THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
september 1917
volume 3 - number 9
THE RECEPTION OF THE FLAGS
BY BRO. LOUIS BLOCK, P. G. M., IOWA
At the public ceremonies preliminary to the opening of the
Grand Lodge of Iowa, the British, French and American flags were each presented
by a girl dressed in the white nurses uniform of the Red Cross. When the British
flag was borne down the aisle to the stage the quartet sang "Rule Britannia" and
the flag was received and welcomed by the speaker with these words:
THE UNION JACK
MOST Worshipful Grand Master, Mr. Chairman, my Brethren,
Ladies and Gentlemen: As Masons we have often been taught that Masonry is the
science of symbols. Flags are either intensely symbolical or they have no
significance at all. It is natural therefore that Masons should take a keen
interest in flags.
This is the flag that is best known as the "Union Jack." It
is called this because it symbolizes the Union of England, Scotland and Ireland.
As you will see, it consists of a blue field across which there are laid three
crosses, a red one running straight across and up and down, and a white one and
a red one which run crossways from corner to corner. These are the crosses of
St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick, St. George being the patron saint of
England, St. Andrew the tutelary saint of Scotland, and St. Patrick the well
beloved saint of Ireland.
The banner of St. George was a red cross laid
perpendicularly across a white field. We can all recall the famous legend of St.
George and the dragon, how the beautiful daughter of the King of On was rescued
from the flaming jaws of the dragon who threatened to devour her. Today in
France the sons of St. George are freely offering up their lives to rescue God's
beautiful daughter Liberty from the all-devouring jaws of the dragon of
militarism.
The banner of St. Andrew consisted of a white cross laid
diagonally upon a blue field. It has a special meaning for Masons, for in the
early days it was the banner of the craftsmen and King James the Sixth was heard
to say, that whenever he attempted to impose upon these sturdy workmen the
smallest burden, they arose in their wrath and hoisted "their bloody blue
blanket" and resisted him. This banner had painted upon it a thistle and round
about it the motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit." This, my brethren, is a latin
phrase which being interpreted meaneth, "Nobody monkeys with me without getting
stung," and the sons of Scotland fighting today Somewhere In France are proving
to the enemy how sharply this thistle can sting.
The banner of St. Patrick consisted of a red cross
stretched diagonally across a white field. We are told that St. Patrick was
especially beloved because he drove the snakes out of Ireland. I sometimes
suspect, however, that their real reason for leaving was that they could hardly
stomach the music by the Kilkenny cats of whom the poet tells us,
"There were two cats of Kilkenny,
They fought and they fit,
They scratched and they bit,
Until instead of two cabs of Kilkenny
There wasn't any."
Be this as it may, it is nevertheless sure that the sons of
the old sod are today proving to the Prussians that the Kilkenny cats could take
lessons from their Irish masters when it comes to fighting.
Taken all together, the three crosses go to make up the
Union Jack, the banner of our ancient enemy, John Bull. You know that in the old
days we were forced to teach him a couple of lessons in human liberty, forced to
make him understand that we would neither endure taxation without
representation, nor permit him to impress free-born American seamen upon the
high seas, and to make him learn this lesson we had to larrup him twice, once by
land and once by sea. But that was a long time ago and for over a hundred years
now he has been our good neighbor on the North and we have lived side by side
with him for over a century with never a soldier or a fort needed to maintain
peace between us.
This is the flag of the land which gave Masonry her birth.
It is the banner of the country which produced the greatest system of human law
known to man --at once the wisest and fairest, the safest and squarest system of
free self control that has ever blessed a troubled world. This is the national
emblem of the people who speak our mother tongue and for that reason we can know
and understand them a little bit better than any other people on the earth.
We used to think and feel that while England loved liberty
for herself she was not quite so ready to grant it to others. But we have seen
her heart undergo a wonderful change--have seen the soul of the great Britain
people rise and shake off its selfishness and offer itself as a sacrifice for
the suffering and the oppressed of the world. If Britain was ever beset with the
greed of conquest she surely has shriven her soul by the great sacrifice made by
her sons in behalf of poor, broken, bleeding Belgium and we are now ready to
believe that with her whole heart and soul she loves liberty for her own sweet
sake, and that when she proudly declares that "Britons never, never, never will
be slaves" she means that slavery shall exist nowhere in the world and so we are
glad to welcome here today the proud banner of Britain, fold it to our hearts,
and wave it aloft alongside the Stars and Stripes.
THE TRI-COLOR
(Then the National flag of France was borne to the stage
and the quartet sang the Marsellaise and the speaker welcomed it by saying:)
This, my brethren, is the tri-color, the tried colors of
the sunny land of France. It is the flag of our sister Republic, the standard of
a great, cheery, laughing, sunny-souled and happy-hearted people, and if there
is a flag on the face of the earth to which the American soul is irresistibly
drawn with a tingling thrill, it is this beautiful banner of France. How well
our own song of the Red, White and Blue would fit this fine flag. Let us give
three cheers for this Red, White and Blue !
(Whereupon the great audience arose to their feet and
roared out a cheer that seemed to rock the building on its foundations.)
This is the banner that has proved to the world that a
people can be free and still not lose its power of fighting. Just think of the
magnificent resistance that this free people has made against the most powerful,
most magnificently organized and perfectly operating Or as it fighting machine
the world has ever seen. Under the leadership of old Papa Joffre, the General
Grant of France, they have fought this military machine to a stand-still and are
making its wheels grind backward. At last, my brethren, we have an opportunity
of paying the debt we have so long owed to Rochambeau and Lafayette and we were
sodden ingrates indeed did we not respond to the call of our ancient friends who
have so freely poured out floods of their patriotic blood upon the sacred altar
of liberty. Verily, it takes a free people to know the heart of a free people,
and if there is a land in the world to which our hearts go out in its hour of
trial, it is this dearly beloved land of France, the land that was so true and
helpful to us in our own hour of crying need.
The other day in addressing the Chamber of Deputies,
Monsieur Ribot, the President of the Council, speaking of us to his people, said
that by taking part in this war for human liberty we had proven ourselves
faithful to the traditions of the founders of our independence and had
demonstrated that the enormous rise of our industrial strength and economic and
financial power had not weakened in us that need for an ideal without which
there could be no great nation. He further declared that the powerful and
decisive aid which the United States had thus brought to France was not only a
material aid but was more than all else a moral aid and a real consolation in
their hour of heavy affliction. Let us here highly resolve that we will prove
ourselves true to the faith our French brothers have in us.
OLD GLORY
(Then the Stars and Stripes were carried to the stage, the
audience standing upon their feet and singing the "Star Spangled Banner." When
the flag was placed in the hands of the speaker, he said:)
This is Old Glory, my flag and your flag. If there ever was
a flag about which an American ought to be able to speak freely, fluently, and
with great force, it surely is the Stars and Stripes. But alas, on this occasion
I feel as though human speech were far too frail, poor and weak a thing to tell
of the thoughts that fill the mind and the feelings that thrill the soul. This
is one of the times when words seem absolutely worthless. This is the flag which
the poet spoke of when he sang:
"When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light.
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land."
Unequal as I am to the occasion I yet must try to tell what
this banner means for us as
"Blue and crimson and white it shines
Over the steel-tipped ordered lines "
Or as it
"Catches the gleam of the morning's first beam
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream"
even if I call to my help the words of others to tell the
story. This is the flag that speaks to us of
"Sea fights and land fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the state,
Weary marches and sinking ships,
Cheers of victory from dying lips.
