CARTHUSIANS
A religious Order founded by Bruno in 1080, and named from Chartreux, in France, the place of their institution.
They were noted for their austerity.
CARTULARY
An officer who has charge of the register or other books of record.
CARYSFORT, JOHN PROBY, LORD
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, March 10, 1752, to 1754
CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, GIOVANNI JACOPO
Usually mentioned by the word Casanova. An Italian adventurer, born at Venice, 1725, died in Bohemia 1798, noted particularly
for his Memoirs, a spirited boastful autobiography so romantic and improbable in his numerous detailed successes among the opposite sex
that doubt attaches to almost all his claims. Allowing freely for the widespread social evils of his day, we shall the better
understand his sneering frankness about vice. Several reliable authorities agree that his eleven writings are trustworthy accounts
of the morals and manners of the society he usually frequented.
Among his acquaintances were the most notable people, Rousseau, D'Eon, Frederick the Great, Suvaroff, Empress Catherine of
Russia, Voltaire, Cagliostro, and as a prominent Roman Catholic, he received from the Pope the distinction of the Order of the Golden
Spur.
Expelled from school, he entered the service of Cardinal Acquavisa, began his travels; returning to Venice in 1755, was denounced
as a spy and imprisoned; escaped to Paris and gained a fortune directing the State Lotteries, again traveled to Florence; whence he was
banished, thence to Rome.
After further journeys he was forced to flee from Poland.
Arriving at Paris he found a warrant for his arrest awaiting him and he took refuge in Spain, but was ejected from Madrid in
1769, and going again to Italy was exiled from Venice, ending his turbulent career as librarian from 1785 to his death in 1798 at Dux
in Bohemia. Here he wrote his famous Memoirs, published first in twelve volumes at Leipzig and then in eight at Paris.
Brilliant as any romantic fiction, their worth as sober truth has not been above suspicion and his acknowledged exploits in
knavery demonstrate that anything he said or did was subject to question.
Casanova claims to have been initiated in the latter part of 1750 at Lyons, on his way to Paris, where he was made a Master
Mason.
At Venice in 1755 he was arrested on charges of sorcery and of being a Freemason, his Masonic clothing being found by police and
deemed incriminating.
Not only does he tell of meeting prominent Freemasons in various countries but in Rome itself he asserts that several prelates
and cardinals were secretly members of the Craft.
References to the Craft are sprinkled freely through his Memoirs, one of them (pages 276-9, Librarie Garnier Freres edition in
French, Paris, tome II, chapter xiii) we translate as follows:
At Lyons there was an estimable personage with whom I became acquainted through M. de Rochebaron, and
who obtained the favor for me of being admitted to participate in the sublime trifles of Freemasonry. Arriving as an Apprentice at
Paris, some months afterwards, I there planned to become a Fellow Craft and Master.
The Master is certainly the supreme degree of Freemasonry, for all the others that are in the series taken by me are only
pleasing inventions which, good enough in symbolism, add nothing to the dignity of Master.
There is no one person in the world who may succeed in knowing everything, but men sensible of their faculties and who know how
to take account the more closely of their moral powers, should seek to know all that is possible. A young man, well born, who plans to
travel and acquaint himself with the world, and what we call society, who does not wish to find himself in certain circumstances the
inferior of his equals and to be excluded from participation in all their pleasures, ought to have himself initiated into what they
call Freemasonry, even though it would only be to know superficially what it is.
Freemasonry is an Institution of Benevolence which, in certain times and in certain places, may serve as a pretext for plots
criminal and subversive of good order; but good God, what has not been abused? Have not the Jesuits been seen, under the sacred guise
of religion, to furnish weapons for the parricidal arms of blind enthusiasts to strike Kings? All men of some importance, I wish to
say those whose social existence is marked by merit, knowledge or fortune, should be Freemasons, and a great number are; why infer
that the democratic communications, where the members impose on themselves the law of never speaking intramuros (within the walls in
a tiled place) neither of politics, religion, nor government, who only converse about emblems, or morals, or puerilities; why
infer, I say, that these reunions where the governments may have their creatures, can offer such dangers that Sovereigns forbid
therein and that popes entertain themselves by excommunicating?
Besides that it is a failure of purpose and the Pope, notwithstanding his infallibility, trips up himself by the persecutions,
giving only to Freemasonry an importance that it would never perhaps have acquired without them. Mystery is in the nature of man, and
all that presents itself to the crowd under a mysterious aspect always excites curiosity and will be sought, many convinced that there
something substantial awaits them though the veil often hides but a zero. After all, I advise every well-born young man who wishes
to see the world to be accepted a Freemason, but I urge him to choose well the Lodge; for, although bad company cannot work in the
Lodge, it may however be found there, and the candidate ought to guard himself from dangerous associations.
Men who only plan to be accepted as Freemasons, with the purpose of coming to know the secret of the Order, run great risk of
growing old under the trowel without ever attaining their object. However, there is a secret but it is so inviolable that it has never
been told nor confided to anyone.
Those who grasp at the superficiality of things believe that the secret consists in words, signs and grips, or that in the final
analysis it is the grand word of the last degree. A mistake!
He who discovers the secret of Freemasonry, for they never know where they are finding it, will not arrive at that knowledge by
reason of frequenting Lodges.
He gains it only by the strength of reflecting, of reasoning, of comparing, and of deducing. He will not confide it to his best
friend in Freemasonry, for he knows that if that brother does not find it for himself as did he, the friend will not have the talent to
extract the means to do so from what shall be said in the ear.
He who has it remains silent and this secret is always secret.
All that is done in the Lodge ought to be secret; but those who by dishonest indiscretion make no scruple of revealing what is
done there, have never revealed the essential: they do not know it; and if they have not known, truly they cannot reveal the
ceremonies.
The sensation experienced today by the profane, that is to say by those who are not Freemasons, is of the same kind as that
experienced in times of yore by those who were not admitted to the mysteries that were celebrated at Eleusis in honor of the goddess
Cérés. But the mysteries of Eleusis interested all Greece, and all they had there of eminence then in society aspired to be made a
party to them: so it is with Freemasonry, in the midst of a great number of men of premier merit, enclosed by a crowd of scamps that
no society would acknowledge, because they are the rubbish of the human species under the moral accounting.
In the mysteries of Cérés they long kept an impenetrable silence to cause the reverence of which these mysteries were the object.
