NOTE: This material is a text-file – also containing the associated graphics - of the 1902 book, “MASONIC HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.” Where found, the original book measures 12” X 14”, weighs 12 pounds, containing over 600 now-fragile pages; typically the spines are discovered to be broken – testimony to the value of the book, as the broken spines came from having been read and studied! Beyond the geographic subject matter, this work contains a fabulous and scholarly introductory history of the Craft; profusely populated with illustrations.
The intent behind this project was to preserve a great Masonic history book. The book has been scanned, edited and copyrighted at Phoenixmasonry, Inc. by Ralph W, Omholt, Librarian with the intent that it can be used for on-screen reading enjoyment. Certainly, it serves as an electronic research treasure.
Accordingly, please enjoy!
MASONIC HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST
Graphic Recital of the Organization and Growth of
Freemasonry in the Northwest States
Comprising an Historical Review of the Institution
BY
JOHN MILTON HODSON, P. G. M., Oregon
WILLIAM H. UPTON, P. G. M., Washington
JONAS W. BROWN, P. G. M., Idaho
CORNELIUS HEDGES, P. G. M. and O. Sec'y, Montana
To which is prefixed a Narrative of the Origin of Freemasonry and Its Growth and Diffusion
throughout the World. Also an Account of the Capitular, Cryptic, and Scottish Rites
and the Knights Templar. Besides a Chronicle of the Rise and Progress
of the Modern Orders of the Mystic Shrine and Eastern
Star. To which are Added Brief Biographies
of Many of the Founders and
Builders of Masonry in
the Northwest
Entered According to Act of Congress In The Year 1902.
By The History Publishing Company
The astounding diffusion and marvelous growth of Freemasonry, not less than its wonderful vitality and remarkable influence upon men and nations, have constantly excited amazement among the peoples of the earth. It has seemed as if the Institution were not only of divine origin but also under the fostering care and protection of the Godhead, to such an extent has it been patronized apparently, by the Deity. But whether the countenance which the Craft has received is resolvable to celestial approval or merely to human favor, it is certain that its basic principles have ever contained essential elements of the larger conduct of man in his relations with his fellows; and from this Masonic seed has been germinated the vital code of liberty of speech, action and conscience, which is now recognized in all civilized countries as the birthright of every individual.
Progressive, modern thought, recent development of broadly free governments, and the constant advance of the times in every direction - material, mental and spiritual - are all directly traceable to the vitalizing system of postulates enunciated by the Masonic Fraternity, which spread beyond the limits of the Society and its devotees and unerringly pointed the course toward the consummation of the greatest happiness and freedom of the individual conjoined to his highest duty to Man and the State. The opposition of kings, priests and politicians was unable to stem or overcome the ever - increasing power of the Masonic tenets. The doctrines of equality, justice and liberty appealed too strongly to the weak and oppressed to be eradicated by command, cajolery, sophistry or threat. Hence the fulminations of temporal and religious sovereigns were fruitless. Persecution of the members of this new Fraternity was the natural reward of their temerity in setting up novel standards for the guidance of Man in his worldly and spiritual walks, but even this failed of its purpose. The feeble spark became the glowing flame which melted the shackles that Ignorance, Superstition, Intolerance and illiberalism had forged, and the enlightening conflagration from this fervent blaze is gradually consuming the remnants of the fanaticism, bigotry, oppression and false gods which the past has covertly and craftily attempted to transmit in their fullness to this period of light and reason, but which happily have come down the ages more and more denuded of their terror and power.
With the dethronement of the monstrous kingly and priestly domination and its entailed debasement, wrongs and harassments, and the installation in their stead of comprehensive freedom of thought and action, extended views of the rights of the citizen and enlarged mental and physical opportunities, was inaugurated the primal era of that felicitous succession which has opened to humanity the great avenues of knowledge and endeavor. Amid the advancement which followed the gradual displacement of illiteracy, ignorance and prejudice, the all - controlling factor in that remarkable work - the Masonic Organization - was preserved in all its purity and power. Neither assaults, calumnies, oppressions nor persecutions could swerve it from its purpose or stay its progress.
The fanatic, the bigot, the ignorant and the intolerant were alike impotent to impede its advancement or to destroy the force of its teachings. The inexorable laws of nature and the fate of the times worked transmutation of its membership, but its principles were external and immutable and their exploitation but added to its strength and dignity. Silently and imperceptibly, yet with cynical certainty and assurance and irresistible force, its persuasive and ameliorating dogmas were diffused until they were beyond all repression. The establishment of the new status softened the rigors and harshness of the old religious and political doctrines and afforded unhampered opportunity for honorable endeavor and purposeful effort.
Learning became widespread, the fallacies and falsehoods of the political and religious systems were uncovered, reason succeeded unthinking bias and nescience, the sects intermingled freely, clement notions increased, Man's correlative duty to his brother was now extensively cultivated and generous sufferance of divergent opinions ruled. The past was a hideous dream and was soon forgotten in the benign declarations of the new faith - the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of GOD. Thenceforward the path led easily and resistlessly to the ennobling triune of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
The Masonic Sodality then began to enjoy the fruits of its humanizing labors, and in its development penetrated the remotest portions of the globe. In the early years of the American Colonies it indoctrinated liberal polities which conceived the Revolution and produced the great Republic. And at that time it cast its spell upon the expansive woods and plains, mountains and fields of the great territory edging upon the North Pacific and claimed it for its own. In that remote region, long isolated and undeveloped, the untutored savage and the fearless adventurer practiced the elevating tenets of the Masonic Craft and hewed the way to the later erection of the illuminating altars of this sublime Fraternity.
The mighty secret of its wide dispersion, significant growth and momentous power has ever been TRUTH. And TRUTH now, as formerly, is the touchstone of its "landmarks," the basis of its creed, its teachings and its action. Fortified with this trenchant enginery of offense and defense, the Masonic Establishment has been invincible, and by means of TRUTH has furthered, benefited and encouraged mankind in every department of human affairs. It was the pursuit of TRUTH which led to the early exploration and settlement of the Northwest country, and it was the spirit of TRUTH which united the pioneer denizens of that far - off land for the practice of all which ennobles and inspires. In all the vicissitudes of life in that then border land the consuming attractiveness of TRUTH made for endeavor, security and honor. The Red man alike with the White knew, appreciated and respected its force; hence, all dwelt together in that concord which nothing else could induce.
Under the beneficent rule of TRUTH this vast territory was populated, developed and civilized. It is not singular, therefore, that in the history of this region now distributed among four imperial States of the American Federation, Freemasonry, the foster - mother of TRUTH, should have played an important and controlling part. To graphically depict the many varying but ever - fascinating phases of that anomalous growth was alluring to both the publisher and the editorial corps. It inspired the former to engage in the responsible undertaking, while the task of portraying, the romantic era of this famed land at first interested, then absorbed, and at last completely enthralled the latter.
Their combined labors, pursued with ever - increasing enthusiasm, have produced the present work, in the preparation of which nothing, has been spared that might contribute to a correct, pleasing and permanent picture of the rise of the Masonic Edifice in the Pacific Northwest Distinguished Craftsmen, of pronounced literary ability and with personal knowledge of the times of which they write, have chronicled the local annals of the Fraternity.
Their work has been a labor of love, and in its execution they have evidenced profound reverence, affection and erudition. To this has been added the abilities of other notable authors whose pens have sketched generally the history and achievements of the Masonic Foundation. With pictorial embellishment and dress commensurate to its worth and with a confidence born of earnest and honest effort this historical narrative, dedicated, to TRUTH, is sent forth in the hope that its pages will, in some measure at least, serve to enlighten and entertain, as well as guide to a fuller appreciation of the goodness, nobility and magnificent of the Masonic Guild.
THE HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHAPTER I.
The Origin of Freemasonry
Its History and Works from the Building of Solomon's Temple to the Beginning of the New Era of Masonry.
Science was the Father of Freemasonry and Religion its Mother; it was born in the early dawn of Creation, when the SUPREME GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE commanded, "LET THERE BE LIGHT," AND THERE WAS LIGHT; it was rocked in the cradle of PHILOSOPHY, taught to walk and read Nature by REASON, and fed by TRUTH. From the day of its birth it had to contend against the darkness of Ignorance, the persecutions of Superstition, and the deadly assaults of Fanaticism, in defense of its life, and maintenance of its existence, a struggle which will continue in one form or another as long as the Sun will shine or the Earth move in the plane of its orbit.
Said our late and beloved distinguished Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY:
"The true history of Freemasonry is much in its character like the history of a nation. It has historic and prehistoric era. In its historic era, the institution can be regularly traced through various antecedent associations, similar in design and organization, to a comparatively remote period. Its connection with these associations can be rationally established by authentic documents, and by other evidence which no historian would reject. Thus dispassionately and philosophically treated, as though was the history of an empire that was under investigation - no claim being advanced that cannot be substantiated, no assertion made that cannot be proved - FREEMASONRY - the word so used, meaning, without evasion or reservation, precisely what everybody supposes it to mean - can be invested with an antiquity sufficient for the pride of the most exacting admirer of the society.
"And then for the prehistoric era - that which connects it with the mysteries of the Pagan world, and with the old priests of Eleusis, of Samothrace, or of Syria - let us honestly say that we now no longer treat of Freemasonry under its present organization, which we know did not exist in those days, but of a science peculiar, and peculiar only to the Mysteries and to Freemasonry - a science which we may call Masonic symbolism, and which constituted the very heart blood of the ancient and modern institutions, and gave to them, while presenting a dissimilarity of form, an identity of spirit. And then, in showing the connection and in tracing the germ of Freemasonry in those prehistoric days, although we shall be guided by no documents, and shall have no authentic spoken or written narratives on which to rely, we shall find fossils embalmed in those ancient intellects precisely like the living ones which crop out in Modern Masonry, and which, like the fossil shells of the fishes of the old physical formations of the earth, show, by their resemblance to living specimens, the graduated connection of the past with the present. "No greater honor could accrue to any man than that of having been the founder of a new school of Masonic history, in which the fictions and loose statements of former writers would be rejected, and in which the rule would, be adopted that has been laid down as a vital maxim of all inductive science - in words that have been chosen as his motto by a recent powerful investigator of historical truth.
"Not to exceed and not to fall short of facts - not to add and not to take away. To state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Our late Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY, has thus clearly presented a true statement of the prehistoric and historic continuity of our Ancient and Honorable Fraternity. Tradition and symbolism have come down to us through the ages, as well as being recorded in hieroglyphics upon the monolithic monuments and in the temples of that most ancient land of mysteries and knowledge, Egypt, the land of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, watered by the River Nile, from whose bosom was recovered the infant MOSES, and with him in after times the knowledge and mysteries, in the Arcana of the past and the present Masonic world.
PHILO - JUDEUS says that "Moses was instructed by the Egyptian priests in the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics as well as in the mysteries of the sacred animals." The sacred historian also say's "he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." MANETHO and other traditionary writers inform us that "he was educated at Heliopolis (the City of the Sun) as a priest, under his Egyptian name, OSARSIPH, and that there he was taught the whole range of literature and science which it was customary to impart to the priesthood of Egypt. When, then, at the head of his people, he passed away from the servitude of Egyptian taskmasters, and began in the wilderness to establish his new religion, it is not strange that he should have given a holy use to the symbols whose meaning he had learned on the banks of the Nile."
Karnak is the name of a village in Upper Egypt, occupying a portion of the site of ancient, Thebes. The Great Temple of Amon, commonly known as the Temple of Karnak, is located on the east side of the Nile, about two miles northeast of Luxor. An avenue of sphinxes led to the Water. Besides the Great Temple there are some twenty smaller edifices dedicated to Mut, Khonsu, Mentu, Ptah and other deities. These ruins combine to make the most extensive collection in the world. The whole is a wonderful aggregation of buildings of temples, colonnades, courts and the inner sanctuary. It is constructed with a unity of design, and is different in that respect from the temple at Luxor. The roof was supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns eighty feet in height, and upon them the hieroglyphics may still be read of the histories of the various dynasties of the race of PHARAOHS or kings. Here, was where MOSES was initiated and graduated in the Ancient Mysteries, and from his knowledge gained in this school or academy he was able to found and organize the Jewish religion with civil and military government and the worship of the true GOD.
It is reasonable also to suppose that when he was for so many years an exile in the wilderness to the eastward, that his superior knowledge and attainments enabled him to communicate readily and have intercourse with those persons of like character on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and even from farther India, from whence the Egyptians originally derived in part and in a modified form the religion and mysteries they practiced, and which formed the curriculum of the hierarchy of Egypt.
REGHELLINI, in his work, "Masonry considered as the result of the Egyptian, Jewish and Christian Religions," published at Paris in 1833, says: "MOSES, in his mysteries, and after him, SOLOMON, adopted a great part of the Egyptian symbols, which, after them, we Masons have preserved in our own.
The direct traditional and historic base of our Craft rests upon the construction of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, itself a compendium of architecture, religion, science and philosophy, and the focus to which was directed the vision of all the learned of the ancient world, as well as the principal architects and builders, who came from Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, from the West, along the shores of the Mediterranean to the far East, beyond the Euphrates and Tigris to India, and even far off Cathay, to construct the first and the most splendid Temple ever erected to the worship of the true GOD, and built by that ancient " Parliament of Religions," the Masonic Builders of the World. To be sure, the inner Temple or Sanctum Sanclorum, was to be sacredly and secretly used by the Levitical Priesthood, in accordance with the Mosaic ritual of the Tabernacle set up in the Wilderness, yet the knowledge of its purposes, and for what it was designed, was fully understood by the Architect Masons who constructed it and all the secret recesses and chambers of that wonderful edifice. The great porch or tower of 20 cubits or 39 77/100, feet square, and 120 cubits or 238 1/2, feet high in front of the Temple, before which stood the two great brazen pillars, was for astronomical as well as military purposes; to study the heavens, as did the Shepherd Kings centuries before on the plains of Chaldea, as also to serve as a watchtower to look over the City of Jerusalem, and watch the approach of invading enemies.
The great purpose of SOLOMON was to maintain peace, magnify his influence and power and to control the then great highway of overland commerce from India to the Mediterranean having unlimited resources and power, and having for his chief ally the friend of DAVID, his father, HIRAM, King of Tyre, with whom he divided the revenue of imports and exportation. Therefore, he cultivated the friendship of all surrounding countries and their governments, from whence came so many Craftsmen of all kinds and of all shades of religious beliefs, but having a central fundamental principle of the worship, each in his own way, of the one only and true GOD, for which the Great Temple was to be erected; and for the Deity Himself, each according to his nation and tongue, gave Him a name, accordingly, which was compounded and three names that were chosen by the chiefs of the architects at last became one for their own private recognition, according to legend and tradition.
When the time came for the dedication of the Temple, it was to be done out of doors in sight of everybody, and not in the Temple itself; nor was it done by the Jewish priesthood, but by King SOLOMON himself, as king and sovereign of the people, the representative of the people and for the people, not of the Israelites alone, but for everybody under his protection who might desire to come there and worship GOD in his own way and of his own free will; for in the midst of his memorable prayer he said:
“Moreover, concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people, Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling - place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all the people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people, Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name."
This part of his prayer was chiefly intended for the foreign Masons who had helped to build the Temple, for we read, "And DAVID commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he set Masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of GOD." "And SOLOMON numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith DAVID, his father, had numbered them, and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand, and three thousand and six hundred. And he set threescore and ten thousand to be bearers of burdens, fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people at work."
Thus it will be seen came the first systematic organization of Freemasons of which we have any historic account, and to be directly employed upon government and religious work, under the immediate direction of one HIRAM ABIF, the chief architect of the work, who was sent by HIRAM, King of Tyre, in compliance with the expressed desire of King SOLOMON. It is upon the knowledge, education, skill, life, and tragic death of this most distinguished Mason of which there is any account, either historical, traditional, or legendary, that is formed the structure of our philosophic, semireligious, speculative, and symbolic Freemasonry of today, which has come down to us through the ages for a period of over twenty-nine centuries and carrying with it the history, tradition, and mysteries of as many centuries before. He is the central figure of all recorded time and the Master Builder of the Masonic World. He had the highest recommendation that could possibly be given to him at the time. HIRAM, King of Tyre, said of him in his letter to King SOLOMON:
"And now I have sent a cunning (wise) man, endued with understanding of HIRAM, my father's. The son of a woman of the daughters of DAN, and his father was a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord DAVID, thy father."
He was relieved, however, from having to originate the plans for the Temple, for DAVID, it seems, was the original designer who drew the plans of the Temple, in accordance with divine direction, for everything in and about this wonderful edifice then to be built, and had given them to his son, King SOLOMON, for the account given of it is as follows:
"Then DAVID gave to SOLOMON, his son, the pattern of the porch and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of GOD, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things. * * * * * All this, said DAVID, the LORD made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern," etc.
There is a secret tradition that King SOLOMON, when the Temple was nearly completed, had tired of HIRAM ABIF, the Chief Architect of the Temple, who was the representative of the people and who had risen from their level to become the companion of kings. The necessity of personal intercourse during the construction of the Temple had made his architect familiar with that royalty which was but recent and in the second generation only; and the Tyrian architect regarded SOLOMON as but a man and the son of a shepherd of fortuitous circumstances, who by causing the death of his elder brother ADONIJAH, the next in line to DAVID, had succeeded the first occupants of the throne upon the change of the autonomy and form of government of the people of Israel. King SOLOMON, being jealous of his power and glory, and determined that no other monarch should erect a similar temple of equal magnificence and splendor, is said to have himself, secretly and surreptitiously, secured the plans and the last designs drawn upon the trestleboard of the Temple, and secretly contrived to plot whereby his chief architect might be removed, that no other king or nation should have them or be able to secure his services. The unconscious instruments of his purpose performed the part they were incited to enact, not knowing who was the actual chief conspirator whose will they had carried out, when they supposed that they were only executing their own; and yet received the decision of their fate at his hands, the chief conspirator and criminal acting as their judge - his grief and indignation simulated and hypocritical and from whose royal decree there was no appeal.
Through the long line of martyrs whose lives have been sacrificed on the altars of Truth, Science, and Philosophy and for Civil and Religious Liberty, Freemasonry has come down to the
present age brighter in its effulgence, and like the sun in its course, will forever shine, giving life and light wherever the unfettered intellect and the freed soul of man can measure the distance and the courses of the stars and find repose in the bosom of its divine Creator, the All Father and the ALMIGHTY GOD.
As a Brotherhood, traveling from one country to another in camps or lodges, ready to undertake the reconstruction of buildings, destroyed by the ravages of war or of the elements, from their ruins, or to build new ones - whether churches, cathedrals, public or private edifices or fortresses - the banded Craftsmen pursued their calling in every country of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and throughout all the countries of Continental Europe and the British Isles. While temporarily sojourning in huts or lodges themselves, they were ever ready to contract to build a most gorgeous, sumptuous palace, a costly cathedral, a lordly castle, or a plain citizen's dwelling. The science of construction in Grecian, Roman, Moorish, or Gothic architecture was as familiar to them as the curriculum of the most noted universities of today to the scholarly professors who occupy the chairs at Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Whether in Athens or in Rome, Grenada, Seville, or in Paris, at Dresden, Munich, Cologne, or Rheims, at London, Edinburgh, Stirling, or Melrose, these journeying Craftsmen, with their masters schooled in the learning of the old Colleges of Architecture at Rome, traveled with freedom from toll over the face of Europe, carrying the secrets and mysteries of their Craft with them, fully understanding the purposes and nature or character of the buildings to be constructed, and their handiwork still remains to be seen commanding the admiration of the beholders for centuries since the last finishing strokes were given and the scaffolding removed.
The ancient mysteries and knowledge of all the religions were known to them, for they had to erect the temples and edifices for them, and thus they learned the symbolism, faith, and philosophy of each, and were always well prepared to digest and analyze all shades of doctrines and beliefs while inwardly committed to none but their own independent thoughts, studying Nature and reading her mysteries by the God - given Light of Reason, and worshiping their Creator in the starlighted Cathedral of the Universe, the mountains for their altars and the plains and valleys for the checkered pavement of their temple and kneeling floor. Their working tools furnished them symbols for teaching moral lessons and guides for their conduct, while the blade of the trowel of the Master Mason reminded him of the form of his coffin, upon which in the lines from the points at right angles, if a Christian, he could discern the symbol of his faith, and, in its handle, he grasped the everliving acacia, which again placed in the ground at the head of his grave, like AARON's rod, would take root and bud and bloom anew in full strength and fragrance, the symbol and type of his own immortality.
These scattered lodges were at last mostly found in England, and after the Great London Black Plague and Fire of 1666. The four lodges that were engaged in the finishing of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1717, having admitted to their fellowship the scholars and philosophers and scientific men of that day as "Accepted Masons," instructed them in the allegories, legends, and symbols of the Craft, and Freemasonry, thus augmented, expanded and widened to a larger sphere and became stronger in its growth, while the floor of its temples became neutral ground, where political disputations ceased and polemical discussion of sectarian religious beliefs were rigorously hushed and barred, and Nature's humanity and loving kindness were given a chance to bring good men of opposite opinions together, “who might have forever remained at perpetual distance from each other."
Such was the origin of Freemasonry in the beginning until the so-called "Revival of Freemasonry " in 1717, and which has come down to us with but few modified changes from that date for a period of one hundred and seventy-nine years. ESTO PERPETUA.
CHAPTER II.
The Objects of Freemasonry:
LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, BROTHERLY LOVE, TRUTH, RELIEF TO THE WIDOW, THE ORPHAN AND THE DISTRESSED.
In stating the objects of Freemasonry at the head of this chapter as the cardinal tenets of our "Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity," and which we desire to illustrate, it may truthfully and logically be said that there must be LIBERTY to maintain EQUALITY and FRATERNITY as the natural result of the two which compose the first triad of Masonic principles which forms the base of our institution and the second triad is the living, force and natural outflow in activity of the former; for there could be no BROTHERLY LOVE without FRATERNITY, no RELIEF without the active principle of EQUALITY in HUMANITY, and no LIVING TRUTH without the exercise of LIBERTY to declare and maintain it. This double triad forms the double interlaced triangular symbol of the cardinal tenets of our beloved Order; and the hexagon in the center formed by the crossing of the lines of these two equilateral triangles shows the outlines of the foundation stone of our Temple in perspective, upon which is inscribed the Trinity of every true Mason's religion, regardless of any particular creed: FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY.
A sublime FAITH in the ALL FATHER and Creator of the Universe without superstition, for otherwise no man could be free or fit to become a Mason. A well grounded HOPE of IMMORTALITY, like that of JOB: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth"; or like that of PAUL: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of GOD, an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." And CHARITY, which crowneth all, so well described and systematized by MOSES, the lawgiver of Israel: "When thou cuttest down thy harvest in thy field and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy GOD may bless thee in all the works of thy hands. When thou beatest thine olive trees thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vinevard, thou shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take a widow's raiment to pledge. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD and it be sin unto thee." Or as PAUL and PETER have said: "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations; for brethren ye have been called unto liberty; but by love serve one another. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; fear GOD, love the brotherhood; honor all men. And now abideth FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY; but the greatest of these is CHARITY"; all of which latter is summed up in the Golden Rule, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," as laid down by the Most Wise Master who ever appeared among men. These are the fundamental principles upon which the universal religion of Freemasonry is founded. In this connection we may revert to the Ancient Charges of a Freemason:
I. CONCERNING GOD AND RELIGION.
A Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law; and if he rightly understands the art, he will never be stupid atheist nor an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient times, Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves that is, to be good men and true, or men of honor and honesty, by whatever denominations or persuasions they may be distinguished, whereby Masonry becomes the center of union and the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance."
II. OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE, SUPREME AND SUBORDINATE.
"A Mason is a peaceable subject to the civil powers wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in plots and conspiracies against the peace and welfare of the Nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior magistrates; for as Masonry hath always been injured by war, bloodshed, and confusion, so ancient kings and princes have been much disposed to encourage the Craftsmen, because of their peaceableness and loyalty, whereby they practically answered the cavils of their adversaries, and promoted the honor of the fraternity, who ever flourish in times of peace. So that if a Brother should be a rebel against the State, he is not to be countenanced in his rebellion, however he may be pitied as an unhappy man; and if convicted of no other crime, though the loyal brotherhood must and ought to disown his rebellion, and give no umbrage or ground of political jealousy to the government for the time being, they cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his relation to it remains indefeasible."
FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM THE ANCIENT CHARGES OF A FREEMASON.
"The persons admitted members of a Lodge must be good and true men, free born, and of mature and discreet, age; no bondsmen, no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good report."
"All Masons shall work honestly on working days, that they may live creditably on holy days; and the time appointed by the law of the land, or by custom, shall be observed."
"The Craftsmen are to avoid all ill language and to call each other by no disobliging name, but Brother or Fellow; and to behave themselves courteously within and without the Lodge."
EDITORIAL NOTE. The Double Interlaced Triangle illustrated above was the device on DAVID'S shield and on SOLOMON'S seal. The twelve angles within and without each point had reference to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Each angle being of sixty degrees, it is for this reason that in the jewel of a Past Master the compasses are extended to sixty degrees upon the segment or arc of a circle, the angle being that on which the bee forms its cell in the honeycomb within the hive, and which contains also a geometric problem and a key as well as moral lessons to be drawn therefrom.
"No private piques or quarrels must be brought within the door of the Lodge, far less quarrels about religion or Nations or State policy, we being only as Masons of the Universal religion above mentioned; we are also of all Nations, tongues, kindreds, and languages, and are resolved against all Politics, as what never conduced to the welfare of the Lodge or ever will. This CHARGE has always been strictly enjoined and observed; BUT ESPECIALLY EVER SINCE THE REFORMATION IN BRITAIN, OR THE DISSENT AND SECESSION OF THESE NATIONS FROM THE COMMUNION OF ROME."
We have cited these extracts from the "Ancient Charges of a Freemason " because within them is contained, preserved, and to be for all time perpetuated, the principles and doctrines of absolute civil and religious liberty to each individual member of the fraternity admitted within the sacred walls of its Temple; and, while its tessellated floor is neutral ground and no discussions of a debatable character upon matters of either religion or politics are permitted within the Sanctum Sanctorum, yet at the same time the good seed is sown. When the prejudices and passions of men are subdued to a peaceful tranquility, toleration prevails, the right of private choice and judgment is recognized, and the result is that, being honest, good men and true, pure in intentions, peaceably disposed, mutual respect and esteem is cultivated and a fraternal spirit of brotherly love and affection cements the Mystic bond of Brotherhood. Freemasonry has no punishment for sectarian religious heresy nor for political rebellion, excepting there be heinous crime connected therewith; for what may be considered treason today may by success be loyalty tomorrow, and by revolution the position of political parties be reversed in holding the reins of government.
These principles and maxims and the policy of our honored institution were well laid down for the government of the Craft by the Grand Lodge of England chiefly composed of those who had suffered as victims of persecution, Huguenots and Scotchmen when it was first organized by the four London Lodges on St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1717, at the Apple Tree Tavern, London, when ANTONY SAYRE, the son of a French Huguenot, was elected Grand Master, at the time of the so called "Revival of Freemasonry," when speculative or philosophic Freemasonry became more general, and adopted or accepted by the operative guild or craft, which, continually traveling to and fro and in foreign countries, disseminated these principles whithersoever they journeyed in plying their vocation. As a distinguished writer has said, "The Grand Kabalistic Association known in Europe under the name of 'Freemasonry' appeared all at once in the world at the period when the Protest against the Papal Power came to break the Christian unity." As has also been well said by our late and lamented Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY: "The design of Freemasonry is neither charity or almsgiving, nor the cultivation of the social sentiment, for both are merely incidental to its organization; but it is Ike search after truth, and that truth is the unity of GOD and the immortality of the soul. The various degrees or grades of initiation represent the various stages through which the human mind passes, and the many difficulties which men individually or collectively must encounter in their progress from ignorance to the acquisition of this truth."
It was this idea which generally prevailed in the seventeenth century among the operative Freemasons, who were called upon to construct religious and other edifices for the various sects which had divided the Christian Church, and that called forth a more general spirit of inquiry among them into religious and philosophical truths, and the calling to their aid the scientific, philosophic, and learned scholars of the age, who were welcomed into the Operative Guild as auxiliaries and were received and made Adopted or Accepted Freemasons, as had been their custom from time immemorial; and among those admitted was the learned antiquarian, ELIAS ASHMOLE, who also has left the impress of his work upon the drama in that portion of the ritual which now relates to the Fellow Craft Degree in particular and before Freemasonry was divided into three degrees. He was made a Freemason October 16, 1646, two centuries and a half ago and seventy-one years before the Grand Lodge of England was formed. Some thirty-six years after his admission into the fraternity, March 10, 1682, he was summoned to attend a Lodge of Masons the next day at Masons' Hall, London, an account of which he has left in his diary, in his collection in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Among other things, he says:
"There is no doubt to be made that the skill of Masons, which was always transcendent even in the most barbarous times - their wonderful kindness and attachment to each other, how different soever in condition, and their inviolable fidelity in religiously keeping their secret - must expose them in ignorant, troublesome, and superstitious times to a vast variety of adventures, according, to the different fate of parties and alterations in government. By the way, I shall note that the Masons were always loyal, which exposed them to great severities when power wore the trappings of justice, and those who committed treason Punished true men as traitors. Thus in the third year of the reign of HENRY VI (1432), an Act of Parliament was passed to abolish the society of Masons and to hinder, under grievous penalties, the holding of Chapters, Lodges, or other regular assemblies. Yet this act was afterward repealed, and even before that, King HENRY VI and: several of the principal lords of his court became Fellows of the Craft."
Thus the principles of Freemasonry were those of absolute civil and religious liberty and equality of all men who were honest, good, and true, and worthy of admission to the Brotherhood, which were being fostered and strengthened within the sacred precincts of their Lodges, where they grew in strength and expanded and spread beyond their walls, and permeated society of every rank and degree, effectually but silently like the growth of the forest, doing their perfect work, and which in the course of events has proven irresistible; and all free government everywhere at the present day owes its existence primarily or indirectly to the influence of our beloved institution. The great mistake of many writers of Masonic history is the utter ignoring of the political and religious conditions of the times of which they write, of the controversies and conflicts of sects and parties of both Church and State, of the actors therein, who have directed the current of events of rival intolerant, superstitious, and persecuting religions, and of the antagonisms of contending political parties and armed adherents of ambitious kings and prelates.
Speculative Freemasonry itself is the child of both rational religion and liberal politics, but not of fanaticism and partisanship; it was begotten during a truce and born during an armistice; its clothing, the Master Mason's apron, is a flag of truce and at once commands, "Peace, be still!" for the place over which it flies is holy and neutral ground. The fugitive Huguenots driven from France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the despoiled Scottish noblemen, adherents of the House of the Stuarts, and liberalminded Englishmen who were scholars, fused with the operative Masons of the four Lodges that were engaged in the building of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and became Accepted Masons and Brethren of the Craft.
They enriched the ritual and drama of initiation with moral and philosophic instruction, combined with scientific formula and symbols, and clothed it with legendary tradition blended with both sacred and profane history, and taught the most sublime truths that can be inculcated and impressed upon the hearts of men. The so-called "Revival of Freemasonry" in 1717 was the spiritual rebuilding of King SOLOMON's Temple in which every Mason to this day is engaged within himself, to be erected and dedicated to ALMIGHTY GOD. No slave or bondman was permitted to work on, in or about the Temple, not even to remove the rubbish. He therefore must be freeborn as well as a freeman in whom the spirit of Freemasonry is to dwell free as a citizen, morally free, and utterly free to worship GOD as he pleases, whose heart and mind are illuminated by the Great Light of the Holy Bible, which ever lies an open book, for all to read, upon every altar of Masonry, and erected to ALMIGHTY GOD.
It was the French Huguenot Reformer, JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS, born March 12, 1683, at Rochelle, France, who having become a curate of the Church of England and initiated in the "Lodge of Antiquity" in St. Paul's Churchyard, secured the assistance of several older Masons to aid in the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, in which he was eminently successful. He was more of a scientist than a preacher, and PRIESTLEY styles him "an indefatigable experimental philosopher." Said our lamented Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY: "To few Masons of the present day, except to those who have made Freemasonry a subject of special study, is the name of DESAGULIERS very familiar. But it is well they should know that to him, perhaps more than to any other man, are we indebted to the Present existence of Freemasonry as a living institution; for when in the beginning of the eighteenth century Masonry had fallen into a state of decadence which threatened its extinction, it was DESAGULIERS who, by his energy and enthusiasm, infused a spirit of zeal into his contemporaries which culminated in the revival of the year 1717, and it was his learning and social position that gave a standing to the institution, which brought to its support noblemen and men of influence, so that the insignificant assemblage of the four London Lodges at the Apple Tree Tavern has expanded into an association which now overshadows the entire civilized world. And the moving spirit of all this was JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS."
ANTONY SAYRE, the son of a French Huguenot, was elected the first Grand Master. In 1718 he was succeeded by GEORGE PAYNE, and in 1719, DESAGULIERS was elected Grand Master, followed by the DUKE OF WHARTON, the EARL OF DALKEITH, LORD PAISLEY, and others. These three last named gentlemen, eminent Masons and Grand Masters, had been attainted and forfeited their titles in the British or rather Scotch peerages for their adherence to the House of Stuart, as will be seen by reference to DE BRETT'S "Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland." WHARTON forfeited his title in 1728. DALKEITH was a descendant of the DUKE OF MONMOUTH, illegitimate son of CHARLES II. CHARLES RADCLIFFE, who had married CHARLOTTE, Countess of Newburgh, a widow, was the third son of EDWARD II, Earl of Derwentwater, and assumed that title upon the death of his nephew, who was executed for rebellion against GEORGE II in 1716, and, fleeing to France, assisted in the planting of Freemasonry in that country and became the first Grand Master of Masons of France in 1725. His mother was MARY TUDOR, the illegitimate daughter of Charles II. He also had been attainted and convicted of treason before his flight. He left France in 1733 (sixteen years after the Grand Lodge of England was organized), and made several visits to England in unsuccessful pursuit of pardon. The blood of the Stuarts, though illegitimate, which flowed in his veins, operated as an effective barrier to his hopes and prospects. Filled with hopeless disappointment, he at last allied his fortunes with those of The Young Pretender in 1745, and sailed from France to join him, but the vessel in which he embarked was captured by an English man - of - war. He was taken prisoner and beheaded on Tower Hill, London, December 8, 1746. Under the skillful guidance of these eminent, learned and loyal craftsmen, the revivification of the decadent society became complete, and a higher appreciation of its principles and purposes attracted to its altar men of renown whose devotion insured the stability and growth of the institution as a fraternity dedicated to the uplifting of humanity.
The Grand Lodge of England, thus formed, made itself and its subordinates a Universal Bible Society and the sworn custodians of the Great Light of Freemasonry, and in the installation ceremonies of the Masters of Lodges, DESAGULIERS, when he framed them, borrowed almost the exact language in reference to it as used in the coronation ceremonies prescribed by King JAMES I of England
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(who was also, at the same time, King JAMES VI of Scotland). For the information of the Brethren and as matter of historic curiosity, we subjoin the charges in parallel columns:
AT THE CORONATION OF THE KING PRESENTATION OF THE BIBLE BY THE ARCHBISHOP.
"Then shall the Dean of Westminster take the Holy Bible that was carried in the procession, from off the altar and deliver it to the Archbishop, who, with the rest of the Bishops going along with him, shall present it to the King, first saying these words to him:
"Archbishop - Our gracious King, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom. This is the Royal Law. These are the Lively Oracles of GOD. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this Book, that keep and do the things contained in it, for these are the words of eternal life, able to make you wise and happy in this world, nay wise unto salvation, and so happy forevermore through faith, which is in CHRIST JESUS, to whom be glory forever. Amen!"
"Then the King delivers back the Bible to the DEAN OF WESTMINSTER, to be reverently placed again upon the holy altar."
AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE WORTHY MASTER -
PRESENTATION OF THE BIBLE TO THE MASTER ELECT.
"Then the Marshal of the Lodge, going to the altar and taking the Holy Bible therefrom (or if for convenience sake using another), will deliver it to the Past Master acting as the Installing Officer, who says:
"Installing Officer - My Brother, I now present you the Book of Holy Writings. It is the Great Light in Masonry, and should ever be the great law of the Brotherhood. It will guide you to all truth, it will direct you to eternal happiness, and an attentive regard to the divine precepts it contains will insure you success in the fulfillment of the duties you are now about to assume. * * In short, by a diligent observance of the bylaws of your Lodge and the constitutions of Masonry, and, above all, the Holy Scriptures, which are given as the rule and the guide of your faith, you will be enabled to acquit yourself with the highest honors here and lay up a crown of rejoicing which shall continue when time shall be no more."
It is again placed upon the altar [or table].
The Scottish element at the time of the so-called " Revival of Freemasonry" in 1717 in England prevailed, and the Masonic world is greatly indebted to a man born August 5, 1684, at Edinburgh, Scotland - a Doctor of Divinity of the Presbyterian faith, who removed to London and became the Pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly - the Rev.JAMES ANDERSON, who was commissioned by the Grand Lodge of England, September 29, 1721, to collect and compile the history and charges of the fraternity from the then existing constitutions of the Lodges. Those who then composed the Grand Lodge of England were comparatively young men, DESAGULIERS being only thirty-eight years and ANDERSON thirty-seven years of age. A French Episcopalian and a Scotch Presbyterian working in harmony in drawing their designs upon the Masonic trestleboard relegated sectarianism to where it belonged. Both of them were away from their native land - both direct descendants of those who had been persecuted for political and religious conscience sake - and laboring in concord at a time when a century of persecution had driven the best blood and the greatest intelligence out of the United Kingdom to find a refuge in the then wilderness of America, where the great lights of Freedom and of Freemasonry were to be soon established and in time illumine the entire New World. "Anderson's Constitutions and Old Charges and Regulations," compiled by him, have been the general standing regulations of the fraternity for a century and three - quarters, since they were collated and compiled. St. Paul's Cathedral in London had just been completed, its great architect, Sir
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CHRISTOPHER WREN, had shortly afterward died and been immured within it when ANDERSON completed his important work for the Craft. The Brotherhood was soon thereafter to be divided and scattered.
It was during these troublous times that Free and Accepted Masonry had to be organized with a central authority placed within a representative body to be known as the Grand Lodge of England, that the Great Lights might be kept burning and send their refulgent rays around the globe and penetrate every corner of the earth. England, where it was organized, may therefore claim to have been the seat of WISDOM; Scotland, for having furnished the compiler of its constitution and laws which gave it STRENGTH; and France, the birthplace of the chief author and designer of its ritual, may claim its BEAUTY. ASHMOLE, ANDERSON, and DESAGULIERS, the rose, the thistle, and the lily, the floral symbols of light and power, of warning and protection, and of purity and adornment, represented in these three great master builders, will continue to bloom with the fragrant acacia, symbol of immortality, as long as there are compasses and squares to draw designs upon the trestleboards of the Craft, a trowel in the hands of a Master Mason to spread the cement, or the gavel of a Master to sound and direct the work. Thus Free and Accepted Masonry, at its revival in 1717, with a regularly constituted and organized Grand Lodge of authority delegated to it, created amidst political and religious strife of all parties, factions, and fanatics, started out on its grand, but quiet and peaceful mission, to humanize and civilize the world, with the silent but firm guaranty of the rights of conscience, bearing upon its snow white banners its grand principles of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, BROTHERLY LOVE, RELIEF, and TRUTH, and its standard planted upon its most perfect ashlar and chief cornerstone of FAITH IN GOD, HOPE IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, and CHARITY FOR ALL MANKIND, especially of the HOUSEHOLD OF THE FAITHFUL.
“Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through Nature up to Nature's God;
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design,
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Grasps the whole world of Reason, Life, and Sense,
In one close system of Benevolence:
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of Bliss but height of Charity." - Pope.
CHAPTER III
Advent of Freemasonry into America.
MASONRY PROVIDED THE LEADERS THAT INCITED THE COLONISTS AND LED THEM TO VICTORY, LEAVING ITS IMPRESS UPON THE FREE INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.
Before entering upon the work of "The History of the Northwest" proper, it is expedient and appropriate that an account of our Masonic ancestry and descent in our own country of the American Republic should be given; and as there were individual Masons on the Pacific Slope, before American occupation, carrying the light within their own breasts, scattered over the country and traversing its solitude, so there existed a similar condition in the early settlement of the American Colonies upon the Atlantic Coast.
It is said that there is evidence that "Freemasonry existed in the then French Colony of Nova Scotia without the English language as early as 1606," or fourteen years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. The first Mason of whom there is any account in that state or in America in colonial times was Governor Jonathan Belcher who was made in a Lodge in London in 1704, or thirteen years before the so-called "Revival of Freemasonry in 1717. SERNO D. NICKERSON, Past Grand Master and now Grand Secretary and Historian of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, who is always exact in his statements of facts of history, records the following: " In 1741 Governor JONATHAN BELCHER said to the first Lodge in Boston (St. John's), 'It is now thirty-seven years since I was admitted into the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons.' He was present and his health was drank in the Grand Lodge of England, September 26, 1744. The Craft spread far and wide, and whenever two or three of them were gathered together they made merry, and they made Masons!"
Thus it will be seen that wherever there were three Master Masons to come together, and thus have a quorum, they would open a Lodge of Master Masons pro tempore, initiate, pass and raise candidates, close and disband until another emergency should arise. There was no supreme authority to govern and control, no warrants or charters issued, and this loose system generally prevailed, though fortunately for Freemasonry the population at that time was very limited and every man knew his neighbor before admitting him to the fellowship of brotherhood. Even in 1733 the population of the city of Boston was only about 18,000, Philadelphia about 12,000, and New York even in 1777 numbered only 21,767, so that in the selection of material there was not much danger of going very far astray.
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In the British Isles, however, Masonry had its Lodges which were permanent, kept their records, and were separate, independent sovereignties, amenable to no other regulations and laws but those established by themselves; and their government in legislation was shared by the humblest Entered Apprentice, who had both voice and vote in the administration of their affairs, and each was a free republic with freemen and Freemasons in itself, their Masters and other officers of their own choice, limited by their own laws and landmarks of the Order and the terms for which they were chosen; but when the Grand Lodge of England was organized at the Apple Tree Tavern in London, in 1717, then a new order of things commenced by its declaring, "That the privilege of assembling as Masons, which has been hitherto unlimitd, shall 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, shall 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 without such consent no Lodge shall be hereafter deemed regular or constitutional." In "Anderson's Constitutions of 1723" we find among the General Regulations, "compiled first by Mr. GEORGE PAYNE, Anno 1720, when he was Grand Master, and approv'd by the Grand Lodge on St. John Baptist's Day, Anno 1721," the following, being the second paragraph of Article VIII:
"If any Set or Number of Masons shall take upon themselves to form a Lodge without the Grand Master's Warrant, the regular Lodges are not to countenance them, nor own them as fair Brethren and duly form'd nor approve of their Acts and Deeds; but must treat them as Rebels, until they humble themselves, as the Grand Master shall in his Prudence direct, and until he approve of them by his Warrant, which must be signify'd to the other Lodges, as the Custom is when a new Lodge is to be register'd in the List of Lodges."
Says Bro. SERENO D. NICKERSON: "The new system thus inaugurated met with general approval and was adopted by common consent by the English speaking portion of the Craft, from time to time, as it became known. In no quarter was the new departure more cordially approved, or more cheerfully conformed to than in the British North American Provinces."
In 1721 the Grand Lodge of Munster, Ireland, was formed, of which SPRINGETT PENN (the oldest son of the celebrated WILLIAM PENN, the founder of Pennsylvania) was the first Deputy Grand Master; but in 1730 the Grand Lodge of Ireland was regularly organized.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland was constituted in 1736. The Grand Master of Scotland, WILLIAM ST. CLAIR, Earl of Orkney, who then exercised supreme power, declared: "Taking into consideration that his holding or claiming any such jurisdiction, right or privilege might be prejudicial to the Craft and vocation of Freemasonry, renounced his claims and empowered the Freemasons to choose their Grand Master. The consequence of this act of resignation was the immediate organization of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, over whom, for obvious reasons, the late hereditary Grand Master or Patron was unanimously called to preside." This act carried with it all of the Scottish Lodges of one allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
As all the duly constituted Masonic bodies in the American Colonies derived their warrant of authority from the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland, it is necessary to briefly refer to the Grand Lodges in England, for there were several. According to ANDERSON and PRESTON, the first charter granted in England to the Masons as a body was bestowed by King ATHELSTAN in 926, upon the application of his brother, Prince EDWIN. "Accordingly," says a legend first cited by ANDERSON, "Prince EDWIN summoned all the Masons in the realm to meet him in a congregation at York, who came and composed a General Lodge, of which he was Grand Master; and having brought
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with them all the writings and records extant, some in Greek, some in Latin, and some in French and other languages, from the contents thereof that assembly did frame the Constitution and Charges of an English Lodge. From this assembly at York the rise of Masonry 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 Masonic jurisdiction over all England, but in 1567 it was split in twain. The Masons of the southern part of the island elected Sir THOMAS GRESHAM, the celebrated merchant, their Grand Master. He was succeeded by the illustrious architect, INIGO JONES. There were then two Grand Masters in England who assumed distinctive titles: the Grand Master of the north being called "Grand Master of all England," while he who presided in the southern portion of England was called "Grand Master of England."
The political disturbances, civil wars, and conflicts of parties during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played havoc with Masonry, and the General Assemblies had ceased altogether. In 1715 there were but four Lodges in the south of England, all working in the city of London, and it was these four Lodges which came together on St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1717, and formed the Grand Lodge of England and adopted the regulations, as already stated. This Grand Lodge and that at York maintained friendly relations until 1725, when the former invaded the jurisdiction of the latter, and again in 1735, when it repeated the offense by the EARL OF CRAWFORD, Grand Master of England, constituting two Lodges and appointing deputies for Lancashire, Durham, and Northumberland. Total non - intercourse and interdiction was the result between these two bodies. In 1738, or three years afterward, several Brethren seceded from the Grand Lodge of England, took advantage of this breach, and called themselves "York Masons," and when the latter body took action against them they then adopted the name of "Ancient York Masons," charged the Grand Lodge of England with making innovations, branding them with the name of "Modern Masons," and they then in 1739 established a new Grand Lodge in London under the name of the "Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons." Thus these Masons not only seceded from their own regular Grand Lodge but appropriated the name of the other at York and affixed an amendment to it in the word "Ancient." The York Grand Lodge may have winked at or encouraged this revolt on account of the invasion of its own jurisdiction by repeated unfriendly acts of the Grand Lodge of England at London.
For some years the Ancient Lodges in several instances appear to have worked on an independent system, claiming the original right, which every body of Masons had, to assemble and work without a warrant; but finally in 1751 they changed the title again to "The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England, according to the old Constitutions," while the regular body was known as " The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons under the Constitution of England." This latter body soon after its organization was recognized by the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland, and these four, Grand Lodges granted warrants to subordinate Lodges in the American Colonies, and the seeds of rivalry and jealousy took root in a virgin soil, which bore fruit for nearly three quarters of a century.
The first regular authority or appointment to constitute Masonic Lodges in the American Colonies was issued by the DUKE OF NORFOLK, Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons of England, on June 5, 1730, to DANIEL, COXE, of New Jersey, appointing him Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This was followed by Lord Viscount MONTACUTE, the succeeding Grand Master, on April 30, 1733, appointing HENRY PRICE, of Boston, Provincial Grand Master of New England. There are no official records or accounts of Provincial Grand Master COXE having
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created any Lodges or issued any warrants for Lodges while he held his appointment. There were independent Lodges within his jurisdiction which met semi - occasionally and did as they pleased, while he was in London the most of the time, looking after his own private interests. These independent single Lodges assumed each for itself the title of "Grand Lodge," and its Master that of "Grand Master.
On July 30, 1733, just three months from the date of his appointment, R\W\ HENRY PRICE, as Provincial Grand Master of New England, at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston, was duly invested and congratulated, and St. John's Grand Lodge was then formed, the first regularly constituted Lodge of Masons in America, and the recognition of Freemasonry and of Lodges by the granting of warrants of authority was put in motion by his granting a warrant to eighteen Master Masons and their Brethren to form a subordinate Lodge known as First Lodge, in Boston, and installing their officers. In 1783 it took the name of St. John's Lodge, by which it has ever since been known. Among the first to recognize the authority of HENRY PRICE, who had been appointed Provincial Grand Master for all of North America, was BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the so called Grand Master of the self - constituted "Grand Lodge of St. John's," in Philadelphia, in which he was made in February, 1731. The records of St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston recite that, "About this time (June 24, 1734) Our Worshl. Bro. Mr. BENJN. FRANKLIN from Philadelphia became acquainted with Our Rt. Worshl. Grand Master Mr. Price, who further instructed him in the Royal Art, and said FRANKLIN on his Return to Philadelphia called the Brethren there together, who petitioned Our Rt. Worshl. Grand Master, having this year Recd. Orders from the Grand Lodge in England to Establish Masonry in all North America, did send a Deputation to Philadelphia, appointing the Rt. Worshl. Mr. BENJN. FRANKLIN first Master; which is the beginning of Masonry there." This last sentence refers to regularly constituted Masonry by lawful authority.
During a period of forty years, up to December, 1773, this St. John's Grand Lodge bad granted forty charters or warrants for forty Lodges, as follows: Massachusetts eight, New Hampshire one, South Carolina one, West Indies three, Nova Scotia three, Newfoundland one, Rhode Island three, Maryland one, Connecticut eight, New York three, Maine two, New Jersev two, Canada one, North Carolina one, Dutch Guiana one, Virginia one. In this last mentioned Lodge, which was constituted at Fredericksburg, Virginia, GEORGE WASHINGTON was initiated on November 4, 1752, passed on March 3, 1753, and raised on August 4, 1753, with others, to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. In addition to the foregoing, this St. John's Grand Lodge also granted several warrants or charters to so called Army Lodges in the colonial contingents during the French and Indian wars.
In 1752, a number of Masons who had probably received the degrees of Masonry under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, opened a Lodge at the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston, which was afterward known as St. Andrew's, and applied to the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a charter, having the approval of the Falkirk Lodge in Scotland. Action was delayed until May 21, 1759, when it was granted, but it failed to reach the Lodge until September 4, 1760 and Colonel JOHN YOUNG, who on November 14, 1757, had been appointed Provincial Grand Master of all Lodges in North America under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, does not appear to have done anything under its authority and seems to have been ignored. The Grand Lodges of the old country paid no attention to the jurisdictions of each other or those of the Provincial Grand Lodges which they established in the Colonies, when they made a single Subordinate Lodge a Grand Lodge by itself. On November 30, 1768, a committee of St. Andrew's Lodge, with its Master, JOSEPH WARREN, at its head, was appointed to confer with other "Ancient" Lodges in the town as to the expediency of
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applying to the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a Grand Master of Ancient Masons in America. There were three British regiments stationed in Boston at that time, each with a Military Lodge attached, but working under different Constitutions: English, Irish and Scotch. The petition was granted on May 30, 1769, by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and Dr. JOSEPH WARREN appointed "Grand Master of Masons in Boston, New England, and within one hundred miles of the same." The New Grand Lodge was duly organized on December 27, 1769, and the officers publicly installed. It was thenceforth known as "Massachusetts Grand Lodge." Soon afterward the movement of the British troops caused the Military Lodges to sever their connection with it. The matter of a quorum was decided by the Grand Lodge declaring that, "whenever a summons is issued by the Grand Master, or under his direction, and the Grand Lodge in consequence congregated, the same is to all intents and purposes a legal Grand Lodge, no matter how few in number." This " Massachusetts Grand Lodge" continued to meet regularly, and chartered thirty Lodges as follows: In Massachusetts sixteen, in Maine one, in the United States Army one (American Union Lodge, No. 1. during the Revolution), in New Hampshire four, in Connecticut five, in Vermont two, and in New York one.
As near as can be gathered from the records and from all of the authorities examined, from the time of the organization of the first regularly chartered and duly constituted Lodge, that of St. John's Lodge at Boston, Massachusetts, on July 30, 1733, up to the close of the Revolutionary War by the Treaty of Peace, Great Britain acknowledging the Independence of the United States in 1783, a period of fifty years in Masonic history, there appears to have been constituted by warrant in the American Colonies (now States), by England's Grand Lodges, "Ancient" and " Modern," forty-four Lodges, by the Grand Lodge of Scotland two Lodges, by the Grand Lodge of Ireland one Lodge, and by the Provincial Grand Masters and Grand Lodges one hundred and twenty, making in all one hundred and sixty-seven Lodges duly chartered and constituted in the thirteen American Colonies, which established their independence and formed our Great Republic, of which forty-two per cent. of the whole or fifty-seven and one - half per cent. of the American chartered Lodges were chartered by the two Provincial Grand Lodges of Massachusetts, the Chief Grand East being at the city of Boston. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN came from Philadelphia for legal authority and more Masonic light, as has already been stated, and it was the place of his birth, where he was born on January 17, 1706, and whence he went to Philadelphia in October, 1723, when a boy about seventeen years of age, and it is of him and his connection with Freemasonry and his acts that we will now treat.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, after two years of sojourning in Philadelphia, and when nineteen years of age, took his departure for London, where he worked at the printer's trade, and then again returned, to Philadelphia on October 1, 1726, lacking three months of being of age. The rule then was that "no Lodge shall make any Man under the Age of Twenty-five, who must be also his own Master." FRANKLIN attained that age in January, 1731, and was initiated in February following in St. John's Lodge at Philadelphia, a self - constituted Lodge which assumed the title of "St. John's Grand Lodge," without a constituency and without other authority than that spontaneously assumed, regardless of the fact that the mother Grand Lodge of England in 1817, ten years before, had expressly forbidden "any Set or Number of Masons to take upon themselves to form a Lodge without the Grand Master's Warrant." In this fact, however, we discern the spirit and the germ of independence of the mother country; but, Masonically speaking, without any recognition whatever by regularly constituted Lodges or Brethren, who properly could hold no fraternal intercourse with them. True the Philadelphia St. John's Grand Lodge was the oldest Lodge, but it was nevertheless
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clandestine. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was styled Grand Master, but he was not satisfied, having a strict regard for law and regular government. He had come into possession of "Anderson's Constitutions," and an examination of this work soon convinced him of the irregularity of St. John's Grand Lodge. The situation of the Lodge was also rendered more grave and precarious by the attitude and actions of certain Masonic pretenders who were attempting to establish an opposition body. FRANKLIN therefore on November 28, 1734, on behalf of his Lodge and himself, applied to HENRY PRICE, Provincial Grand Master of North America at Boston, for due authority for his Lodge that they might regulate Masonry in Pennsylvania and in Philadelphia, and in his letter said:
"I beg leave to recommend their request to you and to inform you that some false and rebel Brethren, who are foreigners, being about to set up a distinct Lodge in opposition to the old and true Brethren here, pretending to make Masons for a bowl of punch, and the Craft is like to come into disesteem among us, unless the true Brethren are countenanced and distinguished by some such special authority as herein desired. I entreat, therefore, that whatever you shall think proper to do therein may be sent by the next post, if possible, or the next following."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, having obtained a copy of the Constitutions of 1723, immediately went to work and reprinted them. This was the first Masonic book printed in America. He sent copies for sale to the Lodges in Boston, advertising them in the newspapers of that city, for the market was limited at home and the population of Philadelphia incongruous and about equally divided at that time between the Quakers, North of Ireland men, Germans, and other nationalities. There were no public free schools as in New England, and public education was not generally popular. To foster this, FRANKLIN founded a public library, and with his Masonic Brethren he went to work for the education of the rising generation. HAYDEN tells us of the difficulties he encountered: "He was well known at this period as the friend and patron of popular education and every useful art. It was not alone apathy and indifference on the part of the community respecting education that he had to contend with, but there was an element in the population of Philadelphia and its vicinity that regarded all measures for the greater diffusion of knowledge as dangerous innovations on the established customs of society." There still exists a correspondence between one CHRISTOPHER SOURS, a German printer in Germantown, and CONRAD WEISER, in which the former complains bitterly of the efforts of FRANKLIN and the Freemasons generally to establish free schools. He says, "The people who are the promoters of the free schools are Grand Masters and Wardens among the Freemasons, their very pillars." It is not strange that Freemasonry with great difficulty obtained a foothold among such a population.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was educating himself in science and philosophy, and his visits to England, as well as to his native city of Boston and other places in the American Colonies, enabled him not only to keep pace with the progress of the age and the development of the country, but to promote and stimulate advancement and preparation for a new epoch in history, for a radical change of affairs and for the accouchement of the daughter of the unfriendly, tyrannical Mother Country - the birth of a new Nation which was brought forth in violent suffering, blood, and tears. He had tapped the electric reservoir of the heavens and brought the lightning to the earth, but there was a greater storage in that mysterious river in the ocean sweeping along the Atlantic shores - the Gulf Stream - which contained mightier power, whose influence was felt from the St. Lawrence River on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. Flowing in an opposite direction, but parallel with it, was the great current of public opinion, warmed by patriotism and love of country, with devotion to freedom created by a century and a half of struggle for existence - foreign foes with hostile, savage Indian allies to battle with, and no alternative but to conquer or die. In these
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contests the American Colonies on American soil had to fight the battles, of England against her antagonists of Europe and pour out their blood like water against the greatest odds for the benefit of the Mother Country, which controlled their commerce and navigation, prevented manufactures and taxed the people not only for the government of the Colonies themselves but also for the support of the British Government, in which they had no voice or vote, being denied the right of representation and the rights and privileges of British subjects under the Constitution enjoyed at home. Acts of oppression, tyranny, and cruelty on the part of the British Government were continually repeated all
along the line. The American Colonial heroes, who had captured the fortress of Louisburg, the "Gibraltar of America," and helped WOLFE to Carry the Heights of Abraham and defeat the French army and its Indian allies under MONTCALM at Quebec, were treated with disdain and their manly courage with contempt. The British General BRADDOCK, with superciliousness and scorn, had rejected the wise and prudent suggestions of WASHINGTON when marching to attack Fort Duquesne, and strutting with arms akimbo, exclaimed, " High times, by G - D, when a young buckskin presumes to teach a British General how to fight!" And yet that same "buckskin" was to save the remnant of the defeated army and to bury its overconfident commander in the road near where he fell.
Wherever true Freemasonry flourishes there the light of the Sun of Liberty shines in all its glory and refulgence, and the people among whom it lives and moves and has its being are
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enlightened, educated, free and intelligent, independent in character, patriotic to the core, and thoroughly imbued with the principle and sentiment of " Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God." In its temples they breathe the pure ozone of its spirit, perfumed with the incense of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity: Liberty regulated by wise laws, Equality upon the level of human rights, and Fraternity cemented by brotherly love, ever ready to extend relief and to receive and impart the truth. Where Freemasonry does not flourish, tyranny, mental and corporeal, ignorance, superstition, fanaticism and cruelty prevail.
