The Builder Magazine

August 1918 - Volume IV - Number 8

 

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES

BY BRO. R. PERRY BUSH, PAST GRAND CHAPLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS

FOR quite a number of years I have been a student of Freemasonry and it has been my aim to follow into the distant past the lines of causation by means of which our noble institution has been developed into its present form and influence. Steadily but surely the origin of the Craft has been pushed back amid the dim mists of farthest antiquity. Not that in those far-off times there was anything like the present organization or ritual, but that our genealogy includes the builders of the great cathedrals of Europe, those who gave glory to Rome and Athens, and even those who reared the wonderful temples at Karnac or heaved the pyramids above the sands of Cairo, is now the accepted belief.

 

With the advance of knowledge, the better and more complete understanding of the factors that go to make up our present civilization, and the constant bringing to light of facts that fol long ages were lost from human sight, it becomes morally certain that the roots of our modern Masonry may be traced not only to the reign of Solomon and the structure erected on Mt. Moriah, but far beyond that day and generation.

 

Within the last half century the archaeologists have pushed their investigations into almost every nook and corner of the world, and they have brought forth from the storehouses of the long ago a more complete record of the thoughts and deeds of those of ancient times than was ever before in the possession of mankind. Throughout the Peloponnesus and by the waters of the Nile and in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates they have been digging in the earth and uncovering the story of man's development in ages long anterior to the Christian era. The discovery of the Rosetta stone, the laying hold upon the secret of the deciphering of the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria; the finding of the laws of Hammurabi, these, with other helps that have been afforded, have led to a discarding of the conceptions previously entertained regarding the peoples of antiquity, and made it plain that we must reconstruct our theories of the far-off past. And it is abundantly evident that they of old time were wrestling with much the same problems that confront us at the present moment. And they were dealing--in their way--both with the practical protection of their welfare as workmen, and with the philosophy of life--the distinction between the body and the soul that tenants or is imprisoned in the flesh.

 

That the great multitudes of those of operative skill were banded together and that they hedged themselves about with secret means of identification, there is today no shadow of doubt, and that these were the progenitors of our modern lodges, and that we are their lineal descendants, in my judgment it is impossible reasonably to deny.

 

They who in this day write the history of Masonry are more and more inclined to look upon the 24th of June, 1717, as but a date when the transition from its operative to its speculative form was fully consummated. They are not content to start at that point and simply tell us what it since has been and done, but almost without exception they go back from that date to the stone Masons of the Middle Ages and through these to the Roman Corporations of Builders which had their origin under Numa Pompilius in the eighth century before Christ and try to connect these in some more or less definite way with the architects and builders of Egypt and Assyria and to show that we may justly claim that this is the attested line of our descent.

 

To this kind of work I have applied myself with much interest, but it is only the following of the history of what was in effect but an old time Knights of Labor. It is worth our while, in my estimation, for it is no small honor to be allied with an institution that spans so many centuries, and there is a certain justifiable pride in the great age of the Craft, but fundamentally I do not personally worship dust-begrimed antiquity, nor do I go into any temple of the long ago to find the idols at whose feet I lay my truest sacrifice. It does not necessarily recommend a thing to me to tell me that it is old. If I love it heartily, it is because within it is embodied a nobler song, a higher ideal, a more vital help and inspiration than I can find elsewhere.

 

So it is that in my study of Masonry I have not been satisfied simply to trace the fortunes of the workmen of various lands and ages, the signs and grips and words by which they communicated with each other, and the testimony that there is a line of relationship running back from our lodges to the days of the earliest Pharoahs, but I have found a keener interest in the revelation that is made of what is really deeper and more vital in those institutions of the past out of which our fraternity and its teachings have been developed.

 

Now it requires but a little investigation to show that one is amply repaid who applies himself to this more philosophical phase of study, and at every step it will grow upon us that Masonry is but a form and expression of that innate something in man which from the dawn of his evolution has led him to reach out toward the Eternal-not-ourselves and to strive to understand the meaning of what we may designate as death. And to him who contemplates it in this fashion it appears as of the same character as that other line of man's development which has been expressed in the building of temples and churches of worship.

 

As one delves into the history of the operative Masons he finds all through the ages, especially in the long ago, that when the novice was taken in charge to be initiated and instructed there was a double course which he was made to follow. On the one hand he was trained in the science of architecture: he was taught the laws of building and acquired skill in construction. There was another part of his training, however, which has not been so much emphasized, but which after all may be found to be most vital in the inheritance which has come down from those ancient brethren to us of the Masonic fraternity of today. I discover beyond a peradventure that in Palestine and in Greece and in Egypt, and I doubt not in other lands as well, to those of the Craft were imparted teachings concerning the Infinite Architect of the Universe and the destiny of the human soul. In the lecture of our third degree today we refer to our ancient brother, the great Pythagoras, and we exhibit the figure by which we afford the proof that the square described upon the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle is equal to the sum of the squares described upon the other two sides--which is purely mathematical. It is, however, far more interesting to me, and far more significant as regards what is most vital in Masonry, that Pythagoras saw resemblances to numbers of things, and held it to be true that one quality of numbers was Justice, another Soul, and Spirit, etc., and that he taught that it is by mathematical and scientific study that man looks into nature and finds things obeying the laws he has ascertained for himself in his own mind and that therefore the meaning of the Universe is revealed in the soul and not by the senses, and that if, thus rightly guided, we look within, we shall find the Eternal God. Moreover, he maintained that the soul element is not limited to bodily substance. It is not our personality, as he reasoned, but it belongs to infinity and cannot be annihilated. All of which shows plainly that the Pythagorean education was to lead to intercourse with God and that it held within it the teaching of immortality. Even here we find the heart of the system to be the reaching out after the answers to the deepest questioning of the mind of man and it is pertinent to observe that what Pythagoras thus taught in regard to these deeper or mystical revelations in their relation to the science of mathematics, is typical of what we find to have been a characteristic of Masonry in many lands.

 

Whether we consider it to be to our glory or to our shame, the men of all ages have been Mystics--they have either explicitly or implicitly recognized the essential relation of our nature to God and striven to adjust their lives accordingly.

 

Mysticism, so far as we have acquaintance with it, may be said to have had its birth in the Orient among the Brahmins, and it attributes to the human mind the ability to rise to an immediate intuition of God and thereby to a knowledge of all truth. This consummation is not to be obtained on the lower level of discursive reasoning, but an ecstatic state of the soul is a necessary condition for the contemplation of the absolute.

 

The Brahmin laid aside all that pertains to the world of sense and allowed God alone to work within him until in the transport of mind he became identified with the hidden deity--"the God greater than all gods and men." Transplanted to the West, this mysticism appears in the Neoplatonists and later in a Tauler and other Christian mystics, or in such a one as Eckhart, whose teachings called forth the anathema of the Vatican. To all these there is a realm above that of sensible things, but there is a faculty in man capable of attaining thereto and upon being introduced into that magical circle man becomes cognizant of the absolute and of his own undying nature.

 

It is true that many of the schemes evolved by these mystical dreamers are not altogether satisfactory to us today. The Brahmin, the Buddhist, and even Eckhart held that as all men have arisen from God so all desire to return to the divine being, and the final end of their activity is attained when, by the resignation of all individuality, they get back to the source from whence they came, the union with deity, the absorption into Nirvana--lost so far as our distinct personality is concerned by becoming once more a part of that from whence we came. But in all of this we see man wrestling with the same old problems of the Infinite Artificer of the universe and the destiny that waits us beyond the grave.

 

It is pertinent at this point of our study also to affirm that Plato is understood only in the light of the mysteries. The Neoplatonists credit him with a "secret doctrine," and they maintain that his teacher Socrates, put his hearers through an "initiation" whereby they found something within them they were not aware of possessing.

 

The place where these philosophers taught was filled with the spirit of the mystics, and Plato's dialogues mean more or less according to our spiritual condition. Truth or falsity is decided by something within which opposes the physical body and is not subject to its laws. Socrates approaches death as he would any other event. In the Phaedon, in which Plato records the last words of his master, there is but little argument for immortality, but there is the teaching that death is a release and it is folly to rebel against it.

 

Now the particular fact to which we here call attention as contributory to what we hope to make plain is that the popular religions of the Ancients did not give satisfaction to the minds and hearts of hosts of thinkers among them, and so there sprang up great groups of mystics everywhere who guarded their secrets by a priestly caste and by most solemn vows. There was a oneness of belief which runs like a golden thread through all the fabric of these old time organizations and which is not lost even when the votaries turn to shame and debauchery. To each of the mysteries there was a different god or hero, but always the same aim and purpose, the elevation of the initiated to the apprehension of God and immortality, and I shall endeavor to acquaint you with what one is able to learn concerning the methods employed by those of old time to enforce their lessons and to show that there is something more than a casual connection between these companies of worshippers and our Masonic fraternity.

