THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
june 1916
volume 2 - number 6
JACQUES BERNARD DE MOLAI
BY BRO. G. ALFRED LAWRENCE, NEW YORK
JACQUES Bernard de Molai (or de Molay), a native of
Burgundy, was born in the year 1243, and his life and times are of deep interest
to Masons, and especially to Knights Templar, owing to the fact of his being the
last Grand Master of the Order of Templars, together with his heroic martyrdom
for the cause to which he had devoted practically his entire life. He was the
youngest brother of one of the most distinguished houses of the "Compte" of
Burgundy, his elder brother having a large property and a higher position.
Entering the Order in 1265, at the age of 22 years, he had
passed through all the degrees and became Grand Prior (or Preceptor) of England.
His devotion and service resulted in his acquiring an enviable reputation
throughout the Templar world of that strenuous period.
A man of true merit, of undaunted bravery, highly
intellectual, of amiable disposition and pure morals, with a character beyond
reproach, meriting and receiving the favor of his King, he was a welcome guest
at the Court of France. In 1297 his treacherous sovereign selected him for the
distinguished honor of holding his (the King's) fourth son, M. Robert, at the
baptismal font. All this time Philip the Fair, while pretending friendship for
de Molai and the Order, with avaricious eyes looked longingly at the rich
possessions of the Templars, and was secretly plotting their destruction.
Ignorant of the hatred of the King, the lords of his Court held de Molai in such
high esteem that they aided in his election as Grand Master in 1298. In 1302 de
Molai, as the Head of this powerful Order, made the last effort--a result of the
seven Crusades that had swept Europe for several centuries--to recover Palestine
from the Moslem hordes, but he and his faithful followers suffered defeat at the
hands of the Sultan of Egypt, with a loss of 120 Knights; and this ended their
endeavors to recover the Holy Land. After that the activities of this powerful
Order, as a military organization, ceased.
By many grants from time to time the Templars had become
possessed of large estates and were very rich and prosperous. The cupidity of
the clergy, the need of money by their avaricious King, and the decadence of the
Templars as a military organization, were the principal factors leading to their
downfall.
The first Grand Master of this famous Order of Templars was
Hugho de Payens, elected in 1118, followed by Robert de Craon, 1136; Everard des
Barres, 1146; Bernard deTremelay, 1151; Bertrand de Blanquefort, 1154; Philip of
Naplous, 1167; Odo de St. Amand, 1170; Arnold de Torroge, 1180; Gerard de
Ridefort, 1185; Brother Walter, 1189; Robert de Sable, 1191; Gilbert Horal,
1195; Philip Duplesseis, 1201; William de Charters, (date of election unknown)
who died in 1218; Peter de Montague, 1218; Herman de Perigord, 1236; William de
Sonnac, 1245; Reginald de Vichier, 1152; Thomas Berard, 1256; William de Beaujeu,
1273; Theobald de Gaudini, 1291; and finally in 1297 Jacques Bernard de Molai
(or Molay), Preceptor of England, was elected Grand Master by a general Chapter
of the Order.
It is interesting to note in this connection that King John
of England frequently resided at the Temple London, and it was there that he
resigned England Ireland " to his lord Pope Innocent the Third," and signed that
epoch-making document "Magna Charta." This historic building, which became Crown
property upon the dissolution of the Order in 1313, afterwards came into
possession of the Knights of St. John, who in 1346 leased it to the students of
common law, and it has served continuously since then as a law school and today
houses the inns of court--societies for the study of law and possessing
exclusively the privilege of calling to the bar--four in number, the Inner and
Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn.
The events that led up to the tragic death of de Molai and
the dissipation of Order and confiscation their estates, was the avarice of
Philip IV, called Phillip the Fair, the sore financial straits in which the
French monarchy found itself coupled with the cupidity of the clergy and the
vacillating character of Pope Clement V. Philip pretended to be anxious for a
new crusade, and at his instigation Clement V called the Grand Masters of the
Templars and Knights of John to Europe. De Molai, as a true soldier of the
cross, answered this summons and returned to France in the fall of 1306,
accompanied by a chosen band of distinguished Knights of the Order. He repaired
to Portiers in 1307 to render allegiance to the Pope, and at that time nothing
was said about investigating the affairs of the Order.
Shortly thereafter Philip appeared before Clement and
preferred charges demanding the dissolution of the Order. As this was the
beginning of French or Avignon Papacy, the Pope was largely under the influence
of Philip and was finally induced to order this investigation. Instead of
awaiting this papal investigation, however, the King immediately procured the
arrest of every Templar in France, and on October 13, 1307, de Molai was seized
in the house of the Temple and taken before special commissioners of the
Inquisition.
Although the Pope was indignant at this presumption the
part of Philip, and suspended the power of the Inquisition, yet the King's
influence was so great that he finally compelled the Pope to take part in the
action. De Molai was thereupon examined by a Papal commission, and under torture
confessed the truth of some of the charges. On March 11, 1314, he was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment. He immediately retracted all he had said while under
torture, and this so infuriated the King that the latter ordered him forcibly
seized and burnt at the stake the same evening. This occurred in front of Notre
Dame, Paris, and as the flames mounted up about his body and were fast consuming
his flesh, after protesting the innocence of the Order, he called aloud to the
surrounding crowd, "You who behold us perishing in the flames shall decide our
innocence ! I summon Pope Clement V to appear in forty days and Philip the Fair
in twelve months before the just and terrible throne of the everliving God, to
render an account of the blood which they have unjustly and wickedly shed."
With him perished Guy, the Grand Preceptor; Hugo de Paralt
(or Peraldes), the Visitor General; and Theodore Bazile de Merioncourt.
Retribution followed swiftly; the King Philip IV dying four weeks later
embittered by misfortune and deserted by his nobles. Pope Clement V, after a
painful and lingering illness, died one year and a month after the death of
these martyred Templars; and it is recorded that all those others foremost in
persecuting the Templars came to an untimely and miserable death.
King Philip had plotted to invest one of his sons with the
title of King of Hierusalem, (Jerusalem), and hoped to procure of Pope Clement V
the large revenues of the Order by this dastardly act. What actually occurred
was the confiscation of the possessions of the Templars which were divided among
various Orders, many of the surviving Knights of the Order languished in
dungeons, and the remainder were compelled to leave their homes, discard their
Templar garb and go forth penniless into the world.
Tradition tells us that the surviving Templars became
divided into four parties: (1) Templars in Portugal and Italy, known since as
Knights of the "Order of Christ"; (2) those who accepted Peter d'Aumont- as the
successor of de Molai; (3) those who asserted that John Marc Larmenius was his
successor; and (4) those who refused to accept either d'Aumont or Larmenius.
Modern Templarism is supposed to be derived from the fourth class, although
there are no historically authentic documents to prove this contention.
Addison, on the contrary, claims that de Molai appointed as
his successor John Marc Larmenius, of Jerusalem, and that from him a regular
uninterrupted line of Grand Masters succeeded, and that the Charter of
transmission with the signatures of the various chiefs of the Temple, together
with the ancient statutes of the Order, the rituals, records, seals, standards,
and the early memorials of the Templars, are preserved at Paris. As Grand
Masters were elected, and not appointed, such a succession to say the least from
de Molai could not be regular. This with many other points in the history of
various Orders that flourished and were powerful factors for good during this
troubled period, together with the early history of Knights Templarism as it
exists today, are fruitful fields for Masonic research, which it is to be hoped
some member of the National Masonic Research Society can take up at an early
date and prosecute to a successful issue.
The life and tragic death of Jacques Bernard de Molai
should be an inspiration to every Mason zealously to work for the advancement
and uplifting of our beloved fraternity, and so usefully conduct his own life
that he can in the evening of his own earthly existence lay aside his working
tools and fall asleep to awaken in that "Celestial Temple," and greet this
perfect Knight whose enfranchised spirit soared aloft these six centuries agone.
----o----
A CITY SHRINE
I saw a sparrow on the window rest,
I caught a simple rose in blossom there;
O nerveless echo from the muffled past,
How canst thou with the living voice compare!
