CENTAINE, ORDER OF.
A mystical society of the eighteenth century which admitted females.
It was organized at Bordeaux in 1735 (see Thory, Acta Latamorum 1, 298).
CENTENARY JEWELS AND WARRANTS.
In England when a Lodge celebrates the hundredth year of its anniversary it is permitted to choose a special jewel for the occasion.
In 1867 the particular design to be used was authorized and illustrated for the first time in 1871 when the Book of Constitutions was issued.
Before thatt time each Lodge was permitted to select its own design, securing the approval of the Grand Master before using the jewel.
As a result of this method there are forty-two of the older Lodges now in possession of Special Centenary Jewels of different designs and wyhich may, be worn by all subscribing members of the particular Lodge.
Many Centenary Warrants were issued before 1871 but it is during that year that the first special provision was made for them. In order to secure one of the Warrants a Lodge must prove uninterrupted existence for one hundred years.
The English Royal Arch Chapters come under this same ruling.
CENTENNIAL.
That which happens every hundred years.
Masonic Bodies that have lasted for that period very generally celebrate the occasion by a commemorative festival.
On the 4th of November, 1852, almost all of the Lodges of the United States celebrated the centennial anniversary of the initiation of George Washington as a Freemason.
CENTER, OPENING ON THE.
In the English instructions, a Master Mason's Lodge is said to be opened on the center, because the Brethren present, being all Master Masons, are equally near and equally distant from that imaginarycentral point which among Freemasons constitutes perfection.
Neither of the preliminary Degrees can assert the same conditions, because the Lodge of an Entered Apprentice may contain all the three classes, and that of a Fellow Craft may include some Master Masons; and therefore the doctrine of perfect equality is not carried out in either.
An attempt was made, but without success, in the Trestle Board, published under the sanction of the Baltimore Masonic Convention, to introduce the custom into the American Lodges.
CENTRALISTEN.
Meaning Centralists. Lenning says such a society existed in Europe between 1770 and 1780, pursuing alchemical, political and religious studies and operating under Masonic forms.
CENTRALISTS.
A society which existed in Europe from 1770 to 1780. It made use of Masonic forms at its meetings simply to conceal its secrets.
Lenning calls it an alchemical association, but says that it had religious and political tendencies.
Glädicke thinks that its object was to propagate Jesuitism.
CENTRAL POINT.
See Point within a Circle.
CEPHAS.
A word which in the Syriac signifies a rock or stone, and is the name which was bestowed by Christ upon Simon, when he said to him, "Thou art a rock," which the Greeks rendered by nirpo, and the Latins by Petrus, both words meaning a rock.
It is used in the Degree of Royal Master, and there alludes to the Stone of Foundatian, which see.
CEREMONIES.
The outer garments which cover and adorn Freemasonry as clothing does the human body.
Although ceremorties give neither live nor truth to doctrines or principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use certain things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would not otherwise have had; and hence, Lord Coke has most wisely said that "prudent antiquity did, for more solemnitjy and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies. "
CEREMONIES, MASTER OF.
CEREMONIENMEISTER,
See Master af Ceremonies.
CERES.
CÉRES,
Among the Romans, the goddess of agriculture; but among the more poetic Greeks she was worshiped under the name of Demeter, as the symbol of the prolific earth.
To her is attributed the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the ancient initiations.
CERIDWEN.
The Isis of the Druids.
CERNEAU, JOSEPH.
A jeweler, born at Villeblevin, in Yonne, a department of central France. A register of the Lodge Reunion des Coeurs at Port Republicain (Port-au-Prince) in Santo Domingo, West Indies, was in the possession of General Albert Pike ,and in 1886 he quotes from it in publishing the report to him of the Supreme Council of France in regard to Joseph Cerneau (see page 29): "Joseph Cerneau appears on the same (the register for 1801) as Keeper of the Seals and Archives, the entry as to him, signed manu propria (by his own hand) being 'Garde de Sceaux et Archives: Joseph Cerneau, Marchand Orfevre, ne a Villeblerin, age de 37 ans R.°.A.°.R.°. (i. e. Royal Arch (of Heredom) and Rose Croix)'" the other words not commented upon specifically by Brother Pike meaning Joseph Cerneau, merchant goldsmith, born at Villeblerin (the v in this word being copied as r), aged 87 years, etc. Cerneau was active in Cuba later on and we find that on December 17, 1804, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania received a petition from several
Brethren for a Warrant to hold a Lodge at Havana and that Brother Joseph Cerneau might be named Master, a request which was granted on that date, the "Petition being duly recommended according to the Regulations of this Grand Lodge."
