INEFFABLE DEGREES.
From the Latin word, ineffabilrs, that which can not or ought not to be spoken or expressed. The Degrees from the Fourth to the Fourteenth inclusive, of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Which are so called because they are principally engaged in the investigation and contemplation of the Ineffable Name.
INEFFABLE NAME.
It was forbidden to the Jews to pronounce the Tetragrammaton or sacred name of God; a reverential usage which is also observed in Freemasonry. Hence the Tetragrammaton is called the Ineffable Name. As in Freemasonry, so in all the secret societies of antiquity, much mystery has been attached to the Divine Name, which it was considered unlawful to pronounce, and for which some other word was substituted. Adonai was among the Hebrews the substitute for the Tetragrammaton.
INEFFABLE TRIANGLE.
The two triangles in crusted one upon the other, containing the Ineffable Name in Enochian characters, represented in the Eleventh Grade of the Ineffable Series. Good and t evil, light and darkness, life and death, are here not wanting in symbolism, foreshadowing the philosophic Degrees, and furnishing the true original of the two interlaced triangles adopted in modern Freemasonrv (seeEnochian Alphabet).
INELIGIBLE.
Who are and who are not ineligible for initiation into the mysteries of Freemasonry is treated of under the head of Qualifications of Candidates, which see.
INFORMATION, LAWFUL.
One of the modes of recognizing a stranger as a true Brother, is from the lawful information of a third party. No Freemason can lawfully give information of another's qualifications unless he has actually tested him by the strictest trial and examination, or knows that it has been done by another. But it is not every Freemason who is competent to give lawful information. Ignorant and unskilful Brethren cannot do so, because they are incapable of discovering truth or of detecting error. A rusty Freemason should never attempt to examine a stranger, and certainly, if he does, his opinion as to the result is worth nothing. If the information given is on the ground that the party who is vouched for has been seen sitting in a Lodge, care must be taken to inquire if it was a "just and legally constituted Lodge of Master Masons."
A person may forget from the lapse of time, and vouch for a stranger as a Master Mason, when the Lodge in which he saw him was only opened in the First or Second Degree. Information given by letter, or through a third party, is irregular. The person giving the information, the one receiving it, and the one of whom it is given, should all be press ent at the same time, for otherwise there would be no certainty of identity. The information must be positive, not founded on belief or opinion, but derived from a legitimate source. And, lastly, it must not have been received casually, but for the very purpose of being used for Masonic purposes.
For one to say to another, in the course of a desultory conversation, "A. B. is a Freemason," is not sufficient. He may not be speaking with due caution, under the expectation that his words will be considered of weight. He must say something to this effect: "I know this man to be a Master Mason, for such or such reasons, and you may safely recognize him as such." This alone will insure the necessary care and proper observance of prudence.
INFRINGING UPON FREEMASONRY
The reader will see under Imitative Societies certain observations with regard to these organizations that in some ways resemble the Craft. As imitation is said to be a sincere form of flattery, such resemblances may be deemed a compliment to the reputation and the character of the Masonic Institution. Where the features maintained in common by the imitator and the imitated are employed innocently and perhaps for an object thoroughly devoid of any purpose to defame or in any particular to injure the Masonic Institution, the infringing organization is on an entirely distinct and different foundation than if it were guilty of the theft and misuse of a good name. So identified is that name with a recognized and highly respected Institution that any who attempt to take unauthorized liberties with the exclusive use of it do so at some risk of at least a rebuke and a refusal of legal permission to proceed. An instance is afforded in the case of the American Masonic Federation, which will be found concisely explained elsewhere in this work (see Clandestine). Another case where a Charter was sought to use a couple of significant words in combination with the name of a proposed organization is mentioned briefly here.