Ye costly shrines, in stone and splendor clad,
That stir not, tho' the stately music roll,
For me, the pulsing life, the sun, the sky,
The blessed influence of soul on soul.
Must bird and rose and sunbeam be without,
While gloom and dust and marble fill the shrine ?
Let those who will all humbly bow within,
O larger, broader Father's house, be mine!
--Abram S. Isaacs, New York.
----o----
A NOBLE LIFE
A noble life, a simple faith,
An open heart and hand;
These are the common litanies
Which all men understand.
These are the ornaments of grace,
Tho' hidden to the view,
Like square and plumb and level,
To build the world anew.
--Abram S. Isaacs, New York.
----o----
A FRIEND
A friend is one who backs you up
When other men assail;
You'll find him near when others cheer,
And near the times you fail.
He does not ask blue skies for you
Nor leave when days are grim
Though good or bad, the luck you've had,
It's all the same to him.
A friend is first to cheer for you
The last one to desert;
For old time's sake your part he'll take
However much he's hurt.
He's by your side through thick and thin
He'll back you to the end;
And great is he whoe'er he be
Who's worthy of his friend !
--Edgar A. Guest.
----o----
THE LEARNER
Thus come I in the pride of youth to learn
My life work: through my limbs there runs a fire,
Born of my vigor, shaped by wild desire.
Reft from the quarry of the race, I turn
To shape myself more finely, to discern
Some part of nature's harmony, aspire
To excellencies great, to powers higher,
And then, perchance, my great reward to earn.
The Master gave me tools for work, when light
Had come by which to work; a simple rule
Whereby to labor best by day and night,
An instrument to take away excess;
And, clad as learner, entered I the school
Where strength controlled at last will bring success.
--H. W. Ticknor, Florida.
----o----
WHATEVER THE WEATHER
"Whatever the weather may be," says he--
"Whatever the weather may be,
It's the songs ye sing, an' the smiles ye wear,
That's a-makin' the sun shine everywhere;
An' the world of gloom is a world of glee,
Wid the bird in the bush, an' the bud in the tree,
An' the fruit on the stim o' the bough," says he,
"Whatever the weather may be," says he--
"Whatever the weather may be !"
"Whatever the weather may be," says he--
"Whatever the weather may be,
Ye can bring the Spring, wid its green an' gold,
An' the grass in the grove where the snow lies cold;
An' ye'll warm yer back, wid a smiling face,
As ye sit at yer heart, like an owld fireplace,
An' toast the toes o' yer sowl," says he,
"Whatever the weather may be," says he--
"Whatever the weather may be !"
--James Whitcomb Riley.
THE WEBB RITUAL IN THE UNITED STATES
BY BRO. SILAS H. SHEPHERD, WISCONSIN
THE year 1717 will ever stand out as a prominent date in
the history of Freemasonry. Since then we have voluminous written and printed
records; before then we had but about a hundred old manuscript charges, a few
mentions of Freemasonry in biography and laws, and a very few lodge minutes.
Previous to 1717, the rituals, or forms and ceremonies of
reception of candidates and other work of the lodge, were most probably given in
the language and manner the presiding officer chose. It may have been in a "set
form of words," which form was transmitted orally from one generation to
another.
Soon after the "revival," or the organization of the Grand
Lodge in 1717, Rev. James Anderson, the author of the "Book of Constitutions" of
1723, and Dr. John T. Desaguliers, the master mind of the organization, arranged
the lectures into the form of questions and answers for the first time, and this
was adopted by the Grand Lodge as the authentic lectures. (1)
In 1732, Martin Clare revised the lectures and made a few
Christian applications which were not in strict conformity to the cosmopolitan
character of the fraternity. Dr. Thos. Manningham and Thos. Dunkery were the
next to "improve the work" and Dr. Manningham's prayer is still used, with
slight modifications in opening a lodge and at the reception of candidates.
Thos. Dunkerly is said to have given the theological ladder its three principal
rounds. In 1763, Wm. Hutchinson again revised and "improved" the lectures and
gave more Christian applications to their rites and ceremonies. (2)
The greatest of all ritualists, however, was William
Preston who was made a Mason in a lodge of "Antients," in 1763, and soon after
induced that lodge to be reconstituted by the "Moderns." In 1767 he became
master of his lodge. He believed that Freemasonry should not only be a
progressive moral science, but that it should have an educational value in
giving its votaries more knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences. His
"Illustrations of Masonry" was the result, and no book having more influence has
ever been written on Masonry. He was the father of the monitor. By 1774 he had
completed his system of "work" and established a school of instruction, and from
that time to the present the Preston "work" has been, and undoubtedly far into
the future it will continue to be, one of the most potent influences of the
ritual. Preston's "work" continued to be the standard work for the Grand Lodge
of England until 1813, when the "United Grand Lodge" adopted the Hemming
lectures. The Hemming lectures differ in many particulars from the Preston. The
Preston lectures are still given once a year in England under the auspices of a
foundation made for that purpose.
When Freemasonry was first established in America is an
open question. We are not quite sure that the stone with the date 1606 is really
a Masonic stone of that date, or that Mordecai Campanell and his companions
conferred the degrees of Masonry in 1656 at Newport, R. I. (3) Neither are we
certain as to where Freemasonry was first practiced in this country by authority
of the Grand Lodge of England after 1717. It is, however, well known that lodges
were established in the colonies and that Daniel Coxe, Henry Price and James
Graeme were issued deputations as Provincial Grand Masters.
The ritual of the English lodges would naturally have been
the one used in the English colonies, and in this connection it is well to call
attention to the fact that the "Grand Lodge of England according to the old
Institutions," or "Ancients," was established in 1751, and from that time until
1813 chartered lodges in all the colonies. In many of the colonies there were
two conflicting Provincial Grand Lodges.
In the establishment of the "Ancient" Grand Lodge changes
were made which were of considerable importance. (4) Uniformity was not
accomplished in England until 1813, and it has not yet been attained, and
probably never will be attained, in America. Pennsylvania still retains the
"Ancient work."
After the Colonies had declared their independence of Great
Britain, the Provincial Grand Lodges naturally declared their independence of
the Grand Lodges to which they owed their origin. Each was then a sovereign
Grand Lodge.
To return to the lectures; they took the form of the place
whence they came, and were quite probably not transmitted with a great degree of
accuracy, and were not very uniform in the United States at the close of the
Eighteenth century.
Thos. Smith Webb was born in Boston, Mass., October 13,
1771, and became a printer or book binder. Early in life he became a Mason and a
teacher of Masonry. In 1797 he published the "Freemason's Monitor." He
subsequently did more for Masonry than almost any one else in his day, and was
probably personally instrumental in founding the "American Rite," or system of
degrees of Royal Arch, Council and Commandery. What we are particularly
interested in, however, is his connection with ancient craft Masonry.
About the close of the eighteenth century a printer named
Hanmer came to America and brought the Preston work. He communicated it to Webb.
Soon afterward Webb abridged it, arranged it differently, as to sections, and
taught this revision to Benjamin Gleason, Henry Fowle, Bro. Snow, and others. In
1806 a joint committee of six, of which Bros. Gleason and Fowle were members,
met and agreed upon the Webb work as the standard work of Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. Bro. Jeremy Cross claimed to have received his work from this
committee. (5) In an address before the Grand Lodge of Vermont in 1859 G. M.
Philip Tucker gave much valuable information from which we excerpt the
following:
"About the year 1800--twelve years after the publication
of Preston's Illustrations an English brother, whose name I have been unable to
obtain, came to Boston and taught the English Lectures as they had been arranged
by Preston. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts approved them and they were taught
by Thomas S. Webb and Henry Fowle, of Boston, and Brother Snow, of Rhode Island.
About the year 1801, Brother Benjamin Gleason, who was a student of Bro. Webb,
received them from him, and embodied them in a private key of his own. About the
year 1805, Bro. Gleason was employed by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts to
teach all the Subordinate Lodges of that jurisdiction, and was paid for that
service, fifteen hundred dollars. To those lectures the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts still adheres, with a very slight variation in the Fellow Craft
and Master's Degree. Bro. Snow afterwards changed and modified the Lectures he
had received--mingling with them some changes from other sources--so that the
system of lectures descending through him, is not reliable.