Antonie-Mathieu Dupotet was Master of Lodge No. .47, Reunion des Coeurs, and in the regiser of that Lodge his name is followed by the same initials of Degrees or titles as in the case of Cerneau, but with this important addition "et P.°. du R.°. S.°.," meaning and Prince af the Royal Secret.
Brother Pike in his Memoir, af Cerneauism (page 6, Supplement, 1885) says, "
In July, 1806, he (Dupotet) gave Cerneau, at Baracoa, in Cuba, the Degrees of the Rite of Heredom à Perfection, from 19 to 25.''
The Appendix to this Memoir, contains a copy of the Patent of the Twenty-fifth Degree to Joseph Cerneau, 16 July, 1806, signed by Dupotet, giving him power for the Northern part of the Island of Cuba to initiate and promote Brother Masons from the fourth to the twenty-fourth, and on one only a year the remaining Degree was perrnitted.
The Patent was said by General Pike in this Memoir to be " from papers belonging to Bro.°. Charles Laflon de Ladebat, who was, prior to 1857, a member of the Supreme Council for the State of Louisiana, at New Orleans (claiming to be the Hicks-Laurent Urtited Sup.
Council continued), of which Jacques Foulhouze had been Grand Commander."
The Patent not only specifically restricted the conferring of Degrees by Joseph Cerneau as Deputy Grand Inspector to the northem part of the Island of Cuba and only to such in the series as are enumerated, namely from the fourth to the twenty-fourth and once a year not more than one in the twenty-fifth, but provides further that these candidates " shall have been officers of a Lodge regularly constituted and recognized, and in places only where there may not be found Sacred and Sublime and regularly constituted Asyla."
Dr. Robert B. Folger, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 1881 (page 337) says "Joseph Cerneau established his Sovereign Grand Consistory, in New York City in 1807.
He pretended to no more than the Rite of Perfection in Twenty-five degrees.''
There is another allusion by th18 author (page 157), "
It will be found that the name of The Most Potent Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry, according to the Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite of Heredom was continued up to the end of the time---viz., 1827."
Doctor Folger mentions the activity of Cerneau in promoting various branches of the Masonic Institution and says in his history, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (second edition, 1881, page 128), " Mr. Cerneau also established a Degree called Aaron's Band which continued to be worked as a detached Degree for many years, in a separate Body; but eventually about the year 1825, was stopped by the interference of the Grand Chapter, which Body stated that it was an infringement upon the Degree of High Priesthood."
We may fix the time when Cerneau came to New York from Cuba by a report made by Brother Duplessis, the proxy of Lodge No. 103 at Havana, to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on January 5, 1807. In this statement (see page 244, Reprint af the Minutes, volume 11, 1801-10), "It appears from said papers that difficulties of the highest importance had happened in that Lodge.
That unworthy Brethren had denounced the Lodge to the Governor of Havana and that Bro. Cerneau had been Ordered to quit the Island and was arrived at New York in the beginning of November last with his Family; That the worthy Brethren of the said Lodge No. 103, had proceeded to the choice of New Officers agreeably to the Communications and Returns aforesaid, and were Obliged to use the greatest caution in their work, &c. ; that the Lodge had lost above Three Thousand Dollars by the unfortunate circurnstance aforesaid, and our worthy Brother Cerneau had also met with a heavy loss by his being obliged to remove with his Family, though he had received from the Governor every mark of regard that could be expected by the most respectable Character, &c., and that the said Bro. Cerneau had previous to his departure given to the Brethren the most wholesome advice and Assisted them in reorgartizing the said Lodge, which now consists of the most respectable Characters of the Island."
We find later on, April 6, 1807, the Grand Lodge authorizing a letter of sympathy to the " late and present Worshipful Masters and Worthy Brethren of Lodge No. 103.'' Brothers Emanuel De La Motta, M. J. Maduro Peixotto, J. J. J. Gourgas and Sampson Simson, the first being Treasurer-General of the Supreme Council having its Grand East at Charleston, South Carolina, visited Joseph Cerneau in New York on September 14, 1813, and as a result of that investigation he was denounced and he and his associates declared expelled from every lawful Degree or Masonic Society in which they may have been received or admitted (see page 25, Documents, Joseph M'cosh).
Joseph M'cosh states in Documents upon sublime Freemasonry in the United States af America (page vii), " Of J. C.'s Masonic conduct in Havana de Cuba, we have many facts before us which would blacken any thing we have before communicated.
