THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
november 1916
volume 2 - number 11
MEMORIAL TO JOHN PAUL JONES
BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P. G. M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
THE bronze statue of
the peerless John Paul Jones, with its marble pylon for a background, is
situated at the foot of Seventeenth street, near the entrance to Potomac Park,
in the City of Washington. It is the work of Mr. Niehaus, an American Sculptor
of German descent, who used Houdon's bust for a model.
This memorial had its
origin in the hearts of a grateful Congress, when they learned that our American
Ambassador, at Paris, General Horace Porter, who was also President General of
the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, had spent $35,000 in his
search for and the identification of the body of John Paul Jones, and had
refused reimbursement by the Government.
The body of the great
Admiral was brought from France to the United States in a battleship, convoyed
by a fleet of French war ships, and the obsequies were held at the U. S. Naval
Academy, Annapolis, on the 24th of April, 1906. This date was chosen by the
President of the United States, because it was the anniversary of Jones' battle
with the Drake.
Though a man of small
stature (five feet seven inches in height) the statue of John Paul Jones is of
heroic size, about twelve feet in height. The marble pylon, the waters of the
Potomac and the foliage beyond afford a beautiful background for the memorial.
The sculpture is classic and his been pronounced exquisite.
John Paul Jones is
represented as standing on the deck of his ship, in the uniform of his rank, his
left hand resting on the pommel of his sword, his right hand clenched, his lips
compressed and his gaze fixed on the enemy.
The pedestal was
designed by Mr. Hastings and is decorated on two sides with a combination of
sword, helmets and laurel branches, in high relief. A band of low relief runs
around the pedestal, and has a number of Naval emblems for motives. In front the
attic of the pedestal shows an Eagle in flight, carrying a wreath of oak leaves.
In the rear is a relief showing John Paul Jones raising the stars and stripes on
a U.S. Man-of-war.
At the obsequies the
speakers were the President of the United States, the Secretary of the Navy, the
Ambassador from France, (Monsieur J. J. Jusserand), General Horace Porter, (our
Ambassador to France), and the Governor of the State of Maryland.
The officers of the
French Fleet which had come to Annapolis, Members of the Supreme Court, Senators
Members of Congress, officers of the Navy and Army and other distinguished men
were present.
The only flowers in
evidence were the laurel wreaths on the Casket, and the floral wreath containing
a square and compasses which was sent by the Grand Lodge of the District of
Columbia. The casket was covered with the union jack, as is the rule for
seafaring men.
No one could hear the
speeches that day without a feeling of pride and shame: of pride for the man
whose acts had been so potent in securing the recognition of the Republic: and
of shame that he to whom the Nation was indebted full $60,000 for services
rendered, should have been buried by charity in a foreign cemetery, and there
remain, neglected by his countrymen, for a century and a quarter.
It was decided that
day to inter the body of John Paul Jones in the crypt, under the Naval Academy
chapel (then under construction), somewhat in imitation of the tomb of Napoleon,
at Paris. The cost of the changes in the building, for this purpose, was
estimated by the architects, to be $100,000; and, in declining the proferred
reimbursement of $35,000 spent in discovering and identifying the remains,
General Porter requested the Government to add the amount to the estimate, which
would make the tomb so much more beautiful and imposing.
The refusal of General
Porter to accept reimbursement is what determined Congress to show its gratitude
in erecting a memorial to John Paul Jones, in the Capital City.
Senator Lodge, of
Massachusetts, (a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution),
introduced a bill in the Senate, carrying $50,000 for a memorial statue of John
Paul Jones.
The bill had such a
ring of patriotism and the history and deeds of John Paul Jones had been so
often repeated in the daily press and was so fresh in the public mind that no
one thought it necessary to push that bill. The bill was committed and probably
would have lapsed had not another, paraphrasing Senator Lodge's bill, been
introduced in the House, by Mr. Driscol of N. Y. This bill differed from the
Lodge bill in that it purposed making its memorial to "Commodore" John Barry
"Father of the American Navy."
As John Barry was the
eleventh Captain on the original Navy list, Congress could not declare him, in
that Act, to be the "father." The Bill for the Barry statue was urged by the
"Irish Societies" while that for John Paul Jones seemed to have no promoters,
and as both bills were reported by the same Committee the same day, and were
passed the same day, it is apparent that one helped the other.
John Paul Jones was
made a Freemason in the lodge of Saint Bernard, at Kirkudbright, Scotland, in
1770, but he afterwards took his membership to that famous French Lodge, Neuf
Soeurs, in Paris, of which Benjamin Franklin, Houdon, Voltaire, Helvitius, Elie
DuMont, D'Estang and other famous men were members.
John Paul Jones began
to go to sea when about 14 years of age. He was a Midshipman in the British
Navy, from which he resigned because of the retarded promotion. He entered the
Merchant Marine and was in command of a ship before he was twenty-one years of
age.
He must have been a
close student, for he seemed to be master of both French and Spanish as well as
being a superior navigator. His letters are still in use, as models, at the
Naval Academy. As a diplomat he was in the highest rank, at that time.
John Paul Jones joined
an older brother, in Virginia, where he was living when war was declared. He was
the first officer who received a commission in the Colonial Navy (as a first
lieutenant). He was the first to aid the Continental Congress in creating the
Navy and formulating its regulations. He was the first in command of a vessel of
war; the first to run up the American flag on an American war vessel (the
Alfred); he was with those first at sea with the flag, and was in at the first
British warship striking colors and surrendering to an American warship; the
first and only Naval officer named in an act of the Continental Congress,
creating the flag - the Stars and Stripes. He was the first to run up the Stars
and Stripes, on board an American war vessel - the Ranger. He was the first to
carry this flag across the sea; the first to propose and to receive a salute to
the Stars and Stripes from a foreign Nation, and, therein the first to receive
recognition of the new Nation, the United States. He was the first to make a
British war vessel (the Drake) strike her colors and surrender to the Stars and
Stripes; the first and only Naval Officer to receive a vote of thanks from the
Continental Congress, and theonly one, during the Revolution, who never lost a
warship in battle.
The Nation's Board of
Admiralty said, and the Continental Congress printed
"He hath made the flag
of the United States respected among the flags of other nations."
The victory of John
Paul Jones, in command of the Bon Homme Richard, over the Serapis, had more to
do with the United States getting recognition from other Nations than any one
act of that war.
John Paul Jones was
the only Naval Officer, of any Nation, who dared carry a war up to a British
port, so firmly were the Britons masters of the sea of that day.
John Paul Jones was
the only American Naval officer who figured at all extensively in British
History of the American Revolution.
At the close of the
Revolutionary war the ships of the Navy were dismantled and sold and the
officers and crews discharged. The Treasury was depleted; there was no money for
salaries. John Paul Jones, however, was retained as Commissioner, in France, to
settle the complicated affairs that existed: ships had mixed crews of French and
Americans. Some of the ships had joint owners and some, with mixed crews, were
owned entirely in the United States.
John Paul Jones
contracted consumption and nephritis from which he died in Paris in 1792. His
assets were not available and he was buried by the charity of noble hearted
Frenchmen in a small protestant cemetery where his remains lay for a hundred and
twenty-five years.
