MACKEY'S FREEMASONRY ENCYCLOPEDIA (B)

B-1


B

In Hebrew, Beth. A labial or lip-made consonant standing second in most alphabets, and in
the Hebrew or Phoenician signifies house, probably from its form of a tent or shelter, as in the
illustration, and finally the Hebrew z, having the numerical value two. When united with the
leading letter of the alphabet, it signifies Ab, meaning Father, Master, or the one in authority,
as applied to Hiram the Architect. This is the word root of Baal. The Hebrew name of the Deity
connected with this letter is ..., Bakhur.




*

BAAL

Hebrew, He was the chief divinity among the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, and the
Babylonians. The word signifies in Hebrew Lord or Master. It was among the Orientalists a
comprehensive term, denoting divinity of any kind without reference to class or to sex. The
Sabaists understood Baal as the sun, and Baalim, in the plural, were the sun, moon, and
stars, "the host of heaven.'' Whenever the Israelites made one of their almost. periodical
deflections to idolatry, Baal seems to have been the favorite idol to whose worship they
addicted themselves. Hence he became the especial object of denunciation with the
prophets.

Thus, in First Kings (xviii), we see Elijah showing, by practical demonstration, the difference
between Baal and Jehovah. The idolaters, at his initiation, called on Baal, as their sun-god, to
light the sacrificial fire, from morning until noon, because at noon he had acquired his greatest
intensity. After noon, no fire having been kindled on the altar, they began to cry aloud, and to
cut themselves in token of mortification, because as the sun descended there was no hope of
his help. But Elijah, depending on Jehovah, made his sacrifice toward sunset, to show the
greatest contrast between Baal and the true God. When the people saw the fire come down
and consume the offering, they acknowledged the weakness of their idol, and falling on their
faces cried out, Jehovah hu hahelohim, meaning Jehovah, He is the God. And Hosea
afterward promises the people that they shall abandon their idolatry, and that he would take
away from them the Shemoth hahbaalim, the names of the Baalim, so that they should be no
more remembered by their names, and the people should in that day "know Jehovah."

Hence we see that there was an evident antagonism in the orthodox Hebrew mind between
Jehmah and Baal. The latter was, however, worshiped by the Jews, whenever they became
heterodox, and by all the Oriental or Shemitic nations as a supreme divinity, representing the
sun in some of his modifications as the ruler of the day. In Tyre, Baal was the sun, and
Ashtaroth, the moon. Baal-peor, the lord of priapism, was the sun represented as the
generative principle of nature, and identical with the phallus of other religions. Baal-gad was
the lord of the multitude (of stars) that is, the sun as the chief of the heavenly host. In brief,
Baal seems to have been wherever his cultus was active, a development of the old sun
worship.

*

BABEL


In Hebrew, which the writer of Genesis connects with, balal, meaning to confound, in
reference to the confusion of tongues; but the true derivation is probably from Bab-El,
meaning the gate of Et or the gate of God, because perhaps a Temple was the first building
raised by the primitive nomads. It is the name of that celebrated tower attempted to be built
on the plains of Shimar, 1775 A.M., about one hundred and forty years after the Deluge,
which tower, Scripture informs us, was destroyed by a special interposition of the Almighty.

The Noachite Freemasons date the commencement of their Order from this destruction, and
much traditionary information on this subject is preserved in the degree of Patriarch Noachite.
At Babel, Oliver says that what has been called Spurious Freemasonry took its origin. That is
to say, the people there abandoned the worship of the true God, and by their dispersion lost
all knowledge of His existence, and of the principles of truth upon which Freemasonry is
founded. Hence it is that the old instructions speak of the lofty tower of Babel as the, place
where language was confounded and Freemasonry lost.

This is the theory first advanced by Anderson in his Constitution, and subsequently developed
more extensively by Doctor Oliver in all his works, but especially in his Landmarks. As history,
the doctrine is of no value, for it wants the element of authenticity.

But in a symbolic point of view it is highly suggestive.

If the tower of Babel represents the profane world of ignorance and darkness, and the
threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite is the symbol of Freemasonry, because the Solomonic
Temple, of which it was the site, is the prototype of the spiritual temple which Freemasons are
erecting, then we can readily understand how Freemasonry and the true use of language is
lost in one and recovered in the other, and how the progress of the candidate in his initiation
may properly be compared to the progress of truth from the confusion and ignorance of the
Babel builders to the perfection and illumination of the temple builders, which Temple builders
all Freemasons are. So, when, the neophyte, being asked "whence he comes and whither is
he traveling," replies, "from the lofty tower of Babel, where language was confounded and
Masonry lost, to the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, where language was restored and
Freemasonry found," the questions and answers become intelligible from this symbolic point
of view (see Ornan).

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BABYLON

The ancient capital of Chaldea, situated of both sides of the Euphrates, and once the most
magnificent city of the ancient world. It was here that upon the destruction of Solomon's
Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in the year of the world 3394 the Jews of the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin who were the inhabitants of Jerusalem, were conveyed and detained in captivity for
seventy-two years, until Cyrus, King of Persia issued a decree for restoring them, and
permitting them to rebuild their temple, under the superintendence of Zerubbabel, the Prince
of the Captivity, and with the assistance of Joshua the High Priest and Haggai the Seribe.

Babylon the Great, as the Prophet Daniel calls it was situated four hundred and seventy-five
miles in a nearly due east direction from Jerusalem. It stood in the midst of a large and fertile
plain on each side of the river Euphrates, which ran through it from north to south. It was
surrounded with walls which were eighty-seven feet thick, three hundred and fifty in height,
and sixty miles in compass. These were all built of large bricks cemented together with
bitumen. Exterior to the walls was a wide and deep trench lined with the same material.
Twenty-five gates on each side, made of solid brass, gave admission to the city. From each of
these gates proceeded a wide street fifteen miles in length, and the whole was separated by
means of other smaller divisions, and contained six hundred and seventy-six squares, each of
which was two miles and a quarter in circumference. Two hundred and fifty towers placed
upon the walls afforded the means of additional strength and protection. Within this immense
circuit were to be found palaces and temples and other edifices of the utmost magnificence,


which have caused the wealth, the luxury, and splendor of Babylon to become the favorite
theme of the historians of antiquity, and which compelled the prophet Isaiah, even while
denouncing its downfall, to speak of it as "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency."

Babylon, which, at the time of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, constituted a part
of the Chaldean empire, was subsequently taken, 538 B.C., after a siege of two years, by
Cyrus, King of Persia

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BABYLON, RED CROSS OF

Another name for the degree of Babylonish Pass, which see.

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BABYLONIAN RITE OF INITIATION

See Initiation, Babylonian Rite of

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BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY

See Captivity

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BABYLONISH PASS

A degree given in Scotland by the authority of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter. It is
also called the Red Cross of Babylon, and is almost identical with the Knight of the Red Cross
conferred in Commanderies of Knights Templar in America as a preparatory degree.

*

BACK

Freemasonry, borrowing its symbols from every source, has not neglected to make a
selection of certain parts of the human body. From the back an important lesson is derived,
which is fittingly developed in the Third Degree. Hence, in reference to this symbolism, 01iver
says: "It is a duty incumbent on every Mason to support a brother's character in his absence
equally as though he were present; not to revile him behind his back, nor suffer it to be done
by others, without using every necessary attempt to prevent it."

Hutchinson, Spirit of Masonry (page 205), referring to the same symbolic ceremony, says:
"The most material part of that brotherly love which should subsist among us Masons is that
of speaking well of each other to the world; more especially it is expected of every member of
this Fraternity that he should not traduce his brother. Calumny and slander are detestable
crimes against society. Nothing can be viler than to traduce a man behind his back; it is like
the villainy of an assassin who has not virtue enough to give his adversary the means of self-
defense, but, lurking in darkness, stabs him whilst he is unarmed and unsuspicious of an
enemy'' (see also Points of Fellowship).

*


BACKHOUSE, WILLIAM

Kenning's Cyclopaedia states that Backhouse reported to be an alchemist and astrologer and
that Ashmole called him father. He published a Rosicrucian work, The Wise Man's Croton, or
Rosicrucian Physic, by Eugenius Theodidactus, in 1651at London. John Heydon published a
book entitled William Backhouse's Way to Bliss, but Ashmole claims it in his diary to be his
own.

*

BACON, FRANCIS

Francis Bacon and the Society of the Rose Baron of Verulam, commonly called Lord Bacon.
Nicolai thinks that a great impulse was exercised upon the early history of Freemasonry by
the New Atlantis of Lord Bacon. In this learned romance Bacon supposes that a vessel lands
on an unknown island, called Bensalem, over which a certain King Solomon reigned in days
of yore.

This king had a large establishment, which was called the House of Solomon, or the college
of the workmen of six days, namely, the days of the creation. He afterward describes the
immense apparatus which was there employed in physical researches. There were, says he,
deep grottoes and towers for the successful observation of certain phenomena of nature;
artificial mineral waters; large buildings, in which meteors, the wind, thunder, and rain were
imitated; extensive botanic gardens; entire fields, in which all kinds of animals were collected,
for the study of their instincts and habits; houses filled with all the wonders of nature and art; a
great number of learned men, each of whom, in his own country, had the direction of these
things; they made journeys and observations; they wrote, they collected, they determined
results and deliberated together as to what was proper to be published and what concealed.

This romance became at once very popular, and everybody's attention was attracted by the
allegory of the House of Solomon. But it also contributed to spread Bacon's views on
experimental knowledge, and led afterward to the institution of the Royal Society, to which
Nicolai attributes a common object with that of the Society of Freemasons, established, he
says, about the same time, the difference being only that one was esoteric and the other
exoteric in its instructions.

But the more immediate effect of the romance of Bacon was the institution of the Society of
Astrologers, of which Elias Ashmole was a leading member.

Of this society Nicolai, in his work on the Origin and History of Rosicrucianism and
Freemasonry, says :

"Its object was to build the House of Solomon, of the New Atlantis, in the literal sense, but the
establishment was to remain as secret as the island of Bensalem-that is to say, they were to
be engaged in the study of nature---but the instruction of its principles was to remain in the
society in an esoteric form. These philosophers presented their idea in a strictly allegorical
method. First, there were the ancient columns of Hermes, by which Iamblichus pretended that
he had enlightened all the doubts of Porphyry. You then mounted, by several steps, to a
checkered floor, divided into four regions, to denote the four superior sciences; after which
came the types of the six days' work, which expressed the object of the society, and which
were the same as those found on an engraved stone in my possession. The sense of all
which was this: God created the world, and preserves it by fixed principles, full of wisdom; he
who seeks to know these principles---that is to say, the interior of nature---approximates to
God, and he who thus approximates to God obtains from his grace the power of commanding
nature." This society, he adds, met at Masons Hall in Basinghall Street, because many of its
members were also members of the Masons Company, into which they all afterward entered
and assumed the name of Free and Accepted Masons, and thus he traces the origin of the
Order to the New Atlantis and the House of Solomon of Lord Bacon. That is only a theory, but


it seems to throw some light on that long process of incubation which terminated at last, in
1717, in the production of the Grand Lodge of England. The connection of Ashmole with the
Freemasons is a singular one, and has led to some controversy.

The views of Nicolai, if not altogether correct, may suggest the possibility of an explanation.
Certain it is that the eminent astrologers of England, as we learn from Ashmole's Diary, were
on terms of intimacy with the Freemasons in the seventeenth century, and that many Fellows
of the Royal Society were also prominent members of the early Grand Lodge of England
which was established in 1717.

*

BACON, ROGER

An English monk who made wonderful discoveries in many sciences. He was born in Ilchester
in 1214, educated at Oxford and Paris, and entered the Franciscan Order in his twenty-fifth
year. He explored the secrets of nature, and made many discoveries, the application of which
was looked upon as magic. He denounced the ignorance and immorality of the clergy,
resulting in accusations through revenge, and finally in his imprisonment. He was noted as a
Rosicrucian. Died in 1292.

*

BACULUS

The staff of office borne by the Grand Master of the Templars. In ecclesiology, baculus is the
name given to the pastoral staff carried by a bishop or an abbot as the ensign of his dignity
and authority. In pure Latinity, baculus means a long stick or staff, which was commonly
carried by travelers, by shepherds, or by infirm and aged persons, and afterward, from
affectation, by the Greek philosophers. In early times, this staff, made a little longer, was
carried by kings and persons in authority, as a mark of distinction, and was thus the origin of
the royal scepter.

