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GRADES OF SAINT ANDREW
Régime Écossais.
The Master Grade.
Grade of Perfect Master
Hiram and Christ.
Issue of the Grade.
GRAND AND SUBLIME MASON
Heads of the Legend.
Version of Baron Tschoudy.
Knights of the Morning.
A Hermetic Motstre.
A Third Temple.
The Primeval Order.
The baid Solitaries
Knights of the Temple.
Ritual of the Grade
GRAND ARCHITECT
Master Architect.
GRAND GRADE ECOSSAIS
An Ineffable Degree.
GRAND INSPECTOR
A French Version.
The Recension of Pike.
Procedure in this Version.
GRAND LODGE
Decay of Operative Lodges.
Non-Operative Masons.
Operative or Speculative.
The Masons' Company.
Issues of Modern Research
The Grand Lodge Heritage.
Creation of Grand Lodge.
A Conflagration of Archives.
The Order to Anderson.
The Chair of Grand Master
Craft Expansion.
Book of Constitiution
Divisions and Feuds.
Grand Masters.
Authorities.
GRAND MASTER ARCHITECT
Points of the Grade.
The French Legend.
GRAND MASTER OF ALL SYMBOLIC LODGES
Defects and Insufficiencies.
Horizon of the Grade.
GRAND PONTIFF
An Apocalyptic Grade.
Points of the Pageant.
GRADES OF SAINT ANDREW
Régime Écossais.
The Master Grade.
Grade of Perfect Master
Hiram and Christ.
Issue of the Grade.
GRADES OF SAINT ANDREW. The Écossais Grades of Masonry and if their name is not legions they are many_are not all Grades of St. Andrew; but in a general sense he is the patron of all and over all a presiding spirit. Setting aside comparative trivialities and minima, Grades of St. Andrew enter into two systems of great historical importance, the RITE OF THE STRICT OBSERVANCE and the SWEDISH RITE.
To my poignant and lasting regret t can speak of the latter at second-hand
only, and it is preferable therefore scarcely to speak at all, except to put on
record an opinion that having regard to the date of its formation and the fact
that its inspiration and character were drawn from many sources, something
may have been rejected into it from the former. It has been a custom to speak
of these creations and their kindred generally as Jacobite Degrees, as
introduced by partisans of the Stuarts, as connected in particular with the
thing called RAMSAY,S RITE, because Ramsay was tutor of Stuart Princes in
his day. These affirmations are of the world of myth and legend, like the great
romantic fables of Heredom and Kilwenning. We shall see that the Chevalier
Ramsay never founded a Rite, that so far as evidence is concerned no Stuart
Prince ever meddled oath Masonry, for his own or any other purpose, that the
Grades of St. Andrew which count in Masonry and their developed symbolism
are things of the spint and have no part in earthly kingdorns, their loss or their
recovery. Finally, as regards Kilwinning, it nlay be noted as a cunous point that
its Annual Festival is on the day of St. Thomas, not that of St. Andrew.
Régime Écossais.
The Grades which are connected by their titles with the
patron saint of Scotland are of necessity and obviously écossais Grades of Masonry, but they are'not all distinguished by the particular qualification itself,
and I have shewn elsewhere that this is the only pretence under which we can
group together a vast Ritual collection which has no essential elements in
common. I have said also that the Grades of MASTER and PERFECT MASTER OF ST. ANDREW are the head and crown of the Ecossais cohort. They are
included under these names in the RÉGIME ÉCOSSAIS ANCIEN ET RECTIFIE, but in the RITE OF THE STRICT OBSERVANCE they formed a single Degree under the denomination of SCOTTISH MASTER. When the STRICT
OBSERVANCE came to be modified and transformed by the Martinists of
Lyons, and at the memorable Masonic Convention held in that city, the
S:cossais Degree was so altered that it fell naturally into two parts and has so
remained. They constitute together an alternative in Christian Masonry to that
Order of the HOLY ROYAL ARCH which is claimed as the completion of Craft Masonry under the aegis of the Old Law.
The Master Grade.
_The Candidate for advancement has been occupied, since
he was Raixd to the Third Degree, in the preparation of plans for the erection
of the Second Temple, and a long period of symbolical time has elapsed
therefore since he took part in certain memorable events referable to the reign
of Solomon and his work on the first House of God. The doom of the House
has overtaken it, and he himself has been in exile at Babylon. But at length he
has come out of captivity and out of its great tribulation to rejoin his Brethren
at JerusaIem, hoping to assist in the great work of restoration. He is shewn the
ruins of the First Temple and the cause of its destruction is explained to him,
with its symbolical message in Masonry_the profanation of Sacred Rites and
the occultation or Loss of the Sacred Word. He is covenanted to assist those
who are at work on his own objects and for his own ends, and in accordance
therewith it comes about that, through his instrumentality, the Seven-Branched
Candlestick, the Table of Shew Bread and certain Masonic implements, "
without which every construction is irregularéé, are recovered. He raises the
overthrown Altar of Incense and finds that lamsna aurca which is inscribed
with the Lost Word, some particulars of which are communicated in the ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH. He is told to pronounce it with confidence and in a loud
voice, he being in the presence of those who have travelled the path before
him which leads to the Holy of Holies and have found, also before him, the
sacred object of research. An histoncal discourse completes the
reconstruction.of the Second Temple and tells how the sacred fire was
restored to the Sanctuary. So far therefore as the Temple of Zerubbabel is
concerned we are in the presence of a completed symbol and not with its initial
part as in the English ROYAL ARCH.
Grade of Perfect Master
._In the Second Degree, or that of PERFECT MASTER,
the undertaking is to continue that work " which has been some time since
commenced ,, and carry it in fine to perfection. Now, I have said that the
Second Temple is already finished in the hypothesis of the symbolism. Uthat is
therefore that work which all are pledged to continue and what do they expect
to complete ? There has been an.intimation already in a Discourse of the FIRST
DEGREE: they are engaged in erecting a Temple to Virtue and a Sanctuary to
Holy Service, and though the day is far to the end, yet ever the work goes on.
The First lSouse of God erected by Solomon typifies a state of perfection, of
integration in the Eternal Law, of love to God and man. That was the kind of
Masonry, and it is this which was built in the heart and soul of the
Brotherhood. But the Legend of the THIRD DEGREE indicates that even then
there were evil forces at work, and not among Entered Apprentices but those
who had so worked and so attained that they were numbered among the
Craftsmen. As time went on the keepers of the Secret Tradition and the
Wardens of the Sacred Law betrayed their trust; the House of God was
destroyed; the city and the nation fell. It is said that " the wages of sin is
death,,, and of such was the captivity in Babylon, till the day came when
Masonry remembered Zion and wept beside the bitter waters. It was given to
the elect people that they should rebuild the House of God, and the Temple of
Zerubbabel represents the Israel of Masonry renouncing its false idols, the
yoke of the evil law, and a return by the path of conduct to the freedom of the
sons of God. This is how the PERFECT MASTER OF ST. ANDREW is taught as a Mason to read the history of Jewry, for his own profit and that of the Order at large. It leads him on to the Law of Christ.
Hiram and Christ.
_That which is shewn to him in the Ceremony is therefore
the Resurrection of Hiram, issuing gloriously_as it is said_from the tomb and
" reborn to a new life.,, In a word, the Master-Builder arises as Chnst. The
Temple of Masonry is henceforward the House of Christ, at once of earth and
of Heaven, of earth in so far as it is realised here in the heart and life of the
Brotherhood, of Heaven as it is built in Christ, world without end. So in the
Apocalyptic Vision is the New Jerusalem represented descending foursquare
out of Heaven_perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder_that it may
be manifested here below. And this is the last picture which is shewn to the
Candidate, after which it is said to him that " all instruction by the mediation of
symbols will for you have ceaued.,' It is said to him also that " the Temple of
the Old Law has given place to the mystical Zion, on the summit of which is
shewn the Lamb of God, bearing the standard of omnipotence acquired by His
atoning immolation." And lastly: " the time has come, my Brother, to announce
that our Order is Christian, though in the largest and highest sense of the
term.',
Issue of the Grade.
_These Grades of the REGIME 1!COSSAIS may be
defective from the dramatic standpoint, though they lend themselves readily to
amendment in this respect, they may leave something to be desired from the
sacramental standpoint, but this is a question of development; and they may
have suffered within comZratively recent years from an attempt to edit them in
accordance mnth so-called liberal religion, but the implicits remain untouched.
While acknowledging these disabilities, and admitting that the ROYAL ARCH of England has divine gleams, they offer in respect of it two advantages which
are of great and living reality_an unfolded consciousness of the spiritual
messages conveyed to those who can receive them by the two Temples in
Israel, and a saving realisation that no initiatory system based on symbols
derived from the First Dispensation can be called complete unless it leads on
the recipient to the higher sacrasnentSism which succeeded it. We shall see in
the proper place that these Grades of St. Andrew are introductory to certain
Grades of Spintual Chivalry which carry on their gospel tidings, and that after
the accolade of a KNIGHT BENEFICENT and a figurative integration in the
Fellowship of the Holy City there remains something in the hiddenness about
which I have no intention to speak.