 

The task is the more difficult because those who presented the mysteries hedged themselves about by such sacred vows of secrecy as most effectually held the initiated from revealing what was imparted to them and if there were in those days those who because of pique or with desire of personal gain, exposed the secrets, their works were somehow suppressed and have disappeared from history. There is enough, however, that has come down to us, to give us a very definite idea of what the mysteries were in substance and to show that almost without exception that most vital in each concerned the deity and the life beyond the grave.

 

We will therefore consider first the mysteries of Osiris and Isis, for the Egyptians are the most ancient people whose story is set before us in the annals of the past. Herodotus, the father of history, constantly alludes to these mysteries, but he always speaks with extreme caution, since it is evident that he had himself been initiated into the rites.

 

In the "Book of the Dead," that ancient collection of prayers and hymns supposed to aid the soul in its journey to Amenti, there is some aid to us, but in that work the myths are mostly taken for granted as being well known, and therefore are not enlarged upon. Most of our knowledge in this domain comes to us from Greece, to which country, in an altered form, the mysteries were transplanted, but it is sufficient to enable us to reconstruct the Osiriac myth which was, in a sense, the model for all the other systems.

 

Osiris was the greatest of the Egyptian heroes and he was by his devotees transformed from a mortal king to be an immortal god. It was he who introduced civilization among the dwellers of the Nile, and he went everywhere teaching the people agriculture and the arts. During his wanderings his brother Typhon, who was a rival for his throne, formed a conspiracy against him. He had a beautiful carved chest made, inlaid with gold, and he promised to give it to him whom it should fit when he should lie down in it. When Osiris tried it Typhon closed the lid and made it secure and had the chest thrown into the river where it floated along until cast ashore at Byblos, in Phoenicia.

 

Isis, the sister and also the wife of Osiris, overcome with grief, searched everywhere for the chest and at length found it, but Typhon again obtained possession of the body which he cut into foul teen parts and scattered about. Isis then searched for the fragments and wherever she found one she buried it, and that was the reason Egypt was so rich in the graves of Osiris. One part, that of propagation, Isis could not find, and so she consecrated a model thereof and the Phallus henceforth becomes associated with the mystic rites. Afterwards, Osiris was resurrected, returned from the region of shades, and was reunited with his consort.

 

This is the myth as nearly as we are able to recover it. It is certain beyond question that the priests of Osiris were monotheists and it may yet appear that it is to them rather than to the Hebrews that we owe the first definite teaching of the doctrine of the one and only God; while every mummy that they embalmed speaks to us of their belief in immortality. Even if we do not know much concerning the ceremonies of initiation as they took place in the land of the Pharaohs, there is abundant light thrown upon our study from the fact that these mysteries were transplanted to Greece somewhere about the fourteenth century before Christ, and to other lands a little later on, and here they assumed various forms, but all of them bearing resemblance to each other. Here, however, as in Egypt, there could be no greater crime than the betrayal of the secrets, as is attested by a host of the classic writers such as Pindar and Sophocles and Isocrates and Aeschylus (the last, because of what he put into one of his plays, being obliged to flee to the altar of Dionysus, where he escaped death only by legally proving that he had never been initiated). Nevertheless, from one source and another has come sufficient help to enable us to follow in detail the forms and ceremonies and the mystic teaching of those ancient peoples.

 

From earliest times there were secret cults and Mysteries in Greece. Every clan had its sacred locality and ceremonies, from which those of every other clan were excluded. Some of these rites were crude and some were of a lewd character, but all together they exerted a marvellous influence upon the people. Some of them were even dedicated to the worship of infernal Pluto and others to Demeter and Cora, but gradually, almost without exception, they took on the hope of a bright hereafter beyond the vale of death.

 

At the time when the Persian Empire arose on the ruins of other ancient monarchies it subjugated Lydia and the flourishing Greek colonies of Asia Minor. It was then that Greece issued out of its Middle Ages and Athens was enlarged by the incoming of new tribes, became the capital of Attica, and laid the foundation for its future greatness. One expression of its growing importance was the spread of the influence of its mysteries until what had been its special and particular cult, became dominant wherever the Greeks held sway. The mysteries of Eleusis exhibited the greatest attempt of Hellenic genius to construct a religion which would keep pace with the growth of thought and civilization in Greece. That they were related to the mysteries of Osiris and Isis we are well assured, but the method of their transmission from Egypt and the full process of their transformation into the elaborate system which prevailed at Eleusis we do not know.

 

It was my good fortune a few years ago to visit the scenes where those elaborate ceremonials took place. I followed the route of the pageants that went out from Athens and lingered at the many shrines at which the devotees paused to pay their tribute and wandered among the ruins of the great temple at Eleusis--which was the largest sacred edifice of those old Greeks-- begun, it is said, by Eurnolpus, the first priest of the cult, in 1356 B.C. Naturally, I endeavored to learn as much as possible concerning the ancient Greeks and to lay hold, if I could, upon what was really the heart of what they thought and the motive which prompted them to those spectacular exhibitions. And as it is from the rites of Eleusis that we derive the larger part of our knowledge of the mysteries in general, it will be my aim to give you a fairly adequate conception of what they were like.

 

In the first place, they were in honor of the goddess Demeter, the patroness of agriculture, and they dealt much with the procreative power of nature. Later they turned to the deeper problems of life and death and the great beyond. From the Homeric hymn to Demeter we learn that she was the daughter of Kronos and that she gave to Zeus a daughter, Persephone (or Cora.) One day when Cora was gathering flowers she was abducted by Pluto, the God of Hades, and with the consent of her father, Zeus, who was a brother of Pluto, she was carried to the infernal regions.

 

Demeter arrived too late to assist her daughter, but after searching for her for nine days and nights with torch in hand she learned from Helios (the sun) the name of her seducer and also that of his accomplice (Zeus). Incensed at her husband, she left Olympus and the gods, and disguised as an old woman she determined to scour the earth to find her daughter.

 

Arriving at Eleusis she was discovered by Keleos (the ruler of the realm) sitting upon a stone, in tears. He took pity upon her, and she entered his family as a nurse to the queen's son. Wishing to make the boy immortal, she annointed him by day with ambrosia and hid him by night in fire, but his mother discovered what was being done and, not understanding the import of it all, she was terrified and the boy was rescued by his sisters.

 

After that the bestowal of immortality was impossible and Demeter left the house, but she revealed herself to King Keleos and by her direction he built a temple that she might initiate the Eleusinians into her mysteries. To that temple Demeter retired, but her grief for the loss of her daughter was limitless and she vowed vengeance against gods and men. For a year she spread sterility over the earth. Zeus sought in vain to appease the wrath of Demeter and finally he sent Hermes to Pluto ordering him to restore Cora to her mother. This Pluto was obliged to do but before her departure he gave her secretly a sweet pip of a pomegranate which compelled her to return periodically to the nether world forevermore and henceforth she spent a third of the year there and two-thirds in the world above.

 

By the return of her daughter, the wrath of Demeter was appeased, but as she was ordered to return to Olympus, before doing so she called the princes of the realm together and initiated them into the rites which assured them of honor after death; and at Eleusis, the place of her sufferings, she founded the cult which should keep her faith in remembrance.

 

Now the meaning of this myth is quite apparent and it is often set forth in the Greek classics. It is that the soul originated from the immortal and it is led astray by what is transitory. It lives alternately above and below. It cannot abide permanently upon the heights of the divine. It is never-dying, but is doomed to recurring transformation by birth and death until it is reunited with the source from whence it sprung, and the temple service instituted by Demeter was to help establish its votaries as far as possible in the divine life.

 

This was the beginning of the mystic system at Eleusis which later developed to such proportions that it became a wonderful influence in the Grecian life and transcended all other similar rites in brilliancy of presentation. It was in great part a revival of the ancient established religion of the realm and this conduced to its adoption as the state religion, but it was reinforced by foreign elements, namely, the introduction of gods who did not inhabit Olympus and who had suffered and had found consolation.

 

These mysteries were supposed to enshrine a primitive revelation of divine truth, and it is maintained by Pindar and Sophocles and Plutarch (and their contemporaries and successors) that they exercised a healthy and saving effect upon their votaries, and although in the time of Diogenes they lost their religious character and became simply a splendid ceremony and under the Romans they degenerated to mere superstition, yet they endured with power for nearly a thousand years, coming to an end during the reign of Theodosius II. Let me as briefly as possible portray to you what took place and the significance of the rites as I interpret them.

 

Every device of painting and sculpture, of architecture and music and dancing, of gorgeous costumes and alternating darkness and dazzling light was called into being to make an impression upon the initiate, and he was taught that by what was to be imparted he was to have an advantage in the future world. The novitiate was subjected to a special preparation, his mind was wrought up to a breathless expectation, and he was disqualified if he had committed murder and had not made reparation therefor.

 

There were what were called the Lesser Mysteries, which were celebrated at Athens on the hill of Agra, near the Stadium, in the month of February, but these were but a preparation for the rites which were to follow. The novitiate was subjected to a most sacred vow of secrecy and was only admitted to the vestibule of the sanctuary of Demeter. He had to wait a year before he could advance to what was designated as the Greater Mysteries.

