The Builder Magazine

April 1916 - Volume II - Number 4

 

MASONIC SOCIAL SERVICE: AN INVESTMENT IN BABIES

BY BRO. T. W. HUGO, 33d, MINNESOTA

(Hear now a story of the Infant Welfare Work of the Scottish Rite Bodies of Duluth, written at our request, and telling of the beginnings, the growth, the methods, and organization of the work, together with something of its results. We present it as the first of a number of examples of Masonic social service, not only because the work of the Duluth Masons deserves to be widely known, but also, and chiefly, that others may go and do likewise--if not in this particular field, then in some other that lies ready at hand. The following letter from the Commissioner of Public Safety explains itself:--"Dear Mr. Hugo: I am in receipt of your report of the Infant Welfare work being done by the Scottish Rite bodies of this city. They are most certainly to be congratulated on the excellent showing made, and the City Government, and I believe our citizens generally, fully appreciate the good work you are doing and the responsibility you have assumed. Very truly yours, B. Silberstein.")

 

A YELLOW pup ! But wait a minute; I am a believer in fairies, and I like to begin a story with "Once upon a time." Although, to tell  the truth, I am scared to death to get down to my vernacular and such common subjects as I shall have to touch upon in my story when I think of what the writers on "isms and aints," the fourth dimension, the occult, and so forth, will think, and the strain the muscles of their noses will have to stand to pull them down to the normal level again. But "orders is orders," and Ye Editor gets what he asked for, and I'll bet the whole bunch will back me up. If I use the personal pronoun it is not egotistically, but to avoid the feeling of immodesty if I did not, because the personal element comes into the beginning of the story.

 

So now, "once upon a time" I was the presiding officer of the four bodies of the Scottish Rite of the Valley of Duluth, and had been in that position for twenty-two years. I had seen the Rite built up from the nine Charter members to about nine hundred; I realized that our strength did not increase in proportion to our increase in membership; that our sympathy for one another did not extend any farther than when we had less than half that number; that if we tried to be brotherly to more than about so many we were always handicapped by wondering if "that really was his name, and who is he anyhow"; that our attendance did not increase in proportion, nor was our ceremonial work done any better; that we seemed to be about at a standstill in most everything but increase in membership. We had some money, were never parsimonious, met in a Temple that was entirely paid for before we held a meeting in it; but there was something lacking, and I wondered if it might be myself--so i)egan to fuss. Having held the office so long, I had become the Masonic father confessor, general consulting Mason, Masonic probate Judge, and Masonic Probation Policeman of our town. Now we have the background scene set, and in comes a poor mother late one afternoon about six years ago with a sick child; she had been to see some doctors, all of whom told her she must place the baby in a hospital right away; but having no money or friends they might as well have told her she ought to feed the baby on champagne, but some person sent her to me. The baby was fixed up for over night and everybody made as comfortable as possible--except me. I was mad all through, my red hair stood straight up on end, my nerves stuck out through my skin, and even my funny bone couldn't see a joke in it.

 

I played Booth in Macbeth, fumed and stamped, but the tragedy kept the stage until I made up my mind that if I wanted to get any sleep I would have to find an antidote, when the thought struck me that if anything would make a fellow forget his other troubles it would be a smoke of one of our Brother Buck's cigars, and I made him a pleasant call, lit one of the stogas, became sick, and was about ready to go home entirely straightened up when--Bang, Yelp, Whoop! and a youngster rushed in with a dirty, mongrel, yellow pup in his arms. The pup had been run over by a motorcycle and the feelings both of the boy and the pup had been hurt, in addition to the hind leg of the pup; my friend of the medicinal cigar said, "Well, take that howling brute down to the dog hospital," and the incident closed and the pup disappears from scene. I soon took my departure, arrived home, went to bed, and everything seemed settled --until in my sleep the pup began to eat the baby, and before I could reach for a stick I fell out of the bed and barked my shins. After that I couldn't go to sleep again for some time, but dropped off when I had made a combination of nine hundred men, a baby hospital, a work of interest for these men to be engaged in, and the bigger idea of trying to give the most helpless portion of animate nature a better chance for their white alley--together with the development of the helpful spirit latent in Masonry.

 

By the next meeting I had mapped out a fine speech to be delivered to the assembled Brethren, I gathered up the usual Masonic platitudes, dwelling on "spreading the cement of brotherly love" over everything, was obliged to deal in generalities because I did not know exactly what was wanted or what would best suit, as I foolishly consulted with several Doctors and each one told me a different specific to use. But I was game, and after the regular business I got up and stated that I had asked them to be present on this occasion for the purpose of;--and then I was off, but soon forgot what I had mapped out to paralyze them with, fell from grace into the yellow pup story, and made the statement in a very apologetic manner that we ought to undertake such work, and--then one brother broke up the meeting by growling, "Well, why don't you?" That ended it. There were no resolutions, no whereases, not a motion that a committee "be appointed ,to look into the matter"; it was taken for granted, and since that time the funds have been forthcoming without comment. We have given up the idea of the hospital for the present, that is not the first essential, but it will come in time.

 

Although we have settled it, I believe, that in the future a sick baby shall have as good a show to treatment as a yellow pup, because we have quarters in St. Luke's Hospital, the ultimate will be a regular Baby Hospital; because babies are no more welcome in the ordinary Hospital than they are in some well regulated families. But we soon learned by experience that there were several features of the Infant Welfare work which would bring quicker and more valuable results than the Hospital. Visiting Nursing, for instance, is the first and most important portion; it is immediate in its effects, is educational, a very important feature, because you have to gradually bring those who may profit by the service up to the point where they will be willing first, and then anxious for it. Our experience leads us to believe that the visiting nurse, a proper one, not over educated in the theory, but bubbling over with the natural, womanly, sympathetic enthusiasm and good nature of the strong, healthy, female crusader who would be a militant Suffragette riding on a horse all straddled out if her tendencies had not run into more elevating and useful channels, is indispensible. It is really wonderful what those women can do; I can have myself placed in the Anannias class at any time by telling the truth and sticking to the facts concerning what I know about this matter, so I have to go light in deference to my standing as a Deacon.

 

After we had tried out many things, and failed in some, we found that the next step was to provide means for obtaining medical advice, although it is remarkable how little, comparatively, the doctor is needed, but he is needed at times; and the next was to provide Milk Stations where guaranteed clean milk could be obtained at reasonable prices. These were the next steps, but of course, all based on the work of the visiting nurse. In our case the milk proposition was comparatively easy, as there are only three months during which the hot weather demands any special consideration, but this is a latitudinal detail which each locality must determine for itself. In our case we paid ten cents a quart for the inspected milk and sold it for seven cents, the same price as the ordinary milk dealer's product sold for. About one-fourth we had to give free, but wherever possible we received some consideration, in order to prevent the development of the idea of charity and its cold, paralyzing effect on the moral consciousness. Our Clinics are attended by a practising physician and a Nurse; one is held each day, except Sundays; and during the middle of the season we have two physicians employed and three Nurses.

 

In the working out of our plans we found that a large amount of our work was undone by the lack of appreciation of the importance of the job confided to them on the part of the young children to whose care some infants were entrusted. Then we called them Little Mothers, and educated them in classes in such matters as they could bring into use in their work of caring for their little brothers and sisters. We gave them real grown up receptions, cake and ice cream with three colors in it, and practical instruction, and took them out for auto rides, as well as the real Mothers, but at different times; for the Little Mothers make the trip a picnic which would surely waken the baby, if within a block. We have no trouble in securing the autos, and each is driven by its owner, no chauffers permitted in the procession. It is the Society event in Dead Cat Alley and Shinbone Lane when the shining machine makes its way to the residence of Mrs. O'Levitsky, and takes the Duchess and her family out for an airing. But I could use this garrulous typewriter-- it used to belong to a woman--for hours, and still be on the safe side, but I shall have to complete this story by enclosing some clippings concerning the same subject and summarize the results.

 

Summing up, our experience has been very satisfactory; we have reduced the indigestion and insomnia amongst our Brethren, because we have cut out the mankilling late suppers and spent the money on the babies; we have given our members the idea and the certain knowledge that they are doing something, that they are helping somebody; we have placed Masonry much closer to the great majority than it ever was or would have been in any length of time under the old speculative regime; it means something to them now besides a selfish, cloistercell institution, which although possessed of great potential strength was too much hampered by old traditions, old customs, Grand Master's decisions, Obsolete Landmarks, and the endeavor to live under ancient, instead of modern, conditions, and permitted progress and real civilization to drag it along, instead of being one of the highest powered motors in the van.

