Contents
The President's Corner EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
Freemasonry and the Scout Movement Laurels and Darts
Letters to the Editor Abraham Lincoln and Freemasonry
Men, Women and Freemasonry Mexican Freemasonry
Jacques De Molay Brotherhood In Action
The Symbolism Of Stone The Soliloquy of a Freemason
ON INITIATION Strange But True
The Case of
the Reappearing Medallions
Through Masonic Windows
the philalethes
The Journal of Masonic Research and Letters
Nelson King, FPS Editor
2 Knockbolt Crescent (416) 293-8071
Agincourt, Ontario FAX (416) 293-8634
Canada, M1S 2P6 CIS 71202,22
OFFICERS
Forrest D. Haggard, FPS President
6815 W. 78th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66204 (913) 642-5519
Royal C. Scofield, FPS 1st Vice President
655 W. Maryland Ave.
Sebring, OH 44672 216/938-6240
Robert G. Davis FPS 2nd Vice President
P.O. Box 70
Guthrie, OK 73044 (405)-282-2037
Allen E Roberts, FPS Executive Secretary
P.O. Box 70, 110 Quince Ave.
Highland Springs, VA 23075 (804) 737 4498
FAX 804/328-2386
Henry G. Law, FPS. Treasurer
2608 E. Riding Dr. Wilmington, DE 19808
(302) 737-9083
Harold L. Davidson, FPS Librarian
The Philalethes Society 1903 10th St. W.
Billings, MT 59102 (406) 259-1552
LIVING PAST PRESIDENTS
Philalethes Society
Robert V. Osborne, FPS
Robert L Dillard Jr. FPS
Bruce H. Hunt, FPS
Allen E. Roberts, FPS
John Mauk Hilliard, FPS
Wallace MacLeod, FPS
BONUS ISSUE
CONTENTS
The President's Corner Guest Writer - Charles S Guthrie, FPS
Executive Board Meeting
Freemasonry and the Scout Movement
by George W Kerr
From the Editor's Desk
by Nelson King, FPS
Darts and Laurels
Letters to the Editor
Abraham Lincoln and Freemasonry
by Paul M. Bessel, MPS
Men, Women and Freemasonry
by John H. Yingling, MPS
Mexican Freemasonry The Devil's Government?
by Paul Rich MPS and Guillermo de los Reyes
Annual Assembly, Feast and Forum
Jacques De Molay, The Knights Templar And Freemasonry
by William E Parker, MPS
Brotherhood In Action
by Allen E Roberts, FPS
The Symbolism Of Stone
by Leon Zeldis, MPS
Chapter News
On Initiation
by Michael L. Segall, MPS
Bonus Book
The Case of the Reappearing Medallions
by George T. Halteman, MPS
Through Masonic Windows
by Allen E Roberts, FPS
ON THE COVER
Mexican Lodge banner from the early nineteenth century. See "Mexican Freemasonry The Devil's Government?" It is the first in a series of articles on the Masonic Fraternity south of the Rio Grande river. Brother Paul Rich, MPS and Guillerm de los Reyes - The University of the Americas, Puebla, Mexico, have created an interesting, informative look at our Mexican brethren.
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President's Corner guest this Issue is former Editor, Charles S. Guthrie, FPS. It is a pleasure to welcome this fine writer and well known Mason to express his thoughts about The Philalethes Society, now that he is away from us and looking back. " - Forrest D. Haggard, FPS President
Reflections
by Charles S. Guthrie, FPS
In response to a request by President Forrest D. Haggard, FPS, some of my reflections on two years spent as editor of The Philalethes follow. My reflections are on the leadership of the Philalethes Society, the writers, and the readers.
I enjoyed the association with the leaders of the Society. None--including the editor--receives a salary. We are essentially a hip-pocket operation, working for the advancement of our fraternity, and are fortunate to be able to meet necessary expenses.
Our leaders are fully aware of the problems facing Freemasonry today They share a mutual dislike of ignorance, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness among both Masons and the profane.
One of the thorniest problems engaging the Society's leadership is the relationship between Prince Hall and Caucasian Masonry Prince Hail leaders and we have similar problems. They do not want their organization consolidated with ours. Rather, they want their Freemasonry recognized for what it is -regular of origin and legitimate -- for intervisitation and cooperation. Our leaders, as well as theirs, believe that Masonry should be what it says it is, a brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God, without regard to race, creed or color.
Now for a consideration of the writers. My relationship with the writers was generally harmonious. The quality of material submitted was usually high. Also, in keeping with our styling ourselves a research organization, many writers are adequately documenting their work when it is necessary, so that readers wishing to pursue the subject further will know where to look.
During the time I was editor, I tried to print material that would appeal to a wide readership, material that would interest readers whether I agreed with it or not. Seasoned Masonic scholars already know much of what is printed; however, some readers are beginning gleaners and need to feed on the essentials of Freemasonry. To that end some of the material printed may seem rather elementary, but if we fulfil our task of bringing more of the light of knowledge to the fraternity, we must take care of all.
It was refreshing to me that I was able to print material not only by American and Canadian writers, but some from other jurisdictions as well. Our voice is being heard and heeded. We are the conscience of Freemasonry.
Now to some more mundane concerns of editors--things that make their job more difficult and time-consuming. Some manuscripts arrived with single-spacing, some with misspelled words, and some that did not observe elementary conventions of punctuation. Some were typed in capitals throughout and even a few short manuscripts were handwritten. If writers will use the basic principles of margins, double-spacing, capitalization and punctuation of manuscripts, they will be more likely to see their work in print and will certainly make the editor's task easier. Sending material on a computer disk will aid him very much.
As for the readers, they demand quality research and writing. Their demands should guide the policies of the Philalethes Society. Unfortunately, some of us make errors of fact or interpretation. Our eagle-eyed readers usually point that out. Most readers communicated with me in a courteous way; some otherwise. I would call upon all readers as well as writers who desire to communicate with Editor Nelson King to do so in a courteous manner.
Let us all support our officers and our editor as we work together for the diffusion of Masonic light in a dark, confusing world.
And to all Masons, wherever dispersed throughout the world, "Let there be Masonic light. "
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SEPTEMBER 16, 1994
The Executive Board Meeting of The Philalethes Society was held at 7:30 p.m., in the Executive West Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky with the following present:
Forest Haggard, President
Nelson King, Editor
Royal Scofield, Vice President
Wallace McLeod, Past President
Robert Davis, Vice President
Allen Roberts, Executive Secretary
Robert Tomlinson, Jerry Marsengill Chapter, Kansas City, Kansas.
The Meeting was opened with prayer by Royal Scofield.
The formation of a Masonic Clearing House was discussed at some length. The Scottish Rite building in Guthrie was ruled out as a depository. The search will continue. The Executive Secretary noted that General Herman Nickerson, Jr., FPS, was trying to interest the National sojourners in supporting, or initiating, this project.
It was unanimously agreed that Masonic Trivia and Facts by Allen E. Roberts should be offered as a bonus book by the Society.
Several suggestions were made for making The Philalethes more interesting. The Editor, Nelson King, FPS was commended for taking over and doing an excellent job with the first issue.
Making the of ricers of the Society more viable within the framework of the Society and Freemasonry was discussed.
A member of the Society had asked the President to consider developing a " Masonic Education Degree" and offer education courses. This was discussed and will be considered further.
Many members, surprisingly, have claimed that membership in the Society is too "cheap." The Board believed it has been fair, but costs are increasing and returns on investments in the "Life Membership Accounts" have decreased considerably. To continue publishing a first-class publication it was, reluctantly, determined that the yearly dues should be increased by $5.00 to $25.00 for the six yearly issues. It was noted that it takes about 75% of the amount received from dues to publish The Philalethes. The increase will also assist the Society to help smaller Lodges and Masonic bodies in many ways not now possible.
It was noted that several participants of the Masonic forum on CompuServe, all members of the Cornerstone Computer Chapter, were present for this meeting. They ranged from California to-Maine, Canada, England and France. [They added much to the agenda the following day, and the educational meeting presided over by Owen McKinney in his Lodge the previous evening, at which Kentucky's Grand Master and many of his Officers were present.]
It was agreed that the 1995 Semi-annual meeting of The Philalethes Society will be held in Kansas City, Kansas, under the auspices of the Jerry Marsengill Chapter, and the leadership of its President, Robert L. Tomlinson, Jr., MPS. The date will be determined by the time of the Annual Meeting, but the second or third weekends of September were suggested.
The Semi-annual meeting for 1996 will be held in Duluth, Minnesota.
The Annual Assembly/Feast/Forum will be held in the Hotel Washington on February 24, 1995, at 6 p.m. The Executive Board will meet on the 23rd.
The meeting closed was with prayer, after which the Board joined the many in the hospitality room provided by the Kentucky Chapter.
[Several members of the Board were speakers during the all day and evening meeting the following day. About 80 were present, and many of them added wisdom and knowledge for all present.]
Respectfully submitted,
Allen E. Roberts
Executive Secretary.
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Freemasonry and the Scout Movement
by George W. Kerr
It may be surprising to many members of the Craft that there is any relationship between Masonry and Scouting. The one being for men and the other for our youth. However, the large number of male Scout Leaders, many of whom hold a similar attitude to life as do the Masons and possessing the same basic aims, the similarity can easily be recognized.
If the Purpose/Aims and Principles of Scouting were to be translated into adult terms, it can clearly be seen that they are nearly identical with those of the Craft. Because of this, many people have suggested that the Founder of Scouting Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, was a Mason. It has been confirmed by his late wife, Lady Olave Baden-Powell, and also his daughter Betty, that he was not a member of the Craft.
His younger brother, Major David Baden-Powell, was a member of the Craft. Perhaps, this influenced his understanding of the aims of Masonry, as illustrated by his presentation of a Volume of the Scared Law, personally inscribed and signed, to the Baden-Powell Lodge, No. 488, United Grand Lodge of Victoria, Australia. This was presented to note their Consecration in September 1930 by the then G.M., M.W. Bro. Lord Somers, who later succeeded Baden-Powell on his death in 1941, as the Chief Scout.
It is fascinating to analyze and compare the aims and ideals of the two "brotherhoods. " The term "brother " is universal. Every boy who becomes a Scout is received into the 'Worldwide Brotherhood of Scouting" upon accepting the Scout Promise. Thus the connection to man taking his Obligation being welcomed as a "Brother Mason. " This also applies to the male adult Leaders who must also accept the Promise.
Countless Scout Leaders have proven to strengthen the quality of life in our jurisdiction and indeed around the World as Scouters and as Masons. The Kindred Lodges Association is the inclusive title used by a group of Lodges around the World whose membership is largely composed of present and former Scout Leaders and similar Youth organizations. The origin dates back to 1952 at a gathering of Scouter/Masons held at Scout House in London, England. They proposed that a meeting of Lodges with a similar dual membership would be of great interest to all. Since the regular biannual meetings have been held some at Freemason's Hall, Great Queen St., London and throughout the U.K. The "host" Lodge prepares a programme, which has included 17th Century Degree Teams, Prestonian Lectures, Masonic Choirs & Orchestral Concerts, etc. In all usually over two hundred attend, with
=======================================================
A study of the wording reveals the conjoined significations:
Scouting must
- Promise a Duty to God
- Accept Loyalty to the Queen
- Help other people at all times
Masonry must
- Believe in a Supreme Being
- Obey the laws of God and Man
- Extend Charity and Brotherly Love
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most in uniform and Masonic clothing.
Quite a colorful gathering.
The Association comprises Lodges around the World including 28 in England; 1 in Scotland; 1 in Ireland; 2 in Wales; 10 in Australia; 1 in New Zealand; 1 in Germany; and Scouter/Masonic Clubs in New York and in Canada. There are also many individual Scouter/Masons not with a "Youth" Lodges who are affiliated members.
It is interesting to note that two Lodges within The Grand Lodge of Canada in The Province of Ontario - Spry Lodge No. 385 in Beeton and Spry Lodge No. 406 in Fenelon Falls are named after M.W. Bro. Daniel Spry Grand Master 1882/1883, whose Grandson Major General Daniel C. Spry became the Chief Executive of Scouts Canada in 1946 and Director General of the World Bureau of Scouting in 1953. He was also the youngest General of the Canadian Army in World War II.
Lodge Baden Powell U.G.L.
Of N.S.W.
A special cloth emblem, in limited numbers, has been produce by Lodge Baden-Powell, to commemorate the meeting held on January 4, 1988 for the Freemasons who attended the 16th World Jamboree in Cataract Scout Park.
The emblem features the Square and Compasses, the Scout emblem and depicts the Main Gateway at the entrance to Cataract Scout Park. The Gateway, constructed by The United Grand Lodge of New South Wales, serves as a reminder the Freemasonry is interesting in assisting today's youth to grow to responsible manhood and citizenship.
Our future is our bond with our Youth.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
This article was written by Bro. Kerr for the Ontario Mason, and is reprinted with his permission.
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From the Editor’s Desk
The Holiday Season and a New Year will soon be upon us. I wish each and everyone of you Good Health, Good Times and Good Friends.
* * *
What do you give the Mason who has everything? The answer is a gift that keeps on giving, a subscription to The Philalethes. What better gift to the young man you sponsored into Fraternity, or that new young Officer that always comes to you for advice. We as Freemasons have always proclaimed that we are not a secret society, yet out of millions of Freemasons, all over the world, only a select few are aware that we exist. Our Magazine has been described as a glossy, bimonthly which is filled with detailed biographies, historical studies, and discussions of current events. The Philalethes Magazine is a prefect gift for anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of National and International Freemasonry. Why we will even send a card to the new subscriber acknowledging your generosity.
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Periodically your Editor will be awarding DARTS or LAURELS, with respect to items that come across his desk. Please note that choice of either a DART or a LAUREL expresses only the opinion of the Editor, and does not reflect the official position of The Philalethes Society.
Laurel to The Grand Lodge of Canada in The Province of Ontario, for bring the "Friend to Friend" program to Ontario. The sixteen minute video which is an integral part of the program adds "Canadian" characteristics to already successful endeavor.
Laurel to The Kentucky Chapter of The Philalethes Society for successfully hosting the largest international Semi-Annual Meeting of the Society. Special mention should be made of the efforts of J. B. Hitt, MPS and Owen McKinney, MPS, for their gracious Southern hospitality.
Dart to Anti-Masonic Writers and Publishers who at their meeting in St. Louis have decided to target Masonic Youth Groups. Plans at this meeting were developed to distribute materials that describes Masonic Symbols as occult symbols or images of witchcraft.
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Dear Bro. King
Thank you very much for sending me a copy of the August issue of The Philalethes, which contain an article on The Masonic Choir of North Wales. The Welsh Dragon you added was most appropriated and appreciated.
I am pleased to report we received several inquiries as the result of the article and are currently working with S.G.I.G. Owen Johnson, 33d [Orient of Oregon] in developing a tour in 1995 to the great Northwest.
The fact is this choir would not have been known without your publication. Need I say more? We will continue to keep you posted on this Masonic venture.
Sincerely and fraternally,
William L. Hughes
Dear Bro. King,
Bro. Leon Zeldis' very erudite and informative article, "Masonic Blue", was one of those I read with particular pleasure and interest in the August issue of The Philalethes Magazine.
The question of the origin of the association between the blue color and Craft Masonry is an old and oft-treated one. There is little doubt, as Bro. Zeldis explains, that there is no particular relationship between Masonic blue and the Order of the Garter. The main problem we have with this association is that no record exists of any decision to switch from white to blue as the representative color of Craft Masonry, while there is clear evidence that, originally, white was the color of Craft Masonry because it was selected by a 1727 Grand Lodge resolution and worn by Anthony Sayer, the first Grand Master. Or isn't it?
The resolution speaks of the ribbons for the officers' jewels. The portrait of Anthony Sayer is the portrait of a Grand Master. But in many Grand Lodges, particularly continental European Grand Lodges and Grand Lodges of continental European origin, Grand Masters wear white to this day. So do Grand Officers, no matter what the individual Lodge members may wear. Maybe there is no trace of a switch from white to blue for Lodge members because there was none. It could be that rank and file Masons had, at the time, always worn blue. Also not all members of Masonic Lodges wear blue. Members of the A&ASR (Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite), not to be confused with the American Scottish Rite, wear red-trimmed aprons. Possibly the fact that aprons happen to be blue-trimmed in certain Lodges and Rites does not tell us much about the blue of "blue Masonry ".