Moreover, what could they reveal? The three words that the hierophant said to the initiates! But to what would that lead? To the
dishonor of the indiscreet, because he would only reveal barbarous language unknown by the vulgar, the common herd.
I have read somewhere what is meant by the three sacred and secret words of the mysteries of Eleusis: Be watchful and do nu
evil.
The sacred and secret words of the several Masonic degrees are nearly all as criminal!
The Eleusian initiation lasted nine days; the ceremonies very impressive, and the company very respectable. Plutarch informs us
that Alcibiades was condemned to death and all his goods confiscated for having dared in company with Polition and Theodore against the
Eumolpides to turn into ridicule the great mysteries.
They even intended that Alcibiades should be cursed by the priests and priestesses.
But the curse was never uttered because a priestess opposed it, saying. "I am a priestess for blessing, not cursing". Sublime
words!
Here is a lesson of morality and of wisdom that the Pope despises, but the Gospels taught and the Savior of the world
ordained.
There is an allusion (page 286, tome VIII, chapter xi) to the prominent Roman Catholics of the eighteenth century ignoring
privately in practice what they said publicly and officially against Freemasonry.
Of course there are instances of Roman Catholics of prominence being admitted openly into Masonic Lodges during that
century and later. Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, as he was called, also active in the Grand Lodge of Ireland, found the two
pursuits, Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, were deemed inconsistent and he eventually resigned his membership in the Craft. But
others, as the Abbe Cordier at Paris, a leader in the famous Lodge of the Nine Sisters, and with Benjamin Franklin, supporting
Voltaire when he was initiated, paid little or no heed to the threats from the head of the Roman Catholic Church against
Freemasonry.
What Casanova says gives a hint as to the position of those attempting to be on both sides of the fence and his introduction of a
Prince of the Roman Catholic Church as a Freemason is a curious commentary on the situation in question:
The first day of the year 1772, I presented myself to the Cardinal Brancafarte, Legate of the Pope, who
I had known at Paris twenty years previously when he was sent by Benoit (Benedict XIV) to carry the blessed linen clothes to the
new-born Duke de Bourgoyne. We had been together in a Lodge of Freemasons, for the members of the Sacred College who thundered
against the Freemasons knew well that their anathemas (solemn curses) impressed only the weak, whom a too lively light might
dazzle.
CASMARAN
The Angel of Air. Referred to in the Degree of Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew. The etymology is uncertain.
NB: etymology = an account of the history of a particular word or element of a word. |
 |
CASSIA
A corruption of acacia, which undoubtedly arose from the common habit, among illiterate people, of sinking the sound of the
letter A in the pronunciation of any word of which it constitutes the initial syllable, as pothecary for apothecary, and prentice for
apprentice. The word prentice, by the way, is almost altogether used in the old records of Freemasonry, which were, for the most
part, the productions of uneducated men. Unfortunately, however, the corruption of acacia into cassia has not always been confined
to the illiterate; but the long employment of the corrupted form has at length introduced it, in some instances, among a few of our
writers. Even Doctor Oliver has sometimes used the objectionable corruption, notwithstanding he has written so much upon the
symbolism of the acacia.
He refers to the Sprig of Cassia in Revelations of a Square (page 113).
There is a plant which was called by the ancients cassia, but it is entirely- different from the acacia.
The acacia was a sacred plant; the caisson ignoble plant, having no sacred character. The former is in Freemasonry profoundly
symbolic; the latter has no symbolism whatever.
The cassia is only three times mentioned in Scripture, but always as an aromatic plant forming a portion of some perfume.
There is, indeed, strong reason for believing that the cassia was only a coarse kind of cinnamon, and that it did not grow in
Palestine, but was imported from the East.
Casia, therefore, has no rightful place in Masonic language, and its use should be avoided as a vulgar corruption.
CASTELLAN
In Germany, the Superintendent or Steward of a Lodge building, in which he resides.
He is either a serving brother or an actual member of the Lodge, and has the care of the building and its contents.
CASTING VOICE or VOTE
The twelfth of the thirty-nine General Regulations prescribes that "All matters are to be determined in the Grand Lodge by a
majority of votes, each member having one vote and the Grand Master having two votes" (see Constitutions, 1723, page 61). From this
law has arisen the practice of giving to the Master of the Lodge a costing vote in addition to his own when there is a tie.
"The custom is so universal, and has been so long practiced, that, although I can find no specific law on the subject, the right
may be considered as established by prescription" says Doctor Mackey.
But there are exceptions.
These are given in the revised edition of Doctor Mackey's Jurisprudence of Freemasonry (chapter iii).
It may be remarked that the Masonic usage is probably derived from the custom of the London Livery Companies or Gilds, where the
casting vote has always been given by the presiding officers in all cases of equality, a rule that has been recognized by Act of
Parliament.
CATACOMB
A grotto for burial; a sepulchral vault.
A subterranean place for the burial of the dead, consisting of galleries or passages with recesses excavated at their sides for
tombs.
Later applied in the plural to all the subterranean cemeteries lying around Rome which, after having been long covered up and
forgotten, were fortuitously discovered in 1578.
They are found elsewhere, at Naples, at Syracuse, in Egypt, at Paris, etc.
The term is chiefly applied to those lying about Rome, the principal ones lying along the Appian Way.
There seems to have been no plan for these excavations (see map below of the St. Callixtus complex - LINKED TO LARGER IMAGE),
for they shoot off in the most unexpected directions, forming such a
labyrinth of connected passages that persons often have been lost for several days at a time, giving the monk attendants much
trouble.
They are several miles in extent.
Those about Rome are under the care of various monks of the church, and are a source of considerable revenue from tourists.
They are now entered by narrow passages and some, as in the case of Saint Calixtus, descend to considerable depth.
the burial niches or loculi.
Along the passages are small chambers at the sides for tombs, one above another, each of which generally closed by a slab of
stone on which was placed the letters D. M., the initials of Dea Maximo, or X. P., the Greek letters for Christ. Tombs of saints bore
inscriptions of identification.
The passages are generally three or four feet wide and were at intervals along their course enlarged into chambers, usually
square or rectangular, that were used for worship. One in Saint Calixtus was an irregular semicircle and about thirty-two feet in
diameter.
In these chambers is usually found a stone bench or chair for the bishop or teacher.
They were ventilated and partially lighted by shafts that extended to the surface of the ground. Some frescoes were found on the
walls.