 

These Greater Mysteries occupied nine days in their presentation, from the fifteenth to the twenty third of September. Two months previous to that time heralds from the priestly families went forth to announce the coming of the celebration and a holy armistice was declared for those who were waging war, so that all might be free to travel in safety.

 

As the date set for the beginning of the ceremonies drew near the novitiate was subjected to a fast which lasted for nine days and then he was ready for initiation. We are told by many writers of the terror in the minds of those who were about to pass through the ordeal and it is often compared to the preparation for death.

 

On the fourteenth of the month, at full moon, the priests of Eleusis, headed by the hierophant (who was dressed to represent the governor of the universe), removed from their repository the Sacred Objects, and, followed by the populace, carried them in procession to Athens. All the Athenians went out to meet them, the youths from eighteen to twenty years of age formed a guard of honor around the sacred objects, and they were deposited at the foot of the Acropolis, the announcement of their arrival was solemnly made to the priestess of Pallas Athena, the tutelary goddess of Athens, and the high festival began.

 

The following morning the novitiates were taught that they could not participate unless their lives were clean and they could speak with intelligible voice. Next day, the sixteenth, was the feast of Purification when they bathed in the sea that their minds might be pure and undefiled. On the seventeenth was the sacrifice of Soteria, which was for the salvation of the Senate, the citizens of Athens, and their wives and children.

 

On the eighteenth there was a sacrifice in honor of Aesculapius, and the next morning the multitude started on the procession back to Eleusis. There were altars and shrines all along the way and a pause was made and offerings bestowed at each of these. It was night before the pilgrimage was completed, so that torches were lit. Everyone from Eleusis came out to meet the worshippers and they finished their journey with chanting and a wandering in the dark along the shores and plains in search of the lost daughter of Demeter.

 

The next twenty-four hours were spent in rest and in preparation for the great initiation which took place on the twenty-first and twenty-second of the month, and was representative of the lives of the deities by whom the mysteries were instituted and developed. All that could be accomplished by dazzling lights and gorgeous costumes and strange apparitions and wonderful voices and every possible spectacular device was called into operation to produce an impression upon the novitiates.

 

After their credentials were examined, they were crowned with myrtle and admitted to the mystical enclosure where a priest proposed certain questions to which the answers were to be returned in a set and particular form. Then they underwent further purification and were specially prepared by partaking of a sacred draught, after which they were allowed to kiss the holy treasures of the temple, and then they approached the supreme moment of their exaltation. From the profound darkness of the night they were suddenly ushered into the midst of transcendent and overpowering light. On every hand issued loud cries for help and laments of agony. Frightful noises came as from earth and heaven. Flames burst from the surrounding walls and were extinguished by invisible hands. The lightning flashed with blinding brilliance and peal after peal of thunder rent the air. The place shook and vibrated and whirled and strange and amazing objects appeared everywhere around. As they advanced there were flambeau bearers representing the Sun and near an altar was the Adorer symbolizing the Moon, and there was Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and a multitude of similar characters most gorgeously attired.

 

As the candidate approached, he saw a spacious habitation replete with glittering gems. Above him, the roof was resplendent with stars, and he was raised up into a place burning with fire. When they pleased those around him assumed the likeness of men, and when they desired they gleamed as gods and appeared or vanished at will. All around him the lightning hissed and flashed, terrestrial demons with every device to excite the human passions waited all along his path, and if he yielded he was plunged into an abyss of darkness and suffering.

 

All this was continued until the eighth day of the festival, when the ceremonies were completed and the candidates fully initiated, when they either remained to participate in the sports which followed or returned to Athens in somewhat the same spectacular way in which they had come, excepting that they no longer preserved a serious and solemn mien, but engaged in all sorts of chaffing and buffoonery.

 

Such were the famous Mysteries of Eleusis, in which, as is clearly to be seen, the legend of Osiris is transformed into that of Demeter, but with the same fundamental teaching of immortality and a reaching after a being behind and transcending the gods whom the people ignorantly worshipped and as Athens came in course of time to dominate Greece, her ceremonies served in a large measure as a pattern for others wherever the Greeks extended their influence.

 

Mackey tells us that the Dionysian mysteries were very old and that previous to the building of Solomon's temple the inhabitants of Attica had conquered Asia Minor and there they introduced these mysteries before they were corrupted by the Athenians, and in them was presented the death of the demigod Dionysus, the search for his body and his restoration to life. The same historian informs us that Hiram Abiff was initiated into these rites and that later his own death and resurrection were substituted in place of that of Dionysus.

 

There were also Mysteries of Mithras embellished by the wonderful teachings of Zoroaster and the contest between the hosts of Ahriman and those of Ormuzd. There were again the Samothracian and Orphic Mysteries which had their special characteristics, but all with the same underlying principles and teaching. There was something also of the same manifestation in our older scriptures where the Jews pictured Jehovah as dwelling in the thick darkness, and in the fact that they never voiced the sacred name of deity, and again in the New Testament in our book of Revelation.

 

In all ages, therefore, we find man instinctively erecting-altars, reaching out after God if haply he might and him and looking on beyond the grave to a life that is endless. And it were folly to think that Masonry has had its place through the long centuries and among such varied peoples without appropriating to itself something of what was so vital to mankind. Indeed the more I study its history, the more I am persuaded that what we have found to be the heart of the ancient mysteries was also the heart and soul of Masonry in days gone by, as it is, in my thought, in this day and generation.

 

Not that we in our fraternity are banded together as religious sect. Thank God we have no creed, but we meet strictly upon the level, and we ask of no man what church he attends or whether he remains outside them all. But on the threshold of our lodge rooms we do demand that those who would unite with us shall declare their faith in God, and except such is his conviction, none may pass through our ceremonies and sit with us in our circle of fraternity, and furthermore, he who does not learn from our third degree the lesson of immortality has not yet apprehended its true significance.

 

We are not only one with those who carved the sphinx and erected the statue of Memnon and with those who embellished the Acropolis with that series of temples that even in their ruin are the wonder and delight of all who look upon them, but we are also one with those who by what seem to us crude and often barbarous rites and ceremonies sought to impart to man an apprehension of deity and a surety that death is but an incident in an endless career.

 

We might, as Masons, cherish a just pride in an institution which reaches back through so many centuries of the long ago, even if we conceive of it as embodying only good fellowship and affording its members the means for travelling in foreign countries with the assurance of receiving a Master's pay. But this would place it in the same category with a thousand other gilds or trade unions which men have devised for their personal emolument, and to see no more than this in the work and teachings of the Craft would be to overlook what to me is our transcendent glory. To minister to our bodily comforts and our social enjoyment is assuredly a worthy mission, yet it needs but little apprehension of that which constitutes the real man--the deeper needs, the higher joys, the supreme longings of our race--to perceive that those who contribute to this nobler part of our nature are our truest benefactors.

 

And of such have been those who through the ages have gathered within the sacred circle of Freemasonry and radiated from its altar the inspiration that comes from the recognition of a Supreme Being and the certainty of immortality.

 

How far the Craft have been allied with those who in so many lands and ages rose above the popular religions there and then in vogue and laid hold upon the one God and the unending tomorrow we may not be arbitrary in affirming, but that our operative forebears, while imparting the knowledge of the science of architecture, held also among their secrets these same priceless convictions it is not difficult to substantiate.

 

And in my judgment it was not because of the working of blind chance that we find such to have been the case, but rather we may believe that Masonry is one of the ordained instruments by which the Infinite Artificer of the Universe is to transform the rough ashlar of barbarism into smooth and polished and completed manhood, it is one of the means by which we are to advance by regular and upright steps to the attainment of our individual perfection and that of our human race.

 

Mark ye, brethren, the destiny of nations and the secret of their downfall! It is written on every page of history ! They grew in wealth and power but they forgot the demands of righteousness and they forsook the altars of the Most High.

 

Today, as never before in the annals of time, the world is being devastated by war and cursed by a philosophy which is materialistic. The very foundations of society are threatened with overthrow. Our only hope is in God and in the dissemination of the spirit of brotherhood--the recognition of our obligations as members together of one great family.

 

Amid the turmoil and doubt and strife stands the fraternity of which we are a part, and within our lodges we are taught to live together in unity and to put our trust in one who is unconquerable, and by the light which gleams upon us when we are raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason we recognize the indestructibility of the human soul. Surely it is a privilege and an honor which is ours, but I would call it to your minds that it also imposes vital obligations. It may yet be proved that as Masons we are standing between mankind and its reversion to barbarism and it is possible that a greater and more glorious future than that of which we have ever dreamed awaits the Craft.

 

Everything depends upon the shaping of our organization and our discharge of the duty that devolves upon us. If the word I have voiced in this hour shall have waked in any of you who have listened so patiently a higher conception of the significance and mission of Masonry and a firmer fidelity to its demands I shall have been abundantly repaid for the effort that I have put forth in your behalf.