As a fluent speaker of Hebrew and erstwhile rabbinical student, I am far more taken with Bro. Zeldis brilliant and impressive biblical explanation. It is certain that blue is the color of divinity, and not only in the Jewish tradition. The Virgin Mary is usually represented in paintings wearing a blue mantle. Most deities of most religions are supposed to inhabit the skies, and the skies are blue, at least in decent climates. Often these deities are represented wearing blue, or gold-trimmed blue (a Sun and sky symbol). What I am not at all sure is whether our ancestors really were capable of making the same learned exegesis that Bro. Zeldis makes for us. I'm far less confident than him in this matter. I have read quite a few famous Masonic writers of the last three centuries and can unwaveringly say that their knowledge of Hebrew is, more often than not, abysmal.
Finally, there is also the little known fact that the ancient and current Operatives, still active and numerous in France, consider blue as being THEIR color. If we are, as many people think, their successors, that could explain the "blue Masonry " notion. But inasfar as a definitive explanation is concerned, this is no solution. It just pushes the problem back in time by a few centuries, because the Operatives are just as unable as well to supply a "scientific" explanation, well- supported by solid evidence. Maybe we should be happy The situation allows us to speculate on a lot of reasonable hypotheses, while waiting for the day when the definitive document will be unearthed from some moldy trunk in a forgotten attic. C'est la vie.
Fraternally,
Michael Segall, MPS
Dear Editor:
The article by Bro. Eugene Hobgood (The Philalethes Oct. 1994 p. 16) raises a cogent point. Having taught American history I can attest that Americans (of all races and sexes) know little and care less about our history be it Black, Hispanic, Indian or White.
As a student of Masons who were involved in the entertainment profession, II would like to point out one error in the article. EGBERT AUSTIN WILLIAMS who was born at Nassau, Bahamas Nov. 12, 1874 was not a member of St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, New York. Bert Williams was one of the leading comedians of his era. He was the first African-American to star in Ziefeld's Follies. On June 1, 1904 he, his partner George William Walker and eight members of his troupe were raised in Waverly Lodge No. 597 in Edinburgh, Scotland. St. Cecile Lodge enters the picture when Bert Williams died March 4, 1922. The Grand Lodge of Scotland asked them to perform the Masonic funeral service. (See Our Colored Brethren by Harold V. B. Voorhis, New York, 1960.) Let's hope that some day Americans may become color-blind in their appreciation of their heritage. This you will recall was the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. whose father was a Prince Hall Mason.
Fraternally yours,
Norman G. Lincoln, MPS
Dear Bro. King:
I enjoyed your new Laurels and Darts column (October issue). And now, I'd like to offer one of each to you. Laurels for the variety we're finally starting to enjoy in the cover photos. I was especially pleased to see the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania's Magnificent temple on your June cover. This building is a true architectural masterpiece, and every Mason who passes through Philadelphia should make a point of visiting.
Darts to You, for awarding a dart to the Alexandria Gazette Packet. Are we so hypersensitive that we can't accept any thing short of effusive gush concerning our gentle but manly craft? According to your quote, this Gazette article correctly identified the building; credited our fraternity for its' creation; identified our requirements for membership; commented favorably on our charitable activities; and plugged the Memorial's daily tours, accompanied by a phone number to call for further information. If this sort of publicity be criticism, then let's have more criticism!
Bro. James McArthur
Hypersensitive - no - but did you not read, the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of The George Washington National Memorial Association's reply - Editor
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Abraham Lincoln and Freemasonry
By Paul M. Bessel, MPS
Abraham Lincoln was not a Mason, but he possessed and displayed all the important qualities of Freemasonry: faith, hope, and charity, belief in God, the equality of all people, and the ability of each person to improve. He came into contact with many Masons and Freemasonry was a greater influence in society then than today. What, then, was his view of Masonry, and would he and Masonry have benefited from his membership? Why did he not become a Mason? How did Masonry affect his life and career?
Lincoln's Attitude Toward
Freemasonry
How Lincoln and Freemasonry Would Have Benefitted from his Membership
The Grand Lodge of Illinois recessed their meeting being held during the 1860 Presidential campaign to call on Abraham Lincoln, a candidate in that election, and he is reported to have said:
"Gentlemen, I have always entertained a profound respect for the Masonic fraternity and have long cherished a desire to become a member . . . "
When a Mason told Lincoln in a conversation during that campaign that all his opponents were Freemasons, especially noting that Stephen A. Douglas was an early member of the Masonic lodge in Springfield, Lincoln's hometown, and he was not, Lincoln replied:
"I am not a Freemason, Dr. Morris, though I have great respect for the institution."
After Lincoln's death, the Grand Master of Masons in the District of Columbia, Benjamin B. French, who had been a friend of Lincoln's, wrote to the editor of The Masonic Trowel, who was also the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Illinois:
"He [Lincoln] once told me how highly he respected our Order and that he at one time had fully made up his mind to apply for admission into it . . . "
Brother French also wrote to the Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, in response to a similar inquiry:
"President Lincoln . . . once told me, in the presence of M W Brother J.W. Simons, that he had at one time made up his mind to apply for admission to our Fraternity but he feared he was too lazy to attend to his duty as a Mason, as he should like to do, and that he had not carried out his intentions . . . "
There are many reasons for Lincoln to have had a positive view of Freemasonry. A qualification to become a Mason is a belief in a Supreme Being, while leaving it to each one to decide exactly what religious beliefs to hold, and Masonic ritual includes many references to the Bible and the concept of spiritual rebirth. Lincoln, too, had a fervent belief ire God and was an avid student of the Bible. He included Biblical references in many of his writings and speeches, the most famous being his second Inaugural address, and he regarded the entire subject of religion as a matter of individual conscience. Lincoln could have been expected to have been attracted to Freemasonry's attitude of support for religion combined with strong support of freedom of religion and conscience for all people. Spiritual rebirth was one of the special concepts alluded to in Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
One of the fundamental tenets of Masonry is that it seeks "to make good men better. " This belief would have appealed to Abraham Lincoln, who desired to see the best in people and to see that each individual could advance in life as much as possible. Likewise, the Masonic support of equality and the brotherhood of all people were also fundamental ideals with Lincoln. Masonry examines the meaning of death, and Lincoln frequently meditated on this. Freemasonry, in the 1800's even more than now, focuses on philosophy -- what are the long-term purposes and goals of our lives. Lincoln, who talked of America as being the beacon of hope for mankind and who said the goal of the Civil War was to insure that free government would survive in the world, would have been interested in this Masonic tradition.
There are more mundane reasons to think that Abraham Lincoln should have been a Mason. Freemasonry and other fraternal organizations are typical places for politicians for become well known and seek support. Lincoln was one of the most ambitious politicians of his day, and he could have benefited from this connection. Lincoln also had an active law practice, and Masons might have given him more business if he had been a Mason. Another reason to think Lincoln should have wanted to become a Mason is his desire for fellowship. Lincoln enjoyed the company of other men and strongly desired acceptance from society. He should have welcomed the opportunity to be with men who are such close friends as to consider themselves Masonic brothers. He would have had the opportunity to share humorous stories discuss philosophical issues, and exchange information about their experiences. Lincoln enjoyed politics in all its senses, and he would have likely risen to a prominent office within Freemasonry. That would have satisfied his ambition in some way, as well as helping him achieve prominence in the community. It would have shown, as Lincoln did in other ways, that one born without any likely prospects for success in life could achieve much that even those who were more high born did not.
Lincoln's personal associations should also have led him to seek to join the Masons. Bowling Green was a close friend of Lincoln and a prominent person in New Salem, Illinois, Lincoln's first hometown. Green was a Master of the local Masonic lodge and a member of the original Grand Lodge of Illinois. Mrs. Green and Green's Masonic brethren requested that Lincoln speak at Judge Green's funeral, which included Masonic services, in February 1842, and Springfield Lodge No. 4 invited Lincoln to give a speech at a memorial service for Green in September. Besides Bowling Green, many of the important men of New Salem, Springfield, and nearby areas with whom Lincoln was in contact were Masons, including Stephen A. Douglas, Ninian Edwards, and James Shields. The best man at Abraham Lincoln's wedding to Mary Todd was James Matheny, a member of the Springfield Masonic Lodge and a past Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. Lincoln's closest neighbor, James Gourley, was also a Mason, as were other friends and business associates. To show how widespread Masonic membership was during Lincoln's early years, especially for men who desired to raise their place in the world, even the fiance of Ann Rutledge, reported to be Abraham Lincoln's first true love, was Junior Warden of a local Masonic Lodge.
Lincoln's idol in politics was Henry Clay, a U.S. Senator and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, candidate for President several times, and one of the most influential Americans of the first half of the 1800's. Henry Clay had been the Grand Master of Masons in Kentucky in 1820-21, but in 1830-31 he said he had been inactive for many years. This was during the height of the influence of the Anti-Masonic Party when Clay was seeking the Presidency, but still he refused to denounce Masonry and thus hurt his chances to be elected. Lincoln said Clay was his model in politics, so Lincoln could have been influenced by Clay's Masonic involvement, and refusal to denounce it even that would have helped him politically, could be expected to have possibly induced Lincoln to seek to join the Masons.
For many reasons, then, one would think that Lincoln should have wanted to become a Mason, and that he would have been welcomed. He said he had a favorable attitude toward Freemasonry, his words and actions showed a devotion to ideals similar to those of Masonry, the philosophy of Masonry is similar to the beliefs Lincoln supported, membership in the Masons probably would have helped Lincoln in his political and legal careers and would have bolstered his desire to be accepted by others and to enjoy friendly fellowship, and Lincoln came into contact with, and admired, many Masons.
Why Didn't Lincoln Become
a Mason?
Speculation on the reasons Lincoln did not become a Mason fall into several categories.
Lincoln is reported to have told the members of the Grand Lodge of Illinois curing the 1860 campaign for U.S. President that:
"I have never petitioned because I have felt my own unworthiness to do so. I might be overcoming my hesitance and be petitioning at the present time but I am a candidate for political office, and by some such action would be misconstrued. For this reason, because my motives would be misconstrued, I must for the present time refrain."
After Lincoln's death, a friend of his who was a prominent Mason said Lincoln had once told him the reason he did not seek membership in Freemasonry was that, "I (Lincoln) feared I was too lazy to do all my duty as I should wish to were I a member, and I have kept postponing my application." When the friend said it was not too late, he said Lincoln laughingly replied, 'Well, perhaps some day I may ask you to let me in. "
Mary Todd Lincoln, when told by an anti-Mason that he would support her husband for President in 1860 if he did not belong to a society with secrets (clearly indicating Masonry), replied, "Mr. Lincoln has never been a Mason or belonged to any secret order . . . " because he was too busy with his business activities.
Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, was an avid Freemason. He wrote that he once elicited Lincoln's views of Masonry and Lincoln was noncommittal. Perhaps Lincoln did not have strong feelings either way joining the Masons.
Lincoln might have avoided Masonry because of unfortunate, but interesting, incidents with a couple of Masons.
One is James Adams. In May 1837, Lincoln took on one of his first legal cases, representing the widow and son of Joseph Anderson in their effort to take possession of, and sell ten acres of land presumed to have been owned by him at the time of his death. However, James Adams, Anderson's former attorney and an officer of the Springfield Masonic Lodge, was found to be in possession of the land, basing his claim on a deed executed to him by Anderson. Lincoln felt the conveyance of this land was spurious. At the time of this lawsuit, Adams was running as a Democrat for probate justice of the peace of Sangamon County against a Whig friend of Lincoln's. During the campaign, six letters were printed in the local newspaper, written by Lincoln and insinuating fraud by Adams, and a few days before the election Lincoln wrote and distributed handbills in Springfield which stated explicitly that Adams obtained the Anderson land by fraud. Adams responded to these charges, and Lincoln in turn published replies. The affair was bitter and public. Lincoln said Adams spread rumors that Lincoln was a deist, rumors that caused Lincoln political harm in the future. In the meantime, Adams won the election, and the contested land was still in Adams' estate when he died six years later. James Adams was a Master of the Springfield Lodge in 1839 and was elected Deputy Grand Master of Masons in Illinois in 1840. Lincoln might not have wanted to join a lodge in which Adams was a prominent member, and Lincoln might not have received unanimous approval to be accepted into the Springfield Lodge after his 1837 run-ins with the prominent Mason James Adams.
A few years rarer Lincoln had problems with another Mason, James Shields. He was an Irish immigrant who settled in Illinois and became a Mason in January 1841, following Stephen A. Douglas in the Junior Warden's officer chair. Shields was a Democrat who became state auditor in 1841. Lincoln and the Whig party protested his policies, and several satirical letters appeared in the Springfield newspaper questioning Shields' honesty and mocking his physical courage. Shields was told that Lincoln had written these letters, and he challenged Lincoln to a duel. All of Springfield read Shields' published challenge, and there was great excitement about the upcoming duel. Lincoln attempted to end the dispute with a partial explanation, but said if a duel was insisted on then he, as the person challenged, would demand that both combatants be in an eight-foot circle holding the largest possible cavalry broadswords with neither allowed to pass over a line in the center. These conditions were intended to mock the idea of this duel, especially since Lincoln was so much taller than Shields, but Shields persisted. On September 22, 1842, Lincoln, Shields, their seconds and others boated across the Mississippi River to fight the duel in Missouri, where dueling was still legal. Fortunately, friends intervened to get Shields to accept Lincoln's explanation and the duel was called off, but Lincoln was mortified by the episode. Shields' and Lincoln's letters and all the details were publicized and the "dueling business " and spirit raged in Springfield afterwards. We can rightly suppose that Shields' Masonic brothers knew all about this affair and possibly assisted him.
It is worth noting that one of the letters which so angered Shields was published in the Springfield newspaper on September 2, 1842, the next day Lincoln delivered a speech at the Masonic memorial service for his late friend Bowling Green (at the invitation, probably made in July before the anti-Shields letters were published, of the Springfield Lodge), a letter that was even more insulting to Shields was printed in the newspaper on September 9, and the parties met and almost fought the duel on September 22. It is likely that there was a good deal of tension between Lincoln and Shields' Lodge brothers during this time. Lincoln had been in a highly public feud with one of the leading members of the lodge. This might have made him reluctant to join the Masonic lodge to which Shields and his friends belonged, and they might have rejected him if he had petitioned. This episode, plus the one involving James Adams, might have left Lincoln with negative feelings about Masons in general.
Another possible reason for Lincoln's not becoming a Mason may have been political. In the 1830's there was a very strong anti-Masonic feeling and even an Anti-Masonic party that elected some of its members to state and federal positions. Some politicians gained favor and office by attacking Masonry; many lodges lost members and folded. Becoming a Mason could harm political careers, and even some former Masons took on anti-Masonic attitudes in their speeches. Lincoln might have decided to avoid the opposition of anti-Masons by not joining the fraternity.
Lincoln may have decided not to seek to join the Masons because he thought that would be misconstrued as an attempt to obtain political support from other Masons, or he may have truly felt himself unworthy or too lazy to properly perform his Masonic duties if he joined, or he may have been too busy with his regular business activities, or he may have had poor views of Masons because of his prominent feuds with two of them, or he may have felt that those feuds would lead to his rejection if he tried to join, or he may have felt that anti-Masons would not support his political ambitions if he became a Mason, or he may have just been indifferent toward Masonry. Perhaps the real reason was some combination. Certainly Freemasonry lost the opportunity to include among its members someone who would have fit very well into the Masonic philosophy and who could have assisted Freemasonry if he had so chosen. Perhaps Lincoln also lost something by not becoming a member of the Freemasons, the opportunity to join with others in an organization seeking many of the same basic goals that motivated Abraham Lincoln throughout his life.
How Did Masonry
Affect Lincoln?
It is not possible to know if, or how, Abraham Lincoln was affected, directly or indirectly, by Masonry. Some guesses are reasonable, though.
Freemasonry was especially strong in the 1700's, and its philosophy and goals had a strong influence on the founding fathers of the United States, many of whom, such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, were active, enthusiastic, and prominent Masons who applied their Masonic ideals in their work. The Declaration of Independence in 1776 stated a fundamental position that was developed in Masonry earlier in the 1700's:
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Lincoln in 1861 said:
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence . . . I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was . . . that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance."
This is the guiding spirit of the Masonic philosophy, then and now, and it became a part of the Declaration of Independence that in turn affected Lincoln so fundamentally.
