MORIAH, MOUNT.
An eminence situated in the southeastern part of Jerusalem. In the time of David it must have been cultivated, for it is called "the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite," from whom that monarch purchased it for the purpose of placing there an altar. Solomon subsequently erected there his magnificent Temple. Mount Moriah was always profoundly venerated by the Jews, among whom there is an early tradition that on it Abraham was directed to offer up his son. The truth of this tradition has, it is true, been denied by some Biblical writers, but it has been as strenuously maintained by others. The Freemasons, however, have always accepted it and to them, as the site of the Temple, it is especially sacred, and combining with this the Abrahamic legend, they have given to Mount Moriah the appellation of the ground floor of the Lodge, and assign it as the place where what are called the three grand offerings were made.
MORIN, J. P. H. VON.
Grand Master of Haiti, 1863.
MORIN, STEPHEN.
The founder of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in America. On the 27th of August, 1761, the "Deputies General of the Royal Art, Grand Wardens, and officers of the Grand Soverein Lodge of Saint John of Jerusalem established at Paris," so reads the document itself, granted a Patent to Stephen Morin, by which he was empowered "to multiply the Sublime Degrees of High Perfection, and to create Inspectors in all places where the Sublime Degrees are not established." This Patent was granted, Thory, Ragon, Clavel, and Lenning say, by the Grand Council of Emperors of the East and West. Others say by the Grand Lodge. Dalcho says by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret at Paris. Brother Albert Pike, who has very elaborately investigated the question, says that the authority of Morin was "a joint authority" of the two then contending Grand Lodges of France and the Grand Council, which is, Brother Mackey supposed, what Dalcho and the Supreme Council of Charleston called the Grand Consistory. From the Grand Lodge he received the power to establish a Symbolic Lodge, and from the Grand Council or Consistory the power to confer the advanced Degrees.
Not long after receiving these powers, Morin sailed for America, and established Bodies of the Scottish Rite in Santo Domingo and Jamaica. He also appointed M. M. Hayes a Deputy Inspector-General for North America. Hayes, subsequently, appointed Isaac da Costa a Deputy for SouthCarolina, andthrough him the Sublime Degrees were disseminated among the Freemasons of the United tStates (see Scottish Rite). After appointing several Deputies and establishing some Bodies in the West India Islands, Morin is lost sight of. We know not anything of his subsequent history, or of the time or place of his death. Ragon, Thory, and Clavel say that Morin was a Jew; but as these writers have Judaized all the founders of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in America, we have no right to place any confidence in their statements.
The name of Morin has been borne by many French Christians of literary reputation, from Peter Morin, a learned ecclesiastical writer of the'sixteenth century, to Stephen Morin, an antiquary and Protestant clergyman, who died in 1700, and his son Henry, who became a Catholic, and died in 1728. The above surmise by Doctor Mackey has more recently had the support of Brother Cyrus Field Willard who, in the Builder, September, 1925, and in correspondence with us, gave his reasons for believing Morin to have been of a French Huguenot family in New Stork, the name Stephen also occurring in eighteenth-century church records in that city at a date favorable to the known movements of the noted Freemason. Brother Willard notes the boyhood of Morin coincides in the same city with that of Brother Moses M. Hayes, another pioneer of prominence in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Another claim unearthed by Brother Willard is that Morin was a sea captain captured bv the British in 1777 but an attempt by us to have this verified By Government records at London has been unsuccessful.
MORISON, CHARLES.
Soldier and surgeon, born in 1780, at Greenfield, Scotland. He was the owner of a valuable Masonic librarv which, after his death in 1848, was given by his widow to the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
MORITZ, CARL PHILIPP.
A Privy Councillor, Professor, and Member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, was born at Hameln on the 15th of September, 1757, and died the 26th of June, 1793. Gadicke says that he was one of the most celebrated authors of his age, and distinguished by his works on the German language. He was the author of several Masonic works, among which are his Contributions to the Philosophy of Iiife and the Diary of a Freemason (Berlin, 1793) and a Book of Masonic Songs.
MORMON FAITH.
See Book of Mormons
MOROCCO.