GRAND AND SUBLIME MASON
In the ROYAL ARCH OF KNOCK the Candidate is supposed to receive the Lost
Word of the Holy and Royal Art, but it is communicated_ . as we know_in a
number of other Grades> it being understood that there are several modes of
restoration, even as the Divine Names_ which are Names and Titles of God_
are numerous under the aegis of the religions of Christ and Israel. The fact that
the Lost Word, in whatever manner it is formulated, belongs always to this
class indicates the persistence of Jewish theosophy_meaning Kabalistic
tradition_through every development of Masonry. It is too often apart from any
trace of scholarship in the makers of Grades, and too often a clouded
reflection, but the traces are always there. In the Grade which I am
denominating GRAND AND SUBLIME MASON, as one who uses a shortened codex, that which is revealed in the ARCH OF ENOCH is communicated for a
second time under circumstances that will appear immediately. This is the first
point and represents a general note of intention. The second point is regarding
the claim advanced on the part of the Grade, and as to this it is said in the
Lecture that the Grand and Sublime Masons are the only depositanes of
Ancient Masonry. We shall see that this claim depends from the traditional
history, which belongs to a well-known form, is made in various synonymous
terms on behalf of many Degrees or Rites, most of which exclude one another.
It is otherwise and of course fabulous. The third and last point is that the
Grade is found under a considerable number of obediences, though most
belong to the past, and has a marked vanety of titles: they may be specified as
foIlows, in order to clear the issues in respect of Masonic nomenclature. It has
been known therefore
(I) as the GRAND ÉCOSSAIS MASON OF PERFECTION OF THE SACRED VAULT OF JAMES VI;
(2) as the DEGREE OF PERFECTION, a reduced version of the former title;
(3) as SCOTCH KNIGHT OF PERFECTION, according to the modern rendering of the ACCEPTED RITE in England;
(4) as GRAND ELECT ANCIENT PERFECT MASTER, being its original denomination in the COUNCIL OF EMPERORS;
(5) as ECOSSAIS OF PERFECTION, or GRAND ELECT, in the classification of the French SUPREME COUNCIL, during the first half of the nineteenth century;
(6) as K NIGHT OF THE SACRED VAULT, otherwise GRAND ECOSSAIS ELECT in the RITE OF MEMPHIS;
(7) as GRAND ELECT PERFECT AND SUBLIME MASON, according to the scottish RITE in America. I have not dealt with it under the ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH, because of the vast symbolical time which separates the two Grades; nor under the section devoted to ECOSSAIS MASONRY, because it bears none of the characteristics of that series, dubious and fluidic as they are; nor lastly in my summary concerning ELECT Grades, because it is not Elect Masonry.
Heads of the Legend.
_It has passed through almost as many variations in
Ritual procedure and motive as in descriptive names. We may compare the
summary furnished by Ragon in his account of CAPITULAR GRADES with the recension of Albert Pike, which was based probably on several versions of the
past, and offers by derivation from these a variant of the widespread myth
concerning the preservation of Masonry in Palestine, from the age of Solomon
and his Temple to the epoch of the Crusades, or in other words a theory of the
transmission of Secret Tradition from the Covenant of Israel to that of Chnst. It
is to be regretted that such a subject should not have fallen into more capable
hands, whether those of the original inventors or of the American Grand
Commander by whom it was revised as usual. The traditional story is given
here in its baldest form and recounts how certain Masons, about whom we
shall hear in connection with the-ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH, carried the
Ineffable Treasure of the True Word from Judea into other countries, giving
secret instruction to those who were worthy of being induded among the
keepers of the Royal Art. Masonry was propagated otherwise in the lower
Degrees by far less cautious custodians and degenerated as it extended
everywhere, but the Supreme Mystenes were reserved in sacred hiddenness by
the Grand and Sublime Masons. They passed into Egypt and Assyria, they
crossed over into Europe, and as it was indubitable that the original and
historical home of Emblematic Masonry should not be left out, it is said that
many settled in England, Scotland and Ireland. After such manner were
Kilwinning and Heredom assured their own in legend. The centre of all
remained, however, in Palestine, as did Christian Rosy Cross abide in the
House of the Holy Spirit while the Brothers travelled abroad. They must have
seen therefore the Lamp of Christ uplifted in the Holy Land, and though it is
not said that they adopted the New Law, when the time came for the kings,
princes and faithful of Europe to deliver Jerusalem from the yoke of unbelief
and its miscreants, we are told that they offered their services in that all-holy
enterprise and that the Sublime Masons performed prodigies of valour. One
result was that the royal and noble crusaders solicited and obtained initiation.
The legend breaks off at this point, so that it is left an open question whether
the Christian Brethren who returned again to Europe communicated that which
they had received under the same seals to others or whether they were
received into those Hidden and Holy Houses which, by the hypothesis of the
story, were located already in the West.
Version of Baron Tschoudy.
_I have said that there are several versions of this
traditional myth, and seeing that it is the key of Templar Masonry, it is
desirable at this point to observe how it stands in the earliest available if not
original form, being that of Baron Tschoudy in his memorable L 1RTOILE
FLAMBOYANTE. It is possible that what he offers is drawn from the traditional history communicated in the Fourteenth Degree of the COUNCIL OF
EMPERORS, and as I have indicated that this Rite most probably began within
more modest dimensions of Ritual, which were expanded as opportunity
offered, it is possible also that its GRAND ELECT A NCIENT PERFECT
MASTER may have been the work of Tschoudy himself, who composed many
Grades and has been credited with the Institution of fully fledged Rites,
complete with all their workings. I present therefore his story of Elect Masonry
in Palestine in his own words.
Knights of the Morning.
_" The most ancient of military Orders, or otherwise
the first to assume a corporate form, was the KNIGHTS OF THE MORNI NG AND OF PALESTINE, who were, lnoreover, the anceston;, fathers or founders of the Masonic Brotherhood. I must refrain from indicating the precise date of
these illustrious men, and I dare not unveil their Mysteries; but it can be said
that they were sorrowful spectators of all those misfortunes which
successively befell the Kingdom of Judea. They looked also for that desired
time when God would deign to turn an eye of compassion upon those Holy
Places, where His presence had been manifested from the days of the Mosaic
Law. Most of them were as yet ~convinced that His Divine Incarnation had
hallowed those regions for a second time by the Gospel of the Law of Grace.
They were dispersed among various hiding-places, where the conspiracy of
untoward events and the almost complete destruction of the Jewish nation had
driven them. Amidst such surroundings they awaited some future revolution
which should place them once more in possession of their ancestral patrimony
and enable them for a third time to erect their Holy Temple, to reassume their
functions within its blessed precincts and otherwise those exalted
occupations which had gathered them in old days about the person of their
sovereign. In expectation of this glory to come, they stood guard jealously
over their primeval traditions, their laws and their liturgy. The age of the world
drew on to that year of grace in the Lord when Peter the Hermit summoned the
Paces of Christendom to deliver the Holy Land: it was then that the Secret
Companions discerned the approaching term of their long exile. From their
concealment in the dew of the TheWd and from the obscurity of centuries the
KNIGHTS OF PALESTINE came forth, reassumed their distinctive ins~a and
communicated Aivith some of therassociates who had remained as watchers in
Jerusalem. These had applied themselves to the study of Nature and the
profound consideration of her secret forces, making precious discovenes,
which might well contnbute successfully to the general designs of the Order.
Their most es~al attention had been directed to the sublime treatise of Morien,
an ascetic of the Thebaid, their purpose being to secure those resources
which were necessary to encompass their ambitions.,,
A Hermetic Moistre.
_Baron Tschoudy confesses that his narratiere is
intentionally obscure, since he is discoursing on subjects which should be
understood only by a few, and it is indubitable that his KNIGHTS OF THE
MORNING are left as to identity in a cloud of his own creation: they might be
Essenes, Therapeutue, successors of Prophets or Levites; they might be lineal
descendants of Melchizedek, King of Salem, Wemer's Sons of the Valley or the
Grand and Sublime Masons of the Fourteenth Degree. But about the purpose
of the Hidden Sodality there is no obscurity whatever, for Morien was an
alchemist of his Rod and the alleged sublime treatise is still extant. It follows
that the consociates at Jerusalem were themselves Hennetic students, aiming
at the transmutation of metals to ennch the chivalry. It is said further that they
had embraced Christianity, and when the KNIGHrS OF THE MORNING came
from the Thebaid desert they were persuaded to do in like manner, from which,
adds the author, it follows that the splendid edifice which they had erected so
long in their hearts would now be devoted to the offering of " a pure, holy,
unspotted, emblematic sacrifice,,' when it came to be built on earth. It should
be understood that Baron Tschoudy was of the Catholic and Roman faith, as
well as a literary alchemist.
A Third Temple.
_He affirms further that, under one or another disguise, the
rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem was the real object of all crusaders; that
the solitaries of the Thebaid made common cause with the cross-bearing
warriors of Chnstendom, keeping, however, their peculiar designs a secret,
save only that they were in possession of the mystic measurements of the First
Temple, being descended from its original builders. It is said also that beneath
the pretence of speculative architecture they pursued a more glorious
ambition. There is no doubt that this in the implicits of the reverie was the
ambition of the Sons of Hermes. Such also, we are left to infer, was the inward
secret of Emblematic Freemasonry, which_by the hypothesis_is indebted to
this Militia HerxKtica for its Laws and Constitutions, for its tissue of symbols,
if not indeed its Rituals. According to Tschoudy, the KNIGHTS OF THE
MORNING assumed the name of Freemasons and were identified as such with
the work of the Holy Wars. Their isolation and modest demeanour amidst the
turmoil of ambitious crowds drew upon them the attention of the crossbearing
chivakies, who sought to be admitted among them, as affirmed by the
traditional history of the GRAND AND SUBLIME MASONS. A fixed method of
reception was therefore devised, which is the root and essence of our present
Speculative Masonry, as it is also out of this primitive observance that all the
crazy medley of bizarre formul~, forced analogies and equivocal symbols has
grown up in the hands of unwise imitators. It follows that the KNIGHTS OF THE
MORNING were the original founding Masters, creative agents and sole
depositaries of the Royal Art.