 

----o----

 

SPECULATIVE MASONRY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

 

BY BRO. OSSIAN LANG, GRAND HISTORIAN, GRAND LODGE OF NEW YORK

 

The birthyear of the present Grand Lodge period of Freemasonry is securely fixed. Of the time of establishment, between 1717 and 1723, we have only a few more or less unimportant data and next to nothing as regards reliable information explaining the momentous developments which must have taken place before "The Constitutions," the Magna Charta of modern Freemasonry, could be formulated and issued in printed form.

 

The reasons for the lack of reliable historical material concerning the status and activity of the Fraternity, before 1723, are simple enough. History recording is an after-thought. It arises when some degree of greatness, or at least the promise of greatness, is achieved. That is why Israelitic History began with David and Solomon. (1) That is why English history began with Alfred the Great. That is why Masonic history began with the Grand Mastership of John, Duke of Montagu, whose connection with the Fraternity aroused widespread interest in Freemasonry.

 

The publication of the Constitutions, in 1723, became a direct challenge to historians, and now began the questioning as to antecedents which has been going on ever since. Before the Grand Mastership of Montagu, there was nothing in the existence of the Fraternity in any way suggesting that this was destined to attain importance, let alone greatness. Of the lodges who united to form the premier Grand Lodge, only one evidenced real vitality. One soon became extinct. Another had to be reconstituted in 1723. A third retained only thirteen members between 1721 and 1723. There appeared to be no inducement to record history.

 

A suggestive side-light is thrown on existing conditions by a note in the autobiography of Dr. William Stukeley, F. R. S. (1687-1765), reading as follows:

 

"His curiosity led him to be initiated into the mysterys of Masonry, suspecting it to be the remains of the mysterys of the antients; when, with difficulty, a number sufficient were to be found in all London. After this, it became a public fashion, not only to spread over Brittain and Ireland, but all Europe."

 

Those of us who have experienced what it means to initiate candidates with barely enough brethren present to form a lodge, can sympathize with Brother Stukeley. The point of historical significance in his recital is that on January 6th, 1721, the date when he was "made a Freemason," it was only "with difficulty" that "a number sufficient was to be found in all London" to welcome him and two other distinguished Londoners into the Fraternity.

 

Another interesting item is the entry in Dr. Stukeley's diary, under date of December 27th, 1721, as follows:

 

 "We met at the Fountain Tavern, Strand, and by the consent of the Grand Master present, Dr. Beal (D. G. M.) constituted a lodge there, where I was chose Master."

 

That throws light on many things. Taken together with other available stray bits of information, the entry suggests that "the verbal consent of the Grand Master, or his Deputy, was sufficient to authorize the formation of a lodge." We find, further, that the now required qualifications for elevation to the chair, were not known in 1721. Brother Stukeley had been a Mason for less than a year when he was "chose Master."

 

The presence of the Grand Master, John, Duke of Montagu, is worth noting. Dr. Stukeley and the Duke had both been elected Fellows of the Royal Society in 1717. Both belonged also to the "Gentlemen's Society" of Spaulding, a literary club, which counted among its members a number of men who won distinction in Freemasonry: Desaguliers, the Earl of Dalkeith, and Lord Coleraine, Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of England, 1719, 1723, 1727; Joseph Ames, David Casley, Francis Drake (the latter serving as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of All England, 1761-2); Martin Folkes, Sir Richard Manningham and Dr. Thomas Manningham; Sir Andrew Michael Ramsey, Knight of St. Lazarus, reputed founder of the Scottish Rite, became a member of this Society, in March, 1729.

 

The astonishing progress of Freemasonry, after the accession to the Grand Mastership of John, Duke of Montagu, may be readily understood when we take into account his zeal for the Fraternity and the eminent men who were glad to co-operate with him. The rapid rise to importance among the social organizations of the British metropolis may be regarded as the first real impetus to the study of the antecedents of the Fraternity. Each new edition of the Constitutions revealed evidences of serious efforts to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of origins.

 

There was no doubt then, as there is no doubt now, that the Fraternity had at one time been connected in some way with the craft gild of Masons. It was equally clear that the lodges which formed the premier Grand Lodge had been made up of "Accepted" Freemasons enjoying at one time membership in the Masons' Company of London, but forming a distinct division within that Company and having no direct interest in operative Masonry. The "Laws, Forms and usages" which the Fraternity had in common with the "Craft and Fellowship of Masons," were plausibly accounted for as having been derived from former gild connections. The differences were not explained so easily. It is here where the difficulty arose. The problem was how to account for the "curious secret brotherhood" of Accepted Freemasons, which was regarded as the true parent of the Fraternity. It has remained an open problem to this day. The task I have set myself for the present discussion is to suggest a solution as far as arguments in support of it may be presented in public print.

 

HINTS POINTING TO ROSICRUCIAN ORIGINS

 

Gould to whose faithful labors we shall ever be indebted for the gathering together of a vast amount of valuable material relating to the development of our Fraternity, found that there is practical unanimity among serious historians to the effect that "Freemasonry, as it emerged from the crucible in 1723, was the product of many evolutionary changes, consummated for the most part in the six years during which the craft had been ruled by a central authority." We shall agree to this, with one rather important reservation: The changes that were wrought, between 1717 and 1723, did not spring from a desire to create something altogether new, but rather to restore what was believed to have been the true character of the Fraternity in the past; hence an earlier order was assumed and served as a model for the "many evolutionary changes." The attitude of the restorers may be gathered from the "Defence of Masonry" appended to the printed Constitutions of 1734, from which I quote for our present purpose this passage:

 

"The system as taught in the regular lodges, may have some redundancies or defects, occasion'd by the ignorance or indolence of the old members. And indeed, considering through what obscurity and darkness the Mystery has been deliver'd down; the many centuries it has survived; the many countries and languages, and sects and parties, it has run through, we are rather to wonder it ever arriv'd to the present age without more imperfection. In short, I am apt to think that Masonry (as it is now explain'd) has in some circumstances declined from its original purity! It has run along in muddy streams, and, as it were, underground. But notwithstanding the great rust it may have contracted * * * there is (if I judge right) much of the old fabrick still remaining; the essential Pillars of the Building may be discover'd through the rubbish, tho' the superstructure be over-run with moss and ivy, and the stones by length of time be disjointed."

 

The scholarly brother who wrote this, had in mind a very definite idea of the derivation of Freemasonry. His very language, the italicized words, and the reference to "the essential Pillars of the Building," suggest to those familiar with these things, a fairly clear explanation he had elaborated for himself, as we shall see further on.

 

In connection with the cited extract from the "Defence of Masonry," I desire to invite your attention to the consideration of a newspaper item appearing in the London Daily Journal of September 5th, 1730: (2)

 

"It must be confessed that there is a Society abroad from whom the English Free-Masons (asham'd of their true Origin) have copied a few Ceremonies, and take great Pains to persuade the World that they are derived from them and are the same with them. These are called Rosicrucians * * *.

 

"On this Society have our Moderns endeavor'd to ingraft themselves, tho' they know nothing of their material Constitutions, and are acquainted only with some of their Signs of Probation and Entrance, inasmuch that 'tis but of late years (being better informed by some kind Rosicrucian) that they knew John the Evangelist to be their right Patron, having before kept for his Day that dedicated to John the Baptist."

 

Here we have in convenient form a summary of comments given currency by a number of contemporaneous critics of the Fraternity, chiefly dissatisfied old brethren wedded to the belief that Freemasonry was wholly derived from operative Masonry. By intimating that "our Moderns" were trying to "ingraft themselves" on the Society of Rosicrucians, they reveal a significant fact which is verified, though in veiled terms, by our quotation from the "Defence of Masonry." Bearing in mind that this "Defence" was published with the implied official sanction of the Grand Lodge, we must assume that the learned brethren who directed the inner affairs of the Fraternity, were convinced that the substance of Freemasonry was in nowise derived from operative Masonry, but that the "Mystery" had come down through the ages by way of quite a different channel. Since the suggestion is offered that the "Rosicrucians" were regarded as the true forebears, it will be worth our while to examine this question more closely. (3)

 

PRESUMPTIONS

 

We shall have to take for granted certain matters discussed in my paper on "Medieval Craft Gilds and Freemasonry," published in THE BUILDER (November and December, 1917):

 

(1) The Constitutions, including "Laws, Forms and Usages," reveal former external connections of the forebears of the Fraternity with gilds of operative Masons.

 

(2) The "drooping" lodges which united, in 1717, to form the Grand Lodge of England were of an essentially convivial character, possessing certain "antient" ceremonies and modes of recognition and guarding "mysteries" of the origin and meaning of which the remnant of the earlier "secret brotherhood" were ignorant.

 

(3) The earlier London lodge or lodges of "Accepted" (Speculative) Masons had no continuous history, revealing its existence rather by sporadic revivals of "an old order."