This country is at the northwest extremity of Africa with an area of about 300,000 square miles and since the World War has been under a protectorate of the French Republic. Five Lodges have been put at work in Morocco under the Grand Orient of France. These were warranted as follows: Nouvelle Volubilis (this latter being the French name for a plant, the New Convolvulus. or Bindweed), Tangier, June 8, 1891; Le Phare (the Beacon) de la Chaouia, Casablanca, May 4, 1910; Le Reveil du Moghreb (The Awakeninp of the Extreme West), Rabat, February 7, 1918; E1 Bridja Dial Douk Rala, Mazagen, June 10, 1990; La Nouvelle Tagmusiga, Mogador, August 18, 1921. hinder the Grand Lodge of France there are five Lodges as follows: Woodrow lVilson, No. 479, Mogador; Aula Lumiere, I90. 480, Casablanca; Tit, Sso. 490, Mazagan; Les deux Soeurs (Thc Tuxo Sisters), No. 497, Rabat-Sali; Asfy, So. 498, Safi. The Grand Orient of Italy warranted Concordia Lodge at Tangiers, and the Grand Orient of Spain chartered the following: Morayta, Tangier; Abel-el-Aziz, Tangier; Casablanca, No. 247, Casablanca; Felicidad, Lavache.
MORPHEY.
The name of one of the twelve Inspectors in the Eleventh Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. This name, like the others in the same catalogue, bids defiance to any Hebraic derivation. They are all either French corruptions, worse even than Jakinai for Shekinah, or they have some allusion to names or events connected with the political intrigues of the exiled house of Stuart which had, it is known, a connection with some of the advanced Degrees which sprang up at Array, and other places where Freemasonry is said to have been patronized by the Pretender. This word Morphey may, for instance, be a corruption of Murray. James Murray, the second son of Lord Stormont, escaped to the Court of the Stuarts in 1715. He was a devoted adherent of the exiled family, and became the governor of the voung prince and the chief minister of his father, who conferred upon him the empty title of Earl of Dunbar. He died at Avignon in 1770. But almost every etymology of this kind must be entirely conjectural.
MORRIS, ROB.
Born August 31, 1818. Was first brought to Masonic light March 5, 1846, in Oxford Lodge, at a place of the same name in Mississippi. The life of Brother Morris was so active and untiring for the benefit of the Institution of Freemasonry, that he had the opportunity of filling very many positions in all the departments of Freemasonry, and was Grand Master of Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky in 1858-9. His service to the Order of the Eastern Star was devoted and valuable. He was also an organizer of the Conservators,'Brethren who aroused much interest and some resentment over proposed changes and standardization of Masonic ceremonies. His writings cover Masonic jurisprudence, rituals and handbooks, Masonic belles-lettres, history and biography, travels and contributions to the Review, Freystone, Advocate, New York Dispatch, and other papers and periodicals. His Masonic songs and poetic effusions stand out prominently. He was the author of Te Meet upon the Level, which is sufficient to render his name immortal. A complete biography of Brother Rob Morris would fill volumes. He died in 1888.
THE LEVEL, PLUMB AND SQUARE
We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square:
What words sublimely beautiful those words Masonic are!
They fall like strains of melody upon the listening ears,
As they've sounded hallelujahs to the world, three thousand years.
We meet upon the Level, though from every station brought,v
The Monarch from his palace and the Laborer from his cot
For the King must drop his dignity when knocking at our door
And the Laborer is his equal as he walks the cheekered floor.
We act upon the Plumb,—'tis our Master's great command
We stand upright in virtue's way and lean to neither hand
The All-Seeing Eye that reads the heart will bear us witness true,
That we do always honor God and give each man his due.
We part upon the Square,—for the world must have its due,
We mingle in the ranks of men, but keep the Secret true,
And the influence of our gatherings in memory is green,
And we long, upon the Level, to renew the happy scene.
There's a world where all are equal,—we are hurrying toward it fast
We shall meet upon the Level there when the gates of death are past
We shall stand before the Orient and our Master will be there,
Our works to try, our lives to prove by His unerring Square.
We shall meet upon the Level there, but never thence depart.
There's a mansion bright and glorious, set for the pure in heart
Sand an everlasting welcome from the Zost rejoicing there,
Who in this world of sloth and sin, did part upon the Square.
Let us meet upon the Level, then, while laboring patient here
Let us meet and let us labor, tho' the labor be severe;
already in the Western Sky the signs bid us prepare,
To gather up our Working Tools and part upon the Square.
Hands round, ye royal Craftsmen in the bright, fraternal chain !
We part upon the Square below to meet in Heaven again;
Each tie that has been broken here shall be cemented there,
And none be lost around the Throne who parted on the Square.
—ROB MORRIS.
MORRIS, ROBERT.
A signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Freemason who devoted his entire personal fortune to the furthering of the cause of the Colonists, as well as borrowing large sums from France which were also turned over to the Colonists. He was born in Liverpool, England, January 20, 1734, and died May 8, 1806. He patriotically sacrificed all his worldly possessions. Said to have been a member of an old Pennsylvania Masonic Lodge (see New Age, May, 1925, and Brother Peters' Masons as Makers of Amenca, page 58, but not so asserted by Brother Boyden, Masonic Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Signers; and Brother Roth, Masonry in the Formation of Our Government, page 83, says no definite proofs have been found of Morris as a Freemason).
MORTALITY, SYMBOL OF.
The ancient Egyptians introduced a skeleton at their feasts, to impress the idea of the evanescence of all earthly enjoyments; but the skeletons or deaths' heads did not make their appearance in Grecian art, as symbols of mortality, until later times, and on monuments of no artistic importance. In the earliest periods of ancient art, the Greeks and Romans employed more pleasing representations, such as the flower plucked from its stem, or the inverted torch. The moderns have, however, had recourse to more offensive symbolization. In their hatchments or funeral achievements the heralds employ a death's head and crossed bones, to denote that the deceased person is the last of his family. The Freemasons have adopted the same symbol, and in all the Degrees where it is necessary to impress the idea of mortality, a skull, or a skull and crossed hones, are used for that purpose.
MORTAR, UNTEMPERED.
See Untempered Mortar.
MOSAIC PAVEMENT.
Mosaic work consists properly of many little stones of different colors united together in patterns to imitate a painting. It was much practiced among the Romans, who called it musivum, whence the Italians get their musaico, the French their mosaique, and we our mosaics The idea that the work is derived from the fact that Moses used a pavement of colored stones in the tabernacle has been long since exploded by etymologists. The Masonic tradition is that the floor of the Temple of Solomon was decorated with a mosaic pavement of black and white stones. There is no historical evidence to substantiate this statement. Samuel Lee, however, in his diagram of the Temple, represents not only the floors of the building, but of all the outer courts, as covered with such a pavement. The Masonic idea was perhaps first suggested by this passage in the Gospel of Saint John xix, 13, "When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha." The word here translated Pavement is in the original Lithostroton, the very word used by Pliny to denote a mosaic pavement.
The Greek word, as well as its Latin equivalent is used to denote a pavement formed of ornamental stones of various colors, precisely what is meant by a Mosaic Pavement. There was, therefore, a part of the Temple which was decorated with a mosaic pavement. The Talmud informs us that there was such a pavement in the Conclave where the Grand Sanhedrin held its sessions. By a little torsion of historical accuracy, the Freemasons have asserted that the ground floor of the Temple was a mosaic pavement, and hence as the Lodge is a representation of the Temple, that the floor of the Lodge should also be of the same pattern. The mosaic pavement is an old symbol of the Order. It is met with in the earliest Rituals of the eighteenth century. It is classed among the ornaments of the Lodge in combination with the indented tessel and the blazing star. Its parti-colored stones of black and white have been readily and appropriately interpreted as symbols of the evil and good of human life.
MOSAIC SYMBOLISM.
In the religion of Moses, more than in any other which preceded or followed it, is symbolism the predominating idea. From the tabernacle, which may be considered as the central point of the whole system, down to the vestments which clothed the servants at the altar, there will be found an underlying principle of symbolism. Long before the davs of Pythagoras the mystical nature of numbers had been inculcated by the Jewish lawgiver, and the very name of God was constructed in a symbolical form, to indicate His eternal nature. Much of the Jewish ritual of worship, delineated in the Pentateuch with so much precision as to its minutest details would almost seem puerile were it not for the symbolie idea that is conveyed. So the fringes of the garments are patiently described, not as decorations, but that by them the people, in looking upon the fringe, might "remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them." Well, therefore, has a modern writer remarked, that in the symbolism of the Mosaic worship it is only ignorance, that can find the details trifling or the prescriptions minute; for if we recognize the worth and beauty of symbolism, we shall in vain seek in the Mosaic symbols for one superfluous enactment or one superstitious idea.
To the Freemason the Mosaic symbolism is very significant, because from it Freemasonry has derived and transmitted for its own uses many of the most precious treasures of its own symbolical art. Indeed, except in some of the higher, and therefore more modern Degrees, the symbolism of Freemasonry is almost entirely deduced from the symbolism of Mosaism. Thus the symbol of the Temple, which persistently pervades the whole of the ancient Masonic system, comes to us directly from the symbolism of the Jewish tabernacle. If Solomon is revered by the Freemasons as their traditional Grand Master, it is because the Temple constructed by him was the symbol of the Divine life to be cultivated in every heart.