Thirty-one years had passed away since HENRY PRICE, Provincial Grand Master, constituted the first regular chartered Lodge in America - St. john's, at Boston, Massachusetts and when sixty-seven years of age he was elected to represent Townsend in the Provincial Assembly of that Colony during the years 1764 and 1765. Says Bro. SERENO D. NICKERSON: "They were important and eventful years in the history of the Colony. It was in 1764 that the first public opposition was made to the Parliamentary schemes for taxation without representation in America. It was in that year the 'alarm bell' was first rung by that sturdy old patriot SAMUEL ADAMS, anticipating the famous utterances of PATRICK HENRY by just one year. The obnoxious revenue acts projected in 1763 and culminating in the Stamp Act, which received the royal assent in 1765, were the real moving causes of the American Revolution.
The Instructions to the Representatives of the town of Boston in the Provincial Assembly of the Year 1764," drawn up by SAMUEL ADAMS, contain the first public denial of the right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonists without their consent, and the first suggestion of a union of the Colonists for the redress of their grievances. These instructions were adopted by the inhabitants of Boston, in town meeting in Faneuil Hall, on May 24th. A few days later they were published and circulated through the continent. The effect was immediate. They became the basis of the Provincial policy, the germs of the great issues of the Revolution.
The Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts came together in June, and at once acted in accordance with the wishes of the people. A memorial, addressed to the Colonial Agent in London, was drawn up by Bro. JAMES OTIS and adopted June 13th, vindicating the rights and privileges belonging to the people by charter or by birth. On the day following a committee was appointed to correspond with the several Assemblies on the continent and urge them to united efforts for the protection of their inalienable rights. During the same month Bros. JAMES OTIS and OXENBRIDGE THACHER had respectively published their famous pamphlets, "Rights of the Colonies," and, "Sentiments of a British American." The former the Assembly adopted as its own, and ordered it to be sent to the Colonial Agent in England. HENRY PRICE had for his colleagues in the Provincial Assembly at this time Bros. ANDREW BELCHER, the member from Milton (son of Gov. JONATHAN BELCHER), JAMES OTIS and OXENBRIDGE THACHER, and he was in full sympathy with Grand Master JOSEPH WARREN, PAUL REVERE, and the many other Brethren who wrought under his own Grand Mastership and who so bravely battled for freedom in and about the "great town" of Boston, which was in that day the Mistress of North America" and the "Cradle of Liberty."
Events were now ripening fast throughout the entire length and breadth of the American Colonies, and it was soon apparent that it was to be a struggle to the death between British tyranny, backed by wealth and formidable power, on the one hand, and American liberty, supported by an unconquerable spirit, with limited resources but aided by Divine Providence, on the other. Freemasonry was strengthening itself and continually augmenting its numbers, while its members as citizens were incessantly active as patriots and continually preparing for the impending conflict. "The Colonies were sparsely peopled, except on the sea coast. They were hemmed in on every side. A
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hostile and insidious foe hung on the outskirts. A cordon of sixty French fortifications, from Montreal to New Orleans, encircled them on the west, threatening invasion and conquest. The Atlantic shut down upon them on the east, across which the Mother Country sent her emissaries, forcing submission to unreasonable demands or exacting tribute from a stricken and famished people; they must tamely submit or stubbornly resist. This discipline to these resolute and indomitable spirits was indeed bitter, but it developed a character and a reservation of force needful in events about to transpire." The ties of patriotism and Masonic Brotherhood combined were to be tested to the uttermost. Soon after the passage and signing of the Stamp Act a bill was passed by Parliament quartering British troops on the Colonies. These acts met with universal opposition. The whole country was wrought up into a state of intense excitement. Duties were imposed on
various needful articles of importation from Great Britain into the Colonies, and the collection was enforced by English troops quartered in Boston, which was followed by a combination of the merchants and people against the importation and consumption of the articles specified, and soon after by a repeal of the duties, except on tea. The people accordingly united in renouncing the use of tea. The shipment of the offensive article, however, was persistent. Two vessels bearing it eventually arrived in Boston harbor, and one of them, the Darimouth, anchored near Liverpool wharf.
We now come to the threshold of the initiatory step of physical defiance and resistance to the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament to coerce the Colonies, and in which Freemasons took the leading part. By concerted action the picked party of men in Boston were mostly Masons belonging to St. Andrew's Lodge and some few to St. John's Lodge, and they chose the others
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to join them who were not Masons of these latter there were three true and trusty young men from the town of Milton, JOHN CRANE, SAMUEL GORE and HENRY PURKETT, the last named afterward becoming a member of St. Andrew's Lodge. They held their meetings in the Green Dragon Tavern, in the Lodge room of St. Andrew's Lodge, and were so careful that they should be held secret that every time they met every person swore upon the Bible that they would not disclose any of their transactions but to Messrs. HANCOCK, ADAMS, Doctors WARREN, CHURCH, and one or two more (who were all Masons, and WARREN Grand Master). On the night of December 16, 1771, a portion assembled at the Liberty Tree, and were soon joined by those who came from the Green Dragon Tavern, and with the exception of a few on watch, all were disguised as Mohawk Indians. They then marched down to Liverpool wharf and boarded the ship Dartmouth first and then the other and threw overboard the entire cargo of tea. This was the famous "Tea Party" which became the nucleus of the "Sons of Liberty," and finally expanded into the military organization of "Minute Men." As the fact of this action could not be concealed, HENRY PURKETT, on returning to his home in Milton, where Governor HUTCHINSON had his mansion and then resided, informed the Governor that "there was a great bowl of tea made last night in Boston harbor which might prove to be a little salty."
The whole of the American Colonies had become alarmed, and to provide for the preservation of their rights a Continental Congress had been determined upon, to be composed of delegates from all the Colonies. This Congress assembled at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, and M\W\ Bro. PEYTON RANDOLPH, Grand Master of Masons of Virginia, was its President. The Massachusetts Colony had already suffered beyond endurance. As the Suffolk County Convention were unable to meet in safety in Boston by reason of the British soldiery, it was held first at Colonel DOTY'S tavern in Stoughton, April 16, 1774, and then adjourned to meet at the house of RICHARD WOODWARD, inn - older in Dedham, on September 6, 1774, where the delegates to the number of sixty from the nineteen towns of Suffolk County (which then embraced the whole of Norfolk) assembled. Gen. JOSEPH WARREN (Grand Master) was made chairman of a large committee to frame suitable resolutions and to report September 9th at the house of Bro. DANIEL VOSE, in Milton, to which time and place the convention was adjourned. This house is still standing. Here the convention met pursuant to adjournment on September 9, 1774, with a full roll of delegates, when Gen. JOSEPH WARREN presented that remarkable paper known as the " Suffolk Resolves."
These resolves mainly formed the text of the "DECLARATION OF RIGHTS" adopted by the Continental Congress, October 14, 1774, or about one month afterward, and from which THOMAS JEFFERSON, as the chairman of the committee, a year and eight months and a half after that, drafted the Declaration of American Independence the real author of which may be said to have been, in the recital of the list of grievances contained therein and the declarations made by, Grand Master JOSEPH WARREN, who was the active strategist of the initiatory movement of the Revolution, and Bro. PAUL REVERE, the successful courier and scout.
Events followed each other quick and fast. Boston had been closed as a port of entry, the British troops under General GAGE had been reinforced and a squadron of the British Navy was anchored in Boston harbor, getting ready for hostile movements against the Colonists. The Masonic Brethren were everywhere on the alert, active and watchful. The British troops of fresh arrival were quartered upon the people of Boston, with a system of the closest espionage upon its inhabitants to see that no communication or correspondence with the patriots was held, to warn them and give the alarm of the movements of the British troops, who were organizing an expedition to make an incursion into the country adjacent to Boston to disarm and disperse the armed bodies
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of Continentals that were being formed of "Minute Men," and to destroy cannon and other military stores.
LONGFELLOW has so well described Bro. PAUL REVERE's ride and the circumstances connected with it that it has become classic in American poems. Yet it is greatly to be regretted that he does not give the whole story nor the name of PAUL REVERE'S friend who hung up the lanterns as a signal in the belfry of the Old North Church in Boston, giving information of the contemplated movements of the British troops on the night of April 18, 175. The facts, however, were as follows: The sexton of the Old North Church, who was a patriot and a friend of PAUL REVERE, was ROBERT NEWMAN, who was also a Brother Mason. This fact is proven by his grave in Copp's Hill Cemetery in Boston, which is but a short distance from the church. It is marked by a slate headstone with his name upon it, ROBERT NEWMAN, and also upon it is cut the Masonic emblem of the square and compass. Bro. ROBERT NEWMAN at that time had quartered upon him as unwelcome guests two of the British officers. On the evening of April 18, 1775, while they were out, he was sitting quietly in his house on Salem street, awaiting the arrival of his friend Capt. THOMAS BARNARD, who was watching the movements of the British regulars, while on the other side of the river
Bro. PAUL REVERE watched and waited for the signals that notified him of their route. Bro. ROBERT NEWMAN retired to bed on the arrival of the British officers, who also went to their rooms, and were soon, from their deep potations, fast asleep. Bro. NEWMAN then quietly arose and assuring himself that they were deep in slumber, took down the church keys, slipped out of the back entrance, met his friend Capt. THOMAS BARNARD, who apprised him of the news, and remembering his instructions from Bro. PAUL REVERE, proceeded to the tower of Old North Church, lighted the lanterns and hung them in the belfry arch, thus giving Bro. REVERE the signal agreed upon, that would tell him of the intended march of the British troops to Lexington and Concord.
After completing his momentous task, Bro. NEWMAN quickly descended, jumped out of a back window, and apparently unobserved entered his house and retired to bed. The British officers, having slept off the effects of their libations, awoke, and, after dressing and equipping themselves, became suspicious on learning that some one had been seen entering the house during the night. They went to Bro. NEWMAN's room and finding him asleep waked him and brought him out under arrest,
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but no charges being proved against him he was set at liberty. To commemorate this historical event the city of Boston caused a tablet to be placed on the tower of the church, October 17, 1878, containing the inscription on the preceding page.
The patriotic example exhibited by Bros. JOSEPH WARREN and PAUL REVERE, and a large number of their Brethren who joined them, stretched the mystic cord of Brotherhood from one end of the American Colonies to the other, and proved the ties of patriotism and fraternity. Bro. ISRAEL PUTNAM of Connecticut un - harnessed his horses from the plow as soon as he heard of the battles of Lexington and Concord, and mounting one of them rode to the field of conflict. Bro. and Col. DAVID WOOSTER, the first Master of Hiram Lodge, No. 1, of New Haven, Connecticut, was with other Brethren of the Committee of Safety, preparing to send reinforcements and supplies. Bro. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Provincial Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania, became the Chairman of the Committee of Safety at Philadelphia, which enrolled volunteer companies and expressed the most patriotic resolutions.
So strong was the Masonic element in this patriotic movement throughout the country, which JOHN ADAMS of Massachusetts (though not a Mason himself) clearly saw would strengthen the patriot cause, that when it came to the question of measures of offense and defense, the selection of a commander in chief of the American forces who was both a Mason and a man of military experience was a necessity. In the Continental Congress ADAMS, speaking on the state of the Colonies and the army at Cambridge, proposed for commander in chief " a gentleman whose skill and 'experience as an officer, whose independent fortune, great talents and excellent universal character would command the approbation of all America and unite the cordial exertions of all the Colonies better than any other person in the Union, and that person is Colonel GEORGE WASHINGTON of Virginia."
BUNKER HILL MONUMENT
In addition to the appointment of Colonel WASHINGTON as the commander in chief, five Major Generals and eight Brigadier Generals were appointed, all but three of whom were Masons, while the commander in chief and the next in command were both Master Masons.
It was the patriotic and self - sacrificing example set by Bros. WASHINGTON, WARDE, PRESCOTT, WARREN, STARK, WOOSTER, SULLIVAN, PUTNAM, SPENCER, FRANKLIN and so many others, that animated our Masonic fathers of the American Revolution and united them with bands of steel in the one common purpose of resistance to tyranny and oppression, and made the present peaceful and unrestricted enjoyment of Freemasonry possible everywhere on the American continent.
Under the guidance and control of Freemasonry in the houses of the Provincial and Continental Congresses, the patriotic freemen and the Freemasons were knit together as a whole, and made common cause in the struggle for the freedom of the Colonies; and during this trying period the three Masonic Grand Lodges of the Provinces of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were extending the
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mystic cord of Freemasonry among those who were armed to do battle in defense of American liberty and the rights of man. These Grand Lodges chartered and instituted ten Masonic Military Lodges, which were distributed through the American Army. The Lodges thus duly constituted were as follows:
First. ST. JOHN'S REGIMENTAL LODGE, in the United States Battalion, July 24, 1775, by the old Provincial Grand Lodge of New York (Moderns).
Second. AMERICAN UNION LODGE, in the Connecticut Line, February 15, 1776, by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (Moderns). [This Lodge is still in existence at Marietta, Ohio, and No. 1 on the roll of that State.]
Third. No. 19 on the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge registry, in the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Artillery, May IS, 1779, by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (Ancients).
Fourth. WASHINGTON LODGE, in the Massachusetts Line, October 6, 1779, by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge (Ancients).
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth on the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge registry in the following order: No. 20, in a North Carolina Regiment, 1779; No. 27, in the Maryland Line, April 4, 178O; No. 28, 1780, and No. 29, July 27, 1780, in the Pennsylvania Line; NO 31, March 26, 1781, and NO, 36, September 2, 1782, in the New Jersey Line, by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (Ancients).
"Masonic records and the concurrent testimony of WASHINGTON'S compeers both show that while commander in chief of the American Revolutionary Army he countenanced the establishment and encouraged the labors of these Military Lodges, wisely considering them as schools of patriotism and urbanity, well calculated to disseminate those mild virtues of the heart, so ornamental to the human character, and particularly useful to correct the ferocity of soldiers and alleviate the miseries of war. The cares of his high office engrossed too much of his time to admit of his engaging in the duties of the chair, yet he found frequent opportunities to visit these Lodges, and thought it no degradation to his dignity to stand there on a level with his Brethren." BIGELOW'S Address.
Says MACKEY: "A few years ago Capt. HUGH MALOV, a Revolutionary veteran, then residing in Ohio, declared that he was initiated in WASHINGTON'S marquee tent, the chief himself presiding at the ceremony." These Military Lodges increased greatly in their membership. The drum with the American flag spread across it became a Masonic altar with the three great lights upon it, while three bayonets stuck in the ground beside it with candles in them furnished the three lesser lights, which bore silent testimony to the ceremonies within the well guarded tent where none but Americans and Masons were on guard.
In the summer of 1776, the independence of the American Colonies being a foregone conclusion, and in advance sustained by a consolidated patriotic sentiment of the people, it became apparent that a change in the Continental flag would have to be made and a national ensign prepared for the new nation about to be born. In accordance therewith a committee was appointed by the Continental Congress, consisting of Colonel GEORGE Ross and ROBERT MORRIS, who, accompanied by General WASHINGTON, in June, 1776, while he was called to Philadelphia, called upon a Mrs. JOHN ROSS, whose husband was the nephew of Colonel GEORGE ROSS, a member of the Continental Congress, to ask her assistance in making the new flag. This committee were all Masons. In response to their request to make the flag, she said, "I don't know whether I can, but I will try." A rough
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drawing was presented to her, which at her suggestion was drawn again in pencil by General WASHINGTON in the back parlor of her house (which is still standing and is now No. 239 Arch street, Philadelphia).
The first flag of the United Colonies, which was designed mainly by Bro. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN who was at that time Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, who with the rest of the committee visited WASHINGTON'S camp at Cambridge was thirteen stripes, alternately red and white, with the British Union jack retained, to symbolize the descent of the American people from the mother country. The new striped flag, which substituted the blue field with the thirteen stars for the field with the British union Jack, was hoisted for the first time over WASHINGTON'S camp at Cambridge.
The Continental Congress with but three or four exceptions was composed entirely of Masons. As Col. GEORGE Ross was of Scotch descent, the old Scotch Covenanters' "blue blanket," as it was called, may possibly have suggested the blue field for the union, which claim has been made for it; but casting aside this supposition, it is evident that General WASHINGTON, when he designed it, had in
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mind the Masonic covering of the Lodge, the blue and starry decked canopy of heaven. The three colors, the five-pointed stars of fellowship or fraternity and the seven red stripes, all suggestive of the three, five and seven steps of the Masonry of the Blue Lodge, while the six stars on the Master's collar, the four stars on the Senior Warden's, the two stars on the junior Warden's, together with the blazing star, comprised the thirteen stars of the constellation of the Masonic union, and were the symbols also of the thirteen States which formed the American Union.
The same Masonic symbolism was carried out in the devices of the Great Seal of the United States and also in the seal of the President. Immediately following the declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1776, Bros. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and THOMAS JEFFERSON, and Mr. JOHN ADAMS, were appointed a committee to prepare a device for a Great Seal for the United States of America. The allseeing eye of Providence in a radiant triangle, the overthrow of PHARAOH and his hosts in the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night which led MOSES and the Israelites through the wilderness, and other devices, were suggested by Bros. FRANKLIN and JEFFERSON. Finally after various modifications the present Great Seal of the United States was adopted, June 20, 1782, which is Masonic as well as national, and which will remain forever. The coat of arms of the United States on the obverse, the American eagle with the shield upon its breast, the bunch of arrows in its left talon and olive branch in its right, the motto E Pluribus Unum in its beak, the circle of clouds above its head with a glory of thirteen stars upon a blue field bursting through it, while American and national in its purpose is Masonic to the fullest extent. The eagle is the symbol of St. JOHN the Evangelist, the great patron of Freemasonry; the arrows refer to King DAVID, who was a man of many wars and of much bloodshed, while they also represent the token of the fraternal love and sign agreed upon between DAVID and JONATHAN; the olive branch of the peaceful reign of SOLOMON, who built the temple at Jerusalem; the motto, E Pluribus Unum (many out of one), JACOB and his twelve sons or tribes of Israel. The clouds represent the pillar of cloud which hid the Israelites from the Egyptians when they were delivered and PHARAOH and his hosts were overwhelmed in the Red Sea; the thirteen stars, in double triangular form and one in the center, are symbolical of the delivery of the children of Israel from their oppressors and their attainment to a glorious freedom. The reverse is entirely Masonic, it being an unfinished pyramid, showing two sides of thirteen layers of perfect ashlars, seven at the base on each side, while in the zenith in the clouds is a triangle surrounded by a glory; to complete the pyramid when finished is the alls - eeing eye of Providence there being twenty-eight stones on a side to complete this pyramid, and as it has a square base there are but two sides to be seen, and these two sides thus show fifty-six stones, just the number of members of the Continental Congress who voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence. Above it is the motto "Annuit Coeptis " (Heaven favors the undertaking). On the base in Roman numerals is the year MDCCLXXVI (1776). At the bottom of the seal is the motto "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (A new series of ages). The pyramid is Egyptian in origin and form, and a free interpretation of its symbolism in our Great Seal may read, As the Israelites were delivered from bondage in the land of the PHARAOHS and the pyramids of Egypt, so we are now free and in our own country, and hereafter we will build for ourselves.
At the same time the Great Seal was adopted Congress ordered a smaller seal for the use of the President of Congress. It was a small oval, about an inch in length, the center covered with clouds surrounding a blue sky, on which were seen thirteen stars in double triangular form, with one star in the center, the whole forming a six - pointed star. Over this device was the motto
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"E Pluribus Unum." This seal was used by all the Presidents of the Continental Congresses. The seal now in use by the President of the United States is round in form, with an eagle engraved upon it.
It was the "Mystic Tie" of Freemasonry, and that alone, which upheld and preserved the cause of freedom in the dark hours of gloom, defeat and disappointment in the army under General WASHINGTON, and held its true and tried defenders together in one sacred band of brothers. When the hour of traitorous betrayal came, and the word went forth to "Put none but Americans on guard tonight," it was then that the "all - seeing eye" of the Masonic brethren covered the defenses of the patriot army, and presented that bold and resolute front that was the precursor of the great success that was to come.
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CHAPTER IV.
The Origin of Royal Arch Masonry.
OUTGROWTH OF SCHEMING FOR THE CROWN OF ENGLAND. PRACTICED BY THE "ANCIENTS" PRIOR TO THE REUNION OF THE GRAND LODGES.
The symbolism of Freemasonry teaches the fundamental belief of mankind, the hope of all ages - an existence beyond. The intelligence of our present civilization is but the evolution of cycles. Our thoughts quicken with knowledge, but our faith requires no elaboration to fortify the hope that the hereafter has a place for all the sons of men. The tribes in the jungles of India have traditions more sacred to them than is history to the Caucasian; and in their simple life they believe ALLAH hath power to save. The Koran abounds with the fruits of living faith. The North American Indian is as sure of his happy hunting ground as is the surpliced Bishop of the Elysian fields prepared for the faithful of the LORD. The Ancient Mysteries taught the doctrine of death and resurrection as strikingly as did the APOSTLES OF CHRIST. Tracing history until its attenuation disappears in the mists of tradition, the one distinctive Rock of Ages, illumined by the Star of Hope is absolute, confiding, peaceful faith in the immortality of the soul.
It is the search for TRUTH which is the one great study of Freemasonry. It is this thought which underlies even the foundation of our beautiful superstructure, and which weaves its woof in the labyrinths of mystery and finds living expression in the symbolisms of sections and degrees. As the devotee of science is stimulated to greater research by one achievement, so the novitiate in the mysteries of Ancient Craftship advantages acquired knowledge as the open sesame to other chambers in search for TRUTH, which is the essence of beginning, the hope of present and the belief in eternity.
Symbolic, or Blue Lodge Masonry, is the splendid foundation upon which, in all ages and climes, Craftship has been sustained. The adornment of columns and pilasters, of frieze and coping, are outward evidences of inward beauty which the Master Mason realizes are hidden from present view, and which may be discovered and elaborated along the paths which lead to the Holy of Holies, where TRUTH is enthroned in everlasting reign, and where the great I Am is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the ONE in all, the ALL in one.
Royal Arch Masonry is a progressive step in the ladder of knowledge, though its ritualism as taught by this generation is somewhat incongruous. It is, however, more realistic in its relations to the construction of the Temple than some other branches of Masonry, and in every reference to operative Craftship speculative lessons are taught. In the quarries we delve for useful knowledge; in the completion we celebrate the glory of jah; and in the rebuilding we discover the Covenant of Promise,
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and have the SIGNET OF TRUTH as our strength and fortress. And from this trinity of construction, completion, and rebuilding the student acquires knowledge which befits him for further research in the still greater development of other branches and other rites of Freemasonry.
The origin of Royal Arch Masonry is so intimately connected with the political disturbances of England and Scotland that a brief reference thereto becomes historically interesting. There are two parallel lines of history to be followed in relation to two separate Royal Arch degrees of Freemasonry, both of which, however, in their inception undoubtedly had a common origin. Both of these Royal Arch degrees evidently concealed purposes, both political as well as religious in their aims, in the interests of the rival houses of the STUARTS and the GEORGES, which were fraught with momentous issues, and which afterward culminated in civil and semi - religious war in Scotland and the northern portion of England, though Masonry in itself is declared to be utterly neutral. The biblical history of the rise and fall of the Jewish nation, the setting up of the Tabernacle and formulating the ceremonies of its religion largely borrowed from the Egyptian by MOSES, the building of the Temple at Jerusalem by SOLOMON, its repeated destruction and rebuilding in which NEBUCHADNEZAR, CYRUS, DARIUS, ZERUBBABEL, HEROD, TITUS VESPASIANUS, and others have been represented in history both sacred and profane, have produced legends and traditions, real and fictionary, mingled together and added to, for the purpose of parabling inventions in statecraft, politics, and religion of sects; while the Bible, with josEi~Hus and profane history, have served as vast quarries out of which material has been unlimitedly appropriated by legitimate and spurious Masonic inventors of degrees.
Freemasonry in the Old World from its very beginning was united in a greater or lesser degree to the crown and the established religion of the kingdom or state where monarchy prevailed either absolutely or constitutionally. In England and its dependencies, the so called " Revival of Freemasonry" took place on June 24, 1717 (ST. JOHN the Baptist's Day), when the four Lodges at St. Paul's Cathedral assembled at the Apple Tree Tavern and organized the Grand Lodge of England. It afterward divided the work into three degrees; Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. It is necessary to briefly give some collateral history of the different reigns of monarchs and the times antecedent to this revival of Freemasonry in 1717 and for a period afterward, in order to better understand the conditions under which Freemasonry existed, in connection with government or incidental thereto, prior to its being planted in America. Monarchy was overthrown by OLIVER CROMWELL, when the royal troops were defeated at Marston Moor and CHARLES I beheaded on January 30, 1648. The Commonwealth was established with CROMWELL as Lord Protector and continued until his death in 1660, when CHARLES II succeeded to the throne and reigned until February 6, 1685. The latter was succeeded by his brother, JAMES II, who was false to his coronation oath to maintain the Protestant religion and was driven from his throne. He abdicated, but with a French army invaded Ireland and was with the Irish rebels defeated at the battle of the Boyne on July 1, 1690. He was succeeded by his son - in - law WILLIAM III (the Prince of Orange, by whom he had been beaten at the battle of the Boyne) and MARY, the eldest daughter of JAMES II. They were crowned King and Oueen April 11, 1689, and sworn to support and maintain the Protestant religion. MARV died without issue December 28, 1694, and WILLIAM III died March 8, 1702, and was succeeded by ANNE, his sisterinlaw, who, as Queen, was crowned April 23, 1702. She died August 14, 1714, and was the last of the house of the STUARTS to occupy the throne of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Queen ANNE was succeeded, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Settlement, by GEORGE I, of the house of Brunswick and Hanover, a Protestant German Prince. In England the Protestant line of royalty had run out, and it became necessary to import a foreigner to keep the Protestant
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religion allied to the throne. The following is the Coronation Oath, taken in Section VII of the Order of Coronation Ceremonies:
"The sermon being ended, and his Majesty having in the presence of the two Houses of Parliament made and signed the Declaration, the Archbishop goeth to the King, and standing before him administers the Coronation Oath, first asking the King, 'Sir, is your Majesty willing to take the oath?' And the King answering, 'I am willing.'
The Archbishop ministereth these questions, and the King, having a copy of the printed Form and Order of the Coronation Service in his hands, answers each question severally, as follows:
Archbishop Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in Parliament agreed on, and the respective laws and customs of the same ?
King I solemnly promise so to do.
Archbishop Will you to the utmost of your power cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments ?
King I will.
Archbishop Will you to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of GOD, the true Profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by law? And will you maintain inviolably the settlement of the United Church of England and Ireland, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established within England and Ireland, and the territories thereunto belonging? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of England and Ireland, and to the churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them? King All this I promise to do. Then the King arising out of his chair, supported as before and assisted by the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Sword of State being carried before him, shall go to the altar, and there, being uncovered, make his solemn oath in the sight of all the people to observe the promises; laying his right hand upon the Holy Gospel in the Great Bible, which was carried before him in the procession and is now brought from the altar by the Archbishop and tendered to him as he kneels upon the steps, saying these words: King,The things which I have here before promised I will perform and keep. So help me GOD. Then the King kisseth the book and signeth the oath."
It is now necessary to revert to JAMES II, who was a Roman Catholic, and who abdicated the throne of England and Scotland in 1688 and died in Paris, September 6, 1701. He was married twice, first to ANNE, the eldest daughter of EDWARD HYDE, Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, by whom he had eight children, the most of whom died in infancy. His first wife died March 31, 1671. He was married the second time to MARY BEATRIX ELEANORE, daughter of ALPHONSO, the second duke of Modena, by whom he had eight children. One of them, who had two sons and a daughter, was destined to keep Scotland in a ferment and England at the choppingblock at the Tower of London.
JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD was born June 10, 1688. After the death of his father, JAMES II, he was proclaimed at Paris King of England, and was designated in England by the name of "The Pretender." In 1719 he married MARY CLEMENTINA, daughter of Prince JAMES SOBIESKI, King of Poland, and died January 1, 1766, leaving issue two sons. First, CHARLES EDWARD Louis CASSIMER, commonly called "The Chevalier St. George," or in England "The Young Pretender." He was born in Rome, November 30, 1720, and married the Princess STOHLBERG of Germany, but died without issue, January 31, 1788. Second, HENRY BENEDICT, called "The Cardinal of York," who was born March 24, 1725, elevated to the purple by Pope BENEDICT XIV in 1747, and died in 1807, when the whole issue of JAMES II became extinct.
The socalled, revival of Freemasonry in 1717 occurred during the reign of GEORGE I, when The Pretender, through his friends and adherents in England, Scotland, and France, made use of
THE TEMPLE OF KING SOLOMON
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Freemasonry as a quasineutral ground when desiring to promote their objects in ousting the German house of Brunswick and Hanover from the throne of England and Scotland and establishing the papacy in place of the Protestant religion. The contest was between GEORGE I and JAMES III or The Pretender, and was continued between the next generations of GEORGE II and CHARLES EDWARD, The Young Pretender. It was during these events that the so-called Revival of Freemasonry took place and the Royal Arch degrees invented, which afterward aided in rending the Grand Lodge of England in twain and caused Freemasonry to be transplanted to France and other countries on the Continent of Europe, and to the American Colonies, the latter having rival Grand Lodges, with non - intercourse, propagating Masonry in America and sowing the seeds of discord and disunion in the fraternity at large. During the contest between these rival houses for the united thrones of England and Scotland, there was a strong Scottish bias in favor of JAMES III and his son CHARLES EDWARD, as being the rightful heirs to the throne; and being Scottish in descent and of the "true bluid," even some of the Scotch Presbyterians were in favor of the STUARTS, though the latter were Roman Catholics. Many of the Scottish nobility allied their fortunes with those of the STUARTS, called "The Pretenders," and forfeited their titles and estates. There were not less than seventy earls, lords, and viscounts who had forfeited their titles and estates, and some their lives, because they had favored and supported the cause of the house of the STUARTS against that of Brunswick and Hanover represented by GEORGE I and George II.
Before the Revival of Freemasonry, JAMES RADCLIFFE, the Earl of Derwentwater, was executed for rebellion in 1716, being beheaded in the Tower of London. CHARLES RADCLIFFE, on the death of the unmarried son of his brother, who was thus executed, assumed the title of Earl of Derwentwater. He had married CHARLOTTE, the Countess of Newburgh, a widow. He was the third son of EDWARD, the second Earl of Derwentwater, and his mother was MARY TUDOR, the illegitimate daughter of CHARLES II. He had also been arrested and attainted and convicted of treason, but escaped to France and thence to Rome, where he received a small pension from "The Pretender." After a residence of some years he went to Paris, where, with the Chevalier MASKLYNE, Mr. HEGUETTY, and some other Englishmen, he established a Lodge in the Rue des Boucheries, which was followed by the organization of several others, and was elected Grand Master. Leaving France for a time in 1733 he was succeeded in the Grand Mastership in that country by Lord HARNOUESTER. He made several visits to England in unsuccessful pursuit of pardon. The blood of the STUARTS which flowed in his veins operated as an effective barrier to his hopes and prospects. Baffled repeatedly by the strength of the influences adverse to his desires and discouraged by many bitter and hopeless disappointments he at last allied his fortunes to those of The Young Pretender in 1745, and sailed from France to join him, but the vessel in which he had embarked was captured by an English manofwar. He was taken prisoner, and he, too, thirteen years after his nephewCHARLES RADCLIFFE, the titular Earl of Derwentwaterwas beheaded on Tower Hill, London, December 8, 1746.
Of the other Scottish noblemen whose titles and estates were forfeited there were the Duke of Wharton, the Earl of Dalkelth, Lord PAISLEY, and others, together with GEORGE PAYNE and JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS (a French Huguenot reformer, born March 12, 1683, at Rochelle, France), who on June 24, 1717, organized the first Grand Lodge of England at the Apple Tree Tavern. The suspicions attached during this crisis to Scotchmen in London are described by Sir ANDREW MITCHELL in a letter to DUNCAN FORBES on October 23: "Already every man of our country is looked on as a traitor, as one secretly inclined to The Pretender and wanting but an opportunity to declare. The guilty and the innocent are confounded together, and the crimes of a few are imputed to the whole
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nation." In his collection to be found in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, among other things, ELIAS ASHMOLE said: "There is no doubt to be made that the skill of Masons, which was always transcendent even in the most barbarous timestheir wonderful kindness and attachment to each other, how different soever in condition, and their inviolable fidelity in religiously keeping their secretmust expose them in ignorant, troublesome, and suspicious times to a variety of adventures, according to the different fate of parties and alterations in government. By the way, I shall note that the Masons were always loyal, which exposed them to great severities when power wore the trappings of justice and those who committed treason punished true men as traitors. Thus in the third year of the reign of HENRY VI (1432) an Act of Parliament was passed to abolish the society of Masons and to hinder, under grievous penalties, the holding of Chapters, Lodges, or other regular assemblies. Yet this Act was afterward repealed, and even before that King HENRY VI and several of the principal lords of his court became Fellows of the Craft."
Toward the latter part of the seventeenth century, on June 9, 1668, was born at Ayr, Scotland, ANDREW MICHAEL RAMSAY, the son of a baker, who was welltodo, and gave his son a liberal education in his own town and at the University at Edinburgh. By his great ability, diligence, and industrious perseverance he rose high in his scholarship to the position of a teacher. He was originally a Protestant in religion, and sought the practice of his profession, first in Holland, and was subsequently employed by JAMES III, the Pretender, as the tutor of his children. But having while in Holland imbibed the spirit of mysticism, he became the formulator of a Masonic rite bearing his name, from which several of the degrees were taken to form other rites and systems of Masonry out of the myths, legends, and histories of the ancient nations, with that of the Hebrew and Egyptian especially, and with the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem as the central idea of concentration as a symbol. In 1728 he visited England and Scotland ostensibly with the object of having his system adopted by the Masonic Lodges there, while secretly engaged in the interest of the Pretender, but he did not meet with the success he hoped for. Being an apostate from Protestantism and a Roman Catholic he met with the strongest opposition from Rev. JOHN T. DESAGULIERS, a French Huguenot reformer, and Rev. JAMES ANDERSON, a Scotch divine, a native of Edinburgh and pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, and compiler of the Constitutions and Ancient Charges of the Grand Lodge of England, and its history from 1717 to 1738. It was ANDERSON, under the direction and aid of DESAGULIERS, who reorganized the institution, and he was the veritable lawgiver of the fraternity at that time. RAMSAY returned to France, where he remained until 1740, when he again went to England for the same purpose, but did not succeed in establishing his work, and he returned to France, where he died May 6, 1743. But his visits to England were not entirely fruitless, as will be seen by the following.
The great majority of the fraternity in England were then communicants of the Established Churches of England and Scotland; a few only were Independents or Congregationalists, Methodists, and Dissenters, with some Roman Catholics of influence and of Scottish blood, but the greater portion of the minority were liberals in their religious sentiments and governed by a spirit of toleration toward all the various sects. While RAMSAY could not succeed in having the English Lodges adopt his system, especially the degree of the Royal Arch of Solomon or Enoch (which was also called the "Grand Scottish Knight of the Sacred Vault of James Vl," and used in France to promote the interests of the Pretender JAMES VI of Scotland, who was to be James III of England, if successful), yet he secretly furnished enough material and planted the seeds of jealousy, ambition, and discord, to bear fruit in the then near future, and to rend the Grand Lodge of England asunder and cause no less than three Grand Lodges to exist in England at one and the same time, at war with each other, and with intercourse interdicted.
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RAMSAY's Royal Arch of Solomon had failed to be engrafted upon the Masonic system of England, it being covertly in the interest of the adherents of The Pretender and incidentally at least or constructively under the influence of Scottish Masons and some others, and consequently the Secret Vault was left in ruins beneath RAMSAY's ambition, from which was to arise a second Royal Arch degree, or the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel. Though RAMSAY did not succeed with his Royal Arch degree at that time in England, he left fragments behind nearly sufficient to form another, which were made use of by LAWRENCE DERMOTT and other Brethren whose curiosity and inventive genius were aroused. It could be used for the double purpose of maintaining indirectly the cause of the house of Hanover, and at the same time it would gratify the desires and aspirations of those who were ambitious for office among the Craft. The sacred history of the setting up of the religion of the Hebrews in the erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness by MOSES was to be exemplified as a symbol of a state religion, maintained by the civil government, with the ultimate power of the throne yet invisible in the distance. The return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple under ZERUBBABEL, in which labor no others were to be permitted but those who could prove their Jewish lineage and genealogy, confining the work to that people alone, from which all other Masons were to be excluded, was to signify that no Craftsmen friendly to the house of the STUARTS need apply. The legend of the discovery of the ruins of the Secret Vault over which the Sanclum Sanclorum, or Holy of Holies, had been erected, the finding of the fallen arch and the keystone on the highest part of the rubbish, the jewels of the three Grand Masters farther down on the heap, and the Ark of the Covenant and pillars at the bottom, which were recovered and brought to the surface for examination and the Book of the Law restored to the light, symbolized the Reformation in fact, under the government of the Crown, and the Bible recovered from the ruins, caused by the Dark Ages, for the use of the people had a signification which gave no promise of hope of a return of the British nations of England, Scotland, and Wales to the communion and authority of Rome.
The system of the Grand Lodge of England had become crystallized, impassive, and conservative, and during the foreign wars in which England was constantly engaged and at the same time combating the intrigues of the Jesuits and adherents of The Pretender both at home and abroad, it looked with ill favor upon RAMSAY's efforts to add anything more to Freemasonry, and was suspicious of everything that bore the appearance of innovation in the body of Masonry.
But there were those who believed in progress and adding new features to the work. Among these was a hot - blooded, restless agitator from Ireland domiciled in London, LAWRENCE DERMOTT, who with his companions seceded from the Grand Lodge of England proper in 1739, were expelled, and organized themselves into a new "Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons," so called, without any authority of the Grand Lodge of York, while they styled the Grand Lodge and subordinates from which they had seceded as "Moderns." They added the Royal Arch degree to the other three. This new Grand Lodge of schismatics was under the leadership of LAWRENCE DERMOTT, who was at first the Grand Secretary and afterward the Deputy Grand Master of the seceders. "In 1756 he published his 'Ahiman Rezon,' a book of constitutions, wherein he proclaimed that the Masons of Ireland, Scotland, and the Ancient Masons of England had the same Customs, usages, and ceremonies, and that the Modern Masons in England differed materially, not only from the above but from most Masons in all parts of the world. He asserted that Ancient Masonry consisted of four degrees, the Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and the sublime degree of Master, and a Brother being well versed in these degrees and others well qualified, 'is eligible to be admitted.' The first reference to the Royal Arch degree that has been found either in print or manuscript and fairly considered is in a book published in 1744, by Dr. FIFIELD D'ASSIGNY, of the Grand Lodge of the Ancients, which states that the Royal Arch was
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known in London about the year 1740, soon after the bull of Pope CLEMENT XII proclaimed death to all Masons and the confiscation of all their property, issued April 28, 1738. The Royal Arch degree is said to have originated among the British royalists (jacobins) and to have been manufactured by the Chevalier RAMSAY. The Scotch Kilwinning Masons in 1736 claim to have saved from oblivion many higher degrees in Masonry, and DOVE, of Virginia, asserts that from these RAMSAY must have taken his Royal Arch. LAURIE, in his history of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, says: 'M. REGHILLINI DE Schio distinctly states that it was invented by the Scotch Chevalier RAMSAY, who he says created a new rite of the three symbolic degrees and added four others founded upon new institutions and doctrines, the last of the seven being the Royal Arch.' In December, 1736, RAMSAY was Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of France, and in 1740 he came to England. From all the authorities consulted and by the strong preponderance of evidence it would seem that RAMSAY, from material purported to have been gathered at Kilwinning, Scotland, invented the Royal Arch degree, and that between 1728 and 1743 probably in the year 1740 in the interest of CHARLES EDWARD, The Pretender, he brought over to England several new degrees, among which was one called the Royal Arch; that he first offered these degrees to the London Grand Lodge, and upon its refusal to accept them, that he tendered them to the 'Ancients,' and that LAWRENCE DERMOTT thus became possessed of the groundwork of his fourth degree. DERMOTT was an indefatigable opponent, and he early saw in the contest he was waging with the London Grand Lodge the immense advantage which this new degree would give to the Ancients. The ritual was not identical with RAMSAY'S, but it bore marks of his work, and OLIVER says in his day the English ritual still embodied some of the details of RAMSAY's Royal Arch."
The reason for this is obvious: for DERMOTT to have adopted RAMSAY's Royal Arch in the main would have led into complications which might have been treasonable; for in 1743 CHARLES EDWARD, The Young Pretender, had been advised by his brother HENRY BENEDICT (who in 1747 was made a cardinal by Pope BENEDICT XIV) to leave Rome and go to Paris and prepare for his departure for Scotland to strive for the possession of the crown of the United Kingdom. RAMSAY in 1728 had in a similar manner intrigued with some of the Scotch Masons in London and also in Scotland in the interest of JAMES III, the Old Pretender, and failed for reasons heretofore stated; and in his efforts in the interest of the son of JAMES III, by the introduction of his Royal Arch of Solomon, 'he again failed to have his scheme adopted, and returned to France. Hence DERMOTT, with a part of the material of RAMSAY'S Royal Arch, and with his own inventions, fabricated the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel, or the English Royal Arch degree, as it has come down to us with its modifications and changes, but somewhat in a different form from that now practiced and commonly, though erroneously, called a part of the York Rite. We shall refer to RAMSAY's Royal Arch of Solomon again when we come to give the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, where the oldest Royal Arch degree will be found in its proper place. In 1767 the degrees of Perfection of that rite were conferred at Albany, N.Y., among which was the Royal Arch, called the Royal Arch of Solomon.
"The Ancients with their Royal Arch made great progress. Their system of work was favored by the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland, and soon the schism was introduced into America. As early as 1758 Lodge No. 3 at Philadelphia worked as a Chapter, conferring the Royal Arch in communion with a Military Chapter working under a warrant, No. 351, granted by the Grand Lodge of all England." M\W\ Bro. WILLIAM S. GARDNER, of Massachusetts, Past Grand Master of that State and Past Grand Commander of Knights Templar, in his oration delivered at the centennial anniversary
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of St. Andrew's Chapter in Boston on September 29, 1869, states: "The establishment of the first Lodge in Massachusetts (St. john's) created dissensions between the Ancient and Modern Masons, the former being chiefly members of Military Lodges in the Royal regiments." Then he said: " Under this state of things they applied to the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a charter, and on the 13th of November, 1756, a warrant was granted by the name of St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 82. This charter is substantially in form like the one used by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and grants to the petitioners and their successors full and ample power to meet, convene, and assemble in a regular Lodge, to enter and receive Apprentices, pass Fellow Crafts, and raise Master Masons." There is no allusion in the charter to the Royal Arch, nor to any other degrees than those specified above. The establishment of St. Andrew's Lodge in Boston did not remedy the difficulty, although the Brethren of this Lodge did everything in their power to promote friendly and fraternal relations with the members of the Modern Grand and subordinate Lodges. As late as 1766 a committee of St. Andrew's, in a letter to the Grand Master of Scotland, complain that "the Grand Lodge declared that the persons named in St. Andrew's charter were not at the time of their constitution Masons, but were irregular Masons, that they had at different times applied to the Grand Lodge for liberty to visit the Lodges under its jurisdiction, but have been refused, and members prohibited from visiting this irregular Lodge." "The Ancients soon retaliated, and in 1768 they voted to keep the Feast of ST. JOHN the Evangelist, and that none vulgarly called Modern Masons be admitted to the feast. Convinced that it would be utterly impossible to live on fraternal terms with the Modern Masons of Boston, they determined to strengthen themselves by the establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge. Accordingly on St. Andrew's Day, 1768, JOSEPH WARREN being Master, they voted 'that there be a committee appointed to take into consideration the expediency of applying to the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a Grand Master of Ancient Masons in America, and to confer with such committees as shall be appointed by the other Ancient Lodges now in town.' The following month the committee reported favorably to the project, and proposed as officers Bro. JOSEPH WARREN of St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 82, for Grand Master; Bro. JEREMIAH FRENCH of the jurisdiction of Ireland, No. 322, for Grand Senior Warden; and Bro. THOMAS MUSGRAVE of the Duke of York's Lodge, No. 106, for junior Grand Warden. The petition was from four Lodges of Ancient Masons, viz.. St. Andrew's, No. 82, Registry of Scotland; Duke of York's, No. 106, Registry of Scotland, held in the 64th Regiment of foot; Lodge No. 58, Registry of England, held in the 14th Regiment; Lodge No. 322, Registry of Ireland, held in the 29th Regiment; Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, resident in Boston, Mass.
"In 1768 Boston was occupied by British troops. The commission to JOSEPH WARREN, Grand Master, was dated May 30, 1769, and received at Boston during the summer. Some of the members of St. Andrew's Lodge had seven years prior to this received the Royal Arch, for on the 29th of October, 1762, a committee of five from St. Andrew's Lodge, in a letter to the Grand Master of Scotland, say: 'We should likewise be glad to know if a charter could be granted to us for holding a Royal Arch Lodge, as a sufficient number of us have arrived to that sublime degree.' To this letter no response was received. August 28th, 1769, the first recorded meeting of the Royal Arch Lodge was held in Boston, and is in full as follows: "At a Royal Arch Lodge held at Masons' Hall, Boston, New England, August 28th, 1769present, the Right Worshipful Brother JAMES BROWN, Master; CHARLES CHAMBERS, S. W.; WINTHROP GRAY, J. W.; WILLIAM MCMILLON, HENRY GLYNN, WILLIAM McKANE, JOHN WORDDINGTON, JOSHUA LORING, D. Sy. The petition of Bro. WILLIAM DAVIS coming before the Lodge, begging to have and receive the parts belonging to a Royal Arch Mason, which being read was received, and, he unanimously voted in, and was accordingly
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made by receiving the four steps, that of Excellent, Superexcellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar.' This is believed to be the first record of conferring the Orders of Knight Templar in this country, and was given as a part of the Royal Arch, or as an honorary degree until December 19th, 1794, after which time the record is silent in regard to it. The other degrees were undoubtedly taken from the Irish ritual, for OLIVER says that the Irish system consisted of three degrees, the Excellent, Superexcellent, and Royal Arch, as a preliminary step to which the Past Master's degree was indispensable."
DERMOTT's Grand Lodge of the Ancient Masons also soon after granted charters for conferring the Knight Templar degree brought from France to England in 1750 It was a singular fact, coincidental with the schism created by DERMOTT in the Grand Lodge of the Modern Grand Lodge, that speculative and operative Masonry began to divide about the same time, or rather as an organization the operative portion was to wane within the fraternity, though the Accepted Nlasons were to control its progress and destiny. The reason chiefly for this gradual change was the laws of the kingdom in relation to the wages of the various guilds of workmen, including Masons. "The statute of GEORGE I is for the regulating journeymen tailors, etc., especially those of London, who have lately departed from their services without just cause and have entered into combinations to advance their wages to unreasonable prices and lessen their usual hours of work." This statute affected Masons as well, and of course indirectly the whole fraternity of Freemasonry, and the Accepted Masons retained the control and government of the institution, leaving the operative portion, the actual architects and builders, to attend to the material directly affected by the law in relation to contracts and wages to be paid. It is evident that those independent Lodges of Freemasons in Scotland, Ireland, and those of London, York, and elsewhere, outside of the four Lodges in London which formed the first Grand Lodge of England, had ceremonies or forms of initiation which those four Lodges did not possess, LAWRENCE DERMOTT, the author of the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel, himself says ("The True Ahiman Rezon," by LAWRENCE DERMOTT, Deputy Grand Master, dedicated to the Duke of Atholl, Grand Master of Ancient Masons, first American from third London edition, New York, 1805): "Suppose we were to inquire into the origin of the present Grand Lodge of Master Masons (Modern). Upon inquiry it would appear that all their boasted supremacy is derived from an obscure person, who lived about sixtytwo years ago, and whose name is not to be found on record amongst Ancient or Modern Masons. Whoever doubts the truth hereof let him examine Dr. ANDERSON'S Constitutions (printed in 1738), page 109, where it is written 'four Lodges,' that is to say, some persons who were wont to meet 'at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House in St. Paul's Churchyard; at the Crown Ale House in Parker's Lane; at the Apple Tree in Charles Street, Covent Garden; and at the Rummer and Grapes in Channel Row, Westminster, did meet at the Apple Tree aforesaid, in the year 1716, or rather 17, and having chosen (the nameless person before hinted) a chairman, they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge.' Such are the words of the most authentic history amongst Modern Masons, and beyond contradiction prove the origin of their supremacy to be a selfcreated assembly. Nor was a selfcreation the only defect. They were deficient in numbers. To form (what Masons mean by) a Grand Lodge there must have been the Masters and Wardens of five regular Lodges, that is to say, five Masters and ten Wardens, making the number of installed officers fifteen. Their Moderns (I mean their writers) cunningly call those transactions a revival of the Grand Lodge. Plausible as this story of a supposed revival, etc., may appear, yet one minute's reflection will show (an Ancient Mason) the fallacy of this part of their history.
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"This will be done by considering, that, had it been a revival of the Ancient Craft only, without innovations or alterations of anv kind, the Free and Accepted Masons in Ireland and Scotland, where no change has yet happened nay, Freemasons in general would agree in secret language and ceremonies with the members of the Modern Lodges. But daily experience points out the contrary. And this, I say, is an incontrovertible proof of the fallacy of their history.
Indeed, this is acknowledged by the Moderns themselves, in their calendar for 1777, page 31, where, speaking of the old Masons, we find these words, 'The Ancient York Constitution, which was entirely dropt at the revival of the Grand Lodge, 1717.” By this it is plain that, instead of a revival, a discontinuance of Ancient Masonry took place. To put this matter out of the reach of contradiction, take the testimony of Mr. SPENCER, one of their Grand Secretaries. Copy of an answer, in writing, given to Brother W. C_____LL, a certified petitioner from Ireland: 'You being an Ancient Mason, you are not entitled to any of our charity.' The Ancient Masons have a Lodge at the Five Bells in the Strand, and their Secretary's name is DERMOTT. Our Society is neither Arch, Royal Arch, or Ancient, so that you have no right to partake of our charity.'
"The case was briefly this: A Lodge at the Ben Johnson's Head in Pelham Street in Spital - fields, were composed mostly of Ancient Masons, tho' under the Modern Constitution. Some of them had been abroad, and had received extraordinary benefits on account of Ancient Masonry. Therefore they agreed to practice Ancient Masonry on every third Lodge night. Upon one of those nights some Modern Masons attempted to visit them, but were refused admittance. The persons so refused laid a formal complaint before the Modern Grand Lodge, then held at the Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar. And the said Grand Lodge, though incapable of judging the propriety or impropriety of such refusal, not being Ancient Masons, ordered that the Ben Johnson's Lodge should admit all sorts of Masons, without distinction, and upon noncompliance to that order they were censured."
The following is what LAWRENCE DERMOTT, the author of the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel, says about the socalled " Revival of Freemasonry," June 24, 1717, during the reign of GEORGE I, after stating that he was introduced into the Society of Moderns in 1748: "About the year 1717 some joyous companions [Bro. THOMAS GRINSELL, a man of great veracity, and a brother of the celebrated JAMES QUINN, Esq., informed the Lodge, No. 3, in London (in 1753) that eight persons whose ORIGIN OF ROYAL ARCH MASONRY.
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names were DESAGULIERS, GOFTON, KING, CALVERT, LUMLEY, MADDEN, DE NOVER and VRADEN were the geniuses to whom the world is indebted for the remarkable invention of Modern Masonry, who had passed the degree of Craft, though very rusty, resolved to form a Lodge for themselves, in order (by conversation) to recollect what had formerly been dictated to them, or, if that should be found impracticable, to substitute something new which might for the future pass for Masonry amongst themselves. At this meeting the question was asked whether any person in the assembly knew the Master's part, and being answered in the negative, it was resolved, mem. con., that the deficiency should be made up with a new composition, and what fragments of the old order found amongst them should be immediately reformed and made more pliable to the humors of the people. The Ancients under the name of Free and Accepted Masons, the Moderns under the name of Freemasons of England; and though a similarity of names, yet they differ exceedingly in makings, ceremonies, knowledge, Masonical language, and installations, so much that they always have been, and still continue to be, two distinct societies, totally independent of each other." One of the questions that DERMOTT asks and answers is: "7th. Whether it is possible to initiate or introduce a Modern Mason into the Royal Arch Lodge (the very essence of Masonry) without making him go through the Ancient ceremonies? Ans. No."
Said our late good Bro. ALBERT G. MACKEY: "DERMOTT was undoubtedly the moving and sustaining spirit of the great schism, which, from the middle of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, divided the Masons of England, and his character has not been spared by the adherents of the constitutional Grand Lodge. LAURIE (Hist., P. 117) says of him: 'The unfairness with which he has stated the proceedings of the Moderns, the bitterness with which he treats them, and the quackery and vainglory with which he displays his own pretensions to superior knowledge, deserve to be reprobated by every class of Masons who are anxious for the purity of their Order and the preservation of that charity and mildness which ought to characterize all their proceedings.' I am afraid that there is much truth in this estimate of DERMOTT'S character. As a polemic he was sarcastic, bitter, uncompromising, and not altogether sincere or veracious. But in intellectual attainments he was inferior to none of his adversaries, and in a philosophical appreciation of the character of the Masonic institution he was in advance of his age. No doubt he dismembered the third degree, and to
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him we owe the establishment of English Royal Arch Masonry. He had the assistance of RAMSAY'S Scottish degree Royal Arch Masonry as we now have it come from the fertile brain and intrepid heart of DERMOTT. It was finally adopted by his opponents in 1813, and it is now hardly a question that the change effected by him in the organization of the York Rite in 1740 has been of evident advantage to the service of Masonic symbolism."
As LAWRENCE DERMOTT was the author of the English Royal Arch degree and unjustly attacked the constitutional Grand Lodge of England and stigmatized them as "Moderns" and belittled its organizers, and that we may have all the light upon this subject, which is desired by every honest and true Masonic reader, it is proper to give the biographical sketch and Masonic history of one of its chief founders, eminent in Masonry, as given by our late Bro. ALBERT G. MACKEY, and there is no higher authority than this most eminent Masonic historian and scholar JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS. of those who were engaged in the revival of Freemasonry in the beginning of the eighteenth century none performed a more important part than he, to whom may well be applied the title of the "Father of Modern Speculative Masonry," and to whom perhaps more than any other person is the present Grand Lodge indebted for its existence. A sketch of his life, drawn from the scanty materials to be found in Masonic records and in the brief notices of a few of his contemporaries, cannot fail to be interesting to the student of Masonic history. The Rev. JOHN THEOPHILUS DESAGULIERS, LL. D., F. R. S., was born March 12, 1683, at Rochelle, France. He was the son of a French Protestant clergyman, and his father having removed to England as a refugee on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he was educated at Christchurch, Oxford, where he took lessons of the celebrated Dr.KEILL in experimental philosophy. In 1713 he received the degree of Master of Arts, and in the same year succeeded Dr. KEILL as a lecturer of experimental philosophy at Hart Hall. In the year 1714 he removed to Westminster, where he continued his course of lectures, being the first one, it is said, who ever lectured upon physical science in the metropolis. At this time he attracted the notice of Sir ISAAC NEWTON. His reputation as a philosopher obtained for him a fellowship in the Royal Society. He was also about this time admitted to clerical orders and appointed by the Duke of Chandos his chaplain, who also presented him to the living of Whitchurch. In 1718 he received from the University of Oxford the degree of Doctor of Laws, and was presented by the Earl of Sunderland to a living in Norfolk, which he afterward exchanged for one in Essex. He maintained his residence in London, however, where he continued to deliver his lectures until his death. His contributions to science consist of a "Treatise on the Construction of Chimneys," translated from the French, and published in 1716; "A course of Experimental Philosophy," in two volumes, published in 1734; and in 1735 he edited an edition of GREGORY'S "Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics." He also translated from the Latin GRAVESANDES' mathematical "Elements of Natural Philosophy." In the clerical profession he seems not to have been an ardent worker, and his theological labors were confined to the publication of a single sermon on repentance. He was in fact more distinguished as a scientist than as a clergyman, and PRIESTLY calls him ((an indefatigable experimental philosopher."
"It is, however, as a Mason that Dr. DESAGULIERS will most attract our attention. Soon after his arrival at London he was made a Mason in the Lodge meeting at Goose and Gridiron in St. Paul's Churchyard, which subsequently took the name of the Lodge of Antiquity. 'The peculiar principles of the Craft,' says Dr. OLIVER, 'struck him as being eminently calculated to contribute to the benefit of the community at large, if they could. be redirected into the channel from which they had been diverted by the retirement of Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN.' It is said that he visited that veteran architect, and from his conversations with him was induced to inaugurate those measures
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which led in 1717 to the revival of Freemasonry in the south of England. The reputation of DESAGULIERs as a man of science enabled him to secure the necessary assistance of older Masons to carry the design of revival into effect, and, supported by the activity and zeal of many Brethren, he succeeded in obtaining a meeting of the four London Lodges in 1717 at the Apple Tree Tavern, where the Grand Lodge was constituted in due form, and at a subsequent meeting on ST. JOHN the Baptist's Day, ANTONY SAYRE was elected Grand Master. In 1719 DESAGULIERS was elected to the throne of the Grand Lodge, succeeding GEORGE PAYNE, and being thus the third Grand Master after the revival. He paid much attention to the interests of the fraternity, and so elevated the character of Order that the records of the Grand Lodge show that during his administration several of the older Brethren, who had hitherto neglected the Craft, resumed their visits to the Lodges, and many noblemen were initiated into the institution.
"Dr. DESAGULIERS was peculiarly zealous in the investigation and collection of the old records of the Society, and to him we are principally indebted for the preservation of the 'Charges of a Freemason' and the preparation of the 'General Regulations,' which are found in the first edition of the Constitutions, which, although attributed to Dr, ANDERSON, were undoubtedly compiled under the supervision of DESAGULTERS. ANDERSON we suppose did the work, while DESAGUILERS furnished much of the material and the thought. One of the first controversial works in favor of Freemasonry namely, 'A Detection of Dr. Plot's Account of the Freemasons' was also attributed to his pen; but he is said to have repudiated the credit of its authorship, of which, indeed, the paper furnishes no internal evidence. In 1721 he delivered before the Grand Lodge what the records call 'an eloquent oration about Masons and Masonry.' It does not appear that it was ever published, at least no copy of it is extant, although KLOSS puts the title at the head of his 'Catalogue of Masonic Orations.' It is, indeed, the first Masonic address of which we have any notice, and would be highly interesting, because it would give us in all probability, as KLOSS remarks, the views of the Masons of that day in reference to the design of the institution.
"After his retirement from the office of Grand Master, in 1720, DESAGULTERS was three times appointed Deputy Grand Master in 1723 by 'the Duke of Wharton, in 1724 by the Earl of Dalkelth, in 1725 by Lord PAISLEY and during this period of service he did many things for the benefit of the Craft, among others that scheme of charity which was subsequently developed in what is now known in the Grand Lodge of England as the Fund of Benevolence. After this Dr. DESAGULIERS passed over to the Continent and resided for a few years in Holland.
