THE PHILALETHES

Contents
 
 

 The President's Corner                                                      The Leadership Films
 

 Ben Franklin's Feud With His Son                                     The Search For The Lost Word
 

 Brother John Paulding                                                       Confusion In The Temple
 

 Gunning Bedford, Jr.                                                         The Effect of Victorian Obscenity Laws
 

 Campanella's City of the Sun                                             RABBONAI
 

 Of The Civil Magistrates                                                   Through Masonic Windows
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jerry Marsengill, FPS Editor

401 Masonic Temple, 1011 Locust St.

Des Moines, IA 50309 (515) 244-2540

Alphonse Cerza, FPS, Life, Assoc. Editor

237 Millbridge Road

Riverside, IL 60546

OFFICERS

John R. Nocas, FPS, President

P O. Box 2366

Inglewood, CA 9030500 (213) 678-2594

Jerry Marsengill, FPS, First Vice President

401 Masonic Temple, 1011 Locust St.

Des Moines, IA 50309 (515) 244-2540

John Mauk Hilliard, FPS, 2nd Vice President

Lehman College

Bronx, New York 10468 (212) 960-8363

Allen E. Roberts, FPS, Executive Secretary

Drawer 70, 1-A South Holly Ave.

Highland Springs, VA 23075 (804) 737-4498

Henry G. Law, FPS, Treasurer

2608 E. Riding Dr.

Wilmington, DE 19808 (302) 737-9083

LIVING PAST PRESIDENTS

Philalethes Society

Lee E. Wells

AIphonse Cerza, FPS

Judge Robert H. Gollmar, FPS

William R. Denslow, FPS

Robert V. Osborne, FPS

Eugene S Hopp, FPS

Dwight L Smith, FPS

Robert L Dillard Jr., FPS

Bruce H. Hunt, FPS

Allen E. Roberts, FPS

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY EMERITUS

Carl R. Griesen, FPS

S. Brent Morris, FPS

TREASURER EMERITUS

Ronald E. Heaton, FPS

CONTENTS

The President's Corner

Regional Meeting in Los Angeles

The Leadership Films

Ben Franklin's Feud with His Son

The Search for the Lost Word

Brother John Paulding

He Unmasked Benedict Arnold and Saved a Nation

Confusion in the Temple

The Stage is Set

Gunning Bedford, Jr. and His Home, Lombardy Hall

The Effect of Victorian Obscenity Laws on Masonic Historians

The Philalethes Lecture for 1986

Campanella's "City of the Sun"

Rabbonai

A Commentary on the Masonic Implications of the Word

Of The Civil Magistrates

Through Masonic Windows

On The Cover

The cover this month is of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This photograph is the property of, and is used by permission of, the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania.

----o----

The President's Corner

by John R. Nocas, FPS

President

"Lodge Officers and The Philalethes"

by John R. Nocas, FPS

The Philalethes Society was formed in 1928 by Brothers George H. Imbrie, Kansas City, Missouri; Robert I. Clegg, Chicago, Illinois; Cyrus Field Willard. San Diego. California; Alfred H. Moorhouse, Boston, Massachusetts; Henry F. Evans, Denver, Colorado, and William C. Rapp, Chicago. Illinois

The Founders called it "An International Society of Freemasons Who Seek More Light and Freemasons Who Have Light to Impart." The Motto of the Society is "There is No Religion Higher Than Truth."

The Society has prospered, I'm certain, far longer than the Founders had hoped or dreamed and countless leaders of our Fraternity, since that time, owe much of their Masonic education and inspiration to them and their educated successors.

So much for the past but what about the present and future? A search of our Society's records show that far too few Lodge Officers, and especially Junior Officers, know about our publication. Our Lodge Officers learn their ritual perfectly as they climb the ladder to Mastership of a Lodge but there is far more than excellence in ritual involved in being an outstanding leader and Master of a Lodge. It involves a thorough understanding and knowledge of Masonry in general: its history, laws and customs, development through the ages. its great leaders and their contributions, our current aims and purposes, what our present leaders and Grand Bodies are doing towards the fulfillment of these noble goals, and much, much more. These subjects and many more are covered by the Masonic scholars who write our articles and are a great source of Masonic knowledge and information for the Junior Officer of a Lodge.

The above leads up to my request. Will each of you ask the Master of your Lodge to give you about five minutes in a subsequent meeting to tell the members and Officers about the Philalethes. They should, at least, know about the magazine and, hopefully, some of the Officers will subscribe. They stand to benefit and our mission "To Spread Light" will be greatly enhanced.

Continued best wishes in all your Masonic endeavors!

----o----

Regional Meeting in Los Angeles

September 20, 1986

Brethren:

It is difficult, of course, for all our members to attend the Annual Meeting of the Society in Washington, D.C. each February.

To help remedy this situation and make it possible for our members to attend meetings, on occasion we plan to hold Regional Meetings in various parts of the country, perhaps once or twice a year.

The first such Meeting will be held on Saturday, September 20, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Westchester Masonic Temple, 726 West Manchester Avenue, Playa del Rey, California 90291. (Plava del Rey is just outside Los Angeles, near the Los Angeles International Airport.)

The meeting is sponsored by the three Southern California Philalethes Chapters: San Diego, Hi-Desert (Victorville) and Eureka (Los Angeles).

Members and friends are cordially invited to attend to hear an array of talks, scholarly and otherwise, on various Masonic topics.... plus a great day of socialising

Fraternally,

John R. Nocas

President

----o----

The Leadership Films

A series of four Masonic Leadership Training Films is being made available to our Chapters. This is being done so that the Philalethes Society can be of service to its Chapters. It will also help the Chapters to be of service to the Freemasons in their areas.

Each film is professional in quality, approximately 25 minutes in length, 16mm, sound, and in color. Each motion picture has a Leader's Guide to assist the leader in conducting a meaningful discussion after the film is shown. Briefly, the films are:

Growing the Leader. Loaded with information about how to recognize the potential leader and how to develop him. It shows how to get things done - properly. It features Allen E. Roberts. CAM (Certified Administrative Manager).

Breaking Barriers to Communication has been considered the best single film on communication ever produced, covering more in 25 minutes than an average of three such industrial films. It features the late Conrad Hahn, Executive Secretary of the MSA.

Planning Unlocks the Door. Features Allen E. Roberts and a group of interested Masons. The steps for goal setting and planning are clearly outlined and discussed.

People Make The Difference shows us how to organize our Lodges (or Grand Lodges) for success. It features Conrad Hahn, Allen E. Roberts, Edward McNutt and Edward Perkins, the latter as a newly appointed DDGM.

Although these films were developed to go along with the prior reading of Key to Freemasonry's Growth (available at a discount for quantity purchases from Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co.), they have been used successfully on their own.

These films are not designed for entertainment, as are Roberts documentaries, but they can be used for that purpose. They are intended to be used as a vehicle for later discussion and feedback. Several Grand Lodges use them for this purpose, and to develop their own system of education. Where they have been used properly they have proven extremely successful. Roberts has conducted dozens of full day and weekend seminars using these motion pictures as a catalyst.

Our Chapters now have an opportunity to provide workshops and seminars for pennies per participant. The same thing would cost hundreds of dollars per individual in the industrial world. Don't pass up this opportunity. For further information write to the Executive Secretary.

BACKGROUND

Roberts, in the late '60s, tried to interest some of the larger appendant bodies in producing training films for Freemasonry, similar to those produced for industry. He wasn't successful. However, the Virginia Craftsmen, a traveling degree team, convinced of this need, sponsored a pilot film. The folks at Macoy Publishing considered the plan a possible enhancement for Freemasonry, so it sponsored the four full length films noted above. Six years ago, Imagination Unlimited (in the person of Al Roberts) purchased all rights to the series. He has made them available to the MSA and The Philalethes Society.

----o----

Ben Franklin's Feud With His Son

by C. Clark Julius, MPS

His son's name was William. Born in 1731 when his father was twenty-five, William was illegitimate. The identity of his mother is a complete mystery.

The unknown mother apparently turned her newborn son over to his father, telling Ben to rear the squalling infant. Ben then passed his son along to his housekeeper, Mrs. Deborah Read of Philadelphia.

Deborah who eventually became Ben's common-law wife, did not want the baby. She was a plain woman, fat, tidy, industrious, and semi-literate. These qualities made her an ideal mistress for the practical Ben, who once wrote a poem praising his "dear Debby" as the perfect woman, a paragon of domesticity.

Although remarkably tolerant of Ben's many love affairs with other women, Deborah had no desire to care for his bastard son. But she was in a difficult position. She had been abandoned by her husband, a potter, and could not remarry (Divorce was almost unobtainable in colonial Philadelphia, and the punishment for bigamy was thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, followed by imprisonment for life.) She did not want to leave Ben, and was unlikely to find another man to support her in any case.

So she submitted and agreed to take charge of the baby. But she resented the task, and took out her resentments on little William.

The boy was raised on cuffs and curses from his foster mother.

Although Deborah was affectionate with the two natural children she later bore Ben, she hated William. One visitor to the Franklin home wrote of his astonishment at the "incredible curses" Deborah shrieked at William. In a calmer moment, Deborah pointed to William and coldly informed her guest, "There goes the wickedest person in the world."

As a boy, William avoided his foster mother as much as possible. He spent a lot of time in the library, where Deborah seldom ventured, browsing in his father's huge collection of books. He also hung around the office of his father's newspaper, the Philadelphia Gazette, or loitered on the docks with rough apprentice boys. To William, any place seemed more congenial than home.

William's formal education was spotty. His father placed him in various schools, then yanked him out after quarreling with the teachers about pedagogical theory. William was largely self-educated, under the loose guidance of his father.

By the time he was fourteen, William was refusing to speak to Deborah - a silence he would maintain to the end of his life. He was eager to leave home and secretly signed aboard a privateer bound to pirate the coast of French Canada. His father got wind of this plan and dragged the fourteen-year-old William home.

Some earnest father-son discussions followed. The elder Franklin, who had pulled exactly the same stunt in his own youth, only to be dragged home by his own father, was not unsympathetic to William's urge for a life of adventure.

Now, Ben vainly tried to convince young William that becoming a businessman would prove more satisfying than a life of piracy on the high seas. When the boy remained stubbornly unconvinced, Ben offered a compromise. He would allow his son to enlist in the colonial militia.

Ben felt certain that no fourteen year old could endure the deprivation and discipline of military life. He expected a short service in the militia to beat the romantic notions out of his son's head, and make the boy sensible of the advantages of a career in commerce.

William was the right age to make a drummer boy, and the militia was glad to sign him up. With the outbreak of King William's war, the boy was sent to the New York frontier to fight the French and Indians. On arrival at the front he held the rank of private.

Conditions in the field were ghastly. Supplies were so scarce that the troops, camping in mud and snow, began dying of malnutrition and frostbite even before the Indians hit them. But Private Franklin accepted these hardships with good cheer. He was delighted to have escaped from his home to a world of adventure.

In a series of fierce battles, the boy showed almost suicidal courage under fire. And, although still too young to shave, he displayed a gift for leadership, and a tactical brilliance that awed his superiors. By the time he was fifteen, he'd been promoted to captain and was commanding officers twice his age.

During lulls in the fighting, William wrote reports on the war for his father's newspaper. He wrote almost as well as his father, in the same straightforward style. William's reports modestly omitted his own exploits and promotions. His father published them anonymously, as unsigned "letters from the front."

Home from the war at sixteen, William showed no signs of readiness to settle down. In 1748, when he was seventeen, he organised and led the first English expedition to the Ohio River. The trail he opened eventually became the Pennsylvania Road, the main artery of east-west trade in colonial America. He kept a journal of this adventure, describing the western wilderness and the Indian towns. Unfortunately he presented this journal to his father, who lent it to a friend, who lost it.

In 1750, William's father wrote to a relative: "Will is now nineteen years of age, a tall proper youth, and much of a Beau. He has acquired a Habit of Idleness - but begins of late to apply himself to business, and I hope will become an Industrious man."

At the time he wrote this letter, the forty-four-year-old Ben Franklin had recently retired from business to devote himself to his hobbies - electrical experiments, politics, and socialising. He recruited his son to assist with the electrical experiments. It was William, not his father, who flew a kite in a thunderstorm to demonstrate that lightning is a form of electricity. The senior Franklin stayed safe and dry in a shed during that dangerous experiment. William also made some independent discoveries. He was the first man to observe and prove that the main surge of electricity flows up, not down, when lightning "strikes the ground."

In addition to his scientific work, William worked at two full-time jobs in his early twenties. He was comptroller of the Post Office and clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. His other activities included writing political pamphlets for his father, collecting a very foppish wardrobe, and winning a reputation, at high society balls, as the best dancer in Philadelphia.

With the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754, both Franklins were frustrated by the refusal of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to raise a militia to defend the province. After several Indian massacres on the Pennsylvania frontier, Ben told William to raise his own private militia. Although William was only twenty-three, his stature as a military hero was so great that he had no trouble gathering recruits.

On his father's orders, William marched his militia around and around the General Assembly, where the pacifist Quaker Party was preparing to vote down a resolution to support the informal militia. The marching troops chanted slogans and fired salutes into the air, scaring half the anti-war legislators out of the chamber, and inspiring the rest of the assemblymen to vote funding for the war effort. The Assembly also voted to name Ben Franklin General of the Militia.

The senior Franklin was happy to become a general. But, not knowing anything about military science, he unofficially turned his command over to his son. Ben told the officers to "consider William's orders as coming from myself," then promptly stopped giving any orders of his own.

With William at its head, the army marched to Easton, where the French and Indians were pouring out of the mountains to menace Philadelphia. Ben traveled near the center of the column, with the baggage wagons, and made no pretence of commanding. The only part of military life that seemed to interest Ben was fort construction. He got quite excited about that, making endless calculations about how many trees were required for a stockade of a given diameter. etc.