"Bro. Gleason was appointed Grand Lecturer of the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts in 1805, and that Grand Lodge appointed no other Grand
Lecturer until 1842. He was a liberally educated man; graduated at Brown
University in 1802, and was a public lecturer on geography and astronomy. He was
a member of Mount Lebanon Lodge, in Massachusetts, in 1807, and died in Concord
in that State, in 1847, at the age of 70. He visited England and exemplified the
Preston Lectures as he had received them from Bro. Webb, before the Grand Lodge
of England, and the Masonic authorities of that Grand Body pronounced them
correct. In the year 1817, Bro. John Barney, formerly of Charlotte, Vermont,
went to Boston and received the Preston Lectures there as taught by Gleason, and
as they were approved by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
"I am unable to say whether he received them from Bro.
Gleason himself, or from Bro. Henry Fowle. My impression is that he received
them from Bro. Fowle. In possession of these Lectures he returned to Vermont,
and at the Annual Communication of our Grand Lodge in October, 1817, visited
that Grand Body and made known the fact. The subject was submitted to a
committee for examination, which reported that these Lectures were according to
the most approved method of Work in the United States, and proposed to give Bro.
Barney letters of recommendation to all Lodges and brethren, wherever he may
wish to travel, as a brother well qualified to give useful Masonic information
to any one who may wish his services.
"The Grand Lodge accepted and adopted the report of its
committee, and Bro. Barney, under the recommendation thus given, visited many of
the then existing Lodges of this State, and imparted to them a knowledge of
these Lectures. Among others, in the year 1818, he visited Dorchester Lodge, in
Vergennes, and imparted full instructions in them to Right Worshipful Samuel
Wilson, now and for several years past, Grand Lecturer of this State. Upon this
occasion Bro. Barney wrote out a portion of them in private key, and Bro. Wilson
wrote out the remainder. Both were written in the same book, and that part
written by Bro. Wilson was examined carefully and approved by Bro. Barney. That
original manuscript is still in existence, and is now in possession of my son,
Bro. Philip C. Tucker, Jr., of Galveston, Texas, to whom Bro. Wilson presented
it a few years ago. Bro. Wilson has a perfect copy of it, and refers to it as
authority in all cases of doubt. Bro. Gallup, of Liberty Lodge, at Franklin, was
one of the original Grand Lodge committee, and is still living to attest the
correctness and identity of these Lectures as taught by Barney, in 1817.
"These are the only Lectures which have been sanctioned in
this jurisdiction, from October, 1817, to the present day. The Grand Lodge has
sanctioned no others. My predecessors, Grand Masters Robinson, Whitney, Whales
and Haswell, sustained them against all innovations, and to the extent of my
power I have done the same. I think upon these facts I am justified in saying
that the Lectures we use are the true Lectures of Preston.
"Webb changed the arrangement of the sections as fixed by
Preston. for one which he thought more simple and convenient, but, as I
understand, he left the body of the Lectures themselves as Preston had
established them. Subsequently to 1818, Bro. Barney went to the western and
southwestern States; he was a man in feeble health at the time, and pursued
Masonic lecturing as a means of subsistence. Upon his return to this State, a
few years afterwards. he stated to his brethren here--as I have been credibly
informed and believe-- that he found different systems of lecturing prevailing
at the west and south-west, and that, upon presenting the Lectures he had been
taught at Boston in 1817, to different Grand Masters, they were objected to, and
that various Grand Masters would not sanction his lecturing in their
jurisdictions, unless he would teach the Lectures then existing among them, that
desiring to pursue his occultation, he did learn the different systems of
lecturing then existing in the different States, and taught them in the
different State jurisdictions, as desired by the different Grand Masters in
each. This circumstance accounts for the strange disagreement between the east
and west and south-west as to what are the true Barney Lectures. They meant one
thing in New England and another in the west."
Again, in 1861, he says: "Bro. Gleason was appointed Grand
Lecturer of Massachusetts in 1805 and no other Grand Lecturer was appointed by
that Grand Lodge until 1842. During all this time Bro. Fowle was a member,
sometimes a subordinate officer, and occasionally Master of St. Andrew's Lodge
of Boston, one of the oldest and best informed Lodges in the world. For most of
this time, also, Bro. Gleason was at home in Massachusetts, and holding his
office of Grand Lecturer of his State. Is it not a very violent presumption to
assume that he did not know what Lectures and what kind of Work were taught in
one of the strongest Lodges of Boston.
"I knew Bro. Henry Fowle from my boyhood. My father was one
of his intimate friends, and they were members and officers of the same Charter.
Bro. Fowle was a man of far more mind and attainments than are usually found
among men of his sphere of life. His was not a mind to forget anything, and was
too tenacious a Mason to make changes without authority. But setting all
inferences from such considerations aside, I remark, that I was present at St.
Andrew's Lodge in 1823 or 1824. AND SAW THE WORK DONE, BRO. FOWLE TAKING PART IN
IT THAT EVENING AS A SUBORDINATE OFFICER, AND THE WORK WAS IDENTICALLY THAT
WHICH HAS BEEN PRACTICED IN THIS JURISDICTION FROM 1818 TO THIS DAY. AS
EXEMPLIFIED IN THE LECTURES COMMUNICATED TO WILSON BY BARNEY. I add also, that I
was subjected, upon another occasion, to a thorough examination, in an ante-room
of the same Masonic hall, upon a visit to St. Andrew's Chapter, by a strong
examining committee, which, finding that I answered readily, ran through the
Lectures ENTIRE from entered apprentice to Royal Arch, and that the whole of
them were IDENTICAL with those in use in the Lodges and Chapters of Vermont.
There can be no doubt, then, that the Lectures communicated by Fowle to Barney
were the genuine Lectures taught by Webb and Gleason, the same which Gleason
received from Webb in 1801 or 1802; the same which he taught as Grand Lecturer
of Massachusetts, from 1805; the same that I found among the Boston Masons, in
1823 or 1824 and the very same which are taught there now.
"Was there any opportunity for them to be falsified in
their translation from Barney to Wilson? Barney received them in 1817 and made
private notes of them; in October of that year, he submitted them to the Grand
Lodge of Vermont, and got its permission to teach them in this jurisdiction: he
was well known here, was a man of integrity and had every motive of interest and
honor to preserve them in their purity. In 1818--and before he had gone from the
State to teach elsewhere at all--he imparted them to Bro. Wilson, having his
original notes before him, and aiding that Brother in making a correct copy of
themand when they came into use practically, they were found to exactly agree
with those used in the jurisdiction from which Bro. Barney received them. There
seems no room for error or mistake here. The link in the chain of transmission
is not broken at all."
The work of Webb was evidently well done, and in his life
time there existed a fairly uniform method where he or his disciples taught. He
died in 1819. Jeremy L. Cross published his "True Masonic chart" in 1819. It was
the Webb monitor with the addition of a series of illustrations of the emblems.
This feature has been copied in most monitors since.
The "Morgan excitement" in 1826 put Masonic activity to a
disadvantage, and there was little done from 1826 to 1839 or thereabouts. Then
there was a revival of interest and an agitation for uniform work resulting in
the Baltimore Convention of 1843, at which the delegates adopted the "Webb
work."
John Barney, of whom Philip Tucker speaks, was made a Mason
in Friendship Lodge No. 20, at Charlotte, Vt., in 1811. After teaching the Webb
work in Vermont he went west. He was Grand Lecturer in Ohio from 1836 to 1843,
and Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Illinois in 1846 and 1847. He died at
Peoria, Ill., June 22, 1847. He was the most influential ritualist of Vermont,
Ohio and Illinois. Michigan and Wisconsin, and the states which have since
become independent Masonically, derived their work from these, and follow the
Barney work to the best of their knowledge.