The Primeval Order.
_Baron Tschoudy says otherwise that this handful of
faithful souls who assumed the denomination of Masons_ and whom he
distinguishes additionally by a conventional and impossible title_marks the
existence of something most ancient and most noble of all, " the first Order of
the world, the trunk of all others, which are nothing more than its branches."
Sacred and profane writings are represented as bearing their unqualified
testimony to this Order, " apart from all tradition,,' and " in a manner so clear
and positive that the least instructed man can easily verify all its data and
attain certitude concerning it.,, Baron Tschoudy in this seemingly ingenuous
affirmation is imitating his alchemical masters, who were invanably most
ambiguous when they claimed to be speaking most frankly and apart from all
similitude. As his KNIGHTS OF THE MORNING are incorporated from his own
dreams and those of the Chevalier Ramsay, in combination with cognate
reveries of High Grade legends, it is idle to ask who they were as, for example,
the Frames Lucss or the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, referred back in
chronology almost to the Gates of Eden; a school of the prophets in Israel
perpetuated to Christian times; a priesthood within and behind the Jewish
priesthood. They may have been any-of these, according to his own mind, or a
blending of all the elect companies: it matters nothing historically.
Philosophically it is Tschoudy,s mode of recognising the fact of a Sret
Tradition, its subsistence from generation to generation, even from the earliest
days of Israel, and its presumed transmission to Masonry. But it is not without
interest to observe how it worked in the mind of another Masonic writer, many
years after the author of L STOILE FLAMBOYANTE had passed from earWy life, though his work was still in circulation.
The baid Solitaries
-An anonymous DICTIONNIERE MAçONNIQUE was issued at
Paris in the pseudo-Masonic year 5025 and embodies a collection of outline
sketches concerning the various parts of that symbolic edifice known by the
name of Freemasonry. Olle of its perfect ashlars is the legendary history of a
particular Templar Grade which represents the Order of the Temple as derived
from certain solitaries of the Thebaid, from the healing fraternity of Therapeutt
and from those KNIGHTS OF THE MORNING AND OF PALESTINE whose
claims were first made known to us by Baron Tschoudy. The instruc tion sets
forth that Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, was a great ornament of the
Order and that so early as the seventh century of this era the vows of the
Templars were made in the presence of Simon, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Towards the eleventh century they are believed to have initiated a considerable
number of virtuous crusaders, and it was at this epoch that the medical
KNIGHTS OF THE MORNING Fumed the histoncal title of KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
Their abolition at the beginning of the fourteenth century put an end to their
visible existence, but the Order was not destroyed: " it has continued in an
unbroken succession but secretly to this day and constitutes a Grade of the
Elect.,' Its object is said to be defined in a verse of the Psalmist which is cited
by one of its adepts: " I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be ever
in my mouth.,, A sentence from the pledge of the chivalry is cited also as
defining its will and purpose: " I will ever Fist the poor and regard them as my
Brethren."
Knights of the Temple.
_On the faith of ti unknown witness, summarising the
traditional history of a Templar Grade early in the nineteenth century, the
KNIGHTS OF THE MORNING, who appear under such mystenous veils in L
lSTOILE FLAMBOYANCE_as if by way of a commentary on that document_
are explained to be the Knights of the Temple.
Ritual of the Grade
_In the Ceremony of Admission as revised by Albert Pike
the Candidate demands the Perfection of Masonry, which he is not supposed
to receive under all obediences exccept in the Grade of ROSE(XOIX, though he is destined to travel much further if he is to attain the completion of his
experience. He desires also to continue his research into the Mystery of that
Sacred Word about which he had heard and seen in the ROYAL ARCH OF
ENOCH, as one who stands upon the threshold. He is made subject to a
munute searching in respect of all previous Degrees and to a Masonic
examination of conscience. Lie is pledged and anointed with oil, which is
testified in the symbolism to be that used in the consecration of Aaron, and
this is followed by a ceremonial observance of the Eucharistic kind_according
to ancient custom, as it is said in the usual ineffectual fonnula of procedure.
But in respect of the Sacred Word he is told that it is essentially ineffable, as it
is spoken only in the heart. In the heart therefore he shall preserve the Sacred
Mysteries of Masonry, and in his heart shall the Word be graven. So will he
learn how to live in the immediate presence of the Grand Architect of the
Universe, Whom it is prayed that his eyes may behold face to face. The lesson
of the Grade is in reality that he has been upon a false quest in respect of the
Word, but the mind of Pike was confused, and he missed the opportunity of
enforcing this conclusion, so that it remains as a matter of inference.
GRAND ARCHITECT
Master Architect.
GRAND ARCHITECT Whether operative or speculative, it should be remembered that the Mason as
such n C~"ntarius and not architect. His elevation from the one to the other
rank is of course a conceivable proposition in both Orders of the Craft. We
have seen that the so called Degree of ARCHITECT in the system of the EARLY
GRAND SCOTTISH RITE is memorial in character and has no connection with
building or plans for building, material or spiritual, in the heart or with the hand
on earth. It is followed by the GRADE OF GRAND ARCHITECT, a mere vestige
in the form under which it is presented, yet having a dramatic moment and a
symbolic notion behind it, as exhibited by the following Summary:
(I) At the beginning of the procedure all work on the Temple has been brought
practically to a standstill, for the want of a Master-Builder has put an end to the
production of plans.
(2) The fact is proclahned, and the Master Architects are
called upon to testify whether one of them is in possession of a design or has
heard of a brother who can supply the deficiency anywhere in the ranlcs
without.
(3) It is announced presently that Bro. ..Moabon is at the door of the
Lodge, having a scheme for " the second elevation.',
(4) Here is the signal for
the Candidate,s entrance with plans to submit for approval, which are
examined and ratified in due course.
(5) In this manner Bro...Moabon is judged
worthy to be acknowledged as a Master Architect, and after being pledged_to
tWe his seat among his peers.
Master Architect.
_The proper title of this Degree is obviously MASTER
ARCHITECT. The superior designation is reproduced in various Rites and
Collections as GRAND or GRAND MASTER ARCHIITECT. It is found in the
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE, in that of MIZRAÏM and in the ELECT
PRIESTHOOD of Pasqually. It is also in the Peuarret collection and in that of the
METROPOLITAN CHAPTER OF FRANCE.
GRAND GRADE ECOSSAIS
An Ineffable Degree.
I know this only in a detached follsl, as I have found it in an old French
manuscript; but it appears to belong to a series, having ENGLISH MASTER or
Favourite behind it_this being the Candidate,s qualification and one of the
multitudinous Grades of Knight or Prince of the East in front, as a SOVEREIGN
GRAND LODGE under this title is the ultimate Court of Appeal, to which blind
obedience must be rendered. The Statutes and Rules of the Worshipful
Scottish Masters are formulated in twelve articles, which embody the usual
clam to superionty and precedence over order Lodges of the Craft.
Unfortunately for these magnificent pretensions, the Grand Grade is the last
and most negligible of Masonic simulacra. The Master and Wardens personate
Solomon, King of Israel, Hz.am, King of Tyre and Manon, bong the name of that
favorite who_according to the English Master_was appointed in succession
to the Builder, after his untimely death. The name is affirmed to stuffy Master
of Masters and servant of the Grand Master. Nothing, however, is said, and
there is nothing done to connect the officers with the Grand Originals whom
they represent. There is simply the introduction of the Candidate, who is
pledged, instructed and clothed; after which a Catechism is recited, which
retraces the foolish historical episode of ENGLISH MASTER and refers to the
picsc do rcsistansc of the GRADE ÉCOSSAIS, being a Tracing-Board or
Transparency, representing St. John the Bapust baptizing on the banks of the
Jordan, having the Sun and Moon as spectators at either foot of a rainbow, while the Ark of the Covenant, the Brazen Sea, and the Altar of Incense are very naturally grouped about him. Add to this that the histoncal anachronism is purposeless, even within its own measures, for nothing follows on the introduction of the Precursor, unless it be
the explanation that the twelve oxen supporting the Brazen Sea represent the
Twelve Tnbes of Israel, according to the Old Law, and the Twelve Apostles in
the New. There is also a circle, to signify the omnipotence of the Most High,
and within it is the Great Light, otherwise the Triangle of Perfection; but this
betokens the grandeur of :S:cossais Masons, who are built about by Truth.
Those who in such a connection might ask_What is Truth ?_ would do well
to leave the Lodge of the GRAND GRADE SCOSSAIS without waiting for an
answer. Compare ÉCOSSAIS MASONRY.
An Ineffable Degree._There are no particulars of this IneffiKe Degree, and
there is no authonty concerning it except the old French manuscript already
mentioned and entitled GRAND GRADE D’ÉCOSSAIS: it has a name therefore
but no local habitation..
GRAND lNSPECTOR
A French Version.
The Recension of Pike.
Procedure in this Version.