The French and Indians, accustomed to fighting conventional British armies that marched in parade formation, set an ambush in a narrow pass north of Easton. But William was an experienced Indian fighter and anticipated the enemy's tactics. He told his men to space themselves widely, until the column stretched thinly over five miles. He also deployed hundreds of scouts in a fan-shaped formation ahead of the main column. The ambush was detected, and the French and Indians were themselves ambushed and routed. After that, Pennsylvania's northeastern frontier was secure for the duration of the war.

The victory broke the power of the pacifist Quaker Party and helped make Ben Franklin the reigning power of the General Assembly. Ben tried to use this power to pass democratic reforms, but found himself thwarted by the Penn family. As proprietors of the province, the Penns retained many feudal privileges they wanted to keep, including an exemption from taxation.

In 1757, Ben decided to travel to London to lobby Parliament for a change in Pennsylvania’s charter. He wanted to write the Penns out of the charter, and make the Assembly answerable only to the King.

When Deborah refused to accompany Ben on any hazardous ocean voyages, William agreed to sail with his father to England. The plan was for William to serve as his father's personal secretary, while attending law school in his spare tame.

When father and son arrived in London, they were surprised to discover that they were famous for their electrical discoveries. Both Franklins received honorary degrees from the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, and were eagerly interviewed by the leading intellectuals of Britain.

Since their whole purpose in coming to England was to win influential friends to their cause in Parliament, the Franklins made the most of these social opportunities. From their scientific admirers, they gained letters of introduction to aristocrats - ministers royal advisors, and members of the House of Lords.

It quickly became apparent that the tall, handsome William was more popular than his father with the English nobility. The elder Franklin was famous only for his electrical experiments. William was famous for his role in those same experiments, and for his military career.

Round, homely old Ben spent a fortune on the latest wigs and dress-coats, but he couldn't quite manage to pass himself off as a gentleman. Worse, he kept talking about the rights of "the people," by whom he seemed to mean fishmongers and such.

While Ben was repeatedly snubbed in his efforts to make friends with the high and mighty his twenty-six-year-old son moved effortlessly through doors that remained locked to the father. Relations between William and Ben seem to have become strained during this period. William, who was earning his law degree at the Middle Temple, dutifully cranked out pamphlets for his father in his spare time. But William's private opinions, influenced by his new aristocratic friends, became increasingly conservative.

Another source of friction was Ben's plan to marry his son to a girl named Polly Stevenson. Ben was sleeping with Polly's mother at the time, and had developed a paternal affection for her teenaged daughter. Polly was a plump, hardworking, homespun girl of the type Ben found suitable for matrimony.

William, however, insisted that he was in love with a rich, elegant young lady named Elizabeth Downes. "Miss Betsy," as the Downes girl was known, came from a family so posh that they made the senior Franklin uncomfortable. He was made even more uncomfortable when the Downes hinted that they would consider William's suit only if Ben handed over part of his fortune to his son. Ben felt that William should make his own way in the world.

After William graduated from law school and moved into his own lodgings, he saw less and less of his father. Ben seems to have had no idea how fast and far his son was rising in British society. William had become a close friend of the Earl of Bute, the closest advisor of Prince George, the future King George III.

In 1763, when the old King died and George III ascended to the throne, Ben learned just how influential his son had become. One of the King's first acts was to appoint William royal governor of the Colony of New Jersey. At age thirty-two. Ben's son was the youngest governor in the history of the British Empire.

The parents of Betsy Dounes hastily changed their minds about William, and gave him permission to wed their daughter as soon as he wished. William's father did not attend the ceremony. After writing a very discouraged letter home, he boarded a ship for Philadelphia, four weeks before William and Betsy were married in London.

William's tenure as Governor of New Jersey was the high point of his life. He and his bride were very popular with the people. Betsy gave birth to a son, William Temple Franklin. William got along well with his legislature, guiding New Jersey politics into an era of calm cooperation that contrasted with tumultuous conflicts his father kept instigating in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, across the Delaware.

William served as Governor of New Jersey from 1763 to 1776. During those years his father, still politicking in Pennsylvania, became convinced that America should declare her independence from Great Britain. William entertained no such notions. His loyalty, to his King was personal and unshakable.

In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia Ben Franklin was grimly elated. "Gentlemen," he quipped, "now we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately."

His son William was quite prepared to hang separately. He refused to denounce the King, to vacate the Governor's mansion, or to flee from the rebel militia. As far as William was concerned, his father was a traitor.

Ben was so enraged by his son's Toryism that he apparently threw away all family records relating to William. He also appears to have rewritten some of his electrical experiments in an attempt to erase William's memory from the history of science. For example, William's observations that lightning surges from earth to cloud, rather than vice versa, was credited by his father to another experimenter, Ebeneezer Kinnersley. Kinnersley's notes show that he merely checked and confirmed William's observations, but it is impossible to tell how many other discoveries of William's were erased from the record by his father.

William's own notes were lost when Patriots looted his mansion and burned all his journals, books, and private correspondence. He was imprisoned and harshly treated. All his property was confiscated.

When William's wife, Betsy, fell sick, the Continental Congress voted to deny William's request to visit her bedside. Most Congressmen seemed to agree with John Adam's opinion of William: "Without the supposition of some backstairs intrigue it is difficult to account for that mortification of the pride, affront to the dignity, and insult to the morals of America, the elevation to the government of New Jersey of a base-born brat."

News of Betsy's death was eventually brought to William’s cell, along with the news that his son, Temple, had been made the legal ward of a good Patriot, Benjamin Franklin. William was eventually released in a prisoner exchange, and sailed for England.

His father, meanwhile, was in Paris, lobbying the French government to support the American rebels. Having learned from his previous experience in London that he could not pass himself off as a true "gentleman," Ben took a different tack in Paris. Instead of buying the latest wigs, he wore a fur cap and buck skins when he interviewed French aristocrats. The exotic outfit charmed the French, who decided that old Ben was the embodiment of Rousseau's trendy theories about the Noble Savage: an uncouth, but unspoiled, son of the wilderness.

Ben was accompanied in Paris by his grandson, Temple, who served as his personal secretary. Temple idolized Ben, and helped edit his papers, including Ben's famous Autobiography. Ironically, the Autobiography was originally written as a lengthy letter of advice to Temple's father, William. But Temple helped delete all references to William from the work.

William spent the rest of his life in England, an embittered recluse. The commissioners of Loyalist claims in England awarded him 1,800 pounds for the loss of his property, and gave him an annual pension of 800 pounds a year. He used the moneys to hide from society so completely that nobody is certain if he ever remarried. One source states, without much evidence, that he married an Irishwoman.

To the end of his life, he was never fully reconciled with his father, or with his son. He died November 16, 1813.

Reference

Book "A Little Revenge; Benjamin Franklin and His Son" by William S. Randall.

Editors Note: Clark has published two Masonic books, Masonic Timepieces, Rings Balls and Watch Fobs, a book with a history and 130 pictures, and "Masonic Grandfather Clocks, Mantle Clocks, Balls, Knives and more Watch Fobs," a history with 151 pictures. Cost of each book $600.

C. Clark Julius

P.O. Box 115

Dover, PA 17315

----o----

The Search For The Lost Word

by Frank A. Standring, MPS

FOREWORD

Freemasonry we are told, is veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Esoterically, it is a search for light, for a lost Word, for ultimate truth. There are many aspects of this search, one of which is the story of King Solomon's Temple as related in the Old Testament and expanded by a series of post-craft degrees. These include the building of the second Temple at Jerusalem and, for the purpose of convenience are hereinafter referred to as the Solomonic series.

To the Master Mason, seeking "further light," the various degrees conferred in the masonic bodies collectively known as the York Rite obviously must present a haphazard mixture of incidents taken from the Old Testament and, in no logical sequence. The object of this treatise is to equate the ritual of the second and third degrees of the craft lodge and that of the so called side degrees, with the story of King Solomon's Temple and its relation to the lost Word, the search for which is the esoteric theme of all genuine masonic ritual.

This text is based partly on Old Testament history, partly on accepted legend and partly on what can be claimed to be reasonable surmise. I am greatly indebted to the late Colonel R.J.L. Wilkinson, O.B.E and his publication, "The Cryptic Rite, An Historical Treatise." for most of the material included in this presentation. - FAS

"What is that which was lost?

The genuine secrets of a M.M.

How came those S's to be lost?

By the untimely death of our G.M.H.A."

This masterpiece of compression (taken from the opening sequence in the third degree) summarizes the mythical history of Freemasonry as taught in the Craft Lodges and other masonic bodies. In the third degree, we are told of the loss of the Word and, in the R.A., of its recovery.

But, to the earnest seeker after masonic knowledge this should be an incitement to further research. The story of K.S.'s Temple as an allegory of our search for the Word requires amplification, which can only be done by interpolating the legends of the Cryptic and other Solomonic degrees in the narrative. But, they must be inserted, not in the haphazard manner in which they are worked today, but in their proper context, that is chronologically. Taken thus, it will be seen that each degree from the Mark onwards, leads logically to the next and so on in succession, until we arrive at the Supreme degree of the H.R.A. In other words, the series constitutes a complete masonic rite.

The masonic story of K.S.'s Temple is a symbolic illustration of incidents connected with a certain secret, that had been deposited in a place which, it was hoped, would ensure its preservation from a prophesied catastrophe. When that prophesy materialized the secret was lost for a time, but afterwards recovered. In the Solomonic degrees, the loss is exemplified in the third degree, the steps taken to preserve it are shown in the Cryptic degrees, while its recovery is shown in the Royal Arch.

The Cryptic degrees are based on various Jewish legends. In one such it is stated that while the building of the Temple was in its early stages, K.S., realizing the danger of attack, determined to take steps to safeguard the more important Temple treasures. To this end he ordered the construction of a vault, into which the said treasures could be removed from the Sanctuary. A subterranean passage from the King's palace to a spot beneath the sanctuary was constructed, supported by nine arches and ending in a chamber or vault. Those who worked on the tunnel and vault were sworn to secrecy.

After the death of H.A., certain treasures, together with a copy of the Word and the key to its pronunciation, were placed in the vault. This operation was carried out in the utmost secrecy, known only to a very limited number of persons. As a consequence, knowledge of the vault gradually faded and became, in time, no more than a vague legend. In the R.A. degree, we learn of the recovery of the Word.

This legend is communicated to the candidate in a series of degrees under the jurisdiction of (1) The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Canada in the Province of Ontario, conferring the degrees of Mark Master Mason, Most Excellent Master and Holy Royal Arch. (2) The Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Ontario, conferring the degrees of Royal Master, Select Master and Super Excellent Master. (3) The Illustrious Order of the Red Cross, a degree conferred under the jurisdiction of Sovereign Great Priory of Canada.

Part of these degrees are conferred between the Craft and the Royal Arch, but, as worked at present they appear to be no more than a random collection of unrelated incidents in the said legend. Only if studied in chronological order does a coherent narrative emerge. Taken thus, the story of K.S.'s Temple becomes a recognizable branch of that masonic knowledge in which the initiate is recommended to make a daily advancement. The story is summarized as follows:

The student is introduced to the legend in the second degree tracing board and in the traditional history of the third, but the narrative properly begins with the Mark degree in which its members are supposed to be engaged in the preparation of materials for the intended structure and in the actual building thereof. Next in chronological sequence is the degree of Select Master, in which concurrently with the early stages of construction a secret vault is made as a sort of underground strongroom. In the Royal Master degree. H.A. is slain and a copy of the Word, together with the clues to its proper pronunciation, is deposited with other treasures in the secret vault. As we are told in the third degree, certain substituted secrets are taken into use.

Next, comes the degree of Most Excellent Master, which tells of the completion and dedication of the Temple and presages the gradual disappearance of the secret vault into the realms of legend. In the degree of Super Excellent Master, the story of K.S.'s Temple goes forward four centuries. Jerusalem is besieged by a Chaldean army and is on the point of capture and destruction. The king having fled, the city and Temple are utterly destroyed and the remnant of the people are carried off to Babylon.

In the seventieth year of their exile, Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, having conquered Babylon sanctions the return of the Jews to their homeland to rebuild the city and Temple. The work is impeded by the hostility of the Samaritans and is suspended for seven years by decree of Cambyses, successor of Cyrus. The Illustrious Order of the Red Cross informs us of an appeal made personally by Zerubabel to King Darius, who sanctions resumption of the work. On hearing the news, three young Jewish stonemasons travel from Babylon to Jerusalem and apply for work on the Temple. Given the task of digging the foundations of the Temple, they discover the secret vault and the Word. As a reward, they are exalted to the Holy Royal Arch Degree. Thus the Word, supposedly lost is recovered. Let us now summarize each degree in the revised sequence suggested above.

Mark Master

The workmen in the quarries prepare the material for the construction of the Temple, each placing his mark on the stones he produces and receiving his wages accordingly.

Select Master

As work began on the Temple project the Grand Masters took note of the necessity for measures to safeguard the sacred treasures in the event of attack by enemy forces. Accordingly, it was decided to construct a secret vault beneath the sanctuary in which these treasures could be hidden. The vault was to be made in complete secrecy, its whereabouts and existence unknown to anyone except the Grand Masters and those who actually carried out the work. Access to the vault was to be by way of a tunnel from the King's palace to a point immediately under the Holy of Holies.

The tunneling was done by 24 Menatzchim, working from 9 to 12 at night and who were sworn to secrecy. The tunnel was supported by nine arches, the secret vault being under the ninth arch. On completion of the work the 24 Menatzchim were given the recognition secrets of a Master Mason (as distinct from the normal trade secrets) and were chosen as Select Masters. After the above mentioned treasures had been deposited in the secret vault the place was used as a sort of cabinet room, where the three Grand Masters together with the twenty-four Select Masters formed a council of 27, to discuss matters of high policy and when necessary to confer the S.M. degree. It was however, agreed that the council should never exceed a membership of 27, therefore the degree would only be worked to fill a vacancy if one occurred.

It must be mentioned that whereas all Overseers were in possession of the necessary trade secrets, a Master Word was essential to enable anyone to negotiate contracts, employ craftsmen and talk on equal terms with other Masters. It was first arranged by the Grand Master that the S.M.'s would lead the first parties of Craftsmen to leave the Temple when the building was complete and, in order to preserve the secret of the Vault, the S.M.'s wore no special badges of rank but carried on in public as ordinary senior overseers.

