The Builder Magazine

June 1921 - Volume VII - Number 6

 

The Columbus, Georgia, Masonic Club

BY BRO. HAL RIVIERE. GEORGlA

THE COLUMBUS MASONIC CLUB, though hoped for by a number of earnest Masons for several years, came into being as a direct result of the establishment of the Infantry School of Arms at Camp Benning during the war. Realizing the need of the boys of the School for some place of recreation in the city, the Club idea was developed and after a period of preparation extending over almost a year, was formally opened in November, 1919.

 

The present Club room is a hall of ample size on the top floor of the Masonic Temple, which previous to the establishment of the Club, was rented to the Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Junior Order and several other fraternal orders. After ample notice was given these bodies to secure other quarters, the hall was remodeled and other alterations made on the same floor, giving locker space for St. Aldemar Commandery of Knights Templar, and preparation and paraphernalia rooms for the two Blue Lodges and Chapter.

 

These alterations were quite extensive and consumed the greater part of the summer of 1919, but Columbus Masons can now boast that few cities of her size have such complete Masonic quarters as she, and none has a Club where a closer feeling of brotherly affection exists.

 

This enviable spirit of brotherhood is largely brought about by the fact that there are no memberships in the Club, every regular Mason being free to come and go regardless of residence or length of his sojourn in the community. In addition, all soldiers and sailors in uniform, regardless of Masonic membership, are welcome. There they find tables with paper for writing, books, magazines, games and bath. There also they find the two Custodians of the Temple and Mal agers of the Club, Rev. J. C. Harrison, a retired Methodist minister, and Brother J. A. Walton, Past Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Georgia. These two elderly gentlemen have the love of God and of Masonry in their hearts, and are devoting the autum of well spent lives to the service of the brethren Brother Walton is official instructor for Mount Herma Lodge No. 304. A few weeks ago Brother Harrison received an invitation to attend the annual conferene of his church, but being a busy man replied, "Read Nehemiah 6:3."

 

The Columbus Masonic Club received one thousand dollars towards its equipment from the Grand Lodge of Georgia in recognition of the services to be rendered the soldiers of Camp Benning; the remainder of the equipment fund was appropriated by Columbian Lodge No. 7, Mount Herman Lodge No. 304, Darley Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and St. Aldemar Commandery, besides numerous donations by individual members of these bodies.

 

The Club is supported by the same bodies, each bearing an equal share of the expense, while the Masonic Temple Association pays part of the salaries of the custodians, janitors and elevator men.

 

Last May a Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite was organized in Columbus, and as soon as the uncertainties of its infancy are past it also will bear its share in the maintenance of the Club.

 

Each of the above bodies, except the Lodge of Perfection, annually elects one of its members as a Masonic Club Director, and these four men, together with Early H. Johnson, President of the Masonic Temple Association, who acts as Secretary and Treasurer of the Masonic Club Directorate, manage the affairs of the Club. It is owing to the tireless and whole-hearted work of Brother Early Johnson that the Club idea came to be a reality. It was he who went before the Grand Lodge Committee on Appropriations and secured their recommendation; it was he who made the plans and saw that the designs were executed; it is he who watches over the Club with a jealous eye; too much praise cannot be given him for having done a good thing for Masonry.

 

Camp Benning, which will soon be the largest and most important military school in the world, is located eight miles from Columbus on a tract of 93,000 acres of land. The camp has developed so rapidly that neither it nor the City of Columbus has been able to satisfactorily house the large body of instructors and student officers. Under such conditions the importance and opportunity for service to the soldiers, of the Masonic Club, can hardly be overestimated. It has been a veritable haven of rest to many a homesick young officer, who was ordered to the school and arrived to find that he could secure no rooms so that his family could join him. In many cases the Club has helped such men to secure rooms, and where not able to be of such assistance, it has offered the next best thing to a home, a hearty Masonic welcome and the freedom of the Club.

 

Columbus, together with its suburbs, Phenix City and Girard, Alabama, is a city of about 50,000 people, having a Masonic membership of near 900. It is safe to say that one-fourth of these visit the Masonic Club in Columbus some time during each week. It is a common thing to see some boy with his arms around "Dad" Harrison or to see a crowd about him as he puts "Lead Kindly Light" or "Silver Threads Among the Gold" or some other old, sweet, familiar melody on the Victrola. It makes one feel with Peter, "Lord, it is good for us to be here."

 

SEARCHLIGHTS

 

BY BRO. GEO. L. SCHOONOVER.  P.G.M., IOWA

 

WHAT IS this "unrest" that is about us everywhere? How is it evidenced in our social organism? If we are to cure it we must know something of its symptoms. The radicals, like certain quack doctors, are offering us remedies.  It seems that what the body politic needs just now is an old-fashioned family physician, whose knowledge of the family history forms a background for his prescription.

 

What are these symptoms?  The most acute, because of the number of people it affects, is the distrust existing between Capital and Labour. Each fears the other, looks upon the other as an enemy, rather than as a co-worker. The advocates of class war are aggravating this situation.

 

Young men and women say that they are failing to find food for their spiritual hunger in the churches, yet never was the spirit of a rising generation more earnest or more hungry.  Their war experiences seem to have torn a veil from their eyes, so that they are no longer content with inherited beliefs.

 

Statistics seem to tell us that we are the most generous nation in the world, but there is too much alms giving, and not enough personal effort.  Men offer their money, but withhold themselves.

 

There seems to be a desire to disregard our laws, rather than to support them.  Do we forget that laws are made for the protection of all? Equal justice can never be administered when evasion of, and a defiant attitude toward law prevails.

 

The tangled diplomacy of nations merely typifies the political disturbances underneath all governments. Men are wondering what is to come. The financial barometer is cloudy, and business waits.

 

We have grown hysterical in our play.  The frantic whirl of society tells of the effort to escape from idleness.  Too many have failed to find the job that needs them - the work that brings contentment.

 

The story told by the so-called "radical" magazines and the season's "best sellers" depicts these same symptoms.  It is a sordid story, one we want to deny, of realism run rampant.  Deny it we cannot, if we are honest with ourselves.  But protest we must against their angle of approach.  They are using the searchlight.  They are uncovering the dingy, dirty, detestable corners, and trying to convince us that only these corners exist.  They tell us that equality among men is lost, that materialism controls all life, that the maneater of the jungle has a better moral code than we have, and that our life resembles his in that it is a succession of killings, gorgings and satiations.

 

The literature of the last two years tells a story of lost illusions, lost traditions which have been cherished and fostered through generations.  To prove to us that these will not bear close scrutiny the radical throws his searchlight into many dark corners which have never felt the cleansing effect of sunshine.  Because some beliefs will not stand the light, he would sweep them all away, insisting that none are genuine, that all are fetiches.

 

The realistic writers are ruthless in painting nothing but shadows into their picture of modern conditions.  Yet we cannot altogether reject their picture.  The shadows are there.  But they forget that shadows exist only where there is light.  It is this light they ignore.  The bitterness with which they tell us what we are is not only an evidence of the degree of their disillusionment; it is an expression of their hunger for what is true, and their disappointment in failing to find it.  What they have written seems to say, "We have tried your illusions, and they have failed us.  We want something concrete, something we can take hold of, something we can use."

 

Many thinking men have had a parallel experience.  They have passed in review the teachings of the seers and the prophets.  They have traced the development of religions.  They have seen dogma piled upon dogma, creed upon creed.  They have seen creeds broaden.  They have witnessed the tendency of political influence and intrigue to leave their impress upon religions. They have seen wars between men and nations born of differences of creed and tongue.  History has appeared as a succession of conflicts over statements of religion almost as often as contests for commercial supremacy.

 

They have failed to find in existing creeds a reasonable answer to the questions "Why am I?" and "Why am I decent?" Because of this they are prone to say, that all religion is formalism, and that it will not satisfy modern conditions.  This is not true.  The fundamental truths are there, and it is necessary only to push aside the trappings which hide them.  The doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man contains the principles taught by all the great teachers, and the truth of them is proven by the fact that the creeds containing them still live.

 

When the realist asks us to justify our inherited beliefs we cannot give answers that are reasonable, even to ourselves.  Why? Because, for our eyes, the trappings partly obscure the truth.  We have not thought the problem through.  With the insistence of a crusader he says, "You must think it through." Smug complacency will not give him the answers to which he is entitled.  His questions go to the roots of our faith.

 

A Mason's faith is based upon certain great fundamental principles.  It is these principles, applied to the present unrest, which will furnish the answers that will convince.

 

On bended knee we acknowledge the Fatherhood of God.  Every symbol in the lodge furnishes a motive for right living and right thinking.  Every working tool is an instrument for right accomplishment.  To understand our symbols and to use our working tools is our only excuse for existence.  Only by thinking right, by living right and by building right can we make Masonry play the part for which it was created.