Days of plenty and days of peace,
March of strong lands swift increase,
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe.
Sign of a nation great and strong,
To guard her people from foreign wrong,
Glory, pride and honor all
Live in the flag to stand or fall."
Even though I had the skill of the sculptor that fits him
to carve the cold rock into a living semblance of life, or the inspiration of a
painter who dips his brush in the colors of the sunset to make the glowing
landscape quiver with life upon the canvas before him, or the exaltation of the
singer who caught the high note of the music of the spheres when the morning
stars sang together,--even then I could not begin to picture the power, the
glory, the majesty, the dignity, and the sanctity of the love of the free
patriot for his flag.
"I am unworthy.
Master hands
Should strike the chords
And fill the lands
From sea to sea with melody
All reverent yet with harmony,
Majestic, jubilant to tell,
How love must love
If love loves well."
Think of the sacred love of a mother for her little
child--of the cradle
"Gently rocking, rocking,
Silent, peaceful, to and fro,
Of the mother's sweet looks dropping
On the little face below,"
think of the love of a fine strong man as he clasps to his
breast his blushing bride, think of the sacred affection linking together the
lives of an old couple who have journeyed far along life's road side by side
into the sunset, think of the love and the pride and the joy that flames back
and forth between a staunch and sturdy son and his silver-hail ed sire--think of
all these and roll and blend them into one and you cannot begin to tell of the
love of the freeman for his flag! Surely then we are ready to say:
"This is my flag. For it will give
All that I have, even as they gave--
They who dyed those blood-red bands--
Their lives that it might wave.
This is my flag. I am prepared
To answer now its first clear call,
And with Thy help, Oh God,
Strive that it may not fall.
This is my flag. Dark days seem near.
O Lord, let me not fail.
Always my flag has led the right,
O Lord, let it not fail."
Some of us can fight, others can work, others still can
pay, each in his place can do his duty and be worthy of the honor of being an
American citizen and enjoying the blessings of liberty. Each one of us can do
his bit and remember that
"Honor and fame from no condition rise,
Act well thy part, there all the honor lies."
The poorest citizen in the land can buy at least one
Liberty Bond, and every dollar spent for a Liberty Bond is a bullet blown into
the bowels of the enemy. Let us here today in overwhelming gratitude for the
blessings that we have enjoyed under this banner of the free, consecrate our
souls anew to its service.
THE MISSING FLAG
But there is another banner which is not here with us
today, a flag which for the present at least we are forced to shut out of our
sacred circle. I speak of it with pain and regret, with heart-ache and with a
great sense of deep pity, for it is the flag of my ancestors and my own father's
ashes now lie buried beneath the soil over which it waves. It is needless to say
that I speak of the German flag. This flag once flew over the heads of a great
people, a people that stood high in the ranks of world achievement, a people who
were masters of the world, both in medicine and in music, a people who love
liberty, a people who produced Martin Luther, who was the foremost champion of
religious liberty in the world. There is one curious thing about the colors of
these flags which I am not sure that you have noticed. Is it by mere chance that
it happens that the colors of all of the flags of freedom are red, white and
blue, while those of the banner of Prussian despotism are red, white and black?
Was it a matter of mere accident that this dark streak and sinister stripe
appears in this flag which now stands for the outlaw among the nations ? Is not
this dark stripe symbolical of the darkness of the mind, the military madness
that holds a great people in bonds and is fast driving it on to ruin? Surely.
the black must be a symbol of the madness of militarism.
When a storm gathers in the heavens black clouds ;hut out
from sight the face of the sun. But when the age and madness of the elements has
worn itself out and the roll of the thunder has died away in the distance, then
slowly but surely the blackness fades to blue and the earth is bright and happy
once more. Let us hope that so it will be in this awful world war and that, when
the storm of rage and madness has been swept from out the hearts of our German
brethren, that the blackness which now blinds their sight will clear away, and
be supplanted by the pure blue of the unclouded sky of freedom and that peace
and happiness will once more prevail among all the peoples of the earth.
THE FLAG OF FRATERNITY
But there is another banner here today, although we cannot
see it with our mortal eyes. It is the unseen flag of Fraternity that floats
above the dome of that great "house not made with hands," that temple of liberty
which stands forever eternal in the heavens. Its colors are all the colors of
the rainbow and it spreads its flaming folds across the world from sunrise to
sunset. It is a flag that shall fall upon the world as a reward for the awful
sacrifice it is now being called upon to make. In all of the history of this old
earth never has there been a sacrifice so awful, so bitter, so heart-rending, so
soul-terrifying, so overwhelming, as that which we are making today for the sake
of human liberty, and just so surely as we believe that there is a God of
Justice, just so certain must be the reward that will bless humanity for this
mighty manifestation of divine devotion to a most holy cause. Out of it all
there must come a world-wide unity and friendship, and a fraternity that shall
reach wide-swept to the uttermost corners of the globe. There must be a union of
the states, not of Europe alone, but of the whole world, and Masonry which has
been never the destroyer but always the builder, must play a mighty part in
erecting this world-wide temple of humanity. Even now Masons everywhere are
praying for the dawn of that day so beautifully pictured by Albert Pike:
"When all mankind shall be one great lodge of brethren, And
wars of fear and persecution shall be known no more forever."
When that day comes we shall behold with our spiritual eyes
the mighty Temple of Human Liberty made more magnificent than ever, and over its
shining portal we shall read in letters of living light the words, "Liberty and
union, freedom and fraternity, now and forever, one and inseparable, world
without end."
----o----
THE TRUE JOY OF LIFE
This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose
recognized as yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you
are thrown into the scrap heap; the being a force in nature instead of a selfish
little clod complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you
happy.--G. B. Shaw.
----o----
THESE THREE
There are three qualities which will enable a man to endure
all hardships--unquestioning faith in a beneficent God, an absorbing love for an
individual, or a burning enthusiasm for a cause.-- Salome Hocking.
A Journal For The Masonic Student
Published Monthly by the National Masonic Research Society
VOLUME III NUMBER 9
September, 1917
TWO DOLLARS FIFTY CENTS THE YEAR
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS THE COPY
----o----
THE FAITH THAT IS IN THEM---A FRATERNAL FORUM
Edited by BRO. GEO. E. FRAZER, President, The Board of
Stewards
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Henry R. Evans, District of Columbia.
Harold A. Kingsbury, Connecticut.
Dr. Wm. F. Kuhn, Missouri.
Geo. W. Baird, District of Columbia
H.D. Funk, Minnesota
Frederick W. Hamilton, Massachusetts
Dr. John Lewin McLeish, Ohio.
Joseph W. Norwood, Kentucky.
Silas H. Sheperd, Wisconsin.
Jos. W. Eggleston, Virginia
M.M. Johnson, Massachusetts
John Pickard, Missouri
Oliver D. Street, Alabama.