The search for his
body extended over a period of six years. It was found and turned over to the
French Academy for identification, which, at first, would appear impossible. But
the history of his burial, the perfect preservation of measurements,
particularly of the head, compared with the Houdon bust, and the unmistakable
identification of leisions in the kidneys fron nephritis and in the lungs from
tuberculosis, the color of the hair, and numerous other ways made the
identification complete. The body had been preserved in alcohol, in an air-tight
metallic casket.
Two years after his
death the Navy of the Unites States was rehabilitated, when it was found that
but few of the original officers were living. The regulations, prepared by
Jones, were used and his original organization was continued.
John Paul Jones was a
man of remarkable personality, dainty and particular in his dress and manners he
was, at the same time, pugnacious. He was popular in the best of society. He was
a welcome guest at the French Court, and Louis XIV made him a Chevalier, and
presented him with a sword. He was as popular with ladies as with men.
The Marquis of
Vaudreil said of him, "His talents are so wonderful and of such diversity that
each day he brings forth new proofs of cleverness."
Franklin spoke of the
"strange magnetism in his presence, and indescribable charm of manner."
The Captain of the
Serapis, said he felt that he was fighting something superhuman in his battle
with the Bon Homme Richard.
John Paul Jones would
never sail in a privateer. In a letter to Jefferson he said, "I can never
renounce the glorious title of a citizen of the United States," and also "I do
not wish to engage in privateering. My object is not that of private gain but to
serve the public in a way that may reflect credit on our Infant Navy and to gain
prestige to our Country on the sea."
He also said, "If, by
desperate fighting, one of our ships shall conquer one of theirs of markedly
superior force, we shall be hailed as pioneers of a new power on the sea, with
untold prospects of development."
These principles he
lived and by them won renown and made his name immortal in the history of the
Nation and of the world.
----o----
AMERICA
I love thine inland seas,
Thy groves of giant trees,
Thy rolling plains;
Thy rivers' mighty sweep,
Thy mystic canyons deep,
Thy mountains wild and steep,
All thy domains;
Thy silver Eastern strands,
Thy Golden Gate that stands
Wide to the West;
Thy flowery Southland fair,
Thy sweet and crystal air, -
O land beyond compare,
Thee I love best !
- Henry Van Dyke.
----o----
MASONIC SOCIAL SERVICE - CHICAGO EMPLOYMENT BUREAU
BY BRO. ARTHUR M. MILLARD, CHICAGO
THIS is the story of an organization of usefulness; an
organization made up of Masonic bodies, reaching out for the fulfillment of
their higher calling which lies before, and represented in its workings by men
with high ideals; men with a vision of purpose and of progress, and inspired by
the spirit of that which lies at the foundation of Masonry's teachings.
It is the story of an
organization of effort - and of privilege - an organization whose work is open
to all men of Masonic calling and whose privilege lifts them to higher planes of
purpose and of action, to purer ideals and nobler impulse by the practical
application of that spirit of love and of service, which they have found is the
body, soul and spirit of the Masonic Institution.
It is the story of the
Masonic Employment Bureau of Chicago, an organization which during the past few
years has placed thousands in employment, has helped thousands to help
themselves, has inspired the foundation of many other organizations of a like
purpose and character, both in and outside of Masonry, throughout the United
States and Canada, and which preaching by its actions the gospel of Brotherly
Love and Relief, is pointing more clearly the way to the pathway of Truth.
The Masonic Employment
Bureau commenced its career of finding jobs for Masons, and helping others to
help themselves, in 1905, at a meeting of the representatives of a number of
Chicago Masonic Lodges, called by a member of Wrights Grove Lodge who felt the
need of applying his Masonry in a practical manner to those less fortunate than
himself.
At this meeting, an organization was formed to be
maintained, by such Masonic Lodges and other Masonic bodies of Chicago and Cook
County as cared to join in its purpose, by
a subscription fee of so far as possible five cents per member annually and for
the purpose of securing employment for unemployed Masons in good standing, their
widows, daughters and minor sons, at no cost to the applicant or those securing
their services.
With wise forethought,
it was decided that the government of the organization should be representative,
that is, each Masonic body holding membership in the Bureau by contribution
towards its support should be represented in the conduct of its affairs by a
duly appointed representative (the officers being chosen annually from among the
representatives), and as it has been worked out, this object has a two-fold
purpose; first, to give the subscribing bodies a voice in the conduct of the
Bureau, and second, to create an interest in its affairs and purpose by having
the representative report back to the body from which he was appointed and
arouse and enthuse in the members of that body a fraternal bond of helpfulness
to those less fortunately situated than themselves.
The growth of the
Chicago Masonic Employment Bureau, from its inception up to the present time,
from a few to hundreds of interested brethren, has not been one of phenomenal
progress, rather it has been that steady, persevering and persistent effort,
which, meeting and surmounting the obstacles that beset its path, climbs
steadily onward to achieve its purpose; but though in its infancy today, though
it has but reached the foothills of the mountains of purpose, progress and
achievement ahead, it stands an enduring monument, firm on the rock of applied
Masonry, pointing out to the world about it the simplicity of service and the
way which shall one day be accepted as the true and enduring principle on which
to build a practical and applied charity in the onward march of progress and of
civilization. But it must not be assumed that the sole object of the
representatives concerned in the welfare of this Bureau is but a plan to secure
jobs for the unfortunate unemployed, because it goes farther than that. It is
true that the Bureau is organized for the direct benefit of the unemployed, but
beyond that is the spirit of the work which is behind it all.
During the past few
years the Bureau has secured not only representatives from nearly all of the
Masonic bodies of Chicago, but also committees in those bodies, all of whom are
working in unison on the broad platform of helping others. Now, these brethren
are planning and carrying into effect a broader work and a greater purpose -
they are building toward an ideal.
It is not enough to
provide work for the unemployed, they are now providing work for all Masons,
however high or low their station, in helping others to help themselves.
The Chicago Masonic
Employment Bureau is going beyond the material and binding that to the
spiritual. It is striving to become the big brother of humanity.
It is teaching the
principle of putting aside self in service for others, and pointing the way to
an applied Masonry, a Masonry which in its search for Truth applies the
principles of Brotherly Love and Relief to all with whom they come in contact.
The spirit of the work
of this organization of Chicago, the plans and ideals of the brethren who make
it up, is not a thing apart but it is the spirit of Masonry pointing the way to
a real brotherhood of service, to a universal work for the advancement of
humanity; for representing as it does the unity of the Masonic bodies along
certain definite lines, the principle upon which it stands and from which it
receives and gives its inspiration, and to which it owes its origin, is that
which lie at the source and is the fundamental law and principle of the
teachings of the Masonic Order.
It is that which rises
above the things of material life and stands on a higher plane, a plane of
purpose and of progress, for while its object is carried out in the material
realm below, its application is such as to instill into men's hearts and lives
that touch of spirituality that fulfillment of duty, one toward another, that
application of human sympathy and brotherly love, which brings them into closer
communion and fellowship with Him above, under whose banner they are enlisted
and under whose laws they are committed to serve.