 

We can apply these principles today as our Masonic forefathers did.  They wrote the doctrine of the Brotherhood of Man into American Law and Institutions in a definite way.  They founded a government by bringing together into one set of fundamental documents five great principles: Religious Liberty, Equality before the Law, Equality of Opportunity, the Dignity of Labour, and Charity.  These were conceived as embodying the Rights of Man, and alongside of these Rights were placed, in an equally definite way, the Responsibilities of every citizen.

 

The statement of these Rights might have been taken from a number of historic sources which mark the struggle of the common man for a place in the sun. The coupling of these Rights with the Responsibilities of citizenship was an untried idea.  It had not been applied in the government of any nation.  It was an idea conceived and born in the hearts of Masons, and it was from the Masonic system that our forefathers borrowed the idea of a government by, of and for the people, a government of laws rather than of men, government of authority delegated by, and responsible to, the whole people.

 

In building upon the foundation which they laid we have made mistakes. Injustices have crept in. Equality before the Law has not been complete, Equality of opportunity has not come to everyone.  We have not always kept the ideal of the Dignity of Labour before us. We have not always been tolerant.  We have always been charitable.  But these principles are still here.  They are the high lights of the picture which the realist has ignored.

 

The Leaven of Life is contained in the doctrine the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Ours is the duty to use the leaven in such a way as restore the faith which it seems is in danger of being lost.  We as a Fraternity have the opportunity to show our distracted generation that the shattering of some of our traditions does not undermine the fundamental truths involved in others.  Those truths cannot be undermined.  They are eternal.  Not only must they interpreted but they must be applied to every day life. The spirit of the application must be a spirit of Brotherhood, involving Good Will, Honesty of Purpose, Toleration and Unselfishness.

 

----o----

 

K. OF C. FAILS TO ACCEPT LEGION CONDITIONS

 

Will Not Eliminate Divided Control of Memorial Building, and Offer Rejected.

 

The $4,000,000 building in Washington, with a $1,000,000 fund for maintenance, offered by the Knights of Columbus out of the fund raised by it during the war, to the American Legion will not be built, it has been definitely decided, due to the failure of the supreme board of directors of the Knights of Columbus to agree to the elimination of conditions in the original proposal under which the legion would not have had complete control of the structure. That the Knights of Columbus would not change in any way the conditions calling for divided control became known following a session of its supreme board of directors, recently held in Washington.

 

Some time ago the Young Men's Christian Association made an offer of $500,000 of its war funds to the legion, with certain conditions, which offer, it was announced, would not be accepted unless the Y.M.C.A. agreed to the elimination of all conditions. This elimination was promptly agreed to, and the money was accepted. In replying to the original offer of the Knights of Columbus, the legion's executive committee presented the same conditions as to control presented to the Y.M.C.A. and agree to by the latter. - Capital News Service, Washington, D. C.

 

----o----

 

A thing of beauty is a joy for evermore.

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness, but still will keep

Full of sweet thoughts, and health, and quiet breathings;

Therefore, on every morning let's be wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth.

 

- Keats.

 

MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS

 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD. P.G.M. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

GENERAL WILLIAM WHIPPLE

 

WILLIAM WHIPPLE, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a member of St. John's Lodge No. 1, located at Portsmouth, N. H. He was born in Kittery, Maine, in January, 1730, and died in November, 1785. He went to sea at an early age in merchant vessels, and was in command of a vessel before he was of age.

 

It may seem paradoxical that so many boys who go to sea, leaving schools and academies behind them, acquire a substantial education. However, such is the rule, and in Whipple we have an object lesson. Coming into intimate contact with men of the world, with the wily foreigner, the methodical importers and exporters and with the laws of the nations of the world, imparts to the seafaring man much that is not taught in universities. The school gives its graduates but the foundation on which to build a profession, but it does not give the profession per se.

 

In 1759 Whipple became a merchant in Portsmouth. In 1775 he became a member of the Provincial Congress at Exeter, and the following year a member of the Continental Congress. Two years later he was commissioned a Brigadier, and commanded New Hampshire troops at Saratoga. In 1778 he cooperated with General John Sullivan (also a Mason) in - the siege of Newport, and afterwards became financial receiver of the State of New Hampshire. In 1782 he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the State.

 

The grave of General Whipple is in the North Cemetery at Portsmouth, N.H., and near it is the unmarked grave of Captain William Thompson, the sixth Captain on the original Navy List.

 

The memorial to Whipple is not a grand affair - not such as would have been erected over the grave of so great a man had he lived in more prosperous times. It is a simple granite cube, about three feet in height, surmounted with a marble slab. The inscription reads:

 

Here are deposited the remains

Of the Honorable William Whipple,

Who departed this life

On the 28th day of November, 1785.

He was elected and thrice attended

The Continental Congress

As Delegate

For the State of New Hampshire,

Particularly in the memorable year

In which

America declared itsef independent

Of Great Britain.

He was, also, at time of his

decease,

A Judge

Of the Supreme Court of

Judicature.

In Him

A firm and ardent Patriotism

Was united with

Universal benevolence

And every social virtue

 

The memorial does not record the great act of General Whipple in signing the Declaration of Independence, but that is history. It does not record his Masonic membership, which was probably not the custom, but his lodge has his Masonic record, and the Nation's History records his signature to the Declaration.

 

Many mementoes and recollections cluster around the neighborhood where Whipple's remains lie: the site and ruin of Fort William and Mary, where the New Hampshire Minute Men made their famous attack, the famous old house known as "The Earl of Halifax Tavern," which was built by Brother Stavers, of St. John's Lodge, in 1767, where the lodge once met and where the Grand Lodge was organized with John Sullivan as Grand Master. Among the visitors at this meeting were the peerless George Washington, General Joseph Cilley, Alexander Scammel, Henry Dearborn, Major Edward Sherbourne, Winborn Adams, Andrew McClary, Lieutenant Elijah Hall, U. S. N., Captain Zach Beal, John Dennett, Jere Fogg, James Gray, Michael McClary and Dr. William Parker. All Revolutionary names.

 

In the lodge room is a model of the ship "America," fifty-four guns, built in Portsmouth by order of the British Government in 1749, and during her construction St. John's Lodge held two meetings on board. From the minutes the following excerpt has been taken:

 

The same night Brother Smith, Brother Wallace, Brother Jenness and Brother Campbell were made Masters by vote of ye lodge.

 

St. John's Lodge cannot be praised too highly for the care and preservation of its records. It has set a record for all the rest.

 

ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND FREEMASONRY

 

BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ENGLAND

 

THE BUILDER JUNE 1921

 

PART II

 

THE FIRST victim of this savage decree is said to have been a Frenchmen, the author of a book entitled An Apology for the Society of Freemasons, which book was ordered to be burnt by the Ministers of Justice in one of the most frequented streets of Rome. The papal decree e concerning this offender was worded as follows:

 

"18th February, 1739.  The Sacred Congregation of the most eminent and most reverend Cardinals of the Holy Roman See and Inquisitor-general in the Christian republic against heretical provity, held in the convent of St. Mary Minervam, thoroughly weighing that a certain book, written in French, small in its size, but most wicked in regard to its bad subject, entitled The History of and an Apology for the Society of Freemasons, By J. G. D. M. F. M., printed at Dublin for Patrick Odoroke, 1739, has been published to the great scandal of all the faithful in Christ, in which book there is an apology for the society of Freemasons, already justly condemned by the holy see; after a mature examination thereof, a censure, and that to be by our most holy lord, Pope Clement XII, together with the suffrages of the most eminent and most reverend lords, the Cardinals, by the command of his holiness, condemns and prohibits, by the present decree, the said book, as containing propositions and wicked principles. 

 

"Wherefore that so hurtful and wicked a work may be abolished, as much as possibly it can, or at least that it may not continue without the perpetual note of infamy, the same Sacred Congregation, by command as above has ordered that the said work shall be burnt publicly by the Minister of Justice in the street of St. Mary supra Minervam, on the 25th of the current month, at the same time the congregation shall be held in the convent of the same St. Mary.

 

"Moreover, this same Sacred Congregation, by the command of his holiness, positively forbids and prohibits all the faithful in Christ, that none dare by any means, and under any pretence whatsoever, copy, print, or cause to be copied or printed or written, or presume to read the said book in any language and version now published or (which God forbid) may be published hereafter, and now condemned by this decree, under the pain of excommunication, to be incurred ipso facto by those who shall offend therein; but that they shall presently and effectually deliver it up to the ordinaries of such places, or to the inquisitors of heretical pravity, who shall burn it, or cause it to be burnt, without delay.

 

 "Paul Antinus Capellorius, notary-public of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition."