S. W. Williams, Tennessee.
Joe L. Carson, Virginia
T.W. Hugo, Minnesota
F.B. Gault, Washington
C.M. Schenck, Colorado
H.L. Haywood, Iowa
Frank E. Noyes, Wisconsin
Francis W. Shepardson, Illinois
S. W. Williams, Tennessee
Contributions to this Monthly Department of Personal
Opinion are invited from each writer who has contributed one or more articles to
THE BUILDER. Subjects for discussion are selected as being alive in the
administration of Masonry today. Discussions of politics, religious creeds or
personal prejudices are avoided, the purpose of the Department being to afford a
vehicle for comparing the personal opinions of leading Masonic students. The
contributing editors assume responsibility only for what each writes over his
own signature. Comment from our Members on the subjects discussed here will be
welcomed in the Correspondence column.
QUESTION NO. 5-- "Shall the several Grand Jurisdictions
modify their rules as to physical requirements of candidates so that, other
qualifications being satisfactory, Masons may welcome the petitions of all those
soldiers and sailors who lose arms, legs or eyes in the service of their
country? If so, shall ability to support himself and immediate family be
substituted as a requirement of each initiate? If not, what physical
requirements are reasonable?"
Mental Requirements Come First.
I should not regard it so much a "modification of their
rules as to physical requirements of candidates" as getting back to those "first
principles" which are the ancient landmarks of Freemasonry, if the Grand
Jurisdictions followed the rules and policy settled for Kentucky 116 years ago
by Grand Lodge action, namely, that the Grand Lodge has no authority in the
matter and the question of eligibility of persons who have physical misfortunes
lies entirely with the lodge which receives his petition.
As I recall the first decision concerned the petition of
John Pope who was minus a left arm or hand. The lodge received him and he became
one of the brightest Lights of both Masonic and Civil history in this state.
Our rule of reason is that unless the candidate is unable to feel the grip, hear
the word or see the sign" physical misfortune is no bar, except in cases where
entrance to Masonry by such persons is made under such conditions as to lead us
to believe they might become a financial charge from the beginning.
Without entering into a discussion of philosophy, I am
satisfied that the reason back of the original requirement that a man be sound
"in mind and member" was and still is purely spiritual and not physical save
incidentally as above set forth. A consumptive or a man with eczema may have all
his arms and legs but is undoubtedly physically "unsound."
If I understand our rituals aright, there is an
extra-physical trend to them that can not be waved away with an idle word, and
which necessitates the student who would grasp our philosophy's meaning,
regarding his body as a machine or set of working tools for the use of his mind.
So that there may have once been more reason than exists now, in these days of
scientific surgery, for lodges to require physical perfection.
But as I say, physical requirements in my opinion, have
always been subordinate to and dependent upon the mental or "spiritual"
requirements, with the lodge itself as the judge.
Because of the erroneous notion that "Speculative Masonry"
was merely an outgrowth of "Operative Masonry" whose symbols and rituals were in
large part adapted to the ancient wisdom we now call "Freemasonry," a great many
of our unthinking and I am sorry to say unlearned Grand Masters have built up
"precedents" in their jurisdictions which are followed from one generation to
another somewhat as attempts used to be made to confine the "landmarks" to a
definite number, resulting in the most absurd situations.
I think a most interesting--and enlightening-- topic for
research would be a comparison of the various decisions in every jurisdiction. I
recall one jurisdiction in this country where the Grand Master decided that a
man could not become a Mason because he had lost a certain finger on the left
hand and exactly the reverse was decided (same finger) in another jurisdiction.
Such a compilation of cold statistics would amply demonstrate the need for
reform. J. W. Norwood, Kentucky.
Let Us Make New Laws Slowly.
I believe that the several Grand Lodges have already
enacted too many regulations and that it is impossible at present to unite on
any uniform rule as to physical qualifications. If it were possible, I doubt the
wisdom of additional rules.
We have heard the charge to preserve the "ancient
landmarks" and never suffer them to be infringed, or countenance a deviation
from the established usages and customs of the fraternity given to every Mason
and have given it ourself, realizing we did not know what we were talking about.
In Mackey's enumeration of the "landmarks" he includes physical qualification,
but why did he not include the requirement that apprentices serve seven years
which was also a regulation given in the "old charges"? Modern dentistry makes
the conformity to one of our requirements impossible in a majority of cases, but
it has never been seriously considered or its symbolic effect lessened. Electric
lights now take the place of the time-honored candle and so we might continue if
it were necessary to show that changes have been made in our usages and customs.
Brother R. F. Gould says that "The dogmas of Perpetual
Jurisdiction, Physical Perfection, and Exclusive (or Territorial) Jurisdiction,
have been evolved since the introduction of Masonry into what has become the
United States," from England.
Before making more laws of Masonry let us get together and
try and find out what a landmark is and what constitutes ancient usages and
customs and in the interval regard the Lodge as a safe guardian of those we now
consider as such.
The student of history can not fail to see the harmful
effects that have resulted from dogmatism in politics, science, religion, and
even in social life. Let us, as Freemasons, avoid dogmas that will weaken the
foundation of our Fraternity and allow nothing to take preference over our
fundamental principle of "The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man." In
the past 200 years many changes have been made in Masonic ritual and
jurisprudence, some of which have been questionable, and we fear have been made
without due regard to the basic principle. Let us be slow to enact laws and
careful to make them on the basis of those things on which we all agree. Silas
H. Shepherd, Wisconsin.
Involves Changes in Ritual.
I should not advocate any change in the physical
qualifications of petitioners for our degrees as set forth at present in the
Grand Jurisdictions, nor even modifications to meet the hypothetical cases
covered in your inquiry. Opportunity offers the men of the Army and Navy to seek
Masonic Light, should the suggested chartering of Military Lodges already
discussed in the Forum be approved. Any such radical modification as that
embodied in your present query would involve a complete revision of the ritual.
Viewing the subject from another angle, so long as Masonry
endures as an Institution in the United States, the Patriotism and Charity
constituting cardinal principles of the Order, will promptly provide for such
National Responsibilities as the Red Cross, the National Soldiers' and Sailors'
Homes and other obligations, an increase of which must directly result as an
aftermath of our present Battle For Civilization. Our present high physical
standard is an old landmark of Masonry. Its abrogation, even for so laudable a
purpose as you suggest, would establish a bad precedent and personally I am
opposed to innovations which might lead to others, so ultimately lessening the
great potency for good of an ancient and honorable Institution.
If at any time the great Government of the United States
finds itself in the least hampered in properly providing for the gallant
soldiers and sailors who have suffered physical impairment in its service, our
Blue Brotherhood will be the first to contribute to the needs of the Fourth
Great Light of American Masonry--the Flag. John Lewin McLeish, Ohio.
Virginia is Investigating.
Aside from the motive of opening the doors to returned
veterans, which was not mentioned, the Grand Lodge of Virginia, at its Annual in
February, placed the subject of modification of physical requirements in the
hands of the Jurisprudence Committee to be reported on in February, 1918. My
fixed idea is that the requirement of a degree of physical perfection is but a
link with past ages of the operative branch and should be retained for that
reason alone. What that degree of perfection shall be, should be left to the
Lodges, except that all initiates should be able to receive and comprehend our
ceremonies, and should be able to make a living for themselves and families.
Prior to 1866 this was about Virginia's position.
Grand Lodges legislate too much and leave too little to the
intelligence and Masonic zeal of the Lodges. A change is coming as to physical
requirement and it would be well but not at all necessary that Grand Lodges
should all agree. Certain it is that they will not. Jos. W. Eggleston,
Virginia.
* * * Few Changes in 1861-1865.