And this symbol was borrowed from the Mosaic tabernacle; and the Jewish thought, that every Hebrew was to be a tabernacle of the Lord, has been transmitted to the Masonic system, which teaches that every Freemason is to be a temple of the Grand Architect. The Papal Church, from which we get all ecclesiastical Symbolism borrowed its symbology from the ancient Romans. Hence most of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonrv which partake of a Christian character are marked bv Roman symbolism transmuted into Christian. But Craft Masonry, more ancient and more universal, finds its symbolic teachings almost exclusively in the Mosaic symbolism in
stituted in the wilderness.
If we inquire whence the Jewish lawgiver derived the symbolic system which he introduced into his religion, the history of his life will readily answer the question. Philo-Judaeus says that "Moses was instructed by the Egyptian priests in the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics as well as in the mysteries of the sacred animals." The sacred historian tells us that he was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians"; and Manetho and other traditionary writers tell us that he was educated at Heliopolis as a priest, under his Egyptian name of Osarsiph, and that
there he was taught the whole range of literature and science, which it was customary to impart to the priesthood of Egypt. When, then, at the head of his people, he passed away from the servitude of Egyptian taskmasters, and began in the wilderness to es tablish his new religion, it is not strange that he should have given a holy use to the symbols whose meaning
he had learned in his ecclesiastical education on the banks of the Nile.
Thus is it that we find in the Mosaic symbolism so many identities with the Egyptian Ritual. Thus the Ark of the Covenant, the Breastplate of the High Priest, the Miter, and many other of the Jewish symbols, will find their analogies in the ritualistic ceremonies of the Egyptians. Reghellini, who has written an elaborate work on Masonry considered as the result of the
Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian Religions, says on the subject: "Moses, in his mysteries, and after him Solomon, adopted a great part of the Egyptian symbols, which, after them, we Masons have preserved in our own" (see Doctor Mackey's revised Symbolism of
Freemasonry).
MOSES.
The Hebrew word Urn, which means drawn out; but the true derivation is from two Egyptian words, po, me, and ouxe, oushes, signifying saved from the water. The lawgiver of the Jews, and referred to in some of the higher Degrees, especially in the Twenty-fifth Degree, or Knight of the Brazen Serpent in the Ancient and Aceepted Scottish Rite, where he is represented as the presiding officer. He plays also an important part in the Royal Arch of the York and American Rites, all of whose Ritual is framed on the Mosaic symbolism.
MOSSDORF, FRIEDRICH.
An eminent German Freemason, who was born March 2, 1757, at Eckartsberge, and died about 1830. He resided in Dresden, and took an active part in the affairs of Freemasonry. He was a warm supporter of Fessler-s Masonic reforms, and made several contributions to the Freyberg Freimaurenischen Taschenbuche in defense of Fessler's system. He became intimately connected with the learned Krause, the author of The Three Most Ancient Records of the Masonic Fraternity, and wrote and published in 1809 a critical review of the work, in consequence of which the Grand Lodge commanded him to absent himself for an indefinite period from the Lodges. Mossdorf then withdrew from any further connection with the Fraternity. His most valuable contributions to Masonic literature are his additions and emendations to Lenning's Encyclopadie der Freimaurerei. He is the author also of several other works of great value.
MOST EXCELLENT.
The title given to a Royal Arch Chapter, and to its presiding officer, the High Priest; also to the presiding officer of a Lodge of Most Excellent Masters.
MOST EXCELLENT MASTER.
The Sixth Degree in the York or American Rite. Its history refers to the dedication of the Temple by King Solomon, who is represented by its presiding officer under the title of Most Excellent. Its officers are the same as those in a Symbolic Lodge. There are, however, some Rituals in which the Junior Warden is omitted. This Degree is peculiarly American, it being practiced in no other country. It was the invention of Webb, who organized the Capitular System of Freemasonry as it exists in the United States of America, and established the system of lectures which is the foundation of all subsequent systems taught there.
MOST PUISSANT.
The title of the presiding officer of a Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters.
MOST WORSHIPFUL.
The title usually given to a Grand Lodge and to its presiding officer, the Grand Master. However, the title of Grand Master of Pennsylvania is Right Worshipful.
MOT DE SEMESTRE.
A French expression, meaning Half yearly word. Every six months the Grand Orient of France sends to each of the Lodges of its obedience a password, to be used by its members as an additional means of gaining admission into a Lodge. Each Freemason obtains this word only from the Venerable or Worshipful Master of his own Lodge. It was instituted October 28, 1773, when the Duke of Chartres was elected Grand Master.
MOTE.
From an old Anglo-Saxon word. motan meaning "to be allowed," as in the phrase so mote if be, meaning so may it be.
MOTHER COUNCIL OF THE WORLD.