The Christian church, borrowing many of its usages from antiquity, and alluding also, it is
said, to the sacerdotal power which Christ conferred when he sent the apostles to preach,
commanding them to take with them staves, adopted the pastoral staff, to be borne by a
bishop, as symbolical of his power to inflict pastoral correction; and Durandus says, "By the
pastoral staff is likewise understood the authority of doctrine. For by it the infirm are
supported, the wavering are confirmed, those going astray are drawn to repentance." Catalin
also says that "the baculus, or episcopal staff, is an ensign not only of honor, but also of
dignity, power, and pastoral jurisdiction."

Honorius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his treatise De Gemma Animoe, gives to this
pastoral staff the names both of bacutus and virga. Thus he says, ''Bishops bear the staff
(baculum), that by their teaching they may strengthen the weak in their faith ; and they carry
the rod (virgam), that by their power they may correct the unruly.'' And this is strikingly similar
to the language used by St. Bernard in the Rule which he drew up for the government of the
Templars.

In Artiele I xviii, he says, "The Master ought to hold the staff and the rod (bacutum et cirgam)
in his hand, that is to say, the staff (baculum), that he may support the infirmities of the weak,
and the rod (cirgam), that he may with the zeal of rectitude strike down the vices of
delinquents."

The transmission of episcopal ensigns from bishops to the heads of ecclesiastical
associations was not difficult in the Middle Ages; and hence it afterwards became one of the
insignia of abbots, and the heads of confraternities connected with the Church, as a token of
the possession of powers of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.


Now, as the Papal bull, Omne datum Optimum, so named from its first three words, invested
the Grand Master of the Templars with almost episcopal jurisdiction over the priests of his
Order, he bore the baculus, or pastoral staff, as a mark of that jurisdiction, and thus it became
a part of the Grand Master's insignia of office.

The baculus of the bishop, the abbot, and the confraternities was not precisely the same in
form. The earliest episcopal staff terminated in a globular knob, or a tau cross, a cross of T
shape. This was, however, soon replaced by the simple-curved termination, which resembles
and is called a crook, in allusion to that used by shepherds to draw back and recall the sheep
of their flock which have gone astray, thus symbolizing the expression of Christ, "I am the
good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."

The baculus of the abbot does not differ in form from that of a bishop, but as the bishop
carries the curved part of his staff pointing forward, to show the extent of his episcopal
jurisdiction, so the abbot carries his pointing backward, to signify that his authority is limited to
his monastery. The baculi, or staves of the confraternities, were surmounted by small
tabernacles, with images or emblems, on a sort of carved cap, having reference to the
particular gild or confraternity by which they were borne.

The baculus of the Knights Templar, which was borne by the Grand Master as the ensign of
his office, in allusion to his quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, is described and delineated in Munter,
Burnes, Addison, and all the other authorities, as a staff, on the top of which is an octagonal
figure, surmounted with a cross patee, this French word being applied to the arms having
enlarged ends. The cross, of course, refers to the Christian character of the Order, and the
octagon alludes, it is said, to the eight beatitudes of our Savior in His Sermon on the Mount.
The pastoral staff is variously designated, by ecclesiastical writers, as virga, ferula, cambutta,
crocia, and pedum.

From crocia, whose root is the Latin crux, and the Italian croce, meaning a cross, we get the
English word crozier. Pedum, another name of the baculus, signifies, in pure Latinity, a
shepherd's crook, and thus strictly carries out the symbolic idea of a pastoral charge.

Hence, looking to the pastoral jurisdiction of the Grand Master of the Templars, his staff of
office is described under the title of pedum magistrate seu patriarchale, that is, a magisterial
or patriarchal staff, in the Statuta Commilitonum Ordinis Tempti, or the Statutes of the Fellow-
soldiers of the Order of the Temple, as a part of the investiture of the Grand Master, in the
following words:

Pedum magistrale seu patriarchale, aureum, in cacumine cujus crux Ordinis super orbem
exaltur; that is, A Magisterial or patriarchal staffl of gold, on the top of which is a cross of the
Order, surmounting an orb or globe. This is from Statute xxviii, article 358. But of all these
names, baculus is the one more commonly used by writers to designate the Templar pastoral
staff.

In the year 1859 this staff of office was first adopted at Chicago by the Templars of the United
States, during the Grand Mastership of Sir William B. Hubbard. But, unfortunately, at that time
it received the name of abacus, a misnomer which was continued on the authority of a literary
blunder of Sir Walter Scott, so that it has fallen to the lot of American Freemasons to
perpetuate, in the use of this word, an error of the great novelist, resulting from his too
careless writing, at which he would himself have been the first to smile, had his attention been
called to it. Abacus, in mathematics, denotes an instrument or table used for calculation, and
in architecture an ornamental part of a column; but it nowhere, in English or Latin, or any
known language, signifies any kind of a staff.

Sir Walter Scott, who undoubtedly was thinking of baculus, in the hurry of the moment and a
not improbable confusion of words and thoughts, wrote abacus, when, in his novel of Ivanhoe,
he describes the Grand Master, Lucas Beaumanoir, as bearing in his hand "that singular
abacus, or staff of office," committed a gross, but not uncommon, literary blunder, of a kind


that is quite familiar to those who are conversant with the results of rapid composition, where
the writer often thinks of one word and writes another.

*

BADEN

In 1778 the Lodge Karl of Unity was established in Mannheim, which at that time belonged to
Bavaria. In 1785 an electoral decree was issued prohibiting all secret meetings in the
Bavarian Palatinate and the Lodge was closed. In 1803 Mannheim was transferred to the
Grand Duchy of Baden, and in 1805 the Lodge was reopened, and in the following year
accepted a warrant from the Grand Orient of France and took the name of Karl of Concord.
Then it converted itself into the Grand Orient of Baden and was acknowledged as such by the
Grand Orient of France in 1807.
Lodges were established at Bruchsal, Heidelberg, and Mannheim, and the Grand Orient of
Baden ruled over them until 1813, when all secret societies were again prohibited, and it was
not until 1846 that Masonic activity recommenced in Baden, when the Lodge Karl of Concord
was awakened.

The Grand Orient of Baden went out of existence, but the Lodges in the Duchy, of which
several have been established, came under the Grand National Mother-Lodge Zu den drei
Weldkugeln, meaning Of the three Globes, in Berlin.

*

BADGE

A mark, sign, token, or thing, says Webster, by which a person is distinguished in a particular
place or employment, and designating his relation to a person or to a particular occupation. It
is in heraldry the same thing as a cognizance, a distinctive mark or badge. Thus, the followers
and retainers of the house of Percy wore a silver crescent as a badge of their connection with
that family; a representation of the white lion borne on the left arm was the badge of the
house of Howard, Earl of Surrey ; the red rose that of the House of Lancaster, and the white
rose, of York.

So the apron, formed of white lambskin, is worn by the Freemason as a badge of his
profession and a token of his connection with the Fraternity (see A pron).

*

BADGE OF A FREEMASON

The lambskin apron is so called (see Apron)

*

BADGE, ROYAL ARCH

The Royal Arch badge is the triple tau, which see.

*

BAFOMET

See Baphomet


*

BAG

In the early days of the Grand Lodge of England the secretary used to carry a bag in
processions, thus in the procession round the tables at the Grand Feast of 1724 we find
"Secretary Cowper with the Bag" (see the Constitutions, edition of 1738, page 117).

In 1729 Lord Kingston, the Grand Master, provided at his own cost "a fine Velvet Bag for the
Secretary,," besides his badge of "Two golden Pens a-cross on his Breast" (see the above
Constitutions, page 124). In the Procession of March from St. James' Square to Merchant
Taylor's Hall on January 29, 1730, there came "The Secretary alone with his Badge and Bag,
clothed, in a Chariot" (see the above Constitutions, page 125).

This practice continued throughout the Eighteenth century, for at the dedication of
Freemasons' Hall in London in 1776 we find in the procession "Grand Secretary with the bag"
(see the Constitutions of 1784, page 318). But at the union of the two rival Grand Lodges in
1813 the custom was changed, for in the order of procession at public ceremonies laid down
in the Constitutions of 1815, we find "Grand Secretary with Book of Constitutions on a
cushion" and "Grand Registrar with his bag," and the Grand Registrar of England still carries
on ceremonial occasions a bag with the arms of the Grand Lodge embroidered on it.

American Union Lodge, operating during the War of the American Revolution in
Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and first erected at Roxbury, has in its records
the accounts of processions of the Brethren. One of these is typical of the others and refers to
the Festival of St. John the Baptist held on June 24, 1779, at Nelson's Point, New York.

Here they met at eight in the morning and elected their officers for the half year ensuing. Then
they proceeded to West Point and, being joined by other Brethren, a procession was formed
in the following order: "Brother Whitney' to clear the way; the band of music with drums and
fifes; the Wardens; the youngest brother with the bag ; brethren by juniority ; the Reverend
Doctors Smith, Avery, and Hitchcock ; the Master of the Lodge, with the Treasurer on his right
supporting the sword of justice, and the Secretary on his left, supporting the Bible, square and
compasses ; Brother Binns to close, with Brothers Lorrain and Disborough on the flanks
opposite the center."

From this description we note the care with which the old customs were preserved in all their
details.

*

BAGULKAL

A significant word in the high degrees. Lenning says it is a corruption of the Hebrew Begoa1kol,
meaning all is revealed, to which Mackenzie demurs. Pike says, Bagulkol, with a similar
reference to a revelation. Rockwell gives in his manuscript, Bekalkel, without any meaning.
The old rituals interpret it as signifying the faithful guardian of the sacred ark, a derivation
clearly fanciful.

*

BAHAMA ISLANDS

A group of islands forming a division of the British West Indies. Governor John Tinkler was
appointed Provincial Grand Master in 1752 and Brother James Bradford in 1759. Brother
Tinkler had been made a Freemason in 1730. These few facts are all that can be found with


reference to the introduction by the ''Moderns'' of Freemasonry to the Bahamas. Possibly uo
further steps were taken.


A warrant was granted by the Ancient in 1785 for Lodge No. 228 but it was found to have
ceased work when the registers were revised at the Union of 1814.


Another Lodge, No. 242, chartered at Nasau, New Providence existed longer but had
disappeared when the lists were again revised in 1832.


The Masonic Province of the Bahamas originally comprised three Lodges chartered by the
United Grand Lodge of England, Royal Victoria No. 649, Forth No. 930, and Britannia No.
1277. Brother J. F. Cooke was appointed the first Provincial Grand Master on November
7,1842, Of the Provincial Grand Lodge then formed.


*


BAHRDT, KARL FRIEDERICH


A German Doctor of Theology, who was born, in 1741, at Bischofswerda, and died in 1792.
He is described by one of his biographers as being "notorious alike for his bold infidelity and
for his evil life." We know no¨ why Thory and Lenning have given his name a place in their
vocabularies, as his literary labors bore no relation to Freemasonry, except inasmuch as that
he was a Freemason, and that in 1787, with several other Freemasons, he founded at Halle a
secret society called the German Union, or the Two and Twenty, in reference to the original
number of its members.


The object of this society was mid to be the enlightenment of mankind. It was dissolved in
1790, by the imprisonment of its founder for having written a libel against the Prussian
Minister Woellner.
It is incorrect to call this system of degrees a Masonic Rite (see German Union).


*


BAIRD


Baird of Newbyth, the Substitute Grand Master of Scotland in 1841.


*


BAKER, FOTHERLY


Deputy' Grand Master of England in 1744 under Lord Cranstoun and also under Lord Byron
until 1752.


*


BALANCE


See Seales, Pair of


*


BALDACHIN
In architecture, a canopy supported by pillars over an insulated altar. In Freemasonry, it has
been applied by Some writers to the canopy over the Master's chair. The German



Freemasons give this name to the covering of the Lodge, and reckon it therefore among the
symbols.

*

BALDER or BALDUR

The ancient Scandinavian or older German divinity. The hero of one of the most beautiful aud
interesting of the myths of the Edda; the second son of Odin and Frigga, and the husband of
the maiden Nanna. In brief, the myth recites that Balder dreamed that his life was threatened,
which being told to the gods, a council was held by them to secure his safety.

The mother proceeded to demand and receive assurances from everything, iron and all
metals, fire and water, stones, earth, plants, beasts, birds, reptiles, poisons, and diseases,
that they would not injure Balder. Balder then became the subject of sport with the gods, who
wrestled, cast darts, and in innumerable ways playfully tested his invulnerability. This finally
displeased the mischievous, cunning Loki, the Spirit of Evil, who, in the form of an old woman,
sought out the mother, Frigga, and ascertained from her that there had been excepted or
omitted from the oath the little shrub Mistletoe. in haste Loki carried some of this shrub to the
assembly of the gods, and gave to the blind Hoder, the god of war, selected slips, and
directing his aim, Balder fell pierced to the heart. Sorrow among the gods was unutterable,
and Frigga inquired who, to win her favor, would journey to Hades and obtain from the
goddess Hel the release of Balder. The heroic Helmod or Hermoder, son of Odin, offered to
undertake the journey. Hel consented to permit the return if all things animate and inanimate
should weep for Balder.