Brother Thomas G. Price, Past Potentate of Mecca Temple, New York City, contributed to the Meccan, September, 1921, a decision handed down on August 5 of that year by Justice Gannon of the Part II, Supreme Court of New York, to the effect that the words Masonic Rite are the property of the estaS lished Masonic Order and are not to be encroached upon by other organizations of any kind. Such a decision reserves to the Masonic Fraternity the right to the use of the word Masonic in connection with Rite and denies its use elsewhere no matter how it may be qualified by other words. Brother Price wrote that so far as he was able to ascertain, Justice Gannon was not a member of the Craft and in making this decision he was guided solely by the law and not by any personal bias. While the decision is given here to show the trend of judicial thought and not because of any claim for its value in law as a general precedent, it should have some influence on the activities of organizations claiming to be Masonic. The decision reads as follows:
In regard to Masonic Adriatie Rite—Certain citizens have presented a proposed Certificate, under Section 41 of the Membership Corporation Law, for my approval. The objects stated are patriotic and entirely laudable but the name presents an objection that I am not able to overcome. The title, Masonic Adrialic Rile, containing two words Euggestive of a very ancient and familiar organization, cannot but lead to the conclusion that the proposed corporation is connected with and dulv sanctioned by Masonie authority. The organizers concede that this is not the case and they contend that the qualifying word Adrialic removes this apparent identity I cannot subscribe to this view. A title containing the words Masonic and Ritc, however separated, cannot blot be objectionable to the Masonic Order with which they have been connected from time immemorial, and it is not fitting that these objections should be challenged Thousands of words descriptive and arbitrary are available. The organizers must upon reflection see the reasonableness of these observations. Approval of the Ceruficate under the present title is withheld.
A few references are given here to show the ten deney of court decisions, and incidentally, against
the unauthorized use of emblems:
The term " Freemasons" includes all members of any regular Body of the Fraternity known as "Free and Accepted Masons" or "Ancient Free and Eccepted Masons." They have a peculiar system of jurisprudence which in determining legal questions concerning them, is considered and applied by the courts.
Smith v. Smith. 3 Desaus (S. C.), 566.
Connelly v Masonic Mutual Benefit Assn. (Conn.), 18 Am. St. Rep., 296.
It is almost the exclusive province of an Order like Freemasons to impose its own terms of membership, and the courts avid not interfere to compel recognition as a member of a Masonic Lodge of one who affiliates with a Rite of Masonry different from that recognized by the Grand Lodge.
Burt v. Grand Lodge. 66 Mich., 85.
Lawson v. Hewell, 188 Cal., 613.
Seceders have no particular rights which the courts are required to recognize.
Washington v. White, 27 Pittsburgh Legal Journal, New Style 338.
Curien v. Sam Tini, 16 La. Ann., 27.
Polar Star Lodge No. 1 v. Polar Star Lodge No. 1, 16 La. Ann., 53.
Smith v. Smith, 3 Desaus (S. C.), 357.
It is now universally held that the expulsion of a Freemason from a Blue Lodge will effect a like result as regards his membership in any of the higher Bodies in which he may belong.
Commonwealth v. O'Donnell, 188 pa. St., 14.
In eases involving the examination of ceremonies and rituals of the Masonie Order, members are allowed to state their opinions on the points involved without being obliged to discuss any of the secrets of Freemasonry.
Smith v. Smith, 3 Desaus (S. C.), 563.
The acts of the defendants and those under whom they hold in assuming to adopt the name, insignia, badges, ete., claimed by petitioners and those with whom they are associated, are contrary to the publie policy of the State of Georgia on the subject of eounterfeitinz. as disclosed by Seetion 1989, et seq., Civil Code,
and Sections 254-8 of the Criminal Code.
Creswill v. Knights of Pswthias~ 133 Ga., 837.
Lane v. Evening Star Soeiety, 120 Ga., 355.
The Good Samaritans and Sons of Samaria Case, 139 Ga., 423.
The Odd Fellows Case, 140
It is also contrary to the whole spirit of the age on the subject of counterfeiting.
See 3 Ann. Cases 32, and note.
Hammer v. State 21 Ann. Cases 1034.
(See also Clandestine, and Square.)
INHERENT RIGHTS OF A GRAND MASTER.
This has been a subject of fertile discussion among Masonic jurists, although only a few have thought proper to deny the existence of such rights. Upon the theory which, however recently controverted, has very generally been recogruzed, that Grand Masters existed before Grand Lodges were organized, it must be evident that the rights of a Grand Master are of two kinds those, namely, which he derives from the Constitution of a Grand Lodge of which he has been made the presiding officer, and those which exist in the office independent of any Constitution, because they are derived from the landmarks and ancient usages of the Craft. The rights and prerogatives which depend on and are prescribed by the Constitution may be modified or rescinded by that instrument.