 

(4) Degrees, symbolism and ritualistic peculiarities known as "Arts and Sciences," consisted of borrowings from several sources, the selection and elaboration being governed, in the first two decades of the Grand Lodge, by deliberate efforts of the organizers of the work to restore the "Original purity of the old fabrick."

 

(5) The spirit of Freemasonry is a growth from beginnings which may he traced with some degree of certainty to societies quite different from those which contributed Constitutions and suggestions for initiatory ceremonies.

 

 ROSICRUCIANS OR ROSY CROSS ALCHEMISTS

 

Our present inquiry will deal largely with explanations of presumptions three, four and five, and more particularly with the so-called Rosicrucian origins of Freemasonry.

 

Extensive researches regarding Alchemists and their reputed successors in Rosicrucianism, covering a vast and largely unprofitable literature on the subject, have led me to formulate a few conclusions which I shall present more or less categorically. A fuller discussion would be too cruel a trial of the fraternal patience of the readers of THE BUILDER.

 

We shall probably never know for a certainty whether there ever was an organized Fraternity of the Rosy Cross. We do know there were reputed and professed Rosicrucians, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and there were also distinguished leaders of thought who stoutly defended the doctrines ascribed to the Fraternity and many reputable men who adopted the Rosicrucian symbolism, in an extensive array of books. There is furthermore abundant testimony to warrant the inference that there were in existence "invisible" or secret societies and lodges composed of men seeking honestly to give realization to the practice of the art or arts described in these books as characteristic of the mystic Brethren of the Rosy Cross. The absence of a recognized authoritative central body was in the course of events taken advantage of by impostors parading under the name of Rosicrucians who played upon the credulity of the public till the name sank into general disrepute.

 

The English and Scottish Rosicrucians who are the only ones to be taken into account for our purpose, were Christian Theosophists. Like their brethren on the European continent, they made much of Cabala, following chiefly the Alexandrinian Philo. Neo-Platonism or Neo-Pythagorism, the Old Testament and Christian theology also engaged their attention. They devoted themselves with fervor to the study of chemistry, physics, music, astronomy and mathematics (particularly geometry). Mystic, allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures was a characteristic trait. Their supreme object, however, to which all studies were subordinated, was the promotion of the welfare of humanity.

 

These Rosicrucians were the lineal descendants of the theosophic portion of the Alchemists who are sometimes called Hermetic Philosophers.

 

DERIVATION OF MASONIC SYMBOLS

 

Bearing in mind that Hermetics and the Rosy Cross fraternity are fundamentally the same, though they differ in name and somewhat in allegorical interpretation, let me now quote for you a letter by Albert Pike, addressed to the historian Gould, which contains this interesting reference to Hermetic symbols to be found in Freemasonry:

 

"I have been for some time collecting the old Hermetic and Alchemical works in order to find out what Masonry came into possession of from them. I have ascertained with certainty that the square and compasses, the triangle, the oblong square, the three Grand Masters, the idea embodied in the substitute word, the Sun, Moon and Master of the Lodge, and others were included in the number.

 

"The symbols that I have spoken of as Hermetic may have been borrowed by Hermeticism, but all the same it had them, and I do not know where they were used, outside of Hermeticism, until they appeared in Masonry.

 

"I think that the Philosophers, becoming Free Masons, introduced into Masonry its symbolism."

 

My own investigations have verified Albert Pike's conclusions. In fact, I would greatly extend the list of symbols, adding to them symbols which are to be found among the true Brethren of the Rosy Cross, with this result:

 

Purely Rosy Cross Symbols: (4) Jacob's ladder; rough and perfect Ashlar; Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge; flaming star; three Grand Masters; three columns; two pillars; circle between parallel lines; point within a circle; sacred delta (triangle); oblong; three, five and seven steps.

 

Symbols which the Operative Gild and Brethren of the Rosy Cross had in common: Square; compasses; level; plumb; trowel; bee-hive; horn of plenty; hour glass; cassia.

 

Purely Masonic: Three windows; twenty-four-inch gauge; gavel; trestle board; tesselated border.

 

The first and second lists might have been extended. We hope to have given enough, however, to suggest the indebtedness of Freemasonry to the Rosy Cross.

 

The choice of two explanations is offered. One is that implied in the quotation we have given from the London Daily Journal in 1730, which would have us conclude that "the English Free-Masons (asham'd of their true origin)" imported Rosy Cross symbols and ceremonials into the system of the Fraternity. The other is founded on the quoted passage from the "Defence," which tells in so many words that Freemasonry had come down the ages through the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, that much had been lost on the way which the Grand Lodge of England sought to restore in its proper place. In other words, following the former allegation, the Grand Lodge adopted the Brethren of the Rosy Cross as forefathers; following the latter declaration, the Brethren of the Rosy Cross were the true forebears.

 

There is no reason for assuming that the Alchemists were the originators of the symbols referred to in the foregoing list. In fact, I am sure these symbols were borrowed from an older source.

 

FLUDD AND FRISIUS

 

We agreed to confine our attention chiefly to the theosophic Alchemists of England and Scotland. Let us limit the range still further by disregarding the older Alchemists and taking note only of the representative leaders of the later (if not the last) of the "True Brethren of the Rosy Cross." (5) Here we have an abundance of first hand information in the several treatises in defense of the mystic Fraternity by that renowned English physician and philosopher, Robert Fludd, and in the "Summum Bonum" (The Supreme Good), a Latin dissertation by a Scottish friend of Fludd's, who wrote under the pseudonym of Joachimus Frisius (or Frizius).

 

The Century Dictionary gives this brief biographical notice of Robert Fludd, or Flud: "Born at Bearsted, Kent, 1574, died at London, Sept. 8th, 1637. An English physician and mystical philosopher. He wrote several treatises in defense of the fraternity of the 'Rosy Cross." Waite, who presents a more extensive biography in "The Real History of the Rosicrucians," adds this word of appreciation: "The central figure of Rosicrucian literature * * * is Robertus de Fluctibus, the great English mystical philosopher of the seventeenth century, a man of immense erudition, of exalted mind, and, to judge by his writings, of extreme personal sanctity." Fludd was one of the last, if not the last, of the giants of universal scholarship of whom there were many, before the days of specialization set in. He was a devout Christian and a staunch Protestant, basing his philosophy of the universe frankly on the Bible.

 

Of Joachimus Frisius, Frizius or Frize, whom we shall call Frisius, we know nothing, except that Fludd tells us he was a Scotchman and wrote his book partly in Scottish and partly in Latin. Fludd translated the Scottish portions into Latin, made a few slight changes in the text, and had the whole put into print, under the title of "Summum Bonum."

 

(To be continued)

 

(1) See "Early Hebrew History" by that distinguished authority on Old Testament literature, our R.'. W.'. Brother, the Rev. John Punnett Peters, Rector of St. Michael's Church, New York.

 

(2) As quoted by Gould who had access to the original.

 

(3) In Scotland, too, we find allusions to a connection between the Brethren of the Rosy Cross and Masonry; as for instance in a poem forming part of Adamson's "Muses Threnodie," published at Edinburgh, in 1638. There in singing the praises of the beauties of Perthshire, the poet says:

 

"For we be brethren of the Rosie Cross: 

"We have the Mason word and second sight."

 

(4) Or Rosy Cross and Hermetic combined,-or Alchemist symbols.

 

(5) We exclude, of course, altogether the spurious Rosicrucianism which brought the name of the, Fraternity into disrepute by its grandiloquence and diletantism and the charlatanry and deliberate fraud carried on under its banner.

 

----o----

 

----o----

 

THE DAY OF PEACE

 

When will peace come ?

When the lips of "patriots" are dumb

Throughout the world;

When the pure white flag of humankind

Shall be unfurled.

 

When will war die ?

When from every land beneath the sky

"Laws" shall have passed,

And the higher, truer Law of Love

Shall bind men fast.

 

- T.C. Clark.

 

----o----

 

THE MYSTIC ART

 

What is the mystic Art ?

Just a blending, that is all

And so moulded to a test

That it is the Truth at call

To the heart who craves the guest;

Just a passport to the realm

Of the blest discovery,

Just a system at the helm

O'er life's trackless mystery.

 

What is the mystic Art ?

Just a measure made to meet

Soulfulness upon the way,

Just a something thrumming sweet

Heartstrings tuned to Masonry;

Just a something that invites

To the social cheer the best,

Just a welcome that unites

In a higher moral quest.

 

What is the mystic Art ?

Just a home where there is naught

But a benediction heard,

Where no ear has ever caught

Aught that's not a restful word;

Just the needful for the heart,

Just ideals for the mind,

Just a blend of soul-made Art

That they both so love to find.

 

What is the mystic Art ?

Something that to mem'ry clings

More and more as years roll by,

Something that to manhood brings

Treasures gold can never buy,

Something that with cobwebs weave

Cables that for aye unite,

Something that in trials leave

Friendships glowing yet more bright.

 

What is the mystic Art?

There's no answer satisfies,

Not e'en what we all can say

That 'tis something that supplies

Something needed on the way.

