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E
EAGLE
The eagle, as a symbol, is of
great antiquity. In Egypt, Greece, and Persia, this bird was sacred to the
sun. Among the Pagans it was an emblem of Jupiter, and with the Druids it was
a symbol of their supreme god. In the Scriptures, a distinguished reference is
in many instances made to the eagle; especially do we find Moses (Exodus xix,
4) representing Jehovah as saying, in allusion to the belief that this bird
assists its feeble young in their flight by bearing them upon its own pinions,
"Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles'
wings, and brought you unto myself." Not less elevated was the symbolism of
the eagle among the Pagans. Thus, Cicero, speaking of the myth of Ganymede
carried up to Jove on an eagle's back, says that it teaches us that the truly
wise, irradiated by the shining light of virtue, become more and more like
God, until by wisdom they are borne aloft and soar to Him. The heralds explain
the eagle as signifying the same thing among birds as the lion does among
quadrupeds. It is, they say, the most swift, strong, laborious, generous, and
bold of all birds, and for this reason it has been made, both by ancients and
moderns, the symbol of majesty. In the jewel of the Rose Croix Degree is found
an eagle displayed at the foot of the cross; and it is there very
appropriately selected as a symbol of Christ, in His Divine character, bearing
the children of His adoption on His wings, teaching them with unequaled love
and tenderness to poise their unfledged wings and soar from the dull
corruption's of earth to a higher and holier sphere. Thus the eagle in the
jewel of that Degree is significantly represented with wings displayed as if
in flight.
*
KNIGHT OF THE EAGLE AND
PELICAN
See Knights of the Eagle and
Pelican
*
EAGLE, DOUBLE-HEADED
The Eagle Displayed, that is,
with extended wings, as if in the act of dying, has always, from the majestic
character of the bird, been deemed an emblem of imperial power. Marius, the
consul, first consecrated the eagle, about eight years before the Christian
era, to be the sole Roman standard at the head of every legion, and hence it
became the standard of the Roman Empire ever afterward.
As the single-headed Eagle was
thus adopted as the symbol of imperial power, the double-headed Eagle
naturally became the representative of a double empire; and on the division of
the Roman dominions into the eastern and western empire, which were afterward
consolidated by the Carlovingian race into what was ever after called the Holy
Roman Empire, the double-headed Eagle was assumed as the emblem of this double
empire; one head looking, as it were, to the West, or Rome, and the other to
the East, or Byzantium.
Hence the escutcheons of many
persons now living, the descendants of the princes and counts of the Holy
Roman Empire, are placed upon the breast of a double-headed Eagle Upon the
dissolution of that empire, the emperors of Germany, who claimed their empire
to be the representative of ancient Rome, assumed the double-headed Eagle as
their symbol, and placed it in their arms, which were blazoned thus: or, an
Eagle displayed sable, having two heads, each enclosed within an amulet, or
beaked and armed Jules, holding in his right claw a sword and scepter or, and
in his left the imperial mound. Russia also bears the double-headed eagle,
having added, says Brewer, that of Poland to her own, and thus denoting a
double empire. It is, however, probable that the double-headed eagle of Russia
is to be traced to some assumed representation of the Holy Roman Empire based
upon the claim of Russia to Byzantium; for Constantine, the Byzantine emperor,
is said to have been the first who assumed this device to intimate the
division of the empire into East and West.
Commenting on this suggestion
by Doctor Mackey, Brother David E. W. Williamson writes that: There is no
historical question whatever as to the time and occasion of the adoption of
the double-headed eagle by Russia. It was taken as his device by Ivan III on
his marriage with Zoe Palaeologa (Sophia), daughter of Thomas of Morea
claimant to the imperial throne of Byzantium, and the date was 1469. It was
probably because he claimed to be the successor of the Eastern Emperors. As to
the adoption of the device in the West. I have no original authorities, but it
is stated that it is first seen in the Holy Roman arms in 1345 and it is a
fact that it first appears on the seals of the Holy Roman Empire in 1414. The
legend of how it came to be adopted by the Emperors at Constantinople may or
may not be true, but it is certainly not correct to say that the Seljuk Turks
adopted it from the ruins of Euyuk, for Tatar coins antedating the occupation
of the Asia Minor country by the Seljuks have been found. As to the device at
Euyuk, it is not the most ancient representation of the double-headed eagle by
any means if the figure of a comb, No. 10, plate XXIX, in Petriess Prehistoric
Egypt, be, as I think it is, an attempt to carve it.
The statement of Millington
(Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Romance, page 290) is doubtful that the
doubleheaded eagle of the Austrian and Russian empires was first assumed
during the Second Crusade and typified the great alliance formed by the
Christian sovereigns of Greece and Germany against the enemy of their common
faith, and it is retained by Russia and Austria as representations of those
empires." The theory is more probable as well as more generally accepted which
connects the symbol with the eastern and western empires of Rome. It is,
however, agreed by all that while the single-headed eagle denotes imperial
dignity the extension and multiplication of that dignity is symbolized by the
two heads.
The double-headed eagle was
probably first introduced as a symbol into Freemasonry in the year 1758. In
that year the Body calling itself the Council of Emperors of the East and West
was established in Paris. The double-headed eagle as likely to have been
assumed by this Council in reference to the double Jurisdiction which it
claimed, and which is represented so distinctly in its title.
The jewel of the Thirty-third
Degree, or Sovereign Grand Inspector-General of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, is a double-headed eagle (which was originally black. but is
now generally of silver), a golden crown resting on both heady wings
displayed, beak and claws of gold, his talons grasping a wavy sword, the
emblem of cherubic fire, the hilt held by one talon, the blade by the other.
The banner of the Order is also a double-headed eagle crowned. A captivating
account of the curious progress of the double-headed eagle from a remote
antiquity was prepared by Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley (Transactions,
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, pages 214, volume xxiv, 1911). This essay in part runs
as follows:
The most ornamental, not to
say the most ostentatious feature of the insignia of the Supreme Council, 33 ,
of the Ancient and Accepted (Scottish) Rite, is the double-headed eagle,
surmounted by an imperial crown. This device seems to have been adopted some
time after 175S by the grade known as the Emperors of the East and West; a
sufficiently pretentious title. This seems to have been its first appearance
in connection with Freemasonry, but history of the high grades has been
subjected to such distortion that it is difficult to accept unreservedly any
assertion put forward regarding them. From this imperial grade, the
double-headed eagle came to the "Sovereign Prince Masons" of the Rite of
Perfection. The Rite of Perfection with its twenty-five Degrees was amplified
in 1801, at Charleston, United States of America, into the Ancient and
Accepted Rite of 33 , with the double-headed eagle for its most distinctive
emblem. When this emblem was first adopted by the high grades it had been in
use as a symbol of power for 5000 years, or so. No heraldic bearing, no
emblematic device anywhere today can boast such antiquity. It was in use a
thousand years before the Exodus from Egypt, and more than 2000 years before
the building of King Solomon's Temple.
The story of our Eagle has
been told by the eminent Assyriologist, M. Thureau Dangin, in the volume of
Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 1904. Among the most important discoveries for
which we are indebted to the late M. de Sarzec, were two large terra cotta
cylinders covered with many hundred lines of archaic cuneiform characters
These cylinders were found in the brick mounds of Tello, which has been
identified with certainty as the City of Lagash, the dominant center of
Southern Babylonian ere Babylon had imposed its name and rule on the country.
The cylinders are now in the
Louvre and have been deciphered by M. Thureau Dangin, who displays to our
wondering eyes the emblem of power that was already centuries old when Babylon
gave its name to Babylonia. The cylinder in question is a foundation record
deposited by one Gudea, Ruler of the City of Lagash, to mark the building of
the temple, about the year 3000 B.C., as nearly as the date could be fixed.
The foundation record was deposited just as our medals, coins and metallic
plates are deposited today, when the corner stone is laid with Masonic honors.
It must be born in mind that in this ease, the word cornerstone may be
employed only in a conventional sense, for in Babylonia all edifices, temples,
palaces, and towers alike, were built of brick. But the custom of laying
foundation deposits was general, whatever the building material might be, and
we shall presently see what functions are attributed, by another eminent
scholar, to the foundation chamber of King Solomon's Temple.
The contents of this
inscription are of the utmost value to the oriental scholar, but may be
briefly dismissed for our present purpose. Suffice it to say, that the King
begins by reciting that a great drought had fallen upon the land. " The waters
of the Tigris," he says, " fell low and the store of provender ran short in
this my city," saying that he feared it was 3 visitation from the gods, to
whom he determined to submit his evil ease and that of his people. The reader
familiar with Babylonian methods that pervade the Books of the Captivity, will
not be surprised to learn that the King dreamed a dream, in which the will of
the gods was revealed by direct personal intervention and interlocution. In
the dream there came unto the King " a Divine Man, whose stature reached from
earth to heaven, and whose head was crowned with the crown of a god,
surmounted by the Storm Bird that extended its wings over Lazash, the land
thereof." This Storm Bird, no other than our double-headed eagle, was the
totem as ethnologists and anthropologists are fain to call it, of the mighty
Sumerian City of Lagash, and stood proudly forth the visible emblem of its
power and domination. This double-headed eagle of Lagash is the oldest Royal
Crest in the world.
As time rolled on, it passed
from the Sumerians to the men of Akhad. From the men of Akhad to the Hittites
, from the denizens of Asia Minor to the Seliukian Sultans, from whom it was
brought by Crusaders to the Emperors of the East and West, whose successors
today are the Hapsburgs and Romanoffs, as well as to the Masonic Emperors of
the East and West, whose successors today are the Supreme Council, 33 , that
have inherited the insignia of the Site of Perfection.
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE AMERICAN
See Knight of the American
Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE BLACK
See Knight of the Black Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE GOLDEN
See Knight of the Golden Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE PRUSSIAN
See Knight of the Prussian
Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE RED
See Knight of the Red Eagle
*
EAGLE, KNIGHT OF THE WHITE AND
BLACK
See Knight of the White and
Black Eagle
*
EAGLES, KNIGHT OF THE TWO
CROWNED
See Knight of the Two Crowned
Eagles
*
EARLY GRAND MASTER
See E. G. M. in Abbreviations
*
EAR OF CORN
This was, among all the
ancients , an emblem of plenty. Ceres, who was universally worshiped as the
goddess of abundance, and even called by the Greeks Dewneter, a manifest
corruption of Gemeter, or Mother Earth, was symbolically represented with a
garland on her head composed of ears of corn, a lighted torch in one hand, and
a cluster of poppies and ears of corn in the other. In the Hebrew, the most
significant of all languages, the two words, which signify an ear of corn, are
both derived from roots which give the idea of abundance. For shibboleth,
pronounced shib-bo-leth which is applicable both to an ear of corn and a flood
of water, has its root in pronounced shib-bole, meaning to increase or to flow
abundantly; and the other name of corn, pronounced daw-gawn, is derived from
the verb, no, pronounced daogaw, signifying to multiply, or to be increased.
Ear of corn, which is a
technical expression in Freemasonry, has been sometimes ignorantly displaced
by a sheaf of wheat. This was done under the mistaken supposition that corn
refers only to Indian maize, which was unknown to the ancients. But corn is a
generic word, and includes wheat and every other kind of grain. This is its
legitimate English meaning, and hence an ear of corn, which is an old
expression, and the right one, would denote a stalk, but not a sheaf of wheat
(see Shibboleth).
*
EAR, THE LISTENING
The listening ear is one of
the three precious jewels of a Fellow Craft Freemason. In the Hebrew language,
the verb YDD, pronounced shaw-mah, signifies not only to hear, but also to
understand and to obey. Hence, when Jesus said, after a parable, "he that hath
ears to hear, let him hear," he meant to denote that he who hears the recital
of allegories should endeavor to discover their hidden meaning, and be
obedient to their teaching.
This is the true meaning of
the symbol of the listening ear which admonishes the Fellow Craft not only
that he should receive lessons of instruction from his teacher, but that he
should treasure them in his breast, so as to ponder over their meaning and
carry out their design
*
EARTHEN PAN
In the lectures of the early
part of the eighteenth century used as a symbol of zeal, together with chalk
and charcoal, which represented freedom and fervency. In the modern lectures
clay has been substituted for it. Pan once signified hard earth, a meaning
which it now obsolete, though from it we derive the name of a cooking utensil.
*
EAST
The East has always been
considered peculiarly sacred. This was, without exception, the case in all the
Ancient Mysteries. In the Egyptianrites, especially, and those of Adonis,
which were among the earliest, and from which the others derived their
existence, the sun was the object of adoration, and his revolutions through
the various seasons were fictitiously represented. The spot, there fore, where
this luminary made his appearance at the commencement of day, and where his
worshipers were wont anxiously to look for the first darting of his prolific
rays, was esteemed as the figurative birthplace of their god, and honored with
an appropriate degree of reverence. Even among those nations where sun-worship
gave place to more enlightened doctrines, the respect for the place of
sun-rising continued to exist. The camp of Judah was placed by Moses in the
East as a mark of distinction; the tabernacle in the wilderness was placed due
East and West; and the practise was continued in the erection of Christian
churches. Hence, too, the primitive Christians always turned toward the East
in their public prayers, which custom Saint Augustine (Serm. Dom. in Monte,
chapter 5 accounts for "because the East is the most honorable part of the
world, being the region of light whence the glorious sun arises." Hence all
Masonic Lodges, like their great prototype the Temple of Jerusalem, are built,
or supposed to be built, due East and West; and as the North is esteemed a
place of darkness, the East, on the contrary, is considered a place of light.
In the primitive Christian
church, according to Saint Ambrose, in the ceremonies that accompanied the
baptism of a catechumen, a beginner in religious instruction, "he turned
towards the West, the image of darkness, to abjure the world, and towards the
East, the emblem of light, to denote his alliance with Jesus Christ." And so,
too, in the oldest lectures of the second century ago, the Freemason is said
to travel from the West to the East, that is, from dark ness to light. In the
Prestonian system, the question is asked, "What induces you to leave the West
to travel to the East?" And the answer is: "In search of a Master, and from
him to gain instruction." The same idea, if not precisely the same language,
is preserved in the modern and existing rituals.
The East, being the place
where the Master sits, is considered the most honorable part of the Lodge, and
is distinguished from the rest of the room by a dais, or raised platform,
which is occupied only by those who have passed the Chair. Bazot (Manuel, page
154) says: "The veneration which Masons have for the East confirms the theory
that it is from the East that the Masonic cult proceeded, and that this bears
a relation to the primitive religion whose first degeneration was
sun-worship."
*
EAST AND WEST, KNIGHT OF THE
see Knight of the East and
West
*
EAST, GRAND
The place where a Grand Lodge
holds its Communications, and whence are issued its Edicts, is often called
its Grand East. Thus, the Grand East of Boston, according to this usage, would
be placed at the head of documents emanating from the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts. Grand Orient has sometimes been used instead of Grand East, but
improperly. Orient might be admissible as signifying East, but Grand Orient
having been adopted as the name of certain Grand Bodies, such as the Grand
Orient of France, which is tantamount to the Grand Lodge of France, the use of
the term might lead to confusion. Thus, the Orient of Paris is the seat of the
Grand Orient of France. The expression Grand East, however, is almost
exclusively confined to America, and even there is not in universal use.
*
EAST INDIES
See India
*
EAST, KNIGHT OF THE
See Knight of the East
*
EASTER
Easter Sunday, being the day
celebrated by the Christian church in commemoration of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus, is appropriately kept as a feast day by Rose Croix Freemasons. The
Western churches, or those not identified with the Jewish race, generally keep
Easter as the first day of Holy Week following the Friday of the crucifixion,
while the Eastern churches as a rule keep Easter as the fourteenth day of
April, immediately following the general fast. With the Jews, the Christian
thought of Easter bears significant resemblance to the Paschal Lamb. Easter
signifies to the entire Western Christian world the resurrection of the
Christ, the name being derived from the Latin pascha which, in turn, came from
the Chaldee or Aramaean form for the Hebrew word meaning Pass-over (see
Exodus, xii, 27).
According to Bede the name is
derived from Eostre or Ostara, the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring.
Eostur monath or our month of April was also dedicated to this goddess. The
German name for Easter is astern, named after this self-same goddess of
Spring, the Teutonic Ostera. The New Testament makes no mention of an
observance of Easter. The first Christians did not have special days held more
sanctified than the rest. As has been written (Ecclesiastical History,
Socrates v, 22), "The apostles had no thought of appointing festival days, but
of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety."
For centuries the controversy
as to just exactly what day was to be held as Easter went on between the
various sects. Easter day is, briefly, the first Sunday after the full moon
following the vernal equinox. This varies in different longitudes and this
difficulty presented many problems to the clergy and the astronomers. About
the year 325 it was decided by the Council of Nicaea, called by Constantine,
that the correct date of Easter was to be reckoned at Alexandria and announced
each year to the churches under the jurisdiction of that See by the Bishop him
self.
This was to be communicated to
the Roman See.
A bitter controversy ensued.
Many refused to accept this solution of the difficulty, insisting upon the
observance of the fourteenth day. Attempts were made to compute by means of
cycles of years the correct time. At first an eight years cycle was adopted,
then the eighty-four year cycle of the Jews, and after much reckoning a cycle
of nineteen years was accepted.
Offing to the lack of anything
definite Saint Augustine tells us that in the year 387 Easter was kept on
March 21 by the churches of Gaul, on April 18 in Italy and on April 25 in
Egypt. The ancient Celtic and British Churches adhered stubbornly to the
finding of the Council of Constantine and received their instructions from the
Holy See at Rome. Saint Augustine of Canterbury led the opposing group and
this difference of opinion had the effect in England of a Church holding
Easter on one day of certain years and the other Church holding Easter on an
entirely different Sunday. Bede tells us that between the y ears 645 and 651
Queen Eanfleda fasted and kept Palm Sunday while her husband, Oswy, then King
of Northumbria, followed the rule of the British Church and celebrated the
Easter festival.
In 669 this difference of
opinion was ended in England, due probably to the efforts of Archbishop
Theodore In 1752 the Gregorian reformation of the calendar was adopted by
Great Britain and Ireland. Easter at present is the first Sunday after the
full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st of March, and if the full
moon happens on a Sunday, Faster day is the Sunday after. By full moon is
meant, the fourteenth day of the moon.
The ceremonies of the Easter
Sepulcher are discussed in Scenic Representations, which see.
*
EASTER MONDAY
On this day, in every third
year, Councils of Kadosh in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite hold their
elections.
*
EASTERN STAR, ORDER OF THE
This is the very popular
American Rite of Adoption to which Brother Rob Morris gave many years labor
and dedicated numerous poems. There are five beautiful degrees to which
Freemasons and their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are eligible. The
ceremonies are entirely different to the old Rites of Adoption practiced on
the Continent of Europe (see also Adoptive Masonry and Androgynous Degrees).
Degrees for women, under the
title of the Masonry of Adoption, were as long ago as 1765 in vogue on the
continent of Europe. These were administered under the patronage of the ruling
Masonic body and especially flourished in the palmy days of the Empire in
France, the Empress Josephine being at the head of the Order and many women of
the highest standing were active members.
The term Adoption, so it is
said, was given to the organization because the Freemasons formally adopted
the ladies to whom the mysteries of the several degrees were imparted. Albert
Pike, who took great interest in this Masonry of Adoption and made a
translation of the ritual into English with some elaboration dictated by his
profound knowledge of symbolism and philosophy, points out the reason that in
his judgment existed for the conferring of degrees upon the women of a
Freemasons family. He says in the preface to his ritual of the Masonry of
Adoption:
Our mothers. sisters, wives
and daughters cannot. it is true, be admitted to share with us the grand
mysteries of Freemasonry, but there is no reason why there should not be also
a Masonry for them, which may not merely enable them to make themselves known
to Masons, and so to obtain assistance and protection; but by means of which,
acting in concert through the tie of association and mutual obligation, they
may Co-operate in the great labors of Masonry by assisting in and, in some
respects, directing their charities, and toiling in the cause of human
progress. The object of ' la Maçonnerie des Dames" is, therefore, very
inadequately expressed, when it is said to be the improvement and purification
of the sentiments.
The Order of the Eastern Star
has become just such an organization, strong enough to take an active and
powerful co-operative concern in the beneficent labors of Freemasons for the
care of the indigent and the afflicted. While entirely different and distinct
from the Masonry of Adoption, being indeed of American and not French
development, all the expectations so ably expressed by Brother Pike have in no
other fraternal association been so admirably fulfilled as in the Order of the
Eastern Star.
Some mystery involves the
origin of the Order. In this respect the Order of the Eastern Star is closely
akin to the various branches of the Masonic brotherhood. To unravel the truth
from the entanglement of myth is, with many of these knotty problems, a
troublesome and perhaps a never wholly satisfactory task. Evidence having few
and incomplete records, dependent rather upon memory than in documents of
authority is the usual subject-matter of discussion when laboring at the
historic past of human institutions.
First of all let us take the
testimony of Brother Rob Morris, than whom no one person has, it is conceded,
given more freely of his service in the early development of the Order. None
ought to know of the Eastern Star's inception story more than he, the
acknowledged pioneer propagandist during its tender infancy and struggling
youth.
During the latter part of 1884
Brother Rob Morris gave an account of the origination of the Eastern Star,
which is in part as follows:
In the winter of 1850 I was a
resident of Jackson, Mississippi. For some time previous I had contemplated,
as hinted above, the preparation of a Ritual of Adoptive Masonry, the Degrees
then in vogue appearing to me poorly conceived, weakly wrought out,
unimpressive and particularly defective in point of motive. I allude
especially to those Degrees styled the Mason's Daughter, and the Heroines of
Jericho. But I do expressly except from this criticism, the Good Samaritan,
which in my judgment possesses dramatic elements and machinery equal to those
that are in the Templar's Orders, the High Priesthood, the Cryptic Rite, and
other organizations of Thomas Smith Webb. I have always recommended the Good
Samaritan, and a thousand times conferred it in various parts of the world.
About the first of February,
1850, I was laid up for two weeks with a sharp attack of rheumatism, and it
was this period which I gave to the work in hand. By the aid of my papers and
the memory of Mrs. Morris, I recall even the trivial occurrences connected
with the work, how I hesitated for a theme, how I dallied over a name, how I
wrought face to face with the clock that I might keep my drama within due
limits of time, etc.
The name was first settled
upon The Eastern Star.
Next the number of points,
five, to correspond with the emblem on the Master's carpet. This is the
pentagon, "The signet of King Solomon," and eminently proper to Adoptive
Masonry. From the Holy Writings I culled four biographical sketches to
correspond with my first four points, namely, Jephthah's Daughter (named Adah
for want of a better) Ruth, Esther, and Martha. These were illustrations of
four great congeries of womanly virtues, and their selection has proved highly
popular. The fifth point introduced me to the early history of the Christian
Church, where, amidst a noble army of martyrs, I found many whose lives and
death overflowed the cup of martyrdom with a glory not surpassed by any of
those named in Holy Writ. This gave me Electa, the "Elect Lady, " friend of
St. John, the Christian woman whose venerable years were crowned with the
utmost splendor of the crucifixion.
The colors, the emblems, the
floral wreaths, the esotery proper to these five heroines, were easy of
invention. They seemed to fall ready made into my hands. The only piece of
mechanism difficult to fit into the construction was the cabalistic motto, but
this occurred to me in ample time for use.
The compositions of the
lectures was but a recreation. Familiar from childhood as I had been with the
Holy Scriptures, I scarcely needed to look up my proof texts, so tamely did
they come to my call. A number of odes were also composed at that time, but
the greater part of the threescore odes and poems of the Eastern Star that I
have written were the work of subsequent years. The first Ode of the series of
1850 was one commencing "Light from the East, 'tis gilded with hope."
The theory of the whole subject is succinctly stated in my Rosary of take
Eastern Star, published in 1865: To take from the ancient writings five
prominent female characters, illustrating as many Masonic virtues, and to
adopt them into the fold of Masonry. The selections were:
1. Jephthah's Daughter, as
illustrating respect to the binding force of a vow.
2. Ruth, as illustrating devotion to religious principles.
3. Esther, as illustrating fidelity to kindred and friends.
4. Martha, as illustrating undeviating faith in the hour of trial.
5. Electa, as illustrating patience and submission under wrong.
These are all Masonic virtues,
and they have nowhere in history more brilliant exemplars than in the five
characters presented in the lectures of the Eastern Star. It is a fitting
comment upon these statements that in all the changes that the Eastern Star
has experienced at so many hands for thirty-four, years, no change in the
names, histories or essential lessons has been proposed. So my Ritual was
complete, and after touching and retouching the manuscript, as professional
authors love to do, I invited a neighboring Mason and his wife to join with my
own, and to them, in my own parlor, communicated the Degrees. They were the
first recipients the first of twice fifty thousand who have seen the signs,
heard the words, exchanged the touch, and joined in the music of the Eastern
Star. When I take a retrospect of that evening but thirty-four years ago and
consider the abounding four hundred Eastern Star Chapters at work today, my
heart swells with gratitude to God, who guided my hand during that period of
convalescence to prepare a work, of all the work of my life the most
successful.
Being at that time, and until
a very recent period, an active traveler, visiting all countries where lodges
exist —a nervous, wiry, elastic man, unwearying in work caring little for
refreshments or sleep, I spread abroad the knowledge of the Eastern Star
wherever I went. Equally in border communities, where ladies came in homespun,
as in cities, where ladies came in satins, the new Degree was received with
ardor, and eulogized in strongest terms, so that every induction led to the
call for more. Ladies and gentlemen are yet living who met that immense
assemblage at Newark, New Jersey, in 1853 and the still greater one in Spring
Street Hall, New York City, a little earlier, where I stood up for two hours
or three, before a breathless and gratified audience, and brought to bear all
that I could draw from the Holy Scriptures the Talmud, and the writings of
Josephus, concerning the five "Heroines of the Eastern Star."
Not that my work met no
opposition. Quite the reverse. It was not long until editors, report writers,
newspaper critics and my own private correspondents began to see the evil of
it. The cry of "Innovation" went up to heaven. Ridicule lent its aid to a
grand assault upon my poor little figment. Ingenious changes were rung upon
the idea of "petticoat Masonry." More than one writer in Masonic journals (men
of an evil class we had them: men who knew the secrets, but have never applied
the principles of Masonry), more than one such expressed in language indecent
and shocking, his opposition to the Eastern Star and to me. Letters were
written me, some signed, some anonymous, warning me that I was periling my own
Masonic connections in the advocacy of this scheme. In New York City the
opponents of the Eastern Star even started a rival project to break it down.
They employed a literary person, a poet of eminence, a gentleman of social
merit, to prepare rituals under an ingenious form, and much time and money
were spent in the effort to popularize it but it survived only a short year
and is already forgotten. But the Eastern Star glittered steadily in the
ascendant. In 1855 I arranged the system of Constellations of the Eastern
Star, of which the Mosaic Books was the index, and established more than one
hundred of these bodies. Looking over that book, one of the most original and
brilliant works to which I ever put my hand, I have wondered that the system
did not succeed. It must be because the times were not ripe for it. The
opposition to " Ladies' Masonry " was too bitter. The advocates of the plan
were not sufficiently influential. At any rate it fell through. Four years
later I prepared an easier plan, styled Families of the Eastern Star,
intended, in its simplicity and the readiness by which it could be worked, to
avoid the complexity of the "Constellations." This ran well enough until the
war broke out, when all Masonic systems fell together with a crash.
This ended my work in
systematizing the Eastern Star, and I should nearer have done more with it,
save confer it in an informal manner as at first, but for Brother Robert Macoy
of New York, who in 1868, when I had publicly announced my intentions of
confining my labors during the remainder of my life to Holy Land
investigations, proposed the plan of Eastern Star Chapters now in vogue. He
had my full consent and endorsement, and thus became the instigator of a third
and more successful System The history of this organization, which is now
disseminated in more than four hundred chapters, extending to thirty-three
States and Territories, I need not detail. The annual proceedings of Grand
Chapters the indefatigable labors of the Rev. Willis D. Engle Grand Secretary
of the General Grand Chapter, the liberal manner in which the Masonic journals
have opened their columns to the proceeding of the Adoptive Order, the annual
festivals, the sociables, concerts, picnics, etc., which keep the name of the
Society before the public, make a history of their own better than I can
write.
In another statement under
date of 1884, Brother Morris further informs us: Some writers have fallen into
the error of placing the introduction of the Eastern Star as far back as 1775,
and this they gather from my work, Lights and Shadows of freemasonry published
in 1852. What I intended to say in that book was that the French officers
introduced Adoptive Masonry into the Colonies in 177S, but nothing like the
degree called the Eastern Star, which is strictly my own origination.
The statements of Brother
Morris are deserving of the utmost consideration and affectionate confidence.
His devotion to Masonic service was long and honorable, freely acknowledged by
his Brethren with promotions to places of the highest prominence within their
gift. We can thus approach his assertions confident of their accuracy so far
as the intent of Brother Morris is concerned. Candor, nevertheless, compels
the conclusion that our excellent Brother did not in his various and valuable
contributions to the history of the Eastern Star, and the related Bodies,
always clearly define his positions, and the studious reader is therefore
somewhat in doubt whether on all occasions the meaning is unmistakable. For
example, the foregoing references are in themselves very clear that Brother
Morris was the originator of the Eastern Star. It is substantially shown in
detail how the several items of consequence were actually put into practice by
him.
Let us now briefly mention
what may be set forth on the other side. The Mosaic Book, by Brother Rob
Morris, and published in 1857, says in Chapter II, Section 2:
In selecting some Androgynous
Degree, extensively known, ancient in date, and ample in scope, for the basis
of this Rite, the choice falls without controversy upon the " Eastern Star.-
For this is a degree familiar to thousands of the most enlightened York Masons
and their female relations—established in this country at least before
1778—and one which popularly bears the palm in point of doctrine and elegance
over all others. Its scope, by the addition of a ceremonial and a few links in
the chain of recognition, was broad enough to constitute a graceful and
consistent system, worthy, it is believed, of the best intellect of either
sex.
Brother Willis D. Engle, the
first R. W. Grand Secretary of the General Grand Chapter of the Order, says
(on page 12 of his History) that:
The fact is that Brother
Morris received the Eastern Star degree at the hands of Giles M. Hillyer, of
Vicksburg, Mississippi, about 1849.
Puzzling as is this mixture of
statements, there is the one possible explanation that in speaking of the
Order, Brother Morris had two quite different things in mind and that he may
have inadvertently caused some to understand him to be speaking of the one
when he referred to the other, or to both, as the case might be. We know that
he had received Adoptive Degrees and we are well aware that he had prepared
more than one arrangement of Eastern Star Degrees or of allied ceremonies.
What more likely that in speaking of the one his thoughts should dwell upon
the other; the one, Adoptive Freemasonry, being as we might say the subject in
general; the other, the Eastern Star, being the particular topic. He could
very properly think of the Degree as an old idea, the Freemasonry of Adoption,
and he could also consider it as being of novelty in the form of the Eastern
Star; in the one case thinking of it as given him, and b the second instance
thinking of it as it left his hands. In any event, the well-known sincerity
and high repute of Brother Morris absolve him from any stigma of wilful
misrepresentation. Certainly it is due his memory that the various conflicting
assertions be given a sympathetic study and as friendly and harmonious a
construction as is made at all possible by their terms.
Another curious angle of the
situation develops in The Thesauros (a Greek word meaning a place where
knowledge is stored) of the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Eastern Star as
collected and arranged by the committee, and adopted by the Supreme Council in
convocation, assembled May, I793. A copy of this eighteen-page pamphlet is in
possession of Brother Alonzo J. Burton, Past Grand Lecturer, New York. This
book of monitorial instruction has been reprinted and does afford a most
interesting claim for the existence of an Eastern Star organization as early
as the eighteenth century.
A Supreme Constellation was
organized by Brother Rob Morris in 1855 with the following principal officers:
Most Enlightened Grand Luminary, Rob Morris; Right Enlightened Deputy Grand
Luminary and Grand Lecturer, Joel M. Spiller, Delphi, Indiana; Very
Enlightened Grand Treasurer, Jonathan R. Neill, New York, and Very Enlightened
Grand Secretary, John W. Leonard, New York. Deputies were appointed for
several States and by the end of 1855 seventy-five charters for subordinate
Constellations had been granted. These Constellations were made up of five or
more persons of each sex, with a limit of no more than twenty-five of the one
sex, and several Constellations might be associated with a single lodge.
There subsequently arose a
second governing Body of which James B. Taylor of New York became Grand
Secretary. This organization was known as the Supreme Council of the Ancient
Rite of Adoptive Masonry for North America. How much of a real existence was
lived by this body is now difficult of determination because of the secrecy
with which its operations were conducted. Early in the seventies it expired
after a discouraging struggle for life.