All living beings and all things wept, save the witch or giantess Thock, the stepdaughter of
Loki, who refused to sympathize in the general mourning.

Balder was therefore obliged to linger in the kingdom of Hel until the end of the world.

*

BALDRICK

A portion of military dress, being a scarf passing from the shoulder over the breast to the hip.
In the dress regulations of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States,
adopted in 1862, it is called a scarf, and is thus described: "Five inches wide in the whole, of
white bordered with black, one inch on either side, a strip of navy lace one-fourth of an inch
wide at the inner edge of the black. On the front center of the scarf, a metal star of nine
points, in allusion to the nine founders of the Temple Order, inclosing the Passion Cross,
surrounded by the Latin motto, In hoc signo vinces; the star to be three and three-quarter
inches in diameter. The scarf to be worn from the right shoulder to the left hip, with the ends
extending six inches below the point of intersection."

*

BALDWYN II

The successor of Godfrey of Bouillon as King of Jerusalem. In his reign the Order of Knights
Templar was instituted, to whom he granted a place of habitation within the sacred enclosure
of the Temple on Mount Moriah. He bestowed on the Order other marks of favor, and, as its
patron, his name has been retained in grateful remembrance, and often adopted as a name of
Commanderies of Masonic Templars.

*


BALDWYN ENCAMPMENT

There is at Bristol in England a famous Preceptory of Knights Templar, called the Baldwyn,
which claims to have existed from time immemorial. This, together with the Chapter of Knights
Rosae Crucis, is the continuation of the old Baldwyn Encampment, the name being derived
from the Crusader, King of Jerusalem.

The earliest record preserved by this Preceptory is an authentic and important document
dated December 20, 1780, and reads as follows:

"In the name of the Grand Architect of the Universe.

"The Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of the Order of Knights Templars of St. John of
Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers and Knights of Malta, etc, etc.

"Whereas by Charter of Compact our Encampment is constituted the Supreme Grand and
Royal Encampment of this Noble Order with full Power when Assembled to issue, publish and
make known to all our loving Knights Companions whatever may contribute to their
knowledge not inconsistent with its general Laws. Also to constitute and appoint any Officer.
or Officers to make and ordain such laws as from time to time may appear necessary to
promote the Honor of our Noble 0rder in general and the more perfect government of our
Supreme degree in particular.

We therefore the M0ST EMINENT GRAND MASTER The Grand Master of the 0rder, the
Grand Master Assistant General, and two Grand Standard Bearers and Knights Companions
for that purpose in full Encampment Assembled do make known."

Then follow twenty Statutes or Regulations for the government of the Order, and the
document ends with "Done at our Castle in Bristol 20th day of December 1780."

It is not clear who were the parties to this "Compact," but it is thought probable that it was the
result of an agreement between the Bristol Encampment and another ancient body at Bath,
the Camp of Antiquity, to establish a supreme direction of the Order. However that may be, it
is clear that the Bristol Encampment was erected into a Supreme Grand Encampment in
1780, An early reference to the Knights Templar occurs in a Bristol newspaper of January 25,
1772, so it may fairly be assumed that the Baldwyn Preceptory had been in existence before
the date of the Charter of Compact.

In 1791 the well-known Brother Thomas Dunckerley, who was Provincial Grand Master and
Grand Superintendent of the Royal Arch Masons at Bristol, was requested by the Knights
Templar of that city to be their Grand Master. He at once introduced great activity into the
Order throughout England, and established the Grand Conclave in London-the forerunner of
the Great Priory.

The seven Degrees of the Camp of Baldwyn at that time probably consisted of the three of
the Craft and that of the Royal Arch, which were necessary qualifications of all candidates as
set forth in the Charter of Compact, then that of the Knights Templar of St. John of Jerusalem,
Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, that of the Knights Rose Croix of Heredom, the seventh being
the Grand Elected Knights Kadosh.

About the year 1813 the three Degrees of Nine Elect, Kilwinning, and East, Sword and Eagle
were adopted by the Encampment. The Kadosh having afterward discontinued, the five Royal
Orders of Masonic Knighthood, of which the Encampment consisted, were: Nine Elect;
Kilwinning; East, Sword and Eagle, Knight Templar, and the Rose Croix.

For many years the Grand Conclave in London was in abeyance, but when H.R.H, the Duke
of Sussex, who had been Grand Master since 1813, died in 1843, it was revived, and
attempts were made to induce the Camp of Baldwyn to submit to its authority. These efforts


were without avail, and in 1857 Baldwyn reasserted its position as a Supreme Grand and
Royal Encampment, and shortly afterward issued Charters to six subordinate Encampments.
The chief cause of difference with the London Grand Conclave was the question of giving up
the old custom of working the Rose Croix Degree within the Camp.

At last, in 1862, the Baldwyn was enrolled by virtue of a Charter of Compact "under the
Banner of the Grand Conclave of Masonic Knights Templar of England and Wales." lt was
arranged that the Baldwyn Preceptory, as it was then called, should take precedence, with
five others "of time immemorial," of the other Preceptories; that it should be constituted a
Provincial Grand Commandery or Priory of itself; and should be entitled to confer the degree
of Knights of Malta.

In 1881 a Treaty of Union was made with the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree,
whereby the Baldwyn Rose Croix Chapter retained its time immemorial position and was
placed at the head of the list of Chapters. It also became a District under the Supreme
Council of the Thirty-third Degree and is therefore placed under an Inspector General of its
own.

*

BALKIS

The name given by the Orientalists to the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon, and of
whom they relate a number of fables (see Sheba, Queen of).

*

BALLOT

In the election of candidates, Lodges have recourse to a ballot of white and black balls. Some
Grand Lodges permit the use of white balls with black cubes. However, the Proceedings of
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for 1890 (page 144) show that body decided for itself that
"Black balls and not black cubes must be used in balloting in a Lodge," a decision
emphasizing the old practice.

Unanimity of choice, in this case, was originally required; one black ball only being enough to
reject a candidate, because as the Old Regulations say:

"The members of a particular Lodge are the best judges of it; and because, if a turbulent
member should be imposed on them, it might spoil their harmony or hinder the, freedom of
their communication, or even break up and disperse the Lodge, which ought to be avoided by
all true and faithful" (see the Constitutions, 1738 edition, page 155).

"But it was found inconvenient to insist upon unanimity in several cases, and therefore the
Grand Masters have allowed the Lodges to admit a member, if not above three Ballots are
against him; though some Lodges desire no such allowance" (see above Constitutions). This
is still the rule under the English Constitution (see Rule 190).

In balloting for a candidate for initiation, every member is expected to vote. No one can be
excused from sharing the responsibility of admission or rejection, except by the unanimous
consent of the Lodge.

Where a member has himself no personal or acquired knowledge of the qualifications of the
candidate, he is bound to give faith to the recommendation of his Brethren of the investigating
committee, who, he is to presume, would not make a favorable report on the petition of an
unworthy applicant.


Brother Mackey was of opinion that the most correct method in balloting for candidates is as
follows :

The committee of investigation having reported, the Master of the Lodge directs the Senior
Deacon to prepare the ballot-box. The mode in which this is accomplished is as follows: The
Senior Deacon takes the ballot-box, and, opening it, places all the white and black balls
indiscriminately in one compartment, leaving the other entirely empty. He then proceeds with
the box to the Junior and Senior Wardens, who satisfy themselves by an inspection that no
ball has been left in the compartment in which the votes are to be deposited.

The box in this and in the other instance to be referred to hereafter, is presented to the inferior
officer first, and then to his superior, that the examination and decision of the former may be
substantiated and confirmed by the higher authority of the latter. Let it, indeed, be
remembered, that in all such cases the usage of Masonic circumambulation is to be
observed, and that, therefore, we must first pass the Junior's station before we can get to that
of the Senior Warden. These officers having thus satisfied themselves that the box is in a
proper condition for the reception of the ballots, it is then placed upon the altar by the Senior
Deacon, who retires to his seat. The Master then directs the Secretary to call the roll, which is
done by commencing with the Worshipful Master, and proceeding through all the officers
down to the youngest member.

As a matter of convenience, the Secretary generally votes the last of those in the room, and
then, if the Tiler is a member of the Lodge, he is called in, while the Junior Deacon tiles for
him, and the name of the applicant having been told him, he is directed to deposit his ballot,
which he does and then retires.

As the name of each officer and member is called, that brother approaches the altar, and
having made the proper Masonic salutation to the Chair, he deposits his ballot and retires to
his seat. The roll should be called slowly, so that at no time should there be more than one
person present at the box, for the great object of the ballot being secrecy, no brother should
be permitted so near the member voting as to distinguish the color of the ball he deposits.

The box is placed on the altar, and the ballot is deposited with the solemnity of a Masonic
salutation that the voters may be duly impressed with the sacred and responsible nature of
the duty they are called on to discharge.

The system of voting thus described is advocated by Brother Mackey as far better on this
account than that sometimes adopted in Lodges, of handing round the box for the members
to deposit their ballots from their seats.

There is also the practice of omitting the reading of the names of the officers and members,
the Brethren in such cases forming a line and the one at the head advancing separately from
the rest to deposit his ballot when the preceding brother leaves the box.

The Master having inquired of the Wardens if all have voted, then orders the Senior Deacon
to "take charge of the ballot-box." That officer accordingly repairs to the altar, and takes
possession of the box Should the Senior Deacon be already in possession of the box, as in
other methods of balloting we have mentioned, then the announcement by the Master may be
"I therefore declare the ballot closed." In either case the Senior Deacon carries it, as before,
to the Junior Warden, who examines the ballot, and reports, if all the balls are white, that "the
box is clear in the South," or, if there is one or more black balls, that "the box is foul in the
South." The Deacon then carries it to the Senior Warden, and afterwards to the Master, who,
of course, make the same report, according to the circumstance, with the necessary verbal
variations of ''West'' and ''East.'' If the box is clear, that is, if all the ballots are white, the
Master then announces that the applicant has been duly elected, and the secretary makes a
record of the fact. But if the box is font, the Master inspects the number of black balls; if he
finds only one, he so states the fact to the Lodge, and orders the Senior Deacon again to
prepare the ballot-box. Here the same ceremonies are passed through that have already


been described. The balls are removed into one compartment, the box is submitted to the
inspection of the Wardens, it is placed upon the altar, the roll is called, the members advance
and deposit their votes, the box is scrutinized, and the result declared by the Wardens and
Master. If again one black ball be found, or if two or more appeared on the first ballot, the
Master announces that the petition of the applicant has been rejected, and directs the usual
record to be made by the Secretary and the notification to be given to the Grand Lodge.

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 1877 (see also the Constitution of 1918, page 88),
provides that the "Master may allow three ballotings, at his discretion, but when the balloting
has been commenced it must be concluded, and the candidate declared accepted or rejected,
without the intervention of any business whatever."

Balloting for membership or affiliation is subject to the same rules. in both cases ''previous
notice, one month before," must be given to the Lodge, "due inquiry into the reputation and
capacity of the candidate" must be made, and "the unanimous consent of all the members
then present" must be obtained.

Nor can this unanimity be dispensed with in one case any more than it can in the other. It is
the inherent privilege of every Lodge to judge of the qualifications of its own members, "nor is
this inherent privilege subject to a dispensation."

*

BALLOT- BOX

The box in which the ballots or little balls or cubes used in voting for a candidate are
deposited. It should be divided into two compartments, one of which is to contain both black
and white balls, from which each member selects one, and the other, which is shielded by a
partition provided with an aperture, to receive the ball that is to be deposited.

Various methods have been devised by which secrecy may be secured, so that a voter may
select and deposit the ball he desires without the possibility of its being seen whether it is
black or white. That which has been most in use in the United States is to have the aperture
so covered by a part of the box as to prevent the hand from being seen when the ball is
deposited.

*

BALLOT, RECONSIDERATION OF THE

See Reconsideration of the Ballot

*

BALLOT, SECRECY OF THE

The secrecy of the ballot is as essential to its perfection as its unanimity or its independence.
If the vote were to be given viva voce, or by word of mouth, it is impossible that the improper
influences of fear or interest should not sometimes be exerted, and timid members be thus
induced to vote contrary to the dictates of their reason and conscience.

Hence, to secure this secrecy and protect the purity of choice, it has been wisely established
as a usage, not only that the vote shall in these eases be taken by a ballot, but that there shall
be no subsequent discussion of the subject. Not only has no member a right to inquire how
his fellows have voted, but it is wholly out of order for him to explain his own vote.