Wonder tis, this alchemy

Of the Art that writes so plain

Does not interline the way

To the secret we would gain!

 

- Bro. L. B. Mitchell, Michigan.

 

----o----

 

DAWN

 

Fling open thy window as morning

Unfolds from the darkness of night,

And mark how the vine, in its climbing

Is seeking the kiss of the light.

 

Fling open thy heart to the glowing

Of love rising out of the gloom

The world by the warmth of its brooding

Will burst like a garden in bloom.

 

Fling open thy vision to childhood

That bursts like a sun from the sea,

And mark how, in growing to manhood,

Is life like a rose to the bee.

 

Unfetter thy spirit exulting

When darkness and storms disappear

Its pinions, at evening returning,

Some garland most surely will bear.

 

Though home be a roof that is humble,

Thy slumber on pallets of grass,

All nature will greet thee at dawning

And children will smile as ye pass.

 

- James T. Duncan.

 

----o----

 

FURTHER NOTES ON THE COMACINE MASTERS

 

BY BRO. W. RAVENSCROFT, ENGLAND

 

PART II

 

IN order to trace a few of the leading features in which the architecture of the East as well as other allied arts affected the work of the Comacines, it will be desirable to give a very short description of the larger type of church these Masters would build. It would consist of a basilican ground plan (Fig. 3b) * having nave and side aisles, the nave being divided from the aisles by rows of columns or piers, the latter sometimes with, sometimes without, capitals, and semi-circular arches generally without mouldings and springing directly from the capitals where such occur. Some of these capitals would be elaborately carved, others of the cushion shape we find in our own Norman work. Clerestory windows would occur above these arches, and the covering of the nave would consist of a flat pitched roof of timber construction. Beyond the nave, generally eastward, would come the presbytery having aisles in continuation of those on either side of the nave, and each, as well as the presbytery, ending in a semi-circular apse. The presbytery would in many cases have the space for the choir enclosed with a low screen and would frequently be raised several steps, having beneath it, approached by steps, a crypt. With the exception of the nave, the various parts of the edifice would be sometimes vaulted with simple crossvaulting.

 

The High Altar would be a little away from the central apse and placed under a baldachino.

 

One, sometimes two, campanili would rise either from a presbytery aisle or from the west end of one of the nave aisles or in other instances detached or nearly so.

 

The baptistery in most instances would be a separate building near by and generally octagonal in plan, with or without a small apse on one side. . * Shown on page 199, THE BUILDER, July.

 

Architectural details, other than those already mentioned, would consist chiefly in the small roundarched windows deeply recessed from the outside; small, and in some instances large circular windows; little openings in gables in the form of a Greek Cross; doorways semi-circular headed, generally having a lintol and tympanum, some very plain, others more or less enriched with columns and mouldings on arches; corbel tables under eaves and running up gables; pilaster strips at angles, some having semi-circular columns on their faces. these being also found on external walls independently of pilaster strips, a kind of dentil ornament, used sometimes as a string course with corbel tabling beneath and sometimes under eaves and then, as ornament, the interlaced endless knot, nearly always in Italy composed of three strands.

 

Decoration internally would consist of sculpture in capitals and other details, and of fresco painting and decorated stucco, sometimes in low relief. The Comacine lion is a later product, but this description above outlined would fairly well apply to a church of the eleventh or twelfth century.

 

Better illustration there cannot be than is to be found in the Church of S. Abbondio at Como, and the Baptistery at Lenno (Figs. 6 and 7). The Duomo at Modena also, originally designed as we have already seen, by Master Lanfrancus, contains practically all the chief characteristics of Comacine work. In the earlier work of the Comacines ornament is sparingly used and the striking feature of such work is its dignified solemnity.

 

Sig. Monneret de Villard, in a booklet entitled "I. Monumenti del Lago di Como," (Milan), claims for the Comacine Masters peculiarities in their work other than those already indicated in these notes, and, differing from Merzario, holds that it is not a matter of indifference as to whether the term "Lombard" or "Comacine" be used in describing their work seeing there are features of both schools so distinctive as to render any such indifference misleading. Doubtless both were offshoots or descendants of the Roman Collegia, but all the same he considers they were separate offshoots.

 

Of course there were many features common to both, and on the other hand it must not be supposed that even essential differences were in every case rigidly maintained. Indeed, indications are not wanting that the Comacine was the parent of the Lombard school.

 

The two outstanding features of difference according to Sig. Monneret between the Comacine school and that which he designates as the Lombard or Milanese school, arose out of material and construction.

 

Not having stone or marble the latter used tera cotta, (in which one supposes may be included brick,) while the other used stone and marble.

 

This doubtless was a difference which would be broken down in many instances; probably, however, rather in the more frequent use of stone and marble than of terra cotta and the use of the vault appears to have been a feature in the Milanese work of which the Comacine Masters were somewhat shy.

 

The vault in its larger development involved its consideration even in the laying in of foundations and the planning of the building seeing it necessitated buttresses, piers and their contrivances to meet its thrust.

 

So the Comacines, except perhaps in apses, crypts and sometimes isles, preferred the flat roof treatment with the beams and a direct downward thrust, and having no projections in the form of buttresses beyond the very flat pilasters already described in these pages.

 

They are also supposed to have preferred elaborately carved capitals to the plain cushion capitals resembling our Norman ones, but that they did also use these there is plenty of evidence. The interlaced patterns of the Comacines Sig. Monneret considers to be the more elaborate type, and he attributes to them the curious figures of animals, birds, etc.

 

Whether he is on sure ground here is certainly doubtful, but the Eastern influence on Comacine work might, in part, account for this, if his opinion is correct.

 

One other point of difference between the two schools appears to be that while the Lombard or Milanese covered the ends of their nave and the aisles with a facade, unbroken and as a single front, the Comacines, when they planned naves and aisles, marked in some way in the facade, either by pilaster strips or more generally by raising the central portion, the fact that behind it such existed, which in general the Milanese did not.

 

Let us now see how in some respects the architecture of the Comacines was affected by the East, and the first point must necessarily be the influence of the Greek plan and of the dome, so characteristically Byzantine. The Greek plan which in its simplest form would consist of nave, presbytery and transepts, of approximately equal lengths, and having a dome over the crossing, was sometimes used by the Comacines, but not very often, and it must not be forgotten that the suggestion of the dome would come from Rome quite as well as from Byzantium, seeing that when Constantine attracted skilled Craftsmen to his new capital, the Pantheon at Rome had been for centuries in their view, and thus the dome was not a new thing to them first seen in the East.

 

That this particular influence over the Comacines was but partial is clear from the small number of their churches built on Greek plan with domes and the great preponderance of those built on basilican lines with or without campanili.

 

Professor Baldwin Brown says (From Schola to Cathedral, p. 135):

 

"In the West the tower originating in early Christian times becomes, under the hand of the medieval builders, the feature wherein resides especially that romantic aspiring character of Christian architecture which finds its most perfect outcome in Gothic while the dome is the favourite form of the builders of the Eastern Church."

 

Of the influence of the Byzantine dome, however, a singularly interesting example is found in the Duomo at Ancona.

 

As described by one of the clergy on the spot, the original church was Byzantine, but basilican in form, the altar being at the west end (the present west transept) and the entrance being from the east end (the present east transept.) That church dated from A.D. 500. In 1150 A.D. the church was turned into a Greek Cross and the altar placed in the new choir, which was in the north. Then it was that the dome was formed with the shafts supporting the same and also the nave running south.

 

The extension of the choir which was "renovated" in 1733 unduly lengthens the head of the Cross, and while this is evidently eighteenth century work as regards the interior, externally it appears to be that of the twelfth century.

 

The priest who gave this information described the two styles of work as Byzantine and Lombardic. Now, if the dome were pure Byzantine, one would look for the pedentives (small angle arches springing from the cardinal faces of a building square on plain and bringing thus the square to an octagon, as better suited for a circular or octagonal dome) by means of which circular domes were imposed on square spaces, characteristic of that work. But instead of this we have angle shafts and arcading filling out the space left between a square and a circle at each corner until the shape of the dome is perfectly circular (see frontispiece), all in Comacine work. It would be interesting to trace in other instances how far the Comacines got over this difficulty thus rather than in the correct Byzantine manner.

 

The influence of Byzantine art on Comacine carving needs to be seen and felt and varies so much as to elude description, but careful examination will not fail to detect that influence when it exists.

 

And in this connection a good example of a real Byzantine capital, side by side with Comacine work, is to be found in the Duomo at Ancona where one or two of the capitals in the older part of the church still stand and look as fresh and strong as they did many centuries since (Fig. 8), and which are unmistakably Byzantine.

 

The omission of the entablature between columns and arches may not be peculiar to Comacine work, but in Byzantine construction there frequently appears a sort of second abacus imposed on the real one and acting as a kind of remembrance of the entablature which, in pure Comacine work, is absent. S. Vitale, S. Apollinare Nuovo and S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, afford good examples of this super abacus.