In 1731 he was at The Hague, and presided as Worshipful Master of a Lodge organized under a special dispensation for the purpose of initiating and passing the Duke of Lorraine, who was subsequently Grand Duke of Tuscany and then Emperor of Germany. The Duke was during the same year made a Master Mason in England. On his return to England DESAGUI,IERS was considered, from his position in Masonry, as the most fitting person to confer the degrees on the Prince of Wales, afterward GEORGE II, who was accordingly entered, passed, and raised in an occasional Lodge, held on two occasions at Kew, over which Dr. DESAGULIERS presided as Master. Dr. DESAGULIERS was very attentive to his Masonic duties and punctual in his attendance on the communications of the Grand Lodge. His last recorded appearance by name is on March 19, 1741, but a few years before his death."
Of DESAGUILERS' Masonic and personal character Dr. OLIVER gives from tradition the following description:
"There were many traits in his character that redound to his immortal praise. lie was a grave man in private life, almost ai:)proaching to austerity; but he could relax in the private recesses of a tiled, Lodge, and in company with Brothers and fellows, where the ties of social intercourse are
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not particularly stringent. He considered the proceedings of the Lodge as strictly confidential, and being persuaded that his Brothers by initiation actually occupied the same position as brothers by blood, he was undisguisedly free and familiar in the mutual interchange of unrestrained courtesy. In the Lodge he was jocose and freehearted, sang his song, and had no objection to his share of the bottle, although one of the most learned and distinguished men of his day. In 1713 DESAGULIERS had married a daughter of WILLIAM PUDSEY, Esq., by whom he had two sons ALEXANDER, who became a clergyman, and THOMAS, who went into the army and became a colonel of artillery and an equerry to GEORGE III. DESAGULIERS died on the 29th of February, 1744, at the Bedford Coffee House, and was buried in the Savoy.
“To few Masons of the present day, except to those who have made Freemasonry a subject of especial study, is the name of DESAGULIERS very familiar. But it is well they should know that to him, perhaps more than to any other man, are we indebted for the present existence of Freemasonry as a living institution; for when, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, Masonry had fallen into a state of decadence which threatened its extinction, it was DESAGULIERS who, by his energy and enthusiasm, infused a spirit of zeal into his contemporaries which culminated in the revival of the year 1717, and it was his learning and social position that gave a standing to the iiistitution which brought to its support noblemen and men of influence, so that the insignificant assemblage of four London Lodges at the Apple Tree Tavern has expanded into an association which now overshadows the entire civilized world. And the moving spirit of all this was JOHN THEOPHlLUS DESAGULIERS."
And it was this man and his contemporaries and fellows whom LAWRENCE DERMOTT attempted to belittle and treated with disrespect and disdain, drew off from this Grand Lodge with his fellow conspirators and organized a new Grand Lodge which he called the "Ancients," shifted the positions of the pillars, dismembered the third degree and manufactured the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel, as already stated, and which for a period of threequarters of a century was to divide the Masonic fraternity into two rival hostile factions in both Great Britain and America, while the two contending houses of the STUARTS and GEORGES for the throne kept both Great Britain and her American colonies in a turmoil, the mother country in a state of preparation to repel invasion and a portion of
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the time in civil and religious war, by which the pure waters in the stream of Masonry were to be muddied by the caving in of the banks of political and religious rivalries between the adherents of the houses of the STUARTS and of Hanover.
In order to complete the early history of the Royal Arch degree before it was finished in England it is necessary to introduce the following brief biographical sketch and Masonic history of another individual which is of great importance to our readers and especially the Masonic student: THOMAS DUNCKERLEY. No one among the Masons of England occupied a more distinguished position or played a more important part in the labors of the Craft during the latter part of the eighteenth century than THOMAS DUNCKERLEY, whose private life was as romantic as his Masonic was honorable. THOMAS DUNCKERLEY was born in the city of London on October 23, 1724. He was the reputed son of Mr. and Mrs. MARY DUNCKERLEY, but really owed his birth to a personage of a much higher rank in life, being the natural son of the Prince of Wales, afterward GEORGE II, to whom he bore, as his portrait shows, a striking resemblance. It was not until after his mother's death that he became acquainted with the true history of his birth, so that for more than half of his life this son of a King occupied a very humble position on the stage of the world, and was sometimes even embarrassed by the pressure of poverty and distress. At the age of ten he entered the navy and continued in the service for twenty-six years, acquiring by his intelligence and uniformly good conduct the esteem and commendation of all his commanders. But having no personal or family interest he never attained to any higher rank than that of a gunner.
DUNCKERLEY had hoped that his case would be laid before his royal father and that the result would be an appointment equal to his birth. But the frustration of these hopes by the death of the King seems to have discouraged him, and no efforts appear for some time to have been made by him or his friends to communicate the facts to George III, who had succeeded to the throne. In 1767, however, the declaration of his mother was laid before the King. It made an impression on him, and inquiry into his previous character and conduct having proved satisfactory, on May 7, 1767, the King ordered DUNCKERLEY to receive a pension of 100 pounds, which was subsequently increased to 800, together with a suite of apartments in Hampton Court Palace. He also assumed and was permitted to bear the royal arms, with
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the distinguishing badge of the bend sinister, and adopted as his motto the appropriate words, "Fato non merito." In his familiar correspondence and in his bookplates he used the name of FRITZ GEORGE. In 1770, when 46 years of age, he became a student of law and in 1774 was called to the bar, but his fondness for an active life prevented him from ever making much progress in the, legal profession. DUNCKERLEY died at Portsmouth in the year 1795, at the age of 71.
The Masonic career of THOMAS DUNCKERLEY, if less remarkable than his domestic life, is still more interesting to the Freemason. There is no record of the exact time of his reception into the Order, but it must have been not long before 1757, as he in that year delivered an address, as we should now call it, before the Lodges of Plymouth, which was published at the time under the title of "The Light and Truth of Masonry Explained," being the substance of a charge delivered at Plymouth in 1757. In the title of this production he styles himself simply as Master Mason, showing that he had not been long enough in the Order to have attained official position, and in the body of the charge he apologizes for the apparent presumption of one "who had been so few years a Mason." It is probable that he was initiated about the year 1755, being at that time in the navy, in one of the Lodges at Plymouth, which was then as now frequented by vessels of war. In this charge, it is worthy of note, a prayer written by DUNCKERLEY appears for the first time, which, slightly abridged, has ever since been used in all English and American Lodges at the initiation of a candidate. OLIVER says that shortly after his return to England he was elected the Master of a Lodge. This must have been in the year 1766 or 1767, for in the latter year he received from Lord BLANEY, the Grand Master, the deputation for Provincial Grand Master of Hampshire, which, we suppose, would scarcely have been given him if he had not "passed the chair." PRESTON speaks of his "indefatigable assiduity" in the discharge of the duties of the office and of the considerable progress of Masonry in the province through his instrumentality. He was soon after appointed to the superintendency of the Lodges in Dorsetshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Herefordshire. And some years afterward the Grand Lodge, in grateful testimony of his zeal in the cause of Masonry, resolved that he should rank as a Past Senior Grand Warden, and in all processions take place next the Senior Grand Warden for the time being. During the rest of his life DUNCKERLEY received many evidences of the high esteem in which he was held by the Masonic authorities of the day, and at the time of his death was occupying the following prominent positions, in addition to that of Provincial Grand Master, which he held from the Prince of Wales, viz.: Grand Superintendent and Past Grand Master of Royal Arch Masons of Bristol and several counties, appointed by the Duke of Clarence, and Supreme Grand Master of the Knights of Rosa Crucis, Templars, and Kadosh, under Prince EDWARD, afterward Duke of Kent. His royal kinsmen did not neglect his claims to patronage.
Far higher, however, than any of these titles and offices and of more lasting importance to the Craft was the position occupied by DUNCKERLEY as an instructor of the Lodges, and a reformer, or at least a remodeler, of the system of lectures. To these duties he was called by the Grand Lodge of England, which authorized him to construct a new code of lectures, a careful revision of the existing ritual, and a collation of all ancient formulas. In the lecture of the third degree, as prepared by DESAGULIER, and ANDERSON, it is said "that which was lost is now found," meaning, says OLIVER, that the Master Mason's word was delivered to the newly raised Master in the latter ceremonies of the third degree, which would preclude the necessity of a Royal Arch degree. But DUNCKERLY was intent on also having a Royal Arch degree for his own constitutional Grand Lodge, or the Moderns, and he often visited the Lodges of the Ancients for the purpose of ascertaining what were the essential differences between the two systems, and of that which was good he culled
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the best and transplanted into the workings of the legitimate Grand Lodge. He dismembered the third degree, taking from it the Master's word. This involved the necessity of a new degree. Says OLIVER, concerning DERMOTT's Royal Arch. "As it was originally constructed, it was jumbled together in a state of inextricable confusion, the events commemorated in RAMSAY's Royal Arch, the Knights of the Ninth Arch, of the Burning Bush, of the East or Sword, of the Red Cross, the Scotch Fellow Craft, the Select Master, the Red Cross Sword of Babylon, the Rose Croix," etc. DUNCKERLEY borrowing from RAMSAY, DERMOTT, and from his own invention, fabricated his degree of Royal Arch for the Modern Masons, a violent innovation, for the success of which he was indebted only to his own great popularity among the Craft and the influence of the Grand Master.
GEORGE III, being the first native born King of England of the house of Hanover, there was no danger of further trouble from the house of the STUARTS, which soon became extinct, and the illegitimate brother of GEORGE III was engaged in reconstructing the Masonry of the Grand Lodge and using a portion of the work in the construction of his Royal Arch that had been invented by RAMSAY in the interest of the unsuccessful Pretenders, and some of the material of the " lost cause " was to be worked in for the moral support of Freemasonry given to the house of Hanover in the mother country and cemented to the throne. To DUNCKERLEY is the Craft indebted for the introduction into the lectures of the ancient astronomical figures, giving a new definition of the two parallel lines as a symbol of the two Saints JOHN and the "theological ladder." DUNCKERLEY wrote nothing of great importance. His contributions to Masonic literature seem to have been confined to a few charges or addresses delivered in 1757 and in 1769, and to a very brief chronological sketch of the Order of Knights Templar which was published in the third volume of the Freemason's Magazine. He was also the author of some Masonic poetry, and two of his odes are inserted in NOORTHOUCK's edition of the Book of Constitutions. But his most effective labors were almost altogether esoteric and his instructions oral, and his industry in this way seems to have been indefatigable and his influence extensive. The results are felt, as has already been said, to the present day. His popularity as a lecturer is to be attributed to the active character of his mind and his thorough mastership of the subjects which he taught, and the fluency of his delivery. His conduct was irreproachable and hence he was fortunate in securing the esteem and regard of the Craft, and the friendship of the most distinguished Masons who were his contemporaries. PRESTON styles him "that truly Masonic luminary," and OLIVER says he was the oracle of the Grand Lodge and the accredited interpreter of its consti
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tutions. His decision, like the law of the Medes and Persians, was final on all points, both of doctrine and discipline, and against it there was no appeal.
We have thus given the origin of the Royal Arch degrees, who made them, and the history of their authors in the Old World. The further history of the first Royal Arch degree, that of the Royal Arch of Solomon made by RAMSAY, will be found in the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, in a subsequent chapter of this work. The Royal Arch of DERMOTT and the Royal Arch of DUNCKERLEY were welded together when the constitutional Grand Lodge of Freemasons or Moderns and the Atholl Grand Lodge of the Ancients created by DERMOTT and his adherents were consolidated in 1813 into the present "United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England," twenty-five years after the death of CHARLES EDWARD STUART, The Young Pretender, who died January 31, 1788, when that house of the STUARTS became extinct. In England in 1834 considerable changes were made in the ceremonies of exaltation, but the general outline of the system was preserved. The Royal Arch degree is now conferred in Chapters under the Supreme Grand Chapter of England and is the fourth degree in the Masonic series, and a Master Mason who has been so for twelve months is eligible for exaltation, unless this rule has been recently changed. The principal officers of an English Chapter are three Principals, Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Joshua; three Sojourners; two Scribes, Ezra and Nehemiah; a Treasurer and a janitor.
The American degree of Mark Master was established in London, England, and in June, 1856, the Grand Lodge of Mark Masters of England established, which governs that degree only. The American degrees of Mark, Past, Excellent, and Superexcellent Masters were extended to Scotland, and are the preliminary degrees required before receiving the Royal Arch degree in that country, the Chapters of which also confer the Order of the Knight of the Babylonish Pass, which is the same as the Knight of the East and Prince of Jerusalem, the fifteenth degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the Order of the Red Cross given in an American Commandery of Knights Templar. The officers of a Royal Arch Chapter in Scotland are the same as in England. In Ireland the officers are about the same as in an English or Scotch Royal Arch Chapter, and a new ritual has been adopted nearly conforming to the American. Said Bro. MACKEY: "However the legend or historical basis might vary in the different rites in all of them, the symbolical signification. of the Royal Arch was identical. Hence the building of the second Temple, so prominent in the English and American systems, and so entirely unknown in the Continental, cannot be considered as an essential point in the symbolism of the degree. It is important in the systems in which it occurs, but it is not essential. The true symbolism of the Royal Arch system is founded on the discovery of the Lost Word, which is the symbol of Truth."
It is most appropriate, in connection with the narrative of the origin of Royal Arch Masonry, and the story of the dissensions and triumphs of the Craft, to illustrate this chapter with the practical work of our ancient Brethren of operative Craftship. Four old English Cathedrals are selected for this purpose, each of which was projected in the seventh century. Razed by conflicting wars, rebuilt, and added to, their beauty of proportion and grandeur of construction command the admiration of succeeding generations. Canterbury, St. Paul's, York, and Rochester are enduring monuments to the brain and toil of their projectors. At St. Paul's Cathedral the four Lodges of London met to organize the Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The first stone of this edifice, destroyed by fire in 1666, was laid by Sir CHRISTOPHR WREN, eminent Mason the last by his son. Speculative Masons view with admiration the work of the old masters. They build not in the operative sense, but they mold and fashion the rough stones of humanity into perfect ashlars for the glory of "that spiritual building, not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens."
CHAPTER V.
Royal Arch Masonry in America.
AMENDED, ALTERED, ADDED TO, AND THE DEGREE OF MOST EXCELLENT MASTER INVENTED - THE WORK OF THOMAS SMITH WEBB.
THE recorded history of the Royal Arch degree in America gives the seniority to Royal Arch Lodge, No. 3, in Philadelphia, as being in possession of the work in 1767; but, as already mentioned, St. Andrew's Chapter, in Boston, originally called Royal Arch Lodge, first conferred the Royal Arch degree on August 28, 1769. In England between these two years the title of Chapter was adopted April 29, 1768, and ten years afterward the word Companion was first used in England February 8, 1778. The name and the title were subsequently adopted in America, though the Royal Arch Chapters were held in the bosoms of the Lodges of the Ancients in this country until the Royal Arch degree was severed from the control of the symbolic Lodges and organized under a separate government. While connected with the Lodge the Royal Arch had the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason to support it; but left to itself, it required additional degrees to produce a self - sustaining and attractive organization. Hence the addition of the Mark, Past, and Most Excellent degrees.
The Master is the first degree conferred in an American Royal Arch Chapter, as every Companion and well informed Mason knows. Beyond all question or doubt its origin was in the work of the "Fellows of the Craft," or what is now denominated the Fellow Craft degree, but shorn of that portion of what actually pertains to it, though THOMAS SMITH WEBB revamped it and introduced anachronisms into the ritual by putting in a parable of CHRIST [Matthew XXI and also a portion of the Revelations of ST. JOHN the Evangelist [Revelations 11, 17] chronologically 1043 years and 1106 years respectively after the erection of King Solomon's Temple. The parable refers to the enforced keeping of a contract without regard to the equities in the case where the price of labor is involved, and the other, the Revelation of ST. JOHN, in relation to the having an attentive ear and the giving of a precious white stone as a jewel, seal, keepsake, or talisman. It has no reference to a keystone or a building stone, but in the American degree is made to appear as a keystone with the misapplication of Scripture of "the stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner." [Ps. cxviii, 22; Matt. xxi, 42; Mk. Xii, 12.] Now, a keystone is not a headstone or cornerstone, and the letters placed in the circle of the keystone in the Mark Master's
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degree express nothing whatever, though it is implied that the stone was shipped from Tyre to Jerusalem as a gift from the donor to be placed in the Temple.
The original degree of Mark Mason very properly has a cubic stone. This stone was translucent, of the purest alabaster or white marble, and finished and polished with the greatest of skilI. Upon its upper face were two circular lines with the letters H. T. W. S. S. T. K. S., which were the initials of a message that the True Word would be sent up in accordance with the compact or agreement between the two kings. This stone was to be placed on a pedestal in the center of the Secret Vault, or arch under the Sanctum Sanclorum or the Holy of Holies of the Temple, and afterward upon it was to be placed and sunk in the center of the stone a triangular plate of gold, which HIRAM, the King of Tyre, was having prepared with precious gems and costly stones and the letter's of the True Word in three languages engraved upon it. If the inventor of this, the oldest Mark degree, or if THOMAS SMITH WEBB, while quoting from Revelations had gone a little further, it would have been more complete and satisfactory to all who have received the degree, as witness the following from the next Chapter: -
"Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my GOD, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my GOD, and the name of the city of my GOD, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my GOD; and I will write upon him my new name."
Instead of the above, regardless of the information conveyed in the cabalistic letters in the circle of what yet was to be sent and placed in the center of the stone, the candidate himself is to enter his own device or mark, regardless of what it may be. There is no application of the message contained in the circle to the mark chosen by the newly made Mark Master Mason, though the candidate himself symbolically represents what is sent up to Jerusalem. Many marks are chosen which are nowise Masonic or have any Masonic symbolism or application. In one Chapter book of marks the device which a member chose, some years ago, was that of a ringtailed monkey climbing a pole. Although this is an extreme instance of the perversion of selected marks, it illustrates forcibly the point made.
The Mark Master degree teaches several important lessons which should be deeply engraved upon the mind and heart of every one who has received it, regardless of the incoherency of the matters and events which are embraced in the ritual of the degree itself.
The earliest date on which this degree was conferred in America of which there is any record was November, 17, 1774, in Halifax, Nova Scotia; next on May 17, 1791, in Hiram Chapter, No. 1, in Newtown, Conn. It was known in St. Andrew's Chapter in Boston in March, 1793, and conferred July 25, 1793, by the Chapter in that city. It was conferred by Washingion Chapter, in Providence, R. I., on October 5, 1793, and in Jerusalem Chapter, in Philadelphia, on May 18, 1795.
The degree of Past Master is thus defined by the eminent Masonic author ALBERT G. MACKEY: "An honorary degree conferred on the Master of a Lodge at his installation into office. In this degree the necessary instructions are conferred respecting the various ceremonies of the Order, such as installations, processions, the laying of cornerstones, etc. When a Brother who has never before presided has been elected the Master of a Lodge, an emergent Lodge of Past Masters, consisting of not less than three, is convened, and, all but Past Masters retiring, the degree is conferred upon the newly elected officer. Some form of ceremony at the installation of a new Master seems to have been adopted at an early period after revival. In the 'manner of constituting a new Lodge,' as practiced by the Duke of Wharton, who was the Grand Master in 1723, the language used by the
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Grand Master when placing the candidate in the chair is given, and he is said to use 'some other expressions that are proper and usual on that occasion, but not proper to be written.' Whence we conclude that there was an esoteric ceremony. Often the rituals tell us that this ceremony consisted only in the outgoing Master concerning certain modes of recognition to his successor. And this actually, even at this day, constitutes the essential ingredient of the Past Master degree. The degree is also conferred in Royal Arch Chapters, where it succeeds the Mark Master degree. The conferring of this degree, which has no historical connection with the rest of the degrees in a Chapter, arises from the following circumstance. Originally, when Chapters of Royal Arch Masonry were under the government of Lodges in which the degree was then always conferred, it was a part of the regulations that no one could receive the Royal Arch degree unless he had previously presided in the Lodge as Master. When the Chapters became independent the regulation could not be abolished, for that would have been an innovation; the difficulty has therefore been obviated by making every candidate for the degree of Royal Arch a Past Master before his exaltation."
DUNCKERLEY dismembered the third degree, which was only conferred upon the Master of a Lodge and who at the time he was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason was invested with the True Word. This DUNCKERLEY eliminated from the Master degree and placed in the Royal Arch. Consequently a substitute word was given to the Master degree, as also a substitute to the Past Master degree, upon the induction of a new Master elect into office, or when the degree was conferred in a Royal Arch Chapter as a prerequisite to being exalted to the Royal Arch degree. For several years past the question has been agitated in some of the Grand Lodges of the United States whether this degree is within the jurisdiction of symbolic or Royal Arch Masonry. The explanation just given of its introduction into Chapters manifestly demonstrates that the jurisdiction over it by Chapters is altogether an assumed one. The Past Master of a Chapter is only a quasi Past Master; the true and Legitimate Past Master is the one who has presided over a symbolic Lodge.
The jewel of a Past Master in the United States is a pair of compasses extended to sixty degrees on the fourth part of a circle, with a sun in the center. In England it was formerly the square on a quadrant, but is at present the square with the forty-seventh problem of EUCLID engraved on a silver plate suspended within it.
In England Past Master is understood to mean one who has actually served twelve months as Master of a Lodge. It is under control of the Grand Lodge, but is not termed a separate degree. In 1744 the words " having passed through the chair" were used to describe a ceremony. It has been said also that the Installed Master was originated about this period. The Constitution of 1723, concerning the installation of the Master, speaks of certain "significant ceremonies and ancient usages." The late Comp. JOHN DOVE, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge and the Grand Chapter of Virginia for many long years, said to his Grand Lodge in 1872: -
"I intended to have said something in condemnation of the action of the M\ E\Grand Chapter of England, in abolishing the degree of Past Master and substituting a socalled 'Chair Degree.' A degree which has thus been practiced for one hundred years, and by us in Virginia since 1790, ought not thus summarily be thrown out at the dictum of any one Grand Body."
In a code of bylaws, adopted by Jerusalem Chapter in Philadelphia, September 5, 1789, it is said: "No Brother can be exalted until he has been at least three years a Master Mason and has presided six months as Master of some regularly warranted Lodge or has passed the chair by dispensation."
The charter of Washington Chapter, already referred to, shows that the position now occupied by the degree was well defined prior to September, 1793. The Companions in Boston moved more
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slowly, as the degree has no Chapter record there prior to March 16, 1796, when three Brethren were " Past" and thirteen others were "Past" during that year.
At about this time the Chapter working under the charter of Harmony Lodge, No. 5?, in Philadelphia, conferred the degree. The bylaws required "that every Brother who has not passed the chair shall pay fourteen dollars, out of which the dispensation shall be paid for; if past the chair for being exalted, eight dollars."
This bylaw was adopted June 19, 1799. In January, 1801, a committee of the Grand Chapter found that two Brothers had been passed the chair without having been duly elected Worshipful Masters of said Lodge and without previously obtained dispensations from the R\W\Grand Master.
The degree was held as prerequisite to receiving the Royal Arch degree; therefore the necessity of a dispensation. This rule is still observed in Pennsylvania, where a candidate for the Mark Most Excellent, or Royal Arch degree must be a "Past Master, either by election or dispensation."
Respecting the Most Excellent Master's degree a celebrated Masonic writer has recorded the following: "The sixth degree in the York Rite. Its history refers to the dedication of the Temple by King SOLOMON, who is represented by its presiding officer under the title of Most Excellent. Its officers are the same as those in a symbolic Lodge. In some rituals the junior Warden is omitted. This degree is peculiarly American, it being practiced in no other country. It was the invention of WEBB, who organized the Capitular system of Masonry in this country, and established the system of lectures which is the foundation of all subsequent systems taught in America."
In speaking of WEBB's work, the late distinguished Bro. ALBERT PIKE said: "The Mark Master and Most Excellent Master were made by him, out and out. So was what there is of the Past Master."
It is not the intention in this work to open up a controversy, but simply to state facts and give the authorities when quoted.
The following biographical sketch and Masonic history of THOMAS SMITH WEBB Is of interest, especially to Royal Arch Masons, and is from the pen of Comp. MACKEY: "No name in Masonry is more familiar to the American Mason than that of WEBB, who really was the inventor and founder of the system of work, which, under the appropriate name of the American Rite (although often improperly called the York Rite, is universally practiced in the United States. The most exhaustive biography of him that has been written is that of Bro. CORNELIUS MOORE in his 'Leaflets of Masonic Biography,' and from that with a few additions from other sources, the present sketch is derived. THOMAS SMITH WEBB, the son of parents who a few years previous to his birth had emigrated from England and settled in Boston, Mass., was born in that city October 13, 1771. He was educated in one of the public schools, where he acquired such knowledge as was at that time imparted in them and became proficient in the French and Latin languages. He selected as a profession either that of a printer or bookbinder, his biographer is uncertain which, but inclines to think it was the former. After completing his apprenticeship he removed to Keene, N. H., where he worked at his trade, and about the year 1792 (the precise date is unknown) was initiated into Freemasonry in Rising Sun Lodge in that town."
[The Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows that THOMAS SMITH WEBB was born in Boston October 30, 1771. The records of Rising Sun Lodge, formerly in Keene, N. H., show that he was initiated December 24, 1790, passed and raised December 27, 1790. He withdrew from membership, was again admitted December 27, 1791, and finally withdrew March 7, 792. The evidence in Keene is that he was a bookbinder. On May 18, 1796, he received the
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Royal Arch degree in Harmony Chapter, No. 52, in Philadelphia, and was entered in the records as a sojourner.]
"While residing at Keene WEBB married Miss MARTHA HOPKINS, and shortly afterward removed to Albany, N. Y., where he opened a bookstore.
"Comp. ALFRED F. CHAPMAN, P. G. G. H. P., says: -
"'We have never seen authority for saying when or where he received the other Chapter degrees. He came into notice at the organization of Temple Lodge in Albany, N. Y., by authority of Grand Lodge, November 1, 1796. of this Lodge JOHN HANMER was Master, and WEBB was Senior Warden.
A special convention of Royal Arch Masons in Albany, including HANMER and WEBB, was held.
The former " proposed that the subject of opening a Royal Arch Chapter should be taken into consideration by all the Companions present, * * * as there is no Chapter in this part of the country."
"'WEBB was elected High Priest on February 14, 1797, when with " BENJAMIN BEECHER and JAMES PAMELLY," the "Lodge was opened in the degree of Most Excellent Master." This was the first time his name appeared in connection with that degree, nor does it appear in the records of Temple Chapter later than June, 1799.
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" 'It was at this early period of his life that WEBB appears to have commenced his work as a Masonic teacher, an office which he continued to fill with great influence until the close of his life. In 1797 he published at Albany the first edition of his "Freemasons' Monitor; or Illustrations of Masonry." It purports to be by a Royal Arch Mason, K. T., K. M., etc. He did not claim the authorship until the subsequent edition, but his name and that of his partner, SPENCER, appear in the imprint as publishers. He acknowledges in the preface his indebtedness to PRESTON for the observations on the first three degrees. But he states that he has differently arranged PRESTON's distributions of the sections, because they were "not agreeable to the mode of working in America." This proves that the Prestonian system was not then followed in the United States, and ought to be a sufficient answer to those who at a later period attempted to claim an identity between the lectures of PRESTON and WEBB.
"'About the year 1801 he removed to Providence, R. I., where he engaged in the manufacture of wallpaper on an extensive scale. By this time his reputation as a Masonic teacher had been well established, for a committee was appointed by St. John's Lodge of Providence to wait upon and inform him that "this Lodge [for his great exertions in the cause of Masonry] wish him to become a member of the same." He accepted the invitation, and passing through the various gradations of office was elected, in 1813, Grand Master of the Masons of Rhode Island.
"'But it is necessary now to recur to preceding events. In 1797, on October 24th, a convention of committees from several chapters in the Northern States was held in Boston for the purpose of deliberating on the propriety and expediency of establishing a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for the Northern States. of this convention WEBB was chosen as the chairman. Previously to this time the Royal Arch degrees had been conferred in Masters' Lodges under a Lodge warrant. It is undoubtedly to the influence of WEBB that we are to attribute the disseverance of the degree from that jurisdiction and the establishment of independent Chapters. It was one of the first steps that he took in the organization of the American Rite. The circular addressed by the convention to the Chapters of the country was most probably from the pen of WEBB.
"'The Grand Chapter having been organized in January, 1798, WEBB was elected Grand Scribe and reelected in 1799, at which time the body assumed the title of the General Grand Chapter. In 1806 he was promoted to the office of General Grand King, and in 1816 to that of Deputy General Grand High Priest, which he held until his death, During all this time, WEBB, although actively engaged in the labors of Masonic instruction, continued his interest in the manufacture of wallpaper, and in 1817 removed his machinery to the West, MOORE thinks with the intention of making his residence there.
In 1816 he visited the Western States and remained there two years, during which time he appears to have been actively engaged in the organization of Chapters, Grand Chapters, and Encampments. It was during this visit that he established the Grand Chapters of Ohio and Kentucky, by virtue of his powers as a General Grand officer. In August, 1818, he left Ohio and returned to Boston. In the spring of 1819 he again began a visit to the West, but he reached no farther than Cleveland, 0hio, where he died very suddenly, it is supposed in a fit of apoplexy, on July 6, 1819, and was buried the next day with Masonic honors. The body was subsequently disinterred and conveyed to Providence, where, on the 8th of November, it was reinterred by the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island.'
"WEBB'S influence over the Masons of the United States, as the founder of a rite, was altogether personal. In Masonic literature he has made no mark, for his labors as an author are confined to a single work, his ' Monitor,' and this is little more than a syllabus of his lectures, although,
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if we may judge by the introductory remarks to the various sections of the degrees and especially to the second one of the third degree, WEBB was but little acquainted with the true philosophical symbolism of Freemasonry, such as it was taught by HUTCHINSON in England and by his contemporaries in this country, HARRIS and TOWNE. He was what CARSON properly calls him, 'the ablest Masonic ritualist of his day, the very prince of Masonic workmen,' and this was the instrument with which he worked for the extension of the new rite which he established. The American Rite would have been more perfect as a system had its founder entertained profounder views of the philosophy and symbolism of Masonry as a science; but as it is, with imperfections which time, it is hoped, will remove, and deficiencies which future researches of the Masonic scholar will supply, it still must ever be a monument of the ritualistic skill, the devotion, and the persevering labor of THOMAS SMITH WEBB. The few odes and anthems composed by WEBB for his rituals possess a high degree of poetic merit, and evince the possession of much genius in their author."
Such is the opinion of the greatest Masonic lexicographer, philosopher, historian, and writer that America in fact, the entire Masonic worldhas yet produced, the late most distinguished Brother and Companion ALBERT GALLATIN MACKEY.
But Past General Grand High Priest ALFRED F. CHAPMAN has formed a different opinion of WEBB and his ability as a ritualist, and placed his crowbar under WEBB'S monument which would overthrow it in his treatment of the Most Excellent Master and WEBB'S connection with it. These divergent opinions are historically of much interest.
He says: "Necessarily something more than an outline sketch of this degree must be given, and largely from the fact that so much has been said in allusion to it that is incorrect and misleading. In his oration at the centennial celebration of St. Andrew's Chapter, in Boston, 1869, the late Hon. WILLIAMS. GARDNER, Grand Master of Massachusetts and Grand Master of Knights Templar of the United States, treated it lightly, as indeed he did the system, and evidently without much prior investigation as the occasion was entitled to.
In his history of 'Royal Arch Masonry in the United States,' appended to GOULD'S American edition, M\E\JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND quotes Comp. GARDNER in such a way as to leave the impression that his treatment of the subject is to be relied upon. M\E\ THEODORE S. PARVIN, in his addition on 'Templar Masonry in the United States,' does worse and repeats the glaring error, saying: 'The first mention of the
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Most Excellent Master degree, and without doubt the first time it was ever conferred in any Chapter outside of Temple Chapter, Albany, where it originated, was in the old St. Andrew's Chapter, Boston, during the visit made to it by THOMAS SMITH WEBB, in February, 1795.'
"In his address to the General Grand Chapter in 1783, the acting General Grand High Priest said enough about WEBB to have prevented the repetition of errors concerning him; but error reasserts itself, and necessitates the reiteration of facts here. It is of itself sufficient to show that WEBB could not have worked the Most Excellent degree in Temple Chapter two years before the body existed, and fifteen months before he was made a Royal Arch Mason. Neither could he have worked it in St. Andrew's Chapter at the time specified, and when he and HANMER did work the Most Excellent degree, (after their manner,' in this Chapter, on October 24, 1797, the degree had been known for years, outside of Temple Chapter, and familiarly so in Connecticut and Rhode Island. In the latter case, witness the charter of Washington Chapter.
"JOHN HANMER was an English Mason, and, as deduced from his own writing, came to the United States in 1793 or 1794. He exhibited a document from the Grand Master of Masons in England to the effect that he was 'skilled in the Ancient lectures and mode of work, as approved and practiced in England.' Writing from Charleston, S. C., under date August 23, 1809, HANMER said that he had been engaged in 'Masonic proceedings in America for more than fifteen years.' This shows that he did not originate the degree, although it is probable that WEBB and he added a large portion of Scripture to the ritual. Clearly HANMER was the ritualist at the outset, as see proceedings of the Grand Chapter of New York. At the convention of March 14, 1798, to organize a Grand Chapter, HANMER was High Priest of Temple Chapter, and was chosen Deputy Grand Secretary. He was chairman of a committee of five to draft a code of bylaws, chairman of a committee to draw up a form of warrant, to print the same, and procure a seal; also of a committee to receive applications of Chapters and Mark Lodges for warrants and to grant them; and on January 30, 1799, he was appointed to superintend the different Chapters and Mark Lodges in this State, to establish a uniform mode of working and lecturing, according to the directions of the Grand officers.
"At the Convention WEBB represented Hiberian Chapter, New York, and on January 29, 1799, was elected Deputy Grand High Priest. Whatever else this may indicate, it strongly suggests that WEBB was then better known for executive ability.
The publication of the Freemason's Monitor in 1797, in Albany, in view of all the facts, in no way weakens this suggestion.
"As to the origin of the Most Excellent degree that is obscure. The Irish system embraces the Chair, the Excellent, the Superexcellent, the Royal Arch, the Knight Templar, and the Prince Rose Croix; and the Scotch system, the Mark Master, Past Master, Excellent, and Royal Arch. Excepting the Chair, St. Andrew's Chapter (Lodge) in Boston worked the degrees named in the Irish system in 1769 and as late as 1797. The first to give way to a change of name was the Superexcellent. On December 14, 1797, OLIVER PRESCOTT received the Excellent and Most Excellent degrees, and the Royal Arch in August, 1799. The Mark and Past degrees had been received by him November 13, 1797. This indicates transition, and suggests that the Superexcellent degree
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of 120 years ago contained the marrow and something of the bone of the Most Excellent degree.
"Be this as it may, we do not have space to discuss probabilities, and so return to dates. The charters granted in Connecticut by Washington Chapter of New York, heretofore spoken of, show that Hiram Chapter, chartered April 29, 1791, had the degree, as noticed in' speaking of the Past degree. The charter of Washington Chapter, Providence, R. I., date of September 3, 1793, gives the names of the degrees as Mark, Past, Most Excellent, and Royal Arch, and its records show that all of them were conferred October 5, 1793. Four other chapters chartered in Connecticut by Washington Chapter bear unimpeachable testimony to the fact that the degree of Most Excellent Master was familiar to Washington Chapter in the earliest months of 1791. Where this Chapter found it is not known; the accident by fire obliterated a history that otherwise would have been instructive. In Pennsylvania, where the supremacy of the General Grand Chapter was never acknowledged, and where the work of WEBB was never encouraged, the Most Excellent degree was conferred in Jerusalem Chapter, No. 3, on November 5, 1796, more than three months before Temple Chapter existed.
We have thus fully given all the information that can be gathered concerning the Most Excellent Master degree and of its reputed origin. Whether THOMAS SMITH WEBB, JOHN HANMER, or any other Mason was the author of it matters not. It was a logical necessity that gave it birth, and in some form or other its birth would have been spontaneous, upon reflection, that, according to the legend and tradition, the Temple of Solomon was incomplete at the time of the death of its master builder, and that before there could have been a dedication it must have been completed by his successor, who took up the work where HIRAM ABIFF left off. The Temple was finished and dedicated, according to Holy Writ, the Jewish historian JOSEPHUS, and other authorities; the foundation stones still remaining intact beneath the holy hill of Mt. Moriah to attest the truth of history; and form the base of a thousand legends and tales of tradition that are interwoven into story and song to make the charm of the beautiful degree of Most Excellent Master.
A most egregious blunder was committed by WEBB, or whoever invented the degree, in leaving out the Masonic portion of King SOLOMON's prayer in the dedicatory ceremonies of the Temple, which should have been inserted as follows:
Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of Thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for Thy name's sake (for they shall hear of Thy great name, and of Thy strong hand, and of Thy stretched out arm): when he shall come and pray toward this house, Hear Thou in Heaven, Thy dwellingplace, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for that all people of the earth may know Thy name to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house which I have builded is called by Thy name; that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else." [Kings 1, 8, 41, 42, 43, 6o; Chronicles 11, 6, 32, 33]
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JOSEPHUS gives this portion of Solomon's prayer as follows: "Nay, moreover, this help is what I implore of thee, not for the Hebrews only when they are in distress, but when any shall come hither from any ends of the world, and shall return from their sins and implore Thy pardon, do Thou then pardon them and hear their prayer. For hereby all shall learn that Thou wast pleased with the building of this house, and that we are not ourselves of an unsociable nature nor behave ourselves like enemies to such as are not of our own people, but are willing that thy assistance should be communicated to all men in common, and that they may have the enjoyment of Thy benefits bestowed upon them."
In homely phrase it may be said that this was the first union meeting nouse ever built in this world. It was the spirit of Freemasonry, of religious liberty, and perfect toleration for everybody. HIRAM, King of Tyre, worshipped GOD in a different manner from the Hebrews, as did the foreign Masons from all countries who worked upon the Temple, and each of the three divisions had a name for GOD, which was also known and recognized by the other two who had been brought together. "Then DAVID said, This is the house of the LORD GOD, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. And DAVID commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he set Masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God." [I Chronicles, XXii, 1, 2.] "And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay
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the foundation of the house. And SOLOMON's builders and HIRAM's builders did hew them, and the stone squares; so they prepared timber and stones to build the house." [1 Kings, v, 17, 18.]
And so it will be seen that these different nationalities of Masons who worshiped GOD each in his own way, who built and finished the Temple, were duly recognized by SOLOMON in his dedicatory prayer, and they could worship in that Temple as well as the Israelites, though the ceremonies and forms of the Jewish religion were used by the Levites as ordained by MOSES. This portion of the dedicatory prayer should be restored to its place in the ritual of the Most Excellent Master degree.
A full history of the Royal Arch degree in relation to its origin, the inventor in England, and its translation to America has already been given. THOMAS SMITH WEBB worked it over, making almost an entire new ritual of it to adapt it to his system, which now forms, as COMP. MACKEY says, the American Rite. In the English organization of the Chapter the presiding officer is the Prince and heir to the Jewish throne, ZERUBBABEL (being descended in the direct line from King SOLOMON), and as such represents the King, though nominally a tributary Prince, first under the Persian King CYRUS and afterward DARIUS. The too recent severing of political relations with the mother country, by reason of the war of the Revolution for American independence, caused the word Royal to be looked upon with disfavor by patriotic American Masons; and, as OLIVER, the English Masonic historian, truly says in his "Historical Landmarks" - "Our transatlantic Brethren, impelled probably by a dislike to royalty, have deposed ZERUBBABEL from the first chair and placed the High Priest in his place, giving the King only the second throne, which is evidently erroneous; and they have also greatly injured the force of the illustration of the triple office of the MESSIAH, by substituting a scribe for a prophet in the third chair."
In the American Royal Arch degree there is no illustration in regard to the MESSIAH, which in England is made to represent the alliance of Freemasonry and the established religion with the throne, but which in America can bear no such interpretation or significance. On this subject Comp. ALBERT PIKE says: "When Freemasonry appeared in Europe in the Middle Age it had a mission that exosed it to persecution, and that accounts for the obligations of its lesser mysteries. If it had then been only what Blue Masonry now is, in England and America, its obligations, being out of all proportion to its objects and unnecessary, would have been inexcusable or absurd. The objects to which the Order owed its existence were abandoned in England about the time when it crossed the Atlantic, and continuing to be a charitable and mutual beneficial association, it became the ally of the Enolish Government and Church. It carefully avoids giving offense to power and is dumb to all political truth, confining itself in its teachings within the domain of morality alone."
The symbolic Masonry of the present day in the United States is comparatively lethargic, passive, and selfish, and has not the living, active force and spirit and unity of purpose which animated the Masonic fathers of the American Revolution in their struggles for liberty and independence. The pall of apathy and indifference until lately seems to have obscured the starry canopy of heaven, but the American flag, the gift of WASHINGTON and the other Masonic founders of our
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constitutional liberty and American nationality, now occupies the place of honor in the East of many Masonic bodies.
There are several incongruities and anachronisms in the ritual of the Royal Arch degree of Zerubbabel that prove that WEBB was not a wellposted biblical scholar. The introduction of the Ark of the Covenant to the degree as one of the recovered treasures in the discoveries made among the ruins of the Temple is so contrary to the truth of history as to render a portion of the ritual absurd. The only contents of the Ark of the Covenant, when placed in the Sanctum Santiorum, or Holy of Holies in King SOLOMON'S Temple, were the two tables of stone: -
Kings 1, 8, 9 - "There was nothing in the ark, save the two tables of stone, which MOSES put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt."
Chronicles 11, 5, 10 - "There was nothing in the ark, save the two tables, which MOSES put therein at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt."
And when the Temple was rebuilt on the return of the Jews from their captivity at Babylon, there was no Ark of the Covenant at all recovered or placed in it.
In JOSEPHUS we find the following commentary upon this subject: "Some are of opinion that among the sacred things which CYRUS ordered to be restored the Ark of the Covenant was one, but it nowhere appears that this ark was carried from Jerusalem to Babylon. They tell us, indeed, that in the second temple sacrifices were offered as in the first, and all solemn days observed, especially the great day of expiation, when the law ordained that the blood should be sprinkled upon the mercy seat, and mercy seat, say they, was part of the ark; but, besides that, the ark, without the Shekinah or divine glory (which was then withdrawn), would have been of no great significance: the Jews universally acknowledged that the ark was one of the five things that were wanting in the second temple." So much upon the history of the origin and nature of the Capitular degrees.
______________________
THE GENERAL GRAND CHAPTER OF ROYAL ARCH MASONS OF THE
UNITED STATES.
We now come to the establishment of the regularly organized government of Royal Arch Masonry in the United States. Says Bro. MACKEY: -
" Until the year 1797 the Royal Arch degree and the degrees subsidiary to it were conferred in this country either in irresponsible bodies calling themselves Chapters but obedient to no superior authority or in Lodges working under a Grand Lodge warrant."
The first steps taken to organize a Grand governing body were by a convention of committees from St. Andrew's Chapter of Boston, Mass., Temple Chapter of Albany, N. Y., and Newburyport Chapter of Newburyport, Mass. This convention assembled in Mason's Hall, Boston, October 24, 1797, and was attended by BENJAMIN HURD, JR., High Priest, JOHN SOLEV, King, and WILLIAM WOART, Secretary, of St. Andrew's, THOMAS SMITH WEBB, High Priest, and JOHN HANMER, Scribe, of Temple; JONATHAN GAGE, Past King, and JOSHUA GREENLEAF, JR., King, of Newburyport Chapter. Two States were represented. These seven delegates from three Chapters and two States were
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Masons well known and of marked ability. THOMAS SMITH WEBB was chosen Chairman, and WILLIAM WOART, Scribe or Secretary. The convention unanimously adopted the following circular letter:
"Companions: From time immemorial we find that Grand Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons have been established wherever Masonry has flourished, for the purpose of granting warrants for the erection of private Lodges, as well as for the establishment of certain general rules and regulations for the government of the same. It is an opinion generally received, and we think well authenticated, that no Grand Lodge of Master Masons can claim or exercise authority over any convention or Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, nor can any Chapter, although of standing immemorial, exercise the authority of a Grand Chapter. We therefore think it highly expedient for the regular government of all Chapters within the said States who exercise the rights and privileges of Royal Arch Masons, and to prevent irregularities in the propagation of those rights and privileges, that there should be a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons established within those States. And whereas this convention has received official information from our Companions at Philadelphia that the several Chapters within their vicinity have recently assembled and established a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for their government. In conformity to their example we think it our duty to recommend to the several Chapters within the said States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York to unite and form a Grand Chapter for the said States. The local situation of the States before mentioned, the easy and frequent intercourse between their several principal towns and cities, as well as the similarity of habits, manners and customs, as citizens and as Masons, which prevail throughout the said States, induce us to believe that a union of all the Chapters therein in one Grand Chapter will have the most useful, lasting, and happy effect in the uniform distribution and propagation of the sublime degrees of Masonry. They therefore take the liberty of recommending to the consideration of your Most Excellent Chapter the propriety of appointing one or more delegate or delegates to represent your Chapter at a meeting of the several Chapters before mentioned, to be holden at the city of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, on the fourth Wednesday of January next ensuing, investing them with full power and authority, in conjunction with the other delegates, to form and open a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and to establish a constitution for the government and regulation of all the Chapters that now are or may be hereafter erected within the said States."
It will be noted that what is now the State of Maine then formed a part of the State of Massachusetts, so that the territory then embraced all of New England and the State of New York, which was to form the preliminary jurisdiction of the Grand Chapter to be created.
This circular letter was signed by the seven Companions present in the order named and as a committee from each of the three Chapters represented. It was duly attested, also, by WILLIAM WOART, Scribe, under date of October 24, 1797, as "a true record of the doings of this Convention of Committees." In accordance with the request made in this letter, nine Royal Arch Chapters responded and sent delegates to a convention which assembled in Hartford on January 24, 1798: St. Andrew's BFNJAMIN HURD, JR., H. P.; HENRY FOWLE, S.; WILLIAM WOART, Sec. This Chapter held under warrant of St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 82, registry of Scotland, and has its records from August 12, 1769. King Cyrus Chapter, instituted in 1790. JONATHAN GAGE, P. K., and JOSHUA GREENLEAF, K. This Chapter was called Newburyport in the first convention records. Washinglon Chapter, No. 2, Providence, R. I., instituted September 3, 1793 Rev. ABRAHAM L. CLARKE, H. P., and WILLIAM WILKINSON, Scribe. Solomon Chapter, Derby, Conn. DANIEL HOLBROOK. The record of proceedings says this Chapter was instituted in 1794. As a matter of fact its first record bears date of
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December 29, 1795, and its charter the date of March 15, 1796. Franklin Chapter, No. 4, Norwich, Conn., chartered March 15, 1796 GURDON LATHROP. Franklin Chapter, No. 6, New Haven, Conn., chartered May 20, 1795 PETER JOHNSON. Hudson Chapter, Hudson, N. Y., instituted 1796 SAMUEL EDMONDS, JR., H. P., and JOHN C. TEN BROECK. Temble Chapter, Albany, N. Y., established February 14, 1797 THOMAS SMITH WEBB, H. P. Horeb Chapter, Whitestown, N.Y. JEDEDIAH SANGER. of the three lastnamed Chapters Temple is No. 5, Hudson is No. 6, on the roll of the Grand Chapter of New York, and Horeb is extinct. From these nine Chapters there were eleven representatives present. This convention established a Grand Chapter, to have jurisdiction over the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York, under the name and title of "The Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the Northern States of America." It adopted a constitution and provided for a Deputy Grand Chapter in each of the States
"To have the government and superintendence of the several Chapters, and of the Lodges of Most Excellent Masters, Past Masters, and Mark Master Masons, within their respective jurisdictions; and shall have power, by patent, under their seal and the sign manual of the Deputy Grand High Priest for the time being, attested by their Secretary, to constitute new Royal Arch Chapters and Lodges of Most Excellent Masters, Past Masters, and Mark Master Masons' degrees, to establish a uniform mode of working, to assign the limits of Royal Arch Chapters respectively, and to superintend and regulate the general police of Royal Arch Masonry within their respective jurisdictions, according to the ancient usages and customs of Royal Arch Masonry.
On January 9 and 10, 1799, an adjourned meeting was held in Providence, R.I., at which time by the adoption of amendments to the constitution the title of this Grand Chapter was changed to "General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for the six Northern States of America." At the septennial convocation held on January 9, 1806, the title was finally changed to "The General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for the United States of America," which title it still continues to bear.
Pennsylvania refused to acknowledge allegiance to the General Grand Chapter, and to the present day maintains its independence. The Grand Body of the Keystone State is designated as the "Grand Holy Royal Arch Chapter of Pennsylvania." Virginia followed the same course, as did West Virginia, while Texas seceded.
In 1826 the septennial meetings were abolished and the general body has ever since met triennially. The General Grand Chapter consists of the present and past Grand High Priests, Deputy Grand High Priests, Grand Kings, and Grand Scribes of the State Grand Chapters of its own Jurisdiction and the past General Grand officers. The officers are a General Grand High Priest, Deputy General Grand High Priest, General Grand King, General Grand Scribe, General Grand Treasurer, General Grand Secretary, General Grand Chaplain, General Grand Captain of the Host, and General Grand 'RoyalArch Captain. It originally possessed large prerogatives, extending even to the suspension of Grand Chapters; but the spirit of the doctrine of independent State rights asserted itself, in a measure successfully, and by the present constitution it has "no power of discipline, admonition, censure, or instruction over the Grand Chapters, nor any legislative powers whatever not specially granted" by its constitution. "It may, indeed, says MACKEY, "be considered as scarcely more than a great Masonic Congress, meeting triennlally for consultation. But even with these restricted powers, it is capable of doing much good."
The General Grand Chapter experienced many vicissitudes before it became established in perpetuity. Its anomalous autonomy rendered it peculiarly sensitive to prevailing disturbances incident to the development of the new Republic. Interest lagged when the country became involved in the
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second war with England. Membership was small, communication between the States was slow, and the affairs of the nation dominated the people and overshadowed all other considerations. But the plant which originated in the garden of the "Convention of Committees" was well rooted and grew in strength and numbers. In 1816, in New York, the General Grand Chapter experienced a revival of interest, and from that year there was no doubt about its life and usefulness. When the anti-Masonic crusade swept over the land, many Brethren withdrew and many Lodges surrendered their charters. The Chapters were sympathetically depressed, but the General Grand Chapter pursued the even tenor of its way. Comp. EDWARD LIVINGSTON, Secretary of State, in President JACKSON'S Cabinet, was the General Grand High Priest of the Order, and ANDREW JACKSON himself was Past Grand Master of Masons of Tennessee. Eminent citizens espoused the cause of Freemasonry, and their integrity, zeal, and patriotism preserved the Order when less sturdy institutions would have been swept from remembrance. The war between the States seriously affected the General Grand Chapter. Upon the restoration of peace the efforts to reestablish amity between the sections acknowledging allegiance to the General Grand Chapter only partially succeeded at the triennial convocations of 1865 and 1868. In 1871 the triennial was held in Baltimore, and at that memorable convocation peace, harmony, and unity prevailed. Thenceforth no sectional differences marred the proceedings of the General Grand Chapter, and Companions from the several Grand jurisdictions could thereafter most fraternally invoke the agreement which ever follows "where three such as we shall meet of one accord."
From the small beginning in 1797 the General. Grand Chapter increased to an allegiant membership of 178,857 during its first century. In addition to this large membership, in 1897 there were 16,439 Royal Arch Masons in Pennsylvania, 2,505 in Virginia, and 6,205 in Texas, making 204,005 Companions in the United States. In British North America there were 6,758, divided as follows: Canada, 5,142; New Brunswick, 396; Nova Scotia, 706, and Quebec, 514. The total membership in all these States and Dominions has since greatly increased.
The centennial of the existence of the General Grand Chapter in the United States was celebrated in Baltimore during the week of October 11, 1897. The occasion was one of great rejoicing and bountiful hospitality. The chivalry of the Monumental City was most pleasantly taxed to its limit in providing entertainment and comfort for the numerous delegates who congregated under such auspicious circumstances. In addition to the centennial convocation, the General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters also assembled in Baltimore the same week, as did the General Masonic Relief Association of the United States and Canada, and the Masonic Veteran Association of the United States. The Grand Chapter
R.A.M., of Maryland, and the Grand Council R. and S. M., of that State, were also in session. These lesser meetings were fraternally auxiliary to the splendid centennial which was ushered with thanksgiving and song, with speeches and good cheer. The whole week was given over to the celebration, which, in conception of arrangement and detail of programme, was appropriate, intellectual, and brilliant. Addresses of felicitation and congratulation were made by distinguished Companions, including His Excellency Governor LOWNDES, of Maryland; the venerable Nestor of Masonry, JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND, of Maine, Past General Grand High Priest; THOMAS J. SHRVOCK, Grand Master of Masons of Maryland; GEORGE L. MCCAHAN, General Grand High Priest; judge REUBEN C. LEMMON, of Ohio, since General Grand High Priest, and DAVID F. DAY, Past General Grand High Priest.
Thus, in the strength of vigorous age, the General Grand Chapter celebrated its natal day, and began its second hundred years with constituent Grand jurisdictions in forty States and Territories, and with thousands of subordinate Chapters, which in every section of the United States are building and rebuilding the Temple of Manliness and Uprightness, and yearly are making Capitular
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Masonry in this country one of the very strongest and one of the most influential branches of the Masonic family of the world.
Citizens and Masons vied with each other in making the centennial impressive and of historic interest. The occasion was referred to at each session of the various bodies, and Masonic lore was stored in the archives as a memorial for future generations. One hundred years is a long span. In our Republic of manifest destiny, and in this age of momentous undertakings, rapid strides and frequent changes, the present conditions of people, the boundary of possession, and the methods of government bear small semblance to the customs and practices which prevailed at the close of the eighteenth century. Freemasonry, however, stands immutable, unchanged, and unchangeable. Its landmarks are imperishable; and substantially as Royal Arch Masonry existed when THOMAS SMITH WEBB was the moving spirit of organization in 1797, it remained in 1897.
Among the many happy features of the centennial celebration was the presentation to M\E\Comp. GEORGE L. MCCAHAN, in retiring from the office of General Grand High Priest, after five years of faithful service, a magnificent jewel composed of a wreath of oak and laurel typical of victory, surrounding a circle containing one hundred diamonds, emblematical of a century. In the center of the circle were three equilateral triangles, severally ornamented with the keystone, pot of incense, and triple tau, with the High Priest's breastplate, set with precious stones, resting centrally thereon. These emblems were superimposed on three equilateral triangles, interlaced, the points of which extended to and joined the circle. The wreath was joined below by a High Priest's miter and was united at the top by a diamond. The jewel was suspended from an enameled coat of arms of the United States in relief, and the whole was attached to a heavy bar in bearing the legend "The General Grand Chapter U.S.A." The reverse was inscribed "The General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the United States to GEORGE L. MCCAHAN, Past General Grand High Priest, October 15, A. 1. 2427."
In further commemoration of the centennial anniversary the General Grand Chapter ordered a bronze medal to be struck, on the obverse side of which should be the profiles of Comps. EPHRAIM KIRBY and GEORGE L. MCCAHAN, the first and last General Grand High Priests, with the figures 1797 and 1897 representing the first century of the founding and the centennial anniversary of the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the United States of America, and on the reverse the coat of arms of the same.
THE ORDER OF HIGH PRIESTHOOD.
Intimately associated with, but not a constituent part of the Grand Chapters of the United States, is the Order of High Priesthood. It has become the practice to confer the Order at the annual convocations of the Grand Chapters, and no Mason is eligible to its privileges who has not been elected a High Priest of a subordinate Chapter. The following description of the Order is taken from MACKEY'S " Book of the Chapter": -
"The design of this degree, so far as it relates to. its symbolic ceremonies, appears to be to present to the candidate the bond of brotherly love which should unite those who, having been elevated to the highest station by their Companions, are thus engaged in one common task of preserving the landmarks of the Order unimpaired, and in protecting, by their high authority, the integrity and honor
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of the institution. Thus, separated from the general mass of laborers in the field of Masonry and consecrated to a sacred mission as teachers of its glorious truths, those who sit in the tabernacle as the representatives of the ancient High Priesthood are, by the impressive ceremonies of the degree, reminded of the intimate friendship and fellowship which should exist between all those who have been honored with this distinguished privilege."
"It is impossible, from the want of authentic documents, to throw much light upon the historical origin of this degree. No allusion to it can be found in any ritual works out of America, nor even here anterior to about the end of the last and beginning of this century. WEBB is the first who mentions it and gives it in the series of Capitular degrees. It is probable that it was established by WEBB at the same time that he gave that form to the Prestonian lectures and ceremonies of the inferior degrees which have since so universally obtained in this country. If so, we may make a guess, and a guess only, at the source whence he derived his general idea of the degree. In 1780 a Masonic rite was founded at Berlin, Prussia, called the ' Initiated Brothers of Asia.' It was a philosophical rite, intended to give what was supposed to be a true explanation of all Masonic symbolism. The fifth degree of this rite was entitled 'Melchizedek, or the Royal Priest.' It is possible that this degree may have suogested to WEBB his idea of the Order of High Priesthood."
CHAPTER VI.
The Cryptic Rite of Royal and Select Masters.
WITH THE APPENDANT DEGREE OF SUPEREXCLELLENT MASTER;
RITUALISM APPROPRIATED FROM THE SCOTTISH RITE.
CRYPTIC MASONRY possesses absolute independence of all other rites and branches of Masonry. It owes its existence to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, though it is disclaimed by that venerable body. It is beautifully and intimately associated with the drama of Symbolic and Capitular Masonry, yet the Chapter refuses to officially make of it a "tie that binds." Located by usage between Royal Arch Masonry and the Commandery, yet Templarism declines to fellowship with it. Still, in the Masonry of America it is a regular body which is much respected and which has a wealth of years and a strength of membership. It is recognized, yet its irregularity of origin and its singularity of relative position is admitted.
Withal it has a ritual of deep philosophy and earnest significance. It is a diamond setting in the precious stones of the Temple.
Referring to the origin of Cryptic Masonry, MACKEY says:
"There is no doubt that these degrees belonged originally to the Ancient and Accepted Rite and were conferred as honorary degrees by the inspectors of that rite.
This authority and jurisdiction the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction of the rite continued to claim until the year 1870, although through negligence the Councils of Royal and Select Masters in some of the States had been placed under the control of independent jurisdictions called Grand Councils. Like all usurped authority, however, this claim of the State Grand Councils does not seem to have ever been universally admitted or to have been very firmly established. Repeated attempts have been made to take the degrees out of the hands of the Councils and to place them in the Chapters, there to be conferred as preparatory to the Royal Arch. The General Grand Chapter, in the triennial session of 1847, adopted a resolution granting this permission to all Chapters in States where no Grand Councils exist, but seeing the manifest injustice and inexpediency of such a measure, at the following session of 1850 it refused to take any action on the subject of these degrees. In 1853 it disclaimed all control over them and forbade the Chapters under its jurisdiction to confer them. As far as regards the interference of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite that question was set at rest in 1870 by the Mother Council, which at its session at Baltimore formally relinquished all further control over them."
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Said the late Ill\ Comp. ALBERT PIKE, 33 degree, then Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council:
"We do not know by what authority these degrees were introduced into Missouri, but we know that in Mississippi,the bodies were established by the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem; in Arkansas by the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction, by whose authority also the Grand Council of the State was created; and that nearly every Grand Council in the United States owes its being either to the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction or to JEREMY L. CROSS, who pretended to hold a commission from it."