 

Properly organized, such a work is not an undertaking which should dismay any group of Masons under ordinary conditions. The overhead expenses are nothing; the only expenses being for Nurses and physicians, and such other charges as hospital bills, and attention to the sick. One brother is Director, and the Autocrat of all the Russias is not in it with his reign; there is no female on the list, except the nurses, and every dollar is one hundred cents. Few know who the Director is and no person is strutting around borrowing glory and doing nothing. The Scottish Rite Bodies furnish the entire funds and are glad to do so.

 

Our Masonic Institution, not alone the Scottish Rite, stands in our City of over 95,000 people as one of its municipal assets and institutions; the letter of the Director of Public Safety in the Christmas Calendar will indicate his opinion. The City Health Department still looks after the pre-natal work, a different subject, but we attend to everything in the shape of infants. If I have not covered your requirements ask me questions and I will try and make everything plain, or come up with your skiis and see for yourself.

 

(From the report of the work, as submitted to "The American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality," the headquarters are at Baltimore, Md., we learn the following details of the work at Duluth. The work was organized in 1911 and is carried on throughout the year. The number of babies cared for during the year 1913, was 200; for the year 1914, 300, for the year 1915, 600; the large increase for 1915 being due to the fact that the City of Duluth's interest in this department was assumed by the Scottish Rite Masons. The nationalities represented in the babies cared for are Swedish Norwegian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Austrian, English, Irish, and three colored--which throws that the work is neutral. The infant death rate in Duluth for the year 1910 was 223; for 1914, 187. Free clinics were held in three districts of the city during the months of June, July, August, and September, 1915. Total number of calls made from June 28th to October 15th 1915, 1,334; total number of infants on record, 926.--The Editor.

 

----o----

 

WHEN OLD AGE COMES

 

If God grant me old age,

I would see some things finished; some outworn;

Some stone prepared for builders yet unborn.

Nor would I be the sated, weary sage

Who sees no strange new wonder in each morn.

And with me there on what men call the shelf

Crowd memories from which I cull the best,--

And live old strifes, old kisses, some old jest;

For if I be no burden to myself

I shall be less a burden to the rest.

 

If God grant you old age,

I'll love the record writ in whitened hair,

I'll read each wrinkle wrought by patient care,

As oft as one would scan a treasured page,

Knowing by heart each sentence graven there.

I'd have you know life's evil and life's good,

And gaze out calmly, sweetly on it all--

Serene with hope, whatever may befall;

As though a love-strong spirit ever stood

With arm about you, waiting any call.

 

If God grant us old age,

I'd have us very lenient toward our kind,

Letting our waning senses first grow blind

Toward sins that youthful zealots can engage,

While we hug closer all the good we find.

I'd have us worldly foolish, heaven wise,

Each lending each frail succor to withstand,

Ungrudging, ev'ry mortal day's demand;

While fear-fed lovers gaze in our old eyes,

And go forth bold and glad and hand in hand.

--Burges Johnson, in Harper's Magazine.

 

 

BUILDING DESIGNS

 

BY BRO. ASAHEL W. GAGE, ILLINOIS

 

WE often heal that Masonry enables those who understand it to travel in foreign countries. It is certainly true that an intelligent study of Masonry draws the individual out of his own small sphere and, by giving him a broader view, enables him to travel in those distance realms of thought, where no discordant voices mar the harmony of eternal law. In every man's mind there exists a universe so grand that it is in reality a reflection of the great plans of the Grand Architect of the Universe. Masonry leads the way and unfolds the wondrous mysteries. It is in this higher psychological sense that Masonry enables those who follow its precepts to travel in foreign countries.

 

WAGES

 

We also learn that Masonry enables the traveler to work and receive master's wages and he thereby the better enabled to support himself and family and contribute to the relief of the worthy distressed. By wages, however, is meant not alone returns of a purely financial nature. By studying the Masonic system of symbolism, the Mason learns to read the laws of Nature and apply them for his betterment. It makes him of more value to the world and his fellowmen and being of more value, he receives more for his services. The unfailing law of compensation, the All Seeing Eye, prevades the innermost recesses of the human heart and rewards according to merit. It is in this way that the Master Mason works and receives Master's wages.

 

A MASTER MASON?

 

The teachings of Masonry are not disclosed, its secrets cannot be extorted, no man can receive them until he is prepared for them. The taking of the Master Mason's obligations does not make a Master Mason. Masonry points to the Bible as the Great Light for guidance and to the Arts and Sciences as of value in themselves and in their suggestions of the great force that is back of them. A conception of this force, an ability to study by symbol, to prove the unknown by the known, with the same exact conclusiveness that the geometrician proves the unknown problem by the axiom and the proven proposition makes the individual a Master Mason.

 

STUDY

 

The admonition to travel in foreign countries, work and receive Master's wages is an admonition limited only by the industry and ability of the individual.

 

SPECIFICATIONS OF SUPPLEMENTAL WORK AFTER TAKING FIRST DEGREE I. KINGS

 

 CHAPTER V.

 

2. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying

 

5. And behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.

 

6. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon, and my servants shall be with thy servants; and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants, according to all that thou shall appoint for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

 

8. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for, and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir.

 

9. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea; and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shall appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shall receive them, and thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving good for my household.

 

15. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains.

 

16. Besides the chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.

 

CHAPTER VI

 

2. And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.

 

7. And the house, when it was in building, was build of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.

 

8. The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house; and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.

 

19. And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

 

20. And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height; and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

 

38. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, (which is the eighth month) was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

 

 SPECIFICATIONS OF SUPPLEMENTAL WORK AFTER TAKING SECOND DEGREE

 

I KINGS

 

CHAPTER VII.

 

13. And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre

 

14. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass, and he was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.

 

15. For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece; and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.

 

16. And he made two chapiters of molton brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits.

 

17. There were nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.

 

18. So he made the pillars, and there were two rows round about upon the one net work, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars; and so did he for the other chapiter.

 

19. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits

 

20. And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the net work; and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

 

21. And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.

 

22. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work; so was the work of the pillars finished.

 

46. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan.

 

SPECIFICATIONS OF SUPPLEMENTAL WORK AFTER TAKING THIRD DEGREE

 

II. CHRONICLES

 

CHAPTER II.

 

1. And Solomon determined to build an house for the name of the Lord, and an house for his kingdom.

 

3. And Solomon sent to Huram, the King of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me.

 

4. Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual shew bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.

 

5. And the house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.

 

6. But who is able to build Him an house, seeing the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain Him ? who am I then, that should build Him an house, save only to burn sacrifices before Him?

 

7. Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David, my father did provide.

 

8. Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon, (for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon) and behold, my servants shall be with thy servants.

 

10. And behold, I will give thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

 

11. Then Huram, the King of Tyre, answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made king over them.

 

12. Huram said moreover, Bessed be the Lord God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, that might build an house for the Lord, and an house for His kingdom.

 

16. And we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need, and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa, and thou shall carry it up to Jerusalem.

 

CHAPTER III.

 

1. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David, his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

 

3. Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God: The length by cubits after the first measure was three score cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

 

8. And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

 

15. Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

 

16. And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and he made an hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

 

17. And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, and he called the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

 

 BEECHER ON BURNS

 

(An unknown friend who signs only his initials writes to say that several years ago he read in the Brooklyn Eagle the report of an address on "Beecher as a Lecturer," by Dr. Hillis, in which was quoted an extract from a little known, unpublished lecture by Mr. Beecher on Robert Burns. He is kind enough to send us the excerpt, and we can only say that if the whole lecture was of a piece with this passage, it is a great pity that it was never published in full. The passage, which we believe our readers will very much appreciate, is as follows:)

 

His one nature carried enough for twenty common men of force and of feeling. He never trickled drop by drop prudentially; he gushed. He never ran a slender thread of silver water; he came down booming like one of his own streams, which, when a shower has fallen, rushes down the mountain. All parts of his nature were subject to this same, sudden overflow. He thought as dragons charge, he felt love as prairies feel autumnal fires. No man can form an estimate either of the good or bad that was in him who has not studied Burns' heart, whose tides were deep as the oceans and sometimes as tempestuous. There was more put into the making of Burns than any man of his age. That which he had given forth by no means expressed the whole of what he was. A great deal of his nature lay like undug treasure and like unpolished gold. His letters were as wonderful as his poems, and his conversation richer than either. While that half idiot Boswell was picking up every stray acorn that fell from that rough, rugged oak, old Doctor Johnson, how much better would it have been if some Ariel had hung upon the lips of Burns, and recorded the flowers of his inspired eloquence! Now his spirit walks crowned with praises and wreathed with loving sympathies all over the habitable globe. And if every man within these twenty four hours the world around, who should speak the word of Burns with fond admiration were ranked as his subject, no king on earth would have such a realm; and if such an one should change a feeling into a flower and cast it down to memory, a mountain would rise, and he should sit upon a throne of blossoms, now at length without a thorn.