His labours were conduded by his being expelled from the island by the governor, at the request of the fraternity who resided there."
There is in the report of the Supreme Council for France, published in 1886, a reference that would indicate action against Joseph Cerneau had been taken by the Masonic authorities in Cuba as well as in the United States.
The item mentioning the decree issued at Charleston in 1813, says (page 31),
It declares him unworthy to be a Mason, annuls as irregular his Masonic operations, and demolishes the Consistories and Councils which he may have established.
It thus approves the Masortic decisions made in 1805, by the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of Havana, Island of Cuba, against this Ver¯ I1l:.
Brother."
In the business recorded of the Adjourned Grand Quarterly Communication at Philadelphia on January 16, 1809 (page 381, Reprint) the Grand Secretary "Brother Baker stated that he had been informed that Bro. Joseph Cerneau, formerly J. G. W. of the Provincial Lodge of St. Domingo and afterwards Master of Lodge No. 103, held at Havannah, and now residing in the City of New York, had been Guilty of Unmasonic Conduct.
Whereupon, On Motion made and Seconded, Resolved, that Brothers Duplessis, Chaudron and Baker be a Committee to Examine respecting the premisses and make Report thereon. "
But the details of this affair must be left to conjecture as we do not discover the Committee to have brought in any report.
In a footnote by General Pike to the report of the Supreme Council for France, July 7, 1886, published at Washington by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States (page 29), we read of Cerneau's claims.
" He did not style himself to be an Inspector-General 'of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.'
The Body that he established did not pretend to be a body, and he did not pretend to be an Inspector; of that Rite; but of 'the Ancient Constitutional Rite of Heredom.'
He went back to France in December, 1827, and was no more heard of: and no Body claiming to be a Supreme Council of the 33d Degree, with any powers, was established by him until November 28, 1827.
Before then the 32ds of his Grand Consistory elected 33ds from among themselves, the title being merely honorary, and with na powers attached." As to the date when Joseph Cerneau left New York for France there is some uncertaintjw, Doctor Folger intimating a later time than Geneneral Pike. Doctor Folger alludes in his History, 1881, to his personal acquaintance with Joseph Cerneau and in regard to his circumstances and movements in later years has this to say (page 117),
" For, in the latter part of the time---from 1832 onward-he was in poor circumstances, and made application to the Supreme Council for assistance.
That body made some considerable purchases of him, which relieved his necessities. He returned to his native land in comparative poverty, and died there, between the years 1840 and 1845, while filling a small public office, under wretched pay."
CERTIFICATE.
A Diploma issued by a Grand Lodge or by a subordinate Lodge under its authority, testifying that the holder thereof is a true and trusty Brother, and recommending him to the hospitality of the Fraternity abroad. The character of this instrument has sometirnes been much misunderstood.
It is by no means intended to act as a voucher for the bearer, nor can it be allowed to supersede the necessity of a strict examinatian. A stranger, however, having been tried and proved by a more unerring standard, his Certificate then properly comes in as an auxiliary testimonial, and will be permitted to afford good evidence of his correct standing in his todge at home; for no Body of Freemascns, true to the principles of their Order, would grant such an instrument to an unworthy Brother, or to one who, they feared, might make an improper use of it.
But though the presence of a Grand Lodge Certificate be in general required as collateral evidence of worthiness to visit, or receive aid, its accidental absence, which may arise in various ways, as from fire, captivity, or shipwreck, should not debar a strange Brother from the rights guaranteed to him by our Institution, provided he can offer other evidence of his good character.
The Grand Lodge of New York has, upon this subject, taken the proper stand in the following regulation:
''
That no Freemason be admitted to any subordinate Lodge under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, or receive the charities of any Lodge, unless he shall, on such application, exhibit a Grand Lodge certificate, duly attested by the proper authorities, except he is known to the Lodge to be a worthy brother."
The Certificate system has been warmly discussed by the Grand Lodges of the United States, and considerable opposition to it has been made by some of them on the ground that, it is an innovation.
If it is an innovation, it certainly is not one of the present day, as we may learn from the Regulations made in General Assembly of the Masons of England, on Saint John the Evangelist's day, 1663, during the Grand Mastership of the Earl of St. Albans, one of which reads as follows:
"That no person hereafter who shall be accepted a Freemason shall be admitted into any Lodge or Assembly, until he has brought a certificate of the time and place of his acceptation from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that limit or division where such Lodge is kept" (see Constitution, 1738, page101).