Many catacombs were destroyed and traces of them lost when the Goths, Lombards, and others besieged Rome at various times.
The foregoing would not justify a place in a work of this character, were it not for the influence it sheds on the beginning of
Christian architecture, as for three centuries Pagan Rome would not permit Christians to meet above ground.
The Twenty-sixth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite refers to catacombs (see also Labyrinth).
CATAFALQUE
From an Italian word meaning scaffold. A temporary structure of wood, appropriately decorated with funereal symbols and representing a tomb or cenotaph. It forms a part of the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge, and is also used in the ceremonies of the Master Mason's Degree in Lodges of the French Rite.
CATASTROPHES, MASONIC RELIEF OF
During the period of five years from 1923 to 1928 inclusive the Fraternity in the United States was called upon to raise funds for relief no fewer than five times: the Japanese earthquake of 1923; the Florida hurricane of 1926; the Mississippi flood of 1927; the Porto Rico hurricane of 1928; the Florida hurricane of 1928. on each of these occasions the Masonic Service Association acted as a unit for the Grand Lodges holding membership in it; other non-member Grand Lodges used it as an agency through which to distribute their funds; the remaining Grand Lodges sent their funds directly to Masonic bodies or other agencies at the scene of the disaster. The total amount of monies raised by Masonic Bodies of each and every Rite has never been computed; the amounts reported as passing through the hands of the Masonic Service Association, or passing through other hands but reported by it were as follows : for the Japanese earthquake, $15,777 the Florida hurricane of 1926, $111,652; the Mississippi flood in 1927, $605,603; the Porto Rico hurricane of 1928, $81,774; the Florida hurricane of 1828 $107,622.
CATCH QUESTIONS
Questions not included in the Catechism, but adopted from an early period to try the pretensions of a stranger, such as this used by American Freemasons: "Where does the Master hang his hat?" and by the French, "Comment êtes vous entré dans le Temple de Salomon (how are you admitted into the Temple of Solomon)?"
Such as these are of course unsanctioned by authority.
But Doctor Oliver, in an essay on this subject preliminary to the fourth volume of his Golden Remains, gives a long list of these "additional tests," which had been reduced to a kind of system, and were practiced by the English Freemasons of the eighteenth century. Among them were such as these : "What is the punishment of a cowan?" "What does this stone smell of?" "If a brother were lost, where would you look for him?" "How blows a Mason's wind?" and many others of the same kind.
Of these tests or catch questions, Doctor Oliver says "that they were something like the conundrums of the present day-difficult of comprehension; admitting only of one answer, which appeared to have no direct correspondence with the question, and applicable only in consonance with the mysterious terms and symbols of the Institution."
Catch questions in the United States, at least, seem to be getting out of use, and some of the most learned Freemasons at the present day would find it difficult to answer them.
CATECHISM
From the earliest times the oral instructions of Freemasonry have been communicated in a catechetical form.
Each degree has its peculiar catechism, the knowledge of which constitutes what is called a bright Freemason.
The catechism, indeed, should be known to every Freemason, for every aspirant should be thoroughly instructed in that of the degree to which he has attained before he is permitted to make further progress.
The rule, however, is not rigidly observed; and many Freemasons, unfortunately, are very ignorant of all but the rudimentary parts of their catechism, which they derive only from hearing portions of it communicated at the opening and closing of the Lodge, or from careless Brethren freely using Masonic expressions publicly.
CATECHISMS, THE OLD
The Early Masonic Calechismus by Douglas Knoop, G. P. Jones, and Douglas Harner (Manchester University Press; 1043) is the first book-length (200 pages) analysis of those unfamiliar but important documents which are called the Old Catechisms. The authors describe them as having been originally "mainly conceded with the form of giving the Mason Word, and the question and answers used to test persons claiming to have the Mason Word." There are Masons still living in America who can recall a wide-spread use of "test questions," some of which were of archaic form, and which on the surface had no apparent connection with the Ritual. Something of the same sort was in use in the Eighteenth Century (and perhaps a half century or so earlier); a few of them, and possibly the elaborate ones, were written or printed. They are useful for the data they contain, or imply, about the Esoteric Work. The authors of Early Masonic Catechisms have collected everything thus far discovered about nine written catechisms and seven printed ones. Of the former: Edinburgh Register House MS., 1696. Chetwode Crawley MS., circa 1700. Sloane MS. 3529, Circa. 1700. Dumfries No. 4 MS., circa 1700 Trinity College Dublin MS., 1711. Institution of Free Masons circa 1725. Graham MS., 1726. Chesham MS., circa 1740. Essex MS., circa 1750. Of the printed ones: A Mason's Examination, 1723. The grand Mystery of Free-Masons Discovered , 1725. The Whole Institutions of Free-Masons Opened 1725. The Grand Mustery Laid Open, 1726. A Masons Confession, 1725. The Mystery of Freemasonry, 1730 Prichards Masonry Dissected, 1730.
CATECHUMEN
One who had attained the Second Degree of the Essenian or early Christian Mysteries and assumed the name of Canstans.
There were three degrees in the ceremonies, which, to a limited extent, resembled the Pagan services.
Of the three classes, the first were Auditors, the second Catechumens, and the third the Faithful.
The Auditors were novices, prepared by ceremonies and instruction to receive the dogmas of Christianity.
A portion of these dogmas was made known to the Catechumens, who, after particular purifications, received baptism, or the initiation of the theogenesis Divine regeneration; but in the grand mysteries of that religion-the incarnation, nativity, passion, and resurrection of Christ-none were initiated but the Faithful.
The Mysteries were divided into two parts
-the first, styled the Mass of the Catechumens; the second, the Mass of the Faithful.
Many beautiful ceremonies and much instruction touching these matters will be found in that most enticing Degree called Prince of Mercy, and known as the Twenty-sixth in the Scottish Rite services.
CATENARIAN ARCH
If a rope be suspended loosely by its two ends, the curve into which it falls is called a catenarian curve, and this inverted forms the catenarian arch, which is said to be the strongest of all arches. As the form of a symbolic Lodge is an oblong square, that of a Royal Arch Chapter, according to the English Ritual, is a catenarian arch.
CATHARINE II
Catharine the Great, Empress of Russia, in 1762, prohibited by an edict all Masonic meetings in her dominions.