My opinion is that none of the Grand Jurisdictions should
in any way modify their present requirements as to physical qualifications,
because of military conditions. As I understand it, there was very little
modification of these requirements made by the Grand Bodies because of
conditions arising from the Civil War of 1861-1865 and in my judgment the
present war does not present any reasons for such modification any stronger than
were presented at the time of the Civil War.
Masonry is a fraternal and charitable institution but not
an eleemosynary one. Whatever charity the order dispenses outside of its own
membership should be given freely and in lump sums to worthy objects, but the
order ought not to invite into its ranks those who would become burdens upon it
and cause it to levy burdensome taxes upon its members. The ability of one to
support himself and immediate family ought by no means to be substituted as a
requirement for physical perfection. This would in a majority of cases be
strained to take care of what might be deemed individual worthy cases and thus
in the course of time the order would be burdened with charitable distribution
to many who, while deemed able to support themselves and families at the time of
their petition, would, due to military injuries, afterwards find themselves
unable to render such support.
Wisconsin has always been very strict in applying the
ancient landmark of physical perfection and I am not one of those who believe
that the bars should be let down at this or at any other time. Frank E. Noyes,
Wisconsin.
* * *
Protests Innovations.
I beg leave to invite attention to the installation
ceremonies of a W. M., which makes it clear that we deny the right of any man or
body of men to make innovations in the body of Masonry.
My belief is that tampering with the Landmarks and with the
Constitutions is like driving nails into the coffin of Freemasonry. Too much
liberty has, I think, been taken with the original plan of Masonry, and I would
therefore advise protecting the Landmarks and Constitutions rather than changing
them. Geo. W. Baird, Washington, D. C.
An American Anachronism.
There is an ever-growing opinion amongst thinking
Freemasons, that the Mental Qualification, not the Physical, should be the test
for membership in our Order.
This physical qualification is an anachronism--a form that
has remained with us centuries after the substance has gone--and strange to say
remained only in the minds of American Masons. This has been the cause of more
worry to our Grand Lodge, more rulings, more disappointment than almost any
other single subject, all because we insist in dragging this ancient Fetish into
our assemblies.
The laws of Physical Perfection died with the Operative
Lodge. We apply these rules to our moral and mental qualifications rather than
to our physical today, or we should do so. Ability to support himself so he may
not become a charge on the Order, a further ability to make himself known to, or
as a Brother, by sight, sound or touch, should govern all future initiations,
and thus give our brave maimed boys a chance to receive all the "comfort of the
craft" when they return. J. L. Carson, Virginia.
* *
The Missouri "Cripple" Law.
My views on the Physical Perfection idea have, in the past,
been considered very radical. About fifteen years ago I introduced, advocated,
and the Grand Lodge of Missouri adopted, the following law:
"It is incompetent for any Lodge in this Jurisdiction to
confer either of the three Degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry on any person whose
physical defects are such as to prevent his receiving and imparting the
ceremonies of the several degrees; provided, that nothing herein contained shall
be so construed as to render any one ineligible to the privileges of Masonry,
who can by the aid of artificial appliances conform to the necessary
ceremonies."
This law met with furious criticism by some correspondents
and editors of Masonic papers, and I was dubbed an iconoclast, a destroyer of
the "Ancient Landmarks," and one, after denouncing me, said, "That charges
should be preferred against me and expelled." But this was fifteen years ago and
the Missouri "Cripple Law" or some modification of it, has been adopted in many
Grand Lodges.
Freemasonry is a progressive science and a new light and
age has dawned. The Physical Perfection notion became obsolete when operative
Masonry became speculative. We recognize today that a wooden leg is better than
a wooden head, and a few fingers missing is far better than a heart of stone. We
believe today, (not merely mouthing the Ritual), "that it is the internal
qualification and not the external that qualifies a man to be made a Mason."
The "Perfect Youth" doctrine has become so absurd and
ridiculous among thinking Masons, that it is no longer necessary to even argue
the question. It lives in some Grand Lodges purely as a reminiscence of a past
age, and like all obsolete notions, it dies hard. "Shall Masonry welcome the
petitions of all those soldiers and sailors who have lost arms or eyes in the
service of their country?" Yes, or any other good man similarly afflicted.
There is only one point that should be considered and that
is the question of becoming dependent. Freemasonry is a luxury and not an
eleemosynary institution; pecuniary and material benefits must not be the motive
for gaining admission. No man should be admitted, or he knowingly apply for
admission, when inability to support himself is self evident. The physical
condition, as to loss of legs, arms, eyes, fingers, toes, bow legs or baldhead,
is of no importance, but the question of ability to support himself is the only
question involved. Wm. F. Kuhn, Missouri.
* * *
A Survival from Operative Masonry.
It was inevitable that the Operative Masons should insist
that their apprentices be sound in limb and in good health, seeing that their
trade was dangerous, onerous and difficult, and that a sick man had to be
supported out of the common purse. Also was it inevitable that this ancient
custom be carried over into Speculative Masonry at the Revival in 1717, for it
had come to be considered an Ancient Landmark, and we all know how careful the
Early Speculatives were to adhere to these. But in spite of the sanctions of
antiquity the premier Grand Lodge gradually modified its rules as to
qualifications, learning that what had been necessary among the Operatives was
no longer essential to Speculative Masonry. Even Oliver, with all his loyalty to
the past, was driven to see this, as witness this paragraph found in his
"Treasury":
"It would indeed be a solecism in terms to contend that a
loss or partial deprivation of a physical organ of the body could, by any
possibility, disqualify a man from studying the sciences, or being made a Mason
in our times, while in possession of sound judgment, and the healthy exercises
of his intellectual powers."
In 1875 the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge of
England issued a circular in which the writer said:
"I am directed to say that the general rule in this country
is to consider a candidate eligible for election who although not perfect in his
limbs is sufficiently so to go through the various ceremonies required in the
different degrees." As to whether the candidate was able "to go through the
various ceremonies" was, it goes without saying, left to the judgment of the
ballot.
In an essay included in one of the early volumes of the
Iowa Grand Lodge Proceedings, T. S. Parvin takes the same position:
"It is the SOLE RIGHT of each and every LODGE to act upon
these physical qualifications, as it is universally conceded that they are the
sole judges of the moral qualifications of all candidates."
This, it seems to me, is good sense. If a candidate is able
to pay his dues, is in reasonable good health, of average intelligence and has a
good reputation, we need ask no more, unless his physical defects may
incapacitate him from performing the ceremonies. I, myself, pray that the day
may come when the chief qualification demanded of a candidate will be the
evidence of a sincere determination TO TAKE MASONRY SERIOUSLY. We need more
Masons and fewer members. H. L. Haywood, Iowa.
* * *
Manhood, Duty and Valor.
Eligibility to the Masonic orders should not be denied any
soldier or sailor of the United States because of physical disabilities caused
by such service, when such candidate has the other essential moral and mental
qualifications, it being granted of course that physical impairment is properly
authenticated as due to exposure in the line of duty as such soldier or sailor.
Masonry is not an eleemosynary institution and every candidate for membership
should be capable of supporting himself and family, or least he should not
become an immediate charge upon the Order. A spasm of patriotic fervor or
sympathy should not be permitted to vote a man into membership in Masonry simply
because he bore in his person the evidence of military heroism. But being a man
and having done a man's full duty and is maimed thereby, such physical
disability ought not to deny him a place in our noble Order that in all its
teachings places a premium upon manhood, duty and valor. Franklin B. Gault,
Washington.
