K.
Hebrew, :, Kaph. signifying hollow or palm of the hand. This is the eleventh letter of the English alphabet and in Hebrew has the numerical value of 20. In the Chaldaic or hieroglyphic it is represented by a hand, as in the illustration.
KAABA.
The name of the holy temple of Mecca, which is to the Mohammedans what the Temple of Solomon was to the Jews. It is certainly older, as Gibbon admits, than the Christian era, and is supposed, by the tradition of the Arabians, to have been erected in the nineteenth century before Christ, by Abraham, who was assisted by his son Ishmael. It derives its name of Kaaba from its cubical form, it being fifteen feet long, wide, and high. It has but one aperture for light, which is a door in the east end. In the northeast corner is a black stone, religiously venerated by the Mussulmans, called "the black stone of the Kaaba," around which cluster many traditions.
One of these is that it came down from Paradise, and was originally as white as milk, but that the sins of mankind turned it black; another is, that it is a ruby which was originally one of the precious stones of heaven, but that God deprived it of its brilliancy, which would have illuminated the world from one end to the other. Syed Ahmed, who, for a Mussulman, has written a very rational history of the Holy Mecca (London, 1870), says that the black stone is really a piece of rock from the mountains in the vicinity Mecca; that it owes its black color to the effects of fire; and that before the erection of the temple of the Kaaba, it was no other than one of the numerous altars erected for the worship of God, and was, together with other stones, laid up in one of the corners of the temple at the time of its construction. It is, in fact, one of the relics of the ancient stone worship; yet it reminds us of the foundation-stone of the Solomonic Temple, to which building the temple of the Kaaba has other resemblances. Thus, Syed Ahmed, who, in opposition to most Christian writers, devoutly believes in its Abrahamic origin, says (on page 6) that "the temple of the Kasba was built by Abraham in conformity with those religious practises according to which, after a lapse of time, the descendants of his second son built the Temple of Jerusalem."
KABBALA.
See Cabala.
KADIRI, ORDER OF.
A secret society existing in Arabia, which so much resembles Freemasonry in its object and forms, that Lieutenant R. F. Burton, who succeeded in obtaining initiation into it, called the members Oriental Freemasons. He gives a very interesting account of the Order in his Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Mecca.
KADOSH.
The name of a very important Degree in many of the Masonic Rites. The word is Hebrew, and signifies holy or consecrated, and is thus intended to denote the elevated character of the Degree and the sublimity of the truths which distinguish it and its possessors from the other Degrees. Pluche says that in the East, a person preferred to honors bore a scepter, and sometimes a plate of gold on the forehead, called a Kadosh, to apprise the people that the bearer of this mark or rod was a public person, who possessed the privilege of entering into hostile camps without the fear of losing his personal liberty.
The Degree of Kadosh, though found in many of the Rites and in various countries, seems, in all of them, to have been more or less connected with the Knights Templar. In some of the Rites it was placed at the head of the list, and was then dignified as the ne plus ultra, nothing further, of Freemasonry.
It was sometimes given as a separate order or Rite within itself, and then it was divided into the three Degrees of Illustrious Knight of the Temple, Knight of the Black Eagle, and Grand Elect.
Brother Oliver enumerates five Degrees of Kadosh: the Knight Kadosh; Kadosh of the Chapter of Clermont; Philosophical Kadosh; Kadosh Prince of Death; and Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The French records speak of seven: Kadosh of the Hebrews; Kadosh of the first Christians; Kadosh of the Crusades; Kadosh of the Templars; Kadosh of Cromwell or the Puritans; Kadosh of the Jesuits; and the True Kadosh. But the correctness of this enumeration is doubtful, for it cannot be sustained by documentary evidence. In all ofthese Kadoshes the doctrine and the modes of recognition are substantially the same, though in most of them the ceremonies of initiation differ.
Ragon mentions a Kadosh which is said to have been established at Jerusalem in 1118; but here he undoubtedly refers to the Order of Knights Templar. He gives also in his Tuileur Géneral the nomenclature of no less than fourteen Kadosh Degrees.
