GOOD SHEPHERD, SIGN OF THE .
When Jesus was relating (Luke - xv) the parable in which one having lost a sheep goes into the wilderness to search for it, He said: "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." Hettner, a German writer on Greek customs, says: "When the Greek carries home his lamb, he slings it round his neck, holding it by the feet crossed over the breast. This is to be seen with us also, but the sight is especially: attractive at Athens, for it was in this manner that the ancients represented Hermes as the guardian and multiplier of flocks; so stood the statue of Hermes at Olympia. Occhalia. and Tanagra Small marble statues of this kind have even come down to us , one of which is to be seen in the Pembroke collection at Wilton House; another , a smaller one, in the Stoa of Hadrian, at Athens. This representation, however, appears most frequently in the oldest works of Christian arts in which the laden Hermes is turned into a laden Christ who often called himself the Good Shepherd, and expressly says in the Gospel of Saint Luke, that when the shepherd finds the sheep, he lays it joyfully on his shoulder."
Now, although the idea of the Good Shepherd may have been of pagan origin, yet derived from the parable of our Savior in Saint Luke and his language in Saint John, it was early adopted by the Christians as a religious emblem. The Good Shepherd bearing the sheep upon his shoulders, the two hands of the Shepherd crossed upon his breast and holding the legs of the sheep, is a very common subject in the paintings of the earliest Christian era. It is an expressive symbol of the Savior's love of Him who taught us to build the new temple of eternal life— and, consequently, as Didron says, "the heart and imagination of Christians have dwelt fondly upon this theme; it has been unceasingly repeated under every possible aspect, and may be almost said to have been worn threadbare by Christian art. From the earliest ages, Christianity completely made it her own." And hence the Christian Degree of Rose Croix has very naturally appropriated the sign of the Good Shepherd, the representation of Christ bearing his once lost but now recovered sheep upon his shoulders, as one of its most impressive symbols.
GOOSE AND GRIDIRON.
An alehouse with this sign, in St. Paul's Church Yards London. In 1717 the Lodge of Antiquity met at the Goose anal Gridiron, and it was there that the first Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of England, after the revival of 1717, was held on the 24th of June, 1717. It was on the headquarters of a musical society, whose arms a Iyre and a swan were converted into Goose and Gridiron.
GORDON, JAMES.
Provincial Grand Master over the Lodges warranted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, east of Balbos in Andalusia, Southern Spain, appointed August 3, 1807 (see History of Freemasonry and Grand Lodge of Scotland, William A. Laurie, 1859, page 408):
GORMOGONS.
A secret society established in 1724, in England, in opposition to Freemasonry. One of its rules was that no Freemason could be admitted until he was first degraded, and had then renounced the Masonic Order. It was absurdly and intentionally pretentious in its character; claiming in ridicule of Freemasonry, a great antiquity, and pretending that it was descended from an ancient society in China. There was much antipathy between the two associations, as will appear from the following verses, published in 1729, by Henry Carey:
- The Masons and the Gormogons
- Are laughing at one another,
- While all mankind are laughing at them;
- Then why do they make such a pother?
- They bait their hook for simple gulls
- And truth with bam they smother,
- But when thev've taken in their culls
- Why then't is "Welcome, Brotherr"
The Gormogons made a great splutter in their day, and published many squibs against Freemasonry; yet that is still living, while the Gormogons were long ago extinguished. They seemed to have flourished for but a very few years. Brother R. F. Gould has collected about all that is known about the Gormogons in his article on the Duke of Wharton, in volume viii of Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge. But the reader must not overlook a pertinent quotation, from a letter written by Brother Gould, mentioned in Melville's Philip, Duke of Wharton (page 114), "About the Gormogons, indeed, all is inference and conjecture. We must suppose that the Society or Association actually met, but there is no distinct proof of their having done so."
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
Of all the styles of architecture, the Gothic is that which is most intimately connected with the history of Freemasonry, having been the system peculiarly practiced by the Freemasons of the Middle Ages.
To what country or people it owes its origin has never been satisfactorily determined; although it has generally been conjectured that it was of Arabic or Saracenic extraction, and that it was introduced into Europe by persons returning from the Crusades. The Christians who had been in the Holy Wars received there an idea of the Saracenic works, which they imitated on their return to the West, and refined on them as they proceeded in the building of churches.