But subsequently better sentiments prevailed, and having learned the true character of the Institution, she not only revoked her order of prohibition, but invited the Freemasons to re-establish their Lodges and to constitute new ones, and went so far in 1763 as to proclaim herself the Protectress of the Order and Tutrice of the Lodge of Clio at Moscow (see Thory, Acta Latamorum, 1, 82),
During the remainder of her reign Freemasonry was in a flourishing condition in Russia, and many of the nobles organized Lodges in their palaces. But in 1794 her feelings changed and she became suspicious that the Lodges of Moscow were intriguing against the Court and the Ministers ; this idea, coupled with the horrors of the French Revolution and other crimes said to be due to secret societies, caused her to cease to protect the Order, and without any express prohibition emanating from her, the Lodges ceased to work (see Thory, Acta Latomorum, 1, 195). She died November 6, 1796, and in 1797 her successor, Paul I, forbade all secret societies in Russia.
CATHEDRAL
"The use of the word Cathedral is improper as applied to Scottish Rite buildings. It is only in recent years that the word has come into use in this Jurisdiction, presumably from the purchase of some church building by Scottish Rite Bodies, and remodeling it to Scottish Rite uses.
Strictly speaking, the Cathedral is the Bishop's Church ; that is, there may be many Churches in the diocese of a Bishop, but the one he uses to preach in regularly is called the Cathedral."-John H. Cowles, Sovereign Grand Commander, Transactions of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction (page 99) of 1923.
CATHEDRALS, AMERICAN
The Cathedral of St. John The Devine In New York City was built according to the designs and methods used by Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages as nearly as modern knowledge, skill and circumstances made it possible. Except that its founder, Bishop Henry C Potter, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was an active Freemason, this first American cathedral, properly and strictly so called (architecturally), has received little attention from the American Fraternity, though each year an increasing number of Masons visit it to see with their own eyes what kind of work had been done by the founders of their own Craft. The second genuinely Gothic cathedral to be erected on the Continent, the National Cathedral at Washington, has been in a different case, for so many Grand Bodies have taken a share in building it that they must in the future ever feel a small sense of proprietorship in it.
A charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation was granted by Congress in 1893. A cathedral close of 65 acres was purchased on Mount Saint Alban, 400 feet above the general level of Washington, D.C. Its central tower will stand higher in the sky than the Washington Monument ; it and the Washington Masonic Memorial (Freemasonry's own national cathedral) will be in full view of each other. Washington had expressed a hope for "a church for national purposes," I'Enfant had embodied it in his city plan; the National Cathedral is a realization of their dreams.
The bodies of Admiral Dewey, President Wilson, and Bishop Satterlee already are entombed in it; in the course of time it may become another Westminster Abbey. There will be in it a Masonic Section, as planned for by Bro. and Bishop James E. Freeman; hundreds of Masons or Masonic Bodies have paid for stones to be used in it. A Masonic Committee of the National Cathedral Association was formed, led by Bro. John H. Cowles, head of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction; the Rt. Rev. James E. Freeman, Bishop of Washington, Honorary Chairman.
CATHEDRAL BUILDERS
Some Masonic students have thought, although the opposition holds that there does not seem to be any specific documentary evidence to warrant such belief, that in the Middle Ages there was a separate class of Freemasons known as Cathedral, or Church, Builders who worked on ecclesiastical structures only and were distinct from the town guilds or companies.
These students are of the opinion that the so-called Old Charges were originally intended as rules for use among this church building class of Freemasons.
Leader Scott (the pen name of the author, Mrs. Baxter of Florence, Italy) has in her book, Cathedral Builders, unearthed from Muratori's collection of ancient manuscripts an edict signed by King Rotharis of November 22, 643, containing the following clauses:
If the Comacine Master with his colleagues shall have contracted to restore or build the house of any person whatsoever, the contact far payment being made, and it chances that some one shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stones from it, the owner of the said house shall not be cited by the Magister Comacinus or his brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury ; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they must sustain the risks and injuries thereof. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work (conduxerit ad operam dictandam), or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it should happen that by reason of the house some Comacine should be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible; but if a pole or a stone shall kill or injure any extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation.
Mrs. Baxter says:
"These laws prove that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact and powerful guild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the guild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could 'design' or 'undertake' a work; i.e., act as architects; and that the colleagues worked under, or with them. In fact, a powerful organization altogether; so powerful and so solid, that it speaks of a very ancient foundation"
(see Cathedral Builders, the Story of a Great Masonic Guild, 1899, London, pages 5-7, 423-6; also the Comacines, their Predecessors and their Successors, Brother W. Ravenscroft, 1910, London, pages 54-64, and the astride on Comacine Masters in this work).
CAUTION
It was formerly the custom to bestow upon an Entered Apprentice, on his initiation, a new name, which was Caution.
The custom is now very generally discontinued, although the principle which it inculcated should never be forgotten. Similar instruction is still given in the Bristol Working but without the foregoing name.
The Old Charges of 1723 impress upon a Freemason the necessity, when in the presence of strangers not Freemasons, to be "cautious in your words and carriage, that the most penetrating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be intimated''; as these Charges were particularly directed to Apprentices, who then constituted the great body of the Fraternity, it is possible that the "new name" gave rise to the Charge, or, more likely, that the Charge gave rise to the "new name."
CAVERN
In the Pagan mysteries of antiquity the initiations were often performed in caverns, of which a few, like the cave of Elephanta in India, still remain to indicate by their form and extent the character of the rites that were then performed.
The Cavern of Elephanta, which was the most gorgeous temple in the world, is one hundred and thirty feet square, and eighteen feet high. It is supported by four massive pillars, and its walls are covered with statues and carved symbolic decorations.
The sacellum, or sacred place, which contained the phallic symbol, was in the western extremity, and accessible only to the initiated.
The caves of Salsette greatly exceeded in magnitude that of Elephanta, being three hundred in number, all adorned with symbolic figures, among which the phallic emblems were predominant, which were placed in the most secret recesses, accessible only by private entrances.
In every cave was a basin to contain the consecrated water of ablution, on the surface of which floated the sacred lotus flower.
All these caves were places of initiation into the Hindu mysteries, and every arrangement was made for the performance of the most impressive ceremonies.
Faber (Dissertatian an the Mysteries of the Cabiri, ii, 257) says that "wherever the Cabiric Mysteries were practiced, they were always in some manner or other connected with caverns," and he mentions, among other instances, the cave of Zirinthus, within whose dark recesses the most mysterious Rites of the Samothracian Cabiri were performed.