They differ in various Jurisdictions, because one Grand Lodge may confer more or less power upon its presiding officer than another; and they differ at different times, because the Constitution of every Grand Lodge is subject, in regard to its internal regulations, to repeated alteration and amendment. These may be called the accidental rights of a Grand Master, because they are derived from the accidental provisions of a Grand Lodge, and have in them nothing essential to the integrity of the office. It is unnecessary to enumerate them, because they may be found in varied modifications in the Constitutions of all Grand Lodges.
But the rights and prerogatives which Grand Masters are supposed to have possessed, not as the presiding officers of an artificial Body, but as the Rulers of the Craft in general, before Grand Lodges came into existence, and which are dependent, not on any prescribed rules which may be enacted today and repealed tomorrow, but on the long-continued usages of the Order and the concessions of the Craft from time out of mind, inhere in the office, and cannot be augmented or diminished by the action of any authority, because they are landmarks, and therefore unchangeable.
These are called the inherent rtghts of a Grand Master. They comprise the right to preside over the Craft whenever assembled, to grant Dispensations, and, as a part of that power, to make Freemasons at sight (see Doetor Mackey's revised Jurisprudence of Freemasonry).
IN HOC SIGNO VINCES.
On the Grand Standard of a Commandery of Knights Templar these words are inscribed over "a blood-red Passion Cross," and they constitute in part the motto of the American branch of the Order. Their meaning, By this siqn thou shalt conquer, is a substantial, but not literal, translation of the original Greek, Av vour¢ó. For the origin of the motto, we must go back to a wellknown legend of the Church, which has, however, found more doubters than believers among the learned. Eusebius, who wrote a life of Constantine says that while the emperor was in Gaul, in the year 312, preparing for war with his rival, Maxentius, about the middle hours of the day, as the sun began to verge toward its setting, he saw in the heavens with his own eyes, the sun surmounted with the trophy of the cross, which was composed of light, and a legend annexed, which said "by this conquer." This account Eusebius affirms to be in the words of Constantine.
Lactantius, who places the occurrence at a later date and on the eve of a battle with Maxentius, in which the latter was defeated, relates it not as an actual occurrence, but as a dream or vision; and this is now the generally received opinion of those who do not deem the whole legend a fabrication. On the next day Constantine had an image of this cross made into a banner, called the labarum, which he ever afterward used as the imperial standard. Eusebius describes it very fully. It was not a Passion Cross, such as is now used on the modern Templar standard, but the monogram of Christ. The shaft was a very long spear.
On the toll was a crown composed of Kold and precious stones, and containing the sacred symbol, narnely, the Greek letter rho or P. intersected by the chi or X, which two letters are the first and second of the name XPI2TOX`, or Christ. If, then, the Templars retain the motto on their banner, they should, for the sake of historical accuracy, discard the Passion Cross, and replace it with the Constantinian Chronogram, or Cross of the Labarum. But the truth is, that the ancient Templars used neither the Passion Cross, nor that of Constantine, norWyet the motto in hoc silo Winces on their standard. Their only banner was the black and white Beauseant, and at the bottom of it was inscribed their motto, also in Latin, Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed noxnini too da gloriam, meaning Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thee give the glory. This was the song-or shout of victory sung by the Templars when triumphant in battle.
INIGO JONES MANUSCRIPT.
Brother R. F. Gould (History of Freemasonry, volume i, page 63) informs us that this manuscript was published only in the Masonic Magazine, July, 1881. A very curious folio manuscript, ornamented title and drawing by Inigo Jones, old red morocco, gilt leaves, dated 1607, was sold by Puttick & Simpson, November 12, 1879, and described as The Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons. Brother Woodford became its possessor, who mentions it as "a curious and valuable manuscript per se, not only on account of its special verbiage, but because it possesses a frontispiece of Masons at work, with the words Iniyo Jones delin. at the bottom. It is also highly ornamented throughout, both in the capital letters and with finials. It is of date 1607.... It is a peculiarlv interesting manuscript in that it differs from ail known transcripts in many points, and agrees with no one copy extant."
Brother Gould remarks, "This, one of the latest discoveries, is certainly to be classed amongst the most valuable of existing versions of our manuscript Constitutions." It is now the property of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Worcestershire, and has been reproduced by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge. It was probably a copy of a much earlier manuscript, and is considered to belong to the latter half of the seventeenth century, and never to have belonged to Inigo Jones.
INITIATE.
The Latin is Initiatus.
1. The Fifth and last Degree of the Order of the Temple;
2. The Eleventh Degree of the Rite of Philalethes;
3. The Candidate in any of the Degrees of Freemasonry is called an Initiate.
INITIATE IN THE EGYPTIAN SECRETS.
