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ABBREVIATIONS
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ADONIS - AHIAH
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AMERICAN (MILITARY) UNION LODGE
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ANDREA - ANTOI
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AHIMAN REZON
The title given by Dermott to the Book of Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons in England, which was established about the middle of the eighteenth century in opposition to the legitimate Grand Lodge and its adherents who were called the Moderns, and whose code of laws was contained in Anderson's work known as the Book of Constitutions. Many attempts have been made to explain the significance of this title ; thus according to Doctor Mackey, it is derived from three Hebrew words, zhiln, meaning brothers; manah, to appoint, or to select in the sense of being placed in a peculiar class (see Isaiah liii, 12), and ratzon, the will, pleasure, or meaning; and hence the combination of the three words in the title, Ahiman Rezon, signifies the will of selected Brethren- the law of a class or society of men who are chosen or selected from the rest of the world as Brethren.
Doctor Dalcho (Ahiman Rezon of South Carolina, page 159, second edition) derives it from ahi, a brother, manah, to prepare, and rezon, secret, so that, as he says, "Abiman Rezon literally means the secrets of a prepared brother". But the best meaning of manah is that which conveys the idea of being placed in or appointed to a certain, exclusive class, as we find in Isaiah liii, 12 "he was numbered (nimenah) with the transgressors", placed in that class, being taken out of every other order of men. Although rezon may come from ratzon, a will or law, it can hardly be elected by any rules of etymology out of the Chaldee word raz, meaning a secret, the termination in on being wanting; and furthermore the book called the Ahiman Rezon does not contain the secrets, but only the public laws of Freemasonry. The derivation of Dalcho seems therefore inadmissible.
Not less so is that of Brother W. S. Rockwell, who as recorded in the Ahiman Rezon of Georgia (1859, page 3) thinks the derivation may be found in the Hebrew, amun, meaning a builder or architect and, rezon, as a noun, prince, and as an adjective, royal, and hence, Ahiman Rezon, according to this etymology, will signify the royal builder, or, symbolically, the Freemason. But to derive ahiman from amun, or rather amon, which is the masoretic pronunciation, is to place all known laws of etymology at defiance. Rockwell himself, however, furnishes the best argument against his strained derivation, when he admits that its correctness will depend on the antiquity of the phrase, which he acknowledges that he doubts. In this, he is right. The phrase is altogether a modern one, and has Dermott, the author of the first work bearing the title, for its inventor.
Rockwell's conjectural derivation is, therefore, for this reason still more inadmissible than Dalcho's.
But the most satisfactory explanation is as follows:
In his prefatory address to the reader, Dermott narrates a dream of his
in which the four men appointed by Solomon to be porters at the Temple (First Chronicles ix, 17 ) appear to him sojourners from
Jerusalem, and he tells them that he is writing a history of Freemasonry; upon which, one of the four, named Ahiman, says that no
such history has ever yet been composed and suggests that it never can be.
It is clear, therefore, that the first word of the title is the name of this personage. What then does Rezon signify? Now the Geneva or Breeches Bible, publishes in 1560 contains a table giving the meanings of the Bible names and explains Ahiman as a prepared brother or brother of the right hand and Rezon as a secretary, so that the title of the book would mean Brother Secretary. That Dermott used the Geneva Bible is plain from the fact that he quotes from it in his address to the reader, and therefore it may fairly be assumed that he selected these names to suit his purpose from the list given in it, especially as he styles himself on his title-page merely Secretary.
The first Book of Masonic Law published by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was entitled: Ahiman Rezon abridged and digested: as a Help to atilt are or would be Free and Accepted Masons. It was prepared by the Grand Secretary, the Rev. Brother William Smith, D.D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and was almost entirely a reprint of Dermott's work; it was approved by the Grand Lodge November 22, 1781, published in, 1783, and dedicated to Brother George Washington. It is reprinted in the introduction to the first or edited reprint of the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 1730-1808. On April 18, 1825, a revision of the Ahiman Rezon was adopted, being taken largely from Anderson's Constitutions.
In the 1919 edition (page 210) are these comments:"The revision of 1825 contains the following as the definition of the words Ahiman Rezon: The Book of Constitutions is usually denominated Ahiman Rezon. The literal translation of Ahiman is A prepared Brother, from manah, to prepare, and Rezon, secret; so that Ahiman Rezon literally means, the secrets of a prepared Brother. It is likewise supposed to be a corruption of Achi Man Ratzon , the thoughts or opinions of a true and faithful Brother. As the Ahiman Rezon is not a secret, but a published book, and the above definition has been omitted from subsequent revisions of the book, the words were submitted to Hebrew scholars for translation upon the assumption that they are of Hebrew origin. The words however are not Hebrew.
"Subsequent inquiry leads to the belief that they come from the Spanish, and are thus interpreted: Ahi, which is pronounced Ah-ee, is demonstrative and means there, as if pointing to a thing or place; man may be considered a form of monta, which means the account, amount, sum total, or fullness; while razon or rezon means reason, principle, or justice, the word justice being used in the sense of law. If, therefore, we ascribe the words Ahiman Rezon to Spanish origin, their meaning is - There is the full account of the law".
But the history of the origin of the book is more important and more interesting than the history of the derivation of its title.
The premier Grand Lodge of England was established in 1717 and ruled the Freemasons of London and the South of England without opposition until in 1751 when some Irish Freemasons established another body in London. This organization professed to work "according to the old institutions", and the Brethren called themselves Ancient Freemasons and the members of the older Grand Lodge.
Moderns, maintaining that they alone preserved the ancient usage of Freemasonry.
The former of these contending bodies, the Grand Lodge of England, had, in the year 1722, caused Dr. James Anderson to collect and compile all the Statutes and Regulations by which the Fraternity had in former times been governed. These, after having been submitted to due revision, were published in 1723, by Anderson, with the title of The Constitutions of the Freemasons. This work, of which several other edit out subsequently appeared, has always been called the Book of Constitutions, and contains the foundations of the written law by which the Grand Lodge if England and the Lodges deriving from it, both in that country and in America, are governed.
But when the Irish Freemasons established their rival Grand Lodge, they found it necessary, also, to have a Book of Constitutions. Accordingly, Laurence Dermott, who was at one time their Grand Secretary, and afterward their Deputy Grand Master, compiled such a work, the first edition of which was published by James Bedford, at London, in 1756, with the following title: Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to a Brother; showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the first cause or motive of the Institution of Masonry; the Principles of the Craft; and the Benefits from a strict Observance thereof, etc., etc.; also the Old and New Regulations, etc. To which is added the greatest collection of Masons' Songs, etc. By Bro. Laurence Dermott, Secretary.