GRAND INSPECTOR
The makers of colossal Rites in Masonry have too often forgotten or failed to
fulfil an old counsel concerning development from small beginnings to greater
ends. The Ceremony of ROSE-CROIX is the pearl within the wide circle of the
SCOTTISH RITE, but it is only the Eighteenth Degree. That of KADOSH bears
no comparison with this, though it may not be without cl~s, as it is worked in
certain SUPREME COUNCILS. rhe Thirty-first Degree has the intimidating title
of GRAND INSPECTOR INQUISITOR COMMANDER, as if it had been sensated
by the Holy Office, and there are ample matenals for a judgment on the claims
of the Ritual under several independent obediences. I have intimated others my
view that most additional Grades superposed on the RITE OF PERFECTION
when it was transformed into the SCOTTISH RITE were drawn from anterior
sources and not invented at Charleston. The Thirty-first Degree recalls by its
title the Seventh and culminating Grade of the SCOSSAIS PHILOSOPHICAL
RITE under the title of INSPECTOR COMMANDER, which is found also in the
collection of the METROPOLITAN CHAPTER OF FRANCE. It was probably
drawn therefrom, and this has been suggested by Woodford, but in terms of
certitude which he was not entitled to use, as the name only is in evidence.
A French Version.
Under the tp of the SUPREME COUNCIL OF FRANCE there
is no ceremonial procedure and no pretence of a traditional history, but a
Grand Inspector or Liqliisitor testifies that he is not a Knight of Malta, which is
more than presumptive endence that the Grade was originally Templar. This is
otherwise probable as it follows the KADOSH immediately. His duties are
(I) to strive for the removal of abuses;
(2) to see that Masonic Laws are not contravened;
(3) to watch over Brethren of all Grades, lest the) neglect the duties imposed on them and_with characteristically illogical ineptitude_
(4) to examine Candidates for the Thirty-second Degree, being PRINCE OF THE ROYAL SECRET, which is not Used by the examiner and about which_technically and officially_he can therefore know nothing.
The Recension of Pike.
_In the recension of Albert Pike an elaborate and not
unsuccessful attempt has been made to vindicate the claims of the Degree as a
Supreme Masonic Tribunal and the obvious inconsistencies are removed; but
the real government of the Rite is in the hands of its SUPREME COUNCIL, from
which it follows that the whole position is illogical, that the alleged Tribunal
neither is nor can be supreme and that its true status corresponds to the
indications of the French form_apart from the final clause.specified above_
as competent only to the trial of minor causes: it is in fact conventional and
pro forma. One is thus able to estimate the real value of the ceremonial
affirmation that it is the Holy Sanctuary of Eternal Masonic Justice and Equity.
Procedure in this Version.
_In the course of his advancement the Candidate is
taken from Pillar to Pillar and is brought before vanous Officers who personate
great lawgivers of the past. Alfred the Great testifies that he caused just and
speedy judgment to be given and that he reigned only to bless those over
whom his dominion extended; Socrates states that when he sat in the Court of
the Areopagus he swore to give sentence upnghtly, receiving neither gifts nor
bnbes; Confucius read and interpreted the great laws engraved by the finger of
God upon the Book of Nature; Minos taught the Cretans that the laws enacted
by himself were those of Zeus, because righteous human justice is a reflection
of that which is eternal; Zoroaster does not testify especially concerning
himself, but lays down that the evil intentions of the cnminal are the true
measure of cnme and not the events which follow it; Moses quotes some of his
own sayings, affirms that he was initiated into the Mysteries and Wisdom of
ancient Egypt and that this wisdom dictated those statutes by which he
governed Israel. It must be said that the general impression of the several
utterances and their applications impressed on the Candidate are precisely
analogous to those produced by the trance orations of mediums when under
the alleged control of great teachers of the past. The matter and manner
correspond obviously to the mental and ethical measures of Albert Pike, on
whom there never fell " the spark from heaven." The fact is illustrated further
by the wilderness of lucubration which follows in discourses delivered by the
Most Perfect President and by another Officer, who bet the title of Advocate.
Their only point is one which elicits the general daim of the Grade, being
(I) that it was established for the maintenance of principles and regularity in
Masonic forms;
(2) that it is charged with the duty of visiting and inspecting work in the various Lodges and Chapters under the obedience of the Rite;
(3) that it supennses selection of Candidates and has the care of Ritual
observance in the Higher Degrees; and finally, as something added at a later
period,
(4) that it gives judgment on differences between Brethren and on
offenses against Masonic Law. To what extent these minor powers are
exercised in the Northern or Southern Jurisdictions of the SCOTTISH RITE I arn
not in a position to speak; but it is certain that the Grand Inquisitors Can act
only as delegates of their SUPREME COUNCIL, to whom appeal must also be
possible.
There’s no such delegation of powers by the SUPREME COUNCIL of
England and Wales, while on the continent of Europe it is doubtful whether the
Grade of GRAND INSPECTOR is conferred except proformA or that it has any
activity at all.
GRAND LODGE
The circumstances attending that ever-memorable meeting of four London
Lodges at the ApplbTree Tavern in 17I7, and the great train of its
consequences, have been recited times without number. The most recent and
in several respects the best account by far is that of Mr. A. F. Calvert, in his
HISTORY OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, I9I6, to which I refer my
readers. It is reasonably exhaustive, impartial and lies within the strict
measures of its proper issues. There was no convocation ever held with less
pretence of importance than that of the Apple-Tree Tavern; there was no
epoch-nuaking meeting in which the parties concerned were less conscious
that they were originating a mighty movement, were setting a force in motion
which hereafter was to fill the world. It was felt that Freemasonry had almost
fallen into desuetude and that the practice of its immemorial customs was
passing rapidly out of mind. The old Masons might have said with Matthew
Arnold that " the end is everywhere." That on which they resolved, however,
was to establish a governing or GRAND LODGE for the purpose of saving the
situation, so that the life of a head might save the body from decay; and a
GRAND LODGE was founded, not indeed at that meeting but at another which
followed promptly. I ant not concerned with elaborating the familiar facts more
than is aL)solutely essential: a comprehensive review of the subject is the
main purpose in mind, and it must begin with things antecedent to tile event
which has made an obscure house of call in Covent Garden a building of
immortal memory.
Decay of Operative Lodges._About the decay of Freemasonry itself there
seems no question whatever. M. Viollet le Duc says that after the fourteenth
century the architect lost his importance, the reason assigned by I;ergusson
being that every kind of tradesman had his share in the work at that period,
or_in other words_that increasing specialization produced many experts in
as many branches. But according to Gould the art at large of Masonry had
passed its meridian in the sixteenth century and remained a shadow of itself
till the end of the seventeenth. He gives specific reasons in respect of the two
dates, being
(I) in respect of the earlier, that the building of monasteries had
given place to castles, manors, colleges, schools and hospitals, putting an end
in this manner to the exclusive monopoly of the Church; and
(2) as regards the
later, that the builders almost died out after the Reformation. There was
nothing that remained to be done for the glory of God, except to destroy or
deface the great works of art u hich had been produced in His Name. By the
end of the seventeenth century the Operative Lodges had lost much of their
rasson d,dtrc; they had adopted, moreover, the custom of admitting persons
not belonging to the trades, and it would appear that such honorary members
outnumbered not infrequently the real craftsmen. We have every reason to
know that this was no isolated practice peculiar to the Building Guild, and that
in the words of Sir Henry S. Maine every trade company was transformed or
transmuted and has long since relinquished " the occupation which gave it a
name.,, I have not taken the history of all Liveries and Guilds as my province,
but it is correct to say that the transformations in question were gradual and
that with one exception it is difficult or impossible to put a finger on the
precise date when the conversion could be called complete. This exception is
Masonry, and the date is I7I7.
Non-Operatve Masons._It seems obvious that such mlscellaneous
association could have no welding interest in common, and the Lodges
naturally suffered, to the South at least of the Tweed. What Mr. D. Murray Lyon
has teamed " the grafting of the non-professional element on to the stem of the
Operative system ,, originated in Scotland and_in his opinion_" about the
penod of the Reforrnation." The earliest instance on record belongs, however,
to June 8, I600, when James Boswell, Laird of Auchinleck, was received into
the LODGE OF EDINBURGH, as its Minutes testify. The same archives appear
also to provide us with the first example in England, for they certify the
admission of Sir Robert Moray at Newcastle on May 20, I64I, Gould making the
happy conjecture that members of the EDINBURGH LODGE accompanied the
forces of the Covenanters to that city, and that " it was at the hands of these
militant Craftsmen ,, that he who was General Quartermaster to the army of
Scotland received the benefit of initiation. A more satisfactory case is
obviously that of an Englishman " made ,, in England: it belongs to the year
I646 and has been dealt with already under the name of Elias Ashmole. I refer
to it here because in March, I682, or after the lapse of thirtyfive years, there is a
second note in his DIARY, according to which he was summoned to a Lodge at
Masons, Hall, London, and attended a meeting, as it would seem, for the
second time in his life. If this inference from silence is correct, if also it was a
general state of things at that period among " Gentlemen Masons," and if there
was little more to bind the Operative section together, it was high time in I7I7 to
convene the meeting at the Apple-Tree Tavern.