----o----
THE YORK RITE
BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, MISSOURI
It has been stated that "A Rite in Freemasonry is a
collection of grades or degrees always founded on the First three degrees." This
definition is wholly misleading, and constitutes as grave an error as to call
"The York Rite" as conferred in the United States, "The American Rite."
For the purpose of adding "more light" on the subject, we
may state that in the United States there are two Masonic Rites, known as the
York Rite and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Both are misnomers if the name of the Rite is to indicate
its parentage or birth place. The York Rite was not born in the ancient city of
York, neither was the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite begotten in Scotland.
The so-called York Rite is the result of an evolution in
England from a One Degree Operative Craft of 1717, to a system of degrees of six
or more as now practiced in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland and
Ireland. The Seottish Rite was evolved from the Rite of perfection of
twenty-five Degrees, by the addition of eight more at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1801, where the Mother Supreme Council was formed.
If either one of the Rites is to be known as the American
Rite, the title probably belongs to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. To
designate the socalled York Rite in the United States, as the American Rite,
would be even more absurd than to call it the York Rite, for it is neither.
What is meant by the word Rite? A Rite is defined as "A
custom of practice of a formal kind; a formal procedure of a religious or solemn
observance." But such a religious or solemn procedure or observance must have a
definite end or purpose. It must have a goal idea. A central idea which the
ceremony of procedure is intended to convey. The ceremony may be brief or
voluminous, plain or ornate, but the central idea must be maintained and
attained, as in the Rite of Baptism, in the Rite of Marriage, in the Rite of the
Holy Sacrament, etc.
The central idea or pivot around which all Masonic
ceremonies or Degrees must revolve is the Loss, the Recovery, and the
Interpretation of the Master's word. This goal idea must be the nucleus of a
system of Degrees, and without which no system of Degrees can be called a Rite.
Any series of Degrees, however intimately connected, that
does not contain this central idea of Loss, Recovery, and interpretation can not
be called a Masonic Rite. This is the goal idea or pivot of the so-called York
Rite. The number of Degrees in a Rite is merely incidental. It matters not
whether there are three or thirty-three Degrees, provided the central idea, the
end of all Masonic symbolism is present.
The Loss and Recovery with a positive interpretation, or
the Loss and Recovery with a general or individual interpretation is the very
essence of a Rite.
The Loss is symbolized in the Craft or Lodge Degrees, the
Recovery is symbolized in the Royal Arch.
In the York Rite the interpretation of the symbolism of the
Royal Arch is left to the individual interpretation of the Royal Arch Mason, or
it finds its positive and special interpretation in the light of the new
dispensation, as taught in the Masonic Order of the Christian Knighthood.
The Three Craft or Blue Lodge Degrees, the Royal Arch, and
the United Orders of the Temple and of Malta are the essential grades of the
York Rite. The Mark, Past, Most Excellent, Royal, Select Degrees, and the
Illustrious Order of the Red Cross are not essential, nor essentially necessary
to the York Rite, but they are great aids in the elucidation of the symbolism of
the central idea of the Rite and they adorn and magnify the Rite. The Lodge
Degrees, the Royal Arch, and the Masonic Orders of Christian Knighthood
constitute the so-called "York Rite." To eliminate the Royal Arch would be like
removing the keystone of an arch, and the whole fabric would crumble and fall.
In essentials, the York Rite is the same in the United
States as it is in every province or Country in the British Empire; in other
words, it is essentially the same in the Anglo-Saxon world. But each country has
its own system. In the United States it consists of seven Degrees and three
Orders; in Canada, of six Deees and three Orders, although Canada has added the
most excellent Degree in the Chapter and the Red Cross of the Commandery to
harmonize, for the purpose of visitation with the United States; in England, it
contsists of four Degrees and two Orders; in Ireland, of five Degrees and two
Orders; in Scotland the system conforms closely to that of Ireland. The most
excellent Degree is unknown in the British Empire, except in Canada; in England,
the Mark Master's Degree is under the control of a Grand Lodge of Mark Master
Masons.
It will be noted that in the countries mentioned, the
number of Degrees in the Rite varies, even the Degrees bearing the same name
vary in the ceremonies of presenting the same truth. The Master's Degree in
Pennsylvania varies much from the same Degree in the other States, yet
symbolically it is the same. The Royal Arch in the United States, is more
dramatic in its form than that of England or Canada, yet in essentials it is the
same.
The Order of the Temple in the English Ritual is brief; in
the Canadian Ritual it is more elaborate and has its military features; in the
United States it is more wordy, possibly more ornate and dramatic, yet it is
essentially the same in all these countries.
The Rituals of the Order of Malta in these countries are so
near alike that a person that is conversant with one can readily use the other;
even a casual observer can readily see that this so-called "York Rite" in
essentials is the same everywhere where the English language is spoken. The
Concordat adopted in 1910 by the Temple Powers of the World, emphasizes this
great fact.
The name "York Rite" is an inexcusable blunder; at least an
unfortunate mistake. There never was a York Rite. It is unnecessary to enter
upon any discussion as to the claims of the York Grand Lodge or a York system of
Freemasonry as the question has been settled beyond controversy. The name "York
Rite" is an inheritance from the forefathers of Freemasonry in the United
States, who were more skilled in ritual tinkering than in the history of
Freemasonry. This becomes especially apparent, when one remembers that the
ephemeral Grand Lodge of York never chartered a single Lodge in America. The
Freemasonry of the United States began under the Provincial Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts, then under the Grand Lodge of England (Moderns) with Price as
Grand Master. The Grand Lodge of England (Ancients) and the Grand Lodge of
Scotland chartered Lodges in America, and it is reasonably possible, that before
the union of the two Grand Lodges of England, the Royal Arch and the Masonic
Orders of Christian Knighthood were conferred in this Country by the Military
Lodges connected with the Irish Regiments stationed in the Colonies. To sum it
all up, our so-called York Rite is the English Rite dressed in more fantastic
clothing.
The name "York Rite" should be eliminated and the name
English Rite substituted. In view of the foregoing facts as to what constitute a
Rite, we in the United States are practicing or have formulated an American
system of the English Rite; not an American Rite as it is frequently erroneously
called, but a system of Degrees of the English Rite; it should be known as the
English Rite, or Anglo-Saxon Rite.
----o----
A MASON'S PRAYER
Unto thy altars, Truth, we come;
We would commune with thee;
From errors of the heart and brain
Oh, keep our Order free.
Make us true seekers for the light
That springs from thee alone,
That we may lead a darkened world
To thy sister Reason's throne.
Help us to build our edifice
"Fair, fronting to the dawn,"
Not on a thrice denying saint
Who would his Lord were gone,
But on thy words wherever found
In tree or grass or rill;
And in the very soul of thee
We'll find our haven still.
Help us to travel unafraid
The path that thou hast shown,
For with thee standing by His side
A man's a host alone.
Help us to realize that time
"Makes ancient good uncouth,"
And for the blind who fain would see
Oh trouble the waters, Truth !
--Oscar A. Janes.