The reason of this is evident. If one member has a right to rise in his place and announce that
he deposited a white ball, then every other member has the same right in a Lodge of, say,
twenty members, where an application has been rejected by one black ball, if nineteen
members state that they did not deposit it, the inference is clear that the twentieth Brother has
done so, and thus the secrecy of the ballot is at once destroyed.

The rejection having been announced from the Chair, the Lodge should at once proceed to
other business, and it is the sacred duty of the presiding officer peremptorily and at once to
check any rising discussion of the subject. Nothing must be done to impair the inviolable
secrecy of the ballot.

*

BALLOT, UNANIMITY OF THE

Unanimity in the choice of candidates is considered so essential to the welfare of the
Fraternity, that the Old Regulations have expressly provided for its preservation in the
following words: "But no man can be entered a Brother in any particular Lodge, or admitted to
be a member thereof, without the unanimous consent of all the members of that Lodge then
present when the candidate is proposed, and their consent is formally asked by the Master;
and they are to signify their consent or dissent in their own prudent way, either virtually or in
form, but with unanimity; nor is this inherent privilege subject to a dispensation; because the
members of a particular Lodge are the best judges of it; and if a fractious member should be
imposed on them, it might spoil their harmony, or hinder their freedom; or even break and
disperse the Lodge, which ought to be avoided by all good and true brethren" (see the
Constitutions, 1723 edition, page 59).

However, the rule of unanimity here referred to is applicable only to the United States of
America, in all of whose Grand Lodges it has been strictly enforced.

Anderson tells us, in the second edition of the Constitutions, under the head of New
Regulations (page 155), that." It was found inconvenient to insist upon unanimity in several
cases; and, therefore, the Grand Masters have allowed the Lodges to admit a member if not
above three ballots are against him; though some Lodges desire no such allowance."
Accordingly, the Constitution (Rule 190) of the Grand Lodge of England, says:

"No person can be made a Mason in or admitted a member of a Lodge, if, on the ballot, three
black balls appear against him ; but the by-laws of a Lodge may enact that one or two black
balls shall exclude a candidate; and by-laws may also enact that a prescribed period shall
elapse before any rejected candidate can be again proposed in that Lodge."

The Grand Lodge of Ireland (By-law 127) prescribes unanimity, unless there is a by-law of the
subordinate Lodge to the contrary.

The Constitution of Scotland provides (by Rule 181) that "Three black balls shall exclude a
candidate.

Lodges in the Colonies and in foreign parts may enact that two black balls shall exclude." In
the continental Lodges, the modern English regulation prevails. It is only in the Lodges of the
United States that the ancient rule of unanimity is strictly enforced.

Unanimity in the ballot is necessary to secure the harmony of the Lodge, which may be as
seriously impaired by the admission of a candidate contrary to the wishes of one member as
of three or more ; for every man has his friends and his influence. Besides, it is unjust to any
member, however humble he may be, to introduce among his associates one whose
presence might be unpleasant to him, and whose admission would probably compel him to
withdraw from the meetings, or even altogether from the Lodge.


Neither would any advantage really accrue to a Lodge by such a forced admission ; for while
receiving a new and untried member into its fold, it would be losing an old one. For these
reasons, in the United States, in every one of its jurisdictions, the unanimity of the ballot is
expressly insisted on; and it is evident, from what has been here said, that any less stringent
regulation is a violation of the ancient law and usage.

*

BALSAMO, JOSEPH

See Cagliostro
Organization
*

BALTIMORE CONVENTION

A Masonic Congress which met in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 8th of May, 1843, in
consequence of a recommendation made by a preceding convention which had met in
Washington, District of Columbia, in March, 1842.

The Convention consisted of delegates from the States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
New York, Maryland, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisiana.

Its professed objects were to produce uniformity of Masonic work and to recommend such
measures as should tend to the elevation of the Order.

The Congress continued in session for nine days, during which time it was principally
occupied in an attempt to perfect the ritual, and in drawing up articles for the permanent
organization of a Triennial Masonic Convention of the United States, to consist of delegates
from all the Grand Lodges. In both of these efforts it failed, although several distinguished
Freemasons took part in its proceedings.

The body was too small, consisting, as it did, of only twenty-three members, to exercise any
decided popular influence on the Fraternity. Its plan of a Triennial Convention met with very
general opposition, and its proposed ritual, familiarly known as the Baltimore work, has almost
become a myth. Its only practical result was the preparation and publication of Moore's
Trestle Board, a Monitor which has, however, been adopted only by a limited number of
American Lodges. The Baltimore work did not materially differ from that originally established
by Webb. Moore's Trestle Board professes to be an exposition of its monitorial part; a
statement which, however, was denied by Doctor Dove, who was the President of the
Convention, and the controversy on this point at the time between these two eminent
Freemasons was conducted with too much bitterness.

The above Convention adopted a report endorsing "the establishment of a Grand National
Convention possessing limited powers, to meet triennially to decide upon discrepancies in the
work, provide for uniform Certificates or Diplomas, and to act as referee between Grand
Lodges at variance. Whenever thirteen or more Grand Lodges should agree to the
proposition, the Convention should be permanently formed. "

Following the recommendation of the Convention, representatives from the Grand Lodges of
North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa, Michigan, District of Columbia and Missouri met at Winchester,
Virginia, on May 11, 1846. Only eight delegates appearing, the Convention adjourned without
doing any business.

Another Masonic Convention was held at Baltimore on September 23, 1847, to consider the
propriety of forming a General Grand Lodge. The following Grand Lodges had accredited
delegates : North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Maryland and the District


of Columbia. Brother William P. Mellen, of Mississippi, presided, and Brother Joseph
Robinson, of Maryland, was the Secretary. A Constitution was adopted and this was
forwarded to the several Grand Lodges with the understanding that if sixteen of them
approved the measure before January 1, 1849, it would go into effect and the first meeting
thereunder would be held at Baltimore on the second Tuesday in July, 1849. But the
Constitution failed to receive the approval of the required number of Grand Lodges and the
project for a Supreme Grand Lodge came to a halt.

*

BALUSTER

A small column or pilaster, corruptly called a banister; in French, balustre. Borrowing the
architectural idea, the Freemasons of the Scottish Rite apply the word baluster to any official
circular or other document issuing from a Supreme Council.

*

BALZAC, LOUIS CHARLES

A French architect of some celebrity, and member of the Institute of Egypt. He founded the
Lodge of the Great Sphinx at Paris. He was also a poet of no inconsiderable merit, and was
the author of many Masonic canticles in the French language, among them the well-known
hymn entitled Taisons nous, plus de bruit, the music of which was composed by M. Riguel.
He died March 31, 1820, at which time he was inspector of the public works in the prefecture
of the Seine.

*

BAND

The neck ribbon bearing the jewel of the office Lodge, Chapter, or Grand Lodge of various
countries, and of the symbolic color pertaining to the body in which it is worn.

*

BANNER-BEARER

The name of an officer known in the higher Degrees of the French Rite. One who has in trust
the. banner; similar in station to the Standard-Bearer of a Grand Lodge, or of a Supreme
Body of the Scottish Rite.

*

BANNERET

A small banner or pennant. An officer known in the Order of the Knights Templar, who, with
the Marshal, had charge of warlike under takings. A title of an order known as Knight
Banneret, instituted by Edward I. The banneret of the most ancient order of knighthood called
Knight Bachelor was shaped like Figure 1. The Knights Banneret, next in age, had a pennant
like Figure 2. That of the Barons was similar to the one shown in Figure 3.

The pennon or pointed or forked flag was easily shorn off at the ends to make the other style
of banneret and thus it came about that to show due appreciation of service the pointed end
could be clipped on the field of battle when the owner was promoted in rank.


*

BANNERS, ROYAL ARCH

Much difficulty has been experienced by ritualists in reference to the true colors and proper
arrangements of the banners used in an American Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.

It is admitted that. they are four in number, and that their colors are blue, purple, scarlet, and
white; and it is known, too, that the devices on these banners are a lion, an oz, a man, and an
eagle. But the doubt is constantly arising as to the relation between these devices and these
colors, and as to which of the former is to be appropriated to each of the latter.

The question, it is true, is one of mere ritualism, but it is important that the ritual should be
always uniform, and hence the object of the present article is to attempt the solution of this
question. The banners used in a Royal Arch Chapter are derived from those which are
supposed to have been borne by the twelve Tribes of Israel during their encampment in the
wilderness, to which reference is made in the second chapter of the Book of Numbers, and
the second verse: "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard." But as
to what were the devices on the banners, or what were their respective colors, the Bible is
absolutely silent.

To the inventive genius of the Talmudists are we indebted for all that we know or profess to
know on this subject. These mystical philosophers have given to us with wonderful precision
the various devices which they have borrowed from the death-bed prophecy of Jacob, and
have sought, probably in their own fertile imaginations, for the appropriate colors.

The English Royal Arch Masons, whose system differs very much from that of their American
Companions, display in their Chapters the twelve banners of the tribes in accordance with the
Talmudic devices and colors. These have been very elaborately described by Doctor Oliver in
his Historical Landmarks (11,583-97), and beautifully exemplified by Companion Harris in his
Royal Arch Tracing Boards.

But our American Royal Arch Masons, as we have seen, use only four banners, being those
attributed by the Talmudists to the four principal Tribes Judah, Ephraim, Reubenu, and Dan.
The devices on these banners are respectively a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. As to this
there is no question, all authorities, such as they are, agreeing on this point.

But, as has been before said there is some diversity of opinion as to the colors of each, and
necessarily as to the officers by whom they should be borne.

Some of the Targumists, or Jewish biblical commentators, say that the color of the banner of
each Tribe was analogous to that of the stone which represented that Tribe in the breastplate
of the High Priest. If this were correct, then the colors of the banners of the four leading Tribes
would be red and green, namely, red for Judah, Ephraim, and Reuben, and green for Dan;
these being the colors of the precious stones sardonyx, figure, carbuncle, and chrysolite, by
which these Tribes were represented in the High Priest's Breastplate. Such an arrangement
would not, of course, at all suit the symbolism of the American Royal Arch banners.

Equally unsatisfactory is the disposition of the colors derived from the arms of Speculative
Freemasonry, as first displayed by Dermott in his Ahiman Rezon, which is familiar to all
American Freemasons from the copy published by Cross in his Hieroglyphic Chart. In this
piece of blazonry, the two fields occupied by Judah and Dan are azure, or blue, and those of
Ephraim and Reuben are or, or golden yellow; an appropriation of colors altogether
uncongenial with Royal Arch symbolism.

We must, then, depend on the Talmudic writers solely for the disposition and arrangement of
the colors and devices of these banners. From their works we learn that the color of the
banner of Judah was white; that of Ephraim, scarlet; that of Reuben, purple; and that of Dan,


blue; and that the devices of the same Tribes were respectively the lion, the ox, the man, and
the eagle. Hence, under this arrangement---and it is the only one upon which we can depend-
the four banners in a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, working in the American Rite, should be
distributed as follows among the banner-bearing officers:

1. An eagle, on a blue banner. This represents the Tribe of Dan, and is borne by the Grand
Master of the First Veil.
2. A man, on a purple banner. This represents the Tribe of Reuben, and is borne by the
Grand Master of the Second Veil.
3. An ox, on a scarlet banner. This represents the Tribe of Ephraim, and is borne by the
Grand Master of the Third Veil.
4. A lion, on a white banner. This represents the Tribe of Judah, and is borne by the Royal
Arch Captain.
*

BANQUET

See Table-Lodge

*

BAPHOMET

The imaginary idol, or rather the symbol, which the Knights Templar under Grand Master
DeMolay were accused of employing in their mystic rites. The forty-second of the charges
preferred against them by Pope Clement is in the' words:

Item quod ipsi per singulas provincias habeant idola: videlicet capita qourum aliqua habebant
tres facies, et alia unum: et aliqua cranium humanum habebant; meaning, also, that in all of
the provinces they have idols, namely, heads, of which some had three faces, some me, and
some had a human skull.

Von Hammer-Purgstall, a bitter enemy of the Templars, in his book entitled The Mystery of
Baphomet Revealed this old accusation, and attached to the Baphomet an impious
signification. He derived the name from the Greek words, baptim, and supreme wisdom, the
baptism of Metis, and thence supposed that it represented the admission of the initiated into
the secret mysteries of the Order.