The Italians, Germans, French, and Flemings, with Greek refugees, united in a fraternity of architects and ranged from country to country, and erected buildings according to the Gothic style, which they had learned during their visits to the East, and whose fundamental principles they improved by the addition of other details derived from their own architectural taste and judgment. Hence Sir Christopher Wren thinks that this style of the Medieval Freemasons should be rather called the Saracenic than the Gothic. This style, which was distinguished by its pointed arches, and especially by the perpendicularly of its lines, from the rounded arch and horizontal lines of previous styles, was altogether in the hands of those architects who were known, from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, as Freemasons, and who kept their system of building as a secret, and thus obtained an entire monopoly of both domestic and ecclesiastical architecture. At length, when the gilds or fraternities of Freemasons, "who alone," says Hope, "held the secrets of Gothic art," were dissolved, the style itself was lost, and was succeeded by what Paley says (Manual of Gothic Architecture, page 15) was "a worse than brazen era of architecture" (see Traveling Freemasons).
GOTHIC CONSTITUTIONS.
A title sometimes given to the Institutions which are supposed to have been adopted by the Freemasons at the City of York, in the tenth century, and so called in allusion to the Gothic architecture which was introduced into England by the Fraternity. A more correct and more usual designation of these laws is the York Constitutions, which see.
GOULD, ROBERT FREKE.
This well-known historian of Freemasonry had a varied career. Born in 1836, and died March 26, 1915. He entered the English army at the age of eighteen, becoming a lieutenant in the same year, and serving with distinction in North China in 186S9. On his return to England he studied law and became a barrister in 1868. He was initiated at Ramsgate in the Royal Navy Lodge, No. 429, and was Master of the Inhabitants Lodge at Gibraltar, also of the Meridian Lodge, No. 743, a Military Lodge attached to his regiment. Afterward he held the Chair of the Moira, Quatuor Coronati and Jerusalem Lodges. In 1880 he was appointed Senior Grand Deacon of England. He had been a constant writer in the Masonic press since 1858; in 1879 he published The Four Old Lodges and The Atholl Lodges, and in 1899 a book on Military Lodges. But his greatest work is the History of Freemasonry in three large volumes, which occupied him from 1882 to 1887, which was followed in 1903 by A Concise History of Freemasonry abridged from the larger work and brought up to date.
GOURGAS, JOHN JAMES JOSEPH.
A merchant of New York, who was born in France in 1777, and received a member of the Scottish Rite in 1806. His name is intimately connected with the rise and progress of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States. Through his representations and his indefatigable exertions, the Mother Council at Charleston was induced to denounce the Consistory of Joseph Cerneau in the City of New York, and to establish there a Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction, of which Brother Gourgas was elected the secretary-general. He continued to hold this office until 1S32, when he was elected Sovereign Grand Commander. In 1851, on the removal of the Grand East of the Supreme Council to Boston, he resigned his office in favor of Brother Giles Fonda Yates, but continued to take an active interest, so far as his age would permit, in the Rite until his death, which occurred at New York on February 19, 1865, at the ripe old age of eighty-eight, and being at the time probably the oldest possessor of the Thirtieth Degree in the world. Brother Gourgas w as distinguished for the purity of his life and the powers of his intellect. His Masonic library was very valuable, and especially rich in manuscripts. His correspondence with Dr. Moses Holbrook, at one time Grand Commander of the Southern Council, is in the archives of that Body, and bears testimony to his large Masonic attainments.
GRAAL, HOLY.
GRAIL, THE HOLY.
See San Graal.
GRADES.
GRADES OF WORKMEN.
Degrees in Freemasonry are sometimes so called. In this connection it is a French word (see Degrees).
GRAIN OF MUSTARD, ORDER OF THE.
The German name is Der Orden vom Senf Korn. An order instituted in Germany, based on Mark iv, 30 and 32, the object being the propagation of morality.
GRAMMAR.