 

----o----

 

A CREDO

 

Just to be good: to keep life pure from degrading elements, to make it constantly helpful in little ways to those who are touched by it, to keep one's spirit always sweet, and avoid all manner of petty anger and irritability--that is an ideal as noble as it is difficult.

 

-- Edward Howard Griggs.

 

QUESTIONS ON “THE STORY OF FREEMASONRY”

 

BY THE CINCINNATI MASONIC STUDY SCHOOL

 

(In our January issue we closed the series of questions on “The Builders," compiled by the Cincinnati Masonic Study School. We shall now present a shorter, but equally comprehensive list of questions based on "The Story of Freemasonry," by Bro. W.G Sibley, of Ohio. This little book may be obtained either from The Lion's Paw Club of Gallipolis, Ohio, or from John H. Cowles Secretary-General of the A. A. S. Rite, Washington, D. C. Price 50 cents.)

 

1. When and by whom was Symbolic Masonry introduced into America? Page 61-62.

 

2. When and why was allegiance to English Authority severed? 61-1.

 

3. What is said of the Military Lodge of Freemasons in the "Connecticut Line" of the Revolution? What distinguished Patriot was a member thereof ? 62.

 

4. How did the great Edwin Booth regard Freemasonry ? 51-1.

 

5. What do the charges contain concerning the management of the craft? 84-1.

 

6. What were the ordinances adopted by the chief lodge of Strassburg in 1563? 78-1.

 

7. What is required of Masters ? For what cause were fellows of old cast out from the craft forever? 77-1.

 

8. What statutes of Masonry were re-enacted in Montpelier, France, in 1586? 78-2.

 

9. Under what six general heads are the Ancient Charges to Master Masons arranged? 79-2.

 

10. What is a Mason to do under the first specification of the Ancient Charges ? 79-2.

 

11. What makes a Mason a good citizen of the Nation in which he resides as defined under the 2d head of the ancient charges ? 80.

 

12. What is the status of a Mason who is a Rebel against the state? 80-1.

 

13. What is supposed to be the conversation in the Lodge Room or Ante-Room? Page 84-85.

 

14. How should Masons conduct themselves during the session of the Lodge? How at Home? 84-285-1.

 

15. What do you know of Masonic Charity throughout the world? Page 112-2.

 

16. To whom do Masons give Charity? When? 112-1.

 

17. How do Masons in Sweden, Hungary and America dispense Charity? 113.

 

18. Who was John Coustos? 20-1. Where and why was he tortured ? 20-4.

 

19. Who secured his release? 22-9.

 

20. What was the attitude of the French Lodges toward the higher degrees in August, 1766 ? What caused the Grand Lodge of France to recognize them? 67-2, 68-1.

 

21. Under what authority are all the individual organizations of Free Masons? How are they governed and in what relation do they work together? Page 67.

 

22. How many degrees did the original historical Masonry have and to what purpose did they put them ? Page 56.

 

23. What is said of the York Rite? 60-2.

 

24. How many degrees and what are their names in the Chapter? What are its chief officers and what do they represent? Page 61.

 

25. How many orders have the Commandery and what are its principal officers called ? Page 61.

 

26. Where does the York Rite derive its name and what does it include ? Page 60.

 

27. When did the three Degrees seem to come into existence? Page 57.

 

28. What are the two separate series of degrees in Masonry called ? 60.

 

29. What is Freemasonry? 52-1.

 

30. What is said of the dignity of the Fraternity of Freemasons during the latter part of the eighteenth century? 16-1.

 

31. What is said of the historical record of the Royal Arch degree? Page 62-63.

 

32. When and where were the Council Degrees introduced into America and what is said of them? 63-1.

 

33. What is said of the origin of the Knights Templar? What progress had they made by the end of the twelfth century? 64-1.

 

34. What is the historical record of the York Rite? 62-6. What is known of the council degrees? 63-3. What origin is given of Knights Templar? 64-4. Under what authority does each individual organization of Masons work and with what result? 67-3.

 

35. What is said of the Esoteric Work of Freemasonry? 88-1.

 

36. Has any effort been made to exterminate Freemasonry? Page 13.

 

37. What century was Freemasonry fought in France? Page 13.

 

38. Has Freemasonry ever been attacked ? Where? 13 20. Why? 13 2.

 

39. What church is said to be the most inveterate enemy of Freemasonry? Page 14.

 

40. In what year did Queen Elizabeth of England order the Grand Lodge to be broken up? 14.

 

41. Give an account of the various attacks on Freemasonry from 1429 to the year 1818 inclusive. Page 14-15-16.

 

42. What was the nature of the attacks upon Freemasonry in the latter part of the eighteenth century? By whom made and why? 16-12-17-1

 

 

ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE - AN APPRECIATION

 

BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON

 

ONE of the greatest masters of the field of esoteric lore and method of culture, by far the greatest now living, is Arthur Edward Waite, to whom it is an honor to pay tribute. In response to a number of requests, and as prelude to a lecture on the deeper aspects of Masonry, soon to appear in these pages, we offer a brief sketch of Brother Waite, with a statement of his conception of Masonry and its service to man in his quest of God. If these lines induce any of our readers to study his works, they will thank us for having put them in the way of so wise and skillful a guide, who is at once a poet and a mystic, the sum of whose insight, set forth on his latest page, is that

 

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, Are but the ministers of love, And feed his sacred flame."

 

By rare good fortune, as we think, our friend and teacher was born in America--in Brooklyn, New York --and on his father's side traces his descent back to the earliest settlers in Connecticut. His mother was English, belonging to the old family of Lovell. The family name, originally spelled "Wayte," was attached to the document authorizing the execution of Charles I., and it was probably the fact that the family found England a rather uncomfortable place in which to live after the Restoration that sent his ancestors across the sea. While the poet was still in his infancy his father died, and he was taken to England at the age of two. He has never returned to America--a fact to be held against him, but for which we hope he will atone in a time not far away.

 

Educated privately, he began writing while still in his early teens, poetry being his first love. His first book, a volume of verse, was published in 1886. For ten years or more he pursued an active business life, as secretary and director of public companies, at the same time engaging in elaborate researches in the fields of magic, occultism, and the esoteric side of religion and philosophy. How he found time to do both is not easy to know. He took the whole realm of mysticism for his province, for the study of which he was almost ideally fitted by temperament, training, and genius-- and, we may add, by certain deep experiences in his own life, of which he rarely speaks, the glow of which one detects in all his work, and nowhere more vividly than in his latest book on "The Way of Divine Union." In later years, as the result of long study, he has come to deal only with the higher mysticism, as totally separated from the magical, the psychical, and the occult.

 

Exploring a hidden world, he has brought to his task a religious nature, the accuracy and skill of a scholar, a sureness and delicacy of insight at once sympathetic and critical, the eye of a symbolist and the soul of a poet--qualities rarely found in union. Brother Waite does not write after our American fashion-- "hot off the bat," as Casey put it--but in a leisurely manner, seeking not only to state the results of his research, but to convey somewhat of the atmosphere of the themes with which he deals. Prolific but seldom prolix, he writes with such lucidity as his subject admits of, albeit in a style often touched with strange lights and remote and haunting echoes. Much learning and many kinds of wisdom are in his pages; and if he is of those who turn down another street when wonders are wrought in the neighborhood, it is because, having found the inner truth, he does not ask for a sign.