Nevertheless, in spite of official secrecy, rumour persisted as to certain Menatzchim with special status. This, not unnaturally, engendered much heart-burning among those who (as witness the story of the fifteen overseers told in the third degree) considered themselves eligible for the secrets of a M.M., which would have qualified them to lead parties of Craftsmen in search of work when the Temple was finished. Among those was one Zabud who, from having frequent contact with King Solomon, had become known as "the king's friend."

One day, emboldened by familiarity, he asked the king what his chances were of receiving the word. The king told him to be patient, assuring him that a door would soon be opened to him Zabud took this assurance literally and on a certain day, having a confidential report to make to the king, went to the latter's private apartment in the palace. Entering the room and finding the king absent, he decided to wait, but presently, noticing a door standing ajar, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was the door to which the king had referred.

Passing through the door he found himself in a tunnel and eventually he came to another door, also partly open. Entering, he found himself in the presence of what proved to be the Council of 27. He was immediately seized and condemned to death as an intruder. Explanation and discussion followed, upon which Zabud was exonerated of the charge of trespass, but the careless brother who had failed to close the door was executed, while Zabud was chosen to fill the consequent vacancy.

Note: After the death of King Solomon, the Council of 27 fell into desuetude; vacancies among the S.M.'s were no longer filled and the existence of the secret vault lived only as a legend known only to the few.

Royal Master

The labour force employed on the Temple project is enumerated in II Chron. ii, L8 and further described in masonic legend. The Craftsmen were organised in lodges, each ruled by three Menatzchim. As the building neared completion and various trades became redundant, a lodge would be closed and its members, in parties led by a qualified overseer, would take the road in search of other employment. The term "qualified overseer" meant one who, in addition to all necessary trade secrets of his guild was also in possession of the Master Word, which would enable him to talk on equal terms with other masters, accept contracts, arrange terms and generally organize the welfare of his men.

Overseers considered by the Grand Masters to be suitable leaders were honoured with the rank of Royal Master and it is not difficult to appreciate the state of mind of an overseer who, having made tentative arrangements to lead a party, had not yet received the Master Word. Such a one was Adoniram, overseer of a gang of metal workers engaged on finishing touches to the Sanctuary. Knowing that he and his men would shortly be laid off, he was worried because he had not yet become a R.M. One morning, as the hour of High Twelve approached, he took a richly chased bowl to H.A. for approval and as the latter was in the act of passing it the trumpets sounded for the midday break. The Craftsman went off and H.A. repaired to the Sanctuary to pray and deposit the newly approved bowl.

Adoniram, instead of accompanying his men, lingered behind and, as the Master, having finished his devotions, prepared to leave the Sanctuary, he waylaid him and inquired when he was likely to be honoured with the rank of R.M. H.A. exhorted Adoniram to be patient, well knowing that the worthy overseer was already on the list and (somewhat irregularly) hinted that if he should die before Adoniram received the secrets, the Master Word would be found buried below the spot where they were both standing. That is, in the secret vault, of which Adoniram knew nothing.

Only partially satisfied, Adoniram retired while H.A., rejoining his two colleagues, related the incident and confessed his indiscretion. After discussion, a day and time were fixed for the next meeting of the Council of R.M.'s, for the purpose of conferring the degree on Adoniram. But, he was not the only anxious aspirant for the secrets of M.M. as, shortly after the above mentioned interview, HA. was slain in circumstances described in the third degree, so that the degree of R.M. had to be given to Adoniram by the two surviving Grand Masters.

Although, as freemasons, we are apt to jump to the conclusion that those working on the Temple project were exclusively stone-masons, it will be obvious that there must have been many other trades employed. Blacksmiths to make tools, carpenters to erect scaffolding as well as painters, decorators and many ancillary trades. Nevertheless, stone work being the principal trade, it was customary for the head of any building project to be styled Master Mason. Consequently, a craftsman honoured with the rank of R.M. received the recognition secrets of a M.M. It will be remembered that H.A. was a master of all trades employed on the Temple (2-Chron: ii-14) and, the candidate in the degree of R.M. as worked today, represents a metal worker.

Most Excellent Master

Seven and a half years after the laying of the foundation stone, K.S.'s Temple was completed in B.C. 967. Plans were made to transfer the Ark of the Covenant from the temporary tabernacle, in which it had been housed by King David, to its new home in the Holy of Holies and also to dedicate the Temple to the Most High. To celebrate the occasion, K.S. decided to institute the degree of the most excellent master, and to confer this on the senior Menatzchim whose work merited special recognition, particularly the twenty-four who, unknown to the generality already held the rank of S.M., thus enabling K.S. to give public distinction to those worthies without revealing the existence of the secret vault.

In due course (1 Kings; Chap. viii) the Temple was dedicated and, as we are told in another degree, Adoniram was singled out by the king for special recognition. As we learn later, this worthy brother subsequently became the third Grand Master in place of H.A.

Super Excellent Master

With the death of K.S. in the year 938 B.C., the Jewish empire began to disintegrate. Israel promptly asserted its independence, leaving Judea, comprised only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with its capital at Jerusalem. Israel disappeared in 734 B.C. and at the time visualized in the super excellent master degree 597 B.C., the kingdom of Judea was itself on the point of extinction.

Ten years previously Jerusalem had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar, heir to the throne of Babylon. Leaving the city and Temple intact (except for the Temple treasures) he took ten thousand of the principal citizens into exile in Babylonia. The prophet Ezekiel accompanied the exiles while Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judea was reduced to the status of a Babylonian province with Zedekiah on the throne as satrap. After eleven years of vassalage Zedekiah rebelled, whereupon Nebuchadnezzar (now king of Babylon) sent his general Nebuzaradan to capture and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and to lay waste the province. Having dealt with other strong points, Nebuzaradan laid seige to Jerusalem and, when Zedekiah saw that the situation was hopeless, he attempted to escape to Egypt with a few followers. He was intercepted, his eyes put out (the usual punishment for treason in those days) and taken to Babylon in chains of brass.

It is this juncture in history that is commemorated in the S.E.M. degree. Gedeliah, governor of Jerusalem, is in the Temple presiding over a Council of S.E.M.'s to consider last minute plans before the taking of the city and Temple. It is often asserted that the degree of S.E.M. has no connection with the Cryptic Rite, but this school of thought overlooks the allegorical connection of the story of K.S.T. with the masonic search for the lost Word. That Word, supposed to have been lost when H.A. was assassinated, was actually Iying in the secret vault beneath the council chamber over which Gedeliah was presiding. It remained there, lost to living memory after the Temple had been destroyed.

After destroying Jerusalem, Nebuzaradan took the remnant of the people to Babylon, leaving only a few agriculturalists to work on the land. (- II Kings; xxv - 11) Even this did not last long, for when the Jews returned after the exile, they found that what had been a fertile land had been reduced to a wilderness.

Illustrious Order of the Red Cross

By his capture of Babylon in 535 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, became master of an empire stretching from the Caspian to the Mediterranean and, with a view to the subsequent conquest of Egypt, decided that a friendly power, based on Jerusalem, would be a considerable strategic advantage. This object could be achieved by repatriating the Jews who had been deported to Babylon under the previous regime. Hence his proclamation "Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia etc.", quoted in the first chapter of the Book of Ezra. Although not a Cryptic degree it is necessary to insert this ritual in order to complete the chronological sequence. This is the first degree conferred under the jurisdiction of the Sovereign Great Priory of Canada. and recensions of it also appear in the A & A. Rite and in old Mark rituals.

In the seventieth year of the first deportation, a caravan of 42,000 Jews, men, women and children with their flocks and herds, together with the Temple treasures (Ezra ii) set out for Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubabel, a prince of Judah and Joshua, the high priest. The journey occupied two years and on arrival the repatriates found nothing but a dreary desert unoccupied except for the tents of nomadic tribes with their goats and camels.

Work on the second Temple then began but, from the start, was beset with difficulties. The Samaritans, the successors of the ten tribes which had seceded from the kingdom after the death of K.S. asked to be allowed to take part in the work, (Ezra: iv-2) but were refused: not only because they were not true Jews but because, once admitted, they would have installed pagan altars in the Temple. As a consequence of this refusal, the Jews found themselves under continuous harrassment and found it necessary to keep weapons close at hand while at work. Furthermore, the Samaritans, through their representatives in Babylon, were able to induce the reigning monarch Cambyses (Cyrus being dead) to stop the work. (Ezra; iv - 21-24)

For seven years the Temple site stood open and deserted. Then, in the year 521 B.C., Prince Darius succeeded to the throne of Persia. By a fortunate chance, Darius and Zerubabel had been comrades-in-arms in earlier years and it so happened that the former had sworn that if he ever came to the throne of Persia, he would do anything in his power for his friend. Accordingly, Zerubabel resolved to go to Babylon and appeal to his old friend. His mission was successful and work on the Temple was then resumed.

The Holy Royal Arch

It should not be supposed that the first caravan that arrived in Jerusalem comprised the whole Jewish population of Babylon; far from it. Encouraged by the prophet Jeremiah, (Jer.; xxix - 5 to 7) the Jews of the Exile had settled down and prospered. Clay tablets in various museums record that the firm of Murashu and Sons had set up as merchant bankers, insurers, estate agents and building contractors. With head quarters at Nippur the firm had branches throughout Mesopotamia and was a distinct commercial power in the land.

When the edict of Darius, permitting resumption of the rebuilding of the Temple became known in Babylon, three young stone-masons in the employ of Murashu and Sons resolved to go to Jerusalem and offer their services in "that great and glorious undertaking." It was known that during the long period of inactivity resulting from stoppage of the work, imposed by Cambyses many workmen had drifted away from the Temple site to work on other projects. Consequently our three sojourners set forth in high hopes. But, no work suitable to their skills being available, they were allotted the temporary task of clearing ground for the extension of the foundations.

They accepted in all humility and, while so engaged, uncovered a vault beneath the site of the ancient Sanctuary. This proved to be the secret vault, the very existence of which had become no more than a vague rumour. In the vault, they found the Word which was lost when H.A. was assassinated. On reporting their discovery they were exalted to the degree of Holy Royal Arch and admitted as members of the Grand Sanhedrin.

Thus ends the legend of the search for the lost Word, as exemplified in the story of K.S.'s Temple.

----o----

Brother John Paulding

He Unmasked Benedict Arnold and Saved a Nation

by John R. Nocas, FPS

On March 3, 1818, the following article appeared in "The Eastern Argus," Portland, Maine: "Died at Yorktown, N.Y., Major John Paulding, one of those distinguished Revolutionary patriots who received the thanks of the nation for the capture of Major Andre'. His remains were accompanied to the grave by a corps of the cadets from West Point, a lodge of the Masonic fraternity, and a great concourse of people.

John Paulding, a member of the Cortland Lodge No. 34: Cortland, New York, is one of the unknown heroes of our War for Freedom, for it was Paulding who revealed to an astonished Washington - and the nation - that Benedict Arnold had turned traitor and planned to deliver West Point to the British. West Point, in the summer of 1780 was a key position on the Hudson River and its fall would split the colonies, a long cherished dream of the British. (Benedict Arnold is thought to have been made a Mason in the West Indies; he affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 1, New Haven, Connecticut on April 10, 1765.)

On the fifteenth of July, 1780, a year after he made his first offer to the British, Benedict Arnold sent Andre' a letter: "If I point out a plan by which Sir Henry Clinton shall possess himself of West Point, its garrison, stores, artillery, etc., I want 20,000 pounds sterling. I think it would be a cheap purchase for an object of so much importance." The message was written by his wife, Peggy. There seems little doubt, now, that Arnold's (second) marriage in 1779 to the dedicated Tory, Peggy Shippen, was the first step in the brave soldiers black journey to treason.

Major John Andre', Sir Henry Clinton's adjutant general, was the liaison between the British and the Arnolds. Andre', in his role as spy used many codes in his correspondence with traitorous colonists; two secret inks, one developed by heat and another by acid; a code in which numbers gave page, column and word in selected editions of Bailey's dictionary or Blackstone's Commentaries and the elaborate one he had worked out with the Arnolds. Andre's cover was a milliner's shop in New York and in reply as to hone much armament would be required to take West Point, Peggy Arnold wrote: "1 pair stockings, 4 pair white thread, 1 pair black satin, 2 caps, 1 fan, 1 very light coat." The "2 caps" were two heavy cannons; the "1 very light coat" was a battalion of dragoons, the "4 pair white thread" meant four regiments of light infantry. In this code, Arnold's name was "Gustavus" and Washington's was "James."

It was discovered, however, in order to arrange for all the details of the plot, it would be necessary for Andre' and Arnold to meet. Andre' was brought up the Hudson River, September 21, 1780, on the British warship "Vulture" and rowed ashore in the dark to meet Benedict Arnold at the rendezvous, about six miles below Stony Point. Arnold and Andre' talked the night away and then adjourned to the house of Joshua Hett Smith to finish their deliberations. Smith was a Tory friend of Arnold's, and his home has come down to us as a "Treason House." When Andre' prepared to join the "Vulture" disaster struck. The "Vulture" had approached a hidden battery of guns at Teller's Point and been fired upon. Arnold then prepared two passes for Andre', using the name "John Anderson," one to go by boat to Dobbs Ferry and the other by land to White Plains. Arnold had Andre' secrete the plans and information about the defenses of West Point in his boots and (a fatal mistake) also had him remove his British uniform. Then faith Smith and his Negro servant acting as guides, Andre' set off for White Plains.

That night they were stopped by American militia. Unsuspicious, the Arnericans warned them not to travel at night for they were now entering a "no man's land" between the American and British forces. The area, they said, was infested with "Cowboys," British deserters who robbed local farmers, principally of their cattle which they sold to the British in New York. The next morning, September 23, at Pine's bridge on the Croton River, Smith turned back, afraid to go further. He drew Andre' a rough map of the way to Tarrytown and thence to Dobbs Ferry where, he assured Andre', "he would be safe." At ten o'clock that morning Major John Andre' met John Padding at the bridge in Tarrytown.