One of the seven liberal arts and sciences, which forms, with Logic and Rhetoric. a triad dedicated to the cultivation of language. "God, ' says Sanctius, "created man the participant of reason; and as he willed him to be a social being, he bestowed upon him the gift of language, in the perfecting of which there are three aids. The first is Grammar, which rejects from language all solecisms and barbarous expressions; the second is Logic, which is occupied with the truthfulness of language; and the third is Rhetoric, which seeks only the adornment of language."
GRAND ARCHITECT.
A Degree in several of the Rites modeled upon the Twelfth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is the Sixth Degree of the Reform of Saint Martin; the Fourteenth of the Rite of Elected Cohens; the Twenty-third of the Rite of Mizraim, and the Twenty-fourth of the Metropolitan Chapter of France (see also Great Architect of the Universe).
GRAND CHAPTER.
A Grand Chapter consists of the High Priests, Kings, and Scribes for the time being, of the several Chapters under its Jurisdiction, of the Past Grand and Deputy High Priests. Kings and Scribes of the said Grand Chapter. In some Grand Chapters Past High Priests are admitted to membership, but in others they are not granted this privilege, unless they have served as Grand and Deputy Grand High Priests, Kings, or Scribes. Grand Chapters in the United States have the sole government and superintendence of the several Royal Arch Chapters and Lodges of the Most Excellent, Past, and Mark Masters within their several Jurisdictions.
Until the year 1797, there was no organization of Grand Chapters in the United States. Chapters were held under the authority of a Master's Warrant, although the consent of a neighboring Chapter was generally deemed expedient. But in 1797, delegates from several of the Chapters in the Northern States assembled at Boston for the purpose of deliberating on the expediency of organizing a Grand Chapter for the government and regulation of the several Chapters within the said States.
This Convention prepared an address to the Chapters in New York and New England, disclaiming the power of any Grand Lodge to exercise authority over Royal Arch Masons, and declaring it expedient to establish a Grand Chapter. In consequence of this address, delegates from most of the States above mentioned met at Hartford in January, 1798, and organized a Grand Chapter, formed and adopted a Constitution. and elected and installed their officers. This example was quickly followed by other parts of the Union and Grand Chapters came into existence in nearly all the States (see General Grand Chapter).
The officers of a Grand Chapter are usually the same 3S those of a Chapter, with the distinguished prefix of Grand to the titles. The jewels are also the same, but enclosed within 3 circle. In England and Scotland the Grand Chapter bears the title of Supreme Grand Chapter.
GRAND CHAPTER OF PRINCE MASONS.
See Prince Masons of Ireland.
GRAND COMMANDER.
The presiding officer of a Grand Commandery of Knights Templar.
GRAND COMMANDER OF THE EASTERN STAR.
The French expression is Grand Commandeur de l'Etoile d'Orient. A Degree in Pyron's collection.
GRAND CONCLAVE.
The title of the presiding Body of Templarism in England is the Grand Conclave of the religious and Military Order of Masonic Knights Templar.
GRAND CONSERVATORS.
On July 1, 1814, the Grand Mastership of the Order in France, then held by Prince Cambacéres, was, in consequence of the political troubles attendant upon the restoration of the monarchy, declared vacant by the Grand Orient. On August 12 the Grand Orient decreed that the functions of Grand Master should be provisionally discharged by a Commission consisting of three Grand Officers, to be called Grand Conservators, and Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, the Count de Beurnonville, and Timbrune, Count de Valence, were appointed to that office.
GRAND CONSISTORY.
The governing Body over a State of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; subject, however, to the superior Jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third. The members of the Grand Consistory are required to be in possession of the Thirty-second Degree. Such wars. the practice in the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction which prevails in the Northern Body but the name is there the Council of Deliberation.
GRAND COUNCIL.
The title given to the first three officers of 3 Royal Arch Chapter. Also the name of the superintending Body of Cryptic Freemasonry in any Jurisdiction. It is composed of the first three officers of each Council in the Jurisdiction. Its officers are: Most Puissant Grand Master, Thrice Illustrious Deputy Grand Master, Illustrious Grand Conductor of the Works, Grand Treasurer, Grand Recorder, Grand Chaplain, Grand Marshal, Grand Captain of the Guards, Grand Conductor of the Council, and Grand Steward.