 

Always our Brother writes in the conviction that all great subjects bring us back to the one subject that is alone great--the attainment of that Living Truth which is about us everywhere. He conceives of our human life as one eternal Quest of that Living Truth, taking many forms, yet ever at heart the same aspiration, to trace which he has made it his labor and reward. Through all his pages he is following the tradition of this Quest, in its myriad aspects, finding in it the secret meaning of the life of man from his birth to his union--or reunion--with God who is his Goal. And the result is a series of volumes noble in form! united in aim, unique in wealth of revealing beauty, of exquisite insight, and of unequalled worth.

 

As far back as 1886, Brother Waite issued his study of the "Mysteries of Magic," a digest of the writings of Eliphas Levi, to whom Albert Pike was more indebted than he let us know. Then followed the "Real History of the Rosicrucians," which traces, as far as such a thing can be done, the thread of fact in that fascinating romance. Of the Quest in its distinctively Christian aspect, he has written in "The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal"; a work of rare beauty, of bewildering richness, its style partaking of the story told, and not at all after the fashion of these days. But the Graal Legend is only one aspect of the old-world sacred Quest of the truth most worth finding, uniting the symbols of chivalry with the forms of Christian faith.

 

Masonry is another aspect of that same age-long Quest; and just as Brother Pound has shown us the place of Masonry among the institutions of humanity, and its meaning as such, so Brother Waite shows us the place of Masonry in the mystical tradition and aspiration of mankind. No one may ever hope to write of "The Secret Tradition in Masonry" with more insight and charm, or a touch more sure and revealing, than this gracious scholar to whom Masonry perpetuates the Instituted Mysteries of antiquity, with much else derived from innumerable store-houses of treasure. What then are the marks of this eternal Quest, whether its legend be woven about a Lost Word, a design left unfinished by a Master Builder, or, in its Christian form, about the Cup of Christ ?

 

They are as follows: first, the sense of a great loss which has befallen humanity, making us a race of pilgrims ever in search of that which is lost; second, the intimation that what was lost still exists somewhere in time and the world, although deeply buried; third, the faith that it will ultimately be found and the vanished glory restored; fourth, the substitution of something temporary and less than the best, but never in a way to adjourn the quest; and fifth, the felt presence of that which is lost under veils and symbols close at hand. What though it take many forms, it is always the same quest, and from this statement of it surely we ought to see that Masonry has a place in the greatest quest which man has pursued in the midst of time. Our Order is thus linked with the shining tradition of the race, having a place and a service in the culture of the life of the soul, leading men in the search for God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.

 

But this is a long and difficult quest, and we must walk carefully, lest we trip and fall into the pits that beset the path. Brother Waite warns us against the dark alleys that lead nowhere, and the false lights that lure to ruin, and he protests against those who would open the Pandora's Box of the Occult on the altar of Masonry. After a long study of occultism, magic, omens, talismans, and the like, he has come to draw a sharp line between the occult and the mystical. and therein he is wise. From a recent interview with him in regard to these matters in an English paper, we may read:

 

"There is nothing more completely set apart from mysticism than that set of interests and things called occultism. Occultism is concerned with the idea that there were a number of secret sciences handed down from the past, and which, roughly speaking, represented the steps toward the attainment of abnormal power by man, corresponding to the idea of Magic. Magic, of course, meant many things: it meant the power obtained by man as a result of dealing with spirits, raising the spirits of the dead, everything that we understand by the supposed efficacy of talismans, and all that is comprehended in the word Astrology. My interest in these things has been purely historical and critical.

 

Occult and psychical research does help, of course, to show that the purely materialistic interpretation of things does not cover the whole field. It shows a residue of experience which points to the existent of powers beyond the ken of man, some of them maleficent, others innocent in themselves, of which the student may take account. Unfortunately, I have known too many who follow these things as the be-all and end-all of their interests. I know others also, and many, to whom the exaggerated pursuit has spelt not less than ruin. I mean, morally and spiritually. I know, for the rest, that they reach no real term; very soon they come up against a dead wall."

 

Here are grave and wise words, spoken out of full knowledge of history and fact, and he is wise who heeds them. It is no theological bias of any sort, but the profound fallacy of the occult, and its danger to the highest life and character, that has moved us more than once in these pages to utter a like warning to those who would turn aside from the historic highway of the soul to follow a will-of-the-wisp into the bog. If Masonry forsakes its Great Light to follow these wandering tapers, it too will fall into the ditch. But to listen to Brother Waite:

 

"Symbolism is sacramental. To me all visible things are emblems. When you come to think of it, is it not true that all the workings of the human mind are in the form of symbols? These symbols are truly representive and not mere figments of the mind, and to get at the reality behind the symbol is the aim of the mystic. The theory of mysticism is that the voice of God is within, and that the soul has to enter into the realization that God is within. The question is whether that realization can be fully achieved in this life. All, or nearly all, the great mystics, held that they only approximated it. The absolute vision and union lie very far away-- so the quest of the Lost Word goes on, ever on.

 

Mysticism is not a way of escape either from one's self or the world. It is by the realization of the indwelling of God in all around, and within, in things animate and inanimate, and most of all in the soul of man, that we attain to knowledge of God--in so far as we attain it in this life. Thus, it is not a path of escape from the world, as the old ascetics imagine, but by finding God in the world, the ideal in the real, one with the ideal within ourselves, that we attain to union with God. We are sacraments to ourselves. A man building a house would perhaps be surprised if you told him that he is not merely building bricks and stones, but that he is trying to bring into being something of the idealism in his own nature, but if he could be brought to understand that, would it not give a new glory to his work ? "

 

Thus mysticism, as here presented, is practical common sense-- bringing to the humblest task the highest truth to lighten and transfigure our labor. Time does not permit us to speak of the poetry of Brother Waite, though some think his best work has been done in that field. He himself thinks of his poetry as "light tongued rumors and hints alone of the songs I had hoped to sing." We must, however, mention his drama of "The Morality of the Lost Word," which may be found in his poems, recently collected in two noble volumes, and we bespeak for it a long study. At another time we shall speak of the poetry of our friend to whom the world is ever an infinite parable, giving at present only the following lines as a hint of his poetic purpose and power:

 

In the midst of a world full of omen and sign, impell'd by the seeing gift  On auspice and portent reflecting, in part I conjecture their drift;  I catch faint words of the language which the world speaks far and wide. And the soul withdrawn in the deeps of man from the birth of each man has cried. I know that a sense is beyond the sense of the manifest Voice and Word, That the tones in the chant which we strain to seize are the tones that are scarcely heard; While life pulsating with secret things has many too deep to speak, And that which evades, with a quailing heart, we feel is the sense we seek: Scant were the skill to discern a few where the countless symbols crowd, To render the easiest reading, catch the cry that is trite and loud.

 

For the rest, we confess a great debt to our dear friend and Brother across the great waters, divided by distance but very near in thought and sympathy and regard; a man of pure and lofty spirit, tolerant of mind, noble of nature, in all ways a true Master Mason --and one who does not forget "that best portion of a good man's life, the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."

 

----o----

 

THE FOUNDATION STONE

 

Thus saith the Lord God:--Behold, I lay in Zion fol a Foundation Stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. --Isaiah.

 

 

SOME DEEPER ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM

 

by Bro. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, ENGLAND

 

PART I

 

The subject which I am about to approach is one having certain obvious difficulties, because it is outside the usual horizon of Masonic literature, and requires, therefore, to be put with considerable care, as well as with reasonable prudence. Moreover, it is not easy to do it full justice within the limits of a single lecture. I must ask my Brethren to make allowance beforehand for the fact that I am speaking in good faith, and where the evidence for what I shall affirm does not appear in its fullness, and sometimes scarcely at all, they must believe that I can produce it at need, should the opportunity occur. As a matter of fact, some part of it has appeared in my published writings.

 

I will introduce the question in hand by a citation which is familiar to us all, as it so happens that it forms a good point of departure:--"But as we are not all operative Masons, but rather Free and Accepted or speculative, we apply these tools to our morals." With certain variations, these words occur in each of the Craft Degrees, and their analogies are to be found in a few subsidiary Degrees which may be said to arise out of the Craft-- as, for example, the Honorable Degree of Mark Master Mason. That which is applied more specially to the working implements of Masonry belongs to our entire building symbolism, whether it is concerned with the erection by the Candidate in his own personality of an edifice or "superstructure perfect in its parts and honorable to the builder," or, in the Mark Degree, with a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, or again with Solomon's Temple spiritualized in the Legend of the Master Degree.