The Second Degree in the Rite of African Architects.
INITIATE IN THE MYSTERIES.
The Twentyfirst Degree in the Metropolitan Chapter of Franee.
INITIATE IN THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES.
The Sixty-second Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
INITIATE INTO THE SCIENCES, THE.
Brother Kenneth Mackenzie, in the Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, informs us that this is the title of the Second Degree of a Masonic system founded on the doctrines and principles of Pythagoras.
INITIATED KNIGHT AND BROTHER OF ASIA.
The Thirty-second Degree of the Order of Initiated Brothers of Asia (see Asia, Initiated Knights and Brothers of ).
INITIATION.
A term used by the Romans to designate admission into the mysteries of their sacred and secret rites. It is derived from the word initia, which signifies the first principles of a science. Thus Justin (Liber or book xi, chapter 7) says of Midas, King of Phrygia, that he was initiated into the mysteries by Orpheus, Ab Orpheo sacrorum solemnibus initiatus. The Greeks used the term Muat la, from ,uuar71puav, a mystery. From the Latin, the Freemasons have adopted the word to signify a reception into their Order. It is sometimes specially applied to a reception into the First Degree, but he who has been made an Entered Apprentice is more correctly said to be Entered (see Mysteries).
INITIATION, BABYLONIAN RITE OF.
Professor Sayce, in his Hibbert Lecture, on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by the religion of the ancient Babylonians (page 241), tells us of a tablet which describes the initiation of an Augur, a prophet, a soothsayer or fortune-teller, one foretelling future events by interpreting omens and giving advice upon these things, and states how one of these must be "of pure lineage, unblemished in hand or foot," and speaks thus of the vision which is revealed to him before he is "initiated and instructed in the presence of Samas and Rimmon in the use of the book and stylus" by the ascribe, the instructed one, who keeps the oracle of the gods." He is made to descend into an artificial imitation of the lower world and there beholds "the altars amid the waters, the treasures of Anu, Bel, and Ea. the tablets of the Gods, the delivery of the oracle of Heaven and Earth, and the cedar-tree, the beloved of the great gods, which their command has caused to grow."
IN MEMORIAM.
Latin, meaning As a memorial. Words frequently placed at the heads of pages in the Transactions of Grand Lodges on which are inscribed the names of Brethren who have died during the past year. The fuller phrase, in Latin, of which they are an abbreviated form, is In perpetuam rei meinoriam, meaning, As a perpetual memorial of the event. Words often inscribed on pillars erected in commemoration of some person or thing.
INNER GUARD.
An officer of a Lodge, according to the English system, whose functions correspond in some particulars with those of the Junior Deacon in the American Rite. His duties are to admit visitors, to receive candidates, and to obey the commands of the Junior Warden. This officer is unknown in the American system.
INNER ORDER.
Name of the sixth grade of von Hund's Templar system.
INNOVATIONS.
There is a well-l;nown maxim of the law which says Omnis innovatio plus nontate perturbat quam utilitate prodest, that is, every innovation occasions more harm and disarrangement by its novelty than benefit by its actual utility. This maxim is peculiarly applicable to Freemasonry, those system is opposed to all innovations. Thus Doctor Dalcho says, in his Ahiman Rezon (page 191), "Antiquity is dear to a Mason's heart; innovation is treason, and saps the venerable fabric of the Order." In accordance with this sentiment, we find the installation charges of the Master of a Lodge affirming that "it is not in the power of anv man or bodv of men to make innovations in the body of Masonry."
By the "body of Masonry" is here meant, undoubtedly, the landmarks, which have always been declared to be unchangeable. The non-essentials, such as the local and general regulations and the lectures, are not included in this term. The former are changing every day, according as experience or caprice suggests improvement or alteration. The most important of these changes in the United States has been the tendency to abolition of the Quarterly Communications of the Grand Lodge, and the substitution for them, of an annual Communication. But, after all, this is, perhaps. only a recurrence to first usages; for, although Anderson says that in 1717 the Quarterly Communications "were revived," there is no evidence extant that before that period the Freemasons ever met except once a year in their General Assembly. If so, the change in 1717 was an innovation, and not that which has almost universally prevailed in the United States.
The lectures, which are but the commentaries on the ritual and the interpretation of the symbolism, have been subjected, from the time of Anderson to the present day, to repeated modifications.