Major John Paulding, then only a lad of twenty-one, served throughout the Revolution and was twice taken prisoner by the British. A few days after his second escape from the Sugar House Jail in New York, he, Isaac Van Wert and David Williams were camped at the Tarrytown bridge. Paulding, Van Wert, Williams and four others in their party members of the New York militia, were at the moment, combining business (patrolling) with, hopefully, profit. In an effort to enlist the aid of all colonists in the war against the British (many colonists were apathetic) New York State had passed a law allowing them to keep any goods intercepted and seized from Tories trading with the enemy. This could be much more profitable than army wages, which ranged from small to zero, and accordingly the seven militiamen were on the lookout for "Cowboys" or Loyalists trading with the enemy. American thus engaged were called "Skinners."

When Andre' was stopped by Paulding he was completely deceived by the Hessian coat which Paulding had stolen in his escape and was still wearing. Searched, the incriminating plans of West Point were found in his stockings. Paulding, who alone in the American party could read, quickly recognized the meaning of the papers. Desperate, Andre' offered the men ten thousand guineas for his release. This was refused and Paulding took the captive to Colonel John Jameson at North Castle.

At this point our history books would tell us that Benedict Arnold was hanged as a traitor. But it was not to be. Colonel Jameson, not dreaming that Arnold was one of the conspirators, hastily sent a letter to Arnold telling him they had caught a spy with a pass bearing Arnold’s forged name. Arnold received the news at his headquarters the (confiscated); home of Colonel Beverly Robinson, a Tory who was serving with the British Army, Arnold fled to the "Vulture" and was quickly transported to New York to tell Clinton of the abortion.

Arnold's treachery might have gone even further than the surrender of West Point to the British for on the day of the planned British attack, September 25, Washington himself would have been at West Point and perhaps captured. Even worse, Henry Knox, chief of American artillery Baron Von Steuben, who many credit with winning the war through his drilling of the American soldiers and the Marquis de LaFayette, a great inspiration to all the troops, might well have been captured also. They had come to West Point with George Washington to inspect the fortifications. If West Point had fallen and Washington, Knox, LaFayette and Von Steuben (all Masons) killed or captured in the defense of West Point, the Revolutionary War would have ended on September 25, 1780. Benedict Arnold came within a hairbreadth of accomplishing this.

Andre was tried on September 29, with General Nathanid Green as Chairman of the Board, found guilty as a spy and sentenced to be hanged. The British tried desperately to arrange for an exchange of prisoners. The Americans, however, were interested in only one exchange prisoner - Benedict Arnold. Arnold, to his credit, offered to be exchanged for Andre, Sir Henry Clinton refused. The British had a long standing rule that deserters were never to be returned to the enemy. This, of course, was to encourage desertion. If Arnold were exchanged, no American officer would ever go over to the British.

Andre was hanged on October 2. In 1821 his body was removed from his grave at Tappan and transferred to Westminster Abby where it now rests among England's greatest.

The three who had captured Andre became national heroes.

Commending them to Congress, General Washington wrote: They have prevented our suffering one of the severest strokes that could have been meditated against us. Congress voted a silver medal for each of them, with pensions of two hundred dollars a year for life. Washington presented these medallions to the three heroes in a ceremony at Verplanck's Point in the presence of selected units of the Continental Army. At the same ceremony Paulding, Williams and Van Wert were given copies of a resolution conveying the thanks of Congress for their fidelity and the eminent services they had rendered their country." Afterwards Washington entertained the three at dinner in his tent. Later the New York State Legislature rewarded each with two hundred acres of farm land.

In 1820, just after Paulding's death, the Ohio Legislature immortalized the three heroes by giving their names to three new counties created in the north-western part of the state.

A monument, erected in 1853, marked the spot near Tarrytown where Andre was captured. In 1880 a statue and bronze plaque were added to the "Captors Monument." The statue placed atop the monument showed John Paulding wearing the Hessian coat that misled Andre.

Alexander Hamilton prophesied in 1780 that "while Andre is handed down with execration to future times. posterity will repeat with reverence the names of Pauling, Van Wert and Williams."

When Pauling died in 1818, at the age of sixty, a monument was raised to him on Gallows Hill near Peekskill with the following tribute inscribed in stone: "On the morning of the twenty-third of September, 1780, accompanied by two young farmers of the County of Westchester whose names will one day be recorded on their own deserved monuments, he intercepted the British spy Andre. Poor himself, he disdained to acquire wealth by the sacrifice of the country. Rejecting the temptation of great rewards, he conveyed his prisoner to the American camp. By his noble act of self-denial, the treason of Arnold was detected, the designs of the enemy baffled; West Point and the American Army saved; and these United States, now by the grace of God free and independent, rescued from most imminent peril.

----o----

Confusion In The Temple

THE STAGE IS SET

by Louis Williams, FPS

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, said by some historians to have been the great protector and champion of the Scottish Rite, died in 1786, but not before he was said to have issued "The Grand Constitutions of 1786," the governing code of Scottish Rite Masonry to this day. To set the stage for the adventures that follow, let us look at the condition of the world, Masonically and otherwise, in 1806, the year our story begins.

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, had brought chaos to all of Western Europe. The rise of Napoleon in 1804 brought temporary stability. The American Colonies had adopted their Constitution in 1788, and in 1806 Thomas Jefferson was filling out his second term as President. England was comparatively peaceful, and George III, having tried and failed to establish an absolute monarchy, was gradually going insane. Waterloo was nine years in the future, but under Napoleon, hundreds of Frenchmen were emigrating to foreign lands, many to the promising new colonies in the West Indies, especially San Domingo, which Spain had completely ceded to France eleven years before, in 1795. Already Stephen Morin had brought over the Lodge of Perfection in 1763; while Pierre Duplessis, another French Mason, had come into Philadelphia in 1785, where under his influence, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, was busy chartering Lodges on the island - no less than seven between 1800 and 1803. To oversee these Lodges, Pennsylvania named Antoine Dupotet as Provincial Grand Master. But all this did not happen without a price.

The chief seaport of the Colonies in those Revolutionary days was Philadelphia, also the largest city. In 1793, following a great uprising of slaves, white refugees from Haiti brought the yellow fever into Philadelphia, and in five months 4000 citizens of the city, one-tenth of the population, died. It was the greatest plague ever to scourge any American city.

While all these historical events were taking place, Masonry was experiencing its own revolutionary growth. Although England had its two Grand Lodges, the Moderns and the Ancients they were rapidly approaching the Union of 1813, and in 1806 were no longer bitterly fighting one another, as had been the case for the past half century. French Masonry had literally exploded from 1750 onward, and its adherents had been prime actors in the French Revolution. In our American Colonies a similar reaction had occurred, and under the example of our greatest Mason ever, General and President George Washington, the Fraternity was flourishing. So it was in 1806, when the greatest diversive force ever to plague Masonry in this Country arrived.

Enter the Principal Actor

Born in 1763, in the Village of Villeblevin in Central France, Joseph Cerneau trained himself to be a professional jeweler. Very early in life, in the mid 1780's, while in his 20's, Cerneau came to Saint Domingue, as it was then called. No one knows when or where he became a Mason, but all signs point to initiation in Lodge "Reunion des Coeurs Franco-Americans No. 47," in Port-au-Prince, San Domingo, which had been chartered by Pennsylvania in 1789, one year before Duplessis became Grand Secretary of Pennsylvania. But later in the 1790's, Cerneau became Secretary of this Lodge. As the Slave Rebellion became more threatening, most Frenchmen were forced to leave San Domingo, and (Cerneau in 1802, and later his mentor, Dupotet), fled to Havana, Cuba. Here they again petitioned Pennsylvania for Masonic help, and in 1804 Pennsylvania granted them a charter for Lodge No. 103, under the title of "Le Temple des Vertus, Theologales," or "The Temple of Theological Virtues," which is loosely interpreted as virtue arising through the special grace of God. They really went in for fancy Lodge names in the olden days. Perhaps we should resume the practice, And add some spice to our otherwise dull practice of naming Lodges. Cerneau was named as Charter Master of this new Lodge.

Dupotet had been active in the Lodge of Perfection, and was apparently a Deputy Inspector General - we do not know by whose authority. Nevertheless, while he and Cerneau were working together in Masonry in Cuba, he appointed Cerneau a Deputy with a patent which authorized him to found Lodges of Perfection and confer degrees from the 4th to the 24th; and once a year, one 25d, in "the Northern part of Cuba." The limitations never had any effect on our "hero."

For reasons that are still unknown to historians, Cerneau must have dabbled in politics for two years later, in 1806, the Governor of Cuba ordered Cerneau out of the country, and thus in November, 1806, Cerneau arrived in New York City, and immediately opened a shop as a jeweler, dealing especially in Masonic jewelry and supplies. In passing it may be noted that the Lodge in Cuba, was not involved, but is still working today in Havana, under the Grand Lodge of Cuba, which Castro, for some unknown reason, has permitted to exist.

A Change of Scenes

In that year, 1806, New York City was a hotbed of Masonic activity. Many prominent men were members, and all were seeking that further light that was being flashed all around them. In 1767 Francken had chartered a Lodge of Perfection in Albany. In 1781 a Lodge of Perfection was meeting in Philadelphia, where they were visited by Moses Michael Hays, who by authority of his Patent from Francken dated 1768, created eight Deputies to spread the degrees throughout seven of the colonies and the Leeward Islands.

In 1801 an historic Masonic event had occurred, destined to alter the face of Masonry in America. John Mitchell, an Irishmen, Frederick Dolcho, a Prussian, de Grasse Tilly and Jean Delahogue, two Frenchmen, united together to give birth to a new concept in Masonry - a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, covering thirty-three degrees, and superseding all preexisting rites and orders. As a motto, they adopted "Ordo ab Chao," or Order Out of Chaos," and they knew whereof they spoke, for nothing was more chaotic than the status of the Masonic higher degrees of that period. Every Tom, Dick and Harry who was in possession of any of the so-called "Higher Degrees," was peddling them for all they were worth.

No sooner had the Supreme Council in Charleston been formed in 1801, than it gave patents to de Grasse and Delahouge to establish a similar Supreme Council in the French West Indies, and they in turn in 1802 gave a patent to one Antoine Bideaud to establish Consistories over the "surface of the two hemispheres." Four years later, in 1806, Bideaud was going from San Domingo to France by way of New York. Here he found a harvest ready for the plucking.

J.G. Tardy and John James Joseph Gourgas were two bright young men, thrilled and enthused by Masonry, and avidly seeking further light. Bideaud seized the opportunity and collecting $46 each, a handsome sum in those days, Bideaud took Tardy and Gourgas and three others, and illegally constituted a "Sublime Grand Consistory, 30d, 31d, and 32d," on August 6, 1806. All this happened just three months before Joseph Cerneau landed in New York City for the first time, exiled by the Governor of Cuba, but welcomed by his Masonic brethren in the new state of New York.

Cerneau would yield in Masonic ambition to no one. He had possession of the twenty-five degrees of the Lodge of Perfection; and a patent which gave him authority to establish such bodies in Northern Cuba. What difference did that make? He was in New York City, and here was a large group of Masons yearning to receive more degrees. So in October, 1807, he established, and listen to this, - "The Most Puissant Sovereign Grand Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry, According to the Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite of Heredom, for the United States of America, its territories and dependencies." In 1813, for reasons known only to him, he changed the name of this bode to a "Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General of the Thirty Third Degree."

Others had not been idle. Abraham Jacobs had picked up various degrees here and there, and, as usual, a patent, which only certified he had certain degrees, but which he construed as giving him the right to confer them on all comers. In 1808 he established a Lodge of Perfection and a Council of Princes of Jerusalem in New York City. Thus, in 1813, there were three distinct groups of "higher degree" Masons operating in New York City: the Tardy-Gourgas group, the Cerneau group and the Jacobs group, and all were competitive. This was the situation which Emanuel De La Motta, Treasurer General of the Charleston Supreme Council, found when he entered New York in 1813, on a mission to recover his health.

De La Motta investigated, wrote back to Charleston for instructions, and was told to sort things out. He did. He first invited each group to justify itself, to which request the Jacobs and Gourgas groups immediately complied. Cerneau refused to cooperate. Next the Jacobs group was attached to the Gourgas group and regularised. Next a Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States was regularly established in accordance with the "Grand Constitution of 1786." Then when Cerneau and his presiding officer, De Witt Clinton, Grand Master of New York, persisted in their refusal to cooperate, De La Motta circulated an order denouncing Cerneau "as an imposter of the first magnitude," and expelled him from the Scottish Rite. He also declared unlawful all whom Cerneau and his associates had initiated.

The Second and Third Acts of the Drama

The fun didn't stop with De La Motta's denunciation. Cerneau had enlisted some pretty good men in his group, including De Witt Clinton, Grand Master and Mayor of New York, and later Governor; John W. Mulligan, Grand Treasurer and later Deputy Grand Master of New York; and Cadwallader Colden, Senior Grand Warden, later Mayor of New York, District Attorney and Congressman. All were Masons, and politicians of the first rank, and not to be intimidated by some fellow from South Carolina telling them how to run Masonry. The Cerneau Supreme Council continued on its merry way, with Cerneau holding the office of Grand Commander for life. In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette received the degrees from this group, but that is another story.

For the next few years, a decade or more, Masonic affairs in New York and elsewhere, moved merrily on their way. As I have previously remarked, Cerneau's Masonic ambition, as well as his audacity, knew no bounds. A new order of Masonry was being circulated called the Order of Knights Templar. It had been conferred in Boston in 1793, in Philadelphia in 1794, and in New York in 1799, and was popular and growing. So without so much as by your leave, and without ever having received the degree himself, Cerneau organized a Grand Encampment of New York in 1814. It had no subordinate bodies, but by pulling the right strings, he had it admitted into the General Grand Encampment, then being newly formed by Thomas Smith Webb of undying fame, and it is the Grand Commanders of New York to this day.