GRAND DIRECTOR OF THE CEREMONIES.
An important officer in the United Grand Lodge of England; a similar office to that of Grand Master General of Ceremonies of a Supreme Council, upon whom the order of the Grand Body largely depends, and who has charge of the service or ceremonies of whatever nature that may transpire.
GRAND EAST.
The city in which the Grand Lodge, or other governing Masonic Body is situated, and whence its official documents emanate, is called the Grand East. Thus, a document issued by the Grand Lodge off Massachusetts would be dated from the Grand East of Boston, or if from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, it would be the Grand East of New Orleans. The place where a Grand Lodge meets is therefore called a Grand East. The word is in frequent Masonic use on the Continent of Europe and in America, but seldom employed in England, Scotland, or Ireland.
GRAND ELECT, PERFECT AND SUBLIME MASON.
The Fourteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (see Perfection, Lodge of).
GRAND ENCAMPMENT.
See Encampment, Grand.
GRAND HIGH PRIEST.
The presiding officer of a Grand Royal Arch Chapter in the American system. The powers and prerogatives of a Grand High Priest are far more circumscribed than those of a Grand Master. As the office has been constitutionally created by the Grand Chapter, and did not precede it as that of Grand Masters did the Grand Lodges, he possesses no inherent prerogatives, but those only which are derived from and delegated to him by the Constitution of the Grand Chapter and regulations formed under it for the government of Royal Arch Masonry.
GRAND INQUIRING COMMANDER.
The Sixty-sixth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
GRAND INSPECTOR, INQUISITOR COMMANDER.
The Thirty-first Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is not a historical Degree, but simply a judicial power of the advanced Degrees. The place of meeting is called a Supreme Tribunal. The decorations are white, and the presiding officer is styled Most Perfect President. The jewel of the Degree is a Teutonic cross of silver attached to white watered ribbon. The Teutonic Cross is the same in shape as the Jerusalem Cross, four plain T's joined to make a cross, a cross potent, or having crutched arms.
GRAND LODGE MANUSCRIPT, NO. 1.
A roll of parchment, nine inches in length and five in breadth, containing the Legend of the Craft and the Old Charges. It is preserved in the Archives of the Grand Lodge of England, having been bought in 1839 for £25. It was dated by its writer 1583. It has been reproduced in Hughan's Old Charges, 1872; in Sadler's Masonic Facts and Fictions, and in facsimile by Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
GRAND LODGE, REPRESENTATIVE OF A
See Representative of a Grand Lodge.
GRAND LODGE, SUPREME OR GENERAL.
See General Grand Lodge.
GRAND MASTER.
The chief presiding officer of the Symbolic Degrees in a Jurisdiction. He presides, of course, over the Grand Lodge, and has the right not only to be present, but also to preside in every Lodge, with the Master of the Lodge on his left hand, and to order his Grand Wardens to attend him, and act as Wardens in that particular Lodge. He has the right of visiting the Lodges and inspecting their books and mode of work as often as he pleases, or, if unable to do so, he may depute his Grand Officers to act for him. He has the power of granting Dispensations for the formation of new Lodges; which Dispensations are of force until revoked by himself or the Grand Lodge. He may also grant Dispensations for several other purposes (see the article Dispensation). Formerly, the Grand Master appointed his Grand Officers, but this regulation has been repealed, and the Grand Officers are now all elected by the Grand Lodges, except in England, where the Grand Master appoints all but the Grand Treasurer.
When the Grand Master visits a Lodge, he must he received with the greatest respect, and the Master of the Lodge should always offer him the chair, which the Grand Master may or may not accept at his pleasure.
Should the Grand Master die, or be absent from the Jurisdiction during his term of office, the Deputy Grand Master assumes his powers, or, if there be no Deputy, then the Grand Wardens according to seniority.
The following is a list of the Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of England, established in 1717 and afterward known as the Moderns:
- 1717. Antony Sayer.
- 1718. George Payne.
- 1719. J. T. Desaguliers, LL.D., F.R.S.
- 1720. George Payne.
- 1721. John, Duke of Montague.
- 1722. Philip, Duke of Wharton.