Of these degrees the Grand Master of the Grand Council of Vermont said, at a late meeting of that body:
"It is a well established fact that the Supreme Council of the 33' of the Southern jurisdiction at Charleston, S. C., were the original possessors of these degrees in this country.
"In 1817 they were conferred in Baltimore on the members of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, of which THOMAS SMITH WEBB of Boston, Mass., then Deputy General Grand High Priest, was one. He came to Windsor, Vt., and on the 24th day of December, 1817, conferred the degrees upon the following Companions: L. W. HUBBARD, LEWIS F. GALLUP, GAIUS PERKINS, JONATHAN NYE, SILAS BOWEN, JOHN H. COTTON, and BENJAMIN NILES. In May, 1818, COMP. COTTON issued a charter to certain Companions at Bennington, Vt., dated May 23d, which is now in possession of HYMEN TUTTLE of that place. About this time they were introduced into Rutland and Addison Counties by JEREMY L. CROSS; by JOHN BARNEY into Franklin County, where he remained three weeks at the house of Comp. IRA HILL and gave him the work and lectures. This work is believed to be the oldest in Vermont, and nearly corresponds with our present work.
"NAPHTALI SHAW, of Bradford, disseminated these degrees in Orange, Caledonia, and Essex Counties in the autumn of 1818, and in the northeastern part of New York."
Authority for organizing Councils of Royal and Select Masters in the several States was derived as follows: -
From the Southern Supreme Council Direct: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. By its authority to JOHN BARKER, 33\ Inspector General: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Ohio. Mediately through the Scottish line above mentioned: California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. By JEREMY L. CROSS, 33\, in the Southern jurisdiction, Virginia; in the Northern jurisdiction, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Total by Southern Supreme Council direct, eight; by BARKER, as Deputy, four; by CROSS, sevenmaking nineteen who had their direct origin from the Southern Supreme Council. The number indirect from their original progenitor, ninemaking in all twentyeight Grand Councils from their Scottish Rite mother and grandmother. And this is also confirmed by Ill\ Comp. EUGENE GRISSOM, 33\, of the Southern Supreme Council, in his history of the Cryptic Rite. It is not now a question of jurisdiction, for all are independent of themselves or now owe allegiance to the General Grand Council constituted at Detroit, Mich., on August 23, 1880.
The strongest efforts have frequently been made to induce the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States to make the degrees of Royal and Select Masters prerequisite to receiving the Orders of knighthood, but without avail. They must stand alone in their beauty and strength, and teach their beautiful lessons without aid from any friends, either above or below.
The Mississippi plan to incorporate them into the Royal Arch Chapters has only been followed in three or four States Iowa, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas. This has been generally opposed.
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RITE OF ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS.
Said Ill\COMP. JOSIAH DRUMMOND in 1879: -
"Mississippi and Illinois have taken measures to transfer the Council degrees to their several Royal Arch Chapters, provided the General Grand Chapter will allow them to do so. We cannot see any advantage in so doing, as some are already complaining of too many degrees in the Chapter. If the Council degrees are not worth the working as they are, give them up disband. Do not try to foist them where they never belonged. If you give them to anybody, return them to that body from which we received them the A. & A. S. Rite. We are not aware that the Royal Arch Chapter ever had any control over them."
The degree of Royal Master and its complement, that of Select Master, furnish symbols of profound meaning, for deep reflection and contemplation upon the uncertainty of life and the possibility of a sudden death, and the necessary preparation for all the contingencies of a fatal catastrophe. Both degrees have reference to the Secret Vaults, an account of which we quote from MACKEY and OLIVER, as follows: -
"As a symbol the Secret Vault does not present itself in the primary degrees of Masonry. It is found only in the high degrees, such as the Royal Arch of all the rites where it plays an important part."
Dr. OLIVER in his " Historical Landmarks" (vol 11, P. 434), gives, while referring to the buildiiig of the second Temple, the following general detail of the Masonic legend of this vault:
"The foundations of the Temple were opened and cleared from the accumulation of rubbish, that a level might be procured for the commencement of the building. While engaged in excavations for this purpose, these fortunate sojourners are said to have discovered our ancient stone of foundation, which had been deposited in the secret crypt by Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, to prevent the communication of ineffable secrets to profane or unworthy persons. The discovery having been communicated to the prince, prophet, and priest of the Jews, the stone was adopted as the chief cornerstone of the re - edified building, and thus became, in a new and more expressive sense, the type of a more excellent dispensation. An avenue was also accidentally discovered, supported by seven pairs of pillars, perfect and entire, which from their situation had escaped the fury of the flames that had consumed the Temple and the desolation of war that had destroyed the city. The Secret Vault which had been built by SOLOMON as a secure depository for certain secrets that would inevitably have been lost without some such expedient for their preservation, communicated by a subterranean avenue with the King's palace; but at the destruction of Jerusalem, the entrance having been closed by the rubbish of falling buildings, it had been discovered by the appearance of a keystone amongst the foundations of the Sanctum Sanctorum. A careful inspection was then made and the invaluable secrets were placed in safe custody."
Considered simply as a historical question, there can be no doubt of the existence of immense vaults beneath the superstructure of the original Temple of SOLOMON. PRIME, ROBINSON, and other writers, who in recent times have described the topography of Jerusalem, speak of the existence of these structures, which they visited and in some instances carefully examined. After the destruction of Jerusalem by TITUS, the Roman Emperor HADRIAN erected on the site of the "House of the LORD" a Temple of Venus, which in its turn was destroyed, and the place subsequently became a depository of all manner of filth. But the Caliph OMAR, after his conquest of Jerusalem, sought out the ancient site, and, having caused it to be cleansed of its impurities, he directed a mosque to be erected on the rock which rises in the center of the mountain. Fifty years afterward the Sultan ABDELMELUK displaced the edifice of OMAR and erected that splendid building which remains to this day, and is still incorrectly called by Christians the Mosque of OMAR, but known to Mussulmans
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as Etkubbetes Sukrah or the Dome of the Rock. This is supposed to occupy the exact site of the Solomonic Temple, and is viewed with equal reverence by Jews and Mohammedans, "the former of whom," says Mr. PRIME ("Tent Life in the Holy Land," p. 183), "have a faith that the ark is within its bosom now."
DOME OF THE ROCK
"The degree of Royal Master is the eighth of the American Rite," says COMP. MACKEY, "as that rite is now constituted. It is the first of the degrees conferred in a council of Royal and Select Masters. Under the present order the officers are a Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, representing King SOLOMON; Deputy Illustrious Master, representing HIRAM, King of Tyre; Principal Conductor of the Works, representing HIRAM ABIF; Treasurer, Recorder, Captain of the Guards, Conductor of the Council, Steward, and Sentinel. The place of meeting is called the Council Chamber, and represents the private apartment of King SOLOMON, in which he is said to have met with his two colleagues during the construction of the Temple. Candidates who receive this degree are said to be 'honored with the degree of Royal Master.' Its symbolic colors are black and red the former significant of grief and the latter of martyrdom, and both referring to the chief builder of the Temple.
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"The events recorded in this degree, looking at them in a legendary point of view, must have occurred at the building of the first Temple and during that brief period of time after the death, of, the builder, which is embraced between the discovery of his body and its 'Masonic interment.' In all the initiations into the mysteries of the ancient world there was, as it is well known to scholars, a legend of the violent death of some distinguished personage to whose memory the particular mystery was consecrated, of the concealment of the body, and its subsequent recovery. That part which referred to the concealment of the body was called the aphanism, from a Greek verb which signifies 'to conceal,' and that part which referred to the subsequent finding was called the euresis, from another Greek verb which signifies 'to discover.' It is impossible to avoid seeing the coincidences between the system of initiation and that practiced in the Masonry of the third degree. But the ancient initiation was not terminated by the euresis or discovery. Up to that point the ceremonies had been funereal and mournful in their character. But now they were changed from mourning to rejoicing. Other ceremonies were performed by which the restoration of the personage to life, or his apotheosis or change to immortality, was represented, and then came the autopsy or illumination of the neophyte, when he was invested with a full knowledge of all the religious doctrines which it was the object of the ancient mysteries to teach when, in a word, he was instructed in divine truth. Now a similar course is pursued in Masonry. Here also is there an illumination, a symbolic teaching, or, as we call it, an investilure with that which is the representative of divine truth. The communication in the Master's degree of that which is admitted to be merely a representation of or a substitution for that symbol of divine truth (the search for which, under the name of the True Word, makes so important a part of the degree), how imperfect it may be in comparison with that more thorough knowledge which only future researches can enable the Master Mason to attain, constitutes the autopsy of the third degree. Now, the principal event recorded in the legend of the Royal Master, the interview between ADONIRAM and his two Royal Masters, is to be placed precisely at that juncture of time which is between the euresis or discovery in the Master Mason's degree and the autopsy, or investiture with the great secret. It occurred between the discovery by means of the sprig of acacia and the final interment. It was at the time when SOLOMON and his colleague, HIRAM of Tyre, were in profound consultation as to the mode of repairing the loss which they then supposed had befallen them. We must come to this conclusion because there is abundant reference, both in the organized form of the Council and in the ritual of the degree, to the death as an event that had already occurred; and, on the other hand, while it is evident that SOLOMON had been made acquainted with the failure to recover on the person of the builder that which had been lost, there is no reference whatever to the well known substitution which was made at the time of the interment. If, therefore, as is admitted by all Masonic ritualists, the substitution was precedent and preliminary to the establishment of the Master Mason's degree, it is evident that at the time the degree of Royal Master is said to have been founded in the ancient Temple by our 'first Most Excellent Grand Master,' all persons present, except the first and second officers, must have been merely Fellow Craft Masons. In compliance with this tradition, therefore, a Royal Master is at this day supposed to represent a Fellow Craft in the search, and making his demand for that reward which was to elevate him to the rank of a Master Mason.
"If from the legendary history we proceed to the symbolism of the degree we shall find that, brief and simple as are the ceremonies, they present the great Masonic idea of the laborer seeking for his reward. Throughout all the symbolism of Masonry, from the first to the last degree, the search for the Word has been considered but as a symbolic expression for the search after Truth. The attainment of this truth has always been acknowledged to be the great object and design of all
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Masonic labor. Divine truth the knowledge of GOD, concealed in the old cabalistic doctrine under the symbol of His ineffable name, and typified in the Masonic system under the mystical expression of the True Word is the reward proposed to every Mason who has faith fully wrought his task. It is, in short, the ' Master's wages.' Now, all this is beautifully symbolized in the degree of Royal Master. The reward had been promised, and the time had now come, as ADONIRAM thought, when the promise was to be redeemed, and the True Word - Divine Truth - was to be imparted. Hence in the person of ADONIRAM, or the Royal Master, we see symbolized the Speculative Mason, who, having labored to complete his spiritual temple, comes to the Divine Master that he may receive his reward and that his labor may be consummated by the acquisition of truth. But the temple he had been building is the temple of this life, that first temple which must be destroyed by death that the second temple of the future life may be built on its foundations. And in this first temple the truth cannot be found. We must be content with its substitute."
THE GOLDEN VESSELS
The following description and explanation of the degree of Select Master is also from the pen of MACKEY: -
"The degree of Select Master is the ninth degree of the American Rite and the last of the two conferred in a Council of Royal and Select Masters, and the officers are the same as in the Royal Master's degree. The first three represent the three Grand Masters at the building of SOLOMON's Temple. The symbolic colors are black and red, the former significant of secrecy, silence, and darkness; the latter of fervency and zeal. A Council is supposed to consist (like that of the Lodge of Perfection of the 14th degree of the A. & A. S. Rite, from which it is borrowed) of neither more nor less than twentyseven; but a smaller number, if not less than nine, is competent to proceed to work or business. The candidate when initiated is said to be 'chosen as a Select Master.' The historical object of the degree is to commemorate the deposit of an important secret or treasure which, after the preliminary preparations, is said to have been made by HIRAM ABIF. The place of meeting represents a secret vault beneath the Temple.
"A controversy has sometimes arisen among ritualists as to whether the degree of Select Master should precede or follow that of Royal Master in the order of conferring. But the arrangement now existing by which the Royal Master is made the first and the Select Master the second degree of Cryptic Masonry has been very generally accepted, and this for the best of reasons. It is true that the circumstances referred to in the degree of Royal Master occurred during a period of
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time which lies between the death of the chief builder of the Temple and the completion of the edifice, while those referred to in the degree of Select Master occurred anterior to the builder's death. Hence in the order of time the events commemorated in the Select Master's degree took place anterior to those which are related in the degree of Royal Master, although in Masonic sequence the latter degree is conferred before the former. This apparent anachronism is, however, reconciled by the explanation that the secrets of the Select Master's degree were not brought to light until long after the existence of the Royal Master's degree had been known and. recognized."
[In fact, the Royal Master's degree was fabricated for the purpose of being used to aid the cause of the First Pretender of the house of the STUARTS, who failed in his object; and the degree of Select Master was fabricated for the benefit of his son, CHARLES EDWARD, the Second Pretender, who also failed in his object.]
In other words, to speak only from the traditional point of view, Select Masters had been designated, had performed the task for which they had been selected, and had closed their labors, without ever being openly recognized as a class in the Temple of SOLOMON. The business in which they were engaged was a secret one. Their occupation and their very existence, according to the legend, were unknown to the great body of the Craft in the first Temple. The Royal Master's degree, on the contrary, as there was no reason for concealment, was publicly conferred and acknowledged during the latter part of the construction of the Temple of SOLOMON; whereas the degree of Select Master and the important incidents on which it was founded are not supposed to have been revealed to the Craft until the building of the Temple of ZERUBBABEL. Hence the Royal Master's degree should always be conferred anterior to that of the Select Master."
"The appendant degree of Superexcellent Master was originally an honorary degree conferred by the InspectorsGeneral of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston," says Mr. MACKEY. "It has since been introduced into some of the Royal and Select Councils of the United States and there conferred as an additional degree. This innovation on the regular series of Cryptic degrees, with which it actually has no historical connection, met with great opposition, so that the convention of Royal and Select Masters which met at New York in June, 1873, resolved to place it in the category of an honorary degree, which might or might not be conferred at the option of a Council, but not as an integral part of the rite. Although this body had no dogmatic authority, its decision doubtless had some influence in settling the question. The degree is simplv an enlargement of that part of the ceremonies of the Royal Arch which refer to the destruction of the Temple. To that place it belongs, if it belongs anywhere, but has no more to do with the ideas inculcated in Cryptic Masonry than have any of the degrees lately invented for modern secret societies."
CHAPTER VII.
Ancient Knighthood and the Crusades.
THE SCHEMING OF THE CHURCH, AVARICE OF ADVENTRUERS, AND THE PIETY OF THE CHRISTIAN FOLLOWERS OF THE CROSS. - RISE AND FALL OF CRUSADING KNIGHTS.
BEFORE entering upon the recital of the history of the Masonic Knights Templar, a brief sketch of the Crusades and the Orders of religious knighthood is necessary in explanation of the real causes that led to those religious military expeditions which ended in disaster and ruin to the hopes of misguided Christendom.
"In the early dawn of the eleventh century," says DRAPER in his "Intellectual Development of Europe," "the evil union of Church and State, their rivalries, intrigues and their quarrels had produced an inevitable result, doing the same in the west that they had done in the east, disorganizing the political system and ending in a universal demoralization. The absorption of small properties into large estates steadily increased the number of slaves; where there had once been many free families there was now found only a rich man. Even of this class the number diminished by the same process of aibsorption until there were sparsely scattered here and there abbots and counts with enormous estates worked by herds of slaves whose numbers, since sometimes one man possessed 20,000 of them, might deceive us if we did not consider the vast surface over which they were spread. Examined in that way, the west of Europe proves to have been covered with forests, here and there dotted with a convent or a town. From those countries, once full of the splendid evidences of Roman civilization, mankind was fast disappearing. There was no political cause, until at a later time, when the feudal system was developed, for calling men into existence. Whenever there was a partial peace there was no occasion for the multiplication of men beyond the intention of extracting from them the largest possible revenue, a condition implying their destruction. Soon even the necessity for legislation ceased; events were left to take their own course. Through the influence of the monks the military spirit declined; a vile fetichisni of factitious relics, which were working miracles in all directions, constituted the individual piety. Whoever died without bequeathing a part of his property to the Church, died without confession and the sacraments and forfeited Christian burial. Trials by battle and the ordeals of fire and water determined innocence or guilt in those accused of crimes. Society was dissolving, the human race was disappearing, and with difficulty the melancholy ruins of ancient civilization could be traced."
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Northern and Central Europe was becoming an inviting field for invasion by the Saracens, who, along the western shores of Asia impelled by the impending storm arising in the northeastern portion of that continent, had been crowded into the southwestern, and occupying Persia, Arabia, Western and Southern India, had already seized the Holy Land, taken possession of Jerusalem, driven Christianity from Northern Africa, invaded and occupied Spain and Portugal, and threatened Southern France; and the Crescent, approaching also from the eastward, threatened by the appearance of clouds of horsemen and warriors of the Mohammedan faith to entirely obliterate Christianity from the entire face of Europe. The hatred of the Latin or Roman Church against the Greek which rent Christendom in twain was to be adroitly used in precipitating armies of hundreds of thousands of men upon the territories of the Grecian Emperor in the disguise of friends while en route to the Holy Land to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.
Among the pilgrims about the year 1093 was the monk PETER the Hermit, a Frenchman by birth, who on a secret mission of Pope URBAN II undertook the journey to the Holy Land. He was a native of the city of Amiens in Picardy. This monk during his sojourn at Jerusalem paid several visits to the Patriarch of that city, who gave him an exaggerated account of the evils under which the Christians of Judea labored from the sway of the Musselmans. PETER, ambitious like all other monks, seized with avidity on the opportunity which offered itself to him of acquiring a certain kind of importance, and promised the Patriarch to ask aid from the Pope against the infidels. On his return to Italy he presented himself at the Court of Rome, which he found fully disposed to second his views.
The indications were that ere long there would be a great uprising and overflow of the Mongol Tartar race that would force even the Turks from the continent of Asia into Europe and eventually submerge both Moslem and Christian in the waters of the Atlantic, for America then was an undiscovered land excepting to the Norsemen, who long centuries before had anticipated COLUMBUS. Christianity was extinguished in the East. The Musselmans had already conquered the greater part of Asia Minor. Greece and its Capital Constantinople was threatened with invasion and capture by the Turks. Its Emperor, ALEXIS COMNENUS, in vain appealed to the powers of Western Europe for assistance, which met with no response. In his extremity he was driven to appeal to Pope URBAN, binding himself by an oath to recognize him as the universal bishop. The bargain was concluded, and PETER the Hermit was directed to embark in the First Crusade. There were no grand military organizations, no welltrained armies, no tactical discipline or skill, and strategical movements of large forces were comparatively unknown. The populace were roused everywhere to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by Pope URBAN and PETER the Hermit, and the people, carried away in their fervor of excitement, spontaneously shouted, "GOD Wills it! Let us march."
The great military mob was at last gathered, and the Pope fixed the day of departure for Jerusalem on the day of the Assumption in the same year, 1096. The armies of the Crusaders began to move on all points. The first division was commanded by WALTER the Penniless. He departed on March 8, 1096, with a multitude of persons clothed in rags and on foot, like himself. They took the route through Germany and stopped at Mayance and Cologne. "There they committed so many horrors and atrocities," says the monk GULBERT, "that the citizens barricaded themselves in their houses to escape from the barbarity of these monsters. Mothers became furious, murdered the infants whom they nourished; husbands poniarded their wives,, and young people put themselves to death to avoid falling into the hands of those merciless fanatics who bore the cross on the shoulder." These first bands were followed by 40,000, led by PETER the Hermit, and recruited in France or on the borders of Germany. A monk named GONDESCALE went by way of Hungary, with an army of 15,000 pillagers. They committed so many atrocities by the way that the exasperated inhabitants
THE CRUSADES - ST. DAMIETTA BEFORE THE CRUSADES.
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rose in mass and massacred them to the last man. But this gallant nation was soon exterminated by 200,000 bandits.
AN ANCIENT KNIGHT OF MALTA
In spite of the friendly hospitality extended by the Greek Emperor, who provided every comfort and luxury even when BOHEMOND with his division arrived at Constantinople, the Crusaders sacked the environs, burned the dwellings, massacred the cultivators, forced the convents of the nuns, and in their thirst for pillage tore even the leaden roofs from off the churches to sell them to the Jews at forced sale upon them. ANNA COMNENA, the daughter of the Emperor, relates that PETER the Hermit was one of the most cruel and rapacious of the leaders of the Crusade. Said she, "His soldiers committed such frightful atrocities in the environs of Nice that the other Crusaders were indignant at them.”
Another historian says:
"It was only now that the true Crusaders entered upon the scene. Six armies embracing all the chivalry of Europe and led respectively by GODFREY of Bouillon, HUGH the Great (Count of Vermandoro), ROBERT CUITHOSE, Count ROBERT of Flanders, Prince BOHEMUND of Tarentum (under whom was TANCRED), and Count RAYMOND of Toulouse, set forth for Constantinople. Having united their forces and spent some time at this place, they crossed into Asia Minor. Here their first step was the capture of Nice, June 24, 1097. They also defeated the Sultan SOLIMAN at Dorylacum and took the principality of Edessa. They then marched into Syria and laid siege to Antioch. After seven months' siege, during which the Crusaders suffered terribly from famine and disease, the city surrendered, June 3, 1098. The inhabitants were massacred by their captors, who were besieged in their turn by an army of 200,000 Musselmans. On June 28, 1098, the Mohamniedans were put to rout and the way opened to Jerusalem. In the summer of 1099, 40,000 Crusaders, the remnant of a vast host which had comprised not less than 600,000 warriors, laid siege to Jerusalem. The city was taken on July 15, 1098, after a siege of somewhat more than five weeks. Eight days later, on July 23, 1098, GODFREY of Bouillon was elected King of Jerusalem. The three Latin principalities of the East, Edessa, Antioch, and Jerusalem maintained themselves against the attacks of the Mohammedans till the year 1144, when the Emir of Mosul conquered Edessa and massacred its Christian inhabitants. His son, NOOREDDEEN, marched upon Syria and Palestine."
A Second Crusade was preached by ST. BERNARD, Abbott of Clairvaux, and in 1147 two large but poorly disciplined armies set out for Jerusalem. They were commanded by Louis VII, King of France, and CONRAD III, Emperor of Germany. This expedition utterly failed through the treachery (it is said) of the Greek Emperor, MANUEL COMNENUS, and neither army ever saw the Holy Land. In 1187 SALAHEDDEEN, or SALADIN, Sultan of Egypt, invaded Palestine, and in October of that year took Jerusalem. This event gave rise to a Third Crusade, under the leadership of FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, Emperor of Germany, PHILIP AUGUSTUS, King of France, and RICHARD C(I,UR DE LION, King of England. BARBAROSSA died of fever on the way. The Crusaders gained some important victories, but they were not united among themselves and the Crusade was closed by a treaty in which SALADIN agreed to impose no taxes on Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem. In 1195 HENRY VI of Germany undertook a Crusade (sometimes called the fourth), but the death of the Emperor caused the project to be abandoned. A Fourth Crusade, instituted by Pope INNOCENT III in 1203, turned from its course to take possession of the Byzantine Empire, and never reached Palestine at all.
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The Children's Crusade in 1212 (of which an excellent account has been written by the Rev. GEORGE ZABRISKIE GRAY of New York) is one of the strangest episodes in history. An army of unarmed French children, 30,000 strong, headed by a boy named STEPHEN, Set out for the Holy Land by the way of Marseilles. A similar army of German children, 20,000 strong, led by a boy named NICHOLAS, crossed the Alps at Mont Cenis. A second army of German children, numbering nearly 20,000, the name of whose leader is not known, crossed the Alps by a more easterly route, touching the sea at Brindisi. Their idea was that the Mediterranean would open a path for them to Palestine and that the Holy Land would be recovered and the Moslems converted by miracles. Some of the children got discouraged and returned to their homes, many stopped by the way, but most of them perished on the march, were lost at sea, or were sold into slavery. The great Mongolian Tartar Chieftain in Northern Asia, GENGHIS KHAN, or CHINGHIS KHAN (literally, the greatest khan, or ruler), originally TEMUDGIN, with probably the largest host ever assembled by a ruler, now began to move westward and southward across the great steppes and mountain ranges of Asia toward Europe and Northern Africa. It was the secret hope of the popes that this threatened human inundation might be prevented by driving the Turks back from the Holy Land, of which the Christians would regain possession, that the Turks would be forced to act as a wall or barrier against the impending invasion of the Tartar hordes, and that it would be better policy to make Palestine or the Holy Land the battleground rather than the eastern shores of Europe.
PETER THE HERMIT, PREACHING THE CRUSADES.
GENGHIS KHAN was born at Deylun Yeldok on the Hwang Ho in 1162, and was the son of Chief of the Mongol tribe Neyrun. He succeeded his father when thirteen years old, but a civil war followed and in 1178 he was compelled to flee to TOGEIRUL UNGH, Khan of the Keraite Tartars, whose daughter he married and whose armies he commanded with success. In 1203 he made himself master of the Keraites, and in 1204 utterly overthrew the
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Nayman tribes and made himself Chief of Mongolia. In 1206 he was declared GENGHIS KHAN, or chief of rulers, and the civilized Uigurs submitted to him. He soon published his great code, attacked Cathay or Northern China, crossed the Great Wall in 1211, sacked and burned Peking in 1215, and exterminated some rebellious tribes. He attacked ALLAHEDDIN MOHAMMED, Sultan of Chorasmia, in 1218, and had conquered all Turkestan in 1220; ravaged Balkh, Khorassan, and Persia; plundered all Asia as far south as the Sutlej, and penetrated Europe as far as the Dnieper, carrying slaughter and destruction evervwhere. GENGHIS KHAN was the founder of what became the Mogul Empire. His chief capital was Karakorum, in Tartary. It is stated that more than 5,000,000 persons, equal in number to all the present standing armies in Europe, were slain in his wars, which were carried on with the most heartless cruelty; but that through his vast dominion he enforced the strictest order, established a postal system, and tolerated all religions. GENGHIS died at Lupan in China, August 18, 1227. His four sons carried on his work of terror.
In 1228 FREDERICK II of Germany commanded a Fifth Crusade, by which he became master of Palestine and was crowned King of Jerusalem.
In 1239 the Turks having again seized upon Jerusalem, a Sixth Crusade was undertaken under Thibaut, Count of Champagne. A normal surrender of the Holy Land was the result. In 1244 Jerusalem was burned and pillaged by a new race of Turks.
A Seventh Crusade was headed by Louis IX (ST. Louis) of France, who set out in 1249. It was badly defeated by the Sultan of Egypt, who also made a prisoner of the King.
The Eighth and last Crusade was also undertaken by ST. Louis, in 1270. The King died at Carthage of the plague, and Prince EDWARD, afterward EDWARD I of England, assumed command of the army. The expedition accomplished nothing of importance, and in July, 1272, EDWARD returned to England with the last of the Crusaders.
The chief result of the Crusades was a better acquaintance by the people of Western Europe with two civilizations more advanced than their own the Greek and the Saracenic. Thus a powerful impulse was given both to the literature and the commerce of Europe.
Our greatest Masonic historian in America, ALBERT G. MACKEY, draws these conclusions from the long and sanguinary campaigns of the Crusaders to recover the Holy Land from the control of the infidels:
"There was between Freemasonry and the Crusades a much more intimate relation than has generally been supposed. In the first place, the communications frequently established by the Crusaders, and especially the Knights Templar, with the Saracens, led to the acquisition by the former of many of the dogmas of the secret societies of the East, such as the Essenes, the Assassins, and the Druses. These were brought bv the Knights to Europe, and subsequently, on the establishment by RAMSAY and his contemporaries and immediate successors of Templar Masonry, were incorporated into the high degrees, and still exhibit their influence. Indeed, it is scarcely to be doubted that many of these degrees were invented with a special reference to the events which occurred in Syria and Palestine. But the influence of the Crusades on the Freemasons and the architecture of the Middle Ages is of a more historical character. In 1836 Mr. WESTMACOTT, in a course of lectures on art before the Royal Academy, remarked that 'the two principal causes which materially tended to assist the restoration of literature and the arts in Europe were Freemasonry and the Crusades. The adventurers,' he said, 'who returned from the Holy Land brought back some ideas of various improvements, particularly in architecture, and along with these a strong desire to erect castellated, ecclesiastical, and palatial edifices, to display the taste they had acquired; and in less than a century from the first Crusade, above six hundred buildings of the above description
THE CRUSADES. – ENTRY INTO CONSTANTINOPLE.
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had been erected in Southern and Western Europe. This taste was spread into almost all countries by the establishment of the fraternity of Freemasons, who, it appears, had, under some peculiar form of brotherhood, existed from an immemorial period in Syria and other parts of the East, from whence some bands of them migrated to Europe, and after a time a great influx of these ingenious menItalian, German, French, Spanish, etc. had spread themselves in communities through all civilized Europe; and in all countries where they settled we find the same style of architecture from that period, but differing in some points of treatment, as suited the climate.'"
ORDERS OF RELIGIOUS KNIGHTHOOD CONNECTED WITH THE CRUSADES.
RHODES – IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES.
Prior to the commencement of the preaching of PETER the Hermit of the first Crusade in the middle of the eleventh century, some merchants of Amalfi, a rich city of the kingdom of Naples, while trading in Egypt obtained from the Caliph MONSTASER BILLAH permission to establish hospitals in the city of Jerusalem for the use of poor and sick Roman Catholic pilgrims. A site was assigned to them close to the Holy Sepulchre, on which they erected a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, giving it the name of St. Mary ad Latinos, to distinguish it from those churches where the service was performed according to the ritual of the Greek Church. The building was completed in the year 1048, and at the same time two hospitals for either sex were erected in the vicinity of the chapel for the reception of pilgrims. Subsequently each of these hospitals had a separate chapel annexed to it, that for the men being dedicated to ST. JOHN the Almoner and that for the women to ST. MARY MAGDALEN. Many of the pilgrims who had experienced the kindness so liberally bestowed upon all wayfarers abandoned all idea of returning to Europe, and formed themselves into a band of charitable assistants and without assuming any regular religious profession devoted themselves to the service of the hospital and the care of its sick inmates. The chief cities of the south of Europe subscribed liberally for the support of this institution, and the merchants of Amalfi, who were its original founders, acted as the stewards of their bounty, which was greatly augmented from the favorable reports of grateful pilgrims who had returned home, and the revenues of the hospital were thus increased. The associates assumed the name of Hospitalers of Jerusalem.
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When the Holy City was conquered by the Crusaders many of the latter laid aside their arms, joined the society, and devoted themselves to the pious vocation of attending the sick. It was then that GERARD, the rector of the hospital, induced the brethren to take upon themselves the vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, which they did at, the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who clothed them in the habit selected for the Order, which was a plain black robe, bearing a white cross of eight points on the left breast. This was in the year 1113, when the society had taken up arms and assumed the title of Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, and GERARD by decree of Pope PASCAL II was made the first Grand Master of the Order. Pope ANASTATIUS IV in 1153 published that remarkable bull which is most explicit concerning the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, confirming the Grand Master RAYMOND in his right of exemption from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He added: "As all your property is designed for the support of the pilgrims and the poor, we prohibit laymen and ecclesiastics of any rank from exacting tithes therefrom. We interdict all bishops from publishing suspensions or anathemas in the churches placed under your authority, and even when an interdict is obliged to be fulminated in any country in which you are located, divine service shall still be celebrated in your churches, only with closed doors and without ringing the bells. That you may be able always to celebrate mass we permit you to receive into your temples priests and clergy of all nations, after first having informed yourselves of the correctness of their morals and the regularity of their ordination. If the prelates to whom they are subjected refuse to grant them to you, I authorize you, by virtue of the power which has been delegated to the Holy See, to take them by force, and from the moment they shall have entered your temples they shall be subject to your Chapter and the Pope alone. We also permit you to receive into your hospitals laymen to serve the poor. We prohibit the laymen that is, the knights who shall be received into your company from returning to the world after having taken the habit and the cross. We prohibit them also from going into another Order, under the pretense of leading a more austere life. You will cause your altars and oratories to be dedicated by the diocesan bishop, if he will do it gratuitously; but if not, you will select another prelate. Finally, we confirm you in all the domains and lordships which your Order possesses in Asia or in Europe, or which it may in future acquire." Pope ANASTATIUS IV, after having reigned a little over fourteen months, died on December 2, 1154, and was succeeded by ADRIAN IV, the Pope who gave the crown of Ireland to the King of England.
In 1156 the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem had become so arrogant of their power and independence of the authority of FOUCHER, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and gave such great annoyance that he sent letters to the Pope, complaining of the Knights Hospitalers and of the abuses which they made of their privileges by receiving into their churches Christians who had been excommunicated by the bishops and by causing the priests of their Order to administer the viaticum, extreme unction, and ecclesiastical sepulchre. In his letter FOUCHER accused them of not observing the interdicts launched against cities, of ringing the bells of their churches in contempt of the canons, of celebrating service publicly and in a loud voice, and in receiving the offerings of the people to the prejudice of the mother churches. He finally besought the Holy Father to prohibit them from proceeding to the consecration or deposition of their priests without the participation of the prelates, and to order them to pay him a tithe on their lands and revenues. He further accused them of having made him undergo humiliation by erecting a magnificent hospital opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which, from the richness of its architecture, eclipsed his metropolitan church. He complained that they rung their bells with all their might whenever he rose to preach, and added, that having dared to reproach them for their conduct, he had been assailed by the knights even in
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the patriarchal palace, and that darts had been hurled at him even at the very altar of the Holy Sepulcher. The Hospitalers had, in fact, rendered themselves so redoubtable that no one dared to resist them in the kingdom of Palestine, not even the bishops and Patriarch, because they were entirely independent, by virtue of the bull granted them by ANASTASIUS IV.
FOUCHER was a Frenchman, and, worn out by the continual harrassing and contumely of which himself and his clergy were the objects, determined to go to Rome to fortify his demands, and, accompanied by two bishops, he went thither; but Pope ADRIAN was already advised of his coming by the Hospitalers, who had gained him to their side, and when the Patriarch and his prelates presented themselves to His Holiness, they found an inflexible judge who refused to give them the slightest satisfaction. They were then compelled to retrace their steps and return in sadness to Jerusalem. The death of ADRIAN occurred on September 1, 1159. He drank a cup of water from a fountain in which there was accidentally an insect, which fastened on his throat and ate the oesophagus, notwithstanding all the aid of the most skillful physicians.
The Order of Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem in the beginning was composed chiefly of Italian monks and men at arms, pilgrims and Crusaders. As seen by the bull of PASCAL II, who also was a native of Italy, and confirmed them as an Order of religious knighthood, they had a monopoly of that profession, and in the short period of five years, by the importunities of themselves and their friends, rapidly became wealthy, domineering, and arrogant. They owned the choicest spots in Jerusalem and other places in Palestine, and there did not seem to be anything left for anybody else, so grasping had they become as an association in so short a time. They became neglectful of the protection of pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem from the place of debarkation at Jaffa, and the consequence was that those pilgrims who were unarmed, and there were great numbers of them, after the Christians had captured Jerusalem, were insulted, robbed, maltreated, and murdered, for the want of proper escort and protection against the assaults of the Arabs and Mohammedan robbers of the deserts.
It was at this juncture, to protect the pilgrims and see them safely through, that nine French knights, the followers of BOUILLON or BALDWIN, united in the year 1118 in a military confraternity or brotherhood in arms, and entered into a solemn compact to aid each other in clearing the roads and in defending the pilgrims in their passage to the holy city. Two of these knights were HUGH DE PAYENS DE GUENCE (or Hugh of the wild, marshy lands of Guence in France) and GODFREY DE ST. ALDEMAR (or Omar). RAYNOUARD (" Les Templiers ") says that the names of the other seven have not been preserved in history, but WILKE (" Geschichte des T. H. Ordens") gives them as RORAL, GUNDEMAR, GODFREY BISOL, PAVENS DE MONTIDIER, ARCHIBALD DE ST. AMAN, ANDRE DE MONTBAR, and the Count of Provence. This little squad of French noblemen took upon themselves the arduous duty of protecting and escorting the pilgrims, which of itself was a silent rebuke and reflection of neglect on the part of the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem. But as these French Knights were so insignificant in numbers they only excited derision and contempt. They were comparatively without means, having exhausted their resources, but they had friends. They were humble, modest, and unpretending, but with noble blood, lionlike courage in action, and capable of making the greatest sacrifices in their devotion to the sacred cause in which thev had engaged, They resolved themselves into another organization of knighthood, uniting the monastic with the military character, and they took, in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and with great humility assumed the title of " Poor Fellow Soldiers of CHRIST." BALDWYN, the King of Jerusalem, assigned for their residence a part of his palace, which stood near the former site of the Temple; and the abbot and canons of the Temple gave
LOUIS VII RECEIVING THE CROSS FROM ST.BERNARD.
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them, as a place in which to store their arms and magazines, the street between the palace and the Temple, whence they derived the name of Templars, a title which they ever afterward retained.
RAYNOUARD says that BALDWYN sent HUGH DE PAYENS to solicit a new Crusade, and that while there he presented his companions to Pope HONORIUS II, from whom he craved permission to form a religious military Order in imitation of that of the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem.
KNIGHT TEMPLAR CASTLE CRAGIN IN THE HOLY LAND.
The Pontiff referred them to the ecclesiastical council, which was then in session at Troyes, in Champagne. Thither DE PAYENs repaired and represented to the fathers the vocation of himself and companions as defenders of the pilgrim. The enterprise was approved, and ST. BERNARD was directed to prescribe a rule for the infant Order. This rule, in which the knights of the Order are called "Pauperes Commililis Christi et Templi Solomonis," or "The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon," is still extant. It consists of seventytwo Chapters, the details of which are remarkable for their ascetic character. It enjoined severe devotional exercises, self - mortification, and prayer. It prescribed for the professed knights white garments, as a symbol of a pure life; esquires and retainers were to be clothed in black. To the white dress Pope EUGENIUS II subsequently added a red cross, to be worn on the left breast as a symbol of martyrdom.
Thus was confirmed and established that diamond Order of Christian chivalry, the crown of the Crusades, the magnanimous and chivalric Order of Knights Templar. Its origin was as humble as the babe in the manger, but with a grand and glorious life when in full power of manhood, and yet destined to perish in the flames and burnt from off the face of the earth betrayed to its death by the Order of Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, who were jealous and haters of it from the beginning, and who were the secret instruments in part of its destruction, and as a reward for their vile treachery received a portion of the spoils with the islands of Rhodes and Malta, and became known ever after as "Knights of Rhodes and of Malta." The Order of Knights Templar existed 195 years, from 1118 to 1313 It had just twentytwo Grand Masters from the beginning, who, with the years in which they were elected, are as follows, compiled on the authority of ADDISON: 1. HUGH DE PAYENS (1118); 2. Robert of Burgundy (1136); 3. EVERARD DE BARRI (1146); 4. BERNARD DE TREMFLLAY (1151); 5. BERTRAND DE BLANQUEFORT (1154); 6. PHILIP of Naplous (1167); 7. ODO DE ST. AMAND (1170); 8, ARNOLD DE TROYE (1180); 9. GERARD DE RIDEFORT (1185); 10. Brother WALTER (1189); 11. ROBERT DE SABLE (1191); 12. GILBERT HORAL (1195); 13. PHILIP DE PLESSIS (1201); 14. WILLIAM DE CHARTRES (1217); 15. PETER DE MONTAIGU (1218); 16. HERMANN DE PERIGORD (1236); 17. WILLIAM DE SONNAC (1245); 18. REGINALD DE VICHIER (1252); 19. THOMAS BERARD (1256); 20. WILLIAM DE BEAUJEU (1273); 21. THEOBALD DE GAUDINI (1291); 22, JAMES (or JACQUES) DE MOLAY (1297).
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There could be but one Grand Master of Knights Templar in the world, and when on May 12, 1310, his entire staff and escort of fiftyfour Knights Templar, and on March 18, 1313, after nearly seven years of imprisonment, DE MOLAY, the actual last Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake in the city of Paris by order of Pope CLEMENT V and PHILIP the Fair, the avaricious and treacherous King of France, there were no more conclaves or asylums or elections, and the Order with its name excepting in history utterly perished. Those in Spain and Portugal who were exempted from such a cruel fate took the name of "Knights of Christ." Those in England and Scotland were forced to unite with their enemies and enter the priories and preceptories of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, where they still retained that name. They were noblemen, and none but those of noble blood were admitted to the Order of its knighthood, and being military priests sworn to chastity never married, and consequently no children to inherit their names and property. The Order, however, had become liberalized by contact with the Christians of the Greek or Eastern Church, and in truces with the Saracens found that humanity could be exercised toward a fallen foe who would give a sign of appeal for mercy upon the battlefield. Like all men who travel they became enlightened by contact with other people and grew less bigoted when peace ruled for a time and mankind were spared the horrors and atrocities of a fanatical and religious war.
THE CHRISTIAN ARMY IN THE MOUNTAINS OF JUDEA.
There was another Order of knighthood organized during the Crusades in the year 1190. This was The Teutonic Knights of St. Mary of Jerusalem. The origin of this Order was an humble but a pious one. During the Crusades a wealthy gentleman of Germany who resided at Jerusalem, commiserating the condition of his countrymen who came there as pilgrims, made his house their receptacle and afterward built a hospital, to which by permission of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, he added an oratory dedicated to the VIRGIN MARY. Other Germans coming from Lubeck and Bremen contributed to the extension of this charity, and erected at Acre during the third Crusade a sumptuous hospital and assumed the title of
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Teutonic Knights or Brethren of the Hospital of our Lady of the Germans of Jerusalem. They elected HENRY WALPOTT their first Master, and adopted for their government a rule closely approximating to that of both the Hospitalers and the Templars, with an additional one that none but Germans should be admitted into the Order. Their dress consisted of a white mantle, with a black cross embroidered in gold. CLARK says (" Hist. of Knighthood," ii, 6o) that the original badge, which was assigned them by the Emperor HENRY VI, was a black cross potent, and that form of cross has ever since been known as a Teutonic Cross. JOHN, King of Jerusalem, added the cross double potent goldthat is, a cross potent of gold on the black cross. The Emperor FREDERICK II gave them the black doubleheaded eagle, to be borne in an escutcheon in the center of the cross; and ST. Louis of France added to it, as an augmentation, a blue chief strewn with fleurdelis.
During the siege of Acre they did good service to the Christian cause, but on the fall of that city the main body returned to Europe with FREDERICK II. For many years they were engaged in crusades against the pagan inhabitants of Prussia and Poland. ASHMOLE says that in 1340 they built the city of Maryburg and there established the residence of their Grand Master. They were for a long time engaged in contests with the kings of Poland on account of their invasion of their territory.
The Knights Templar who had made their escape from France to Germany when their Order was destroyed found shelter and protection in that country at the hands of the Teutonic Knights, who were engaged in looking up the frauds perpetrated by the rapacious monks and clergy, who had forged title deeds and mortgages upon lands and property of absent Crusaders or those who had fallen in defense of the cross in the Holy Land. While so engaged the self - crowned Pope, JAMES D'Ossa, who had been made a cardinal by CLEMENT V, succeeded that Pope and took the name of Pope JOHN XXII. He excommunicated the Teutonic Knights, but they, relying on their great strength and the remoteness of their province, bid defiance to ecclesiastical censures, and the contest ended in their receiving Prussia proper as a brief of the kings of Poland.
In 1511 ALBERT, Margrave of Brandenburg, was elected their Grand Master. In 1525 he abandoned the vows of his Order, and with a large number of the Teutonic Knights became a Protestant and exchanged his title of Grand Master for that of Duke of Eastern Prussia. Thus the dominion of the Teutonic Knights was brought to an end, the foundation laid of the future kingdom of Prussia, and the national colors were those of the Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights blended, the beauseant of black and white with the broad red stripe beneath it, which is the flag of Prussia today. The Order, however, still continued its existence, the seat of the Grand Master being at Mergentheim in Swabia. By the peace of Presburg in 1805 the Emperor Francis II obtained the Grand Mastership with all its rights and privileges. In 1809 NAPOLEON abolished the Order as he did that of the Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem in 1798. It is not the purpose in this work to give a full and complete history of these three religious military Orders of knighthood established during the Crusades. These three Orders had an existence as follows: The Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem or Knights of Malta, 685 years; Knights Templar, 195 years; the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary, 335 years of the Prussian division and 619 of the Austrian continuance, counting from A. D. 1190, the year of the founding of this third Order of knighthood.
It was during the Crusades in Palestine that the rivalry between the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and the Knights Templar culminated in intense hatred and Jealousy of the former toward the latter, that bitter hostilities broke out between them and frequent conflicts occurred. When the orders came from Pope GREGORY IX to give no quarter to the infidel Saracen the German Emperor FREDERICK II, in command of the crusade, directed that no attention be paid to this inhuman order,
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but that whenever any man of the enemy threw down his arms add made the sign of distress or appeal for mercy that his life should be spared. The Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights obeyed their immediate commander, but the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem obeyed the orders of the Pope. This also caused the breach to be widened between these two Orders, while the Pope excommunicated the German Emperor and at the same time engaged in infernal treachery by secretly conspiring with the Sultan and betraying the plans of FREDERICK to the enemy that even the Crusaders themselves should be defeated. When the objects of the crusades had utterly failed, so far as the Saracens were concerned, and all Palestine had been rid of every vestige of the defenders of the cross, Constantinople itself in possession of the Mohammedan power, which is still retained, and the Crusaders had withdrawn from the field and these Orders of knighthood had gone into garrisons denominated preceptories and priories, and taken possession of confiscated lands that had belonged to exterminated heretics, each Order of knighthood for itself when it had become permanently domiciliated naturally drew around it the people among whom it had fixed its habitation.
DEPARTURE OF CRUSADERS FOR PALESTINE.
The Teutonic Knights returned to their own country of Germany. The Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem divided the map of Europe between them, and were located in provinces where there were indications of heresy still remaining, to be ready to crush it, as well as along the shores of Italy and the Mediterranean, and at the Holy See of Rome; the Knights Templar, chiefly in France, with priories also in England and Scotland, but the Grand Master and chief military divisions at the islands of Cyprus, Malta, and others, to repel invasions and attacks of the Turks or Saracens on Southern Europe.
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The chiefs of the Knights Templar were the elite of the nobility, including some scions of royalty not in the line of regal ascension, and also of the most intelligent and courageous warriors of their times. One cause of their defeat was the overwhelming numbers of their enemies. The Orders of knighthood could not breed legitimately or beget their own kind. Their vows of celibacy prevented any recruits springing from their own loins, while the fruits of polygamy of their Moslem foes, in which some were fathers of even eighty children, kept the Moslem military strength up to the highest standard and condition. The monastic vows were a declaration of war against GOD and nature itself. The command of JEHOVAH or ALLAh to the Hebrew and the Ishmaelitish races were implicitly obeyed, and there was no lack of virile energy and courage, and an abundance of men.
The Knights Templar in their respective garrisons of castles, forts, priories, and preceptories, while keeping up their military and religious discipline, nevertheless found time for reflection and study of the causes of the crusades at home and abroad, when, other than the scum of Europe which settled upon its dregs, the best people had been almost entirely obliterated from the face of the continent. The rapacity of the popes and clergy down to the lowest monks was appalling to these self - sacrificing stalwart warriors of the Cross, who had returned and found utter strangers in the places and homes of their kindred; and upon investigation it was discovered that frauds, forgeries of title deeds, and confiscations under pretexts of heresy had despoiled their kindred, and the meagre few who survived were beggars upon the highways and lanes, perishin as tramps by the wayside. The entire Order of Knights Templar was becoming permeated with a profound sense of the injustice and wrong which had been perpetrated against so many of their own blood, while expression was carefully suppressed. The indications, however, were such that the Templars anticipated a bull from the Pope for a dissolution and disbandment of their Order, which might be expected at any time. But there was a determined unwritten resolve to stand fast together. They quietly continued their investigations, and where wrong, fraud, and forgery had been successful, they took possession of lands and property and held them in trust for the rightful heirs when they should present themselves, and large numbers of estates were thus recovered and delivered to those to whom they rightfully belonged. The Teutonic Knights in Germany did the same. By prudence, economy, and thrift they managed their property successfully, and being powerful in numbers and increasing in wealth they excited the suspicion, the avarice, and hatred of both kings and popes, while the senior and rival Order of Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem - envious, jealous, and revengeful was ever ready to do them an injury and a wrong.
But the time was near at hand when this grand chivalric Order of Christian knighthood of the Templars was to have its beauseant, its banners of the Cross, which it had bravely borne in the storms of battle for nearly two centuries, go down in gloom and blood and be buried in the ashes of their martyr defenders, through treacherous betrayal, to gratify the envy, jealousy, and murderous avarice of both King and Pope. The altar and the throne united the combined enemies of the liberties of mankind on earth and the would-be tollgate keepers of the road to the upper world. PHILIP the Fair of France, who had a quarrel with Pope BONIFACE VIII, was delighted on hearing of the death of his enemy on October 11, 1303 Pope BENEDICT II then ascended the throne, but as he did not please the cardinals they resolved on his destruction, and a youthful looking priest dressed as a nun of a neighboring convent approached the Holy Father when at a banquet and in the name of the abbess, who was one of his penitents, presented him with a silver plate of figs. The Pope took two of them and offered the others to the guests, who refused them, not to deprive His Holiness of them. On the same night he was attacked with severe pain in his bowels and with vomiting; his physician perceived that he was poisoned, but it was too late to arrest the
THE CRUSADERS. – THE BATTLE OF ANTIOCH.
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evil, and he died on July 6, 1304.
He was not the man that was wanted for what was to follow. He was succeeded by BERTRAND DE GOT, a Frenchman who assumed the title of CLEMENT V, who was made such through the influence of PHILIP the Fair, who was at first hostile, but sent him a letter for a conference which had been arranged. BERTRAND DE GOT as Archbishop cast himself at the feet of the King, exclaiming: "Sire, I now see why you wished to render me good for evil, and I submit entirely to you. Command and I am ready to obey. From this moment I forget the past; I renounce my friends, and am ready to sacrifice all my existence for you." PHILIP raised him to his feet, and having embraced him, said: "Thus, then, it depends on me to make you Pope, but I will only do it on the express condition that you reconcile me with the Church; that you commune with me and those who have followed my party; that you grant me all the titles of my kingdom for five years, and that you condemn the proceedings and memory of BONIFACE; that you entirely reinstate the COLONNA in their wealth and dignities; and, finally, that you will make cardinals of the ecclesiastics whom I will designate to you. I also reserve an important condition which you must accept without knowing what it is." The Archbishop swore upon the host to comply with the wishes of the King. All went to the city of Lyons, and in the Church of St. just, on November 14, 1305, the ceremonies of consecration were held, and in the presence of an immense concourse of archbishops, bishops, kings, and princes, he was crowned as Pope CLEMENT V.
CLEMENT created ten French Cardinals, took off the bulls launched by BONLFACE VIII against the COLONNA, and restored the cardinalate to JAMES and PETER, with power to reach all the dignities of the Church, even that of Sovereign Pontiff. He extorted enormous sums from the bishops and abbots of France who came to his court, and when he perceived that a fear of being mulcted prevented the clergy from visiting him, he determined to make a tour through the dioceses. He passed through a great number of cities and everywhere carried off treasures from the churches and monasteries. It is related that it took five whole days to carry away from the rich abbey at Cluny the gold and silver, and not content with his own extortions he sent his legates everywhere, who forced the exactions to that extent that an appeal was made in despair to the King. PHILIP Instructed MILON DE NOYERS, the Marshal of France, to complain to the Holy Father against his extortioners, and to obtain their recall. But this only increased the evil. The Pope, fearing lest energetic measures would be taken to shackle his financiering expedition, urged the receipt of the money, and ordered his legates to increase their severity and set all ecclesiastical dignities up at auction. He also resolved to use the tribunals of the inquisition with which BLANCHE of Castile and ST. Louis had endowed France, so as to avail himself of the decrees of the fourth council of the Lateran, which provided that the property of heretics and their accomplices belonged to the Holy See, without the children or relatives of the condemned being able to claim the least part.
We now come to the great conspiracy. Pope CLEMENT V and PHILIP the Fair, while the latter was at Poitiers, entered upon the infernal project for the destruction of the Knights Templar, who were to be proclaimed and attacked as heretics, destroyed, and their wealth divided between the Pope and the King. While the King was laid up with his disorders he with the Pope meditated upon the plan - how the matter was to be brought about and meet with success. CLEMENT adopted the following ruse: He first caused a new crusade to be preached in Europe and even at points in Syria. He then sent the following letter to the Grand Masters of the Templars and the Hospitalers: "We inform you, my Brethren, that we have been urgently solicited by the kings of Aragon and Cyprus for aid for the Holy Land. We order you to come to France as secretly as possible, to deliberate with us. You will also be careful to bring with you large sums to equip a numerous army." JACQUES DE MOLAY, Grand Master of the Templars, promptly obeyed the injunctions of the Holy Father. The unfortunate DE MOLAY with a large amount of treasure and his retinue and staff of sixty knights, with no suspicion of treachery, sailed for France, and on his arrival in Paris early in
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1307 fell directly into the trap that was set for him by his enemies. The Pope and PHILIP had agreed that the Knights of the Temple should be arrested at the same time, in the different Christian kingdoms, and that they should be handed over to the inquisitors as suspected of heresy, that their property should be seized in the name of the Church, and that they should be put to death on the scaffold, after having been put to the torture to make them avow imaginary crimes. The execution of this hellish plot was not deferred. The Pope informed the kings of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal of his determination to annihilate the Templars, and on the appointed day they were all arrested and plunged into the dungeons of the inquisition on October 13, 1307.
MALTA. – FORTIFIED BY THE CRUSADERS.
To a renegade, said to be an expelled Prior of the Order, SQUIN DE FLEXIAN or FLORIAN, with NOFFODEI, and, as some say, another unknown person, is attributed the invention of the false accusations upon which were based the persecutions and downfall of the Knights Templar. He was a native of the city of Bezieres, in the south of France, and having been received as a Knight Templar had made so much proficiency in the Order as to have been appointed to the head of the Priory of Montfaucon. REGHELLINI states that both SQUIN DE FLEXIAN and NOFFODEI were Templars and held the rank of Commanders; but Dupuy ("Condemnation des Templices") denies that the latter was a Templar. He says: "All historians agree that the origin of the ruin of the Templars was the work of the Prior of Montfaucon and of NOFFODEI, a Florentine banished from his country and whom nobody believes to have been a Templar. The Prior by the sentence of the Grand Master had been condemned for heresy and for having led an infamous life to pass the remainder of his days in a prison. The other is reported to have been condemned to rigorous penalties by the provost of Paris." REGHELLINI's account ("La Maconnerie Consideree, etc., i, P. 451) is more circumstantial. He says: "In 1306 two Knights Templar, NOFFODEI and FLORIAN, were punished for crimes and lost their Commanderies, that of the latter being Montfaucon. They petitioned the Provincial Grand Master of Mount Carmel for a restoration to their offices, but met with a refusal. They then
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obtained an entrance into the Provincial Grand Master's country house, and having assassinated him concealed the body in the woods under some thick shrubbery, after which they fled to Paris. There they obtained access to the King and thus furnished PHILIP with an occasion for executing his projects by denouncing the Order and exposing to him the immense wealth it possessed. They proposed the abolition of the Order, and promised the King for a reward to be its denouncers. The King accepted their proposition, and assuring them of his protection, pointed out to them the course which they were to pursue. They associated with themselves a third individual, called by historians 'the Unknown' (l'inconnu), and NOFFODFI and FLORIAN sent a memorial to ENGUERAND DE MARIGNI, superintendent of the finances, in which they proposed, if he would guarantee them against the attacks of the Order of the Templars and to grant them civil existence and rights, to discover to the King secrets which they deemed of more value than the conquest of an empire.
As a sequel to the first declaration they addressed to the King an accusation, which was the same as he had himself dictated to them for the purpose of the turn which he desired to the affair. This accusation contained the following charges: -
“1. That the Order of Templars was the foe of all kings and of all sovereign authority; that it communicated secrets to its initiates under horrible oaths, with the criminal condition of the penalty of death if they divulged them; and that the secret practices of their initiations were the consequences of irreligion, atheism, and rebellion.
“2. That the Order had betrayed the religion of CHRIST by communicating to the Sultan of Babylon all the plans and operations of the Emperor FREDERICK II, whereby the designs of the Crusaders for the recovery of the Holy Land were frustrated.
“3. That the Order prostituted the mysteries most venerated by Christians by making a knight when he was received trample upon the Cross, the sign of redemption; and abjured the Christian religion by making the neophyte declare that the true GOD had never died and never could die; that they carried about them and worshiped a little idol called Bafomet, and that after his initiation the neophyte was compelled to undergo obscene practices.
“4. That when a knight was received the Order bound him by an oath to a complete and blind obedience to the Grand Master, which was a proof of rebellion against the legitimate authority.
“5. That Good Friday was the day selected for the grand orgies of the Order.
“6. That they were guilty of unnatural crimes.
“7. That they burned the children of their concubines, so as to destroy all traces of their debauchery."
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These calumnies formed the basis of the longer catalogue of accusations, afterward presented by the Pope, upon which the Templars were finally tried and condemned.
In the preliminary examination of the accused SQUIN DE FLEXIAN took an active part as one of the commissioners. In the pleadings for their defense presented by the knights they declare that "knights were tortured by FLEXIAN DE BEZIERES, Prior of Montfaucon, and by the monk WILLIAM ROBERT, and that already thirty-six had died of the tortures inflicted at Paris and several others in other places." of the ultimate fate of these traitors nothing is really known. When the infamous work which they had inaugurated had been consummated by the King and the Pope, as their services were no longer needed they sank into merited oblivion. The author of the "Secret Societies of the Middle Ages," page 268, says "SQUIN was afterward hanged and NOFFODEI beheaded, as was said, with little probability by the Templars."
JACQUES DE MOLAY, the last Grand Master, when under torture and nature was weak confessed to being guilty of the charges, but on regaining his strength flatly denied them. The Papal commission assembled in Paris on August 7, A. D. 1309. The Grand Master was brought before it. He professed his belief in the Catholic faith, and denied that the Order was guilty of the charges alleged against it, as also did many of the other knights. At the Porte St. Antoine on many pleasant evenings in the following May 113 Templars were in slow succession burned at stakes. Yet of this vast concourse of sufferers all died protesting their innocence; not one proved an apostate. Stout of heart and supreme in faith, these men, who were ready to lay down their lives and to meet with unshaken constancy the fire, were surely the bravest of the knights, and their dying declarations are worthy of our most reverent consideration.
After a weary imprisonment of six years, embittered by many hardships, the Grand Master DE MOLAY was brought up for sentence. He had been found guilty. On March 13, 1313, when the vesper bell was sounding, DE MOLAY and other Templars were led forth to their stakes. With his dying breath - "before heaven and earth, on the verge of death, when the least falsehood bears like an intolerable weight on the soul" he declared the innocence of the Order and of himself. Some averred that forth from the fire DE MOLAY'S voice sounded, "CLEMENT, thou wicked and false judge, I summon thee to meet me within forty days at the bar of GOD!" Some said that he also summoned the King. In the following year King PHILIP the Fair and Pope CLEMENT V were dead. of these mention will be made shortly.