A second edition was published in 1764 with this title: Ahiman Rezon: or a help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons; containing the Quintessence of all that has been published on the subject of Freemasonry, with many Additions, which renders this Work more useful than any other Book of Constitution now extant. By Lau. Dermott, Secretary. London, 1764. A third edition was published in 1778, with the following title: Ahiman Rezon: or a Help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons (with many Additions). By Lau. Dermott, D.G.M. Printed for James Jones, Grand Secretary; and sold by Peter Shatwell, in the Strand. London, 1778.
Five other edit out were published:
the fourth, in 1778;
the fifth in 1787;
the sixth in 1800;
the seventh in 1801;
the eighth in 1807;
and the ninth in 1813.
In this year, the Ancient Grand Lodge was dissolved by the union of the two Grand Lodges of England, and a new Book of Constitutions having been adopted for the united body, the Ahiman Rezon became useless, and no subsequent edition was ever published.
The earlier edit out of this work are among the rarest of Masonic publications, and are highly prized by collectors.
In the year 1855, Leon Hyneman, of Philadelphia, who was engaged in a reprint of old standard Masonic works, an enterprise which should have received better patronage than it did, republished the second edition, with a few explanatory notes.
As this book contains those principles of Masonic law by which, over three-fourths of a century, a large and intelligent portion of the Craft was governed; and as it is now becoming rare and, to the generality of readers, inaccessible, some brief review of its contents may not be uninteresting. In the preface or address to the reader, Dermott pokes fun at the history of Freemasonry as written by Doctor Anderson and others, and wittily explains the reason why he has not published a history of Freemasonry.
There is next a Philacteri for such Gentlemen as may be inclined to become Freemasons. This article, which was not in the first edition, but appeared for the first time in the second, consists of directions as to the method to be pursued by one who desires to be made a Freemason. This is followed by an account of what Dermott calls Modern Masonry, that is, the system pursued by the original Grand Lodge of England, and of the differences existing between it and Ancient Masonry, or the system of his own Grand Lodge. He contends that there are material differences between the two systems; that of the Ancient being universal, and that of the Moderns not; a Modern being able with safety to communicate all his secrets to an Ancient, while an Ancient cannot communicate his to a Modern; a Modem having no right to be called free and accepted; all of which, in his opinion, show that the Ancient have secrets which are not in the possession of the Moderns. This, he considers, a convincing proof that the Modern Freemasons were innovators upon the established system, and had instituted their Lodges and framed their ritual without a sufficient knowledge of the arcana of the Craft. But the Modern Freemasons with more semblance of truth, thought that the additional secrets of the Ancient were only innovations that they had made upon the true body of Freemasonry; and hence, they considered their ignorance of these newly invented secrets was the best evidence of their own superior antiquity. In the later editions Dermott has published the famous Leland Manuscript, together with the commentaries of Locke; also the resolutions adopted in 1772, by which the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland agreed to maintain a "Brotherly Connexion and correspondence" with the Grand Lodge of England (Ancient).
The Ahiman Rezon proper, then, begins with twenty-three pages of an encomium on Freemasonry, and an explanation of its principles. Many a modem Masonic address is better written, and contains more important and instructive matter than this prefatory discourse.
Then follow The Old Charges of the Free and Accepted Masons, taken from the 1738 edition of Anderson's Constitutions. Next come A short charge to a new admitted Mason, The Ancient manner of constituting a Lodge, a few prayers, and then the General Regulations of the Free and Accepted Masons. These are borrowed mainly from the second edition of Anderson with a few alterations and additions. After a comparison of the Dublin and London Regulations for charity, the rest of the book, comprising more than a hundred pages, consists of A collection of Masons Songs, of the poetical merits of which the less said the better for the literary reputation of the writers.
Imperfect, however, as was this work, it for a long time constituted the statute book of the Ancient Masons. Hence those Lodges in America which derived their authority from the Dermott or Ancient Grand Lodge of England, accepted its contents as a true exposition of Masonic law. Several of their Grand Lodges caused similar works to be compiled for their own government, adopting the title of Ahiman Rezon, which thus became the peculiar designation of the volume which contained the fundamental law of the Ancient, while the original title of Book of Constitutions continued to be retained by the Moderns, to designate the volume used by them for the same purpose.
Of the Ahiman Rezons compiled and published in America, the following are the principal:
Many of the Grand Lodges of the United States having derived their existence and authority from the Dermott Grand Lodge, the influence of his Ahiman Rezon was for a long time exercised over the Lodges of this country. Indeed, it is only within a comparatively recent period that the true principles of Masonic law, as expounded in the first editions of Anderson's Constitutions, have been universally adopted among American Freemasons.
However, it must be observed, in justice to Dermott, who has been rather too grossly abused by Mitchell and a few other writers, that the innovations upon the old laws of Freemasonry, which are to be found in the Ahiman Rezon, are for the most part not to be charged upon him, but upon Doctor Anderson himself, who, for the first time, introduced them into the second edition of the Book of Constitutions, published in 1738. It is surprising, and accountable only on the ground of sheer carelessness on the part of the supervising committee, that the Grand Lodge should, in 1738, have approved of these alterations made by Anderson, and still more surprising that it was not until 1756 that a new or third edition of the Constitutions should have been published, in which these alterations of 1738 were expunged, and the old regulations and the old language restored. But whatever may have been the causes of this oversight, it is not to be doubted that, at the time of the formation of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient, the edition of the Book of Constitutions of 1738 was considered as the authorized exponent of Masonic law by the earlier, or, as Doctor Mackey would say, the original or regular Grand Lodge of England, and was adopted, with but little change, by Dermott as the basis of his Ahiman Rezon. How much this edition of 1738 differed from that of 1723, which is now considered the only true authority for ancient law, and how much it agreed with Dermott's Ahiman Rezon, will he evident from the following specimens of the first of the Old Charges, correctly taken from each of the three works:
First of the Old Charges in the Book of Constitutions, edition of 1723:
"A Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine. But though in ancient times Masons were charged, in every country, to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves; that is to be good men and true, or men of honour and honesty, by whatever denominations or persuasions they may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the centre of union, and the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance".
"A Mason is obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida; and if he rightly understands the Craft, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine, nor act against conscience.
"In Ancient times, the Christian Masons were charged to comply with the Christian usages of each country where they travelled or worked. But Masonry being found in all nations, even of divers religions, they are now only charged to adhere to that religion in which all men agree leaving each Brother to his own particular opinions; that is, to be good men and true, men of honour and honesty, by whatever names, religions, or persuasions they may be distinguished; for they all agree in the three great articles of Noah enough to preserve the cement of the Lodge. Thus, Masonry is the centre of their union, and the happy means of conciliating persons that otherwise must have remained at a perpetual distance".
"A Mason is obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida; and if he rightly understands the Craft, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine, nor act against conscience.
"In Ancient times, the Christian Masons were charged to comply with the Christian usages of each country where they travelled or worked; being found in all nations, even of divers religions.