 

A SYSTEM OF MORALITY

 

It comes about in this manner that Masonry is described elsewhere as "a peculiar system of morality, enveiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." I want to tell you, among other things which call for consideration, something about the nature of the building, as this is presented to my mind, and about the way in which allegory, symbols and drama all hang together and make for one meaning. It is my design also to show that Craft Masonry- incorporates three less or more distinct elements which have been curiously interlinked under the device of symbolical architecture. That interlinking is to some extent artificial, and yet it arises logically, so far as the relation of ideas is concerned.

 

There is, firstly, the Candidate's own work, wherein he is taught how he should build himself. The method of instruction is practical within its own measures, but as it is so familiar and open, it is not, properly speaking, the subject-matter of a Secret Order. There is, secondly, a building myth, and the manner in which it is put forward involves the Candidate taking part in a dramatic scene, wherein he represents the master-builder of Masonry. There is, thirdly, a Masonic quest, connected with the notion of a Secret Word communicated as an essential part of the Master Degree in building. This is perhaps the most important and strangest of the three elements; but the quest after the Word is not finished in the Third Degree.

 

THE FIRST DEGREE

 

Let us look for a moment at the Degree of Entered Apprentice, and how things stand with the Candidate when he first comes within the precincts of the Lodge. He comes as one who is "worthy and well recommended," as if he contained within himself certain elements or materials which are adaptable to a specific purpose. He is described by his conductor as a person who is "properly prepared." The fitness implied by the recommendation has reference to something which is within him, but not of necessity obvious or visible on his surface personality. It is not that he is merely a deserving member of society at large. He is this, of course, by the fact that he is admitted; but he is very much more, because Masonry has an object in view respecting his personality--something that can be accomplished in him as a result of his fellowship in the Brotherhood, and by himself. As a matter of truth, it is by both. The "prepared" state is, however, only external, and all of us know in what precisely it consists.

 

Now the manner of his preparation for entrance to the Lodge typifies a state which is peculiar to his ward position as a person who has not been initiated. There are other particulars into which I need not enter, but it should be remarked that in respect of his preparation he learns only the meaning of the state of darkness, namely, that he has not yet received the light communicated in Masonry. The significance of those hindrances which place him at a disadvantage, impede his movements, and render him in fact helpless, is much deeper than this. They constitute together an image coming out from some old condition by being unclothed therefrom--partially at least--and thereafter of entering into a condition that is new and different, in which another kind of light is communicated, and another vesture is to be assumed, and, ultimately, another life entered.

 

THE MEANING OF INITIATION

 

In the first Degree the Candidate's eyes are opened into the representation of a new world, for you must know, of course, that the Lodge itself is a symbol of the world, extending to the four corners, having the height heaven above and the great depth beneath. The Candidate may think naturally that light has been taken away from him for the purpose of his initiation, has been thereafter restored automatically, when he has gone through a part of the ceremony, and that hence he is only returned to his previous position. Not so. In reality, the light is restored to him in another place; he has put aside old things, has come into things that are new; and he will never pass out of the Lodge as quite the same man that he entered. There is a very true sense in which the particulars of his initiation are in analogy with the process of birth into the physical world. The imputed darkness of his previous existence, amidst the life of the uninitiated world, and the yoke which is placed about him is unquestionably in correspondence with the umbilical cord. You will remember the point at which he is released therefrom--in our English ritual, I mean. I do not wish to press this view, because it belongs of right, in the main, to another region of symbolism, and the procedure in the later Degrees confuses an issue which might be called clear otherwise in the Degree of Entered Apprentice. It is preferable to say that a new light--being that of Masonry--illuminates the world of the Lodge in the midst of which the Candidate is placed; he is penetrated by a fresh experience; and he sees things as they have never been presented to him before. When he retires subsequently for a period, this is like his restoration to light; in the literal sense he resumes that which he set aside, as he is restored to the old light; but in the symbolism it is another environment, a new body of motive, experience, and sphere of duty attached thereto. He assumes a new vocation in the world.

 

The question of certain things of a metallic kind, the absence of which plays an important part, is a little difficult from any point of view, though several explanations have been given. The better way toward their understanding is to put aside what is conventional and arbitrary--as, for example, the poverty of spirit and the denuded state of those who have not yet been enriched by the secret knowledge of the Royal and Holy Art. It goes deeper than this and represents the ordinary status of the world, when separated from any higher motive--the world-spirit, the extrinsic titles of recognition, the material standards. The Candidate is now to learn that there is another standard of values, and when he comes again into possession of the old tokens, he is to realize that their most important use is in the cause of others. You know under what striking circumstances this point is brought home to him.

 

ENTERED, PASSED, RAISED

 

The Candidate is, however, subjected to like personal experience in each of the Craft Degrees, and it calls to be understood thus. In the Entered Apprentice Degree it is because of a new life which he is to lead henceforth. In the Fellowcraft, it is as if the mind were to be renewed, for the prosecution of research into the hidden mysteries of nature, science, and art. But in the sublime Degree of Master Mason it is in order that he may enter fully into the mystery of death and of that which follows thereafter, being the great mystery of the Raising. The three technical and official words corresponding to the successive experiences are Entered, Passed, and Raised, their Craft-equivalents being Apprentice, Craftsman and Master--or he who has undertaken to acquire the symbolical and spiritualized art of building the house of another life; he who has passed therein to a certain point of proficiency, and in fine, he who has attained the whole mystery. If I may use for a moment the imagery of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, he has learned how to effectuate in his own personality "a new birth in time," to wear a new body of desire, intention and purpose; he has fitted to that body a new mind, and other objects of research. In fine, he has been taught how to lay it aside, and yet again he has been taught how to take it up after a different manner, in the midst of a very strange symbolism.

 

IMPERFECT SYMBOLISM

 

Now, it may be observed that in delineating these intimations of our symbolism, I seem already to have departed from the mystery of building with which I opened the conference; but I have been actually considering various sidelights thereon. It may be understood, further, that I am not claiming to deal with a symbolism that is perfect in all its parts, however honorable it may be otherwise to the builder. In the course of such researches as I have been enabled to make into the Instituted Mysteries of different ages and countries, I have never met with one which was in entire harmony with itself. We must he content with what we have, just as it is necessary to tolerate the peculiar conventions of language under which the Craft Degrees have passed into expression, artificial and sometimes commonplace as they are. Will you observe once again at this stage how it is only in the first Degree that the Candidate is instructed to build upon his own part a superstructure which is somehow himself? This symbolism is lost completely in the ceremony of the Fellowcraft Degree, which, roughly speaking, is something of a Degree of Life; the symbols being more especially those of conduct and purpose, while in the Third Degree, they speak of direct relations between man and his Creator, giving intimation of judgment to come.

 

THE THIRD DEGREE

 

I have said, and you know, that the Master Degree is one of death and resurrection of a certain kind, and among its remarkable characteristics there is a return to building symbolism, but this time in the form of a legend. It is no longer an erection of the Candidate's own house--house of the body, house of the mind, and house of the moral law. We are taken to the Temple of Solomon and are told how the Master-Builder suffered martyrdom rather than betray the mysteries which had been placed in his keeping. Manifestly the lesson which is drawn in the Degree is a veil of something much deeper, and about which there is no real intimation. It is assuredly an instruction for the Candidates that they must keep the secrets of the Masonic Order secretly, but such a covenant has reference only to the official and external side. The bare recitation of the legend would have been sufficient to enforce this; but observe that the Candidate assumes the part of the Master-Builder and suffers within or in him--as a testimony of personal faith and honor in respect to his engagements. But thereafter he rises, and it is this which gives a peculiar characteristic to the descriptive title of the Degree. It is one of raising and of reunion with companions--almost as if he had been released from earthly life and had entered into the true Land of the Living. The keynote is therefore not one of dying but one of resurrection; and yet it is not said in the legend that the Master rose. The point seems to me one of considerable importance, and yet I know not of a single place in our literature wherein it has received consideration. I will leave it, however, for the moment, but with the intention of returning to it.