Operative or Speculative. -Our next question is concerned with the kind of
Masonry which it was proposed to set in order. We have seen elsewhere that
Old Charges and Constitutions are without trace of any speculative element in
the modern understanding of the term. It is true that Gould in his CONCISE
HISTORY does not {ail to mention it as radiating to all parts from North and
South Bntain, being something that had originated during the splendour of
medieval Operative days; but his dicta on the subject are worthless and are
characterized by the vicious habit of calling non-operative Masons speculative
instead of theoretical or honorary members. For the rest, he puts forward " the
solemn declaration ,' of a Scottish Presbyterian Synod in 1652 that " ministers
of this persuasion ', had been Freemasons in the poorest times of the kirk, as
indicating that " Speculative or Symbolical Masonry,' flounshed side by side
with the Operative. What it proves is mixed membership, of which we have
seen that there are examples much earlier; but in the absence of all other
evidence to say that such membership suggests, implies or involves the
existence of Emblematic Masonry is to talk nonsense.
The Masons' Company._Gould reaches no finder ground in discussing the
MASONS' COMPANY of London, as he has done on several occasions at a
certain length. In the opinion of Mr. Edward Conder, this institution may be
referred to about I220, though the earliest notice of Masons as one of the City
Guilds occurs in a list of Companies entitled to send representatives to the
Common Council, and this document is dated in August, I376. In I472 the
London Company was described as " the Hole Crafte and Felowship of Masons
,,; by I537 it had become the Company of Freemasons; and in I655-56 it
assumed the title of Worshipful Company of Masons of London. On the basis
of an old book of accounts, found among the archives consulted by Mr.
Conder, it can be shewn that " certain Brethren who were members of the
Company, in conjunction, it is supposed, with others who were not, met at a
Lodge in Masons' Hall " and " were known to the Company as the Accepted
Masons." This was in I620 2I. Those who belonged to the Acception were not
for such reason members of the Company, and vsce versa, as evidenced in the
case of Nicholas Stone, " the King,s Master Mason,,' who " was not enrolled
among the Accepted Masons of the Lodge until I639," though he had been
twice Master of the Company. Most of the Company,s records were destroyed,
I believe, in the Great Fire of London, including those of the Acception, if any
existed. There are, however, two inventones, of the years I665 and I676
respectively, the former including a list of the Lodge Members and the latter
the Book of their CONSTITUTIONS. Apparently there is no separate list of
those who were freemen of the Company. I have put every point of the
evidence fully and without prejudice, but nothing follows therefrom, except
that the institution was Operative at the dates under notice, as indicated by the
Master whom I have mentioned, which notwithstanding there was a Lodge of
mixed membership attached to it. The income accniing from this was paid into
the funds of the Company. Mr. Conder says, citing the book of accounts, that
its freemen paid 20S. " for coming on the Acception,,, whereas strangers paid
double. Later on there are references to the Lodge in the Minutes of the
Company, the last belonging to the year I677. But from the wording of
Ashmole's DIARY it seems certain that the Meeting which he attended in I682
was one of a Lodge of Accepted Masons. It follows that we have excellent
evidence of Craftsmen and non-Craftsmen meeting together within the walls of
the Masons' Company of London and under their auspices, but of Emblematic
or Speculative Masonry, " veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols,,' we
have no evidence at all. It may be added that there were Masons, Companies in
various English cities and at Edinburgh.
Issues of Modern Research_Before finishing with Masonry prior to the
GRAND LODGE period, it is desirable to put on record certain findings of
research which are designed to reduce the elements of old romance in its
history. The authonties are Street and Gould, the latter especially having done
sane and good work in this connection. The findings may be summarised as
follows:
(I) There is no evidence forthcoming from any statute of the Realm or
other authentic record that Freemasons_" as a Fraternity or Guild,,- ys®si any
exclusive privileges in England at any penod whatever.
(2) There is no
evidence that continental Freemasons were warranted by Papal Bulls to go at
their will over Europe, for the purpose of building churches: stones to this
effect were challenged even by Ashmole ill the seventeenth century.
(3) The old
story concerning Colleges of Masons founded in various countries may be
dismissed as " chimencal,,, and so also that of the Comacines, which
originated with Hope in I835.
(4) The common belief in ubiquitous bodies of
touring Free masons is " altogether erroneous," but it is obvious that they
travelled within certain limits, wherever they heard of work in their own land.
(5) There Is no evidence that companies of Masons passed from land to land
and kingdom to kingdom for the erection of sacred edifices and royal palaces:
a cloud of traditional histones and mythical hypotheses dissolves under this
test.
(6) The Building Guilds were ordinary medieval Guilds.
Among findings
whidh reman open to debate are
(I) the alleged exaggeration of monastic
influence on architecture and
(2) the view which has been fathered on
Christopher Wren_that what is called Gothic architecture arose through the
influence of the Saracenic style on Crusaders.
They do not belong to our
subject, for our concern is Emblematic Freemasonry Ed not the Building Art;
but generations of misconception mWe it needful to turn away at times from
the real issues.
The Grand Lodge Heritage.- After a due consideration of all these facts and
points, it would appear that there came into the hands of the GRAND LODGE of
I7I7 the remnants of a Society in and about London which had lost its raison
d,Fre as a Trade Guild, which no longer consisted exclusively or even
generally of persons belonging to the building trade, but which continued to
meet in various Lodges and to transact some kind of formal business,
including the admission of fresh persons within their ranks. When the business
was over there followed a meal in common. It will be seen that on the surface
at least the heritage committed into the hands of the GRAND LODGE was not a
little like the dry bones of Ezekiel,s Vision, and that unless they could be raised
by a word of life passing over them the experiment of the Apple-Tree Tavern
was likely to prove abortive. The living element was supplied in my view by the
group of lsGcrats who were gathered within the walls of the first GRAND
LODGE; but not at the beginning of things. Besides the proposition " to
cement under a Grand Master as the centre of union and harmony," it was
resolved
(I) to revive the Quarterly Communications,
(2) " to hold the Annual
Assembly and Feast.', Of an Annual or Triennial Assembly we hear very often
in the Old Charges, including the Regius and Cooke Codices and the Roberts
group of MSS. But of anything corresponding to quarterly communications I
can remember only the Charter granted by the Bishop of Durham on April 24,
I67I, whereby vanous crafts were constituted into a Community, Fellowship and
Company, and were enjoined to meet on the Feast of St. John Baptist, the
Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, St. John's Day in Christeninas and the with
day of March in every year. It is well known, moreover, that there is no trace of
the proposed revival in the first BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS, and as a fact
quarterly communications find no place in the records till St. John the
Evangelist,s Day in I720.
Creation of Grand Lodge._The first Minutes of GRAND LODGE are dated June
24, I723, and the sole record of the early proceedings was inserted by James
Anderson in his second BOOK OF CONSTITU_ TIONS, published in I738, or
more than twenty years after the chief event. He tells us (I) that " the few
Lodges at London ,, thought fit, as we have seen, " to cement under a Grand
Master ,,;
(2) that these Lodges met
-(a) at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-House in
St. Paul's Churchyard,
-(b) at the Crown Ale-House in Parker,s Lane,
-(c) at the
Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden, and
-(d) at the Rummer
and Grapes Tavern in Channel Row, Westminster;
(3) that there were further "
some old Brothers,,' in addition to the members _few or many_of these
Lodges;
(4) that in Febmary, I7I7, they put the oldest Master Mason into the
Chair;
(5) that they constituted themselves a GRAND LODGE pro tempore;
(6)
that they decided to hold the Quarterly Communications and the Annual
Assembly, at which they would choose a Grand Master from among
themselves, " till they should have the honour of a noble Brother at their head;
',
(7) that accordingly on St. John Baptist's Day, being June 24 of the same
year, they elected Antony Sayer, Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons, Jacob
Lamball, a carpenter, and Captain Joseph Elliott being appointed Grand
Wardens;
(8) that the Grand Master commanded the Masters and Wardens of
Lodges " to meet the Grand Officers every quarter in communication," at the
place appointed in his Summons. Such, in summary form, are the Minutes of
the first GRAND LODGE Meeting and of that which led thereto.
It is obvious
that four London Lodges had no power to appoint " a Grand Master of
Masons," considering that Masonry was spread over Great Britain, Scotland
and existed also in Ireland. They could act only for themselves. It is probable,
however, that the title was a subsequent invention, making in I73~when the
face of things had changed very much_a more extended claim on jurisdiction.
We may dismiss also the question of quarterly communications, as according
to Anderson's own showing they do not seem to have been held till much later:
the rule concerning them is presumably antedated. When the maker of the
BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS is unsupported by evidence outside his own, it is
prudent to infer that he was dreaming.
A Conflagration of Archives._The chronological record of Anderson continues
to the year I723, at which penod GRAND LODGE thought fit, as we have seen,
to begin keeping Minutes. The notion of its original importance may be gauged
by the previous omission. The succession of Grand Masters is given and there
is information on matters connected therewith. Among things extrinsic to this,
there is a note under I720 that in this year certain " private Lodges," i.e. not
under the jurisdiction of GRAND LODGE_burnt their " Regulations, Charges,
Secrets and Usages,', lest they might " fall into strange hands." There must
have been an understanding in common leading to the concurrent act, and as
there were no enemies_real or supposed _without the gates at the period, it
must be concluded that they were thought to be within. I do not wish to be
invidious where there is no ground of certitude, but the destruction may have
been actuated by hostility to the new GRAND LODGE, which was on the quest
of old memorials, and was unwelcome in several quarters.