"They are generally charged to adhere to that religion in which all men agree (leaving each brother to his own particular opinions); that is, to be good men and true, men of honour and honesty, by whatever names religions, or persuasions they may be distinguished; for they all agree in the three great article of Noah enough to preserve the cement of the Lodge.
"Thus, Masonry is the centre of their union, and the happy means of conciliating persons that otherwise must have remained at a perpetual distance".
The italics in the second and third extracts will show what innovations Anderson made in 1738 on the Charges as originally published in 1723, and how closely Dermott followed him in adopting these changes. There is, in fact, much less difference between the Ahiman Rezon of Dermott and Anderson's edition of the Book of Constitutions, printed in 1738, than there is between the latter and the first edition of the Constitutions, printed in 1723. But the great points of difference between the "Ancient" and the "Moderns", points which kept them apart for so many years, are to be found in their work and ritual, for an account of which the reader is referred to the article Ancient Freemasons.
AHISAR
See Achishar
AHOLIAB
A skillful artificer of the tribe of Dan, who was appointed, together with Bezaleel, to construct the tabernacle in the wilderness and the ark of the covenant (Exodus xxxi, 6). He is referred to in the Royal Arch Degree of the English and American systems.
AHRIMAN
See Ormuzd and Ahriman, also Zoroaster.
AID AND ASSISTANCE
The duty of aiding and assisting, not only all worthy distressed Master Masons, but their widows and orphans also, "wheresoever dispersed over the face of the globe", is one of the most important obligations that is imposed upon every Brother of the mystic tie by the whole scope and tenor of the Masonic Institution.
The regulations for the exercise of this duty are few, but rational. In the first place, a Master Mason who is in distress has a greater claim, under equal circumstances, to the aid and assistance of his brother, than one who, being in the Order, has not attained that Degree, or who, is altogether a profane. This is strictly in accordance with the natural instincts of the human heart, which will always prefer a friend to a stranger, or, as it is rather energetically expressed in the language of Long Tom Coffin "a messmate before a shipmate, a shipmate before a stranger, and a stranger before a dog"; and it is also strictly in accordance with the teaching of the Apostle to the Gentiles, who has said: "As we have therefore opportunity, Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (see Galatians vi, 10). But this exclusiveness is only to be practiced under circumstances which make a selection imperatively necessary. Where the granting of relief to the profane would incapacitate us from granting similar relief to our Brother, then must the preference be given to him who is "of the household". But the earliest symbolic lessons of the ritual teach the Freemason not to restrict his benevolence within the narrow limits of the Fraternity, but to acknowledge the claims of all men who need it, to assistance. Linwood has beautifully said: "The humble condition both of property and dress, of penury and want, in which you were received into the Lodge, should make you at all times sensible of the distresses of poverty, and all you can spare from the call of nature and the due care of your families, should only remain in your possessions as a ready sacrifice to the necessities of an unfortunate, distressed brother. Let the distressed cottage feel the warmth of your Masonic zeal, and, if possible, exceed even the unabating ardour of Christian charity. At your approach let the orphan cease to weep, and in the sound of your voice let the widow forget her sorrow" (Sermons, page 18).
Another restriction laid upon this duty of aid and assistance by the obligations of Freemasonry is, that the giver shall not be lavish beyond his means in the disposition of his benevolence. What he bestows must be such as he can give "without material injury to himself or family". No man should wrong his wife or children that he may do a benefit to a stranger, or even to a Brother. The obligations laid on a Freemason to grant aid and assistance to the needy and distressed seem to be in the following gradations, first to his family; next, to his Brethren; and, lastly, to the world at large.
So far this subject has been viewed in a general reference to that spirit of kindness which should actuate all men, and which it is the object of Masonic teaching to impress on the mind of every Freemason as a common duty of humanity, and whose disposition Freemasonry only seeks to direct and guide. But there is another aspect in which this subject may be considered, namely, in that peculiar and technical one of Masonic aid and assistance due from one Freemason to another. Here there is a duty declared, and a correlative right inferred; for if it is the duty of one Freemason to assist another, it follows that every Freemason has the right to claim that assistance from his Brother. It is this duty that the obligations of Freemasonry are especially intended to enforce; it is this right that they are intended to sustain.
The symbolic ritual of Freemasonry which refers, as, for instance, in the First Degree, to the virtue of benevolence, refers to it in the general sense of a virtue which all men should practice. But when the Freemason reaches the Third Degree, he discovers new obligations which restrict and define the exercise of this duty of aid and assistance. So far as his obligations control him, the Freemason, as a Freemason, is not legally bound to extend his aid beyond the just claimants in his own Fraternity. To do good to all men is, of course, inculcated and recommended; to do good to the household of faith is enforced and made compulsory by legal enactment and sanction.
Now, as there is here, on one side, a duty, and on the other side a right, it is proper to inquire what are the regulations or laws by which this duty is controlled and this right maintained. The duty to grant and the right to claim relief Masonically is recognized in the following passages of the Old Charges of 1722:
"But if you discover him to be a true and genuine Brother, you are to respect him accordingly; and if he is in want, you must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be relieved. You must employ him some days, or else recommend him to be employed. But you are not charged to do beyond your ability; only to prefer a poor brother, that is a good man and true, before any other poor people in the same circumstances".
This written law agrees in its conditions and directions, so far as it goes, with the unwritten law of the Order, and from the two we may deduce the following principles:
Hence the great mass of the Fraternity consisted of Apprentices, and many Freemasons never proceeded any further. But the Second and Third Degrees are now always conferred in subordinate Lodges, and very few initiates voluntarily stop short of the Master's Degree. Hence the mass of the Fraternity now consists of Master Masons, and the law which formerly applied to Apprentices is, under our present organization, made applicable only to those who have become Master Masons.
These are the laws which regulate the doctrine of Masonic aid and assistance.
They are often charged by the enemies of Freemasonry with showing a spirit of exclusiveness. But it has been shown that they are in accordance with the exhortation of the Apostle, who would do good "especially to those who are of the household of faith", and they have the warrant of the law of nature; for everyone will be ready to say, with that kindest-hearted of men, Charles Lamb, "I can feel for all indifferently, but I cannot feel for all alike. I can be a friend to a worthy man, who, upon another account, cannot be my mate or fellow. I cannot like all people alike". So also as Freemasons, while we should be charitable to all persons in need or in distress, there are only certain ones who can claim the aid and assistance of the Order, or of its disciples, under the positive sanction of Masonic law.
AITCHISON'S-HAVEN LODGE
Also spelled ATCHESON or ACHISON. This was one of the oldest Operative Lodges consenting to the formation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736. The age of this Lodge, like many or most of the oldest Lodges of Scotland, is not known. Some of its members signed the Saint Clair Charters in 1600 and 1601. The place of its meeting, Aitchison-Haven, is no longer on the map, but was in the County of Midlothian. The origin of the town was from a charter of James V, dated 1526, and probably the Lodge dated near that period. Aitchison's-Haven was probably the first meeting-place, but they seem to have met at Musselburgh at a later period.