John Barney was the delegate from Ohio to the Baltimore
Convention of 1843. Charles W. Moore of Massachusetts, was also a delegate. In a
letter written in 1863 he says:
"The work and lectures of the first three degrees, as
adopted and authorized by the Baltimore Convention, in 1843, were, with a few
unimportant verbal exceptions, literally as they were originally compiled by
Bro. Thos. S. Webb, about the close of the last century, and as they were
subsequently taught by him during his lifetime, and also by his early and
favorite pupil, Bro. Benjamin Gleason, from the years 1801-2 until his death in
1847. In a note to me, under date of NOV. 25, 1843, Bro. Gleason says: 'It was
my privilege while at Brown University, Providence, R.I., (1801-2) to acquire a
complete knowledge of the lectures in the first three degrees of Masonry,
directly from our late much lamented brother Thos. S. Webb.' In 1805 Bro.
Gleason was commissioned by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts as its Grand
Lecturer and empowered to visit and instruct the Lodges in the ritual, as he had
received it from Bro. Webb. This duty he performed with great fidelity, and to
the entire satisfaction of the Grand Lodge; and this ritual is in use in the
lodges of Massachusetts at the present time. There may be some verbal departures
from the original, but no material change has been made in it. In 1823-4 Bro.
Gleason was my Masonic teacher. I learned the work and lectures of him. We were
connected by family ties, and close Masonic relations continued to exist between
us until his death in 1847. I was associated with him in all the various
branches of Masonry for nearly a quarter of a century, and enjoyed all the rare
advantages of his extensive and accurate knowledge of the various rituals of the
different grades of the Order. In 1843 I was appointed by the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts a delegate to the Baltimore Masonic Convention, called for the
purpose of revising the various modes of work then in use, and agreeing upon a
uniform system for the country. Before leaving home, and as a preparation for
the better discharge of the duties of the appointment, I availed myself of the
assistance of Bro. Gleason, in a thorough and careful revision of the lectures,
which I had originally received from him and which, on frequent occasions, I had
been called to deliver and work with him, both in-and out of the Lodge. I was,
therefore, qualified to report them to the convention, through its committee on
the work, in their purity and integrity, and, beyond all doubt, just as they
originally came from the hand of the late Bro. Webb. I had the honor to be a
member of the committee, and to report the amendments, and the lectures as
amended, to the convention. This I did without notes, but subsequently took the
precaution-to minute down the alterations from the original; and these are now
in my possession. They are mostly verbal, few in number, and not material in
their results. The only change of consequence was in the due guards of the
second and third degrees, which were changed and made to conform to that of the
first degree in position and explanation. This was analogically correct."
At this Baltimore Convention sixteen of the twenty-three
then existing Grand Lodges of the United States were represented, and the "work"
adopted was called the "National" or "Barney" work. No opposition of consequence
to this work occurred until 1860, when Robert Morris tried to have a
"Webb-Preston work as taught by Robert Morris" adopted through the medium of a
Conservator's Association. This Conservator's Association gained much influence
and many brethren lent it their support. The plan was to have a conservator in
each lodge who was to use his best efforts to promulgate the "Webb-Preston work
as taught by Robert Morris." Each conservator was provided with a copy of
"Mnemonics," which Robert Morris claimed was the true work.
The Grand Lodges, however, became alarmed and promptly
condemned the Conservators; in the early 60's most of them passed resolutions
reaffirming the work as handed down through Gleason, Barney, Wilson, Wadsworth,
Cross and others, and as approved and recommended by the Baltimore Convention.
Robert Morris claimed to have received the work from Bro. Wilson of Vermont; but
Bro. Wilson says:
"In 1857 Robert Morris visited Vermont for the purpose of
ascertaining what were the true Webb lectures. P. C. Tucker introduced Morris to
me for the purpose, and I loaned him a copy (not my original) of my cipher, and
which unfortunately had several omissions through mistake. In copying this,
Morris made several mistakes and misread many passages. In fact he could never
read it at all until I met him in Chicago in 1860, and I think he cannot read it
all now. This copy, with its blunders and omissions, is the text from which the
book you refer to (Mnemonics) was made."
If we are correct in judging the condition which prevailed
from 1843, when the Baltimore Convention was held, until the time of the
Conservator's Association, we would conclude that there was a difference in the
work in the different Jurisdictions which made a Conservator movement possible.
(6)
Robert Morris may have been sincerely desirous of promoting
a uniform work and believed he could accomplish it; He probably could if he had
possessed either the Preston work or the Webb work, but he had neither. His was
a Morris work, and there had been too many changes to suit the Brethren, and
from then until now the work adopted and maintained in the East and Northwest
(7) has been as near the Webb work as our ritualists could ascertain, with the
exception of Pennsylvania which still adheres to the "Ancient" work.
(1) See Mackey's Enc., Article Lectures, for simple
questions and answers.
(2) See Hutchinson's "Spirit of Masonry."
(3) History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders, by Hughan,
page 250.
(4) A considerable difference of opinion exists as to what
was done. See "Hughan's English Royal Arch." "Sadler's Reprints and
Revelations."
(5) We think this a rather improbable claim, as Bro. Cross
was not made a Mason until 1808.
(6) "Two text books, differing materially were issued, each
claiming to be the work adopted. ( By the Baltimore convention). I have heard a
dozen variations of the lectures, each declared to be such as were agreed upon
at Baltimore." A. T. C. Pierson, G. M., Minn., 1858.
(7) I am uninformed as to the South and Southwest.
----o----
OUR COUNTRY
Our country ! In her intercourse with foreign nations may
she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong!
--Stephen Decatur.
----o----
THERE DAWNS A DAY
I know there shall dawn a day
--Is it here on homely earth ?
Is it yonder, worlds away,
Where the strange and new have birth,
That Power comes full in play?
Then life is--to wake not sleep,
Rise and not rest, but press
From earth's level where blindly creep
Things perfected, more or less,
To the heaven's height, far and steep.
Where, amid what strifes and storms
May wait the adventurous quest,
Power is Love--transports, transforms
Who aspired from worst to best,
Sought the soul's world, spurned the worms'.
I have faith such end shall be:
From the first, Power was--I knew.
Life has made clear to me
That, strive but for closer view,
Love were as plain to see.
When see? When there dawns a day,
If not on the homely earth,
Then yonder, worlds away,
Where the strange and new have birth,
And power comes full in play.
--Robert Browning.
----o----
VICTOR HUGO'S PROPHECY
(In His Presidential Address at the Peace Congress in
1849.) A day will come when you, France--you, Russia-- you, Italy--you,
England--you, Germany--all of you nations of the continent--shall, without
losing your distinctive qualities and your glorious individuality, blend in a
higher unity and form a European fraternity, even as Normandy, Brittany,
Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all the French provinces, have become blended.
A day will come when war shall seem as absurd and
impossible between Paris and London, between St. Petersburg and Berlin, as
between Rouen and Amiens, between Boston and Philadelphia. A day will come when
bullets and bombs shall be replaced by ballots by the universal suffrage of the
people, by the sacred arbitrament of a great sovereign senate, which shall be to
Europe what the parliament is to England, what the diet is to Germany, what the
legislative assembly is to France.
A day will come when a cannon ball shall be exhibited in
our museums as an instrument of torture is now, and men shall marvel that such
things could be. A day will come when shall be seen those two immense groups,
the United States of America and the United States of Europe, in face of each
other, extending hand to hand over the ocean, exchanging their products, their
commerce, their industry, their arts, their genius --clearing the earth,
colonizing deserts, and ameliorating creation, under the eye of the Creator.
----o----
WHERE IS GOD?
"Oh, where is the sea?" the fishes cried
As they swam the crystal clearness through;
"We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide
And we long to look on the waters blue.
The wise ones speak of an infinite sea;
Oh, who can tell us if such there be ?"
The lark flew up in the morning bright
And sang and balanced on sunny wings,
And this was its song: "I see the light;
I look on a world of beautiful things;
And flying and singing everywhere
In vain have I sought to find the air."
--M. J. Savage.
----o----
WAR
War begets Poverty,
Poverty, Peace--
Peace begets Riches,
Fate will not cease--
Riches beget Pride,
Pride is war's ground--
War begets Poverty,
So the world goes round.
--Old Song.