Brother Morris was not a
partner in the above enterprise and had in 1860 begun the organizing of
Families of the Eastern Star. To use his own expression, "The two systems of
Constellations and Families are identical in spirit, the latter having taken
the place of the former." A further statement by Brother Morris was to the
effect that the ladies who were introduced to the advantages of Adoptive
Freemasonry under the former system retained their privileges under the
latter. During the next eight years more than a hundred Families were
organized. Brother Robert Macoy of New York had in 1866 prepared a manual of
the Eastern Star. In this work he mentions himself as National Grand
Secretary. He also maintained the semblance of a Supreme Grand Chapter of the
Adoptive Rite. Brother Morris decided in 1868 to devote his life to Masonic
exploration in Palestine. His Eastern Star powers were transferred to Brother
Macoy, as has been claimed. The latter in later years described himself as
Supreme Grand Patron. Still another attempt at the formal organization of a
governing Body occurred in 1873 at New York, when the following provisional
officers of a Supreme Grand Council of the World, Adoptive Rite, were
selected: Supreme Grand Patron, Robert Macoy, of New York; Supreme Grand
Matron, Frances E. Johnson, of New York; Associate Supreme Grand Patron,
Andres Cassard, of New York; Deputy Supreme Grand Patron, John L. Power, of
Mississippi; Deputy Supreme Grand Matron, Laura L. Burton, of Mississippi;
Supreme Treasurer, W. A. Prall, of Mix sari; Supreme Recorder, Rob Morris, of
Kentucky; Supreme Inspector, P. M. Savery, of Mississippi. But nothing further
came of this organization except that when later on measures were taken to
make a really effective controlling Body, the old organization had claimants
in the field urging its prior rights, though to all intents and purposes its
never more than feeble breath of life had then utterly failed.
The various Bodies of the
Order under this fugitive guidance became ill-assorted of method. Laws were
curiously conflicting. A constitution governing a State Grand Chapter had in
one section the requirement that "Every member present must vote" on
petitions; which another section of the same constitution forbade Master
Freemasons "when admitted to membership" from balloting for candidates or on
membership. There was equal or even greater inconsistency between the laws of
one State and another. Serious defects had been discovered in the ritual. Some
resentment had been aroused over the methods employed in the propaganda of the
Order. The time was ripe for a radical change.
Rev. Willis D. Engle, in 1874,
publicly proposed a Supreme Grand Chapter of Representatives from the several
Grand Chapters and "a revision and general boiling down and finishing up of
the ritual which is now defective both in style and language." Not content
with saying this was a proper thing to do, Brother Engle vigorously started to
work to bring about the conditions he believed to be most desirable. Delegates
from the Grand Chapters of California, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and New
Jersey, met in Indianapolis, November 15-16, 1876, on the invitation of the
Grand Chapter of Indiana. Grand Patron James S. Nutt, of Indiana, welcomed the
visitors and opened the meeting. Brother John M. Mayhew, of New Jersey, was
elected President, and Brother John R Parson, of Missouri, Secretary. A
Constitution was adopted, a committee appointed on revision of the ritual, and
a General Grand Chapter duly organized.
The second session of the
General Grand Chapter was held in Chicago, May 8-10, 1878, and the name of the
organization became officially The General Grand Chapter of the Order of the
Eastern Star. The Most Worthy Grand Patron was then the executive head, though
in later years this was decided to be the proper province of the Most Worthy
Grand Matron.
The Grand Chapters with their
dates of organization are as follows:
Alabama
........................ March 6 1901 ............... New York .............
November 31, 1870
Alberta ........................... July 20, 1912 ............... New Mexico
.......... April 11, 1902
Arizona .......................... November 15, 1900 ...... North Carolina
..... May 20, 1905
Arkansas ........................ October 2, 1876 ........... North Dakota
........ June 14, 1894
British Columbia ........... July 21, 1912 ................ Ohio
..................... July 28, 1889
California ...................... May 8 1873 .................. Oklahoma
............. February 14, 1902
Colorado ....................... June 6, 1892 ................. Ontario
................. April 27,1915
Connecticut ................... August 11, 1874 ........... Oregon
.................. October 3, 1889
District of Columbia ...... April 30, 1896 .............. Pennsylvania
......... November 21, 1894
Florida .......................... June 7, 1904 ................. Porto Rico
............. February 17, 1914
Georgia ........................ February 21, 1901 ......... Rhode Island
......... August 22, 1895
Idaho ........................... April 17, 1902 ............... Saskatchewan
........ May 16, 1916
Illinois ......................... November 6, 1875 ......... Scotland
................ August 20, 1904
Indiana ........................ May 6, 1874 .................. South Carolina
..... June 1, 1907
Iowa ............................ July 30, 1878 ................. South Dakota
....... July 10, 1889
Kansas ........................ October 18, 1878 ........... Tennessee
.............. October 18, 1900
Kentucky .................... June 10, 1903 ................. Texas
.................... May 5, 1884
Louisiana .................... October 4, 1900 ............. Utah
...................... September 20, 1905
Maine ......................... August 24, 1892 .............. Vermont
............... November 12, 1873
Maryland .................... December 23 1898 .......... Virginia
................ June 22, 1904
Massachusetts ............. December 11, 1876 ......... Washington ..........
June 12, 1889
Michigan .................... October 31, 1867 ............ West Virginia
........ June 26, 1904
Minnesota .................. October 18, 1878 ............. Wisconsin
............. February 19, 1891
Mississippi ................. May 29, 1906 ................... Wyoming
.............. September 14,1898
Montana .................... September 25, 1890
Missouri .................... September 25, 1890
Nebraska ................... June 22, 1875
Nevada ...................... September 19, 1905
New Hampshire ......... May 12, 1891
New Jersey ................ July 18, 1870
Of the above Grand Chapters
there are three not constituent members of the General Grand Chapter. These
independent bodies are New Jersey, New York, and Scotland. Chapters of the
Eastern Star are also to be found in Alaska, the Canal Zone at Panama, the
Hawaiian Islands,' the Philippine Islands, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Quebec,
Cuba, Delaware, India, Mexico, and in the Yukon.
A Concordat or treaty
agreement adopted by the General Chapter on September 20, 1904, and by a
convention of Scottish Chapters of the Eastern Star held at Glasgow on August
20, 1904, was to the following effect:
"The Grand Chapter of Scotland
shall have supreme and exclusive jurisdiction over Great Britain, Ireland, and
the whole British dominions (excepting only those upon the Continent of
America), and that a Supreme or General Grand Chapter of the British Empire
shall be formed as soon as Chapters are instituted therein and it seems
expedient to do so."
According to the terms of this
agreement the territory in the East Indies wherein Chapters were already
instituted, as at Benares and Calcutta, was ceded to the Grand Chapter of
Scotland, which retains control. The other Chapters not so released are still
under the jurisdiction of the General Grand Chapter.
The first eighteen Most Worthy
Grand Matrons of the General Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star have been the
following:
Mrs. Elizabeth Butler,
Chicago, Ill 1876
Mrs. Elmira Foley, Hannibal. Mo 1878
Mrs. Lorraine J. Pitkin, Chicago. 111 1880
Mrs. Jennie E. Mathews, Rockford, la 1883
Mrs. Marv A. Flint, San Juan. Calif. .1886
Mrs. Nettie Ransford, Indianapolis Ind.1889
Mrs. Marv C. Snedden, Wichita, Kans.1892
Mrs. Marv E. Partridge, Oakland, Calif . . .1896
Mrs. Hattie E. Ewing, Orange. Mass . . .1898
Mrs. Laura B. Hart, San Antonio, Tex 1901
Mrs. M. B. Conkling, Cheeotah, Okla. 1904
Mrs. Ella S. Washburn. Racine. Wis 1907
Mrs. M. Alice Miller, El Reno, Okla .1910
Mrs. Rata A. Mills, Duke Center. Pa .1913
Mrs. E. C. Ocobock. Hartford. Mich . 19l6,
Mrs. E. L. Chapin, Pine Meadow. Conn . 1919
Mrs. C. R. Franz, Jacksonville. Fla 1922
Mrs. Clara Henrick, Newport, Sky. 1920
The first eighteen Most Worthy
Grand Patrons of the General Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star have been:
Rev. John D. Vineil, St.
Louis, Mo 1876
Thomas M. Lamb, Woreester, Mass 1878
Willis Brown, Seneca, Kans 1880
Rollin C. Gaskill, Oakland, Calif 1883
Jefferson S. Conover, Coldwater, Mieh 1886
Benjamin Lynds, St. Louis, Mo 1889
James R. Donnell, Conway, Ark 1892
H. Harrison Hinds, Stanton, Mich .1895
Nathaniel A. Gearhart, Duluth, Minn 1898
L. Cabel Williarnson, Washington, D. C 1901
Dr. William F. Kuhn, Kansas City, Mo .1904
William H. Norris, Manchester, la .. . .1907
Rev. Willis D. Engle, Indianapolis, Ind ..1910
G. A. Pettigrew, Sioux Falls, so. Dak.1913
George M. Hyland, Portland, Ore . .1916
Dr. A. G. McDaniel, San Antonio, Tex 1919
Dr. Will W. Grov., St. Joseph, Mo . .1922
J. Ernest Teare, Cleveland, Ohio .1925
From 1876 to 1889 Rev. Willis
D. Engle of Indianapolis was the Right Worthy Grand Secretary. In 1880 Mrs.
Lorraine J. Pitkin, of Chicago, became the Most Worthy Grand Matron, and
afterwards the General Grand Secretary, being elected in 1889. She Joined the
Order in 1866. Born in 1845, she died in 1922. Mrs. Minnie Evans Keyes, of
Lansing, Michigan, was elected Right Worthy Grand Secretary of the Seattle
meeting of July, 1919, and the headquarters of the Order established at
Washington, District of Columbia.
*
EAST PORT
An error in the Lansdowne
Manuscript, where the expression "the city of East Port" occurs as a
corruption of "the cities of the East."
*
EAVESDROPPER
A listener. The punishment
which was directed in the old lectures, at the revival of Freemasonry in 1717,
to be inflicted on a detected cowan was: "To be placed under the eaves of the
house in rainy weather, till the water runs in at his shoulders and out at his
heels." The French inflict a similar punishment: "On le met sous une gouttiere,
une pompe, ou une fontaine, jusqu'à ce qu'il soit mouillé depuis la tete
jusqu'aux pieds," meaning They put him under the rain-spout, a pump, or a
fountain, until he is drenched from head to feet. Hence a listener is called
an eavesdropper. The word is not, as has by some been supposed, a peculiar
Masonic term, but is common to the language. Skinner gives it in his
Etymologicon, and approvingly calls it vox sane elegantissima, aptly sound
word; and Blackstone (Com, mentaries iv, 13) thus defines it:
Eavesdroppers, or such as
listen under walls, or windows, or the eaves of a houses to hearken after
discourse and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tales, are a
common nuisance and presentable at the court leet or are indictable at the
sessions. and punishable by fine and finding sureties for their good behavior.
*
EBAL
According to Mackenzie, Royal
Masonic Cyclopaedia, the following was introduced into the lectures of
Freemasonry in the eighteenth century:
Moses commanded Israel that as
soon as they had passed the Jordan, they should go to Sheehem, and divide into
two bodies, each composed of six tribes one placed on, that is, adjacent to,
Mount Ebal: the other on, or adjacent to, Mount Gerizim.
The six tribes on or at
Gerizim were to pronounce blessings on those who should faithfully observe the
law; and the six on Mount Ebal were to pronounce curses against those who
should violate it.
This Joshua executed. Moses
enjoined them to erect an altar of unhewn stones on Mount Ebal, and to plaster
them over, that the law might be written on the altar. Shechem is the modern
Nabious (see also Deuteronomy xxvii, and Joshua viii, 30-35).
*
EBEN BOHAN
The stone which Bohan set up
as a witness-stone, and which afterwards served as a boundary-mark on the
frontier between Judah and Benjamin (see Joshua xv, 6, and xvii, 17).
*
EBEN-EZER
Hebrew, xxx, pronounced, Eh'-ben
haw-é-zer, and meaning stone of help. A stone set up by Samuel between Mizpeh
and Shen in testimony of the Divine assistance obtained against the
Philistines (see First Samuel vii, 12).
*
EBLIS
The Arabian name of the prince
of the apostate angels, exiled to the infernal regions for refusing to worship
Adam at the command of the Supreme, Eblis claiming that he had been formed of
ethereal fire, while Adam was created from clay. The Mohammedans assert that
at the birth of their prophet the throne of Eblis was precipitated to the
bottom of hell. Eblis of the Mohammedans is the Azazel in Hebrew, the desert
spirit to whom one of the two goats was sent, laden with the sins of the
people (see the Revised Version of the Bible, Leviticus xvi, 8, 10, 26). The
word in the King James Version is scapegoat but in the original the word
Azazel is a proper name.
*
EBONY BOX
A symbol, in the advanced
Degrees, of the human heart, which is intended to teach reserve and
taciturnity, which should be inviolably maintained in regard to the
incommunicable secrets of the Order. When it is said that the ebony box
contained the plans of the Temple of Solomon, the symbolic teaching is, that
in the human heart are deposited the secret designs and motives of our conduct
by which we propose to erect the spiritual temple of our lives.
*
ECBATANA
An ancient city of great
interest to those who study the history of the rebuilding of the Temple. Its
several names were Agbatana, Hagmatana, and Achmeta. Tradition attributes the
founding of the city to Solomon, Herodotus to Deioces, 728 B.C., the Book of
Judith to Arphaxad. It was the ancient capital of Media. Vast quantities of
rubbish now indicate where the palace and citadel stood. The Temple of the Sun
crowned a conical hill enclosed by seven concentric walls. According to Celsus,
there was thus exhibited a scale composed of seven steps or stages, with an
eighth at the upper extremity. The first stage was composed of lead, and
indicated Saturn; the second, of tin, denoted Venus; the third, of copper,
denoted Jupiter; the fourth, of iron, denoted Mars; the fifth, of divers
metals, denoted Mercury; the sixth, of silver, denoted the Moon: the seventh,
of gold, denoted the Sun; then the highest, Heaven. As they rose in gradation
toward the pinnacle, all the gorgeous battlements represented at once—in
Sabean fashion—the seven planetary spheres. The principal buildings were the
Citadel, a stronghold of enormous dimensions, where also the archives were
kept, in which Darius found the edict of Cyrus the Great concerning the
rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
*
ECHANGES D' ENFANTS, BUREAU
MAÇONNIQUE GRATUIT POUR LES
See Children's Exchange Bureau
*
ECLECTIC BUND
See Eclectic Union
*
ECLECTIC FREEMASONRY
From the Greek, eklektikos,
which means selecting. Those philosophers who, in ancient times, selected from
the various systems of philosophy such doctrines as appeared most conformable
to truth were called Eclectic Philosophers. So the Confederation of Freemasons
in Germany, which consisted of Lodges that selected the Degrees which they
thought most conformable to ancient Freemasonry, was called the Eclectic
Union, and the Freemasonry which it adopted received the name of Eclectic
Freemasonry (see Eclectic Union).
*
ECLECTIC RITE
The Rite practiced by the
Eclectic Union, which see.
*
ECLECTIC UNION
The fundamental idea of a
union of the German Lodges for the purpose of purifying the Masonic system of
the corruptions which had been introduced by the numerous Degrees founded on
alchemy, theosophy, and other occult sciences which at that time flooded the
continent of Europe, originated, in 1779, with the Baron Von Ditfurth, who had
been a prominent member of the Rite of Strict Observance; although Lenning
attributes the earlier thought of a circular letter to Von Knigge. But the
first practical step toward this purification was taken in 1783 by the
Provincial Grand Lodges of Frankfort-on-the-Main and of Wetzlar. These two
Bodies addressed an encyclical letter to the Lodges of Germany, in which they
invited them to enter into an alliance for the purpose of "re-establishing the
Royal Art of Freemasonry." The principal points on which this union or
alliance was to be founded were:
1. That the three symbolic
Degrees only were to be acknowledged by the united Lodges. 2. That each Lodge
was permitted to practice for itself such high Degrees as it might select for
itself, but that the recognition of these was not to be made compulsory on the
other Lodges. 3. That all the united Lodges were to be equal, none being
dependent on any other.
These propositions were
accepted by several Lodges, and thence resulted the Eklectischer Bund, or
Eclectic Union of Germany, at the head of which was established the Mother
Grand Lodge of the Eclectic Union at Frankfort-on-the-Main. The system of
Freemasonry practiced by this union is called the Eclectic System, and the
Rite recognized by it is the Eclectic Rite, which consists of only the three
Degrees of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason.
*
ECOSSAIS
This is a French word,
pronounced a-ko-say, which Masonically is generally to be translated as
Scottish Master. There are numerous Degrees under the same or a similar name;
all of them, however, concurring in one particular, namely, that of detailing
the method adopted for the preservation of the true Word. The American
Freemason will understand the character of the system of Ecossaism, as it may
be called, when he is told that the Select Master of his own Rite is really
all Ecossais Degree. It is found, too, in many other Rites. Thus, in the
French Rite, it is the Fifth Degree. In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, the Thirteenth Degree or Knights of the Ninth Arch is properly an
Ecossais Degree. The Ancient York Rite is without an Ecossais Degree, but its
principles are set forth in the instructions Of the Royal Arch. Some idea of
the extent to which these Degrees have been multiplied may be formed from the
fact that Oliver has a list of eighty of them; Ragon enumerates eighty-three;
and the Baron Tschoudy, first rejecting twenty-seven which he does not
consider legitimate, retains a far greater number to whose purity he does not
object.
In the Ecossais system there
is a legend, a part of which has been adopted in all the Ecossais Degrees, and
which has in fact been incorporated into the mythical history of Freemasonry.
It is to the effect that the builder of the Temple engraved the word upon a
triangle of pure metal, and, fearing that it might be lost, he always bore it
about his person, suspended from his neck, with the engraved side next to his
breast. In a time of great peril to himself, he cast it into an old dry well,
which was in the southeast corner of the Temple, where it was afterward found
by three Masters. They were passing near the well at the hour of meridian, and
were attracted by its brilliant appearance; whereupon one of them, descending
with the assistance of his comrades, obtained it, and carried it to King
Solomon. But the more modern form of the legend dispenses with the
circumstance of the dry well, and says that the builder deposited it in the
place which had been purposely prepared for it, and where centuries afterward
it was found. And this amended form of the legend is more in accord with the
recognized symbolism of the loss and the recovery of the Word.
The word Ecossais has several
related meanings as follows:
1. The Fourth Degree of Ramsay's Rite, and the original whence all the Degrees
of Ecossaism have sprung.
2 The Fifth Degree of the French Rite.
3 The Ecossais Degrees constitute the fourth class of the Rite of Mizraim—from
the Fourteenth to the Twenty-First Degree.
In the accompanying articles only the principal Ecossais Degrees will be
mentioned.
*
ECOSSAIS ANGLAIS SUBLIME
Sublime English Scottish, the
thirty-eighth grade, fifth series, Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS ARCHITECT, PERFECT
The French expression is
Ecossais Architecte Parfait. A Degree in the collection of M. Pyron.
*
ECOSSAIS D'ANGERS or ECOSSAIS
D'ALCIDONY
Two Degrees mentioned in a
work entitled Philosophical Considerations on Freemasonry.
*
ECOSSAIS DES LOGES MILITAIRES
French for Scottish (Degree)
of Military Lodges, a grade in three sections in M. Pyron's collection.
*
ECOSSAIS, ENGLISH
The French expression is
Ecossais Anglais. A Degree in the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.
*
ECOSSAIS, FAITHFUL
The French expression is
Ecossais Fidéle (see Vielle Bru).
*
ECOSSAIS, FRENCH
The Thirty-fifth Degree of the
collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS, GRAND
The Fourteenth Degree of the
Scottish Rite is so called in some of the French books.
*
ECOSSAIS, GRAND ARCHITECT
The French expression is Grand
Architecte Ecossais. The Forty-fifth Degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France.
*
ECOSSAIS, GRAND MASTER
Formerly the Sixth Degree of
the Capitular system, practised in Holland.
*
ECOSSAIS, KNIGHT
A synonym of the Ninth Degree
of Illuminism. It is more commonly called Illuminatus Dirigens in Latin.
*
ECOSSAIS, MASTER
The Fifth Degree of the Rite
of Zinnendorf. It was also formerly among the high Degrees of the German
Chapter and those of the Rite of the Clerks of Strict Observance. It is said
to have been composed by Baron Hund.
*
ECOSSAIS NOVICE
A synonym of the Eighth Degree
of Illuminism. It is more commonly called IUuminatus Major in Latin.
*
ECOSSAIS OF CLERMONT
The Thirteenth Degree of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF ENGLAND
A Degree in the collection of
M. Le Rouge.
*
ECOSSAIS OF FRANVILLE
The Thirty-first Degree of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF HIRAM
A Degree in the Mother Lodge
of the Philosophic Scotch Rite.
*
ECOSSAIS OF MESSINA
A Degree in the nomenclature
of M. Fustier.
*
ECOSSAIS OF MONTPELLIER
The Thirtysixth Degree of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF NAPLES
The Forty-second Degree of the
collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF PERFECTION
The Thirty-ninth Degree of the
collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF PRUSSIA
A degree in the archives of
the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
*
ECOSSAIS OF SAINT ANDREW
A not unusual form of
Ecossaism, and found in several Rites as follows:
1. The Second Degree of the
Clerks of Strict Observance.
2. The Twenty-first Degree of the Rite of Mizraim
3. The Twenty-ninth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is also
an Ecossais of Saint Andrew.
4. The Sixty-third Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France is an Ecossais of Saint Andrew of Scotland.
5. The Seventy-fifth Degree of the same collection is called Ecossaxs of Saint
Andrew of the Thistle.
*
ECOSSAIS OF SAINT GEORGE
A Degree in the collection of
Le Page.
*
ECOSSAIS OF THE FORTY
The French expression is
Ecossais des Quarante. The Thirty-fourth Degree of the collection of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF THE LODGE OF
PRINCE EDWARD
A Degree in the collection of
Pyron. This was probably a Stuart Degree, and referred to Prince Charles
Edward, the young Pretender.
*
ECOSSAIS OF THE SACRED VAULT
OF JAMES VI
The title refers to the
following:
1. The Thirtv-third Degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of Franee, said to have been
eomposed bs the Baron Tsehoudy.
2. The Twentieth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
3. In the French work this name has been given to the Fourteenth Degree of the
Scottish Rite.
Chemin Dupontes says that the Degree was a homage paid to the kings of
Scotland. Nothing, however, of this can be found in its present form; but it
is very probable that the Degree, in its first concept tion, and in some
ritual that no longer exists, was an offspring of the house of Stuart, of
which James VI was the first English king.
*
ECOSSAIS OF THE THREE J. J. J.
This refers to each of the
following:
1. The Thirty-second Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France
v 2. The Nineteenth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
The three J. J. J. are the mutials of Jourdain, Jaho, Jachin.
*
ECOSSAIS OF THE TRIPLE
TRIANGLE
The Thirty-seventh Degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
*
ECOSSAIS OF TOULOUSE
A Degree in the archives of
the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
*
ECOSSAIS PARFAIT MAITRE
ANGLAIS
French for Scottish Perfect
English Master, a grade given by Pyron.
*
ECOSSAIS, PARISIAN
So Thory has it; but Ragon,
and all the other nomenclators, give it as Ecossais Panissiere. The
Seventeenth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
*
ECOSSAIS, PERFECT
A Degree in the archives of
the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
*
ECOSSISM
A name given by French Masonic
writers to the thirty-three Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
This, in English, would be equivalent to Scottish Freemasonry, which see.
*
ECUADOR
A republic of South America.
In l857 the Grand Orient of Peru introduced Freemasonry to Ecuador by
establishing Lodges at Quito and Guayaquil.
The Dictator of Ecuador wished
at first to join the Brotherhood but when admission to the Craft was refused
him he proved a very powerful enemy. . Not until after he was killed in 1875
were conditions at all favorable for the growth of the Craft in this district.
A Grand Lodge is said to have
existed at Guayaquil but its history is obscure and nothing is known until the
Grand Lodge of Ecuador was established there in 1918. It was formed on the
lines of civil governments having executive, legislative and judicial
departments, but it was not considered altogether regular by other Grand
Lodges.
Lodges Luz de Guaya9, No. 10;
Cinco de Junio, No. 29, and Oriente Ecuatoriano, No. 30, all chartered by the
Grand Lodge of Peru, sent delegates to an assembly at Guayaquil on March 5,
1921, to consider the establishment of a Grand Lodge. On June 19, 1921, by
authority of the Grand Lodge of Peru, the Grand Lodge of the Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons of the Republic of Ecuador was constituted.
The Grand Orient of Italy has
a Lodge at Guayaquil. There is also in this city the headquarters of the
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Ecuador.
*
EDDA
An Icelandic word, literally
translated great-grandmother, as referred to in Scandinavian poetry. There are
in reality two books of this name which were deemed inspired by the ancient
Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes, and there grew out so many myths from these
canonical writings, that great difficulty is now experienced as to what were
apocryphal. The myths springing from the old German theology are full of
beauty; they pervade Freemasonry extensively and so intimately that they are
believed by many of the best students to be the origin of a large number of
its legends and symbols.
The older of the two, called
The Edda of Samund the Learned, was written in a language existing in Denmark,
Sweden and Norway as early as the eighth century. Samund Sigfusson, an
Icelandic priest born in 1056, collected thirty-nine of these poems during the
earlier portion of the twelfth century. The most remarkable of these poems is
the Oracle of the Prophetess, containing the cosmogony, under the Scandinavian
belief, from the creation to the destruction of the world. A well-preserved
copy was found in Iceland in 1643.
The younger Edda is a
collection of the myths of the gods, and of explanations of meters of Pagan
poetry, and is intended for instruction of young scalds or poets. The first
copy was found complete in 1628. The prologue is a curious compendium of
Jewish, Greek, Christian, Roman, and Icelandic legend. Its authorship is
ascribed to Snorro Sturleson, born in 1178; hence called Edda of Snorro.
*
EDICT OF CYRUS
Five hundred and thirty six
years before the Christian era, Cyrus issued his edict permitting the Jews to
return from the captivity at Babylon to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the House of
the Lord.
At the same time he restored to them all the sacred vessels and precious
ornaments of the first Temple, which had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar,
and which were still in existence (see Cyrus). This is commemorated in the
Royal Arch Degree of the York and American Rites.
It is also referred to in the Fifteenth Degree, or Knight of the East of the
Scottish Rite.
*
EDICTS
The decrees of a Grand Master
or of a Grand Lodge are called Edicts, and obedience to them is obligatory on
all the Craft.
*
EDINBURGH
The capital of Scotland. The
Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary's Chapel, is No. 1 on the "Roll of Lodges holding
under the Grand Lodge of Scotland," and is described therein as instituted
"Before 1598." Nothing more precise is known as to the date of its foundation,
but it possesses Minutes commencing in July, 1599. It met at one time in a
chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and from this is derived the second part
of its name. Its history has been written by Brother D. M. Lyon, 1873 (see
Scotland).
*
EDINBURGH, CONGRESS OF
It was convoked, in l736 by
William Saint Clair of Roslin, Patron of the Freemasons of Scotland, whose
Mother Lodge was Canongate Kilwinning, with the view of abdicating his dignity
as hereditary Grand Patron, with all the privileges granted to the family of
Saint Clair of Roslin by the Operative Masons of Scotland early in the
seventeenth century (see Saint Clair Charters) and afterward to organize
freemasonry upon a new basis. The members of thirty-three Lodges uniting for
this purpose, constituted the new Grand Lodge of Scotland, and elected Saint
Clair as Grand Master on November 30, 1736 (see Saint Clair).
*
EDINBURGH-KILWINNING
MANUSCRIPT
One of the Old Charges,
probably written about 1665. It is in the custody of the I Mother Lodge
Kilwinning, No. 0." which heads the Roll of Scotch Lodges. It has been
reproduced in Brother Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Reprints, and in Brother
D. M. Lyon's History of the Lodge of Edinburgh.
*
EDINBURGH, LODGE OF
Often called the Luke of
Mary's Chapel.- This old Lodge met at one time in a chapel dedicated to the
Virgin, which accounts for the second part of its name. Possesses Minutes
commencing in July, 1599, and is No. 1 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland. At one time first on the list of Scotch Lodges but Mother Kilwinning
Lodge was placed before it in 1807 as No. 0. Color of clothing is light blue.
Date of the origin of this Lodge is not known hut believed to exist before
1598. Earliest authentic record of a non-operative being a member of a Masonic
Lodge is recorded in the Minutes of this Lodge, July, 1599, and their Minutes
also record the first written account of an initiation by a Lodge.
*
EDLING, COUNT
Thory lists Edling as
Chamberlain of the King of Saxony and that he, with Prince Bernhard of Saxe
Weimar, received the Thirty-second degree at Paris, 1813.
*
EDOM
See Tabaor
*
EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS
*
EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS
These are of various kinds to
fit particular requirements. The items dealing with Colleges, Public Schools,
Sunday Schools, and so on, prove that the tendency of the Masonic Brotherhood
to promote proper instruction is and has ever been characteristic. A few
instances here will be sufficient to. show what has been undertaken.
*
DELAWARE
inaugurated four scholarships
in 1922 covering $125 to be awarded each year to students who would otherwise
be unable to complete their education. These scholarships are in memory of the
First Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Delaware, Gunning Bedford, Jr., and
they may be used at any school of college grade, but the Committee having
charge of the awards prefer the University of Delaware. If proper progress is
made by the student the scholarship continues four years. While these
scholarships are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge, contributions will
be made be the subordinate Lodges of the State in proportion to their
membership, thus gradually increasing the fund until eventually it will
include all children and grandchildren of Freemasons who need educational
assistance.
*
GEORGIA
At its 1921 Annual
Communication the Grand Lodge of Georgia established an educational loan fund,
and at its 1900 session made an appropriation therefor. The purpose of the
loan is to enable worthy children of Freemasons to secure an education that
otherwise would be denied them. Within its limits, loans are made under these
conditions: Loans are made only for defraying the expenses of students in
Georgia institutions. The applicant must not be under eighteen years of age at
the time of entering college after the loan is authorized. The applicant must
be unable to pay his own expenses in college. The applicant must be in
reasonable good health. The applicant must be recommended by a Worshipful
Master of a Masonic Lodge and by two other Master liaisons. The applicant must
be recommended as a cantabile and deserving student by proper school
authorities. The application must receive unanimous endorsement of the
Educational Commission.
*
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
When the Grand Encampment of
the United States met at New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-27, 1922, action was
taken on an educational movement. Bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand
dollars were transferred from the Permanent Fund to the Educational Fund, the
income from which was to be used in the administration of the Fund as might be
determined. To carry this movement to success each Grand Commandery and each
Commandery subordinate to the Grand Encampment, were required to pay to the
Grand Recorder of the Grand Encampment a sum equal to one dollar for each
member of the Order therein, annually until the next Triennial Conclave of the
Grand Encampment, the first payment to be made on or before the 1st day of
July, 1924, and the second payment on or before the 1st day of July, 1925.
One-half of the sums received to be transferred to an Endowment Fund, only the
income from which may be used. The other half of the sums received is called
the Educational Fund and available as a Revolving Loan Fund, for the benefit
of students in each jurisdiction in proportion as jurisdictions have
contributed to the Fund. It was made the duty of the Committee to be appointed
bathe Grand Master, to organize and to prescribe rules for its procedure, and
in formulating its plan of action the Committee should delegate to a Committee
to be appointed by each Grand Commandery and each Commandery subordinate to
the Grand Encampment, the final disposition of the funds apportioned according
to the general plan of the Committees bier the Grand Encampment. A Committee
was appointed by the Grand Master, composed of Sir Knights Joseph R. Orr of
Atlanta, Georgia, as chairman; Alexander B. Andrews of Raleigh, North
Carolina; Fred A. Aldrieh of Flint, Michigan; Thomas J. Jones of Cleveland,
Ohio and Samuel P. Browning of Maysville, Kentucky. The committee, soon after
its appointment, organized by the selection of Alexander B. Andrews as
Secretary thereof. General plans of procedure were formulated for the
administration, and the use and application of the Funds, and on January 1,
1923, were promulgated by the Grand Master.
*
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF MASONIC
CLUBS
At the Atlantic City, New
Jersey, Convention held in 1929, the National League of Masonic Clubs decided
that a worthy enterprise for their promotion would be something of an
educational nature, national in scope and patriotic in character. At the
Convention of 1925, at Saratoga Springs, New York, the report of a Board of
Trustees, appointed to submit a concrete plan, was unanimously adopted. This
project was the raising of an endowment fund of not less than $100,000 to
provide for an income to maintain in perpetuity a Professorship in the George
Washington University at Washington, District of Columbia, and establishing
therewith a special course of instruction for students who wish to qualify to
serve the United States of America at home or abroad as diplomatic or consular
representatives of their country. In the case of representatives abroad of
commercial interests in the United States, the plan would provide special
training of importance and value. Such a scheme of instruction has existed for
Shears at the (Roman) Catholic University, a Jesuit institution at Georgetown,
District of Columbia.