The Order to Anderson. The desire for a " noble Brother,, at the head of affairs
was gratified in I721 by the installation of the Duke of Montague, and on
September 29 of that year Anderson was ordered to " digest ', the old " Gothic
Constitutions ,, in " a new and better method,,, which work being finished "
fourteen learned Brothers ,' were appointed on December 27 to examine the
MS. and report thereon. Their report was presented and their approval signified
on March 25, I722. Thereupon the Grand Master, at the request of the Lodge,
ordered the MS. to be printed. It appears on other authority that this order was
ratified by the signatures of twenty-four representatives of Lodges. As a typical
anomaly of the period, the ownership of the BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS
remained with Anderson as his sole property. I pass now to the last notable
point in the belated records.
The Chair of Grand Master._Regarding the proclamation of Montague, four
years after GRAND LODGE Was created, it is said for the first time that he was
installed " in Solomon,s Chair,, and that Dr. John Beal was installed thereafter
" in Hiram Abif,s Chair on the Grand Master's left hand.,' The absence of these
formularies from the installations of I7I7, I7I8, I7I9 and I720 are, in my view,
pregnant with significance, while their sudden introduction in I72I is a silent
indication of a great change which is commemorated in no Minutes and no
other records.
Craft Expansion._In respect finally of the Anderson chronology, it is stated
that on the installation of Montague, Philip Lord Stanhope _afterwards Earl of
Chesterfield_was made a Mason and that during the reign of his successor,
the Duke of Wharton, " many noblemen and gentlemen of the first rank desired
to be admitted into the Fraternity, besides other learned men.,' There is
evidence also that still earlier than the the Roll of membership included the
Duke of Queensboro', Lord Dumbarton and Lord Dalkeith, not to speak of
Wharton himself. It has been said in new of these facts but more especially on
the accession of Montague that the Masonic Society " rose at one bound into
notice and esteem.,' Previous GRAND LODGE doings, according to Gould,
evoked no notice in contemporary writings or newspapers. The point is borne
out cunousiy by the DIARY of Dr. William Stukeley, who affirms, under date
of January 6, I72I_or prior to the accession in question
(I) that he was made a Freemason at the Salutation Tavern, Tavistock Street;
(2) that he was the first person so made in London " for many years ,,;
(3) that great difficulty was expenenced in finding members enough to perform the ceremony; but
(4) that " immediately upon that it took a run, and ran itself out through the folly of its
members.,,
The DIARY, which is in private hands, has not been printed Ed is
not available for consultation, but it seems obvious that the date mentioned
refers to the initiation of Stukeley, the other points being drawn from a later
entry. Alternatively, he also wrote up his notes from memory, a considerable
time after.
Book of Constitiution_The internal history of the document has been certified as
follows by Gould and other writers:
(I) The dedicatory Preface was the work of Desaguliers;
(2) The New Regulations were drafted by George Payne and were agreed by GRAND LODGE in I720;
(3) the Constitution and History, described as collected from general records and faithful traditions, was the compilation of Anderson, in accordance with his order to " digest,,, as were also the Charges of a Freemason and the Manner of Constituting a New Lodge, for which last there is no old authonty. Gould tells us that the Boox OF CONSTITUTIONS and its author were openly derided in many publications, while there was otherwise marked resentment, owing to the innovations of
Anderson and the new GRAND LODGE. It was the culmination of a hostility to
which I have adverted previously and which had grown from more to more
during a period of six years. The most universal of the old charges was " to be
true to God and the Holy Church"; but the Church was now relegated to the
region of " particular opinions ,, and placed on a par with the synagogue, the
free thought of Deism and the general horde of sects. The hands of a Scotch
Presbytenan and a French Huguenot were seen presumably therein, and those
who understood the clause in the Apostles, Creed concerning the Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church either in the sense of Rome or Canterbury
would be alike offended. There would be those also who objected on the
general ground that Masonry was a Christian Institution, outside all question of
Churches. The resentment signified, however, much that was over and above
any matter of official religion, and one must beware of regarding that which is
most vital to oneself as the chief operating factor. Gould speaks of the terms
ENTERED APPRENTICE and FELLOW CRAFT being imposed by the BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS on English Masons and suggests that it was a ground of
irritation. These compounds were brought over by D"aguliers from Scotland,
business having called him to Edinburgh in the summer of I7ZI. There is
something no doubt in the contention, but a grievance of this kind could have
played only a small part. Finally, the CONSTITUTIONS forbade the working of
what was termed the " MASTER,S PART ,, in pnvate Lodges, by which part
Gould understands the old manner of receiving or passing a Fellow. There can
be no doubt that this would be opposed with all the strength of_at least_the
independent Lodges, for it struck at their liberties and removed a right which
they had possessed, by the hypothesis, from immemorial time. But Gould does
not observe that this ordinance is the key to a much graver situation. It was
one among many moves of the GRAND LODGE in the direction of despotic
self-aggrandisement. It has been held that its jurisdiction was limited originally
to the cities of London and Westminster, but the CONSTITUTIONS virtually
extended it over all England. We shall see shortly how one ancient seat of
Masonry in NorthernEngland regarded this arrogation; meanwhile it is certain
that within the metropolitan limits just mentioned there were Lodges and
individual Masons who looked upon the proceedings of the Apple-Tree Tavern
and Goose and Gridiron as ultra sires. This is as much as can be said in the
present place on a very wide subject, and it is of course understood that many
great movements begin in an irregular manner, having the seal of heresy upon
them, but they become orthodox in the effluxion of time, more especially if
they happen to succeed. Old Operative Grades._The reference to a MASTER S
PART " opens another subject. No person at the present day whose opinion is
entitled to a hearing would affirm that the three Symbolical Degrees, as now
worked among us, antedate the year I7I7: against that possibility the canons of
literary criticism haore some time since pronounced. The debate continues on
the antiquity of their root matter, with a tendency_as it would seem_to leave
that of the Third Degree in a suspension out of consideration, since no one
knows where to look for light thereon_within Masonic limits. In I862 Findel
affirmed that there was " but one Degree of initiation in I7I7.,, On the other
hand, the General Regulations said to have been compiled by George Payne in
I720 and printed in the BOOK OF CON_ STITUTIONS, I723, provide that
APPRENTICES were only to be " admitted MASTERS and FELLOW CRAFr in
the GRAND LODGE, " unless by dispensation.,, The date I720 is that given by
Anderson, but according to Stukeley,s DIARY " a new set of articles,,, which
must have been the General Regulations, were read over by Payne at GRAND
LODGE on June 24, I72I, though there is no record of the fact in Anderson,s
Minutes. The reference to FELLOW CRAFT shews almost certainly that the
provision under notice was drawn up after his visit to Edinburgh in August,
I72I, or that it was altered subsequently. However this may be, Gould and
others understand the words " MASTERS and FELLOW CRAFT , as alternative
titles of one Degree, making with that of ENTERED APPRENTICE two Degrees
of Masonry in I723. There are several points of evidence in favour of this view,
but they cannot be cited here. The next question is What eras this sbcalled
MASTER S PART, MASTERS or FELLOW CRAFT DEGREE ? According to
Gould, it was some form of our present Third Degree, for which he produces
no evidence whatever. In the opinion of others it corresponded to our Second
or Pass Degree, and we hear of Brethren being " regularly passed Masters.', My
own opinion is that in the year I723 the Three Degrees of " pure and ancient
Freemasonry,, were actually in the making and that the Legend of Hiram Abif
had been either discovered or invented. In the former case it came from North
Britain, a question which remains for our consideration in connection with
York and Scotland. So far as all evidence goes, there was nothing whatever in
the South. We have to remember in this connection that on August 25, I78I,
Theophilus Desaguliers witnessed at MARY'S CHAPEL how certain "
honourable persons were admitted and received ENTERED APPRENTICES and
FELLOW CRAFrS " in that ancient Lodge. It is probable that he brought
something away, and in the opinion of D. Murray Lyon he took something with
him, namely, " the Ritual which he was anxious to introduce.,, In this manner
Lyon accounts for the subsequent adoption by Scotland of " English
Symbolical Masonry.', It is of course mere speculation to say that he carried a
Ritual; but if he did, then in my opinion it would be that of two Degrees, in the
likeness of our First and Second. Speaking not less tentatively, I am disposed
to infer that the Third Degree was manufactured in London between I723 and
I732_›mbodying whatever archaic matenals may have been in the hands of the
makers. A letter pnnted in the GRAND MYSTERY OF THE FREEMASONS
DISCOVER D, 2nd edition, October, I724, embodies a reference to " two
unhappy busy persons who were Masons ,' and who " obtruded their idle
notions among the vulgar Chinese, of Adam and Solomon and Hiram." By the
Chinese are understood the rank and file of Masons, while the busy persons
are identified with Anderson and Driers. Prichard's M^so~aY DISSECTED
speaks of Three Steps or Degrees; in I732 Lodge No. 83 was working Three
Degrees; and in I738 the second BOOK OF CON_ STITUTIONS alters Payne,s
Regulation XIII to " Apprentices must be admitted FELLOW CRAFTS and
MASTERS OnlY here, while shewng that it was repealed in I725. It remap to be
stated that the Operative Titles of ENTERED APPRENTICE, FELLOW CRAFT
and MASTER MASON are found in the Schaw Statutes of I598, shewing that
they were extant in Scotland at that period. There are other early traces of
these denominations but whether they stood for distinct steps, having
procedure and official secrets attached thereto, IS a very different question. It
should be understood that I have no thesis to maintain for the increase or
reduction of Operative steps: my concern is that the GRAND LODGE of London
produced three elaborate Symbolical Degrees during the first fifteen years of
its existence, that they were couched in the language and represented the
notions of their penod, and that we have yet to find their root-matter elsewhere
in the Masonic world of antiquity. On the other hand, there is full evidence to shew that the old mode of making a Mason at MOTHER KILWINNING was one
of uttennost simplicity, while at York people were " sworn and admitted.', The
Schaw Statutes speak of a " great oath ,, and also of an " oath of fidelity ,,
which was renewed annually. The qualification for passing from the status of
ENTERED APPRENTICE to that of FELLOW CRAFT and (or) MASTER WaS
attained in a trial of skill, success in which seems to have conferred the new
status and not a ceremonial advancement. In fine, as regards official secrets,
Gould has shewn conclusively that Scotland knew only of one " Master Word."