 

Archibald Bower, who was Counsellor of the Inquisition at Macerata, in his History of the Popes published in 1768, says that Clement XII (who was a Florentian named Lawrence Corsini) "began his Pontificate with obliging Cardinal Corsica,  and those whom he had employed, to give an account of their late administration, and answer the many accusations brought against them by persons of all ranks and condition. They were tried by a particular Congregation appointed for that purpose, and it plainly appearing that they had defrauded the Apostolic Chamber of immense sums, they were sentenced to make them good which reduced them almost to beggary. We are told that a very small share of the sums which they were forced to refund came into the Apostolic Chamber, His Holiness having privately disposed of it to his nephews and relatives.... He was a man of learning and an encourager, of the learned, but left no writings behind him besides some Bulls, and among these one, allowing the Protestants who should embrace the Roman Catholic religion to continue in the possession of the Church lands which they held before their conversion.  He improved the Vatican Library with a noble collection of scarce and valuable books." Bower, it may be stated, resigned his office in the Inquisition and left the Church of Rome because of the treatment meted out to an innocent Man who was driven mad by his sufferings in the prison of the Inquisition and of a nobleman who expired under the hands of his torturers, of both of which inhuman and shocking scenes he was an eye-witness.

 

In the same year also the Inquisition tortured a Mason, one Dr. Crudeli, Master of the Florence Lodge, and kept him in prison for a considerable time.  He suffered the most unmerited cruelties for maintaining the innocence of the Association. When the Grand Lodge of England was informed of his miserable situation, they decided that a foreigner, whatever his rank, had claim upon their sympathy, and they transmitted to him the sum of twenty pounds for procuring the necessaries of life and they also exerted every nerve for effecting his liberation.  The death penalty was, however, a matter for the secular authorities and not under the control of the Inquisition, so far as Florence was concerned.  It was not until December of that year that the Grand Lodge of England succeeded in their negotiations for the freedom of Dr. Crudeli, through the new Grand Duke, Francis Stephen, subsequently Francis I of Austria, who had been initiated into the Order in 1731 at the Hague.  When afterwards the Inquisition offered pardon for self-denunciation and a hundred crowns for information, and made several arrests, the Grand Duke interposed and liberated the prisoners.

 

The papal commands were eagerly welcomed in Spain and the Bull received the royal executer there, while the Inquisitor-general, Orbe y Larreategui, published it in an edict dated 11th October, 1738, pointing out that the Inquisition had exclusive jurisdiction in this matter.  He called for denunciation within six days of all infractions under pain of excommunication and of a fine of two hundred ducats.  The edict was ordered to be read in the churches and to be affixed to their portals.  Then arose a conflict between the spiritual and secular powers.  In 1740, Philip V issued an edict under which a number of Masons were sent to the galleys, while the Inquisition vindicated its rights by breaking up a lodge in Madrid and insisting upon punishing its members.  Freemasons were thus the victims whichever party issued the decree.

 

It is sometimes asserted by Catholic writers that the Inquisition was a purely secular organization, so that it may be of interest to record its actual constitution.

 

The reigning Pope was the head of the Inquisition, which was known in Rome as the Holy Office: he nominated all the Cardinals who composed this Congregation.  He also nominated all the presiding Inquisitors of the secondary tribunals.  They held their office at the will of the Pope, who had the power of deposing them from their office without acquainting them of the cause of their disgrace.  The Holy Office at Rome was composed of Cardinals and Consultors.  The Cardinals formed the tribunal: they were the judges, the Consultors composed the jury and had to be Canonists or regular priests.   Each subordinate tribunal was composed of three judges, three secretaries, a sergeant-major, and three consulters, except in Italy, where the tribunal was composed of an Inquisitor, assisted by a Vicar, a Fiscal, a Notary and some Consulters.  Each of these tribunals had several gaolers and a large number of other officers. An Inquisitor had to prove his descent from an old-established Catholic family, none of whose ancestors had been charged before a tribunal.  An oath of fidelity to preserve the secrets of the Inquisition had to be taken, and the violation of this meant the death penalty, no excuse being possible nor was there any appeal in mitigation of the sentence allowed.

 

The Inquisition was empowered by the Pope to deal with (1), heretics; (2), those suspected of heresy; (3), their abettors, protectors, and all persons who had shown them any favour; (4), magicians, sorcerers, enchanters, and those who made use of witchcraft; (5), blasphemers; (6), persons accused of having resisted the officers of the Inquisition, or of having questioned the jurisdiction of that body.  Under the name of heretics were included all who had written, taught, or preached anything contrary to the Holy Scriptures, symbols and articles of faith, the traditions of the Church, those who had left the Roman Catholic Church and embraced another faith, those Roman Catholics who had praised the practices or ceremonies of other cults, those who were of opinion that good was to be found in all religions, if faithfully practised and good faith exercised, those who uttered or taught any opinion contrary to the sovereign and illimitable authority of the Pope, or who denied that the power of the Pope was above that of the temporal power of princes and monarchs: in short, any who questioned or criticised the ultimatum of the Pope on any subject whatever.

 

In 1740, the Roman Catholic priests in Holland attempted to enforce obedience to the commands of their superiors.  Penitents who came to confession were asked if they were Freemasons: if they were, the certificate for Holy Communion was refused and they were expelled forever from the Communion table.  After a time, however, the States-General interfered and prohibited the clergy from asking questions that were unconnected with the religious character of the individual penitent.

 

Acting under papal compulsion, the Grand Master of Malta in 1740 caused the Bull of Clement XII to be published in that island and forbade the meetings of the Freemasons.  In 1741, the Inquisition pursued the Freemasons at Malta.  The Grand Master proscribed their assemblies under severe penalties and six Knights of Malta were banished from the island in perpetuity for having assembled at a meeting.

 

A lodge had been opened in Rome on 15th August, 1735.  It worked in English, but in 1737, under the Mastership of the Earl of Wintoun, the Inquisition seized its serving brethren and it was closed on 20th August of that year.  In the archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland is an old parchment-bound Minute-book with the following explanatory memorandum prefixed by a brother named Andrew Lumsden, dated Edinburgh, 20th November, 1799:

 

"Pope Clement the twelfth having published a most severe edict against Masonry, the last lodge held at Rome was on the 20th August, 1738, when the late Earl of Wintoun was Master.  The officer of the lodge, who was a servant of Dr. James Irvin, was sent, as a terror to others, prisoner to the Inquisition, but was soon released.  This happened about twelve years before I went to Rome, otherwise I should no doubt have been received as I was a brother of the Lodge of Edinburgh Dunfermline.

 

"This record of the Roman lodge remained, after its suppression, in the hands of the Earl of Wintoun, till his death in December, 1750, when it was given by his Lordship's executors to Dr. Irvin, the only brother of that lodge then remaining at Rome; and who, I believe, wrote its original statutes in Latin.

 

"After the death of Dr. Irvin, his widow gave the record to me, as she had heard her husband call me 'brother.' I carefully preserved it, till I delivered it at Paris to John Macgowan, Esq., to be by him given to my cousin, Sir Alexander Dick, of Prestonfield, Baronet, who, before the death of his brother, Sir William Dick, was known by the name of Dr. Alexander Cunningham, and belonged to the Roman lodge.

 

"After the death of Sir Alexander Dick, his son, the late Sir William, returned it to Mr. Macgowan, who now put it into the hands of the Right Honourable Sir James Stirling, Baronet, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Grand Master of Scotland, to be, by his lordship, deposited among the archives of the Grand Lodge.

 

"Such is the progress of this record, which is attested by Andrew Lumsden."

 

After Clement XII had issued his Bull in 1738 many Freemasons in the Romanist States of Germany founded, at Vienna the Order of the Mopses, admitting both men and women to membership, and claiming to be devoted to the papacy.  According to some writers the founder of this Order was the Duke of Bavaria, himself a Freemason.  The title is undoubtedly derived from the German mops, meaning "a young mastiff," which representation is also claimed to have been the badge of the Order, symbolic of fidelity and attachment.

 

In 1743, King John V of Portugal was persuaded by his entourage that the Freemasons were heretics and rebels and he issued an edict against them.  An era of persecution and torture at the hands of the Inquisition followed, the best known case and the one of which the fullest particulars are available being that of John Coustos.  After his release from prison Coustos published a full narrative of his arrest and subsequent tortures, and the following story is given in his own words:

 

"Being desirous of furnishing my readers with every possible proof that I actually underwent the tortures narrated in these pages, I submit the wounds, still visible upon my arms and legs, to the inspection of Dr. Hoadley and to Mr. Hawkins, and Mr. Carey, surgeons; and I feel grateful to those gentlemen for having authorized me to state that they are quite satisfied the marks resulted from great and peculiar violence, and that their position corresponds exactly with the tortures hereinafter described.

 

"I am a native of Berne, in Switzerland, and a lapidary by profession.  In the year 1716, my father came with his family to London, and easily obtained there letters of naturalization.