Lincoln's middle position between Masonry and Anti-Masonry may have helped him gain the Republican nomination for President in 1860. All his major opponents, William H. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Edward Bates of Missouri; had anti-Masonic histories. Masons, and there were definitely some at the nominating convention, would have been more inclined toward Lincoln than the others.
Except for Lincoln, all the candidates for President in 1860 were Masons: Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckenridge, and John Bell. The President then, James Buchanan, and other prominent political leaders, were also Masons. The list of prominent people connected with the Civil War and politics in that era who were Masons is very long, including Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, Robert Anderson, Winfield Scott Hancock, Benjamin F. Butler, Simon Cameron, Lewis Cass, John J. Crittenden, Andrew G. Curtin, David G. Farragut, Nathaniel P. Banks, John A. McClernand, Thomas H. Benton, John A. Logan, Sam Houston, Stephen A. Hurlbut, Andrew Johnson, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Albert Sidney Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, Howell Cobb, John B. Floyd, Albert Pike, Sterling Price, Robert Toombs, Godfrey Weitzel, Henry A. Wise. It is possible that Lincoln saw some of the spirit of brotherly friendship among these Masons, and that their practice of Masonic ideals had some affect on him.
It is well known that Lincoln demonstrated magnanimity even toward his enemies, asking in his second Inaugural address for "malice toward none and charity for all " and desiring an easy peace and for the leaders of the Confederate government to be allowed to escape rather than being arrested and condemned, and his visits and friendly comments to Confederate wounded. Lincoln searched for reasons to reverse the decisions of courts-martial calling for executions. Freemasonry also played a role in alleviating the harshness of the Civil War, and this probably came to Lincoln's attention and may have affected his own attitudes to some extent. Masons from both sides got together to exchange information, assist wounded from the other side, and arrange for Masonic burial services for fallen enemies. Some soldiers even escaped death because of their Masonic affiliation. Lincoln and his colleagues who were Freemasons demonstrated charity toward others even while engaging in all-out combat to accomplish goals they felt were worth fighting for -- to maintain democratic government and to prove that people could govern themselves.
Abraham Lincoln was never a Mason, but it is likely that Masonry had some positive influences on him, and he on Freemasonry. His political philosophy was affected by Masonic ideals through the Masonic influence on the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. His spirit of charity during the Civil War was probably affected to some extent by hearing how Masons in the war helped each other while maintaining their ideals. Lincoln was probably helped in his political and personal life by Masons. Without over reaching, Masons and all who study Lincoln can rightly take some satisfaction from the involvement of Abraham Lincoln, a non-Mason, and Freemasonry.
Bibliography
(The following books and articles are listed generally in order of their importance in the preparation of this paper)
article title: "Is This of Your Own Free Will and Accord? "
author: R.V. Havlik
publication: Lincoln Herald
publication date: Fall 1985
page: 66
article title: "Lincoln's 'Duel"'
author: Thomas O. Jewett
publication: Lincoln Herald
publication date: Winter 1987
page: 142
article title: "Chicago 1860: A Mason's Wigwam? "
author: Olivier Fraysse
publication: Lincoln Herald
publication date: Fall 1985
page: 71
article title: "Lincoln and Freemasonry "
authors: Elmer Stein, 33, and Fred Schwengel, 33
publication: The Scottish Rite Journal
publication date: February 1990
page: 21
title: With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln
author: Stephen B. Oates
publication date: 1977
publisher: Harper and Row Publishers, New York
title: Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths
author: Stephen B. Oates
publication date: 1984
publisher: Harper and Row Publishers, New York
title: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
author: Roy B. Basler, editor
publication date: 1953
publisher: Rutgers University Press,
New Brunswick, New Jersey
title: The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia
author: Mark E. Neely, Jr.
publication date: 1982
publisher: McGraw-Hill, Inc., N. Y.
title: Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809- 1865
author: Earl Schenck Miers, editor
publication date: 1991
publisher: Morningside House publishers, Dayton, Ohio
article title: "Edwin M. Stanton and Freemasonry "
author: Erving E. Beauregard
publication: Lincoln Herald
publication date: 1993; page: 124
title: The Temple and the Lodge
author: Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh
publication date: 1989
publisher: Arcade Publishing, N. Y.
title: Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia
author: Henry Wilson Coil, 33
publication date: 1961
publisher: Macoy Publishing &
Masonic Supply Company, Inc., N. Y.
title: Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage
author: Ruth Painter Randall
publication date: 1953
publisher: Little, Brown and Company
publishers, Boston
title: House Undivided: The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War
author: Allen E. Roberts
publication date: 1961
publisher: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., Richmond, Virginia
title: Freemasonry in American History
author: Allen E. Roberts
publication date: 1985
publisher: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., Richmond, Virginia
title: Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby
author: Kevin H. Siepel
publication date: 1983
publisher: St. Martin's Press, N. Y.
article title: "An Aftermath of 'Sampson's Ghost:' A New Lincoln Document "
author: Wayne C. Temple
publication: Lincoln Herald
publication date: 1989; page: 42
title: The Antimasonic Party in the United States 1826-1843
author: William Preston Vaughn
publication date: 1983
publisher: University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
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By John H. Yingling, MPS
Editor's Note: The views here expressed are those of Brother Yingling, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Philalethes Society.
In the past, the differences between men and women were too obvious to require explanation. Their size, bone, musculature and reproductive systems were seen to be different, and a wide range of aptitudes, skills, needs, desires, and satisfactions divided them. The presence of a female elicited a predictable response in male behavior and vice versa. It was generally accepted that one's nature assigned men and women different functions and roles. Human evolution refined and strengthened the roles, religion and education reinforced them, and society reflected them. Archaeology and history disclosed that our civilization was built upon male aggression and dominance. Society was gender-oriented from the very beginning.
While they were recognized as different, they were thought to be complementary rather than competitive, and both were needed. It was not a matter of who was better or worse, but of who could do what the other could not do, or who could do it better than the other could, and do it with greater personal satisfaction. Daily association showed that women had better intuitive insights into situations, greater sensitivity to the feelings of others, were more patient and tidier, and were more cunning and better at dissimulation. Men had more strength, were better at problem solving, could work better under stress, impose discipline and order, were more promiscuous and aggressive, and had the dominance to enforce police and military policy. It was acknowledged that the human species was sexual, not asexual. It took both a sperm and an egg for the conception needed to insure the survival of the human race. Out-side the scientific community, there was little inclination to look for clinical evidence of differences; intuitive common sense prevailed.
Discontentment with the situation in which women found themselves has smoldered for many years. In the last few decades, those passionate and persuasive leaders of the feminist movement, discovering that women held a voting majority and a sophisticated network, have built up a powerful force to alter the mores of American society more to their liking and advantage. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, with their guarantees of freedoms, rights, justice, and opportunity, work as well for a female majority as it does for an ethnic minority; one has only to accept the challenge.
Slowly, but surely, women were being given their constitutional rights. Rights demand responsibilities which do not always follow. Equality of opportunity should not be confused with equality of ability, because they are not the same. To maintain that women and men are the same in aptitude, or behavior is to build a society on a scientific and biological misconception for they are the same only in their common membership in the same species. What started out as a struggle for freedom soon changed to a struggle for supposed equality which is an opposing principle. freedom allows one to rise or fall on merit with winners and losers, while equality levels everyone on a median plane regardless of merit. During these struggles, many social scientists arose who advanced the proposition that human beings are a unisex, and that infants at parturition are psychosexually undifferentiated. A clean slate upon which a biased society could and did impose either male or female characteristics. They claimed that existing behavioral differences were caused by social conditioning. Many women and men dedicated to the principle of fairness were impressed with the argument.
Social engineers intent on implementing the unisex concept syncretized mothering and fathering into parenting. Home makers divested of the nurture and education of children became domestic engineers. Mothers stripped of the love and sacrifice that placed them on the highest level of reverence became dispassionate primary care givers. Schools arranged courses in nurturing for men with little or no capacity for nurture. Change was said to be the universal law of nature and different roles changed to sharing in everything, although change always occurs within the boundaries of physical and chemical laws that remain constant. Great religions of the world have for thousands of years sought without success to improve the cultural veneer of societies, but the male-female imperatives that radiate just below the surface are still with us to the extent that no examples need be given.
When litigation progressed and decisions favored feminists, they became intoxicated with success and broadened their umbrella to cover the lunatic fringe who made the bizarre claims that all women are victims of men despite the almost universal subservience of "henpecked " men. They said that all men are goatish brutes and any vaginal penetration whether by husband, associate or assailant, even if encouraged, is rape. Courtship is chilled and suspicion and indecision is dampening all social intercourse. They have set out to cleanse the nation of male domination of political, industrial, military, and religious institutions, which they say was imposed on women centuries ago by dead old men.
They seem unaware that the political instrument used by them and minorities to acquire freedom and justice in this new national political experiment is that instrument that dead old aggressive, dominant northern European men forced from reluctant monarchs and religious tyrants, at one hell of a cost. Even today living old men honor the legitimacy of constitutional reconstruction. Responding to the juggernaut of the new feminist political correctness that is reminiscent of the McCarthy era, legislative, academic and religious leaders supinely shifted their direction and principles like weather vanes. Opposition to the intellectual contamination subsided.
In order to prove that culture, not biology, determined behavior and roles, clinical research began in earnest. At first, the evidence coming out piecemeal was inconclusive, but as the volume of research mushroomed, the evidence learned toward biology. This dismayed some sociologists to the point they publically played down its significance. They feared that the legitimate aims of women would be damaged. Finally, sociologists, psychologists, neurologists, and other scientists working independently, produced such a body of evidence, which taken collectively exploded the myth of unisex. The evidence that biology, not culture, determines status, temperament and roles is dramatic and conclusive. Their differently structured brains, due to chromosomes and hormones in the womb, results in measurable differences in male and female perceptions, priorities and behavior. The nature and causes of brain differences are now known beyond speculation. The only excuses left for unisex are irrational dogmatic perversity or intellectual indolence. Clinical research dramatically reinforced the intuitive common sense of millennia of common people.
It was predicted long ago that when women would begin to act like men, everything that maintains the sacred ties of family will disappear.
Human children are not sufficiently developed in the womb and require years of love and nurture that only a woman can give. Children deprived of maternal love are damaged and become misfits in society. Traditional mothers caution their daughters against close intimate association with testosterone charged boys and to prudently ignore their right to go anywhere, anytime, anyplace, in any situation or behave as provocative as they pleased and to face the biological realities. One has a right to intrude in a dog fight but ought not to. Mothers urged their daughters to restrain their sexual urges and wait for a boy who showed some inclination and ability to support her and her child, one who would love her for what she was.
They warned them that boys were unlikely to marry a girl whose unborn child was of doubtful paternity.
Now many girls are unaware of the results of their sexual proclivities. Intoxicated by the prospect of both freedom and equality and smarting under their sexual restraint in view of male promiscuity, they become pregnant, and with no means of support, become a monumental burden on society. The moral values, good manners, and responsibilities that were earlier taught by mothers at home and in religious institutions are now foisted off on schools who are required to give the graphics of coitus, but in a pluralistic society should not give religious training. Insensitive people who do not pray at home insist on their denominational prayers in schools and blame schools because they graduate children incapable of participating in a society of responsible people.
The daughters deprived of love and nurture because their unmarried mothers were working long hours away from home, sought comfort in sexual ecstasy and a baby to love and to love them. The sons of unmarried mothers with many transient lovers but no husband and father of their son at home, whom they could admire and want to imitate, became delinquent and violent. They lacked a father's discipline and example.
Many women who postponed or rejected husband and children to compete in a male dominated arena, when their child-bearing days are over, feel a wrenching longing for children and family that is denied them forever. There is little evidence that women are happier or better off today than their grandmothers, whose security and influence on family and community, was supported by a loving husband who relieved them of providing for their own necessities. When it is obvious that maintaining a mother-father home will mean a depressed standard of consumption, many women opt for more income and less maternal responsibility with no dependence on an individual man. Families have become exponentially dysfunctional to the point where the steady stream of children is the responsibility of a society, each member of which strains to sustain their own family instead.
Well, what has all this to do with Freemasonry whose ritual obligations prevent women from being initiated into this fraternity, which by it's definition is for the male gender? The virtues our obligations are associated with masculinity.
The need for men to reinforce one another in maleness, to avoid the overwhelming female influence, has always, even in the most primitive times, induced men to retreat to the ceremonial men's house where women were excluded: a place for "Rites of Passage" where boys learned the difference between a boy and a man. Modern men's recognition of their own feminization has caused them (according to a recent issue of American Heritage Magazine) to create organizations with bizarre rituals to satisfy their need to feel like men again. If they knew what Freemasonry was about, they could have gone to lodge instead, and avoided unisex.
Those men who are charged with making long-range plans to make what changes, if any, that are necessary to bring freemasonry into the twenty-first century, and meet the challenge of today's life styles, ought to think twice before they recommend a "greater involvement of women", whatever that means, as is often suggested. Freemasonry does not need more female surveillance, veto and redirection; we have too much of it now. We need to pay more attention to what Masonic principles, tenets, and cardinal virtues teach. We need to appreciate more what men's responsibilities are. We need to make known to others our purposes for being, so that men of intelligence and integrity who share our values can see our potential for human progress and be drawn to us. They need to pay more attention to the three stages of human life and quit acting like boys. We need to search for more Masonic light and discover that we are more than an elite dinner club passing out alms. What we need are men who are not ashamed of being strong, brave, just, honest, generous, prudent. temperate and loving. These qualities are not a template for femininity. While men and women are not enemies, they are naturally antagonistic. Professor Albert Einstein said he was opposed to all wars except that inevitable war between a man and his wife. Mrs. Einstein, when asked if she understood he husband's theories, said "no, but I do understand Professor Einstein." The differences have never been put better.
The intuitive common sense of those seminal men who collected Masonic philosophy and wrote its ritual, knew what they were about when they recognized the differences between men and women. Both biology and history are on our side and eventually will prevail. Men and women ought to play the hand that God has dealt them. If we fail to maintain our traditional masculine Masonic values, the vacuum will be filled by unnatural androgynous concepts, or other men from other cultures who do behave like men, will arrive and perform the role for us.
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Seekers of Truth
The History of The Philalethes Society
Available a the discounted
price of $7.00 (U.S.), postpaid.
Send check payable to:
Harold L. Davidson, FPS
Librarian
1903 10th Street, W.
Billings, MT 59102
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The Devil's Government?
by Paul Rich MPS and Guillermo de los Reyes - The University of the Americas. Puebla, Mexico
Part I of a Series
Masonry is far different south of the Rio Grande from Masonry in the United States, as this series of articles will show.[1] One of the largest differences is that religion has been coeval with Masonry in Mexico since the time of the Inquisition and the two causes have long been locked in combat. Masons in Mexico deny that there is any cause for animosity or that Masonry conflicts with religious views. But that depends on one's interpretation of religion and the history of Freemasonry in Mexico. It suggests that Masonic historians need to reexamine the much-repeated claim that Masonry is not a religion. The matter is not quite as simple as some make out. For example, a Masonic authority comments on the custom of some lodges of displaying the bible on the lodge altar:
The Bible is not displayed on our altars now and has never been for the reason that Masons are required to believe its teachings. We know that there is a very large element of the Craft the world over who do not believe the teachings of the New Testament. We know that many individual Masons do not believe portions of the Old Testament. Therefore, unless we are perpetrating a grim mockery, we do not employ the bible as a profession that we as a Society accept all its teachings and doctrines . . . Masonry as an organized society does not and has never exacted this belief of its members. It can, therefore, have no other place in our lodges than that of a symbol . . . It is a symbol of Truth, of Divine Truth, of all Truth, whether drawn from some book of Revelation or from the Great Book of Nature.[2]
Although such a view may seem perfectly innocuous to some, to others it would be the height of blasphemy. (The recent debate in Southern Baptist circles comes to mind.) An example that is mentioned several times in a Mexican context is the resemblance between the assassination and exhumation of the candidate in the third or Master Mason degree and the resurrection of Christ. It is not our intention to become involved in theological controversy, but the reader should be aware that many aspects of Latin American Masonry and Mexican Masonry in particular arouse religious controversy quite apart from the Masonic attacks on religion and religion's attacks on Masonry that are so much a part of Mexican history.