*
NEW MEXICO
has a Student Loan Fund to aid
young men and women to obtain college educations; a number of these have been
assisted while studying at various institutions of learning.
*
NORTH CAROLINA
has a Masonic Educational Loan Fund amounting, in its fourth year, 1926, to
$45,000, actively at work in various institutions of the State. The Several
Grand Bodies annually contribute, the Grand Lodge, $3,000; Grand Chapter,
33,000; Grand Commandery, $1,000, and the bodies of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, $3,000.
*
SASKATCHEWAN
has a Masonic Scholarship
project suggestive of that true charity or brotherly love which Saint Paul
mentions with such heartiness in First Corinthians (xiii, 1-8). The basic
purpose of the plan is to establish up to fifty scholarships of $300 each,
those receiving these sums of money to devote themselves to scholastic work in
the various centers of the Province with a view to raising the educational
standard and the implanting of sound, patriotic and moral ideals. Selections
have been made by representatives of the Grand Lodge in consultation with the
Department of Education, the successful candidates being of high academic
attainments.
*
SCOTTISH RITE
At the annual Meeting at
Boston, 1921, of the Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, United States of America, the sum of $50,000 was
set apart "from the income of the permanent fund for the year 1921, to be
expended under the direction of the Sovereign Grand Commander, the Grand
Treasurer-General, and the Chairman of the Committee on Finance for such
purposes of charity or relief as they may approve." On December 22,1991, the
Grand Commander Leon M. Abbott announced the plan of this Committee to
establish fifteen scholarships—one for each State in their
jurisdiction—providing for a deserving son or daughter of a Master Mason a
four years college course of education. Brothers Frederick W. Hamilton, Edgar
F. Smith and Frederic B. Stevens were appointed on April 25, 1922, a special
Advisory Committee to consider the scholarship plan and their report was
submitted to the Annual Meeting at Cleveland, September 19, 1922, and adopted.
an Educational Fund being established under the direction of the Committee on
Education. In brief (as stated on page 96 of the 1929 Proceedings) the plan is
that one scholarship be awarded for each State in the Northern Masonic
Jurisdiction, the recipient to choose his own college or technical school,
provided it is approved by the Scholarship Committee. The amount of the
scholarship for the first year is the regular college charges, together with
the amount estimated by the college authorities as sufficient for a decent
living. For the second year only two-thirds of the living allowance will be
allowed, and for the third and fourth years only one-half the living
allowance. Candidates must be sons or daughters of Master Masons, preferably
of the Scottish Rite, in good standing. They must be of good moral character
and of good scholarship and unable to obtain such an education without
assistance. The scholarships are awarded by the Scholarship Committee, the
choice of the beneficiaries being committed to their sound judgment. The bills
are to be sent to the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, to be approved by
him before taking the usual course for payment. As a memorial to Washington
the Freemason—a farsighted promoter as will later be seen of education for our
young people, the Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite United States of America, at the biennial session of 1927
donated one million dollars to the George Washington University in the
District of Columbia. This is the largest gift in the history of all the
educational institutions at the City of Washington. Resolutions providing for
the appropriation were introduced by Inspector General Perry W. Weidner of
Southern California at the 1927 meeting and were unanimously adopted. A
committee to carry the project into effect was appointed and consisted of
Grand Commander John H. Cowles with Inspector Generals Perry NV. Breidner,
Southern California; Edward C. Day, Montana, and Thomas J. Harkins, North
Carolina. The generous offer outlined by the resolutions and as elaborated by
the committee was accepted by the Trustees of George Washington University and
the formal acceptance of the gift duly announced by President C. H. Marvin.
This donation establishes and maintains a school of government at George
Washington University, a department begun with the fall term of 1928. The will
of Brother George Washington contained a stipulation that, read by few,
deserves attention from many, and particularly by the Freemasons of the United
States. The item in question comes immediately after provision had been made
"towards the support of a free school established at and annexed to the said
Academy, for the purpose of educating such children. . . as are unable to
accomplish it with their own means, and who, in the judgment of the Trustees
of the said Seminary, are best entitled to the benefit of this donation,"
stipulations quite in line, by the ways with what has been undertaken by
several Masonic bodies in providing educational benefits of collegiate and
university status for those unable otherwise to receive them. Washington's
services for the State of Virginia in particular were rewarded not only by
formal resolutions of gratitude but by a gift of substantial money value. The
latter, as he says in his will, was refused, adding to this refusal, however,
an intimation that if it should be the pleasure of the Legislature to permit
me to appropriate the said shares to public uses, I would receive them on
these terms with due sensibility and this it having consented to in flattering
terms as will appear by a subsequent law and sundry resolutions in the most
ample and honorable manner, I proceed after this recital for the more correct
understanding of the case, to declare: That . . . it has been my ardent wish
to see a plan devised on a liberal scale which would have a tendency to spread
systematic ideas through all parts of this rising Empire, thereby to do away
local attachments and state prejudices, as far as the nature of things would
or indeed, ought to admit, from our National Councils— looking anxiously
forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my
estimation), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to
effect the measure than the establishment of a university in a central part of
the United States to which the youth of fortune and talents from all parts
thereof might be sent for the completion of their education in all the
branches of polite literature—in arts and sciences, in acquiring knowledge in
. . . polities and good Government.... Under these impressions so fully
dilated: I give and bequeath in perpetuity the 50 shares which I hold in the
Potomac Company (under the aforesaid acts of the Legislature of Virginia)
towards the endowment of a University to be established within the limits of
the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the General Government. if
that government should incline to extend a fostering hand towards it...... But
the failure of the funds due to the collapse of the company put an end for the
time to the wise plans of Washington. We must not overlook the fact that this
is by no means the limit of educational work by Scottish Rite Brethren. Not
only do they contribute through the medium of the other branches of the
Fraternity in which they hold membership but, as is noted else where in this
article, as in North Carolina, for example, they donate independently to State
educational enterprise, and further, as in the following characteristic
instance, it was decided at the fifty-eighth Annual Meeting in 1927, at Utica.
of the New York Council of Deliberation of the Scottish Rite to award
scholarships to boys and girls of the Masonic Home there, beginning that fall.
Income from a $15,000 fund, known as the Scottish Rite Permanent Fund, was
used for this purpose. Selection of those at the Home to receive scholarships
was begun forthwith. There is a Masonic club-house at Berkeley, California, an
outstanding educational and social factor in the collegiate lives of the
students. Similar enterprises are found elsewhere. A Scottish Rite dormitory
in Austin, at the University of Texas, provides accommodations for several
hundred girls, a benevolent provision that inspires as well as protects. The
girls of that dormitory promised $1,500 to the erection of the University of
Texas Memorial Stadium and this pledge was paid in full. These scholarships
awarded by leading organizations of Freemasons remind us of another instance
or two worthy of record. An English Lodge whose Master had been so deserving
of praise during his term of office that when he came to leave the chair the
Brethren subscribed for a scholarship in the University of London. This was
done with the purpose of allowing this good Brother to select some young man
or woman to benefit by this opportunity of studying at one of the greatest
educational institutions of the world. Probably the Brother was unusually
interested in education and we can understand how delighted and honored he
felt at this distinction. His experience was not unique, as in 19 5 we heard
from Utica, New York, that, as a memorial to three Past District Deputy Grand
Masters of the State, Lewis D. Collins, of Batavia, Rev. Pierre Cushing, of
LeRoy, and John XT, Sparrow, of Warsaw, the Past Masters' Association of the
Geneses Wyoming District voted to raise $5.000, the interest to be used for
the education of a boy from the Masonic Home. Doubt appears to have arisen as
to the advisability of locating the College twenty miles from Hannibal, in
Marion County, Missouri, remote from city or town, and in 1846 a circular
letter was authorized to the Lodges, inviting propositions. Four towns
responded, Palmyra, Hannibal, Liberty, and Lexington, the latter being chosen.
Committees were appointed to select a site of not less than five nor more than
twenty acres, to raise funds, start building, and dispose by rent or sale of
the old property. The corner-stone of the new College was laid on May 18,
1847. Among other proceedings at the Communication of 1847 a Committee was
appointed to ascertain what prominent educators were Freemasons so as to have
a handy list of them for selection when the College was completed. In 1848 the
Committee on Masonic Hall reported adversely and the Committee on the College
at Lexington stated that it had cash to date $8,759. 7, and the cost of the
College would be $15,000. Salaries of College President and instructors were
fixed by Grand Lodge, the highest $1,500 per year. At an adjourned session of
the Grand Lodge, 184S, Brother Wilkens Tannehill of Nashville, Tennessee, was
elected President, Brother van Doren, Professor of Mathematics, and a
resolution introduced to add a Medical Department to the College. A special
agent for the College Endowment Fund was to receive ten per cent on all monies
collected. Ninety-five students were reported in 1849. But the succeeding
meetings of the Grand Lodge show the College expenses exceeding the income,
although the Endowment Fund in 1853 amounted to $53,198. We note that the
average age of the college students in 1854 was fifteen and the number
admitted was 175. A mortgage of $1,500 was placed by the Grand Lodge on the
College property in 1855 and we see in 1857 that only eight beneficiaries mere
among the 175 students, the original planning of the College, to educate
children of indigent brethren notwithstanding. The Grand Lodge in 1859, after
a brave and benevolent purpose, pursued faithfully for years, decided that
experience showed the fixed fact that the Masonic College had failed to meet
the reasonable and just expectations of the Grand Lodge and of its warmest and
most ardent friends, that the Grand Lodge would not put forth any further
efforts for its sustenance and whereas the treasuries of the Lodges were
constantly drained for its support, thereby in a very great measure cutting
off their resources for dispensing their own charities, it was therefore
resolved "That at the close of the present Collegiate year the College be
closed, sine die (without date) and that no more of the funds of this Grand
Lodge be appropriated for its sustenance, further than to meet its present
liabilities; that all Scholarships held either by Lodges or individuals, shall
at the swish of the parties holding them, be cancelled, and such parties be
released from all further obligations under the same." Citizens of Lexington
had given $30,000 to sustain the College. The Grand Lodge and the Lodges gave
even more. only to fail. During the Civil Bar the Battle of Lexington,
September, 1861. was fought there, Union soldiers occupied the buildings, and
the College and boarding-house were badly wrecked by cannon fire. At last the
Grand Lodge gave the College and grounds to the Marvin Female Institute. The
report adopted by the Grand Lodge, in 1872, says, From the 1st of February,
1872, the Marvin Female Institute at Lexington, Missouri, will be known be the
name of " Central Female College." and the same obligations entered into
between the Grand Lodge and the institute will be carried out by the College,
viz.: The Grand Lodge has the right to keep constantly at the College thirty
daughters of deceased indigent Master Masons, free of tuition charge, they
boarding in the College and paying their own expenses, except tuition. The
religious proclivities of these students are not to be interfered with,
contrary to such directions as their parents or guardians may dictate.
Applications for admission of Masonic beneficiaries must be made through the
committee appointed by the Grand Lodge: and the fact of the father having died
while in good Masonic standing or the father now living being such, can be
certified to by the nearest Lodge, or by some brother known to the committee.
The old College building still forms a part of the main structure of what is
the justly celebrated Central College for Women under the control of the
Methodist Church. When the Grand Lodge of Missouri, on October 2, 1849,
purchased the property in Marion County, the membership in that State was only
1139. Dr. William F. Kuhn, discussing with us the ambitions of the Brethren,
alluded to the direction of their ideas, saying, "The curriculum embraced four
departments, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, Mathematics, Mental and Moral
Science, Ancient Languages and Literature, six months tuition was given free,
and $25.00 paid for board, room and washing for a whole session. The College
in 1844 had forty students. Later, at Lexington, the enthusiasm of its
projectors ran high. Hopes were entertained to have it rival Yale and Harvard
but it became a burden and was an unfortunate adventure. So that is the story
of a Masonic College in Missouri, and ought to be a warning for all such
attempts in the future." Because of this very point, possible recurrence
anywhere and everywhere of the same sort of project, and recognizing the
importance of the advice of Past Grand Master Kuhn, space is freely given to
this experiment in Missouri. Similar projects developed elsewhere as we shall
note. Probably the visit of Brother Carnegy of Missouri in 1844 to the Grand
Lodge of Kentucky had due weight in focusing the attention of his hosts upon
the subject of Masonic Colleges. He was not the first to bring the matter of
education to their attention. Grand Master Henry Wingate on August 28, 1843,
urged the fostering of local and general schools, endowing professorships in
colleges, and securing scholarships for indigent Freemasons' children. A
proposition in 1844 to establish a Masonic School and Asylum resulted in
recommending the appointment of seven as Trustees of Funk Seminary, a new
school building at La Grange, Oldham County, Kentucky, with an endowment of
$6,000 offered upon condition of maintaining a school and receiving pay
scholars. The Committee on Education, or Trustees, were to employ teachers but
contract no debt beyond the amount due from the lottery or manager; adopt
by-laws, which Grand Lodge might alter, and at each annual communication of
the Grand Lodge five Brethren were to be chosen as a Board of Trustees who
were to make provision for the education of Masonic orphans in said seminary,
but not to incur debt. The Trustees were to solicit contributions and make
report. Every Freemason in Kentucky was requested to pay $1 towards the
support of this educational charity. A further explanation, in 1845, shows
that the LaGrange property included a two-story building, cost $4,580 with the
lots, and $6,000, well secured, all conveyed to the Grand Lodge conditional on
an efficient school being maintained where sons of citizens of the town and
county might attend as pay pupils. James C. Davis took charge of the Primary
department for the tuition fees, agreeing gratuitously to educate ten students
to be sent by the Grand Lodge. Rev. J. R. Finley was made Principal and agent
to solicit funds. Rev. A. A. Morrison was appointed Professor of Languages to
find his compensation in the fees of his department. There were 127 pupils. A
female school at LaGrange desired to be transferred to the Funk Seminary under
control of the Grand Lodge. Six hundred dollars a year was voted to the
seminary as long as it remained under Grand Lodge control. Soon the school is
mentioned as the Masonic Seminary and Masonic College and in 1847 there were
170 students with beneficiaries from twelve Lodges. Mention is made that the
Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia recommended the Masonic College of
Kentucky to its Lodges and their members, and that Mississippi reported "The
Masonic College of Kentucky is one of the wisest and one of the most
philanthropic establishments of the present age," and so on, leading up to the
Committee on Education of Kentucky advising that the Trustees of the College
be authorized to contract with the Grand Lodge of Alabama to educate one
hundred students a year for ten successive years, for $1,000 a year in
advance. The tide turned. At the Communication of 1848 the reduction in pay
students and withdrawal of scholarships by Lodges had "strained the
institution in its finances" and in 1849 "four hundred dollars as an increase
of appropriation to the College for the year was made." Let it not be
understood that this was the sum of what the generous Grand Lodge undertook
for educational labors. In 1850, realizing that much had been done for boys to
the exclusion of girls, therefore $1,000 a year was set apart for the
education of female children of deceased Master Masons, and a Committee was
also appointed "to devise the most suitable plan for supporting and educating
daughters of poor deceased Master Masons." Grand Secretary H. B. Grant says
the Grand Lodge's works of benevolence mounted up to over a million in one
hundred years, 1800-1900 (footnote, Centennial History, page 210). The college
under critical examination showed conditions not favorable to successful
continuance. Brother Grant says (page 217, Centennial history), "No doubt the
trouble was the Grand Lodge started with a school on too small a capital to be
a seminary, college and university, so that as the school grew, Grand Lodge
floundered about under all these names, and more of them." At last the
property was leased in 1857 by the Trustees at a nominal rental for five
years. Reports now came to the Grand Lodge as landlord concerning building
repairs and so forth, incidentally alluding to the educational conditions and
prospects, but in 1873 the report showed there had been no school there for
years, the Grand Lodge surrendered the property, and with the few later
allusions to legal adjustments the College came to an end. Ohio had a like
opportunity but escaped. The Grand Lodge at Columbus, 1848, received a
proposition from the Trustees of Worthington College for the transfer of that
property for use in founding a Masonic College. The offer was made through
James Kilbourne, President, and was referred to the Committee on Education.
The Brethren submitted an elaborate report to the Grand Lodge, probably too
long an essay for easy rapid digestion, as no final action resulted. However,
a start was made and some interest aroused. At the following Communication
Brother William T. Leacock, D.D., President of the Masonic College of
Kentucky, presented and read a letter from the Grand Master of Kentucky to
this Grand Lodge, introducing him, and asking fraternal consideration of the
object of his visit, which letter was referred to a Committee, which reported,
commending Brother Leacock to the subordinate Lodges of the State. The good
Brother, two days later, delivered a Masonic address in the Episcopal Church
to the Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, and Grand Encampment of Ohio. Perhaps his
hearers preferred to subscribe to the College outside the State, hut no action
seems to have been exerted toward a Masonic College in Ohio. Arkansas
experimented with the idea. The Grand Lodge once bought a large amount of
property in the east end of Little Rock, which was then merely a town, and on
this site they built an institution of learning, Saint John's College. This
was a semi-military College. For some time it prospered. But the town was not
big enough to support. it and later on the College was abandoned. The Grand
Lodge continued to own the property for many years. Finally it was sold in one
lump. With the proceeds the Grand Lodge built a Masonic Temple on the corner
of Fifth and Main Streets, Little Rock. That building since then has burned
down and that property was sold. Brother Charles E. Rosenbaum, Past Grand
Master of Arkansas, and Lieutenant Grand Commander, Supreme Council, Southern
Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, who furnished these notes on
Saint John's College, writes further: "Had they (the Grand Lodge) held the
original Saint John's College property until within the past five or ten 5
ears, the Grand Lodge would have bad more money to invest than they could
reasonably have found a place to put it. That is only one of the events that
go along in Masonic as well as other affairs. We now have an Orphans' Home and
School in Batesville in this State and it is running in good shape. I have
been the President of the Board of Trustees of that ever since the Edict was
created to build it." Georgia took over an educational institution at
Covington in that State. That was in 1859, the Southern Masonic Female
College. This was conducted by the Grand Lodge from 1859 up to 1873.
*
EDUCATIONAL LOAN FUNDS
The Grand Encampment of
Knights Templar, E. S. A., at its triennial session in New Orleans, Louisiana,
April, 1992, in compliance with and pursuant to a recommendation of Grand
Master Joseph Style Orr, of Atlanta, Georgia, established a revolving
educational loan fund, which was to be available to assist worthy and needy
students to secure a loan to aid them in completing the last two years of
their course in the normal schools, colleges and universities of their state.
The Grand Master-elect, Leonidas P. Newby, was authorized to appoint a
Committee, with full power to carry the plan into effect, and did 80. The
Grand Encampment also established an educational endowment fund, the income of
which only can be used, by levying an assessment of one dollar per annum on
each Knight Templar under the jurisdiction of the Grand Encampment, payable
July 1 of each year; one-half of which was to form a part of the endowment
fund, which was supplemented by a transfer of $100,000 from the fund of the
trustees of the Grand Encampment. These loans, in each Jurisdiction were to be
made by a Committee of their own Grand Commanderies, appointed as their Grand
Commander directed. The loans were made not exceeding two hundred dollars in
one year, to suitable students, upon their personal notes, given without any
security, with interest at five per cent commencing upon the date of their
graduation, and the entire amount to be repaid by annual payments within four
years from that date. The Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite has also an educational loan fund of
like character to enable deserving applicants to make their way successfully
through universities and colleges of approved standing.
*
EDWARD, KINGS
The four kings, numerically
known as the First, Second, Third, and Fourth, appear as favorers, abettors,
and protectors of the Institution of Freemasonry.
*
EDWARD, PRINCE
Son of George III, and Duke of
Kent, was initiated in 1790, at Geneva, in the Lodge De I' Union des Coeurs,
meaning in French Of the Union of Hearts, was Grand Master of the Ancients,
and resigned to the Duke of Sussex on the memorable occasion of the Union in
England, 1813.
*
EDWARD III MANUSCRIPT
A manuscript quoted by
Anderson in his second edition (page 71), and also by Preston, as an old
record referring to "the glorious reign of King Edward III." The whole of the
record is not cited, but the passages that are given are evidently the same as
those contained in what is now known as the Cooke Manuscript, the archaic
phraseology having been modernized and interpolations inserted by Anderson, as
was, unfortunately, his habit in dealing with those old documents. Compare,
for instance, the following passages, taking first these lines from the Cooke
Manuscript.
When the master and the
felawes be forwarned beny come to such congregations if nede be the Schereffe
of the counter or the mayer of the Cyte or alderman of the town in wyche the
congregations is hold schall be felaw and sociat to the master of the
congregation in helpe of hym a yest rebelles and upberying (upbearing) the
rygt of the reme (see Lines 901 to 912).
Edward III Manuscript, as quoted bar Anderson:
That when the Master and
Wardens preside in a Lodge, the sheriff if need be, or the mayor or the
alderman (if a brother) where the Chapter is held, shall be associate to the
Master, in help of him against rebels and for upholding the rights of the
realm.
The identity of the two
documents is apparent. Either the Edward III Manuscript was copied from the
Cooke, or both were derived from a common original.
*
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, KING
Said to have been a patron of
Freemasonry in England in l041
*
EDWARD VII, KING OF ENGLAND
Albert Edward, born November
9, 1841, the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort.
Initiated by the King of Sweden, at Stockholm, 1868. In 1870 the rank of Past
Grand Master of England was conferred upon him; installed as Most Worshipful
Grand Master by the Earl of Carnarvon, April 98, 1875; served as Worshipful
Master in the Apollo University Lodge, Oxford; the Royal Alpha Lodge, London,
and from 1574 was Worshipful Master of the famous Prince of Wales Lodge, No.
959, never losing an opportunity to publicly show his attachment to the
Masonic Fraternity.
He was enrolled as Patron of
the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland and was an honorary member of the
Lodge of Edinburgh, No.1; member and Patron of the Supreme Council of the
Thirty-third Degree for England and Grand Master of the Convent General of the
Knights Templar. In 1901 he ascended the throne, and then assumed the title of
Protector of the Craft, his brother, the Duke of Connaught, succeeding him as
Grand Master of Freemasons. Edward VII died May 6, 1910.
*
EDWIN
The son of Edward, Saxon king
of England, who died in 924, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Athelstan.
The Masonic tradition is that Athelstan appointed his brother Edwin the Patron
of Freemasonry in England, and gave him what the Old Records call a free
Charter to hold an Annual Communication or General Assembly, under the
authority of which he summoned the Freemasons of England to meet him in a
Congregation at York, where they met in 926 and formed the Grand Lodge of
England.
The Old Records say that these
Freemasons brought with them many old writings and records of the Craft, some
in Greek, some in Latin, some in French, and other languages, and from these
framed the document now known as the York Constitutions, whose authenticity
has been for years so much a subject of controversy among Masonic writers
Prince Edwin died two years before his brother, and a report was spread of his
being put wrongfully to death by him; "but this," says Preston, "is so
improbable in itself, so inconsistent with the character of Athelstan, and,
indeed, so slenderly attested, as to be undeserving a place in history."
William of Malmesbury, the old chronicler, relates the story, but confesses
that it had no better foundation than some old ballads. But now come the later
Masonic antiquaries, who assert that Edwin himself is only a myth, and that,
in spite of the authority of a few historical writers, Athelstan had no son or
brother of the name of Edwin. Woodford (Old Charges of the British Freemasons,
page xiv) thinks that the Masonic tradition points to Edwin, King of
Northumbria, whose rendezvous was once at Auldby, near York, and who in 627
aided in the building of a stone church at York, after his baptism there, with
Roman workmen. "Tradition," he says, "sometimes gets confused after the lapse
of time; but I believe the tradition is in itself true which links Freemasonry
to the church building at York by the Operative Brotherhood, under Edwin, in
627, and to a gild Charter under Athelstan, in 927."
The legend of Prince Edwin, of
course, requires some modification, but we should not be too hasty in
rejecting altogether a tradition which has been so long and so universally
accepted by the Fraternity, and to which Anderson, Preston, Krause, Oliver,
and a host of other writers, have subscribed their assent. The subject will be
fully discussed under the head of York Legend, which see.
*
EDWIN CHARGES
The charges said to have been
given by Prince Edwin, and contained in the Antiquity Manuscript, are
sometimes so called (see Antiquity Manuscript).
*
EFFINGHAM, CHARLES HOWARD,
EARL OF
Said to have been Grand Master
of England from 1579 to 1588 (see William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry,
section v). The Earl was born in 1536 and was Lord High Admiral, defeating the
Spanish Armada in 1588. IIe died in 1624.
*
EFFINGHAM, THOMAS HOWARD, EARL
OF
The Duke of Cumberland made
the Earl his Pro Grand Master in 1782, serving until 1790.
*
EGAY, MONEY
Thory lists Egay as Grand
Master of Portugal in 1805.
*
EGG, MUNDANE
It was a belief of almost all
the ancient nations, that the world was hatched from an egg made by the
Creator, over which the Spirit of God was represented as hovering in the same
manner as a bird broods or flutters over her eggs. Faber (Pagan Idolatry i,
4), who traced everything to the Arkite worship, says that this egg, which was
a symbol of the resurrection, was no other than the ark; and as Dionysus was
fabled in the Orphic hymns to be born from an egg, he and Noah were the same
person; wherefore the birth of Dionysus or Brahma, or any other hero god from
an egg, was nothing more than the egress of Noah from the ark.
Be this as it may, the egg has
been always deemed a symbol of the resurrection, and hence the Christian use
of Easter eggs on the great feast of the resurrection of our Lord. As this is
the most universally diffused of all symbols, it is strange that it has found
no place in the symbolism of Freemasonry, which deals so much with the
doctrine of the resurrection, of which the egg was everywhere the recognized
symbol. It was, however, used by the ancient architects, and from them was
adopted by the Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages, one of whose favorite
ornaments was the ovolo, or egg-molding.
*
EGLINTON MANUSCRIPT
An old document dated December
28, 1599. It is so named from its having been discovered some years ago in the
charter chest at Eglinton Castle. It is a Scottish manuscript, and is valuable
for its details of early Freemasonry in Scotland. In it, Edinburgh is termed
"the first and principal Lodge," and Kilwinning is called "the heid and secund
Ludge of Scotland in ad tyme cuming." An exact copy of it was taken by Brother
D. Murray Lyon, and published in his History of the Lodge of Edinburgh (page
12). It has also been printed in Brother Hughan's Masonic Sketches and
Reprints.
*
EGYPT
Moses:..... About this country
of famed antiquity along the Valley of the River Nile in Northeast Africa, has
clustered many suggestive allusions of interest to the Craft. The old Cooke's
Manuscript tells us that from Egypt, Freemasonry "went from land to land and
from kingdom to kingdom." In more modern days the claim has been made that a
Lodge of the Order of Memphis, was founded by Freemasons of the prominence of
Napoleon Bonaparte, General Kleber, and others of the French Army during the
Egyptian Campaign of 1798.
The Grand Orient of France
founded a Lodge in Egypt, La Bienfaisance, or Benevolence, of 1802, and
another in 1806, Les Amis de Napoleon le Grand, Friends of Napoleon the Great,
and other Lodges in 1847 and 1863, all at Alexandria; one at Cairo in 1868,
and another at Alexandria in 1848, and one at Mansourah in 1882. Lodges at
Alexandria were established by the Grand Lodge of France, one in 1871, the
other in 1910, also three at Cairo, in 1889, 1910, and 1911, with one at Port
Said in 1867.
A German Lodge was set at work
in Cairo in 1866, and one at Alexandria in 1908. The first of two Lodges was
chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1867 and 1884. The Grand Orient of
Italy has had six Lodges at Alexandria, three at Cairo, one at Port Said, and
another at Suez. The Grand Lodge of England also chartered Lodges at
Alexandria in 1862 and 1865; Zetland Lodge in 1867, Alexandria Lodge in 1920,
have survived; nine Lodges were chartered at Cairo, Bulwer Lodge, the oldest,
1865; Grecia Lodge, 1866 Star of the East Lodge, 1871, and Lotus Lodge, 1908,
continuing; three were erected at Khartoum: Khartoum Lodge, 1901; Saint
Reginald Wingate Lodge, 1908; Mahfel-el-Ittihad Lodge, 1908, and one each at
Le Caire, Port Said, Suez, and Tantah.
The Order of Memphis is said
to have been revived or repeated in Egypt by J. E. Marconis, who constituted a
Lodge at Cairo and founded a Supreme Council at Alexandria before 1862. After
Marconis resigned his powers to the Grand Orient of France, the Body in Egypt
was independent and the son of Mehemet Ali, Prince Halim Pasha, became Grand
Master, the Order prospering until his exile in 1868.
The Sanctuary, Patriarchs of
Memphis, worked for a time in secrecy but eventually ceased operations. On
December 21, 1872, the Rite of Memphis was again set at work and with the
approval of the Khedive, a Grand Master, S. A.Zola, was elected over the
Sanctuary of Memphis and the Grand Orient of EzvDt: two years later he became
Grand Hierophant, ninety-seven Degrees, the Supreme Officer. This position
Zolare signed in 1883 to Professor Oddi. An Ancient and Accepted Rite of the
Thirty-third Degree instituted by the Grand Orient of Naples in 1864 arranged
with the Rite of Memphis of ninety-six Degrees that these two organizations
should work other than the three symbolic Degrees which were to be conferred
by a Grand Orient. On May 8, 1876, a reorganization resulted in three separate
Grand Masonic Bodies, the National Grand Lodge of Egypt, the Supreme Council
of the Scottish Rite, and the Sovereign Grand Council of the Memphis Rite. The
National Grand Lodge in 1879 was proclaimed "free, sovereign and independent"
of the other Bodies.
There is now a Supreme Council
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite instituted in 1907. Some Brethren
withdrew from the National Grand Lodge in September of 1922 to form another
Grand Lodge of Egypt.
*
EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS
The extent of parallelism
between the innumerable hieroglyphs or picture-writing on the tombs and
monuments of India find Egypt and the symbols and emblems of Freemasonry,
taken together with their esoteric interpretation, has caused very many
well-thinking Freemasons to believe in an Indian or Egyptian origin of our
speculative institution of the present day. So close and numerous are these
symbols and their meaning that it becomes difficult for the mind to free
itself from a fixed conclusion; and some of the best students feel confident
in their judgment to this end, more especially when tracing the Leader,
"Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," from that country to
Palestine with the twelve tribes of Israel and their successors building that
Holy House in Jerusalem, which has become the chief Masonic symbol. Some have
abominated this theory on the ground of alleged polytheism existing among the
Egyptians; but this existed only at a later day in the life of the nation, as
it also existed among the corrupted Jews in its worst form, for which see
Second Kings, chapters 17 to 21.
Brother Thomas Pryer presents
this evidence of a monotheistic belief, of pristine purity, among the early
Egyptians, ages prior to Abraham's day. We give the hieroglyphs and their
interpretation in the illustration.
How prophetical were the Books
of Hermes.
O Egypt Egypt! a time shall
come, when, in lieu of a pure religion, and of a pure belied thou wilt possess
naught but ridiculous fables incredible to posterity, and nothing will remain
to thee, but words engraven on stone, the only monuments that will attest thy
piety.
*
EGYPTIAN MASONRY
See Cagliostro
*
EGYPTIAN MONTHS
Named Thoth, Paophi, Athyr,
Choiak, Tybi, Mechir, Phamenoth, Pharmuthi, Pashons, Payni, Epiphi, and Mesore.
The above twelve months, commencing with March 1, were composed of thirty days
each, and the five supplementary days were dedicated to Hesiri or Osiris, Hor
or Horus Set or Typhon, IIis or Isis, and Nebti or Nephthys. The sacred year
commenced July 20; the Alexandrian year, August 29 in the year 25 B.C.
*
EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES
Egypt has always been
considered as the birthplace of the Mysteries. It was there that the
ceremonies of initiation were first established. It was there that truth was
first veiled in allegory, and the dogmas of religion were first imparted under
symbolic forms. From Egypt "the land of the winged globe" the land of science
and philosophy, "peerless for stately tombs and magnificent temples the land
whose civilization was old and mature before other nations, since called to
empire, had a name" this system of symbols was disseminated through Greece and
Rome and other countries of Europe and Asia, giving origin, through many
intermediate steps, to that mysterious association which is now represented by
the Institution of Freemasonry. To Egypt, therefore, the Freemasons have
always looked with peculiar interest as the cradle of that mysterious science
of symbolism whose peculiar modes of teaching they alone, of all modern
institutions, have preserved to the present day.