----o----
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE
BY BRO. FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS
CIRCUMSTANCES have conspired to single out the Order of the
Temple from the other orders of Soldier-Monks of the twelfth century for the
particular notice of succeeding generations. Preeminent for their valor and
their accomplishments during the days of their magnificent success, the bitter
injustice and cruel suffering attendant upon the suppression of the Order has
thrown around their name a dark shadow of tragedy. Not only so, but the added
horror of the accusations made against them, the whispers of still more dreadful
things circulated by envious, fearful, or malignant tongues, the unusual end of
the proceedings against the Order, and the conviction of many members before the
ecclesiastical courts have lent an air of mystery to the whole sad story.
The very mention of the word Templar brings to many minds
the suggestion of romance and of mystery coupled with a vague sense of hidden
crime and lurking horror. As a matter of fact there is really very little
mystery about the fate of the Templars and it is perfectly possible to find out
of what they were accused and to make a fair estimate of their probable guilt or
innocence. This is of particular interest to Masons because large numbers of
Masons in other than symbolic degrees have taken the name of the old Order,
endeavoring to practice its principles and emulate its virtues and holding in
everlasting remembrance the name of the last Grand Master.
Before proceeding to tell in detail the story of the fall
of the Order, let us stop to review briefly the story of its growth.
In 1118, two Knights, Hugues de Payens, a Burgundian, and
Godeffroi de St. Omer, a Frenchman, associated with themselves six other Knights
for the service of the Holy Sepulcher, the protection of pilgrims, and the
welfare of the Church.
These men took a step beyond that taken by the ordinary
crusader, in that they undertook to give their whole lives to the service of the
Church militant and to found an order of men likewise devoted to the same
service. These eight men took an oath to the Patriarch of Jerusalem by which
they swore to fight for Christ under the three fold vow of poverty, chastity,
and obedience. It will be understood, of course, that the vow of poverty, while
it debarred the Knight from having any personal possessions whatever, did not
apply to the accumulation of riches by the Order or to the Knight's enjoyment of
those riches, while the vow of obedience had reference only to his relations
with his superiors in the Order.
King Baldwin I. of Jerusalem gave them for a residence a
part of his palace next to the Mosque of Aksa, the so-called Temple of Solomon,
from which they took the name of Knights of the Temple. At first they had no
particular regulations or "rule," as it is commonly called, and no
distinguishing dress. Their first idea appears to have been to make the Order a
means of reformation by opening its ranks to men whose past was one of sin and
failure and giving them an opportunity to redeem their souls through offering to
Christ a service of constant danger. They, therefore, admitted to their number
excommunicated knights, after they had obtained absolution from a Bishop, and
other men of darkened past who desired an opportunity to bring forth fruits meet
for repentance. This missionary idea was soon abandoned and the Knights chosen
from candidates, who showed themselves worthy. It was unfortunate, however, in
that it immediately laid the Order under suspicion of both the Church and laity
because of doubts of the sincerity of such repentance.
In 1127 Hugues de Payens, who had been chosen Grand Master,
went to Europe with the purpose of finding support for the Order. He was
fortunate enough to enlist the interest and obtain the active patronage of St.
Bernard. Bernard of Clairvaux, more1monly known as St. Bernard, was the greatest
and most influential churchman of his time and one of the greatest of all times.
Under his patronage the Order quickly obtained favor and support and grew in
members and power.
St. Bernard drew up the "rule" or series of regulations
governing the organization of the Order and the lives of its members. The
original "rule" of St. Bernard was written in French. Unfortunately there are no
early copies of it known to be in existence. There are however, later copies
together with the translation into Latin known as the "Latin Rule" and
additional statutes which were adopted from time to time.
It was vehemently asserted by the enemies of the Order, in
later years, that there was a secret "rule" quite different from this which
entirely changed the character of the Order, colored it with heresy, and stained
it with sin. There is no evidence whatever that any such "secret rule" ever
existed. Stories about it may be safely dismissed as idle gossip.
The French "rule" provided for the officers of the
organization and defined their duties. It also carefully regulated the daily
conduct of the Knights and provided for the support which they should receive
from the common funds of the Order. It is interesting to observe that the "rule"
provided that each Knight should have three horses and one squire. By favor of
his commander, or prior, he might have four horses and two squires.
This effectually disposes of the legend that the great seal
of the Order, representing two Knights mounted on one horse, was intended to
indicate that in early days the Order was so poor that the Knights went to
battle mounted thus in pairs. The second rider in the device is probably
intended to represent either a wounded Knight who is being rescued by his
brother in arms or a pilgrim being protected by a Knight of the Temple.
The Knights were not priests. That is to say, although
under the three vows they were not in holy orders. Each priory or house of the
Knights was provided with one or more chaplains. These chaplains were members of
the Order of the Temple and were always in holy orders. The chaplains were
exempt from ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Spiritually they were
accountable only to the Pope; temporally only to the Grand Master. They were the
sole confessors of the Knights, who were not permitted to accept the
ministrations of religion from any but their own chaplains unless it was
impossible to secure a chaplain's services.
The monastic custom of having the Bible read at meals was
prescribed by the "rule" for the Knights, in consideration of the fact that they
were laymen, and consequently uneducated, the Bible was read in the vernacular
and not in the Latin which was customary in religious services. There is in
existence an old French Bible of the Templars which shows evidences of the
critical spirit on the part of the translator.
With this brief survey let us pass on to the opening years
of the fourteenth century. The little band of eight Knights sworn to the service
of the Holy Sepulcher and the protection of pilgrims had grown to be one of the
great powers of the world. If its purpose and policy had been other than they
were it might have shaken the power of any monarch in Christendom. It consisted
of many thousand Knights besides the lay brothers and feudal servants of the
Order. It possessed wealth far greater than that of any state in Christendom.
This wealth was the result of the great stream of gifts which for two centuries
had flowed steadily into the coffers of the Order, supplemented by the spoils of
war, and husbanded with great financial abilty. Kings, princes, and nobles
throughout Europe had vied with each other in their great donations to the Order
of the Temple. It owned literally thousands of estates all over Europe and
wherever in the east the crusades had been successful.
The crusades being over and their immense expenditures
having ceased, the enormous revenues of the Order were accumulating in its
hands, and those were not idle hands, for the Templars were not content to let
their gold pieces lie idly in their treasury. This was before the age of modern
banking and the Templars, with their great wealth, their many establishments,
and their connection with the Orient, made themselves the great international
financiers of the age. Kings and merchants alike borrowed on good security and
at ample interest the unused treasure of the Order. Oriental exchange,
especially, was almost absolutely in their hands so that they acted as the great
financial clearing house between Europe and Asia. Their establishment, commonly
known as the Temple, at Paris was the center of the world's money market.
It is said that when De Molay came from the east, lured by
the treacherous call to consult about the crusade, he brought with him 150,000
florins in gold and ten horse loads of silver. With due allowance to the
difference in the purchasing power of money, the gold was probably the
equivalent of three million dollars today. I have no way to guess the value of
the silver, but it must have been very great. This, it will be remembered, was
the ready money upon which De Molay could lay his hands at short notice.