 

"After twenty-two years' residence I went to Paris, and worked for the French king in the galleries of the Louvre.  Having thus spent five years, I removed to Lisbon, with the ultimate design of settling in the Brazils, allured by the vision of gold and jewels so abundant there, and the certainty of acquiring a fortune. But the King of Portugal, by advice of his council, deemed it impolitic to permit a foreign lapidary roam through a colony abounding with precious stones of whose value and extent the government labour to keep even their own subjects in ignorance.  At Lisbon therefore, I was content to settle, having lost all hopes of being permitted to emigrate.  Employment in my profession I found in abundance, and soon could have amassed a competency, for age, had I escaped the cruel grasp of the bloodthirsty inquisitors.  These tyrants detain at the post office the letters of all about whom they entertain suspicions.  Mine they from time intercepted, hoping to discover some allusion to Freemasonry, I being notorious as one of the most zealous professors of that art. Not discovering, however, any passages which struck at the Romish religion, or tended to disturb the government, yet still bent upon the discovery of the Masonic secret, they resolved to seize one of the leading brethren, and I was selected being the Master of a lodge.  With me they associated the Warden, Mr. Alexander James Monton, a diamond cutter, born in Paris, and a Romanist.  He had been settled six years in Lisbon, where he was jeweller to the court.

 

"The reader must know that our lodges in Lisbon were not held at taverns, etc., but alternately at the private dwellings of chosen friends; there we used dine together, and practice the ceremonies of our Craft.  Ignorant at the time that Masonry was interdicted in Portugal, we made no attempt at secrecy, and were soon denounced by the treacherous zeal of a lady residing in a house opposite to mine, who, at confession declared we were Freemasons; that we debarred women from our assemblies, and, consequently, could be nothing less than dangerous revolutionary conspirators.  The officers of the Inquisition were soon on the alert. My friend, Mr. Monton, fell the first victim, he being seized in manner following:

 

"A jeweller and goldsmith, who besides was familiar of the Holy Office, came to his house, saying he was commissioned to inquire the expense of resetting a diamond weighing four carats.  They agreed about the sum; but as this was artifice merely, in order that the familiar might become acquainted with Monton's person, he declined leaving the jewel until after consulting the owner, and hearing his opinion of the arrangement.  I happened to be present, which greatly delighted the inquisitor, who had got the unexpected sight of both his victims at once.  He went off, requesting both of us to call on him the next day.  Business not permitting me to accompany him, Monton went alone to receive the diamond said to be worth a hundred moidores.  'Where is your friend, Coustos,' said the traitor, for he had the day before showed him several stones, which he pretended to be desirous I should polish.  Monton replied that I was on change, and he would fetch me.  But the inquisitor and his five sub-alterns, afraid of losing half their prey, beckoned him into the back shop, and after several signs and tokens had passed between him and his myrmidons, he rose up, whispered a few words in private, and retiring behind a curtain, demanded his visitor's name and surname, telling him he was a prisoner in the king's name.  Unconscious of any crime for which he could justly incur his Portuguese majesty's displeasure, he gave up his sword the moment it was demanded of him.  Finding he had no other weapon, they asked whether he wished to know in whose name he was detained.  'Yes,' said Monton.  'We seize you,' said the guards, 'in the king's name, and in that of the most Holy Inquisition; and in its name we forbid you to speak, or even so much as to murmur.' Then, a door at the bottom of the shop, which looked into a by-lane, flew open, and the prisoner, accompanied by the commissary, was dragged towards a small chaise with the blinds close drawn down, so that were any friends near, they might remain ignorant of his fate.

 

"The next device was to spread a report that he had absconded with the diamond entrusted to him.  How greatly was each of his friends shocked at this slander! As we all esteemed his probity none would give credence to the base report, and we unanimously agreed, after weighing the matter, to go in a body to the jeweller and reimburse him, firmly persuaded that some fatal and unforeseen accident must have led to the disappearance of our friend.  He, however, refused our offer, politely assuring us that the owner of the diamond was far too wealthy to be regardful of its loss.

 

"Truth sometimes penetrates all disguises with which falsehood seeks to cloud her; so this generosity in persons to whom we were in a great measure strangers made us suspect some foul play, a conjecture confirmed by a fierce and open persecution which immediately arose against Freemasonry, I myself being seized four days after.

 

"An acquaintance, hired by the Inquisition, seeing me in a coffee-house on the 5th March, 1742, between nine and ten of the clock at night, denounced me to nine familiars, who lay in wait with a chaise near the spot.  I was in the utmost confusion when, on quitting the coffeehouse with two friends, they seized me only, 'I had passed my word,' they declared, 'for the diamond which Monton was charged with purloining; therefore certainly I was his accomplice, and had engaged my friends to offer payment in the hope of concealing my crime.'

 

"To no purpose did I attempt a justification.  Seizing my sword the wretches handcuffed me, thrust me into a chaise drawn by two mules, and thus was.  I hurried off to share the captivity of my friend.  But, undaunted by these severities, and their repeated denunciations of vengeance in case I attempted to accost the passers-by, I tore open the wooden shutters of my caleche, and loudly hailed one of my friends, Mr. Richard, my companion in the coffee-house, conjuring them to apprize all our brethren of my imprisonment, and warn them that the only means of averting a similar fate was to go voluntarily to the inquisitors and denounce themselves.  Deeds of villainy are deeds of darkness.

 

"I would here observe that the Holy Office rarely ventures to seize its prey in broad daylight, as in the case of Monton, unless they judge he will be too much paralysed by fear and the, novelty of his position to make either an outcry or resistance. For myself I reckoned so confidently on the zeal and courage of my fiends that my first impulse was to draw and defend myself, calling on my friends to set their backs to the wall and follow my example.  No sooner, however, did they see my rapier out than, overwhelmed with terror from being better advised as to the consequences of resistance, they all forsook me and fled.  Left alone with these wretches, the whole nine fell upon and pinioned me, as already described.  When a person is arrested all the world abandons him.  His relatives go into mourning, and scarcely venture to intercede in his defence; nay, steps are taken to bribe and intimidate the dearest friends into accusing each other.

 

"Swiftly the carriage rattled over the pavement until we reached the Casa Sancta, and swept into a court-yard overshadowed by the dark grey towers of that dreary office.  I was now ordered to alight, and handed over to an officer until the grand inquisitor had been informed of my being caught in their snare.  They took advantage of this interval to make a rigorous personal search, the rule being to deprive the prisoner of any gold, silver, buckles, knives, etc., which he may have about him.  They then motioned me to follow, and led the way to a lone dungeon, expressly forbidding me to speak unless addressed, not to strike against the walls; but in case I wanted assistance to knock at the door with a great padlock that hung outside, and which I could reach by thrusting my arm through the iron grate.  'Twas then that, struck with all the horrors of a place which I had read and heard such baleful descriptions, I sank into the blackest melancholy, picturing to an excited fancy all the pains and penalties that might hereafter be associated with my imprisonment.

 

"My first day's incarceration passed in these anxious terrors, aggravated by the dismal moans of other captives, my neighbours.  And night, usually associated with solemn silence brought no intermission.  The shrieks of men and, if I may judge from the voices, of women, undergoing the punishment of scourging for a violation of the command to speak not - so vehemently urged on me - forbid all sleep.  I rose to pace my cell.  Dawn at length broke through the lofty grated lattice, and full wearily it came.  Time seemed no longer to revolve.  These twenty-four hours succeeding my capture, had for me the duration of years.

 

"In three days' time, a lay brother whom I had not yet seen entered my prison, and without one word uttered or sign made, began to crop my hair. Bare-headed, and with naked feet, he then marched me into the presence of my abhorred judges, viz., the president and four junior inquisitors.

 

"Immediately on my entrance they instructed me to kneel, lay my right hand on the Bible, and swear in the name of Almighty God, that I would truly answer all questions demanded of me.  My own and my parents' Christian name and surname, the place of my birth, my profession, religious faith, and how long I had resided at Lisbon, were then entered in a book. This done, the chief inquisitor spoke thus: 'Son you have heinously offended in aspersing the Holy Office, as we know of a certainty.  Now, therefore, we exhort you to confession, and to accuse yourself of all and several the crimes committed from the earliest moment at which you could discern betwixt good and evil, to the present hour.  Thus doing, you may excite the compassion of our holy tribunal, ever merciful and kind to such as love and speak the truth.'