GLIMPSES OF A PRE REVOLUTIONARY MASONIC LODGE
BY BRO. J. EDWARD ALLEN, NORTH CAROLINA
The diary of old Samuel Sewall of Massachusetts has been
called "a window in old Boston," and in the same way the early Masonic records
may be called "colonial views." It is from this point of view that the writer
has been greatly interested in the early records of Blandford-Bute lodge of
Masons, of Bute County, North Carolina. The early North Carolinians were an
interesting people. That polished gentlemen, William Byrd, of Westover,
Virginia, after appointing a line of division between these and his people,
speaks of them, in his "History of the Dividing Line," as "mere Adamites,"
forgetting that a large part of the Carolinians were Virginians.
We are interested to know that many of these men were
Masons, and in particular, a number of those who came to Bute County. Therefore
we find that on the twenty-ninth of April, 1766, these Bute County Masons had
already organized a Lodge, and were on that date actually initiating candidates,
"at Buffaloe," and were resolving to call their lodge "Blandford-Bute," probably
in honor of the old Blandford Lodge, near Petersburg, Va., chartered in 1756,
and in honor of their new home-county. They came down the trail which afterward
became the Petersburg-Raleigh - Charleston stage road, passing through
Warrenton, and by Buffalo. Aaron Burr later took this route on one of his
journeys, spending a night in Warrenton.
We do not know what the status of these Masons was in
April, 1766. They seem not to have been completely organized, for at the next
meeting resolutions were passed as follows:
"Resolved, that the Quarterly Meetings shall be held
regularly at Bute court on the first day thereof--
Resolved, that every member shall duly attend the lodges in
course or give a sufficient reason for his absence or pay the sum of two
shillings sixpence for each nonperformance.
Secondly, shall prophanely Swear in the Lodge under no less
penalty than two shillings and six pence for the first offense and five
shillings for each after.
Thirdly, that there shall no member Indecently behave such
as whispering or Laughing in the lodge under the above penalty.
Fourthly, that no member shall disclose the proceedings of
the lodge to any but Masons, and not to them without they intend to become
members or should give such reasons as they should think they would.
Fifthly, that no member shall speake in the lodge without
rising and addressing himself to the Master.
Sixthly, that Every Member shall pay for his quarterly
Payment Six Shillings and Eight Pence Proct. money to the treasurer that shall
be appointed by the lodge.
Seventhly, that no member shall reflect, or laugh, at any
Rules proposed by any member without, in the lodge, and there to make their
objections in a manner becoming any Mason.
Resolved, that no person be initiated in this lodge except
he pay the money down for his initiation, or give one of the members of the
lodge for his security, to-wit 4-4sh. Virga. currency--
Resolved, that Jethro Sumner Treasurer of this Lodge, bring
his account of the expenses of the same--
Resolved, that the treasurer Prepare a Striped Shirt and a
Pair of Trousers for the use of the Lodge."
This curious commingling of trivial incidentals and
important matters was evidently regarded as the fundamental law for the
government of the lodge, for it is signed by the thirteen members, and is then
concluded with the statement "Then the lodge adjourned till the Lodge in
course."
Just a word personal here about these men will not be out
of order. We must understand that the English language was not then nearly so
firmly fixed in its forms and usages as now; and that therefore what appears to
us to be bad grammar would not have then been scorned. We must remember also
that these men all lived hard outdoor lives, many of them traveling long
distances to find a lodge or a church, and that therefore schools were almost
inaccessible to the most of these settlers and education was within reach only
of a privileged few who could employ private tutors. And did not that notorious
governor of the neighbor state, Sir William Berkeley, write concerning the
condition of his people: "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing,
and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged
them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both." But in
spite of unfavorable conditions many of the members of this old lodge were men
whose names appear on the pages of history as those of heroes of a great faith
or magnificent champions of liberty. Jethro Sumner, an officer of the lodge, was
one of the great generals of the Revolution. It is said that his name was
seriously considered when a Commander-in-chief of the American armies was to be
chosen. Green Hill, another of the members of the lodge at this time, was the
man in whose house was held the first conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in America. One part of this one county furnished at one time, later,
both U. S. senators, the congressman, the Governor, and a judge of the State
court of appeals. Here was born and raised Nathaniel Macon, the greatest North
Carolinian, long Speaker of the National House of Representatives. And, by
contrast, hence came Beau Hickman, the greatest deadbeat, immortalized by G. A.
Townsend as the villain in "Crutch, the Page."
The business of these old lodges was almost always
conducted in the first degree. Hence the charge for initiation was four pounds
four shillings Virginia currency, equivalent to about fourteen dollars. This is
excessively high, when we think of the fact that the average fee for the three
degrees in North Carolina today is less than twenty dollars. But when he was
initiated, the Mason signed the by-laws and became an active member. Relatively
a small part of the Masons took all the three degrees, and the Master Mason's
lodge was not opened "on Buffaloe" oftener than three or four times each year.
The Royal Arch work seems to have been done by the same organization, for we
read about twice in each year's record that "at a lodge of Arch and Royal Arch
Masons," somebody was advanced to the "exalted Arch degree," or to the "superexalted
Royal Arch degree."
At times the lodge met when court was in session, and at
night, actually in the court house. Bute court house was ten or twelve miles
from the nearest town, and when it was afterward removed to Warrenton, the old
records were lost. They were found more than seventy-five years later, by a
non-Mason, an excellent gentleman, who is said to have sat up all night reading
them, and it is charged that on the following morning his first question was,
"What did those old fellows do with that pair of drawers that the Lodge bought?"
No one was able to advise him.
Quite plainly there has been a change of sentiment toward
many things somewhere in the decades. We read that often this lodge "repaired to
brother So-andso's tavern, where a sumptuous repast was enjoyed." This was
usually paid for by the candidate of the day, but sometimes there is an entry in
the minutes of the next meeting to the effect that "the secretary read a bill
for two gallons of rum, which on motion was ordered paid." It is possible that
this may have been intended for use as medicine, but we may safely conjecture
that such was not the case. It is a matter of common knowledge that many of the
religious gatherings of the day in this and other sections were composed to a
strikingly large extent of men who each and all were unwilling to leave home
without their "ticklers," "demijohns," or even "runlets" of the liquor that
cheers and then does some more. The truth is, the history of Masonry is the
history of the morals of its devotees, and as surely as we can read the signs of
the times, just so surely can we see that the morals of the country are being
elevated. Lodges frown on drunkards today and deal stringently with them.
Do not think, however, that twentieth-century lodges have a
monopoly of the duty of dealing with violators of the Masonic law. Our
eighteenth-century brethren, too, had troubles in that line. At a meeting of
Blandford Bute lodge held on November 20, 1767, the members seem to have been
uproariously hilarious. Christmas was coming, and they may have been either glad
with its spirit or spirits, or mad with its prospects of paying the bills, for
at this season "everybody works father." Whatever may have been the trouble, we
find that in this meeting Brother Duncan misbehaved three times and was fined
two shillings sixpence each time. It was a fellowcraft's lodge, and the brother
who had just been passed was next fined 2s.6d. for "a breach of behaviour." He
must have had something more than nerve! Brother William Tabb next was
discovered laughing and received the same dose. Tabb was next soaked 2s.6d. for
going out, and lastly Arch Campbell received the uniform penalty for
misbehaving. At this point it seems that the lawbreakers must have outnumbered
the more sedate brethren, for we read that at the end of the meeting all the
fines were remitted, as well as the fines of the members who had been absent
without excuse at the last meeting. What a deal of relief there would be to the
Master of many a lodge today if he could by fines force his members to attend
the meetings! It was in the previous August that one brother was fined for
swearing, another for getting drunk, and two for no less grave an offense
against the dignity of the lodge than singing. This reminds us of the case of
the lady who sang so atrociously in the Methodist church of the nearby town of
Warrenton about a hundred years ago, that she was excluded from fellowship. The
case was carried to the State court of appeals, which restored her to her former
rights and privileges.