From this gratuitous assumption he deduces his theory, set forth even in the very title of his
work, that the Templars were convicted, by their own monuments, of being guilty as Gnostics
and Ophites, of apostasy, idolatry, and impurity. Of this statement he offers no other historical
testimony than the Articles of Accusation, themselves devoid of proof, but through which the
Templars were made the victims of the jealousy of the Pope and the avarice of the King of
France.
Others again have thought that they could find in Baphomet a corruption of Mahomet, and
hence they have asserted that the Templars had been perverted from their religious faith by
the Saracens, with whom they had so much intercourse, sometimes as foes and sometimes
as friends. Baphomet was indeed a common medieval form of the word Mahomet and that not
only meant a false prophet but a demon. Hence any unholy or fantastic ceremonies were
termed baffumerie, mahomerie, or mummery.

Nicolai, who wrote an Essay on the Accusations brought against the Templars, published at
Berlin, in 1782, supposes, but doubtingly, that the figure of the Baphomet, figura Baffometi,
which was depicted on a bust representing the Creator, was nothing else but the Pythagorean
pentagon, the symbol of health and prosperity, borrowed by the Templars from the Gnostics,
who in turn had obtained it from the School of Pythagoras.


King, in his learned work on the Gnostics, thinks that the Baphomet. may have been a symbol
of the Manicheans, with whose wide spreading heresy in the Middle Ages he does not doubt
that a large portion of the inquiring spirits of the Temple had been intoxicated.

Another suggestion is by Brother Frank C. Higgins, Ancient Freemasonry ( page 108), that
Baphomet is but the secret name of the Order of the Temple in an abbreviated form thus:
Tem. Ohp. Ab. from the Latin Templi Omnium Hominum Pacis Abbas, intended to mean The
Temple of the Father of Peace among Men.

Amid these conflicting views, all merely speculative, it will not be uncharitable or
unreasonable to suggest that the Baphomet, or skull of the ancient Templars, was, like the
relic of their modern Masonic representatives, simply an impressive symbol teaching the
lesson of mortality, and that the latter has really been derived from the former.

*

BALLOU, HOSEA
Hosea Ballou was the founder of the Universalist Denomination which with the Unitarian
Denomination introduced religious liberalism into New England.

He was born in Richmond, New Hampshire, April 30, 1771, then in the wilderness. Until
sixteen he could barely read or write, and had no schooling until twenty, when he entered a
Quaker private school, after which he attended an academy. Before he died he had preached
some 10,000 sermons and written enough to fill one hundred books. He was made a Mason
(the particulars not known), and when he moved to Barnard in New Hampshire he joined the
Woodstock Lodge, no 31. He was Worshipful Master in 1808. He delivered Masonic orations
before a large number of Lodges. The minutes of Woodstock Lodge and of its predecessor,
Warren, No. 23, should be published in facsimile because they are one of the few detailed
records of a back country, New England Masonic community in the Revolutionary Period. The
drinking of hard liquor, so prevalent in Colonial times even among churchmen, appears to
have lingered longest in Lodges, and evidently was one of the small factors which led to the
Anti-Masonic Crusade; it was one of the " Lodge problems" to which Bro. Ballou often
addressed himself.

*

BARBARY PIRATES, WARS ON

The regiments which fought across North Africa in World War II were not the first Americans
to fight in Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, for in 1801 we sent our then infant navy there to make war
on the pirates of the Barbary Coast who had been destroying shipping for many years,
American included, and France and Britain together had not been able to stop them. If we
succeeded where the latter had failed it was largely owing to the ingenuity of one man,
William Eaton, Consul at Tunis, who from out of Egypt and with a small group of natives
infiltrated from behind the coast. It was Eaton who sent home the famous message, "Send
some cash and a few marines." The Marine Corps was born in that war.

The majority of heroes and leaders in the war, which was neither short nor easy, were
Masons, Stephen Decatur, William Bainbridge (probably), Commodore Edward Preble,
Commodore Isaac Chauncey, Commodore Thomas MacDonough, etc. Decatur's utterance,
quoted countless times, did not say that his country was never wrong or that he would support
it in wrongdoing ; he said, ''My country-may it ever be right, but, right or wrong, my country ,"
the utterance plainly saying that his country might be in the wrong. Like his father before him,
who had belonged to Veritas Lodge No. 16, Maryland, Decatur became a Mason early, in St.
John's Lodge, Newport, R. I., in 1799. William Eaton was raised in North Star Lodge,
Manchester, Vermont, in 1792.

*


BASKETT BIBLE, THE

What Bible did the Masons use before 1717? Prior to 1611 it is almost certain that the
majority of them used the famous Geneva Bible, published in 1560. It was the first issue of
the Book to cut the text into chapters and numbered verses ; its cost was low ; it was the Bible
of the Reformation. Because in the Book of Genesis it printed the line "made themselves
breeches" instead of "made themselves aprons" it was everywhere popularly called The
Breeches Bible. The Authorized, or King James, Version was first printed in 1611, in Black
Letter, large folio, with 1400 pages. Because of a typographical error Ruth, III, verse 15, was
printed with a "he " instead of a "she," and for that reason it was everywhere called The ''He''
Bible. The title page was a copper plate, sumptuously designed, semi-architectural in
conception, with a symbolic scene representing the Scheme of Redemption across the top;
Moses and the High Priest in panels at either side of the mid-page ; and in the lower corner
two figures representing the writers of the Old and the New Testament, with a symbolic
picture of the phoenix between them. At the extreme top were the Hebrew Letters JHWH;
immediately beneath it a dove.

Copies of the now very rare first edition, if in good condition, sell for 53,000 to 55,000. In the
Second Issue this Version contained another famous misprint, Matthew XXVI, 36, where
"Jesus'' is printed aa "Judas."

(Printers sometimes made these typographical errors out of malice. The "Wicked Bible" is the
most notorious example ; in it the "not" was purposely omitted from certain of the Ten
Commandments, for which Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the King's Printers, were haled
into Star Chamber, were fined L300 by Archbishop Laud, and the edition of 1000 copies
confiscated.) For a century the Authorized Bible was no doubt used by Masons as it was by
everybody else, almost to the exclusion of any other version.

In 1717, the year in which the first Grand Lodge was constituted, John Baskett, an Oxford
printer, published an edition of his own, which came to be named after him, although it was
dubbed The Vinegar Bible because in Luke XX the word "vineyard" was misprinted "vinegar."
The title page, and for the first time in any Bible, consisted of a prospect of buildings. For this
reason, and also perhaps because it had been published in 1717, or for both, it became
popular among Masons, in America and Australia as well aa in England; more often than any
other it is mentioned in the Inventories which were incorporated in old Lodge Minutes.

NOTE. The Baskett should not be confused with the Baskerville Bible. In 1750 John
Baskerville became a designer of type, a rival to the famous Caslon whose type faces are
standard today. In 1758 Baskerville was elected printer to Cambridge University. In 1763 he
produced his edition of the Bible, called after his name, and at a cost of some 510,000. It was
not appreciated at the time, and did not sell well, but has since become one of the classics of
type design. Baskerville died in 1775. Any Lodge possessing a copy of his Edition of 1763
may treasure it as highly as a Baskett first edition even though the latter is older by 46 years.

*

BAYLEY, HAROLD

American Masons have a fondness for Harold Bayley's two books which English Masons
might find it difficult to explain; at least so it would be guessed from comparing the circulation
of them here with their circulation there. Perhaps it is because he has let a fresh, new light
into Masonic symbols, and done so with no pseudo-occultistic obscurantism (a thing for which
American Masons have no stomach, even if it is published in A. Q. C.) perhaps it is because
with short, bold brush strokes he makes intelligible to us Americans what doubtless already is
familiar to Europeans.

He writes about the Albigensians and the Huguenots, who carried on a sort of Protestant
underground movement for many years, in regions where any deviation from strict Roman


Catholic orthodoxy was examined by the Inquisition and punishable by burning. These men
were, many of them, makers of paper, which they produced in little water-driven mills, in far-
off places among the hills. They had modes of recognition, passwords, tokens, secret words,
etc., by which they sent messages here and there. After they discovered how to lay in
watermarks in the sheets of paper they sent out to the cities they turned the marks into
symbols, which would "be understanded" by their friends and sympathizers and would thus
help to keep certain ideas alive. I t is about these fraternities, or half-fraternities, their secrets
and their symbols, that Mr. Bayley writes in A New Light on the Renaissance; J. M. Dent &
Co., London; and The Lost Language of symbolism; J. B. Lippincott; New York; 1913. The
latter has many references to Freemasonry in chapters on Searching for the Lost, Theological
Ladder, King Solomon and Pillars, All-Seeing Eye, Tree of Life, Clasped Hands, etc. (It can
be remembered in connection with these books that Dr. J. T. Desaguliers, architect of the first
Grand Lodge, was a Huguenot refugee. ) Brother Frederick Foster's essay on "The Due
Guard" which he contributed to The Treasury of Masonic Thought (compiled by George M.
Martin and John W. Callaghan; David Winter & Son; Dundee; 1924), was based on Bayley's
works.

*

BEEHIVE, THE

In our Twentieth Century America, the word "industry" denotes manufacturing and factories,
classified as heavy industry and light industry ; and connotes machines and factory workers.
When the Beehive is said to be an emblem of industry the word is not used in that sense,
indeed, is used with an almost opposite meaning-for it is used in the sense of centuries ago,
which was the true sense.

Industry was the employment of a very large number of men, tens of thousands in many
instances, on one undertaking at one place and at the same time, and they might or might not
use machinery. It was the method by which in the ages before heavy machinery vast building
enterprises were accomplished, some of which have so long mystified modern men, the
building of the pyramids, of the ancient Egyptian canals, of the hanging gardens of Babylon,
of the Ziggurats, of vast Hindu temples, of the Chinese Great Wall and Grand canal of the
Mayas' City of Chichen-Itza, etc. the same method by which in World War II the Burma and
Ledo roads were constructed as well as great airfields in the remote hills of China; and the
method by which from Caesar's time until modern times the Dutch have built their hundreds of
miles of dykes. The Beehive is the perfect emblem, or typical instance of the power of
industry, because what no one bee'or succession of separate bees could accomplish is easy
where hundreds of them work together at one task at one time.

The Medieval Freemasons did not study and think about ¨he same subjects that architects
and builders now except in fundamentals, did not secure the elements of a building ready-
made from factories, had no steam or electric or magnetic tools to use; chemistry and physics
were forbidden sciences, and could be studied by the initiate only in secret or under a heavy
camouflage of symbolism. They had two great subjects: materials and men. A modern
architect knows far more about materials than the Medieval builder because he has
universities, literature, laboratories, and factories to draw on ; but he knows far less about
men, indeed, he knows almost nothing about men.

Where a modern builder looks to machines as the means to accomplish his results, the
Medieval builder who had no power-driven machines had to look to men. For this reason the
Medieval builder knew far more about work than his modern counterpart because work is
nothing other than a man making use of himself as a means to get something made or
produced or accomplished. Where a modern foreman thinks of himself as a supervisor of a
building full of machines the Medieval foreman thought of himself as a Master of workmen. By
the same token a workman had to know himself, instead of a machine, because he was his
own machine. Skill is the expert use of one's self.


It was for such reasons that Medieval Freemasons thought much about and had a wide
knowledge of the forms of work. There are some fifty-two of these.

Industry itself is one of them, the most massive and most dramatic, but not the most
important. Where a man makes everything by himself from the raw materials to the finished
product, is another. Where a number of men work in a line at the same bench and where the
first does one thing to the "job, " the second does another, and so on until the "job" is
completed by the last man, so that it is the job and not the men who move, is another form of
work. Where one man completes one thing, another, perhaps in another place, completes
another, and so on, and where finally a man combines a number of completed things to make
one thing, is another form of work; etc., etc.

The general organization of a Lodge is based on the principle of forms of work; so are the
stations and places of officers. Though as an emblem of the form of work called industry the
Beehive symbolizes only one in Particular it at the same time represents the system of forms
of work, is, as it were, an ensemble of them; and from it a sufficiently well-informed thinker
could think out the system of Masonic Philosophy. In our Craft the whole of fraternalism is
nothing other than the fellowship required by the forms of work, because the majority of them
require men to work together in association, in stations and places, and therefore in cooperation.


It is strange that in its present-day stage of development the so-called science of economics
should concern itself solely with such subjects as wages, machines, money, transportation
because these are but incidentals and accidentals. Work is the topic proper to economics ;
and the forms of work are its proper subject-matter. Any scholar or thinker who chances to be
a Mason could find in his own Fraternity a starting point for a new economics, as fresh and
revolutionary and revealing as was the work of Copernieus in astronomy, of Newton in
physics, of Darwin in biology. A beehive itself is a trifle, and scarcely worth ten minutes of
thought; what it stands for is one of the largest and most important subjects in the world, and
up until now one of the least understood.

*

BEGEMANN, GEORG E. W.