 

Of the interlaced knot-work used as sculptured decoration it is unnecessary to add to what has already been written with regard to it, but while in its full development it is claimed as a distinguishing feature of Comacine work, it may be pointed out that in its simpler form it may have a Greek as well as a Roman origin. Its development was widespread throughout Italy, chiefly of three-stranded work, and in Rome in the Forum, the Castle of S. Angelo and many a church, especially that of S. Sabina, the fragments remaining are numerous.

 

But there is one form of this work which is so peculiar as to call for remark. It consists in the unsatisfactory practice of carving a knot in the shafts of columns. This treatment as carried out at Wurzburg has already been noticed, but its appearance in various parts of Italy suggests that at least the same motive operated in each case. What that motive was it is impossible to say--it may have been a sort of Gild mark, or it may have had a symbolic signification, which is more probable. At any rate it is to be found in the Broletto at Como, at S. Michaele Lucca, where four columns are thus treated, on the west front of Sta. Maria della Pieve at Arezzo,* at Valcamonica, and doubtless many other places in Italy and elsewhere.

 

In Didrons Christian Iconography, vol. I, pp. 387 and 389, will be found two illustrations of Greek crosses, each in a frame, having supported columns twisted in this manner and dated respectively "first ages" and "eleventh century"; this suggests certainly a Greek origin for this distinctly Comacine detail.

 

It is very unconstructional in design, making the column to appear as if it were composed of two parts with a kind of slip-knot in the center. It can only be done in the case of clustered columns of two or more shafts and does not appear where great weight has to be carried.

 

The use of the small Greek Cross in gables and other parts has already been shown to be of Byzantine origin.

 

(To be continued)

 

* See Fig. 9, September Issue.

 

----o----

 

There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism. --Robert C. Winthrop.

 

----o----

 

SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES

 

PART I--THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE

 

IT is first necessary that we should understand the scope of my subject. First, be it understood, I attempt to exhaust no topic upon which I touch, but only to stimulate the interest and curiosity of my readers to pursue the subject further for themselves. Under the term "symbolism" I include also the legends and allegories of Masonry, though properly speaking they are not symbols. Yet they are all so closely interwoven and so employed for the same or like purposes they can scarcely be treated separately.

 

General Albert Pike, that great Freemason and philosopher, says that "to translate the symbols (of Freemasonry) into the trivial and commonplace is the blundering of mediocrity."

 

That there has been some blundering of this kind on the part of our Monitor makers must be apparent to any serious and intelligent student of Masonry.

 

Difficult as it is to assign adequate meaning to some of our Masonic symbols, it is equally difficult, when once started, to know where to stop. Says a distinguished British Freemason, Brother W. H. Rylands:

 

"Symbolism is always a difficult affair as everyone knows or at least ought to know. When once fairly launched on the subject, it often becomes an avalanche or torrent which may carry one away into the open sea or more than empty space. On few questions has more rubbish been written than that of symbols and symbolism, it is a happy hunting ground for those, who guided by no sort of system or rule, ruled only by their own sweet will, love to allow their fancies and imaginations to run wild. Interpretations are given which have no other foundation than the disordered brain of the writer, and, when proof or anything approaching a definite statement is required, symbols are confused with metaphors and we are involved in a further maze of follies and wilder fancies."

 

Thus I am to steer our bark between the Scylla of Brother Pike and the Charybdis of Brother Rylands; without, therefore, descending to the common-place on the one hand or soaring away from the plane of common sense on the other, I hope to be able to say something of interest concerning the symbolism of the First degree.

 

A symbol is a visible representation of some object or thing, real or imagined, employed to convey a certain idea. Some times there is an apparent connection between the symbol and the thought represented, but more often the association seems to be entirely arbitrary. The earliest forms of symbolism of which we know were the ancient hieroglyphical systems of writing. We may indeed say that symbolism is but a form of writing; in fact, the earliest and for hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of years, the only form of writing known to the human race. It prevailed among every ancient people of whom we have any definite knowledge.

 

The learned Dr. William Stukeley, of England, the author of many antiquarian works, said truly that the "wisdom of all the ancients that is come down to our hands is symbolic."

 

This ancient form of writing, now generally fallen into disuse, Masonry has to some extent at least perpetuated and employs in recording her precepts and impressing them upon her votaries.

 

Another ancient and favorite method of teaching still employed by Masons is that of the allegory. The allegory is a figure of speech, that is to say, a departure from the direct and simple mode of speaking, and the employment, for the sake of illustration or emphasis, of a fancied resemblance between one object or thing and another.

 

If we say of a man, as we often uncharitably do, "He is an ass," this is a metaphor. If we say of him as Carlisle did of Wordsworth, "He looks like a horse," this is a simile. An extended simile with the comparative form and words left out, in which the real subject is never directly mentioned but left to be inferred, is called an allegory. The most famous example of the allegory in literature is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."

 

One desirous of entering into the real spirit of these ancient methods of imparting instruction should read Bacon's "Wisdom of the Ancients," and particularly the preface to that remarkable book. He shows that nearly all the complex and to us absurd tales of Grecian mythology were but parts of a great system for inculcating natural, moral and religious truths by means of the allegory. What more grotesque and revolting, we may ask, than the myth of Pan ?

 

"He is portrayed by the ancients," to quote Bacon, "in this guise: on his head a pair of horns that reach to heaven; his body rough and hairy, his beard long and shabby; his shape biformed, above like a man, and below like a beast, his feet like goats hoofs; and he bore these ensigns of his jurisdiction, to-wit, in his left hand a pipe of seven reeds, and in his right a sheephook, or a staff crooked at the upper end, and his mantle made of a leopard's skin."

 

Yet under the master touch of Lord Bacon this incongruous creature, half man and half goat, is shown to be a beautiful and apt symbol of all nature.

 

Approaching that branch of symbolism which at present concerns us, Masonic Symbolism, it may be asserted in the broadest terms that the Mason who knows nothing of our symbolism knows little of Freemasonry. He may be able to repeat every line of the ritual without an error, and yet, if he does not understand the meaning of the ceremonies, the signs, the words, the emblems and the figures, he is an ignoramus Masonically. It is distressing to witness how much time and labor is spent in memorizing "the work"; and how little in ascertaining what it all means.

 

Far be it from me to under-rate the importance of letter perfection in rendering our ritual. In no other way can the symbolism of our emblems, ceremonies, traditions, and allegories be accurately preserved, but I do maintain that, if we are never to understand their meanings, it is useless to preserve them. The two go hand in hand; without either the beauty and symmetry of the Masonic temple is destroyed.

 

It is in its symbols and allegories that Freemasonry surpasses all other societies. If any of them now teach by these methods it is because they have slavishly imitated Freemasonry.

 

The great Mason and scholar, Brother Albert Pike, said:

 

"The symbolism of Masonry is the soul of Masonry. Every symbol of a lodge is a religious teacher, the mute teacher also of morals and philosophy. It is in its ancient symbols and in the knowledge of their true meanings that the preeminence of Freemasonry over all other orders consists. In other respects. some of them may compete with it, rival it, perhaps even except it; but by its symbols it will reign without a peer when it learns again what its symbols mean, and that each is the embodiment of some great, old, rare truth."

 

In our Masonic studies the moment we forget that the whole and every part of Freemasonry is symbolic or allegoric, the same instant we begin to grope in the dark. Its ceremonies, signs, tokens, words and lectures at once become meaningless or trivial. The study of no other aspect of Freemasonry is more important, yet I believe the study of no aspect of it has been so much neglected. Brother Robert F. Gould, of England, our foremost Masonic historian, declares it is the "one great and pressing duty of Freemasons." Brother Albert Pike, no doubt the greatest philosopher produced by our fraternity, declared as we have seen that symbolism is the soul of Masonry.

 

We are told in our Monitors that "every emblem, character and figure depicted in the lodge has a moral and useful meaning and forcibly inculcates the practice of virtue." The same may with equal truth be said of our every ceremony, sign, token, legend, and allegory. If this be true, it must follow that to be ignorant of Masonic symbolism is to be ignorant of Masonry.

 

In the ceremonies of making a Mason, however, we do not attempt to do more than to indicate the pathway to Masonic knowledge, to lay the foundation for the Masonic edifice; the brother must pursue the journey or complete the structure for himself by reading and reflection.

 

There must be somewhere in Freemasonry a consistent plan running entirely through it by which all that is genuine in it may be rationally explained. It can not be that a miscellaneous collection of rules, customs, symbols and moral precepts, however valuable in and of themselves, thrown together without order or design, could have attracted the attention among intelligent men that Freemasonry has done in all ages in which it is known. Surely unity must somewhere exist in the great variety which we find in the Masonic system.