Lyon, in his History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, speaks of trouble in the Grand Quarterly Communication respecting representatives from this Lodge when in May, 1737, it was "agreed that Atcheson's Haven be deleted out of the books of the Grand Lodge, and no more called on the rolls of the Clerk's highest peril".
The Lodge was restored to the roll in 1814, but becoming dormant, it was finally cut off in 1866. The Lodge of Edinburgh has long enjoyed the distinction of having the oldest preserved Lodge Minute, which is dated July, 1599.
Just recently Brother R. E. Wallace-James has brought to light a Minute Book bearing this title: The Buik of the Actis and Ordinans of the Nobile Maisteris and fellows of Craft of the Ludg of Aitchison's heavine, and contains a catalogue of the names of the fellows of Craft that are presently in the Zeir of God 1598.
The first page of this rare book bears in a bold hand the date 1598.
The Minute to which we have already referred is as follows:
"The IX day of Januerie the Zeir of God upon ye quhilk day Robert Widderspone was maid fellow of Craft in ye presens of Wilzam Aytone Elder, Johne Fender being Warden, Johne Pedden Thomas Pettencrief John Crafurd George Aytone Wilzame Aytone younger Hendric Petticrief all fellowis of Craft upon ye quhilk day he chois George Aytone Johne Pedded to be his intenders and instructouris and also ye said Robert hes payit his xx sh and his gluffis to everie Maister as efferis" (see 'volume xxiv, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum).
AITCHISON'S-HAVEN MANUSCRIPT
One of the Old Charges, or records of Freemasonry now in the custody of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, was formerly preserved in the archives of the Aitchison-Haven Lodge, which met later on at Musselburgh in Scotland. The manuscript is engrossed in the Minute Book of Aitchison-Haven Lodge. The writer attests to his transcription in the following manner:
"Insert by me under sub and the 19" of May, 1666, Jo. Auchinleck, clerk to the Masones of Achisones Lodge".
This manuscript has been reproduced, with 24 lines in facsimile, by D. Murray Lyon in his History of the Lodge of Edinburgh.
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE
The French name of what is called in German, Aachen. A city of Germany, remarkable in Masonic history for a persecution which took place in the eighteenth century, and of which Gadicke, in his Freimaurer Lexicon, 1818 and 183l, gives the following account:
In the year 1779, Ludwig Grienemann, a Dominican monk, a follower of Dominic de Guzman, who founded an Order whose violent zeal led to the atrocities of the Inquisition in Spain and elsewhere, delivered a course of Lenten sermons, in which he attempted to prove that the Jews who crucified Christ were Freemasons, that Pilate and Herod were Wardens in a Freemason's Lodge, that Judas, previous to his betrayal of his Master, was initiated into the Order, and that the thirty, pieces of silver, which he is said to have returned, was only the fee which he paid for his initiation. Aix-la-Chapelle being a Roman Catholic city, the magistrates were induced, by the influence of Grienemann, to issue a decree, in which they declared that anyone who should permit a meeting of the Freemasons in his house should, for the first offence, be fined 100 florins, for the second 200, and for the third, be banished from the city. The mob became highly incensed against the Freemasons, and insulted all whom they suspected to be members of the Order.
At length Peter Schuff, a Capuchin, so called from the capuche, or pointed hood, worn by the monks of this Order, jealous of the influence which the Dominican Grienemann was exerting, began also, with augmented fervour, to preach against Freemasonry, and still more to excite the popular commotion.
In this state of affairs, the Lodge at Aix-la-Chapelle applied to the princes and Masonic Lodges in the neighbouring territories for assistance and protection, which were immediately rendered. A letter in French was received by both priests, in which the Writer, who stated that he was one of the former dignitaries of the Order, strongly, reminded them of their duties, and, among other things, said that "Many priests, a pope, several cardinals, bishops, and even Dominican and Capuchin monks, had been, and still were, members of the Order". Although this remonstrance had some effect, peace was not altogether restored until the neighbouring free imperial states threatened that they would prohibit the monks from collecting alms in their territories unless they ceased to excite the popular commotion against the Freemasons.
AKIROP
The name given, in the ritual of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, to one of the ruffians celebrated in the legend of the Third Degree. The word is said in the ritual to signify, an assassin. It might probably be derived from, KaRaB, to assault or join battle; but is just as probably a word so corrupted by long oral transmission that its etymology can no longer be traced (see Abiram).
ALABAMA
Before the institution of the Grand Lodge of Alabama several Lodges there were organized by other Grand Jurisdictions. The first
of these was Madison, No. l, at. Huntsville, established by, the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, under Dispensation dated August 29, 1811. A
Charter was issued to this Lodge on August 28, 1812. On June 11, 1821, a Convention was held at Cahaba in the Hall of Halo Lodge for
the purpose of constituting a Grand Lodge, Nine Lodges were represented; namely,
Halo Lodge, No. 21;
Madison Lodge, No. 21;
Saint Stephens Lodge;
Rising Virtue Lodge, No. 30;
Alabama Lodge, No. 51;
Farrar Lodge, No. 41;
Alabama Lodge, No.
21;
Moulton Lodge, No. 34;
Russellville Lodge, No. 36.
Brother J. W. Farrar who presided over the meeting was the first
Grand Master. Charters were issued to nine Lodges on June 15, l821, and to three others at the Annual Communication of December
11, 1821.
In l826 the Anti-Masonic agitation in the United States caused the Grand Lodge of Alabama, like very many others, to fade out of existence. A meeting was held at Tuscaloosa on December 6, 1836, when, as there was not a quorum present, the Grand Lodge was declared extinct. At this meeting were present twelve brethren who declared the meeting a Convention in order to form a new Constitution and create a new Grand Lodge. They appointed William Leigh, Chairman, and John H. Vincent, Secretary. Grand Lodge officers were elected and John C. Hicks was installed the first Most Worshipful Grand Master under the new Constitution. The Grand Lodge was then opened in Ample Form.
Prior to May, 1823, there were four Chapters in Alabama, all chartered by the General Grand Chapter. In May and June, 1823, delegates of these met and decided to form a Grand Chapter of Alabama.
The General Grand Chapter, however, did not sanction it because one year had not elapsed since the establishment of the Junior Chapter of the four. On June 2, 1827, the Grand Chapter was reorganized, and met annually, until 1830. On December 8, 1837, the delegates from the several Chapters of the State met and recognized the Grand Chapter.
By authority of John Barker, a member of the Southern Supreme Council, several Councils were established and on December 13, 1838, 27 Royal and Select Masters assembled and formed the Grand Council of Alabama.
The first Commandery to be established in Alabama was Washington, No. l, at Marion, which was chartered in 1844. This Commandery with four others, Mobile, No. 2; Montgomery, No. 4; Selma, No. 5 ; Tuscumbia, No. 3, agreed to meet of December 1, 1860, and they organized the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar for the State of Alabama. At the actual meeting the representative of Washington, No, l, was absent.