As the ensuing series seeks to explain, much of Mexican Masonry derives from the so-called Scottish Rite. Of course, in the twentieth century the Scottish Rite has been one of the most popular Masonic degree systems and in many countries, including the United States of America and Canada, is eminently respectable and non-political. That this has not always been the case is evident from this scathing commentary of more than a century ago:
. . . this Scottish Rite had its origin in the brains and breasts of an apostate Presbyterian, renegade tyrants, Jews who retained nothing of Judaism but its hatred of Christ, associated with Jesuits, conspiring against the liberties of Europe, and for the overthrow of the Government of France! And its first home in this country was the city of Nullification, Secession, and Rebellion; in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1801, where thirteen Jews and three Protestants: Mitchall, Dalcho and Provost, who had received it from France, falsely pretended to found it on constitutions given by Frederick the Great. If Satan had picked the time, the inventors, and home of this Rite he would have doubtless chosen the same. [3]
The same critic (J. Blanchard, then president of the evangelical hotbed Wheaton College) thought that the Scottish Rite had political designs on a Southern Empire that would break off from the United States and be led by the political maverick Aaron Burr, who in 1805-1806 was involved in mysterious negotiations in the Mississippi Territory. Burr was accused of seeking to create a slave empire south and west of the Mississippi River which would have included Mexico and Central America. He was tried for treason and part of the correspondence that was used against him was written in Masonic cipher.
Burr's membership in a Masonic lodge and the fact that some of his associates were Masons, along with the use of a Masonic cipher, was enough to convince lovers of conspiracy theory that there was Masonic support of Burr and for the creation of a new country carved out of the United States and Mexico:
...laying all these considerations together, that mind must be weak, ignorant or worse, which does not see, in that Charleston Supreme Council of 1801, and its Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, a devil's government with a devil's gospel; and in the subterranean lodges sprang from it, in the strong words of Lamartine, the "Catacombs of a new worship, " which worship was that of a naked woman, a Goddess of Reason in the Champ de Mars . . . [4]
Although such strong opinions guarantee that there is enough material for a score of controversial books about Masonry and politics in Mexico, the authors as professors of international relations and sociology are keenly interested in the relevance of Masonic history to a broader topic, that of cultural influences on international affairs. Perhaps because the subject represents "uncertain territory " it gets little attention:
Culture and international relations easily appear to be mutually contradictory terms. To speak of "culture " is to invoke the creative capacities of human beings, to point, for example, to the constitutive role of values and visions to the power of language and aesthetic expression, to communities great and small engaged in reconstructing normative aspirations and reshaping the possibilities for a decent way of life. To speak of "international relations, " by contrast, is to drawn upon an altogether bleaker account of human condition, to refer to missiles and bombs, trade figures and debts, statesmanship and diplomacy, intrigue and force. [5]
The intrusion of Masonry, with all its international associations, into domestic Mexican political affairs is an excellent example of the fact that global cultural influences are at work in domestic and international politics. There is an argument for employing the expression ritualistic internationalism to the ubiquitous presence of Masonry and certain other societies in many countries: This phrase calls attention to the appeal and utility of ritualism in politics, and to the links that ritual creates between different political systems.
The pages of Philalethes are not the place for a lengthy discussion of the entire subject of Masonry and political culture. Nevertheless, the involvement of Mexican presidents with Freemasonry has something in common with the similar long time involvement of American presidents, British sovereigns, Chilean presidents, French prime ministers, and numerous other political leaders. Just what attracted such disparate authorities to Freemasonry deserves further research.
ENDNOTES
[1]. Masonry is such a controversial topic in Mexico that the authors feel obliged to declare their personal position. Rich is a long time Freemason and member of both the York and Scottish Rites (as they now exist, not as they were in the early nineteenth century and in the Spanish Empire!). De los Reyes is not, but he participated in Masonic oratorical contests in his native state of Tamaulipas and has relatives who are members. Rich is a Unitarian and de los Reyes is a Roman Catholic. Neither believes that these personal affiliations produce an incorrigible bias about the subject.
[2]. Oliver D. Street, "Freemasonry in Foreign Lands, " Silas H. Shepherd, et al., eds., Little Masonic Library, Book I, Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., Richmond (Virginia), 1977 [1924], 129.
[3]. J. Blanchard, Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated, Vol. I, Charles T. Powner, Chicago, reptd. 1979, 29.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. R. B. J. Walker, "The Concept of Culture in the Theory of International Relations, "Jongsuk Chay ea., Culture and International Relations, Praeger, New York, 1990, 3.
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Annual Assembly, Feast and Forum
Ladies are invited
February 24, 1995 · Hotel Washington
Washington, D.C.
Time: 6. p.m. sharp
Lecturer: Robert G. Davis, FPS
Topic: "Change," - The Six-Letter "Four letter word."
Assembly: Executive Board reports
Forum: Open questions concerning Freemasonry
Feast: Investment - $28 each (until Feb. 15 - $35 thereafter)
(Tickets at $35 will be available in the lobby until noon)
Send checks to
The Philalethes Society - PO. Box 70 - Highland Springs, VA 23075-0070
Call 800/424-9540 early for hotel reservations
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The Knights Templar And Freemasonry
by William E. Parker, MPS
In the chill of a March day in the year 1314, King Philip the Fair of France watched from a palace window as the flickering flames of a burning pyre on a small island in the Seine River in Paris slowly consumed its victims, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and Geoffroy de Charnay, the Templar Preceptor of Normandy. As the flames rose higher, de Molay protested his innocence and legend says he called upon Philip and Pope Clement V, his persecutors, to account for their treachery before God within the year. Whatever truth there may be to the legend, Clement V nonetheless died on April 20th and Philip on November 29th, both having little earthly time to savor their "victory " over the Templars.
Why had King and Pope conspired and condemned de Molay and de Charnay to the stake, and broken, apparently forever, the Order of the Temple, more commonly known as the Knights Templar, an Order which had served Kings and Popes alike faithfully for 200 years? The Paris burning was not the first, however, as 54 Templars had been burned alive on May 12, 1310, when condemned by the Archbishop of Sens. As to the "why," the answer lies in the muddy waters of medieval politics.
As in all eras, the political, economic, and religious issues of the Middle Ages were complex and intertwining one with the other. Political survival was the only goal, using whatever devious steps necessary. It has been asserted Pope Urban II, engaged in solidifying his own power, conceived the idea of the Crusades not solely as a religious movement, but also as a means to keep the European powers engaged elsewhere and thus preclude them from representing a threat to his own regime, the Papacy then being both a temporal and religious state. The religious context, continues the assertion, was a perfect "cover " for the scheme and would be readily accepted within the ardent religious and political tenor of the 11th and 12th centuries.
The history of knighthood is a story in itself. But, in brief, contrary to romanticized versions, 10th and 11th century medieval knights bore little resemblance to Arthur's "idealized" Knights of the Round Table. Often ignorant and illiterate, tournaments and battles were their main distractions, violence their usual solution to disputes, and the sword their only justice. It was an era of greed and bloodshed. Attempting to minimize such violence, the Church's "Peace " and "Truce of God" Edicts only partially curbed the warrior class. More was needed - much more.
Christian pilgrims had long been traveling to Jerusalem prior to the Crusades and, by and large, had been granted reasonably free access to the holy places by the Muhammadans. It was, nonetheless, a long perilous journey, one beset with disease, brigands, and other hardships and sometimes ending in death. The advance of Seldjuk Turkish armies, however, and the decline of the Byzantine Empire, caused the situation to deteriorate even further, particularly after 1070 when the Turks took Jerusalem and pilgrims began suffering major persecutions. Their realm in danger, the Byzantine Emperors Michael VII in 1070 and later Alexius Commenus in 1095 asked for western assistance in repulsing the invading hoards, first from Gregory VII and then Urban II.
For many years, the two "pillars " of the Christian Faith, Rome and Constantinople, had been at odds. While Europe was slowly recovering from the devastation of the Dark Ages, the Byzantine Empire was flourishing. Surpassing Europe in many aspects, serious cultural and religious antagonisms had developed between the two factions with the Byzantines considering the Western Christians little more than barbarians. And, with the continual internecine feudal warfare rampant in Europe, there was a germ of truth to the term. But, by 1089, there was an easing of tensions with a rapprochement in sight.
The Roman Empire had split into Eastern and Western portions, eventually to be the Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires, Greek Orthodoxy the Eastern religion and Latin Catholicism the Western. If Constantinople was content within its own realm, conversely Rome looked Eastward and yearned to possess both Empires. For Urban II, an astute politician, Alexius's request came at a propitious moment. With a dream of extending his Church's influence, the request was a golden opportunity. The European rulers were not only waging constant warfare among themselves, but even casting covetous eyes upon the Papal States and a diversion was urgently needed. And, profits always in mind, merchants from Venice, Genoa, and Pisa saw great trade benefits to be had in the Middle Eastern area, a plum ripe for picking.
There were, therefore, several issues behind the Crusades, although the religious motive was clearly set forth as the rationale, the necessary catalyst needed to consummate the plan. The various factors all coalesced into an explosion of action at the Council of Clermont of Nov. 25, 1095, when Urban II set in motion a 200-year war, a drama both glorious and tragic, that would ultimately end in military failure, cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the name of peace and Christianity, and shape religious and political patterns forever. The Church preached peace, yet violence against the non-Christian "infidels " was not only actively encouraged but sanctioned as a holy quest.
For Europeans, facing famine, plagues, floods, and bitter living conditions in general, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem was seen as a means for religious salvation and through God to achieve a new and better world. Thus, the idea of a religious crusade fell on willing ears. In the wake of the Pope's stirring exhortation, a minor "pre-Crusade" was begun in 1095. Usually referred to as the "People's Crusade," although knights also participated, both for lack of proper planning and amid Turkish attacks the venture ended tragically with much loss of life.
The first official Crusade, "to free the Holy Land for Christianity," began in 1095 and the 8th and last major Crusade in 1270. During those two centuries, the Middle East would see unimaginable carnage, deceit, intrigue, and political chaos. Commensurate with the Crusades, a need arose for logistical support for those who would engage in the trek to Jerusalem. In time, such support evolved into separate fighting forces, distinct from those knights engaged directly by their Kings, thus the advent of the Templars.
Begun by Huges de Payens in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, taking their name from their initial headquarters on the supposed site of King Solomon's Temple, their mission initially was to provide military protection for pilgrims to Jerusalem. From an inauspicious, almost stillborn, beginning, then receiving new life at the 1128 Council of Troyes, the Order of warrior monks flourished not only into a first-class fighting force, but also served as the "Bankers of Europe. "
Their preceptories became secure repositories of monies and the Templars immensely wealthy through land acquisitions and financial transactions. They could easily be called the equivalent of today's banking institutions, providing loans, fund transfers, letters of credit, and any other form of financial service required to Kings, Emperors, Princes, etc. Their eventual acquisition of riches and power reached the point of creating both such envy and fear in others it would contribute to the Order's downfall.
The Papacy, being both a temporal and religious power, waged constant battles with Europe's rulers to not only maintain its possessions but also to assert its supremacy. Responsible only to the Pope, the Templars could be used to great advantage militarily, politically, and economically in this never-ending power struggle. So successful was the Order, it ultimately became a pre-eminent force throughout the Continent rivalling both Kings and Papacy alike, often following its own rules rather than those of its "master. "
In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, however, the ambitious Philip of France had his own agenda. A long-running and bitter animosity between he and Boniface VIII resulted in Philip's troops imprisoning the Pope in the small town of Anagni near Rome in Sept. of 1303. Amid charge and counter charge, Philip even accused Boniface himself with heresy, being an unbeliever, in communication with demons, and other charges. Although freed shortly thereafter through a counter-attack by his followers, Boniface's humiliation had been great, his health and mind deteriorated, and he died several weeks later on Oct 11, 1303.
Boniface's successor, Benedict XI, continued the battle against Philip, but after only 8 1/2 months died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, some say poison, on July 7, 1304. Clement V took office Nov. 14th, 1305, and after much political and military pressure and a Papal move to an area between France and Italy, but subject to the French influence, became a Pope essentially under the French King's control. Thus began the Papacy's prolonged "Avignon Captivity. " With a Pope "in hand, " Philip could turn his thoughts elsewhere.
A calculating politician in the true Machiavellian tradition, Philip began to scheme. With huge debts, principally to the wealthy Templars, he coveted their great wealth. The Templars also controlled territory not subject to the King's rule, yet another source of potential conflict with his Kingdom's expansion plans. Finally, there had been consideration of merging the Templars and Hospitallers into a single military order, one controlled by the French King, but the Templars vigorously resisted the idea. They were an obstacle to be eliminated.
With the demise of the Crusades, the need for the Order was not only diminished, but the idea of warrior monks was itself in transition. While the Templar's sole purpose had been officially linked to the Crusades, the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights had additional missions to perform. And, unlike the Templars, often arrogant and imbued with their own power, both Orders had managed to avoid unduly antagonizing Europe's rulers.
Then, on Friday October 13th, 1307, despite previous assurances of Philip's friendship and fidelity, in a well-planned scheme, events were put into motion which suppressed and imprisoned de Molay, his lieutenants, the Templars in France, and confiscated their possessions. Such civil arrests were illegal, the Order being responsible only to the Pope, but Philip's minions nonetheless levied spurious accusations and employed torture to extract "confessions " of heresy, blasphemy, diabolical, lewd and magical ritual practices and sexual perversions.
It is said a former Templar, expelled for irregularities and said to be in Philip's employ, was reportedly responsible for initially accusing the Order of the previously noted charges, thus giving Philip the excuse to begin proceedings.
Some Templars died, some went mad, and some confessed simply to escape the agonies being inflicted, the era's tortures including the rack, the iron boot, burning irons, bones split and broken, and other barbaric practices common to medieval customs. In the mores of the era, however, confessions of heresy or other ecclesiastical crimes could be absolved and a suitable penance imposed. The surprise, therefore, is not that there should have been confessions, but rather that more Templars did not avail themselves of this "outlet," attesting undoubtedly to their strong faith, belief in their Order, and the injustice of the condemnation.
But, were the arrests totally unexpected? Or had the Templars been forewarned as some authors feel? Certainly, there had been rumors of impending trouble including rumors concerning improprieties in the Order's internal conduct, rumors likely started by Philip's agents. Yet, de Molay apparently was not openly concerned and had taken no overt preventive measures. It has also been alleged that portions of the Paris Temple's treasures and records were transferred to an unknown destination prior to the arrests, possibly the Templar fleet of some 15-20 ships, and then sent to Scotland, never to be seen again along with the ships, inexplicably vanishing into the mists of time.
The Templar's treasure has caught the imagination of countless authors through the years. Most agree it was indeed taken by Philip; however, some say it was sent to Scotland, one legend has it hidden on Cyprus, while another allegation has the treasure not sent out of France at all, the Scottish "flight " simply a diversion, but rather conveyed to some area outside Paris and sequestered, the Chateau of Gisors mentioned as the possible site together with, of course, an accompanying legend. Again, we are faced with Masonic traditions and legends versus historical fact. The dreams are there but the facts are not.
On the assumption that . the arrest warnings did indeed have any validity, why did De Molay not flee? And, why was there apparently such little resistance to the King's troops? De Molay had come to France, accompanied by 60 Knights which, together with supporting elements, constituted a force to be reckoned with, to lay out a plan for another venture into the Holy Land. He apparently still had a vision of another Crusade. Still, with or without warnings, it is likely he felt overly secure in the power of the Templars, the protection of the Papacy, the righteousness of his cause, and believed his position impregnable.
Perhaps he felt his duty was to uphold the Order's dignity. Or, perhaps he failed to realize the full impact of the situation. The Templar leaders, as a group, while showing great prowess in battle, proved less capable in the political arena. With an education molded largely in battle skills, they were often illiterate, frequently lacked the fine art of diplomatic and political skills and were simply outclassed in such matters. Or, perhaps he had no warning! But, in the final analysis, we shall never know his reasoning for certain.
Philip's motives were clear enough. But, what of the Papacy? Where was the support for the Templars, once the Pope's pride and joy, and who had served so faithfully? Although protesting from time to time, albeit ineffectually, why was the Pope essentially a complaisant party to the affair? First, Clement was under the domination of Philip and could scarcely defend the Templars without risking his own position. Secondly, the Templars' "time " had passed, they were fast becoming an anachronism, and their further usefulness was questionable. Thirdly, they had simply become too powerful, too rich, too privileged and represented a potential threat both for Philip and Clement. It is also believed Clement and Philip reached a compromise concerning French charges against Boniface VIII, charges subsequently quietly forgotten. The price would be the Pope's acquiescence to Philip's plans. De Molay's mistaken faith in the Pope's protection would prove a fatal error.