The initiation into the
Egyptian Mysteries was, of all the systems practiced by the ancients, the most
severe and impressive. The Greeks at Eleusis imitated it to some extent, but
they never reached the magnitude of its forms nor the austerity of its
discipline. The system had been organized for ages, and the Priests, who alone
were the hierophants the explainers of the Mysteries, or, as we should call
them in Masonic language, the Masters of the Lodges were educated almost from
childhood for the business in which they were engaged. That "learning of the
Egyptians," in which Moses is said to have been so skilled, was all imparted
in these Mysteries. It was confined to the Priests and to the initiates; and
the trials of initiation through which the latter had to pass were so
difficult to be endured, that none but those who were stimulated by the most
ardent thirst for knowledge dared to undertake them or succeeded in submitting
to them.
The Priesthood of Egypt
constituted a sacred caste, in whom the sacerdotal functions were hereditary.
They exercised also an important part in the government of the state, and the
Kings of Egypt were but the first subjects of its priests. They had originally
organized, and continued to control, the ceremonies of initiation. Their
doctrines were of two kinds exoteric or public, which were communicated to the
multitude, and esoteric or secret, which were revealed only to a chosen few;
and to obtain them it was necessary to pass through an initiation which was
characterized by the severest trials of courage and fortitude.
The principal seat of the
Mysteries was at Memphis, in the neighborhood of the great Pyramid. They were
of two kinds, the greater and the less; the former being the Mysteries of
Osiris and Serapis, the latter those of Isis. The Mysteries of Osiris were
celebrated at the autumnal equinox, those of Serapis at the summer solstice,
and those of Isis at the vernal equinox. The solstice is when the sun is at
its greatest declination, usually June 21 and December 22. The equinoxes are
twice a year when the days and nights are equal all over the world. The vernal
equinox is March 21, the autumnal is September 22. These important
astronomical events observed by the ancients were deemed especially suitable
occasions for the most ceremonial of their mysterious customs. The candidate
was required to exhibit proofs of a blameless life. For some days previous to
the commencement of the ceremonies of initiation, he abstained from all
unchaste acts, confined himself to an exceedingly light diet, from which
animal food was rigorously excluded, and purified himself by repeated
ablutions.
Apuleius (Metamorphosis, book
xi), who had been initiated in all of them, thus alludes, with cautious
reticence, to those of Isis:
The priest, all the profane
being removed to a distance taking hold of me by the hand brought me into the
inner recesses of the sanctuary itself, clothed in a new linen garment.
Perhaps curious reader, you may be eager to know what was then said and done.
I would tell you were it lawful for me to tell you; you should know it if it
were lawful for you to hear. But both the ears that heard those things and the
tongue that told them would reap the evil results of their rashness. Still
however kept in suspense as you probably are, with religious longing, I will
not torment you with long-protraeted anxiety. Hear. therefore. but believe
what is the truth. I approached the confines of death, and, having trod on the
threshold of Proserpine, I returned therefrom, being borne through all the
elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with its brilliant light; and I
approaehed the presence of the gods beneath and the gods above, and stood near
and worshiped them. Behold, I have related to you things of which though heard
by you, you must necessarily remain ignorant.
The first Degree, as we may
term it, of Egyptian initiation was that into the Mysteries of Isis. What was
its peculiar import, we are unable to say. Isis, says Knight, was, among the
later Egyptians, the personification of universal nature. To Apuleius she
says: "I am nature—the parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements,
the primary progeny of time." Plutarch tells us that on the front of the
Temple of Isis was placed this inscription: "I, Isis, am all that has been,
that is, or shall be, and no mortal hath ever unveiled me." Thus we may
conjecture that the Isiac Mysteries were descriptive of the alternate decaying
and renovating powers of nature.
Godfrey Higgins (Anacalypsis
in, 102), it is true, says that during the Mysteries of Isis were celebrated
the misfortunes and tragical death of Osiris in a sort of drama; and Apuleius
asserts that the initiation into her mysteries is celebrated as bearing a
close resemblance to a voluntary death, with a precarious chance of recovery.
But Higgins gives no authority for his statement, and that of Apuleius cannot
be constrained into any reference to the enforced death of Osiris. It is,
therefore, probable that the ceremonies of this initiation were simply
preparatory to that of the Osirian, and taught, by instructions in the
physical laws of nature, the necessity of moral purification, a theory which
is not incompatible with all the mystical allusions of Apuleius when he
describes his own initiation.
The Mysteries of Serapis
constituted the second Degree of the Egyptian initiation. Of these rites we
have but a scanty knowledge. Herodotus is entirely silent concerning them, and
Apuleius, calling them "the nocturnal orgies of Serapis, a god of the first
rank," only intimates that they followed those of Isis, and were preparatory
to the last and greatest initiation. Serapis is said to have been only Osiris
while in Hades; and hence the Serapian initiation night have represented the
death of Osiris, but leaving the lesson of resurrection tor a subsequent
initiation. But this is merely a conjecture.
In the Mysteries of Osiris,
which were the consummation of the Egyptian system, the lesson of death and
resurrection was symbolically taught; and the legend of the murder of Osiris,
the search for the body, its discovery and restoration to life is scenically
represented. This legend of initiation was as follows:
Osiris, a wise king of Egypt,
left the care of his kingdom to his wife Isis, and traveled for three years to
communicate to other nations the arts of civilization.
During his absence, his
brother Typhon formed a secret conspiracy to destroy him and to usurp his
throne. On his return, Osiris was invited by Typhon to an entertainment in the
month of November, at which all the conspirators were present. Typhon produced
a chest inlaid with gold, and promised to give it to any person present whose
body would most exactly fit it. Osiris was tempted to try the experiment; but
he had no sooner laid down in the chest, then the lid was closed and nailed
down, and the chest thrown into the river Nile.
The chest containing the body
of Osiris was, after being for a long time tossed about by the waves, finally
cast up at Byblos in Phenicia, and left at the foot of a tamarisk tree. Isis,
overwhelmed with grief for the loss of her husband, set out on a journey, and
traversed the earth in search of the body. After many adventures, she at
length discovered the spot whence it had been thrown up by the waves and
returned with it in triumph to Egypt. It was then proclaimed, with the most
extravagant demonstrations of joy, that Osiris was risen from the dead and had
become a god. Such, with slight variations of details by different writers arc
the general outlines of the Osiris legend which was represented in the drama
of initiation. Its resemblance to the Hiramic legend of the Masonic system
will be readily seen, and its symbolism will be easily understood. Osiris and
Typhon are the representatives of the two antagonistic principles—good and
evil, light and darkness, life and death.
There is also an astronomical
interpretation of the legend which makes Osiris the sun and Typhon the season
of winter, which suspends the fecundating and fertilizing powers of the sun or
destroys its life, to be restored only by the return of invigorating spring.
The sufferings and death of
Osiris were the great mystery of the Egyptian religion. His being the abstract
idea of the Divine goodness, his manifestation upon earth, his death, his
resurrection, and his subsequent office as judge of the dead in a future
state, look, says Wilkinson, like the early revelation of a future
manifestation of the Deity converted into a mythological fable. Into these
Mysteries Herodotus, Plutarch, and Pythagoras were initiated, and the former
two have given brief accounts of them. But their own knowledge must have been
extremely limited, for, as Clement of Alexandria (Stromoteis v, 7) tells us,
the more important secrets were not revealed even to all the priests, but to a
select number of them only.
*
EGYPTIAN PRIESTS, INITIATIONS
OF THE
In the year 1770, there was
published at Berlin a work entitled Crata Repoa; oder Einweihungen der
Egyptischen Priester; meaning in English, Crata Repoa, or Initiations of the
Egyptian Priests. This book was subsequently republished in 1778, and
translated into French under the revision of Ragon, and published at Paris in
1821, by Bailleul. It professed to give the whole formula of the initiation
into the Mysteries practiced by the ancient Egyptian Priests. Lenning cites
the-work, and gives an outline of the system as if he thought it an authentic
relation; but Gadicke more prudently says of it that he doubts that there are
more mysteries described in the book than sere ever practiced by the ancient
Egyptian Priests. The French writers have generally accepted it as genuine.
Forty years before, the Abbé Terrasson had written a somewhat similar work, in
which he pretended to describe the initiation of a Prince of Egypt. Kloss, in
his Bibliography, has placed this latter work under the head of Romances of
the Order; and a similar place should doubtless be assigned to the Crata Repoa.
The curious may, however, be gratified by a brief detail of the system.
According to the Crata Repoa,
the Priests of Egypt conferred their initiation at Thebes. The Mysteries were
divided into the following seven degrees:
1. Pastophoros.
2. Neocoros.
3. Melanophoros.
4. Ristophoros.
5. Balahate.
6. Astronomos.
7. Propheta.
The first degree was devoted
to instructions of the physical sciences; the second, to geometry and
architecture. In the third degree, the candidate was instructed in the
symbolical death of Osiris, and was made acquainted with the hieroglyphical
language. In the fourth he was presented with the book of the laws of Egypt
and became a judge. The instructions of the fifth degree were dedicated to
chemistry, and of the sixth to astronomy and the mathematical sciences. In the
seventh and last degree the candidate received a detailed explanation of all
the mysteries, his head was shaved, and he was presented with a cross, which
he was constantly to carry, a white mantle, and a square head dress. To each
degree was attached a word and sign. Anyone who should carefully read the
Crata Repoa would be convinced that, so far from being founded on any ancient
system of initiation, it was simply a modern invention made up out of the high
degrees of continental Freemasonry. It is indeed surprising that Lenning and
Ragon should have treated it as if it had the least claims to antiquity.
Brother Hawkins says that it
has been suggested that Crata Repoa may be an anagram for Arcta Opera or close
finished works. The letters of a word being so transposed as to give a
different one, then the one is an anagram for the other.
*
EHEYEH ASHER EHEYEH
The pronunciation which means,
I am that I am, and is one of the pentateuchal names of God. It is related in
the third chapter of Exodus, that when God appeared to Moses in the burning
bush, and directed him to go to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel in
Egypt, Moses required that, as preliminary to his mission, he should be
instructed in the name of God, so that, when he was asked by the Israelites,
he might be able to prove his mission by announcing what that name was; and
God said to him, Eheyeh, or I am that I am; and he directed him to say, "I am
hath sent you." Eheych asher eheyeh is, therefore, the name of God, in which
Moses was instructed at the burning bush.
Maimonides thinks that when
the Lord ordered Moses to tell the people that Eheyeh sent him, he did not
mean that he should only mention his name; for if they were already acquainted
with it, he told them nothing new, and if they were not, it has not likely
that they would be satisfied by saying Rich a name sent me, for the proof
would still be wanting that this was really the name of God; therefore, he not
only told them the name, but also taught them its signification. In those
times, Sabaism being the predominant religion, almost all men were idolaters,
and occupied themselves in the contemplation of the heavens and the sun and
the stars, without any idea of a personal God in the world. Now., the Lord, to
deliver his people from such an error, said to Moses, "Go and tell them I am
that I am hath sent me unto you," which name Eheyeh, Signifying Being, is
derived from, Heyeh, the verb of existence, and which, being repeated so that
the second is the predicate of the first, contains the mystery. This is as if
He had said, "Explain to them that I am What I am: that is, that My Being is
within Myself, independent of every other, different from all other beings,
who are so alone by virtue of My distributing it to them, and might not have
been, nor could actually be such without it." So that denotes the Divine Being
Himself, by which He taught Moses not only the name, but the infallible
demonstration of the Fountain of Existence, as the name itself denotes.
The Cabalists say that Eheyeh
is the croum or highest of the Sephiroth, and that it is the name that was
hidden in the most secret place of the tabernacle.
The Talmudists had many
fanciful exercitations on this word rend, and, among others, said that it is
equivalent to Ore, meaning the Almighty, and the four letters of which it is
formed possess peculiar properties. The letter X is in Hebrew numerically
equivalent to 1, and 8 to 10, which is equal to 11; a result also obtained by
taking the second and third letters of the holy name, or is and 1, which are 5
and 6, amounting to 11. But the 5 and 6 invariably produce the same number in
their multiplication, for 5 times 5 are 25, and 6 times 6 are 36, and this
invariable product of is and 1 was said to denote the unchangeableness of the
First Cause. Again, I am commences with R or 1, the beginning of numbers, and
Jehovah, with 10, the end of numbers , which signified that God was the
beginning and end of all things.
The phrase Eheyeh asher eheyeh
is of importance in the study of the legend of the Royal Arch system. Years
ago, that learned Freemason, William S. Rockwell, while preparing his Ahiman
Rezon for the State of Georgia, undertook its use in the veils.
*
EIGHT
Among the Pythagoreans the
number eight was esteemed as the first cube, being formed by the continued
multiplication of 2 by 2 by 2, and signified friendship, prudence, counsel,
and justice; and, as the cube or reduplication of the first even number, it
was made to refer to the primitive law of nature, which supposes all men to be
equal.
Christian numerical
symbologists have called it the symbol of the resurrection, because Jesus rose
on the 8th day, that is, the day after the 7th, and because the name of Jesus
in Greek numerals, corresponding to its Greek letters, is 10, 8, 200, 70, 400,
200, which, being added up, is 888. Hence, too, they call it the Dominical
Number. As eight persons were saved in the ark, those who, like Faber, have
adopted the theory that the Arkite Rites pervaded all the religions of
antiquity, find an important symbolism in this number, and as Noah was the
type of the resumetion, they again find in it a reference to that doctrine. It
can, however, be scarcely reckoned among the numerical symbols of Freemasonry.
*
EIGHTY-ONE
A sacred number in the
advanced Degrees, because it is the square of nine, which is again the square
of three. The Pythagoreans, however, who considered the nine as a fatal
number, and especially dreaded eighty-one, because it was produced by the
multiplication of nine by itself.
*
EL
Hebrew, be. One of the Hebrew
names of God, signifying the Mighty One. El, the first letter with a short
sound, is the common pronunciation hut perhaps more correctly should be
sounded as if spelled ale. It is the root of many of the other names of Deity,
and also, therefore, of many of the sacred words in the high Degrees. Bryant
(Ancient Mythology i, 16) says it was the true name of God, but transferred by
the Sabians to the sun, whence the Greeks borrowed their helios. Here we may
add that the speculations of Bryant are by a later generation deemed less
valuable than formerly.
*
ELAI BENI ALMANAH
Hebrew, xxw, Huc venite filii
vidua. Associated with a Degree, the Third, of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite.
*
ELAI BENI EMETH
Hebrew, Huc venite filii
veritatis. Sometimes applied to the Twentysixth Degree, Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite.
*
ELCHANAN
Hebrew, xxnds. God has
graciously given. In the authorized version, it is improperly translated
Elhanan. Jerome says that it meant David, because in second Samuel (xxi, 19),
it is said that Elchanan slew Goliath. A significant word in the advanced
Degrees, which has undergone much corruption and various changes of form. In
the old rituals it is Eleharn. Lenning gives Elchanam, and incorrectly
translates, mercy of God; Delaunay calls it Eliham, and translates it, God of
the people, in which Pike concurs.
*
ELDERS
This word is used in some of
the old Constitutions to designate those Freemasons who, from their rank and
age, were deputed to obligate Apprentices when admitted into the Craft. Thus
in the Constitutions of Masonry, preserved in the archives of the York Lodge,
No. 236, York Roll No2. If with the date of 1704, we find this expression, Tum
unus ex Senioribus Teneat librum, etc., which in another manuscript, dated
1693, preserved in the same archives, York Roll No.4, is thus translated:
"Then one of the elders taking the Booke, and that hee or shee that is to bee
made Mason shall lay their hands thereon, and the charge shall be given."
These old manuscripts have been published by Brother W. J. Hughan in Ancient
Masonic Rolls of Constitutions, 1894.
*
ELECT
See Elu
*
ELECT BROTHER
The Seventh Degree of the Rite
of Zinnendorf and the National Grand Lodge of Berlin.
*
ELECT COHENS, ORDER OF
See Paschalis, Martinez
*
ELECT COMMANDER
The French term is Ells
Commandeur. A ceremony mentioned in Fustier's Nomenclature of Degrees
*
ELECT, DEPOSITARY
A Degree mentioned in Pyrons
collection
*
ELECT, GRAND
The French expression is Grand
Elu. The Fourteenth Degree of the Chapter of the Emperors of the East and
West. The same as the Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime Mason of the Scottish
Rite.
*
ELECT, GRAND PRINCE OF THE
THREE
A Degree mentioned in Pyron's
collection.
*
ELECT, IRISH
in French the term is Elu
Irlandais. The first of the advanced grades of the Chapters of that name.
*
ELECT LADY, SUBLIME
The French name is Dame, Elu
Sublime. An androgynous Degree contained in the collection of Pyron.
*
ELECT, LITTLE ENGLISH
In French this is called the
Petit Elu Anglais. The Little English Eled was a Degree of the Ancient Chapter
of Clermont. The Degree is now extinct.
*
ELECT MASTER
Named in French the Mattre Elu.
1. The Thirteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France. 2. The Fifth Degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf.
*
ELECT OF FIFTEEN
The French expression is Elu
des Quinze. The Tenth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The
place of meeting is called a Chapter; the emblematic color is black, strewed
with tears; and the principal officers are a Thri e Illustrious Master and two
Inspectors. The history of this Degree develops the continuation and
conclusion of the punishment inflicted on three traitors who, just before the
conclusion of the Temple, had committed a crime of the most atrocious
character. The Degree is now more commonly called Illustrious Elu of the
Fifteen. The same Degree is found in the Chapter of Emperors of the East and
West, and in the Rite of Mizraim.
*
ELECT OF LONDON
Named in French Elus des
Londres. The Seventieth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter
of France.
*
ELECT OF NINE
The French name is Elu des
Neuf. The Ninth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In the old
books there were two officers who represented Solomon and Stolkin. But in one
leading Jurisdiction, the principal officers are a Master and two Inspectors.
The meetings are called Chapters. The Degree details the mode in which certain
traitors, who, just before the completion of the Temple, had been engaged in
an execrable deed of villainy, received their punishment. The symbolic colors
are red, white, and black; the white emblematic of the purity of the knights;
the red, of the crime which was committed; and the black, of grief. This is
the first of the Elu Degrees, and the one on which the whole Elu system has
been founded.
*
ELECT OF NINE AND FIFTEEN
The German expression is
Auserwahlte der Neun und der Funfzehn. The first and second points of the
Fourth Degree of the old system of the Royal York Lodge of Berlin.
*
ELECT OF PERIGNAN
In French the name is Elu de
Perignan. A Degree illustrative of the punishment inflicted upon certain
criminals whose exploits constitute a portion of the legend of Symbolic
Freemasonry. The substance of this Degree is to be found in the Elect of Wine
and Elect of Fifteen in the Scottish Rite, with both of which it is closely
connected. It is the Sixth Degree of the Adonhiramite Rite (see Perignan).
*
ELECT OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
Formerly the Eighth and last
of the advanced Degrees of the Grand Chapter of Berlin.
*
ELECT OF THE TWELVE TRIBES
Called in French the Elu des
douze Tribus. The Seventeenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France.
*
ELECT OF TRUTH, RITE OF
The French name is Rite des
Elus de la Vérité. This Rite was instituted in 1776, by the Lodge of Perfect
Union, at Rennes, in France. A few Lodges in the interior of France adopted
this system; but notwithstanding its philosophical character, it never became
popular, and finally, about the end of the eighteenth century fell into
disuse. It consisted of twelve Degrees divided into two classes, as follows.
Knights Adept.
1. Apprentice
2. Fellow Craft
3. Master
4. Perfect Master
Elects of Truth
5. Elect of Nine
6. Elect of Fifteen
7. Master Elect
8. Architect
9. Second Architect
10. Grand Architect
11. Knight of the East
12. Prince of Rose Croix
*
ELECT OF TWELVE
See Knight Elect of Twelve
*
ELECT, PERFECT
Named in French the Parfait
Elu. The Twelfth Degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of France, and also of the
Rite of Mizraim.
*
ELECT, PERFECT AND SUBLIME
MASON
See Perfection, Lodge of
*
ELECT PHILOSOPHER
A Degree under this name is
found in the instructions of the Philosophic Scottish Rite, and in the
collection of Viany.
*
ELECT SECRET, SEVERE
INSPECTOR.
The French name is Elu Secret,
Sésbre Inspedeur. The Fourteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France.
*
ELECT, SOVEREIGN
The name in French is Elu
Souverain. The Fifty-ninth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
*
ELECT, SUBLIME
Expressed in French as Elu
Sublime. The Fifteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France.
*
ELECT, SUPREME
Named in French Elu Sue preme.
The Seventy-fourth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France. It is also a Degree in the collection of M. Pyron, and, under the name
of Tabernacle of Perfect Elect, is contained in the archives of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.
*
ELECT, SYMBOLICAL
Fifth Degree of the Reformed
Rite of Baron Von Tschoudy.
*
ELECTA
Fifth Degree in the American
Adoptive System of the Order of the Eastern Star. So named from the lady,
whose real name is unknown, to whom the Second Epistle of Saint John is
addressed! and who, according to tradition, "joyfully rendered up home,
husband, children, good name and life. that she might testify to her Christian
love by a martyr's death."
*
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The election of the officers
of a Lodge is generally held on the meeting which precedes the festival of
Saint John the Evangelist and sometimes on that festival itself. Should a
Lodge fail to make the election at that time, no election can be subsequently
held except by Dispensation; and it is now very generally admitted, that
should any one of the officers die or remove from the Jurisdiction during the
period for which he was elected, no election can take place to supply the
vacancy, but the office must be filled temporarily until the next election. If
it be the Master, the Senior Warden succeeds to the office. For the full
exposition of the law on this subject, see Vacancies in Office.
*
ELECTIVE OFFICERS
In the United States of
America, nearly all the offices of a Symbolic Lodge are elected by the members
of the Lodge. Such is the general practice though the several Jurisdictions
have no uniform custom. In England, the rule is different. There the Master,
Treasurer, and Tiler only are elected; the other officers are appointed by the
Master.
*
ELEHA
See Elchanan
*
ELEMENTS
It was the doctrine of the old
philosophers, sustained by the authority of Aristotle that there were four
principles of matter—fire, air, earth, and water—which they called elements.
Modern science has shown the fallacy of the theory. But it was also taught by
the Cabalists, and afterward by the Rosicrucians, who, according to the Abbé
de Pillars, sometimes known as Le Comte de Gabalis, peopled them with
supernatural beings called, in the fire, Salamanders; in the air, Sylphs; in
the earth, Gnomes; and in the water, Undines. From the Rosicrucians and the
Cabalists, the doctrine passed over into some of the advanced Degrees of
Freemasonry, and is especially referred to in the Ecossais or Scottish Knight
of Saint Andrew, which has so often been claimed as an invention of the
Chevalier Ramsay. In this Degree we find the four angels of the four elements
described as Andarel, the angel of fire; Casmaran, of air; Talliad, of water;
and Furlac, of earth; and the signs refer to the same elements.
*
ELEMENTS, TEST OF THE
A ceremonial in the First and
Twenty-fourth Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
*
ELEPHANTA
The Cavern of Elephanta,
situated on the island of Gharipour, in the Gulf of Bombay, is the most
ancient temple in the world, and was the principal place for the celebration
of the Mysteries of India. It is one hundred and thirty-five feet square and
eighteen feet high, supported by four massive pillars, and its walls covered
on all sides with statues and carved decorations. Its adytum at the western
extremity, which was accessible only to he initiated, was dedicated to the
Phallic Worship. On each side were cells and passages for the purpose of
initiation, and a sacred orifice for the mystical representation of these
doctrine of regeneration (see Maurice's Indian Antiquities for a full
description of this ancient scene of initiation).
*
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
Of all the Mysteries of the
ancient religions, those celebrated at the Village of Eleusis, near the City
of Athens, were the most splendid and the most popular. To them men came, says
Cicero, from the remotest regions to be initiated They were also the most
ancient, if we may believe Epiphanius, who traces them to the reign of Inachus,
more than eighteen hundred years before the Christian era. They were dedicated
to the goddess Demeter, the Ceres of the Romans, who was worshiped by the
Greeks as the symbol of the prolific earth; and in them severe scenically
represented the loss and the recovery of Persephone, and the doctrines of the
unity of God and the immortality of the soul were esoterically taught.
The learned Faber believed
that there was an intimate connection between the Arkite Worship and the
Mysteries of Eleusis; but Faber's theory was that the Arkite Rites, which he
traced to almost all the nations of antiquity, symbolized, in the escape of
Noah and the renovation of the earth, the doctrines of the resurrection and
the immortal life. Plutarch (De Isis et Osiris) says that the travels of Isis
in search of Osiris were not different from those of Demeter in search of
Persephone; and this view has been adopted by Saint Croix (Mysteres du
Paganisme) and by Creuzer (Symbolik und Arkaologie); and hence we may well
suppose that the recovery of the former at Byblos, and of the latter in Hades,
were both intended to symbolize the restoration of the soul after death to
eternal life. The learned have generally admitted that when Virgil, in the
sixth book of his Aeneid, depicted the descent of Aeneas into hell, he
intended to give a representation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
The Mysteries were divided
into two classes, the lesser and the greater. The lesser Mysteries were
celebrated on the banks of the Ilissus, whose waters supplied the means of
purification of the aspirants. The greater Mysteries were celebrated in the
temple at Eleusis. An interval of six months occurred between them, the former
taking place in March and the latter in September; which has led some writers
to suppose that there was some mystical reference to the vernal and autumnal
equinoxes, March 21 and September 22 when the nights and days are equal all
over the world. But, considering the character of Demeter as the goddess of
Agriculture, it might be imagined, although this is a mere conjecture, that
the reference was to seed-time and harvest. A year, however, was required to
elapse before the initiate into the lesser Mysteries was granted admission
into the greater.
In conducting the Mysteries,
there were four officers, namely:
1. The Hierophant, or explainer of the sacred things. As the pontifex maximus
in Rome, so he was the chief priest of Attica; he presided over the ceremonies
and explained the nature of the Mysteries to the initiated.
2. The Dadouchus, or torch-bearer, who appears to have acted as the immediate
assistant of the Hierophant.
3. The Hieroceryx, or sacred herald, who had the general care of the Temple,
guarded it from the profanation of the uninitiated, and took charge of the
aspirant during the trials of initiation.
4. The Epibomus, or altar-server, who conducted the sacrifices.
The ceremonies of initiation
into the lesser Moniteries were altogether purificatory, and intended to
prepare the neophyte for his reception into the more sublime rites of the
greater Mysteries. This, an ancient poet, quoted by Plutarch, illustrates by
saying that sleep is the lesser Mysteries of the death. The candidate who
desired to pass through this initiation entered the modest Temple, erected for
that purpose on the borders of the Ilissus, and there submitted to the
required ablutions, typical of moral purification. The Dadouchus then placed
his feet upon the skins of the victims which had been immolated to Jupiter.
Hebsychius says that only the left foot was placed on the skins. In this
position he was asked if he had eaten bread, and if he was pure; and his
replies being satisfactory, he passed through other symbolic ceremonies, the
mystical signification of which was given to him, an oath of secrecy having
been previously administered. The initiate into the lesser Mysteries was
called a mystes, a title which, being derived from a Greek word meaning to
shut the eyes, signified that he was yet blind as to the greater truths
thereafter to be revealed.
The greater Mysteries lasted
for nine days, and were celebrated partly on the Thriasian plain, which
surrounded the temple, and partly in the Temple of Eleusis itself. Of this
Temple, one of the most magnificent and the largest in Greece, not a vestige
is now left. Its antiquity was very great, having been in existence, according
to Aristides the rhetorician, when the Dorians marched against Athens. It was
burned by the retreating Persians under Xerxes, but immediately rebuilt, and
finally destroyed with the city by Alaric, "the Scourge of God," and all that
is now left at Eleusis and its spacious Temple is the mere site occupied by
the insignificant Greek Village of Lepsina, an evident corruption of the
ancient name.
The public processions on the
plain and on the sacred way from Athens to Eleusis were made in honor of
Demeter and Persephone, and made mystical allusions to events in the life of
both, and of the infant Iacchus. These processions were made in the daytime,
but the initiation was nocturnal, and was reserved for the nights of the sixth
and seventh days.
The herald opened the
ceremonies of initiation into the greater Mysteries by the proclamation, xxx,
FKaSS Ea7f meaning "Begone, begone, O ye profane. " The old meaning, and of
course the Masonic one, of profane is of a person not yet received within the
temple, from the words pro meaning before, and fanum, temple. Thus were the
sacred precincts tiled.
The aspirant was clothed with
the skin of a calf. An oath of secrecy was administered, and he was then
asked, "Have you eaten bread?" The reply to which was, "I have fasted; I have
drunk the sacred mixture; I have taken it out of the chest; I have spun; I
have placed it in the basket, and from the basket laid it in the chest." By
this reply, the aspirant showed that he had been duly prepared by initiation
into the lesser Mysteries; for Clement of Alexandria says that this formula
was a shibboleth, or password, by which the mustae, or initiates, into the
lesser Mysteries were known as such, and admitted to the epopteia or greater
initiation. The gesture of spinning wool, in imitation of what Demeter did in
the time of her affliction, seemed also to be used as a sign of recognition.
The aspirant was now clothed in the sacred tunic, and awaited in the vestibule
the opening of the doors of the sanctuary.
What subsequently took place
must be left in great part to conjecture, although modern writers have availed
themselves of all the allusions that are to be found in the ancients. The
Temple consisted of three parts: the megaton, or sanctuary, corresponding to
the holy place of the Temple of Solomon; the anactoron, or holy of holies, and
a subterranean apartment beneath the temple. Each of these was probably
occupied at a different portion of the initiation.
The representation of the
infernal regions and the punishment of the uninitiated impious was
appropriated to the subterranean apartment, and was, as Sylvestre de Sacy says
( Notes to Crozz i, 360) an episode of the drama which represented the
adventures of Isis, Osiris, and Typhon, or of Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto.
This drama, the same author thinks, represented the carrying away of
Persephone, the travels of Demeter in search of her lost daughter her descent
into hell; the union of Pluto with Persephone, and was terminated by the
return of Demeter into the upper world and the light of day.
The representation of this
drama commenced immediately after the profane had been sent from the Temple.
And it is easy to understand how the groans and wailings with which the Temple
at one time resounded might symbolize the sufferings and the death of man, and
the subsequent rejoicings at the return of the goddess might be typical of the
joy for the restoration of the soul to eternal life. Others have conjectured
that the drama of the Mysteries represented, in the deportation of Persephone
to Hades by Pluto, the departure, as it were, of the sun, or the deprivation
of its vivific power during the winter months, and her reappearance on earth,
the restoration of the prolific sun in summer. Others again tell us that the
last act of the Mysteries represented the restoration to life of the murdered
Zagreus, or Dionysus, by Demeter. Diodorus says that the members of the Body
of Zagreus lacerated by the Titans was represented in the ceremonies of
Mysteries, as well as in the Orphic hymns; but he prudently adds that he was
not allowed to reveal the details to the uninitiated.
Whatever was the precise
method of symbolism, it is evident that the true interpretation was the
restoration from death to eternal life, and that the funereal part of the
initiation referred to a 1088, and the exultation afterward to a recovery.
Hence it was folly to deny the coincidence that exists between this Eleusinian
drama and that enacted in the Third Degree of Freemasonry. It is not claimed
that the one was the uninterrupted successor of the other, but there must have
been a common ideal source for the origin of both. The lesson, the dogma the
symbol, and the method of instruction are the same. Waving now, as Pindar
says, "descended beneath the hollow earth, and beheld those Mysteries," the
initiate ceased to be a mystes, or blind man, and was thenceforth called an
epopt, a word signifying he who beholds.