Georg Emil Wilhelm Begemann was born in 1843; died in 1914 in Berlin, where he had lived
since 1895. After having been made a Mason in Rostock, Mecklenburg, he was instantly
attracted to the study of the Old Charges.

From 1888 until his removal to Berlin he was Provincial Grand Master, the Grand National
Lodge of Berlin. From 1887 until his death he was a member of the Correspondence Circle of
Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, No. 2076, contributed much to Ars Quatuor
Coroiatoruni, and was among the most learned of specialists in Masonic archeology and the
study of the text of the Old Charges.

He published Vorgeschichte und Aufänge der Freimaurerei in Ireland, in 1911; a book of
similar title on Scotland, in 1914; his principal work was Aufänge der Freimaurerei in England;
Vol. I, in 1909 ; Vol. II, in 1910. This latter work was to have been translated and published by
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, with Bro. Lionel Vibert, Secretary, as translator-in-chief, but was
stopped by the latter's death; it is on the market in the United States in German.

German Freemasonry was begun under the patronage of the nobility and members of the
upper brackets of the aristocracy, and had its source in French Masonry ; and therefore
departed in the main from many Ancient Landmarks, so that oftentimes the Craft Degrees
were under jurisdiction of High Grades; High Grades and Rites proliferated; Rites not Masonic
in any sense were suffered to attach themselves to Freemasonry; and racial and religious
discriminations were allowed. Begemann was one of the greatest in a line of German Masonic
scholars whose work was aimed at restoring the German Craft to the original design. (See


articles by and about Begemann in A,Q,C., especially the paper by Douglas Knoop and G. P.
Jones in 1941.)

*

BENT, GOVERNOR CHARLES

Charles Bent was born at Charlestown, Va., in 1797, studied medicine, graduated from West
Point. After resigning from the army he entered business in St. Louis. In 1828 he and his
brother William went west, erected a fort (or stockaded headquarters) near what is now Las
Animas which in time was to become famous from one end of the Santa Fe trail to the other
as Bent's Fort. After he had formed a partnership with Col. Ceran St. Vrain (also a Mason) the
firm of Bent & St. Vrain became nationally known as second in size and influence only to Bro.
John Jacob Astor and the American Fur Co. at a time when beaver skins were used as
money in the whole of the West. He married Maria of the famous Spanish family of Jaramillo,
whose sister Josefa afterwards married General Kit Carson.

After New Mexico was formed into a Territory of the United States, Bent was appointed the
first Governor, but in 1847 was assassinated in his home at Taos by a mob of Indians and
Mexicans. This was part of a plot to drive Americans out of the Territory which had been
schemed in Mexico City and was locally instigated by a corrupt and criminal priest at Taos
named Fra Martinez. Bent was (along with the famous Senator Benton) a founding member of
Missouri Lodge, No. 1, St. Louis, in 1821. A Lodge formed at Taos by the Grand Lodge of
Missouri in 1860 and named Bent Lodge, No. 204, is now No. 42 on the rolls of the Grand
Lodge of New Mexico. (See House Executive Document, No. 60, Thirtieth Congress, entitled
"Occupation of Mexican Territory," and article by Bro. F. T. Cheetham in The Builder; 1923, p.

358. Gould's History of Freemasonry; VI; Seribner's; New York; page 36.)
*

BLACK MONKS AND BUILDERS

In the center of the little Italian mountainous country where Virgil once lived and Horace had
his farm, and near where in other times Aquino was built, home of Juvenile and of Thomas
(St. Thomas Aquinas), there stood in early Roman times a temple of Apollo and Venus. St.
Benedict (480 - 543) founded on the site of it the first monastery in Europe, a small house
which he called San Germano, and later Mt. Cassino, which, after having been more than
once rebuilt, was in World War II bombed into rubble by Allied planes after the Germans had
turned it into a fortress. This early monastery, which Benedict, a man of hard sense, founded
in 529, he turned into a Monastic Order, called the Benedictines or Black Monks (from color of
their habit), the first Monastic Order founded on the Continent; other Orders, some of them its
daughters, were to follow it, the Carthusians, the Clusiacs, the Franciscans (half monastic),
but none was ever to rival it in strength and stability.

After they had become established in centers as far away as England, and had become
possessed of property, the Benedictines had many Abbeys built, and other Monastic
structures. A number of these are famous buildings; a few were masterpieces of Gothic.

A legend grew up long afterwards that the Benedictines had themselves been Europe's first
architects, and a few Masons even began to believe that it was they who had fathered
Medieval Masonry, among the latter being Bro. Ossian Lang, who gave the theory as much
support as he could find (in his treatises on Eleventh Century School for Builders, and his
Black Monks).

Benedict's rule was founded on work. Each member was assigned a form of work, and was
expected to give his daily time to itm, and each one was required to read at least one book a
year. But there is no evidence anywhere to prove that they were ever architects or even plain
builders; even the work rule fell in abeyance after the early honeymoon period. In his massive


Art and. the Reformation, G. G. Coulton sweeps together every scrap of written records into a
chapter, and shows that the monks were not architects, and that they hired laymen to come in
from the outside to cultivate their fields and gardens, and even to work in the kitchens ; and
not many of them ever managed to read his one book a year, or learned to read. If they ever
had any connection with Freemasonry it has escaped detection; one set of Fabric Rolls,
probably belonging to York, shows that the Freemasons there expressly stipulated that no
monks from the nearby Benedictine houses were to work with them. (There are abundant
bibliographics in the Cambridge Medieval History. See also Medieval Italy, by H. B. Cotterill,
London, George C. Harrap, 1915, and Renaissance of the Twelfth. Century, by F. L.
Haskins.)

*

BLAVATSKY, H. P.

Subsequently to the publication of the brief article on page 138 Bro. Joseph H. Fussell,
secretary of the Theosophieal Society at Point Loma, Calif., contributed to The New Age of
January, 1915, page 29, an article which clears up once and for all any questions as to claims
made for the founder of the Theosophical Society of having been a Mason. She received from
John Yarker, unsolicited, a certificate making her a member of the so-called Ancient and
Primitive Rite of Masonry (not connected with Free and Accepted Masonry) but, as she
clearly stated, made no claim to any membership in any regular Lodge. The "Masonry of the
Orient," to which she referred in a published letter, and which appears to refer to some form
of self-styled Freemasonry indigenous to India, is one of many questions for Craft historians
to clear up. The wide-ranging and indefatigable Yarker is another subject in the same
category ; for while he was a regular and loyal Mason, a contributor to Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum, and guilty of no clandestinism, his writings have left a trail of confusion behind
them because of his penchant for identifying Freemasonry with any form of occultism,
symbolism, or esotericism which resembled it. The Theosophical movement has never in any
of its sects or branches been recognized by or identified with any regular Masonic Body.

*

BLIND MASONS

Chaplain Couden of the House of Representatives of the United States for a long period of
years was blind, and yet was a Mason.

W. W. Drake, Kileen, Texas, became blind during his Mastership; he was reelected for a
seeond term.
Charles F. Forshaw, Doncaster, England, who died in 1800, was for a number of years widely
known as a Masonic musician. In his Notes on the Ceremony of Installation, page 52, Henry
Sadler gives a sketch of the most famous of blind Masons, George Aarons, Master of Joppa
Lodge, No. 1827, and of Lodge of Israel. He was a ritualist taught by Peter Gilkes, and for
nearly twenty years was Lecture Master in the leading Lodges of Instruction. More remarkable
still is Lux in Tenebris Lodge, on Shaftsbury Avenue, London, which is a Lodge for blind
Masons. The Craft in England has always acted on the principle that when the Craft was
transformed from Operative to Speculative the Physical Qualifications were transformed with
it.

*

BAPTISM, MASONIC

The term Masonic Baptism has been applied in the United States by some authorities to that
ceremony which is used in certain of the advanced Degrees, and which, more properly,
should be called Lustration. It has been objected that the use of the term is calculated to give


needless offence to scrupulous persons who might suppose it to be an imitation of a Christian
sacrament. But, in fact, the Masonic baptism has no allusion whatsoever, either in form or
design, to the sacrament of the Church. It is simply a lustration or purification by water, a
ceremony which was common to all the ancient initiations (see Lustration).

*

BARBATI FRATRES

Bearded Brothers---at an earlier date known as the Conversi---craftsmen known among the
Conventual Builders, admitted to the Abbey Corbey in the year 851, whose social grade was
more elevated than the ordinary workmen, and were freeborn. The Conversi were Filicales or
associates in the Abbeys, used a monastic kind of dress, could leave their profession
whenever they chose and could return to civil life. Converts who abstained from secular
pursuits as sinful and professed conversion to the higher life of the Abbeys, could stay without
becoming monks. Scholae or gilds of such Operatives lodged within the convents.

We are told by Brother George F. Fort in his Criticat Inquiry Concerning the Mediaeval
Conventual Builders, 1884, that the scholae of dextrous Barbati Fratres incurred the anger of
their coreligionists, by their haughty deportment, sumptuous garb, liberty of movement, and
refusal to have their long, flowing beards shaven-hence their name---thus tending to the more
fascinating attractions of civil life as time carried them forward through the centuries to the
middle of the thirteenth, when William Abbott, of Premontré, attempted to enforce the rule of
shaving the beard. "These worthy ancestors of our modern Craft deliberately refused,'' and
they said, "if the execution of this order were pressed against them, 'they would fire every
cloister and cathedral in the country." The decretal or edict was withdrawn.

*

BARD

A title of great dignity and importance among the ancient Britons, which was conferred only
upon men of distinguished rank in society, and who filled a sacred office. It was the third or
lowest of the three Degrees into which Druidism was divided (see Druidical Mysteries). There
is an officer of the Grand Lodge of Scotland called the Grand Bard.

*

BAREFEET

See Discalceation

*

BARNEY, COMMODORE JOSHUA

Distinguished American naval officer. Prominent for services rendered his country in the Wars
of 1776 and 1812; wounded in land attack at Bladensberg.

Said to have attended, about 1779, the Lodge of Nine Sisters at Paris, but his name does not
appear in records of that Lodge published by Louis Amiable.

His name appears on the roster of Lodge No. 3, Philadelphia, May 1, 1777 (see New Age,
May, 1925). Born 1759, at Baltimore, Maryland, Brother Barney died 1818, at Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.

*


BARNEY, JOHN

Masonic ritualist, born at Canaan, Connecticut, October, 1780. Made a Freemason in
Friendship Lodge No. 20, at Charlotte, Vermont, in 1810. He was deeply interested in all that
pertained to the work and purposes of the Institution, and in August, 1817, he went to Boston
for the express purpose of receiving instruction directly from Thomas Smith Webb, which he
succeeded in doing, with the assistance of Benjamin Gleason, then Grand Lecturer of
Massachusetts.

He attended the Grand Lodge of Vermont on October 6, 1817, and was registered as a
visiting Brother. At this meeting a request was presented on behalf of Brother Barney for the
approbation of this Grand Lodge, as a Lecturing Master. A committee was appointed to
investigate the certificates and documents respecting Barney's qualifications and the report
was as follows:
That they had examined Brother Barney on the first Degrees of Masonry, and find him to be
well acquainted with the Lectures, according to the most approved method of work in the
United States, and believe that he may be advantageously employed by the Lodges and
Brethren who may wish for his services; but as many of the Lodges in this State are already
well acquainted with the several Masonic Lectures, we do not believe it would be consistent to
appoint a Grand Lecturer to go through the State, as the several Lodges have to pay the
District Deputy Grand Masters for their attendance. We therefore propose to the Grand Lodge
that they give Brother Barney letters of recommendation to all Lodges and Brethren wherever
he may wish to travel, as an unfortunate brother deprived of his health, and unable to procure
a living by the common avocations of life, but who is well qualified to give useful Masonic
information to any who wish for his services.

A. Robbins, For committee.
His first work after being authorized by his Grand Lodge was in Dorchester Lodge, at
Vergennes, Vermont. He was employed by twelve members to , instruct them in the work and
lectures. He continued lecturing in that State for several years. Brother Barney moved West in
1826, settling at Harpersfield, Ashtabula County, Ohio. In 1832 he assisted in establishing a
Royal Arch Chapter in Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to Worthington, Ohio, in 1834, and
became a member of New England Lodge No. 4 in that city.

Elected Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Ohio in January, 1836, Which office he held
until 1843. In 1841 the Grand Master said of him: "The duties of Grand Lecturer of the Grand
Lodge of Ohio, for the last two years especially, have been laborious and almost incessant. It
were unnecessary for me to state to you a fact, which you are all so well apprised of, that his
untiring and able exertions have essentially conduced to the prosperity which is now so
apparent among our Lodges.