Nor was Cerneau idle in the Scottish Rite field. He travelled to Colombia and set up a Supreme Council there, as well as in Ecuador and Venezuela, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Calling himself the "United Supreme Council for the Western Hemisphere" he made Masons and 33d Masons everywhere, including such great leaders as Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America.

The Exit

What happened in 1827 to Cerneau we do not know. On September 12, 1826, William Morgan disappeared from the jail in Batavia, New York, and was never seen again. Whether this furor influenced him, or whether some other reason determined his action, nevertheless in December, 1827, Joseph Cerneau packed up bag, baggage and family, and sailed back to France. He virtually disappeared from sight, was little heard of thereafter, and is supposed to have died between 1840 and 1845. What an undistinguished end to a meteoric Masonic career. We could hope that the story would end here, but as the great poet said, "The evil that men do lives after them." Cerneau was gone, but Cerneauism continued to live out its nine lives. Subordinate bodies had been established in Rhode Island, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, several other states, as well as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Colombia. All except Louisiana and New York passed away in the Morgan anti-Masonic crisis.

In New York Elisha Hicks picked up the pieces following Cerneau's departure, and calling himself by the name Cerneau had adopted when he tried to organize South America, to-wit "The Supreme Council for the Western Hemisphere," he maintained a precarious existence for a few years. Cerneau and his successors always vigorously denied the authority of "The Grand Constitutions of 1786," as that instrument automatically made them illegal and clandestine. Hicks didn't last long. By 1835, the Grand Lodge of New York began to get interested and disturbed. So Hicks dissolved his bodies in 1846 and distributed the funds of his Supreme Council to the five or six remaining members.

The Final Chapter

But was that the end? By no means. Another great con man, in the best tradition, by the name of Henry Atwood, arrives upon the scene to take charge. He had been raised by Abraham Jacobs, whom we had previously met as peddling the degrees everywhere he could find a taker. Atwood held a patent endorsed by De Witt Clinton and Jeremy Cross. He also started to charter bodies right and left, and induced Jeremy Cross to become Sovereign Grand Commander. Cross was a cohort of Thomas Smith Webb, published a widely circulated Monitor, and is credited with the invention of the symbol of the "marble monument, consisting of a beautiful virgin weeping over a broken column." Cross soon saw his error and resigned, and Atwood again took over. He had been expelled by the Grand Lodge of New York in 1837, started his own St. John's Grand Lodge, and welcomed back into the fold in 1850 with his 25 lodges and three thousand members. Again in 1855 he was expelled, but after his death in 1860, the Grand Lodge adopted a resolution of reinstatement. To complete the record the Supreme Council revived by Atwood became the Hays Council, by mergers then the Hays-Raymond Council, and finally, in 1867, participated in The Union of 1867 with the Van Renssalaer Supreme Council, and after sixty years of irregular existence as a Cerneau body, at last attained regularity.

Not so, other offshoots of the Cerneau folly. You will recall I had stated there were branches in various states. Louisiana, because of its French background, was especially vulnerable, and had tremendous problems with various irregular Cerneau and other clandestine bodies for years. South Carolina underwent some stress, as did Iowa, and a few other jurisdictions. Albert Pike, Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction from 1859 to 1891, had made the battle of Masonry against Cerneauism one of his major commitments, and devoted much of his energy to the combat, including the publication of dozens of articles and several books excoriating the movement, and damning its proponents.

As the Nineteenth Century passed into history, so did much of the remnants of the structures erected by Joseph Cerneau and his followers. Grand Lodge after Grand Lodge outlawed them, until it was finally unanimous. The Twentieth Century shows but little recollection of what a widespread movement it was, and what devastation it wrought on the legitimate body of Freemasonry. Even as late as 1964, in an action in Allentown, Pennsylvania, brought by our own Northern Supreme Council, in a case entitled "Valley of Darby Case," a Cerneau outbreak was decided to be illegitimate, and enjoined from calling itself Masonic.

Summation

So ended the life of a man, and so ended his legacy of division and discord to our beloved Fraternity. There are scholars and historians who may, with some justice, proclaim that Cerneau was more a dupe than a charlatan; more used by more intelligent superiors than using them; more sinned against the sinning. True, he followed a practice of broadcasting his Masonic light, a practice that was used by dozens of others in the generation that immediately preceded and followed his: but none more successfully. But whereas others had promoted Masonry to its own betterment, Cerneau sowed such a wind of discord that a century of whirlwind followed. So we must conclude by saving that in all the annals of American Masonry, no name has ever exceeded that of Cerneau in the burden of discord it has brough to a Craft that is otherwise known for its practice of harmony and Brotherly Love.

----o----

Gunning Bedford, Jr.

and His Home, Lombardy Hall

by Harold J. Littleton, MPS

Story based on an article in the Delaware Heritage Commissioner Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 4, Winter, 1985

Gunning Bedford, Jr., statesman, signer of the United States Constitution, Freemason, and jurist is one of Delaware's most distinguished and colorful patriots. With nine other Gunning Bedfords in the family. Delaware's signer of the Constitution is always referred to as Gunning Bedford, Jr., to differentiate him from his grandfather, his father his son, three first cousins - including Governor Gunning Bedford who is generally called Gunning Bedford, Sr. - two second cousins, and a third cousin.

Gunning Bedford, Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1747, the fifth of eleven children. He left there when he was twenty years of age to attend Nassau Hall, which later became Princeton University. After graduating in 1771, in the company of James Madison, he returned to Philadelphia and studied law under Joseph Read, a noted lawyer. In late 1772 or early 1773 he married Jane Ballareau Parker, the daughter of James Parker, a printer who had learned his trade from Benjamin Franklin. The Bedfords had three children, none of whom married.

In 1775 General George Washington appointed Bedford to the position of Muster Master General, but little other information is available about his Revolutionary War activities.

Bedford spent a year in Dover in 1779 before moving to 606 Market Street in Wilmington. In 1784 at the age of 37, he was appointed Delaware's Attorney General. In 1789 Washington chose him as the first judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Bedford also served in the Continental Congress from 1783 until 1786.

By 1786 the government that had been established under the Articles of Confederation was floundering. Bedford, along with George Read, Jacob Broom, John Dickinson, and Richard Bassett was appointed a commissioner to meet at a convention in Annapolis. The same group was appointed the next year to be Deputies from Delaware to meet in Philadelphia for what was to become one of the most important events in our country's history - the United States Constitutional Convention.

Bedford took his seat in the Convention on May 28, 1787 and regularly attended its sessions. The account book of the auditor of the State of Delaware shows that he was paid for attending at least sixteen days. Bedford spoke out warmly in favor of a federal government whose powers should be vested in congress and withheld from the executive. He feared the undue oppression of the larger states, and he repeatedly insisted that all states should be represented equally.

At the convention on June 30, 1787. Bedford made a bold and celebrated speech in which he accused Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania of selfishness in their votes. He exclaimed, "If you possess the power, the abuse of it cannot be checked. You dare not dissolve the confederation, if you do, the small states will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and do them justice. " The speech threw the convention into a turmoil. Later Bedford tried to explain his comments by saying that he did not mean that the small states would court the aid of foreign powers, but that the federal compact should be considered intact until dissolved by the acts of the larger states. He also said, somewhat apologetically that some allowance ought to be made for the habits of his profession as a lawyer in which "warmth was natural and sometimes necessary." The larger states showed signs of weakening after hearing these sentiments so emphatically expressed. Early in July, a compromise committee headed by Benjamin Franklin, with Bedford as a member, recommended that in the second branch of Congress each state should have an equal vote. On July 16 when a vote was taken, the greatest of compromises was adopted by a narrow 5-4 vote.

Bedford returned to Dover where he used his eloquence to encourage Delaware's early ratification of the Constitution. He and Richard Bassett signed both the Constitution and Delaware's ratification document.

Gunning Bedford, Jr. was active in the fraternal and social life of Wilmington. In 1799 he was elected President of the Lyceum of Delaware, a biweekly debating society, and in 1802 he served as president of the Wilmington Academy. He is quoted as saying, "The establishment of schools for the purposes of education is on the hands justly acknowledged to be an object of the first importance." In 1806 Bedford was elected as the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Delaware. Four of the five signers of the United States Constitution from Delaware were Masons: Bedford, Broom, Dickinson, and Read.

What did Gunning Bedford look like? A Wilmington paper of 1803 described him as "a very large, stout, bony, brown horse 16 1/2 hands (5 ft. 8 in.) high." Like Chief Justice Marshall and Chancellor Ridgely of Delaware, he disliked French doctrines and habits of dress. He never adopted trousers but adhered to short breeches with knee buckles. He wore a cue with powdered hair. Another colorful description of Bedford is found in a bound volume of memoirs and papers belonging to Major William Pierce, a representative from Georgia at the Constitutional Convention. Pierce records that "Mr. Bedford was educated for the Bar, and in his profession, I am told, has merit. He is a bold and nervous Speaker, and has a very commanding and striking manner; - but he as warm and impetuous in his temper, and precipitate in his judgment. Mr. Bedford is about 32 years old [he was actually forty], and very corpulant." There is no question that he was an imposing figure.

In 1785 Judge Gunning Bedford, Jr. purchased two hundred and fifty acres of land on the Concord Pike from Charles Robinson. Included on the land was a five room stone house. A south wing was added to the house, and seven years later the Bedfords moved there. The house was equivalent to similar important houses of its day, forty-six feet by thirty feet, though it seems small today. In this house Gunning Bedford, Jr. died in 1812. His daughter Henrietta erected a monument over his remains.

Lombardy Hall remained a farm house for nearly one hundred years until it became the home of the cemetery caretaker when Lombardy Cemetery was formed. In 1967 the house was purchased by Granite Masonic Hall Company and a year later Lombardy Hall Foundation was organized to preserve and restore it. Today, after countless hours of volunteer labor and many private donations, restoration is nearing completion .

The ladies of the Crest Century Club have researched and furnished the large downstairs "ballroom" added by Bedford. One room of the original section of the house is a library including the extensive Masonic collection of the late Charles E. Green, a Delaware historian and author. Other rooms contain a variety of displays. The grounds have been landscaped by members of the Timberlane Garden Club. Tours can be arranged by writing P.O. Box 7036, Wilimington, DE 19803 or by calling (302) 655-7121, 652-4614, or 764-2128.

When the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Delaware was formed on June 6, 1806, Bedford was elected its first Grand Master although he was not actually installed until August 4, 1806. This high honor came to the 59 year old Bedford despite the fact that he had never been an officer of a subordinate lodge (he was a member of Lodge No. 14 of Pennsylvania). Bedford was initiated into Masonry on March 21, 1782, receiving his Master Mason degree on September 11, 1782. He served as Grand Master for three years during which time he chartered one new lodge (Hiram Lodge No. 6 at Buck Tavern which no longer exists). The original charter of this extinct lodge is displayed in the Grand Master's office at 818 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware. Earlier in his Masonic career Bedford was selected to deliver an oration (25 pages in length' on the death of George Washington.

----o----

The Effect of Victorian Obscenity Laws on Masonic Historians

The Philalethes Lecture for 1986

by Wallace McLeod, FPS

Part II

It seemed to me that it might be appropriate for a relaxing after dinner talk to share with you some portions of this poem of 1723, that was too obscene to reprint in 1944. It is called "The Free-Masons: An Hudibrastick Poem," and the subtitle sets it in a particular tradition. In the year 1662, a man named Samuel Butler published the first part of a poem called Hudibras, that eventually ran to over 11,000 lines. It told of the adventures of a knight-at-arms named Sir Hudibras, who was (as his name suggests) foolish and brash, hybristic and brazen; the name comes from Spenser, Faerie Queene 2.2.17 (see John Wilders, editor, Samuel Butler: Hudibras, Oxford, 1967, page 322). The poem became quite popular, and gave rise to a whole series of imitations over the next century, all of them paying tribute to their source by being called hudibrastick (see Edward Ames Richards, Hudibras in the Burlesque Tradition, New York 1737, pp. 171-178; Richard P. Bond, English Burlesque Poetry 1700-1750, 1932, repr. N.Y. 1961, pp. 232-453).

There are five particular characteristics of hudibrastick verse:

First. the metre which is rhymed iambic tetrameter.

Secondly, the rhymes, which are often grotesque; as for example.

There was an ancient sage Philosopher

That had read Alexander Ross over,

And swore the world, as he could prove,

Was made of Fighting and of Love:

Just so Romances are, for what else

Is in them all, but Love and Battels?

Thirdly, the satirical and unsympathetic treatment of certain real classes of people; thus, the original Hudibras was aimed particularly at the religious debates of its time. Butler says, in speaking of his hero:

For his religion it was fit

To match his Leaming and his Wit:

'Twas Presbyterian true blew,

For he was of that stubborn Crew

Of Errant Saints, whom all men grant

To be the true Church militant....

A Sect, who chief Devotion lies

In odde perverse Antipathies.

And again

What makes all Doctrines Plain and Clear?

About two Hundred Pounds a Year.

Fourthly, the humour, of word, of rhyme, and of situation.

Fifthly, the obscenity, which is not particularly gross, but which employs plain speaking for satirical purposes.

Then mounted both upon their Horses.

But with their faces to the Arses.

Our poem of 1723 tries to fit the pattern: the metre is right, and a few of the rhymes are appropriately violent; for example, when a Mason has passed his test, we're told,

He's mark'd upon the Buttock right,

With red-hot Iron, out of sight,

To shew that he dares then defy all

And well can stand the fiery Trial:

By this the Mason's always known

Whene'er his Breeches are pull' d down.

Some likewise say our Masons now

Do Circumcision undergo,

For Masonry's a Jewish Custom,

And by this means they all will thrust home.

Of course, satire is present, for the poem treats the Freemasons in a mocking and unsympathetic way. But, alas, it Is neither very funny, nor very obscene.

The author has divided his poem into sections.

First comes a brief Introduction, in which the author announces that he is at last going to reveal the secrets of the Masons, so long concealed.