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The Order of Knights Templar was wholly destroyed. Those of it who fled to Germany, as has been already stated, were received by their Brothers in arms, the Teutonic Knights, and were incorporated as part of them, greatly augmenting their numbers. In after years, like their Grand Master, they adopted the Protestant faith, and it was this Order of knighthood which secretly protected MARTIN LUTHER on his return from Worms at the beginning of the Reformation by seizing his person and concealing him in the Castle of Wartburg. The Knights Templar in England, Ireland, and Scotland by edict were forced to enter the preceptories and priories of their enemies the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem. The bloody executions having terminated the two execrable tyrants Pope CLEMENT V and PHILIP the Fair divided between themselves the riches of the Templars. PHILIP kept the land and CLEMENT took all the ornaments of gold and silver and the coined money, which enabled him to reward the panderings of his nephew and the Countess de Foix. The Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem who had secretly aided in the schemes for the destruction of their hated rivals were given as a reward the islands of Rhodes and of Malta, and were ever after known as the Knights of Malta.
DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS.
The Knights Templar in the north of England and in Scotland rallied to the aid of King ROBERT BRUCE in his efforts to gain the independence of Scotland and regain his crown. At the battle of Bannockburn on June 24, 1314, before a year had expired since the martyrdom of DE MOLAY, they helped BRUCE to win his victory against overwhelming odds over his enemy EDWARD II of England, the son - in - law of PHILIP the Fair of France, and Scotland was free. As these Knights Templar could no longer be known as such they were incorporated by BRUCE into the Scottish Order of Knighthood of Chardon or of the Thistle, with which was connected the Order of the Rosy Cross or Royal Order of Scotland, of which mention will be made hereafter.
Such is the history of the grandest Order of knighthood, which for sublime faith and indomitable courage (every member of which was sworn not to flee from the presence of its enemies, and who preferred death to dishonor) took foremost rank of any that ever existed upon earth.
CHAPTER VIII.
How the Holy Cross was Lost.
THE LEGEND OF THE FINAL LOSS OF THE HOLY CROSS AND THE LAST STAND OF THE CRUSADERS - TOLD BY WILLIAM C. PRIMM IN "TENT LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND."
HERE beginneth the story of the great battle of the Cross, wherein the wood that HELENA found in the pit near Calvary which HERACLIUS, barefoot and bareheaded, carried on his shoulder into the gates of the Holy City, after he had regained it from the Persians; which holy men of many centuries had gathered around with devoted affection was lost unto Christians forever. There are prayers in the golden vials spoken of in the Apocalypse that went up before that wood and sanctified it, whether it were or were not the wood of CHRIST'S Passion. The story is told as it was heard. The principal historic facts have been abundantly verified by examination the incidents were gathered from the monks of Terra Santa, and especially from FRA GIOVANNI was a treasure house of fine old legendary lore.
It was the year of grace and peace, A. D. 1187, that the kingdom of Jerusalem fell. Dark clouds gathered in the previous year. Dire portents were in the heavens. Earthquakes and terrible tempests shook Jerusalem on her throne of hills. The jealousies of the Knights of St. John and of the Temple, the contests for superiority and the rival claims to the kingdom itself, might well make BALDWIN IV believe that his crown was the lost crown of CHRIST, not that of SOLOMON. Meanwhile YUSEF SALAH - E'DEEN, the new Egyptian Calif, having made firm his throne in that country, had extended his power around Palestine, and was now in Damascus, meditating on a way to excuse himself from a violation of the treaties and make an attack on Jerusalem. The excuse was at hand. REGINALD of Chatillon, a Knight of the Cross, had come to Palestine with Louis LE JEUNE and joined the forces of RAYMOND of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch. Keen as a hawk and as brave as a lion, the young soldier, nameless and of low origin, not only won a name but on the death of RAYMOND won his widow (CONSTANCE) and his throne.
The stories of his bravery and beauty, sung by the troubadours of that day, were countless, nor was any one more mentioned as a stout knight and valiant soldier than REGINALD of Chatilion. His career is the theme for a history. His arm never grew weary in battle, nor did his sword rust in its scabbard, until he was taken prisoner by the Moslems and kept in chains for years at Aleppo. Released at last, he found his wife dead and his son on his throne. He gathered around him the most daring and reckless of the Templars, and having by a second marriage obtained other castles and possessions, he made it the business of his life to harass and annoy the Saracens wherever
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he could find them. At length, emboldened by his success, he conceived the idea of marching to Medina and Mecca, and plundering the holy Kaaba itself. With his hitherto invincible band of warriors he set out on this perilous enterprise. They surprised and captured the Egyptian caravan crossing the desert from India and advanced in triumph to the valley of Rabid, scarcely thirty miles from Medina, where they were met by an overwhelming force and routed with terrible slaughter. REGINALD escaped even here, but YUSEF SALAH - E'DEEN was aroused by this sacrilegious undertaking. He swore an oath that could not be violated that the knight should die and Jerusalem should be taken.
BALDWIN V, the infant successor of the imbecile BALDWIN IV, died. The proud and weak Guy of Lusignan took the throne. His own brother, GEOFFREY, on hearing of the succession, exclaimed, "If they made a king out of Guy, they would make a god out of me, did they but know me." Once and again SALAH - E'DEEN advanced into Galilee. Treaties were made from time to time, and for a little while observed; but the bold REGINALD held himself aloof from all treaties and continued to capture Moslem caravans wherever he could overtake them. At length the end came. RAYMOND, Count of Tripoli, had strengthened himself in the city of Tiberius against King Guy, with whom he was now at enmity, for RAYMOND had claims to the throne which had been disregarded in behalf of Guy of Lusignan. A Moslem army entered Galilee by way of Damascus, summoned by RAYMOND to his aid. The Grand Master of the Templars and the Master of the Hospitalers were surprised and surrounded near Tabor. of the deeds that were done that day there are records in ancient books and songs that make it illustrious among days of battle. Overwhelmed by thousands, they held the field one long day, nor had any Christian knight thought of leaving the field (save three cowards, of whom hereafter), but every man, fighting as it were his own battle, fell where he fought and died on the plain. They exhausted their quivers and drew the reeking shafts from their bodies to hurl them back again on the foe. They lost their lances and wrenching the spears of the Saracens from their bleeding sides died piercing the enemy with a last thrust of his own javelin. One by one they went down on the bloody field, until the Master of the Hospitalers had fallen; one Knight of the Temple remained on the field alone of all that company to fight the battle of the Lord. JACQUES DE MAILLE, Mounted on his white charger, still lived and still his battle ax flashed death in the closing ranks of the foe. "Ha, ha! ST. JACQUES for the Holy Cross!" he shouted, as he hewed his way hither and thither through the ranks of the Moslems, who now believed that he was the very ST. GEORGE, who the Christians boasted came down to fight their battles. "That for the Holy Sepulchre!" and a tall Saracen went down with crushed brain among the hoofs of the horses; "That for the good ST. JAMES!" he shouted, as the leader of his enemies fell headless before the swoop of his falchion; "And that for Holy JACQUES, my patron saint!" as with his blade he made the sign of the Cross in the air, and cleaving as he brought it down the head even to the chin of a Saracen, as if he would thus make a socket for the holy sign to stand in. "That for the Cross!" "That for Jerusalem!" "That for King Guy!" "And that and that and that for JACQUES DE MAILLE!" "Ha, ha! ST. JACQUES' Holy Cross! and that for the dead lady of my love, MARGUERITE, may GOD have mercy on her soul!"
The white horse staggered as a javelin went through him from beneath, and now plunging forward bearing his brave rider to the ground. Nothing daunted, the knight sprang to his feet, waving his ax around and shouting the war cry of the Templars, as the steel went crashing through the dense flesh that gathered around him. They lay heaped up to his knees, a hideous, gasping pile, life gurgling out of their lips through blood, while the living shrank back aghast, forming a dismayed circle around him, and silence took possession of the scene. Then DE MAILLE, bleeding
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from twenty wounds, worn out with labor of killing, fell on his knees, and murmuring a prayer, died as a brave man should die, with his arms stretched to heaven and his face to the astonished foe. The Moslems rushed on him, tore his armor to pieces and distributed it among themselves as relics of a brave man. They even mutilated his body and preserved portions of it for talismanic purposes, such was their respect for his prodigious valor. This battle occurred May 1, 1187.
SALAH - E'DEEN now advanced into Galilee with 80,000 horsemen. The imminent danger which threatened the kingdom united all the Christian knights. Even RAYMOND of Tripoli obeyed the summons of Guy to all Christians to assemble at Sephouri, about five miles north of Nazareth, now called Sefurich. While the armies were gathering here SALAH - E'DEEN attacked Tiberius and captured the city. The citadel held out against him, defended by RAYMOND's brave wife.
“THE CRY OF THE BATTLEFIELD WENT UP BEFORE ….
Fifty thousand Christian troops were gathered at the fortresses of Sephouri. Had they remained there to await the coming of SALAH - E'DEEN the fate of the world would have been different. RAYMOND strongly counseled it. He pointed as an evidence of his good faith in the advice to his wife now in prison at Tiberius, to whose rescue he would gladly march, but he believed it fatal to the hopes of Jerusalem to advance on the plain with this army, to raise which had exhausted the powers of the kingdom. The Grand Master of the Templars, who, two months before that day bad fled from the field of Tabor and with two of his knights alone survived the slaughter that was ended
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with the fall of DE MAILLE, called RAYMOND a traitor to his face and ridiculed his advice. "I swear to GOD and man that I am willing to lose Tripoli and all I possess on earth if we may only secure the safety of the Holy City," said RAYMOND. "We have seen wolves in sheep's clothing," sneered the Templar. "I call on Him who died on the Cross to witness my sincerity!" said RAYMOND. "The name of MOHAMMED would sound better on the lips of a traitor," said the Templar. To this RAYMOND, nobly resolving not to open a private quarrel then, made no reply. Evil counsels prevailed and the army advanced toward Tiberius. All the nobles and knights except the Templar agreed with RAYMOND, but Guy yielded to him and they advanced to a certainty of defeat and death.
… GOD, AND HE PERMITTED THE END TO COME.”
To the northeast of Tabor is a great plain above which rises a conspicuous hill known as the mountain of CHRIST'S sermon, or the mount of the Beatitudes. The Arabs called it in those days as now TellelHattin. This hill covered the left of the Christian hosts as they advanced. The Moslems were on the heights that crown the western bank of the sea of Galilee, north of Tiberius, and were scattered through all the passes and defiles, so that as soon as the Christians were fairly advanced on the plain the great number of the enemy and their skill as horsemen enabled them to surround the army of Guy and pour on them unceasing volleys of arrows. It was on the morning of July 4, 1187, that the Christians advanced over the plain. Annoyed by the shafts of the Saracens and their constant sallies on both flanks, they yet advanced steadily to the middle of the plain,
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intending to cut their way through the ranks of the enemy and thus gain the shore of the sea of Galilee. It was here that SALAH - E'DEEN came down upon them like a thunderbolt at the head of 20,000 horsemen. It was one of the most terrible charges on record. But the Christians, closing up their ranks, received it as the rock receives the sea and it went back like the foam. Now high up among the Christian host the Holy Cross itself was elevated, and men knew for what they were to fight and die. Around it, to use the words of SALAH - EDEEN himself, they gathered with the utmost bravery and devotion, as if they believed it their greatest blessing, strongest bond of union, and sure defense. The battle became general. On all sides the foe pressed the brave knights and their followers. The latter fell by the hundreds from exhaustion and thirst, for they had been short of bread and water for a week. Twice did SALAH - E’DEEN repeat that tremendous charge, penetrating into the ranks of his enemies, and fighting his way out again without breaking their army. Night came down on the battlefield while its fate was yet undetermined, and they rested for the morrow. What wild despairing cries and prayers went up to GOD before the Cross of CHRIST that night we may not know until the vials of the elders are opened.
“’Holy Cross!’ shouted the Grand Master of the Templars.”
Long before day by the admirable disposition of his army SALAH - E’DEEN had decided the battle even before it was fought. But he had not decided how many of his host were to be slain on the soil of Galilee by the swords of the Christians. As the day advanced the two armies beheld each other. SALAH - E’DEEN waited till the sun was up, and then the "sons of heaven and the children of fire" fought their great battle. The Christians fought as they were accustomed. Their heat and thirst was terrible, and increased by the enemy setting fire to the dry brush and grass, from which the strong wind blew a dense smoke before them, nearly suffocating them. The scene was like a very hell: knights and devils contending among the flames. Again and again the bands of the Templars threw themselves upon the Saracen front and endeavored to pierce
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through its steel walls to reach the citadel of Tiberius, but in vain. The cry of the battlefield went up among the smoke and flame before GOD, and He permitted the end to come. "Holy Cross!" shouted the Grand Master of the Templars, as he fought his way toward the banner of the Calif, followed by his brave knights. " RAYMOND for the Sepulchre! " rang over the clash of steel in the battle. "Ha, ha! RENAUD RENAUD CHANTILLIAN CARRAC No rescue! Strike, Strike!" shouted the proud retainers of the old knight, who were reveling in the blood of the conflict.
By this time in the center of the field the fight had grown thickest and most fierce around the True Cross, which was upheld on a slight eminence by the Bishop of Ptolemais. Around it the bravest knights were collected. There GEOFFREY of Lusignan, brother to the King, performed miracles of valor, and the Knights of the Temple and the Knights of St. John vied with each other in bravery. As the fray grew darker and the shafts flew swifter around them, and one by one they fell down before the holy wood, the stern, calm voice of the bishop was heard chanting "De Profundis clamavi ad te Domine exaudi vocem meam" in tones that overpowered the din of the battle and reached the dying, even as they departed. Nearest of all to the Cross was a man wielding a sword which had already done fearful work on the Saracens. The sign on his back was not sufficient to distinguish him from the other soldiers, but they who fought by his side well knew the brave Precentor of the Sepulchre, Bishop of Lydda, the city of St. George. How many souls he had sent to hell that day it is impossible to relate. He and four others remained around the old Bishop of Ptolemais, who was fainting from loss of blood, for many arrows had pierced him and his life was fast failing. "BOHEMOND for the Cross!" shouted the young Prince of Antioch, as he swept the Paynims down by the scores. "St. George, St. George!" shouted the holy bishop, his bright eye flashing around him. He caught sight of the tottering Cross as the Bishop of Ptolemais went down dead. Springing forward, he seized it with his left arm and with prodigious strength threw himself into the faces of the foe. The lightning is not more fierce or fast than were the blows of his sword as he hewed his way along, followed by BOHIEMOND of Antioch, RENAUD of Sidon, and one unknown Knight of the Temple. The latter pressed forward to the side of the brave bishop. BOHEMOND and RENAUD were separated from them, but the two fought on alone in the midst of thousands of their enemies.
At length, the unequal contest was well nigh over The eye of SALAH - E’DEEN was fixed on that dense mass that surrounded the Cross. He smiled bitterly as he saw it trembling and ready to fall from the hand of the gallant bishop, who held it aloft with his left arm while with the right he cursed the infidels with the curse of steel that damned them then and forever. Well might the Soldan believe that as long as he held that holy wood so long his mighty arm would remain strong and the blood replace in his brave heart the flood issuing from his wounds. But he grew faint at length, and yet shouting in clear tones, "St. George, St. George!" knelt down by the Cross, shielded by the strong arm of the Templar who fought above him, still unwounded and undaunted, though he now found himself the last knight at the Cross of his LORD. One glance of his eye over the plain told him that all was lost, and nothing now remained for him to do but to die bravely for GOD and for Jerusalem. Far above the field above the summit of the Mount of Transfiguration he beheld the heavens opened and saw the gates of pearl. Clear and distinct above the clash of arms and loud cries on the field of blood he heard the voices of angels singing triumphant songs. So he took courage as the darkness of the battle gathered blacker around him. For now, as the Bishop of Lydda fell prostrate on the ground, the Cross had nearly fallen, and the Paynims raising a shout of triumph rushed in upon their solitary foe. But they rushed through the gates of hell sheer down to the depths of death to everlasting perdition. Down came the flashing ax on head and shoulders and limbdown through eyes and chin and breast; so that when they went to Hades in that plight their prophet had difficulty in recognizing them even as of mortal shape. The dead lay all around him.
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He trod his iron heel in their faces and crushed it in their breasts, and laughed as he dealt these more than human blows with cool, calm aim, but lightning force and velocity. No sound but the clashing steel was heard in this part of the plain, where for awhile it appeared as if the saint of the fallen bishop was standing over him in arms for the cause of the Sepulchre. But every inch of his armor bristled with arrows that were drinking his blood; a well sped javelin had made a hideous opening in his throat, and the foam from his lips was dropping red on his steel breastplate.
Looking up once more, far over hill and plain, he saw again the battlements of heaven and a shining company that were approaching even to his very front. The battle was visible no longer, but close beside him the divine eyes of the Virgin Mother were fixed on him with the same look that she of old fixed on that Cross when holier blood than his ran down its beam. But that was not all he saw. There was a hideous sin on the soul of the knight of the Cross. To expiate that sin he had long ago left the fair land of France, where he had lordly possessions, to become an unknown Brother of the Order of the Temple. And now through the fast gathering gloom he saw the face of that one so beloved and so wronged, as she lay on the very breast of the matchless Virgin, and the radiance of her countenance was the smile of heaven. Though he saw all this the gallant knight fought on, and his swift ax flashed steadfastly above the melee. There was a sudden pause: his lost love lay warm and close on his breast lay clasped in his arms on his heart of hearts. He murmured a name long forbidden to his priestly lips, and then, waking for one instant to the scene around him, he sprang at the throat of a Saracen, grasped it with his stiffening fingers, and the soul of the Paynim went out with his, as he departed to join the great assembly of the soldiers of the Cross. So the Cross was lost on the field of Galilee.
Guy of Lusignan, eighth and last king of Jerusalem, with a small band of faithful knights still held his ground on the hill of Hattin. When the Cross vanished from the field a wail of anguish rose from all the plain and quivered in the air at the very gates of the celestial city. RAVMOND of Tripoli and RENAUD of Sidon cut their way through the ranks of the Saracens and escaped around the foot of Mount Tabor to Ptolemais. All the rest that were living fell into the hands of SALAH - E'DEEN. The next day he executed his threatened vengeance on REGINALD of Chatillon, hewing him down to the ground and leaving him to be dispatched by his followers. The fearful sacrifice which he then made of the Templars, how they crowded to its martyrdom, and others sought to be included in it, is a well known page in history. The Cross which was lost on this field was never regained by the Christians. It remained for some time in the custody of SALAH - E’DEEN, and a few years later, A. D. 1192, it was shown to the pilgrims to Jerusalem through the condescension of the Calif. And so ends the story of the last battle of the Holy Cross.
GRAND MASTER OF GRAND ENCAMPMENT OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, U.S.A.
CHAPTER IX.
Order of Masonic Knights Templar.
THE TRUE ORIGIN OF THE ORDER NOT OFABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE, THOUGH THE CHRISTIAN SUCCESSION FROM CHIVALROUS KNIGHTHOOD IS CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THE WORK IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
It is a singular fact that the first Knight Templar degree of which there is any record was conferred in America in 1769, and afterward in Ireland in 1779, or ten years later. St. Andrew's Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, of Boston, Mass., then St. Andrew's Royal Arch Lodge, authorized by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, held its first recorded meeting on August 28, 1769, in Masons' Hall, Boston, and the record of that meeting contains the first account of the conferring of the degree of Knight Templar that has been discovered, either in this country or Great Britain, and the record is as follows: "Bro. WILLIAM DAVIS came before the Lodge begging to have and receive the parts belonging to the Royal Arch Masons, which being read was received, and he unanimously voted in, and was accordingly made by receiving the four steps, that of Excellent, Superexcellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar."
The records of Kilwinning Lodge, Ireland, warranted October 8, 1779, show that its charter was used as the authority for conferring the Royal Arch, Knight Templar, and Rose Croix degrees as early as 1782. Both St. Andrew's Lodge of Boston, Mass., and Kilwinning Lodge of Dublin, Ireland, in which the first recorded mention of the Templar Order is to be found, derived their charters from Scotland. The late THEODORE S. PARVIN, Past Grand Recorder of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States, thought "that the Military Lodges attached to the Irish regiments of the British army brought the degree with them from the motherland, and our American Brethren first obtained it from that source." In St. Andrew's Lodge, Boston, it was given as a part of the Royal Arch or as an honorary degree until December 19, 1794, after which time the record is silent in regard to it.
The true origin of the Masonic Knights Templar has been the subject of long and ardent discussion. Its actual connection with, or succession from, the Knights Templar of the Crusades is not generally claimed, though its militarism, and the essence of its sublime ritual come to the Order as a heritage from chivalrous knighthood and from pilgrimages of warfare and penitence. In the tomes of learned essays and dissertations upon Templarism, the best and most succinct account is from the pell of MACKEY. On the origin of Masonic knighthood he says: -
"There are four sources from which the Masonic Templars are said to have derived their existence, making therefore as many different divisions of the Order.
1. The Templars who claim JOHN MARK LARMENIUS as the successor of JAMES DE MOLAY.
2. Those who recognize PETER D'AUMONT as the successor of MOLAY.
3. Those who derive their Templarism from the Count BEAUJEU, the nephew of MOLAY.
4. Those who claim an independent origin, and repudiate alike the authority of LARMENIUS, of D'AUMONT, and of BEAUJEU.
"From the first class sprang the Templars of France, who professed to have continued the Order by authority of a charter given by MOLAY to LARMENIUS. This body of Templars designate themselves as the 'Order of the Temple.' Its seat is in Paris. The Duke of Sussex received from it the degree and the authority to establish a Grand Conclave in England. He did so, and convened that body once, but only once. During the remaining years of his life Templarism had no activity in England, as he discountenanced all Christian and chivalric Masonry.
"The second division of Templars is that which is founded on the theory that PETER D'AUMONT fled with several knights into Scotland, and there united with the Freemasons. This legend is intimately connected with RAMSAY'S tradition that Freemasonry sprang from Templarism and that all Freemasons are Knights Templar. The Chapter of Clermont adopted this theory, and in establishing their high degrees asserted that they were derived from these Templars of Scotland. The Baron HUND carried the theory into Germany, and on it established his rite of Strict Observance, which was a Templar system. Hence the Templars of Germany must be classed under the head of the followers of D'AUMONT.
"The third division is that which asserts that the Count BEAUJEU, a nephew of the last Grand Master, MOLAY, and a member of the Order of Knights of CHRIST the name assumed by the Templars of Portugal had received authority from that Order to disseminate the degree. He is said to have carried the degree and its ritual into Sweden, where he incorporated it with Freemasonry. The story is, too, that BEAUJEU collected his uncle's ashes and interred them in Stockholm, where a monument was erected to his memory. Hence the Swedish Templar Masons claim their descent from BEAUJEU, and the Swedish Rite is through this source a Templar system.
"Of the last class, or the Templars who recognized the authority of neither of the leaders who have been mentioned, there were two subdivisions, the Scotch and the English; for it is only in Scotland and England that this independent Templarism found a foothold.
It was only in Scotland that the Templars endured no persecution. Long after the dissolution of the Order in every other country of Europe, the Scottish preceptories continued to exist and the knights lived undisturbed. One portion of the Scottish Templars entered the army of ROBERT BRUCE, and after the battle of Bannockburn were merged in the 'Royal Order of Scotland,' then established by him.
"Another portion of the Scottish Templars united with the Knights Hospitalers of St. John. They lived amicably in the same houses, and continued to do so until the Reformation. At this time many of them professed Protestantism. Some of them united with the Freemasons, and established 'the Ancient Lodge' at Stirling, where they conferred the degrees of the Knight of the Sepulchre, Knight of Malta, and Knight Templar. It is to this division that we are to trace the Masonic Templars of Scotland.
"The English Masonic Templars are most probably derived from that body called the 'Baldwyn Encampment,' or from some one of the four coordinate Encampments of London, Bath, York, and Salisbury, which, it is claimed, were formed by the members of the Preceptory which had
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long existed at Bristol, and who, on. the dissolution of their Order, are supposed to have united with the Masonic fraternity. The Baldwyn Encampment claims to have existed from 'time immemorial,' an indefinite period, but we can trace it back far enough to give it a priority over all other English Encampments. From this division of the Templars, repudiating all connection with LARMENTUS, With D'AUMONT, or any other of the selfconstituted leaders, but tracing its origin to the independent action of knights who fled for security and for perpetuity into the body of Masonry, we are, I think, justly entitled to derive the Templars of the United States."
A document engrossed on parchment and dated December 20, 1780, is the earliest, preserved by the Baldwyn Encampment. It states that by "charter or compact our Encampment is constituted the Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of this noble Order." In the circular letter this charter or compact is considered to refer to a previously existing document, but on what grounds it is difficult to imagine. The manuscript contains some twenty clauses, some of which appear to hint at the modern constitution of this Grand Encampment, partly from the fact that knights would be recognized as legal if made before 1780 in Encampments not acknowledged by this constituted authority. It bears the signature of the Supreme Grand Master, JOSHUA SPRINGER, and is the first information we have of the institution of a Grand Encampment south of York. Part of a minute book of the honorable Order of Knights Templar, "assembled in the Grand Lodge room at York," still preserved, commences February 18, 1780, "Sir FRANCIS SMYTH, Grand Master" (Bro. FRANCIS SMYTH, according to Bro. Dr. BELL'S valuable "Stream of English Freemasonry," was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of all England, held at York, A. D. 1780). There is also among the archives of the old Grand Lodge at York a copy of a certificate signed by JOHN BROWN, G. S., as follows: -
"Admitted 1st degree, 26th January, 1779. Raised 2d degree, 28th February, 1779. Raised 3d degree, 27th September, 1779. Raised 4th degree, or R. A. M., 27th October, 1779. Knight Templar, 29th November, 1779.
"So far as existing documents go, York possesses the earliest as to a constituted authority for Knight Templary. After Bristol comes London, under THOMAS DUNCKERLY, A. D. 1791 (the third in point of antiquity). The Encampment held at Bath was under the control of the Baldwyn Grand Encampment, and joined the Grand Conclave when the Baldwyn did, on the revival of the Bristol authority, A. D. 1857. Bath, Birmingham, Warwick, Highbridge, Salisbury, and other Encampments, we believe, recognized and supported the movement, which Templars today know nothing of. Then, however, it was an active organization, but soon collapsed. Correspondence with the Grand Conclave of London commenced in A. D. 1809, and continued from time to time up to A. D. 1820, when all communication ceased until about A. D. 1860."
Lieut. - Col. WILLIAM JAMES BURY MACLEOD MOORE, G. C. T., Supreme Grand Master of the Sovereign Great Priory of Canada, who was born January 4, 1810, and died September 1, 1890, and who wrote Division XVII on British Templary in the work of the "History of Freemasonry and the Concordant Orders," enters very fully upon the history of Knights Templar in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and on page 773, under the head of "The Rose Croix and Kadosh originally Templar Degrees," says: "The name Masonic Knights Templar (1791) was now first heard of in England, and up to this time all the Templar Encampments were qualified to give the degrees of the Rose Croix and the Kadosh, which had existed in England as Templar degrees years before the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In the original form of the Templar ceremonies the Rose Croix de Herodom was the one step above the Templar installation, followed by the Kadosh, and the emblems were engraved on the certificates issued prior to 1851, all these degrees possessing
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similar characteristics, their object being the same. The Templar ceremony proper perhaps confined itself more to facts of history; the Rose Croix taught the truths of Christianity, displaying more of the allegory in its symbolic teaching of the Christian faith; the Kadosh was instituted to perpetuate the memory of the persecution of the ancient Order, the constancy and suffering of the knights on their dissolution, with the martyrdom of DE MOLAY at Paris in 1314."
There is much dispute in regard to the formation of the first Encampment or Commandery of Knights Templar in the United States and where it was organized. M\E\ Sir FREDERIC SPEED, Past Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar of Mississippi, has made an exhaustive examination of this subject, as appears in the "History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders," and he differs from others in the claims as to the oldest or first organized Commandery:
"'Grand Master DEAN, in his address to the Grand Encampment in 1883, submitted what he regarded as "indisputable evidence that the degrees of Knight of the Red Cross and Knight Templar were conferred in Charleston, S. C., in a regularly organized body as far back as the year 1783." And this is the earliest period at which it is claimed that a regularly organized body existed. The evidence upon which this claim is based is an old seal formerly in the records of the South Carolina Encampment, No. 1, Charleston, and now in the archives of the Grand Encampment, and an ancient diploma, (written in a very neat chirography on parchment, with two seals in wax attached, one in red of the Royal Arch, and the other in black of the Knights Templar. The upper part of the diploma contains four devices within four circles, all skillfully executed with the pen. The first device, beginning on the left hand, is a star of seven points with the Ineffable Name in the center and the motto "Memento Mori"; the second is an arch on two pillars, the All - seeing Eye on the keystone and a sun beneath the arch, and 'Holiness to the LORD' for the motto; the third is the cross and a brazen serpent erected on a bridge, and 'Jesu Salvator Hominum' for the motto; and the fourth is the skull and crossbones, surmounted by a cross, with the motto 'In hoc signo vinces.' The reference of the last three devices is evidently to the Royal Arch, the Red Cross, and the Templar degrees. The first is certainly a symbol of the Lodge of Perfection; and hence, connectedly, they show the dependence of the Order of Templarism in the State at that time upon the Ancient and Accepted Rite." The diploma is in these words: "We, the High Priest, Captain Commandant of the Red Cross, and Captain General of the Most Holy and Invincible Order of Knights Templar of St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 1, Ancient Masons, held in Charleston, S. C., under charter from the Grand Lodge of the Southern District of North America, do hereby certify that our trusty and well beloved Brother, Sir HENRY BEAUMONT, hath passed the chair, been raised to the sublime degree of an Excellent, Superexcellent, Royal Arch Mason, Knight of the Red Cross, and a knight of that most Holy, Invincible, and Magnanimous Order of Knights Templar, Knights Hospitalers, Knights of Rhodes, and of Malta, which several Orders are above delineated; and he having conducted himself like a true and faithful Brother, we affectionately recommend him to all the fraternity of Ancient Masons around the globe wherever assembled. Given under our hands and seal of our Lodge, this first day of August, 5783, and of Malta 3517. GEO. CARTER, Capt.Gen'l; THos. PASHLEY, 1st King; Wm. NISBETT, 2d King; Wm. NISBETT, Rd. Mason Recorder."'
"A careful examination of the diploma discovered on the seal the words 'Lodge No. 40.' This Lodge was formerly St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 1, of Pensacola, Fla., established by JAMES GRANT, Provincial Grand Master of the Southern District of North America, which embraced cast and west Florida, and its registry number in Scotland was 143. It appears to have been worked at Pensacola until about the close of the Revolution, when, as Florida became again a Spanish province, Pensacola was deserted by many of its inhabitants who had been British subjects, they removing to Charleston S. C. This removal was mostly in 1873 and the year before, and with them it seems St. Andrew's Lodge was also removed, and it applied for and in July, 1783, received a charter from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania as No. 40 on its registry."
Maryland Encampment, No. 1, of Baltimore, it is claimed was organized in the year 1790. It sets up the claim that Bro. EDWARD DAY, who resided in the vicinity of Baltimore, was in possession of the work if the Templar Order and that of Malta as early as the year 1780, the presumption being that he received them in some body in the city of Baltimore whose members subsequently organized Encampment No. 1.
Sir ALFRED CREIGH, in his history of the Knights Templar in Pennsylvania, asserts that Commanderies Nos. 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, No. 3 of Harrisburg, and No. 4 of Carlisle were organized in the years 1793 to 1797 respectively, deriving their authority from Blue Lodge warrants.
Woslon Commandery was duly organized May 15, 1805, having previously existed as a Council of Red Cross from the year 1802. From the fact that it was organized by Knights Templar who received that degree in St. Andrew's Lodge in 1769, its organization is claimed to date from that year.
St. John's Commandery, No. 1, of Providence, R. I., organized in the year 1802, claims precedence from the fact that it is the oldest chartered Commandery, and has continuous records from the date of its organization. The original records are still preserved and are as follows:
"PROVIDENCE, August 23, 1802
"The knights of the most noble and magnanimous Orders of the Red Cross, and of Malta, Knights Templar, and of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, residing in the town of Providence, having at a previous assembly determined 'that it is proper and expedient for the preservation and promotion of the honor and dignity of the Orders of knighthood that an Encampment should be formed and established in said town,' assembled at Masons' Hall for that purpose at 7 o'clock P.M. Present Sir THOMAS S. WEBB, Sir JEREMIAH F. JENKINS, Sir SAMUEL SNOW, Sir DANIEL STILLWELL, Sir JOHN S. WARNER, Sir NICHOLAS HOPPIN. The Sir Knights having unanimously placed Sir THOMAS S. WEBB in the chair, then proceeded to form and open a regular Encampment of the several Orders before mentioned, in solemn and ancient form, by the name of St. John's Encampment. The Encampment then proceeded to the choice of officers by ballot, when the following knights were duly elected and qualified to the offices affixed to their respective names, viz.: Sir THOMAS S. WEBB, Grand Master; Sir JEREMIAH F. JENKINS, Generalissimo; Sir SAMUEL SNOW, CaptainGeneral; Sir DANIEL STILLWELL, Standard Bearer; Sir JOHN S. WARNER, Sword Bearer; Sir NICHOLAS HOPPIN, Guard.
"A committee was appointed at the meeting, consisting of Sir THOMAS S. WEBB, Sir JEREMIAH F. JENKINS, and Sir SAMUEL SNOW, to prepare and report a code of bylaws for the new Encampment. This committee reported through their chairman at the next meeting, held on the 13th of September, when a code was adopted."
The first assembly of the Encampment for work was held September 27, 1802. The record, which doubtless contains the earliest recorded account of the election and creation of Knights of the Red Cross in a regularly organized Encampment not held under the sanction of a Lodge warrant, possesses unusual interest and is as follows: -
"Comps. NATHAN FISHER and WILLIAM WILKINSON, having been in due form proposed as candidates for the Order of the Red Cross, were balloted for and accepted, having paid their fees into the hands of the Recorder. A Council of the Knights of the Red Cross being then summoned
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and duly assembled, the said Companions were in the ancient form introduced and dubbed knights of that Order with the usual ceremonies. Sir JOHN CARLILE, Sir EPHRAIM BOWEN, JR., Sir NATHAN FISHER, and Sir WILLIAM WILKINSON were then severally proposed as candidates for the Orders of Knights Templar, and of Malta."
At the next assembly, held September 29, 1802, Sir WILLIAM WILKINSON and Sir NATHAN FISHER, who had previously been proposed, were balloted for and accepted as candidates for the Orders of Knights Templar and Knights of Malta. They were accordingly prepared and introduced by the master of ceremonies (W\ Sir HENRY FOWLE), and after the usual solemnities were knighted and admitted members of those ancient Orders.
Washington Commandery, No. 1, of, Hartford, Conn., claims to date from the year 1796; St. Peter's Encampment, in New York, from 1799. The honor of organizing the first Grand Encampment is claimed by Pennsylvania as having been organized in Philadelphia on May 12, 1797, and had four subordinates Nos. 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, No. 3 in Harrisburg, and No. 4 in Carlisle.
The close of the Revolution found the various bodies practicing the ritualism of knighthood, as disorganized as were the American colonies. The succeeding years were without cohesion or definite purpose and unity. In this respect the conditions were similar to those which affected the Colonies in their weak and discredited Confederation. This has been well termed the transition period of the Templar Order in America. Hitherto the various bodies were in great measure selfcreated and independent, but at this time was inaugurated a more permanent organization, with a superior power for the regulation and government of the Chivalric degrees. It was only a few years before that the Red Cross and Knight Templar degrees were conferred, under Lodge and Chapter warrants, in conjunction with the Royal Arch degree. The former were at length and by the slow processes of evolution, eliminated from the latter. Upon the separation of the Red Cross and Templar degrees from the Royal Arch, Encampments were created which assumed the right to impart this work to the exclusion of Chapters. In this assumption the Capitular bodies gradually acquiesced and thus sealed with approval the transference of authority over this branch of the Masonic institution. Thus placed upon a firm basis, with proper supervision, the Templar Rite began to grow and to assume its potential place in the Masonic system. The need for a more extended and attractive ritual was early apparent, and this demand was met by THOMAS S. WEBB and JEREMY L. CROSS. They remodeled and revised the existing forms, augmenting the work and adding to its dignity and beauty. The labors of these Masonic ritualists form the basis of the admirable work of today. As their efforts in respect of other Masonic rituals produced results that raised their dignity and insured their permanence, so did the revisions and extensions of these esoteric enthusiasts enhance the sublimity of the knightly ceremonials and by their fascination assure their growth and power.
The early years of the Nineteenth Century discovered the few Templar bodies in America widely scattered and without any Grand Encampment, but the demands for better government, harmonious policies and fraternal unity, induced the establishment of various Grand Encampments, the first being that of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 1805, followed by New York in 1814, Virginia in 1823, Vermont in 1824, New Hampshire in 1826 and Connecticut in 1827. The further organization of Grand Encampments and even of subordinate Encampments ceased for a period of sixteen years, due to the AntiMasonic excitement, the outgrowth of the Morgan incident, so craftily inspired and used by Thurlow Weed and his associates to further their political designs. With the gradual subsidence of the ridiculous prejudices and passions engendered by this occurrence and restoration to sanity of the people of the different States, the various bodies of Masonry, many of which had wholly ceased to meet or perform any function, resumed their labors. Thenceforth the principals and
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practices of Masonry prospered and advanced beyond any prior measure, and, with greater knowledge of its true purposes, became strongly and safely ensconced in the good opinion and friendship of the masses.
As the natural sequence of the efforts of the different Grand Encampments to become integral parts of a general body with authority to establish uniformity and cohesiveness in the various subordinate and grand bodies, a Grand Encampment of the United States, with jurisdiction over all, soon came to be formed. The first effort was made in 1816, but proved abortive. This, however, paved the way for the final organization of the Grand Encampment. THOMAS S. WEBB, HENRY FOWLE, JOHN SNOW and THOMAS LOWNDES journeyed to Philadelphia in June, 1816, to confer with the Grand Encampment of Pennsylvania with the view of uniting all the Encampments in the United States under one head and system of government. The three first named represented what was then known as the "Grand Encampment of the United States," by which term the Encampment of Massachusetts and Rhode Island was designated, and the fourth was a delegate from the Grand Encampment of New York. The mission to Pennsylvania failed owing to the refusal of the delegates from this Encampment to concede certain demands of the New England and New York contingent. WEBB and his associates thereupon returned to New York and formulated a Constitution which was subsequently ratified by their respective Encampments and eventually became and to this day, with minor amendments, has remained the supreme law of the American Templar system. One of the more important of the changes, enacted in 1856, was the revision of the terms used to designate the supreme and State bodies the word "General" being omitted from the name of the Grand Encampment and the State organizations being called Grand Commanderies. By means of the Constitution thus framed by WEBB and his confreres the whole Templar fabric was brought into harmony with the legislative and governmental system of Freemasonry, and from this period dates the actual success of the Masonic Knights Templar in America; and since that time it has spread and grown until it is now almost universal, and has become recognized as one of the most useful, beautiful and beneficent of the appendant Orders.
The British Templar system, as now known, was revived in the year 1791, when a Grand Conclave was held in London, at which the statutes of the degrees were remodeled, and a brief ritual was adopted in commemoration of the union of the Orders of ST. JOHN of Jerusalem and the Templars. THOMAS DUNCKERLEY, who had been chosen by the Knights Templar chief of their own Encampments, assumed, without any apparent authority, the direction and government of the combined Orders and thus continued until his death in 1795, Upon his demise the Templar organization became decadent. About nine years after DUNCKERLEY's death the Duke of Kent, upon solicitation of some of the survivors, issued a new warrant or charter for the continuance of the Order. Three years later another warrant was issued in which the Duke of Kent was recognized as the permanent patron of the Order, WALLER RODWELL WRIGHT being designated as Grand Master. WRIGHT was in 1812 succeeded in this office by the Duke of Sussex, who continued to occupy the chair until his death in 1846, when he was succeeded by Colonel CHARLES TYNTE, to whom is due the credit of having finally revivified the system and placed it upon a lasting basis. Colonel TYNTE died in 1860 and Colonel WILLIAM STUART was advanced to the Grand Master's seat. Under Colonel STUART's administration the Order grew in popularity and numbers and attained a high social position. At length, in 1873, the branches of the Order in England and Ireland were united under the Grand Mastership of the Prince of Wales ALBERT EDWARD, now King EDWARD VII. The Scottish branch failed to respond to the summons to join with the English and Irish branches. The acceptance by the Prince of Wales of the responsible duties of the Grand Mastership procured for the Order a new
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and higher status, and it immediately entered upon a prosperity theretofore unknown. A national body was thereupon formed, called the "Convent General," having the government of the Order throughout the Empire. This body revised the laws, nomenclature, costumes and the ritual of the Order, establishing uniformity in all departments and welding the institution into a homogenous and purposeful whole.
The Order of Knights Templar is a very popular branch of Masonry in the United States. The ritual possesses a deeply reverential charm, while the splendor of the knightly accompaniments adds to the impressiveness of the ceremonies and has a salutary effect upon the citizenship of the Christian Knight. The public parades of Commanderies in State and Triennial Conclaves have a stimulating effect upon the Order in the several Grand jurisdictions, and illustrate to the public the uniformly high character of citizens who espouse the cause and assume the vows of Knighthood.
The following data, arranged in tabular form, must delight the heart of every Knight Templar as evidence of the great growth of this grand chivalric Order.
The officers of the Grand Encampment for 1901 - 1904, elected and appointed, are herewith given. Sir Knights will recognize in the line some of the most distinguished Masons in the United States Knights who ably support the Most Excellent Grand Master: -
Grand Master - M\E\ Sir HENRY B. STODDARD, Bryan, Tex.
Deputy Grand Master R\E\ Sir GEORGE M. MOULTON, Chicago, Ill.
Grand Generalissimo V\E\ Sir HENRY W. RUGG, Providence, R. I.
Grand Captain-General V\E\ Sir WILLIAM B. MELISH, Cincinnati, 0.
Grand Senior Warden V\E\ Sir JOSEPH A. LOCKE, Portland, Me.
Grand Junior Warden V\E\ Sir FRANK H. THOMAS, Washington, D.
Grand Prelate V\E\ Sir DANIEL C. ROBERTS, D. D., Concord, N. H.
Grand Treasurer V\E\ Sir H. WALES LINES, Meriden, Conn.
Grand Recorder V\E\ Sir JOHN A. GFROW, Detroit, Mich.
Grand Standard Bearer V\E\ Sir ARTHUR MACARTHUR, Troy, N. Y.
Grand Sword Bearer V\E\ Sir CHARLES C. VOGT, Louisville, Ky.
Grand Warder V\E\ Sir ROBERT STRONG, New Orleans, La.
Grand Captain of the Guards V\E\ Sir CHARLES E. ROSENBAUM, Little Rock, Ark.
The list of Grand Commanderies with dates of organization and numbers enrolled are subjoined:
There are 43 Grand Commanderies, 1,017 Subordinate Commanderies, with an army of 126,020 KnightsTemplar under the jurisdiction of the National Grand Encampment of the United States.
There have been 28 Conclaves held since its organization, and the following are the times and places of meeting and of the several Grand Masters:
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CHAPTER X.
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
"THE APOSTLE OF FREE THOUGHT, FREE SPEECH AND FREE CONSCIENCE"
- EARLY ACCOMPLISHMENT AND CONTEMPORANEOUS
HISTORY - THE LESSONS OF PROFOUND PHILOSOPHY.
THE Grand Cabalistic Association, known in Europe under the name of Freemasonry, appeared all at once in the world at the period when the protest against the papal power came to break the Christian unity. The destruction of the Order of Knights Templar and the burning at the stake of JACQUES DE MOLAY, their last Grand Master in Paris on March 11, 1313 - thousands of their members proscribed or persecuted to their tir death under the pretext of heresy, excommunicated and scattered under the terrible conspiracy of Pope CLEMENT V, PHILIP the Fair of France, and the ultramontane Order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who received as a reward for their perfidy the possessions of the Templars in the islands of Rhodes and of Malta (obtaining as well a new title, that of the Knights of Malta), - caused the remnants of Knights Templar to seek refuge in other countries than their own, where they might enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
One portion fled to Germany, where protection was found under an excommunicated Emperor, and were incorporated into a branch of the Teutonic Order of Knights of St. Mary, which had fought by the side of the other in the wars of the Crusades in the Holy Land. The beauseant or battleflag of black and white in the form of a pennon (swallow - tail), which could no longer be carried was taken, the swallow - tail part cut off, and, as a reminder of the blood of the martyred Templars so unjustly and wickedly put to death, the broad red stripe was placed under it and adopted as the flag of Germany, which still continues to be the standard of that nation under the House of Brandenburg. Some of the Knights in northern France and Germany renounced the vows of a military priesthood of an Order dismembered, dissolved, and scattered, and, contracting matrimonial alliances, reared families and were absorbed among the people according to their condition and estate. Yet secretly to distinguish their origin they adopted a name as the followers of HUGO DE PAYENS DE GUENOC, the founder of the Order of the Temple, and in time became more generally known as Les Huguenots, or French Protestants. Having preserved their blood and language distinct, many of the Knights gradually returned to France, from which in after years, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, their descendants were again robbed of their property, expelled from France, and driven to other countries, being a repetition in part of what in 1313, or 372 years before, had been visited upon their ancestors, the Knights Templar.
The remnants of the Knights Templar in England, Scotland, and Ireland were ordered to disband their organization, dissolve, and become incorporated with the English branch of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights of Malta, to enter their priories and preceptories, or suffer the
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like consequences as had been visited upon the Brethren in France and throughout southern Europe. EDWARD II, the son - in - law of their bitter enemy, PHILIP the Fair of France, was then on the throne of England, and equally fierce in his determination to carry out the relentless measures of persecution against the Templars in his dominions. America had not then been discovered and there was no place of refuge in the British isles except in the Kingdom of Scotland, then harassed by raids from England across the border and threatened with subjugation by EDWARD II. It was at a time when ROBERT the Bruce, the rightful heir to the Scottish throne, was contending for the freedom and independence of Scotland and his lawful inheritance to the crown. To him a remnant of the Knights Templar, who refused to join with their enemies the Knights of Malta, fled for protection. He had led a portion of them in the wars of the Holy Land to regain possession of the sepulchre of CHRIST.
JAQUES DE MOLAY
Their faith in him did not prove groundless, but the name of Knight Templar as elsewhere throughout Europe had to be dropped, on account of the hostility and power of their enemies, and that branch was incorporated by BRUCE into the Order of Knights of St. Andrew of Scotland, of Chardon, or of the Thistle, which with their aid on ST. JOHN the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1314 (a little more than a year after their last Grand Master DE MOLAY had been burned at the stake), at the battle of Bannockburn the army of EDWARI) II was overthrown, the independence of Scotland was secured, and ROBERT BRUCE was restored to the throne. In honor of the victory secured by him on that day he instituted the Order of the Rosy Cross at Kilwinning in the county of Ayr, which served alike for the Knights of St. Andrew and Royal Order of Scotland and the Knights Templar which had been incorporated into that Order - that in the persecution, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the SAVIOR the Knights Templar might see symbolized the persecution, suffering, and death of their Grand Master DE MOLAY and the resurrection of their lost cause and restoration of their possessions wrongfully held by their inveterate enemies, the Knights of Malta; while as Scottish Knights of St. Andrew they saw the past woes of Scotland, her deep misery and degradation heaped upon her by the same relentless foe, and which had now risen with their aid to a glorious independence, with the brightest hopes of peace, prosperity, and happiness before her.
From the loins of the old Knights Templar of Great Britain and France and the Teutonic Knights of Germany sprang the fathers of Freemasonry and the Reformation, and to them is the Masonic world indebted for all there is of Speculative Freemasonry, their colleges of science and philosophy, with the grand triune principles of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity emblazoned on its banners with the interlaced triangles of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The subsequent wars between England and Scotland caused many to flee from Scotland to the Continent and seek asylum in France and Germany, and to again return to their native land when the times were more propitious and there were favorable opportunities. And for nearly five hundred years the chivalry of Scotland was in constant migration to and from the Continent, and it was but natural that during that long period
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those descended from or allied in blood to the Knights Templar of Scotland, when seeking an asylum abroad where they were welcomed as friends and given protection, should carefully seek out those of the same blood and visit the localities where once had stood the priories and preceptories of their Templar ancestry. In those times Scotchmen generally traveled in foreign 'Countries while the English landsmen remained at home.
In 1324, ten years after the battle of Bannockburn, which made Scotland free from EDWARD II, there was born in the small village of Spresswell, in the northwest portion of the county of York, England, a male infant who was destined to start a movement that in time - should revolutionize the world. There were no printing - presses in those days and all the learning acquired in colleges was from bound manuscripts only, mainly written in black letter of the old Gothic style. As this infant grew up to youth and manhood he was sent to Oxford, where he was educated and became a Master in Baliol or Queen's College. He arose to eminence in his profession, but it was another work which was to make his name immortal. There was no printing - press, but he employed hundreds of pens to transcribe his the first translation of the Bible into the common English tongue from the Latin vulgate of ST. JEROME, for he was not familiar with either Hebrew or Greek. This was no other than JOHN WYCLIF, the "morning star" of the Reformation. There are still extant 170 copies of WYCLIF'S translation of the Great Light, and one may be seen in the Lenox Library in New York. The flames have not been permitted to consume them, and the centuries have not obliterated the hand - writing. The Bible was precious in those days. It required nearly $200 to buy a single copy, or what would be not less than $1,000 now. It was beyond the reach of the poor, except as they had access to the house of the wealthy or families united in its purchase. JOHN WYCLIF died in his bed on December 31, 1384, and his remains were reverently laid near the Lutterworth pulpit, but not to rest in peace. Thirty years later, in 14l5, the Council of Constance, which condemned JOHN Huss and JEROME of Prague and burnt them outside the city gate, ordered WYCLIF's books to be destroyed and his bones to be exhumed and burned. Pope MARTIN V commanded FLEMING, Bishop of Lincoln, to execute the decree, and it was done but not until 1428. The harmless bones were consumed and the ashes were thrown into the Swift, as the ashes of DE MOLAY were thrown into the Seine. But the Great Light was preserved by its friends and destined to illumine the world.
A century rolls by, and a German monk, the son of a silver miner in the Hartz Mountains, is a guest in the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes and of Malta in the city of Worms, by command and appointment, and to confront in the Diet to be held the Emperor CHARLES V, whose kingdom extends over the Old and the New Worlds; his brother, the Archduke FERDINAND; six Electors of the empire, whose descendants now almost all wear kingly crowns; eighty dukes, most of them reigning over countries of greater or lesser extent; the Duke of Alba and his two sons, eight margraves, thirty archbishops, bishops or prelates; seven ambassadors, among whom are those of the kings of France and England; the deputies of ten free cities, a great number of princes, sovereign counts, and barons; and lastly, the Pope's nuncios - in all, 204 of the highest of the world's rulers and personages - constituting the imposing court before which this son of a peasant and silver miner is summoned to appear to testify to the truth, the Great Light of Masonry. When the Pope's agent asks him: "Will you or will you not retract?" he instantly, without hesitation, replies in a few words, thus concluding, "I cannot and I will not retract anything, for it is not safe for the Christian to speak against his conscience." Then looking around on the assembly that holds his life in its hands, says: "Here I am, I can do no otherwise, - God help me! Amen." Thus spake MARTIN LUTHER.
He had a safe conduct to go to Worms and return. Some of the papal representatives present demanded that the safe conduct granted to LUTHER should not be respected. "The Rhine," they
“INTO THAT SOLITARY CASTLE, CALLED THE WARTBERG, LUTHER WAS CONDUCTED.”
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said, ought to receive his ashes as it did a century ago those of JOHN Huss." "When this was learned," says PALLAVICINI, "four hundred nobles were ready to maintain the integrity of the safe conduct with their swords." These were the Teutonic Knights. LUTHER left the city of Worms to return home, but while on his way his friends feared treachery, for the Emperor CHARLES V had proclaimed against him. As his vehicle was following the road near the forest of Thuringen the driver was suddenly set upon by five horsemen and three of them seized LUTHER, dragged him from the carriage, flung a cloak over his shoulders, and placed him on a led horse and rode off with him as a prisoner, being soon afterward joined by the other two mounted men. They first took the road to Broderode, but soon doubled back by another route, and tracked the wood backward and forward in all directions, to confuse any one who might pursue them. Night having fallen and there being no chance of any one following them, LUTHER'S captors struck into a new route. It was nearly 11 o'clock when they reached the foot of a mountain, which their horses slowly ascended; on the summit was an old fortress, surrounded on all sides except the approach by the black forests that cover the mountains of Thuringen. Into that solitary castle, called the Wartburg, formerly the retreat of the ancient landgraves, LUTHER was conducted. Bolts were drawn, iron bars fell, the gates were thrown open for the reformer to pass, and then closed upon him. He dismounted in the courtyard. One of the horsemen, BURKARD VON HUND, Lord of Altenstein, withdrew; another, JOHN VON BERLEPSCH, provost of the Wartburg, led MARTIN LUTHER to the chamber that was to be his prison, and in which lay a knight's uniform and a sword. The three other cavaliers who were under the provost's orders took off LUTHER's ecclesiastical habit and clothed him in the habit of a knight', telling him that he was to let his hair and beard grow, so that no one even in the castle might find out who he was; the people of the castle were only to know the prisoner by the name of Knight GEORGE. LUTHER could scarcely recognize himself in his new garb. At last they left him to his solitude, and his mind roamed by turns over the wonderful things which had just come to pass in Worms, the uncertain future that awaited him, and his strange abode. Through the narrow windows of his dungeon he could see that he was encompassed by dark, lonely, and immense forests. They were the Teutonic Knights who had thus made him prisoner, to keep him safely from the Wolves of Rome, and it was a long time before his friend FREDERICK the Elector knew of his place of concealment.
Here, like ST. JOHN on the Isle of Patmos, LUTHER was shut up for a year, while Germany was mourning his supposed death. Here he translated the Bible from the Latin into his German mother tongue. "Let there be light, and there was light!" LUTHER now voluntarily left the Wartburg and returned to his home. The printing - press, which had been invented, was printing the Great Light, which was being seen and read throughout all Germany; and ALBERT of Brandenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, and hosts of others espoused LUTHER'S cause in its defense. In Germany its security was assured at least. The 19th of April is a day of the most notable anniversaries of the whole year. On April 19, 1529, the great declaration of religious independence in favor of the Bible was made at the Diet of Spires by the princes of Germany, who protested against the decree of the Emperor CHARLES V suppressing it, and the rights of conscience for which they were denominated Protestants.
King HENRY VIII of England took up the cause of the papacy and wrote against LUTHER, for which he had added to his title "Defender of the Faith," given him by the Pope. But because the Pope would not sanction his divorce from CATHARINE of Aragon that he might marry ANNE BOLEYN, he cut loose from Rome, divorced himself, and proclaimed himself the head of the Church in England, which act Parliament confirmed. He soon caused ANNE BOLEYN to be beheaded, and the next day married JANE SEYMOUR, who lived but a year, when he married ANNE of Cleves,
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a Protestant, from whom he was divorced after he had beheaded THOMAS CROMWELL, who had advised the marriage. He then married the guilty and unhappy CATHERINE HOWARD, whom he soon afterward beheaded. And finally he chose for his sixth wife CATHERINE PARR, the virtuous widow of Lord LATIMER, who survived him. He died on January 28, 1547, and the world was made better for the removal of this bloody monster from the face of the earth by the Almighty hand, for it prepared the way in a measure for Freemasonry and free conscience, with the Great Light that was to illumine the British Isles.
All the monasteries throughout Christendom were stirred up, and imprisoned knowledge, history, and the concealed sciences, so long buried like caged birds and chained souls, were occasionally making a break for freedom. Some were to fall into the flames and become martyrs for conscience sake, perish by the wayside, or successfully make their escape and become torch - bearers of the light of freedom and the truth. Scotland at this time swarmed with ignorant, idle vagabonds in the garb of monks, who like locusts devoured the fruits of the earth and filled the air with pestilential infection; with friars, white, black, and gray; canons, regular and of ST. ANTHONY; Carmelites, Cordellers, Dominicans, Franciscans, Conventuals, and Observantines; jacobins, monks of Tyrone, and the Templars' old enemies, the Holy Knights of St. John of Jerusalem; and others, miserable libels even on ordinary depraved humanity. But ere long a change for the better came over Scotland, produced by the most remarkable Scotchman of that age.
In the year 1505, in the suburbs of Haddington - or, as some believe, in the village of Giffordgate - Scotland, was an infant born, in the same year that MARTIN LUTHER entered the Augustinian Monastery at Erfurt. He took his name, as it was supposed, from the paternal mansion, which was called the "knock" It was situated near the birthplace of that great patriot WILLIAM WALLACE and the ancestral home of MARY STUART. Here was born JOHN KNOX. He attended the grammar school until he was sixteen years of age, when he was sent to the University of Glasgow. He had for his teacher JOHN MAIR, who was well calculated by a vigorous mind, strong convictions, and progressive thought, to mold and shape the intellect of his pupil, who soon outstripped his master, who encouraged him forward in the direction of his inclination which fixed the line of his destiny. MAIR held sentiments which were in perfect consonance with the principles and teachings of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry today, which but few held then, and a smaller number dared to express, with respect to the authority of the Pope and the prerogatives of kings, which found their fruitage at a later day in religious and civil freedom - on the one hand, freedom of conscience and the overthrow of civil and spiritual despotism; on the other, the lifting up of the people as the source of all civil authority and the court of highest appeal. These sentiments which had previously been held by a few on the Continent were readily imbibed by the young student. They commended themselves to his innate sense of right, and he was prepared to follow them on to their legitimate results. Although he became a priest, yet JOHN KNOX was at the same time like the rest of his countrymen not impervious to the truth. They were strong, rugged, and courageous. Give them a little light, they crave more and will have it. And even at that period, despite the depression of the dominant religion, they were brave, resolute, and powerful, stern as the mountains of the North, and unbridled as the air which swept the highlands and the moors. Bannockburn told the story of their prowess, and EDWARD II, unable to conquer them, was driven back to the Southland, the border bristling with bayonets, and guarded by frowning castles which lifted their dark bastions and towers into the murky sky.
Among the acquaintainces of JOHN KNOX Was PATRICK HAMILTON, the great - grandson of JAMES II and one year the senior of JOHN KNOX. He was made Abbot of Ferne when only thirteen
BURNING OF WYCLIF’S BIBLES.