The labors of that officer are, however, now becoming burdensome, and the calls for his
services will be more frequent as the wants of the fraternity increase." Brother Barney was a
delegate to the Baltimore Convention in 1843. At the meeting of his Grand Lodge in that year
the question of recognition of the Grand Lodge of Michigan was considered and he was
appointed one of the committee to whom the matter was referred, but at his request was
excused from such service, and this is the last record we have of him in connection with the
Grand Lodge of Ohio. About this time he settled in Chicago, Illinois, becoming a member of
Apollo Lodge No. 32 in that city.

He was appointed Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Illinois in October, 1845, holding the
office for one year. Part of the years 1844 and 1845 were spent lecturing in Michigan, and his
labors during these two years gave to that State the system which has been the authorized
work for many years. Undoubtedly several states owe much to this worthy Brother for their
close connection with the ceremonial work of Thomas Smith Webb. Brother Barney died on
June 22, 1847, at Peoria, Illinois (see Freemasonry in Michigan, J. S. Conover, 1896, page
249; the Barney work is discussed in American Tyler, volume iii, No. 6, page 5, and No. 17,
page 2, and vo1ume v, No 18, page 4, and No. 28, page10)


*

BARRUEL, ABBE

Augustin Barruel, generally known as the Abbé Barruel, who was born, October 2, 1741, at
Villeneuve de Berg in France, and who died October 5, 1820, was an implacable enemy of
Freemasonry. He was a prolific writer, but owes his reputation principally to the work entitled
Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du Jacobinisme, or Recollections to serve for a History of
Jacobinism, in four volumes, octavo, published in London in 1797. In this work he charges the
Freemasons with revolutionary principles in politics and with infidelity in religion. He seeks to
trace the origin of the Institution first to those ancient heretics, the Manicheans, and through
them to the Templars, against whom he revives the old accusations of Philip the Fair and
Clement V. His theory of the Templar origin of Freemasonry is thus expressed (11, 382):

"Your whole school and all your Lodges are derived from the Templars. After the extinction of
their Order, a certain number of guilty knights, having escaped the prosecution, united for the
preservation of their horrid mysteries. To their impious code they added the vow of
vengeance against the kings and priests who destroyed their Order, and against all religion
which anathematized their dogmas.

They made adepts, who should transmit from generation to generation the same mysteries of
iniquity, the same oaths, and the same hatred of the God of the Christians, and of kings, and
of priests. These mysteries have descended to you, and you continue to perpetuate their
impiety, their vows, and their oaths. Such is your origin. The lapse of time and the change of
manners have varied a part of your symbols and your frightful systems; but the essence of
them remains, the vows, the oaths, the hatred, and the conspiracies are the same.''

It is not astonishing that Lawrie (History of Freemasonry, page 50) should have said of the
writer of such statements, that:

"That charity and forbearance which distinguish the Christian character are never exemplified
in the work of Barruel, and the hypocrisy of his pretensions is often betrayed by the fury of his
zeal. The tattered veil behind which he attempts to cloak his inclinations often discloses to the
reader the motives of the man and the wishes of his party."

Although the attractions of his style and the boldness of his declamation gave Barruel at one
time a prominent place among anti-masonic writers, his work is now seldom read and never
cited in Masonic controversies, for the progress of truth has assigned their just value to its
extravagant assertions.

*

BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO

A famous engraver who lived for some time in London and engraved the frontispiece of the
1784 edition of the Book of Constitutions. He was initiated in the Lodge of the Nine Muses in
London on February 13, 1777.

Born at Florence in Italy, he studied in Venice, and then at Rome and Mi1an, practiced his art
most successfully, settling at London in 1764.After forty years in Eng1and he went to Portugal
and died in Lisbon. Brother Hawkins gives the year of his birth as 1728, and that of his death
as 1813. Others give the dates as from 1725 to 1830, and 1813 to 1815.

But all authorities agree in their high estimate of his ability.

*


BARTON, CLARA

American philanthropist. Born at Oxford, Massachusetts, December 25, 1821; died at Glen
Echo, Maryland, April 12, 1912. During Civil War distributed large quantities of supplies for
the relief of wounded soldiers and later organized at Washington a Bureau of Records to aid
in the search of missing men. She identified and marked the graves of more than twelve
thousand soldiers at Andersonville, Georgia. She took part in the International Committee of
the Red Cross in Franco-Prussian War, and was first president of the American Red Cross
until 1904. She was the author of the American Amendment providing that the Red Cross
shall distribute relief not only in war but in times of other calamities.

She later incorporated and became president of the National First Aid of America for
rendering first aid to the injured. There is a reference to her in Masonic Tidings, Milwaukee,
December 1927, page 19, entitled Son of founder of Eastern Star tells of beginnings of Order,
in the course of which he says: "Yes, it is true that my father gave the beloved Clara Barton
the degree.
He was making a tour of Massachusetts, lecturing. When he reached Oxford he found a
message from Clara Barton, expressing a desire to receive the degree. In the parlor of her
home, father communicated to her the Order of the Eastern Star. From this Clara Barton
created the great American Red Cross, and cheerfully gave her services to the heroes of the
Civil War."

There is also another reference in the New Age (March, 1924, page 178), where Clara Barton
is said to have observed when becoming a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, "My
father was a Mason; to him it was a religion, and for the love and honor I bear him, I am glad
to be connected with anything like this," However, Mrs. Minnie E. Keyes, Grand secretary,
Order of the Eastern Star, letter of May 2g, 1928, informs us that "The Chapter in Oxford,
Massachusetts, was named for her and With her permission in 1898, but she herself did not
join until June, 1906.

The Secretary tells me the Minutes of the meeting of June 29, 1906, show. After a short
intermission this Chapter received the great honor of being allowed to confer the degrees of
this Order upon our illustrious namesake, Miss Clara Barton. It was an occasion long to be
remembered as with feelings of pride and pleasure we witnessed the work so impressively
and gracefully rendered and received.

It was with quite reverential feeling that at its close we were privileged to take her by the hand
as our sister.

*

BASILICA

Literally and originally a royal palace. A Roman pagan basilica was a rectangular hall whose
length was two or three times its breadth, divided by two or more lines of columns, bearing
entablatures, into a broad central nave and side aisles.

It was generally roofed with wood, sometimes vaulted. At one end was the entrance. From the
center of the opposite end opened a semicircular recess as broad as the nave, called in Latin
the Tribuna and in Greek the Apsis. The uses of the basilica were variotts and of a public
character, courts of justice being held in them. Only a few ruins remain.

The significance of the basilica to Freemasons is that it was the form adopted for early
Christian churches, and for its influence on the building gilds.

For the beginning of Christian architecture, which is practically the beginning of Operative
Freemasonry, we must seek very near the beginning of the Christian religion. For three
centuries the only places in pagan Rome where Christians could meet with safety were in the


catacombs, long underground galleries. When Constantine adopted Christianity in 324, the
Christians were no longer forced to worship in the catacombs. They were permitted to
worship in the basilica and chose days for special worship of the Saints on or near days of
pagan celebrations or feast days, so as not to attract the attention or draw the contempt of the
Romans not Christians.

Examples of this have come down to us, as, Christmas, St. John the Baptist's Day, St. John
the Evangelist's Day, etc.

The Christian basilicas spread over the Roman Empire, but in Rome applied specially to the
seven principal churches founded' by Constantine, and it was their plan that gave Christian
churches this name. The first builders were the Roman Artificers, and after the fall of the
Western Empire, we find a decadent branch at Como that developed into the Comacine
Masters, who evolved, aided by Byzantine workmen and influence Lombardian architecture
(see Como).

*

BASKET

The basket or fan was among the Egyptians a symbol of the purification of souls. The idea
seems to have been adopted by other nations, and hence, "initiations in the Ancient
Mysteries," says Rolle (Culte de Bacchus,1, 30), "being the commencement of a better life
and the perfection of it, could not take place till the soul was purified.

The fan had been accepted as the symbol of that purification because the mysteries purged
the soul of sin, as the fan cleanses the grain." John the Baptist conveys the same idea of
purification when he says of the Messiah, "His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge
his floor" (Matthew iii, 12; Luke iii, 17).

The sacred basket in the Ancient Mysteries was called the xikvov, and the one who carried it
was termed the xwv or basket-bearer. Indeed, the sacred basket, containing the first fruits
and offerings, was as essential in all solemn processions of the mysteries of Bacchus and
other divinities as the Bible is in the Masonic procession. As lustration was the symbol of
purification by water, so the mystical fan or winnowing-basket was, according to Sainte Croix
(Mystéres du Paganisme, tome ii, page 81), the symbol in the Bacchic rites of a purification by
air.

*

BASLE, CONGRESS OF

A Masonic Congress was held September 24, 1848, at Basle, in Switzerland, consisting of
one hundred and six members, representing eleven Lodges under the patronage of the Swiss
Grand Lodge Alpina. The Congress was principally engaged upon the discussion of the
question,
"What can and what ought Freemasonry to contribute towards the welfare of mankind locally,
nationally, and internationally?" The conclusion to which the Congress appeared to arrive
upon this question was briefly this:

"Locally, Freemasonry ought to strive to make every Brother a good citizen, a good father,
and a good neighbor; whilst it ought to teach him to perform every duty of life faithfully.
Nationally, a Freemason ought to strive to promote and to maintain the welfare and the honor
of his native land, to love and to honor it himself, and, if necessary, to place his life and
fortune at its disposal; Internationally, a Freemason is bound to go still further:

he must consider himself as a member of that one great family,-the whole human race,-who
are all children of one and the same Father, and that it is in this sense, and with this spirit,


that the Freemason ought to work if he would appear worthily before the throne of Eternal
Truth and Justice."

The Congress of Basle appears to have accomplished no practical result.

*

BASTARD

The question of the ineligibility of bastards to be made Freemasons was first brought to the
attention of the Craft by Brother Chalmers I.

Paton, who, in several articles in The London Freemason, in 1869, contended that they were
excluded from initiation by the Ancient Regulations.

Subsequently, in his compilation entitled Freemasonry and its Jurisprudence, published in
1872, he cites several of the 0ld Constitutions as explicitly declaring that the men made
Freemasons shall be "no bastards." This is a most unwarrantable interpolation not to be
justified in any writer on jurisprudence; for on a careful examination of all the old manuscript
copies which have been published, no such words are to be found in any one of them.

As an instance of this literary disingenuousness, to use no harsher term, we quote the
following from his work (page 60). 'The charge in this second edition [of Anderson's
Constitutions is in the following unmistakable words: 'The men made Masons must be
freeborn, no bastard (or no bondmen), of mature age and of good report, hale and wund, not
deformed or dismembered at the time of their making.'

Now, with a copy of this second edition lying open before him, Brother Mackey found the
passage thus printed: "The men made Masons must be freeborn (or no bondmen), of mature
age and of good report, hale and sound, not deformed or dismembered at the time of their
making." The words "no bastard" are Patos's interpolation.

Again, Patos quotes from Preston the Ancient . Charges at makings, in these words: "That he
that be made be able in all degrees; that is, freeborn, of a good kindred, true, and no
bondsman or bastard, and that he have his right limbs as a man ought to have."

But on referring to Preston (edition of 1775, and all subsequent editions) we find the passage
to be correctly thus: "That he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, freeborn, of a good
kindred, true, and no bondsman, and that he have his limbs as a man ought to have." Positive
law authorities should not be thus cited, not merely carelessly, but with designed inaccuracy
to support a theory.

But although there is no regulation in the Old Constitutions which explicitly prohibits the
initiation of bastards, it may be implied from their language that such prohibition did exist.
Thus, in all the old manuscripts, we find such expressions as these : he that shall be made a
Freemason "must be freeborn and of good kindred" Sloane Manuscript (No. 3323), or ''come
of good kindred'' Edinburgh Kilwinning Manuscript, or, as the Roberts Print more definitely
has it"of honest parentage."

It is not, we therefore think, to be doubted that formerly bastards were considered as ineligible
for initiation, on the same principle that they were, as a degraded class, excluded from the
priesthood in the Jewish and the primitive Christian church. But the more liberal spirit of
modem times has long since made the law obsolete, because it is contrary to the principles of
justice to punish a misfortune as if it was a crime.

The reader should note in addition to what Brother Mackey has said in the above article that
the Illustrations of freemasonry, by William Preston, edition of 1812 (page 82), reprints a


series of charges said to be contained in a manuscript in the possession of the Lodge of
Antiquity at London, and to have been written in the reign of James the Second- The third
charge says in part:

"And no master nor fellow shall take no apprentice for less than seven years. And that the
apprentice be free-born, and of limbs whole as a man ought to be, and no bastard. And that
no master nor fellow take no allowance to be made Mason without the assent of his fellows,
at the least six or seven."