Maurice (Indian Antiquities, iii, 536), speaking of the subterranean passages of the Temple of Isis, in the island of Phile in the river Nile, says "it was in these gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymns of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony recesses."
Many of the ancient orates, as, for instance, that of Trophonius in Boeotia, were delivered in caves.
Hence, the cave - subterranean, dark, and silent - was mingled in the ancient mind with the idea of mystery.
In the ceremonies of Freemasonry, we find the cavern or vault in what is called the Cryptic Freemasonry of the American Rite, and also in the advanced Degrees of the French and Scottish Rites, in which it is a symbol of the darkness of ignorance and crime impenetrable to the light of truth.
In reference to the practical purposes of the cavern, as recorded in the legend of these Degrees, it may be mentioned that caves, which abounded in Palestine in consequence of the geological structure of the country, are spoken of by Josephus as places of refuge for banditti; and Phillott says, in Smith's Bible Dictionary, that it was the caves which lie beneath and around so many of the Jewish cities that formed the last hiding-places of the Jewish leaders in the war with the Romans.
CAYENNE or FRENCH GUIANA
A country in South America. Lodge No. 204, L'Anglaise, at Bordeaux, France, warranted a Lodge at Cayenne in 1755 and gave it its own name. Other Lodges were organized by French authority, both of the Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient, at different times throughout the years.
CEDARS OF LEBANON
In Scriptural symbology, the cedar-tree, says Wemyss (Symbolic Language of Scripture), was the symbol of eternity, because its substance never decays nor rots.
Hence, the Ark of the Covenant was made of cedar; and those are said to utter things worthy of cedar who write that which no time ought to obliterate.
The Cedars af Lebanan are frequently referred to in the legends of Freemasonry, especially in the advanced Degrees; not, however, on account of any symbolical signification, but rather because of the use made of them by Solomon and Zerubbabel in the construction of their respective Temples.
Phillott (Smith's Bible Dictionary) thus describes the grove so Celebrated in Scriptural and Masonic history:
"The grove of trees known as the Cedars of Lebanon consists of about four hundred trees, standing quite alone in a depression of the mountain with no trees near, about six thousand four hundred feet above the sea, and three thousand below the summit.
About eleven or twelve are very large and old, twenty-five large, fifty of middle size, and more than three hundred younger and smaller ones.
The older trees have each several trunks and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are of cone-like form, and do not send out wide lateral branches.
In 1550 there were twenty-eight old trees, in 1739, Pococke counted fifteen, but the number of trunks makes the operation of counting uncertain.
They are regarded with much reverence by the native inhabitants as living records of Solomon's power, and the Maronite patriarch was formerly accustomed to celebrate there the festival of the Transfiguration at an altar of rough stones."
CELEBES
An island in the East Indies
The Grand Lodge of Holland chartered a Lodge at Macassar in 1883 called Arbeid Adelt (Ennobled Labor).
CELEBRATION
The Third Degree of Fessler's Rite (see Fessler, Rite of)
CELESTIAL ALPHABET
See Alphabet, Angels
CELTIC MYSTERIES
See Druidical Mysteries
CELTS
The early inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. They are supposed to have left Asia during one of the Aryan emigrations, and, having traveled in a westerly direction, to have spread over these countries of Europe. The Celtic Mysteries or the Sacred Rites which they instituted are known as Druidical Mysteries, which see.
CEMENT
The cement which in Operative Freemasonry is used to unite the various parts of a building into one strong and durable mass, is borrowed by Speculative Freemasonry as a symbol to denote that brotherly love which binds the Freemasons of all countries in one common brotherhood. As this brotherhood is recognized as being perfected among Master Masons only, the symbol is very appropriately referred to the Third Degree.
CEMETERIES, MASONIC
The desire to select some suitable spot wherein to deposit the remains of our departed kindred and friends seems almost innate in the human breast.
The stranger's field was bought with the accursed bribe of betrayal and treason, and there is an abhorrence to depositing our loved ones in places whose archetype was so desecrated by its purchase-money.
The churchyard, to the man of sentiment, is as sacred as the church itself.
The cemetery bears a hallowed character, and we adorn its graves with vernal flowers or with evergreens to show that the dead, though away from our presence visibly, still live and bloom in our memories.
The oldest of all the histories that time has saved to us contains an affecting story of this reverence of the living for the dead, when it tells us how Abraham, when Sarah, his beloved wife, had died in a strange land, reluctant to bury her among strangers, purchased from the sons of Heth the cave of Machpelah for a burial-place for his people.
It is not, then, surprising that Freemasons, actuated by this spirit, should have been desirous to consecrate certain spots as resting-places for themselves and for the strange Brethren who should die among them
A writer in the London Freemason's Magazine for 1858 complained that there was not then in England a Masonic cemetery, nor portion of an established cemetery especially dedicated to the interment of the Brethren of the Craft. This neglect cannot be charged against the Freemasons of America, for there is scarcely a city or town of considerable size in which the Freemasons have not purchased and appropriated a suitable spot as a cemetery to be exclusively devoted to the use of the Fraternity.
These cemeteries are often, and should always be, dedicated with impressive ceremonies; and it was long to be regretted that our rituals provided no sanctioned form of service for these occasions.
CENSER
A small vessel of metal fitted to receive burning coals from the altar, and on which the incense for burning was sprinkled by the priest in the Temple. Among the furniture of a Royal Arch Chapter is to be found the censer, which is placed upon the altar of incense within the sanctuary, as a symbol of the pure thoughts and grateful feelings which, in so holy a place, should be offered up as a fitting sacrifice to the great I AM.
In a similar symbolic sense, the censer under the name of the pot of incense, is found among the emblems of the Third Degree (see Pot of Incense).
The censer also constitutes a part of the Lodge furniture in many of the advanced Degrees.
CENSOR
Gädicke says he is not an officer, but is now and then introduced into some of the Lodges of Germany.
He is commonly found where the Lodge has its own private house, in which, on certain days, mixed assemblies are held of Freemasons and their families and friends. Of those assemblies the Censor has the superintendence.