 

(Continued)

 

SECTARIANISM AND FREEMASONRY

 

BY BRO. GEO. W. WARVELLE, ILLINOIS

 

BEING myself a Greek pagan of the New Academy, though not without a strong leaning toward the Stoics, I have always indulged in the utmost eclecticism in matters of religion. And because I am unbiased in this respect I have not only been tolerant of all men's religious opinions, but am enabled to see beauty and truth in many places where my more circumspect brethren see only idolatry, superstition and falsehood. In my writings I have always felt free to roam at my own sweet will through whatever pastures presented themselves and to cull the flowers that therein grew, without a thought as to their botanical significance. It is enough for me that they are beautiful. Therefore, whether uttered by Jesus, Buda or Mohamed, the message of truth is to me the same. But, I am digressing. However, that is a fault of my composition that, I doubt not, you have long since discovered.

 

Now, what is Freemasonry? Is it something apart from the world, or is it of it? By becoming Freemasons do we cease to possess individuality? A serious consideration of these cogent questions may not be unprofitable to us all. Again, is Freemasonry religious or is it only ethical? If the former, is it cast in any mould or does each one make his own creed? If the latter, is its morality subjective or objective? And if objective, then from what sources do we receive our morality ? A few more questions worthy of a little serious thought.

 

I have many times heard it stated, that inasmuch as the legend of the Royal Arch is Semitic, therefore the Old Testament canon should alone furnish the basis of our religious thought as Royal Arch Masons. Indeed, this seems to be a generally accepted principle by Grand High Priests, as is evidenced by the pious hortatorical introductions and fervent conclusions of their annual addresses in the terms of Old Testament theology. But, while it is true that the legend is Semitic it is not true that it is Scriptural. On the contrary, it is distinctly unscriptural. Not only is there not a line in the Old Testament that supports the legend, but it is opposed by all the known facts of history. The legend, then, is only a symbol and as such is compatible with all religions. Hence, there is, and can be, no sectarianism in Freemasonry, for each may interpret the symbol for himself and all will be right however much they may seem to disagree.

 

The Masonic fraternity of the United States is a composite of many races, with their differing views of morals and religion. It assumes, in theory at least, to reconcile these diverse and oftentimes antagonistic views by reducing them to a common formula which the old charges call, "The religion in which all men agree." It assumes to provide a common meeting ground for men of different races and religions, and thus to promote the harmony of friendship among those who otherwise "must have remained at a perpetual distance." But what is the religion "in which all men agree" ? Does such a thing exist outside of the fertile imaginations of ritual compilers? Who can define its essence or state its principles? As a matter of fact is it not a Utopian dream, that never did and never will become a reality? Notwithstanding that they are all Freemasons the Christian remains a Christian, the Jew a Jew, the Moslem a Moslem. They each adore an abstraction which they call God, but each has his own concept, and this concept utterly excludes that of the others. So has it ever been, so will it be while frail humanity retains its present mould.

 

There is, then, no religion "in which all men agree," but each of us who would truly and reverently worship the Deity "in spirit and in truth," must be left to form his own conceptions of that Deity, and of His essence and attributes. This, as I understand it, is what is meant by the Masonic doctrine of toleration. Not that we must all reduce ourselves to the dull level of an undefined world-extensive creed.

 

If this be true then what shall be classed as sectarianism in Freemasonry? If the Jew prays to Yahweh shall he then give offense to the Moslem who says there is no God but Allah, or if the Christian seeks his God through the mediation of Jesus, or perchance the intercession of the Saints, will he thereby become a stumbling block to the Jew? And how about the pagans, like your uncle, who look through nature up to nature's God? Must not our prayers, if they are sincere, be made through the channels of our own faith not those of another?

 

I think it may be safely asserted that the all-including universal church, without denomination, sect or cult, will never materialize. Indeed, the tendency of the times is in the opposite direction. Nor do I know that such a church is a consummation at all to be wished. In fact, it seems as though the religious nature of man requires this diversity; that creeds, sects and cults are necessary, and that even those which appear narrow, bigoted or even fantastic may yet afford outlet for the spiritual life of undeveloped souls.

 

And so, "let every man be persuaded in his own mind," we may still be brothers, or, at all events, we can be cousins. However much we may disagree in articles of faith we may yet be in unison respecting the import of the symbols.

 

* * * * * *

 

There is an old legend of the good St. Ambrose, told by Mr. Lowell in his melodious verse but which I in the ruder dialect of my simple prose. Its application to the matter just discussed is so apparent that I offer no apology for its introduction.

 

St. Ambrose, it would seem, was a most holy man who by castigation of the body, by fasting and by prayer, had made his heart as soft to God's hand as though it was wax. Ever he sought to know the true and reject the false; often he wrestled with the blessed Word, to make it yield the meaning of the Lord; all that he might form a creed that naught could assail and that would contain the essence of eternal truth. And finally his work was accomplished; he had built the formula of perfect faith; and to all around he said "Thus saith the Lord." And he knew, by that inward but ever sure sign, that his work was a divine inspiration. And then, so the story runs, Ambrose said, "All those shall die the eternal death who believe not as I." And so, it came to pass, in his pious zeal, that there were some who were boiled, and some burned in fire, and others sawn in twain, in order that his great desire for the good of men's souls might be satisfied. But one day as Ambrose was taking a lonely walk he espied a youth of most graceful mien and beaming countenance resting himself under the shade of a tree. Then Ambrose drew near and inquired of the stranger how it went with his soul. It required but little time, however, to ascertain that the heart of the stranger was hardened and that it had not received the stamp of the one true creed. This is what the young man said:

 

"As each beholds in cloud and fire 

The shape that answers his own desire, 

So each in the Law shall find 

The figure and features of his mind; 

And to each in his mercy hath God allowed 

His several pillar of fire and cloud."

 

Then the soul of Ambrose burned with holy wrath, and he said:

 

"Believest thou then, most wretched youth 

A dividual essence in Truth ? 

I fear me thy heart is too cramped with sin 

To take the Lord in his glory in."

 

Now, so the story runs, there bubbled beside them where they stood a fountain of water, and the youth advancing to the stream said, "Ambrose, thou maker of creeds, look here." And then he took six crystal vases and set them along the edge of the brook, after which he turned to Ambrose saying:

 

"As into these vessels the water I pour, 

There shall one hold less, another more, 

And the water unchanged, in every case, 

Shall put on the figure of the vase;

O thou, who wouldst unity make through strife,

Canst thou fit this sign to the Water of Life ?"

 

And Ambrose stood abashed, but when he looked up, lo! he stood alone; the youth, the stream, and the vases, all were gone; and then he knew, by a sense of humbled grace, that he had talked with an angel, and he felt his heart change as with meekness and humility he fell upon his knees and confessed the great sin of his life.

 

THE TRIAL OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS

 

BY BRO. HENRY D. FUNK, MINNESOTA

 

The trial of the Knights Templars in the early fourteenth century was one of the most brutal travesties of justice known to mankind and the dissolution of the order was one of the saddest tragedies chronicled in the history of civilization. The trial began suddenly and was conducted with unrelenting animosity until the ruin of the Templars was achieved. Owing to the real or fancied connection of that Medieval order with the Knights Templars of today an examination of the historic trial may be of interest to the readers of "The Builder."

 

I

 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE TEMPLARS TO 1307

 

Shortly after the end of the first crusade, in the year 1119, eight knights under the leadership of Hugo de Payens assumed the task of forming themselves into guards for the safe-conduct of pilgrims from Europe traveling between the Eastern Mediterranean sea coast and Jerusalem. The associates of De Payens were Godfrey de St. Omar, Roval, Godfrey Bisol, Payens de Montidiel, Archembald de St. Amand, Andrew de Montbarry, and Gundemar who took the regular monastic vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, and lived together according to the rules of the Augustianian friars said to have been made by Bernard of Clairvaux. So eminently useful was the service of these eight knights that Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem, bestowed favors upon them and provided them with headquarters in a part of his-palace located near the spot where the Temple of Solomon is said to have stood. The association of the incipient order with this historic site gave to the knights the name of Knights of the Temple. Their number increased normally at first, the most illustrious addition being count Hugo of Champagne who became a Templar in 1125. In 1128 the council of Troyes witnessed the papal confirmation of these knights as a religious order and then their numbers increased rapidly. (1)

 

The insignia of the Templars were: a white mantle, symbolizing purity, and a red cross signifying their readiness to endure martyrdom. They ate their meals in common, were permitted to keep horses, but not more than three for each knight, and were entitled to have one servant per knight. They were allowed to hunt lions but were forbidden to go on the chase with falcons. Correspondence with relatives was prohibited and every form of communication with women, including mothers and sisters, was denied. Any infraction of the rules was punished by expulsion from the order.