The keyZistinctions therefore between Scottish Operative Masonry and
Emblematic or Symbolical Freemasonry as developed by the GRAND LODGE is
that the one possessed the Word while the other commemorates its loss.
Divisions and Feuds._The later history of GRAND LODGE must be dismissed
in a few words. In the year I726 the old Lodge at York began to assume the title
of GRAND LODGE OF ALL ENGLAND, on the authority of its legend that in A.D.
600 Edwin, " the first Christian King of the Northumbrians,,, had " sat as Grand
Master therein,,' and though often in a state of inactivity it appears to harre
continued till I740 or I750. It was revived again when the GRAND LODGE in the
South invaded its temtory, i.e. in I76I, and continued till about I792, or a few
years later. In I75I a " schismatic ,, GRAND LODGE Was formed in London
under the title of " GRAND LODGE OF ENG>ND, according to the Old
Institutions.,' Laurence Dermott was appointed Grand Secretary in the year
following, he having seceded from the other jurisdiction. I do not know that the
last word bas been said on the subject; but the disposition of the present time
is to accept the evidence and arguments produced by Henry Sadler, according
to which the new organisation was established by Irish Masons in London. It
has been attributed otherwise
(I) to lethargy and supineness on the part of " the constitutional Grand Body,';
(2) to the transposition of certain official words for a certain specific reason which was adopted by the recognised GRAND LODGE;
(3) to other innovations;
(4) to the presence of a general innovating spirit which tended to remove all ancient vestiges; and
(5) to what Gould tenns " the summary erasure of Lodges at the Quarterly
Communications ,, for not " paying in their chaIity.,, Over and above all
perhaps, it is suggested that the Irish Masons had the matter of the ROYAL
ARCH, or alternatively that this had been derived from York. It is certain that
the new GRAND LODGE identified itself with York Mascnry and it conferred
also on its members the title of Ancients as a distinction from those of the
authorised GRAND LODGE, whom it termed Modern. Its daims were
recognised by the Supreme Obediences of Scotland and Ireland, while owing
to the successful administration of Dennott and the conspicuous success of
his AHIMAN REZON its influence was extended into the continent of i:urope,
the British Colonies and America. This is as much as can be said upon the
subject in the present place. There came a time fortunately when both parties
were anxious to heal the breach, in the course of which process it is a matter
of history that the older GRAND LODGE made a surrender which has been
called " unconditional ,' and almost deserves the epithet, In more desirable
language it had come to see that the alternative orthodoxy had won its way to
very full recognition and was in the right over several things. The way of
reunion was paved by a LODGE OF PROMULGATION. The Duke of Sussex
became Grand Master of the original GRAND LODGE Lo May, I9I3; the Duke of Kent took the chair of the Ancient GRAND LODGE on December I; and on the Day of St. John the Evangelist in the same month " the Freemasons of Englandvwere reunited in a single society,', the Duke of Sussex becoming
Grand Master of the U NITED GRAND LODGE on the motion of the Duke of
Kent.
Grand Masters.
_The succession of Grand Masters can be seen in any Masonic
Calendar, but presumably must be given here for the sake of completeness:
(I) Anthony Sayer, I7I7;
(2) George Payne, I7I8;
(3) J. T. Desaguliers, I7I9;
(4) George Payne, I720;
(5) John, Duke of Montague, I72I;
(6) Philip, Duke of Wharton, I722;
(7) Francis Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, I723;
(8) Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond, I724;
(9) James Hamilton, Lord Paisley, I725;
(IO) Wiliam O Brien, Earl of Inchiquin, I726;
(II) Henry Hare, Lord Coleraine, I727;
(I2) James King, Lord Kingston, I728;
(I3) Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, I72t30;
(I4) Thomas Coke, Lord Lovel, I73I;
(I5) Anthony Brown, Viscount Montague, I732 ;
(I6) James Lyon, Earl of Strathmore;
(I7) John Lindsay, Earl of Crawford;
(I8) Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth, I73S;
(I9) John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, I736;
(20) Edward Bligh, Earl of Damley, I737;
(2I) Henry Bridges, Marques of Carnarvon, I738;
(22) Robert, Lord Raynnond, I739;
(23) John Keith, Earl of Kintore, I740;
(24) James Douglas, Earl of Morton, I74I;
(25) John, Vacount Dudley, I742-43;
(26) Thomas Lyon, Earl of Strathmore, I744;
(27) James, Lord Cranstoun, I745-46;
(28) William, Lord Byron, I747-5I;
(29) John Proby, Lord Carysfort, I752-53;
(30) Jannes Bridges, Marquess of Carnarvon, I754-56;
(3I) Sholto Douglas, Lord Aberdour, I757-6I;
(32) Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers, I762 4 3;
(33) Cadwallader, Lord Blarney, I764_66;
(34) Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, I767 1 I;
(35) Robert Edward, Lord Petre, I?72<
6;
(36) George Montagu, Duke of Manchester, I7774 2;
(37) H.R.H. Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, I782 go;
(38) H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV, I790 I8I3;
(39) H.R.H. Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, I8I3-43;
(40) Earl of Zetland, I844-70;
(4I) Earl de Grey and Ripon, afterwards Marquess of Ripon, I870 74;
(42) H.R.H. The Pnnce of Wales, afterwards Edward VII, I874-I90I;
(43) H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, K.G.,I90I.
ANCIENT or ATHOLL GRAND LODGE:
(I) The Grand Committee, I75I-53;
(2) Robert Turner, I753;
(3) Hon. Edward Vaughan, I754-55;
(4) Earl of Blessington, I755-59;
(5) Thomas, Earl of Kelly, I760
(6) Hon. Thomas Mathews I765-70;
(7) John, 3rd Duke of AthOll,I77I-74;
(8) John,4thDukeofAtholl,I77s-8r;
(9) William Randal, Earl of Antrim, afterwards Marquess of Antrim, ~783St;
(IO) John, 4th Duke of Atholl, I79I-I8I3;
(II) H.R.H. The Duke of Kent, I8I3.
I cannot conceive that it will serve any useful purpose to reproduce the catalogue of mythical Grand Masters inserted by Anderson in his second BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS, in I738, and extended further by John Entick in a later edition, dated I767. It begins with St. Alban, includes Alfred the Great, St. Edward the Confessor, Gilbert de Clare, a Grand Master of the Templars, Henry VII, Cardinal Wolsey, Inigo Jones, Charles I, Charles II, William III and Sir Christopher Wren. It is agreed on all sides that the CONSTITUTIONS of I738 were a miserable production, too bad even for that uncritical period of Masonic history.
Authorities. As regards points of fact, apart from individual views, the
sources of this notice are:
(I) Gould's large HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,
especially the second volume, I887;
(2) Gould s CONCISE HISTORY OF
FREEMASONRY, I903;
(3) A. F. Calvert s GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, already cited;
(4) Findel s HISTORY 0E FREEMASONRY;
(5) Fergusson s HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE;
(6) Robert Plot s NATURAL HISTORY OF STAEFORDSHIRE, cap. 3, I686;
(7) D. Murray Lyon s HISTORY OF THE LODGE OF EDINBURGH;
(8) W. J. Hughan s ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY, I884;
(9) William Preston s ILLUSTRATIONS OF FREEMASONRY, of which there are several editions, onwards from I772;
(IO) Henry Sadler s MASONIC FACTS AND FICTIONS, I887;
(II) Gould s FOUR OLD LODGES, I879;
(I2) Laurence Dermott s AHIMAN REZON, the polemical introduction to which is of importance for the " schismatic,, point of view and also on the historical side. I have cited the various editions previously. Dermott died in I79I, having been twice Deputy Grand Master of the body whose cause he espoused for a penod of about forty years.
GRAND MASTER ARCHITECT
Points of the Grade.
The French Legend.
GRAND MASTER ARCHITECT The thesis is
(I) that every expenenced Mason has a right to further knowledge;
(2) that to each is the proportionate reward which belongs to his measures of attainment; and
(3) that those who know the origin of things and apply this knowledge to the good of mankind are GRAND MASTER ARCHITECTS, It is the Twelfth Degree Of the scottish RITE and is held to unfold the pnnciples of architecture and the Masonic connections of the " liberal arts.,, According to the traditional history, it was established by Solomon as a school of architecture for the instruction of craftsmen and to animate them with zeal for perfection in the Royal Art. But according to the revision of Albert Pike the attainment of this end was a preparation of those who would approach the Throne of God. The King of Israel is affirmed to have selected such as were already Grand Masters of the workmen, otherwise the SUBLIME ELECTS of the Eleventh Degree in the series of the ScorrIsH RITE, looking towards that time when God would dwell in His Temple and His Name should be revealed therein. This is the plan of the Grade and now as to the mode of its fulfilment.
Points of the Grade.