The Eleusinian Mysteries,
which, by their splendor, surpassed all contemporary institutions of the kind,
were deemed of so much importance as to be taken under the special protection
of the state, and to the council of five hundred were entrusted the observance
of the ordinances which regulated them. By a law of Solon, the magistrates met
every year at the close of the festival, to pass sentence upon any who had
violated or transgressed any of the rules which governed the administration of
the sacred rites. Any attempt to disclose the esoteric ceremonies of
initiation was punished with death. Plutarch tells us (Life of Alctotades)
that the votary of pleasure was indicted for sacrilege, because he had
imitated the mysteries, and shown them to his companions in the same dress as
that worn by the Hierophant; and we get from Livy (xxxi, 14), the following
relation:
Two Acarnanian youths, who had
not been initiated, accidentally entered the Temple of Demeter during the
celebration of the Mysteries. They were soon detected by their absurd
questions, and being carried to the managers of the Temple, although it was
evident that their intrusion was accidental, they were put to death for so
horrible a crime. It is not, therefore, surprising that, in the account of
them, we should find such uncertain and even conflicting assertions of the
ancient writers, who hesitated to discuss publicly so forbidden a subject. The
qualifications for initiation were maturity of age and purity of life. Such
was the theory, although in practice these qualifications were not always
rigidly recorded. But the early doctrine was that none but the pure, morally
and ceremonially, could be admitted to initiation. At first, too, the right of
admission was restricted to natives of Greece; but even in the time of
Herodotus this law was dispensed with, and the citizens of all countries were
considered eligible. So in time these Mysteries were extended beyond the
limits of Greece, and in the days of the Empire they were introduced into
Rome, where they became exceedingly popular. The scenic representations, the
participation in secret signs and words of recognition, the instruction in a
peculiar dogma, and the establishment of a hidden bond of fraternity, gave
attraction to these Mysteries, which lasted until the very fall of the Roman
Empire, and exerted a powerful influence on the mystical associations of the
Middle Ages. The bond of union which connects them with the modern initiations
of Freemasonry is evident in the common thought which pervades and identifies
both, though it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to trace all the
connecting links of the historic chain. We see the beginning and we see the
end of one pervading idea.
For a general discussion and
study of theory consult Brother Goblet d'Alviella's Eleusinia.
ELEVEN
In the Prestonian lectures,
eleven was a mystical number, and was the final series of steps in the winding
stairs of the Fellow Craft, which were said to consist of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
The eleven was referred to the eleven apostles after the defection of Judas,
and to the eleven sons of Jacob after Joseph went into Egypt. But when the
lectures were revived by Henning, the eleven was struck out. In Templar
Freemasonry, however, eleven is still significant as being the constitutional
number required to open a Commandery; and here it is evidently allusive of the
eleven true disciples.
*
ELIGIBILITY FOR INITIATION
See Qualifications of
Candidates
*
ELIHOREPH
One of Solomon's secretaries
(see Ahiah)
*
ELIOT, JOHN
Born August 5, 1604, at
Widford, near London, England. Some biographies give the place of his birth as
Nazing, a few miles from Widford, but John Eliot was eight years of age when
his father moved to Nazing. The date of his emigration to New England is not
known but it is probable that he arrived in Boston on the ship Lyon, November
12, 1631, and by 1654 he had published a little catechism, supposed to be the
first book printed in the Indian language, as well as an Indian grammar, which
is now in the Harvard College Library.
Eliot completed his famous
Indian Bible in 1663; he had brought out the Book of Genesis in 1655, some of
the Psalrns in 1658, and the New Testament in 1661. The entire work on the
Bible had to be worked out by him without the assistance of previous knowledge
or record and, as stated by Edward Everett, "The history of the Christian
Church does not contain an example of untiring successful labor superior to
that of translating the entire Scriptures into the language of the native
inhabitants of Massachusetts, a dialect as imperfect, as unformed, as
unmanageable, as any spoken on earth." He endured great physical hardship in
his missionary work, but great was his zeal. In 1645 he established the
Roxbury Latin School and inl689 founded the Eliot School. There is no doubt
but that his work among the Indians was largely instrumental in frustrating
the plans of the Indian leader, King Philip, when he started out with the New
York Nations to exterminate the entire Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay
Colonies. The first Indian Church was founded by Eliot in the year 1660 at
Natick, Massachusetts. After almost sixty aears labor, during which entire
time he was pastor of the church at Roxbury, near Boston, Massachusetts, he
died on May 1, 1690, his remains being placed in the Ministers' Tomb in the
First Burying Ground. Masonic records during that early period of American
colonization were very few and those in existence are fragmentary in the
information set do vn. The only reference to John Eliot which has come down to
us is one of the earliest we have in America containing suggestions of a
Masonic type. A Minute in the Plymouth Colony Records mentions the receipt of
a package of goods sent from Coopers' Hall, London, in March 1654, and
received by the Colony of New Haven. This parcel was marked in a peculiar
manner which identified it from among the other packages contained in the
consignment and which marks seem to be intended to represent the square and
compasses.
The same marks were attached
to a letter of instruction which reads as follows: "Among the goods sent this
year we find one, Bale, No. 19, which cost there thirty-four pounds, nine
shillings, five pence, and with the advance amounts to forty-five pounds,
nineteen shillings, three pence, directed to Mr. Eliote for the use of the
Indian work, but why it is severed from the Rest of the psell and consigned to
him is not expressed; It seems different from the course yourselves approved,
and may prove inconvenient if it be continued; but this psell shall bee
delivered according to your desire.... Newhaven, the 15th September, 1655." It
is not unreasonable to suppose that both the sender and recipient of this
parcel were familiar with the peculiar significance of the emblems marked upon
the package, although nothing more definite can be said on this point (see
pages 131W2U, Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry).
*
ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND
Anderson (Constitutions, 1738,
page 80) states that the following circumstance is recorded of this sovereign:
Hearing that the Freemasons were in possession of secrets which they would not
reveal, and being jealous of all secret assemblies, she sent an armed force to
York with intent to break up their annual Grand Lodge.
This design, however, was
happily frustrated by the interposition of Sir Thomas Sackville, who took care
to initiate some of the chief officers whom she had sent on this duty. They
joined in communication with the Freemasons, and made so favorable a report to
the queen on their return that she countermanded her orders, and never
afterward attempted to disturb the meetings of the Fraternity. What authority,
if any, Anderson had for the story is unknown.
*
ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL
In May, 1792, this queen,
having conceived a suspicion of the Lodges in Madeira, gave an order to the
governor to arrest all the Freemasons in the island, and deliver them over to
the Inquisition. The rigorous execution of this order occasioned an emigration
of many families, ten of whom repaired to New York, and were liberally
assisted by the Freemasons of that city.
*
ELMES, JAMES
English architect. Wrote life
of Sir Christopher Wren (1823).
*
ELOHIM
Hebrew, off. A name,
pronounced El-o-heem', and applied in Hebrew to any deity, but sometimes also
to the true God. According to Lanci, it means the most beware. It is not,
however, much used in Freemasonry.
It is an expression used
throughout the first chapter of Genesis, as applied to God in the exercise of
His creative power, and signifies the Divine Omnipotence, the Source of all
power, the Power of ad powers, which was in activity at the Creation. After
which the expression used for Deity is Jehovah, which implies the Providence
of God, and which could not have been created by Elohim.
*
ELOQUENCE OF FREEMASONRY
Lawyers boast of the eloquence
of the bar, and point to the arguments of counsel in well-known cases; the
clergy have the eloquence of the pulpit exhibited in sermons, many of which
have a world-wide reputation; and statesmen vaunt of the eloquence of Congress
some of the speeches, however, being indebted, it is said, for their power and
beauty, to the talent of the stenographic reporter rather than to the member
who is supposed to be the author. Freemasonry, too, has its eloquence, which
is sometimes, although not always, of a very high order.
This eloquence is to be found
in the address, orations, and discourses which have usually been delivered on
the great festivals of the Order, at consecrations of Lodges, dedications of
halls, and the laying of foundation-stones. These addresses constitute, in
fact, the principal part of the early literature of Freemasonry (see
Addresses, Masonic).
*
ELU
The Fourth Degree of the
French Rite (see Flus)
*
ELUL
The sixth month of the
ecclesiastical and the twelfth of the civil year of the Jews. The twelfth
also, therefore, of the Masonic calendar used in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. It begins on the new moon of August or September, and consists
of twenty-nine days.
*
ELUS
The French word elu means
elected; and the Degrees, whose object is to detail the detection and
punishment of the actors in the crime traditionally related among the Craft,
are called Elus, or the Degrees of the Elected, because they referred to those
of the Craft who were chosen or elected to make the discovery, and to inflict
the punishment.
They form a particular system
of Freemasonry, and are to be found in every Rite, if not in all in name, at
least in principle. In the York and American Rites, the Elu is incorporated in
the Master's Degree; in the French Rite it constitutes an independent Degree;
and in the Scottish Rite it consists of three Degrees, the Ninth, Tenth, and
Eleventh.
Ragon counts the five
preceding Degrees among the Elus, but they more properly belong to the Order
of Masters. The symbolism of these Elu Degrees has been greatly mistaken and
perverted by anti-Masonic writers, who have thus attributed to Freemasonry a
spirit of vengeance which is not its characteristic. They must be looked upon
as conveying only a symbolic meaning.
Those higher Degrees, in which
the object of the election is changed and connected with Templarism, are more
properly called Kadoshes. Thory says that all the Elus are derived from the
Degree of Kadosh, which preceded them. The reverse, we think, is the truth.
The Elu system sprang naturally from the Master's Degree, and was only applied
to Templarism when DeMolay was substituted for Hiram the Builder.
*
EMANATION
Literally, the word means a
flowing forth. The doctrine of emanations was a theory predominant in many of
the Oriental religions, such, especially, as Brahmanism and Parseeism, and
subsequently adopted by the Cabalists and the Gnostics, and taught by Philo
and Plato. It assumed that all things emanated, flowed forth, which is the
literal meaning of the word, or were developed and descended by degrees from
the Supreme Being.
Thus, in the ancient religion
of India, the anima mundi, or soul of the word, the mysterious source of all
life, was identified with Brahma, the Supreme God.
The doctrine of Gnosticism was
that all things emanated from the Deity; that there was a progressive
degeneration of these beings from the highest to the lowest emanation, and a
final redemption and return of all to the purity of the Creator. Philo taught
that the Supreme Being was the Primitive Light or the Archetype of Light,
whose rays illuminate, as from a common source, all souls. The theory of
emanations is interesting to the Freemason, because of the reference in many
of the advanced Degrees to the doctrines of Philo, the Gnostics, and the
Cabalists.
*
EMANUEL
A sacred word in some of the
advanced Degrees, being one of the names applied in Scripture to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is a Greek form from the Hebrew, Immanuel, xxxxx, and
signifies God is with us.
*
EMBASSY
The Embassy of Zerrubbabel and
four other Jewish chiefs to the court of Darius, to obtain the protection of
that monarch from the encroachments of the Samaritans, who interrupted a the
labors in the reconstruction of the Temple, constitutes the legend of the
Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and also of the
Red Cross Degree of the American Rite, which seems borrowed from the former.
The history of this Embassy is found in the eleventh book of the Antiquities
of Josephus, whence the Masonic ritualists have undoubtedly taken it. The only
authority of Josephus is the apocryphal record of Esdras, and the authenticity
of the whole transaction is doubted or denied by modern historians.
*
EMBLEM
The emblem is an occult
representation of something unknown or concealed by a sign or thing that is
known. Thus, a square is in Freemasonry an emblem of morality; a plumb line,
of rectitude of conduct; and a level, of equality of human conditions.
Emblem is very generally used
as synonymous with symbol, although the two words do not express exactly the
same meaning. An emblem is properly a representation of an idea by a visible
object, as in the examples quoted above; but a symbol is more extensive in its
application, includes every representation of an idea by an image, whether
that image is presented immediately to the senses as a visible and tangible
substance, or only brought before the mind by words.
Hence an action or event as
described, a myth or legend, may be a symbol; and hence, too, it follows that
while all emblems are symbols, all symbols are not emblems (see Symbol).
*
EMERALD
In Hebrew, caphak. This or the
carbuncle was the first stone in the first row of the high priest's
breastplate, and was referred to Levi. Adam Clarke says it is the same stone
as the smaragdus, and is of a bright green color. Josephus, the Septuagint,
and the Jerusalem Targum understood by the Hebrew word the carbuncle, which is
red. The modern emerald, as everybody knows, is green (see Breast plate) .
*
EMERGENCY
The general law of Freemasonry
requires a month to elapse between the time of receiving a petition for
initiation and that of balloting for the candidate, and also that there shall
be an interval of one month between the reception of each of the Degrees of
Craft Freemasonry. Cases sometimes occur when a Lodge desires this
probationary period to be dispensed with, so that the candidates petition may
be received and balloted for at the same Communication, or so that the Degrees
may be conferred at much shorter intervals. As some reason must be assigned
for the application to the Grand Master for the Dispensation, such reason is
generally stated to be that the candidate is about to go on a long journey, or
some other equally valid. Cases of this kind are called, in the technical
language of Freemasonry, Cases of Emergency. It is evident that the emergency
is made for the sake of the candidate, and not for. that of the Lodge or of
Freemasonry.
The too frequent occurrence of
applications for Dispensations in cases of emergency have been a fruitful
source of evil, as thereby unworthy persons, escaping the ordeal of an
investigation into character. have been introduced into the Order; and even
where the candidates have been worthy, the rapid passing through the Degrees
prevents a due impression from being made on the mind, and the candidate fails
to justly appreciate the beauties and merits of the Masonic system.
Hence, these cases of
emergency have been very unpopular with the most distinguished members of the
Fraternity. In the olden time the Master and the Wardens of the Lodge were
vested with the prerogative of deciding what was a case of emergency; but
modern law and usage, in the United States, at least, make the Grand Master
the sole judge of what constitutes a case of emergency. Under the English
Constitution (see Rule 185) the emergency must be real in the opinion of the
Master of the Lodge concerned.
*
EMERGENT LODGE
A Lodge held at an emergent
meeting
*
EMERGENT MEETING
The meeting of a Lodge called
to elect a candidate, and confer the Degrees in a case of emergency, or for
any other sudden and unexpected cause, has been called an Emergent Meetings
The term is not very common, but it has been used by Brother W. S. Mitchell
and a few other writers.
*
EMERITUS
Latin; plural, emeriti. The
Romans applied this word which comes from the verb emerete, meaning to gain by
service to a soldier who had served out his time; hence, in the Supreme
Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, an active member, who
resigns his seat by reason of age, infirmity, or for other cause deemed good
by the Council, may be elected an Emeritus Member, and will possess the
privilege of proposing measures and being heard in debate, but not of voting.
*
EMETH
Hebrew, not One of the words
in the advanced Degrees. It signifies integrity, fidelity, firmness, and
constancy in keeping a promise, and especially truth, as opposed to falsehood.
In the Scottish Rite, the Sublime Knights Elect of Twelve of the Eleventh
Degree are called Princes Emeth, which plainly means men of exalted character
who are devoted to truth.
*
EMINENT
The title given to the
Commander or presiding officer of a Commandery of Knights Templar, and to all
officers below the Grand Commander in a Grand Commandery.
The Grand Commander is styled
Right Eminent, and the Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United
States, Most Eminent. The word is from the Latin eminens, meaning standing
above, and literally signifies exalted in rank.
Hence, it is a title given to
the cardinals in the Roman Church.
*
EMOUNAH
Fidelity, Truth. The name of
the Fourth Step of the mystic ladder of the Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite.
*
EMPEROR OF LEBANON
The French is Empereur du
Liban. This Degree, says Thory (Acta Latomorum i, 311), which was a part of
the collection of M. Le Rouge, was composed in the isle of Bourbon, in 1778,
by the Marquis de Beurnonville, who was then National Grand Master of all the
Lodges in India.
*
EMPERORS OF THE EAST AND WEST
In 1758 there was established
in Paris a Chapter called the Council of Emperors ofvthe East and West. The
members assumed the titles of Sovereign Prince Masons Substitutes General of
the Royal Art, Grand Superintendents and OMJiDcers of the Grand and Soverefyn
Lodye of Saint John of Jerusalem. Their ritual, which was based on the Templar
system, consuted of twenty-five Degrees, as follows:
1 to 19, the same as the Scottish Rite;
20, Grand Patriarch Noachite;
21, Key of Masonry;
22, Prince of Lebanon;
23, Knight of the Sun;
24, Kadosh;
25, Prince of the Royal Secret.
It granted Warrants for Lodges
of the advanced Degrees, appointed Grand Inspectors and Deputies, and
established several subordinate Bodies in the interior of France, among which
was a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret, at Bordeaux. In 1763, one
Princemaille, the Master of the Lodge La Candeur, meaning in French Frankness,
at Metz, began to publish an exposition of these Degrees in the serial numbers
of a work entitled Conversations Allégoriques sur la Franche-Maçonnerie, or
Allegorical Conversation on Freemasonry. In 1764, the Grand Lodge of France
offered him three hundred livres to suppress the book. Pincemaille accepted
the bribe, but continued the publication, which lasted until 1766. The year of
their establishment in France, in 1758, as reported bv Doctor Mackey, the
Degrees of this Rite of Heredom, or of Perfection, as it was called, were
carried bv Marquis de Bernez to Berlin, and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the
Three Globes.
Between the years 1760 and
1765, there was much dissension in the Rite. A new Council, called the Knights
of the East, was established at Paris, in 1760, as the rival of the Emperors
of the East and West. The controversies of these two Bodies were carried into
the Grand Lodge, which, in 1766, was compelled, for the sake of peace, to
issue a decree of opposition to the advanced Degrees, excluding the
malcontents, and forbidding the symbolical Lodges to recognize the authority
of these Chapters. But the excluded Freemasons continued to work clandestinely
and to grant Warrants.
From that time until its
dissolution, the history of the Council of the Emperors of the East and \Nest
is but a history of continued disputes with the Grand Lodge of France. At
length, in 1781, it was completely absorbed in the Grand Orient, and has no
longer an existence.
The assertion of Thory (Acta
Latomorum), and of Ragon (Orthodozie Maçonnique), that the Council of the
Emperors of the East and West was the origin of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, although it has been denied, does not seem destitute of truth.
It is very certain, if the documentary evidence is authentic, that the
Constitutions of 1672 were framed by this Council; and it is equally certain
that under these Constitutions a patent was granted to Stephen Morin, through
whom the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was established in America.
*
EMULATION LODGE OF IMPROVEMENT
At the time of the Union of
the English Lodges in 1813, a Lodge of Reconciliation was constituted with an
equal number of chosen workers from each Constitution for the purpose of
arranging a uniformity in the Making, Passing, and Raising of Freemasons in
all of England. After this was done, the ritual and ceremonies established,
the Lodge was dissolved in 1816, having received the authority and sanction of
the United Grand Lodge. For making these known to the Craft generally a system
of Lodges of Instruction was set up and Past Masters who were qualified went
from Lodge to Lodge as teachers or Preceptors as they were later called. The
most eminent and earliest of these was Peter Gilkes (which see). As a
continuation of the work of the Lodge of Reconciliation the Emulation Lodge of
Improvement for Master Freemasons was formed for instruction in 1823 with
government entrusted to a Committee of Lecturers. The Committee is elected
annually by the working members of the Lodge, the senior member acting as
leader. About 1830 the Lectures began to give place to rehearsal of
ceremonies. Minute Books prior to 1859 were destroyed by fire.
Therefore such records as are
available are from pages of the Freemasons Quarterly Revieue, the Public
Ledger and the Minutes of various Lodges with which Peter Gilkes was
associated. The celebration of the Centenary of this School of Masonic
ritualism was held in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall in Great Queen
Street, London, on March 2, 1993, presided over by the Pro Grand Master, the
Right Honorable Lord Ampthill. No English Lodge is compelled to conform to
Emulation working and there are Lodges working independently, but for over a
hundred years the ritual and ceremonies as taught by the Emulation Lodge of
Improvement have been the standard recognized method. We are indebted to
Brother George Rankin, Senior Member of Committee of Lecturers, London, for
the above details (see also Illustrated history of the Emulation Lodge of
Improvement, Henry Sadler, London, 1904).
*
EMUNAH
A Hebrew word, pronounced
em-oo-naw. Sometimes spelled Amunah, but not in accordance with the Masonic
points. A significant word in the advanced Degrees signifying Alelity,
especially in fulfilling one's promises.
*
ENCAMPMENT
All the regular assemblies of
Knights Templar were formerly called Encampments. They are now styled
Commanderies in America, and Grand Encampments of the States are called Grand
Commanderies. In other countries they are now known as Preceptories (see
Commandery and Commandery, Grand).
*
ENCAMPMENT, GENERAL GRAND
The old title, before the
adoption of the Constitution in 1856, of the Grand Encampment of the United
States.
*
ENCAMPMENT, GRAND
The Grand Encampment of the
United States was instituted on June 22, 1816, in the city of New York. It
consists of a Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and other Grand Officers who
are` similar to those of a Grand Commandery, with Past Grand Officers and the
representatives of the various Grand Commanderies, and of the subordinate
Commanderies deriving their Warrants immediately from it. It exercises
jurisdiction over all the Templars of the United States, and meets
triennially.
The term Encampment is
borrowed from military usage, and is very properly applied to the temporary
congregation at stated periods of the army of Templars, who may be said to be,
for the time being, in camp.
*
ENCYCLICAL
Circular communication; sent
to many places or persons. Encyclical letters, containing information, advice,
or admonition, are sometimes issued by Grand Lodges or Grand Masters to the
Lodges and Freemasons of a jurisdiction. The word is not in very common use;
but in 1848 the Grand Lodge of South Carolina issued "an enevelieal letter of
advice, of admonition, and of direction" to the subordinate Lodges under her
jurisdiction; and a similar letter was issued in 1865 by the Grand Master of
Iowa.
*
ENDLESS SERPENT
The serpent with its tail in
its mouth was an ancient emblem of eternity and chosen therefore as a pattern
for the English centenary jewel.
*
EN FAMILLE
French, meaning as a family.
In French Lodges, during the reading of the Minutes, and sometimes when the
Lodge is engaged in the discussion of delicate matters affecting only itself,
the Lodge is said to meet en Camille, at which time visitors are not admitted.
*
ENGBUND
Close union. The German
Brethren organized in 1797 to restrict the esoteric teaching to the three
Symbolic Degrees, eliminating higher grades and returning to the purest and
simplest forms. Brothers Mossdorf, Fessler, Schroder, Schneider, Krause, and
Bode were interested in the movement. At one time the society was also called
Vertrauten Bruder, or Trusty Brethren. See Schroeder, Diedrich Ludwig.
*
ENGLAND
The following is a brief
review of she history of Freemasonry in England as it has hitherto been
written, and is now generally received by the Fraternity. It is but right,
however, to say that recent researches have thrown doubts on the authenticity
of many of the statements—that the legend of Prince Edwin has been doubted;
the establishment of Grand Lodge at York in the beginning of the eighteenth
century denied; and the existence of anything but Operative Masonry before
1717 is controverted. These questions are still in dispute; but the labors of
Masonic antiquaries, through which many old records and ancient constitutions
are being continually exhumed from the British Museum and from Lodge
libraries, will eventually enable us to settle upon the truth. According to
Anderson and Preston, the first Charter granted in England to the Freemasons,
as a Body, was bestowed by King Athelstan, in 926, upon the application of his
brother, Prince Edwin. "Accordingly," says Anderson, quoting from the Old
Constitutions (see the Constitutions of 1738, page 64), "Prince Edwin summoned
all the Free and Accepted Masons in the Realm, to meet him in a Congregation
at York, who came and formed the Grand Lodge under him as their Grand Master,
926 A.D.
"They brought with them many
old Writings and Records of the Craft, some in Greek, some in Latin, some in
French, and other Languages; and from the Contents thereof, they framed the
Constitutions of the English Lodges, and made a Law for Themselves, to
preserve and observe the same in all Time coming, Ac, &c, &c."
From this assembly at York,
the rise of Freemasonry in England is generally dated; from the statutes there
enacted are derived the English Masonic Constitutions; and from the place of
meeting, the ritual of the English Lodges is designated as the Ancient York
Rite. For a long time the York Assembly exercised the Masonic jurisdiction
over all England; but in 1567 the Freemasons of the southern part of the
island elected Sir Thomas Gresham, the celebrated merchant, their Grand
Master, according to Anderson (see Constitutions, 1738, page 81). He was
succeeded by the Earl of Effingham, the Earl of Huntington, and by the
illustrious architect, Inigo Jones.
In the beginning of the
eighteenth century, Freemasonry in the south of England had fallen into decay.
The disturbances of the revolution, which placed William III on the throne,
and the subsequent warmth of political feelings which agitated the two parties
of the state, had given this peaceful society a wound fatal to its success.
But in 1716 "the few Lodges at London finding themselves neglected by Sir
Christopher Wren, thought fit to cement under a Grand Master as the Center of
Union and Harmony," and so four of the London Lodges "met at the AppleTree
Tavern; and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason, now the Master
of a Lodge, they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge, pro tempore, Latin for
the time being, in due form, and forthwith revived the quarterly communication
of the officers of Lodges, called the Grand Lodge, resolved to hold the annual
assembly and feast, and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves,
till they should have the honor of a noble brother at their head" (according
to Anderson, Constitutions, 1738, page 109).
Accordingly, on John the
Baptist's Day, 1717, the annual assembly and feast were held, and Brother
Anthony Sayer duly proposed and elected Grand Master. The Grand Lodge adopted,
among its regulations, the following: "That the privileges of assembling as
Masons, which had hitherto been unlimited, should be vested in certain Lodges
or assemblies of Masons convened in certain places; and that every Lodge to be
hereafter convened, except the four old Lodges at this time existing, should
be legally authorized to act by a warrant from the Grand Master for the time
being, granted to certain individuals by petition, with the consent and
approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication; and that, without such
warrant no Lodge should be hereafter deemed regular or constitutional.
In compliment, however, to the
four old Lodges, the privileges which they had always possessed under the old
organization were particularly reserved to them; and it was enacted that "no
law, rule, or regulation, to be hereafter made or passed in Grand` Lodge,
should deprive them of such privilege, or encroach on any landmark which was
at that time established as the standard of Masonic government" (as recorded
by Preston, Illustrations, edition of 1792, pages 248 and 249).
The Grand Lodges of York and of London kept up a friendly intercourse, and
mutual interchange of recognition, until the latter Body, in 1725, granted a
Warrant of constitution to some Freemasons who had seceded from the former.
This un-Masonic act was severely reprobated by the York Grand Lodge, and
produced the first interruption to the harmony that had long subsisted between
them. It was, however, followed some years after by another unjustifiable act
of interference. In 1735, the Earl of Crawford, Grand Master of England,
constituted two Lodges within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of York, and
granted, without its consent, Deputations for Lancaster, Durham, and
Northumberland. "This circumstance," says Preston (Illustrationa; edition of
1792, page 279), "the Grand Lodge at York highly resented, and ever afterward
viewed the proceedings of the Brethren in the south with a jealous eye. All
friendly intercourse ceased, and the York Masons, from that moment, considered
their interests distinct from the Masons under the Grand Lodge in London."
Three years after, in 1738,
several Brethren, dissatisfied with the conduct of the Grand Lodge of England,
seceded from it, and held unauthorized meetings for the purpose of initiation.
Taking advantage of the breach between the Grand Lodges of York and London.
they assumed the character of York Freemasons. On the Grand Lodge's
determination to put strictly in execution the laws against such seceders,
they still further separated from its jurisdiction, and assumed the
appellation of Ancient York Masons. They announced that the ancient landmarks
were alone preserved by them; and, declaring that the regular Lodges had
adopted new plans, and sanctioned innovations, they branded them with the name
of Modern Masons. In 1739, they established a new Grand Lodge in London, under
the name of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York: Masons, and, persevering in the
measures they had adopted, held communications and appointed annual feasts.
They were soon afterward recognized by the Freemasons of Scotland and Ireland,
and were encouraged and fostered by many of the nobility. The two Grand Lodges
continued to exist, and to act in opposition to each other, extending their
schisms into other countries, especially into America, until the year 1813,
when, under the Grand Mastership of the Duke of Sussex, they were united under
the title of the United Grand Lodge of England. Such is the history of
Freemasonry in England as uninterruptedly believed by all Freemasons and
Masonic writers for nearly a century and a half.
Recent researches have thrown
great doubts on its entire accuracy. Until the year 1717, the details are
either traditional, or supported only by manuscripts whose authenticity has
not yet been satisfactorily proved. Much of the history is uncertain; some of
it, especially as referring to York, is deemed apocryphal by Brother Hughan
and other industrious writers, and Brother Henry Sadler in his Masonic Facts
and Fictions has proved that the Ancients were not really a schismatic body of
seceders from the Premier Grand Lodge of England, but were Irish Freemasons
settled in London, who, in 1751, established a body which they called the
Grand Lodge of England according to the 011 Institutions, maintaining that
they alone preserved the ancient tenets and practices of Freemasonry (see
Ancient Masons).
*
ENGLAND, GRAND LODGES IN
During one period of the
eighteenth century there existed four Grand Lodges in England:
1. The Grand Lodge of England,
located at London.
2. The Grand Lodge of all England, located at York.
3. The Grand Lodge of England according to the Old Institutions.
4. The Grand Lodge of England south of the river Trent.
The last taco organizations
had their Grand blast at London
Here we may appropriately insert the significant information (see the
Constitution of 1738, page 109):
And after the Rebellion was over, A.D. 1716, the few lodges at London, finding
themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, thought fit to cement under a
Grand Master, as the Center of Union and Harmony, viz., the Lodges that met
At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Pauls Churchyards
At the Crown Ale-house in Parkers Lane near Drury Lane.
At the Apple Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
At the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel Rosy, Westminster.
They and some old Brothers met
at the said Apple Tree, and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason
(now the Master of a Lodge), they constituted a Grand Lodge pro tempore in due
form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of
Lodges (called the Grand Lodge), resolved to hold the annual Assembly and
Feast and then to choose a Grand Master from among themselves till they should
have the Honor of a noble Brother at their Head.
Accordingly on St. John
Baptist day, in the 3rd year of King George the 1st, A.D., 1717, The Assembly
and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the for said Goose and
Gridiron Alehouse. The Four Old Lodges is also the title of a book by Brother
Robert F. Gould, London, 1879, treating of the Bodies founding modern
Freemasonry, and of their descendants, the progress of the Craft in England
and of the career of every regular Lodge down to the Union of 1813. The first
Grand Lodge was formed in 1717. The second Grand Lodge bears date 1725, and
emanated from the immemorial Masonic Lodge that gave such reverence to the
city of York. The third was established in 1751 by some Irish Freemasons
settled in London (see Ancient Masons). And the fourth, whose existence lasted
from 1779 to 1789, was instituted by the York Grand Lodge in compliance with
the request of members of the Lodge of Antiquity, of London; but its existence
was ephemeral, in consequence of the removal of the disturbing cause with the
regular Grand Lodge. Recently evidence has been found pointing to the
existence in London from 1770 to 1775 of a fifth Grand Lodge, formed by Scotch
Freemasons, with some four or five Lodges under its control (see ATS Quatuor
Coronatorum xviii, pages 69 to 90).
All subordinate Lodges
existing at present, which had their being prior to the Union, in December,
1813, were subjects of either the first or third of the above designated four
Grand Lodges, and known respectively as the Moderns or the Ancient, these
titles, however, having no recognized force as to the relative antiquity of
either.
*
ENGLAND, THE FIRST RECORD OF
GRAND LODGE OF
Brother R. F. Gould (History
of Freemasonry ii, page 373) furnishes the valuable information that the
Minutes of Grand Lodge commence 24th June, 1723, and those bearing such date
are signed by "John Theophilus Desaguliers, Deputy Grand Master." They are
entered in a different handwriting, under date of 25th November, 1723, 19th
February, 1723/4,28th "April 1724," and are not sinned at foot. On 24th June,
1724, the Earl of Dalkeith presided in Grand Lodge, and the following
signatures are appended to the recorded Minutes thus: Dalkeith, G. M., 1724.
J. T Desaguliers,
G. M. Fra Sorrell, Senr., G. W.
John Senex, Junr.
The Minutes of 21st November,
1724, 17th March, 20th May, 24th June, and 27th November, 1725, are unsigned.
But to those of 27th December, 1725, are appended the signatures of Richmond &
Lenox, G. M., 1725, M. ffolkes, D. G. M., and two Grand Wardens.
Signatures are again wanting
to the proceedings of 28th February and 12th December, 1726, but reappear
under date of 27th February 1726," or 1727, namely:Paisley, G. Mr., 1726, and
the next three succeeding officers.
The Minutes of the following
10th May, 1727, were signed by "Inchiquin, G. M., 1727," and the three
officers next in rank.
The earliest Minutes were not
signed on confirmation at the next meeting but were verified by the four Grand
Officers, or such of them as took part in the proceedings recorded. In
consequence of the re-selection of Doctor Desaguliers as Deputy Grand Master,
the Minutes say that "the late Grand Master went away from the Hall without
any ceremony."
*
ENGLET
A corruption of Euclid, found
in the Old Constitutions known as the Matthew Cooke,"wherefore ye forsayde
maister Englet ordeynet thei were passing of conying schold be passing
honored" (see lines 674 to 677). Perhaps the copyist mistook a badly made old
English u for an n, and the original had Euglet, which would be a nearer
approximation to Euclid.
*
ENGRAVE
In French Lodges, buriner,
meaning to engrave, is used instead of écrire, to write. The engraved tablets
are the written records.