The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, which was organized in 1801, at Charleston, is called the Mother Council qf the World, because from it have issued directly or indirectlv all the other Supreme Councils of the Rite which are nose in existence, or have existed since its organization
MOTHER LODGE.
In the eighteenth centurv certain Lodges in France and Germany assumed an independent position, and issued Charters for the constitution of Daughter Lodges, claiming the prerogatives of Grand Lodges. Thus we find the Mother Lodge of Marseilles, in France, which constituted many Lodges. In Seotland the Lodge of Kilwinning took the title of MotherLodge, and issued Charters until it was merged in the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The system is altogether irregular, and has no sanction in the laws of the Fraternity
Perfect Sincerity Lodge, of Marseilles, France, was of English descent organized in 1767 as a Subordinate Lodge of the Grand Lodge of France and was a subordinate of the Grand Orient of France since the eonsolidation in 1806- Perfect Sincerity Lodge granted a Charter to Polar Star Lodge of New Orleans in 1796 and reported this action to the Grand Orient of France, which latter Body approved the course that had been taken and healed the work of Polar Star Lodge from the time they commenced working up to 1804, at which time the Grand Orient granted them a Charter. As Polar Star Lodge No. 4263, working under the Grand Orient of France, they continued to so operate until the organization of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana.
These facts were obtained through a search caused by Post Office Inspector M. G. Price and given on page 248, Thomson Masonic Fraud. This Lodge and the one usually called the Mother Lodge of Marseilles or Mother Scotch Lodge of France, are sometimes confused. They are distinctly independent Bodies (see also Thory, Acta Latomerum, page 63; Ragon, Orthodoxie Maconnique, page 120, and Outline of the Rise and Progress of Freemasonry in Louisiana, James B. Seot. The particulars are to be found in the aceount of the Craft in Louisiana, Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry, pages 1554-9).
MOTION.
A motion when made by a member cannot be brought before the Lodge for deliberation unless it is seconded by another member. Motions are of two kinds, principal and subsidiary; a principal motion is one that presents an independent proposition for discussion. Subsidiary motions are those which are intended to affect the principal motion—such as to amend it, to lay it on the table, to postpone it definitely or indefinitely, or to reconsider it, all of which are governed by the parliamentary law under certain modifications to suit the spirit and genius of the Masonic organization (see Doctor Mackey's Treatise on Parliamentary Law as Applied to Masonic Bodies, also his revised Jurisprudence of Freemasonry).
MOTTO.
In imitation of the sentences appended to the Coats of Arms and seals of the Gilds and other societies, the Freemasons have for the different branches of their Order mottoes, which are placed on their banners or put at the head of their documents, which are expressive of the character and design, either of the whole Order or of the particular branch to which the motto belongs. Thus, in Ancient Craft Masonry, we have as mottoes the sentences, Ordo ab Chao, and Lug e tenebris; in Capitular Masonry, Holiness to the Lord; in Templar Masonry, In hoc signo winces; in Scottish Masonry, Ne plus ultra is the motto of the Thirtieth Degree, and Spes mea in Deo est of the Thirty-second; while the Thirty-third has for its motto Deus meumaue Jus. AIl of these will be found vith their signification and origin in their appropriate places in this work.
MOUND BUILDERS.
Early inhabitants in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers who seem to have had a civilization more enlightened than that of the aborigines first met by the white settlers. The
mounds built by these people are scattered over the territory extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Many of these are in Ohio—some circular, others four and six-sided. Sometimes there are combinations of these and certain structures are known as altar mounds, small rounded heaps of earth having at the center a hollowed mass of hard clay showing the effects of fire and containing ashes and charcoal. The hollowed parts are from three to four feet in diameter. In Adams County, Ohio, between two branches of the Licking River, is a remarkable mound lying upon a narrow ridge and is in the form of a serpent, the jaws being wide open and measuring across some seventy-five feet. The body is about five feet high and behind the head about thirty feet across.
The whole length is 1,348 feet and it covers an area of about four square miles and, following the curves of the body, the tail is arranged in a triple coil. In front of the head is an egg-shaped enclosure with a pile of stones at the center, and beyond this a somewhat indistinct form thought to represent an animal. There are other mounds representing birds, reptiles, and so on in Wisconsin, and the suggestion has been offered that these were of a totemic character and served as objects of worship and perhaps were regarded as the guardians of the villages. The conclusion of various authorities is that the Mound-Builders lived in the stone-age and had no knowledge of smelting, though they made many articles in beaten metals and from other materials. A study of the skulls indicates that they were not of one race.
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