 

A little study will reveal to us that the great, vital, underlying idea, sought to be inculcated by the several degrees considered collectively and which runs entirely through the system, is to give an allegorical or symbolical representation of human existence, not only here but hereafter, and to point the way which leads to the greatest good both in this life and in the life to come. Our ceremonies and symbols, while beautiful and impressive in and of themselves incidentally teaching valuable lessons of religion, morality and industry, all cluster around and contribute to this central idea. But it is only when we reflect upon them in relation to this sublime allegory of human life that we are enabled to comprehend them in the fullness of their beauty and grandeur. The Masonic student, therefore, who has never caught this conception of his subject has failed to grasp Freemasonry in its most instructive and important aspect.

 

Endeavor, therefore, to get clearly in your minds the point I emphasize and which I shall attempt to demonstrate, namely, that every sign, every symbol and every ceremony in the First degree, in addition to any primary signification it may have, is also designed to illustrate allegorically some moral phase of human existence. I have dwelt at length on this thought because I believe that it is not otherwise possible adequately to explain any part of the Masonic system.

 

INITIATION

 

Initiation is now as it has been for countless ages, employed as a symbol of the birth and endless development of the human mind and soul. The Entered Apprentice degree represents birth and the preparatory stage of life, or in other words, youth; the Fellow Craft represents the constructive stage, or manhood; the Master Mason represents the reflecting stage, or old age, death, the resurrection, and the everlasting life. This explanation of the three degrees is briefly given in our lecture on the Three Steps delineated on the Master's Carpet.

 

THE LODGE

 

Is it true that the lodge symbolically represents the world? I might say to begin that some have thought the word "lodge" derived from the Sanskrit word "loga," meaning the world. However this may be, our monitors tell us that the form of a lodge is an "oblong square" from East to West and between North and South, from earth to heaven and from surface to center. This of course, if it means anything, can mean nothing less than the entire known habitable earth and Masonic scholars universally so interpret it. This meaning was more manifest at the period when Freemasonry is supposed to have had its origin, for the then known world living around the shores of the Mediterranean sea was literally of the form of an "oblong square." One doubting this may consult any map of the ancient world.

 

Dudley, in his Naology, says that the idea that the earth was a level surface and of a square form may be justly supposed to have prevailed generally in the early ages of the world. It is certain that down to a comparatively recent date it was believed that beyond a certain limit northward life was impossible because of the darkness and cold, and likewise that beyond a certain limit southward it was impossible because of the blinding glare and intense heat of the sun. It was even supposed that in the farthest South the earth was yet molten. The biblical idea was that the earth was square. Isaiah (xi, 12) speaks of gathering "the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth," and in the Apocalypse (xx, 9) in the vision of "four angels standing on the four corners of the earth."

 

So thoroughly grounded were these beliefs that in ancient times the "square," now the recognized symbol of the lodge, was the recognized symbol of the earth, as the circle was of the sun. In this antiquated expression "oblong square," we therefore have not only an apt description of the ancient world and evidence that the lodge is symbolical thereof, (1) but also a remarkable evidence of the great age of Freemasonry. It tends strongly to date our institution back to the time when the human mind conceived the earth to be a plane surface and was ignorant of its spherical character.

 

Likewise the lodge, which is sometimes defined as "the place where Masons work," symbolizes the world or the place where all men work. Again, its covering is said to be a cloudy canopy or starry decked heaven, a description that could have not the slightest application to anything else but the world.

 

If the lodge symbolizes the world and the Mason symbolizes man, it follows that initiation must symbolize the introduction of the individual into the world, or the birth of the child. It was so regarded in the ancient systems of initiation and is now so understood by Masonic scholars everywhere. It is the least important view to consider it merely as the method of admitting one to membership in a Society.

 

PREPARATION

 

The preparation of the candidate and the plight in which he is admitted an Entered Apprentice strikingly typifies the helpless, destitute, blind and ignorant condition of the newly born babe. But initiation means more than this; by all the authorities it is agreed to be a symbolical representation of the process by which not only the child had been brought into existence and educated into a scholarly and refined man but that by which the race has been brought out of savagery and barbarism into civilization. D....., neither n..... nor c ....., b...... nor s......, w..... c...... t....., fittingly typifies the barbaric, not to say savage, state in which man originally moved when he knew not the use of metals and out of which he has been brought to his present condition. It is precisely this that has led to the application of the term "barbarians" to the uninitiated. On this point I quote Brother Albert Pike, again; he says:

 

"In that preparation of the candidate which symbolizes the condition of the Aryan race especially in its infancy, he is deprived of all m ...... and m......, because their use was not known to the earliest men; that he is n ....... nor c ...... represents the condition of the race when there were no manufacturers and the fabrics of the loom were unknown, when men dressed in the skins of animals, and, when the heat made these a burden, were hardly clothed at all. That he is b....... represents their blindness of ignorance, even of the most useful arts, and although of divine truths; and that in which the number 3 appears, the c..... t......... three times around the ..... the bonds in which they were held of their sensual appetites, their passions that were their masters, anger, revenge, hatred, and all the evil kindred of these; and their superstitious fears."

 

A little study and reflection will show that every Masonic symbol has an apt application not only to the moral and intellectual life history of the individual but also to that of the race considered collectively. Biologists tell us that this parallel between the individual and the race holds good in the material realm and that in the physical growth and development of every child from the moment of its conception till it is a fully grown man, there is epitomized the history of the evolutionary development of the race through all the ages that have passed. However this may be, it is certain that an exact parallel does exist between the moral and intellectual growth of the child and the process which history indicates the race as a whole has passed through.

 

TOOL SYMBOLS

 

One of the things first noticed in the Entered Apprentice degree and continued throughout all the degrees is the employment of the tools of the operative Mason, as emblems of moralalities. This peculiarity of Freemasonry is well known even outsiders.

 

Brother George Fleming Moore, editor of the New Age and Sovereign Grand Commander, A. and A. S. Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, declares that it is clear that the ancient Chinese philosophers used our present Masonic symbols "in almost precisely same sense in which they are used by us in modern Freemasonry." (2)

 

The tools with which men labor are not inappropriate for use as moral symbols, they are neither humble nor trivial. They are worthy emblems of the highest and noblest virtues. Tools have performed an astonishing part in civilizing and enlightening mankind. They are one of the few things that distinctly mark man as immeasurably superior to the other animals. Some scientists have even contended that it is alone man's ability to fashion and use tools that has raised him above the level of the brute creation. But radical as this view must be, it can not be denied by any thoughtful man that the use of tools has been one of the chief instrumentalities in all human progress, not only material but mental and spiritual. Without tools we could not till the soil, or work the mines, or reduce the metal; we could enjoy only the rudest shelters; and all the creations of art which appeal to our spiritual natures would be impossible. The very stages of human advancement are named from the character of the tools that were employed during them; thus, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age.

 

Scientists suppose the first great achievement of man in his progress from savagery to civilization to have been the development of articulate speech; the second, the discovery of the uses of fire; the third, they believe to have been the invention of a tool, namely, the bow and arrow. Pottery, another class of utensils, they hold to have been the fourth; the domestication of animals, the fifth; and the discovery of the manufacture and use of iron, the sixth. The seventh was the art of writing which also involved the use of a tool. Thus we see that four of the epoch making strides of savage and barbaric man had to do with the use of tools.

 

With civilized man, the case has been even more striking. His first four great discoveries or inventions were gun-powder, the mariner's compass, the manufacture of paper, and the printing press. The fifth was the demonstration by Copernicus (1530) that the earth revolved on an axis and that the sun did not daily make a circuit around her. The next in order was the steam engine and machines for weaving and spinning. Lastly, we may name machines for generating and utilizing the boundless possibilities of electricity. We might also mention in this connection the gasoline engine. We will not count the flying machine whose value as a civilizing agent is yet to be demonstrated. Thus we see of civilized man, according to the highest authories, seven of his eight great and distinctive achievements have been the invention and use of new tools. And it must be remembered that the eighth, the discovery of Copernicus, was rendered possible only through the use of another tool. To the Palmist the heavens declared the glory of God's handiwork, but a thousand times more solemnly and impressively do they now disclose it through the medium of the telescope. It was nothing less than an inspiration that prompted our ancient brethren to symbolize the tools with which they produced those creations of art and architecture whose sight causes our breasts to heave with the highest emotions of which we are capable.

 

Professor Henry Smith Williams, (3) after pointing out the many material advantages involved in the use of tools, says that we must not "overlook the aesthetic influence of edged implements."

 

And then what must be said of the tools that make our music? If there is a glimpse of heaven obtainable on earth, it is in the wonderful art made possible through our marvelous musical instruments.

 

How our various working tools acquired the particular symbolical meanings we now attach to them we know not. In some instances we know that they have borne them for ages.

 

At any rate, it is with peculiar fitness that the material tools, which contribute so essentially to the building and the beautifying of the material structure, should be made to symbolize those virtues which are so essential to the building and beautifying of human character, that moral and spiritual building not reared with hands.

 

MODESTY OF TRUE CHARACTER

 

We are told that in the building of Solomon's Temple there was not heard the sound of any tool of iron. It is a well authenticated historical fact that the Jews, not to mention other ancient peoples, believed that an iron tool was polluting to an altar to Deity. Hence, in the days of Moses, the laws presc