 

"They then thought proper to tell me that the diamond transaction mentioned above, was merely a device to gain a convenient opportunity of arresting me. On this, I besought them to let me know the real cause of my imprisonment; that I had never in my life spoken evil of the Romish religion; having so demeaned myself during my sojourn in Lisbon, that I could not be justly accused of saying or doing aught contrary to the laws spiritual or temporal, of his Portuguese majesty's dominions.  That I belonged to a society comprising individuals professing various religious tenets, one of whose laws expressly forbade all disputation on matters of doctrine, under a severe penalty.  When I perceived the inquisitors confounded the word society with religion, I assured them my society could be considered religious one only as it obliged its members to live in charity and brotherly love, however widely they differed on matters of faith.  They then asked how this society was called.  I replied that I could tell them its name in English and French, but was unable to translate it into Portuguese.  Keenly fixing their eyes on me, they all pronounced alternately the words 'Freemason,' Francmacon'. The true cause of my imprisonment was now revealed.  After a pause of silence, during which they conferred apart, they suddenly demanded what was the constitution of Freemasonry.  I set before them as well as I could our ancient traditions. That James VI of Scotland had declared himself its protector, and encouraged his subjects to enrol themselves therein.  That, besides, the ancient kings of Scotland so esteemed this honourable Craft for its devoted loyalty, that they promoted among its members use of a special toast; and 'God preserve the king and brotherhood' precedes the goblet at all their feasts.  That those monarchs were often Grand Masters of lodges; when otherwise, a nobleman was selected who received from the king a pension; at his election a money gift from all beside.  That Queen Elizabeth ascending the English throne in unsettled times, took umbrage of all secret societies, and resolved to suppress them; but first of all she commanded certain of her council, with the archbishop of Canterbury, to enrol themselves in that of Masonry.  Obeying the queen's orders, they made so advantageous a report of their loyalty as removed her Majesty's alarm, and Freemasons have ever since enjoyed in Great Britain and the places subject to it, the most perfect countenance and all due liberty, which it is their proud boast never to have once abused.

 

"The inquisitors next demanded what was the tendency of this society. I replied: 'Every Freemason is obliged at his admission to take an oath on the Holy Gospel, that he will be faithful to the king, not enter into any plot or conspiracy against his sacred person, or against the liberty of the country where he resides; and that he will cheerfully submit to its established laws.  That charity was the foundation, soul, and bond of unity, linking us together by the tie of fraternal love, and making it an imperative duty to assist poverty in the most liberal spirit, without distinction of religious belief.'

 

"'Twas then they called me 'liar,' declaring it to be impossible we should practise these good maxims, and yet be so jealous of our secret as to exclude women from its participation.  The judicious reader will smile at the inference, which if true, would certainly apply to the dark and mysterious tyranny of the Holy Office itself.  However, I answered them: 'Women, my lords, are excluded in order to suppress occasion of scandal, and because in society they are usually found to be unsafe guardians of a secret.  The founders of Masonry are, therefore, by their exclusion, thought to have given a signal proof of their wisdom and foresight.'

 

"They now insisted I should reveal to them the symbols and tokens of a lodge.

 

"'The oath,' said I, 'taken at my admission, never to divulge directly or indirectly what then transpired, forbids me; and I humbly trust to your lordships' justice that my principles may find favour in your sight.' To this they answered: 'In our presence your heretical vow avails not - we absolve you from it.' The nature of my reply they seemed to anticipate.  I was at once thrust back into my damp, noisome dungeon, where I fell sick.  Partially recovered, I was sent for to be interrogated whether, since my abode in Lisbon, any Portuguese had been received into a lodge.  I replied 'No.' True it was, indeed, that Don Emanuel de Sousa, lord of Calliaris, and captain of the German guards, hearing that the person was at Lisbon who had made the Duc de Villeroy a Freemason by order of the French king, Louis XV, had desired M. de Chavigny, ambassador of France to find me out.  But knowing Freemasonry to be forbidden, and aware that M. de Calliaris was a nobleman of great economy, I found an expedient to disengage myself from him by asking fifty moidores for his reception, a demand which, I was persuaded, would at once put an end to his desire to be enroled amongst us.  As regarded their threats of torture I referred them to Mr. Dogood, an English Roman Catholic and Freemason, who had settled a lodge in Lisbon fifteen years before, and who, being of their own persuasion, could more properly appreciate their power to, absolve us from an oath.

 

"Again referring to a previous examination, when I said it was a duty incumbent on Freemasons to assist the needy, they asked whether I had ever relieved a necessitous object.  I named to them a poor woman, a Romanist, who, being reduced to the extremity of want, and hearing that we were liberal of alms, had addressed herself to me: I gave her a moidore; when the Franciscan convent was burned down the fathers made a collection, and I have them, upon the exchange, three-quarters of a moidore; that a poor Roman Catholic, with a large family, who could get no work, being in the utmost distress, had been recommended to me by some Freemasons, with a suggestion that we should make up a purse among ourselves in order to set him up again; accordingly we raised, among seven members, ten moidores, which money I myself put into his hands.  They then asked whether I had ever given alms privately out of my own purse.  I replied that the above gifts were mainly derived from fines levied at the meetings of the Brotherhood. 'For what faults?' inquired they.  'Those,' said I, 'who take the sacred name of God in vain pay the quarter of a moidore; less profane oaths or indecent words, the quarter of a new croisade; the fractious and disobedient were also fined.' Finding all their efforts to shake my resolution, either by terror or cajolery, of no avail, they threw off all disguise, called me 'dog of a heretic,' and vowing I was already damned, so that neither purgatory nor absolution would avail me.  The proctor then proceeded to read the heads of the indictment or charge, which was as follows:

 

"'The said Coustos having refused to discover to the inquisitors the true tendency and evil designs of the assembly of Freemasons, and having, on the contrary, persisted in the assertion that Freemasonry is good in itself: wherefore the proctor of the Inquisition demands that the said prisoner be prosecuted with the utmost rigour; and that the court do now proceed to tortures, in order to extort from him a confession that the several articles of which he stands accused are wholly and altogether true.'

 

"Folding up the paper he drove me before him to the torture room, built in the form of a square tower, illuminated by two small torches only, making a darkness visible; and, to prevent the shrieks of the sufferers from being heard without, the doors are lined with felt.  After preparing their instruments, an operation ostentatiously performed before my eyes, six wretches laid hold of me, stripping me naked to my drawers, and casting me on my back.  An iron collar was placed round my neck and secured me to the scaffold.  They next fixed a ring to each foot, and stretched my legs apart with all their might.  Afterwards two ropes were twisted round each arm and two round each thigh, and, being passed under the scaffold through holes made for the purpose, four men, upon a signal, suddenly drew them tight.  These ropes pierced the flesh, even to my bones, making the blood gush out at the eight different places thus bound.  An inquisitor stood by; at each interval in the torture he addressed me.  'Sir,' said he, with a marvellous hypocrisy, in the most anxious and affectionate tone, 'why will you thus endure suffering - why so cruel to yourself? Remember, should you expire under the torture, in the sight of Heaven you are guilty of the crime of felo de se.'

 

"As I persisted in keeping silence, the cords were thus four times drawn together.  At my side stood a physician and a surgeon, who, sometimes, feeling my temples or my pulse, directed the tormenters to suspend operations.  During these pauses, I lay in a heap upon the ground, until some partial restoration of my faculties, when the tender-hearted inquisitor gave the signal for their repetition.

 

"Seeing these sufferings elicited no confession - but that the greater the cruelty the more fervently I supplicated heaven for constancy and courage - six weeks after they led me once more to the tower.  I was directed to extend my arms with the palms outwards; a rope being attached to each wrist, they turned a windlass, and gradually drew them nearer and nearer to each other behind, until the backs of the hands touched.  Both my shoulders were dislocated; from my mouth issued a stream of blood.  The operation being thrice repeated, I was taken to my cell, where the surgeon, in setting my bones, put me to almost equal pain.

 

"At the expiration of two months, being a little restored, a new executioner, clothed in a long black garment which concealed his person from head to foot, with a mask upon his face, having two holes for sight, came to my cell and conducted me to the torture-room.  Around my body he placed a heavy iron chain, which crossing upon my stomach, terminated at my wrists.  The tormenter stretching these ropes with a roller, pressed and bruised my stomach; and wrists and shoulders were again dislocated.  The surgeon, however, set them directly.  The sympathizing inquisitor, having repeated his condolence and his exhortations, withdrew, making a sign in doing so for the recommencement of the torture.

 

"Nine different times they had me on the rack.  I was reduced to the state of a helpless cripple, unable during some weeks to raise my hand to my mouth, and my body swelled with inflammation caused by these frequent dislocations.  I have too much reason to dread that I shall feel their effects through life, being seized from time to time with thrilling pains, unknown to me ere I fell into the bloody hands of these hellish inquisitors.

 

"The period for a general auto da fe being arrived, I was compelled to walk with the other victims.  When at St. Dominic's Church, my sentence was read, and I found myself condemned to the galleys for the space of four years.

 

"There I had leisure to reflect on the means best adapted to obtain my liberty.  I succeeded in communicating with my brother-inlaw, Mr. Barber, entreating him humbly to address the Earl of Harrington in my favour, as he had the honour to live in his lordship's family. This nobleman, whose humanity and generosity have been the theme of abler pens than mine, undertook to procure my freedom.  Accordingly, his lordship spoke to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, one of the principal secretaries of state, that he would supplicate our sovereign to order his minister at Lisbon to demand me as a British subject.  His Majesty, ever attentive to the felicity of his subjects, and desirous to relieve them from all their misfortunes, graciously assented. Instructions were at once sent to Mr. Compton, minister at Lisbon, to demand an immediate audience of the Portuguese minister, and Admiral Matthews, then sailing with a fleet to the Mediterranean, carried these instructions out.  His orders were, to anchor for four-and-twenty hours only in the Tagus, and within half that period to see me safely delivered on board some English vessel about to sail for England. The tenor of this dispatch was too significant to be dallied with.  An order came for my immediate release, and I left the prison of the galleys on the 25th October, 1743.