If the persecutions in France, Naples, Sicily and the Papal States were the most severe, in other areas it varied from lenient to none. In Cyprus, although arrested, a first trial found the Templars innocent while the records of a second trial appear to have been lost, hence the verdict there is uncertain. In Portugal, they were essentially converted into the Order of the Knights of Christ, reporting directly to the King, in that he had need of their fighting skills against the Moors. In Germany, a troop of Templars marched before their judges arrayed in full battle armour demanding justice and, not surprisingly, a verdict of innocence eventually followed apparently closing the matter. A second inquiry likewise found them innocent. Nonetheless, the German Templars eventually "disappeared, " most likely into other military orders such as the Teutonic Knights. In Aragon, Castille, and elsewhere in Spanish kingdoms, investigations proved either inconclusive or the Templars' innocence, and they were permitted to simply join other Orders, such as the Montesa or Calatrava for, as in Portugal, fighting men were needed in the Muslim conflict.
Philip sent a messenger to England's Edward III in October urging immediate action against the Templars; however, Edward proved reluctant and in a reply to Philip of Oct. 30th expressed his disbelief in the charges. Edward even wrote to the Kings of Portugal, Aragon Castille and Sicily on Dec. 4th urging no action against the Templars unless the charges were lawfully established. He also wrote a letter to the Pope on Dec. 1 0th on behalf of the Order, but it is likely his plea fell on deaf ears for, unknown to the English monarch, the Templars' fate was already sealed.
England, Scotland, and Ireland were undoubtedly the most lenient areas in the matter, with little immediate repressive action taken. However, with the Papal Bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae of Nov. 22nd, 1307, the official Church condemnation of the Templars, their arrest was indicated, with torture as required to obtain confessions of heresy The Order's demise was then only a matter of time. Edward received the Bull on Dec. 15th, prepared and forwarded regional arrest orders by December 20th with a January 8th implementation date. With the Order held in high esteem in England, accounts say the Bull was implemented only reluctantly and half-heatedly.
While apparently not convinced of the Order's guilt, Edward was a realist, engaged to marry Isabelle, Philip the Fair's daughter, and likely would not want to unduly anger his future Father-in-Law. Nor would he, as a good Christian King with a view of keeping his crown, wish to overly annoy the Pope. England was, after all, still a Catholic state, subject to Papal influence and remained so until Henry VIII's rupture with the Roman Church in the mid 1530's, some 220 years later. Edward's actions in pursuing the Templars, therefore, were a logical outcome of the era's political and religious climate.
Still, throughout the Templars' imprisonment and trials, Edward's actions were an astute blend of political skill and procrastination. But, once again, fact and fantasy become intermingled. For, if some authors maintain Templars, records, and treasures were scarce when the arrests began, other more serious historians cite the fact that between 135 and 150 Templars were taken with Edward eventually claiming much of their property and revenue. His sympathies were undoubtedly with the Order, however, for he continually temporized on the issue and imprisoned Templars were well treated.
The Templars were held for almost 2 years before serious examinations began, and then it was not until the summer of 1311 that confessions were obtained from 3 Templars, presumably through torture. During the intervening period, it seems that about 9 Templars did indeed manage to "escape, " while those remaining were permitted to retire to monasteries together with modest pensions. Eventually, only the English Master, William de la More, and the Preceptor of Auvergne, Himbert Blanke, remained in prison, the first to die there on Dec. 20th, 1312, while references to the second apparently disappeared from the records.
In Scotland, where only 2 Templars were arrested, and 15 in Ireland, no significant evidence of wrongdoing was found. King Robert Bruce, already at odds with the Papacy, apparently paid little heed to the Bull and legend has it that a number of Knights joined his Army, trained fighting men always welcome. Legend also says the Knights played a part in the English defeat at Bannock-Burn in 1314.
Of all the fables concerning Freemasonry, the Templar legend is one of the most enduring. Authors still differ on the question of the Templars' downfall and aftermath. If most feel the Order indeed did die out, citing historical records, yet some advance an escape theory, that with three months' advance warning of their impending arrest, due to the Continental situation, the Templars in England, Scotland, and Ireland disappeared into new lives. And, being a haven for the Order, that many Continental Templars crossed the Channel also seeking refuge. One thesis contends the Templars found safety at Roslyn near Edinburgh under the protection and leadership of the St. Clair family.
In April of 1312, the Bull In Excelso officially suppressed the Order and in May the Bull Ad Providam transferred their property to the Hospitallers. The Papal rejection, for whom thousands of Templars had died, their Order eliminated, members persecuted and/or executed, and their Grand Master burned at the stake would unquestionably have shattered their world. It has been alleged that survivors would have gone into hiding, of secret groups being subsequently formed, with the Order evolving into a new Order and subsequently evolving into Freemasonry.
The thesis continues that after centuries of secrecy the new Order, its Templar origins a distant memory, felt secure enough to emerge in the 1600's and Freemasonry made its existence known. An absorbing tale to be sure, but the theory flies in the face of previously documented actions in the British Isles. Did the Craft indeed exist hidden from the light of man for centuries and does it trace its descent from the Templars? Or did it, conversely, evolve at a later date from other sources, such as the stone masons, the cathedral builders, as many historians believe.
Another theory has the Craft arising as a result of the social conditions then existing in England, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Plague, the Great Fire, and the overthrow of James II. Secret groups, largely Royalist and conspiratorial in nature, would have, it is maintained, been a most logical reaction with such groups hidden behind the facade of the operative masons.
Yet another theory has the Craft evolving neither from the Templars nor the stone masons but from secret religious groups hostile to the religious climate of mid-1500's England after Henry's break with the Roman Church. Could not the thesis of the Craft evolving from such groups also tie into some form of Templar involvement, with the possibility of the Templars having formed secret "cells " within such religious bodies through the years? Again, the theories are many, but supporting facts are few.
Undoubtedly one of the strongest influences for associating the Templars with the Craft emanated from the Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay, a Scottish Mason and Stuart supporter resident in France. Based upon a paper he prepared for the French Grand Lodge in 1736, claiming a Masonic tradition descending from the Crusaders, his words sparked a proliferation of knightly rites and orders. While it was apparently not his intent, Ramsay unwittingly provided the spark for the eventual rise of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.
Prior to Ramsay's paper, there were few, if indeed any, Masonic references to knightly orders. But, his historical fantasy indicated a continuation of the lodges from the Crusades with a tradition carried on in Scotland. While he did not directly mention the Templars, the process of knightly association was begun and Ramsay had given emphasis to a "Masonic Secret " being transmitted down through the ages. Enterprising ritualists could use the extinct Templars, without fear of contradiction, as having played a part in this transmission.
The 18th Century was an era of entertainment drama, particularly among the educated classes, and presenting Masonic degrees in a dramatic form was highly natural. Thus, in the words of one historian: "Freemasonry was very typical of its time in its attitude to the dramatic and the playful. " Another says: "Mozart's Magic Flute is likewise a reconciliation of the serious with the playful in its portrayal of that era's mentality. " Therefore, framing Masonic ritual in allegorical dramatic form was not at all unusual.
With the English Civil War and Cromwell's rise in the 1640's, France had become a haven for fleeing Stuart supporters. In addition to the French elite, early French Freemasonry often also had a strong Jacobite-Stuartist influence, hence many members of the nobility all too ready to carry their noble status into lodge through degrees with knightly associations. And, those who were not of the nobility could, for a brief moment in lodge, pretend they, too, were a knight and a noble and carry a sword. Thus, this knightly lineage received an immediate and overwhelming acceptance with the Gallic mind and became grafted onto the dramatic ritual of Freemasonry, first on the Continent and then elsewhere. Many of these knightly titles have survived, of course, and are found today in several rites and orders.
Several Templar myths were created, with a story conceived whereby De Molay had passed on the secrets and Grand Mastership of the Order, they being eventually carried to Scotland and continued in an unbroken line down to the present. Among the "proofs" is a so-called Charter of Larmenius, or Charter of Transmission, purporting to show the unbroken line of Grand Masters since De Malay. With certain discrepancies noted in the document flawing its validity, it is given little credence by most Masonic historians.
lf another theory were to be advanced for the Templars survival anywhere, consideration might well be given to Portugal. There, the Templars, in essence, were simply converted to the Knights of Christ presumably with their lands and other possessions intact.
Masonically speaking, countless rites, including Templarism, came into being, such as Knights of the Cross, Order of the Temple, and others. One source cites some 34 quasi-Masonic Orders and 26 androgynous orders with a combined total of more than 1,400 degrees being developed, most of which have long since disappeared. The Rectified Scottish Rite, however, is an outgrowth of one such body. One of the most successful organizers of Templarism was the German Karl van Hund, whose Rite of Strict Observance had a period of some success. While he spoke of "unknown superiors, " perhaps alluding to the Templars, yet he admitted defeat when asked to produce them.
Running through the early Templar myths were supposed vengeance and conspiratorial theories in retaliation for the execution of De Molay, with the Templars supposedly behind a multitude of events; e.g., the murder of Henry IV of France, Cromwell's rise in England the beheading of Charles I, the French Revolution and subsequent executions of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, etc. Adding to this particular line of thought, the mystic Cagliostro allegedly told the Inquisition lurid tales of the Illuminati of Bavaria's mission to avenge the Templars.
It has been said that the Temple of Solomon plays a significant part in both organization's beginnings (Freemasonry and the Templars) either in fact or in legend, with Speculative Freemasonry's recorded beginnings in Scotland, an area where legend has the Templars supposedly taking refuge. In spite of allegations and theories, however, conclusive historical evidence is lacking on any direct Masonic connection with the Templars and it is likely none will ever be found, thus perhaps laying to rest the Scottish legend.
As an Order, the Templars were not continuously in battle, but carried on other functions during periods of calm, such as assisting in construction of the many Templar edifices throughout Europe, Britain and the Holy Lands. Nor can we speak solely of a group of fighting knights, since the Templars themselves, properly speaking, composed only a portion of the Order's total personnel. They were supported logistically by large numbers of other personnel such as Sergeants at Arms, Squires, Chaplains, clerical staff who handled the Order's administrative affairs, and other categories of personnel who performed essential tasks both at the Commanderies and on the field of battle.
There were also close alliances with and support of various artisanal groups required to construct the numerous Templar buildings erected through two centuries. But, while the Templars undoubtedly left an operative legacy to some degree in the craft guilds, this in no way proves a direct relationship with Freemasonry.
During their existence, the Templars achieved almost a mystical status which, together with an aura of secrecy surrounding the Order, produced a blend of myth, legend, and reality Thus, Templar myths propagated in the 18th and 19th centuries were all too readily accepted by a populace conditioned through the ages to believe such stories. If the Knights Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights also engendered many exploits, it was the Templars more than any other who would leave a mysterious and indelible mark on the pages of time.
History has treated the Templars in diverse ways. Some authors, like the Austrian Joseph Hammer in 1818, wished to discredit the Order and thereby Freemasonry, alleging a relationship between the two. And, Sir Walter Scott depicted the Templars as unscrupulous, arrogant, and treacherous as in his novels Ivanhoe and The Talisman. Others, like the French philosopher Condorcet and the poet Gerard de Nerval, were more sympathetic identifying the Order with the spirit of resistance to clerical tyranny. And, the Italian writer Dante, also sympathetic, charged Philip of France with greed and ambition.
Perception and reality are often tenuous concepts at best. And, historical "truth " is a relative question, depending upon the propagator who, more often than not, is guided by his own cultural biases. This is particularly true when records are either non-existent or incomplete and assumptions must be made. Did the Templars survive, only to emerge some four centuries later? If there is a lack of evidence to substantiate the theory, proponents maintain there is none likewise to refute it. Yet, even given a need for secrecy, it is difficult to believe an organization could utterly disappear without trace for 400 years.
The charges of secrecy and alleged heretical practices brought against the Templars are similar to those used by the Papacy in condemning Freemasonry. Does Rome believe there may be a connection between the two organizations, thus the similarity of accusations? Possibly, but Rome has never maintained any sort of connection and such charges were then commonly used by authorities in attacks on groups they wished to destroy. Thus, any apparent relationship from that standpoint is likely only coincidental.
In the final analysis, the Templars were just human beings, neither all good nor all bad, but simply caught in the middle of a power struggle between Clement and Philip with the latter the victor. Their suppression can be attributed essentially to political causes rather than alleged heresy or blasphemy, whatever the official justification given, such accusations simply the means to an end. In a like manner, Freemasonry has also been condemned based not on facts but on political and religious dogma to meet a preconceived objective.
A 4th Century Bishop noted that dreams come to the poor as easily as to the rich and cannot be forbidden unless sleep itself is abolished. Man has often dreamed of other eras, a life that was or might be, or in a modern context what we refer to as "the good old days. " The Templar legacy became part of such dreams and has endured both in the modern Masonic Knights Templar, which claims no direct historical linkage to the earlier Templars, and the Order of De Molay youth organization which makes use of the De Molay saga in its ritualistic ceremonies.
In so far as Templar Masonry is concerned, the degree's origins are some what obscured but appear to have originated in Ireland around the middle of the 18th century. Its first recorded American appearance seems to be on Aug. 29th, 1769, when St. Andrews Royal Arch Lodge in Boston, working under an Irish warrant, conferred the Order of Knight Templar. Subsequent events led to the eventual formation of the Masonic Knights Templar in America and elsewhere. The Order of De Molay, now 75 years old, was conceived in Kansas City in 1919.
Freemasonry draws upon many sources for its ritual, ceremonies, and spiritualism. If serious historians discount the Templar "escape" legend and see no direct Templar Masonic relationship, the Templars can nonetheless be credited as being one of such sources. Freemasonry, as we know it, has a history dating back perhaps 300 years, a lineage of which we can be justly proud. Whether the Craft is or is not a direct descendent of the Knights Templar is perhaps of little practical consequence except to historians and dreamers.
The lessons of history, conversely, are of great consequence and should be studied with care. And, there are lessons indeed to be learned from the Templars' saga, particularly their penchant for secrecy and their resultant downfall. It has been said that those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. We must learn from it.
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45. Chevalier Ramsay - A New Appreciation - C. Batham - A.Q.C. Vol. 81 - 1968.
46. The Birth Of Freemasonry - E. Ward - A.Q.C. Vol. 91 1978.
47. The Birth Of Freemasonry - Another Theory - F. W.Seal-Coon - A.Q.C. Vol. 92 - 1979.
48. The Transition From Operative To Speculative Masonry Prestonian Lecture- 1957- H. Carr - A.Q.C. Lodge.
49. Histoire Et Rituels Des Hauts Grades Maconniques - Paul Naudon - Dervy, Paris - 1966.
50. La Franc Maconnaie Et Le Divin - Paul Naudon -1960 - Dervy, Paris.
51. Sur La Route Des Croisades - Special Report - Le Monde - Paris, Sepot. 1993.
52. Retracing The First Crusade - Natl. Geographic -Sept. 1989.
53. Grand Lodge -1717-1967 - U.G.L. of England - 1967 Introd. - F. M. Before G. L.
54. Rite Of Memphis In France & England 1838-70 -E. Howe - A.Q.C. Vol. 92 -1979.
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by Allen E. Roberts, FPS
As one leaves Babcock Lodge No. 322 in Virginia these words are found over the door: "Practice without that which ye have learned within. "
This phrase makes a lasting impression on the minds of those who really care. It reminds us that there is more to be found in Freemasonry than its ritual.
Freemasonry has a philosophy that a man can obtain nowhere but through its teachings. Far too few of us ever try to see beyond the surface of its ritual. We miss the true concept of that philosophy - a way of life that teaches love of all mankind.
I want to discuss the Universality of Freemasonry; another term for brotherly love. The best way I know to explain my conception of that term is to give you some examples of the hearts that have been hit by the shafts of what Freemasonry teaches.
We have all heard about the landmarks of Freemasonry. Few of us know what they are. I believe one of the greatest of these landmarks is the Universality of the Craft.
During my long and continuing search for what Freemasonry did during the War Between the States, I found true brotherhood in action. These words spoken at the beginning of the war speak of the feelings that ran deeply:
"War dreadful war brings with it many a scourge - truly may it be said to be 'the time that try men's souls.' It is well calculated deeply to exercise the Masonic's mind - brother meets brother in deadly strife. The principles of Masonry are outraged. By whom? Each may, and doubtless will, accuse the other. The battle-field is no place for discussion. Our country calls and our first duty under God is to obey.