In these old records we find only one allusion to Joseph
Montfort, of Halifax, "Grand Master of and for America," as he was designated in
his commission from the Duke of Beaufort. On August third, 1767, Jos. Montfort
is recorded as one of the visitors. There is no record of any recognition of his
standing, except in the fact that at this meeting there was a larger attendance
than at any other which Blandford-Bute ever held. His commission was not issued
until 1771.
Trouble between the adherents and supporters of the
mistaken policy of the reigning house in the mother country, and those who stood
uncompromisingly for their liberty, early became acute in North Carolina. In
several sections of the state there were many Scotch Highlanders and others who
were loyal to England to the last stand. Governor Tryon defeated the ill-trained
Regulators in the battle of Alamance about 1771, and only made these seekers for
freedom more determined. The call of military duty suspended temporary interest
in everything else, probably including Masonic lodge work. If Blandford-Bute was
active from 1768 to 1782, it left no records.
It is probable that many of the Masonic lodges became
hotbeds of Revolutionary spirit. Almost every one of the leaders of the
Revolution in North Carolina was an active Mason, and there is good reason to
believe that many of the Masonic lodges were closely in touch with the machinery
used at this time to ascertain the spirit and temper of the various sections and
communities concerning the war. This was probably the case with Blandford-Bute,
for it was a household saying around here that there were "no Tories in Bute."
It is probable that there was a close relation between the lodges and the
Committees of Safety, or the Committees of Correspondence. If the lodges were
concerned thus, they met informally and left no records. One might wonder
whether such activities could have suggested the general plan of the Ku Klux
Klan to the sorely troubled Southern men of Reconstruction days. Do the words
which the writer has italicized in the quotations below possibly suggest some
sort of unrecorded, irregular activity?
The secretary of post-bellum days, in transcribing the
records, possibly for Grand lodge inspection when the North Carolina Charter was
given, says of what he gives up to 1768:
"The foregoing are all the proceedings that can be had from
the lodge while it was held at Buffaloe which is transcribed from part of the
original by J. Macon, Secretary."
Fortunately, we have both the original up to 1768 and the
copy. The reorganization meeting is discussed in the records as follows:
"AT A LODGE OF ROYAL ARCH AND MASTER MASONS Opened and held
in due form the 6th of April, 5782, at High Twelve.
Resolved, that a due record be kept from and after the date
of this lodge together with the reasons it has not been kept up according to the
Constitutions and Rules of the Craft.
TO THIS AND ALL SUCCEEDING LODGES
Be it known unto you
That from the unavoidable necessity of entering into a
Cruel and Unnatural War, with the parent State, the Numerous Calls, Tryalls,
Embarrassments of our fellow Citizens and Brethren Be it not Dismay'd,
therefore, that the Harmony of this as well as many other Lodges have been
greatly disturbed thereby, and only to be restored but by Unanimity and an
unshaken hand of Fidelity which we owe to each other. So that under these
deplorable circumstances we consider it a sufficient Vindication for our neglect
in meeting. Particularly when we may Justly Add the many Battles, Skirmishes,
Massacres, Robberies, Murders, Conflagrations and many other Hostile and inhuman
acts which this present unnatural war hath produced. Consequences so destructive
to Mankind in general and Obnoxious to us, and the Harmony of Masonry in
particularly. But, arriving at a period which gives some respite, distinguishing
us from the rest of mankind, then who is the Mason that will not meet and wheres
the hand that denies his brother?
RESOLVED that a summons be issued to all the late members
of our lodge to repair to our room at this place the first Saturday in May next
by ten o'clock.
And the remnant of the once flourishing lodge accordingly
came, true to that Masonry which had made its place in their lives in times of
peace, and which had helped make life worth living in time of war. Only six
battle-scarred veterans were left. But, strange to say, we find among them a
number of members whose names we have never seen before. They must have been
doing some work during the war sub rosa, without keeping any records of
meetings. Their sources of income, their relatives, their homes, their health,
all sacrificed for freedom, once more these old men in tears rekindled the fires
on the altars of their homes and placed the Rule and Guide to Faith on the altar
of their Lodge. It is interesting to note that the Masonic soldier thought of
Masonry as having a definite place in the protection of his home. The wife left
behind was sometimes placed in possession of some kind of secret by imparting
which she might, and sometimes did, invoke the aid of Masons. The writer does
not know what this was, but many of us have heard stories of the preservation of
a home by means of this kind. It was afterwards done again in 1861-65.
All the old Masons "on Buffaloe" were dead, and the
remnants voted to move the lodge to Warrenton. At the first meeting there the
Secretary read an address one sentence of which was as follows:
"Whereas our ancient lodge room has lately been brought to
ruin by the soldiary, and therefore rendered unfit for our purposes in meeting,
So that under these circumstances we are exposed to much difficulty in our new
designs, . . I recommend that a plot of ground be purchased in Warrenton. . ."
The plot of ground thus purchased adjoined the lot of
Emmanuel Episcopal church, within whose walls Horace Greeley was married. It is
interesting to note in passing that near the scene of the lodge's early labors
was kept later one of the most famous pleasure resorts in the country, Jones' or
Shocco Springs, which had its thousands of guests each season, and near which,
almost within calling distance of the old lodge, were laid away the remains of
Anne Carter Lee, beloved daughter of the great Hero of the Lost Cause, "there to
await the Resurrection Morn."
Peaceful and uneventful was the later history of the old
lodge, for after the storm of war always peace is most beautiful. In quiet did
the old fellows meet and confer the degrees or dispense sweet charity,
occasionally having a little celebration all their own. In the minutes of June
twelfth, 1784, we notice that the secretary presented a bill for supplies, and
it was "ordered, that the treasurer pay Wm. Campbell 29s.4d (about five dollars)
for a loaf of sugar." For what could this have been bought, unless because there
was here and there one of their members who "took sugar in his'n" when the
drinks were passed?
Rarely did they in this period digress from the even tenor
of their way, but once or twice we find them coming in contact with affairs
outside before the Grand Lodge of North Carolina was formed. Once we find that
Jethro Sumner moved, "that inquiry should be made respecting the appointment of
a Grand Master for the United States." Sumner and Jos. Montfort had been close
friends, and by this motion we understand that Sumner acknowledged the
genuineness of the old Montfort commission and was looking to having his place
filled after his death. Nothing came of this, as of similar moves in present
times.
And this resolution, poorly written and almost
unintelligible though it is, at length explains to us darkly the source from
which Blandford-Bute lodge had for these many years derived its authority to
work:
"Resolved, that if the State of Virginia has made choice of
a Grand Master, that the proceedings of Blandford lodge of 23 Dec., 5766, for a
copy of the Deputation given this lodge in order that a charter be had from that
date."
It would appear from that crude and badly written
resolution, that Blandford lodge, near Petersburg, Va., on December 23, 1766,
gave these men some sort of dispensation under which to work. It is probable
that this was asked for before April of that year.
Here let us leave the old lodge. Its hundred and thirty odd
years of further history have not been without interest, but, the pioneer days
past, by degrees it approaches our modern system.
The writer hopes in concluding, that he and the reader may
imitate the example of these good brethren, of whom their faithful secretary
records that they "PARTED LOVINGLY ON THE SQUARE."
DISCUSSING THE PREVIOUS QUESTION
BY BRO. R.I. CLEGG, OHIO
That is an oblong square? These things make me wonder."
"And no wonder, for as the old farmer said when he saw a giraff for the first
time, 'There ain't no such animals.' Such errors no doubt crept in by virtue of
the law of exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, and may easily be corrected."
This is the sort of question and answer the text of ritual
and monitor must withstand. These comments are typical. How far are they
justified?
At the outset I confess to a very cordial attitude toward
both the inquiry and the response. Much may be said by way of excuse for them.
In fact the position of inquiry and of wonderment is an excellent foundation for
research. Granted a respectful persistence in regard to the subject and starting
from such a point of departure, the inquirer can unearth material of great
importance.
But that happy outlook is not always the result. Well do I
recall a very industrious effort made by an esteemed co-worker of mine to obtain
the approval of one Grand Lodge Committee for certain drastic changes in our
ceremonies. It took long argument before it was at all possible to make him see
any reason for sundry expressions. His was essentially the modern iconoclastic
view, mine that of retaining whatever could be justified by ancient or present
day usage.