_The Candidate testifies that he has seen the symbolical
circles and beheld the square; that he has distributed justice impartially to all
the workmen; that he has penetrated to the inner parts of the Temple; that he
knows the mysterious cavern_ being intimations of his experience in earlier
Grades of the Rite. He is still on the quest of knowledge, as one who would
find a sure path through the darkness and the unknown places. He has not
finished with the Temple of Solomon, for he is still Joubert and Solomon is the
Master of the Lodge, but in the delirium of the procedure he calls on the Holy
Evangelist, meaning St. John, to be with him in the keeping of his pledge. He is
a Perfect Master, Intendant of the Building and Sublime Elect, but that which is
now offered him as a means of unfolding " the most sublime knowledge " is a
case of mathematical instruments, and one of the simplest kind. That which
they teach symbolically is
(I) the equilibrium of opposing forces;
(2) the
necessity of a distinct plan to precede action;
(3) the fundamental agreement
of truth in the particular with truth in the universal state;
(4) the limitations of
designs within the due measures of means and time; and
(5) the necessity of a
sure beginning ill order to discover truth as well as to act with confidence. The
closing Instruction explains that the five Pillars which are part of the furniture
of the Lodge not only correspond to the l~ive Orders of Architecture, but that
in combination with these they are emblematical of five divisions of the
SCOTTISH RITE:
(I) the Tuscan is referable to the Blue Degrees, understood as primitive Masonry;
(2) the Doric corresponds to the Ineffable Degrees, so called, or from the Fourth to the lxourteenth inclusive;
(3) the Ionic belongs to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Degrees, which are those of the Second Temple;
(4) the Connthian is connected with the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Degrees, which are under the obedience of the New Law; while
(5) the Composite is in analogy with the long series extending from the Nineteenth to the Thirty second Degree, those being in part philosophical and in part Christian.
The French Legend.
_The traditional History is different in the French version,
which is of course the original form. It represents the people of Israel
overburdened by tributes, the public treasury empty and the labours of the
Temple suspended for want of funds. Twelve architects, who are Intendants of
the Building, are appointed by the Twelve Tribes and are delegated to provide
a practical plan for the unfinished part of the scheme, together with a method
of raising funds for the amelioration of the people.
GRAND MASTER OF ALL SYMBOLIC LODGES
Defects and Insufficiencies.
Horizon of the Grade.
GRAND MASTER OF ALL SYMBOLIC LODGES. Few and rare are the moments in which " the shaping spirit of imagination,'
comes down on the makers of Masonic Grades; rare is the sense of the
sacraments and of the higher life of symbolism; rarest perhaps of all is the
light_which is grace_of the eternal and its shining in the offices of time. But
ever present, insistent and super-insistent is the ringing of everlasting
changes on the counsels of commonplace and the revelation, under solemn
pledges, of the things that all men know. The Grand Master of all Symbolic
Lodges attains as such a very high titular distinction and solemn conventional
duties are imposed upon him; but he has not in reality advanced one step
further, even in the acquisition of canons of morality_not to speak of hidden
truths or the Mysteries of Nature and Science than when he took the Craft
Degrees.
Defects and Insufficiencies.
._The Grade has its moments, more especially in
the Opening and Closing, as revised by Albert Pike, for the kindling and
extinction of certain symbolical lights are acts performed with ceremonial
dignity amidst the interchange of unexceptionable maxims_even if these are "
familiar in our mouths as household words,,' and then in more favoured forms.
But a great opportunity is missed, as we have found in other Degrees, because
the significance of the symbolism is so much wider than was dreamed by
Albert Pike. It is over and over the same record of insufficiency and hence the
same line of criticism. He who in comparative youth wrote his HYMNS TO THE
GODS had_as the saying goes_registered at once, and from the beginning,
his " ambition and incapacity."
Horizon of the Grade.
_There is again no real procedure. The proclamation of the Four Cardinal Virtues, with all their possible variants and analogies that
can be formed in fours, fills up the opening part, toleration and truth
resounding as watchwords over all. It is perhaps rather fortunate that the
question of Pilate is itself neither asked nor answered, but it is certified that no
man has truth in his possession, as if it were a chattel. Under these
circumstances there is no right of dictation on the part of any one in matters of
religious belief: it is go as you please in your gospels, almost as a counsel of
scorn. Nor is any one to judge another, save only as he judges himself_
dismissing him presumably with a caution or at most recommending to mercy.
Out of these banalities arises a fervid denunciation of persecution, much as if
the rack and the faggot still prevailed among us. Truth and Toleration
outstanding, there remain Veneration, Charity, Generosity, Heroism, Honour,
Patriotism and Justice, as already defined: these are the lights of a Grand
Master, and very nice too_as we learned them at our mother,s knee, or with
the pictured help of Mr. Peter Parley. It is these which shall qualify Candidates
by the hypothesis to rule over all Symbolic Lodges, not that the Twentieth
Degree of the SCOTTISH RITE, in America or otherwhere, really conveys the
Office, even within the extent of its own circuit. Under the auspices of such
aids to perfection, it becomes the duty and privilege of each Candidate who is
promoted to this Honourable Degree of pretentious Masonry to work at the
restoration of the Order, so that it may shine forth in its primitive purity. From
this it has degenerated through the foolishness of innovating minds. There is
what might be termed by admirers a trenchant cnticism of grandiloquent and
meaningless titles, which used to be conferred in the past; but under the
obedience of the SCOTTISH RITE it is indicated proudly that a Knight is one
who is devoted_hand and heart and brain_to the science of Masonry; the
Sovereign is among Sovereigns, and is supreme only by virtue of the
supremacy of that law which he is entitled to administer in Masonry. How and
in what wise or prudent sense those who go yet further are entitled to call
themselves PRINCE OF MERCY, KNIGHT OF THE SUN AND SUBLIME PRINCE
OF THE ROYAL SECRET are questions perhaps left over, pending further
advancements. They suggest meanwhile the decried distinctions of MEMPHIS
and MIZRAÏM, their COMMANDERS OF THE STARS, Adepts and Masters of the
Great Work, with many others great galaxy.
GRAND PONTIFF -The Candidate for Masonic perfection in the Grade of ROSEXROIX affirms not
only his integration in the great Order of Christian Knighthood, but his princely
descent as belonging to the Tribe of Judah. His actual, though implied
qualification is, however, that he has accepted the yoke of the New Law and
entered under the obedience of Chnst. In the Grade of GRAND PONTIFF we are
again among the Tnbes of Israel, but they are now on the quest of light, as
those who are coming out of exile, symbolised by Egypt and Babylon. Their
Aces are set towards the Mystic City, the Jerusalem which is alcove. There is
no question therefore that it is a Grade of Christian priesthood, but in the
reconstruction of Albert Pike, though the New Law is explained to be that of
Love, the name of Christ is suppressed, in the interests of a spurious
catholicity, which throws open the portals of the High Grades to Jews and
Deists. Let it be understood once and for all that my arms are against no man
on the ground of his official religion, while my respect and veneration for the
great theosophy of Israel is like that of the Sons of its Doctrine: the opposition
of my thesis, here as elsewhere in these volumes, is directed towards those
who have tampered with Christian documents to suppress their essential
element and have done their work so badly that the thing which they sought to
exclude has been mangled only and manifests in this condition at every point
and page. The lead in the case of Pike was taken from the fraudulent
manufactories of MEMPHIS and MIZRAIM, and though as ntualist and
symbolist_when engaged in this kind of work_he was always in marsh and
quagmire, his worst floundering is, I think, in the present case.
An Apocalyptic Grade._The Grade of GRAND PONTIFF remains that which it
was, an Apocalyptic Mystery. The Candidate hears that Judah shall be restored
to its first estate, that Issachar shall enter into liberation, that peace shall
descend upon Zebu}un, that the dawn comes for Reuben, that Simeon shall be
reconciled to God, that Gad in the end shall triumph, that Ephraim, however
hardly, shall find eternal rest, that Manasseh in Divine Light shall yet see and
know, that Benjamin shall attain redemption, that Dan shall obey the New Law,
that Asher shall eat the fruit of the Tree of Life in the Kingdom of the Lord, and
that Naphtali shall not wait in " rain " on the fulfilment of the promises of God.
Points of the Pageant._Amidst darkness and isolation thereafter the officers
of the Chapter proclaim the dominion of the beast, the opening of the seven
vials of REVELATION and the fall of Babylon. But it is the city of intolerance
which has passed, the city of fraud and falsehood. So also when the Candidate
is brought into light and is shewn the four-square city coming down out of
Heaven, when he hears of the new Heaven and the new earth, the apocalyptic
account is reduced so that the city appears to be one of simple theism,
governed by principles of good-will, while He Who sits upon the throne,
though He is called the Lord God Almighty and Redeemer, is not the Christ
of St. John. So does Pike put on record by implication his view of the judgment
which threatens those who " shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy.', The Candidate is anointed with oil, is made and proclaimed a priest
for ever according to the Order of Melchizedek, but the equivalent of this title
in the nameless banality of the scheme is scol^TrsH MASON. The New
Jerusalem is interpreted as Ancient Masonry. There is otherwise nothing more
preposterous than the attempt to expunge the Name of Christ from the
memonal of a revelation which is made under His Name, while retaining the
other apocalyptic elements and appealing to the authority of St. John. We hear
also of the Twelve Apostles, the initials of whose names are inscribed upon
the gates and foundations of this Mystical City; of the seed of the woman who
should bruise the serpent's head; while the Obligation.has reference to honour
and truth in Christendom.