- 1723. Francis, Earl of Dalkeith.
- 1724. Charles, Duke of Richmond.
- 1725. Jarnes, Lord Paisley.
- 1726. William, Earl of Inchiquin.
- 1727. Henry, Lord Coleraine.
- 1728. James, Lord Kingston.
- 1729. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.
- 1731. Thomas, Lord Lovel.
- 1732. Anthony, Viscount Montague.
- 1733. James, Earl of Strathmore.
- 1734. John, Earl of Crawford.
- 1745. Thomas, Viscount Weymouth.
- 1736. John, Earl of Londoun.
- 1737. Edward, Earl of Darnley.
- 1738. sir Henry, Marquess r
- 1739. Robert, Lord Raymond
- 1740. John, Earl of Wintore
- 1741. James, Earl of Morton
- 1749. John, Viscount Dudlex and Ward.
- 1744. Thomas, Earl of Strathmore.
- 1745. James, Lord Cranstoun.
- 1747. Williams Lord Byron.
- 1759. John, Lord Carysfort.
- 1754. James, Marquess of Carnarvon.
- 1757 . Sholts, Lord Aberdour.
- 1762. Washington, Earl Ferrers.
- 1764. Cadwallader, Lord Blaney.
- 1767. lIenry, Duke of Beaufort.
- 1772. Robert, Lord Petre.
- 1777. George, Duke of Manehester.
- 1782. H. R. H. The Duke of Cumberland.
- 1790. H. R. H. The Prinee of hi ales.
- 1813. H. R. H. The Duke of Sussex.
- The following is a list of the Grand Masters of the Atholl or Antients Grand Lodge:
- 1753. Robert Turner.
- 1754. Hon. Edward Vaughan.
- 1756. Earl of Blesinton.
- 1760. Thomas, Earl of Relly.
- 1766. Hon. Thos. Mathew.
- 1771. John third Duke of Atholl.
- 1775. John fourth Duke of Atholl
- 1789. Vacant.
- 1783. Randal, Earl of Antrim.
- 1791. John, fourth Duke of Atholl.
- 1813. H. R. H. The Duke of Rent.
- The following is a list of the Grand Masters of the United Grand Lodge of England from the Union of Antients and Moderns in 1813:
- 1813. H. R. H. The Duke of Sussex.
- 1844. Earl of Zetland.
- 1870. Marquis of Ripon.
- 1874. H. R. H. The Prince of Wales.
- 1901. H. R. H. The Duke of Connaught.
GRAND MASTER ARCHITECT.
The French is Grand Maître Architect. The Twelfth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. This is strictly a scientific degree, resembling in that respect the Degree of Fellow Craft. In it the principles of architecture and the connection of the liberal arts with Freemasonry are unfolded. Its officers are three—a Master, and two Wardens. The Chapter is decorated with white and red hangings, and furnished with the five orders of architecture, and a case of mathematical instruments. The apron is white, lined with blue; and the jewel is a gold medal, on which are engraved the orders of architecture. It is suspended by a stone-colored ribbon.
GRAND MASTER, INHERENT RIGHTS OF.
See Inherent Rights of a Grand Master.
GRAND MASTER MASON.
The title given to the Grand Master in the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
GRAND MASTER OF ALL SYMBOLIC LODGES.
The French title of this officer is Vénerable Maitre de toutes les Loges. The Twentieth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The presiding officer is styled Vénérable Grand Master, and is assisted by two Wardens in the West. The decorations of the Lodge are blue and yellows. The old ritual contains some interesting instructions respecting the first and second Temple. Among the traditions preserved by the possessors of this Degree is one which states that after the third Temple was destroyed by Titus, the son of Vespasian, the Christian Freemasons, who were then in the Holy Land being filled with sorrow, departed from home with the determination of building a fourth, and that, dividing themselves into several bodies, they dispersed over the various parts of Europe. The greater number went to Scotland, and repaired to the town of Kilwinning, where they established a Lodge and built an abbey, and where the records of the Order were deposited. This tradition, preserved in the original rituals, was to Brother Mackey a very strong presumptive evidence that the Degree owed its existence to the Templar system of Ramsay.
|