"If our soil be polluted by an invaders tread, be he Mason or profane, drive him back. We are bound to protect our property, our families and ourselves. Should the Square and Compass [sic] glitter on the breasts of an advancing foe, use it as a mark and bring the invader to the dust. He fights under false colors; he violates the fundamental objects of the Order; he is unworthy of your confidence and protection, he uses the symbols of the Order for mercenary purposes and would prostitute its Holy principles. A true Mason invades the rights of no man; on the contrary, espouses the cause of the oppressed.
Those were the words of Grand Master, John Robin McDaniel, in his Annual Address to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, December 9, 1861.
There's not much brotherhood in those words, but listen to what followed:
"The battle over, visit the field of carnage and give the most extended scope to your Masonic feelings. Administer to the sufferers all the comforts at your command; treat kindly those whom the fortunes of war have thrown in your power, regarding that a fallen and prostrate foe is no longer your enemy; but conquered, he should excite our pity.
"An unresisting foe should soften the asperaties of our nature and entitle him at our hands to the exercise of that most exalted attribute of Deity Mercy.
"These are the teachings of Masonry; the exercise thereof, the fruits - blending most happily in the true Masonic character the Valiant warrior and the good Samaritan. "
Those words teem with Brotherly Love and the Universality of Masonry. The records show the second part of this portion of his address was followed thousands of times - not only in Virginia, but throughout the far-flung fields of strive.
The record also proves there were hundreds of times when the first part of McDaniel's edict to his Masonic brethren was never followed. Many a Mason's life was saved because he let it be known that he was a Mason - even during the heat of battle.
The Grand Master of the District of Columbia, Charles F. Stansbury, told his Grand Lodge in 1862:
"We cannot ignore a Masonic Brother because he comes from any particular quarter of the world, or holds any political or religious creed different from our own, unless such creed is inconsistent with Masonry. He must have committed some offense which would justly subject him to suspension or expulsion, before we can repudiate his claim upon our Masonic sympathy and charity whenever he is in a situation to need them.
"Hence, the action of any body of Masons in assuming to cut off from Masonic fellowship those who are arrayed on the one or the other side of the present unhappy contest in our country, is in the highest degree unmasonic and reprehensible. Masonry is ancient, universal, and unchangeable, or it is a sham and a-farce. Its principles are to be derived from a study of the ancient landmarks, and no deviation from them is to be countenanced... "
Those few words tell us what Masonry is, and in no uncertain terms. It is truly ancient, universal and unchangeable, or it is a farce - nothing for us to proudly proclaim.
Military Lodges come in for much criticism during that period. One such lodge, operating under an Illinois charter, imported a Master and paid him $100 a month to make "Masons." In one month that lodge Raised about 200 men at $20 a head.
Most of the Military Lodges operated in strict accordance with the Landmarks of Masonry. One of them gave us the gift of one of the greatest Masons who ever lived - Joseph Fort Newton.
In his autobiography, River of Years, Brother Newton tells us why he became a Freemason: "The fact that such a fraternity of men could exist, mitigating the harshness of war, and remain unbroken when states and churches were torn in two, became a wonder; and it is not strange I tried for years to repay by debt to it."
This was another of those cases that proves Brother Love has no stopping point. Just a little goes far and endures from age to age.
Early in 1864 Federal forces took over Winchester, Virginia, and held it until well after hostilities had ceased. Earlier, when the Federals had occupied Winchester, they had permitted Winchester Hiram Lodge, No. 217 to operate. This permitted several Union soldiers to receive their degrees there. Because of the earlier approval, a committee from the Lodge attempted to see General Sheridan, the Commanding Officer. He refused to interview them, until one of the officers of the Lodge contacted a friend in the cabinet in Washington. The resulting note gave them a speedy audience with the general.
Sheridan refused to let the Lodge reopen, as has been expected because of his religious and political views. Then one of his staff officers, a Mason, argued in favor of the Lodge. He promised to be in attendance at all of its meetings, and report to the commander anything detrimental to the Union cause. Sheridan finally agreed, reluctantly.
As a result of the resumption of labor, 207 members of the Federal troops were made Master Masons in that Confederate Lodge. Among them was a Captain from Ohio, William McKinley, who would later become President of the United States. Later he would die by an assassin's bullet.
Picture, if you will, those Confederate Masons making Masons of those who had captured their town a short time before. Where can you find a more graphic picture of the universality of Masonry? When political enemies lay aside their differences to meet on the level and part upon the square - Freemasonry has something the whole world needs.
You are familiar with the way Union officers saved the Masonic Temple on Franklin Street in Richmond after the fall of Richmond. You know how the Grand Master of Iowa, an officer in the Union Army, placed guards around Albert Pike's library in Little Rock, Arkansas, to save it from destruction.
Not only Confederate lodges were saved by Union forces. Let's go to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The date was July 30, 1864. Confederate troops, under Generals McCausland and Johnson captured the town. A Confederate officer riding south on Second Street saw a building whose character looked familiar. He stopped at a neighboring house and the occupants confirmed his belief. He placed guards around that building, then quietly rode away. The town was burned. That building - the Masonic Temple at Chambersburg still stands - a tribute to the universality of Freemasonry!
Such incidents prove Brotherly Love is not a mere phrase. It's an active tenet of Freemasonry universally.
The year was 1863. New Orleans had fallen before Farragut's fleet and Butler's army. Up and down the Mississippi River ranged Union gunboats. Among them was the United States Streamer Albatross. Lieutenant-Commander John E. Hart, United States Navy, of Schenectady, N.Y., a member of St. George's Lodge, No. 6, Free and Accepted Masons, was the commander. Captain Hart was stricken with a fever contracted on duty that held him confined, delirious, in his bunk in his tiny stateroom.
In the log of the Albatross the following official entry yet survives in the Navy department archives at Washington:
"June 11, 1863:4:15 p.m. The report of a pistol was heard in the captain's stateroom. The steward at once ran in and found the captain lying on the floor with blood oozing from his head and a pistol near him, one barrel of which was discharged. The surgeon was at once called but life was extinct. "
On Captain Hart's personal official record in the Navy department archives is the charitable notation: "Died of wounds. "
There was no Confederate force at St. Francisville that day to defend the town. The lovely old place lay passive. About 108 shells had riddled the old courthouse and Grace church was ruined. Its beautiful stained-glass window above the altar was shattered. The few Confederate soldiers there on leave could only grind their teeth in impotent rage.
Suddenly the firing ceased. Those who watched from the bluff saw a ship's boat put out from the Albatross. A Union officer sat in the stern, Union sailors rowed, and in the bow a white flag flew. Two brothers lived at the foot of the bluff, Samuel and Benjamin White, both of them Masons. The Union officer from the Albatross hailed them. The brothers were asked if there were any Masons in the town. They told the officer there were. The officer asked them to inform the Master they had the body of a Mason in their boat. He had long ago asked that he be buried with Masonic rites if he should die before the war had ended.
The Master was with the Confederate forces in another State, but W.W. Leake, the Senior Warden was in town on furlough. When informed of the situation, he readily agreed to conduct the funeral.
Clad in his uniform Captain Hart's body was lifted ashore. At the foot of the bluff, their Masonic regalia worn above their uniforms of Confederate gray, stood four members of Feliciana Lodge, No. 31, St. Francisville, Louisiana. The two brothers Samuel and Benjamin White stood with them. The Masons of the US.S. Albatross made themselves known to the Confederate Masons, and received Masonic regalia from them.
Up the bluff and into the little white wooden home of Feliciana Lodge No. 31 they bore the body. The building still stands, but it's a public library now. Over the body the ancient funeral service of Masonry was conducted. Then to the cemetery in the church yard of Grace Church the body was conveyed. Among the shell holes from that dead officer's own guns St. Francisville's Masons had dug his grave. There, with Masonic Ritual, they consigned all that was mortal of Lieutenant-Commander John E. Hart, Master Mason.
When the newly turned earth lay above the coffin, the shore party of the Albatross saluted and departed for their gunboat, unmolested. The watching Confederates stood on the top of the bluff. Amid the shell shattered wreckage of what had been beautiful St. Francisville they saw the Albatross hoist its anchor, swing about and steam down the Mississippi.
But that was not the end of that picture of Brotherly Love. Throughout the years the Freemasons of St. Francisville, and the Daughters of the Confederacy, kept Hart's grave green and fresh, along with those of the Southerners buried there. And in 1956 the Grand Lodge of Louisiana erected a monument over that grave, replacing the simple head-stone that marked Hart's last resting place.
To commemorate this historical event, the Grand Lodge of Louisiana invited the Virginia Craftsmen to its jurisdiction and St. Francisville. There, with appropriate ceremonies, a memorial service was held at the grave of John E. Hart on October 2, 1972.
There are no better words with which to close than with this inscription placed on that memorial: "This monument is dedicated in loving tribute to the Universality of Freemasonry. "
Footnotes
1. The Virginia Craftsmen is a traveling degree team that was organized in 1962 to exemplify Freemasonry's first tenet - Brotherly Love. Its members wear a Confederate cavalry-type gray uniform trimmed in gold. The group has traveled from Maine to California, to several Provinces in Canada, Scotland and England.
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Strange But True
When Admiral David G. Farragut died on Sunday, August 14, 1870 at the navy yard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On the 17th St. John's John Lodge, with many members of St. Andrew's Lodge and many others in attendance. Among these were U.S. troops, heavy artillery and marines. Religious services were conducted in St. John's church, followed by a Masonic service at a tomb in the church yard. At the conclusion of the service, fifteen volleys were fired.
From Allen Roberts' new book "Trivia arid Facts."
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by Leon ZeIdis, MPS
Preamble
A fundamental question, rarely asked, is the reason why our forerunners, the Brethren who wrote and developed the complicated symbolic structures of moral and philosophical teaching we now know as speculative Freemasonry, would choose to base their system on such modest materials as the builder's trade, his tools and legends. Such activities as seafaring, metal working, agriculture and husbandry, among others, could have been used just as well in developing a "peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. " Indeed, they have been used for this purpose at one time or another, by various individual thinkers and organizations.
We hope to show that the stonemason's trade, and his material - stone - have such profound, far-reaching and universal significance and connotations that the choice was not only justified but inevitable.
It is our belief that a study of the rich symbolism of stone will illuminate many facets of Freemasonry and will lead to a better understanding of our rituals and traditions.
Introduction
Stone has been, from prehistoric times, the principal material used to build and adorn important structures, where solidity and permanence are the paramount considerations. Stone became paradigmatic of stability, hardness and endurance in all languages, bearing a wealth of symbolic meaning, with many deep rooted psychological and historical associations and suggestions, some of which will be examined later.
The scientific or chemical definition of stone is of no concern to us. Suffice it to say that stone is the nonmetallic component of rock and that it appears in many forms, colors and degrees of hardness and brittleness. Stones are used for construction and jewelry, for sculpture and for industry.
Stone, having a chemical structure, reacts with the environment. It may change color, erode, combine with different airborne chemicals. It "ages" both chemically and physically, due to the release of the stresses to which it had been subjected in the geologic past. "Granite blocks can increase in compressive strength by a third in only six months aging through recovery from the natural prestressing." (1) All these phenomena must have appeared to men of an earlier age as proof that stone was not totally inert, but held a certain form of life.
Stone In Antiquity
Stone was in all probability the first material used by primitive man. The first coarse tools were simply rough stones used to hammer, cut and grind. The first giant step taken by mankind towards civilization was the change from using natural stones to chipped or flaked implements and weapons, with improved cutting edges, or allowing the use of a handle. By this apparently simple act, of modifying a stone before using it as a tool, Man became home Faber and started to fashion his environment, instead of being the passive user of what nature had to offer.
Stones were not only used as tools, but became the object of veneration of primitive men, whose survival depended on them. "Rubbing and polishing stones is a well-known, exceedingly ancient activity of man. In Europe, holy stones, wrapped in bark and hidden in caves, have been found in many places; as containers of divine powers they were probably kept there by men of the Stone Age. At the present time, some of the Australian aborigines believe that their dead ancestors continue to exist in stones as virtuous and divine powers, and that if they rub these stones, the power increases (like charging them with electricity) for the benefit of both the living and the dead." (2)
The belief in "living stones" or stones having a soul is not restricted to barbarous tribes. An astonishing number of primitive myths describe man as born of stone. (3) In the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the Greek parallel to the story of the deluge, the earth is peopled again by Deucalion throwing "his mother's bones " (stones) over his shoulder.
Many gods were born of rocks, such as Mithras, whose cult was the main competitor of Christianism in the early centuries of our era. Stone was conceived as petra genitrix, assimilated to the Great Goddess, the matrix mundi The parallels between caverns, the inside of the earth, and the womb, are too obvious to stress. The interior of the earth was conceived by the ancients as a place of gestation, where life germinates and develops. The same germinal sense of the earth appears in many rites and myths of growth, like that of Demeter that figured in the Eleusian Mysteries. Caverns, with their womb connotation, were regarded as sacred places; oracles usually dwelt in them.
Rock was considered not only a living organism, as mentioned before, but as developing inside the earth. Precious stones, in Hindu mythology, are differentiated by their age. Diamond is the most "mature " stone, while emeralds and rubies are still insufficiently developed. (4)
Metals, too, were regarded as maturing within the womb of the earth. Gold was the mature or "perfect " metal, into which all others slowly evolved or ripened. The alchemist, according to this view, had only to find a way of accelerating this maturation process in his laboratory to achieve within a short time what in nature takes eons. For this, he required a special ingredient, what in modern chemistry is called a catalyst, which would serve to accelerate the evolution from base metal into gold. This ingredient was called by alchemists "the philosopher's stone." (5)
Stone, then, is the key to the growth or metamorphosis of the other elements. In Continental Lodges, the Chamber of Reflections, where the candidate waits and meditates in solitude before his initiation, is adorned, among other things, with a picture of a cock (representing Mercury-Hermes, about whom more below), and the legend V.I.T.R.I.O.L., which are the capital letters of a Latin inscription meaning "Visit the depths of the earth and rectifying (i.e., purifying) thou shall find the hidden stone. " Initiation is, in a sense, a ceremony of purification or refining, and the divestiture of metals is connected to this concept. This aspect of the Masonic initiation is also explained by the conception that metal is somehow related to the demonic and magical side of nature, while stone is connected with its positive aspects. This idea is explored by Mircea Eliade in his book already quoted. A further embodiment of this conception is the injunction against placing metallic objects over the V.S.L. Some Lodges go as far as to have a Square and Compasses especially made of wood for this purpose.
The ancient Germans, too, believed that the spirit of the dead continued living in their tombstones. The custom of placing stones on graves may spring partially from the symbolic idea that something eternal, part of the dead person, remains and can be most fittingly represented by a stone. Stone symbolizes the simplest and deepest experience - the experience of something eternal. (6) For stone as a symbol of the self, Jung's works can be consulted. (7)
The body of a dead person is returned to the bosom of the earth in order to continue its evolution. Maximum contact with the earth is achieved by not using a coffin, as in Orthodox Jewish burial rites. It will be noted that H.A., likewise, was interred directly within the earth, without a casket.
Stone gods, or stone monuments erected as god-images or places of worship, have been known from the earliest antiquity. It will be sufficient to mention the many menhirs and dolmens dotting the landscape of Europe. The most famous site of this kind is perhaps Stonehenge, on Salisbury plain (England), which comprises several concentric circles of stones, apparently built for astronomical and ritual purposes between 2350 and 1350 B.C..
E. Sidney Hartland believes that "many of the menhirs in Europe and Asia Minor have probably been actually figures of deities. Rocks, boulders and standing stones have been worshiped as gods or as inhabited by gods all over the world. Wherever men have been struck by the appearance or position of a rock or stone, they have regarded it with awe as uncanny, and in innumerable cases they have ultimately erected it into a divinity, brought offerings and put up prayers before it. Instances need not be cited; they are found in every quarter of the globe." (8)
In his book Ritual from which the previous quote was taken, Theodor Reik adds numerous examples of stone regarded as a god. Furthermore, Reik puts forward the theory that the Tables of the Law, received by Moses on Mount Sinai, were actually stone gods that were ritually murdered by Moses. This was later recorded as the breaking of the stone tablets in an act of fury caused by the people's infidelity to Jahve. (9)
The Spanish philologist Ramon Menendez Pidal has commented that "a very ancient custom exists in many peoples, of travelers signaling the place where a violent death has taken place by throwing a stone and uttering a prayer or a curse, according to the quality of the victim. (10)
Stones not only lie in the earth, they also fall from heaven. In some primitive cultures, the heavens are thought to be made of stone. Aeroliths have been worshiped in many places as divine incarnations (or should we say impetrations?). The stone of Pessinus, a meteorite adored as the Phrygian Great Mother, was brought to Rome at the time of the second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) as a result of a sybiline prophecy. It was set up in a temple especially built on the Palatine hill. (11)
The association of stones with divinities explains perhaps their connection with the crowning of kings (who ruled by divine right). Two notable examples are the Irish Lia-Fail (12) and the Stone of Scone (or Stone of Destiny) on which Scottish Kings were enthroned since the year 838 when Kenneth MacAlpine brought it from Dunstaffnage.