The doctrine of the Kadosh system is that the persecutions of the Knights Templar by Philip the Fair of France, and Pope Clement V, however cruel and wunary in its Renaults, did not extinguish the Order, but it continued to exist under the forms of Freemasonry. That the ancient Templars are the modern Kadoshes, and that the Builder at the Temple of Solomon is now replaced by James de Molay, the martyred Grand Master of the Templars, the assassins being represented by the King of France, the Pope, and Naffodei the informer against the Order; or, it is sometimes said, by the three informers, Squin de Florian, Naffodei, and the Prior of Montfauçon.
As to the history of the Kadosh Degree, it is said to have been first invented at Lyons, in France, in 1743, where it appeared under the name of the Petit Elu, Minor Elect, as distinguished from Grand Elect. This Degree, which is said to have been based upon the Templar doctrine heretofore referred to, was afterward developed into the Kadosh, which we find in 1758, incorporated as the Grand Elect Kadosh into the system of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, which was that year formed at Parish whence it descended to the Scottish Rite Freemasons.
Of all the Kadoshes, two only are now important, namely, the Philosophic Kadosh, which has been adopted by the Grand Orient of France, and the Knight Kadosh, which constitutes the Thirtieth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, this latter being the most generally diffused of the Kadoshes.
KADOSH,
called also the Holly Man. The French phrase is Kadosch ou l'Homme Saint. The Tenth and last Degree of the Rite of Martinism.
KADOSH, GRAND, ELECT KNIGHT.
The Sixty-fifth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
KADOSH, KNIGHT.
The Thirtieth Degree of the Scottish Rite (9ee Unix Radoeh).
KADOSH OF THE JESUITS.
According to Thory (Acta Latomorum i, page 320) this Degree is said to have been invented by the Jesuits of the College of Clermont. The statement is not well supported. De Bonneville's Masonic Chapter of Clermont was probably, either with or without design, confounded with the Jesuitical College of Clermont (see Jesuits).
KADOSH, PHILOSOPHIC.
A modification of the original Eadosh, for which it has been substituted and adopted by the Grand Orient of France. The military character of the Order is abandoned, and the Philo sophic Eadosh wear no swords. Their only weapon is the Word.
KADOSH, PRINCE.
A Degree of the collection of Pyron.
KADOSH PRINCE OF DEATH.
The Twentyseventh Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
KALAND'S BRUEDER, DIE.
German for The Brethren of the Calen~ds. A religious brotherhood of the Middle Ages whose name was from the Calends, the first of each month, and whose traditions refer to Solomon's era.
KALB, JOHANN.
Baron de Kalb. Born at Hüttendorf, Germany, June 29, 1721, and died August l9, 1780. A close friend of Lafayette, he entered the American service as a Major General in 1776, fought in several actions, became second in command at Camden, South Carolina, August 16, 1780, at which time he was wounded and died three days later. He was buried with both military and Masonic honors. It is not positively known where De Kalb received the Degrees of Freemasonry, though there is reason to believe that it was in the Army Lodge No. s 79, chartered April 17, 1780, by the Grand Lodge of w Pennsylvania for the benefit of the Brethren of the Maryland Line. On a visit to South Carolina, Lafavette, under the auspices of Kershaw Lodge, laid the corner-stone of a monument to De Kalb, March 9, 1825, on the spot where he was wounded at the battle of Camden (see History of Freemasonry in Maryland, Edward T. Schultz, volume 4, page 327, and volume 2, pages 477-8).
KAMEA.
Hebrew, an amulet. More particularly applied by the Cabalists to magic squares inscribed on paper or parchment, and tied around the neck asasafeguardagainst evil (see Magic Squares).
KANES DOCTOR ELISHA KENT.
American scientist and explorer, born at Philadelphia, February 20, 1822, and famous on account of two voyages to the Arctic regions in search of Sir John Franklin, an English Freemason and explorer. Kane was an enthusiastic Freemason, a member of Franklin Lodge, No. 134, Philadelphia. lye died on February 16, = 1857. When Brother Kane reached Newfoundland on his way north in search of Brother Franklin, he was entertained at a reception held by Saint John's Lodge on June 17, 1853, and presented with a Masonic flag (see Doctor Mackey's History of Freezasonry, 1921, page 2178).