But notwithstanding the repugnance of Freemasons to innovations, a few have occurred in the Order. Thus, on the formation of the Grand Lodge of Antients, as they called themselves in contradistinction to the regular Grand Lodge of England, which was styled the Grand Lodge of Moderns, the former Body, to prevent the intrusion of the latter upon their meetings, made changes in some of the modes of recognition—changes which, although Dalcho has said that they amounted to no more than a dispute "whether the glove should be placed first upon the right hand or on the left" (Ahitnan Rezon, page 193), were among the causes of continuous acrimony among the two Bodies, which was only healed, in 1813, by a partial sacrifice of principle on the part of the legitimate Grand Lodge, and have perpetuated differences which still exist among the English and American and the Continental Freemasons.
But the most important innovation which sprang out of this unfortunate schism is that which is connected with the Royal Arch Degree. On this subject there have been two theories: One, that the Royal Arch Degree originally constituted a part of the Master's Degree, and that it was dissevered from it i)y the Antients; the other, that it never had any existence until it was invented by Ramsay, and adopted by Dermott for his Antient Grand Lodge. If the first, which is the most probable and the most generally received opinion, be true, then the regular or Modern Grand Lodge committed an innovation in continuing the disseverance at the Union in 1813. If the second be the true theory, then the Grand Lodge equally perpetuated an innovation in recognizing it as legal, and declaring, as it did, that "Antient Craft Masonry consists of three degrees, including the Holy Royal Arch." But however the innovation may have been introduced, the Royal Arch Degree has now beeome, so far as the York and American Rites are concerned, well settled and recognized as an integral part of the Masonic system.
About the same time there was another innovation attempted in France. The adherents of the Pretender, Charles Edward, sought to give to Freemasonry a political bias in favor of the exiled house of Stuarts, and, for this purpose, altered the interpretation of the great legend of the Third Degree, so as to make it applicable to the execution or, as they called it, the martyrdom of Charles I. But this attempted innovation was not successful, and the system in which this lesson was practiced has ceased to exist. although its workings are now and then seen in some of the advanced Degrees, without, however, any manifest evil effect.
On the whole, the spirit of Freemasonry, so antagonistic to innovation, has been successfully maintained; and an investigator of the system as it prevailed in the year 1717, and as it is maintained at the present day, will not refrain from wonder at the little change which has been brought about by the long cycle of these many years.
IN PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM.
Latin, meaning In perpetual memory of the thing.
I.-.N.-.R.-.I.-.
The initials of the Latin sentence which was placed upon the cross: Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum, meaning Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The Rosicrucians used them as the initials of one of their Hermetic secrets: Igne Natura Rerun vatur Integra7 meaning that BJ fire, natureis perfectly renewed. They also adopted them to express the names of their three elementary principles salt, sulphur, and mercury by making them the initials of the sentence, Igne Nitrum Roris Invenitur. Ragon finds in the equivalent Hebrew letters nor the initials of the Hebrew names of the ancient elements: Iaminim, water; Nour, fire; Ruach, air; and Iebschah, earth.
INQUISITION.
A Court or Tribunal especially established in the twelfth century by Innocent III, to apprehend and punish heretics or persons guilty of any offense against orthodoxy. Freemasonry has always been the subject of much disapproval by the Roman Catholic Church and the Fraternity has been victimized by Papal pronunciations and Bulls issued by one after the other of the popes. Although Freemasonry makes a subscription to a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being a necessity yet the Roman Church chooses to regard its teachings as atheistic and as such has pursued, tortured, imprisoned and burned the Brethren of the Order at every period during the entire course of the Inquisition. Llorente, everywhere regarded as a reliable authority as he was secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid from 1789 to 1791, having access to the original documents and records, says in his History of the Inquisition:
The first severe measure against Freemasons in Europe was that decreed on December 14, 1732, by the Chamber of Police of the Chatelet at Paris: it prohibited Freemasons from assembling, and condemned M. Chapelot to a penalty of 6000 livres for having suffered them to assemble in his house. Louis YV commanded that those peers of France, and other gentlemen who had the privilege of the entry, should be deprived of that honour if they were members of a .bIasonie Lodge. The Grand Master of the Parisian Lodges, being obliged to quit France, convoked an assembly of Freemasons to appoint his successor. Louis XV, on being informed of this declared that if a Frenchman was elected, he would send him to the Bastille.
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