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years old. He had been a student in the University of Paris. Here he heard of MARTIN LUTHER, and his attention as a student of the sacred languages was directed to the Great Light, which he was soon able to read in the original tongues, and his faith in the papacy became weakened. He returned to Scotland, where Cardinal BEATON of St. Andrew's, learning of his defection from the faith, charged him with heresy and declared that he ought to be put to death. HAMILTON deemed it best to return to the Continent, and went to Wittenburg, where he met MARTIN LUTHER, PHILIP MELANCTHON and FRANCIS LAMBERT; he then went to Marburg, where he formed the acquaintance of WILLIAM TYNDALE and JOHN FRITH. With their instruction and encouragement he resolved to return once more to Scotland, his native land. In his own country he preached to noblemen and their families, who were his own kindred, some of whom believed. Then he ventured to proclaim the truth in public places and to common people. Some heard him gladly, others pronounced him a heretic afid reported his words to the ecclesiastical autocrat of St. Andrew's. HAMILTON was induced to appear at a conference for the ostensible purpose of calmly discussing the principles of his faith. Then followed a mock trial, after which he was cast into the old sea - tower, which still remains, and on a wintry day in 1528 he was burned at the stake. With his dying breath he prayed for his murderers. When nearly burned through the waist by the fiery chain which bound him to the stake, and when power of speech was gone, a spectator, addressing him from the crowd, asked that if he still had faith in the views for which he was condemned he should indicate it by a sign. Thereupon he lifted his mutilated hand and held it aloft until he died, thus declaring his unfailing trust in GOD and pointing the way to that Heaven which opened for his entrance. Thus perished, at the age of twenty-four, the great - grandson of JAMES II, King of Scotland. Some of the nobility of Scotland were deeply affected by the martyrdom of this royal youth. Does a Roman cardinal hold in his hands the lives of men nobly born? Are we answerable for our faith to a cruel hierarchy? Whereunto shall this matter grow? Then came the inquiry, "For what did HAMILTON die? Many sought an answer, and in finding it discovered the truth. On the day that HAMILTON died the papacy unwittingly kindled a fire which shone all over Scotland, in the flames of which it was itself consumed.
A few years later the Earl of Arran was appointed to administer the government during the minority of the Queen. The Scottish Parliament granted to all the privilege of reading the Bible in their own language, and it was scattered throughout Scotland, but the man who dared to read and interpret for himself was accused, and another fire was to be kindled. GEORGE WlSHART, brother of the Laird of Pittarrow, a man of extraordinary power and eloquence, commenced preaching the truth and crowds accompanied him everywhere. Among them there followed him wherever he went a thoughtful man of small stature and intellectual countenance, whose love for WISHART, like that of JONATHAN for DAVID, surpasses that of woman. The holy fire of the preacher burned into his soul and consumed the last remains of a superstitious belief. The day that an attempt was made to assassinate WISHART this attendant interfered and saved his life. But by order of the Earl of Bothwell, WISHART was seized. His faithful friend preferred to share his fate. "GOD bless you!" said WISHART; "one is sufficient for a sacrifice," and so they parted. That young man who went sorrowfully away was no other than JOHN KNOX, he who was to carry on the work which WTSHART laid out. WISHART was tried and condemned to death. They put on him a black robe, attached bags of gunpowder to his person, and with a chain about his waist led him to the stake. When he came to the place of execution he knelt down and rose again, thrice repeating the prayer: "O! thou Savior of the world, have mercy upon me! Father of Heaven, I commend my spirit into Thy hands." The same words were spoken at the stake by DE MOLAY, the last Grand Master of the Templars. A trumpet sounded; it was the signal for execution. WISHART was bound to the stake and the fires kindled. Archbishop BEATON
“GOD BLESS YOU!” SAID WISHART: “ONE IS SUFFICIENT FOR A SACRIFICE.”
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looked from his castle window and "fed his eyes with the martyr's torments." Some who witnessed the martyr's death said, "BEATON is WISHART'S murderer, and he shall die." "Law in its pure and proper sense," says a modern historian, "there was none in Scotland. The partition lines between evil and good were obliterated in the general anarchy, and right struggled *against wrong with such ambiguous weapons as the wild justice of Nature suggested."
On another day three men made their way along the dark passages of the castle to the chamber of BEATON, into which they forced an entrance. They bade the cardinal "repent him of his former wicked life," after which they smote him with their swords until he died. Then from the window of the castle from which he had witnessed the execution of WISHART they exposed the dead cardinal to the view of the multitude now gathered about the castle gate, and then carried the body to the old sea - tower, in which HAMILTON had been imprisoned and before which WISHART had been burned. It was lawless justice smiting down one beyond the reach of the law. The murderer died for his crimes, and on that day rang the death - knell of superstition, fanaticism, and irresponsible power. The long night waned and the light of the dawn of civil and religious liberty appeared in the low horizon. Now JOHN KNOX, whose life is interwoven with the woof and web of all Scottish history until the fires of persecution are utterly extinguished in that noble land made holy by the blood of the martyrs, and grand in history, legend, poetry, and song, once more appeared upon the scene.
A year after the death of BEATON, JOHN KNOX was quietly engaged as a teacher in St. Andrew's. He was selected as an assistant to the preacher, a converted monk, late from the monastery at Stirling, by the name of JOHN ROUGH, and he entered upon the work.
The parish church was crowded to hear the new preacher. He made the arches ring with his vehement eloquence. His lone voice in St. Andrew's Church reached farther than the walls that shut him in. All Scotland heard it and was moved as by an earthquake. His followers multiplied as the rain - drops of a continuous shower. Rome was alarmed. Something must be done and done quickly. A French fleet hastened to St. Andrew's. The people saw the white sails at the foot of every street, and soon discovered that they were surrounded by the enemy. Then came the contest, but it was unequal. The garrison surrendered. The castle was taken. JOHN KNOX and many others went aboard the French galleys, and, in violation of solemn pledges, were bound with chains and conveyed to France. The heretics were commanded to recant, and were threatened with tortures if they refused. They said they were ready to die, but not to deny their faith. Once the galleys returned to the vicinity of St. Andrew's, and when JOHN KNOX saw the spire of the parish chapel, though denied his liberty and sick of a fever, he said, " I shall not depart this life until that my tongue shall glorify GOD'S goodly name in that place."
The fleet returned to France. After nineteen months of imprisonment it, was supposed that heresy had received its death - blow in the consent of the Scottish Parliament to the marriage of the beautiful Queen MARY to the dauphin of France, and in the belief of this, KNOX was contemptuously liberated. For Rome - it was a great blunder. JOHN KNOX was greater than the Scottish queen - a mightier factor in the world's history than the thrones of Scotland and France combined. After his liberation he went to London, where he labored
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earnestly. EDWARD VI offered him a bishopric, but he declined. The condition of affairs was unsatisfactory and it was but a question of time that there would be a relapse of the people, and on the accession of Queen MARY to the throne of England it came. Under the reign of MARY his fears were more than realized. Persecution was revived. The heavens were red with flames and the - earth with blood. KNOX was urged by his friends to go to the Continent, but he at first refused. They begged him in tears for his own sake and theirs to go, and he reluctantly consented. He crossed the English Channel to Dieppe, where he waited for a short time, then traveled into France, Germany, and Switzerland, and at Geneva waited patiently for the time when he might resume his labors in his own land, while Scotland waited with anxious hopes and fears for his return.
Five years had elapsed since he was exiled from England, and finding that it was possible for him to return to Scotland, though denied a passage through England, he sailed direct from Dieppe to Leith, Scotland, and arrived at a most critical period. He went to Perth and commenced his labors. It was determined to give him a welcome at St. Andrew's. As he approached the old town and saw the spire of the cathedral lifted above the trees, JOHN KNOX'S prophecy when a prisoner on the French galleys, that he would live to preach in the parish church, was at once recalled. The archbishop of St. Andrew's, hearing that KNOX proposed to preach in the cathedral, collected a number of armed men and notified him that if he attempted to address the people he would do it at the peril of his life. JOHN KNOX was urged by the noblemen to preserve silence. He declined. It was a question of life and death - not of one, but of civil and religious liberty in Scotland. He announced that he would preach on the following day. To his enemies he said, "I call to GOD to witness that I never preached in contempt of any man nor with the design of hurting any earthly creature, but to delay to preach on the morrow, unless forcibly hindered, I cannot agree." To his friends he said: "As for the fear of danger that may come to me let no man be solicitous, for my life is in custody of Him whose glory I seek. I desire the hand or weapon of no man to defend me. I only crave audience, which if it be denied me here at this time I must seek where I may have it." He stood in his purpose immovable as Ben Lomond Mountain, which from a serene heaven looks down its slopes to the valleys beyond. The day came. The sun struggled through the mists which overhung the town. The attention of the people was now turned toward the castle, where the soldiery awaited the command of the archbishop to do their work of death, and again to the parish church, toward which a multitude were wending their way. The hour of service came. JOHN KNOX passed fearlessly down the street, entered the church, ascended the pulpit, before him a sea of faces, and a breathless silence of the people as he rose in his place. He preached. And not only that day, but on several successive days, to large assemblies, not only at St. Andrew's but at Kelso, Jedburgh, Ayr, Stirling, Perth, Montrose, and Dundee, making a tour through Scotland, which everywhere felt the magnetic influence of his presence.
Provision was made for the education of the young, schools were established, and Scotland took on a freer and better life, and there was a season of quiet, King FRANCIS II of France died, and on August 19, 1561, MARY, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland. Her return was greeted with many demonstrations of joy, but the "deil" came with her in her retinue. She married Lord DARNLEY, but had for a paramour an Italian named DAVID Rizzio, her private secretary. One evening, while the queen, Rizzio, and a few of MARY'S friends were sitting in the supping room in the Holyrood House, muffled steps were heard on the stairway leading to this room. A moment later, Lord DARNLEY entered, pale and trembling, followed by armed men, who seized the Italian and slew him, regardless of the entreaties of the queen to spare his life. MARY dried her tears and said, "Now I will study revenge." The murder of her paramour, instigated by DARNLEY, diverted her attention
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from her designs against JOHN KNOX and the reformed religion. She had but one idea, the avenging of Rizzio's death. The unprincipled BOTHWELL was ready to become her agent. DARNLEY was enticed to an isolated dwelling in Edinburgh, and on the night of February 10, 1569, was murdered, the house in which he was lying being blown up by gunpowder, MARY had found her revenge. Shortly afterward she was married to BOTHWELL. Before the bar of public opinion and at the tribunal of GOD she was pronounced a murderess and an adulteress. Thereafter her hands were covered with blood - she was more unhappy than ever before. Her energy of character deserted her; her guilt haunted her. Avengers seemed ever on her track; her power over her former friends was broken. Scotland was frowning and sullen, and would no longer come at her call. Armies would no longer fight for the beautiful but wicked queen. BOTHWELL was hated and fled for his life. MARY was a prisoner in Lochieven Castle, made her escape aided by the HAMILTONS and their allies, attempted to hew her way back to the throne, was defeated, exiled to England, there imprisoned, and after a long confinement in the Tower of London was beheaded.
Thus closed the wretched life of the beautiful but unprincipled MARY, Queen of Scots. Upon the regency of the Earl of Murray the kingdom had comparative peace. On December 15, 1567, the Scottish Parliament confirmed the action of i56o in favor of the Protestant religion. It took deep root and extended its branches. Then JOHN KNOX, worn with labor, depressed by disease, and in the course of nature approaching the end of life, thought to lay off his armor and compose himself for a change of worlds. But suddenly with all Scotland he was startled by the intelligence of the good regent's death. While passing through a narrow street in Linlithgow, the Earl of Murray was shot and mortally wounded by a concealed assassin, the ingrate HAMILTON, the bastard son of the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, whose life, after the battle of Langside, the regent himself had spared. In a few hours the regent - the wise ruler, the earnest Christian, the friend of the Reformation - a man of rare beauty of character, was no more. Scotland deeply mourned his death. JOHN KNOX was almost crushed by the blow which smote down the beloved regent. Ever memorable is the sermon that JOHN KNOX preached over the remains of the Earl of Murray and the prayer that he offered on the sad funeral day. But JOHN KNOX himself was not safe from the papal assassins. One evening as he took his accustomed seat at his table he felt impelled to change his place. A moment later a musket - ball passed through the window over his vacant chair; it was deflected from its course and deeply imbedded in the ceiling. KNOX'S time had not yet come. Yielding to the solicitation of friends, he removed to St. Andrew's, where he continued his work for a short time, when he was invited to Edinburgh, his friends desiring to hear him once more before he died. He went on the condition that he should not be required to keep silence respecting the conduct of those who kept the castle, "whose treasonable and tyrannical deeds he would cry out against as long as he was able to speak."
In the early part of September of the year 1572 the news came to Edinburgh of the massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris. CHARLES IX, at the instigation of his mother, CATHERINE DE MEDICI and the papacy, had ordered the murder of Admiral COLIGNY, and in Paris and throughout France 70,000 men and women, old and young, and little children were put to death in the short space of only one week. By direction of Pope GREGORV XIII a public thanksgiving was held throughout all papal countries. When the envoys of CHARLES IX reached Rome the Pope wished that they should hand to him in solemn audience the letters of the Court of France and the strange present which CATHERINE DE MEDICI sent him. "It was the head of Admiral COLIGNY," says BRANTOME, "whom the mother and son, those crowned murderers, had sundered from his noble body and which they sent to the Pope, as the most agreeable offering they could make to the vicar of CHRIST." Pope
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GREGORY received this head with transports of ferocious joy, and in testimony of his gratitude to the king he sent him a magnificent blessed sword, on which was represented an exterminating angel. He also had a medal struck in honor of the event, and in theVatican's galleries is still to be seen a painting of those horrible and cruel deeds. Lovers of civil and religious liberty everywhere were bowed down under this great affliction. Scotland was overwhelmed with sorrow. JOHN KNOX was sorely distressed, but his faith in GOD and in the final triumph of the right did not fail him. He asked that, although he was partly paralyzed, he might be carried to the pulpit of old St. Giles' Church, and there he forgot his physical pains in the expression of his holy wrath. The wavering grew firm. The discouraged became hopeful. The voice of the people was as one man: "Come what may, we will hold fast to the Holy Bible."
But the great life - work of JOHN KNOX was done. On Monday, November 24, 1572, the brave old lion of Scotland passed away in peace in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Well did THOMAS CARLYLE say, "that for her liberty Scotland owed more to JOHN KNOX than to all other men." His influence was far more potent than that of ROBFRT BRUCE, of DAVD II, or of HENRY VIII. Had he not, with MARTIN LUTHER, MELANCTHON, FAREL, ZWINGLE, RIDLEY, LATIMER, CRANMER, and others, prepared the field, there would not have been any such thing known as speculative or philosophic Freemasonry and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or any other rite of Masonry ever come into existence, with Morality, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for its base, an altar erected with the chief Great Light of Masonry thereon as the silent witness of the solemn obligations taken upon it. But we are anticipating what is hereafter to follow.
On Wednesday, November 25, 1572, JOHN KNOX was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles. A multitude of people witnessed his burial. Loving and grateful hands laid him in his grave, and Regent MORTON, looking into that lowly resting - place, exclaimed in words immortal as their subject, "There lies he who never feared the face of man - who, though often threatened with dog and dagger, hath ended his days in peace." The strides of the Reformation through streams and seas of blood and persecution for nearly three centuries materially changed the character of nearly the whole population of Europe and converted the island of Great Britain into a home of refuge for the persecuted, exiled reformers, fleeing before the armies of the papacy, led by those bloodhounds in human form the Dominicans and Jesuits. On the continent of Europe operative Masonry was comparatively at a halt. The renunciation by HENRV VIII of the papal authority and declaring the English Church independent of the Vatican added fresh fuel to the fire of the wrath of the Pope. When ELIZABETH
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upon the death of bloody MARY was called to the throne both England and Scotland were in a constant state of inflammation consequent upon the great religious and political conflicts and warfare which extended throughout Christendom. Under her patronage a new style of architecture called the "Elizabethan" was introduced and newer designs were drawn upon the trestle - boards by the master workmen of the Craft, while the noblest spirits - poets, scholars, and philosophers of the agefound patronage and protection at the hands of this masculine "Virgin Queen of England," against whom the thunders of the Vatican roared in vain and the daggers of its Jesuit assassins failed when directed at the breast of their intended royal victim.
When ELIZABETH passed away on March 24, 1603, she was succeeded by JAMES (STUART) VI, the Protestant King of Scotland, who became JAMES I of England, uniting the thrones of both countries on July 25, 1603, in the very dawn of the seventeenth century - an age of stupendous convulsions and disturbances, which shook the British Isles to their foundations, and were the cause of forced as well as voluntary expatriations, peopling the Atlantic shores of America with English colonies along the watery edge of a rock - rimmed wilderness inhabited by hostile savages, but where the vision of ST. JOHN the Evangelist was fully materialized in after years in the form of perfect civil and religious liberty. "And the woman [Liberty] fled into the wilderness, into her place where she hath a place prepared of GOD. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished from the face of the serpent," said ST. JOHN the Evangelist in his Revelations.
Religious freedom in the main was secured. The Scottish King of England and the United Kingdom had the Great Light brought forth and translated out of the dead tongues and given to the people, and appointed to be read openly in the churches in a language that could be heard and understood by all. He provided an honored place for it in public processions and in the coronation ceremonies to be forever used in the crowning of the Protestant sovereigns of Great Britain and none others, and in after years the same ceremonies, modified, were to be continually used in the installation of Masters of Lodges of Freemasonry and other ceremonies of the Craft. Rome had nothing to expect in her favor from JAMES I, and through her deadly corps of Jesuit conspirators and assassins attempted to destroy both JAMES I and the Parliament of England bN blowing them into the air. Fortunately for him and his kingdom and for humanity, the Gunpowder Plot failed, and the immediate conspirators and assassins met the due punishment of their intended crime, while the Pope, in anger and disappointment, said low mass for their lost souls. The first quarter of a century passed away, terminating his reign on the throne by a natural death, on March 27, 1625, and he was succeeded by his
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eldest son, CHARLES I. During the latter's reign, he having married HENRIETTA MARIE (daughter of HENRV IV of France), a papist wife, and imported a retinue and horde of priests and Jesuits with her from France, the realm was rent with wars and bloodshed. At last he was brought to trial by Parliament, and two years before the first half of the century closed, he was on January 30, 1648, beheaded for his treason to the British Constitution and to the people.
In the midst of these wars and troubles operative Freemasonry was inactive and silent, while speculative Freemasonry, in connection with it as we now have it, had not been dreamed of by the wisest philosophers and scholars of those days. The Protectorate of CROMWELL, however, materially changed this state of affairs. On the pacification of the people and the restoration of peace, the affairs of Great Britain underwent a favorable transformation, and he caused her flag to be honored at home, respected abroad, and dreaded by her enemies throughout the world. At home the schools and universities advanced to a high state of improvement and culture; commerce, manufactures, and navigation flourished to a degree that had never been reached before; and the erection of magnificent buildings and structures had begun to a liberal extent, giving employment to architects and the guild of Freemasons in their construction, when suddenly it was brought to a stop by the death of OLIVER CROMWELL, on September 3, 1658. The year and a half that his son RICHARD ruled as the Protector of the Commonwealth was not marked by any event of importance, and the tide of progress and good government was to be turned back, and all the evils which could be brought upon a nation within itself were consummated upon the accession of CHARLES II to the throne, on May 29, 1660. For the twenty-five years of his reign of revenge, profligacy, debauchery, and immorality, no period of the world's history since the days just before the flood has had its equal among any people. If he could have covered his kingdom with a roof he would, had he been able to entirely debauch and corrupt the people, have converted it into a general house of prostitution. During his reign in the summer of 1664 the Great Plague broke out in London and spread over the kingdom, and in London alone, in the short space of four months, not less than 100,000 people were swept away by its ravages. Two years afterward, on September 3, 1666, the Great Fire of London broke out, which raged for three days, in which over 13,000 houses and 90 churches, including St. Paul's, were destroyed and laid in ashes. To restore and rebuild the city caused the influx of an immense gathering of operative Masons from all over the kingdom and from abroad to find employment in London, which also received a new addition to its population in the expatriated Huguenots from France and other religious reformers, who, in exile, sought security from persecution, hoping to find that freedom of conscience denied them at home. These people having to depend upon their own industry for their maintenance, fused with the guilds of London and the other cities in their various branches of labor and swelled the ranks of operative Freemasons and other organizations, and indoctrinated them with their own ideas of civil and religious liberty.
On February 6, 1685, the world was relieved of the presence of CHARLES II, and on April 23d following, JAMES II ascended the throne, and he was the last of the male line of the STUARTS to be crowned King of Great Britain and Ireland. But he, treacherous and false to his oath, after four years' efforts to restore the supremacy of the papacy, was forced to abdicate by the people and driven into exile, from whence he returned to make one more, and the last but fruitless effort to regain his throne. Says the French historian DU CORMENIN (himself a Catholic), in his " History of the Popes": "CLEMENT XI addressed a brief to JAMES II, the dethroned King of Great Britain, who had come to France to hide his shame, to console him in his exile, and to announce to him in the name of GOD that he would return in triumph to London with an escort of Jesuits, a prediction which most happily for England was not realized. Some months afterward the infamous JAMES II surrendered his soul
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to the devil in the Castle of St. Germain en Laye, and made this singular exhortation to the Prince of Wales, his son, whose legitimacy was more than suspected: 'Remember, my son, that if ever you remount the throne, we owe all to the Pope and the Jesuits. Spare no means to re - establish the Catholic religion in your kingdom. Burn, sack, murder; and remember that it is better to gain Heaven than to merit the blessings of the people.' The young prince promised to follow these instructions faithfully. Immediately after the death of his father he assumed the title of JAMES III, and styled himself King of Great Britain, by which two or three valets attached to his person, and the papal nuncio, saluted him. The solicitude of CLEMENT XI for the STUARTS had only regard to the interests of the Holy See, for the Pontiff did not believe they could ever be re - installed on the throne of Great Britain, and he appeared so ardent in maintaining their interests only to excite disturbances in the three kingdoms and call off the attention of the powers to that quarter, whilst he was preparing to seize Sicily or the Milanese, or even the kingdom of Naples, which excited his covetousness.".
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV of France in 1685 had driven a million of Huguenots with their families to England, Holland, and America, and WILLIAM of Nassau and Prince of Orange (the grandson of William the Silent and great - grandson of COLIGNY, the Huguenot Admiral of France, slain at the massacre of St. Bartholomew) was called to the throne, with the Protestant daughter of JAMES ii as Queen, and they were jointly crowned as WILLIAM III and MARY II, King and Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonial Dependencies. In after years, Pope BENEDICT XIV in 1747 elevated to the purple HENRY BENEDICT, the second son of The First Pretender, as the Cardinal of York, who died at Rome in 1807 - the last of the STUARTS.
During the middle portion of the eighteenth century, while the Continental wars were in full activity, Freemasonry continued to thrive in spite of the devastation of war and the hostility of nations. The thunders of the Vatican against it in the fulmination of the bulls of Pope CLEMENT XII and his successors, threatening excommunication, confiscation of property, imprisonment, and death to all who belonged to the hated and persecuted Order, failed to crush the spirit or destroy the bonds of fraternity which bound it together. During this period English Freemasonry remained comparatively inactive or was engaged in dissensions and bitterness of strife; its power for good was rendered inoperative, the true spirit of Freemasonry emasculated, and the two Grand Lodges of England were like tired and exhausted eunuchs, who had become worn out in a boxing or wrestling match in the aretia and were no longer capable of doing each other harm. Each changed its lectures and formula repeatedly, and English Freemasonry stood still. It has been well and truly stated by a most distinguished Masonic writer that at this time "it became envious and suspicious of the higher degrees. It refused to recognize them as Masonic or to form any connection with them, or with the Royal Arch of DERMOTT, framed from the Royal Arch of ENOCH or SOLOMON. It never had any object after the struggle of the Stuarts had ended. But Scottish Freemasonry, on the contrary, engaged in its long controversy with royal and Pontifical despotism, and became the apostle of free thought, free speech, and free conscience."
At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were thirty-four counties in England without a printer. The only press in England north of the Trent was at York. As to private libraries there were none deserving the name. Until now man was wandering in the midst of thick darkness the truth appeared to him but as a doubtful light - - in a morbid atmosphere. In the eighteenth century priestly influence was annihilated and the reason of mankind developed itself in a prodigious manner; while philosophy enlightened the minds of all and mankind recovered its rights, but only after tremendous struggles in blood and carnage, in both the Old and New World. The sacred love
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of liberty, that divine sentiment the lightnings of which despots had restrained, was reanimating all hearts. The planting of Freemasonry upon the continent of Europe set the whole philosophic world ablaze, and it was moving almost in a meteoric shower upon the minds of men ardently searching for liberty and the truth. The house of the STUARTS used it as far as possible in the bonds of a newly created fraternity among fresh adherents, but as soon as the STUARTS' objects were understood by men of keen foresight and perception they ceased to follow after the false lights, which ere long ceased to glow and the efforts to use it were made in vain. The Jesuits, seeing that papal bulls of excommunication, confiscation of property, imprisonment, torture, and death failed to arrest its progress, to destroy it inveigled themselves into it and manufactured degrees and rites almost innumerable to confuse the fraternity and divert the life - giving stream into useless channels, to be dissipated and lost in the desert of vain ideas and hopeless anticipations. The unsatisfactory termination of the Master Mason's degree in a historic sense created a desire for further knowledge in the finishing of King SOLOMON'S Temple after the death of the master builder, over which a veil of mystery was hung, the neophyte not being fully able to discern the spiritual sense and symbolism of the third degree. With the Great Light before him the seeker of knowledge and truth was still groping in fog, endeavoring to brush the mists aside, to get a fair view of the retrospective past and that which was in the future beyond.
That which is called Ancient Craft Masonry had already, so far as its progenitors and promoters were concerned in England, served its purpose, was tied to the throne and interests of the house of Hanover, and all further progress except on those lines was stopped. So - called "landmarks" were set UP, and borrowed, and misappropriated, and made apt the language of ST. JOHN the Evangelist in the closing of his Revelation: "If any man shall add unto these things, GOD shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, GOD shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."
Yet the first Grand Lodge of England, or the Moderns, violated its own landmarks, changed the names and positions of the pillars, and its ritual; expelled the seceders, who organized a Grand Lodge of their own, which conferred new degrees, manufactured by RAMSAY and others, imported from France; and after a period of sixty years, in 1813, both united in organizing the present Grand Lodge of England. To elucidate the history of the Temples of SOLOMON, of ZERUBBABEL and of HEROD, the traditions, legends, and instructions in the Blue Lodge, there is neither time nor opportunity, for "Masonry is a progressive science," and not an inert, inoperative, passive, and immobile institution.
Soon after Freemasonry was introduced into France by Lord DERWENTWATER, really in the interest of the house of the STUARTS, philosophers and scholars from all over Europe who were admitted to the fraternity saw that the meagre curriculum of its ritual was but of a primary or kindergarten nature. The chief thing, however, was the right of conscience in the reading and interpreting the great Light of Masonry each for himself, and the Bible was a free book. Wherever a Masonic Lodge was organized and its altar set up there was the Holy Bible, in this sense following directly in the path and field of the great Reformation. While not teaching any form of religious belief, the Order of Freemasonry at once became the first great Bible society of the world. Protestantism and Roman Catholicism might clash in fierce contests without, but the voice of sect had no place in a Masonic Lodge, where the silent and invincible Word of GOD, the mighty and everlasting truth, uttered for itself without creed, "I Am that I Am, and my word shall not return unto me void, saith JEHOVAH," and the Great Light must shine. In this respect Freemasonry became a passive bulwark of defense to Protestantism without declaration, a partial asylum to the Hebrew, and
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THE DYING KING EXHORTS HIS SON TO PERSECUTE ALL DISSENTERS FROM THE “FAITH.”
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a neutral ground where men of opposite religious and philosophic opinions might meet, leaving their particular notions and prejudices outside, having the Bible for their guide and the grand doctrine of the " Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man," with the Golden Rule - "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them, and love thy neighbor as thyself" - to measure and lay out their work. In other words, the Bible for authority was per se the substitute for the Pope, with a sublime, trusting faith in GOD and the immortality of the soul, being all that was and is required by Freemasonry, leaving the conscience to be drawn to the Infinite by the superior power of the celestial magnet of the Holy Spirit, while to the true, Christian Mason the cross will remind him of the words spoken by Him " who spake as never man spake," " If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me."
When MICHAEL RAMSAY commenced his speculative Masonry in Paris he carried with him beyond doubt from his native Scotland some remains of the ancient myths, legions, and fragments of Masonic and chivalric history from Kilwinning and elsewhere, which he sought to make use of first in Holland and then in France, where, becoming the tutor of the children of JAMES II and of The Pretender, he changed outwardly at least his religion from that of the Protestant to the Roman Catholic. But mysticism, the Passion Play, and the religious dramas enacted in the papal church presented a field for his inventive talent, in which also he found many Jesuit and other collaborators and competitors, until there seemed to be as many rites and degrees of Freemasonry as there are visible stars in the heavens. They were all built up from the same foundation, that of the Blue Lodge, which in its essentials ever remained the same, like the Ten Commandments, as a constitution and a base of all the statutory and sanitary laws in the Mosaic dispensation. The history of the Jewish race - its progress and autonomy as a nation, its fall and the destruction of its temples of worship, its legend and myths in common with its half - kindred, the descendants of ISHMAE - furnished material, added to the Egyptian, Indian, and Grecian religions, out of which, with science and philosophy, to mold them in as a composite speculative system, each according to the phantasm of the inventor, with the tales of the Crusades thrown in, like fragments of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, to give brilliancy to the invention. In spite of RAMSAY's apostacy from the Protestant faith, he was nevertheless a Scotchman, mingled with his countrymen abroad, and retained in part some of the tenets of his early Protestant training, while there still lingered in his memory the tradition of the destruction of the Order of the Temple and the Scottish remnant which aided ROBERT BRUCE in the defense of Scotland at the battle of Bannockburn. He was now in Paris, where the Order was first destroyed. Says MACKAY: "He had while in Holland become acquainted with PIERRE POIRET, one of the most celebrated teachers of the mystic theology which then prevailed on the Continent. From him RAMSAY learned the principal tenets of that system, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that he was indoctrinated with that love of mystical speculation which he subsequently developed as the
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inventor of Masonic degrees and as the founder of a Masonic rite. In 1710 he visited the celebrated FENELON, Archbishop of Cambray, of whose mystical tendencies he had heard, and met with a cordial reception. The archbishop invited RAMSAY to become his guest, and in six months he was converted to the Catholic faith. FENELON procured for him the preceptorship of the Duc de Chateau - Thierry and the Prince de Turenne. As a reward for his services in that capacity he was made a Knight of the Order of St. Lazarus, whence he received the title of Chevalier, by which he was usually known. He was subsequently selected by JAMES III, The Pretender, as the tutor of his two sons, CHARLES EDWARD and HENRY, the former afterward The Young Pretender, and the latter the Cardinal York. For this purpose in 1724 he repaired to Rome. But the political and religious intrigues of that court became distasteful to him, and in a short time he obtained permission and returned to France. In 1728 he visited England and became an inmate of the family of the Duke of Argyle. He had already acquired so great a literary reputation that the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He then returned to France and resided for many years at Pointoise, a seat of the Prince of Ttirenne, where he wrote his 'Life of Fenelon' and a 'History of the Viscount Turenne.' During the remainder of his life he resided as intendant in the prince's family, and died May 6, 1743, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. No one played a more important part in the history of Freemasonry in the eighteenth century than the Chevalier RAMSAY, and the influence of his opinions and teachings is still felt in the high degrees which have been adopted by the various rites into which Masonry is now divided.
That portion which related to the Roval Arch and that of the Knights Templar in part, which were the composition and inventions of RAMSAY, who has been mentioned as having been converted to the Catholic faith by FENELON, the Jesuit Archbishop of Cambray, have already been given. In reference to FENELON, Chancellor D'AGUESSEAU said: "He is a gossip, simple and artful, open and deceitful; modest and ambitious; sensitive and indifferent; capable of desiring everything, and of despising everything; always agitated, always tranquil; mixing in nothing, taking part in everything; a sulpician, a missionary, even a Jesuit and a courtier, all at once; fit to play the most brilliant parts, fit to live in obscurity; competent for all things, and yet still more competent for himself; a versatile genius who
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knows how to assume all characters without ever losing his own, and at the bottom of which is a fruitful and graceful imagination." Du CORMENIN adds, "He was cowardly, hypocritical, and persecuting"; and he says further: "What will appear still more extraordinary than the intimate friendship between the Archbishop of Cambray and the Abbe DUBOIS, was his affiliation with the Templars. All historians agree in saying that FENELON was received as a Knight of the Temple in 1699, a period at which he was already in possession of his see, and that on the day of his Joining the Order he pronounced the usual oath, which contains a full and entire adhesion to the doctrine of pantheism; it is this: 'GOD is all which exists - each part of that which exists is a part of GOD, but is not GOD. Immutable in His essence, GOD is mutable in His parts, which, after having existed under the laws of certain combinations, more or less complicated, revive under the laws of new combinations. All is uncreated.' Thus, then, FENEI,ON - that devoted servant of the Holy See, that intrepid defender of pontifical authority, that fierce apostle of Jesuitism, that bitter Catholic - was not even a Christian! He died at the age of sixty-four years, on the 7th of January, 1715, at the time when Louis XIV, to assure the triumph of the Society of Jesus, was preparing to force Parliament to register the edicts which assimilated the refusal to accept the bull 'Unigenitus' to heresy, and rendered the guilty liable to be burned. He was also preparing to restore the heated chambers, which under his predecessors had put to death so many victims, and he would certainly have executed this criminal design if death had not delivered France of him."
This Order of Knights Templar was the spurious and pretended successor to the real one, and which existed under a forged and pretended charter of LARMENIUS and statutes constructed by an Italian priest named BONANI, under the direction of PHILIP of Orleans, the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. FENELON being dead, RAMSAY proceeded with his inventions, and to counteract the evils of the pretended Order of the Temple in Paris invented for his system the Templar Kadosh degree, which after his death was incorporated in 1754 by the Chevalier DE BONNEVILLE into the Rite of Perfection. The first part of the degree being severed from the latter, became the true Trinitarian Knights Templar degree, and with the Rose Croix, which was taken to England, Scotland, and Ireland, adopted in the Athol Grand Lodge at York, upon which the Baldwin and all other Encampments were organized, and in the manner already stated came to America, with which the WEBB Templar manufactured degree was welded and fused, and from which the American Knights Templar system arose and has reached its prominent position in the Masonic world today. In 1747 The Young Pretender, four years after the death of his tutor RAMSAY, established a Chapter of Rose Croix in the town of Arras, in France, with the title of Chapitre Primordial de Rose Croix. The charter of this body is now extant in an authenticated copy deposited in the departmental archives of Arras. In it The Young Pretender styles himself King of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland, and, by virtue of this, Sovereign Grand Master of the Chapter of Heredom, known under the title of the Eagle and Pelican, and, "since our sorrows and misfortunes, under that of Rose Croix." From this we infer that the degree had formerly been known as Knight of the Eagle and Pelican, a title which it still retains; that it was at that date introduced into France by The Young Pretender, who borrowed it from the Rosy Cross of the Royal Order of Scotland, of which, because as the King of Scotland is the Hereditary Grand Master, he, by virtue of his claim to the throne, assumed the Grand Mastership. Hence it is probable that the Rose Croix degree has been borrowed from the Rosy Cross of the Royal Order of Heredom, but in passing from Scotland to France it greatly changed its form and organization, as it resembles in no respect its archetype, except that both are eminently Christian in their design.
This degree became diffused through numerous rites of Masonry, but became the eighteenth of the Rite of Perfection, the eighteenth afterward of the Council of Emperors of the East and West
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and of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the seventh of the French or Rit Moderne, the third of the Royal Order of Scotland, the twelfth of the Elect of Truth, the seventh of the Phlalethes, and went with the Templar Kadosh to England and became the sixth of the degrees conferred by the Encampment of Baldwin at Bristol, England. This now brings us to.
THE RITE OF PERFECTION.
In 1754 the Chevalier DE BONNEVILLE established a Chapter of the high degrees at Paris, in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence called the Chapter of Clermont. The system of Masonry he there practiced received the name of the Rite of Perfection, or Rite of Heredom. The College of Clermont was, says REBOLD, the asylum of the adherents of the house of the STUARTS, and hence the rite is to some extent tinctured with STUART Masonry. It consisted of twenty-five degrees, as follows: 1, Apprentice; 2, Fellow Craft; 3, Master; 4, Secret Master; 5, Perfect Master; 6, Intimate Secretary; 7, Intendant of the Building; 8, Provost and judge; 9, Elect of Nine; 10, Elect of Fifteen; 11, Illustrious Elect Chief of the Twelve Tribes; 12, Grand Master Architect; 13, Royal Arch; 14, Grand Elect Ancient Perfect Master; 15, Knight of the Sword; 16, Prince of Jerusalem; 17, Knight of the East and West; 18, Rose Croix Knight; 19, Grand Pontiff; 20, Grand Patriarch; 21, Grand Master of the Key of Masonry; 22, Prince of Libanus; 23, Sovereign Prince Adept Chief of the Grand Consistory; 24, Illustrious Knight Commander of the Black and White Eagle; 25, Most Illustrious Sovereign Prince of Masonry, Grand Knight Sublime Commander of the Royal Secret.
Four years later this Chapter of Clermont gave way to the Council of Emperors of the East and West. These degrees, so far as they go, were of course the same. The distinguishing feature of this rite is that Freemasonry was derived from Templarism, and that consequently every Freemason is a Knight Templar. It was there that the Baron VON HUND was initiated, and from it through him proceeded the Rite of Strict Observance, although he discarded the degrees and retained only the Templar theory. The Rite of Perfection, with its degrees and divisions, was but a series of traps organized by the Jesuits for the purpose of discovering the true animus of men at the last in their real sentiments toward the papacy in the Templar Kadosh degree and disposition toward the house of the STUARTS; and the real head was The Young Pretender, CHARLES EDWARD. His project having failed and the prospect of his ever regaining the throne of Scotland and England becoming hopeless, the Rite of Perfection was but lukewarmly maintained, as political events in the world were soon to assume remarkable changes. The Baron VON HUND, after receiving the degrees of the Rite of Perfection and seeing it on the wane, went to work and borrowing from it constructed the Rite of Strict Observance, and it was divided into seven degrees: 1, Apprentice; 2, Fellow Craft; 3, Master; 4, Scottish Master; 5, Novice; 6, Templar; 7, Professed Knight. He took the first half of the Templar Kadosh degree of the Rite of Perfection for his Templar degree, leaving out the Kadosh. This was after VON HUND returned to Germany and had been appointed a deputy from the French authority to disseminate the high decrees in that country; but he took advantage of the knowledge gained, and it is said proceeded to formulate the Templar Rite of Strict Observance. ROBISON Says that "while VON HUND was in Paris he there became acquainted with the Earl of Kilmarnock and some other gentlemen who were adherents of The Pretender, and received from them the new degrees, which had been invented, so it is said, for political purposes by the followers of the exiled house of STUART." "While he resided in Paris," says FINDEL, "he received some intimations of the Order of Knights Templar in Scotland. The legend, which it is unnecessary to say has been deemed fabulous,
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is given to us by CLAVEL ('Hist. Pitton,' p. 184), who tells us that 'after the execution of JACQUES DE MOLAY, PIERRE D'AUMONT, the Provincial Grand Master of Auvergne, accompanied by two Commanders and five Knights, escaped to Scotland, assuming during their journey, for the purpose of concealment, the costume of operative masons. Having landed on one of the Scottish Islands they met several other companions Scottish Knights, with whom they resolved to continue the existence of the Order, whose abolition had been determined by the Pope and the King of France. At a Chapter held on St. John's Day, 1313, D'AUMONT was elected Grand Master, and the Knights, to avoid in future the persecutions to which they had been subjected, professed to be Freemasons and adopted the symbols of that Order. In 1361 the Grand Master transported his see to the city of Aberdeen, and from that time the Order of the Temple spread under the guise of Freemasonry throughout the British Islands and the Continent.'"
The question is not now as to the truth or even the probability of this legend. Baron VON HUND accepted it as a historical fact. He was admitted at Paris to the Order of Knights Templar (RAMSAY'S), CLAVEL says by The Pretender, CHARLES EDWARD, who was the Grand Master of the Order. ROBISON intimates that he was inducted by the Earl of Kilmarnock, whose signature was attached to his diploma. GADICKE says that he traveled over to Brabant to the French army and was there made a Templar by high chiefs of the Order; and this statement may be reconciled with that of ROBISON, for the high chiefs of GADICKE were probably the followers of The Pretender, some of whom were likely to have been with the French army. RAGON also asserts that "the Templar system of RAMSAY was known in Germany before the foundation of the Chapter of Clermont, whence VON HUND derived his information and his powers; that it consisted of six degrees, to which VON HUND added a seventh; and that at the time of VON HUND's arrival in Germany this regime had Baron VON MARSHALL at its head, to whom VON HUND'S superiors in Paris had referred him." This seems to be the correct version of the affair, and so the Rite of Strict Observance was not actually established but only reformed and put into more active operation by VON HUND. Continuing the line of descent, we come to the -
COUNCIL OF EMPERORS OF THE EAST AND WEST.
In 1758 the Rite of Perfection having become dormant it was revived in Paris in a Chapter called the Council of Emperors of the East and West. The members assumed the titles of Sovereign Prince Masons, Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Superintendents and Officers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem. Their ritual, which was based on the RAMSAY Templar system of the Rite of Perfection, consisted of 25 degrees: 1 to 19, the same as that 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 high degrees, appointed Grand Inspectors and Deputies, and established several bodies in the interior of France, among which was a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret at Bordeaux. In 1763, the Jesuits seeing that these degrees had passed beyond their control now, for the purpose of destroying them and Freemasonry with them altogether, if possible, induced a tool of theirs, one PINCEMAILLE, the Master of the Lodge La Candeur at Metz, to publish an exposition of these degrees in the serial numbers of a work entitled "Conversations Allegoriques sur la Franche - Maconnene." In 1764 the Grand Lodge of France offered him 300 livres to suppress the book. PINCEMAILLE accepted the offer but continued the publication, which lasted until 1766.
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Between the years 1760 and 1765 there was much dissension in the rite. A new Council of the Knights of the East was established at Paris in 176o 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 in opposition to the high degrees, excluding the malcontents and forbidding the symbolical Lodges to recognize the authority of these Chapters. But the excluded Masons 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 West is but a history of continuous 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. Before it ceased to have an existence it had granted and delegated powers to propagate the rite in other countries, and therefore, to preserve the connection, the following is given:
In 1758, the year of their establishment in France, the degrees of this Rite of Heredom, or of Perfection, as it was called, were carried by the Marquis De BERNEZ to Berlin and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes. Three years afterward, on August 27, 1761, the Deputies General of the Royal Art, Grand Wardens, and officers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem, established at Paris (so reads the document itself), granted a patent to STEPHEN MORIN, by which he was empowered "to multiply the sublime degrees of High Perfection and to create Inspectors in all places where the sublime degrees are not established." THORY, RAGON, CLAVEL, and LENNING say this patent was granted by the Grand Council of Emperors of the East and West; others say by the Grand Lodge; DALCHO says by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret at Paris. Bro. ALBERT PIKE, who has very elaborately investigated the question, says that "….the authority of MORIN was a joint authority of the two then contending Grand Lodges of France and the Grand Council, which is what DALCHO calls the Grand Consistory. From the Grand Lodge he received the power to establish a symbolic Lodge, and from the Grand Council or Consistory the power to confer the higher degrees. Not long after receiving these powers MORIN sailed for America and established bodies of the Scottish Rite or of Perfection in St. Domingo and Jamaica. The first Deputy Inspector - General appointed by STEPHEN MORIN under his commission from the Emperors of the East and West was HENRY A. FRANCKEN, who received his degrees and appointment at Kingston, Jamaica. The date is not known, but it must have been between 1762 and 1767. FRANCKEN soon repaired to the United States, where he gave the appointment of a deputy to MOSES M. HAYES at Boston, and organized a Council of Princes of Jerusalem at Albany. He was the first propagator of the high degrees in the United States."
After appointing several deputies and establishing some bodies in the West India Islands, MORIN is lost sight of. Nothing is known of his subsequent history or of the time and place of his death. RAGON, THORY, and CLAVEL say that MORIN was a Jew; but MACKAY says, "As these writers have judaized all the founders of the Scottish Rite in America, we have no right to place any confidence in their statements. The name of MORIN has been borne by many French Christians of literary reputation, from PETER MORIN, a learned ecclesiastical writer of the sixteenth century, to STEPHEN MORIN, an antiquary and Protestant clergyman, who died in 1700, and his son HENRY, who became a Catholic and died in 1728."
As we have already stated, the Monk of Eisleben of Germany was the great pioneer and torch - bearer of the Reformation to bring out the Great Light which had been hidden and concealed in the monasteries of Europe for centuries. When MARTIN LUTHER released the Bible from its chains in his monastery and from the fetters of a dead language not understood by the common people, and it was given to the world literally on the wings of the printer's press, he prepared the way to unlock the treasuries where the wisdom and knowledge of the centuries had been imprisoned
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for ages and came forth liberated and disenthralled. The myths and legends of history and tradition, with the arts, sciences, and philosophy that burst forth from their prison cells like birds just out from their cages, by natural instinct had to look around for a place to perch for safety, and after two centuries it became at last firmly secured under the protecting wings of the Black Eagle of Germany in the person of FREDERICK the Great. He saw what the Jesuits had done in the collating of degrees, formulating others, and combining the whole in the Rite of Perfection, that in the outcome the unwary might be caught at last in the Templar Kadosh degree. Not that there is anything improper in the degree itself, but the spirit manifested by the one who received it would show his real animus toward the papal power which put the Templars to death and robbed them of their possessions, and by this test thus mark their victims for destruction; for the Jesuits everywhere were pursuing a deadly still hunt for the blood of the real Knight Templar, wherever he might be found, where Rome controlled the religion of the state.
That we may understand the Masonic character of FREDERICK the Great, we give the following: In the year 1778, during our American Revolution for independence, FREDERICK the Great of Prussia, the friend of WASHINGTON, whom he greatly admired as a patriot and a Freemason, to whom he sent the present of a sword (as did also the Earl of Buchan of Scotland), and for whom Fredericksburg, Virginia, was named, found trouble in his own dominions, which he promptly suppressed. The Superior of a Dominican Convent at Aix - la - Chapelle (Father GREINEMAN) and a Capuchin Monk (Father SCHIFF) were trying to excite the lower classes against the Lodge of Masons at that place, which had been reconstituted by the mother Lodge at Wetzlar. When FREDERICK the Great heard of this he wrote the following letter to the instigators, dated February 7, 1778:
"Most Reverend Fathers - Various reports, confirmed through the papers, have brought to my knowledge with how much zeal you are endeavoring to sharpen the sword of fanaticism against quiet, virtuous people called Freemasons. As a former dignitary in this honorable body I am compelled as much as it is in my power to repel this dishonoring slander, and remove the dark veil that causes the temple we have erected to all virtues to appear to your vision as a gathering point for all vices. Why, my most reverend Fathers, will you bring back upon us those centuries of ignorance and barbarism that have so long been the degradation of the human reason - those times of fanaticism upon which the eye of understanding cannot look back but with a shudder - those times in which hypocrisy, seated on the throne of despotism with superstition on one side and humility on the other, tried to put the world in chains and commanded a regardless burning of those who were able to read? You are not only applying the nickname of masters of witchcraft to the Freemasons, but you accuse them of being thieves, profligates, forerunners of anti-Christ, and admonish a whole nation to annihilate such a cursed generation. Thieves, my most reverend Fathers, do not act as we do and make it their duty to assist the poor and the orphans; on the contrary, thieves are those who rob them sometimes of their inheritance, and fatten on their prey in the lap of idleness and hypocrisy. Thieves cheat, Freemasons enlighten humanity. A Freemason returning from his Lodge, where he has only listened to instructions beneficial to his fellow-beings, will be a better husband in his home. Forerunners of anti-Christ would in all probability direct their efforts toward an extinction of divine law. But it is impossible for Freemasons to sin against it without demolishing their own structure. And can those be a cursed generation who try to find their glory in the indefatigable efforts to spread those virtues which constitute them honest men? - FREDERIC."
In his own country of Germany the Rite of Perfection under FREDERICK the Great, freed from the intrigues and power of the Jesuits, continued to flourish, and he gave it its Grand Constitutions in 1762, which on October 25th of that year were finally ratified at Bordeaux, France, and proclaimed
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for the government of all the Lodges of sublime and perfect Masons, Councils, Colleges, and Consistories, of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, over the two hemispheres. This was done with the consent and approval of the Grand Consistory of Berlin, of which FREDERICK the Great was the Grand Commander and the Supreme Chief of the Scottish Rite or of Perfection. But he seeing the success of the War of the American Revolution for liberty and independence, a new nation born and established on the western shores of the Atlantic, whose independence had in 1783 been acknowledged by the mother country of Great Britain and a treaty of peace made and declared; and knowing what influence Masonry had exerted in producing that result, and the new American nation with an immense continent behind it with a vast future before it, resolved upon a change and an augmentation of the Rite of Perfection. Thus, after a period of twenty-four years, he reconstructed and reorganized it upon a new basis, and to prevent its control from again falling into the hands of the Jesuits and to bring into it also the history of the Teutonic Knights during the Crusades, that Order now being composed of Protestants, he added and interlaced eight other degrees to it, named the new and reformed system,
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY,
and established the Grand Constitutions, which were ratified and signed at Berlin on May 1, 1786. By these Constitutions of 1786 he resigned his authority, and his Masonic prerogatives were deposited with a Council in and for each nation, to be composed of Sovereign Grand Inspectors - General of the thirty-third and last degree of legitimate Freemasonry, limited in number to that of the years of CHRIST on the earth.
On August 17, 1786, FREDERICK the Great died. In France the Rite of Perfection was condensed into seven degrees, called the Kil Alotierne, or the Modern French Rite, which was composed as follows: 1, Apprentice; 2, Fellow Craft; 3, Master; 4, Elect; 5, Scotch Master; 6, Knight of the East; 7, Knight Rose Croix. Bro. FRANCKEN instituted a Lodge of Perfection of the fourteenth degree at Albany, N. Y., on December 20, 1767, nine years before the Declaration of Independence, and conferred the degree of Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret (then the twenty-fifth degree, but now the thirty-second) upon a number of brethren. This body after its creation remained comparatively dormant for many years, and its original warrant, books of record, and patents of brethren were fifty-five years after its establishment discovered and brought to light in 1822 by the late Bro. GILES FONDA YATES. This was the first body of the Rite of Perfection planted on the continent of North America. From its ritual and material no doubt it aided THOMAS SMITH WEBB to formulate his system of degrees in the Royal Arch Chapter, to appropriate the fifteenth and sixteenth degrees entire, to make his Red Cross degree as he did, and, from the Rose Croix and other material with his own invention, to make his American Knight Templar degree, for he resided at Albany in the interim and prepared his system there. Bro. YATES by due authority revived the Lodge of Perfection and placed it under the superintendency of a Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem, as required by the old Constitutions of 1762, and such Grand Council was subsequently opened in due form in that city. Bro. MOSES M. HAYES in 1781 appointed Bro. DA COSTA as Deputy Inspector - General for South Carolina, Bro. Solomon Bush for Pennsylvania, and Bro. Behrend M. Spitzer for Georgia, which appointments were confirmed by a council of Inspectors - General on June 15, 1781, two years before the close of the Revolutionary War. After the death of Bro. DA COSTA, Bro. JOSEPH MYERS was appointed by Bro. HAYES to succeed him. Before DA COSTA died, he, in accordance with the Constitutions of 1762, established a sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection in Charleston, S. C., where
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for the first time in the United States of America were the degrees from the fourth to the fourteenth, inclusive, actually worked; for in this country the three symbolic degrees are under the control and government of the Grand Lodges by which they were established, their authority duly recognized by all legitimate Scottish Rite Brethren who have remained true and loyal in their allegiance to the sovereign powers of Ancient Craft Masonry, which in turn appoints representatives to and receives them from the regular legitimate Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in various countries of the world and are in amity with them.
On February 20, 1788, a Council of Princes of Jerusalem was duly constituted at Charleston, S. C., and the officers installed by Bros. BEHREND M. SPITZER and A. FROST. The researches into the early history of the planting of the Scottish Rite or that of Perfection in this country prove that, notwithstanding the appointment of Inspectors - General in the several States, the Rite was worked in Charleston, S. C., only, and to the zeal of our Charleston Brethren (the most of whom were of Huguenot descent), to their constant application to the Scottish Rite, are we indebted for the foundation of the first real bodies of the rite in America and the parent of all legitimate bodies of the rite in existence. In 1796 a Council of Knights Kadosh (now of the 30th degree) was organized in Philadelphia by Brethren who had fled thither from the West Indies. This Council soon after became extinct through the return of its founders, and in 1797 a Chapter of the Rose Croix (of the 18th degree) was founded in New York City. The condition of France and of French Freemasonry was in constant ebullition and trouble through the machinations of the Jesuits. In the terrible upheaval and revolution of that people in 1798 everything civil, judicial, political, and Masonic were in a state of unutterable confusion, conflict, and chaos. The Rite of Perfection in a mutilated and sickly condition continued to exist in the French West India Islands, where remnants of the bodies were scattered. The Constitutions of 1786 established by FREDERICK the Great, as well as the rituals of the eight additional degrees which constituted the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, had been received by the Brethren at Charleston, S. C. Although the Revolutionary War in America had been successful and the United States had been established on a sure foundation with a constitutional government, yet it was in its infancy. In some portions Freemasonry under different and several Grand Lodges, the inheritors of their English Grand Lodge progenitors, was still unsettled, and a hostile feeling manifested itself for many years. There were two opposing Grand Lodges in South Carolina, one the "Ancients" and the other the "Moderns." In this state of affairs the Brethren of the Rite of Perfection in Charleston found themselves between two fires, and without a supreme head to their own rite existing anywhere; and, as related by Sir WALTER SCOTT, in "Quentin Durward," one of the Waverley Novels, in the reply made by QUENTIN DURWARD to CHARLES, Duke of Burgundy, when he said, "And that finally, when I did avail myself of that imputed character, it was as if I had snatched up a shield to protect myself in a moment of emergency and used it, as I surely should have done for myself and others, without inquiring whether I had a right to the heraldic emblazonments which it displayed."
So it was with the Brethren at Charleston, S. C. They were in possession of the Grand Constitutions of 1786 as well as 1762, together with the rituals of the new rite formed as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and the new rite and Grand Constitutions of 1786 became their shield of protection and defense, by their appropriation and adoption, no power then on earth existing to dispute their right to them; and the parent Supreme Council, which was formed agreeably to the Constitutions of 1786, was that founded at Charleston, S. C., on May 31, 1801, by Bros. JOHN MITCHELL and FREDERICK DALCHO - the former a colonel in the American army, and the latter a Protestant clergyman and a most distinguished writer. And so was formed the first Supreme Council.
CHAPTER XI.
Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree.
INSTITUTION OF THE MOTHER COUNCIL OF THE WORLD AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED AND OVERCOME IN THE
PROPAGATION OF THE RITE - FRAUDULENT BODIES
THE CURRICULUM.
THE Supreme Council, founded at Charleston, South Carolina, though composed of but two Inspectors - General in the beginning, became the mother and grandmother of all other legitimate Supreme Councils that were brought into existence after it was first established, and which with itself are the only legal authority of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in America or elsewhere.
[THOMAS SMITH WEBB and HENRY FOWLE of Boston, JOHN SNOW of Providence, and THOMAS LOWNDES of New York - they four only - organized themselves into the General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States, and adopted a constitution for themselves and all Grand and subordinate Encampments or Commanderies thereafter constituted under its authority. This was done at New York on June 20, 1816. They had the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for an example to follow, though they had twice the number to start with. It had two and they four.] In 1802 the Supreme Council at Charleston conferred the 33d degree on Bros. Count DE GRASSE TILLEY, HACQUET, and DE LA HOGUE, and these Brethren by its authority of Letters Patent, dated February 21, 1802, established the Supreme Councils of France and those of the French and English West India Colonies. The Supreme Council of France was duly installed by Ill\DE GRASSE TILLEY on December 22, 1804, at Paris, in the hall known as the gallery of Pompeii, situated in the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs. This Supreme Council was the first and only one established in France, and it was afterward divided into two branches, one called the Supreme Council of France and the other the Supreme Council of the Grand Orient of France. These two bodies are still in existence, but the former only is in relation of comity with the mother Supreme Council (which created it) and all the other regular Supreme Councils of the world. Ill\Bro. DE GRASSE TILLEY also established the Supreme Councils of Italy, Naples, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Article V of the Grand Constitutions of 1786 provides that there shall be only one Supreme Council of the 33d degree in each nation or kingdom; two in the United States of America, as distant as possible one from the other; one in the British Islands of America, and one also in the French Colonies.
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The first Supreme and mother Council of the World, having commenced its. labors on May 31, 1801, at Charleston, S. C., its own jurisdiction extended over the whole of the United States of America until August 5, 1813, when the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern jurisdiction of the United States was established by the former through its special proxy and representative, EMMANUEL DE LA MOTTA. This Supreme Council, whose M P S Grand Commander was Bro. DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, Vice-president of the United States, replaced the Grand Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, 32d degree, which had been established by the same authority August 6, 1806. Subsequently in after years the seat of the Northern Supreme Council was removed to Boston.
Its jurisdiction embraces all the northern or northeast quarter of the United States east of the Mississippi River, excepting the small eastern fraction of Minnesota, and embraces the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Delaware. All the rest of the States and Territories were reserved by the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States, which remained undisturbed and unaffected by the acts of secession of the Southern States which formed the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Supreme Council for the Northern jurisdiction of the United States of America created the Supreme Council of England and Wales in March, 1846, and this body in its turn created the Supreme Councils of Scotland and the Canadian Dominion, the Southern Supreme Council creating the Supreme Councils for Ireland, Mexico, and others on the American continent. The labors of the two Supreme Councils of the United States and their subordinates have never ceased, and from the first days of their creation up to the present time both have enjoyed the rights and privileges of Supreme Cotincils as the regular constituted and administrative heads of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, each in its respective Jurisdiction; and whenever an attempt has been made to invalidate their authority and prerogatives it has been met with a denunciation of the individuals or bodies encroaching upon their rights. Therefore, since August 5, 1813, the provisions of Article V of the Constitutions of 1786 have been complied with, and there are in the United States of America, consequently, but two regular Supreme Councils. They have ever preserved and enforced their authority, and they have never failed to discountenance all attempts against an authority which rightfully ab initio et de jure et de facto belongs to them. It was impossible for a third Supreme Council to be established in the United States of America without violating the Constitutions of 1786, and without which, as already stated, neither the 33d degree nor a Supreme Council can exist. It was an unwise measure to establish a second Supreme Council in the United States, as subsequent events proved. It was a strange historic coincidence that the very year that saw Blue Masonry of the two Grand Lodges in England consolidated into one body, that Scottish Freemasonry in the United States should have even amicably divided into two separate organizations, each Supreme Council altering and amending its own constitutions and statutes, changing and making alterations of its ritual, destroying the beauty, harmony, and uniformity of the work.
In 1813 there were no railroads or steamboats, and the distances being great, modes of conveyance difficult, accompanied with loss of time and great expense in traveling to and from the place of meeting, and the country again at war with Great Britain, it was at that time considered advisable to establish a second Supreme Council. It will be a happy day for the rite when both Supreme Councils shall again be consolidated into one national Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the United States of America, with a representative government established upon the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, which are emblazoned upon its banners and which it professes to teach.