The power of the Order matched its wealth. The Grand Master
was a sovereign prince, recognized as a full peer of any monarch in Europe. The
Knights, save those too old for warfare, were all soldiers trained to arms and
owing no allegiance to any power but the Grand Master and the Pope. During the
stormy years of the crusades, they, with the Knights of the compan ion Orders,
formed the fighting edge of the Christian army. Combined with their lay brothers
and the feudal array of their tenants they formed an army far superior to any
other in existence.
That an Order possessed of such wealth and power should
have been regarded with suspicion, and even fear, is only natural. It is
entirely clear, however, from their entire history, and especially from their
fate, that the Order had no policy in the political affairs of Europe either for
its own advantage or that of any others. The Knights adhered strictly to the
original policy of the Order. They had no enemies in Christendom and no friends
outside of it. Their sole military and political purpose was the service of the
church and the reconquest of the Holy Land. It must be remembered that while we
know that the crusades were over in 1300 the men of that day did not know it.
They fully expected that the crusades would be resumed, and the Knights of the
Temple were maintaining their numbers and diligently increasing their wealth in
order to be able to strike more effectively than ever before when the banner of
the Cross should once more take the field against the Crescent.
In addition to all their wealth and power the Order had
great privileges of two classes, lay and clerical. As lay nobles they held and
exercised all the usual feudal rights in and over estates which had been given
to them, with certain extremely important additions. The Order, being a
corporation in the first rank of the feudal hierarchy, exercised in all its
fiefs what was known in those days as high, middle, and low justices, that is,
complete jurisdiction extending even to the infliction of the death penalty.
Owing allegiance only to the head of their Order, the estates of the Knights
were not liable for military service except to the Order itself. The estates of
the Order were the permanent possessions of the corporation.
The greater part of the revenue of the kings of that age
was derived from certain rights of taxation which were exercised on special
occasions; for example, the passage of an estate by death or marriage from one
holder to another involved certain payments to the king or over-lord which
amounted practically to an inheritance tax. The marriage of children, the
knighting of the noble's sons, or other events in the family of the noble were
occasions for gifts to the king which were practically taxes. Other forms of
taxation were laid from time to time on the feudal estates. But corporations do
not die, do not marry, and do not have children, consequently the estates of the
Templars were free from every kind of taxation, except for the benefit of the
Temple itself.
This exemption from military service and from financial
burdens struck at the very roots of the royal power as the state was organized
in the middle ages. The Templars enjoyed all the benefits of the feudal system
but bore none of its burdens. When an estate in France or England, for some
reason, passed into the hands of the Templars it was to all intents and purposes
taken out of the kingdom as effectively as if it had been swallowed up by the
sea.
As an Order of military monks, the Knights enjoyed clerical
privileges equally great.
That their spiritual affairs were in the hands of their
chaplains, has already been pointed out. In addition to this, the Grand Master
and others of the high officers possessed the power of disciplinary confession,
but not of sacramental confession, a point important to be remembered in
connection with later developments. The Order as a whole and its members
individually were entirely free from the jurisdiction of bishops and other
ecclesiastical authorities. They were accountable only to the Pope in person.
They were not affected by general censures or decrees of the Pope unless they
were especially mentioned. Their churches, of which there were great numbers on
their various estates besides those attached to their houses, were not affected
by ordinary excommunication and interdicts. No matter what ecclesiastical
censures might hang over the people of the nation the activities of the churches
of the Temple went on undisturbed. Excommunicated persons might be buried in
consecrated ground belonging to the Templars, and this was not infrequently
done. They possessed, by papal decree, the right to have churches not their own
which were under interdict opened twice a year and services held for the purpose
of presenting their cause and taking collections for the support of the Holy
War. They collected the usual tithes from the churches on their estates but they
did not pay any tithes, even for those churches, into the coffers of the Church.
The natural result of this condition was envy and hatred on
the part of both civil and religious authorities. Civil authorities looked on
with dismay while the broad lands of noble after noble passed by gift or bequest
into the control of the Templars and ceased to contribute to the maintenance of
the state, while the individual noble was filled with envy as he saw the Knights
of the Temple enjoying privileges and powers so much greater than his own, and
the law officers of the crown indignantly found their authority everywhere
terminating at the boundary line of one of the Temple estates.
On the other hand the religious authorities, accustomed to
control the lives and actions even of kings, were enraged beyond measure to find
themselves utterly powerless before the Knights of the Temple. Entrenched behind
the many privileges granted by a long line of Popes the Templar could and did
snap his fingers in the face of the most arrogant archbishop or cardinal and the
angry churchmen had to swallow his wrath and digest it as best he could, while
he had not even the poor consolation of collecting revenues from the parishes in
his jurisdiction which had passed into the hands of the Order. This sort of
thing had raised tides of envy and hatred against the Order of which it seemed
to be strangely unconscious.
Claims that the Knights abused their power and privileges
were common. The picture of the Templar in Scott's Ivanhoe undoubtedly
represents the widespread conception of the character and conduct of the members
of the Order. That there were men like Scott's Templar could hardly be denied,
but there is no reason to believe that they were typical of the Order generally.
One feature of the Order gave the opportunity for
proceedings against it and the excuse for its undoing. The Order of the Temple
was always a secret order. Its conclaves for business and for the reception of
candidates were always closely guarded. It was as impossible for one not a
member of the Order to get into meeting of the Knights of that day as it would
be for like person to get into a meeting of one of our modern gatherings of
Knights Templars.
This secrecy, as is inevitable, in all ages and especially
in times of ignorance and superstition, like the thireenth and fourteenth
centuries, bred all manner of suspicion. Men, and especially ignorant men, are
ready to believe that evil things are done in places where they are not admitted
and unfortunately there were too many who envied and hated the Templars and were
ready to spread these whispered accusations. It was asserted that under cover of
this secrecy the Knights not only lapsed into heresy and consorted with Saracens
and other misbelievers but that they practiced idolatry and necromancy, that
they performed the most blasphemous travesties of religion, and that they were
given to licentiousness and practiced every conceivable crime, natural and
unnatural.
We have now set the stage for the tragedy. Let us consider
a little the persons and antecedents of the three principal actors. They were
the Grand Master of the Templars, the King of France, and the Pope.
The Grand Master of the Templars, who had in been office
since 1295, was Jacques de Molay. He was a simple, unlettered Knight, personally
brave, confiding and unsuspicious, incapable of intrigue or treachery, not very
clear headed or resourceful in the face of other than physical peril. His
intentions were always good; his conduct under the severe trials to which he was
subjected was sometimes weak. He was a man who could be easily deceived and
could be worked upon through his reverence for the Pope, his respect for the
King, and his honest desire to protect the interest of the Order and the welfare
of his brother Knights.
The Knights generally were fighters and some of them were
men of affairs, but they were not thinkers and they were not intriguers. It has
been said that they were too stupid to be heretics but this is probably an
extreme statement. They were rather simple minded single hearted gentlemen
thoroughly loyal to the cause to which they had dedicated their lives and for
which they were ready to die.
The King of France was Philip IV, commonly known as
Philippe Le Bel or Philip the Fair, a name, by the way, which would better be
translated, Philip the Handsome. Born in 1268 he ascended the throne in 1285. As
his name indicates, he was a man of singular beauty, being said to be the
handsomest man of his time. He was cold, self-contained, far-sighted, crafty,
and unscrupulous. He possessed great ability and was absolutely remorseless in
the choice of means and in the pursuit of his ends. It is said that he was never
known to smile and those whom he crushed in the cold persistency with which he
executed his purposes said that he was not a man at all, but that his beautiful
body was inhabited by a demon instead of a human soul.