*
ENLIGHTENED
This word, equivalent to the
Latin illuminatus, is frequently used to designate a Freemason as one who has
been rescued from darkness, and received intellectual light. Webster's
definition shows its appositeness: "Illuminated; instructed; informed;
furnished with clear views." Many old Latin Diplomas commence with the
heading, Omnibus illuminatis, meaning that it is addressed to ad the
enlightened.
*
ENLIGHTENMENT, SHOCK OF
See Shock of Enlightenment
*
ENOCH
Though the Scriptures furnish
but a meager account of Enoch, the traditions of Freemasonry closely connect
him, by numerous circumstances, with the early history of the Institution.
All, indeed, that we learn from the Book of Genesis on the subject of his life
is, that he was the seventh of the patriarchs; the son of Jared, and the
great-grandfather of Noah; that he was born in the year of the world 622; that
his life was one of eminent virtue, so much so, that he is described as
"walking with God"; and that in the year 987 his earthly pilgrimage was
terminated, as the commentators generally suppose, not by death, but by a
bodily translation to heaven. In the very commencement of our inquiries, we
shall find circumstances in the life of this great patriarch that shadow
forth, as it were, something of that mysticism with which the traditions of
Freemasonry have connected him.
His name, in the Hebrew
language, Sol, Henoch, signifies to initiate and to instruct, and seems
intended to express the fact that he was, as Oliver remarks, the first to give
a decisive character to the rite of initiation and to add to the practice of
Divine worship the study and application of human science. In confirmation of
this view, a writer in the Freemasons Quarterly Review says, on this subject,
that "it seems probable that Enoch introduced the speculative principles into
the Masonic creed, and that he originated its exclusive character," which
theory must be taken, if it is accepted at all, with very considerable
reservations.
The years of his life may also
be supposed to contain a mystic meaning, for they amounted to three hundred
and sixty-five, being exactly equal to a solar revolution. In all the ancient
rites this number has occupied a prominent place, because it was the
representative of the annual course of that luminary which, as the great
fructifier of the earth, was the peculiar object of divine worship.
Of the early history of Enoch, we know nothing. It is, however, probable that,
like the other descendants of the pious Seth, he passed his pastoral life in
the neighborhood of Mount Moriah. From the other patriarchs he differed only
in this, that, enlightened by the Divine knowledge which has been imparted to
him, he instructed his contemporaries in the practice of those rites, and in
the study of those sciences, with which he had himself become acquainted.
The Oriental writers abound in
traditionary evidence of the learning of the venerable patriarch. One
tradition states that he received from God the gift of wisdom and knowledge,
and that God sent him thirty volumes from heaven, filled with all the secrets
of the most mysterious sciences. The Babylonians supposed him to have been
intimately acquainted with the nature of the stars; and they attribute to him
the invention of astrology. The Rabbis maintain that he was taught by God and
Adam how to sacrifice, and how to worship the Deity aright. The Cabalistic
book of Raziel says that he received the Divine mysteries from Adam, through
the direct line of the preceding patriarchs.
The Greek Christians supposed
him to have been identical with the first Egyptian Hermes, who dwelt at Sais.
They say he was the first to give instruction on the celestial bodies; that he
foretold the deluge that was to overwhelm his descendants; and that he built
the Pyramids, engraving thereon figures of artificial instruments and the
elements of the sciences, fearing lest the memory of man should perish in that
general destruction. Eupolemus, a Grecian writer, makes him the same as Atlas,
and attributes to him, as the Pagans did to that deity, the invention of
astronomy. Wait (Oriental Antiquities) quotes a passage from Bar Hebraeus, a
Jewish writer, which asserts that Enoch was the first who invented books and
writing; that he taught men the art of building cities; that he discovered the
knowledge of the Zodiac and the course of the planets; and that he inculcated
the worship of God by fasting, prayer, alms, votive offering, and tithes. Bar
Hebraeus adds, that he also appointed festivals for sacrifices to the sun at
the periods when that luminary entered each of the zodiacal signs; but this
statement, which would make him the author of idolatry, is entirely
inconsistent with all that we know of his character, from both history and
tradition, and arose, as Oliver supposes, most probably from a blending of the
characters of Enos and Enoch.
In the study of the sciences,
in teaching them to his children and his contemporaries, and in instituting
the Tites of initiation, Enoch is supposed to have passed the years of his
peaceful, his pious, and his useful life, until the crimes of mankind had
increased to such a height that, in the expressive words of holy Writ, "every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." It was
then, according to a Masonic tradition, that Enoch, disgusted with the
wickedness that surrounded him, and appalled at the thought of its inevitable
consequences, fled to the solitude and secrecy of Mount Moriah, and devoted
himself to prayer and pious contemplation. It was on that spot then first
consecrated by this patriarchal hermitage, and afterward to be made still more
holy by the sacrifices of Abraham, of David, and of Solomon—that we are
informed that the Shekinah, or sacred presence, appeared to him, and gave him
those instructions which were to preserve the wisdom of the antediluvians to
their posterity when the world, with the exception of but one family, should
have been destroyed by the forthcoming flood. The circumstances which occurred
at that time are recorded in a tradition which forms what has been called the
great Masonic legend of Enoch, and which runs to this effect: Enoch, being
inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a
temple underground, and dedicated it to God. His son, Methuselah, constructed
the building; although he was not acquainted with his father's motives for the
erection. This temple consisted of nine brick vaults, situated perpendicularly
beneath each other and communicating by apertures left in the arch of each
vault.
Enoch then caused a triangular
plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it
with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate
of the same form. On the grave he engraved, in ineffable characters, the true
name of Deity, and, placing it on a cubical pedestal of white marble, he
deposited the whole within the deepest arch. When this subterranean building
was completed, he made a door of stone, and attaching to it a ring of iron, by
which it might be occasionally raised, he placed it over the opening of the
uppermost arch, and so covered it over that the aperture could not be
discovered. Enoch himself was permitted to enter it but once a year; and on
the death of Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, and the destruction of the world
by the deluge, all knowledge of this temple, and of the sacred treasure which
it contained, was lost until, in after times, it was accidentally discovered
by another worthy of Freemasonry, who, like Enoch, leas engaged in the
erection of a temple on the same spot.
The legend goes on to inform
us that after Enoch had completed the subterranean temple, fearing that the
principles of those arts and sciences which he had cultivated with so much
assiduity would be lost in that general destruction of which he had received a
prophetic vision, he erected two pillars—the one of marble, to withstand the
influence of fire, and the other of brass, to resist the action of water. On
the pillar of brass he engraved the history of creation, the principles of the
arts and sciences, and the doctrines of Speculative Freemasonry as they were
practiced in his times; and on the one of marble he inscribed characters in
hieroglyphics, importing that near the spot where they stood a precious
treasure was deposited in a subterranean vault.
Josephus gives an account of
these pillars in the first book of his Antiquities. He ascribes them to the
children of Seth, which is by no means a contradiction of the Masonic
tradition, since Enoch was one of these children. "That their inventions,"
says the historian, "might not be lost before they were sufficiently known,
upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the
force of fire and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they
made two pillars—the one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed their
discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed
by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain and exhibit those discoveries
to mankind, and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick
erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day."
Enoch, having completed these
labors, called his descendants around him on Mount Moriah, and having warned
them in the most solemn manner of the consequences of their wickedness,
exhorted them to forsake their idolatries and return once more to the worship
of the true God. Masonic tradition informs us that he then delivered up the
government of the Craft to his grandson, Lamech, and disappeared from earth.
Doctor Mackey refers above to
the discoveries made at the attempt by Julian the Apostate to rebuild the
Temple. These are of especial interest to Brethren of various Degrees and the
two leading accounts of these legends may well be included here as a matter of
information. First we have the one given by the Greek historian Nicephorus
Calistus in the fourteenth century, in his Ecclesiastical Histories. He
records the following remarkable details of an occurrence that happened at the
attempt to rebuild the Temple:
When the foundations were
being laid, as has been said one of the stones attached to the lowest part of
the foundation was removed from its place and showed the mouth of a cavern
which had been cut out of the rock. But as the cave could not be distinctly
seen, those who had charge of the work, wishing to explore it that they might
be better acquainted with the place, sent one of the workmen down tied to a
long rope.
When he got to the bottom he
found water up to his legs. Searching the cavern on every side, he found, by
touching with his hands, that it was of a quadrangular form. When he was
returning to the mouth, he discovered a certain pillar standing up scarcely
above the water. Feeling with his hand. he found a little book placed upon it,
and wrapped up in very fine and clean linen. Taking possession of it, he gave
the signal with the rope that those who had sent him down, should draw him up.
Being received above, as soon as the book was shown, all were struck with
astonishment, especially as it appeared untouched and fresh notwithstanding
that it had been found in so dismal and dark a place. But when the book was
unfolded, not only the Jews but the Greeks were astounded. For even at the
beginning it declared in large letters: " In the beginning was the Word with
God, and the Word was God." To speak plainly, the writing embraced the whole
Gospel which was announced in the divine tongue of the (beloved) disciple and
the Virgin. This legend as here quoted is in the Ecclesiasticae Historicae,
Nicephori Callisti, tome ii, lib. x, cap. xxxiii, and is also in the
Patrologza Graeca, Migne, volume cxlvi, pages 542-3. Another description of
the same occurrence is given in the Epitome of the Ecclesiastical History of
Philostorgius, compiled by Photius in the ninth century and translated by
Edward Walford; published by Henry G. Bohn at London, 1855, chapter xiv, page
482, and this reads:
The work of rebuilding the
temple of Jerusalem by Julian was checked by many prodigies from Heaven; and
especially during the preparation of the foundations, one of the stones which
was placed at the lowest part of the base suddenly started from its place and
opened the door of a certain cave hollowed out in the rock. Owing to its
depth, it was difficult to see what was within this cave; so persons were
appointed to investigate the matter, who, being anxious to find out the truth,
let down one of their workmen by means of a rope.
On being lowered down he found
stagnant water reaching to his knees; and having gone around the place and
felt the walls on every side, he found the cave to be a perfect square.
Then, in his return, he stood
near about the middle, and struck his foot against a column which stood rising
slightly above the water. As soon as he touched this pillar, he found lying
upon it a book wrapped up in a very fine and thin linen cloth; and as soon as
he had lifted it up just as he had found it, he gave a signal to his
companions to draw him up again. As soon as he regained the light, he showed
them the book, which struck them all with astonishment, especially because it
appeared so new and fresh, considering the place where it had been found.
This book, which appeared such
a mighty prodigy in the eyes of both heathens and Jews, as soon as it was
opened, showed the following words in large letters. "In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ' In fact the volume
contained that entire Gospel which had been declared by the divine tongue of
the (beloved) disciple and the Virgin.
*
ENOCH, BROTHER
The French expression is Frére
Enoch. Evidently the nom de plume, or pen name, of a French writer and the
inventor of a Masonic rite. He published at Liege, in 1773, two works:
1. Le Vrai Franc Maçon,
meaning The True Freemason, in 276 pages.
2. Let1eres Mafonniques pour servir de Sup payment au Vrai Franc-Maf on, or
Masonic Letters supplementing the True Freemason.
The design of the former of
these works was to give an account of the origin and object of Freemasonry, a
description of all the Degrees, and an answer to the objections urged against
the Institution. The historical theories of Frere Enoch were exceedingly
fanciful and wholly untenable. Thus, he asserts that in the year 814, Louis
the Fair of France, being flattered by the fidelity and devotion of the
Operative Masons, organized them into a society of four Degrees, granting the
Masters the privilege of wearing swords in the Lodge a custom still continued
in French Lodges— and, having been received into the Order himself, accepted
the Grand Mastership on the festival of Saint John the Evangelist in the year
814. Other equally extravagant opinions make his book rather a source of
amusement than of instruction. His definition of Freemasonry is, however,
good. He says that it is "a holy and religious society of men who are friends,
which has for its fourtion, discretion; for its object, the service of God,
fidelity to the sovereign, and love of our neighbor; and for its doctrine, the
erection of an allegorical building dedicated to the virtues, which it teaches
with certain signs of recognition.
*
ENOCH, LEGEND OF
This legend is detailed in a
preceding article. It never formed any part of the old system of Freemasonry,
and was first introduced from Talmudic and Rabbinical sources into the
advanced Degrees, where, however, it is really to be viewed rather as
symbolical than as historical. Enoch himself is but the symbol of initiation,
and his legend is intended symbolically to express the doctrine that the true
Word or Divine truth was preserved in the ancient initiations.
*
ENOCHIAN ALPHABET
One of the most important
alphabets, or ciphers, known to historic Freemasons is the Enochian, in
consequence of the revelations made in that character. Tradition says the
Christian princes were accompanied in their journey to Palestine by
Freemasons, who fought by their side, and who, when at the Holy City,
discovered important manuscripts, on which some of the historic Degrees were
founded; that some of these manuscripts were in Syriac and others in Enochian
characters; and that on their return, when at Venice, it was ascertained that
the characters were identical with those in the Syriac column, spoken of by
Josephus, and with the oldest copies in which the Book of Enoch was written,
and are of great antiquity The Brethren in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite are largely instructed as to matters pertaining hereto in the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth Degrees.
We present an exact copy of
the alphabet, as may be found by comparison with that in the Bodleian Library.
The name He No C H. in Hebrew,
signifies taught, or, more properly, dedicated. In the Koran Enoch is called
Edris, from darasa, to study, which word, more liberally translated, means, to
read or to study With attention (see Enoch).
*
ENOCH, RITE OF
A Rite attempted to be
established at Liege, in France, about the year 1773. It consisted of four
Degrees, namely:
1. Manouvre, or Apprentice,
whose object was friendship and benevolence.
2. Ouvrier, or Fellow Craft, whose object was fidelity to the Sovereign.
3. Maître, or master, whose object was submission to the Supreme Being.
4. Architecte, whose object was the perfection of all the virtues.
The Rite never made much progress.
*
EN SOPH
The pronunciation of the
Hebrew DID AH. In the Cabalistic doctrines, the Divine Word, or Supreme
Creator, is called the En Soph, or rather the Or En Soph, the Infinite
Intellectual Light. The theory is, that all things emanated from this Primeval
Light (see Cabala).
*
ENTERED APPRENTICE'S SONG
The author was Matthew
Birkhead and his effort appeared in print, Read's Weekly Journal, December 1,
1722, and has continued to be popular ever since, being frequently sung in
British Lodges (see Birkhead, Matthew). The song is also called The Freemasons
Health. Brother Birkhead, a singer and actor, Drury Lane Theater, was
Worshipful Master, Lodge V, London. The words and music of the song were
printed in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions published by the
Freemasons in 1723. Under the reference Tune, Freemasons, in this Encyclopedia
we give an account of the various appearances of it in print. While the verses
are frequently printed with alteration3 according to the taste of their
respective editors, their first appearance was as follows:
Come let us prepare,
We Brothers that are
Met together on merry Occasion;
Let's drink, laugh and sing,
Our Wine has a Spring
'Tis a Health to an accepted Mason.
The World is in pain
Our secret to gain,
But still let them wonder and gaze on;
Till they're shown the Light
They'l ne'er know the Right
Word or Sign of an accepted Mason.
'Tis this, and 'tis that,
They cannot tell what
Why so many great Men of the Nation,
Should Aprons put on,
To make themselves one,
With a Free or an accepted Mason.
Great Kings, Dukes and Lords,
Have laid by their swords
This our Mistry to put a good Grace on
And neter been ashamed
To hear themselves named
With a Free or an accepted Mason.
Antiquity's pride
We have on our side
It makes each Man just in his station
There's nought but what's good
To be understood,
By a Free or an accepted Mason.
Then joyn Hand in Hand,
T'each other firm stand
Let's be merry, and put a bright Face on;
What mortal can boast So noble a Toast
As a Free or an accepted Mason?
Another verse was added to the
original by Brother Springett Penn, who became Deputy Grand Master of Munster,
Ireland, and was also a member of a Lodge at London. This addition to the song
was made about 1730 and printed by Dr. James Anderson in his edition of 1738.
Brother Penn's version runs thus:
We're true and sincere
And just to the Fair
They'll trust us on any Occasion:
No Mortal can more
The Ladies adore,
Than a Free and an Accepted Mason.
So rousing a song did not fail
of attack by the enemy and a parody upon it with the venom of the time
appeared in the London Journal of 1725 entitled An Answer to the Freemasons
Health, as follows:
Good people give ear
And the truth shall appear,
For we scorn to put any grimace on:
We've been bammed long enough
With this damn'd silly stuff
Of a Free and an Accepted Mason.
The dear Brotherhood,
As they certainly shou'd,
Their follies do put a good face on:
But it's only a gin,
To draw other fools in,
So sly is an Accepted Mason.
With their aprons before 'em,
For better decorum,
Themselves they employ all their praise on:
In aprons array'd,
Of calves leather made
True type of an Accepted Mason.
They know this and that,
The devil knows what,
Of secrets they talk wou'd amaze one
But know by the by,
That no one can Iye
Like a Free and an Accepted Mason.
On a house neter so high,
If a Brother they spy
As his trowel he dext'rousiy lays on:
He must leave off his work,
And come down with a jerk
At the sign of an Accepted Mason.
A Brother one time,
Being hang'd for some crime
His Brethren did stupidly gaze on:
They made signs without end,
But fast hung their friend
Like a Free and an Accepted Mason.
They tell us fine things
Sow yt lords, dukes, and kings,
Their mis'tries have put a good grace on:
For their credit be't said
Many a skip has been made
A Free and an Accepted Mason.
From whence I conclude
Tho' it seem somewhat rude
No credit their tribe we should piace on:
Since a cool we may see
Of any degree,
May commence all Accepted Mason.
*
ENTERED
When a candidate receives the
First Degree of Freemasonry he is said to be entered. It is used in the sense
of admitted, or introduced; a common as well as a Masonic employment of the
word, as when we say, "the youth entered college" or, "the soldier entered the
service."
*
ENTERED APPRENTICE
See Apprentice, Entered
*
ENTICK, JOHN
An English clergyman, born
about 1703, who took much interest in Freemasonry about the middle of the
eighteenth century. He revised the third edition of Anderson's Constitutions
by order of the Grand Lodge, which was published in 1756. The next issue of
the Book of Constitutions, in 1767, also has his name on the title page as
successor to Doctor Anderson, and is often attributed to him, but it is
described as "A new edition . . . by a Committee appointed by the Grand
Lodge," and it does not appear that he had anything to do with its preparation
(see Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, 1908, xxi, paps 80).
Entick was also the author of
many Masonic sermons, a few of which were published. Oliver speaks of him as a
man of grave and sober habits, a good Master of his Lodge, a fair
disciplinarian, and popular with the Craft. But Entick did not confine his
literary labors to Freemasonry. He was the author of a History of the War
which ended in 1763, in five volumes, and a History of London, in four
volumes. As an orthoepist he had considerable reputation and published a Latin
and English Dictionary, and an English Spelling Dictionary. He died in 1773.
*
ENTOMBMENT
An impressive ceremony in the
degree of Perfect Master of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
*
ENTRANCE, POINTS OF
See Points of Entrance,
Perfect
*
ENTRANCE, SHOCKS OF
See Shock of Entrance
*
ENTRUSTING
That portion of the ceremony
of initiation which consists in communicating to the candidate the modes of
recognition.
*
ENVY
This meanest of vices has
always been discouraged in Freemasonry. The fifth of the Old Charges says:
"None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother" (see Constitutions,
1723, page 53).
*
EONS
In the doctrine of Gnosticism,
Divine spirits occupying the intermediate state which was supposed to exist
between the Supreme Being and the Jehovah of the Jewish theology, whom the
Gnostics called only a secondary deity. These spiritual beings were indeed no
more than abstractions, such as Wisdom, Faith, Prudence, etc. They derived
their name from the Greek azure, meaning an age, in reference to the long
duration of their existence. Valentinius said there were but thirty of them;
but Basilides reckons them as three hundred and sixty-five, which certainly
has an allusion to the days of the solar year.
In some of the philosophical
degrees, references are made to the Eons, whose introduction into them is
doubtless to be attributed to the connection of Gnosticism with certain of the
advanced degrees.
*
EONS, RITE OF THE
Ragon (Juilleur General, a
handbook of the Degrees, page 186) describes this rite as one full of
beautiful and learned instruction, but scarcely known, and practiced only in
Asia, being founded on the religious dogmas of Zoroaster. The existence of it
as a genuine rite is doubtful, for Ragon's information is very meager.
*
EOSTRE
Easter, the usual word in
French is Pâque, a name given to the day when the resurrection of Christ is
celebrated by a festival, in the spring of the year. Sometimes called the
Paschal Festival but paschal refers to the Jewish Passover as well as the
Christian Easter.
*
EPHOD
The sacred vestment worn by
the high priest of the Jews over the tunic and outer garment. It was without
sleeves, and divided below the arm pits into two parts or halves, one falling
before and the other behind, and both reaching to the middle of the thighs.
They were joined above on the shoulders by buckles and two large precious
stones, on which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes, six on each.
The ephod was a distinctive
mark of the priesthood. It was of two kinds, one of plain linen for the
priests, and another, richer and embroidered, for the high priest, which was
composed of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen. The robe worn by the High
Priest or First Principal in a Royal Arch Chapter is intended to be a
representation, but hardly can be called an imitation, of the ephod.
*
EPHRAIMITES
The descendants of Ephraim.
They inhabited the center of Judea between the Mediterranean and the river
Jordan. The character given to them in a certain degree of being a stiff
necked and rebellious people, coincides with history which describes them as
haughty, tenacious to a fault of their rights, and ever ready to resist the
pretensions of the other tribes, and more especially that of Judah, of which
they were peculiarly jealous. The circumstance in their history which has been
appropriated for a symbolic purpose in the ceremonies of the Second Degree of
Freemasonry, may be briefly related thus. The Ammonites, who were the
descendants of the younger son of Lot, and inhabited a tract of country east
of the river Jordan, had been always engaged in hostility against the
Israelites. On the occasion referred to, they had commenced a war on the
pretext that the Israelites had deprived them of a portion of their territory.
Jephthah, having been called by the Israelites to the head of their army,
defeated the Ammonites, but had not called upon the Ephraimites to assist in
the victory.
Hence, that high-spirited
people were incensed, and more especially as they had no share in the rich
spoils obtained by Jephthah from the Ammonites.
They accordingly gave him
battle, but were defeated with great slaughter by the Gileadites, or
countrymen of Jephthah, with whom alone he resisted their attack. As the land
of Gilead, the residence of Jephthah, was on the west side of the Jordan, and
as the Ephraimites lived on the east side, in making their invasion it was
necessary that they should cross the river, and after their defeat, in
attempting to effect a retreat to their own country, they were compelled to
recross the river. But Jephthah, aware of this, had placed forces at the
different fords of the river, who intercepted the Ephraimites, and detected
their nationality by a peculiar defect in their pronunciation. For although
the Ephraimites did not speak a dialect different from that of the other
tribes, they had a different pronunciation of some words and an inability to
pronounce the letter r or sh, which they pronounced as if it were D or s.
Thus, when called upon to say Shibboleth, they pronounced it Sibboleth, "which
trifling defect," as we are told, "proved them to be enemies." The test to a
Hebrew was a palpable one, for the two words have an entirely different
signification; shibboleth meaning an ear of corn, and sibboleth, a burden. The
biblical relation will be found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Judges
(see Shibboleth).
*
EPOCH
In chronology, a certain point
of time marked by some memorable event at which the calculation of years
begins. The various peoples have different epochs or epocha. Thus, the epoch
of Christians is the birth of Christ; that of Jews, the creation of the world;
and that of Mohammedans, the flight of their prophet from Mecca (see
Calendar).
*
EPOPT
This was the name given to one
who had passed through the Great Mysteries, and been permitted to behold what
was concealed from the mystoe, who had only been initiated into the Lesser. It
signifies an eye-untness, and is derived from the Greek, esoofax, to look
over, to behold. The epopts repeated the oath of secrecy which had been
administered to them on their initiation into the Lesser Mysteries, and were
then conducted into the lighted interior of the sanctuary and permitted to
behold what the Greeks emphatically termed the sight, abrofta. The epopts
alone were admitted to the sanctuary, for the mystae were confined to the
vestibule of the temple. The epopts were, in fact, the Master Masons of the
Mysteries, while the mystae were the Apprentices and Fellow Crafts; these
words being used, of course, only in a comparative sense.
*
EPREMENIL, JEAN JACQUES DUVAL
D'
Surname sometimes spelled
Esprémesnil, also Eprémesnil. French magistrate. Born at Pondicherry, India,
December 5, 1745; educated at Paris; member of French Parliament, he
vigorously defended its rights against royalty and was imprisoned on the
Island of Saint Marguerite for four months. Brother Amiable says he was there
a year. He returned to Paris a popular hero but on being chosen first deputy
by the nobility he defended monarchy and the rising tide of revolution
engulfed him.
Publicly attacked by a mob,
wounded seriously, rescued by the National Guard, he escaped to his property
near Havre. He was arrested there, condemned to death by the revolutionary
tribunal at Paris, and was guillotined on April 22, 1794. He was a member of
the Lodge of the Nine Sisters at Paris, his name being on the calendar for
1788 where he ranked as the Deputy of the Lodge (see Une Loge Magonnique d'
AvanX 1789, Louis Amiable, Paris, 1897, page 268).
*
EQUALITY
Among the ancient
iconologists, students of likenesses, equality was symbolized by a female
figure holding in one hand a pair of scales equipoised and in the other a nest
of swallows. The moderns have substituted a level for the scales. And this is
the Masonic idea. In Freemasonry, the level is the symbol of that equality
which, as Godfrey Higgins (.Anacalypsis i, 790) says, is the very essence of
Freemasonry. "All, let their rank in life be what it may, when in the Lodge
are brothers—brethren with the Father at their head. No person can read the
Evangelists and not see that this is correctly Gospel Christianity."
*
EQUERRY
An officer in various royal
courts who has the charge of horses. For some now unknown reason the title has
been introduced into certain of the advanced degrees.
*
EQUES.
A Latin word signifying
knight. Every member of the Rite of Strict Observance, on attaining to the
seventh or highest degree, received what has been termed a characteristic
name, which was formed in Latin by the addition of a noun in the ablative
case, governed by the preposition a or ab, to the word Eques, as Eques à
Serpente, or Knight of the Serpent, Eques ab Aquila, or Knight of the Eagle,
etc., and by this name he was ever afterward known in the Order.
Thus Bode, one of the founders
of the Rite, was recognized as Eques à Lilio Convallium, or Knight of the
icily of the Valleys, and the Baron Hund, another founder, as Eques ab Ense,
or Knight of the Sword. A similar custom prevailed among the Illuminati and in
the Royal Order of Scotland. Eques signified among the Romans a knight, but in
the Middle Ages the knight was called miles; although the Latin word mites
denoted only a soldier, yet, by the usage of chivalry, it received the nobler
signification. Indeed, NIuratori says, on the authority of an old inscription,
that Eques was inferior in dignity to Miles (see Miles).
*
EQUES PROFESSUS
A Latin expression for
Professed Rnight. The seventh and last degree of the Rite of Strict
Observance. This ceremony was added, it is said, to the original series by Von
Hund.
*
EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE
See Triangle
*
EQUITY
The equipoised balance, an
instrument for weighing, is an ancient symbol of equity. On the medals, this
virtue is represented by a female holding in the right hand a balance, and in
the left a measuring wand, to indicate that she gives to each one his just
measure. In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the thirty-first Degree,
or Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander, is illustrative of the virtue of
equity; and hence the balance is a prominent symbol of that degree, as it is
also of the Sixteenth Degree, or Princes of Jerusalem, because according to
the old books, the members were Chiefs in Freemasonry, and administered
justice to the inferior degrees.
*
EQUIVOCATION
Derived from two Latin words
meaning equal and voice, and indicating doubtful interpretation, something
most questionable. To equivocate is to say something with the intention to
deceive. The words of the covenant of Freemasonry require that it should be
made without evasion, equivocation or mental reservation. This is exactly in
accordance with the law of ethics in relation to promises made.
And it properly applies in
this case, because the covenant, as it is called, is simply a promise, or
series of promises, made by the candidate to the Fraternity to the Brotherhood
into whose association he is about to be admitted. In making a promise, an
evasion is the eluding or avoiding the terms of the promise; and this is done,
or attempted to be done, by equivocation, which is by giving to the words used
a secret signification, different from that which they were intended to convey
by him who imposed the promise, so as to mislead, or by a mental reservation,
which is a concealment or withholding in the mind of the promiser of certain
conditions under which he makes it, which conditions are not known to the one
to whom the promise is made.
All of this is in direct
violation of the law of veracity. The doctrine of the Jesuits is very
different. Suarez, one of their most distinguished casuists, lays it down as
good law, that if any one makes a promise or contract, he may secretly
understand that he does not sincerely promise, or that he promises without any
intention of fulfilling the promise. This is not the rule of Freemasonry,
which requires that the words of the covenant be taken in the patent sense
which they were intended by the ordinary use of language to convey. It adheres
to the true rule of ethics, which is, as Paley says, that a promise is binding
in the sense in which the promiser supposed the promisee to receive it (see
Mental Reservation).
*
ERANOI
Among the ancient Greeks there
were friendly societies, whose object was, like the modern Masonic Lodges, to
relieve the distresses of their necessitous members. They were permanently
organized, and had a common fund by the voluntary contributions of the
members. If a member was reduced to poverty, or was in temporary distress for
money, he applied to the eranos, and, if worthy, received the necessary
assistance, which was, however, advanced rather as a loan than a gift, and the
amount was to be returned when the recipient was in better circumstances. In
the days of the Roman Empire these friendly societies were frequent among the
Greek cities, and were looked on with suspicion by the emperors, as tending to
political combinations. Smith says (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
that the Anglo-Saxon gilds, or fraternities for mutual aid, resembled the
eranoi of the Greeks. In their spirit, these Grecian confraternities partook
more of the Masonic character, as charitable associations, than of the modern
friendly societies, where relief is based on a system of mutual insurance; for
the assistance was given only to cases of actual need, and did not depend on
any calculation of natural contingencies.
*
ERECTING LODGES
To erect a Lodge is the
authorized and time-honored formula to denote the foundation of a new Lodge of
Freemasons. It is so employed in the earliest Lodge Charters, or Warrants, as
they are styled nowadays, ever issued by any Grand Lodge. The very first of
them opens as follows: whereas our Trusted and Well-Beloved Brothers have
besought us that we would be pleased to Erect a Lodge off tree Masons, etc.,
etc.
This is in the Warrant of
Lodge No. 1, Grand Lodge of Ireland, February 1, 1731-2. Thus sanctioned by
authority, and approved by usage, the phrase held the field among
English-speaking Freemasons at home and abroad during the half century that
preceded the Union of 1813, and still remains a constitutional formula among
Grand Lodges that derive their powers from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, or from
its step-daughter, the Grand Lodge of the Ancient. In view of such
unfamiliarity with the documents that embody the history of our organization,
it is well to bear in mind that in 1748 there were no Lodge Charters in
existence, save those issued under the seal of the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
Several years had to elapse before the Irish practice, now so universal, was
followed by the Grand Lodge of England.
These comments were made by
Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley, 1901 (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge,
volume xiv, page 15).
*
ERI, ROYAL ORDER OF
The legendary founder in 1695
B.C. of this organization comprising Freemasons only, was Eremon, King of
Ulster, Ireland, and the Order is reputed to have ceased its military
activities sometime about 1649 to 1659 A.D.
An ancient book Annals of the
Four Masters of Ireland, tells of the Knights of the Collar of Eri as
instituted by King Eamhuin and his eight princes, the chiefs of the armies of
the four provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught. Headquarters
were at the city of Armagh, where a palace and royal court existed until
destroyed by fire in 332 A.D. The palace of the early kings of Ireland and the
Great Hall of the Knights were then located at Tara in the County Meath, with
a military hospital, named Bronbheagor or House of the Sorrowful Soldier, and
a famous college, a noted seat of Celtic learning.
This ancient Order comprised
knights and teachers, the Ollamhs, Brehons or judges, Crimtears or
priest-astronomers, and Bards, poets and musicians. The modern ceremonies
include the grades in order of Man-at-Arms, Esquire, and Knight, Knights
Commanders, who are chosen by the Knights Grand Cross, and the latter selected
by the Senior Grand Cross who represents the Sovereign, for whom an empty
chair is placed at every Assembly. The latter is called the Faslairt, or Camp,
and represents a green field. The General Assembly is termed the Foleith.
*
ERICA
The Egyptians selected the
erica as a sacred plant.