By reason of its self - preservation as the Royal and
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Military Order of the House of the Temple, and because of its progressive Freemasonry - rescued from the hands of the Jesuits and its weapons turned against them by FREDERICK the Great, who gave its Grand Constitutions in 1762 and 1786 - its system and autonomy of government cannot be fundamentally disturbed. Scottish Freemasonry, from its foundation to the top of its loftiest spire, is the Temple of Civil and Religious Liberty, teaching and practicing the true principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. "It has the old Knights Templar for its models, the Rose Croix for its fathers, and the Johannites for ancestors." It is the perpetuator of the school of Alexandria, heir of all the ancient initiations; depository of the secrets of the Apocalypse and the Sohar; the object of its worship is Truth, represented by the Light; it tolerates all creeds and professes but one and the same philosophy. The allegorical object is the rebuilding of the Temple of SOLOMON; its real object is the reconstruction of social unity by the alliance of reason and faith in accordance with knowledge and virtue, with initiation and tests by means of degrees; and, we may add, to preserve the natural liberties and rights of man - corporeal, intellectual, and spiritual - against all usurpations of royalty and priestly power. Said that implacable enemy of Freemasonry and the mouthpiece of Pope Pius VI, the Abbe BARRUEL, in 1797, charging the Freemasons with revolutionary principles in politics and with infidelity to the Roman Catholic religion, seeking to trace the origin of the institution to those ancient heretics the Manicheans and through them to the old Knights Templar, against whom he revived the old accusations of PHILIP the Fair and Pope CLEMENT V: "Your whole school and all of your Lodges are derived from the Templars. After the extinction of their Order a certain number of guilty knights, having escaped proscription, united for the preservation of their horrid mysteries. To their impious code they added the vow of vengeance against the kings and priests who destroyed their Order and against all religion [papal] which anathematized their dogmas. They made adepts who should transmit from generation to generation the same mysteries of iniquity, the same oaths, and the same hatred of the GOD of the Christians [the Pope] and of kings and priests [papists]. These mysteries have descended to you, and you continue to perpetuate their impiety, their vows, and their oaths. Such is your origin. The lapse of time and the change of manners have varied a part of your symbols and your frightful systems, but the essence of them remains; the vows, the oaths, and the conspiracies are the same." So far as concerns teaching hatred of the temporal and spiritual tyranny of such monsters as PHILIP the Fair, Pope CLEMENT V, and the treacherous Knights of Malta, of persecution and the tortures of the inquisition, and of the burning at the stake of DE MOLAY (the last Grand Master of the Templars) and his fellow Knights, the fanatical Abbe BARRUEL was correct. Archbishop Du - PANLOUP, in his book against Freemasonry, after quoting all the anathemas of the Popes and the declarations of other Church authorities in 1876, said, "A Catholic who becomes a Freemason descrates the temple of the living GOD to work at the temple of an idol." What a vast number of idolaters there are in the Christian and civilized world! But they are chiefly those who make their god of dough into a myriad of wafers with a stamp of the crucified SAVIOR upon them, and then with their blind followers become cannibals and eat the god of their own creation. They are not like the Freemasons who, obeying the voice of their Most Wise and Divine Master in partaking of the bread and the wine in the celebration of the Passover, "As oft as ye do this, do it in remembrance of Me." It is a memorial service and not a logical cannibalism. But this is a digression.
Of the legitimate Supreme Councils in the world duly recognized by each other in the sustainincy of fraternal relations, there are the following, with the dates of their constitution: Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., May 31, 1801; France, September 22, 1804; Northern jurisdiction, U.S.A., August 5, 1813; Belgium, March 11, 1817; Ireland, June 11, 1825; Brazil, April 6, 1826; Peru,
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November 2, 1830; New Granada, 1833; England, Wales, and Dependencies, March, 1846; Scotland, 1846; Uruguay, 1856; Argentine Republic, September 13, 1858; Turin of Italy, 1848; Colon, Cuba, 1855; Venezuela, 1864; Mexico, April 28, 1868; Portugal, 1842; Chili, May 24, 1862; Central America, May 27, 1870; Hungary, November 25, 1871; Greece, June 24, 1872; Switzerland, March 30, 1873; Canada, October, 1874; Rome of Italy, January 14, 1877; Egypt, 1878; Spain, 1879; Tunis, May 11, 1880. The following Supreme Councils have been formed but have not received formal recognition and the courtesy of an exchange of representatives: Naples of Italy, Dominican Republic, Turkey, Palermo of Italy, Florence of Italy, and Luxembourg. To several of the Supreme Councils the Grand Lodges of the maritime States of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts appoint representatives and in turn receive representatives from them, being also Grand Lodges having the government of the Blue degrees. But in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Dominion of Canada the government of the symbolic Lodges and the control of the Blue degrees remain with the Grand Lodges which are sovereign in their jurisdictions.
In the United States, in both the Southern and Northern jurisdictions, there has been much annoyance in the past from spurious and clandestine individual imposters and the bodies created by them. One JOSEPH CERNEAU, a French jeweler, born at Villeblerin, France, in 1763, in the beginning of the nineteenth century (1806) removed from the French West Indies to the city of New York.
There in 1812 he invaded the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of Charleston, S.C., which then governed the whole of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States, and established a spurious body under the title of "Sovereign Grand Consistory of the United States of America, its Territories and Dependencies." This Masonic charlatan, who claimed the right to organize bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, was expelled and his pretensions denounced in 1813 by the legal Supreme Council sitting at Charleston, S.C.
CERNEAU and his adherents gave much trouble in the Scottish rite for many years, and the bodies which he had formed were not entirely dissolved until long after the establishment of the legal Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction. By his fraudulent successors and to the harm and disgrace of Masonry, spurious Masonry has been, in some form or other, set up in various portions of the country to this day to disturb the harmony of the Order. This imposter, with the old Rite of Perfection which had ceased to exist, consisting of twenty-five degrees, established clandestine bodies not only of that rite but of Royal Arch Masons and Knights Templar in New Orleans, as he had previously done in New York; and by jugglery shifted and changed the names of his bodies from time to time, as suited his pleasure, and by mere dicta per se declared himself and his coadjutors Sovereign Grand Inspector - Generals of the 33d degree. A clandestine Lodge of Fellow Craft Masons might with equal propriety resolve itself into a Grand Lodge of Master Masons, without ever having been even clandestinely raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. Afterward, unfortunately, the Northern Supreme Council for a few years was divided into two factions, of which the imposters took advantage. One of these factions compromised with, healed, and affiliated some of the dupes of these frauds, and when the schism or breach was afterward healed, the Northern Supreme Council for a time was infected with an unhealthy absorption by an unwise compromise which was made with the best of intentions for the good of Freemasonry. Some of the healed frauds violated their oaths, broke their plighted sworn faith, repeated their nefarious practices and were expelled. With additional Masonic knowledge gained through degrees regularly conferred upon them, and more Masonic stock in trade with which to do business, they proceeded to establish new bodies of clandestine Scottish Rite Masonry, quarreled among themselves and again divided into several so-called Supreme Councils, spreading confusion among the Craft.
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JOSEPH CERNEAU had been a member of several Masonic bodies in the West Indies. He had a patent from MATHIEU DUPOTET, certifying that he had received the degrees of the Scottish Rite of Heredom, and authorizing him to confer the degrees up to the twenty-fourth and organize bodies in the northern part of Cuba, and to confer the twenty-fifth on one person in each year, the twenty-fifth being then the highest degree of that Rite of Perfection, and the highest CERNEAU had received according to his patent. CERNAU had his patent from DUPOTET, who had his from GERMAIN HACQUET, who had his from Du PLESSIS, who had his from PREVOST in 1790, who had his from FRANCKFN. As stated, what authority he had was outside of the United States. He had but twenty-five degrees, was not in possession of the eight other, including the thirty-third, and invaded the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council at Charleston, S. C., which then embraced the whole of the United States, by issuing a warrant for a Grand Consistory in New York City on October 28, 1807, which was not fully organized until the autumn of 1808. It organized the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of New York on January 22, 1814, whose subordinates were: Ancient Encampment, New York; Temple Encampment, Albany; Montgomery Encampment, Stillwater. The first official proceedings show that on the day mentioned the Sovereign Grand Consistory "decreed the establishment of a Grand Encampment of Sir Knights Templar and Appendant Orders for the State of New York, and immediately proceeded to its formation by choosing the Grand Officers thereof" from among the members of the Consistory. Not a single Commandery had requested such action, nor had a single Knight Templar, as such. It was the voluntary action of an alien body, which in itself had no such authority as it assumed to exercise. A warrant of recognition was issued in 1816 to Columbia Commandery of New York and a warrant for a new Commandery at New Orleans the same day. CERNEAU had also established a spurious and clandestine body of the Rite of Perfection in the latter city. The following quotation is from the records: "On the 4th day of May, 1816, a meeting of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of New York was called to act upon an application by a collected body of Sir Knights Templar, Royal Arch Masons, and members of the Sovereign Grand Council of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret for the State of Louisiana, sitting at New Orleans, praying that a constitutional charter be granted them, etc. They had previously to this application elected and installed their officers. The charter, by resolution, was granted them, and it was also Resolved, That the Ill\Bro. JOSEPH CERNEAU having been designated by the Louisiana Encampment, be and is hereby acknowledged and accredited as such." Just one month and seventeen days afterward (June 20 - 1, 1816), the General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States was established in New York by four men only, as already stated, who were self - appointed delegates, viz,, THOMAS SMITH WEBB, HENRY FOWLE, and JOHN SNOW, of Boston and Providence, and THOMAS LOWNDES of the CERNEAU Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of New York, and representing also the CERNEAU Temple Encampment of Albany and Montgomery Encampment of Stillwater, N. Y. So from the very beginning this CERNEAU fraud was interwoven into the fabric of the General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States, as well as the Cryptic Rite so called, or the side degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Royal and Select Masters, LOWNDES creating Columbia Council, No. 1, of Royal Masters, he not then being in possession of the ritual of the Select Master's degree. Says Past Grand Master HOPKINS, in the Grand Encampment proceedings for 1889, page 192: "What authority JOSEPH CERNEAU had for conferring the Orders of Knighthood and constituting Commanderies, and whence he derived his authority, has not been ascertained. No authority to confer the Orders of Knighthood is contained in his patent; at least there is no such authority in the patent of July 15, 1806, granted to MATHIEU DUPOTET. If he had any other patent, or if he
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himself had ever received the Orders of Knighthood, no evidence of the fact has been found." If Past Grand Master HOPKINS had been posted he would have had no difficulty in understanding it.
If JOSEPH CERNEAU, as a Deputy Inspector - General for the old Rite of Perfection (25th degree), had possessed the legal right to have conferred its degrees in the United States at the time he did, and had not invaded the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council at Charleston which already occupied the territory, he would not have required any special patent or authority to confer the Knight Templar degree, as it was a part of the Kadosh degree of that rite. As he had no legal authority to enter the United States to propagate that rite, and it was an invasion of jurisdiction to establish it as he did, it was of course clandestine and so declared. But he did what the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite did not do, and this presents a new question. The Supreme - Council at Charleston, in the re-arrangement of the Kadosh degree, dropped the first part of the degree or concluded not to work it, and declared CERNEAU's Consistory at New York clandestine and probably supposed that in so doing it disposed of the whole matter. But it did not, and CERNEAU no doubt learning in some way that as the authority of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which declared him an imposter and his work clandestine, did not work the first or Templar part of the Kadosh degree, saw an opening for himself and his Consistory by detaching the Templar part of the Kadosh degree, and established the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of New York on the segment of the Kadosh degree. The first constitution of this Grand Commandery made its membership consist of officers and members of the Grand Conimandery and delegates from such subordinates under its jurisdiction as might recognize its authority. It also provided that the Grand Master should be admitted as a member of the Supreme Council without fee, that the Commanders of subordinates should be entitled to the degree of Prince of the Royal Secret, and that the members of the Consistory should be admitted free of charge. Thus the reciprocity of these two branches of clandestine Masonry was made complete, which was quite natural, as they were composed of the same individuals. This CERNEAU Consistory did just what the Supreme Council at Charleston should have done in the first place by in effect keeping the Templar degree active within its bosom, as the first part of the Kadosh. In this respect CERNEAU got ahead of it and even further, for THOMAS LOWNDES was the delegate from the CERNFAU Grand Commandery of New York to the convention of the four individuals who organized the General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States a little more than six weeks afterward; and what is more surprising than all, is, that at that convention the CERNEAU delegate (LOWNDES) was the only one really in possession of the Templar degree. The other three (WEBB, FOWLE, and SNOW) only had a Templar degree, which, as the late Bro. ALBERT PIKE said, "… was manufactured by THOMAS SMITH WEBB out of whole cloth." They adopted a constitution for the General Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States first, ratified it, subscribed to it, installed officers under it, and left the matter of the ritual and degrees to be adjusted afterward. WEBB had previously obtained possession in some way at Albany, N.Y., of the ritual of the Council of Princes of Jerusalem, or had access to it, "and taking the 15th and 16th degrees bodily," as PIKE says, "and putting them together made one degree of them and called it the Red Cross degree." It was this degree alone, which is entirely Hebrew and Persian in drama and history of events 536 years before CHRIST, upon which Boston Commandery was first organized in 1802. St. John's Commandery, No. 1, at Providence, R.I., was organized on August 23, 1802, with WEBB'S manufactured Knight Templar degree. In the archives of this St. John's Commandery, No. 1, is said to be the original manuscript of WEBB'S Templar degree. This
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will account in a great measure for WEBB'S strenuous earnestness in the organization of the National Encampment, and, with three other individuals, getting the control in the start, and his willingness to accept the representative of the CERNEAU Grand Coinmandery of New York in its organization for his own situation and that of the bodies of his own creation upon his own made rituals. He was becoming desperate and apprehensive lest they might not be recognized as legitimate after the other and more regular Commanderies of Knights Templar came out from under the folds of the Lodges of the Ancients, under whose authority they claimed to be organized or to which they were appendant.
Reverting again to the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States: It may be noted that the rite suffered severely from the misfortunes incident to the late Civil War. Its treasury was exhausted in Masonic charity, its records and rituals lost and burned in the conflagration of Charleston (the birthplace and home of the late Bro. ALBERT GALLATIN MACKAY, 33°, its Secretary - General), and other cities. At the close of the war but few bodies had any existence, and the brethren who had not died were scattered and left impoverished, so that it seemed almost impossible to resuscitate the rite in that portion of the jurisdiction. There is something inexpressibly sad and touching as the records are read of the last two meetings of the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States, held just previous to the late Civil War and those immediately following it - that of March 28 - 31, 1860, held at Washington City, D. C. of the nine active members who assembled then but one survives, the good, noble, and beloved Bro. FRED WEBBER, 33°, Secretary - General. The last act of that session was to pay a pilgrimage to Mt. Vernon, escorted by Washington Commandery of Knights Templar, and hold a Lodge of Sorrow in honor of the memory of GEORGE WASHINGTON, the Father of his Country, a little more than a year before the flames and explosions of the Civil War were to burst forth over the land. The session of April 1, 1861, was held at New Orleans, when twelve of the officers and active members were present, of whom only one is now living, Bro. FRED WEBBER. At the session of February, 1862, at Charleston, only four were present, and all are dead. War was then raging in all its fury, Freemasonry being apparently dead, and silence prevailing in all the valleys, while tears were flowing in that dark hour from the eyes of men unused to weeping. The Southern Supreme Council did not meet again until after the close of the war, and then in the Masonic Hall in Charleston, S. C., on November 17, 1865 - only six members were present and all have since died.
The Northern Supreme Council was then sundered in twain, and imposters and frauds were like jackals gorging themselves on the battle - field with the bodies of the slain. "Ardet ut vivatl" (she burns that she may live) was once a motto of the old Knights Templar, and the phoenix was again to rise from the ashes of the funeral pyre; for with indomitable energy and zeal of Grand
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Commander, ALBERT PIKE, 33° - of matchless scholarship in ancient lore and of profound knowledge in the old mysteries and philosophy - commenced the reconstruction of the rite at Charleston, S. C., upon the old foundations which remained undisturbed, aided by that other most illustrious Mason, the MOSES and lawgiver of the fraternity of Freemasons around the globe, ALBERT GALLATIN MACKAY, 33°, the late Dean and Secretary - General of the Southern Supreme Council (assembling like ZERUBBABEL and HAGGAI with a few others at the ruins of their Temple at Jerusalem). Though the temple and city were destroyed, yet their jurisdiction of the holy empire remained intact. Without money and means they devoted themselves to the work. That portion of the jurisdiction which before had been comparatively unoccupied had happily escaped the ravages of war, and the black cloud of sorrow and desolation which covered the southern and eastern portions of their jurisdiction, still moistened with blood and wet with the tears of the sorrowing and afflicted, had a silver and even a golden lining when lifted by the fresh breezes from the Pacific shores, borne across the Sierras and the crest of the Rocky Mountains to the woe - stricken hills and valleys of the South. During two and a half years of the war Bro. PIKE had been engaged in rewriting and restoring the rituals of the Rite and upon the cessation of hostilities he undertook the work of reconstruction and propagation. This was a most herculean task to attempt or accomplish, and in the midst of it there arose opposition and bitter controversy from ignorance and prejudice which continued for many years. It was happily allayed, and the error acknowledged by those brethren who had wantonly assailed the rite, but who afterward became its most vigorous and ardent defenders.
On the Pacific Coast the - late Ill\E. H. SHAW, 33°, Active Inspector - General for the State of California, aided by Ill\ THOMAS H. CASWELL, 33° (late Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council), in 1866 - 70 established twenty bodies of the rite in California, including the Grand Consistory, and subsequent to that time as Inspector - General Bro. CASWELL established two other bodies of the rite in California, besides doing a very large amount of work in advancing the interests of the rite on the Pacific Coast; and, as the late Grand Commanders PIKE, BATCHELDER, and TUCKER passed away, he by seniority in rank and line became the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council in 1895, a worthy successor to such eminent and distinguished Masons and Commanders, and whose eminent labors for the rite ceased only at his death. In Oregon in the same period the late Ill\JOHN C. AINSWORTH, 33°, then Active Inspector - General of that State, aided by the late E. H. SHAW, 33°, established six bodies of the rite. The latter also established four bodies of the rite at Virginia City, Nev., in 1867, and in 1871 one at Salt Lake City, Utah. Ill\E. H. SHAW, 33°, by deputy, constituted one body at Hamilton, White Pine County, Nev., in 1871, and Ill\THOMAS H. CASWELL, 33°, by deputy, one body at Eureka, Cal., in 1871. The Southern Supreme Council in 1872, by deputy, established fifteen bodies of the rite at Seattle, Olympia, Port Townsend, and Port Gamble, on Puget Sound, in the then Territory but now the State of Washington. In 1874 - 5 two bodies of the rite were organized at Carson City, Nev. In October, 1883, three bodies of the rite were established in Oakland, Cal. The late Ill\CHARLES F. BROWN, 33°, in 1883 constituted three bodies of the rite in Los Angeles, Cal.
The see of the Supreme Council for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States is nominally at the place of its foundation, which is Charleston, S. C., but its headquarters is really at Washington City, D.C., where it has been for a third of a century. It owns its own House of the Temple, which belongs to all the members of its jurisdiction alike, with the grandest Masonic Library and the rarest and most valuable books to be found in the world, the gift of the late Grand Commander ALBERT PIKE, the rebuilder and restorer of the ancient mysteries of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite - the sage, philosopher, scholar, lawyer, poet, and the most renowned Mason of modern
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times - linking the present with the past; the only man on earth who took up the gauntlet thrown down by Pope LEO XIII and smote the brazen face of the papacy with a mailed hand squarely on its frontlet between the eyes as the champion of Freemasonry, and the rights of free conscience, the natural heritage of all mankind.
SECRET MASTER.
His re-clothed and incomparable ritual of the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite - the legend, the morals, and dogma - are a curriculum for the Masonic student and scholar, a compendium of knowledge beyond price; and he who has the time, the means, and the capacity to acquire and retain the same, will become possessed of the exhaustless treasures of the dowry of Truth, the daughter of ALMIGHTY GOD.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite confers no degrees but what are strictly and legitimately its own, and its doors are open to every worthy, intelligent Master Mason, who is seeking for knowledge and light, who is willing to use the sword when necessary in defense of the trowel in the building of the Temple of Civil and Religious Liberty, where the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity are inculcated and where the loftiest truths of science and philosophy are taught and demonstrated, and the religion of humanity without creed and politics without party are most studiously cultivated: a ladder like that in JACOB's dream, where the Christian, the Jew, the Mohammedan, the Brahmin, or the Buddhist Brother, inspired by the angels of their better natures, may climb to its summit, view the Infinite, and hold communion with the All - Father, if he so desires, without encroaching upon the rights and privileges of his Brother Mason. It is this spirit of toleration which the rite inculcates, and is like the bee which gathers honey from every flower for the common hive, yet carries a weapon to defend itself when attacked in its course by the oppressor, the thief, and the robber in every land.
PERFECT MASTER – PART I.
Before giving further history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, it is proper at this time to state the requisite qualifications to receive the degrees, an outline of each, and what they teach, so far as they can be made known outside the arcanum in which they are conferred. To receive the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite it is only necessary to be a Master Mason in good standing, in the United States, the three degrees of Entered Apprentice Mason, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason having been conferred by proper authority under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodges whose sovereignty over those degrees is fully recognized and respected; these degrees are accepted and counted in the scale of the thirty-three.
In some countries the Supreme Councils are the Grand Lodges under whose authority the symbolic degrees are also conferred. In the United
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States the degrees of the Scottish Rite are conferred in regularly constituted bodies at or in the vicinity of the applicant's residence, if there be any; or they are conferred by communication by Active Inspectors - General of the 33d degree of that rite, or by their duly appointed deputies, who are authorized to communicate them and create members at large, as nuclei for others, to be afterward constituted into bodies when there are a sufficient number, the fees being paid into the treasury of the Supreme Council. While the number of degrees may be considered large, yet the lessons and catechism to be learned are very short, not averaging over five questions and answers to a degree in order to be perfect. The patent or diploma will at all times admit the lawful possessor to any body of the rite which he is entitled to visit by virtue of the rank of the degree to which he has attained.
PERFECT MASTER – PART II.
The following is the scale of degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry: -
SCALE OF DEGREES OF THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED
SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY.
The Ineffable Degrees. - The Ineffable degrees pertain to King SOLOMON's Temple only, and commence where the Master's degree of the Symbolic Lodge stops.
There are eleven degrees which are conferred in a Lodge of Perfection, beginning at the brow of Mt. Moriah and ending with the dedication of King SOLOMON'S Temple, with the final instructions to the workmen, enabling them to travel in other countries to be received with honors and entrusted with other work. These degrees are: 4°, Secret Master; 5°, Perfect Master; 6°, Intimate Secretary; 7°, Provost and judge; 8°, Intendant of the Building; 9°, Knight Elect of the Nine; 10°, Illustrious Elect of the Fifteen; 11°, Sublime Knight Elect of the Twelve; 12°, Grand Master Architect; 13°, Royal Arch of SOLOMON; 14°, Perfect Elu, or Grand Elect Perfect and Sublime Mason. The 4th and 5th degrees have relation to the proper tribute due to the memory of the third Grand Master of the Temple; the 6th, 7th, and 8th degrees, to supplying the place made vacant by the death of the architect of the Temple, in keeping the record of the plans agreed upon by the two kings, the adjustment of the accounts and demands of the workmen, the settlement of disputes, and the resumption of work upon the Temple; the 9th and 10th degrees, to the faithful administration of justice, which never tires or sleeps; the 11th degree, the rewarding of the faithful and true for bringing offenders to justice, and the regulation of the equitable collection of the revenues of the realm; the 12th degree, the science of architecture, the use of all the instruments and their morals, and the science of astronomy, with geometry and the lofty lessons to be learned in the starry heavens above us; the 13th degree, the fortunate discovery of that which has been lost, but still unknown to the discoverers; the 14th degree, the preparation of the heart, mind, and body, by consecration to the service of true Freemasonry, to receive, on the completion of the Temple, with the fullest and most ample explanations, the great treasure and reward which is delivered by the two kings to the patient, discreet, and faithful workman, thereby enabling him in all his journeys through life to be welcomed and received as a true Brother, earn his wages and the bread for himself and his family, and contribute to the relief of his fellows.
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[From the 6th and a portion of the 14th degrees, with other matter added, the side degree of Select Master was made; and from the 13th and 18th degrees, with a change of history applied to the second Temple, RAMSAY made the Royal Arch of ZERUBBABEL, which DERMOTT engrafted upon his seceding Grand Lodge of the Ancients. This, in a slightly modified form, is now the Royal Arch conferred in England; and in this country, remodeled by WEBB, is the Royal Arch of the American Rite.]
KNIGHT ELECT OF THE NINE.
Second Temple Degrees - The following are the Second Temple series: 15°, Knight of the East, of the Sword, or of the Eagle; 16°, Prince of Jerusalem. These two degrees are founded upon the history of the two reigns of the Persian monarchs, CYRUS and DARIUS; the destruction of the Temple of SOLOMON by NEBUZURADAN; the captivity of the Jews, who were carried away to Babylon; the decrees of these two kings permitting the rebuilding of the Temple by ZERUBBABEL, the restoration of the holy vessels, and the release of the Jews from captivity, with the hindrances and opposition from the Samaritans - all serving to symbolize the destruction of the Order of Knights Templar, which was ruined, scattered, and proscribed, and of a country which had lost its liberties and the difficulty of regaining them - teaching Freemasons, as brethren, the lessons of patience and perseverance under affliction and trials, and that they should never despair in their efforts to regain what, through treachery, persecution, oppression, and robbery, whether of liberty or possessions, they like the old Knights Templar may have lost.
The history of these degrees will be found in full in the first book of Esdras, in the Apocrypha in the Bible, and is dramatized from it, and furnishes the foundation upon which these degrees are constructed.
[These two degrees were taken bodily by THOMAS SMITH WEBB from the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, telescoped or consolidated by him, mis-called the Red Cross degree, and placed by him in the American Commanderies of Knights Templar. They are entirely Jewish and Persian in history and drama, the events occurring 536 years before the crucifixion of CHRIST.] "Knight of Ihe East. - The fifteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is substantially the tenth degree, or Knight of the Red Cross of the American Rite. " - Mackay's Enc., P. 415.
"Knight of the Red Cross. - WEBB, or whoever else introduced it into the American system, undoubtedly took it from the sixteenth degree, or Prince of Jerusalem, of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. It has within a few years been carried into England under the title of the Red Cross of Babylon. In New Brunswick it has been connected with Cryptic Masonry. It is there as much out of place as it is in a Commandery of Knights Templar. " - Mackay's Enc., P. 418.
"Babylonish Pass. - A degree given in Scotland by the authority of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter. It is also called the Red Cross of Babylon, and is almost identical with the Knight of the Red Cross conferred in Commanderies of Knights Templar as a preparatory degree." Mackay's Enc., p. 99.
"Embassy. - The embassy of ZERUBBABEL and four other Jewish chiefs to the Court of DARIUS,
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to obtain the protection of that monarch from the encroachments of the Samaritans, who interrupted the labors in the rebuilding 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 is surely borrowed from the former." - Mackay's Enc., P. 250.
The Spiritual Temple Degrees. - 17°, Knight of the East and West; 18°, Knight of Rose Croix (Rosy Cross). [The 15° and 16°, embraced in the Council of Princes of Jerusalem, are now, with the 17° and 18E, in the Southern jurisdiction, conferred in the Chapters of Rose Croix.] The 17°, or Knight of the East and West, portrays the history, life, and doctrines of ST. JOHN the Baptist, and his sad fate, like that of the master builder of King SOLOMON's Temple, who fell a victim and a martyr to the principles of virtue, integrity, and truth; and also the history and teachings of ST. JOHN the Evangelist, who in his gospel declared that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD," and whose rapturous vision of the new Jerusalem on the Isle of Patmos, in which he was told to "weep not, behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah hath prevailed," made him the Knight of the West, to proclaim the truth in revelation, as ST. JOHN the Baptist had been the Knight and Herald of the East, at the head of the Order of the Essenes, to declare the approach of "One that cometh after him and who is preferred before him." The 18°, or Knight Rose Croix, portrays the history of Him who came to elevate His race and to be the reformer and redeemer of men - one whom all liberal - minded men, regardless of creed, will readily admit was unjustly and inhumanly put to death, to satisfy the insensate clamors of a fanatical mob, at the instigation of a hierarchy that was false to its race and content to willingly serve under the foreign yoke of a conqueror, to pay tribute to his power, that priestly authority might control the destiny of its own people whom it was willing should be kept in subjection that they might, with a rod of iron, rule over the heart and conscience of men: a hierarchy that finds today its counterpart at the Vatican in Rome. In the Rose Croix degree no violence is done to any man's religious faith, while the Christian may draw its lessons more closely to heart than others; yet the grand principles of Toleration, Humanity, and Fraternity are taught, in which all good men may recognize CHRIST as a most wise master builder and one endeared to us as "our elder Brother," who has taught us to say "Our Father which art in Heaven," and "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them, and love thy neighbor as thyself."
GRAND ELECT PERFECT AND SUBLIME MASON
OR PERFECT ELU.
The Historic, Philosophic, and Chivalrous Degrees. 19°, Grand Pontiff; 20°, Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges; 21°, Noachite or Prussian Knight; 22°, Prince of Libanus or Knight of the Royal Axe; 23°, Chief of the Tabernacle; 24°, Prince of the Tabernacle; 25°, Knight of the Brazen Serpent, 26°, Prince of Mercy or Scottish Trinitarian; 27°, Knight Commander of the Temple; 28°, Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept; 29°, Grand Scottish Knight of ST. ANDREW; 30°, Knight Kadosh, of the Black and White Eagle, or Knight Templar.
The 19th degree relates to the Apocalyptic Vision or Revelation of ST. JOHN the Evangelist, and the hoped - for millennium, when there shall be a perfect union of mankind under the benign sway of toleration and charity. In this degree it is plainly to be discerned that ST. John the Evangelist had been initiated into the ancient mysteries, for his revelations followed in parallel
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lines; and what has always been a mystery and a puzzle to Christians generally and to biblical scholars in the main, is made so clear, so lucid, and apparent that this degree gives the most profound satisfaction to the Masonic searcher after the truth. The 20th degree teaches the full arcana of the Grand Oriental Chair, inculcating the most pious reverence for the Deity, knowledge, science, philosophy, charity, generosity, heroism, honor, patriotism, justice, toleration, and truth. The 21st degree portrays the history of the Knights Crusaders, who returned to Europe from the wars in the Holy Land to find themselves and their kindred stripped of their properties by the rapacity, cunning frauds, and forgeries of the monks, and the punishment meted out to those cowled thieves and robbers who plundered the estates of the living and dead, the absent defenders of the faith in Palestine, and turned old men, women, and children out upon the highways to starve and perish by the roadside. The 22d degree relates to the work upon Mt. Lebanon and the preparation of the timbers and woodwork for the Temple; the dignity of labor, that in Freemasonry rank and nobility go for naught, and that he who will not work and share equally with his fellows of the Craft shall not eat. The 23d and 24th degrees relate to the history of the formulation of the ceremonies of the Jewish religion in the setting up of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the doctrine and laws given by Moses, who was well versed in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. The 25th degree portrays the sufferings of the Children of Israel, who were bitten by fiery serpents in the wilderness, and the raising up of the brazen serpent by Moses, that those who looked upon it might live, and teaches the profoundest doctrines of life and death, to lead men away from their evil passions, and to look for help and relief from above. The 26th degree particularly treats of mercy, charity, and loving kindness, of toleration, and that men are not to be persecuted and tortured on account of different creeds or faiths, all of which is set forth by recounting the sufferings and woes inflicted for religious differences of opinion in the ages that are past. The 27th degree relates to the Crusades to the Holy Land under HENRV VI, Emperor of Germany, son of FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, aided by all the knighthood and chivalry of Europe, and joined by PHILIP AUGUSTUS of France and RICHARD CEUR DE LION of England. This became the Teutonic branch of the Order of the Temple, known as the Knights of ST. MARY, which established a hospital on Mt. Zion for the reception of pilgrims.
PRUSSIAN KNIGHT. – OATH OF THE TEUTONIC KNIGHT ON
THEIR RETURN FROM THE CRUSADES.
These Teutonic Knights afterward gave protection to the persecuted Templars, and subsequently to MARTIN LUTHER, and became the defenders of the great Reformation. The lessons taught are to defend the honor of Freemasonry, to uphold its banners and vindicate its principles; to love, revere, and preserve liberty and justice, and to - favor, sustain, and defend the oppressed, without neglecting the sacred duties of hospitality. The 28th degree treats of astronomy, science, and philosophy, and inculcates the full exercise of intelligent reason and faith in the reading of the great book of Nature, with a well - grounded trust in the wisdom and mercy of the Creator. The 29th degree portrays the history and valor of the Scottish division of Knights Templar or Grand Scottish Knight of ST. ANDREW; the
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inculcation of a spirit of humility, patience, and self-denial, with charity, clemency, and generosity, based upon virtue, truth, and honor; resistance to all oppression, whether it proceed from temporal or spiritual authority, and the recovery of what was lost through persecutions, robbery, and death, inflicted by those powers which destroyed the Order of the Temple and plundered it of its lawful possessions, giving a portion as a reward to its enemies, the Knights of ST. JOHN of Jerusalem or Knights of Malta. The 30th, or true Knight Templar degree, Knights Kadosh or of the Black and White Eagle. Kadosh means holy. Kadosh Kadoshim is Hebrew for the Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies of the Temple. It relates to the history of the Order of the Temple, its woes, confiscation of property, sufferings, banishment, destruction, and death, and bears the same relation to the Knights Kadosh that the 3d degree does to the Master Mason, the 9th degree to the Knights Elect of the Nine, and the 18th degree to the Knights Rose Croix, with this difference, that it is vastly more profound in its depth of meaning and more determined in its aims and objects. It is the Areopagus and citadel of Freemasonry.
It neither attacks nor defends any man's creed or religious faith, but it determinedly maintains the rights of conscience, freedom of speech, and free government. The horrors of the past committed by crowned and mitred tyrants like PHILIP the Fair of France and Pope CLEMENT V, crushing out the souls of men, burning them at the stake or torturing them in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and trampling liberty in the dust, are neither forgotten nor forgiven so long as oppression and wrong from temporal and spiritual despots are permitted to 'exist and curse the sons of men.
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity are its cardinal tenets, with the warning ever in view that eternal vigilance, education, and enlightenment are the life and guaranties of liberty. These are the avengers of the martyred DE MOLAY, the last Grand Master of the Templars, and his Brethren who were burned at the stake and all the victims of that terrible power which for centuries has cursed the earth and is a continuous menace to the rights of man. The Jesuits once were in the possession of these degrees, and the Kadosh degree was used by them as the last trap into which the candidate was led, to ascertain and discover if possible his true animus toward the papacy and to learn if he was a descendant of the Templars or a Huguenot in secret, and if so, he was marked for a victim to be boycotted in business, persecuted and proceeded against, according to the conditions of the times and the powers they possessed. When it was learned that the Kadosh were the true descendants and successors of the Knights Templar in disguise they changed the name to that of Knights of the Black and White Eagle, referring to the colors of their beauseant. And when finding that they could no longer work the Kadosh degree in safety under the new name they then worked in the 9th degree, or Knight Elect of the Nine, which symbolized the same thing.
The first part of the original Kadosh degree was what is now, with the ritual modified and somewhat changed, the Knights Templar degree. The Knights Templar who survived the persecutions and massacres of their Brethren retained the Christian faith, which was essential to their existence, though disguised or mixed with other Orders. But in order to be revenged upon their enemies PHILIP the Fair, Pope CLEMENT V, and the treacherous Knights of Malta - the surviving Knights took a solemn oath to aid, though it might not be literal in its methods, yet in effect by any and every lawful means, the Reformation, and LUTHER, KNOX, and others; and in spirit they and their successors have done likewise in every country where conscience has been fettered and liberty enchained or stifled. No one under the inflexible rule of the real Order of the Temple, or "Poor Fellow Soldiers of King SOLOMON'S Temple or of JESUS CHRIST," could be admitted and created a Knight Templar unless he was of noble blood. The remnant of Knights Templar who, after the battle of Bannockburn, Scotland, June 24, 1314, had been created by BRUCE, at Kilwinning, Knights of the Rosy Cross
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and Knights Grand Crosses of ST. ANDREW of Scotland, are said to have created the Order of Knights Kadosh, to be composed of themselves and those they saw proper to admit to their fellowship and confidence, after having tested the patience, fidelity, and courage of the latter. And as they could no longer be known as Knights Templar, they chose the name of Kadosh, which is Hebrew, the better to conceal their identity for personal safety, and to be retained in remembrance of the holy house of the Temple on Mt. Moriah near where the Order of the Temple was founded. It is greatly to be regretted that their true name of Knights Templar was not retained to the end; but being sensitive and proud of their blood, achievements, and history, they preferred to let the true name or title go down in honor and be concealed by the adoption of a new one (Knight Kadosh), not dreaming that other persons of another and future age and another land across the Atlantic Ocean (not then discovered) should presume to take their names and titles and consolidate them with those of their enemies, the Knights of Malta, unwarrantedly use emasculated portions of their work, and ignorantly but innocently flaunt their insignia and banners before the world, without lineage of blood or lawful inheritance of their ancient rights, honors, and privileges, and without carrying out the objects and purposes of the old and true Knights Templar, as faithfully delineated by their true successors, the Knights Kadosh, in the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by its regular and legally constituted authorities. Happily, however, the error is being condoned and compensated for in a measure by the swelling of the ranks of the Scottish Rite by those who have received the consolidated WEBB and CERNEAU Templar degree.
As NAPOLEON once said, " If you prick a Russian you bleed a Tartar," so it may be said with nearly equal truth, that if one happens to prick an intelligent Knight Templar of the American Rite, who has attained any distinction at all, he will in all likelihood find himself drawing the blood of a Rose Croix Knight or of a Knight Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, the parent of all true Masonic knighthood, chivalry, and philosophy.
In connection with this subject all hostility is disclaimed to a rite long established, especially when it is too late to remedy the original wrong or correct the error, but it is believed that the motto "Magna est veritas et prevalebit," will eventually contribute to the reformation of the error; and that in writing the history of Freemasonry impartially and unbiased "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" should be stated clear from the fountain head - "nothing extenuated and naught set down in malice." Compensation is being made by the manly, chivalric, and Masonic support being given by the Grand Lodges, Grand Royal Arch Chapters, and Grand Commanderies of American Knights Templar in recognizing the legality and regularity of both the Southern and the Northern Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which so far as they are concerned at the present day is ample atonement for the infringement and wrongs perpetrated nearly a century ago by WEBB, LOWNDES, and their coadjutors, for which their innocent successors are in no wise to be held responsible.
Consistorial and judicial Degrees. - 31°, Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander; 32°, Master of the Kadosh, or Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.
The 31st degree is the highest judicial degree, and in it the Supreme Council and the Consistory sits as a Supreme Court, in which all appeals are heard and the trials of all cases had above the isth degree of the rite. The lessons taught in the ritual are of the highest order of justice, in which MOSES and lawgivers of the ancient nations are represented and cited, and it is the most august tribunal held in Freemasonry to teach the loftiest principles of truth, equity, and justice.
The 32d degree teaches the ancient truths and philosophy of our Aryan ancestors, as they have come down to us drained through the Alexandrian school of science, and the Zoroastrian doctrines;
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the fundamental principles of the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, the resurrection of the body, and the immortality of the soul, with all the symbolism of our ancient Brethren left us as monuments to guide us in our investigation and search after truth.
The symbolic plan of organization and division of the Masonic army, with the headquarters of its chiefs arranged geometrically with the mystic numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9,.are thus classified: No. 1 represents unity or the sun, the ancient symbol of the Creator, the source of life, light, heat, or GOD; No. 3, the trinity of creation - the father, the mother, and the son - also the three highest officers who constitute a Master Mason's Lodge; No. 5, the five senses with which man is endowed, the five orders of architecture, and the five points of fellowship of the Fellow Craft Mason whose Lodge consists of five and from which he is raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason; No. 7, the seven liberal arts and sciences, the seven planets represented in the seven golden candlesticks or candelabrum; the seven prismatic colors in the rainbow, the symbol of the first covenant made by GOD with man; the seven days of the week, and the seven who compose the Entered Apprentice Lodge. Besides the foregoing other explanations are taught at the proper time, which brings the searcher after the hidden truth face to face with the splendid images of the Prophet EZEKlEL and the Apocalypse of ST. JOHN the Evangelist, which the old Knights Templar sought in the secret reading of the Great Light for themselves and which was the real pretext for charging them with heresy.
If the printing - press had been invented and brought into action at that time, the Knights would have anticipated the Reformation under MARTIN LUTHER, MELANCHTHON, and ZWINGLE fully two hundred years before.
In the Northern Masonic jurisdiction the degrees of the Council of Kadosh are embraced within the Consistory the 32d degree, being directly connected by representation with the campaigns of the Crusades against the Saracens, and requiring the skill and adroitness to delineate the drama presented. The ritual of the Southern jurisdiction is intellectual, historic, and philosophical. The rite in the Southern jurisdiction has a high culture for its initiates, and seeks to instruct and not to astonish and amuse. The refined scholar as well as the robust and athletic, can find food in both jurisdictions for thought and liberal advancement along moral, patriotic, and intellectual lines.
In the Northern jurisdiction Councils of Deliberation of all the bodies from the 14th to the 32d degree, inclusive, are held in each State, presided over by a deputy for the State (who is an Active Inspector - General of the 33d degree and of that Supreme Council), in which all local legislation is presented and acted upon, to be afterward approved, ammended, or annulled by that Supreme Council. In some of the States until recently there have been Grand Consistories governing the lower bodies, but they have nearly all surrendered their charters as Grand Bodies and are now merely Consistories without any powers of supervisional government.
THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE THIRTY - THIRD AND LAST DEGREE OF
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY (THE
MOTHER COUNCIL OF THE WORLD) FOR THE SOUTHERN JURISDICTION
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
33° Grand Master of the Kadosh, or Sovereign Grand Inspector - General of the Royal and Military Order of the House of the Temple.
The 33d degree is conferred in the Supreme Council of the rite, which is the governing body over all and which prescribes its laws and statutes for the various divisions into which the organized
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bodies are divided. The active members are limited to thirty-three, including the officers, who for their respective States are relatively the Grand Master of the rite and who hold their offices during good behavior and their good standing in their Blue Lodges as Master Masons, and no longer Honorary Inspectors - General are those who are elevated to the degree, but have no other powers than those specifically delegated to them, or are appointed to act upon committees or as deputies to propagate the rite by communicating the degrees and establishing bodies. In all other respects they are like delegates from Territories to Congress, with the right to a voice but not to a vote. In the Northern Supreme Council the active members are sixty-six, or just double the number.
OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN GRAND COMMANDER, SUPREME COUNCIL, S.J., WASHINGTON, D.C.
In the Southern Supreme Council there is what may be called the vestibule, the Court of Honor, which is composed of two grades or ranks, and each active and emeritus member of the Supreme Council is ex officio a member of both grades.
The first grade is that of Knight Commander, which is conferred for general meritorious services supposed to have been rendered to the rite, and is conferred upon Brethren of the 32d degree, upon the recommendation of Grand Consistories or by the Active Inspectors-General of their respective States. The second or higher grade is that of Knight Grand Cross, which, with the jewel, is conferred upon Brethren of the 32d or honorary 33d degrees for extraordinary service and merit in the rite. Both of the grades of honor are reserved and cannot be conferred upon any Brother who asks for them. When conferred it is an act of gratuity and appreciation of services rendered. It is necessary to have the rank of Knight Commander of the Court of Honor in order to be eligible to receive the 33d degree.
In the Southern Supreme Council there are 27 Active Members, with 6 vacancies to fill. There are 406 Honorary Members of the 33d degree, and 13 Knights Grand Crosses of the Court of Honor. There are also 792 Knights Commanders of the Court of Honor.
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There are 3 Grand Consistories - Louisiana, Kentucky, and Japan - with a membership of 562, and 33 Consistories of the 32d degree, with a membership of 4,636, or a total of 5,198. There are 39 Councils or Preceptories of Knights Kadosh, with a membership of nearly 6,000; 51 Chapters of Rose Croix, with a membership of nearly 6,000; 84 Lodges of Perfection, with a membership of nearly 7,000, all under the jurisdiction of the Southern Supreme Council.
SUPREME COUNCIL CHAMBER, S.J., WASHINGTON, D.C.
The following have been the Grand Commanders and the life terms which they have served in the Southern Supreme Council: JOHN MITCHELL, 33°, 1801 to 1823; FREDERICK DALCHO, 33°, 1823 to 1844; ALEXANDER McDONALD, 33°, 1844 to 1855; JOHN HENRY HONOUR, 33°, 1855 to January, 1859, when he resigned; ALBERT PIKE, 33°, from January, 1859, until his decease, April 2, 1891; JAMES CUNNINGHAM BATCHELOR, 33°, from October, 1892, until his death, July 28, 1893; PHILIP CROSBY TUCKER, 33°, from October, 1893, until his death, July 9, 1894; THOMAS HUBBARD CASWELL, 33°, from October 26, 1895, until his death, November 13, 1900. The three latter were Lieutenant and Acting Grand Commanders during the interims between the date of the deaths of their predecessors and the elections at the next regular meetings of the Supreme Council. The following are the present officers and Active Members of the Southern Supreme Council, also the Honorary Members and the Grand Cross for California:
Elective Officers - JAMES D. RICHARDSON, Grand Commander, Murfreesboro, Tenn.; SAMUEL E. ADAMS, Lieutenant Grand Commander, Minneapolis, Minn.; ERASMUS T. CARR, Grand Prior, Miles City, Mont.; MARTIN COLLINS, Grand Chancellor, St. Louis, Mo.; RUFUS E. FLEMING, Grand Minister of State, Fargo, N. Dakota; FREDERICK WEBBER, Secretary - General, Washington, D.C.; W. FRANK PIERCE, Treasurer - General, San Francisco, Cal.; RICHARD J. NUNN, Grand Almoner, Savannah, Ga.; SAMUEL M. TODD, Grand Auditor, New Orleans, La.
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Appointed Officers - JAMES R. HAYDEN, Grand Mareschal of Ceremonies, Seattle, Wash.; BUREN R. SHERMAN, Grand Chamberlain, Vinton, Iowa; IRVING W.
PRATT, First Grand Equerry, Portland, Ore.; ADOLPHUS L. FITZGERALD, Second Grand Equerry, Carson City, Nev.; GEORGE F. MOORE, Grand Standard - Bearer, Montgomery, Ala.; FRANK M. FOOTE, Grand Sword - Bearer, Evanston, Wyo.; HARPER S. CUNNINGHAM, Grand Herald, Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Active Members - THEODORE SUTTON PARVIN, Iowa; JAMES DANIEL RICHARDSON, Tennessee; JOHN FREDERICK MAVER, Virginia; NATHANIEL LEVIN, South Carolina; GEORGE FLEMING MOORE, Alabama; FRANK MILLs FOOTE, Wyoming; IRVING WASHINGTON PRATT, Oregon; JAMES A. HENRY, Arkansas; AUSTIN BEVERI,V CHAMBERLAIN, Texas; WILLIAM ALLEN MCLEAN, Florida; JAMES WAKEFIELD CORTLAND, North Carolina.
SUPREME COUNCIL CHAMBER, S.J., WASHINGTON, D.C.
Emeritus Members - GEORGE B. WATERHOUSE, North Carolina; JOHN MCCRAKEN, Oregon; WILLIAM ROBERTS BOWN, Nebraska; JOHN LONSDALE ROPER, Virginia; ROBERT S. INNES, Minnesota; THOMAS A. CUNNINGHAM, Maryland; EUGENE GRISSOM, North Carolina; HARRY R. COMLY, Montana; ROBERT CARROLL JORDAN, Nebraska.
It may be here mentioned that the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern jurisdiction of the United States, of which HENRY L. PALMER, 33°, is the Sovereign Grand Commander, has 48 active members (being 18 less than its full number of 66), 2 Emeritus Members, and 649 Honorary Members, or a total of 699 members of the 33d degree. There is no Court of Honor. There are 32 Consistories of the 32d degree, with 22,406 members; 58 Chapters of Rose Croix of the 18th degree, with 22,899 members; 63 Councils of Princes of Jerusalem of the 16th degree, with 23,464 members; and 80 Lodges of Perfection of the 14th degree, with 26,187 members. These subordinate bodies are represented in each State in a
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Council of Deliberation, presided over by a deputy, who is an Active Member of the Supreme Council. All legislation of local character is there acted upon, and all laws passed by such body have to be approved by the Supreme Council before becoming laws in active operation.
REMARKS IN CONCLUSION UPON THE ANCIENT AND
ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY.
In the foregoing pages are recorded a condensed statement and history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Originally the Rite of Perfection, with twenty-five degrees, was established in 1754, compiled or rather grouped in one system by the Chevalier DE BONNEVILLE in the College of Jesuits of Clermont at Paris; hence called the Chapter of Clermont, which there received the name of the Rite of Perfection or Rite of Heredom. "The College of Clermont was," says REBOLD, "the asylum of the adherents of the house of STUART, and hence the rite is to some extent tinctured with STUART Masonry." The Pretender, Prince CHARLES EDWARD, in the town of Arras in France, in 1747 established a Chapter of Rose Croix, borrowing it from the Rosy Cross of the Royal Order of Scotland. He, being hereditary King and Grand Master, changed the forms to symbolize his misfortunes, - the fall of his cause, the lost hope of its resurrection and his restoration to the throne, - comparing his life and fate to that of the SAVIOR of the world. The Chapter of Rose Croix authorized any three of its members, whenever they should meet and there was an attached friend, to confer the first three degrees of Masonry upon him, and it was in this way that Masonry on the continent of Europe was perverted and divided, as it was intended to be by the Jesuits. In 1758, when the Rite of Perfection no longer served the purposes of the Jesuits, it was taken possession of by the Council of the Emperors of the East and West, and by the Marquis DE BERNEZ carried to Berlin. In 1759 a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret - the highest degree conferred in that rite, the 25th - was established at Bordeaux, France. On September 21, 1762, nine commissioners met and drew up Constitutions for the government of the Rite of Perfection, which have since been known as "The Constitutions of 1762." Those only pertained to the Rite of Perfection, and as they carried that of the Templar Kadosh or 24th degree, the ne Plus ultra under these Constitutions, it is highly probable that some sea voyagers who visited Bordeaux received the Templar portion of that degree - either received or retained in their memory its ritual - and carried the same to Boston, Mass., where in St. Andrew's Lodge or Chapter, on August 28, 1769, in Masons' Hall, "Bro. WILLIAM DAVIS came before the Lodge begging to have and receive the parts belonging to the Royal Arch Masons, which being read, was received, and he unanimously voted in and was accordingly made by receiving the four steps, that of Excellent, Superexcellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar." The record of that meeting contains the first account of the conferring of the degree of Knight Templar that has been discovered in Great Britain or this country. The next was in Ireland. This part of the Templar Kadosh degree was no doubt thrown out as a feeler for the introduction of the Rite of Perfection, and that part was successful, as we have already shown, by the adoption of it by the Athol or Dermott Grand Lodge of the Ancients in 1780 at York, England, and through that source it came to the Lodges of the Ancients established in America.
Up to the end of the 18th century the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees was the only rite worked in the French West India Islands, and it was that rite that was established by MORIN, FRANCKEN, HAYES, and other Deputy Inspectors - General, either there or in the United States, and its source was entirely French. The French Revolution in 1798 utterly destroyed all true Masonic organization and government. 'Riot, anarchy, butchery, and bloodshed prevailed, until a directory, consulate, and an empire under NAPOLEON the Great arose to bring order out of chaos and new life
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from the ashes of the dead. Freemasonry had fled from France to Germany and the rest of western Europe. The Prussian King - prior to NAPOLEON, the world's greatest soldier and general - FREDERICK the Great, during the War for American Independence, watched its beginning and observed its triumphant close. In his latter years the Rite of Perfection had been brought into his kingdom and he had no doubt given it due investigation, and saw that in substance it was a fine system of Freemasonry, if divested of its sinister objects for which it had been formulated by the Jesuits, and that it could be used for better and nobler purposes; but the principles it inculcated were better adapted to the republican soil of America than to any portions of the Old World and to render it more effective he caused the Constitutions of a new rite to be framed embracing the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees, reinforced by eight others, to be known as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, consisting of thirty-three degrees, corresponding to the number of years of CHRIST upon earth. These Constitutions are known as "The Constitutions of 1786," said to be or purported to have been made by FREDERICK II, King of Prussia. Much dispute and controversy has been had over their authenticity and genuineness, but our late Grand Commander, ALBERT PIKE, made an elaborate and exhaustive examination of this subject, and his logic and reasoning are conclusive as to their being genuine.
How or when these Constitutions of 1786 and the additional eight degrees to the Rite of Perfection came to Charleston, S.C., to enable one or two men to first establish the rite on May 31, 1801, has never been adequately explained.
FREDERICK the Great had by this time been dead fifteen years. If the two Brethren, MITCHELL and DALCHO, found these Constitutions and the rituals of the additional degrees, took them up and mutually obligated each other to form the first Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the world, then they were greater than FREDERICK the Great himself, who only governed a kingdom, while they founded an empire, and of the means by which this sovereignty was established there is no record. Omitting entirely the question of government, the eight additional intercalary degrees added to the Rite of Perfection furnish the internal and confirmatory evidence of the authenticity and origin of the Constitutions of 1786. They are almost entirely of German history, origin, and construction. The 21st degree of Noachite or Prussian Knight is evidently connected with the Teutonic Knights of the House of Brandenburg, which protected MARTIN LUTHER and became Protestant, of which FREDERICK the Great was the lineal successor. The 23d, 24th, and 25th degrees - Chief of the Tabernacle, Prince of the Tabernacle, and Knight of the Brazen Serpent - are delineations and explanations of the setting up of the religion of the Hebrews in the Wilderness by MOSES, the history of the Israelitish nation in its wanderings and sufferings in the desert when bitten by serpents. In that age the Germans were great students of the Bible, and as all Masonry is connected with the history of the Jewish people, it was but natural that what is taught in those degrees was intended to act as a searchlight into the inner sanctuary of that religion. The 26th degree, Scottish Trinitarium or Prince of Mercy, was intended for the principal benefit of Scottish exiles and sojourning Knights within his kingdom, where they had always been protected from persecution and given asylum.
The 27th degree, or Knight Commander of the Temple, is entirely German in its construction, and gives the history of the Teutonic Knights and other German Crusaders in the Holy Land, when they fought under an excommunicated German Emperor and side by side with the Knights Templar, to whom afterward they gave asylum and protection when they were fugitives, fleeing from persecution, torture, and death at the stake in France. The 28th, or Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept, is a scientific, philosophic, and astronomic degree, and accounts for the fact that there is not one calendared or other saint to be found among the fixed stars, constellations, or other heavenly
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bodies on the celestial globe. The Copernican system does not demand a copper or a nickel as toll for the passage of a soul on its way to heaven. The 29th degree, or Grand Scottish Knight of ST. ANDREW, is preparatory to the Templar Kadosh degree or the 30th, and is devoted to the Scottish Templars. The 31st degree, or Grand Inquisitor Commander, is a substitute for that secret examination which the Jesuits pursued in the torture chamber of the Inquisition, after they had caught their victim in the last part of the Templar Kadosh degree in the Rite of Perfection, and after they had made him betray himself by certain acts required in which his true sentiments were expressed. The name Inquisitor was retained, but the candidate himself is the inquisitor, and it is self - examination and a study of the great lawgivers of the past that is to render him capable of acting and deciding questions of justice and equity as a judge, and be prepared for that final examination held before the Supreme judge of the world.
The 33d degree of Sovereign Grand Inspector - General represents FREDERICK the Great as the Grand Commander or Grand Master of the rite himself - his position on the tracing - board, in the center of his encampment when in the field and in command of the symbolic Masonic army. Prior to his death, when all supreme authority was vested in himself and with the Princes or Masters of the Royal Secret, he formed his military Masonic court. The insignia, colors, standards, devices, and words, although in Latin, are all German and Scottish in their combination, meaning, and symbolism; and the Grand Constitutions of 1786, which combined these eight additional degrees with the Rite of Perfection which now form the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, are as evidently authentic to the member as would be a state paper received from the Chancellor of the German Empire at Berlin, with the signatures and all the seals attached thereto.
FREDERICK the Great was a successful strategist as well on the field of war as in his palace at Potsdam. He was a profound French scholar, a liberal Protestant Christian and philosopher, and surrounded himself with the greatest men intellectually, philosophically, and otherwise of that age. From expelled Jesuits like VOLTAIRE and others he learned much. The Jesuits could no longer divert, scatter, or control Masonry nor subdue it; and when FREDERICK the Great took it in hand he completely rescued it, shaped its organization as the Royal and Military Order of the House of the Temple, and provided that the sovereign power held by himself should be deposited in the bosoms of the Supreme Councils of the nations when they should be created after his death, and their foundations should be in the virgin soil of the New World. And it was so.
One hundred years ago there was not a man in America that could devise such a system, and even if it were possible there was no field for it in the distracted, disordered, and divided Masonic mind. The rivalry between the "Ancients" and "Moderns," few in number; the people impoverished and sore from the War of the Revolution and on the verge of another war, either with France or England, and the fires of political rivalry and of factions aflame, the more intense because of the limited population everywhere - precluded the possibility of the creation or production at that time in the United States of such a scale of degrees with such a system of government as the Grand Constitutions of 1786 of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. This is proved by the very fact that, beyond themselves, no immediate attempt was made to establish it in this country; and only a foreigner and a Frenchman would start out with it as did Count DE GRASSE TILLEY, who went first with it to the French West Indies and then to Paris and Belgium, where he established Supreme Councils that astonished their mother at Charleston. When it is considered that in the whole of the United States at that time there were not more than five thousand Masons, all told, that were enrolled, it is not strange that Scottish Rite Masonry, waiting for hostile Blue Lodges to cease their quarreling and make peace, had to stand still until times were more propitious
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for its growth. Neither MITCHELL, DALCHO, or any American Mason concocted the Constitutions of 1786. French Masons did not formulate them, nor invent the additional eight degrees, for they express the Lutheran spirit and are German in their conception and tone, and of the highest order at that.
All the history has been given in relation to the field prepared, the good seed sown, and the fruit produced from the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which is doing so much good in countries with less liberal forms of government, encouraging priestridden and downtrodden people, long under the iron heel of tyranny, superstition, and fanaticism to look up and hope for the time when the presence of a Dominican or Jesuit priest shall no longer darken their doors and the people so long cursed shall be disenthralled. This is the mission of Scottish Freemasonry, as proclaimed by its greatest Grand Commander, ALBERT PIKE - who did more when alive to that end than an army with banners, whose words are weapons upon thousands of tongues, and will be repeated until the end of time.
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CHAPTER XII
Freemasonry Subsequent to the Revolution.