A Consistory of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Alabama, No. 1, at Birmingham, was chartered on December 27, 1900, and a Council of Kadosh was established at Birmingham, No. 1, on September 21, 1599. Hermes, No. 1, at Montgomery, was constituted a Chapter of Rose Croix by Letters Temporary and a Charter was given to Alabama, No. 1, as a Lodge of Perfection on April 13, 1574.
ALAPA
A Latin word signifying a blow on the cheek with the open hand. Such a blow was given by the master to his manumitted slave as a symbol of manumission, and as a reminder that it was the last unrequited indignity which he was to receive. In fact, the very word manumit is derived from two Latin words meaning to send by hand. Hence, in medieval times, the same word was applied to the blow inflicted on the cheek of the newly created knight by the sovereign who created him, with the same symbolic signification. This was sometimes represented by the blow on the shoulder with the flat of a sword, which has erroneously been called the accolade (see Knighthood).
ALARM
The verb to alarm signifies, in Freemasonry, to give notice of the approach of some one desiring admission. Thus, to alarm the Lodge is to inform the Lodge that there is some one without who is seeking entrance.
As a noun, the word alarm has two significations:
In this sense the expression so often used, "an alarm at the door," simply signifies that the officer outside has given notice of his desire to communicate with the Lodge.
This is precisely the Masonic signification of the world.
ALASKA
The Grand Master of the Territory, of Washington issued, on April 14, 1868, a Dispensation to form a Lodge at Sitka, Alaska. This Dispensation was renewed on October 13, 1868, and on September 17, 1869, a Charter was granted to Alaska Lodge, No. 14. This Charter was revoked on October 28, 1872. A Commission as Deputy Grand Master for Alaska Was, on September 18, 1869, issued under the same authority to Brother W. H. Wood, P.D.G.M. December 9, 1879, a Dispensation was issued by the Grand Lodge of the Territory of Washington for a new Lodge at Sitka and in due course a Charter Was granted to Jamestown Lodge, No. 33, on January 3, 1880. This Charter was returned and cancelled on June 4, 1886. A Dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Washington was issued on November 15, 1900, and a Charter granted on June 12, 1901, to White Pass Lodge, No. 113, of Skagway. Other Lodges chartered in Alaska by the same Grand Lodge have been Gastineaux Lodge, No. 124, at Douglas, on June 10, 1903; Anvil Lodge, No. 140, at Nome, on June 14, 1905; Mt. Juneau Lodge, No. 147, at Juneau, on June 14, 1905; Ketchikan Lodge, No. 159, at Ketchikan, on June 12, 1907; Tanana Lodge, No. l62, at Fairbanks, on June 17, 1908; Valdez Lodge, No, 168, at Valdez, on June 17, 1908; Mount McKinley Lodge, No, 183, at Cordova, on June 14, 1911; Seward Lodge, No. 219, at Seward, on June 14, 1917; Anchorage Lodge, No. 221, at Anchorage, on June 14, 1917.
A Royal Arch Chapter was authorized at Fairbanks by Dispensation from the General Grand High Priest Nathan Kingsley, on June 15, 1909, and this Chapter was granted a Charter on November 12, 1909. Seward Chapter at Nome received a Dispensation dated July 13, 1911, from General Grand High Priest Bernard G. Witt, and a Charter was granted on September 12, 1912. A third Chapter received a Dispensation from General Grand High Priest Frederick W. Craig dated January 16, 1919, and Charter was granted on September 29, 1921, to Anchorage Chapter at Anchorage.
The first Council of Royal and Select Masters was authorized at Fairbanks on March 16, 1914, and was granted a Charter as Artic Council, No. l, by the General Grand Council on August 31, 1915.
Alaska Commandery, No. l, was authorized by the Grand Encampment, Knights Templar of the United States, on August 14, 1913, at Fairbanks, and a Dispensation for Anchorage Commandery, No. 2, at Anchorage was issued on July 1, 1920, by Grand Master Joseph K. Orr. Alaska No, I, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, at Juneau, was established a Consistory by Charter granted October 22, 1915.
By Charters granted October 22, 1915, October 23, 1915, and October 16, 1911, respectively, at the same body were established a Council of Kadosh, a Chapter of Rose Croix and a Lodge of Perfection.
ALAVA, MIGUEL RICARDO DE
Famous Spanish General, Aide-de-Camp under the Duke of Wellington and in 1814 imprisoned for being a Freemason.
ALBAN, SAINT
See Saint Alban
ALBERTA
The Grand Lodge of Manitoba had jurisdiction over the Lodges in the Northwest Territories of Canada but the division of these into Provinces, on September 1, 1905, influenced Medicine Hat Lodge, No. 31, to invoke the oldest Masonic Body, Bow River Lodge, No. 28, to call a preliminary Convention at Calgary on May 25, 1905.
This was followed by another meeting on October 12, 1905, when seventeen lodges were represented by seventy-nine delegates, the Grand Lodge of Alberta was duly organized, and Brother Dr. George MacDonald elected Grand Master and was installed by Grand Master W. G. Scott of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba.
ALBERTUS MAGNUS
A scholastic philosopher of the Middle Ages, of great learning, but who had among the vulgar the reputation of being a magician.
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He was born at Lauingen, Swabia, in 1205, of an illustrious family, his subtitle being that of Count of Bollstadt. He studied at Padua, and in 1223 entered the Order of the Dominicans. In 1249 he became head-master of the school at Cologne. In 1260 Pope Alexander VI conferred upon him the bishopric of Ratisbon. In 1262 he resigned the episcopate and returned to Cologne, and, devoting himself to philosophic pursuits for the remainder of his life, died there in 1280. His writings were very voluminous, the edition published at Lyons, in 1651, amounting to twenty-one large folio volumes. Albertus Magnus has been connected with the Operative Freemasonry of the Middle Ages because he has been supposed by many to have been the real inventor of the German Gothic style of architecture. |
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Heideloff, in his Bauhhutte des Mittelalters, says that "he recalled into life the symbolic language of the ancients, which had so long lain dormant, and adapted it to suit architectural forms". The Freemasons were said to have accepted his instructions, with a system of symbols which was secretly communicated only to the members of their own body, and served even as a medium of intercommunication. He is asserted to have designed the plan for the construction of the cathedral of cologne, and to have altered the Constitution of the Freemasons, and to have given to them a new set of laws.
ALBRECHT, HEINRICH CHRISTOPH
A German author, who published at Hamburg, in 1792, the first and only part of a work entitled Materialen zu einer kritischen Geschichte der Freimaurerei, meaning Collections towards a Critical History of Freemasonry.