All Kingdoms have their Masons-Free,

Which help to form Society;

By Signs and Marks they'll know each other,

In num'rous Crowds spy out a Brother;

They have their Laws, and Orders good

To Govern o'er the Brotherhood,

That ne'er have been, in Ages past

Divulg'd, 'till now found out at last:

But here at length the Secret's shown

And faithfully to all made known.

There follows a brief History, telling how the Masonic signs and regulations were devised. Actually, he says, they originated at the Tower of Babel.

IF Hist'ry be no ancient Fable,

Free Masons came from Tower of Babel

When first that Fabrick was begun,

The Greatest underneath the Sun

All Nations thither did repair,

To build this great Castle in th' Air.

Hundreds of men, the author tells us, were employed in this great project, but it was never completed; as fast as it was built, it collapsed. Finally the workers all decided to return to their own homes, but in order that they might be able to recognize each other for ever after, even if they spoke different languages, they framed certain distinguishing signs and marks. And so that they might restrict these secrets to their own people, they agreed until the end of time to keep the various Rules and Orders relating to the Mason Trade, and they devised a solemn Oath for this purpose.

This business about the Tower of Babel is interesting because it reflects a genuine Masonic tradition, found in the old manuscript constitutions, and going back before the year 1400. One text, the Roberts pamphlet, was published in London in 1722, and it actually says that "at the Tower of Babylon, Masonry was much made [of]." But even before this date the connection was known to non-Masons as well; thus, "a Scottish letter of 1697 states that masons believe the Mason Word to be as old as Babel where they could not understand one another, and communicated by signs" (Douglas Knoop and G.P. Jones, The Genesis of Freemasonry, Manchester, 1947; reprinted London, 1978, page 277, which also cites the Briscoe pamphlet of 1724, and an exposure of 1754).

Next we have a section explaining how Modern Masons differ from those of earlier times. Their Working Tools are no longer put to use in building buildings.

BUT since, 'tis found, the Masons-Free,

Which in our modern Times we see,

Workmen are of another kind,

To Sport they're more than Toil inclin'd,

They have no Trowels, nor yet Lines,

But still retain their Marks and Signs

And Tools they've got which always fit,

A Lady, Dutchess, or a Cit....

"A cit." that is, a female citizen - a tradeswoman or a shopkeeper. We observe that this equation, in which certain portions of the anatomy are compared to the Masonic Working Tools, was used a generation later in a poem sometimes ascribed to Rabbie Burns, and quoted by Robin Carr in last August's issue of the Philalethes.

Anyway, to continue with our poem, the task of modern Masons is no longer to build buildings, but to build human bodies. And is this task, their skill and workmanship surpasses that used in the building of the Tower of Babel and the steeple of Salisbury Cathedral. It goes without saying that this section was not reprinted in the Victorian text.

Next we learn how Masons are approved as worthy of being admitted to the fraternity.

OUR modern Workmen naked stand,

Their Clothes untruss'd by Female Hand,

And after they've a Flogging bore,

(But not by Jilt or common Whore)

When once they're to their Building mov'd

The Members then are strait approv'd

By lusty Females, who're best Judges

Of working Tools for Nature's Drudges.

Then after the candidate has passed the test, as we have seen, he is branded on his posterior - with the Letter M, no doubt standing for Mason.

Then we are told how the new Mason is clothed and "installed";

WHEN thus the Masons have been stript,

And well Approv'd, and Mark'd, and Whipt,

They strait are Rigg'd from Top to Toe

And dress'd as fine as any Beau,

With Gloves and Apron made of Leather,

A Sword, Long-Wig, and Hat, and Feather

Like mighty Quixote then they swagger,

And manfully they draw the Dagger,

To prove that they're all Men of Mettle.

Can Windmills fight, and Treaties settle.

Then the new brother is required to swear upon the Bible that he'll never reveal the Secrets of Free-Masonry. This is a dim reflection of reality. The Masonic oath of secrecy is reported in manuscript texts as early as 1760 (Douglas Knoop, G.P. Jones, and Douglas Hamer, Early Masonic Catechisms, Manchester, 1943; 2nd edition, revised by Harry Carr, London, 1963; page 8). A version of it was published in 1722 in the Roberts pamphlet. Next the candidate is required to kiss the posterior of the Brother that was last made before him. And then,

A learned Speech is then held forth

Upon the Breech, and Mason's Worth;

And he's Installed at last compleat,

And led down to his Mason's Seat.

It is interesting to note that the poem uses the word "installed" where we would say "initiated." This probably proves, if proof were needed, that the author is not himself a Mason. From time immemorial the word "installed" has been a Masonic technical term for putting the Master of the Lodge in the Chair of King Solomon (see, e.g., Anderson's Constitutions of 1723, page 72; but the usage is older.) No Mason would ever use it accidentally when he meant "initiated," or "made a freemasons;" and both these terms were current about this date.

The author dwells at length on further details concerning the mason's kiss. In the first place, he says, the posterior, by being kissed, can be said to promote Society. In the second place - a somewhat sordid passage - it may well be that the person whose rump is being kissed may suffer from flatulence.

And if it haps, by Accident.

The lower End must needs have Vent,

He that can best a Brewer bear.

If it does not his Face besmear,

Is still the most indulgent Mason.

And the reason for all this, it's said, is to aid in keeping the secrets; for nobody in his right mind will boast of having given the Mason kiss.

Then the poem discusses the various subjects of masonic research. It turns out that every lodge has its own library. These include a bit of philosophy, but most of the collection consists of various well known works which concern sexual impropriety. Some are mild literary pornography from the Restoration period. Others deal with various sexual aberrations.

This is the Library of those,

Who're now amongst Free Masons chose:

And these can ne'er of Knowledge fail,

Who pry in Secrets of the Tail.

The next topic of concern is the subject of Masonic Toasts. Masons of course are well known to be very serious drinkers:

They drink, carouse, like any Bacchus

And swallow strongest Wines that rack us;

And then it is they lay Foundation

Of Masonry, to build a Nation.

They drink various toasts, but their favourite is to Sally Salisbury, the noted Prostitute, who at this time was in Prison for stabbing a young Gentleman. Then they drink various other healths down, finally, to the Royal Sovereign.

And then at last we come to the meaning of Masonic Signs:

And now the goodly Task remains,

To shew how 'tis they've rack'd their Brains,

To find out Marks and speaking Signs,

Which each within his Breast confines.

In all there are six signs. First is the outstretched arm.

WHEN once a Man his Arm forth stretches

It Masons round some Distance fetches;

Altho' one be on Paul's Great Steeple,

He strait comes down amongst the People.

It doesn't matter if the man who makes the sign proposes to ride a hundred Miles, or hasten to the ancient city of York, or even if he gets the mad idea of going on board ship, the brother to whom he has signalled must still go with him.

And this is Fellowship indeed,

Where they thus mutually proceed:

All Hazards run, without a Slip,

Risque Life and Limb in Partnership.

The interesting thing here is the mention of a mason sign that will summon a brother from the top of a steeple. This is a recurrent piece of folklore (EMP 10). In 1686 Robert Plot, a non-Mason, wrote a description of Masonry, in which he says, "If any man appear .... that can shew any of these signes to a Fellow of the Society, . . he is obliged presently to come to him from what company or place soever he be in,. nay tho' from the top of a Steeple.... to know his pleasure, and assist him" (EMP 32). Likewise, an old manuscript in the British Library, dating to about 1700, professes to reveal the various masonic secrets, and says, "By the aforementioned sign of the hat or hand you are to come if it were from the top of a Steeple to know their pleasure and to assist them" (EMC 46). Again, a printed pamphlet of 1724 includes "A short dictionary explaining the private signs, or signals, us'd among the free-masons," and the first of them runs as follows: "[For] a Member to touch the Right Leg as he goes along the Streets, brings a Member (if he sees him) from his Work on the Top of a Steeple" (EMP 126).

We note that at least three different signs are mentioned. Perhaps one may be genuine, but I leave it to you to determine which.

The second sign is the raised finger.

A MASON, holding up his Finger,

Shews he has got below a Swinger...

And that the Mason is preparing,

To drink and whore, and not be sparing.

This or course was not in the Victorian reprint.

The third sign is the wink; it signifies that the Mason will soon be ready to engage in typical Masonic activity:

To exercise and play the Man.

For Lady or [for] Courtezan.

The fourth sign, the nod, indicates that the Mason is absolutely ready to begin building at once, after his own fashion.

The fifth sign, a shrug, indicates that the Mason is not in a suitable condition to carry out his trade.

A SHRUG is Mark of foul Disgrace,

For when 'tis given, this is the Case

Of Mason, that his Building fair

Is worn, and out of due Repair;

But when 'tis fallen, all is not in vain,

For it at length will rise again.

And the sixth and last sign: if a Mason swings his arm, this indicates that he is in a masochistic mood, and wants his female partner to beat him with a birch rod until she draws blood.

Having covered some of the Marks and Signs used by Masons, our author then says that he will go on to talk about the messages and letters which Masons send to each other. Even though they are not

... writ upon, [they] yet make known

The greatest Secrets of the Town.

First come letters. They are of two kinds. One sent to a brother Mason is to arrange a drinking party.

A MASON! when he needs must drink,

Sends Letter, without Pen and Ink,

Unto some Brother, who's at hand,

And does the Message understand;

The Paper's of the Shape that's square,

Thrice-folded with the nicest care;

For if 'tis round (which ne'er it ought)

It will not then be worth a Groat...

And in it there must never be

Least writing which the Eye may sees

For it must prove as empty ever,

As are their Pates under the Beaver. . .

The message consists of a piece of paper that is square, not round. This seems to be a misunderstanding of a genuine secret, for a manuscript of about 1700 (that we've already mentioned) writes as follows: "Another signe is by lending you a crooked pin or a bit of paper cut in the form of a Square on receipt of which you must come from what place or company soever you are in by virtue of your oaths (EMC 46). The square again: but this time it must be the mason's square! Another published exposure, that appeared in 1756, but claimed to give procedures of about 1727, says: "To send for another mason, he does it by folding a piece of paper, with a square point folded in at the corner. . ." (EMC 104). Once again, the square!

Completed Next Issue

----o----

Campanella's  City of the Sun

by Leon Zeldis, MPS

Thomas Campanella was born in 1568 in Stilo, a village in Italy's Calabria region. At an early age (13 or 14 years old) he joined the Dominican order, where he remained until the end of his life.

He was a great admirer of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in whose honor he adopted the name Thomas (his real name was John). However, throughout his life he struggled valiantly against Aristotelic and scholastic doctrines, of which Saint Thomas is perhaps the best exponent.

Campanella was a prolific writer, who started writing at the age of nineteen. Before long, he found himself in difficulties with church authorities, due to his open and inquisitive mind, and his admiration for the progress of the sciences. He believed himself destined to conciliate Christian and scientific beliefs.

In his writings Campanella stresses that only through our senses can we reach an understanding of the real world and of nature. Thus, he contradicted the aristotelic and scholastic position, based on blind faith and the deduction of truth from an analysis of sacred and theoretical writings, without recourse to reality.

In 1596 he was already condemned, in an ecclesiastical trial, to be returned to his native Calabria, as punishment for having abandoned his monastery and, among other transgressions, having sought the company of a rabbi called Abraham, magician and astrologer, who presumably introduced Campanella to occultism. He also stood accused of having taken books from the library without previous authorisation.

The young Calabrian was famished for knowledge. His intellectual appetite knew no bounds. As he himself declared, he had studied all schools of philosophy, Pythagorean, Stoic, Epicurean, Perpipatetic, Platonic, Thelesian, and so on. It was not empty bragging. In his writings, Campanella reveals an amazing knowledge of the most diverse subjects.

Like others at the time, Campanella believed that the world was approaching the millenium, that the second coming of Christ was at hand, and that a total revolution in the order of things was inevitable, bringing also a fundamental change in the church, which at the time was struggling against the progress of protestantism in Europe. The revolution Campanella expected would find expression in all spheres of life, including philosophy, science and politics.

Philosophy, in his view, should turn to things and abandon words, that is to say, seek the testimony of nature rather than opinions and grant the senses the primary role in the process of knowledge, incorporating all those new discoveries which Campanella so admired.

He detested abstract speculation. As an example, Campanella quoted Zenon's denial of movement, which the senses prove irrefutably. Luther, he says, rejects human freedom, based on the doctrine of predestination, but this quill I hold in my hand - who can deny that it is in my power to move it or not to move it, to write with it or not to write?

Campanella's aspirations and sense of wonder at the marvels of the modern age now opening are summed up in his observation, in "The City of the Sun," that "this our age has more history in a hundred years than had the world in four thousand, and in this hundred years, more books have been made than in five thousand." The writer takes the recent geographical and scientific discoveries, the New World, the magnetic compass, the printing press, firearms, as signs and portents of the approaching millenium.

In the year 1600 another original Italian thinker, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake for heresy. Campanella did not suffer the same fate, but he languished in prison for many years and suffered the tortures of the inquisition. His last years were spent in a monastery of his order in France, where he died in 1639.

"The city of the Sun" was written in Italian in 1602, while Campanella was imprisoned. Probably, he began writing the book while he recuperated from the inquisition's "interrogation." The book appeared in print for the first time in Frankfurt, translated into Latin, the international scholarly language at the time, in 1623. A second edition, also in Latin, was printed in Paris in 1637. The first edition of the Italian original had to wait until 1904.

In this book, Campanella describes an ideal society in a state close to nature. The work is in the form of a dialogue, between a ship's pilot, called Columbus's pilot, and a Hospitaler knight, that is, a brother in the order of Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem.

As we know, Saint John has a close connection with Freemasonry. Symbolic Lodges are dedicated to Saint John, and many Lodges all over the world celebrate solsticial feasts dedicated to the two Saint Johns (the Baptist and the Evangelist), whose anniversaries, on June 24 and December 27, correspond to the solstices.