 

"I return our sovereign, King George II, my most dutiful acknowledgements for having graciously condescended to interpose in behalf of an unhappy galley-slave.  I shall retain as long as I have health, the deepest affection and loyalty for his sacred person, and shall be ever ready to expose my life, as every true-hearted Freemason is bound to do, for his Majesty and all his august family."

 

The year following the celebrated auto-da-fe at Lisbon - in July, 1844 - another Freemason, a friend of Coustos, John Baptist Richard, 26 years of age, who had been denounced as a Freemason, renounced the Protestant religion in order to regain his liberty, which he succeeded in doing on payment of the costs of the prosecution.  Among the names of those denounced to the Inquisition at this time were Englishmen named Gordon, Fox, Ivens, Vandrevel; Frenchmen named Jean Pietre, Lambert Boulanger, Jean Ville Neuve, Felix, Julian, and Carmoa.  Gordon and Fox were already initiated when they went to Portugal, and it may be that this Gordon is the same as the brother indicated by O'Kelly as having introduced Freemasonry into Portugal.

 

It is not without interest to note the way in which the authorities first discovered the fact that Coustos and Monton were Freemasons. It appears that Monton's wife, in conversation with a Mme. la Rude, the wife of the Jeweller, was so indiscreet as to reveal the fact that her husband was a Freemason.  Mme. la Rude, who was jealous of the property of her two friends, made this known to another friend, Marie Rose Clave, with the result that Monton, Coustos, and another Freemason, a Frenchman named Brusle, were arrested.  Several foreigners were members of the lodge of which Coustos was Master, but, when interrogated, they denied their membership.

 

It seems almost if not quite, incredible that such things could have happened within the last two hundred years, but the narrative of Coustos was verified at the time it was written, and there is no reason to suspect as untrue or exaggerated any one of the statement he has and, Monton returned with Coustos to London where both were well cared for by the English brethren.  His narrative, together with a history of the Inquisition, was published in 1745, and again in 1746.  There is a copy of the very rare first edition in the Bodleian Library.

 

(To be continued)

 

----o----

 

BETTER PAID TEACHERS URGED AS VITAL NEED

 

Demand for Support of Free Public Schools and Those in Charge Made by N.E.A.

 

The cause of education has been given a wonderful impetus throughout the country, in the opinion of competent observers, during the past several months, due, in the first place, to the desire for knowledge developed as one of the results of the war and, in the second, to the agitation of the subject in state legislative bodies and in the national Congress. While the state and federal legislative bodies have in every instance had economy as their slogan, yet the leaders have not permitted economy to be urged at the expense of educational advancement.

 

It is being pointed out by the National Education Association that, at a time when teachers are being selected throughout the country and salaries fixed, it is well to be on guard to the end that there be no retrenchment in the cause of education. In an authorized statement on this subject the Association has this, in part, to say:

 

"Our free public school system is an integral part of our free government, essential to its life and prosperity. The only secure foundation for democracy is an enlightened and intelligent electorate.... This fact was recognized by the far-seeing statesmen who founded this nation. William Penn declared that the only way to preserve free government was by the education of all its citizens, 'for which,' said he, 'spare no cost, for by such parsimony all that is saved is lost.'

 

"Washington urged his countrymen 'to promote as objects of primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.' Jefferson, Adams, and Madison taught that the education of all the people furnishes the greatest safeguard for our free institutions.

 

"The greatest need of our country today is competent, well qualified teachers to train the future citizens of the nation. . . The schools of tomorrow should be taught only by the best, and the profession of teaching must be made so inviting that it will attract and hold the best.

 

"Let us cut down expenditures for luxuries; let us reduce appropriations wherever it can be done with safety, but for the perpetuity of those ideals and principles which are nearest to the hearts of the American people, there can be no backward step in the development of a strong, intelligent, patriotic citizenry, upon whom must depend the preservation of the things for which we have made such sacrifice in blood and treasure. The hope of America is in her free public schools. To elevate their standards and promote their efficiency should be the purpose of every American statesman and citizen." - Capital News Service, Washington, D. C.

 

----o----

 

EDUCATIONAL MEASURE AGAIN INTRODUCED

 

Towner Bill Goes Promptly to Committee on Education, Where Favorable Report Is Expected in Short Time.

 

The Department of Education bill is now formally before the special session of Congress, it having been reintroduced on the first day by Representative Horace M. Towner of Iowa. It will be introduced in the Senate shortly, the committees there having now been made up.

 

Briefly, the bill as reintroduced in the House provides for the appropriation of $7,500,000, or so much of this sum as may be actually necessary, in the Americanization of immigrants; $50,000,000 to be used in equalizing educational opportunities in the states and for partial payment of teachers' salaries; $20,000,000 for physical education, and $15,000,000 for the preparation of teachers.

 

The bill as introduced is changed from the original one, reported out favorably and strongly by the House committee on education, in verbiage only. Judge Towner believes that as a result another favorable report from the committee will be forthcoming shortly, thus giving the measure a favorable position on the calendar of the House. With this advantage, its consideration in the Senate will not call for as much time as it would ordinarily.

 

Judge Towner has expressed himself as pleased with the strong newspaper indorsement given the measure not only during the last session but during the vacation of Congress. In addition, indorsements of the bill are coming in daily from all sections of the country to members of the two Houses. Due to the delay occasioned by failure to get consideration of the education measure in the last Congress, it has been possible for the author to get a clear insight into other proposed measures having to do with education, and to clarify provosions in his in such way as to care for most of these under the one bill. - Capital News Service, Washington, D.C.

 

ELIAS ASHMOLE AND THE MASONIC CRAFT

 

BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ENGLAND

 

ELIAS ASHMOLE has sometimes been described as "the first Freemason in England," meaning by that expression that he was the first known outside the ranks of the operatives to be initiated into the Craft on English soil.  This, of course, is inaccurate as Sir Robert Moray was initiated at New- castle-on-Tyne five years prior to Ashmole. Moreover, in the record which Elias Ashmole supplies of his own initiation, there were other gentlemen already initiated and holding office in the lodge who, certainly, were not connected with operative masons.  The phrase, occasionally is varied and Ashmole is said to have been "one of the first Freemasons in England." Again, there is no proof.  There were undoubtedly lodges existing in England at that time, although all records, if any were kept, have been lost, or, at least, have never been traced.  The presumption is either that minutes of the proceedings were not kept or that they were not preserved with the same care as in later years and that exercised at the present day.

 

These facts, however, do not detract from the interest that attaches to the entries made by Elias Ashmole in his Diary, the first of which reads as follows:

 

"1646. Oct. 16. 4.30 p. m. I was made a Free Mason at Warrington in Lancashire with Col. Henry Mainwaring of Keringham in Cheshire.  The names of those that were then of the Lodge: Mr. Rich. Penket, Warden, Mr. James Collier, Mr. Rich. Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Rich. Ellam, and Hugh Brewer."

 

Dr. Richard Garnett, in his biography of Elias Ashmole, in the Dictionary of National Biography, says - though he quotes no authority for his statement - that the first formal meeting of Freemasons in England was held in 1646.  Albert Pike, the great American Mason, says:

 

"Ashmole had some inducement that led him to seek admission into Masonry - some object to attain, some purpose to carry out.  Even his utter silence as to its objects, nature, customs, and work of the Institution is significant. There was something IN the Institution that made it seem to him worth his while to join it, and what there was in it then there may have been centuries before.  He is even more reticent about it than Herodotus was about the Mysteries of the Egyptian Priests."

 

Thanks to William H. Rylands, who has made a special study of Masonry in Warrington and the surrounding districts in the seventeenth century, particulars are available of the persons mentioned in this entry in Ashmole's Diary.  His fellow initiate was Colonel Mainwaring, a scion of the younger branch of the Mainwarings of Peover.  Randle Mainwaring went Karrincham about 1445 his father having purchased the estate for him. Colonel Mainwaring was born in 1608, and succeeded to the estate on the death of his father in 1638.  He also, like Ashmole, was a prominent figure during the whole of the civil war, being principally engaged in and about Chesire, his native county.  He died in 1684. Richard, the Warden, who, apparently was in charge of the lodge, was a member of the old family of Penket, or Penketh.  His grandfather was Richard Penketh, of Penketh, mentioned in the Herald's Visitation to Lancashire made by St. George in 1613; his grandmother was a daughter of Thomas Sankey, of Sankey, gentleman, and his father was Thomas Penketh, of Penketh.  In the Parish Register of Warrington, 11th June, 1591, is the entry: "Richard Penketh, gentleman, to Mary Entoughe." Richard Penketh, who was present in the lodge, died in 1652, six years after Ashmole's initiation, and must have been some eighty years of age.  He was the last of his race to hold the family property, for, in 1624, Sir Thomas Irelande exchanged the hall and demesne of Penketh with Thomas Ashton, "late the inheritance of Richard Penketh." James Collier held lands at Newton-le-Willows, and married Ellen Bretherton, of the old Lancashire family of that name, and died in 1674, being buried at Winwick.  Richard Sankey was a member of a family which had held lands near Warrington from 1275, these being known as Little Sankey and Great Sankey.  In the Warrington Parish Register for 1621, the baptism of Edward, son of Richard Sankey, gentleman is entered: evidently the Edward, who, in 1646, copied the Sloane MS, one of the most valued Masonic possessions as a document of the Ancient Charges.  Henry Littler was also of a family settled in Cheshire, whose names are frequently found in the lists of jurors.  The Ellams were of a yeoman family, then long resident in the parish of Winwick. Richard's will begins: "I, Richard Ellam, of Lymm, co.  Chester, Freemason," etc.