The origin of the consecration
of this plant will be peculiarly interesting to the Masonic student
There was a legend in the mysteries of Osiris, which related that Isis, when
in search of the body of her murdered husband, discovered it interred at the
brow of a hill near which an erica grew; and hence, after the recovery of the
body and the resurrection of the god, when she established the mysteries to
commemorate her loss and her recovery, she adopted the erica as a sacred
plant, in memory of its having pointed out the spot where the mangled remains
of Osiris were concealed
Ragon (Cours des Initiations, page 151) thus alludes to this mystical event:
Isis found the body of Osiris
in the neighborhood of Biblos, and near a tall plant called the Erica.
Oppressed with grief, she seated herself on the margin of a fountain whose
waters issued from a rock.
This rock is the small hit! familiar to Freemasons; the Ertca has been
replaced by the Acacza. and the grief of Isis has been changed for that of the
Fellow Craits.
The lexicographers define
ApeA77 as the heath or heather; but it is really, as Plutarch asserts, the
tamarisk tree; and Schwenk tDie Mythologie der Semiten, The Semitic Mythology,
relating to the Assyrians, Arameans, Hebraeo-Phenicians, Arabs and
Abyssinians, page 248) says that Phyloe, so renowned among the ancients as one
of the burial places of Osiris, and among the moderns for its wealth of
architectural remains, contains monuments in which the grave of Osiris is
overshadowed by the tamarisk.
*
ERITREA
This country is on the western
shores of the Red Sea, and on the northeastern coast of Africa, between Egypt
and Abyssinia. The Grand Orient off Italy instituted one Lodge in this country
at Asmara.
*
ERLKING
A name found in one of the
sacred sagas of the Scandinavian mythology, entitled Sir Olaf and the
Erlking's Daughter, and applied to the mischievous goblin haunting the black
forest of Thuringia.
*
ERNEST AND FALK
More fully in German, Ernst
und Falk, Gesprache .fur Frei1naurer, meaning "Ernest and Falk. Conversations
for Freemasons," is the title of a work written by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing,
and first published in 1778. Ernest is an inquirer, and Falk a Freemason, who
gives to his interlocutor a very philosophical idea of the character, aims,
and objects of the Institution. The work has been faithfully translated by
Brother Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, F.S.A., in the London Freemasons Quarterly
Magazine, in 1854, and continued and finished, so far as the author had
completed it, in the London Freemason in 1872. Findel says ( History of
Freemasonry, page 373) of this work, that it "is one of the best things that
has ever been written upon Freemasonry." A translation of it also appeared in
the Builder (1915, volume i, pages 20 and 59), by Brother Louis Block, P. G.
M. of Iowa.
*
ERWIN VON STEINBACH
A distinguished German, who
was born, as his name imports, at Steinbach, near Buhl, about the middle of
the thirteenth century. He was the master of the works at the Cathedral of
Strasburg, the tower of which he commenced in 1275. He finished the tower and
doorway before his death, which was in 1318. He was at the head of the German
Fraternity of Stonemasons, who were the precursors of the modern Freemasons
(see Strasburg).
*
ESOTERIC MASONRY
That secret portion of
Freemasonry which is known only to the initiates as distinguished from
Esoteric Freemasonry, or monitorial, which is accessible to all who choose to
read the manuals and published works of the Order.
The words are from the Greek,
bxreptzAs, internal, and rKeptK85, external, and were first used by
Pythagoras, whose philosophy was divided into the exoteric, or that taught to
all, and the esoteric, or that taught to a select few; and thus his disciples
were divided into two classes, according to the Degree of initiation to which
they had attained, as being either fully admitted into the society, and
invested with all the knowledge that the Master could communicate, or as
merely postulants, enjoying only the public instructions of the school, and
awaiting the gradual reception of further knowledge. This double mode of
instruction was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests, whose
theology was of two kinds—the one exoteric, and addressed to the people in
general; the other esoteric, and confined to a select number of the priests
and to those who possessed, or were to possess, the regal power.
And the mystical nature of
this concealed doctrine was expressed in their symbolic language by the images
of sphinxes placed at the entrance of their temples. Two centuries later,
Aristotle adopted the system of Pythagoras, and, in the Lyceum at Athens,
delivered in the morning to his select disciples his subtle and concealed
doctrines concerning God, Nature, and Life, and in the evening lectures on
more elementary subjects to a promiscuous audience. These different lectures
he called his Morning and his Evening Walk.
*
ESPERANCE
Under the name of Cheualiers
et Dames de l'Esperance, a French expression meaning Knights and Lazifes of
Hope, was founded first in France, and subsequently and androgynous, both
sexes, order in Germany. It is said to have been instituted by Louis XV, at
the request of the Marquis de Chatelet, and was active about 1750. The Lodge
Irene, at Hamburg, was founded in 1757.
*
ESSENES
Lawrie, in his History of
Freemasonry, in replying to the objection, that if the Fraternity of
Freemasons had flourished during the reign of Solomon, it would have existed
in Judea in after ages, attempts to meet the argument by showing that there
did exist, after the building of the Temple, an association of men resembling
Freemasons in the nature, ceremonies, and object of their institution (see his
page 33). The association to which he here alludes is that of the Essenes,
whom he subsequently describes as an ancient Fraternity originating from an
association of architects who were connected with the building of Solomon's
Temple.
Lawrie evidently seeks to
connect historically the Essenes with the Freemasons, and to impress his
readers with the identity of the two Institutions. Brother Mackey was not
prepared to go so far; but there is such a similarity between the two, and
such remarkable coincidences in many of their usages, as to render this Jewish
sect an interesting study to every Freemason, to whom therefore some account
of the usages and doctrines of this holy brotherhood will not, perhaps, be
unacceptable.
At the time of the advent of
Jesus Christ, there were three religious sects in Judea—the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, and the Essenes; and to one of these seets every Jew was compelled
to unite himself. The Savior has been supposed by many writers to have been an
Essene, because, while repeatedly denouncing the errors of the two other
sects, he has nowhere uttered a word of censure against the Essenes; and
because, also, many of the precepts of the New Testament are to be found among
the laws of this sect.
In ancient authors, such as
Josephus, Philo, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Pliny, who have had occasion to refer
to the subject, the notices of this singular sect have been so brief and
unsatisfactory, that modern writers have found great difficulty in properly
understanding the true character of Essenism. And yet our antiquaries, never
weary of the task of investigation, have at length, succeeded in eliciting,
from the collation of all that has been previously written on the subject,
very correct details of the doctrines and practices of the Essenes. Of these
writers none have been more successful than the laborious German cities
Frankel and Rappaport. Their investigations have been ably and thoroughly
condensed by Dr. Christian D. Ginsburg, whose essay on The Essenes, their
History and Doctrines, published at London in 1864, has supplied the most
material facts contained in the present article.
It is impossible to ascertain
the precise date of the development of Essenism as a distinct organization.
The old writers are so exaggerated in their statements, that they are worth
nothing as historical authorities. Philo says, for instance, that Moses
himself instituted the order, and Josephus that it existed ever since the
ancient time of the Fathers; while Pliny asserts, with mythical liberality,
that it has continued for thousands of ages. Doctor Ginsburg thinks that
Essenism was a gradual development of the prevalent religious notions out of
Judaism, a theory which Doctor Döllinger repudiates.
But Rappaport, who was a
learned Jew, thoroughly conversant with the Talmud and other Hebrew writings,
and who is hence called by Ginsburg the Corypheus (meaning Leader or Chief,
from the Latin and Greek) of Jewish critics, asserts that the Essenes were not
a distinct sect, in the strict sense of the word, but simply an order of
Judaism, and that there never was a rupture between them and the rest of the
Jewish community. This theory is sustained by Frankel, a scholarly German, who
maintains that the Essenes were simply an intensification of the Pharisaic
sect, and that they were the same as the Chasidim, whom Lawrie calls the
Rasstdeans, and of whom he speaks as the guardians of King Solomon's Temple.
If this view be the correct
one, and there is no good reason to doubt it, then there will be another
feature of resemblance and coincidence between the Freemasons and the Essenes;
for, as the latter was not a religious sect, but merely a development of
Judaism, an order of Jews entertaining no heterodox opinions, but simply
carrying out the religious dogmas of their faith with an unusual strictness of
observance, so are the Freemasons not a religious sect, but simply a
development of the religious idea of the age.
The difference, however, in
Brother Mackey's opinion, between Freemasonry and Essenism lies in the spirit
of universal tolerance prominent in the one and absent in the other.
Freemasonry is Christian as to its membership in general, but recognizing and
tolerating in its bosom all other religions: Essenism, on the contrary, was
exclusively and intensely Jewish in its membership, its usages, and its
doctrines. The Essenes are first mentioned by Josephus as existing in the days
of Jonathan the Maccabean, one hundred and sixty-six years before Christ. The
Jewish historian repeatedly speaks of them at subsequent periods; and there is
no doubt that they constituted one of the three sects which divided the Jewish
religious world at the advent of our Savior, and of this sect he is supposed,
as has been already said, to have been a member.
On this subject, Ginsburg
says: "Jesus, who in all things conformed to the Jewish law, and who was holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, would, therefore, naturally
associate himself with that order of Judaism which was most congenial to his
holy nature. Moreover, the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was
not heard of in public till his thirtieth year, implying that he lived in
seclusion with this Fraternity, and that, though he frequently rebuked the
Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly
confirms this decision." But he admits that Christ neither adopted nor
preached their extreme doctrines of asceticism. After the establishment of
Christianity, the Essenes fade out of notice, and it has been supposed that
they were among the earliest converts to the new faith. Indeed, De Quincey
rather paradoxically asserts that they were a disguised portion of the early
Christians.
The etymology of the word has
not been settled. E et, among the contending opinions, the preferable one
seems to be that it is derived from the Hebrew Chasid meaning holy out which
connects the Essenes with the Chasidim, a sect which preceded them, and of
whom Lawrie says, quoting from Scaliger, that they were "an order of the
Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, who bound themselves to adorn the porches
of that magnificent structure, and to preserve it from injury and decay" (see
LanTie's History of Freemasonry, page 38).
The Essenes were so strict in
the observance of the Mosaic laws of purity, that they were compelled for the
purpose of avoiding contamination, to withdraw altogether from the rest of the
Jewish nation and to form a separate community, which thus became a
brotherhood. The same scruples which led them to withdraw from their less
strict Jewish Brethren induced most of them to abstain from marriage, and
hence the unavoidable depletion of their membership by death could only be
repaired by the initiation of converts.
They had a common treasury, in
which was deposited whatever anyone of them possessed, and from this the wants
of the whole community were supplied by stewards appointed by the brotherhood,
so that they had everything in common. Hence there was no distinction among
them of rich and poor, or masters and servants; but the only gradation of rank
which they recognized was derived from the Degrees or orders into which the
members were divided, and which depended on holiness alone. They lived
peaceably with all men, reprobated slavery and war, and would not even
manufacture any warlike instruments. They were governed by a president, who
was elected by the whole community; and members who had violated their rules
were, after due trial, excommunicated or expelled.
As they held no communication
outside of their own fraternity, they had to raise their own supplies, and
some were engaged in tilling, some in tending flocks, others in making
clothing, and others in preparing food They got up before sunrise, and, after
singing a hymn of praise for the return of light, which they did with their
faces turned to the East, each one repaired to his appropriate task. At the
fifth hour, or eleven in the forenoon, the morning labor terminated. The
Brethren then again assembled, and after a lustration in cold water, they put
on white garments and proceeded to the refectory, where they partook of the
common meal, which was always of the most frugal character. A mysterious
silence was observed during this meal, which, to Some extent, had the
character of a sacrament. The feast being ended, and the priest having
returned thanks, the Brethren withdrew and put off their white garments,
resumed their working-clothes and their several employments until evening,
when they again assembled as before, to partake of a common meal.
They observed the Sabbath with
more than Judaic strictness, regarding even the removal of a vessel as a
desecration of the holy day. On that day, each took his seat in the synagogue
in becoming attire; and, as they had no ordained ministers, any one that liked
read out of the Scriptures, and another, experienced in spiritual matters,
expounded the passages that had been read. The distinctive ordinances of the
brotherhood and the mysteries connected with the Tetragrammaton and the
angelic worlds were the prominent topics of Sabbatical instruction. In
particular, did they pay attention to the mysteries connected with the
Tetragrammaton, or the Shem hamphorash, the Expository Name, and the other
names of God which plays so important a part in the mystical theosophy of the
Jewish Cabalists, a great deal of which has descended to the Freemasonry of
our own age.
Josephus describes them as
being distinguished for their brotherly love, and for their charity in helping
the needy, and showing mercy. He says that they are just dispensers of their
anger, curbers of their passions, representatives of fidelity, ministers of
peace, and every word with them is of more force than an oath.
They avoid taking an oath, and
regard it as worse than perjury; for they say that he who is not believed
without calling on God to witness, is already condemned of perjury. Josephus
also states that they studied with great assiduity the writings of the
ancients on distempers and their remedies, alluding, as it is supposed, to the
magical works imputed by the Talmudists to Solomon.
It has already been observed that, in consequence of the celibacy of the
Essenes, it was found necessary to recruit their ranks by the introduction of
converts, who were admitted by a solemn of initiation. The candidate, or
aspirant, was required to pass through a novitiate of two stages, which
extended over three years, before he was admitted to a full participation in
the privileges of the Order. Upon entering the first stage, which lasted for
twelve months, the novice cast all his possessions into the common treasury.
He then received a copy of the regulations of the brotherhood, and was
presented with a spade, and apron, and a white robe. The spade was employed to
bury excrement, the apron was used at the daily illustrations, and the white
robe was worn as a symbol of purity.
During all this period the
aspirant was considered as being outside the Order, and, although required to
observe some of the ascetic rules of the society, he was not admitted to the
common meal. At the end of the probationary year, the aspirant, if approved,
was advanced to the second stage, which lasted two years, and was then called
an Approacher. During this period he was permitted to unite with the Brethren
in their illustrations, but was not admitted to the common meal, nor to hold
any office. Should this second stage of probation be passed with approval, the
approacher became an Associate, and was admitted into full membership, and at
length allowed to partake of the common meal.
There was a third rank or
Degree called the Disciple or Companion, in which there was a still closer
union. Upon admission to this highest grade, the candidate was bound by a
solemn oath to love God, to be just to all men, to practice charity, maintain
truth, and to conceal the secrets of the society and the mysteries connected
with the Tetragrammaton and the other names of God. These three sections of
Degrees, of Aspirant, Associate and Companion, were subdivided into four
orders or ranks, distinguished from each other by different Degrees of
holiness; and so marked were these distinctions, that if one belonging to a
higher Degree of purity touched one of a lower order, he immediately became
impure, and could only regain his purity by a series of illustrations.
The earnestness and
determination of these Essenes says Ginsburg, to advance to the highest state
of holiness, were seen in their self-denying and godly life; and it may fairly
be questioned whether any religious system has ever produced such a community
of saints. Their absolute confidence in God and resignation to the dealings of
Providence; their uniformly holy and unselfish life; their unbounded love of
virtue and utter contempt for worldly fame, riches, and pleasures; their
industry, temperance, modesty, and simplicity of life; their contentment of
mind and cheerfulness of temper; their love of order, and abhorrence of even
the semblance of falsehood; their benevolence and philanthropy; their love for
the Brethren, and their following peace with all men; their hatred of slavery
and war; their tender regard for children, and reverence and anxious care for
the aged; their attendance on the sick, and readiness to relieve the
distressed; their humility and magnanirnity; their firmness of character and
power to subdue their passions; their heroic endurance under the most
agonizing sufferings for righteousness' sake; and their cheerfully looking
forward to death, as releasing their immortal souls from the bonds of the
body, to be forever in a state of bliss with their Creator,—have hardly found
a parallel in the history of mankind.
Lawrie, in his History of
Freemasonry, gives (see pages 34 and 35) on the authority of Pictet, of
Basnage, and of Philo, the following condensed recapitulation of what has been
said in the preceding pages of the usages of the Essences:
When a candidate was proposed
for admission the strictest scrutiny nas made into his character. If his life
had hitherto been exemplary and if he appeared capable of curbing his
passions, arid regulating his conduct. according to the virtuous, though
austere maxims of their Order, he was presented at the expiration of his
novitiate, with a white garment as an emblem of the regularity of his conduct
and the purity of his heart.
A solemn oath was then
administered to him, that he would never divulge the mysteries of the Order:
that he would make no innovations on the doctrines of the society and that he
would continue in that honorable course of piety and virtue which he had begun
to pursue. Like Frees masons they instructed the young member in the knowledge
which they derived from their ancestors They admitted no women into their
order. They had particular signs for recognizing each other, which have a
strong resemblance to those of Freemasons. They had colleges or places of
retirement, where they resorted to practice their rites and settle the affairs
of the society and, after the performance of these duties, they assembled in a
large hall, where an entertainment was provided for them by the president, or
master of the college who allotted a certain quantity of provisions to every
individual. They abolished all distinctions of rank and if preference was ever
given, it was given to piety, liberality, and virtue. Treasurers were
appointed in every town, to supply the wants of indigent strangers.
Dr. W. Wynn Westcott (page 72,
volume xxviu, 1915, Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge) takes exception to
Brother Lawrie's claim that the Essences "had particular signs for recognizing
each other, which have a strong resemblance to those of Freemasons." Brother
Westcott could find no such statement made either by Philo, Josephus, or
Pliny.
Lawrie thinks that this
remarkable coincidence between the chief features of the Masonic and Essenian
fraternities can be accounted for only by referring them to the same origin;
and, to sustain this view, he attempts to trace them to the Rasideans, or
Assideans, more properly the Chassidim, "an association of architects who were
connected with the building of Solomon's Temple " But, aside from the
consideration that there is no evidence that the Chassidirn were a Body of
architects for they were really a sect of Jewish puritans, who held the Temple
in especial honor—we cannot conclude, from a mere coincidence of doctrines and
usages, that the origin of the Essenes and the Freemasons is identical. Such a
course of reasoning would place the Pythagoreans in the same category: a
theory that has been rejected by the best modern critics.`
The truth appears to be that
the Essenes, the School of Pythagoras, and the Freemasons, derive their
similarity from the spirit of brotherhood which has prevailed in all ages of
the civilized world, the inherent principles of which, as the results of any
fraternity all the members of which are engaged in the same pursuit and
assenting to the same religious creed are brotherly love, charity, and that
secrecy which gives them their exclusiveness. And hence, between all
fraternities, ancient and modern, these remarkable coincidences will be found.
The intricate and most interesting aspect of the Essences as a monastic sort
of order within the pale of Judaism is examined in Hasting's Dictionary of the
Bible. Brother Dudley Wright considers this difficult angle of the subject in
his book Was Jesus an Esserze?
*
ES SELAMU ALEIKUM
See SeZamu Aleikum, Es: also Salaam
*
ESTHER
The Third Degree of the
American Adoptive Rite of the Eastern Star. It is also called the Wife's
Degree, and in its ceremonies comprises the history of Esther the wife and
queen of Ahasuerus, fling of Persia, as related in the Book of Esther.
*
ETERNAL LIFE
The doctrine of eternal life
is taught in the Master's Degree, as it was in the Ancient Mysteries of all
nations (see Immortality of the Soul).
*
ETERNITY
The ancient symbol of eternity
was a serpent in the form of a circle, the tail being placed in the mouth. The
simple circle, the figure which has neither beginning nor end, but returns
continually into itself, was also a symbol of eternity.
*
ETHANIM OR TISHRI
The seventh sacred month, or
the first month of the Hebrew civil year, commencing with the new moon in
September.
*
ETHICS OF FREEMASONRY
There is a Greek word, Sos,
ethos, which signifies custom, from which Aristotle derives another word Pros,
ethos, which means ethics; because, as he says, from the custom of doing good
acts arises the habit of moral virtue. Ethics, then, is the science of morals
teaching the theory and practice of all that is good in relation to God and to
man, to the state and the individual; it is, in short, to use the emphatic
expression of a German writer, "the science of the good." Ethics being thus
engaged in the inculcation of moral duties, there must be a standard of these
duties, an authoritative ground-principle on which they depend, a doctrine
that requires their performance, making certain acts just those that ought to
be done, and which, therefore, are duties, and that forbid the performance of
others which are therefore, offenses.
Ethics, therefore, as a
science, is divisible into several species, varying in name and character,
according to the foundation on which it is built.
Thus we have the Ethics of
Theology, which is founded on that science which teaches the nature and
attributes of God; and, as this forms a part of all religious systems, every
religion whether it be Christianity or Judaism, Brahmanism or Buddhism, or any
other form of recognized worship, has within its bosom a science of
theological ethics which teaches, according to the lights of that religion,
the duties which are incumbent on man from his relations to a Supreme Being.
And then we have the Ethics of Christianity, which being founded on the
Scriptures, recognized by Christians as the revealed will of God, is nothing
other than theological ethics applied to and limited by Christianity.
Then, again, we have the
Ethics of Philosophy, which is altogether speculative, and derived from and
founded on man's speculations concerning God and himself. There might be a
sect of philosophers who denied the existence of a Superintending Providence;
but it would still have a science of ethics referring to the relations of man
to man, although that system would be without strength, because it would have
no Divine sanction for its enforcement.
Lastly, we have the Ethics of
Freemasonry, whose character combines those of the three others. The first and
second systems in the series above enumerated are founded on religious dogmas;
the third on philosophical speculations. Now, as Freemasonry claims to be a
religion, in so far as it is founded on a recognition of the relations of man
and God, and a philosophy in so far as it is engaged in speculations on the
nature of man, as an immortal, social, and responsible being, the ethics of
Freemasonry will be both religious and philosophical.
The symbolism of Freemasonry,
which is its peculiar mode of instruction, inculcates all the duties which we
owe to God as being his children, and to men as being their Brethren. "There
is," says Doctor Oliver, "scarcely a point of duty or morality which man has
been presumed to owe to God, his neighbor, or himself, under the Patriarchal,
the Mosaic, or the Christian dispensation, which, in the construction of our
symbolical system, has been left untouched." Hence, he says, that these
symbols all unite to form "a code of moral and theological philosophy" the
term of which expression would have been better if he had called it a "code of
philosophical and theological ethics." At a very early period of his
initiation, the Freemason is instructed that he owes a threefold duty to God,
his neighbor, and himself—and the inculcation of these duties constitutes the
ethics of Freemasonry.
Now, the Tetragrammaton, the
letter G. and many other symbols of a like character, impressively inculcate
the lesson that there is a God in whom "we live, and move, and have our
being," and of whom the apostle, quoting from the Greek poet, tells us that
"we are His offspring." To Him, then, as the Universal Father, does the ethics
of Freemasonry teach us that we owe the duty of loving and obedient children.
And, then, the vast extent of
the Lodge, making the whole world the common home of all Freemasons, and the
temple, in which we all labor for the building up of our bodies as a spiritual
house, are significant symbols, which teach us that we are not only the
children of the Father, but fellow-workers, laboring together in the same task
and owing a common servitude to God as the Grand Architect of the universe
—the Algabil or Master Builder of the world and all that is therein; and thus
these symbols of a joint labor, for a joint purpose, tell us that there is a
brotherhood of man: to that brotherhood does the ethics of Freemasonry teach
us that we owe the duty of fraternal kindness in all its manifold phases.
And so we find that the ethics
of Freemasonry is really founded on the two great ideas of the universal
fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.
*
ETHIOPIA
A tract of country to the
south of Egypt, and watered by the upper Nile. The reference to Ethiopia,
familiar to Freemasons, as a place of attempted escape for certain criminals,
is not to be found in the English or French accounts, and Brother Mackey was
inclined to think that this addition to the Hiramic legend is an American
interpolation. The selection of Ethiopia, by the old authorities, as a place
of refuge, seems to be rather inappropriate when we consider what must have
been the character of that country in the age of Solomon.
*
ETYMOLOGY
For the etymology of the word
Masons see MaOcon, Derivation of the Word.
*
EUCLID
In the Year of the World,
3650, Anno Mundi, which was 646 years after the building of King Solomon's
Temple, Euclid, the celebrated geometrician, was born. His name has been
always associated with the history of Freemasonry, and in the reign of Ptolemy
Soter, the Order is said to have greatly flourished in Egypt, under his
auspices. The well-known forty-seventh problem of his first book, although not
discovered by him, but long credited to Pythagoras, has been adopted as a
symbol in Masonic instruction.
*
EUCLID, LEGEND OF
All the old manuscript
Constitutions contain the well known legend of Euclid, whose name is presented
to us as the Worthy Clerk Euclid in every conceivable variety of corrupted
form. The legend as given in the Dowland Manuscript is in the following words:
Moreover, when Abraham and
Sara his wife went into Egypt, there he taught the Seven Sciences to the
Egiptians and he had a worthy Scoller that height Ewelyde, and he learned
right well, and was a master of all the vij Sciences liberal. And in his days
it befell that the lord and the estates of the realms had so many sons that
they had gotten some by their wives and some by other ladies of the realm, for
that land is a hot land and a plenteous of generation. And they had not
competent livelode to find with their children; wherefore they made much care.
And then the King of the land made a great Counsel and aparllament to witt,
how they might find their children honestly as gentlemen; And they could find
no manner of good way And then they did cry through all the realms. if their
were any man that eould inform them, that he should come to them, and he
should be so awarded for his travail that he hold him pleased.
After that this cry was made,
then came this worthy Clarke Ewclyde and said to the King and to all his great
lords: If yee will, take me your children to govern, and to teach them one of
the Seven Scyences wherewith they may live honestly as gentlemen should, under
a condicion, that yee will grant me and them a commission that I may have
power to rule them after the manner that the science ought to be ruled. And
that the King and all his counsel granted to him alone, and sealed their
communion. And then this worthy Doctor took to him these lords' sons, and
taught them the science of Geometric in practice, for to work in stones all
manner of worthy works that belongeth to buildings churches temples, castles,
towers, and manors. and all other manner of buildings; and he gave them a
charge on this manner.
Here follow the usual
"charges" of a Freemason as given in all the old Constitutions; and then the
legend concludes with these words: "And thus was the science grounded there;
and that worthy Mr. Ewelyde gave it the name of Geo7netrie. And now it is
called through all this land Masonry" (see Brother Hughan's Old Charges,
edition of 1872, page 26).
This legend, considered
historically, is certainly absurd, and the anachronism which makes Euclid the
contemporary of Abraham adds, if possible, to the absurdity. But interpreted
as all Masonic legends should be interpreted, as merely intended to convey a
Masonic truth in symbolic language, it loses its absurdity, and becomes
invested with an importance that we should not otherwise attach to it.
Euclid is here very
appropriately used as a type of geometry, that science of which he was so
eminent a teacher; and the myth or legend then symbolizes the fact that there
was in Egypt a close connection between that science and the great moral and
religious system which was among the Egyptians, as well as other ancient
nations, what Freemasonry is at the present day—a secret institution,
established for the inculcation of the same principles, and inculcating them
in the same symbolic manner. So interpreted this legend corresponds to all the
developments of Egyptian history, which teach us how close a connection
existed in that country between the religious and scientific systems. Thus
Kenrick (Ancient egypt i, 383) tells us that "when we read of foreigners in
Egypt being obliged to submit to painful and tedious ceremonies of initiation,
it was not that they might learn the secret meaning of the rites of Osiris or
Isis but that they might partake of the knowledge of astronomy, physic,
geometry, and theology." The legend of Euclid belongs to that class of
narrations which, in another work, Doctor Mackey calls The Mythical Symbols of
Freemasonry.
*
EULOGY
Spoken or written praise of a
person's life or character. Freemasonry delights to do honor to the memory of
departed Brethren by the delivery of eulogies of their worth and merit, which
are either delivered at the time of their burial, or at some future period.
The eulogy forms the most important part of the ceremonies of a Sorrow Lodge.
But the language of the eulogist should be restrained within certain limits;
while the veil of charity should be thrown over the frailties of the deceased,
the praise of his virtues should not be expressed with exaggerated adulation,
slavish flattery Eulogy, just and affectionate is one thing; panegyric,
suggesting hypocritical compliment, is something else.
*
EUMOLPUS
A king of Eleusis, who
founded, about the year 1374 B.C., the Mysteries of Eleusis. His descendants,
the Eumoipidae, presided for twelve hundred years over these Mysteries as
Hierophants.
*
EUNUCH
It is usual, in the most
correct Masonic instruction, especially to name eunuchs as being incapable of
initiation. In none of the old Constitutions and Charges is this class of
persons alluded to by name, although of course they are comprehended in the
general prohibition against making Freemasons of persons who have any blemish
or maim. However, in the Charges which were published by Doctor Anderson, in
his second edition (see Constitution, 1738, page 144) they are included in the
list of prohibited candidates. It is probable from this evidence that at the
time it was usual to name them in the point of obligation above referred to;
and this presumption derives strength from the fact that Dermott, in copying
his Charges from those of Anderson's second edition, added a note complaining
of the Moderns for having disregarded this ancient law, in at least one
instance (see Brother Lawrence Dermott's Ahiman Rezon, edition of 1778). The
question is, however, not worth discussion, except as a matter of interest in
the history of our ceremonies, since the legal principle is already determined
that eunuchs cannot be initiated because they are not perfect men, "having no
maim ox defect in their bodies."
*
EUPHRATES
One of the largest and most
celebrated rivers of Asia. Rising in the mountains of Armenia and flowing into
the Persian gulf, it necessarily lies between Jerusalem and Babylon. In the
advanced degrees it is referred to as the stream over which the Knights of the
East won a passage by their arms in returning from Babylon to Jerusalem.
*
EURESIS
From the Greeli, xxpfatS,
meaning a discovery. That part of the initiation in the Ancient Masteries
which represented the finding of the body of the god or hero whose death and
resurrection was the subject of the initiation. The Euresis has been adopted
in Freemasonry, and forms an essential incident of Craft instruction.
*
EUROPE
An appellation or name at
times given to the west end of the Lodge.
*
EVA
The acclamation or cry used in
the French Rite of Adoption.
*
EVANGELICON
The gospel belonging to the
so-called Ordre du Temple at Paris, and professedly a relic of the real
Templars. Some believe in its antiquity; but others, from external and
internal evidence, fix its date subsequent to the fifteenth century. It is
apparently a garbled version of Saint John's Gospel. It is sometimes
confounded with the Leviticon but, though bound up in the same printed volume,
it is entirely distinct.
*
EVANGELIST
See Saint John the Evangelist.
*
EVATES
The second Degree in the
Druidical system. Of the three Degrees the first was the Bards, the second
Evates or Prophets, and the third Druids or Sanctified Authorities.
*
EVEILLES, SECTE DES
Meaning in French, Sect of the
Enlightened. According to Thory (Acta Latomorum i, 31?) a society presumed to
be a branch of Weishaupt's Illumines that existed in Italy.
*
EVERGETEN, BUND DER
A German expression meaning
League of Doers of Good, a term taken from the Greek word fVfpefmS, a
benefactor. A secret order after the manner of the Illuminati. It was founded
in Silesia about 1792, by a certain Zerboni of Glogau, Lieut. von Leipzinger,
the merchant Contessa, Herr von Reibnitz, and five others; that Fessler worked
in it- that it used Masonic forms. Some of the members were imprisoned at
Breslau in 1796, and about 1801 the society became defunct.
*
EVERGREEN
An evergreen plant is a symbol
of the immortality of the soul. The ancients, therefore, as well as the
moderns, planted evergreens at the heads of graves. Freemasons wear evergreens
at the funerals of their Brethren, and cast them into the graves. The acacia
is the plant which should be used on these occasions, but w here it cannot be
obtained, some other evergreen plant, especially the cedar, or box, is used as
a substitute (see Acacia).
*
EVORA, KNIGHTS OF
There is a very ancient city
in Portugal, of 1200 population, bearing the name of Evora. Quintus Sertorius
took it 80 B.C. The Roman antiquities are unrivaled. The aqueduct erected by
Sertorius has at one end a marvelous architectural tower rising high above the
city, perfect in its condition as when built, 70 B.C. In 1147, King Alfonso I,
of Portugal, instituted the Order of the New Militia in consequence of the
prowess exhibited by the troops in the siege of Lisbon against the Moors. When
they conquered Evora in 1166, the king by decree changed their name to Knights
of Evora.
*
EXALTED
A candidate is said to be
exalted, when he receives the Degree of Holy Royal Arch, the seventh in
American Freemasonry. Exalted means elevated or lifted up, and is applicable
both to a peculiar ceremony of the Degree, and to the fact that this Degree,
in the Rite in which it is practiced, constitutes the summit of ancient
Freemasonry.
The rising of the sun of
spring from his wintry sleep into the glory of the vernal equinox was called
by the old sun-worshipers his exaltation; and the Fathers of the Church
afterward applied the same term to the resurrection of Christ. Saint
Athanasius says that by the expression, "God hath exalted him," Saint Paul
meant the resurrection. Exaltation, therefore, technically means a rising from
a lower to a higher sphere, and in Royal Arch Masonry may be supposed to refer
to the being lifted up out of the first temple of this life into the second
temple of the future life. The candidate is raised in the Master's Degree, he
is e:rmalted in the Royal Arch. In both the sit embolic idea is the same.