 

From its inception the order proper was composed of knights of noble descent, born in honorable wedlock, innocent of grave offenses, and sound in body and mind. New members of this class were admitted without passing through a novitiate; but at an early date two other classes became identified with this order: the clergy, or priests, and the servientes, or servants.

 

Accessions from secular knights by scions of noble families tended to change the monastic character of the Templars and make them not only secular but worldly. Then we find at their head a Grandmaster, ranked as a prince, and other ministeriales such as a seneschal, a marshall, a president of the war office, a Grand-Preceptor, a treasurer of the order, a drapier, and a commander of the light cavalry. Their organization spelled efficiency and won for them the good will of the papacy. Eugene III in 1148 remitted one-tenth of the pennance to all who made bequests to this order. Alexander III in 1163 allowed them their own clergy, and Innocent III in 1209 prohibited the use of the interdict against them except by papal consent. Such favors implied obligations by the recipients which the popes were not slow in demanding of their beneficiaries: aid for the papal agents in breaking down the independence of local churches. This service being performed the papacy compensated the Templars again in 1266 by decreeing that gifts to this order entitled the donors to the benefits of indulgences in the Holy Land. Consequently many gifts were bestowed upon them, such as manors, villages, and towns, and their possessions were multiplied in Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Cyprus, and Morea in the East, while in the West they held lands in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and England. In all these countries they built their temple courts and engaged in financial enterprises.

 

They were the leading bankers of Paris and London; the Templars of Paris acted as bankers for Blanche of Castile, Alphonso de Poitiers, Robert of Artois, and many other nobles. The order also furnished ministers of finance to James I of Aragon and Charles I of Naples. The Templar Thierre of Geleran was the chief adviser of Louis VII of France, and the order's treasury at Paris was the financial center for the French kingdom. (2)

 

But the material prosperity of the Templars was their undoing. From the days of Phillip Augustus to the reign of Philip IV princes and prelates as also the Knights of St. John were jealous of the power wielded by the Templars, and it was to be expected that at the first opportunity the envious would harm them. Unfortunately the Templars were not sufficiently alert to maintain the order above reproach. They committed a grave blunder when they permitted an unreasonable increase in the lowest ranks, that of the servientes, which had been limited to one for each knight. By and by so many churls of every degree, mechanics, shepherds, stablehands, and swineherders joined this class that they eventually constituted nine-tenths of the entire order. (3) Among these were naturally enough many of coarse habits and those who had "the vices of monks." The popular mind did not distinguish between these "heweres of wood and carriers of water" and the knights proper. In France it became customary to describe an intemperate man by saying: "boire comme un templier," i.e. he drinks like a Templar; and in Germany the old word "Tempelhaus" was equivalent to a house of prostitution. Their immense possessions had made all Templars conscious of their wealth and power, a fact not especially conducive to the cultivation of the Christian virtue called humility. Hence it became customary to characterize a man of great pride by saying: he is as proud as a Templar. Toward the end of the thirteenth century public opinion held that the Templars and the Knights of St. John were not needed in the West but that they ought to sell their possessions in western Europe and after effecting a union of the two orders locate in the East and direct all their efforts against the enemies of Christ. Phillip IV of France was especially anxious to eliminate them from his kingdom in order to carry out his centralizing policy. They had resisted the same aim on the part of Louis VII in 1149 and blocked Phillip's political program in 1190. The failure of the crusade led by Louis IX was laid at their door, and they had opposed Charles of Anjou in the conquest of Naples sanctioned and invited by the pope; moreover they had taken part in the Sicilian vespers against the French, and had united in expelling the French regent and aided in inviting the Aragonese to the throne of Sicily. In 1295 they refused to pay a tenth to Phillip IV, and in 1296 during the bitter struggle between Boniface VIII and the same king over the right to tax the clergy they exported the precious metals to the pope in violation of the royal edict. When Phillip IV demanded their aid against the pope in 1303 they refused obedience, and in 1306 when the king urged an amalgamation of Hospitalers and Templars they declined to consider his suggestion. (4) Such resistance to the royal will on the part of a strong king was more than he would tolerate. Fortuitous circumstances had arisen to make possible the destruction of this hated order within his realm, and Phillip was not slow to see the opportunity.

 

The year 1305 marks the beginning of the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the papacy, a phrase which signifies the residence of the popes at Avignon in France for almost seventy years, i.e. until 1378. This transfer of the papal See from Rome to French soil came about as the result of the controversy between Phillip IV and Boniface VIII. Eleven months after the death of Boniface VIII the cardinals elected the archbishop of Bordeaux to be head of the church. The new pope took the name of Clement V and started for Rome; but at Lyons Phillip IV met him and persuaded him to take up his residence at Avingnon, He created twenty four new cardinals, mostly Frenchmen and relatives of the pope. During the quarrel between the French king and Boniface VIII the former had charged the pope with heresy, sodomy and simony. He had accused him of obtaining the papacy by fraud and demanded that he should be removed from the Holy See. The reason for this charge is that the predecessor of Boniface, Celestine V, a former hermit, had been elected to the papal throne much against his own will July 7, 1294. After a few months he issued a decree declaring the right of any pope to abdicate. He was encouraged to issue this decree and to abdicate by Beneditino Gaetani, one of the leading cardinals, who thereupon was elected his successor and assumed the papal name of Boniface VIII, December, 1294. Now after the election of Clement V in 1305 when the king had the new pope living on French soil he used this threat of calling a council to inquire into the legality of the election of Boniface VIII and his successor, and the question of the morals and orthodoxy of Boniface, as the means of compelling Clement V to obey the wishes of the king.

 

When Clement received the papal tiarra at Lyons the king had a conference with him and submitted a plan for the dissolution of the Templars. Another meeting about the same subject occurred by these parties in the spring of 1307. Phillip prepared to strike the fatal blow. On the twelfth of October, 1307, the head of the Templars in France, Grandmaster Jacques de Molai, was an important functionary at the burial of the king's sister, Catherine; the next day he was arrested by order of the inquisitor general of France, William Imbelt, the chaplain to the king, and thrown into prison.

 

II THE CHARGES AGAINST THE TEMPLARS

 

The sudden arrest of the Grandmaster startled all France. In order to appease the enraged public which felt kindly disposed toward the head of the order, and to secure a favorable opinion for his action in France and abroad, Phillip issued an explanation setting forth the reasons for his procedure against the Templars. In short, he charged them with immorality and heresy, naming five specific offenses:

 

1. That upon being received into the order every neophyte must spit on the cross and deny Christ thrice. (5)

 

2. That the receptor and the novice exchanged indecent kisses, i.e. on the navel and the posteriors, while disrobed.

 

3. That they pledged themselves to practice sodomy.

 

4. That the priests of the order did not pronounce the words of consecration when administering the mass.

 

5. That the cord which the Templars wore over their shirt day and night as a symbol of purity had been consecrated by wrapping it around an idol they worshipped in the chapters. (6)

 

III THE FORM OF THE TRIAL

 

After being arrested the Templars were placed in solitary confinement for periods varying from a few days to years. One by one they were brought before the inquisition without the benefit of legal counsellors. The five general accusations were then read to them and amplified until they covered one hundred and twenty statements or questions. (7) They were then informed that a frank admission of the points on which they were accused and a promise to return to the church would secure pardon and liberty, but refusal to do this would be followed by the death penalty. The church, it is true, forbade the use of torture to secure evidence, but in order to obtain the damaging testimony necessary to establish a list of crimes and errors on which to convict the accused the inquisitor general resorted to torture. When the desired evidence had been secured by this procedure the witness was asked to state that his testimony had been given voluntarily and without constraint. Then it was written down by two clerks. If he refused to perjure himself by making such false statements as were demanded he was handed over to the tormentors until he declared no force had been employed in obtaining his testimony, or he was tortured to death. Some witnesses were exposed to the sufferings of the rack three and four times before the inquisition could extract the answer wanted.