Among the General Regulations " made at a Grand Lodge held in Corke, on Saint John ye Evangelist's Day, 1728," is the following:
" That no person pretending to be a Mason shall be consid'red as such within ye precincts of our Grand Lodge or deem'd duly matriculated into ye Society of Freemasons, untill he hath subscrib'd in some Lodge to these regulat'ns and oblig'd himself to sign ye before mention'd Duplicate (a copy of the General Regulations possessed by all Lodges), at w'ch time he shall be furnished with proper means to convince the authentick Brethren yt he hath duly complyed."
Brother WT. J. Chetwode Crawley (Caementaria Hibernica, Fasciculus1, pages 11 and 12), says further that "In this clause we descry the germ of the Certificate now issued to every Master Mason. '
The proper means to convince the authentick Brethren' supplies the earliest intimation in the history of the Craft of a practice which, originating with the Grand Lodge of Munster, has been adopted by every Grand Lodge in the World.
The first Grand Lodge Certificate ever heard of in England seems to have been that brought with him to England by Lawrence Dermott, and proudly exhibited by hirn to his Grand Lodge (see the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of the Antients for March 2, 1757, as given in Brother Sadler's Masonic Facts and Fictions).
The Premier Grand Lodge (Moderns) borrowed the practice from Lawrence Dermott and began to make use of Certificates in the year 1755."
CEYLON.
An island in the Indian Ocean. In 1771 Freemasonry was introduced to Ceylon with the establishment by the Grand Lodge of Holland of Fidelity Lodge at Colombo, the capital of the island, in1771.
Sir Alexander Johnston was appointed Provincial Grand Master by the Grand Lodge of England in 1810.
Oliver Day Street says of Ceylon in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama in 1922 :
"On this island are nine Lodges subject to the Grand Lodge of England and three subject to that of Ireland.
Four of these are at Colombo and one each at Badulla, Galle, Halton, Kandy, Kurunegala, Nuwara Ebya, and Tolowakello."
CHAILLOU DE JOINVILLE.
He played an important part in the Freemasonry of France about the middle of the eighteenth century, especially in the schisms which at that time existed in the Grand Lodge. In 1761, he was an active member of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, or Rite of Perfection, which had been established in 1758.
Under the title of Substitute General af the Order, Venerable Master of the First Lodge in France, called Saint Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent Degrees, Cammander, and Sublime Prince af the Royal Secret, etc.,etc., etc., he signed the Patent of Stephen Morin, authorizing him to extend the Royal Order in America, which was the first step that subsequently led to the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Rite in the United States.
In 1762, the Prince of Clermont, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, removed the dancing-master Lacorne, whom he had previously appointed his Substitute General and who had become distasteful to the respectable members of the Grand Lodge, and put Chaillau de Jainville in his place.
This action created a schism in the Grand Lodge, during which De Jainville appears to have acted with considerable energy, but eventually he became almost as notorious as his predecesor, by issuing irregular charters and deputations.
On the death of the Prince of Clermont, in 1771, the Lacornists regained much of their influence, and De Jainville appears quietly to have passed away from the field of French Freemasonry and Masonic intrigues.
CHAIN, MYSTIC.
To form the Mystic Chain is for the Brethren to make a circle, holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding a grave, etc.
Each Brother crosses his arms in front of his body, so as to give his right hand to his left-hand neighbor, and his left hand to his right-hand neighbor.
The French call it Chaine d'Union. It is a symbol of the close connection of all Freemasons in one common brotherhood.
CHAIN OF FLOWERS.
In French Freemasonry, when a Lodge celebrates the day of its foundation, or the semicentennial membership of one of the Brethren, or at the initiation of a louveteau (which see) the room is decorated with wreaths oi flowers called chaine de fleurs.
CHAIN OF UNION.
See Chain, Mystic.
CHAIN, SOCIETY OF THE.
In German, Gessellschaft der Kette.
Also known as Order of the Chain of the Pilgrims. A German society of both sexes, founded, 1758, in Hamburg.
Comprised persons of high social position and among its benevolent work was an Institute for the Blind.
The letters W, . B and S were used by the members as signs of recognition, signifying the German equivalents for the words Camplaisance, Canstancy and Silence.
The jewel was a chain of three links with the three letters W, B and S, and the members were called Knights of the Chain; their meetings were called Unions and the assembled members were known as Favorites.
There was a similar society founded in Denmark in 1777.
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