The Romans, when taking an oath, held a stone in their hand to represent the presence of Jupiter (Zeus). It was called the "Jupiter lapis. " The same god was also the god of rain and the Romans held a festival called Aquaelicium, during which the priests brought into Rome a cylindrical stone called lapis manalis. It will be remembered that Zeus was saved from being devoured by his father, the titan Cronos (Saturn), by being exchanged for a stone (Abadir). The mythical equivalent of stone and flesh is remarkably explicit. (13) Such is also the case in the myth of Medusa, the Gorgon, who turned men into stones.
The Latin word "lapis" means not only stone, but also tombstone. Hence the adjective lapidary, meaning suitable to be engraved on a tombstone. Dilapidated, on the other hand, means literally "with missing stones. "
Hermes and Stone
The Greek god Hermes holds special significance for Freemasons, being a deity closely connected with the underworld and the occult ("Hermetic Sciences").
The name of the god itself suggests the word for "stone " or "rock " and also the verb that means "to protect." (14) In earliest times, Hermes was venerated in Greece as a "mile-stone " in which the spirit of the numen was thought to be hidden. (15) The stone pillars erected in honor of the god were sometimes substituted by stone heaps, particularly at crossroads (something similar was practiced by the Hebrews - see below). Each passerby added a stone to the mound as sign of homage and to invoke the protection of the god, who was not only the guide of all travelers, both in this world and the next, but also the patron of merchants and thieves, which might tell us something about ancient Greek merchants!
Hermes was a multifaceted god: the sacrificial herald of the gods, messenger of Zeus, inventor of music (he invented both the Iyre and the shepherd's flute), patron of gymnastic skills and the god of clever and wise discourse (these are not necessarily coexistent). "As he is the guide of the living on their way, so is he also the conductor of the souls of the dead in the nether world, and he is as much loved by the gods of those regions as he is by those above. For this reason, sacrifices were offered to him in the event of deaths. Hermea (square pillars terminated generally with a head of Hermes and bearing a phallus) were placed on the graves . . . in general, he was accounted the intermediary between the upper and lower worlds, As he was born in the fourth month, the number four was sacred to him." (16)
Being familiar with the nether world, Hermes was also the god of mining and digging for buried treasure. He was the god of sleep and dreams as well. Little wonder, then, that he is connected with all forms of arcane knowledge, hence called hermetic. Under one of his forms, Hermes Trismegistus (the Thrice Powerful), he was identified with the Egyptian god Thoth.
Hermes appears in one of the degrees of the A.A.S.R. and in some Lodges, the staffs of the Deacons are topped with the Caduccus, the wand with entwined snakes carried by Hermes.
Stone in Jewish Tradition
We have already mentioned the possible divine nature of the Tablets of the Law. Sacred stones or pillars, called in Hebrew "Matzovot, " are already mentioned by Herodotus (5th Cent. B.C.) and appear in several places in the Old Testament. Jacob, after striking a pact with Laban, erected a stone monument that he called Gal-Ed (Testimonial Pillar). Moses erected twelve stone pillars near the altar of sacrifices.
After crossing the Jordan river, Joshua ordered taking twelve stones from the river bed, one for each tribe, setting them up in their camps and carrying them later on their shoulders as memorial of the crossing on dry ground (Joshua 4). Joshua also set up other twelve stones in the middle of the river, in the place where the priests carrying the Ark of the Testimony had stood. Finally, Joshua erects at Gilgal the twelve stones he had brought from the Jordan, so that future generations would know that the Lord had done to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea.
Later, Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal, made of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used (Joshua 8:3031). Finally, before dying, he wrote down the Law on a large stone he set up under an oak tree in Shechem, as a witness against the people of Israel should they betray their covenant (Joshua 24: 26-2 7).
Samuel put up a stone that he called "Eben-Ezer" (Stone of Help) after the Philistines were routed at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). Adoniah offered a sacrifice near the rock of Zohelet (Joyful), near the fountain of Rogel ( 1 Kings 1:9).
We could continue multiplying the examples, but the point is dear: the ancient Hebrews used unhewn stones for their ritual monuments and altars.
Jacob's ladder, which figures on the E.A.'s Tracing Board, is directly related to the stone pillar erected by Jacob after his dream. He had used the stone as a pillow and poured a libation of oil to consecrate the memorial (Genesis 28:18). Jacob names "Beth-EI " the place where he had his dream, that is, the house of God. In accordance with Reik's commentary on this episode, the stone itself is an image of God and only thus can its anointment be understood. (17)
This identity of stone, human being and anthropomorphic deity throws light on the saying: "Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry whence you were hewn; look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave you birth " (Isaiah 51 :1-2). There is a Jewish custom, already mentioned, of placing a small stone over the grave one has visited. This may be connected to the Greek traveler's adding a stone to the Hermes monuments, in order to secure a safe journey Hermes, as stated, was also the guide of the dead.
Hewing the stone might be construed as injuring the deity. This would explain the ancient injunction against using hewn stones for building an altar (see above and Exodus 20:25). Another instance of this taboo is the fact that while building King Solomon's Temple, no sound of hammers or chisels or any other iron tool was heard at the building site (1 Kings 6:7). All the stone blocks were dressed at the quarry. An interesting possibility was raised in this connection by Bro. William C. Blaine, who noted that the depth of Zedekiah's cavern -used as a quarry in olden times, and which lies under the western section of Jerusalem's Old City, would prevent any noise reaching the site of the Temple on Mount Moriah. (18)
Another important legend connected with this subject is the one relating that Solomon owned a wondrous tool (the "Shamir " worm or stone), created on the Sabbath eve, which could cut any stone. (19) There is, of course, the famous passage in Psalm 118:
"The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (or capstone). "
This has become the basis for an entire degree in Freemasonry.
Stone in Christian Tradition
The best example of the importance of stone in Christian teachings is, of course, the case of Simon the fisherman, called Peter (Petrus-the stone) by Jesus: "I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16: 18).
The Pope, as linear successor to Peter, is called Holy Father. The connection between Pater (father) and Petrus (stone) is obvious. In the Hebrew language as well, the same letters forming the word "father " (av: alef-beth) appear in the word for "stone " (even: alef-beth-noon).
In another instance, Christ himself is compared to a rock (1 Cor. 10:4).
A passage in the book of Revelation (2:17) mentions a white pebble with a secret name written on it, which only the recipient will understand.
According to a story related by Marco Polo in his book of travels, the three Magi received from the infant Jesus a gift in exchange for the gold, myrrh and incense they brought him. This was a small casket which, upon being opened, was revealed to contain a stone. Without realizing the import of the gift, the three oriental kings threw what they believed to be only a worthless stone into a well, whereupon a fire came down from heaven into the well. Observing the miracle, the kings realized too late that the stone they had discarded was meant to symbolize the strength and constancy in faith that was expected of them. They took with themselves some of the fire from heaven and carried it to their respective countries and this, the legend says, is the origin of the fire-worshipers of Persia. (20)
The Holy Grail is described in the "Parzival " not as a cup, but as a stone of the hardest kind, called lapis exillas, which brings to mind the alchemist's stone. According to another version, the cup was made of emerald (also a stone). (21)
Stone in Islamic Tradition
The focal point of worship for a Muslim is the Ka'aba at Mecca. Every pious Muslim must make a pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hadj) at least once in his lifetime, making seven circumambulations around the sanctuary of the Ka'aba, the Black Stone which, according to witnesses' reports, appears to be a meteorite. The pilgrims also throw stones at pillars representing the devil, in the vicinity of Mina. (22)
In Jerusalem, there is a stone in the Dome of the Rock, built on the spot where the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple is supposed to have been located, from which Muhammad is said to have jumped to heaven, mounted on his white mule "Al Burak. "
Stone in Masonic Literature
In Masonic rituals and legends, stone plays a leading role. Beginning with the E.A., who is enjoined to polish the rough stone with hammer and chisel, and culminating with the variously-shaped stones appearing in diverse M.M. and R.A. degrees, there is hardly a ceremony in symbolic Freemasonry which is not connected in some way with stones.
After completion of the initiation ceremony, the new Brother is placed in a particular position within the Lodge and is usually told that he represents the cornerstone on which Freemasonry's spiritual Temple must be built.
Bro. G.W. Speth has provided a wealth of evidence to support the theory that cornerstones had originally a sacrificial character, destined to provide a soul that would protect the new building. (23)
In the course of his advancement, the E.A. eventually becomes a M.M. and then he plays the part of the victim in a crime that, apparently, has little connection with cornerstones. However, a possible explanation for the Hiramic legend is that it, too, refers to a ritual sacrifice, designed to provide a human soul for K.S.'s Temple. In the initiation ceremony, a person plays the role of cornerstone, while in the builder's ceremony, the stone played the role of a human victim. The exchangeability of stone and flesh noted in an earlier section of this paper finds here another application.
In the Edinburgh Register House MS (1696), one of the earliest masonic documents that have survived, the Jewels of the Lodge include the Perpend Ester and the Broad Ovall. The first, perpendicular ashlar, is a stone placed crosswise through a wall, while the second is believed to be a corruption of a "broached dornal", that is, a chiseled stone. (24)
Similar information appears in the Chetwode Crawley MS (c. 1700): "perpendester" and "broked-mall". (25)
The Mason's work is thus described in the Dumfries No 4 MS (c. 1710): "to work in all manner of worthy work in stone: Temple, Churches, Cloysters, Cities, Castles, Pirimides, Towers & all other worthy buildings of stone ". In the same manuscript we find a reference to the "two pillars of stone ", one that would not sink and the other that would not burn, which held the noble art or science. (26)
The Mason himself, as we have noted, is likened to a stone. in Long Liners, a book published in London in 1722, we find this pithy definition: "Ye are living stones, built up a spiritual House, who believe and rely on the chief Lapis Angularis, which the refractory and disobedient Builders disallowed... (27) The reference, of course, is to the already quoted passage in Psalm 118, used in the Mark degree.
We could multiply the examples of stone symbolism in our rituals, but enough has been said already to justify our thesis.
In conclusion, the deep and various meanings of stone as a physical object and as allegory make it easy to understand why the art of the builder should have been selected as the appropriate vehicle to convey the philosophical and mystical teachings of speculative Freemasonry in its different manifestations.
The Mason, the stone carver, is seen to share many an attribute with the priest and the demiurge, which in Platonic philosophy represents the Architect who fashions the sensible world.
NOTES
1. E.M. Winkler, Stone: "Properties, Durability in Man's Environment", Springer-Verlag, reviewed by Philip Morrison, Scientific American April, 1974, p. 123.
2. Franz, M.L. Von, "The Process of Individuation in Man and His Symbols", ed. by Carl G. Jung, Doubleday & Co. New York 1964, p. 205 and photo on p. 204.
3. See the bibliography in Eliade, Mircea, Forgerons Et Alchimistes, Flammarion, Pans, 1956. Note G.
4. Eliad Op. Cite, Chapter 4, passim.
5. Eliade, ibidem.
6. Franz, op. cit. p. 209.
7. See Jung, Carl G., Von dal Wurzein des Bewusstein, Zurich 1954, pp. 200 seq., 415 seq., 449.
8. Hastings, James Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. II, Edinburgh 1920, p. 864. Quoted in Reik, Theodor, Ritual, The International Psycho-Analytical Library, London, 1931.
9. Op. cit., pp. 346-356.
10. Don Ramon Menendez Pidal, "Cordoba y la leyenda de los infantes de Lara" in Lod Godos y lay Epopeya Espanola, Espasa-Calpe, Madrid 1965, pg. 328.
11. Seyffert, Oskar Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Mendian Library, New York 1956, sub voc. Rhea.
12. See Cirlot, J.E., A Dictionary of Symbols, Dorset Press, New York 1991, p. 314.
13. Seiffert, op. cit. sub voc. Jupiter.
14. New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, Hamlyn London 1959, p. 123.
15. Parodi, Bent, "La pietra come simbolo dello spirito umano", Hiram, No. 12, December 1987, p. 372.
16. Seiffert, op. cit., sub voc. Hermes.
17. Reik, op. cit., p. 346.
18. "King Solomon's Quarries", The Israel Scottish Rite, Vol. 3, No 1, December 1973, p. 23.
19. See Klein, Ernest, "A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for readers of English", Carta, Jerusalem 1987, p. 666 sub voc. "shamir".
20. Marco Polo, "The travels of Marco Polo", Penguin, London 1958, pp. 28-29.
21. Pisani, Paolo, "Considerazioni muratoi sul Graal", Hiram N'g 12, December 1987, p. 371.
22. Gibb, H.A.R., Mohammedanism. Mentor Book, The New American Library, New York 1955, p. 57.
23. Speth, G.W., "Builder's Rites and Ceremonies; the folk-lore of Masonry'', A.Q.C. Vol. 89, 197;, pp. 139-168.
24. Knoop, Jones and Hamer, "The Early Masonic Catechisms", London 1975, p. 32.
25. Ibid. p.38.
26. Ibid. pp. 54 and 67.
27. Knoop, Jones and Hamer, "Early Masonic Pamphlets", London 1978, p. 44.
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by Edwin T. Cotion MPS
Freemasonry is a Fraternity.
A Fraternity of mature Men.
Men bent on self improvement.
Improvement of his personal morals.
Improvement on his faith.
His faith in GOD.
A GOD of his choice.
A Freemason brings his faith to the Lodge room
He applies it in the development of his character through the fellowship of man.
----o----
by Michael L. Segall MPS
Of course, we all know what "Initiation" means. This lecture. given to newly initiated Brethren of L'Etoile #1001, Grand Lodge of France, could therefore have no other goal but to make other Brethren who are new Masons understand a little better the European viewpoint on the curious and disconcerting world in which they recklessly got involved, sometimes for the remainder of their lives. It's all about three words that even old and seasoned Masons sometimes use with little rhyme or reason. As the title indicates, the main one is Initiation, the other two, intimately related to it, being Tradition and Understanding.
We tend, in French Masonry and European Masonry in general, to differentiate between the two main aspects of Knowledge which are Learning and Understanding. This distinction shapes our Masonic endeavors to a large degree. Learning, the gathering of information, is a matter of time and memory. It is available to anyone with the time to spend and the adequate mental storage capacity Intelligence is not really a prerequisite. Understanding is very different, being as it is the ability of correlating the learned information, of drawing novel conclusions and acquiring novel ways of understanding oneself, the others, and the world we live in.
Initiation... a word just as mystery wrapped as it is misused which comes, through the Latin initiatio, from initium, origin, beginning, outset, foundation. Some think it comes from initio, a word they translate byfirst step. This is wrong, because initio simply means to initiate in the sense we give it today, and which we are soon going to cover. If we were to believe all that people say, the world is full of initiates and initiations. One pretends to initiate, or to being initiated, to and into anything and everything: shamanism or a new job, Freemasonry or French cuisine. On the other hand, certain ceremonies which are truly initiatic are often not recognized as such: the ordination of clergy, for instance. All this is well worth a bit of dusting and tidying up.
While it's true that Initiation is always the crossing of a threshold, this definition does not in itself suffice. One is not initiated by walking from a room to another or entering a building, not even by going for the first time to a fashionable nightclub. The threshold we are talking about is not physical but symbolic, and the only type of threshold crossing we care about here is symbolic too. It represents an essential element, but only one element, of a whole mechanism of co-optation to a definite and well-delimited human group.
This mechanism may range from a simple hazing to a Masonic initiation or, as I was saying earlier, a sacerdotal initiation. But the simple crossing of a symbolic threshold doesn't, by itself, suffice either. It must be preceded by tests, more or less recognizable as such, more or less material or symbolic. These tests demonstrate and prove to the candidate, as well as to those who administer them, that he actually possesses the qualities required for passing.