 

When Clement V heard of the drastic measures taken by Phillip IV he appears to have repented of the concession he had made to the king and wrote a reproachful letter to him. But the threat of calling a council to inquire into the legality of the last two papal elections and to investigate the orthodoxy of Boniface VIII quickly forced Clement to surrender to Phillip. On August twelfth, 1308, the pope issued a Bull, "Faciens Miselicoldiam," directing an investigation of the Templars in all countries where they had chapters by a Commission of Inquiry composed of the archbishops of Canterbury, Mayence, Cologne and Treves. Before this Commission Molai was tried November 22, 1309. After stoutly maintaining the innocence of the order he at last was overcome in his enfeebled and emaciated condition by the wiles and torture of his foes. Committed to prison again he was brought forth once more in the spring of 1314 and burned at the stake. Meanwhile church councils in various countries found verdicts in favor of the Templars. The archbishop of Magdeburg in May, 1308, arrested a number of Knights but released them in November of the same year owing to the protests of the lay and ecclesiastical princes. The king of Portugal boldly defended the order; Edward I of England proceeded against the Templars in a half-hearted way; James of Aragon and Ferdinand of Castile imprisoned a few Knights, but the council of Salamanca pronounced the order innocent, October, 1310. (8) The same judgment was rendered by the council of Ravenna in June, 1310, and at Mayence, July 1, of the same year. The first council of Canterbury did not convict them, and the second council pronounced them guilty only after resorting to torture, October, 1310.

 

If the investigations in the countries outside of France resulted generally in favor of the Templars, King Phillip prevented such an issue for the order in France. On August 20, 1308, he obtained from the pope a second Bull, "Justum et laudabile," which authorized him to watch over the Templars and to hold them in disposition to the church. (9) Thus the great pastor at Avignon had appointed a wolf to guard his sheep. What he would do was a foregone conclusion. In October, 1310, fifty Knights were burned at the stake in Paris, and the council of Senlis the same year pronounced the order guilty. The council at Vienne in France was tampered with by both king and pope to compel them to pronounce against the order, October, 1311, and March, 1312. Thus in France the Templars experienced neither mercy nor justice.

 

IV THE CHARACTER OF THE FORCED CONFESSIONS

 

The Grandmaster Molai when first arrested admitted, as well he might, that certain disorders existed in the chapters. He well knew that the order had drifted away from the lofty ideals of its founders. But he nowhere incriminated his fellow knights with the offenses the inquisitors were determined to fasten on the order. To the very last, even at the stake, he denied the charges. His enemies, however, seized upon the admissions of his first trial, perverted the testimony to suit their purpose and then sent this doctored confession to the Templars of France, representing it as a communication from the head of their order asking them to join him in admitting guilt. (10) To the evidence obtained by violence and by fraud we will now direct our attention.

 

1. As to the accusation that they had renounced Christ thrice and had spit on the cross.  a. Some, believing that Molai's altered confession and the forged order to admit the charges were genuine, obediently declared themselves guilty.

 

b. Others yielded admission of the charge only after threatenings and false promises.

 

c. Some confessed these outrages only when they could endure the torture no longer, while those refusing D admit the charge were martyred unto death.

 

d. Almost all who admitted the accusations belonged to the class of servientes.

 

e. Their statements were contradictory; some said that upon entering the order they were commanded to deny Christ; others declared they were asked to deny God; again some said they were compelled to renounce the Saints, and still others avowed they had to blaspheme the Virgin Mary and our Lord.

 

f. One confessed he had urinated on the cross.

 

g. This was done: in full view of the assembled brethren; in a dark room; in a field; in a grange; in a coopershop; in a room for the manufacture of shoes. Sometimes the witness declared he himself had done this, others again asserted they had not been guilty of such misconduct but had witnessed it in their brethren. Some said these things were done as a joke; others averred these acts were required as a test of their obedience, and that they had denied Christ "ore non corde," i.e. with the mouth but not with the heart. Some said they had spit near the cross, others that they expectorated over it, and still others declared they adored the cross on Good Friday. One who had endured the rack and torture declared that if he would be obliged to undergo the ordeal again he was prepared to confess that he had "murdered the mother of God." (11)

 

2. The accusation about the indecent kisses. Respect for general decency will prevent us from entering into details; but here again we must note that the witnesses did not agree. Some professed absolute ignorance of such a practice, others admitted they had kissed the receptor, while still others asserted such osculation was mutual. A Templar in England confessed there were two receptors, the one was good but the other fellow a wicked man. (12)

 

3. Concerning unnatural lust. This charge was the subject for a searching examination. Again torture was used to secure evidence. Some vowed they lad never heard of such a sin; some admitted they were told it was permissable but they had never indulged in it; others asserted they had been commanded to practice sodomy but had not obeyed the order. The stablehand of the Grandmaster Molai accused his master of practicing this sin with him, but he recanted when freed from the torture and witnessing before the papal commission, saying he could not remember ever having made such a statement. (13)

 

4. As to the omission of the consecrating words in saying mass. At the trials in Spain and in Cyprus numerous priests testified that they witnessed many celebrations of the mass by the order but that they had always been in proper form. Some testified they had observed a slight deviation from the general practice, but said that when the Templars received their rules it was not customary to elevate the cup or the host, this form having been directed as late as the Lateran Council in 1215. (14) In France, however, torture secured the testimony that the mass had not been celebrated by the order according to the proper ritual.

 

5. The testimony about the idol. On this subject all sorts of admissions were obtained. Some declared the Templars worshipped it and that it was produced whenever a neophyte was received; others said it was worshipped in secrecy in the chapters. Its form was of every imaginable character. It was a "quoddam caput," i.e. a sort of head of reddish color; it resembled a human being; it was black and had a human form; it had sparkling eyes that lighted up a dark room; it was made of gold and had a long gray beard; it had a double face; it had three faces; it looked like a beautiful woman; it was garbed like a Templar in a priestly robe. An English Minorite described it as a calf; some said it was the statue of a boy about three feet tall and had two or four legs joined to the face. A few persisted they had never heard of the idol while some admitted they had heard about it but had never seen it. Others were positive it looked like a tom-cat; a raven; a painting; a drawing. The testimony of a few reads that the idol would answer any questions put to it by the president of the chapter; and some swore that the devil himself or demons in the form of pretty women came to them with whom they had sexual intercourse.

 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

 

In summing up the main points brought out by the trial we must consider the following facts:

 

 1. That the majority of the witnesses belonged to the class of servientes whose confessions were obtained chiefly by torture and that the same witnesses at different times contradicted their statements. In 1307 there were from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Knights Templars in France, and of that number only fourteen knights proper were tried as compared with one hundred and twenty-four servientes. In 1310 out of five hundred and forty-six called before the inquisition only eighteen were knights, all the others belonged to the servientes. (16)

 

2. At Paris, Rheims, and Sens one hundred and thirty-three died from torture because they would not perjure themselves and incriminate their order.

 

3. The eight Grand Preceptors of Apulia, Provence, Normandy, England, Upper and Lower Germany, Aragon and Castile, all persisted in maintaining the innocence of the Templars, while only three preceptors, those of France, Guienne and Cyprus admitted the charges, and then only after severe torture.

 

4. A large number of those who confessed under constraint recanted after they were free again, and others stated before the tortures began that any confession wrung from them by violence would be untrue.

 

5. The nature of the crimes admitted was conditioned by the severity of the torture.

 

6. Numerous church councils declared the order innocent of the charges.

 

7. Two neophytes in England refused to leave the 'order despite threats and flattering promises. Would they have remained loyal to the Templars had they been subjected to humiliating ordeals upon entrance?

 

8. The worship of the idol was said to have been service to a new religion established by the Templars. And yet no Templar was willing to profess his supposed faith and endure martyrdom for this cause. Is it likely that thousands who had been unwillingly forced to abjure the Christian faith and to worship an idol would - have refused the opportunity to return to mother church when that was possible?

 

9. In spite of all the searching investigations made in the different chapters in all the countries only one image or idol was found, and that was in the fol m of a small locket which a Templar had obtained in the orient as a trinket.

 

10. The Bishop of Beirut who had administered communion to the Templars for forty years had found no fault with them. And the priests to whom they had gone for confession swore they had never heard about the errors charged against the order.

 

 11. The crimes of which they were accused were the same as were laid up against all heretics in the Middle Ages, such as the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Knights of St. John, and were the same as the king of France, Phillip IV, had not hesitated to charge against Boniface VIII.

 

12. If we are to believe the testimony of the Templars with respect to sacrilege and immorality then we must believe their statements about intercourse with the devil or demons in the form of voluptuous women. That is utterly absurd.

 

13. Finally we must not forget that the prime movers in the process against the Templars were the two most unscrupulous men in Europe, Phillip IV and