Kloss says that this was one of the first attempts at a clear and rational history of the Order. Unfortunately, the author never completed his task, and only the first part of the work ever appeared. Albrecht was the author also of another work entitled Geheime Geschichte eines Rosenkreuzers, or Secret History of a Rosicrucian, and of a series of papers which appeared in the Berlin Archive der Zeit, containing Notices of Freemasonry in the first half of the Sixteenth Century.
Albrecht adopted the theory first advanced by the Abb‚ Grandidier, that Freemasonry owes its origin to the Steinmetzen of Germany (see Stone-masons of the Middle Ages ).
ALCHEMY
The Neo-Platonicians introduced at an early period of the Christian era an apparently new science, which they called .............…, or the Sacred Science, which materially influenced the subsequent condition of the arts and sciences. In the fifth century arose, as the name of the science, alchemia, derived from the Arabic definite article al being added to chemia, a Greek word used in Diocletian's decree against Egyptian works treating of the ...... or transmutation of metals; the word seems simply to mean "the Egyptian Art", or the land of black earth, being the Egyptian name for Egypt, and Julius Firmicius, in a work On the Influence of the Stars upon the Fate of Man, uses the phrase scientia alchemiac. From this time the study of alchemy was openly followed. In the Middle Ages, and up to the end of the seventeenth century, it was an important science, studied by some of the most distinguished philosophers, such as Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, Raymond Lulli, Roger Bacon, Elias Ashmole, and many others. Alchemy has also been called the Hermetic Philosophy, because it is said to have been first taught in Egypt by Hermes Trismegistus.
Alchemists are those who practised the art or science of alchemy, the pioneer chemistry of the Middle Ages, either alone or in a group with others seeking the transmutation of base metals into gold the elixir of life, etc,. The word alchemy is evidently from the same root as chemistry and is related to Khem, the name of the Egyptian god of curative herbs. The Greeks called Egypt Chemita and in the ancient Egyptian, according to Plutarch, the country was called Khem because of the black colour of the soil but the standard Dictionary prefers the first of these explanations. An Egyptian priest, Hermes Trismegistus, the Thrice-greatest Hermes, supposed to have lived about 2000 B.C., was one of the first to practice alchemy. Although our accounts of him are of a purely legendary character; so closely has the name of alchemy been connected with him that it became generally referred to as the Hermetic Art.
Toward the end of the eighth century. we have another famous alchemist, Geber, who wrote many books and treatises in Latin on the transmutation of metals and kindred subjects, setting forth many of the formulas, as well as the scientific, mystical and philosophical aspects of the art at that early period.
In the tenth century there was an Arabian medical philosopher named Rhazes or Rhasis, who numbered among his writings one, The Establishment of Alchemy, which caused him great misfortune. It is said that he presented a copy of this work to his prince, who immediately demanded that he verify some of his experiments. Failing in this, he was struck across the face with a whip so violently by the prince that he was blinded. During the next three or four centuries alchemy was studied by the scientists or chemists, as they are called today, and to them must be reedited the development of science such as it was until the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the mystical terms in which the art was clothed, the great secrecy in which all knowledge was kept and the esoteric quality of the teaching made it a natural prey of the charlatans, quacks, necromancers and fortune-tellers who thrived upon the ignorance and superstition of the people. There are on record several instances of these adepts being put to death as a result of their inability to demonstrate certain claims made by them. Many sincere and learned scientific men came under the ban owing to the disrepute into which the art had failed and their work had to be done in secret to avoid punishment and death. J. E. Mercer in his Alchenly says that Marie Ziglerin was bummed to death by Duke Julius of Brunswick in 1575. David Benther killed himself in fear of the anger of the Elector Augustus of Saxony. In 1590 the Elector of Bavaria had Bragadino hanged and the Margrave of Bayreuth caused a like fate to befall William de Krohnemann.
A well-known example of the use to which alchemy was put was the case of Cagliostro. Kings and rulers retained alchemists in their employ, consulting them as to future events and often basing their campaigns upon the prophecies of their wise men. It was when these prophecies turned out contrary to expectations that the rulers took their revenge by condemning their counsellors to death or imprisonment.
The first man of record to put alchemy to medical use was Paracelsus, probably born near Zurich, in 1493 and dying in 1541. He became a great teacher of medicine and has been proclaimed by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as "the pioneer of modern chemists and the prophet of a revolution in science". Many new and powerful drugs were produced in his laboratory among which was laudanum. He was in great disfavour with the medical men of his time, he having done much to destroy many of the traditions and errors practiced by them, After his death a score of alchemists claimed the power of curing bodily ailments by the mystical powers of the philosopher's Stone, health and long life being among the benefits supposed to be derived from the art. Thory says that there was a society of alchemists at The Hague in 1622 which called itself Rose Croiz. It is claimed that Rosenkreutz founded the Order in 1459 with the ordinance that its existence should be kept a secret for two hundred years. Another organization of alchemists was known to have been in existence in 1790 in Westphalia, the Hermetic Society, which continued to flourish until about 1819. During the Middle Ages alchemy came in for the attention and study at least of many of the foremost men of the time.
Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas made it the subject of many of their writings and it was not until the middle of the fifteenth century that the science as practised by the earlier artificers was relegated to the past. At that time an alchemical centre was established in England at Oxford, Robert Boyle organizing a class for experiment and research. Such men as Elias Ashmole and Sir Isaac Newton assisted in the project and John Locke and Christopher Wren were among the pupils. A renowned Rosicrucian chemist was brought over from Strasburg. As a result of this determined and consistent work a new understanding of chemistry and physics was developed, marking the beginning of the modern science as it is known today.
For a more detailed account see
J. E. Mercer's "Alchemy"
M. M. Pattison Muir's "The Story of Alchemy"
Lewis Spence's "An Encyclopaedia of Occultism".
Astrology and the magic arts are usually associated with alchemy but we may fairly look upon it as having had a wider scientific scope. Indeed alchemy was the pioneer of our modern systematic chemistry. The alchemists of old sought by observation and experiment, by research and reflection, to gain the secret of nature's operations. Their early dreams were ambitious but not idle of a discovery of the means to change base metals into gold, and the concoction of an elixir to cure all diseases and overcome death.
From these hopes have come less revolutionary results but the gains have nevertheless been wondrously beneficial. Even the language of the ancient alchemists persists with a curious tenacity. They applied moral qualities, virtues and vices, to things of nature and today we still speak of noble and base metals, of gases perfect and imperfect, of good and bad electrical conductors, and so on. A mead of gratitude is due from us to these labourers who trod a thorny path in their zealous studies of physical forces. Against the prevailing superstitions, the lack of ready communications with other investigators and of a complete practical working knowledge of recent or remote discoveries, these hardy students laid the foundation for later conquests.
Fraud was tempting, fakers were easily made, yet honesty and fervour was manifest in so much of what was accomplished that we owe a distinct debt to the alchemists. Poor they were, yet rich, for as Alexander Pope says of them and their successors in his Essay on Man (ii, line 269): "The starving chemist in his golden views, supremely blest".