KANSAS.
KANSAS LODGE, U. D.
By Dispensation granted to John M. Chivington on August 4, 1854, Grove Lodge was opened in Wyandotte Territory at the house of Mathew R. Walker. A Convention was held on November 14, 1855, at Leavenworth, but as Wyandotte Lodge was not represented the meeting was adjourned until December 27. On that date representatives of Wyandotte Lodge were again absent, but it was decided not to delay the organization of a Grand Lodge further. The following were present at this meeting held in the office of A. and R. R. Rees: Brother John W. Smith, W. M. of Smithton Lodge, No. 140; Brother R. R. Rees, W. M. of Leavenworth Lodge, No. 150, and Brothers C. T. Harrison, L. J. Eastin, J. J. Clarkson, G. W. Purkins, I. B. Donaldson, and Simon Kohn, Master Masons. The Grand | Lodge was then opened and it was decided to send a report to Wyandotte Lodge asking them to approve the proceedings. A completely representative meeting was held on March 17, 1856, when it was resolved that, as there was some doubt whether the proceedings of the previous Convention were entirely legal, owing to the absence of delegates from one chartered Lodge, the Grand Lodge of Kansas should be organized then and there. When this was done, Brother Richard R. Rees. elected Grand Master, was installed and he then installed the other Grand Officers.
Leavenworth Chapter was granted a Dispensation on January 24, 1857. Not until September 8, 1865, however, was its Charter issued. The first Chapter in Kansas to possess a Charter was Washington, No. 1, Dispensation granted May 18, 1859; Charter, Septemher 14, 1859.
Representatives of these two Chapters and of Fort Scott Chapter met in Convention by permiSsion of the Deputy Grand High Priest on January 27, 1866, and on February 26, the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Kansas was duly organized and conb stituted.
The Grand Council of Missouri chartered three Councils of Royal and Select Masters in this State. On December 12, 1867, representatives of the three Councils organized a Grand Council which has since met annually except in 1880.
A Commandery, Leavenworth, No. 1, was established by Dispensation issued February 10, 1864. Its Charter was granted September 6, 1865. This Commandery, with the others in the State, namely: Washington, No. 2; Hugh de Pavens, No. 3, and De Molay, No. 4, met on December 29, 1868, by Warrant from Grand Master William Sewall Gardner issued on December 2, 1868, and established a Grand Commandery.
The following Scottish Rite Bodies were established in Kansas: Salina, No. 9, Lodge of Perfection, September 13, 1876, at Salina; Unity, No. 1, Chapter of Rose Croix, February 17, 1881, at Topeka; William de la More, No. 1, Council of Kadosh, December 12, 1883, at Lawrence; Topeka, No. 1, Consistory, April 23, 1892, at Topeka. Those established at Fort Leavenworth, one in 1890 and three in 1909, in each case as Army, No.1, came at first under the Supreme Couneil, Southern Jurisdiction. At the session of 1909, the Supreme Council agreed to exercise concurrent jurisdiction, but in 1919 the Army Bodies at Fort Leavenworth were transferred to the authority of Kansas.
KARMATIANS.
A Mohammedan sect that became notorious from its removal of the celebrated black stone of the Kasba, and, after retaining it for twenty-two years, voluntarily surrendered it. Founded by Sarmata at Irak in the ninth century.
KASIDEANS.
A Latinized spelling of Chasidim, which see.
KATHARSIS
Greek, The ceremony of purification in the Ancient Mysteries. Muller says that 'one of the important parts of the Pythagorean worship was the poean, which was sung to the lyre in spring-time by a person sitting in the midst of a circle of listeners: this was called the Catharsis or purification" (Dorians i, 384).
KATIPUNAN.
Secret society in the Philippine Islands. See Philippine Islands.
KEEPER OF THE SEALS.
An officer called Garde des Sceaul; in Lodges of the French Rite. It is also the title of an officer in Consistories of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The title sufficiently indicates the functions of the office.
KELLERMAN, MARSHAL.
Duke de Valmy, born 1770, died 1835. Member of the Supreme Council and Grand Officer of Honor of the Grand Orient of France; elected 1814. Served in the battles of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Waterloo.