*
EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES
It is an almost universal rule
of the modern Constitutions of Freemasonry, that an examination upon the
subjects which had been taught in the preceding Degree shall be required of
every Brother who is desirous of receiving a further Degree; and it is
directed that this examination shall take place in an open Lodge of the Degree
upon which the examination is made, that all the members present may have an
opportunity of judging from actual inspection of the proficiency and fitness
of the candidate for the advancement to which he aspires.
The necessity of an adequate
comprehension of the mysteries of one Degree, before any attempt is made to
acquire a further one, seems to have been duly appreciated from the earliest
times; and hence the 13th Article of the Regius Manuscript requires that if a
Master has an Apprentice he shall teach him fully, that he may know his Craft
ably wherever he may go. (see lines 239 to 244). But there is no evidence that
the system of examining candidates as to their proficiency, before their
advancement, is other than a modern improvement, and first adopted not very
early in the last century.
*
EXAMINATION OF THE BALLOT BOX
This is sometimes done after
the ballot for a candidate, by presenting the box first to the Junior Warden,
then to the Senior, and lastly to the Master, each of whom proclaims the
result as dear or foul. This order is adopted so that the declaration of the
inferior officer, as to the state of the ballots, may be confirmed and
substantiated by his superior.
*
EXAMINATION OF VISITORS
The due examination of
strangers who claim the right to visit, should be entrusted only to the most
skillful and prudent Brethren of the Lodge. And the examining committee should
never forget, that no man applying for admission is to be considered as a
Freemason, however strong may be his recommendations, until by undeniable
evidence he has proved himself to be such. All the necessary forms and
antecedent cautions should be observed. Inquiries should be made as to the
time and place of initiation, as a preliminary step the Tiler's pledge, of
course, never being omitted.
Then remember the good old rule of "commencing at the beginning." Let
everything proceed in regular course, not varying in the slightest degree from
the order in which it is to be supposed that the information sought was
originally received. Whatever be the suspicions of imposture, let no
expression of those suspicions be made until the final decree for rejection is
uttered. And let that decree be uttered in general terms, such as, "I am not
satisfied," or "I do not recognize you," and not in more specific language,
such as, "You did not answer this inquiry," or thou are ignorant on that
point," The candidate for examination is only entitled to know that he has not
complied generally with the requisitions of his examiner. To descend to
particulars is always improper and often dangerous.
Above all, never ask what the
lawyers call leading questions, which include in themselves the answers, nor
in any manner aid the memory or prompt the forgetfulness of the party
examined, by the slightest hints. If he has it in him it will come out without
assistance, and if he has it not, he is clearly entitled to no aid. The
Freemason who is so unmindful of his obligations as to have forgotten the
instructions he has received, must pay the penalty of his carelessness, and be
deprived of his contemplated visit to that society whose secret modes of
recognition he has so little valued as not to have treasured them in his
memory.
And, lastly, never should an
unjustifiable delicacy weaken the rigor of these rules. Remember, that for the
wisest and most evident reasons, the merciful maxim of the law, which says
that it is better that ninety-nine guilty men should escape than that one
innocent man should be punished, is with us reversed, and that in Freemasonry
it is better that ninety anal nine true men should be turned away from the
door of a Lodge than that one cowan should be admitted.
*
EXCALIBAR
King Arthur's famous sword,
which he withdrew from a miraculous stone after the unavailing efforts of 200
of his most puissant barons. Hence, Arthur was proclaimed King. When dying,
Arthur commanded a servant to throw the sword into a neighboring lake, but the
servant twice eluded this command. When he finally complied, a hand and arm
arose from the water, seized the sword by the hilt, waved it thrice, then
sinking into the lake, was seen no more.
*
EXCAVATIONS
Excavations beneath Jerusalem
have for years past been in progress, under the direction of the English
society, which controls the "Palestine Exploration Fund," and many important
discoveries, especially interesting to Freemasons, have been made.
*
EXCELLENT
A title conferred on the Grand
Captain of the Host, and Grand Principal Sojourner of a Grand Chapter, and on
the King and Scribe of a subordinate Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in America.
*
EXCELLENT MASONS
Doctor Oliver ( Historical
Landmarks I, 420-8) gives a tradition that at the building of Solomon's Temple
there were several Lodges of Excellent Masons, having nine members in each,
which were distributed as follows: six Lodges, or fifty-four Excellent Masons
in the quarries; three Lodges, or twenty-seven Excellent Masons in the forest
of Lebanon; eight Lodges, or seventy-two Excellent Masons engaged in preparing
the materials; and nine Lodges, or eighty-one Excellent Masons subsequently
employed in building the Temple. Of this tradition there is not the lightest
support in authentic history, and it must have been invented altogether for 3
symbolic purpose, in reference perhaps to the musical numbers which it
details.
*
EXCELLENT MASTER
A Degree which, with that of
Super-Excellent blaster, was at one time given as preparatory to the Royal
Arch. The latter Degree nova forms part of what is known as Cryptic Masonry.
Crypt is a word from the Latin language as well as the Greek, meaning hidden,
and frequently applied to a vault or secret chamber.
*
EXCELLENT, MOST
See Most Excellent
*
EXCELLENT, RIGH
See Right Excellent
*
EXCELLENT, SUPER
See Super-Excellent Masons
*
EXCLUSION
In England the Grand Lodge
alone can expel from the rights and privileges of Freemasonry. But a
subordinate Lodge may exclude a member after giving him due notice of the
charge preferred against him and of the time appointed for its consideration.
The name of any one so
excluded, and the cause of his exclusion must be sent to the Grand Secretary
and to the Provincial or District Grand Secretary if the Lodge be in a
Province or District. No Freemason excluded is eligible to any other Lodge
until the Lodge to which he applies has been made acquainted with his
exclusion, and the cause, so that the Brethren may exercise their discretion
as to his admission (Constitutions, Rules 210 and 212). However, it was
enacted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1902 that when a member is three
years in arrears he ceases to hold membership in his Lodge and can regain his
former standing only by submitting a regular petition and passing the ballot
(see Book of Constitutions, Article 175).
In the United States of
America the expression used as synonymous with Exclusion is striking from the
roll, except that the latter punishment is inflicted for non-payment of Lodge
dues. The general practice is to suspend for non-payment of dues, the Brother
regaining his standing, if there be no other objection to him, by paying the
arrearages that he owed.
*
EXCLUSIVENESS OF FREEMASONRY
The exclusiveness of Masonic
benevolence is a charge that has frequently been made against the Order; and
it is said that the charity of which it boasts is always conferred on its own
members in preference to strangers. It cannot be denied that Freemasons,
simply as Freemasons, have ever been more constant and more profuse in their
charities to their own Brethren than to the rest of the world; that in
apportioning the alms which God has given them to bestow, they have first
looked for the poor in their own home before they sought those who were
abroad; and that their hearts have felt more deeply for the destitution of a
Brother than a stranger.
The principle that governs the
Institution of Freemasonry, in the distribution of its charities, and the
exercise of all the friendly affections, is that which was laid down by Saint
Paul for the government of the infant church at Galatia: "As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith" (Galatians vi, 10).
This sentiment of preference for those of one's own faith, thus sanctioned by
apostolic authority, is the dictate of human nature, and the words of
Scripture find their echo in every heart. "Blood," says the Spanish proverb,
"is thicker than water," and the claims of kindred, of friends and comrades to
our affections, must not be weighed in the same scale with those of the
stranger, who has no stronger tie to bind him to our sympathies, than that of
a common origin from the founder of our race. All associations of men act on
this principle. It is acknowledged in the church which follows with strict
obedience the injunction of the apostle; and in the relief it affords to the
distressed, in the comforts and consolations which it imparts to the
afflicted, and in the rights and privileges which it bestows upon its own
members, distinguishes between those who have no community with it of
religious belief, and those who, by worshiping at the same altar, have
established the higher claim of being of the household of faith.
It is recognized by all other
societies, which, however they may, from time to time, and under the pressure
of peculiar circumstances, extend temporary aid to accidental cases of
distress, carefully preserve their own peculiar funds for the relief of those
who, by their election as members, by their subscription to a written
constitution, and by the regular payment of arrears, have assumed the
relationship which Saint Paul defines as being of the household of faith.
It is recognized by
governments, which, however liberally they may frame their laws, so that every
burden may bear equally on all, and each may enjoy the same civil and
religious rights, never fail, in the privileges which they bestow, to
discriminate between the alien and foreigner, whose visit is but temporary or
whose allegiance is elsewhere, and their own citizens.
This principle of preference
is universally diffused, and it is well that it is so. It is well that those
who are nearer should be dearer; and that a similitude of blood, an identity
of interest, or a community of purpose, should give additional strength to the
ordinary ties that bind man to man. man, in the weakness of his nature,
requires this security by his own unaided efforts, he cannot accomplish the
objects of his life nor supply the necessary wants of his existence. In this
state of utter helplessness, God has wisely and mercifully provided a remedy
by implanting in the human breast a love of union and an ardent desire for
society.
Guided by this instinct of
preservation, man eagerly seeks communion of man, and the weakness of the
individual is compensated by the strength of association. It is to this
consciousness of mutual dependence, that nations are indebted for their
existence, and governments for their durability. And under the impulse of the
same instinct of society, brotherhoods and associations are formed, whose
members, concentrating their efforts for the attainment of one common object,
bind themselves by voluntary ties of love and friendship, more powerful than
those which arise from the ordinary feelings of human nature.
*
EXCLUSIVE TERRITORIAL
JURISDICTION
Grand Lodges in the United
States have adhered to State lines as the limits of their activities, but this
has not been so strictly the custom elsewhere. Some particulars of the
situations arising from the contact of different practices may be seen in the
following statement of the action taken by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
against the Grand Orient of France.
At the Annual Grand
Communication of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania,
held at Philadelphia, December 27, 1924, Right Worshipful Past Grand Master
Brother Abraham M. Beitler, Chairman of Committee on Clandestine Lodges in
Pennsylvania, presented the following report, when, on motion, the resolutions
attached thereto were unanimously adopted.
The Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of Louisiana at its fifty-seventh Annual Communication held February,
1869, delivered an address, in the course of which he said:
"It has become my painful duty
to bring to your notice the action of the Grand Orient of France, with whom we
have for many years been upon the most friendly and brotherly terms of esteem
and regard. The Grand Orient of France has aided and assisted this Grand Lodge
in times of trouble and anxiety, by her firm adherence to constitutional law
and Masonic justice. In the month of December I received from the office of
the Grand Orient through the post office an official bulletin containing a
decree which certainly surprised me. It has, with a strange perversion, and
unaccountable want of consistency, recognized a clandestine body in this city,
calling itself the Supreme Council of the Sovereign and Independent State of
Louisiana.
"It will become your painful
duty to take notice of this action of the Grand Orient of France, and make
such decree as in your wisdom may be found expedient and necessary, to sustain
the dignity of this Grand Lodge and maintain its authority over Craft Masonry
in this Jurisdiction. There can be no divided authority. Upon one principle we
are all agreed, and while we have life we will sustain it. The Grand Lodge of
Louisiana will never submit to a divided jurisdiction, and in this position
she will be sustained by every Grand Lodge in North America, for all are
interested alike in sustaining each other. This principle once abandoned, the
power of Masonry for good is gone. Discord and confusion will reign supreme,
and the sun of Masonry will set in a sea of darkness."
The Committee on Foreign
Correspondence submitted a report on the Grand Orient's action, with full
translations of the decrees and debates relating to its recognition of the
"Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in and for the
Sovereign State of Louisiana" and entering into fraternal relations with that
clandestine Body. The report concluded with these words:
"This spirit, which seeks to
impair the honor and subvert the dignity of this Grand Lodge, will, we doubt
not, be properly appreciated by our sister Grand Lodges, and in submitting the
following resolutions, your committee feel confident that the Grand Lodge will
receive from her American sisters the same sympathy and support which they so
generously extended to the Grand Lodge of New York, when her jurisdiction was
invaded by the Grand Lodge of Hamburg." The resolutions offered with the above
report were:
RESOLVED, I That all Masonic
correspondence and fraternal relations between the Grand Lodge of Louisiana
and the Grand Orient of France cease and be discontinued and no Mason oaring
allegiance to that Grand Body be recognized as such in this jurisdiction
RESOLVED, II
That a duly authenticated copy of the above report and resolution be
transmitted to the Grand Orient of France and to all regularly constituted
American and European Gralld Lodges. The report and the resolutions were
adopted.
In his address at the Annual
Grand Communication of the same Grand Lodge, December 27, 1869, the retiring
Right Worshipful Grand Master Brother Richard Vaux, said:
"Within the past year, the
action of the Grand Orient of France in recognizing a spurious Grand Lodge
within the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, has been considered
by most of the Grand Lodges of the United States. In each case our sister
Grand Lodges have denounced this action as un-masonic. New York and
Massachusetts have exhaustively discussed the question and acted accordingly.
I am most happy to find that the principle the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania has
ever proclaimed, that a Grand Lodge must be supreme and sovereign within its
jurisdiction, is thus acknowledged. But in the case before us, another
principle which this Grand Lodge has maintained is also accepted as Masonic
law. We have asserted that one Grand Lodge will not permit any interference,
by any other Grand Lodge, with her sovereignty as a Grand Body; that her power
within her jurisdiction tolerates no rival; and when an effort is made to that
end, it is the solemn duty of all Grand Lodges to protest, and take such other
action as the ease demands. The facts are so clear, in this unjustifiable
interference in Louisiana, that I deem it proper to state, that all
correspondence between the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Grand Orient of
France should cease, till the latter recalls its presumptuous interceding with
the affairs of our sister Grand Lodge of Louisiana, and yields assent to that
paramount principle of American Free masonry, which lies at the foundation of
the supreme sovereignty of Grand Lodges of Freemasons in the United States."
The Grand Master of Louisiana
at the fifty-eighth Annual Communication, held February 14, l870, said:
"The Grand Orient of France
still maintains the anomalous position which it so unwisely assumed now more
than a year ago, and still holds in its embrace a spurious and clandestine
body, without any legal title whatever to be called Masonic. From our Brethren
in every quarter of the globe come messages of approval of the course taken by
our Grand Lodge and in no instance, where the matter of difference has been
clearly understood, has Louisiana been condemned for the firm stand she has
taken. Even the Supreme Council of England, of the Scottish Rite, has adopted
resolutions censuring the Grand Orient of France for having accorded
recognition to a spurious body of men, who indeed claim to be Masons, but who
have never been elsewhere recognized as such, and who have no legal or proper
right to the title, upon so specious and so false a plea as that given by
Grand Master Mellinet, and for its improper infringement of the jurisdiction
rights of our Grand Lodge." At that Annual Communication the Committee on
Foreign Correspondence in its report said: "The action of our Grand Lodge,
suspending fraternal relations with the Grand Orient of France on account of
its recognition of the spurious Supreme Council of Louisiana, which has
established Symbolic Lodges in our jurisdiction, has been fully sustained at
home and abroad. The principle, that the Grand Lodge of each state has
exclusive jurisdiction over the symbolic degrees within its territorial
limits, is so well established in the United States, that we confidently
relied on our sister Grand Lodges extending to us the same generous sympathy
and support which New York received when its jurisdictional rights were
invaded by the Grand Lodge of Hamburg.
"Nor have we been
disappointed; New York led the van in declaring non-intercourse with the
foreign invader. Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas,
and Wisconsin have followed its example; Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Ohio have protested in a firm, Eet courteous manner, against the act of the
Grand Orient; Vermont and a number of other states have also spoken in terms
not to be misunderstood, but we have not yet received official notice of their
action. So far as the proceedings received in season for this report give the
action of the Grand Lodges or the views of their committees on the subject, we
have submitted them without note or comment the able manner in which the
question has been discussed from every point of view, precluding any remarks
of our own.
"Here, however, we may be
permitted to remark that the question is one which appeals to every Grand
Lodge, for if the act of the Grand Orient had been permitted to pass unrebuked,
the sovereignty of each Grand Lodge would have been endangered, as what is our
case today may be theirs tomorrow and in defending our rights they are
maintaining their own. yet not the less gratefully do we acknowledge the
fraternal spirit which has been displayed in sustaining the action of our
Grand Lodge, and, while we regret the occasion ever arose, it is a matter of
congratulation that it has shown to the Masonic powers of the world that the
Grand Lodges of the United States will submit to no foreign interference with
their rights. It has demonstrated that any attempt in that direction will only
unite them more closely together in the bonds of Masonic fellowship, and that,
while "separate as the billows, they are one as the sea." The following
further comments were made by Brother Beitler:
"Your Committee on Clandestine
Lodges in Pennsylvania have within the past month learned that a clandestine
body in our State calling itself Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Universal Free
Masonry' and claiming the right to confer the first three degrees in
Freemasonry has been taken under the wind of the Grand Orient of France. The
two bodies have entered into formal contract, some of the provisions of which
were interesting.
"It provides that the body in
our State shall pay annually to the Grand Orient of France the sum of $10, for
each active lodge; that it shall buy all diplomas it may require of the Grand
Orient at the price of 15 francs each, the diplomas to be on parchment,
printed in both English and French. "The body working under the Grand Orient
is to have the right to institute new Lodges in the United States wherever it
may deem convenient. It shall receive for them warrants issued from the Grand
Orient of France, but it is not to be permitted to create Lodges in
territories of the United States outside of Pennsylvania with which the Grand
Orient of France is in fraternal relations. These territories are stated as
being Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island and New Jersey.
"lt is further provided that
should there be at any time in the future a cessation of the relations of the
Grand Orient of France with one or more of these states, then the body in
Pennsylvania shall have 'plenitude of action.'
"The body in Pennsylvania is
given the right to practice the Scottish Rite including the Symbolic Degrees.
"In the official records of
the Grand Orient of France for December, 1923, the Grand Secretary submits a
report which was adopted. In it he said:
"'The Regional Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania was abandoned by the Grand Orient of Spain. They now ask the
Grand Orient of France to take it under its wings. You will recall that we
entered into relations with the Grand Master of this Grand Lodge through the
intermediation of our Brother Beni, Past Master of L'Atlantide.... The
correspondence with the Pennsylvania Brethren was through a Brother Gould,
Lawyer.'
"We feel that Pennsylvania
should with the utmost emphasis denounce this action of the Grand Orient of
France. We cannot acknowledge the right of any other Grand Body outside of our
Grand Jurisdiction (whether regarded by us as legitimate or not—whether in
fraternal relations with us or not) to invade the territory of our Grand
Lodge.
"The association which the
Grand Secretary of the Grand Orient of France styles the 'Regional Grand Lodge
of Pennsylvania' and which we have called the 'Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite
Universal Freemasonry,' is not lawfully in possession of the rights which the
Grand Orient attempted to give.
"We deem it our duty to call
the matter to the attention of the Grand Lodge. We ask the adoption of the
following:
RESOLVED, III
That the Grand Secretary forward to each of the Grand Lodges in the United
States a copy of this report, calling their attention to the fact that the
body which the Grand Orient of France has "taken under its wings is authorized
by the Grand Orient of France to create Lodges in every State, excepting
Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Rhode Island and New Jersey, and that its power is to
extend to those States if and when the fraternal relations nos existing
between the several Grand Lodges of those States and the Grand Orient of
France cease.
RESOLVED FURTHER
That this Grand Lodge, which has always firmly held and still holds the views
expressed by our Right Worshipful Grand Plaster Brother Richard Vaux (set out
in the foregoing report) respectfully and confidently asks its sister
jurisdictions to adopt those views as fundamental in Freemasonry and requests
those Grand Lodges which are in fraternal relations with the Grand Orient of
France to give their adherence to those views and sever further relations with
the said Grand Orient.
The above resolutions
presented by Brother Beitler, Chairman of the Committee on Clandestine Lodges
in Pennsylvania, were unanimously adopted by the Grand Lodge of that State
(see Territorial Jurisdiction).
*
EXCUSE
Lodges in the eighteenth
century and at the beginning of the nineteenth inflicted fines for
nonattendance at Lodge meetings, and of course excuses were then required to
avoid the penalty. But this has now grown out of use. Freemasonry being
considered a voluntary institution, fines for absence are not inflicted, and
excuses are therefore not now required. The infliction of a fine would, it is
supposed, detract from the solemnity of the obligation which makes attendance
a duty. The old Constitutions, however, required excuses for non-attendance,
although no penalty was prescribed for a violation of the rule. Thus, in the
Matthew Cooke Manuscript (of the fifteenth century) it is said, "that every
master of this art should be warned to come to his congregation that they come
duly, but if (unless) they may be excused by some manner of cause" (see lines
7404). And in the Regius Manuscript (lines 107-12) it is written: That every
master, that is a Mason;
Must ben at the generate
congregaeyon
So that he hyt resonebly y-tolde
Where that the semble shall be holde;
And to that semble he must nede gon
But he have a resenabul skwsacyon.
*
EXECUTIVE POWERS OF A GRAND
LODGE
See Grand Lodge
*
EXEGETICAL AND PHILANTHROPICAL
SOCIETY
According to Thory (Acta
Latomorumi i 312) founded at Stockholm in 1787. It united Magnetism to
Swedenborgianism, the religious doctrines of the celebrated Swedish
philosopher; it was at first secret, but when it became known it was killed by
ridicule.
*
EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE WORK
This term is of frequent use
in American Freemasonry. When a lecturer or teacher performs the ceremonies of
a Degree for instruction, using generally one of the Freemasons present as a
substitute for the candidate, he is said "to exemplify the work." It is done
for instruction, or to enable the members of the Grand or subordinate Lodge to
determine on the character of the ritual that is taught by the exemplifies..
*
EXODUS
The date of the Exodus has
been determined by the excavations recently made at Tel elMaskhtta. This is
the name of large mounds near Tel el-Reber, excavated by M. Naville for the
Egyptian Exploration Fund, wherein he found inscriptions showing that they
represent the ancient City of Pithom or Succoth, the "treasure-cities" (Exodus
i, 11), and that Ramses II, was the founder. This was the Pharaoh of the
oppression. The walls of the treasurechambers were about six hundred and fifty
feet square and twenty-two feet thick. From Pithom, or Succoth, where the
Israelites were at work, they started on their exodus toward Etham (Khetam),
then to Pihachiroth (Exodus xiv, 2), and so on north and east. The exodus took
place under Meneptah II, who ascended the throne 1325 B.C., and reigned but a
short period. It was along the isthmus that the Egyptian army perished
pursuing the retreating Israelites as they crossed between Lake Serbonis and
the waters of the Mediterranean, amidst the "sea of papyrus reeds," the yam
suph, that has often proved disastrous to single or congregated travelers (see
S. Birch, LL.D., in Ancient History from the Monuments, Brugsch-Bey's lecture,
17th September, 1874; but more particularly the discoveries above referred to,
in Fresh Lights, etc., by A. H. Sayce).
*
EXOTERIC
From the Greek combining word,
ego, meaning outside. Public, not secret, belonging to the uninitiated (see
also Esoteric).
*
EXPERT
In Lodges of the French Rite,
there are two officers called First and Second Experts, whose duty it is to
assist the Master of Ceremonies in the initiation of a candidate. In Lodges of
Perfection of the Scottish Rite, there are similar officers who are known as
the Senior and Junior Expert.
*
EXPERT, PERFECT
Conferred in three grades, and
cited in Fustier's collection (see Thory, Acta Latomorum i, 312).
*
EXPERT, SUBLIME ENGLISH
Mentioned in Fustier's
collection (see Thory, Acta Latomorum i, 312).
*
EXPOSITIONS
Very early after the revival
of Freemasonry, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, pretended
expositions of the ritual of Freemasonry began to be published.
There have been several
American expositions but the compilers have only been servile copyists of
Morgan, Bernard, and Allyn. The undertaking has been, and continues to be,
simply the pouring out of one vial into another.
The expositions which abound
in the French, German, and other continental languages, are not attacks upon
Freemasonry, but are written often under authority, for the use of the
Fraternity.
The usages of continental Freemasonry permit a freedom of publication that
would scarcely be tolerated by the English or American Craft.
*
EXPULSION
Expulsion is, of all Masonic
penalties, the most severe that can be inflicted on a member of the Order, and
hence it has been often called a Masonic death. It deprives the expelled of
all the rights and privileges that he ever enjoyed, not only as a member of
the particular Lodge from which he has been ejected, but also of those which
were inherent in him as a member of the Fraternity at large. He is at once as
completely divested of his Masonic character as though he had never been
admitted, so far as regards his rights, while his duties and obligations
remain as firm as ever, it being impossible for any human power to cancel
them. He can no longer demand the aid of his Brethren nor require from them
the performance of any of the duties to which he was formerly entitled, nor
visit any Lodge, nor unite in any of the public or private ceremonies of the
Order. He is considered as being without the pale, and it would be criminal in
any Brother, aware of his expulsion, to hold communication with him on Masonic
subjects.
The only proper tribunal to
impose this heavy punishment is a Grand Lodge. A subordinate Lodge tries its
delinquent member, and if guilty declares him expelled. But the sentence is of
no force until the Grand Lodge, under whose jurisdiction it is working, has
confirmed it. And it is optional with the Grand Lodge to do so. or, as is
frequently done, to reverse the decision and reinstate the brother. Some of
the Lodges in this country claim the right to expel independently of the
action of the Grand Lodge, but the claim in Brother Mackey's opinion is not
valid. He held that the very fact that an expulsion is a penalty, affecting
the general relations of the punished Brother with the whole Fraternity,
proves that its exercise never could with propriety be entrusted to a Body so
circumscribed in its authority as a subordinate Lodge. Besides, the general
practice of the Fraternity is against it. The English Constitutions vest the
powers to expel exclusively in the Grand Lodge. A Private Lodge has only the
power to exclude an offending member from its own meetings.
All Freemasons, whether
members of Lodges or not, are subject to the infliction of this punishment
when found to merit it. Resignation or withdrawal from the Order does not
cancel a Freemason's obligations, nor exempt him from that wholesome control
which the Order exercises over the moral conduct of its members. The fact that
a Freemason, not a member of any particular Lodge, who has been guilty of
immoral or un-masonic conduct, can be tried and punished by any Lodge within
whose jurisdiction he may be residing, is a point on which there is no doubt.
Immoral conduct, such as would
subject a candidate for admission to rejection, should be the only offense
visited with expulsion. As the punishment is general, affecting the relation
of the one expelled with the whole Fraternity, it should not be lightly
imposed for the violation of any Masonic act not general in its character. The
commission of a grossly immoral act is a violation of the contract entered
into between each Freemason and his Order. If sanctioned by silence or
impunity, it would bring discredit on the Institution, and tend to impair its
usefulness. A Freemason who is a bad man is to the Fraternity what a mortified
limb is to the body, and should be treated with the same mode of cure he
should be cut off, lest his example spread, and disease be propagated through
the constitution.
Expulsion from one of what is
called the higher Degrees of Freemasonry, such as a Chapter or an Encampment,
does not affect the relations of the expelled party to Blue Masonry. A Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons is not and cannot be recognized as a Masonic Body by a
Lodge of Master Masons by any of the modes of recognition known to
Freemasonry. The acts, therefore, of a Chapter cannot be recognized by a
Master Mason's Lodge any more than the acts of a literary or charitable
society wholly unconnected with the Order.
Besides, by the present
organization of Freemasonry, Grand Lodges are the supreme Masonic tribunals.
If, therefore, expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons involved
expulsion from a Blue Lodge, the right of the Grand Lodge to hear and
determine causes, and to regulate the internal concerns of the Institution,
would be interfered with by another Body beyond its control. But the converse
of this proposition does not hold good. Expulsion from a Blue Lodge involves
expulsion from all the other Degrees; because, as they are composes of what
Brother Mackey here terms Blue Masons, the members could not of right sit and
hold communications on Masonic subjects with one who was an expelled
Freemason.
*
EXTENDED WINGS OF THE CHERUBIM
An expression used in the
ceremonies of Royal Master, a Degree of the American Rite, and intended to
teach symbolically that he who comes to ask and to seek Divine Truth
symbolized by the True Word, should begin by placing himself under the
protection of that Divine Power who alone is Truth, and from whom alone Truth
can be obtained. Of Him the cherubim with extended wings in the Holy of Holies
were a type.
*
EXTENT OF THE LODGE
The extent of a Freemason's
Lodge is said to be in height from the earth to the highest heavens; in depth,
from the sur,'ace to the center; in length, from east to west; and in breadth,
from north to south. The expression is a symbolic one, and is intended to
teach the extensive boundaries of Freemasonry and the in terminal extension of
Masonic charity (see Form of the Lodge).
*
EXTERIOR
The name of the First Degree
of the Rite d'Orient, or East, according to the nomenclature of M. Fustier
(see Thory, Acta Latomarum i, 31 ).
*
EXTERNAL QUALIFICATIONS
The eternal qualifications of
candidates for initiation are those which refer to their outward fitness,
based upon the exhibited moral and religious character, the established
reputation, the frame of body, the constitution of the mind, and social
position. Hence they are divided into Moral, Religious, Physical, Mental, and
Political for which see Qualifications of Candidates.
The expression in the instruction, that "it is the internal and not the
external qualifications that recommend a man to be made a Freemason," it is
evident, from the context, refers entirely to "worldly wealth and honors,"
which, of course, are not to be taken into consideration in inquiring into the
qualifications of a candidate.
*
EXTINCT LODGE
A Lodge is said to be extinct
which has ceased to exist and work, which is no longer on the registry of the
Grand Lodge, and whose Charter had been revoked for misuse or forfeited for
non-use.
*
EXTRA COMMUNICATION
The same as Special
Communication (see Communication).
*
EXTRANEOUS
From the Latin and applied to
that which is outside, and thus said among the Craft to be not regularly made;
clandestine. The word is now obsolete in this signification, but was so used
by the Grand Lodge of England in a motion adopted March 31, 1735, and reported
by Anderson in his 1738 edition of the Constitutions (page 182). "No
extraneous brothers, that is, not regularly made, but clandestinely, . . .
shall be ever qualified to partake of the Mason's general charity."
*
EXTRUSION
Used in the Constitution of
the Royal Order of Scotland for expulsion. "If a brother shall be convicted of
crime by any Court of Justice, such brother shall be permanently extruded"
(see Section 29). Not in use elsewhere as a Masonic term.
*
EYE
See All Seeing Eye
*
EZEKIEL, TEMPLE OF
See Temple of Ezekiel
*
EZEL
In Hebrew, iRK-U t:R eben
hahezel, meaning the stone of departure, namely, a mile-stone. n old
testimonial stone in the neighborhood of Saul's residence, the scene of the
parting of David and Jonathan, and the mark beyond which the falling of
Jonathan's arrow indicated danger (see First Samuel xx, 19). Hence, a word
adopted in the honorary Degree that is called the Mason's XVife and Daughter.
*
EZRA
There are two persons named
Etra who are recorded in Scripture.
1. Etra, a leading priest
among the first colonists who came up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, and who is
mentioned by Nehemiah (xii, i); and, 2. Ezra, the celebrated Jewish scribe and
restorer of the law, who visited Jerusalem forty-two years after the second
temple had been completed. Calmet, however, says that this second Ezra had
visited Jerusalem previously in company with Zerubbabel. Some explanation of
this kind is necessary to reconcile an otherwise apparent inconsistency in the
English system of the Royal Arch, which makes two of its officers represent
Ezra and Nehemiah under the title of scribes, while at the same time it makes
the time of the ceremony refer to the laying of the foundation of the second
Temple, and yet places in the scene, as a prominent actor, the later Ezra, who
did not go up to Jerusalem until more than forty years after the completion of
the building. It is more probable that the Ezra who is said in the work to
have wrought with Joshua, Haggai, and Zerubbabel, was intended by the original
framer of the ceremony to refer to the first Ezra, who is recorded by Nehemiah
as having been present; and that the change was made in the reference without
due consideration, by some succeeding author whose mistake has been carelessly
perpetuated by those who followed him. Dr. George Oliver (see Historical
Landmarks ii, 428) attempts to reconcile the difficulty, and to remove the
anachronism, by saying that Esdras was the scribe under Joshua, Haggai, and
Zerubbabel, and that he was succeeded in this important office by Ezra and
Nehemiah. But the English ceremonies make no allusion to this change of
succession; and if it did, it would not enable us to understand how Ezra and
Nehemiah could be present as scribes when the foundations of the second Temple
were laid, and the important secrets of the Royal Arch Degree were brought to
light, unless the Ezra meant is the one who came to Jerusalem with Nehemiah.
Brother Mackey suggested that there is e confusion in all this which should be
rectified.