The city of the Sun is in the island of Ceylon. Here is Campanella's description: "The city is distributed in seven very large circles, named for the seven planets; that is, according to the ancients, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn and one moves from one to the other through four roads, and four gates facing the four angles of the world." This corresponds quite well with the traditional description of the Masonic Lodge, with its four walls oriented towards the four cardinal points. We also recall the three gates of the Temple mentioned in Masonic legends.

In the center of the city rises a Temple, perfectly round, with an altar in the center. Compare this with the altar in the Masonic Temple, which is at the center of a circle, as represented in the First Degree T.B.

"On the altar there is nothing but a large world map which has painted all the stars, and another with the earth." Again, the connection with Masonic iconography is surprising. In European Lodges, it is customary to place a world globe on top of Column B and a celestial globe or armillary sphere on top of Column J.

"There are seven lamps always burning, named for the seven planets." As we know, the ceiling of tie Lodge is decorated with seven stars, which also appear in the First Degree T.B. The analogy between lamps and stars is obvious.

The City is governed by a prince called Sun or the Metaphysician, assisted by three collateral princes named Pon, Sin and Mor, which means Power, Wisdom and Love. Once again, the parallelism with Continental Masonic tradition is amazing. The Lodge, as we know, is governed by the three main officers: W.M., Senior and Junior W., who represent Wisdom. Power (or strength) and Beauty, equivalent to Love, since Campanella includes in the duties of Love ruling the arts and crafts, as well as the reproduction of the city's inhabitants following eugenic principles.

Power, wisdom and love are for Campanella the three "primaries" which constitute or, in his word, "essencify" a thing. Although separate entities, they are in fact the same and are identical with the essence. A similar concept we find in the Masonic tradition, when speaking of the three "lights" of the Lodge, or even in a stronger fashion, in the Royal Arch, where opening and closing the Chapter requires the joint effort of three Principals.

We should also note that, the same as the City's ruler is called the Sun, the three principal officers of the Lodge represent the Sun in its celestial course: the W.M. stands for the rising sun, the Sr. W. for the setting sun, and the Jr. W for the sun at its meridian. The clockwise movements habitual within the Lodge also imitate the apparent course of the sun in the northern hemisphere.

Let us proceed with the description of the city and its inhabitants: "all the young men are called brothers." All the inhabitants of the city have work to do. Campanella writes. "Each desires to be the first in his work," and he is considered more noble whoever learns more and better the arts."

Freemasonry's appreciation of the value of work is well known. Masonic meetings are called in many languages "works" ("travail," "trabajo," "arbeit"). Meetings are called from refreshment to world and so on. This conception of work is diametrically opposed to that contempt for manual work, prevalent in Medieval Europe. As Campanella writes: "They, the Solarians, laugh at us, who call artisans ignoble, and we say they are noble who never learn any trade and are idle."

Solarians, the inhabitants of the City of the Sun, dress in white all day, and by night they wear red. White and red are also the colors of Masonic aprons in the Scottish Rite.

Solarians do not have slaves. "If foreigners desire to become citizens, they are tested for a month... and then they decide, and receive them with certain ceremonies, and oaths."

The Sun, also called the Metaphysician, (that is, what we would call a philosopher), presides as architect over all sciences." Campanella is not the first to give the character of architect to the supreme ruler, but his identification of architect with the sun is original.

There are twenty-four priests in the Temple, singing praises to God at midnight, noon, by the morning and by Light. The number 24, of course, is connected with the 24 hours of the day, and the 24-inch ruler. 'Prayers are made towards the four horizontal angles of the world. By morning, first towards the east, then the west, then the south, and then the north." If we take the first three directions, we find they correspond to the order of salutations in the Scottish Rite, when a brother comes into the Lodge.

"Their four principal feasts are four, that is, when the sun enters Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn." That is to say, they celebrate solstices and equinoxes.

While profoundly religious, Campanella places his trust on reason. The soul, for him, participates in the Eternal Reason of God. It is but a manifestation of the Divinity. Campanella believes that there is a natural religion common to all men. Rites and ceremonies may differ from one society to another: they are accidental, adapted to the needs of each society.

Solarians believe in the immortality of the soul. "They make of being, which is God, and nothingness, which is the lack of being, the metaphysical principles of things." This is the fundamental duality of life, represented in the Lodge by the black-and-white pavement.

Campanella mentions the appearance of a new star in Cassiopaea "which announces a great new monarchy and reforms of the law and the arts, and prophets, and renewal."

The same theme appeared a few years later in the Rosicrucian manifesto of 1614, the Fama Fraternitatis, where new stars in Serpentarius and Cygnus are also mentioned, with the same millenarian interpretation, that they announce the opening of a new era and a general reformation of the world.

The author of one of the early Rosicrucian treatises, the "Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz," was Johann Valentin Andraea, who was also the author of an utopian book which is almost a copy of the City of the Sun (the "Description of the Republic of Christianopolis"), published in Strasboury in 1619, that is, before Campanella's book had appeared in print. There is no doubt that Andraea had read Campanella's work in manuscript. This only confirms the close relations then existing between philosophers in different parts of Europe, who were writing and sometimes actively pursuing millenarian objectives by political means.

Frances Yates assumes that Campanella was informed of hermetic and cabalistic traditions. There is some evidence that European alchemists and cabalists of the 16th and 17th centuries were in close contact, and perhaps united in some sort of secret organization, of an informal nature, probably but allowing them to exchange information and discoveries. The Rosicrucian movement had undoubtedly that character, and even if the original R.C. brethren were mythical, as some authors maintain, the fact is that many thinkers were attracted by the principles exposed in the manifestos of 1614 and 1615, tried to join the order, and turned into propagandists of Rosicrucian doctrines.

Campanella, like other Renaissance figures, was influenced by the Jewish Cabala and tried to adapt it to Christian thought. This Christian Cabala, exemplified by Pico de la Mirandola and Francesco Giorgi, also incorporated elements of hermetic philosophy, that is, relating to the books attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, translated into Latin at that time.

This combination of Cabala, magic and alchemy then, received a new impulse under the form of Rosicrucianism at the beginning of the 17th century. Rosicrucians failed in the continent but some Rosicrucian thinkers found refuge in England, where the R.C. Manifestos were translated into English at the time of Cromwell. The time of the Civil War in England was a time of intellectual, social and theological effervescence. All kinds of revolutionary and anti-religious movements and organizations were born. Craft guilds also had a part in this activity. As some observers wrote, "the world was turned upside down". In those circumstances, it would have been a simple matter for cabalist-magicians and Rosicrucians to join some of the organisations which had sprung up. Later, the fierce reaction against magic and Cabala would have provided new incentives for hermetic philosophers to join Masonic lodges, which had started accepting non-operative members, and thus escape the dangerous malevolence of the public eve.

We are entering a shadowy terrain, based more on speculation then on historic proof. However, students of Masonic history must go resolutely into this area if we wish to reveal the sources and meaning of our Craft.

Campanella must take a place of honor, as one of the ideological forerunners of our Order. "The city of the Sun" provides a few of the threads that we shall find later woven in the design of that incredibly complicated tapestry called Freemasonry.

Bibliography

1. Quotes from The City of the Sun have been translated by the author from the Spanish version, translated from the Italian by Emilio G. Estebanez, Zero, Madrid 1984. Some of the remarks concerning Campanella's philosophy reflect the commentaries of Estebanez.

2. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1978.

3. Frances Yates, The Occult Philosophy, Ark Paperbacks. London 1985.

4. Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Paladin. London 1975.

5. Christopher Hill. The World Turned Upside Down, Penguin Books, London 1984

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RABBONAI

A Commentary on the Masonic Implications of the Word

by N. Tracy Walker, MPS

The word "rabbonai' occupies a unique position in our masonic vocabulary, yet the literature relating to the word, and to the Most Excellent Master degree wherein it comes to our attention, is extremely thin. A great need exists for scholarly additions to that literature - particularly in the areas of historical development and philosophical definition. However, this paper will limit itself to a consideration of certain ramifications implicit in several of the unique aspects of the word.

Every degree now under the control of a recognized rite in the United States contains one or more words which are central to the communication of that degree. Such words are usually characterized as principal and/or pass words, and are always indispensable elements of the degree - in some instances being the only really essential element. Generally, they allude to phenomena central to the theme of the degree, to physical objects associated with the degree or its setting, to places or personalities celebrated in connection with the events of the degree, to moral issues promulgated in the degree, and the like. In many instances the association of word and degree is remote, but an effort is always made to establish a relationship between them.

Within this large and diverse lexicon, only the word 'rabbonai' entails connotations which are personally and intimately meaningful to the candidate. In all other degrees the candidate, having passed through the experience of the degree, is instructed regarding the word or words associated with it. This instruction normally consists of a simple disclosure of a secret to which he has become entitled, accompanied by a more or less detailed explanation of its relationship to the degree. His competence to share the secret rests upon his promise that he will not disclose it unlawfully, presumably reinforced by the moral instruction imparted through the lesson of the degree.

In the Most Excellent Master degree, however, the system of disclosure of the word is unique in American masonry. Here the word is communicated almost as an expletive. It is revealed to the candidate personally, directly dramatically, aloud, in full - and without the slightest attempt at concealment or diffusion. The disclosure of the word is inextricably interwoven into the action of the degree, and is made by the representative of King Solomon, unequivocally announced to be such. It is delivered to a candidate clothed in the character of a craftsman with whom Solomon had long been associated in the progress of a complex and ennobling endeavor. Its revelation is a manifestation of the exuberance consequent to the successful completion of that endeavor, and is a vindication of the sacrifice which it entailed.

These circumstances imply that special trust and confidence have been reposed in the candidate as a product of arduous trial - a new and special relationship has arisen between him and the fraternity. He bears the mark of distinction, for 'rabbonai' is not a secret to be gained by a simple promise to worthy, but by a proven and demonstrated right to share. Thus, the disclosure of this word represents the highest possible reward - the granting of responsibility through confidence in the recipient's capacity to exercise it. And what is that responsibility? It is that of the teacher, which is the basic meaning of the word 'rabbonai.'

This duty is emphasized again and again in the Most Excellent Master degree, and in a manner which presupposes the competence of the candidate to meet the responsibility. The degree offers no pedagogic instruction because it presumes such instruction to be superfluous; the candidate is viewed as having completed his training phase and is now cast in a new role. As such, he is not made privy to yet another secret word, but instead is vested with a personal title to be proudly shared with all who qualify for it. It is a title which distinguishes a man actively engaged in an important human endeavor. It is a generic title which asserts technical qualification in an intellectually-based profession - it suggests wisdom and learning - akin to doctor, judge, professor, or priest.

Even as the Most Excellent Master degree does not provide instruction for the role of teacher, it likewise does not impart new accretions to the candidate's store of basic Masonic knowledge. In lieu of adding to his fund of technical craftsmanship, the degree bears witness to his masonic maturity, and confers the title 'rabbonai' as the seal of that maturity. The drama of the decree presumes that the candidate enjoys full technical capability and is actively engaged in the exercise thereof. Accordingly, he is not given a word to enable him to prove his proficiency in a specific aspect of his craft, but he is vested with a public, universally-recognized title which certifies his overall competence to practice his profession in any and all places and circumstances. For 'rabbonai' means more than teacher; it carries a parallel avouchment of operative proficiency which is expressed in the phrase 'most excellent master.'

Several features of the Most Excellent Master degree amplify the concept of the completion of training in craft masonry. Since the degree does not add to the candidate's fund of technical lore, no new working tools are placed in his hands. In seeking admission to the lodge, he does not implore promotion through a willingness to submit passively to having a sequence of actions performed upon him; on the contrary he actively solicits a reward which has become his right through merit. He asks to be received and acknowledged, implying that his achievements have already been sufficient to demand distinction, and he now calls upon the fraternity to visit that distinction upon him.

The most significant feature, however, is that he is not received upon some instrument of the craft of whose proper application he is then in ignorance, but upon the most advanced and sophisticated product of his craftmanship. It is one with which he has had personal experience, which has caused him personal anxiety and travail, whose history and importance are familiar to him, and which he recognizes as the crowning conception of a genius whom he venerates. The keystone, in short, is his master's piece, representing the ultimate artistry of his craft, and his proficiency in the manual skills of his vocation is certified by his reception upon it.

The candidate then demonstrates his understanding of the particular in relation to the whole by seating the keystone to complete the last arch - the climactic act of his career in craft masonry. Parenthetically, he should perform this act himself rather than watch another perform it on his behalf, and the process should call for the use of all the working tools with which he has become adept in craft masonry. This can be done, and in some places is being done, with much greater significance for the candidate.

Having completed this final labor, the candidate removes his apron in token of the completion of his formal student period, and sees his mastery of his profession hailed in the ceremonies of the dedication of the temple. The degree then takes on the character of a commencement exercise as the candidate is charged with the duty to dispense light and masonic knowledge as a condition to receiving the power to travel, world and receive master's wages - which is to say, to practice. By the resumption of his apron, he indicates his acceptance of the dual role of teacher and architect; and by this act he actually becomes 'rabbonai.'

Finally, the subsequent importance of this word is another of its unique aspects. In all other degrees of masonry, the words have significance only to the degree in which they occur. The word pertaining to an Entered Apprentice is significant only to Entered Apprentices, and means nothing to Fellowcrafts except as they are working in the character of Entered Apprentices. In no case does a word pertaining to one degree command consideration or justify admission to any other degree; it merely enables a brother to prove himself to be of the grade to which it pertains.

Not so with 'rabbonai.' Alone among such words, 'rabbonai' provides the key to advancement in grade. Only by the use of this word does the candidate gain admission into a chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and only by it is he enabled to surmount the challenges which confront him as he strives to be permitted to participate in the labors of Royal Arch Masons. Having survived those challenges, it is as a Most Excellent Master that he engages in these labors which ultimately earn exaltation.