THE GROWTH OF THE FRATERNITY AND THE ESTABI,lSHMEN - l' OF THE SEVERAL AMERICAN JURISDICTIONS, DUE TO THE WIDE DISPERSION OF LOYAL COLONIAL CRAFTSMEN.
UPON the conclusion of the Revolution a strong spirit was manifested for independence of the Mother Country in all matters pertaining to the Craft. This disposition had been apparent in many ways prior to the commencement of hostilities, and at the close of the war was openly advocated. Most of the Brethren had been actively engaged in the conflict, and all its horrors, sufferings, and bloodshed but accentuated the bitterness of the Colonists. It was natural, therefore, with the return of peace, that an effort should be made in this direction.
Appropriately, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the Revolutionary spirit and the scene of the first encounters, assumed the lead. Its Grand Lodge declared for absolute independence. The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania followed, and its voice was soon supplemented by that of others. The proposition was advanced to form a Masonic Union patterned after that of the States, wherein every Grand Lodge should have representation. It was intended to confer upon GEORGE WASHINGTON the distinctive honor of General Grand Master, but opposition to the plan soon developed. Unfortunately for the success of the plan many of the Tories, who had remained loyal to the crown, were active members of the Craft and exerted their influence to overcome the tendency of the time. Several Grand Lodges were thereby placed in opposition to the scheme, and it was abandoned, although not until the seed thus sown had borne fruit which eventually emancipated the Craft and established the existing American system of independent Grand jurisdictions. The death of WASHINGTON was largely instrumental in repressing temporarily the active movement for a General Grand Lodge. A few years later the plan was attempted to be revived, but failed to evoke the support anticipated. One of the strongest factors to this end was the jealousy of the various Grand Lodges of their jurisdictional rights, which they had now fully learned and thoroughly appreciated.
During the dark period of the Revolutionary strife, the labors of the several Lodges had been slight and indifferent except for the work performed by the Army Lodges. With the cessation of the sanguinary struggle the work was resumed, but it found the Lodges mostly disorganized and dispirited. The conditions prevailing were exact reflections of the status of the people and Colonies
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during the experimental period from the distrusted Confederacy to the formation of the Federal Government under the Constitution. But with the return of confidence in the stability of the Republic, under its written organic law, came a renewal of hope in the Masonic Institution, and thence its career became a progressive march toward the full consummation of its glorious purposes, unhindered save by the MORGAN episode, and demonstrating by its works its right to endure as the exemplar of principles at once gracious and divine.
The renewal of interest in Freemasonry induced the formation of many new Lodges throughout the Atlantic Slope, every portion feeling the effect of the revival, and the altar fires, new and old, dotting town and hamlet from the driven snows of the extreme north to the glowing warmth of the south. Then the Great Lights, like the sun in its course, began to tip the crests of the Alleghany and the Appalachian range of mountains, which were then the Western boundary of civilization, and soon thereafter to dart their beaming rays down the western slopes and across the lakes, the fountains of the St. Lawrence River, and the broad Valley of the Mississippi, "The Father of Waters," and its tributaries, and thence up the steep sides of the rugged and rocky granite piles of the Far West, dipping at length, across peaceful vales, into the broad and peaceful western sea. The Masonic and patriotic spirit and memories of the Masonic fathers of American Independence accompanied the Great Lights wherever the altars of Freemasonry were set up in the then vast wilderness filled with hostile tribes of Indians.
The first Lodge to be opened for work was at the town of Lexington in Kentucky under a charter issued by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, November 17, 1788, as Lexington Lodge, No. 25, the town and Lodge having been named after Lexington in Massachusetts, where the first blood was shed in the American Revolution. The next in order was American Union Lodge, the charter having been granted to it by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, February 15, 1776, as a Military Lodge in the Connecticut Line of the American army during the Revolutionary War, which found lodgment at Marietta, Ohio. It was opened by the Master, Lieutenant JONATHAN HEART, with Colonel BENJAMIN TUPPER and General RUFUS PUTNAM as Wardens. There were several Brethren who had been members of the Military Lodge, No. 10, also warranted by the St. John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and in all there were ten of these officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army who met and elected their officers and opened this Lodge June 28, 1790. The Grand Lodge of South Carolina chartered Parfait Union Lodge at New Orleans, Louisiana, March 30, 1794, to French refugee Brethren from the Island of Hayti, while the Grand Lodge of North Carolina granted a charter to St. Tammaity Lodge, No. 29, at Nashville, Tenn., December 17, 1796.
From the altars of these first Lodges planted on the western slopes of the Alleghany Mountains the lights of Masonry began to burn like blazing beacons, lighting up the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries from the lakes to the gulf and casting over the barren wastes and stony sentinels of the plains and the sun - kissed shores of the Pacific a flood of golden light. Their united glow spread a sheen of effulgent brilliance over the vast expanse and started the flames upon new Masonic altars set up in every direction by the pioneer torch - bearers of the Craft. The French traders of St. Louis and St. Genevieve in the then French Territory of Louisiana, who purchased their goods at Philadelphia, were initiated into Masonry in the old French Lodges L'Amerite, Nos. 71 and 73, on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Those Lodges had been formed chiefly of officers and soldiers who had volunteered and served under Bro. LAFAYETTE in the American Revolution, and becoming imbued with the spirit of Freemasonry, awaited with patience the negotiations between THOMAS JEFFERSON, President of the United States, and NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, the Consul of France (both Masons), for the purchase and cession of Louisiana to the United States, which took place
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April 30, 1803. As their numbers became augmented from time to time, they at last made application in the year 1807 - 8, for a warrant of Constitution, which was granted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, for Louisiana Lodge, No. 109, to be held in the town of St. Genevieve, Territory of Louisiana, OTHO STRADER being its first Master, and Dr. AARON ELLIOTT and JOSEPH HERTICH its first Wardens.
It numbered among its members PIERRE CHOUTEAU and BARTHOLOMEW BERTHOLD, the founders of the great American Fur Company, and many others, who subsequently became prominent merchants of St. Louis. This was the first Lodge established in what is now the State of Missouri.
The war with Great Britain in 1812 - 14 greatly disturbed the progress of Freemasonry in the valley of the Mississippi as well as elsewhere in the United States. For several years thereafter but little advance was made by the Craft in this region, but on November 29, 1818, the Grand Lodge of Kentucky granted a dispensation for Arkansas Lodge at the Post of Arkansas, but when Little Rock became the capital of Arkansas it surrendered its dispensation by reason of the removal of the seat of government. And thus Freemasonry on the west bank of the Mississippi River was established in its infancy. The first meeting of the Convention for the organization of the Grand Lodge of Missouri was held on WASHINGTON's birthday, February 22, 1821, and adjourned to April 21St of that year,, when it was duly organized. It may also be noted as of general interest that among the famous Masons of the Mississippi Valley, HENRY CLAY became the Grand Master of Kentucky and ANDREW JACKSON, the hero of the battle of New Orleans, became the Grand Master of Tennessee.
The Freemasonry of the Mississippi Valley was not hide - bound, nor were the strict rules and regulations which now generally govern it then enforced.
Non - affiliation and suspension for noii - payment of dues were not then in vogue, nor were they considered Masonic crimes, nor was membership then altogether confined to one Lodge; but whenever and wherever one brother could render a kind office to another it was freely given, even life for a life in defense when rendered necessary. Not a party of hunters, trappers or traders or any expedition set out from the Western Mississippi cities or towns toward Texas, New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, to Oregon as then known, or California, but there were the Brethren of the Mystic Tie to a greater or lesser extent to be found among them, and the Grand Lodge of Missouri was their lenient, fostering, protecting, and indulgent mother. I n those early days she did not invoke the stern rigor of the statutes of her sovereignty, but allowed the elasticity of human nature some recognition in the administration of her government. It is true that there was a great laxity for want of a perfect system and regularity at 'her Grand East in those early times but for men of moral courage, stern integrity, fidelity to principles, and Masonic obligations, and with physical strength, pluck and daring, even to the risking of life itself, the material of the jurisdiction of the then frontier Grand Lodge of Missouri was the peer of any Grand Lodge.
While new altar fires were set aflaming in the West, those of the East were kept glowing. The progress along the Atlantic seaboard was constant and inspiring.
Many of the disputes arising from conflicts of authority were settled and the Craft placed upon a harmonious basis. In Massachusetts the two Grand Lodges ended their contentions by uniting on March 5, 1792, thereby restoring concord, encouraging labor, and assuring prosperity to the fraternity. St. Andrew's Lodge, which refused to acquiesce in the Union, finally united its fortunes with the new Grand Lodge, and thus completed the Masonic circle.
If the claim that the Massachusetts Grand Lodge was of the "Ancients" be true, then the coalition mentioned antedated the union in England of 1813 by twenty-two years. Immediately after the uniting of the Grand Lodges, a new "Book of Constitutions" was published, dedicated to GEORGE WASHINGTON, and this has since, with minor changes, been the manual of Massachusetts. The Grand Lodge officiated at the laying of the cornerstone of the
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Bunker Hill Monument, June 27, 1835, General LAFAYETTE being present and assisting as a brother Mason. The MORGAN excitement affected the prosperity of the Craft in the State, as elsewhere, to great degree, the utmost bitterness prevailing, and leading eventually to the surrender of the Grand Lodge incorporation, but it was probably due to this Grand Lodge and one of its members that the utter idiocy of the agitation then prevailing was made patent to the people at large, who thereupon moderated their views and at length completely changed their ideas regarding the institution, so much so that the Legislature of the State has since been extremely considerate of Masonic interests, and has enacted many laws in its behalf.
The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts strongly advocated the establishment of a General Grand Lodge, the feeling against English domination of the Craft being very emphatic. The same spirit permeated the Craftsmen of Pennsylvania, probably the earliest home of Freemasonry in the United States. The propriety of severing official relations with the Grand Lodge of England was considered at the quarterly communication of the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, held at Philadelphia in September, 1786, when it was formally declared that all ties except those of brotherly love and affection were determined. Thereupon the Grand Lodge, acting under the British warrant, was closed forever, and an independent sovereign body called the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was created. This action was concurred in by thirteen Lodges, which had theretofore worked under the authority of the English warrant. The former Grand Officers were continued in their positions with full powers. From this later Grand Lodge were issued warrants authorizing the creation of subordinate bodies in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana', Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Haiti, Trinidad, Cuba, and Mexico, in addition to army Lodges and two in South American countries. From these various bodies several Grand Lodges were subsequently organized. As illustrative of the extent of the Lodge powers and the freedom then prevalent in the conferring of various degrees which had not yet been separated into different orders, it may be observed that under the warrant of the Lodges, Nos. 2 and 3, the Knight Templar degree was conferred by these bodies during the period from 1783 to 1787. In 1782 - 1783 the Ahiman Rezon, containing the Constitutions of Pennsylvania, was published, the dedication being inscribed to WASHINGTON as General of the American armies and as a distinguished brother.
Originally, the Pennsylvania Brethren favored the establishment of a General Grand Lodge, having in view the selection of WASHINGTON as General Grand Master, but with his demise this sentiment changed and strong opposition to the plan developed. The Craft in Pennsylvania manifested a sincere affection for WASHINGTON at all times, and at his death mourned his loss as personal. On several public occasions WASHlNGTON attended the Grand Lodge, which is possessed of one of his Masonic letters. His legatees also presented to the Grand Lodge one of his Masonic aprons, and the Grand Lodge in turn voted $1,000 for the erection of a monument over his remains at Mount Vernon, and contributed a block of marble for the great WASHINGTON Monument in Washington, D. C.
LAFAYETTE, the associate of WASHINGTON in the gloomy days of the Revolution, was also cherished by the Pennsylvania Brethren both as patriot and brother, and upon his return to the United States was received with many manifestations of love and reverence. He was honored with membership in the Grand Lodge, and was received everywhere by the Brethren with every mark of esteem. The loyalty of the Pennsylvania Brethren has ever been pronounced, and every demand of the Government has been met promptly. When Great Britain in 1812 provoked its second war with the Americans, the Grand Lodge immediately offered its services in defense of the Quaker City, and upon the call for aid, five hundred and ten members responded. The same devotion to the flag inspired the organization of a relief association for Masonic soldiers enlisted in the Union cause during the Rebellion, but this help was not confined to members of the Craft, and gradually extended
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to all of the soldiers, and eventually resulted in the formation of hospital and other corps for the alleviation of the troubles incident to war. By enactment of the Grand Lodge in 1799, one - third of its receipts were devoted to charity, and these, with the accumulations from a bequest of $20,000 made by STEPHEN GIRARD, and of $50,000 donated by THOMAS R. PATTON, former Grand Treasurer, aggregate about $200,000. Through the loving efforts of the Brethren, a shelter for the aged, decrepit, and forlorn Mason, his wife, widow, and orphan has been established at Philadelphia, and in the beneficence of its work will rival the magnificence of the Temple, said to be the finest in the world, which has been erected in the same city by the same exalted spirits.
All of the New England Jurisdictions were nurtured by Massachusetts and she proved a worthy mother to all, giving of her substance and earnestness much that contributed to the early and permanent success of the Craft. The same spirit of independence which led the Colonies to throw off the yoke of the mother country, early induced the Craftsmen in the various portions of New England to establish their own Grand Lodges and year after year discovered them setting up their own altars. The first of the offshoots to erect its own Grand Lodge was Connecticut. St. John's Lodge, of which PAUL REVERE was at one time Grand Master, had chartered a number of Lodges in this territory of which six survived. A similar number had been warranted by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, and four Lodges had received authority from the Provincial Grand Master of New York.
American Union, an Army Lodge, chartered by St. John's Lodge and attached to a Connecticut regiment was also working. These bodies, although working under different dispensations, labored in concord and eventually convened for the purpose of forming a Grand Lodge. The first meeting to this end was held in April, 1783, and the second in January, 1784, but the work was not consummated until May, 1789, when a Constitution was adopted and officers were elected. The Grand Lodge was formed by twelve of the Lodges and it was noted as remarkable that all of these Lodges were still in existence and represented at the centenary observance of the Grand Lodge in 1889. Under the Grand Lodge the Fraternity prospered and at the commencement of the nineteenth century the membership had grown to 3,000 - Some trouble was experienced from the establishment of spurious Lodges by JOASH HALL about the year 1800, but this was soon remedied.
Out of Connecticut came charters for Erie Lodge and New England Lodge which, with American Union, the Army Lodge before mentioned, assisted in the formation in 1808 of the Ohio Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge was incorporated by act of the Legislature in 1821 and five years later voted $500 for a monument to WASHINGTON. In common with other Masonic Bodies, the Grand Lodge felt the effects of the MORGAN crusade, and it created such demoralization that in 1831 the Grand Treasurer was the only officer who did not refuse to continue in office.
Although new officers were elected at that session all but the Grand Master and Grand Treasurer failed to appear at the convocation the following year.
New Hampshire was the second of the Massachusetts branches to form a Grand Lodge. The first Lodge in this colony was warranted about 1737 and it remained the sole Lodge for forty-five years when another was constituted, but the latter did not long survive. During the period immediately following the cessation of hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies, several other Lodges were consecrated to the cause of Masonry. The first movement toward the creation of a Grand Lodge was a meeting of deputies at Keene in July, 1789, at which a resolution to that end was adopted. A second meeting was held the same month, but the Grand Master was not installed until April, 1790. For several years the Grand Lodge celebrated ST. JOHN's Day by parading to a church and there commemorating by appropriate services the recurrence of this Masonic patron's festival. The organization of Washington Lodge at Exeter, July 22, 1801, was marked by rather novel ceremonies.
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The Grand Lodge was opened by the Grand Master who thereupon summoned the officers of the new Lodge. These were then severally examined and ascertained to be worthy and well skilled in the Ancient Art. The Grand Lodge, headed by a band of music, marched to the meeting - place of the new subordinate where the Lodge was opened, the Grand Officers taking their official positions. The Master was then obligated and inducted into the Oriental Chair in the presence only of all attending Past Masters. Then the procession was reformed and proceeded to a near - by church where the ceremonies were enlivened by the music of a male and female choir. After the consecration of the Lodge, investiture of the Master, proclamation and prayer, the Brethren again formed in procession and marched to a hostelry where a sumptuous banquet had been provided by the stewards. Later the Lodge was closed. This Grand Lodge was probably the first to establish a form of application for the degrees. The form was adopted in 1802, the first half being substantially the declaration now set forth upon all of the petitions. The second half was a formal recommendation of the applicant by two members of the Lodge who attested the moral and other qualities necessary to constitute him a fit member of the Craft, and two other members vouched for the petitioner. In 1807 the Grand Lodge appointed a delegate to represent it in a Grand Masonic Convention at Washington, D. C., authorizing him to propose and agree to a systematic method of working and lecturing in the United States, but it also expressed its opposition to the formation of a General Grand Lodge as had been proposed.
The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island was organized on June 25, 1791, by two Lodges - one located at Newport and the other at Providence. The Constitution adopted provided for annual sessions, alternating between Newport and Providence. A memorial service was adopted in 1797. In this jurisdiction the Lodges were required to work under dispensations for several years before charters were issued, a practice which has since become general. It was not until the year 1800 that the Lodges of this State were numbered. New Lodges were usually constituted and the installations of officers held in public. Originally the Lodges had no authority to confer the Third or Master's degree, which was worked by a separate Masters' Lodge. Another strange regulation was that which declared that an Entered Apprentice did not become a member of the Lodge which conferred it.
This was supplemented by another requiring Fellow Crafts to apply by petition for, advancement. St. John's Lodge of Providence was the home Lodge of THOMAS S.
WEBB, who in 1813 - 1814 was Grand Master, and whose chief celebrity in the Masonic Institution is as the revisionist of the rituals of the several bodies. During WEBB'S mastership in 1814 the Grand Lodge fortified the harbor of Providence against the British, and he named the defenses Fort Hiram. An application was made to this Grand Lodge in 1811 for a warrant to open a Lodge on the Island of St. Bartholomew, but it was refused, the Grand Lodge placing its denial upon the ground of want of jurisdiction. The Grand Lodge in 1826, and again in 1848, revised its Constitution, and also in 1863 adopted a revision of the ritual. All of the Lodges but one acquiesced in the latter changes, and that one for continued contumacy was suspended.
Vermont was the next of the Massachusetts Masonic progeny to build its own household. Duly accredited delegates from three Lodges assembled at Manchester in August, 1794, and several preliminary meetings were held at which the necessary formula for the formation of a Grand Lodge were pursued and adopted. Eventually, on October 13, 1794, a Constitution was adopted and officers chosen. The growth of the Order was rapid, and many charters were granted. In fact, so great was the progress and so numerous the applications for warrants, that the Grand Lodge passed a number of measures tending to protect the Fraternity from imposition. Among other regulations it required the petition of five known Master Masons for a charter, the examination of the Master and
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Wardens as to their knowledge of the Masonic art, the approbation of the two nearest Lodges, and a distance of at least twenty miles between Lodges, unless at certain seasons of the year the Brethren would be obliged to travel round creeks and bays to get to the Lodge to which they belonged, in which case the Grand Lodge was authorized to dispense with the rule enforcing, distance. In January, 1802, the Grand Lodge adopted a standard work for the Lodges, and in January, 1804, it ordered the discontinuance of the chisel as a working - tool of the Entered Apprentice degree. In 1805 the Grand Lodge adopted a law conferring upon Master Masons the sole right to vote in the Lodges, and also conferred upon the Lodges the power to hear and determine all disputes between their members and to suspend, expel, and restore them, all without right of appeal. It may be noted as curious that the Grand Lodge, in 1807, directed the publication in local newspapers of the expulsion of members, to which was added a request to the publishers throughout the Union to reprint the item. Some years later the Grand Lodge provided the correlatively curious rule that all restorations to membership should be likewise printed in the public journals. This Grand Lodge also appropriated various sums in the first quarter of the nineteenth century for the distribution, gratuitously, of the Bible, and also aided several Bible societies. A sum of money was donated in 1824 to a Craftsman who had been deprived of his place and emoluments as an elder of a Christian church because he had become a Mason. This Grand Lodge also early expressed its disapproval of the use of ardent spirits, and also frowned upon public dinners at its communications, adopting a resolution to this effect in 1826, and in the following year it recommended to all subordinates to exclude the use of ardent spirits on all public occasions. It seems to have been the disposition of both the Grand and Subordinate Lodges of Vermont to aid all public movements, contributing moneys' freely toward the same, and in this manner advancing the interests of educational, colonization, and other projects. This jurisdiction suffered from the intense feelings aroused by the anti-Masonic agitation, 'the bitterness engendered thereby being almost beyond conception. Most of the Brethren held resolutely to their principles, and, though sore tried, the justness of their cause eventually triumphed, and since the progress of the Fraternity has been more than satisfactory. In this State the Legislature, during the height of the MORGAN excitement, passed a law making it a public offense to administer what were termed "extra - judicial" oaths, the law being aimed directly at the Masonic fraternity, and being designed to abolish all forms of obligations, but, as was to be anticipated, the law was ineffectual to accomplish the end desired.
The Craft had become a well - known and thriving institution in Maine at the date of its admission to Statehood, there being thirty-one Lodges, all of which had been chartered by Massachusetts. The State was admitted to the Union in 1819, and later in the same Year a convention of the Lodges was held to promote the organization of a Grand Lodge, twenty-nine of the Lodges being represented. In June, 1820, the representatives of twenty-four Lodges met, adopted a Constitution, and elected officers, the first Grand Master being WILLIAM KING, Governor of the State. The Mother Grand Lodge donated the sum of one thousand dollars to its youngest Masonic child, as the basis of its charity fund, and helped it in many ways. At the session of 1820 a proposition was made to the Grand Lodge to set apart one - tenth of all moneys to be received thereafter from charter and initiatory fees for the purpose of translating the Bible into various tongues and distributing the same without note or comment, but it was decided that as the funds of the Grand Lodge were devoted to other objects of charity, such as supplying the temporal wants of the needy, no part thereof could be applied, to such purpose. This Grand Lodge in 1824 adopted the report of a committee favoring the admission of candidates by solemn affirmation in all cases in which applicants
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had conscientious scruples against taking an oath. This invasion of one of the most sacred of the Landmarks of the Craft raised a cloud of protests throughout the United States, and eventually the Landmark was restored.
All of the Lodges in New York, with one exception, had been chartered by the English Grand Lodge of "Moderns" when the Revolutionary outbreak occurred, and all but one suspended labor until the close of the war. Many of the regiments stationed in New York City during its occupation by the British had attached to them so-called Army Lodges, which were exceedingly active, and in these Lodges Whigs and Tories, Federalists and Royalists, were accustomed to meet, forgetful for the nonce of the bitterness aroused by the conflict between the Crown and its Colonies. A Provincial Grand Lodge having been established in New York City in December, 1782, upon the evacuation of the British troops, it was decided to leave the Grand Warrant for use of the successors of the incumbent Grand Officers, most of whom, being British soldiers, were obliged to depart. The first American Grand Master of this body was WILLIAM COCK, who was succeeded by ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON in 1784. Two years later all Lodges in the State were ordered to deposit their warrants, so that the rank of all might be determined. In the same year a committee was appointed to consider the propriety of holding the Grand Lodge under its then warrant, and to effect a change if it should be thought expedient. This committee afterward reported that no change was necessary. The festivals of the two SAINTS JOHN were observed by the Grand Lodge in 1785 and 1789 with much ceremony. In August, 1790, the Grand Lodge declared in favor of a Supreme Federal Grand Lodge. Owing to conflicts between the "Moderns" and "Ancients" and a number of clandestine Masons, a check - word was adopted by the Grand Lodge in 1793, but the next year it was changed. The use of this safeguard was continued for several years. In 1796 it was resolved by the Grand Lodge to refuse to grant any dispensation or charter for a Lodge to any persons residing out of the State and within the jurisdiction of another Grand Lodge. JACOB MORTON was in 1801 inducted into the Grand Orient as successor of ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON with elaborate ceremonials, Knights Templar officiating and the Grand Master delivering a felicitous address.
The second war with England caused an emergency convocation of the Grand Lodge, September, 1814, seventeen Lodges responding, and the members, with other Brethren, devoted several days' labor toward the erection of a fort on Brooklyn Heights as a defense of the city. The Grand Lodge on June 5, 1816, prohibited the use of distilled spirits in Lodge rooms. For many years the jurisdiction was torn by dissentions arising from attempts to establish a second Grand Lodge.
Three Lodges of Albany in December, 1801, issued a circular to the country Lodges advocating the formation of another Grand Lodge. The Lodges divided upon the proposition, some of the country Lodges uniting with the city Lodges in opposition. Action was postponed until 1823, when it was discussed with much bitterness. Before this was settled the subordinates in ten of the western counties convened and petitioned the Grand Lodge for the formation of a second Grand Body in the western portion of the State. In June, 1822, another proposal was made to erect a new Grand Lodge in the country. Many objections were made to the Grand Lodge by the interior Lodges, the principal ones being in regard to payment of mileage and expenses of representatives, the right to vote, and representation of country Lodges by proxies to the Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge was in many respects purely a city organization, and gradually excited the opposition of the country members. It was fast becoming discredited, and in June, 1822, the dissentions culminated in the organization of another, or country, Grand Lodge, which was known as St. John's Grand Lodge. Five years later the country and city Grand Lodges under a compromise treaty coalesced, it having been agreed that there should be but one Grand Lodge, that the records should remain in New York City, that
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the Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer should be elected from that city, that the other officers should be chosen alternately from city and country, that Past Masters should not be represented by proxies, and that no Master or Past Master should represent more than three Lodges. New York State was the home and hotbed of the anti-Masonic crusade brought about by the MORGAN incident, and so intense was the excitement that all but seventy-two of the 502 Lodges surrendered their charters. For seven years no work was done. The Grand Lodge, to help allay the feeling of opposition, prohibited all public parades. Despite this inhibition and in the face of special notifications York, Hibernia, Benevolent, and Silentia Lodges, under the leadership of HENRY C. ATWOOD, resolved to appear in public to celebrate ST. JOHN's Day, 1837. The parade was held, three hundred joining in the same. In July succeeding ATWOOD was expelled, the specific charge being disobedience to the mandate of the Deputy Grand Master, who had warned him against proceeding with the march and celebration. The Lodges participating met and on September 12, 1837, established a Grand Lodge under the name of St. John's. This body and its subordinates were refused recognition by the American and European Grand Lodges, being declared clandestine, and so continued until 1850, when the St. John's Grand Lodge was merged with the Grand Lodge of New York and its members healed. In June, 1853, the St. John's Grand Lodge drew away from the Grand Lodge of New York, basing its action upon four grounds, the first being to the Grand Master, REUBEN H. WALWORTH, for his claimed disloyalty to the Masonic Institution; the second, that large amounts of money had been squandered; the third, that Lodges had been inordinately taxed, and the fourth the inquisitorial exercise of power over subordinate Lodges and individual members.
When the term of Grand Master WALWORTH expired, three years later, the St. John's bodies returned to the regular Grand, Lodge and the schism was finally closed. The St. John's Grand Lodge at this time had about one thousand members enrolled in its subordinates. The Grand Lodge of New York has ever been liberal in its charities and consistent in its help to the needy. In 1810 it provided instruction to fifty poor orphan children. In 18l2 the destitution and suffering of the people at Buffalo was relieved by the citv Lodges. Moneys were raised in 1815 for the presentation to each scholar in the Fraternity's free school of an outfit of clothing.
The movement to erect a building for the Grand Lodge in New York City and an asylum for Masons, widows, and orphans was started in 1843, and has since seen fruition in the magnificent Temple of the Craft in New York City and the more useful and gracious home at Utica. The Grand Lodge is the possessor of one of the finest Masonic Libraries in the world, and is adding to it constantly. Six of the original Lodges still exist, their antiquity not having impaired their vigor or usefulness.
Closely following the termination of the War of Independence, the various Lodges in New Jersey united to establish a Grand Lodge. Accordingly, the representatives of the different subordinates met at New Brunswick, and on December 18, 1786, organized the Grand Body, most of those participating having been actively engaged in the conflict. A number of the military Lodges connected with the forces operating in New Jersey joined in the creation of the Grand Lodge, accepting later the warrants of the new governing body. New Jersey was the theater of many of the notable encounters of the Revolution, and during the interims of warfare the members of the several Army Lodges and those Masons whose membership was in regularly located Lodges, availed themselves fully of the opportunities thus afforded to meet their Brethren of the Mystic Tie, and many strong and in some cases romantic attachments were formed which outlasted hostilities. Although the Grand Lodge was organized in 1786, it was four years later before its Constitution was formally promulgated and adopted. As might be expected, General WASHINGTON, during his prolonged stay in and about New Jersey, was a frequent attendant upon the Masonic communications, and his presence
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and inspiring words were always keenly welcomed. This jurisdiction, while consistently opposed to the creation of a General Grand Lodge, was nevertheless favorable to the appointment of WASHINGTON as Grand Master of the United States, and even went so far as to receive a favorable report from a committee, but the proposition meeting with no general favor, owing to the objection that it would create a precedent that might prove injurious to the Craft in general, was permitted to lapse. The anti-Masonic crusade affected this Grand Lodge to some extent, but not as much as the other jurisdictions to the north and east. After the gradual decline of prejudice growing out of the MORGAN trouble, the Lodges began to prosper, and their course has since been pleasant and beneficial.
Two months after peace had been proclaimed the Lodges meeting on the Eastern Shore of Maryland assembled at Talbot Courthouse to establish a Grand Lodge, representatives from five Lodges being present to forward the project. At the meeting when it was proposed to elect officers for the Grand Lodge, some question was made as to the right of the convention to do so. It was then decided to appeal to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania which had warranted most of the Maryland bodies for authority to set up an independent Grand Lodge. No definite reply to this request appears to have been given, probably for the reason that the supplicating bodies possessed the inherent right to establish their own Grand Lodge when they so determined. The convention met in July, 1783, for the second time, the Masters and Wardens of the Lodges being present instead of deputies. At this session the indisputable right of the Lodges to form an independent Grand Body was strongly declared and the assembly also elected a corps of officers. It was also decided that the Grand Lodge should meet quarterly and should sit at different places at its various communications. There were some members of the Grand Lodge who continued of doubtful belief as to their power to constitute a new Grand Body without the sanction of the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, and the Grand Master of Maryland endeavored to obtain the final opinion of the Pennsylvania body, but without success, although a committee for the purpose of determining the question was appointed by the latter, but this committee does not appear to have made any report concerning the matter. Eventually the Maryland body concluded the matter by a declaration recognizing its right to form a Grand Lodge and the incident was considered closed. Thereafter there was no representation in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania from Maryland. To settle all questions concerning the regularity and validity of the organization of the Grand Lodge in April, 1787, the officers of the different Lodges were summoned and the Grand Lodge was then formally reorganized and this date is generally accepted as that of the formation of this body. The three Lodges on the Western Shore, being two at Baltimore and one at Joppa, did not join in the establishment of the Grand Lodge but later submitted to its authority. With the settlement of the questions affecting the regularity of the organization of the Grand Lodge, the subordinates increased rapidly, twenty warrants being issued in the period to 1800, but of these seven became dormant.
For twenty years thereafter very little progress was made, but in 1820 interest in Masonry revived and for a decade there was great activity, no less than eighteen charters being issued for the establishment of new Lodges or the rejuvenation of old ones. In the following decade, however, there was a cessation of activity and the Fraternity lapsed to such extent that the entire membership did not exceed 300 and it was distributed among thirteen Lodges. This remarkable decrease in Lodges and membership was due wholly to the anti-Masonic excitement, but this decadent condition was of comparatively short duration and by 1845 interest was revived and the Craft began to prosper again and in the ensuing five years ten new Lodges were formed and many others revived. The Grand Lodge in 1797 Petitioned the Legislature for an Act of Incorporation which was granted finally in 1822. Under this Act the Grand Lodge continued to exercise its corporate powers for forty-four years when the Act was so amended as to enable the Grand Lodge
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to acquire additional property. A curious tribunal existed in this State up to 1872 called the "Grand Stewards' Lodge," composed of the Masters of the Baltimore Lodges and a Past Master from each Lodge in the State. Originally this Lodge was composed of the Deputy Grand Master and eight Brethren appointed annually by the Grand Lodge to which body was delegated the charge of the Grand Lodge Charity Fund. In time this Lodge extended its power and in addition to managing the financial interests of the Grand Lodge, received authority to act as an intermediate appellate court with power of discipline. After an existence of seventy-five years this Lodge was abolished, the Grand Lodge assuming its proper authority. This Grand Lodge on September is, 1793, in conjunction with the Lodge at Alexandria, Virginia, laid the cornerstone of the Capitol at Washington, D. C., the ceremonies being performed by GEORGE WASHINGTON, then President. This body also on July 4, 1815, laid the cornerstone of the WASHINGTON Monument in Baltimore, the Grand Master officiating and being the first monument erected to the memory of the distinguished patriot. On many occasions the Grand Lodge has been called upon to lay the corner - stones of public and private buildings and to participate in many public ceremonies. In 1845 a charity fund was established and much money was donated, ultimately reaching the sum of $54,000 which was invested in a new Temple which for many years was a losing venture. Many valuable records were destroyed Christmas Day, 1890, by a fire which consumed the old Masonic Hall on St. Paul Street.
Although the first warrant for a Lodge in Virginia was issued in 1741, a Grand Lodge was not formed therein until 1777. A number of Lodges were warranted by other Grand Bodies, but all were either united afterward to the Virginia Grand Lodge or surrendered their authority. Alexandria Lodge, No. 39, which was constituted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, February 3, 1783, in April, 1788, surrendered its warrant and obtained one from the Grand Lodge of Virginia, and in 1804 gained permission to change its name to "Alexandria - Washington Lodge, No. 22." The Grand Lodge in 1798 declared against any member of the Virginia Lodges visiting the Lodges of the "Ancients," under penalty of expulsion, and this penal statute had the desired effect. WASHINGTON was made a Mason in this State on November 4, 1752, receiving the degrees in Fredericksburg Lodge. A monument to his memory was dedicated in 1858 by the Grand Lodge on the anniversary of his birth, with imposing ceremonies. The Grand Lodge also laid the cornerstone of the monument to commemorate the surrender of Yorktown, which the United States erected at the latter place. The Grand Lodge of Virginia was the parent of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, which was formed in 1865, having chartered most of the Lodges which engaged in the formation of the latter, and also furnishing the form of Constitution which was used for several years. The prosperity of the Lodges in Virginia and West Virginia was sadly affected by the War of the Rebellion, but upon its culmination all again became successful and useful.
Among the earliest of the Colonies to receive the Masonic Institution was South Carolina, in which as early as 1735 a Lodge was constituted, known as Solomon's Lodge, located at Charleston, under a warrant issued by Lord WEYMOUTH, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. At the same time that the warrant was granted to this Lodge, another was granted for a Lodge bearing the same name and located at Wilmington, North Carolina. The Charleston Lodge thus formed is still in existence. The Provincial Grand Lodge which had existed in South Carolina since 1737, declared itself in 1787 independent of England, and organized as a regular Grand Lodge. All the Lodges under this Grand Lodge were "Ancients." The "Moderns" in the same year formed a second Grand Lodge. For many years these bodies maintained a most un - fraternal rivalry, the "Ancients " being particularly energetic, while the "Moderns" sedulously adhered to the old regulations that required the uninitiated to voluntarily seek them. In December, 1808, the two Grand Lodges united
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as the "Grand Lodge of South Carolina," but dissentions soon arose over the eligibility of the "Moderns," the "Ancients" holding that the former could not become "Ancients" except by submitting to the ceremonies of the latter. The dispute raged bitterly and other Grand jurisdictions interdicted the members. At length the "Ancients" revived their Grand Lodge and the civil tribunals were appealed to for relief. In 1817 the two Grand Lodges were again united upon terms mutually satisfactory and the Brethren have since abided together in peace and harmony. In this jurisdiction Orange Lodge, No. 14, has maintained a continuous existence since May 28, 1789.
In North Carolina the first Grand Lodge was formed in 1771 and it met alternately at Newbern and Edenton. Its records were destroyed during the Revolution. The Grand Lodge suspended its labors during the war, but it was reorganized in 1787 when new officers were elected and installed, all Lodges renumbered and new charters issued. In 1797 the Legislature enacted a law for the incorporation of the Grand Lodge, under which it has since acted. In 1856 the Grand Lodge established ST. JOHN'S College, a Masonic educational institution, at Oxford, and in 1872 converted it into an orphan asylum, which has been recognized by the people and State in many substantial ways.
The first Lodge in Georgia was known as Solomon's, 139, and was warranted by Lord WEYMOUTH, Grand Master of England. This Lodge existed until the close of the Revolution, when it ceased to exist. In 1786 the Grand Lodge was formed. The progress of the Fraternity thereafter was marked in the city of Savannah, but the country Lodges failed to prosper and in 1818 most of the interior bodies had ceased to exist. To remedy this condition of affairs a new Constitution was adopted in 1820 providing for quarterly meetings, those of March and June at Savannah and those of September and December at Milledgeville, and for the election of Grand Officers annually at the March meeting at Savannah. These changes did not, however, meet with the approval of the members generally and a conflict arose between the country and city members, the former vacating the work of the latter. At length a meeting was held in December, 1826, to correct the evils growing out of this condition of affairs, and a new Constitution was adopted abolishing the quarterly meetings and fixing the regular meeting - place at Milledgeville. The Savannah session of the Grand Lodge repudiated these acts of the Milledgeville communication and elected Grand Officers as usual. At the December meeting of the Milledgeville Grand Lodge, Grand Officers were elected, the March session at Savannah was declared illegal and the Brethren espousing the cause of the latter were expelled. As might be expected the bitterest feelings were engendered by this action, intensified by the course of one of the Savannah Lodges in adhering to the Milledgeville Grand Lodge. While these factional controversies were waging, the anti-Masonic crusade was begun and this served more than any other cause to reunite the warring partisans, and all Lodges but Solomon's, No. 1, of Savannah renewed allegiance to the Milledgeville Grand Lodge. In November, 1889, Solomon's, No. 1, was received into the Grand Lodge and the sentence of expulsion was removed, thereby completely restoring the harmonious relations of the Craft. The most notable event in the career of the Grand Lodge was its participation March 21, 1824, in the laying of the corner - stones of the monuments erected to the memory of Generals GREENE and PULASKI, in which ceremonies LAFAYETTE participated.
The early Lodges in Florida had ephemeral existence, all constituted, for one cause or another, surrendering their charters or becoming extinct. This condition of affairs continued until the organization of several subordinates in the early years of the nineteenth century. Three of these Lodges met in July, 1830, and formed a Grand Lodge. This Grand Lodge "has the distinction of being the first Grand Body erected in a territory, Florida not being then admitted to Statehood. Its career has been harmonious and the Craft has prospered under its wise administration.
Although possessing a comparatively small enrollment, the members of this jurisdiction have worked in unison to promote
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the principles of the Fraternity and have a proud record for genuine charity. Lodges have been chartered in all of the principal cities and towns and the future of the Craft is bright indeed. The records of the Grand Lodge were unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1888, together with much other valuable property.
The Grand Lodge of Delaware was organized in 18o6 under circumstances of such doubtful character, that for many years sister Grand Lodges refused it recognition. There seemed to be no concerted action by the Lodges as such for the formation of a Grand Body. A number of Brethren, said to have been nine, held a meeting at Wilmington, and decided to create a Grand Lodge for the better government of the Fraternity. A committee was accordingly selected to prepare the necessary articles, and in June, 1806, the same were received and approved, and temporary officers appointed. The Grand Lodge was then formally consecrated and established.
The distinctive events in the history of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia were its participation in the laying of the cornerstone of the new Capitol of the United States, and its dedication of the Great WASHINGTON Monument.
The cornerstone of the first Capitol was laid on September 18, 1793, by WASHINGTON, who was then President, assisted by the Craft, and the ceremonies were entirely those of the Fraternity. The Grand Lodge was in charge of the ceremonies attending the laying of the commemorative stone of the new Capitol, on July 4, 1851 - More recently the Grand Lodge placed the cap - stone of the WASHINGTON Monument, and performed the dedicatory services. Five Lodges united in establishing this Grand Lodge in February, 1811, the only subordinate not joining being Alexandria - Washington Lodge, which continued under the Virginia Jurisdiction.
The first Grand Lodge organized in the Mississippi valley was that of Kentucky, which was formed in October, 1800, by the Masters of five Lodges all under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. Among these Lodges was Lexington, No. 25, which is said to be the first Lodge organized west of the Alleghanies. The preliminary meeting of the representatives of these five Lodges was held in September, 1800, at Lexington, at which the inspiring cause for the setting up of a separate authority was declared to be the impossibility of extending the charities of the Virginia Grand Lodge to the Brethren and their families in Kentucky, and the difficulty of attending the Grand Lodge and receiving visits from the Grand Master. The Masters of the several Lodges participating exhibited the charters under which they were acting, and their own authorities as representatives whereupon the Grand Lodge was created in accordance with the customary forms.
Six years later the Grand Lodge Articles of Constitution were drafted by a convention of delegates. These were based upon the Virginia code and were adopted, and were in 1808 amended and then published. In 1802 the Grand Lodge established a charity fund, the moneys for the same being procured by a tax of one dollar for every subordinate initiation, and five dollars for every Grand Lodge initiation, and in this manner a large fund was accumulated. In 1867, a home for widows and orphans - the first of the Masonic homes - was incorporated, and the Grand Lodge evidenced its favorable consideration of this praiseworthy charity by levying a special tax upon the entire membership, and the funds thus derived were devoted to extension and maintenance of the home. The high - spirited denizens of Kentucky gave the State a reputation for dueling that reached to every quarter of the globe, and the tendency among them to resort to this means of satisfying their honor penetrated even beyond the lines guarding the Masonic Brotherhood. It accordingly early became necessary for the Grand Lodge to act upon several such incidents involving Brethren of the jurisdiction. A Brother who bore a challenge from one Brother Mason to another was in 1814 suspended by his Lodge, but on appeal to the Grand Lodge this sentence was modified and reduced to reprimand.
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Four years later the Grand Master himself engaged in a duel with a member of his own Lodge, and was summoned by the Grand Lodge to answer for his conduct.
After considerable debate both Brethren were suspended from all Masonic privileges for one year.
The second of the Grand Lodges formed in the territory west of the Alleghanies was in Ohio. The first Lodge opened in that district was American Union Lodge at Marietta, being the same Lodge for which a warrant was issued by the St. John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts as an army Lodge connected with the Connecticut Line. This Lodge held its first communication June 28, 1790, JONATHAN HEART being Master. In December, 1794, Nova Cesarea Lodge was organized at Cincinnati. In 1803 warrants were issued by the Connecticut Grand Lodge for Lodges at Warren and Worthington; in 1805 the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge issued authority for a Lodge at Zanesville, and in 1806 the Kentucky Grand Lodge warranted a Lodge at Cincinnati. Delegates from five of these Lodges met at Chillicothe in January, 1808, and decided to form a Grand Lodge, and fixed on January 2, 1809, for the first meeting. General RUFUS PUTNAM was the first Grand Master. At the session in January, 1809, but four Lodges were represented, and the question was at once raised whether or not four Lodges could form a Grand Lodge. According to the DERMOTT Constitution five Lodges were necessary to form a Grand Lodge. It was finally determined, however, to proceed with the organization of the body, which was accordingly formed. The validity of the formation of the Ohio Grand Lodge has never been attacked, though it did not conform strictly to the ancient usage in respect to the number required to constitute it. The Kentucky Constitution was adopted temporarily for the guidance of the Grand Lodge. Although American Union Lodge was represented at the preliminary convention it declined to submit to the authority of the Grand Lodge, asserting superior prior rights. Afterward the Lodge was declared clandestine, but on petition of several of the Brethren a new charter was issued to them in 1816, and since 1842 the Lodge has been extremely active. The Grand Lodge has no fixed meeting - place, the sessions being held annually at such place as has been previously chosen. The same effects were produced in Ohio by the anti-Masonic crusade as were noted in the other jurisdictions. The membership fell away in every direction, and the number of Lodges decreased from ninety-four to seventeen.
Since 1840 the progress of the Craft in Ohio has been steady, uniformly harmonious, and eminently satisfactory to the Fraternity at large. In all that makes for the betterment of the Fraternity and in the living exposition of its vital principles, Ohio has ever been foremost and is a worthy exemplar of beneficent acts well done.
The Masonic Institution was introduced to the territory now known as Louisiana by LAURENT SIGUR, who, with a number of Gallican refugees from the West Indian Islands, formed a Lodge in 1793 known as Parfait Union. The original authority of these Brethren being doubtful, they applied to the South Carolina Grand Lodge for a charter, which was granted. In the following year several discontented Brethren obtained from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Marseilles, France, a warrant for a Lodge called Polar Star, and in 1803 it was finally chartered by the Grand Orient of France. Several Lodges were also warranted by the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, and one by the New York Grand Lodge. All of these Lodges were located in New Orleans, and all but Louisiana Lodge, which had been authorized by New York, and Harmony Lodge, worked in the French language. The Grand Lodge was formed in 1812 by seven of the Lodges, Louisiana and Harmony Lodges, the only bodies working in English, refusing to participate. The non-concurrence of these two Lodges did not, however, stay the organization of the Grand Body, which elected officers, adopted a Constitution and regulations and re-chartered the participating Lodges, and was subsequently recognized and greeted by the other Grand Lodges. For many years differences existed among the Lodges over
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the various rites worked by the different bodies, and these differences were the subject of much consideration and action by the Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge had been organized by York Rite Lodges, but its natural tendency to uphold this rite was subverted by those in control of that body. The Grand Orient of France invaded the jurisdiction in 1818 by warranting a Lodge to work the French Rite.
Some of the bodies under the Grand Lodge inaugurated the custom of working both rites. Those in control of the Grand Lodge had become members of the French Rite and favored its interests. These members determined to force the Grand Lodge to recognize the French Rite, and thus to remove all possible questions as to its legitimacy. It was at length decided to have a special meeting of the Grand Lodge, which was held in November, 1821, at which the city Lodges entirely ignored the country Lodges, of which there were seven, and five of which worked in English.
At this meeting of the Grand Lodge the Constitution was amended and recognition was accorded to the three rites - French, Scotch and York. In 1826 a new Lodge at New Orleans was chartered by the Grand Lodge, under the name of Harmony, the former Lodge of that name having become extinct some years before. This Lodge worked in English. From this subordinate, two years later, a delegation of Brethren separated and formed another Lodge, under the name of Louisiana. This schism was due entirely to the old differences over the various rites. Harmony Lodge was pronounced in its opposition to the French Rite, and on the recurrence of the anniversaries of the SAINTS JOHN, in 1828, refused admission to deputations from the Lodges working the French Rite. Complaint was made to the Grand Lodge, but it failed to act. Subsequently, however, the Grand Lodge recognized the regularity of the three rites, and peace was forced for a time. This was followed by the adoption by the Grand Lodge of a new set of laws, copied principally from the code of the Grand Orient of France, which brought about a status bordering on chaos.
There seemed to be no regularity or precedent and no firm power for the arbitrament of differences or the elucidation of many vexatious problems and conditions. Finally the "York" Lodges declared the Grand Lodge illegal for its recognition of the French Rite and for its permission to subordinates to work both the French and Scotch Rites at volition. In the midst of these difficulties the Grand Lodge of Mississippi declared against the regularity of the Louisiana Grand Lodge, and in 1847 issued charters for seven Lodges in and about New Orleans. These bodies met in 1848 and organized a "York" Grand Lodge. Early in 1849 steps were taken to unite the two Grand Lodges, and in March, 1850, the union was perfected, when a committee was named to prepare a new Constitution, which was subsequently, in the same year, ratified by nearly all the Lodges. Since then the progress of the Craft, with some fluctuations, has been satisfactory in every respect, the increase in membership and material wealth being large.
The first Lodge in Mississippi was Harmony, No. 7, at Natchez, which was opened by virtue of a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. The date of its institution was October 16, 1801. This Lodge labored for thirteen years, when it surrendered its authority and effects. Two years later, however, it was revived.
Another Lodge, known as Andrew Jackson, was in the same year chartered by the Tennessee Grand Lodge, and the latter body again in 1817 warranted Washington Lodge at Fort Gibson. These three Lodges in July, 1818, organized the Grand Lodge at Natchez. A full corps of officers was selected and a Constitution adopted.
In 1819 a meeting of the Grand Lodge was held to consider the advisability of appealing to the State authorities for permission to establish a lottery as the means of obtaining money with which to buy a site for a Masonic Hall. The authority sought was obtained, but the lottery was not successful. Donations were then sought from the members. This plan proved more successful, and several years later the building was dedicated with imposing ceremonies.
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As was the case with many other Western jurisdictions, Masonry was carried into the Territory of Indiana by the Brethren of the Army Lodges. The first Lodge organized was Vincennes, No. 15, named for the little settlement where it was located. It was constituted in 1808. It was opened under a dispensation from the Kentucky Grand Lodge. In the period from 18l5 to 1817 the Kentucky Grand Lodge issued charters to five and dispensations to two Lodges in this district, while one dispensation was issued by Ohio. The chartered Lodges in 1818 met at Madison, and formed a Grand Lodge for Indiana. A Constitution was adopted, and WEBB'S Work was selected as that to be pursued by the subordinates. In 1828 the Grand Lodge was located permanently in Indianapolis. In 1848 it built a hall at Indianapolis for its accommodation, but this was superseded in 1875 by a magnificent Temple, which was constructed at a cost of $200,000, and which has since been one of the architectural attractions and show places of the city.
The early settlements along the Mississippi were made by the French, and by these were established the trading posts of St. Genevieve and St. Louis in the middle of the eighteenth century. The traders located at these posts purchased their wares in Philadelphia, and while temporarily abiding at the latter city some of them became members of the French Lodge there. Enough members of the Craft thus made had settled in these outlying posts to warrant the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge in 1807 to issue authority for the formation of Louisiana Lodge at St. Genevieve, and in 1809 for the establishment of a Lodge to be known as St. Louis, and to be located at the post of that name. In 1816 Tennessee chartered Missouri Lodge at St. Louis; Elkton Lodge, Elkton, in 1819; Joachim Lodge, Herculaneum, 1819, and St. Charles Lodge, St. Charles, 1819. of these Lodges Missouri, Joachim, and St. Charles united, in April, 1821, in organizing the Grand Lodge of Missouri. The officers elected were not installed, however, until the following month. Then the Brethren, parading in column, proceeded to the Baptist Church, where the ceremonies were duly performed, with strict adherence to the old formulas. The work of the Grand Lodge was thereupon resumed, and a Constitution drafted by a committee was presented and adopted. A special communication of the Grand Lodge was held in St. Louis, April 29, 1825, for the purpose of receiving LAFAYETTE, who was then in the city. LAFAYETTE was elected an honorary member, and was escorted to the Grand Lodge by a committee. He was accompanied by his son, GEORGE WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE. Both were received by the Grand Lodge standing, and after a felicitous welcome, to which LAFAYETTE responded in graceful terms, he was conducted to a seat in the Grand East. His son was also elected an honorary member of the Grand Lodge. Before retiring, LAFAYETTE addressed the Grand Body at some length. This Grand Lodge held its regular semi - annual meetings throughout the whole period of the fanatical anti-Masonic crusade. In April, 1832, the Grand Lodge decided to hold but one session annually, which has since been its rule. Prior to 1840 there was no law fixing a permanent headquarters for the Grand Lodge, but in that year a new Code of Laws was adopted, which provided for annual meetings in St. Louis. The Grand Lodge in 1881 appointed a committee to investigate and report upon the feasibility of establishing a home for Masonic widows and orphans. Several years later the committee reported in favor of the project, whereupon the Grand Lodge agreed to donate $10,000 toward its consummation. The necessary organization was immediately perfected, and moneys raised, and in 1888 a fine site, already improved, in West St. Louis was purchased for $40,000. The Grand Lodge dedicated the Home in June, 1889, and at that time the Home had assets of almost $100,000.
The Grand Lodge of Alabama was organized in June, 1821, by Lodges warranted by the Grand Lodges of Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. These Lodges were all organized subsequent to the year 1811. The MORGAN excitement produced its effect upon this
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jurisdiction to such extent that in 1836 the Grand Lodge was unable to muster a quorum and the members in attendance declared it dead. A reorganization was effected, however, officers chosen, new charters issued and old ones validated and a new and stringent Constitution adopted. Among the provisions of the Constitution was the very drastic one that any Lodge which was not represented in the Grand Lodge for two successive sessions should be considered functus and its charter surrendered. Three of the original Lodges are still in existence and with the other subordinates are actively engaged in spreading the light.
The first Lodge in Michigan was warranted in 1764 by the Provincial Grand Master of New York, GEORGE HARRISON, and located at Detroit. It was intended to be an Army Lodge. But little is known of its operations. In 1773 authority was granted by the Grand Lodge of the "Moderns" in England for two Lodges at Detroit and one at Mackinaw in 1785. The latter were also Army Lodges and ceased when the British troops were withdrawn after the cession by England upon the close of the Revolution. In 1794 the Canadian Provincial Grand Lodge warranted a Lodge at Detroit which is supposed to be a revival of the original Lodge established in 1764, but in 1806 it was warranted again by the Grand Lodge of New York under the original name and number of Zion, No. 1. This Lodge was closed for some time owing to the capture of Detroit by the English in 1812. In 1816 General LEWIS CASS, who was then Governor of the Territory, was chosen Master. The original warrant of this Lodge was discovered in 1819 and surrendered to the Grand Lodge but resumed work upon the termination of hostilities.
In 1821 the second Lodge to be located in the Territory was warranted by the New York Grand Lodge. Within the next three years three other Lodges were authorized by the same Grand Lodge. In the summer of 1826 these four Lodges assembled and formed a Grand Lodge. LEWIS CASS was chosen Grand Master and a Constitution was adopted. This Grand Lodge was, however, superseded by another in 1827. Four subordinates were chartered by this later body. Owing to the anti-Masonic crusade which penetrated even into this far - off region, the Grand Lodge in 1829 suspended labor and upon its recommendation all the subordinates but one did the same and for eleven years this jurisdiction was practically dead. In 1842 a charter was obtained from New York by certain Brethren residing at Niles and in 1844 charters were issued by the same Grand Lodge to three others, being in reality the revival of former bodies. Once more did the representatives of four Lodges meet and form a Grand Lodge. The meeting was held in Detroit in September, 1844. At this session officers were elected, a Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge was once more launched upon the great Masonic sea with the cordial greetings and fraternal good - will of the Craft throughout the world.
This body succeeded to the property of the former Grand Lodge and has maintained a continuous and successful existence. It has no permanent abiding - place, its communications being held in the different cities of the commonwealth at pleasure. The Brethren of this jurisdiction have established near Grand Rapids a stately Masonic Home which was dedicated by the Grand Lodge in 1891 and is devoted to the care of Michigan Brethren and their widows and orphans.
The pioneer Lodge of Arkansas was organized in 1819 at the Post of Arkansas under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. It was called Arkansas Lodge. Upon the removal of the seat of government to Little Rock the Lodge lost many of its members by demission and the Lodge was obliged to surrender its dispensation. In 1836 the Tennessee Grand Lodge granted a dispensation for a Lodge named Washington Lodge, to be located at Fayetteville. Other Lodges were constituted at Little Rock, Post of Arkansas, and Washington. These Lodges, through their representatives in 1838, met at Little Rock and formed a Grand Lodge. Officers were elected and installed, a Constitution was adopted, and the Fraternity was placed upon an organized basis. It has
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since made fairly satisfactory progress. The Grand Lodge, in 1857, founded ST.
JOHN'S College, and for some years thereafter it was a prosperous and highly creditable institution, but it was closed in 1883, owing to the difficulty of procuring the right man to guide its destinies. During its existence it did much good, a large number of Masonic dependents being the beneficiaries of its curriculum. The fiftieth anniversary of the Grand Lodge was fittingly observed in 1888. When the annual communication was closed, the hall was opened to the public and a grand commemorative demonstration was held. The programme included the reading of the proceedings of the original convention and a short historical account of the Lodges which participated in the organization of the Grand Lodge. JOHN P, KARNS, the sole survivor of the little band of representatives who formed the Grand Body, attended and related in an interesting way many incidents of note in its early history. His recital was supplemented by an extended address by one of the later Grand Officers. This was followed by an elaborate banquet to over five hundred Brethren, ladies and visitors, which was enlivened with toasts, music, and song. The Brethren of Fort Smith are the possessors of a magnificent temple, which was dedicated by the Grand Lodge in 1889. Part of the funds were contributed by the relatives of the late BARNARD BAIER, a member of the Craft, as a fitting monument to his memory, and additional funds were supplied by J. H. T. Main.
The primary Masonic meeting in Texas was held in the town of San Felipe, on the Brazos River, February 11, 1828, seven members of the Craft being present. At this little assembly it was decided to organize a Lodge. Accordingly it was agreed to apply to the Grand York Lodge of Mexico for a charter or dispensation, and STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, for whom the city of Austin was named and who was prominent in the settlement of Texas, was selected as Master.
Mexico was then rent by disturbances between the Masons and the "profane" growing out of a Bull of the Pope against the Masonic institution.
The Scotch Masons were principally citizens of means and distinction, and the York Masons opposed a central government. The latter were also in favor of expelling all Spaniards from the country. Hence the attitude of the Pope. In the civil war which followed, and in which the Scotch Masons were opposed by the York Masons, the Masonic Fraternity lost its power, and the petition of the San Felipe Brethren was not considered or granted. In March, 1835, the next and this time successful attempt to establish a Lodge in Texas was undertaken. Six Brethren met in a retired spot in a little wood near Brazoria and resolved to present a petition to the Louisiana Grand Lodge for a dispensation to establish a Lodge. With an additional signature, the petition was forwarded, and the same having been favorably considered, a dispensation was issued to Holland Lodge, and in December, 1835, the first Lodge was duly consecrated and opened. It required considerable moral as well as physical courage to declare one's adhesion to the Craft at that time in Texas, due as much to the distrust of the Mexican government of every movement in that border land as to the violent and bitter opposition of the Romish priesthood. The Lodge met until the following February, when the war with Mexico started. The town of Brazoria was deserted, and a detachment of the Mexican army seized the place and destroyed all the records and property of the Lodge. A charter having been granted in the meantime by the Louisiana Grand Lodge, it was, after many vicissitudes, safely delivered to the Master, and in October, 1837, the Lodge was reopened at Houston. Two other Lodges had in the interim been chartered by the Louisiana Grand Lodge. Representatives from one of these - Milam Lodge of Nacogdoches - met at Houston with delegates from Holland Lodge in December, 1837, to form a Grand Lodge. A representative was at the request of these two Lodges appointed to represent McFarlane Lodge of St.
Augustine, and the convention was opened - SAMUEL HOUSTON being selected as chairman. When Grand Officers were chosen ANSON JONES, first Master of Holland Lodge, was elected Grand Master. The Constitution and regulations of the
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Louisiana Grand Lodge were adopted temporarily, and a committee was designated to draft a Constitution. The Grand Lodge met in April, 1838, being opened in ample form, but did not adopt a Constitution until the following month. It was provided by this instrument that ten per cent of all revenues of the Grand Lodge should be appropriated for educational purposes. At the annual session in January, 1847, the Grand Lodge declared itself empha