* * *
The Massachusetts Rule.
I do not think that I can better reply to your question for
September than by quoting a provision of the Grand Constitutions of
Massachusetts which is as follows:
"If the physical deformity of any applicant for the degrees
does not amount to an inability to meet the requirements of the Ritual, and
honestly to acquire the means of subsistence, it shall constitute no hindrance
to his initiation."
The Grand Masters of Massachusetts have never been willing
to rule on particular cases but have ruled in a general way that an awkward
compliance might be accepted.
The Worshipful Master of a Lodge is required to pass on
cases as it appears best. There was a vote of the Grand Lodge something over a
hundred years ago to the effect that a blind man might not be given the degrees,
but that would appear to be unnecessary as a blind man clearly could not comply
with the regulations of the ritual. Frederick W. Hamilton, Massachusetts.
Symbolism of The Perfect Man.
I fear that I could not bring myself to consent to the
initiation of any man into the body of Freemasonry who was not possessed of all
of his physical members whole and complete. And I believe that this is in accord
with the very genius of the Order.
But first of all, however, I must recognize and agree to
the dictum, "It is the internal, and not the external, qualifications that
recommend a man to be a Mason," (Mackey, Book of the Chapter, p. 41), and I
fully realize how it may be drawn therefrom that a man, having great internal
qualifications, should not be debarred from the privileges and duties of
Freemasonry because he has lost perhaps the little finger of his left hand. This
is further complicated by a parallel which I seem always able to find from the
early Church. A candidate for Holy Orders must come freeborn, of lawful age,
under the tongue of good report, and also sound of limb and unmutilated; but a
man whose blood had been shed as a martyr-- and who was possibly mutilated--had
the priestly right of absolution, and without further ordination. (Smith and
Cheetham, Dict. Xn. Antiq., pp. 1118 and 1481-2.) So it could be argued that a
man who had lost a limb in the highly Masonic duty of the defense of his
country, should, if otherwise worthy, be admitted into the mysteries of
Freemasonry.
Now all ceremonial, whether of the Lodge or of the Church,
has a materialistic, and a spiritual, or symbolic interpretation--and either is
as true as the other. Now, our ancient operative brethren could not admit a
maimed man to their Gild because he could not perform the functions of the
Craft; but this, it might seem, could be waived when we enter the realm of the
speculative. In other words, inability to display the various external signs and
tokens does not necessarily keep a man from being internally what it is to be a
Mason.
But even with these considerations, I cannot bring myself
to believe that a maimed man should be admitted to initiation. Symbolism is the
life of Freemasonry, and to such a degree that frequently what is presented to
our attention is but the symbol of a symbol. And therefore, let us go to the
Temple quarries. The Giblim have hewn out of the living rock a stone that shows
a flaw, although but slight. This they drag with their strong cables before the
Master and his wardens. Should they accept it? We know what the overseers would
have done. But should this imperfect stone be placed in the North-east Corner,
or even cemented by the stronger tie to the other stones of the Temple ?
The candidate symbolizes, in his physical being, the
perfect man, who alone is fit to enter into the composition of "that spiritual
building, that house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." I say
symbolize rather than be, for none of us has yet arrived at that perfection to
which the whole of Freemasonry aspires, and there may actually be, in many of
us, hidden flaws that tend to weaken the great Edifice. But still we must
scrupulously preserve the symbol of what we would be; we must continue to teach
that we seek the perfect in body, mind and spirit, that is, in the man, and that
we cannot therefore admit an imperfect man to initiation.
Let us remember, moreover, that the Great Initiate was not
maimed even in death (Ps. xxxiv., St. Jno. xix., 36), and that He is the
head-stone of the corner (Ps. cxviii., 22), the model from which the whole
structure and every part thereof may be taken. H. W. Ticknor, Maryland.
* * *
Note by the Editor of This Department.
The purpose of this department is to show the faith that is
in Masons in order that there may be more light (and less dogmatism) in Masonry.
The editor of this department believes that Masonry is a philosophy, indeed that
it is the philosophy that has come down to us through the ages. Now a philosophy
is a system of thought, a system of living thought. Real Masonry forces real
thinking. If this department stimulates you to think, my Brother, will you not
give THE BUILDER the benefit of your serious thought by contribution of articles
or by letters addressed to the Editor? The opinions given above as to physical
requirements are worthy of the serious thought of thinking Masons. You can not
agree with all of these opinions--some of them are opposed to each other both in
letter and in spirit. If you have Masonic opinion on Masonic subjects (not
political opinion; not religious opinion), then THE BUILDER welcomes you to the
forum of its columns. George E. Frazer, Department Editor.
----o----
TRUE HEROISM
Let others write of battles fought,
Of bloody, ghastly fields,
Where honor greets the man who wins,
And death the man who yields;
But I will write of him who fights
And vanquishes his sins,
Who struggles on through weary years
Against himself and wins.
He is a hero staunch and brave,
Who fights an unseen foe,
And puts at last beneath his feet
His passions base and low;
Who stands erect in manhood's might,
Undaunted, undismayed--
The bravest man who e'er drew sword
In foray or in raid.
It calls for something more than brawn
Or muscle to o'ercome
An enemy that marcheth not
With banner, plume or drum--
A foe forever lurking nigh,
With silent, steady tread;
Forever near your board by day
At night beside your bed.
All honor, then, to that brave heart
Though rich or poor he be
Who struggles with his baser part--
Who conquers and is free!
He may not wear a hero's crown,
Or fill a hero's grave;
Yet truth will place his name amongst
The bravest of the brave.
--Anon.
----o----
THE INQUISITION
BY BRO. LEO FISCHER, MANILA P.I.
I. HISTORY
In its struggle against ignorance, superstition, and
intolerance Freemasonry encountered a most formidable opponent in an institution
that for six long centuries ruled a large portion of the globe with a rod of
iron, namely, the Inquisition. Wherever the Catholic missionaries had carried
the cross of Christ, there the Inquisition implanted its system of tribunals and
spies, its practices of denunciation, torture, and spoliation, its autos da fe
and burning piles. The avowed aim of the Inquisition, that of preserving the
purity of the Roman Catholic religion and with this end in view to ferret out,
punish, and destroy all heretics and other offenders against the faith was, of
course, bound to bring it into violent collision with Freemasonry, especially
after that institution had been condemned by the several papal bulls fulminated
against it.
We shall now proceed to give a brief history of the Holy
Office, as the Inquisition is also called, confining our attention principally
to Spain, the country where its reign was the longest and bloodiest, after which
we shall endeavor to give an idea of the character and procedure and the results
of the work of that institution, and finally we shall deal with the persecutions
suffered at its hands by Freemasonry on the Spanish peninsula.
There is some dispute as to what should be considered the
date of origin of the Inquisition.
Heretics were persecuted and put to death long before the
Inquisition, as such, ever existed. History records the massacre of the
disciples of Vilgard in southern Italy in the 10th century; the burning of
thirteen Cathari at Orleans in the 11th, and numerous executions of heretics in
subsequent years; but these killings were in most instances the result of mob
violence or of "justice" administered by secular magistrates and lords.