My plea was and is for the retention of everything Masonic,
unless it could be shown that in the olden days it was as incongruous as it may
seem to be in the light of today. Now as it is obvious that this position calls
for ample and exceedingly difficult investigation, there would be few changes if
the attitude were universally adopted. To say the least, it is emphatically the
one prescribed by the charge to every Master Mason.
Let it not be understood that in all respects I am a
"Standpatter." Whenever a change is universally approved is ample time for its
adoption, and when conservatives like myself cannot show some excellent reason
for stemming the tide of innovation, perhaps we ought not to protest overmuch at
the laying of hands upon the structure of ceremonial formulas. We would
nevertheless hope that even in such cases the alterations be made in none but a
reverent manner, rather as a repair for some ageworn weakness than as a movement
of drastic renovation. If alteration be done at all let it be done tenderly and
with affection.
But returning to our topic, what do we find ? How far is
this particular expression a mere exaggeration? To the offhand glance there is
probably a contradiction in the terms. A four-sided figure having its sides
equal in length and all its angles of ninety degrees is commonly called a
square, and such a figure cannot be oblong. Manifestly we must seek in some
other direction for an explanation of the phrase "oblong square."
Mathematically the word "oblong" can be applied to
intersecting axes of unequal length. For the same reason it may properly be also
descriptive of the working tool known as a square when the latter has arms of
unequal length. Is there any other brief phrase that could so well be employed
for the purpose? And to what else could the term be so pertinently applied as to
the unequally armed tool familiar to every workman in all lines of industry?
Mention the word to any workman and his mind at once visualizes the same thing
in every case, and that not an enclosed figure.
While it is true that the square with us is usually with
arms of equal length, and as far back as the painting of "Night" by Hogarth,
Grand Steward in the early part of the eighteenth century, the Master's square
was so represented, yet there are as in the familiar "gallow's" square and in
the square adopted by the Continental brethren an oblong form to be found. This
is very probably selected from the operative form.
A plain square having its arms measured off as integral
quantities and in units well known to a special class of workmen would have an
extraordinary significance. Some studious brethren, Lawrence for example, have
attacked the custom of placing graduations of length upon the arms of the
square. To my mind this suggests the foundation of the forty-seventh
proposition. Given the graduations on the square blades and then with the help
of another rule across the hypotenuse you have the measurements of a
right-angled triangle, and on multiplying these by any one number you possess
the direct dimensions of a large figure; the larger the dimensions of course the
less likelihood of inaccuracy creeping into the fundamental layout of a
building.
There are those who hold that the oblong square represents
the early civilized world, when as in the case of the Roman Empire it stretched
due East and West to about twice its Northern and Southern limits. This has
seemed to me more fanciful than demonstrative. It might as easily be supposed to
represent the famous double cube, that puzzle of the centuries. I refer of
course to the ancient problem requiring the determination of the size when the
cubical altar of Apollo was to be made with twice the former volume.
But let us not get too far from the Lodge room. Recall the
occasion when the term oblong square is used. Consider the immediately preceding
and following locations and positions. Do not forget the peculiar features of
the ceremony of laying a cornerstone of any building when performed with Masonic
auspices, and in connection therewith compare the ceremonial associated with the
North-east corner. Now let us go a step further, and I use this expression
advisedly.
Having the above in mind, think of the bonding of a wall as
it would be thought of by an operative Mason. The simplest and crudest way of
rough walling would be to throw the squared stones rudely together hit or miss.
Probably the inexpert would lay them end to end and side by side as the
obviously quickest way of getting over the ground. Does this suggest anything to
the reader as being comparable with the progress made at the entrance and until
the candidate has been properly taught? More I cannot say of that particular
feature, but to the discerning enough has probably been submitted.
Let us pass on our way. The bonding of a wall calls for the
placing of certain bricks or stones at an angle to the rest, preferably a right
angle as a matter of efficiency and for compactness; the several parts then
lending each other their maximum co-operation and being more uniformly acted
upon by the mortar or cement. In this position they better resist the load that
may be placed upon them. Their individual and complete strength is firmly a
unit, they stand together in cohesive compactness. Thus should we Masons stand
and so are we taught.
Stones or bricks are seldom cubes for building purposes.
They are oblongs preferably, and invariably squared. The tools to test them are
all the better for having their axes of different lengths, and especially is
this true if the oblong square contains the ready means of setting up the
forty-seventh proposition. Then the workman is not only equipped to carve the
stone but to lay out the area for the completed walls.
The Masonic student wishing to go further into the use of
the square by the old workmen may well consider the painted and sculptured
representations of the tool itself. He may also examine the working methods of
such as Cellini, Vasari, Vitruvious, etc., in the proportional uses of such
implements as the square in highly skilled masons' work, they being architects
of antiquity of whom the oblong square is a fitting symbol.
THE PURPOSE OF MASONRY
"There comes from time to time, with what would seem
increasing frequency, a cry for leadership by Freemasonry and its organizations,
but when these cries are analyzed they seem to suggest an abandonment of the
most sacred of our principles and to call for a will-o'-the-wisp guidance into
the Sorbonian bogs of politics or down the Gadarenian cliffs of religious
controversy.
"Of all those who so insistently demand that Freemasonry
shall take up all the latest fads as they catch the wind of popular favor, or
that we shall zealously attempt to divide the citizens of our nation into many
warring camps, that the sacred walls of our asylums may resound only with the
accents of 'hatred, uncharitableness and intolerance,' we may wisely ask,
'Whither goest thou ? What is the way you ask us to travel, and where is the end
of the journey upon which you would have us enter with light hearts ?'
"It is true that an order without a purpose would be like a
body without a soul, but that purpose certainly need not be to control or
dictate the daily life, the politics, or the religious affiliations of our
fellow citizens.
"Primarily, the great purpose of Freemasonry is the
teaching, by and through its organized forces and its symbolism, of the moral
truths which lie at the foundation of human society. So far as it performs its
great duty to humanity, Freemasonry selects those men, and those men only, whose
character and intelligence fit them for its teachings; and those men, by most
solemn and sacred appeals to their minds, their hearts and their emotions, it
knits into its great union of friends and brothers and sustains, supports and
encourages them in all that goes to make up true manliness. To those so selected
and so trained we may safely leave the performance of their duties to God, their
country, and humanity.
"It is still true that charity and toleration are cardinal
principles of Freemasonry, and we may proclaim in all honesty and candor that we
practice here and everywhere, to the utmost extent, the great, generous,
tolerant, liberal doctrines of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite."
--Barton Smith 33d
----o----
THE SWEETNESS OF A FRIEND
Be sure there is some one to whom you can open yourself, to
whom you can tell everything, and who will be willing to confide everything.
Deserve such companionship, and, where it exists. do not let it die away. On
such intimacy somewhere, all social life depends. --E. E. Eale.
SOME DEEPER ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM
BY BRO. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, ENGLAND
PART III
RECURRING to the Legend of the Third Degree, the pivot upon
which it revolves is the existence of a building secret, represented as a
Master-Word, which the Builder died to preserve. Owing to his untimely death,
the Word was lost, and it has always been recognized in Masonry that the Temple,
unfinished at the moment of the untoward event, remained with its operations
suspended and was completed later on by those who obviously did not possess the
Word or key. The tradition has descended to us and, as I have said, we are still
on the quest.
Now what does all this mean? We have no concern at the
present day, except in archaeology and history, with King Solomon's Temple. What
is meant by this Temple and what is the Lost Word ? These things have a meaning,
or our system is stultified. Well, here are burning questions, and the only
direction in which we can look for an answer is that which is their source. As
to this, we must remember that the Legend of the Master Degree is a Legend of
Israel, under the aegis of the Old Covenant, and though it has no warrants in
the Holy Writ which constitutes the Old Testament, it is not antecedently
improbable that something to our purpose may be found elsewhere in the
literature of Jewry.