CENSORSHIP
The Roman Popes set up systems of censorship long before the invention of printing, and when even hand-written manuscripts were very scarce and were too expensive for general use ; it censored also symbols, statues, pictures, music, speeches, ceremonies and pageants-it even tried to censor games and dances, and more than once went so far as to undertake the censorship of women's dress!-one of the favorite subjects of many of the bachelor Popes, and a principal theme of the sermons of the great preacher, Chrysostom. From the early days of the Christian religion down to the present moment the system of censorship of the Roman Church has rested on a single principle : it claims for itself the exclusive right to decide what is true and what is not true. Kings, princes, barons, Lords, the heads of great commercial companies, and the heads of colleges and universities, these also have employed censorship as a means of control and of preventing unorthodox words or practices. The American Revolution and the French Revolution between them were the first to overthrow this system which is as pernicious and inhuman in its own way as slavery was in another way. Today the bureau of the Roman Censorship publishes thick volumes of its Index, which are little more than titles of condemned books; many Masonic titles are among them, as also are titles by Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and a long list of names equally celebrated of men who have believed that facts and realities decide what is true and is not true (the many Papal condemnations of the doctrine of the sphericity of the earth had no effect on the shape of the planet)!
When the Mother Grand Lodge of England (1717) set up a censorship of Masonic books, that is, books about Masonry written by Masons, it was acting according to received custom. That censorship continued until late in the century, when it went by default, and is not likely ever to be revised, because a censored Mason and a Freemason are a contradiction in terms; for if a Mason can be trusted to be loyal to the Craft in his behavior, so can he be trusted not to betray or to misrepresent it in what he says and writes. (On Church censorship the standard work is Censorship of the Church of Rome, by George Haven Putnam; S. P. Putnam's Sons; New York; 1906.)
CENSURE
In Masonic Law, the mildest form of punishment that can be inflicted, and may be defined to be a formal expression of disapprobation, without other result than the effect produced upon the feelings of him who is censured. It is adopted by a resolution of the Lodge on a motion made at a regular communication; it requires only a bare majority of votes, for its passage does not affect the Masonic standing of the person censured, and may be revoked at any subsequent regular communication.
CENTAINE, ORDER OF
A mystical society of the eighteenth century which admitted females.
It was organized at Bordeaux in 1735 (see Thory, Acta Latamorum 1, 298).
CENTENARY JEWELS AND WARRANTS
In England when a Lodge celebrates the hundredth year of its anniversary it is permitted to choose a special jewel for the occasion.
In 1867 the particular design to be used was authorized and illustrated for the first time in 1871 when the Book of Constitutions was issued.
Before that time each Lodge was permitted to select its own design, securing the approval of the Grand Master before using the jewel.
As a result of this method there are forty-two of the older Lodges now in possession of Special Centenary Jewels of different designs and which may, be worn by all subscribing members of the particular Lodge.
Many Centenary Warrants were issued before 1871 but it is during that year that the first special provision was made for them. In order to secure one of the Warrants a Lodge must prove uninterrupted existence for one hundred years.
The English Royal Arch Chapters come under this same ruling. CENTENNIAL
That which happens every hundred years. Masonic Bodies that have lasted for that period very generally celebrate the occasion by a commemorative festival.
On the 4th of November, 1852, almost all of the Lodges of the United States celebrated the centennial anniversary of the initiation of George Washington as a Freemason.
CENTER, OPENING ON THE
In the English instructions, a Master Mason's Lodge is said to be opened on the center, because the Brethren present, being all Master Masons, are equally near and equally distant from that imaginary central point which among Freemasons constitutes perfection.
Neither of the preliminary Degrees can assert the same conditions, because the Lodge of an Entered Apprentice may contain all the three classes, and that of a Fellow Craft may include some Master Masons; and therefore the doctrine of perfect equality is not carried out in either. An attempt was made, but without success, in the Trestle Board, published under the sanction of the Baltimore Masonic Convention, to introduce the custom into the American Lodges.
CENTRALISTEN
Meaning Centralists. Lenning says such a society existed in Europe between 1770 and 1780, pursuing alchemical, political and religious studies and operating under Masonic forms.
CENTRALISTS
A society which existed in Europe from 1770 to 1780. It made use of Masonic forms at its meetings simply to conceal its secrets.
Lening calls it an alchemical association, but says that it had religious and political tendencies.
Glädicke thinks that its object was to propagate Jesuitism.
CENTRAL POINT
See Point within a Circle
CEPHAS
A word which in the Syriac signifies a rock or stone, and is the name which was bestowed by Christ upon Simon, when he said to him, "Thou art a rock," which the Greeks rendered by nirpo, and the Latins by Petrus, both words meaning a rock.
It is used in the Degree of Royal Master, and there alludes to the Stone of Foundation, which see.
CEREMONIES
The outer garments which cover and adorn Freemasonry as clothing does the human body. Although ceremonies give neither live nor truth to doctrines or principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use certain things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would not otherwise have had; and hence, Lord Coke has most wisely said that "prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies. "
CEREMONIES, MASTER OF
See Master of Ceremonies
CERES
Among the Romans, the goddess of agriculture; but among the more poetic Greeks she was worshiped under the name of Demeter, as the symbol of the prolific earth.
To her is attributed the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the ancient initiations.
CERIDWEN
The Isis of the Druids
CERNEAU, JOSEPH
A jeweler, born at Villeblevin, in Yonne, a department of central France. A register of the Lodge Reunion des Coeurs at Port Republican (Port-au-Prince) in Santo Domingo, West Indies, was in the possession of General Albert Pike ,and in 1886 he quotes from it in publishing the report to him of the Supreme Council of France in regard to Joseph Cerneau (see page 29): "Joseph Cerneau appears on the same (the register for 1801) as Keeper of the Seals and Archives, the entry as to him, signed manu propria (by his own hand) being 'Garde de Sceaux et Archives: Joseph Cerneau, Marchand Orfevre, ne a Villeblerin, age de 37 ans R. .A. .R. . (i. e. Royal Arch (of Heredom) and Rose Croix)'" the other words not commented upon specifically by Brother Pike meaning Joseph Cerneau, merchant goldsmith, born at Villeblerin (the v in this word being copied as r), aged 87 years, etc. Cerneau was active in Cuba later on and we find that on December 17, 1804, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania received a petition from several Brethren for a Warrant to hold a Lodge at Havana and that Brother Joseph Cerneau might be named Master, a request which was granted on that date, the "Petition being duly recommended according to the Regulations of this Grand Lodge."
Antonie-Mathieu Dupotet was Master of Lodge No. .47, Reunion des Coeurs, and in the register of that Lodge his name is followed by the same initials of Degrees or titles as in the case of Cerneau, but with this important addition "et P. . du R. . S. .," meaning and Prince af the Royal Secret.