The first rules of inquisitorial procedure were laid down
at the councils of the Church at Verona (1183) and Toulouse (1229). At the
latter council, sixteen decrees relative to the investigation and punishment of
heresy were passed, and the bishops were declared to be natural judges of the
doctrine. Later, however, the bishops were deemed to be too lenient in their
attitude towards offenders against the faith, and the Cistercian and then the
Dominican Orders were put in charge of the work of persecuting heretics. Of this
task the Dominicans acquitted themselves with such zeal that their rigor and
cruelty aroused much resentment and hatred against the Inquisition. But no
amount of opposition could stop that institution now: the tiger had tasted blood
during the famous crusade against the Albigenses, in southern France, where a
century of the bloodiest and most cruel persecution resulted in the suppression
of the sect mentioned and the destruction of the flourishing Provencal
civilization; and although the inquisitors were driven out of Toulouse in 1235
and massacred at Avignonet in 1242, and suffered other temporary checks and
reverses, the Inquisition took a firm foothold in Spain, Portugal, Italy,
France, and other countries of Europe and held nearly the entire Christian world
under its bloody bondage for six centuries.
In Spain the Inquisition was first established in 1233. At
the beginning it met with bitter opposition. The Spanish monarchs exhibited
tolerance towards the Jews and Mohammedans and thereby incurred much criticism
from Rome. However, the priests did not remain idle, and massacres of Jews and
Mohammedans, instigated by them, began in the 13th century and continued
throughout the 14th and 15th. Finally, in 1480, King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella founded a National Inquisition for Spain, without the aid of the
Papacy. Inquisitorial tribunals were established throughout the peninsula and
the Spanish possessions in Italy, and a reign of terror was initiated. The
course of the Inquisition did not always run smoothly and several inquisitors,
among them the merciless Pedro de Arbues, afterward canonized by the Church of
Rome, were slain.
In 1483 the Dominican father Thomas de Torquemada was, by
papal bull, appointed Inquisitor General of the Crown of Castile. During the
first six months of his term of office, over two thousand Jews and Mohammedans
who had embraced the Christian religion under compulsion, but had relapsed, were
burnt at the stake; others, who had escaped in time, were burnt in effigy, and
some seventeen thousand persons suffered other severe punishments for heresy.
According to a careful, conservative estimate by Llorente
(Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne, Paris, 1818, Vol. I), during
Torquemada's terrible rule, extending over eighteen years, 10,220 persons were
consigned to the flames; 6,860 were burnt in effigy; 97,321 received sentences
of imprisonment for life, confiscation of property, disqualification from
holding public office, and other severe penalties, and 114,400 families were
irretrievably ruined. So hated was the arch fiend Torquemada that on his travels
he had to be guarded by a small army of "familiars," 50 of them mounted and 200
on foot, and on his table there always lay the horn of a rhinoceros ("unicorn,"
Llorente has it), which was supposed to detect and counteract the influence of
poison.
The Grand Inquisitors-General were nearly all members of
the Dominican Order. Dominick de Guzman, the founder of this Order, had
organized during the persecution of the Albigenses in southern France the
so-called "Militia of Christ," a corps of spies and denouncers of both sexes,
recruited from all classes of society, which later became known by the name of
"familiars" of the Inquisition.
From Spain and Portugal the Inquisition was carried to the
colonies and possessions of these two countries beyond the seas. Revolts and
uprisings against the reign of terror instituted by it occurred in many places,
but were suppressed with iron hand. At times the Holy Office relaxed somewhat in
its severity, but periods of recrudescence generally followed. Spain and her
possessions were still a stronghold of the Inquisition after the other countries
had driven it out or reduced its power to practically nothing. On December 4th,
1808, Napoleon suppressed the Inquisition in Spain, but after the downfall of
the great Corsican it was re-established and held that unfortunate country under
its sway until 1820, when a general insurrection resulted in its final
overthrow.
Nothing was sacred to the Inquisition, nothing exempt from
its fury. Its thunderbolts did not spare age or innocence, and rank and station
were no protection against them. Even death was not respected by it; the remains
of many dead were disinterred and publicly burnt on the charge that the deceased
had been a follower of the law of Moses or Mohammed or had been guilty of other
forms of heresy. Mere children were subjected to torture and the children and
often grandchildren of persons condemned by the Holy Office were declared
infamous, in addition to having their inheritance confiscated. In one instance a
son was compelled to disinter the remains of his father and burn them publicly.
The following is part of the decision pronounced by the
Inquisition of Mexico in 1609: "And the sons and daughters, if any, of the said
Jorge de Almeida are hereby disqualified from serving in any public office, or
occupying any public position of honor or trust, whether in the secular or
ecclesiastic branches of the government; and they are also forbidden to wear
about their persons any ornament or jewel of gold or silver, or precious stones,
or coral, or to dress in silk or fine cloth, or any other fine material of any
kind." (Dr. Cyrus Adler, Trial of Jorge de Almeida).
Heckethorn says that "the Inquisitors were the first to put
women to the torture; neither the weakness nor the modesty of the sex had any
influence on them. The Dominican friars would flog naked women in the corridors
of the Inquisition building, after having first violated them, for some slight
breach of discipline." (The Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries, by
Charles William Heckethorn, London, 1875).
Puigblanch ("The Inquisition Unmasked," translation by
William Walton, London, 1818) cites the case of a noble lady, lately delivered
of her child, who was arrested in 1557 on the charge of being a Lutheran, and to
whom the tribunal of Seville administered the rack "with so much rigor that the
ropes fixed on her arms, legs, and thighs entered as far as her bones, when she
remained senseless, casting up quantities of blood; and died at the expiration
of eight days, without any other attendance than a young female who had also
undergone the torture." The same writer tells us that "in Seville . . . an
inquisitor commanded a beautiful young female, accused of practising Jewish
rites, to be scourged in his own presence; and, after committing lewdness with
her, delivered her over to the flames."
It must be remembered that these horrors were committed by
virtue of orders of torture beginning with the phrase "Christi nomine invocato"
!
After relating deeds like these, which one would expect
only of fiends incarnate, it seems bloody sarcasm to read what one of the
defenders of the Inquisition has to say: "In reality, so great is the compassion
of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition with the offenders that these themselves
acknowledge it. The Holy Office shows much forbearance, much kindness, much
perfection, and this being true, as the enemies and accusers of the Inquisition
well know it is, let those accusers come forward and confess and repent their
errors; let them admit that it was malice which made them say that the
Inquisition is excessively rigorous, and let them present themselves before this
Holy Tribunal repentant and thus return to the bosom of the Church; so mote it
be, Amen." (Defensa critica de la Inquisicion, by Don Melchor Rafael de Macanaz,
Madrid, 1788.)
How little protection rank and station in life afforded, is
made patent by the fact that among the victims of the Inquisition there were
numerous nobles, statesmen, bishops, and persons of wealth and influence. Even a
nephew of King Ferdinand V was thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition and
released only after undergoing humiliating public penance.
The right of asylum did not exist for the Inquisition. The
following extract from an order of arrest plainly shows this: "and ye shall
seize the body of Gabriel de Granada, a resident of this city of Mexico,
wheresoever ye may find him, although it may be in a church, monastery or other
consecrated, fortified or privileged place." (D. Fergusson, Trial of Gabriel de
Granada.) Even the secret of the confessional was violated. Don Juan Antonio
Rodrigalvarez, canon of the royal church of St. Isidore of Madrid, said of the
Inquisition: "The infraction of every right and principle in this tribunal still
goes further, for though secrecy is the very soul of all its proceedings, that
of sacramental confession is nevertheless not respected by it, in consequence of
the declarations it frequently requires of confessors relating to their
penitents." (Puigblanch, in the work above quoted.)