KELLY CHRISTOPHER.
A Masonic plagiarist, who stole bodily the whole of the typical part of the celebrated work of Samuel Lee entitled Orbis Miraculum, or The Temple of Solomon Pourtrayed by Scripture Ifight, and published it as his own under the title of Solomon's Temple spiritualized; setting forth the Divine Mysteries of the Temple, with an account of its Destruction. He prefaced the book with An Address to all Free and Accepted Masons. The first edition was published at Dublin in 1803, and on his removal to America he published a second in 1820, at Philadelphia. Kelly was, unfortunately, a Freemason, but not an honest one. Brother Woodford points out that all such works seem to be founded on John Bunyan's Solomon's Temple Spiritualized. Bunyan died in 1688 but the popularity of his work was shown by the eighth edition of this book appearing in 1727.
KENIS
See Lewis. `.
KENNING'S MASONIC CYCLOPEDIA.
Edited by Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, in London, contemporaneously with theEncyclopedia of Dr. A. G. Mackey, in the United States, but published by the well-known Brother George Kenning, London, to whom the work is dedicated in affectionate terms. Kenning's Cyclopedia is rendered unusually invaluable in consequence of the fulness of its bibliography. Kloss's well-known Bibliographie der Freimaurer does not become so great a necessity, having Kenning yet other subjects have not been permitted to suffer in consequence of the numerous short biographical sketches. The work is an admirably arranged octavo of nearly seven hundred pages.
KENT, EDWARD AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF.
Duke of Strathearn also. Born November 7, 1767, fourth son of George III, England. Father of Queen Victoria. Initiated in 1790 at Geneva and was elected Grand Master of the Antients December 27, 1813, credited with effecting the union of the two English Grand Lodfres. He died January 20, 1820.
KENTUCKY.
Until the year 1792, when Kentucky became a separate and distinct State, jurisdiction over its Lodoes was exercised by Virginia. On November 17, 1788, Lexington Lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia. Four other Lodges, namely, Paris, Georgetown, Hiram, and Abraham's, were chartered at various times by the same Body. Representatives of the five Lodges met at Lexington, September 8, 1800, and determined to establish a Grand Lodge of Kentucky. A second Convention met on October 16, and elected Grand Officers who duly opened the Grand Lodge.
Dispensations for Chapters at Lexington, Frankfort, and Shelbyville were issued by Companion Thomas Smith Webt Deputy General Grand High Priest, on October 16, 1816. These Chapters according to the Proceedings of the fifth regular Convocation of the General Grand Chapter of the United States formed a Grand Chapter in 1817 under the jurisdiction of the General Grand Chapter. At its annual Convocation in Lexington, the Grand Chapter of Kentucky advocated the dissolution of the General Grand Chapter, and in 1857 actually seceded from that Body. It was announced, however, at the twenty-second triennial Convocation of the General Grand Chapter held on November 24, 1874, that it had renewed its allegiance.
When Jeremy L. Cross made his official tour through the Western States in 1816 as General Grand Lecturer of the General Grand Chapter, he established the Select Degree in this State and, on his return in 1817, sent Charters to the Companions at Lexington and Shelbyville, dating them from the time when the Degrees were conferred A meeting was held on December 10, 1827, to establish a Grand Council. Representatives of six Councils were present, namely: Washington, No. 1; Warren, No. 2; Centre, No. 3; Louisville, No. 4; Frankfort, No. 5, and Versaiiies, No. 6. Where the Councils obtained their Warrants is not known, though it is thought that John Barker organized them in September, 1827. The Anti. Masonic period affected the Craft in Kentucky to some considerable extent and the Grand Council only met once in 1841. From 1878 to 1881 the Degrees were included in the Chapter work but in 1881, after the organization of the General Grand Council, the Grand Council of Kentucky was reorganized. On October 14, 1912, it affiliated with the General Grand Council as a constituent member.
