Near the foot was a golden dish wrought almondwise ; and a little above that a golden knop, and above that a golden flower. Then two branches one on each side bowed,- and coming up as high as the middle shaft. On each of them were three golden cups placed almondwise, in sharp, scallop-shell fashion; above which was a golden knop, a golden flower, and the socket. Above the branches on the middle shaft was a golden boss, above which rose two shafts more ; above the coming out of these was another boss and two more shafts, and then on the shaft upwards were three golden scallop-cups, a knop, and a flower ; so that the heads of the branches stood an equal height."
In the tabernacle, the candlestick was placed opposite the table of shewbread, which it was intended to illumine, in an oblique position, so that the lamps looked to the east and south. What became of the candlestick between the time of Moses and that of Solomon is unknown. The first Temple was lighted by ten golden candlesticks similarly embossed, which were conneeted by golden chains and formed a sort of railing before the veil.
These ten candlesticks became the spoil of the Chaldean conqueror at the time of the destruction of the Temple, and could not have been among the articles afterward restored by Cyrus; for in the second Temple, built by Zerubbabel, we find only a single candlestick of seven branches, like that of the tabernacle. Its form has been perpetuated on the Arch of Titus, on which it was sculptured with other articles taken by that monarch, and carried to Rome as special plunder, spolia opima, after he had destroyed the Herodian Temple. This is the candlestick which is represented as a decoration in a Royal Arch Chapter.
In Jewish symbolism, the seven branches were supposed by some to refer to the seven planets, and by others to the seventh day or Sabbath. The primitive Christians made it allusive to Christ as the Light of the World, and in this sense it is a favorite symbol in early Christian art.
Brother C. C. Hunt, Grand Secretary of Iowa, instructively discussed this subject in the Quarterly Bulletin, January, 1924, and says, in part: "The use of the seven-branched candlestick in the Most Excellent Degree is correct according to the General Grand Chapter ritual, and has, I believe, an important symbolical reference in the work of that degree.
There is no reason why the seven-branched candlestick should not be used in the Most Excellent Degree as well as in the Royal Arch. It is not necessary to duplicate the elaborate furniture of the Temple in our Most Excellent Degree. The single table and candlestick of the Tabernacle and the second Temple has the same symbolism as the ten of the first Temple.
It is true that no sylnbolie meaning is attached to the candlestick in the ritual, but the very fact that it is used as part of the furniture of the degree indicates that it has the same symbolism there that it had in its place in the Temple, which is, that the seven ights represent the seven planets, which, regarded as the eyes of God, behold everything.
The light in the center signifies the sun, the chief of the planets. The other six planets represented by the three lamps on each side of the central light are Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus was first recognized as a planet by Sir William Herschel in 1781 A.D. and the earth was Iooked upon as receiving light from the planets instead of being considered a planet itself. The seven-branched candlestick was especially holy, and it was forbidden to make copies of it for general purposes.
The fourth chapter of Zechariah gives a symbolical meaning to the sevenbranched candlestick which is very appropriate to our Chapter work. In fact, part of this very Chapter is quoted in the work of the Degrees. How fitting it is that this candlestick, the symbol of the spirit of the Lord and the light of his countenance shining upon us through his eyes beholding and encouraging us in the noble and glorious work of fitting ourselves as living stones for the spiritual building which is to be our eternal dwelling place, should have a place in the ceremonies of the Most Excellent Master's Degree, the degree which symbolizes the completion of that work and the dedication of the Temple to the service of the only true and living God."
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