It must be admitted that from the point of view of the
interests and prosperity of the kingdom he was a good king. In his day France
was well governed and strongly consolidated and he left it on the whole in a
much better condition than he found it. He had one supreme end in life and that
was to make the royal government supreme in France. He was determined that the
government should be independent of priests or noble and the king should have a
free hand, not limited in the exercise of his authority by any powers within or
without the confines of the kingdom.
To accomplish this he believed that two things were
necessary. One was that the shackles imposed by the papacy upon the King of
France, in common with the other monarchs of Europe, should be broken and the
crown of France relieved from the domination of the Vatican. The other was that
the feudal nobles should be brought into subjection to the crown and especially
that the independent power of the Order of the Temple should be broken, their
wealth plundered for the filling of the royal Treasury, their great estates
restored to the usual condition of feudal dependency, and their resources of men
and money made available for the purposes of the kingdom.
The Pope was Clement V. In order to understand the conduct
of Pope Clement, it is necessary to go back a little. At a comparatively early
period in the reign of Philip, Boniface VIII ascended the throne, in 1294. The
predecessor of Boniface was Celestine V, one of the most singular popes who ever
occupied the chair of St. Peter.
Deeply imbued with mysticism, he was a dreamer of dreams
and a writer of strange books. The sanctity of his life and the strangeness of
his somewhat unintelligible writings placed him on the narrow edge between
condemnation as a heretic on one side and canonization as a saint on the other.
Whether saint or heretic, he was utterly unfit for the difficult administrative
duties of the papacy. He never wanted to be Pope and after a short and troubled
reign he was induced to resign, and sought seclusion, which was really
imprisonment, in a monastery, where he died in a very short time.
Boniface was certainly the leader in the movement which
brought about the resignation of Celestine and was charged with being the author
of the unfortunate old man's misfortune. At any rate, he succeeded him on the
papal throne. There was quite a good deal of doubt in the minds of canon lawyers
as to whether a pope could resign, and therefore a cloud rested on the title of
Boniface, a cloud which was only partially dispelled by the death of Celestine.
The enemies of Boniface, and he had many, declared that the death of his
predecessor was not a natural one and that Boniface himself was responsible for
it.
Boniface was proud, arrogant, and rash. He declared himself
over-lord of all the monarchs of the world, and set the high water mark of papal
pretension. On one memorable occasion, when there was a vacancy in the office of
Emperor, the Pope appeared in public, brandishing his sword and declaring that
he was Emperor as well as Pope. He claimed, and attempted to exercise, power to
set up and pull down kings and even emperors.
Naturally, Philip the Fair and Boniface very soon found
themselves engaged in a deadly conflict. Boniface laid France under an interdict
and excommunicated King Philip and his family. The King, supported by a host of
the clergy as well as the laity of France, appealed to a future Council of the
Church. It is worthy of mention that this appeal was signed by the Order of the
Temple. The appeal struck Boniface in his most sensitive spot. The question of
whether or not a Council was superior to a Pope had not yet been settled and the
assumption that it was his superior was unspeakably exasperating to the
overbearing, tyrannical Boniface.
King Philip was far too aggressive to content himself with
this appeal. Seizing an occasion when the pope was absent from Rome on a visit
to Anagni, his native town, and comparatively undefended, the king sent his
chancellor, William de Nogaret, and Sciarra Colonna, a great Italian noble who
was on bad terms with the pope, to arrest Boniface. By whom Philip expected that
the pope would or could be tried is not clear. The charges preferred were
intrusion, that is to say, forcing himself into the papal chair without proper
title, gross immorality, tyranny and heresy.
Boniface was actually arrested and treated with great
indignity. Some authorities say that he was actually struck in the face by
Colonna. The people of Anagni rose and overpowered the guard and released
Boniface, but the shock of his arrest with the attendant humiliation and
indignation caused his death within a few days.
He was succeeded by a somewhat colorless pope, Benedict II,
who ruled only from October 27, 1303, to the seventh of the following July. He
released France from the interdict and Philip and his family from
excommunication, but his reign was otherwise unimportant.
Now came the question of the election of a new pope, in
which Philip proposed to play an important part. His attention fell upon
Bertrand de Got (Gouth). De Got came from a Gascon family and was an Aquitainian,
that is to say, an English subject, for it must be remembered that at this time
about half of what is now France belonged to the dominions of the English kings,
either by descent from the Dukes of Normandy, or by virtue of the marriage of
Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry III.
De Got was Archbishop of Bordeaux. He had been an early
friend of Philip, who knew the man thoroughly, but in the quarrel between Philip
and the pope, he had sided with Boniface. Election to the papacy was not then
limited to the cardinals, and the Archbishop of Bordeaux might well aspire to
the tiara. He was extremely ambitious, hungering with all his soul for wealth,
honor, and power. Philip knew his man and believed that as pope he might be
controlled, especially if he was made to feel that he owed his election to the
king.
Philip did not see the Archbishop personally, as has been
claimed by many writers, but he did unquestionably have an understanding with
him through intermediaries before using his influence to secure his election.
Two questions were raised by King Philip. One was the question of the
suppression of the Order of the Temple, for the interest of both church and
state through the abolition of the power and privileges which made the Templars
so objectionable to both. The other was the question of the heresy of Boniface
VIII. King Philip threatened to bring pressure to bear which would make it
necessary to call a General Council before which he would impeach the late Pope
of heresy. In view of the great unpopularity of Boniface and of certain things
said and done by him, there appeared to be great danger that the charge could be
pushed home and the memory of the late Pope attainted of heresy to the great
scandal of the church and disgrace of the papacy.
De Got was unscrupulous enough to agree to almost anything
in order to be made Pope and he therefore agreed to co-operate in the
suppression of the Order of the Temple if the king would agree not to press the
charge of heresy against his predecessor. With this understanding King Philip
supported his candidacy and he was elected Pope and took the title of Clement V.
As might be expected it very soon appeared that Bertrand De
Got who wanted to be Pope and Clement V who was Pope, were not quite the same
person. Like many another successful politician before and since the Pope had no
intention of fulfilling pre-election promises if he could get out of it.
His first movement was to propose the consolidation of the
Order of the Temple with the Order of the Hospitalers. This would then enable
him to reorganize both bodies and amend their charters. This project was
proposed in 1306, but was abandoned on account of the vigorous opposition of the
Grand Masters of both the Orders. The Pope then proposed to reform the Order of
the Temple, but moved slowly in carrying out the project.
King Philip was very impatient at the Pope's delay and
continually pressed him to fulfill his promises of suppression under threat of a
general Council and condemnation of Boniface VIII for heresy. He was not
content, however, with insistence and threats. Through his agents he found two
broken Knights of worthless character, Esquiau (Squin) De Florian, a Frenchman,
and Noffo Dei (Deghi), a Florentine. These men claimed to have been members of
the Order of the Temple and offered pretended confessions in which they charged
the Order with heresy and various abominable practices. For all this they were
well paid.