Webb, No. 1, at Lexington, was the first Commandery to begin work in Kentucky. It was authorized by Charter dated January 1 1826, but this was probably a Charter of Recognition as there is in existence a copy of the original Proceedings of Webb Encamps ment, with a list of members as of January 1, 1819. A Dispensation was issued by John Snow on the following December 28, and a Charter on January 1, 1820. The Grand Commandery in Kentucky, authorized by Warrant from the Grand Encampment dated September 14, 1847, was constituted on October 5, at Frankfort. Its subordinate Commanderies were Webb, No.1; Louisville, No. 2; Versailles, No. 3; Frankfort, No. 4, and Montgomery, No. 5.
On August 8, 1859, four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, were chartered at Louisville: Union Lodge of Perfection, No. 1; Pelican Chapter of Rose Croix, No. 1; Kilwinning Council of Kadosh, No. 1, and Grand Consistory, No. 1.
KENYA COLONY.
British East Africa where the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland have each chartered a Lodge at Nairobi in this district.
KEWIS.
See Lewis.
KEY.
"TheK'ey," says Doctor Oliver (Landmarks i, page 180), "is one of the most important symbols of Freemasonry. It bears the appearance of a common metal instrument, confined to the performance of one simple act. But the well-instrueted brother beholds in it the symbol which teaches him to keep a tongue of good report, and to abstain from the debasing vices of slander and defamation." Among the ancients the key was a symbol of silence and circumspection; and thus Sophocles alludes to it in the Oedipus Coloneus (line 105), where he makes the chorus speak of "the golden key which had come upon the tongue of the ministering Hierophant in the mysteries of Eleusis—Callimachus says that the Priestess of Ceres bore a key as the ensign of her mystic office. The key was in the Mysteries of Isis a hieroglyphic of the opening or disclosing of the heart and conscience, in the kingdom of death, for trial and Judgment.
In the old instructions of Freemasonry the key was an important symnbol, and Doctor Oliver regrets that it has been abandoned in the modern system. In the ceremonies of the First Degree, in the eighteenth century allusion is made to a key by whose help the secrets of Freemasonrv are to be obtained, which key "is said to hang and not to lie, because it is always to hang in a brother's defense and not to lie to his prejudiee." It was said, too, to hang "by the thread of life at the entrance, " and was closely connected with the heart, because the tongue "ought to utter nothing but what the heart dictates." And, finally, this key is described as being "composed of no metal, but a tongue of good report." In the ceremonies of the Masterws Degree in the Adonhiramite Rite, we find this catethism (in the Recueil Précieu:, page 87):
What do you conceel?
All the secrets which have been intrusted to me.
Where do you conccal them?
In the heart.
Have you a key to gain entrance there?
Yes, Right Worshipful.
Where do you keep it?
In a box of coral which opens and shuts only with ivory teeth.
Of what metal is it composed?
Of none. It is a tongue obedient to reason, which knows only how to speak well of those of whom it speaks in their absence as in their presence.
All of this shows that the key as a symbol was formerly equivalent to the modern symbol of the "instructive tongue," which, however, with almost the same interpretation, has now been transferred to the Second or Fellow-Craft's Degree. The key, however, is still preserved as a symbol of secrecy in the Royal Arch Degree; and it is also presented to us in the same sense in the ivory key of the Secret Master, or Fourth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In many of the German Lodges an ivory key is made a part of the Masonic clothing of each Brother, to remind him that he should lock up or conceal the secrets of Freemasonry in his heart.
But among the ancients the key was also a symbol of power; and thus among the Greeks the title of Kxeiaouxos~ or key-bearer, was bestowed upon one holding high office; and with the Romans, the keys are given to the bride on the day of marriage, as a token that the authority of the house was bestowed upon her; and if afterward divorced, they were taken from her, as a symbol of the deprivation of her office, Among the Hebrews the key was used in the same sense.
"As the robe and the baldric," says Lowth (Israel, part ii, section 4), "were the ensigns of power and authority, so likewise was the key the mark of office, either sacred or civil." Thus in Isaiah (xxii, 22), it is said: "The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulders; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open" Our Savior expressed a similar idea when he said to Saint Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." It is in reference to this interpretation of the symbol, and not that of secrecy, that the key has been adopted as the official jewel of the Treasurer of a Lodge, because he has the purse, the source of power, under his command.
KEY OF MASONRY.
See Knight of the Sun.
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