Brother Pike in his Memoir, af Cerneauism (page 6, Supplement, 1885) says. "
In July, 1806, he (Dupotet) gave Cerneau, at Baracoa, in Cuba, the Degrees of the Rite of Heredom à Perfection, from 19 to 25.''
The Appendix to this Memoir, contains a copy of the Patent of the Twenty-fifth Degree to Joseph Cerneau, 16 July, 1806, signed by Dupotet, giving him power for the Northern part of the Island of Cuba to initiate and promote Brother Masons from the fourth to the twenty-fourth, and on one only a year the remaining Degree was permitted.
The Patent was said by General Pike in this Memoir to be " from papers belonging to Bro. . Charles Laflon de Ladebat, who was, prior to 1857, a member of the Supreme Council for the State of Louisiana, at New Orleans (claiming to be the Hicks-Laurent United Sup. Council continued), of which Jacques Foulhouze had been Grand Commander."
The Patent not only specifically restricted the conferring of Degrees by Joseph Cerneau as Deputy Grand Inspector to the northern part of the Island of Cuba and only to such in the series as are enumerated, namely from the fourth to the twenty-fourth and once a year not more than one in the twenty-fifth, but provides further that these candidates " shall have been officers of a Lodge regularly constituted and recognized, and in places only where there may not be found Sacred and Sublime and regularly constituted Asyla."
Dr. Robert B. Folger, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 1881 (page 337) says "Joseph Cerneau established his Sovereign Grand Consistory, in New York City in 1807. He pretended to no more than the Rite of Perfection in Twenty-five degrees.''
There is another allusion by the author (page 157), " It will be found that the name of The Most Potent Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry, according to the Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite of Heredom was continued up to the end of the time---viz., 1827."
Doctor Folger mentions the activity of Cerneau in promoting various branches of the Masonic Institution and says in his history, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (second edition, 1881, page 128), " Mr. Cerneau also established a Degree called Aaron's Band which continued to be worked as a detached Degree for many years, in a separate Body; but eventually about the year 1825, was stopped by the interference of the Grand Chapter, which Body stated that it was an infringement upon the Degree of High Priesthood."
We may fix the time when Cerneau came to New York from Cuba by a report made by Brother Duplessis, the proxy of Lodge No. 103 at Havana, to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on January 5, 1807. In this statement (see page 244, Reprint of the Minutes, volume 11, 1801-10), "It appears from said papers that difficulties of the highest importance had happened in that Lodge.
That unworthy Brethren had denounced the Lodge to the Governor of Havana and that Bro. Cerneau had been Ordered to quit the Island and was arrived at New York in the beginning of November last with his Family. That the worthy Brethren of the said Lodge No. 103, had proceeded to the choice of New Officers agreeably to the Communications and Returns aforesaid, and were Obliged to use the greatest caution in their work, &c.; that the Lodge had lost above Three Thousand Dollars by the unfortunate circumstance aforesaid, and our worthy Brother Cerneau had also met with a heavy loss by his being obliged to remove with his Family, though he had received from the Governor every mark of regard that could be expected by the most respectable Character, &c., and that the said Bro. Cerneau had previous to his departure given to the Brethren the most wholesome advice and Assisted them in reorganizing the said Lodge, which now consists of the most respectable Characters of the Island."
We find later on, April 6, 1807, the Grand Lodge authorizing a letter of sympathy to the " late and present Worshipful Masters and Worthy Brethren of Lodge No. 103.'' Brothers Emanuel De La Motta, M. J. Maduro Peixotto, J. J. J. Gourgas and Sampson Simson, the first being Treasurer-General of the Supreme Council having its Grand East at Charleston, South Carolina, visited Joseph Cerneau in New York on September 14, 1813, and as a result of that investigation he was denounced and he and his associates declared expelled from every lawful Degree or Masonic Society in which they may have been received or admitted (see page 25, Documents, Joseph M'cosh).
Joseph M'cosh states in Documents upon sublime Freemasonry in the United States of America (page vii), " Of J. C.'s Masonic conduct in Havana de Cuba, we have many facts before us which would blacken any thing we have before communicated.
His labors were conduced by his being expelled from the island by the governor, at the request of the fraternity who resided there."
There is in the report of the Supreme Council for France, published in 1886, a reference that would indicate action against Joseph Cerneau had been taken by the Masonic authorities in Cuba as well as in the United States.
The item mentioning the decree issued at Charleston in 1813, says (page 31).
It declares him unworthy to be a Mason, annuls as irregular his Masonic operations, and demolishes the Consistories and Councils which he may have established. It thus approves the Masonic decisions made in 1805, by the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of Havana, Island of Cuba, against this Ver I1l:. Brother."
In the business recorded of the Adjourned Grand Quarterly Communication at Philadelphia on January 16, 1809 (page 381, Reprint) the Grand Secretary "Brother Baker stated that he had been informed that Bro. Joseph Cerneau, formerly J. G. W. of the Provincial Lodge of St. Domingo and afterwards Master of Lodge No. 103, held at Havannah, and now residing in the City of New York, had been Guilty of Un-masonic Conduct.
Whereupon, On Motion made and Seconded, Resolved, that Brothers Duplessis, Chaudron and Baker be a Committee to Examine respecting the premises and make Report thereon. "
But the details of this affair must be left to conjecture as we do not discover the Committee to have brought in any report.
In a footnote by General Pike to the report of the Supreme Council for France, July 7, 1886, published at Washington by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States (page 29), we read of Cerneau's claims.
" He did not style himself to be an Inspector-General 'of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.' The Body that he established did not pretend to be a body, and he did not pretend to be an Inspector; of that Rite; but of 'the Ancient Constitutional Rite of Heredom.
He went back to France in December, 1827, and was no more heard of: and no Body claiming to be a Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, with any powers, was established by him until November 28, 1827.
Before then the 32nd of his Grand Consistory elected 33rds from among themselves, the title being merely honorary, and with no powers attached." As to the date when Joseph Cerneau left New York for France there is some uncertain, Doctor Folger intimating a later time than General Pike. Doctor Folger alludes in his History, 1881, to his personal acquaintance with Joseph Cerneau and in regard to his circumstances and movements in later years has this to say (page 117), " For, in the latter part of the time - from 1832 onward - he was in poor circumstances, and made application to the Supreme Council for assistance.