Two other elements are indispensable. No initiation may take place but in a precise form, preferably ancient and traditional but at least accepted and immutable. Therefore it must follow a ritual. It must also transmit a message or a teaching of a spiritual nature. This message or teaching must be a secret, a mystery which cannot be transmitted otherwise than during an initiation, for is it not the only proof, the only evidence that he who knows it was indeed initiated? The message is immutable. It is a tradition. It is The Tradition. And what is Tradition about, anyway? It is about a formal explanation of one of the main mysteries of the Universe, about the special relationship between Man and Creation and the moral code he is the only one to have.
Finally, having understood that an initiation was always about admission into a human group, it is self-evident this group can only be closed. That to enter, one must successfully go through the tests, show oneself qualified, win the approval of those who are already members. Did you say elite, dear Brethren? Let's summarize all this a bit:
Initiating would thus mean accepting an individual into a group, first by a selection including tests, thereafter by the crossing of a symbolic threshold, finally by instructing the candidate for the first time, and always in a symbolic manner, into mysteries that cannot be communicated otherwise. Or better yet, and to come to a formal definition:
The Initiation is the method of ritual transmission of one of the main mysteries of the Universe through the crossing, accompanied by tests, of a symbolic threshold leading to membership in a closed group of initiates.
Thus it happens that a few initiates will not immediately understand what has happened to them and what they have become. Occasionally years will pass before they understand, if ever.
Tradition, was I saying... And what about Tradition? The word is old and comes, through the Old French tradicion (13th century) and the Latin traditio, transmission, delivery, from the Latin traders, to deliver, transmit but also betray. Trade and trader have the same origin. Initially a legal, then a religious term, it only acquired its present meaning in the 16th century. I will not mention here its non-Masonic uses, which are outside the scope of this lecture. As to Masonic Tradition, it mainly comprises the initiatic transmission of the means of Understanding.
We must however elaborate a bit on this definition. We have to consider the element of Time, because Tradition is not immutable but advances at the pace of eternity, accumulating and carrying with it the experience of generations. In these experiences and in the attempts at improvement of those who carry it, skilful or clumsy, Tradition selects, accepts and incorporates what is good but unrelentingly rejects the false, the pretentious, the hollow, the temporal and the temporary. We might also possibly add to our recipe the results of Man's quest and understanding of himself, accepted by his Brethren and polished by the flow of time.
The concept of the passage of time is important. We know that tradition may change and that new ideas and practices may attach themselves to it. What makes these additions stop at a certain moment from being just habits or customs and become integral components of Tradition? It would seem that the essential condition for this is the common acceptance of such additions as elements of Tradition, the sinking into oblivion of their true antiquity (or lack thereof) and origins, and the replacement of the latter by legendary ones. Should we want to put everything in one sentence, Tradition is the transmission by Man of the means of attaining initiatic. Understanding enriched by the most lasting results of Man's quest and understanding of himself.
I had earlier mentioned habits and customs. With the help of their Second Warden in some Lodges, of all their Brethren in others, it will be up to the Entered Apprentices to discover some day the differences and hierarchies among habit, common use, custom and tradition, words that the non-Mason, deprived of initiatic understanding, utilizes as if they were synonymous.
Deprived of Understanding, was I saying... Freemasonry has always made a clear distinction between Learning and Understanding. The first word could be defined, in our context, as the sum of the intellectual knowledge available to the uninitiated. Understanding is, in contrast, the sum of the spiritual knowledge available to Man by way of his initiation and his spiritual search, allowing him to perceive the world in its two principal components, the spiritual and the material, in a new and different way, in the complexity of its binary structures as well as in its essential unity. Your Junior Warden, my Brethren Entered Apprentices, will again know how to teach you the difference between Learning and Understanding, difference similar to the one between "looking" and "seeing". Understanding is often used interchangeably with Light and Truth. It is for each of us to distinguish among all its subtle shades.
So we are Initiates, armed by Tradition for the pursuit of Understanding. Could be. Time and the lucid gaze of our Brethren will confirm it or not some day. What rights our new condition gives us? Very few. That of being present in Lodge, of course. And which duties? Again, that of being present in Lodge. Of learning and making ourselves better, supposing we are already good, of promoting Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. Of never abandoning the search. Masonry is a great desert hiding immense treasures. Throughout this desert, men wander on a quest. Some sleep, but we don't care about them right now. Those who search ask their Brethren for advice and counsel. Sometimes they imitate them, for better or worse. They consult the stars and dig the ground. Those who only trust the ideas they brought in with them or borrowed from others find usually nothing. I have met such men who, after having spent thirty or forty years in our house left as they came, having looked for nothing and therefore found nothing, having learned nothing and therefore understood nothing, thoroughly convinced that there was nothing to team and nothing to understand, that Freemasonry was just a good place to find the notoriety and respect that eluded them in the outside world, or a kind of club where they could have a nice meal together and make useful business contacts.
I have also met some who have searched, dug and found. Looking around I can see Brethren whose life was totally changed by Freemasonry. They have bloomed like flowers, they have hatched like birds from a shell. I also know some who are still vacillating at the edge of the nest, not knowing they know how to fly, not knowing they can soar skyward like eagles and that, like in our childhood dreams, it's enough to want for the power to come. What I would much love to see you remember, my Brethren Entered Apprentices, is not just the word, Initiation, its etymology or its definition, but the power it gives you if you really want. We, your Brethren, have given you Aladdin's lamp. Just learn how to use it and it will serve you well.
----o----
Where can the "Lodge of the Holy Saints John " be found?
Nowhere! Rumors have run rampant for many years about this "lodge" and its location. Most prevalent was that it was located over Clerkenwall Gate in London, England. Harry Carr of England was asked to investigate this claim. He found it "pure imagination run riot. " The archway still spans the road, and it was used as a Lodge room from about 1750 to 1880, but has had no Masonic connection for almost 100 years.
From Allen E. Roberts' new book "Masonic Trivia and Facts."
----o----
In Memoriam for James D. Carter, FPS
of Texas will appear in the February,1995 issue.
----o----
Last Opportunity to Obtain Another Bonus Book From Your Society
Masonic Trivia arid Facts, by Allen E. Roberts
Cloth covered; 215 pages; comprehensive index' over 600 questions and answers;
published by Anchor Communications; distributor, Masonic Service Association.
Selling price, $18.95 - Philalethes Bonus Price, $10.00, postpaid
This book has been written mainly for The Masonic Service Association to help finance its activities for Freemasonry.
The Philalethes Society is making it available at a bonus price through December 31, 1994.
Of this book, Wallace McLeod, FPS, Professor of Classics, says: "There are good books, and then there are bad books. And once you begin to browse, you will keep on bumping into one Masonic writer that you can depend on. And Allen E. Roberts has done it again. "
Here's my order for _____ copies of Masonic Trivia and Facts at $10.00 per copy (which includes postage.) Enclosed is my check for $ _____ payable to The Philalethes Society.
Send my book(s) to:
Name _________________________
Address ____________________________
City _______ State _____ Zip _____
Send Order to:
The Philalethes Society - PO. Box 70 - Highland Springs, VA 23075
----o----
The Case of the Reappearing Medallions
by George T. Halteman, MPS
Recently I saw a small ad in the Knights Templar Magazine that read "Lapel Pins 200th Anniversary Grand Lodge of Vermont 1794-1994. " Naturally, being an avid collector, this is what I was looking for. I have some 400 pins that have been collected over the past 150 years. It always excites my curiosity when I find these ads.
Just recently, I have started collecting Masonic coins or medallions and when I sent my order in for lapel pins I enquired if they had struck any coins or medallions. Their Grand Secretary advised me that I could Purchase a Centennial Medallion for the modest price of $10.00. Beyond those Centennial Medallions there had to be a story. I wrote to my literary hero, Allen Roberts, thinking he might look into this. He did. He told me to find the story, write it and send it in. On my fourth order for pins and medallions I asked M. W. Cedric L. Smith P.G.M., Grand Secretary of Vermont, to send me anything he might have that I could use in writing this article.
He was very helpful and sent me copies of the Grand Lodge Proceedings. I then investigated and discovered the following: In 1893, a motion was made by M. W. Alfred A. Hall P.G.M. that the first four officers of the Grand Lodge be appointed, with full power, in the matter of celebrating the Centennial of the Organization of the Grand Lodge. Any expenses incurred by said committee were to be paid by the Grand Treasurer upon approval by the Grand Master.
M.W. Marsh O. Perkins P.G.M. introduced the following resolution and on motion the same was accepted and adopted. That the Grand Master be authorized to procure designs and prices of a medal of bronze or other materials to be struck in commemoration of the Centennial of the Organization of this Grand Lodge. They were to be sold under regulation and restrictions to be determined by him. Provided that no expense be entailed upon the Grand Lodge in procuring such medals beyond that of securing an acceptable design. As authorized by resolution of the Grand Lodge last year, to commemorate the centennial of the Organization of this Grand Body, be procured designs and secured a beautiful and appropriate medal bronze containing, on the obverse, the seal of the Grand Lodge, and on the reverse, a suitable inscription. The demand for the medal was not equal to the professed and anticipated interest of the Masons of Vermont.
As he had reason to expect that large numbers would want to possess this valuable historic memento and Masonic souvenir, he felt justified in getting a supply commensurate with the prospective orders, at an expense of $365.70. But the resolution limited him to an expenditure covering only the procuring of a design, about one-seventh of the total cost. He submitted the statement for Grand Lodge approval with the desire that they should formally adopt the disposition of the medals now on hand. For some unknown reason the medals were not turned over to the Grand Secretary until after the Centennial Celebration that was held in June 1894.
The committee to whom was referred that part of the Grand Masters address relating to the centennial medal, would recommend that the Grand Treasurer be authorized to pay the expenses incurred in obtaining the medals, amounting to $365.70, and that the medals be placed in the hands of the Grand Secretary for sale at $1.00 each. Due to the timing the medals were introduced, they did not find a market.
Wor. Bro. C. A. Calderwood, from the Committee on Finance introduced tile following resolution, and the same was accepted and adopted. Resolved, that the Grand Secretary be instructed to dispose of them at 50 cents each. M.W. Levant M. Read P. G. M., Grand Secretary, placed them in the old Grand Lodge vault.
In 1895 a plan that had long been cherished in the minds of Vermont Masons, namely to build and own a Masonic Temple, began to take shape. With the generous cooperation of the citizens and brethren of Burlington, a suitable site was located in that city And on October 20, 1897 the cornerstone was laid. The building was completed and dedicated by the Grand Lodge at its One Hundred and Fifth Communication, June 15, 1898.
The Grand Lodge occupied this building until 1983, when they moved into a new building. The old building was sold and the new owners thought it best to take the old building down. At the time this building was built there were no sidewalks. When the sidewalks were put in, they were directly over the old forgotten vault. The building was taken down and the excavating started. When they tore up the sidewalk they discovered the old vault, which they returned to the Grand Lodge, and their Centennial Medallions reappeared. There was never anything written in the minutes to indicate the disposition of these beautiful medallions. They are a collectors dream and are available from Grand Lodge of Vermont.
----o----
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Mail completed form with check for appropriate amount to:
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----o----
by Allen E. Roberts, UPS
Kudos to William R. Koeckert, FPS. He's a certified marksman instructor, and works with youngsters at Camp Ho. Mita Koda. He gave Freemasonry full credit for improving the dilapidated firing range in 1988, and has stayed busy helping diabetic youngsters at the camp ever since then. He has assisted many of them to receive scholarships in major universities through his marksmanship program. When he was interviewed for feature articles in two newspapers, he readily said: 'We Freemasons like to do what we can. Though you'd never see us on the boob tube bragging, we give a million and a half dollars every day to charities." Bill is the outstanding Secretary of Western Reserve Chapter of The Philalethes Society, and is mainly responsible for the more than two hundred members who enjoy the Society.
* * *
Grand Master Tom E. Payne wrote some length about the power of words for The New Mexico Freemason. He Quoted Joseph Fort Newton, who said: "Time is a river, and books are boats. " He cited the words spoken and written by many of the country's founding fathers that helped bring freedom to the United States. "There are words in Masonry, too, " he claimed, "that inspire and soar and inflame and carry mankind to new heights. . . Words! We never know when our words will make a difference in our lives or the lives of someone else. "
* * *
Did you know? Queen Elizabeth II "is top dog in the 'Occult Establishment' -a secret body of Freemasons, many of them titled, who run Britain. " That's what one Barry Hugill of the London Observer said in an article reprinted in the San Francisco [Examiner of September 11, 1994. Hugill didn't stop there. He says "the London Psychogeographical Society" is an "Occult Establishment" and "part of a Masonic conspiracy...All the royal palaces follow Masonic designs and are built along ley lines. Most ordinary people don't have a clue where a ley line runs, but the royals do because they're Masons and have astrological knowledge. When the queen visited Greenwich, there was an annular eclipse and the true reason for the visit was to celebrate a Masonic ritual. She wore scarlet and entered the Greenwich Masonic temple along a ley line, crossing the very spot where Sir Walter Raleigh threw down his cloak for her namesake. " What in the world is a 'fey line'? According to the Observer, they are "invisible early highways that link objects and sites of prehistoric antiquity. Much tramped by the Druids and regularly maintained by the Freemasons. " (At last, we have proof of the great antiquity of Freemasonry! !) But this isn't all of this wonderful expose: Freemasons "control the world. The Vatican is a front for the Freemasons [bet the Vatican didn't know that!]. Almost anyone famous you were taught about at school was a Mason." I've read much rubbish about Freemasonry, but this stuff takes the booty!
* * *
Eureka! The leading anti-Mason of the SBC joins the Freemasons! To be precise, Dr. James Larry Holly, of the Southern Baptist Convention 'fame,' joined the Masonic Forum on CompuServe! His purpose, evidently, was to inform us Freemasons of the "infamy " of Freemasonry. Holly tells us: "I am not prepared to coerce anyone to accept my belief. I do not want Masons to choose whether they will worship Jesus Christ or the god of the Lodge. I do want Masons to either withdraw from Southern Baptist churches or to withdraw from the Lodge. But, the method of my doing that is to publicize my objections to the Lodge and to try and get the SBC to rejection [sic] Masonry as being incompatible with Christianity... "
Did Holly really say that? (He's quoted accurately in the above.) But, here's his answer to the question: 'If you read what I have written, I have never asked for, and would oppose, putting Masons out of the Church. My goal has been that they voluntarily withdraw from the evil of Freemasonry, after they understand the truth. There has been absolutely no effort to force them to withdraw or require that they be dismissed from their churches. " (It might be wise to read this contradictory statements again -- then decide how much credence should be attached to his "research. ")
Interestingly, Holly claims: "...the qualifications for membership in a Christian church should be very, very low, i.e., any sinner can join upon rejecting his sin and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, even if he continues to struggle with sin. " Personally, I can't remember Jesus ever making such a statement, and I would not like to believe He ever would.
Several forum participants have asked Holly who this "god of the Lodge " is. To this point, Holly hasn't answered. This could be because there is no such "god. " How could there be?
"Recently I was asked if I were a Christian doctor, " wrote Holly for the forum. "I said, 'No'! When the person said, 'But, I thought you were a Christian?' I said: 'You didn't ask me that. I treat Moslems, Hindus, atheists, etc.' My first goal is to be a competent and compassionate physician. In the context of my medical practice, I am able to show people the truth of Christ. " Interesting, indeed. As one of the participants replied: "Precisely!! You practice Christianity in your heart as a man. And in your office ... you practice medicine. Masonry is no different for the Mason. "
Another writes: "I get upset at the Unknowing doing the all knowing! If you don't understand it, that's fine, but don't trash it because you are uninformed and an alarmist." Another asks: "Am I wrong for being a Master Mason? Am I wrong for being a Jew? Which of these wrongs, if wrongs they be, would you consider the most heinous?" Earlier Holly, who firmly believes there is no salvation except through accepting Jesus Christ as the God of all men, had claimed he is not antiSemitic.
Many, many polite questions have been asked of Holly. To date he has brushed them aside, saying he will "respond when I have more time. "
Intriguing! At any rate, Larry Holly has been invited to chat, through the Masonic forum, with the members of the Cornerstone Computer Chapter of The Philalethes Society - This saga will be continued.
* * *
Congratulations to Richard S. Sagar who has been elected the latest Fellow of the Philalethes Society. Dick has long worked in the quarries of Freemasonry, particularly in Georgia. Among his other honors, he is a Fellow of the Georgia Research Lodge. More later.