A person could be the devoutest catholic imaginable and yet
be arrested, thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition and perish there or at
the stake, on the calumnious accusation of an enemy or on account of some
thoughtless remark, misconstrued and twisted to suit the purpose of his enemies
or of the inquisitors.
If a person put a clean cloth on the table on Saturday, or
sat at table with a Jew, or had his friends for dinner at his home on the eve of
his departure for a journey, he exposed himself to the suspicion of being a
Judaizer," and if he sang a Moorish song or danced a Moorish dance, abstained
from the use of wine, or changed his linen on Friday, he was liable to be
suspected of being a secret Mohammedan. Once suspected, a person never escaped
without suffering: years of imprisonment in the secret dungeons of the
Inquisition, torture, and the most humiliating penances were sure to be his
fate, because the Inquisition always devised some way of finding a prisoner
guilty. Llorente states that one acquittal to every two thousand cases was about
the proportion observed in the judicial findings of the Holy Office.
II. PROCEDURE
The procedure of the Inquisition, evolved by many
generations of crafty and fanatical priests, was the most insiduous that could
be imagined. Upon receipt of the denunciation, though it often came from the
most suspicious sources and was inspired by the impurest of motives, the Holy
Office ordered the arrest of the accused, who was considered guilty unless he
achieved the tremendous task of proving himself innocent. He was arrested
without warning and conveyed forthwith to the secret prisons of the Inquisition.
During the first three days of his confinement there he
received three monitions to confess his offenses against the Catholic faith and
thus secure mercy. He was not informed of the charges against him, but was told
that no one ever entered the prisons of the Inquisition without being guilty of
some crime. If he confessed himself guilty of some offense or offenses not
covered by the denunciation, his confession furnished grounds for new charges.
Whatever he said, his testimony was so turned and twisted by his tormentors that
his guilt appeared to be much greater than an unbiased judge would have found it
to be. In many cases his confession did not save him from torture, and in none
did it deliver him from the humiliating penances decreed by the tribunal.
After the monitions had been delivered, he was formally
arraigned and the charges were then read to him; but the name of the informant
was never revealed, nor was the accused allowed to face his secret accuser or
the witnesses that had testified against him. If the culprit remained mute or
his confession was deemed incomplete, he was ordered taken to the torture
chamber, where the rack, pulley, thumbscrews, fire, and other means of extorting
a confession were applied to him for hours at a time. If he fainted or remained
obdurate, the torture was suspended for the time being. Thousands of persons
remained firm, thousands died from the barbarous treatment received, and many
thousands confessed to crimes they had ever committed and were punished
accordingly.
The terror inspired by the Holy Office was a mental torture
that often brought about the same result as the physical suffering. The ascetic,
cruel, relentless faces of the inquisitors sometimes sufficed to terrify the
prisoner into saying all the tribunal wished him to say. One of the witnesses in
the case against Jorge de Almeida, above quoted, "begged that the Inquisitor"
Don Alonso de Peralta should not be present, because the mere sight of him made
his flesh creep, such was the terror with which his rigor inspired him."
All proceedings were carried on in the utmost secrecy. As
they advanced, more and more persons were implicated in the case. Many an
accused, shrinking from pain and death, driven frantic by the pangs of torture,
or deceived by false promises of clemency or immunity, became the accuser of his
friends and relatives. Sons betrayed their parents and parents denounced their
children, and the flinty-hearted secretary of the court coldly penned orders for
the arrest of victim after victim as the cowering wretch before the tribunal
stammered their names.
When the evidence was all complete and sentence ready to be
pronounced, preparations were generally made for an auto da fe (in Spanish auto
de fe, i.e., decision or sentence in a case regarding the faith). This ceremony
began with a solemn procession, generally attended by much pomp, of the
functionaries, familiars and henchmen of the Inquisition, the persons condemned
to be burnt or to suffer other punishment or penance, and religious
organizations and priests with banners and crosses. A suitable stage and seats
had been prepared on the square where the ceremony was to take place, and after
the arrival of the procession a mass was read; the king, viceroy, or governor of
the territory and other high government officials took the oath of allegiance to
the Holy Office; a sermon was pronounced by the Inquisitor General, and the
sentences of the persons condemned by the tribunal were read. The condemned
prisoners were arrayed in sanbenitos and corozas, sack-like garments and pointed
caps painted with flames and figures of demons, and many of them were gagged in
order to stifle their imprecations.
After the ceremony the condemned were "relaxed" (turned
over) to the secular authorities, for the execution of their sentences, with the
injunction that they be dealt with compassionately. What hypocrisy ! Llorente
says: "It certainly causes one surprise to see the Inquisitors insert at the end
of their sentences the formula praying the (secular) judge not to apply the
penalty of death to the heretic, while it is demonstrated by several examples
that when, in compliance with the request of the Inquisitor, the judge did not
send the culprit to the stake, he was himself indicted as a suspect of the crime
of heresy."
An auto da fe was generally a gala occasion in Spain and
her colonies. We have before us the account of one of the most elaborate known,
held at Madrid in 1680. This detailed account, written by a member of the
Inquisition, was published in Madrid in 1680. (Relacion historica del auto
general de fe que se celebro en Madrid el ano de 1680, por Jose del Olmo.) At
the auto da fe mentioned, 120 prisoners, each accompanied by two priests, and
the effigies of 134 accused persons who had made their escape or had died in the
prisons of the Inquisition, were paraded through the streets of Madrid in a
procession composed of thousands of priests, soldiers, members of religious
organizations, etc., had their sentences read to them in the presence of the
King and Queen of Spain on the "Plaza," and were then "relaxed" to the secular
authorities. Nineteen of them, who had been sentenced to death, were taken to
the brasero late at night, after the ceremonies were over, and were there burnt
at the stake.
The scenes that took place at these burnings were sometimes
of the most revolting and gruesome nature. The following is an extract from the
account of one of these executions in 1691, on which occasion two Jews and a
Jewess were burnt: "On seeing the flames near them, they began to show the
greatest fury, struggling to free themselves from the ring to which they were
bound, which Terongi at length effected, although he could no longer hold
himself upright, and he fell side long on the fire. Catherine, as soon as the
flames began to encircle her, screamed out repeatedly for them to withdraw her
from thence, although uniformly persisting not to invoke the name of Jesus. On
the flames touching Valls, he covered himself, resisted, and struggled as long
as he was able. Being fat, he took fire in his inside, in such manner that
before the flames had entwined around him, his flesh burnt like a coal, and
bursting in the middle his entrails fell out." (Puig-blanch).
Often the poor wretches met their death bravely; some died
mocking and cursing the executioners and of one, a Jew, it is even told that he
drew the blazing fagots towards him with his feet. The "relaxed" who had
repented were generally strangled to death before being consigned to the flames.