Freemasonry and alchemy have sought the same results (the lesson of Divine Truth and the doctrine of immortal life), and they have both sought it by the same method of symbolism. It is not, therefore, strange that in the eighteenth century, and perhaps before, we find an incorporation of much of the science of alchemy into that of Freemasonry. Hermetic Rites and Hermetic Degrees were common, and their relics are still to be found existing in degrees which do not absolutely trace their origin to alchemy, but which show some of its traces in their rituals.
The Twenty-eighth Degree of the Scottish Rite, or the Knight of the Sun, is entirely a Hermetic study, and claims its parentage in the title of Adept of Masonry, by which it is sometimes known.
ALDWORTH, HON. MRS.
This lady, who is well known as the Lady Freemason, was the Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger, daughter of Lord Doneraile of Doneraile Court, County Cork, Ireland. She was born in 1693, and married in 1713 to Richard Aldworth, Esq., of Newmarket Court, County Cork.
There appears to be no doubt that while a girl she received the First and Second Degrees of Freemasonry in Ireland, but of the actual circumstances of her initiation several different accounts have been given. Of these the most authentic appears to be one issued at Cork, with the authority of the family, in 1811, and afterward republished in London. From this narrative it appears that her father, Viscount Doneraile, together with bisons and a few friends, was accustomed to open a Lodge and carry on the ordinary ceremonies at Doneraile Court, and it was during one of these meetings that the occurrence took place which is thus related:
"It happened on this particular occasion that the Lodge was held in a room separated from another, as is often the case, by stud and brickwork. The young lady, being giddy and thoughtless, and determined to gratify her curiosity, made her arrangements accordingly, and, with a pair of scissors (as she herself related to the mother of our informant), removed a portion of a brick from the wall, and placed herself so as to command a full view of everything which occurred in the next room; so placed, she witnessed the first two degrees in Freemasonry, which was the extent of the proceedings of the Lodge on that night.
Becoming aware, from what she heard, that the Brethren were about to separate, for the first time she felt tremblingly alive to the awkwardness and danger of her situation, and began to consider how she could retire without observation. She became nervous and agitated, and nearly fainted, but so far recovered herself as to be fully aware of the necessity of withdrawing as quickly as possible; in the act of doing so, being in the dark, she stumbled against and overthrew something, said to be a chair or some ornamental piece of furniture.
"The crash was loud; and the Tyler, who was on the lobby or landing on which the doors both of the Lodge room and that where the Honourable Miss St. Leger was, opened, gave the alarm, burst open the door and, with a light in one hand and a drawn sword in the other, appeared to the now terrified and fainting Lady. He was soon joined by the members of the Lodge present, and luckily; for it is asserted that but for the prompt appearance of her brother, Lord Doneraile, and other steady members, her life would have fallen a sacrifice to what was then esteemed her crime. The first care of his Lordship was to resuscitate the unfortunate Lady without alarming the house, and endeavour to learn from her an explanation of what had occurred; having done so, many of the members being furious at the transaction, she was placed under guard of the Tyler and a member, in the room where she was found. The members reassembled and deliberated as to what, under the circumstances, was to be done, and over two long hours she could hear the angry discussion and her death deliberately proposed and seconded.
"At length the good sense of the majority succeeded in calming, in some measure, the angry and irritated feeling of the rest of the members, when, after much had been said and many. things proposed, it was resolved to give her the option of submitting to the Masonic ordeal to the extent she had witnessed (Fellow Craft), and if she refused, the brethren were again to consult. Being waited on to decide, Miss St. Leger, exhausted and terrified by the storminess of the debate, which she could not avoid partially hearing, and yet, notwithstanding all, with a secret pleasure, gladly and unhesitatingly accepted the offer.
She was accordingly initiated".
The above reference to Lord Doneraile, her brother, is a mistake; her father, the first Lord Doneraile, was then alive. He did not die until 1727, when his daughter had been married for fourteen years.
A very different account is given in the Freemason's Quarterly Review for 1839 (page 322 ), being reprinted from the Cork Standard of May. 29, 1839.
According to this story Mrs. Aldworth was seized with curiosity about the mysteries of Freemasonry and set herself to discover them; so she made friends with the landlady of an inn in Cork in which a Lodge used to meet, and with her connivance was concealed in a clock case which was placed in the Lodge room; however, she was unable to endure the discomfort of her confinement in such narrow quarters and betrayed herself by a scream, on which she was discovered by the members of the Lodge and then and there initiated.
It will be observed that according to this version the lady. was already married before she was initiated.
If, however, the commoner version of the story is preferred, according to which Miss St. Leger was initiated as a young girl, then the occurrence must have taken place before her marriage in 1713, and therefore before the establishment of Grand Lodges and the introduction of warranted and numbered Lodges, and it is therefore a proof of the existence of at least one Lodge of Speculative Freemasons in Ireland at an early period.
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The story is said to be supported by the testimony of two members of Lodge 71, at Cork, in which Lodge the initiation is said to have taken place. However, this can hardly be correct, for that Lodge did not meet at Cork until 1777, whereas, Mrs. Aldworth died in 1773. After her marriage Mrs. Aldworth seems to have kept up her connection with the Craft, for her portrait in Masonic clothing, her apron and jewels, are still in existence, and her name occurs among the subscribers to Dassigny's Enquiry of 1744, her name being the second on the list and immediately following that of the Grand Master of Ireland, the accompanying names all being brethren; and it has even been stated that she presided as Master of her Lodge. The story has been fully discussed by Brothers Conder, Crawley, and others in the eighth volume (1895) of the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London, to which the curious are referred for further information. |
ALETHOPHILES
Greek for Lovers of Truth.
Graf von Manteuffel as president organized this society in Berlin, 1736, upon Wolf's philosophical teaching, the search after positive truth. Kenning's Cydopaedia of Freemasonry says they adopted a hexalogue (from the Greek, six and words) of axioms, of which two only are given by Lenning :
ALETHOPHILOTE
Lover of Truth. Given by Thory as the Fifth Degree of the Order of African Architects (see his Acta Latatomorum, 1, page 292).
ALEXANDER I
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Emperor of Russia. Alexander I succeeded Paul I in the year 1801, and immediately after his accession renewed the severe prohibitions of his predecessor against all secret societies, and especially Freemasonry. In 1803, M. Boeber, counsellor of state and director of the military school at St. Petersburg, resolved to remove, if possible, from the mind of the Emperor the prejudices which he had conceived against the Order. Accordingly, in an audience which he had solicited and obtained, he described the object of the Institution and the doctrine of its mysteries in such a way as to lead the Emperor to rescind the obnoxious decrees, and to add these words:
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Accordingly Alexander was soon after initiated, and the Grand Orient of all the Russia's was in consequence established with M. Boeber as Grand Master (see Thory's Acta Latomorum1, page 218).