THE KABALAH
I do not of course mean that we shall meet with the Legend
itself; it would be interesting if we did but not per se helpful, apart from
explanation. I believe in my heart that I have found what is much more
important, and this is the root-matter of that which is shadowed forth in the
Legend, as regards the meaning of the Temple and the search for the Lost Word.
There are certain great texts which are known to scholars under the generic name
of Kabalah, a Hebrew word meaning reception, or doctrinal teaching passed on
from one to another by verbal communication. According to its own hypothesis, it
entered into written records during the Christian era, but hostile criticism has
been disposed to represent it as invented at the period when it was written. The
question does not signify for our purpose, as the closing of the 13th century is
the latest date that the most drastic view-- now generally abandoned-- has
proposed for the most important text.
We find therein after what manner, according to mystic
Israel, Solomon's Temple was spiritualized; we find deep meanings attached to
the two pillars J. and B.; we find how the word was lost and under what
circumstances the chosen people were to look for its recovery. It is an
expectation for Jewish theosophy, as it is for the Craft Mason. It was lost
owing to an untoward event, and although the time and circumstances of its
recovery have been calculated in certain texts of the Kabalah, there has been
something wrong with the methods. The keepers of the tradition died with their
faces toward Jerusalem, looking for that time; but for Jewry at large the
question has passed from the field of view, much as the quest is continued by us
in virtue of a ceremonial formula but cannot be said to mean anything for those
who undertake and pursue it. It was lost owing to the unworthiness of Israel,
and the destruction of the First Temple was one consequence thereof. By the
waters of Babylon, in their exile, the Jews are said to have remembered Zion,
but the word did not come back into their hearts; and when Divine Providence
inspired Cyrus to bring about the building of the Second Temple and the return
of Israel into their own land, they went back empty of all recollection in this
respect.
THE DIVINE NAME
I am putting things in a summary fashion that are scattered
up and down the vast text with which I am dealing--that is to say, Sepher Ha
Zohar, The Book of Splendor. The word to which reference is made is the Divine
Name out of the consonants of which, He, Vau, He, Yod, we have formed Jehovah,
or more accurately Yahve. When Israel fell into a state which is termed
impenitence it is said in the Zoharic Symbolism that the Vau and the He final
were separated. The name was dismembered, and this is the first sense of loss
which is registered concerning it. The second is that it has no proper vowel
points, those of the Name Elohim being substituted, or alternatively the Name
Adonai. It is said, for example: "My Name is written YHVH and read Adonai." The
epoch of restoration and completion is called, almost indifferently, that of
resurrection, the world to come, and the advent of the Messiah. In such day the
present imperfect separation between the letters will be put an end to, once and
forever. If it be asked: What is the connection between the loss and
dismemberment which befell the Divine Name Jehovah and the Lost Word in Masonry,
I cannot answer too plainly; but every Royal Arch Mason knows that which is
communicated to him in that Supreme Degree, and in the light of the present
explanation he will see that the "great" and "incomprehensible" thing so
imparted comes to him from the Secret Tradition of Israel.
It is also to this Kabalistic source, rather than to the
variant accounts in the first book of Kings and in Chronicles, that we must have
recourse for the important Masonic Symbolism concerning the Pillars J. and B.
There is very little in Holy Scripture which would justify a choice of these
objects as particular representatives of our art of building spiritualized. But
in later Kabalism, in the texts called "The Garden of Pomegranates" and in "The
Gates of Light," there is a very full and complicated explanation of the
strength which is attributed to B., the left-hand Pillar, and of that which is
established in and by the right-hand Pillar, called J.
THE TEMPLE
As regards the Temple itself, I have explained at length
elsewhere after what manner it is spiritualized in various Kabalistic and
semi-Kabalistic texts, so that it appears ever as "the proportion of the height,
the proportion of the depth, and the lateral proportions" of the created
universe, and again as a part of the transcendental mystery of law which is at
the root of the secret tradition in Israel. This is outside our subject, not
indeed by its nature but owing to limitations of opportunity. I will say only
that it offers another aspect of a fatal loss in Israel and the world--which is
commented on in the tradition. That which the Temple symbolized above all things
was, however, a House of Doctrine, and as on the one hand the Zohar shows us how
a loss and substitution were perpetuated through centuries, owing to the
idolatry of Israel at the foot of Mount Horeb in the wilderness of Sinai, and
illustrated by the breaking of the Tables of Stone on which the Law was
inscribed; so does Speculative Masonry intimate that the Holy House, which was
planned and begun after one manner, was completed after another and a word of
death was substituted for a word of life.
THE BUILDER
I shall not need to tell you that beneath such veils of
allegory and amidst such illustrations of symbolism, the Master-Builder
signifies a principle and not a person, historical or otherwise. He signifies
indeed more than a single principle, for in the world of mystic intimations
through which we are now moving, the question, "Who is the Master ?" would be
answered by many voices. But generically, he is the imputed life of the
Secret-Doctrine which lay beyond the letter of the Written Law, which "the
stiff-necked and disobedient" of the patriarchal, sacerdotal and prophetical
dispensations contrived to destroy. According to the Secret Tradition of Israel,
the whole creation was established for the manifestation of this life, which
became manifested actually in its dual aspect when the spiritual Eve was drawn
from the side of the spiritual Adam and placed over against him, in the
condition of face o face. The intent of creation was made void in the event
which is called the Fall of Man, though the particular expression is unknown in
Scripture. By the hypothesis, the "fatal consequences" which followed would have
reached their time on Mount Sinai, but the Israelites, when left to themselves
in the wilderness, "sat down to eat and rose up to play." That which is
concealed in the evasion of the last words corresponds the state of Eve in
Paradise, when she had become affected by the serpent.
To sum up as regards the sources, the Lost Word in Masonry
is derived from a Kabalistic thesis of imperfection in the Divine Name Jehovah,
by which the true pronunciation--that is to say, the true meaning-- is lost. It
was the life of the House of Doctrine, represented by the Temple planned of old
in Israel. The Master-Builder is the Spirit, Secret or Life of the Doctrine; and
it is the quest of this that every Mason takes upon himself in the ceremony of
the Third Degree, so that the House, which in the words of another Masonic
Degree, is now, for want of territory, built only in the heart, "a
superstructure perfect in its parts and honorable to the builder."
CRAFT MASONRY
But if these are the sources of Craft Masonry, taken at its
culmination in the Sublime Degree, what manner of people were those who grafted
so strange a speculation and symbolism on the Operative procedure of a
building-Guild? The answer is that all about that period which represents what
is called the transition, or during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Latin
writing scholars were animated with zeal for the exposition of the tradition in
Israel, with the result that many memorable and even great books were produced
on the subject. Among those scholars were many great names, and they provided
the materials ready to the hands of the symbolists. What purpose had the latter
in view ? The answer is that in Germany, Italy, France and England, the Zeal for
Kabalistic literature among the Latin-writing scholars had not merely a
scholastic basis. They believed that the texts of the Secret Tradition showed
plainly, out of the mouth of Israel itself, that the Messiah had come. This is
the first fact. The second I have mentioned already, namely, that although the
central event of the Third Degree is the Candidate's Raising, it is not said in
the Legend that the Master-Builder rose, thus suggesting that something remains
to come after, which might at once complete the legend and conclude the quest.
The third fact is that in a rather early and important High Degree of the
philosophical kind, now almost unknown, the Master-Builder of the Third Degree
rises as Christ, and so completes the dismembered Divine Name, by insertion of
the Hebrew letter Shin, this producing Yeheshua--the restoration of the Lost
Word in the Christian Degrees of Masonry.
Of course, I am putting this point only as a question of
fact in the development of symbolism. Meanwhile, I trust that, amidst many
imperfections, I have done something to indicate a new ground for our
consideration, and to show that the speaking mystery of the Opening and Closing
of the Third Degree and the Legend of the Master-Builder come from what may seem
to us very far away, but yet not so distant that it is impossible to trace them
to their source.
----o----
THE HOLY EARTH
There is something beyond the philosophies in the light, in
the grass blades, the leaf, the sparrow on the wall. Some day the great and
beautiful thought which hovers on the confines of the mind will at last alight.
In that hope is consolation.
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