The fanaticism of the populace is the best expressed by the
following incident recorded by Del Olmo: "It seems as if God moved the hearts of
the craftsmen in order that the serious difficulties that arose might be
overcome; this is shown by the following incident: Tomas Roman, overseer of
works, having taken charge alone of the execution of the work (of building the
staging for the auto da fe described by Del Olmo), at his own expense, in
accordance with the design and plan of Jose del Olmo, sixteen master builders
with their subordinates, lumber, and tools came, without human solicitation, to
offer him their services in the performance of his undertaking, and such were
their perseverance and fervent constancy that, without observing the accustomed
hours of rest and taking only sufficient time for food, they returned to their
labors with joy and pleasure, explaining the reason for their eagerness by
shouting: "Long live the faith of Jesus Christ; it shall all be finished in
time, and if there should be any lack of lumber, we would tear down our own
houses to put them to such holy use."
These were, of course, only ignorant persons, but the more
enlightened classes were not much better. We again translate from Del Olmo's
work the account of an incident illustrating this:
It seems that two days before the auto mentioned, a
preliminary ceremony took place which shows the attitude taken by the royal
couple of Spain. A company of soldiers marched out to the Alcala gate to get
the firewood prepared there. Each soldier took a fagot and the company then
marched back to the Palace Square. "The captain went upstairs to His Majesty's
apartments by the rear entrance, bearing a fagot on his shield. It was taken
from him by the Duke of Pastrana and carried into the presence of His Majesty.
The latter, with his own hand, took it in to show it to our lady the Queen, Dona
Luisa Maria de Borbon, and upon his return the Duke received the fagot from the
hand of the King and returned it to the captain, with the command that His
Majesty ordered it taken in his name and cast into the fire the first. In giving
such command, our Lord the King followed the dictates of his pious character,
inherited from the sainted King Don Ferdinand the Third, who on a similar
occasion, in order to give an example to the world, took himself firewood to the
burning pile."
Who were the principal victims of the Inquisition ?
When the Inquisition was first instituted in France, its
hand fell the most heavily upon the Albigenses of Languedoc, of whom many
thousands were slain.
Upon the establishment of the Holy Office in Spain, its
first efforts were directed against the so-called "New Christians." These
comprised the but lately converted Jews (marranos), many of whom had become
Christians in order to escape the numerous persecutions, but were secretly
practising Judaism, and the converted Moors, who had abandoned their religion
for similar reasons, but were secretly practising Moslem rites. These new
Christians were especially welcome victims to the Inquisition on account of the
antipathy and envy with which they were looked upon by the old Christians, owing
to their constantly increasing prosperity and wealth, which latter, on the other
hand, offered a powerful incentive to the Holy Office, a very expensive
institution, according to all accounts, and in need of all the money it could
lay its hands on.
Later Lutherans, Jansenists, Illuminati, and members of
other sects came in for a great deal of attention, and finally, during the last
century of its existence, the Inquisition waged a relentless war against
Freemasonry.
In addition to these, the Inquisition had other classes of
offenders to contend with.
It had jurisdiction over bigamists, persons claiming to be
possessed by demons or to have supernatural powers, witches and sorcerers,
soothsayers, priests guilty of expressing unorthodox views or of seducing or
attempting to seduce women in the confessional, etc.
It also had charge of the censorship of books, and numerous
auto da fe were held at which books, writings, pictures, and statues that had
incurred the disapproval of the Holy Office were consigned to the flames.
Enormous damage was done to literature, art, and science by
this particular activity of the Inquisition. Valuable products of literature
were destroyed and suppressed or stifled in their birth, and works of science
and inventions that might have secured for Spain a place in the foremost ranks
of the civilized nations were never conceived. This having continued for many
generations, the very brain of the nation became atrophied, and it will take
centuries before unhappy Spain will be able to cleanse her life blood from the
poison permeating it as a result of the many centuries of spiritual slavery and
corruption.
This leads us to speak of the consequences of the
Inquisition in general.
The six centuries of the reign of the Holy Office had the
most terrible and widespread consequences in Spain. The Inquisition drove from
Spain's dominions millions of her most useful subjects; it depopulated entire
villages, towns, and districts; it even changed the national character. Let us
here quote what Burke has to say on this matter in his "History of Spain":
"The work of the Inquisition, while it tended, no doubt, to
make men orthodox, tended also to make them false, and suspicious, and cruel.
Before the middle of the sixteenth century, the Holy Office had profoundly
affected the national character; and the Spaniard, who had been celebrated in
Europe during countless centuries for every manly virtue, became, in the new
world that had been given to him, no less notorious for a cruelty beyond the
imagination of a Roman emperor and a rapacity beyond the dreams of a Republican
proconsul."
We have no doubt that Spain would not have declined so
rapidly and would still be a first-rate power had she not had her life blood
sapped by the Inquisition. Compared with the terrible injury wrought to country
and nation by that institution; the destruction of the Armada, was but a
trifling incident which a rich and powerful country could have remedied
comparatively quickly, in order to repeat the attempt with better success under
more favorable conditions.
III. FREEMASONRY
Now we shall give a short account of the influence of the
Inquisition on the Masonic Order, confining our attention to Spain, with a few
brief references to Portugal, and to the 18th and 19th century. We shall,
therefore, not allude to the persecution of the Knights Templar, who suffered
such fearful torments at the hands of the Inquisition.
In 1738, Pope Clement XII excommunicated all Freemasons in
the bull "In eminenti," and two years after, in 1740, Philip V, king of Spain,
published a royal decree which was the first blow struck at Freemasonry by
Spain. Many Freemasons were arrested and sent to the galleys where, laden with
chains, ill fed and worse treated, they were compelled to toil at the oars
without compensation. In 1751, immediately upon the publication of the bull "Providas
romanorum ponticum," Ferdinand VI of Spain issued a still more severe edict
against the Order, and now the Inquisition began to wage a merciless war against
Freemasonry. We translate the following from the "Ritual del Maestro Mason"
(Madrid, 1909), an official publication of the Spanish Grand Orient:
"The persecutions reached their height in Spain in 1751, as
a result of the new anathema launched by Benedict and the denunciations of an
ambitious, malevolent friar named Jose Torrubia, who, desirous of obtaining a
bishopric as reward for his services, had promised to exterminate Freemasonry.
He quickly rose to revisor and censor of the Holy Office, which latter ordered
him to enter a lodge under an assumed name, after receiving from the Papal
Penitentiary a dispensation authorizing him to take any oath which might be
required of him. This Torrubia actually did, and soon thereafter he began to
visit lodge after lodge in the peninsula until he had gathered all the
information he required for the execution of his infamous plan. Having achieved
this purpose, he presented to the Tribunal of the Inquisition a terrible
denunciation of the labors of Freemasonry, accompanied by a list of ninety-seven
lodges, with the membership roll of each.
"As a result of this denunciation, hundreds of Freemasons
were arrested and many were tortured by the Inquisition."
In his "Histoire de l'Inquisition," Llorente gives an
account of the prosecution of a Monsieur Tournon, in 1757. This man, a Parisian,
had been called to Madrid by the Spanish government to instruct Spanish workmen
in the making of brass buckles. One of his pupils denounced him to the Holy
Office as a heretic, alleging that Tournon had endeavored to induce him and
others to become Freemasons. Tournon had shown them diplomas or charts on which
architectural and astronomical instruments were depicted, and this had caused
them to suspect magic, "in which belief they were confirmed when they heard the
imprecations contained in the oath that, according to Tournon, they would have
to take to preserve profound secrecy regarding all they should see or hear in
the lodges."
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