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ALEXANDER III King of Scotland, and legend tells us that he favoured Freemasons and that Kilwinning Abbey was built under his guidance. Claims have been made that these facts refer rather to his son, David I. The ritual of the Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew credits Alexander as Protector of the Masonic Order. |
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ALEXANDRIA, SCHOOL OF
When Alexander built the city of Alexandria in Egypt, with the intention of making it the seat of his empire, he invited thither learned men from all nations, who brought with them their peculiar notions. The Alexandria School of Philosophy which was thus established, by the commingling of Orientalists, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks, became eclectic in character, and exhibited a heterogeneous mixture of the opinions of the Egyptian priests, of the Jewish Rabbis, of Arabic teachers, and of the disciples of Plato and Pythagoras.
From this school we derive Gnosticism and the Cabala, and, above all, the system of symbolism and allegory which lay at the foundation of the Masonic philosophy. To no ancient sect, indeed, except perhaps the Pythagoreans, have the Masonic teachers been so much indebted for the substance of their doctrines, as well as the esoteric method of communicating them, as to that of the School of Alexandria. Both Aristobulus and Philo, the two most celebrated chiefs of this school, taught, although a century intervened between their births, the same , theory, that the sacred writings of the Hebrews were, by their system of allegories, the true source of all religious and philosophic doctrine, the literal meaning of which alone was for the common people, the esoteric or hidden meaning being kept for the initiated. Freemasonry still carries into practice the same theory.
ALGERIA
The number of Lodges in Algeria is, in comparison with the size of the State, quite large. Several are controlled by the Grand Lodge of France and many more are under the Grand Orient of that country, the Grand Orient having organized Bélisaire Lodge at Alger on March 1, 1832, and Hippone Lodge at Bone on July 13, 1832.
ALINCOURT, FRANÇOIS D'
A French gentleman, who, in the year 1776, was sent with Don Oyres de Ornellas Praçao, a Portuguese nobleman, to prison, by the governor of the island of Madeira, for being Freemasons. They were afterward sent to Lisbon, and confined in a common jail for fourteen months, where they would have perished had not the Freemasons of Lisbon supported them, through whose intercession , with Don Martinio de Mello they were at last released (see Captain George Smith's Use and Abuse of Freemasonry, page 206).
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ALISON, SIR ARCHIBALD English author, born December 29, 1792, at Kenley, Shropshire, England; died at Glasgow, Scotland, May 23, 1867. A member of Glasgow Kilwinning Lodge, having received his Degrees in 1837 (see New Age, May.,1925). |
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ALLAH
Assyrian (Figure 1), ilu; Aramaic, elah,' Hebrew, eloah. The Arabic name of God, derived from hah, god, and the article al, expressing the God by way of eminence. In the great profession of the Unity, on which is founded the religion of Islam, both terms are used, as pronounced La ilaha ill`Allah, there is no god but God, the real meaning of the expression being, There is only one God.
Mohammed relates that in his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, on ascending through the seven heavens, he beheld above the throne of God this formula; and the green standard of the Prophet was adorned with the mystic sentence.
It is the first phrase lisped by the infant, and the devout Moslem utters the profession of the faith at all times, in joy, in sorrow, in praise, in prayer, in battle, and with his departing breath the words are wafted to heaven; for among the peculiar virtues of these words is that they may be spoken without any motion of the lips. The mourners on their way to the grave continue the strain in melancholy tones.
Around the supreme name is clustered the masbaha, or rosary, of the ninety-nine beautiful names of God, which are often repeated by the Mohammedan in his devotions.
ALLEGIANCE
Every Freemason owes allegiance to the Lodge, Chapter, or other body of which he is a member, and also to the Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter or other supreme authority from which that body has received its charter. But this is not a divided allegiance. If, for instance, the edicts of a Grand and a Subordinate Lodge conflict, there is no question which is to be obeyed. Supreme or governing bodies in Freemasonry claim and must receive a paramount allegiance.
ALLEGORY
A discourse or narrative in which there is a literal and a figurative sense, a patent and a concealed meaning; the literal or patent sense being intended, by analogy or comparison, to indicate the figurative or concealed one. Its derivation from the Greek, and, to say something different, that is, to say something where the language is one thing and the true meaning another, exactly expresses the character of an allegory. It has been said that there is no essential difference between an allegory and a symbol. There is not in design, but there is in their character.
An allegory may be interpreted without any previous conventional agreement, but a symbol cannot.
Thus, the legend of the Third Degree is an allegory, evidently to be interpreted as teaching a restoration to life; and this we learn from the legend itself, without any previous understanding. The sprig of acacia is a symbol of the immortality of the soul. But this we know only because such meaning had been conventionally determined when the symbol was first established. It is evident, then, that an allegory whose meaning is obscure is imperfect. The enigmatical meaning should be easy of interpretation; and hence Lemiére, a French poet, has said: "L`allégorie habits un palais diaphane"; meaning Allegory lives in a transparent palace.
All the legends of Freemasonry are more or less allegorical, and whatever truth there may be in some of them in an historical point of view, it is only as allegories or legendary symbols that they are of importance. The English lectures have therefore very properly defined Freemasonry to be "a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols".
The allegory was a favorite figure among the ancients, and to the allegorizing spirit are we to trace the construction of the entire Greek and Roman mythology. Not less did it prevail among the older Aryan nations, and its abundant use is exhibited in the religions of Brahma and Zoroaster. The Jewish Rabbis were greatly addicted to it, and carried its employment, as Maimonides intimates, in his More Nevochim (III, xliii), sometimes to an excess. Their Midrash, or system of commentaries on the sacred book, is almost altogether allegorical. Aben Ezra, a learned Rabbi of the twelfth century:, says, "The Scriptures are like bodies, and allegories are like the garments with which they are clothed. Some are thin like fine silk, and others are coarse and thick like sackcloth".
Jesus, to whom this spirit of the Jewish teachers in his day was familiar, taught many truths in parables, all of which were allegories. The primitive Fathers of the Christian Church were thus infected; and Origen, the most famous and influential Christian writer of his time, 186 to 254 A.D., who was especially addicted to the habit, tells us that all the Pagan philosophers should be read in this spirit: "hoe facere solemus quando philosophos legimus".
Of modern allegorizing writers, the most interesting to Freemasons are Samuel Lee, the author of Orbis Miraculum or the Temple of Solomon portrayed by Scripture Light, and John Bunyan, who wrote Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.
William Durand, or to use his Latin name, Guillelmus Durandus, who lived A. D, 1230 to 1296, wrote a treatise in Italy before 1286 on the origin and symbolic sense of the Christian Ritual, the ceremonies and teaching related to the church buildings. An English edition of this work entitled The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments, by J. M. Neale and Benjamin Webb, was published at London, 1906, and is a most suggestive treatise.
ALLEN, VISCOUNT JOHN
From 1744 to 1745 Brother Allen was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
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