On the basis of this manufactured evidence Philip submitted
formal charges to the Pope. The Pope received them, but continued to delay
action. Philip's determination, however, was more than a match for the Pope's
procrastination. He found means to force the Pope's hand through the
intervention of William of Paris, Grand Inquisitor of France. The Grand
Iniquisitor had been King Philip's confessor and was entirely ready to lend
himself to the King's desires. By virtue of his office he had power to take
summary action in all cases of heresy within the kingdom and to take such
measures as he saw fit to deal with them.
Philip submitted his evidence to the Grand Inisitor who
forthwith demanded of the civil authorities the arrest of all the Templars in
France. Obviously this was a very serious matter. If the Templars had taken
concerted action to resist such an arrest it would probably have been
impossible. Assembled in their strong houses they might have stood siege until
aid could have reached them from other countries and it would have been a very
serious question whether Philip could have retained his throne. Plans were
therefore laid for their capture by surprise and arrangements were made for the
simultaneous arrest of all the Knights throughout the kingdom on the night of
October 13, 1307.
The blow came like lightning from a clear sky. It is true
that the Templars had been aware of the circulation of unpleasant reports. They
knew that there were whispers of evil and De Molay had gone as far as to ask, in
1306, that an investigation be made into the conduct of the Order, but
investigation was the last thing the King desired and no attention was paid to
the request.
The apprehensions of the Templars were set at rest and
their confidence was further deliberately strengthened by the treacherous
conduct of the King. In 1306 King Philip had been assailed by a mob in the
streets of Paris and saved himself from great personal danger by taking refuge
in the house of the Templars which happened to be not far from the scene of
disturbance. This obligation, however, rested lightly on his conscience. The
Templars were accustomed to have a public reception of Knights in addition to
the private initiation and King Philip attended such a public reception the
spring of 1307. On October 12, the very day before that fixed for the arrest, De
Molay was present by invitation, at the funeral of King Philip's sister-in-law
and was assigned a place of honor among the participants in the ceremonies. It
is not to be wondered at that the blow of October 13 was an entire surprise and
was entirely successful. De Molay and all the Knights in the kingdom were
arrested, their goods were seized, and their houses taken possession of, without
the slightest attempt at resistance so far as we have any record.
The events which ensued are somewhat complicated and
consist of two distinct sets of proceedings, first, personal proceedings against
the individual Knights and second, proceedings against the Order as a whole and
in all its branches.
Proceedings against the Knights were the first in time.
They were begun with great vigor by the Grand Inquisitor of France, but there
was some question about the Grand Inquisitor's jurisdiction. Particular rights
and immunities of the Templars which have already been noted might be considered
as placing them beyond the reach of proceedings not instigated by the Pope, or
at least approved by him.
The Grand Inquisitor, however, would not allow himself to
be troubled by questions of this sort and immediately proceeded to examine the
arrested Knights under torture.
We must not forget that this was not an unusual proceeding.
The examination of accused persons, and even of witnesses, under torture was the
ordinary method of judicial procedure at that time. It was not a method confined
to the Inquisition but was commonly practiced by the civil courts. It would have
been very unusual if it had been omitted in this case. Horrible as it appears to
us and useless as a method of ascertaining the truth, it was an every day
occurrence in the 14th century and was absolutely relied upon as a method of
getting at facts.
Torture was not confined to physical torment. The accused
were promised clemency if they freely confessed the acts with which they were
charged and named their accomplices. In the case of the Templars such promises
were conveyed in letters under the royal seal. These letters were decoys pure
and simple. They were either forgeries or deliberately written with intent to
deceive and without the slightest intention of keeping the promises which they
contained.
The accused were told that if they retracted these
confessions they would suffer the pains of death in this world and of hell in
the world to come. It was realized that men under physical torture will often
say almost anything which may be suggested to them as a means of securing relief
from their sufferings and these means were taken to prevent a retraction of
these forced confessions.
Moreover the law of evidence in use in those days contained
one provision which seems to us a peculiarly ghastly mockery. The confessions
which were wrung from the lips of the tortured victims were taken down as
uttered. Depositions thus obtained were taken to the victim after he had
recovered from the first effects of the torture and he was asked to sign them.
If he did thus sign them, aware that a refusal to do so would mean renewal of
the tortures together with the before mentioned threats of death and damnation,
confessions thus signed were held to be voluntary and not legally made under
torture.
Naturally many of the Knights confessed. De Molay himself
made a partial confession. Most of these confessions were afterwards retracted,
but for the time being they stood.
The charges will be examined further on, but the principal
things confessed should be noted here. They were:
Denial of Christ. Defiling the Cross by spitting upon it
and by other methods too indecent to describe.
Indecent kisses which it was claimed the initiates were
compelled to give the receiving officer on various parts of his body.
Sodomy. This, by the way, was a vice much more common in
the 13th century than now and was ordinarily a part of any serious accusations
made against either individuals or groups of individuals. It was one of the
charges against Boniface VIII when he was arrested by De Nogaret and Colonna.
Idolatry. This was based on the alleged worshipof an idol,
of which we shall hear more, and on the accusation that the cord which was part
of the habit of every Templar was consecrated by this idol by being touched to
it before the Templars put it on. Other abominations were vaguely referred to
but these were the main points of the accusation.
(To be Continued.)
----o----
THE TROWEL
BY BRO. RABBI EUGENE MANNHEIMER, IOWA
My Brothers: Mine it is to speak of the Trowel--that
instrument which, occupying an important position in the work-chest of the
operative mason is, as our ritual suggests, the especial tool of the Master
Mason; made use of by operative masons to spread the cement which unites a
building into a common mass, but utilized by the Free and Accepted Mason for the
more noble purpose of spreading the cement of brotherly love and affection, that
cement which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends, among whom no
contention should ever exist, but that noble contention, or rather emulation, of
who can best work and best agree. What instrument could be of nobler
significance ? What implement of more glorious inspiration ?
Through the use of the trowel, spreading the cement, the
single bricks and stones, once a chaotic mass, now stand united and solid, to
form this noble edifice which we dedicate this day to the cause of God and
Masonry. Through the symbolic service of the Masonic trowel, spreading the
cement of brotherly love and affection, we, the individual members, once as
separated and chaotic as these stones which house us, are as firmly bound
together in a union which dedicates us one for all and all for one. . . What
were this structure, which we solemnly consecrate, had not the trowel been
honestly wielded, or if the cement and mortar should fail it? What were our
brotherhood without the bond of love and affection to bind us close? And only as
long as this bond continues to unite us, only so long will this Temple stand a
true shrine of Masonry and of God. Only so long will our Brotherhood be a real
brotherhood, worthy of its consecration and its vows.
Do we need this lesson? Does this thought require the
especial emphasis we would wish to give it? Truly, none more. None to which
mankind has beer. more impervious in all times and all ages.
Three thousand years ago, on Judea's plain, the prophet of
the Lord proclaimed: "Behold, it shall come to pass in the latter day that the
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains
and exalted above all hills. And all nations shall flow unto it. And they shall
beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations
shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall there be war any more."