Significantly in other degrees the candidate is ignorant of the key which will merit promotion - it is vouchsafed on his behalf by an associate who has confidence in his character and capacity. Relying upon such evaluation, the brethren admit him to participation. But as a Most Excellent Master, the candidate for the Royal Arch degree possesses the key to advancement - he has the pass - he is confident of its efficacy, and his confidence is justified since it gains him exaltation. Just as only the intrinsic worth of a man entitles him to an understanding of the ultimate mysteries, so exaltation is not dependent upon the sponsorship of others, but springs from the individual merit of the candidate. The key to his destiny is in his own hands and flows from his demonstrated character and personal achievements; these are attested in one word - 'rabbonai.'

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Of The Civil Magistrates

by L.L. Walker, Jr., MPS

As Americans, we are, almost all of us, the descendants of people who at one time or another have, by force, sought to challenge the established government of the land.

We are a nation born of revolution: not a gentlemanly, bloodless coup, but a long and often bloody series of military engagements fought over the length and breadth of Colonial America.

Philosophically, the American system rests upon the idea that, whenever government ceases to be responsive to the desires and needs of its people, the people may take affirmative action to change the nature of that government. The Declaration of Independence is a rationale of that philosophy, finely crafted by the best American minds of that day. Whatever other meaning we have given to it with the passing of the years, it was and is a revolutionary document, and the men who put their signatures to it were, from that moment, rebels.

The military success of the conflict which inevitable followed made these same men patriots. Failure would have made them at best exiles, or at worst traitors hanging upon Tyburn for the edification of the English people.

Once their new nation was established, however, these same men soon found that rebellion is not always directed against foreign tyrants and that oppression, real or fancied, may well be a domestic commodity. One can imagine with what heavy heart George Washington ordered the suppression of what we since have come to call Shav's Rebellion, that pathethic struggle of Revolutionary War veterans against what they thought to be economic injustice. He must have suffered, too, in the necessity of putting down the Whiskey Rebellion which, like the war so recently ended was directed toward supposed unfair taxation.

In the scales of history the Texas Revolution weighs no more than a feather. Limited in scope and of short duration, this revolution nevertheless bore marked resemblance to the greater one before it, and it is not surprising that the leaders raised ideas and issues which had well served their forefathers. The foe was a far more sanguinary one, and no man who fought at San Jacinto could have been in any doubt of his fate in the event of defeat. The dead at Goliad and the Alamo were reminders enough.

The true and lasting consequences of the Texas Revolution were another decade in coming, for it was not until the western boundary of the American nation was fixed for posterity that the people realized the significance of that revolution. For the moment it merely demonstrated again the willingness of Americans to change by force that which they could not change otherwise.

Perhaps it was because the Civil War involved so many Americans and because its aftermath was felt so long, but, whatever the reason, our nation seems to have developed a somewhat ambivalent view of the rebel. We have made heroes of rebels who have both won and lost. We venerate Washington and Jefferson, but we hold Lee and Jackson in scarcely less honor. The leaden and the followers of the Confederacy were for a time denied citizenship, but they were not hanged for their rebellion, as they might well have been in other countries, and for the better part of a century the American people almost self-consciously sought to ignore the more unpleasant implications of the tern "rebel."

Masonically, something of this same attitude toward rebellion and revolt is clearly reflected in Article II of "The Charges of A Freemason," that venerable document which is an integral part of the Constitution of our own Grand Lodge and which is said to have been, "Extracted from the Ancient Records of Lodges beyond the sea, and of those in England, Scotland and Ireland, for the use of Lodges in London; to be read at the making of new Brethren, or when the Master shall order it."

This Article, entitled "Of the Civil Magistrates," Supreme and Subordinate," represents the effort of the Craft to accommodate themselves to temporal authority while at the same time preserving the freedom of the will and conscience which they deemed to be the right of every Mason. The Article deserves to be quoted in its entirety:

"A Mason is to be a peaceable subject to the civil powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in plots and conspiracies against the peace and welfare of the nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior magistrates; for as Masonry hath been always injured by war, bloodshed and confusion, so ancient kings and princes have been much disposed to encourage the Craftsmen, because of their peaceableness and loyalty, whereby they practically answered the cavils of their adversaries, and promoted the honor of the Fraternity, who ever flourished in times of peace.

"So that if a Brother be a rebel against the State, he is not to be countenanced in his rebellion, however, he may be pitied as an unhappy man; and, if convicted of no other crime, though the loyal brotherhood must and ought to disown his rebellion, and give no umbrage or ground of political jealousy to the government for the time being, they cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his relation to it remains indefeasible."

Whether we should take all this at face value, as a literal rendering of history, is to be doubted. Instead, we must read it against the background of thought prevailing in England at the time it was written. Since there seems to be extant no documents from which the foregoing text can be said to have been "extracted," it must be supposed that the text as we have it was written in its entirety by Dr. James Anderson around the end of the second decade of the 18th century. If that supposition be a valid one, then we can reasonable project the social and historical setting of the time of the writing.

The Puritan Revolution Cromwell, the Commonwealth, and the execution of Charles I, were events scarcely more than seventy-five years past. The Restoration and the reigns of Charles II and the militant Catholic James II, were even more recent. The Glorious Revolution, the ascent to the throne of William and Mary, and with it the demise of the idea of the divine right of kings, were events within the memory of men then living. What is more, it seems almost certain that at least some of the Masons of that day may have been the descendants of rebels, men who may well have died for their convictions.

Although Anderson made claim that his 'Charges' had their origins in ancient times and in "Lodges beyond the seas," he could draw on no historical precedent, either in England or elsewhere, more ancient than the generations which immediately preceded his own.

England had survived revolution in both its basest and most glorious forms. She had known rebels both vile and virtuous, but she had also known beneficial change which could not have taken place without rebellion. History, therefore, seemed to confirm the role of the rebel in the order of things, and no man could be sure that rebellion might again be the order of the day. It is not surprising then that Masons of the early 18th century - men who exulted in the freedom of the human spirit, and who may well have had an eve to their own futures should have looked upon the rebellious Brother as they did.

The second paragraph of Article II seems eager to assure the reader that, "the loyal brotherhood must and ought to disown ... rebellion, and give no umbrage or ground of political jealousy to the government . . . " . It seems to say that the Craft does not foment or even countenance revolution; all this by way of protestation of the loyal and peaceable nature of Masonry in the land. But, it adds that, if a Brother in the exercise of his own conscience should be persuaded to rebellion and has not been convicted of any other crime, he cannot be expelled from the lodge. He may be pitied or censured, his political sentiments may be denounced, but he cannot be expelled simply by reason of his rebellion.

The full modern impact of this position can best be felt when it is realized that legally, rebellion is tantamount to treason. Article 3 of the United States Constitution defines treason in this manner: "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Constructive treason, which is defined as treason imputed to a person from his conduct or course of action, though his deeds taken severally do not amount to actual treason, is a principle of law not recognized in this country. For there to be treason there must be in fact an act of levying war against the United States, or any one of them, or of adhering to or giving aid to their enemies.

But the imputation of treason does not end there. One who would wilfully conceal the felonious act would, in the eye of American law, be guilty of misprision of treason. The concealment of the treasonous act of another, even though there be neither assent nor participation in the act itself, is nevertheless a felony.

So it is that, just as we may question whether to take at face value Article II as it was written, we may question whether to take literally the applicability of Article II in our modern society.

With our last armed rebellion nearly a century and a quarter in the past, it is not too much to say that the American people have long since abandoned their proclivity to rebellion. This is not to say that there are not Americans disposed to treason. It is simply to say that their treason is more likely to take the form of giving "aid and comfort" to the enemies of our country than of armed rebellion against the State. Given our national history, it would seem that giving aid and comfort to our enemies has been regarded by Americans as more heinous than taking arms against the country itself.

Whether a Mason or the Masonic fraternity would today undertake to shield a Brother known to have committed treason is to be doubted. It is not simply a matter of protecting a Brother; it is a matter of committing a felony next only in gravity to treason itself.

It is also to be doubted that Masonry would hesitate to expel from its ranks a Mason found guilty in a court of law of committing either treason or misprision of treason. Public opinion would not countenance it, and we may be sure that in a confrontation of such nature Masonry would yield to public opinion.

Does this mean, then, that Article II of the Ancient Charges no longer has meaning? In practical terms, yes. If we are to believe that Article II was written with the events of the late 17th century foremost in the minds and memories of the persons concerned, we should realize that we are three centuries removed from these events, and that in the intervening years the whole content of Western political philosophy has undergone change. The so-called "Age of Revolution" has passed, and with it has passed the revolutionary spirit which marked that age and gave relevance to Article II.

Today, rebellion and treason are regarded as crimes of such order as to make it likely that perpetrators are more liable to be prosecuted than pitied. Article II of the Ancient Charges notwithstanding. So it is that this much, at least, of the Ancient Charges stands, as does so much of Freemasonry, as a thing not to be taken literally, but as an historical reminder of a time when Freemasons had to accommodate the freedom of the will to the changing social and political milieu in which they lived.

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Through Masonic Windows

by Allen E. Roberts, FPS

Many of our members are being of service to Freemasonry in general. An excellent example is W. Jefferson Bryson, Jr., MPS, of Rock Hill, South Carolina. In his second term as Master of his Lodge, Jackson No. 53 of Lancaster, he wrote and published a book about the history of the community and his Lodge. He saw that articles about Freemasonry were published be the local newspaper, and he provided interesting programs for his members. All this while taking a credit course in history. He is to be congratulated for putting Masonry and his community on the map.

Allan Bourdreau, MPS, Director of the Library and Museum for the Grand Lodge of New York, informs us that his library is open to the public. It is so noted, and extolled, by the New York State Education Department. Allan says its world-wide recognition often taxes the efforts of the small staff. He agrees that it would be "good if every city, at least every Grand Lodge, had such a facility." Why don't we do something to make it happen?

Hundred of Canadians greeted the Virginia Craftsmen (a traveling Masonic Degree Team) in St. Catherines, Ontario. District A of Ontario sponsored an informal gathering on Friday evening, May 16, and a formal banquet on the 17th for the men and the ladies. On the afternoon of the 17th the Craftsmen exemplified the Master Mason degree according to the Virginia ritual. International fellowship is something all Freemasons should experience frequently. It proves that whatever a Mason's nationality there certainly is a tie that binds them together.

In a letter appearing in the Knight Templar a reader in West Germany notes: "The precepts that I have learned and believe in seem to fail each election time to bickering and political fighting. This attitude discourages the practice of vote for the good of Masonry and the bodies in general. This was not so prevalent in the earlier days of my Masonic life in the Lodge. It was very prevalent in some other bodies." He also said what little he knows about Masonry was gleaned from Mackey's Encyclopedia and The Little Masonic Library. "There are other books that I have read," he added, "but there has been no concerted effort to teach anyone what Masonry is." Amazing, isn't it? In this "enlightened" age we still have Freemasons who don't know where to find good Masonic reading material.

Writing for the Indiana Freemason the Grand Master, J.C. Paxton, offered these words of wisdom: "It is just as important to realize the significance of the continuation of work on all worthwhile goals. We find ourselves in the position of being trustees of a great and extended heritage. Many of our forefathers dedicated their entire lives to conserve and improve our Fraternity. It becomes our privilege to receive the benefits of their effort, to add to this inheritance, as we are able, and to transfer this valuable possession to our successors for further improvements. It is a continuous team effort.

The Grand Master of Western Australia in 1984 noted the attacks of religious factions on the Craft. "Always remember," he said, "that the best cure for darknesss is light, the best cure for ignorance is knowledge, and the best cure for falseness is truth." He concluded his remarks on this subject by stating: "In today's society there are, unfortunately, many forces attacking the very moral foundations on which our society is based. It is, therefore, imperative that all men of good will, irrespective of their religious affiliations, should find common ground to enable them to work together for the maintenance of the highest possible moral standards the development of human character and the betterment of human society."

In a Memorial Day address, the Grand Master of the American Canadian Grand Lodge in West Germany called attention to the help Harry S. Truman gave the Masonic Service Association. He quoted several items concerning this from Brother Truman. The GM mentioned the problems Freemasonry had during World War I because of its disunity, and how, through the MSA, there was a complete turn around before and during World War II. He asked each of his members to contribute at least one dollar to support the educational and hospital visitation programs of the MSA. Wouldn't it be good if every Grand Master in the United States took up this cause?

The Masonic Messenger of Georgia, in its April 1986 edition. carried an article entitled "Alphonse Cerza 33 degree: Gentleman-Scholar-Freemason." The editor, F. Lamar Pearson. Jr., MPS, called attention to Al's many attributes. Among these is his willingness to go out of his way to assist anyone and everyone. All of us will agree with this. But many of us "old-timers" in the Philalethes Society will recall his unselfish efforts as President to keep the Society alive. That's one of the many reasons he was one of the first recipients of the Society's Distinguished Service Medal last February. Al's latest literary effort will be published by Iowa Research Lodge No. 2 later this year.

The Royal Arch Mason, edited by our own Jerry Marsengill, FPS, carried an interesting item about a "Medieval Banquet" held by Saskatchewan Chapter in Canada. "It was a gala evening, filled with entertainment throughout." There were "Town Crier type introductions, operatic singing. Highland Dancing, hand bell ringers, community singers," but above all - a seven-course banquet. Actually the "Courses" were really "Removes" and consisted of all types of "medieval" goodies. More than $1,000 was raised for the Royal Arch Research Assistance Program. Why, oh why, don't we have more fun like this throughout Freemasonry?

Writing in The Oregon Scottish Rite Freemason, Doc Helms is concerned because he hasn't been invited to join "the secret sect of Masons who practice Satanism." He's disturbed because he thought he was following Christian principles by attending his "little Methodist church." But he heard a couple of those raving radio and television preachers claim "Masons cannot be Christians because the Order denies the Trinity." They commit even worse sins; they associate with nonbelievers! Even though the Ten Commandments tell us to "Love Thy Neighbour we can't do that because these preachers say we can't, unless they are born-again Christians. Helms claims: "I am really ticked that somehow the Big Mugamugs and High Cheeses of Masonry have not seen fit to enlighten me with their Satanic practices." He's hoping to find a way for this to happen through those non-Masons who know more about Masonry than Masons do.