 

These facts prove incontestably that Freemasonry in that day, and, presumably, for many years previously, had ceased to be operative and had became speculative.

 

No particulars have yet been ascertained of the lodge in which Ashmole was initiated.  It had either ceased to exist in 1717, when the Grand Lodge of England was formed, or, if existing, it did not join that body then or afterwards.  The oldest existing lodge in Warrington is the Lodge of Lights, No. 148, warranted on 8th November, 1765.  One, however, was warranted by the Antient or Atholl Grand Lodge in 1755, the warrant being sold, in 1791, to a lodge meeting at Quebec, which afterwards removed to Maidstone, but this ceased to exist in 1812.

 

The next Masonic entry in Ashmole's Diary appears at the date of 10th March, 1682, and reads:

 

"About 5 p.m. I recd a Summons to appear at a Lodge to be held the next day at Masons' Hall, London"; and on the following day he wrote the entry:

 

"Accordingly I went and about Noone were admitted into the Fellowship of Free Masons. Sr William Wilson, Knight, Capt.  Richard Borthwick, Mr. Will.  Woodman, Mr. Wm. Grey, Mr. Samuel Taylor & Mr. William Wise.

 

"I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 years since I was admitted).  There were p'sent beside myself the Fellows after named.

 

"Mr. Thos: Wise Mr of the Masons Company this p'sent yeare, Mr. Thomas Shorthose, Mr. Thomas Shadbolt, Waindsford Esqr.  Mr. Rich Young, Mr. John Shorthose, Mr. William Hamon, Mr. John Thompson & Mr. Will: Stanton.

 

"We all dyned at the halfe Moone Tavern in Cheapeside, at a Noble dinner prepared at the charge of the New-accepted Masons."

 

Sir William Wilson, the first initiate mentioned in this list, was originally a stonemason, but blossomed out into a builder and architect.  He married the widow of one Henry Pudsey and through her influence obtained knighthood in 1681.  He built Four Oaks Hall for Lord ffoliott, as well as Nottingham Castle.  He was also the sculptor of the statue of Charles II at the west front of Lichfield Cathedral.  He died in 1710, in his seventieth year.

 

An important point for consideration is whether Ashmole had attended any Masonic lodges between the first and second entries.  His Diary is Silent on that subject, but it is also silent on many other subjects concerning which information would be of value.  It may be that he regarded Freemasonry as too secret an organization for details to be inserted at any great length or frequency, but, in view of his initiation having taken place at Warrington, may have looked upon a summons (not an invitation) to attend the meeting of this London lodge as worthy of record.  It by no means follows that he had not attended a Masonic lodge or failed to keep up his connection with the Craft between 1646 and 1682.  The deduction may even be made that he had, in some way, maintained his connection with the Freemasons through the intervening years.  This, indeed, is the only possible surmise that will account for the summons being sent to him.

 

Mr. William Sandys, who was a Past Master of the Grand Master's Lodge, No. 1, the author of A Short History of Freemasonry and the author of the article relating to Ashmole in the Encyclopedia Metropolitans, says, in the latter, that at the same time Ashmole was made a Mason at Warrington a society of Rosicrucians was formed in London on the principle of the societies established in Germany about 1604, and partly, perhaps, on the plan of the Literary Societies, allegorically described in Bacon's New Atlantis as the House of Solomon, and he states positively that Ashmole was a member of this Society, which met at Masons' Hall, London, but, so far, there is no corroborative evidence of this statement.  It is, however, also stated by his biographers that Sir Robert Moray, Ashmole's forerunner in the annals of English Masonic initiations, was also a member of the Rosicrucians, and Moray was a friend of Ashmole as well as of Thomas Vaughan, who was undoubtedly a Rosicrucian.

 

Dr. Campbell, in the Biographia Britannica, says that in some of Ashmole's MSS. there are very valuable collections relating to the history of the Freemasons, but there are no papers of this nature in the Bodleian collection.  On 26th January, 1679, a fire broke out in the Chambers adjoining his in the Middle Temple, by which he lost a library he had been thirty-three years in collecting, but his manuscripts, which were at South Lambeth, of course, escaped.  Whether this history of "Freemasonry was ever written or the notes for such a work ever made will probably remain forever unknown.  On this question, however, Dr. Knipe says:

 

"As to the ancient society of Freemasons, concerning whom you are anxious to know what may be known with certainty, I shall only tell you, that if our worthy Brother, E. Ashmole Esquire, had executed his intended design, our fraternity had been as much obliged to him as the brethren of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.  I would not have you surprised at this assertion or think it at all too assuming.  The sovereigns of that Order have not disdained our fellowship, and there have been times when Emperors were also Freemasons. What from Mr. E. Ashmole's conclusion I could gather was that the report of our societies taking rise from a Bull granted by the Pope in the reign of Henry III to some Italian architects to travel all over Europe to erect chapels was ill founded.  Such a Bull there was and those architects were Masons: but this Bull, in the opinion of the learned Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative only and did not by any means create our fraternity or even establish them in this kingdom.  But as to the time and manner of that establishment something I shall relate from the same conclusions.  Saint Alban, the proto Martyr of England established Masonry here and from his time it flourished more or less according as the world went, down to the days of King Athelstane, who, for the sake of his brother Edwin, granted the Masons a charter: though, afterwards, growing jealous of his brother, it is said he caused him to go with his page to be put into a boat and committed to the sea, where they perished.  It is likely that masons were affected by his folly and suffered for some time; but afterwards their creed revived and we find in our Norman princes that they frequently received extraordinary marks of royal favour."

 

Had Elias Ashmole been able to perform for Freemasonry the same service that he rendered to Knighthood in his History of the Garter doubtless many of the questions which brethren have for years been trying to answer in a satisfactory manner would a long time since have passed into the realm of proven facts or fallacies.

 

----o----

 

THE GREATEST POWER

 

By Bro. G.A. Nancarrow, Indiana

 

What power makes the highest mountain top

A grain of sand so tiny none can see;

All oceans, in comparison, a drop

Of morning dew that glistens on the lea?

 

What power makes the endless stream of years

Since primal dawn a moment in the span;

What power makes a man and all his peers,

Compared with it, as monads in the plan?

 

What power holds the mighty firmament

And rolls the earth as though it were a clod?

The answer through the universe is sent

In thunders: The Omnipotence of God.

 

 

EMBLEMATIC FREEMASONRY, BUILDING GUILDS AND HERMETIC SCHOOLS

 

BY BRO. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, ENGLAND

 

AS EMBLEMATIC FREEMASONRY is the Craft of Building moralized, it follows that intellectually, at least, our figurative and speculative art has arisen out of the Operative.  Here is a first link in any chain of connection with the building world of the past. But it seems certain also that the Free and Accepted, or Speculative, Masons had Operative documents, such as the so-called Gothic Constitutions and Old Charges, for part of their heritage.  The proof is that soon after the revival of 1717, these documents were put into the hands of Dr. James Anderson "to digest .. . . in a new and better method." They were things apparently in evidence, and he was not commissioned to search them out.  Beyond this omnia exeunt in mysterium.  Almost from year to year our documentary knowledge of Constitutions, Charges, and Landmarks extends slowly.  There is also new light cast from time to time on the general history of architecture in Christian times.  But no light is shed on the antiquities of art of building moralized.  The existence of such an art prior to 1717 remains almost as much a matter of speculation as the art itself is speculative.  We are led almost irresistibly to infer that it anteceded this date and a few remain among us who believe that it may have been old in the year 1646, when Ashmole was made a Mason at Warrington, but there is no real evidence.  So also there are zealous and capable writers by whom our knowledge is expanded from time to time, however slightly, on particular sides and respecting the archaeology of architectural history, on Roman Collegia, Dionysian artificers, and Comacines.  They furnish at the same time many plausible and taking speculations.  But they do not help us in respect of Freemasonry, as we now understand the term, because no evidence of building association is of service to our awn purpose unless such association embodies our "peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."