For two thousand years, not the one seer alone, but all prophets and ministers
of Judaism and Christianity together have united to emphasize the same ideal.
They have urged and re-urged the truth on the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of all his children. Out of such conviction they have hoped to bring
to dawning the day of universal peace.
But look about us today and see the result. Where is the
brotherhood, the affection, the peace, the understanding ? Do not bigotry,
hatred, superstition, ignorance and jealousy flourish as ever before? Are not
differences in creed, color and birth, on the slightest provocation, still found
meaningless excuse for savagely warring nations, as for many of-their supposed
superiors in culture? Does not the whole modern world panorama but demonstrate
that whatever our lip service to the ideal of God's fatherhood and Man's
brotherhood, whatever the hymns and prayers that have arisen from our temples,
the songs and prayers were not from the heart but from the lips of man only?
As Master Masons, who have taken the obligations of the
three degrees, brotherhood is our ideal. We have vowed to eradicate darkness,
hatred, superstition and misunderstanding from out our own lives and from out
the world as far as lay within our power. Recognizing no particular creed within
our Lodge room, hailing as brothers the followers of all creeds who are worthy
of such recognition, we have taught ourselves, and we hold before the world the
constant example, that men of different creeds can stand and work together for a
common purpose. Living in a world of discord, in which brotherhood, love,
sympathy and justice are, all-too-often, nothing more than words, it is urgent
beyond expression that we continually reimpress our vows upon our hearts and
minds, that we may never lose them from our lives. Most urgent of all is it for
us to spread their influence as far and wide in the world as our united power
will permit, that thus we may do our share to end the reign of bigotry, hatred
and superstition. Thus will we do our part to help hasten the dawning of the day
when the glorious brotherhood and peace dream of the prophet shall be realized.
As men and Masons we understand that this task is not easy
of accomplishment. But as men and Masons we have faith in God, in our fellowmen,
in ourselves. We know that the attainment of the goal is the sure promise of the
morrow. In this faith we live and labor on.
But note this one thing more, my Brothers. Those who wrote
our ritual did not harbor the foolish notion that initiation into Masonry would
in some mysterious way, in a single moment, through a single act, change the
entire nature of the initiate, to make him in a moment the perfect servant of
God and man that his obligations require of him. We are not told that as the
result of entering the Masonic fraternity a man must be at once, so filled with
the spirit of brotherhood that the spirit of false contention CAN never again
find lodgement within his breast. We are told that it SHOULD never again be
found within him. The demand is made of each of us who comes to this Altar to
take the obligation, that he shall continuously thereafter strive to eradicate
from his heart the prejudice, error and misunderstanding that may have filled
him in the past, that at last the moment may come when he is a Mason in reality
as well as in name. But the burden of making ourselves such true Masons is
placed upon our own shoulders, and nowhere else. To us ourselves and to no
others the task is assigned.
It is these high and noble purposes, my Brothers, of which
the Trowels are here emblematic. These the ideals, of which they stand to remind
us upon our Altar. As we consecrate these trowels anew, this night, unto their
holy offlce, unto these same holy purposes may we, at the same time,
re-consecrate ourselves. To these ideals may we vow renewed fidelity.
----o----
WATCH YOUR STEP
Yet in opinions look not always back;
Your wake is nothing, mind the coming track;
Leave what you've done for what you have to do;
Don't be "consistent," but simply be true.
--O. W. Holmes.
----o----
ARCHES AND ARCHES
Build as we may we shall not reach the sky;
Our little arches bend forever low
Beneath the eternal arch that curves on high,
Above the eternal depths we do not know.
--F. D. Snelling.
----o----
THE LODGE ROOM OVER SIMPKIN'S STORE
BROTHER LAWRENCE N. GREENLEAF
Past Grand Master of Colorado
The plainest lodge room in the land was over Simpkin's
store,
Where ,Friendship Lodge had met each month for fifty years
or more.
When o'er the earth the moon, full-orbed, had cast her
brightest beam
The brethren came from miles around on horseback and in
team,
And ah! what hearty grasp of hand, what welcome met them
there
As mingling with the waiting groups they slowly mount the
stair
Exchanging fragmentary news or prophecies of crop,
Until they reach the Tiler's room and current topics drop,
To turn their thoughts to nobler themes they cherish and
adore,
And which were heard on meeting night up over Simpkin's
store.
To city eyes, a cheerless room, long usage had defaced
The tell-tale line of lath and beam on wall and ceiling
traced.
The light from oil-fed lamps was dim and yellow in its hue,
The carpet once could pattern boast, though now 'twas lost
to view;
The altar and the pedestals that marked the stations three
The gate-post pillars topped wilh balls, the rude-carved
letter G
Where village joiner's clumsy work, with many things beside
Where beauty's lines were all effaced and ornament denied.
There could be left no lingering doubt, if doubt there was
before, The
plainest lodge room in the land was over Simpkin's store.
While musing thus on outward form the meeting time drew
near,
And we had glimpse of inner life through watchful eye and
ear.
When lodge convened at gavel's sound with offlcers in
place,
We looked for strange, conglomerate work, but could no
errors trace.
The more we saw, the more we heard, the greater our amaze,
To find those country brethren there so skilled in Mason's
ways.
But greater marvels were to come before the night was
through
Where unity was not mere name, but fell on earth like dew,
Where tenets had the mind imbued, and truths rich fruitage
bore,
In the plainest lodge room in the land, up over Simpkin's
store.
To hear the record of their acts was music to the ear,
We sing of deeds unwritten which on angel's scroll appear
A WIDOW'S CASE -- FOUR HELPLESS ONES--lodge funds were
running low--
A dozen brethren sprang to feet and offers were not slow.
Food, raiment, things of needful sort, while one gave loads
of wood,
Another, shoes for little ones, for each gave what he
could.
Then spake the last: "I haven't things like these to
give--but then
Some ready money may help out"--and he laid down a TEN
Were brother cast on darkest square upon life's checkered
floor,
A beacon light to reach the white--was over Simpkin's
store.
Like scoffer who remained to pray, impressed by sight and
sound
The faded carpet 'neath our feet was now like holy ground.
The walls that had such dingy look were turned celestial
blue,
The ceiling changed to canopy where stars were shining
through.
Bright tongues of flame from altar leaped, the G was vivid
blaze,
All common things seemed glorified by heaven's reflected
rays.
O ! wondrous transformation wrought through ministry of
love--
Behold the LODGE ROOM BEAUTIFUL !--fair type of that above.
The vision fades--the lesson lives--while taught as ne'er
before
In the plainest lodge room in the land--up over Simpkin's
store.
----o----
THAT WHICH ABIDES
A great character, founded on the living rock of principle,
is, in fact, not a solitary phenomenon, to be at once perceived, limited and
described. It is a dispensation of Providence, designed to have not merely an
immediate but a continuous, progressive and neverending agency. It survives the
man who possesses it; survives his age--perhaps his country and his language.
--Edward Everett.
----o----
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is
humble that he knows no more.
--Cowper. The Task.
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN -- NO. 2
Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg, Caxton Building, Cleveland,
Ohio
Note. Evidence multiplies that this Correspondence | 