That body made some considerable purchases of him, which relieved his necessities. He returned to his native land in comparative poverty, and died there, between the years 1840 and 1845, while filling a small public office, under wretched pay."
CERTIFICATE
A Diploma issued by a Grand Lodge or by a subordinate Lodge under its authority, testifying that the holder thereof is a true and trusty Brother, and recommending him to the hospitality of the Fraternity abroad. The character of this instrument has sometimes been much misunderstood. It is by no means intended to act as a voucher for the bearer, nor can it be allowed to supersede the necessity of a strict examination. A stranger, however, having been tried and proved by a more unerring standard, his Certificate then properly comes in as an auxiliary testimonial, and will be permitted to afford good evidence of his correct standing in his lodge at home; for no Body of Freemasons, true to the principles of their Order, would grant such an instrument to an unworthy Brother, or to one who, they feared, might make an improper use of it.
But though the presence of a Grand Lodge Certificate be in general required as collateral evidence of worthiness to visit, or receive aid, its accidental absence, which may arise in various ways, as from fire, captivity, or shipwreck, should not debar a strange Brother from the rights guaranteed to him by our Institution, provided he can offer other evidence of his good character.
The Grand Lodge of New York has, upon this subject, taken the proper stand in the following regulation: '
'That no Freemason be admitted to any subordinate Lodge under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, or receive the charities of any Lodge, unless he shall, on such application, exhibit a Grand Lodge certificate, duly attested by the proper authorities, except he is known to the Lodge to be a worthy brother."
The Certificate system has been warmly discussed by the Grand Lodges of the United States, and considerable opposition to it has been made by some of them on the ground that, it is an innovation.
If it is an innovation, it certainly is not one of the present day, as we may learn from the Regulations made in General Assembly of the Masons of England, on Saint John the Evangelist's day, 1663, during the Grand Mastership of the Earl of St. Albans, one of which reads as follows: "That no person hereafter who shall be accepted a Freemason shall be admitted into any Lodge or Assembly, until he has brought a certificate of the time and place of his acceptation from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that limit or division where such Lodge is kept" (see Constitution, 1738, page 101).
Among the General Regulations " made at a Grand Lodge held in Corke, on Saint John ye Evangelist's Day, 1728," is the following:
" That no person pretending to be a Mason shall be considered as such within ye precincts of our Grand Lodge or deemed duly matriculated into ye Society of Freemasons, until he hath subscribed in some Lodge to these regulations and obliged himself to sign ye before mentioned Duplicate (a copy of the General Regulations possessed by all Lodges), at which time he shall be furnished with proper means to convince the authentic Brethren the hath duly complied."
Brother WT. J. Chetwode Crawley (Caementaria Hibernica, Fasciculus1, pages 11 and 12), says further that "In this clause we descry the germ of the Certificate now issued to every Master Mason.
The proper means to convince the authentic Brethren' supplies the earliest intimation in the history of the Craft of a practice which, originating with the Grand Lodge of Munster, has been adopted by every Grand Lodge in the World.
The first Grand Lodge Certificate ever heard of in England seems to have been that brought with him to England by Lawrence Dermott, and proudly exhibited by him to his Grand Lodge (see the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient for March 2, 1757, as given in Brother Sadler's Masonic Facts and Fictions).
The Premier Grand Lodge (Moderns) borrowed the practice from Lawrence Dermott and began to make use of Certificates in the year 1755."
CEYLON
An island in the Indian Ocean. In 1771 Freemasonry was introduced to Ceylon with the establishment by the Grand Lodge of Holland of Fidelity Lodge at Colombo, the capital of the island, in 1771. Sir Alexander Johnston was appointed Provincial Grand Master by the Grand Lodge of England in 1810. Oliver Day Street says of Ceylon in his Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of Alabama in 1922 :
"On this island are nine Lodges subject to the Grand Lodge of England and three subject to that of Ireland. Four of these are at Colombo and one each at Badulla, Galle, Halton, Kandy, Kurunegala, Nuwara Ebya, and Tolowakello."
CHAILLOU DE JOINVILLE
He played an important part in the Freemasonry of France about the middle of the eighteenth century, especially in the schisms which at that time existed in the Grand Lodge. In 1761, he was an active member of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, or Rite of Perfection, which had been established in 1758.
Under the title of Substitute General of the Order, Venerable Master of the First Lodge in France, called Saint Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent Degrees, Cammander, and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, etc.,etc., etc., he signed the Patent of Stephen Morin, authorizing him to extend the Royal Order in America, which was the first step that subsequently led to the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Rite in the United States.
In 1762, the Prince of Clermont, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, removed the dancing-master Lacorne, whom he had previously appointed his Substitute General and who had become distasteful to the respectable members of the Grand Lodge, and put Chaillau de Jainville in his place.
This action created a schism in the Grand Lodge, during which De Jainville appears to have acted with considerable energy, but eventually he became almost as notorious as his predecessor, by issuing irregular charters and deputations.
On the death of the Prince of Clermont, in 1771, the Lacornists regained much of their influence, and De Jainville appears quietly to have passed away from the field of French Freemasonry and Masonic intrigues.
CHAIN, MYSTIC
To form the Mystic Chain is for the Brethren to make a circle, holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding a grave, etc.
Each Brother crosses his arms in front of his body, so as to give his right hand to his left-hand neighbor, and his left hand to his right-hand neighbor.
The French call it Chaine d'Union. It is a symbol of the close connection of all Freemasons in one common brotherhood.
CHAIN OF FLOWERS
In French Freemasonry, when a Lodge celebrates the day of its foundation, or the semicentennial membership of one of the Brethren, or at the initiation of a louveteau (which see) the room is decorated with wreaths of flowers called chaine de fleurs.
CHAIN OF UNION
See Chain, Mystic
CHAIN, SOCIETY OF THE
In German, Gessellschaft der Kette.
Also known as Order of the Chain of the Pilgrims. A German society of both sexes, founded, 1758, in Hamburg.
Comprised persons of high social position and among its benevolent work was an Institute for the Blind.
The letters W, . B and S were used by the members as signs of recognition, signifying the German equivalents for the words Camplaisance, Constancy and Silence.
The jewel was a chain of three links with the three letters W, B and S, and the members were called Knights of the Chain; their meetings were called Unions and the assembled members were known as Favorites.
There was a similar society founded in Denmark in 1777.
HOME