 

The Hittites of Syria and Asia Minor may have been of "Hametic descent" and may have built the Temple at Jerusalem; the Etruscans, from whom architecture was learned by the Romans, may have been Hittites; at the downfall of Rome, the Roman Collegia may have settled in that island on Lake Como, which is familiar at the present day as Isola Cpmacina, and may have become Comacines; the Comacines may, in turn, have merged into the great Masonic guilds of the Middle Ages.  But, if so, all this is part and parcel of the history of architecture and not of Emblematical Building, unless and until we can show that, practical Masons as they were, their system of secret association included what is called in the Craft degrees a side of Speculative Masonry and in the appendant degrees an art of building spiritualized.  But it is just this which is wanting, or we should have taken the closing long since in the lodge of our debate on the origin of Freemasonry.  There are not unnatural sporadic vestiges, few and far between.  It is said that the Comacines had a motto affirming that their temple was "one made without hands," and this reminds us assuredly of the Mark degree; but it is not to be called evidence for a developed speculative element prevailing amongst those old masters.  Nor can I think with Brother Ravenscroft, in his memorable series of papers contributed to THE BUILDER in 1918, that the two pillars of Wurzburg Cathedral, once situated on either side of the porch and bearing respectively on their capitals the letters J and B, can be termed "a good illustration of the way in which symbols were transmitted even from the temple of Solomon to the medieval craftsmen and thence to our Speculative Masonry." It seems to me simply that the Cathedral builders were acquainted with Holy Scripture.

 

The conclusion which is forced upon me is that only by the use of liberal supposition can the Comacines and those who preceded them be made to connect with our subject.  We may take H.J. Da Costa as an early authority in England for the Dionysian fraternity and his successor, Krause, for the links between Masons of the Middle Ages and the Roman Collegia.  The views of both have been summarized ably by my friend, Brother Joseph Fort Newton, but that which is valid therein belongs to the history of architecture.  It was, I think, Krause who said that each Roman collegium was presided over by a Master and two decuriones or Wardens, each of whom bore the Master's commands to the brethren of his respective column.  The word "decurio" is here translated "warden," to institute an analogy by force.  According to Suetonius, the Latin office in question was that of a captain over ten men, whether horse or foot, and was therefore military in character.  The first authority on the Comacines is Leader Scott (who is Miss Lucy E. Baxter) in "The Cathedral Builders," a most fascinating romance of architecture, which contains also some great and valuable historical lights.  Joseph Fort Newton described it as an attempt to bridge the gap "between the classical Roman side and the rise of Gothic art." Again, therefore, it is a question of architectural evolution, and I must say personally that, taken as such, it is to be questioned whether the gulf is really spanned. I can understand on the hypothesis the development of Italian architecture, more or less degenerated from classical types, but not the genesis of the great schools of Gothic building. It is to be understood, however, that this question exceeds the warrants of my subject to connect any ritual mystery which obtained ex hypothesi in the old Collegia, or among Comacine lodges, with the living mystery of Speculative Masonry, of which she speaks with derision, but evidently know's it only through an Italian source.  As a student of the Secret Tradition in Christian times I could wish that the facts were otherwise in the great story of all these ancient guilds.  I could have wished that their supposed pageants of secret initiation were, as the speculations say, Dionysian representations of mystical death and erection, and that they are reflected at a far distance in our Sublime degree.  But if these stories are dreams, or still awaiting demonstration, we have to face the fact, and the question remaining over is whether we can look elsewhere. Now, it happens that there is one direction which has been regarded not unfavourably as a possible source of light.  It is that of Hermetic Schools in England, and these, speaking broadly, may be classified as three-Alchemical, Rosicrucian, and Kabalistic.  They had a common bond of interest and tended here, as elsewhere, to merge one into another.  There are evidences to show that the experiment of Alchemy in England is an exceedingly old pursuit, but in the early part of the seventeenth century it had sprung into greater prominence.  The rumour of the Rosicrucian fraternity was also raising curiosity in Europe.  Hermetic literature - not only with a modern accent but also for the time in vernacular language - extended greatly, and schools of theosophy sprang up in several countries.  The root of the Rosicrucian movement was in Germany, but the impulse reached England and some of the most famous names connected with the subject are identified with this country.  Hence came Alexander Seton and hence Eirenaeus Philalethes, who has been regarded as one of the great masters of Hermetic Art.  Here also was Robert Fludd, who must, I think, be regarded as not only advocate and apologist in chief of the Rosicrucian art and philosophy, but as a fountain-head.  Here, too, was Thomas Vaughan, mystic as well as alchemist.  And here, in 1640, lived Elias Ashmole, alchemist and antiquary, founder also of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

 

A section of Masonic opinion has looked in the past and a section looks still towards Elias Ashmole and his connections in some way, yet undetermined, as the representatives of this transition from Operative to Speculative Masonry.  In France there has been practically no doubt on the subject from the days of Ragon, though concerning the value of his personal view I must speak with desirable plainness elsewhere  in this paper.  In America the distinguished name of Albert Pike can be cited in support of the thesis.  After every allowance has been made for the position of such a speculation, still almost inextricable, it can be affirmed that it seems to offer a place of repose for all the tolerable views, because it harmonizes all - on the understanding that Ashmole and his consociates are not regarded personally but as typifying a leavening spirit introduced there and here, and at work during the period intervening between 1640 and the foundation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717. Pike was like Ragon unfortunately, a man of uncritical mind, and summarize his findings under all needful reserve.

 

Among Masonic symbols which he identifies used in common by Freemasons and Hermetic and Alchemical literature are the Square and Compasses, the Triangle, the Oblong Square, the legend of the three Grand Masters, the idea embodied in a substitute word, which might well be the most important of all together with the Sun, the Moon, and Master of the lodge.  It was, moreover, his opinion, based on this and other considerations, that the philosophers - meaning the members of the Hermetic confraternities - became Freemasons and introduced into Masonry their own symbolism.  He thinks finally that Ashmole was led to be made a Mason because others who were followers of Hermes had taken the step before him. However this may be, I have said elsewhere that the influence of the Rosicrucian fraternity upon that of Masons has been questioned only by those who by those who have been unfitted to appreciate the symbolism which they possess in common. It does not belong to the formative period of Emblematic Freemasonry, but to that of development and expansion.  The nature of the influence is another matter and one, moreover, in which it may be necessary to recognize the simple principle of imitation up to a certain point.  The influence has been exercised more especially in connection with other Rites, as to which it is impossible, for example, to question that those who instituted the eighteenth degree of the Scottish Rite either must have received something by transmission from the old German Brotherhood, or, alternatively, must have borrowed from its literature.

 

That Ashmole was connected with Rosicrucian or otherwise with the representatives of some association which had assumed their name is an inference drawn from his life. His antiquarian studies led him more especially in the direction of Alchemy, but regards this art he did not remain an antiquary or a mere collector of old documents on the subject. He was to some extent, a practical student and, moreover not simply an isolated inquirer.  He had secured the assistance which has been regarded always as next but one to essential, namely, the instruction of a Master.  The alternative is Divine Aid, which is, of course, a higher kind of Mastery.  He was associated otherwise with many of the occult philosophers, alchemist astrologers, and so forth, belonging to his period. The suggestion that he acted as an instrument of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, or as a member thereof, in transfiguration of Operative into Speculative Freemasonry is a matter of faith for those who have held hold it.  Of direct or indirect evidence there is not particle.  Supposing that such a design existed at period, he is not an unlikely person to have been concerned in planning it on the part of himself and others or to have been delegated for such a purpose.  But the design there is again no evidence.  It has been affirmed further in the interests of the claim that meeting of an Alchemical - presumably Rosicrucian - society perceiving how working Masons were already outnumbered in membership by persons of education not belonging to the trade, believed that the time was ripe for a complete ceremonial revolution and that one founded on mystic tradition was drawn up thereon in writing, constituting the Entered Apprentice grade, approximately as it exists now.  The grade of Fellow Craft was elaborated in 1648, and that of Master Mason in 1659.

 

These are the reveries of Ragon, categorical in nature, accompanied by specific details, all in the absence of one particle of fact in any record of the past.  It seems to me, therefore, that no language would be too strong to characterize such mendacities and that they can belong only to the class of conscious lying, but the charge against Ragon is more especially that he elaborated the materials of a hypothesis which had grown up among successive inventors belonging to the type of Reghellini.  If there were Rosicrucians in England at the date in question, it may be presumed that those who, according to Ashmole's own statement, communicated to him some portions, at least, of the Hermetic secrets would not have withheld the corporate mysteries of their Fraternity.  But, on the other hand, there is at present no historical certainty that the Hermetic Order possessed any such corporate existence in England at that period.  However this may be, in the memoirs of the life of Elias Ashmole, as drawn up by himself in the form of a diary, there is the following now well-known entry under date of 16th October, 1