The fourth charge now goes on to say:

"That he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, free-born, of a good kindred, true, and
no bondsman, and that he have his right —limbs as a man ought to have." These charges
may well be studied in connection with what Brothers Paton and Mackey have discussed in
the foregoing.

*

BATCHELOR, JAMES CUNNINGHAM

Born of English parents in Quebec, Canada, July 10, 1818. His parents removed during his
infancy to New York. Then he received a high school education in Saint Louis, studied
medicine in New Orleans, and especially distinguished himself during the yellow fever
epidemic there. He received his First Degree in Freemasonry at Montgomery, Alabama, on
April 11, 1846, the Honorary Thirty-third in 1857, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and
became an Active in 1859. For twenty-four years he was Secretary of the Grand Lodge of
Louisiana. He succeeded General AIbert Pike, who died April 2, 1891, as Grand Commander,
the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Brother Batchelor died on July
28, 1893.

*

BATON

The truncheon or staff of a Grand Marshal, and always carried by him in processions as the
ensign of his office. It is a wooden rod about eighteen inches long. In the military usage of
England, the baton of the Earl Marshal was originally of wood, but in the reign of Richard II it
was made of gold, and delivered to him at his creation, a custom which has been continued.
In the patent or commission granted by that monarch to the Duke of Surrey the baton is
minutely described as baculum aureum circa utramque finem de nigro annulatum, meaning a
golden wand, having black rings around each end- a description that wil1 very well serve for a
Masonic baton.

*

BATS, PARLIAMENT OF

The Parliament which assembled in England in the year 1426, during the minority of Henry VI,
to settle the disputes between the Duke of Gloucester, the Regent, and the Bishop of
Winchester, tbe guardian of the young king's person, and which was so called because the
members, being forbidden by the Duke of Gloucester to wear swords, armed themselves with
clubs or bats.

It has been stated by Preston (Illustrations of Masonry, edition of 1812, page 165), that it was
in this Parliament that the Act forbidding Freemasons to meet in Chapters or Congregations
was passed; but this is erroneous, for that act was passed in 1425 by the Parliament at


Westminster, while the Parliament of Bats met at Leicester in 1426 (see Laborers, Statutes
of).

*

BATTERY

A given number of blows by the gavels of the officers, or by the hands of the Brethren, as a
mark of approbation, admiration, or reverence, and at times accompanied by the acclamation.
*

BAVARIA

Freemasonry was introduced into Bavaria, from France, in 1737. However, the Handbuch of
Schletter and Zille declares that 1777 was the beginning of Freemasonry in Bavaria proper.
The meetings of the Lodges were suspended in 1784 by the reigning duke Charles Theodore,
and the act of suspension was renewed in 1799 and 1804 by Maximilian Joseph, the King of
Bavaria.

The Order was subsequently revived in 1812 and in 1817. The Grand Lodge of Bayreuth was
constituted in 1811 under the appellation of the Grossloge zur Sonne. In 1868 a Masonic
conference took place of the Lodges under its jurisdiction, and a constitution was adopted,
which guarantees to every confederated Lodge perfect freedom of ritual and government,
provided the Grand Lodge finds these to be Masonic.

*

BAY-TREE

An evergreen plant, and a symbol in Freemasonry of the immortal nature of Truth. By the bay-
tree thus referred to in the old instructions of the Knight of the Red Cross, is meant the laurel,
which, as an evergreen, was among the ancients a symbol of immortality. It is, therefore,
properly compared with Truth, which Josephus makes Zerubbabel say is "immortal and
eternal. "

*

BAZOT, ETIENNE FRANÇOIS

A French Masonic writer, born at Nievre, March 31, 1782. He published at Paris a
Vocabulaire des Francs-Maçons in 1810. This Freemasons' Dictionary was translated into
Italian. In 1811 he published a Manuel du Franc-maçon, or Freemason's Manual, one of the
most judicious works of the kind published in France.

He was also the author of Morale de la Franc-maçonnerie, or Masonic Ethics, and the Tuileur
Expert des 33 degrés, or Tiling for Thirty-three Degrees, which is a complement to his
Manuel. Bazot was distinguished for other literary writings on subjects of general literature,
such as two volumes of Tales and Poems, A Eulogy on the Abbé de l'Epée, and as the editor
of the Biographic Nouvelle des Contemporaries, in twenty volumes.

*

B. D. S. P. H. G. F.
In the French instructions of the Knights of the East and West, these letters are the initials of
Beauté, Divinité, Sagesse, Puissance, Honneur, Gloire, Force, which correspond to the letters


of the English monitors B. D. W.P.H.G.S., which are the initials of equivalent words, Beauty,
Divinity, Wisdom, Power, Honor, Glory, Strength.

*

BEADLE

An officer in a Council of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, corresponding to the Junior Deacon
of a Symbolic Lodge. The Beadle is one, say‚ Junius, who proclaims and executes the will of
superior powers. The word is similar to the old French bedel, the Latin bedellus, and is
perhaps a corrupted form of the Anglo-Saxon bydel, all of which have the meaning of
messenger.

*

BEATON, MRS

One of those fortunate female‚ who are said to have obtained possession of the Freemasons'
secrets. The following account of her is given in A General History of the County of Norfolk,
published in 1829 (see volume ii, page 1304):

"Died in St. John's, Maddermarket, Norwich, July, 1802, aged 85, Mrs. Beaton, a native of
Wales. She was commonly called the Freemason, from the circumstance of her having
contrived to conceal herself one evening, in the wainscoting of a Lodge-room where she
learned the secret-at the knowledge of which thousands of her sex have in vain attempted to
arrive. She was, in many respects, a very singular character, of which one proof adduced is
that the secret of the Freemasons died with her."

There is no official confirmation of this story.

*

BEAUCENIFER

From Beauseant, and fero meaning to carry. The officer among the old Knight Templar whose
duty it was to carry the Beausean in battle. The office is still retained in some of the high
Degrees which are founded on Templarism.

*

BEAUCHAINE

The Chevalier Beauchaine was one of the most fanatical of the irremovable Masters of the
Ancient Grand Lodge of France. He has established his Lodge at the Golden Sun, an inn in
the Rue St. Victor, Paris, where he slept, and for six francs conferred all the Degrees of
Freemasonry. On August 17, 1747, he organized the Order of Fendeurs or Woodcutters, at
Paris.

*

BEAUSEANT

The vexillum belli, or war-banner of the ancient Templars, which is also used by the modem
Masonic Order. The upper half of the banner was black, and the lower half white: black, to
typify terror to foes, and white, fairness to friends. It bore the pious inscription, Non nobis,


Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam. This is the beginning of the first verse of Psalm
cxv, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory."

The Beauseant is frequently, says Barrington in his Introduction to Heraldry (page 121),
introduced among the decorations in the Temple Church, and on one of the paintings on the
wall, Henry I is represented with this banner in his hand.

As to the derivation of the word, there is some doubt among writers. Bauseant or bausant
was, in old French, a piebald or party-colored horse; and the word bawseant is used in the
Scottish dialect with similar reference to two colors. Thus, Burns says:

His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,

where Doctor Currie, in his Glossary of Burns, explans bawsent as meaning "having a white
stripe down the face." It is also supposed by some that the word bauseant may be only a
form, in the older language, of the modern French word bienséant, which signifies something
decorous or becoming; but the former derivation is preferable, in which bealmeant would
signify simply a party-colored banner.

With regard to the double signification of the white and black banner, the Orientalists have a
legend of Alexander the Great, which may be appropriately quoted on the present occasion,
as given by Weil in his Biblical Legends ( page 70).

"Alexander was the lord of light and darkness, when he went out with his army the light was
before him, and behind him was the darkness, so that he was secure against all ambuscades;
and by means of a miraculous white and black standard he had also the power to transform
the clearest day into midnight and darkness, or black night into noonday, just as he unfurled
the one or the other. Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered his troops invisible at his
pleasure, and came down suddenly upon his foes. Might there not have been some
connection between the mythical white and black standard of Alexander and the Beauseant of
the Templars? We know that the latter were familiar with Oriental symbolism.''

Beauseant was also the war-cry of the ancient Templars and is pronounced bo-say-ong.

*

BEAUTY

Said to be symbolically one of the three supports of a Lodge. It is represented by the
Corinthian column, because the Corinthian is the most beautiful of the ancient orders of
architecture; and by the Junior Warden, because he symbolizes the meridian sun-the most
beautiful object in the heavens. Hiram Abif is also said to be represented by the Column of
Beauty, because the Temple was indebted to his skill for its splendid decorations. The idea of
Beauty as one of the supports of the Lodge is found in the earliest rituals of the eighteenth
century, as well as the symbolism which refers it to the Corinthian column and the Junior
Warden. Preston first introduced the reference to the Corinthian column and to Hiram Abif.

Beauty, in the Hebrew, n~x~n, pronounced tif-eh-reth, was the sixth of the Cabalistic
Sephiroth, and, with Justice and Mercy, formed the second Sephirotic triad; and from the
Cabalists the Freemasons most probably derived the symbol (see Supports of the Lodge).

*

BEAUTY AND BANDS

The names of the two rods spoken of by the prophet Zechariah ( xi, 7, 10, 14), as symbolic of
his pastoral office. This expression was in use in portions of the old Masonic ritual in England;


but in the system of Doctor Hemming, which was adopted at the union of the two Grand
Lodges in 1813, this symbol, with all reference to it, was ex-punged. As Doctor Oliver says in
his Dictionary of symbolic Masonry, "it is nearly forgotten, except by a few old Masons, who
may perhaps recollect the illustration as an incidental subject of remark among the Fraternity
of that period."

*

BECKER

See Johnson

*

BECKER, RUDOLPH ZACHARIAS

A very zealous Freemason of Gotha, who published, in 1786, a historical essay on the
Bavarian Illuminati, under the title of Grundsatze Verfassung und Schicksale in Illulninatens
Order in Baiern. He was a very popular writer on educational subjects; his Instructive Tales of
Joy and Sorrow was so highly esteemed, that a half million copies were printed in German
and other languages. He died in 1802.

*

BEDARRIDE, THE BROTHERS

Mackey was convinced that the Brothers Marc, Michel, and Joseph Bédarride were Masonic
charlatans, notorious for their propagation of the Rite of Mizraim, having established in 1813,
at Paris, under the partly real and partly pretended authority of Lechangeur, the inventor of
the Rite, a Supreme Puissance for France, and organized a large number of Lodges.

In this opinion Brother Mackey is supported by Clavel who says the founders, including Marc
Bédarride, were not of high character. This is repeated by Brother Woodford in the
Cyclopedia of Freemasonry. But Brother Mackenzie, Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, says the
evidence is insufficient to prove them charlatans. He further asserts:

"There is nothing to distinguish in point of verity between the founder or introducer of one rite
above another. It must depend upon the coherence and intellectual value of the rite, which
becomes quite superfluous where there is no substantial advantage gained for the true
archeological and scientific value of Freemasonry, under whatever name the rite may be
formulated. It is in this sense that the authorities of the Grand Lodge of England--ever the
honorable custodians of Freemasonry-have most properly resisted innovations. But there are
several quasi-Masonic bodies in this country, England, let in as it were by a side door. Hence
the brethren Bédarride had as much right to carry their false ware to market as these."

Of these three brothers, Bédarride, who were Jews, Michel, who assailed the most prominent
position in the numerous controversies which arose in French Freemasonry on account of
their Rite, died February 16, 1856. Marc died ten years before, in April, 1846.

Of Joseph, who was never very prominent, we have no record as to the time of his death (see
Mizraim Rite of).

*

BEEHIVE


The bee was among the Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people, because, says
Horapollo, "of all insects, the bee alone had a king. " Hence looking at the regulated labor of
these insects when congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a beehive should have
been deemed an appropriate emblem of systematized industry. Freemasonry has therefore
adopted the beehive as a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the instructions, which says
that a Master Mason "works that he may receive wages, the better to support himself and
family, and contribute to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother, his widow and orphans" ;
and in the Old Charges, which tell us that "all Masons shall work honestly on working days,
that they may live creditably on holidays."


There seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning connected with this symbol. The ark
has already been shown to have been an emblem common to Freemasonry and the Ancient
Mysteries, as a symbol of regeneration--of the second birth from death to life. Now, in the
Mysteries, a hive was the type of the ark. "Hence," says Faber (Origin of Pagan Idolatry,
volume ii, page 133), "both the diluvian priestesses and the regenerated souls were called
bees; hence, bees were feigned to be produced from the carcass of a cow, which also
symbolized the ark; and hence, as the great father was esteemed an infernal god, honey was
much used both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries." This extract is from the article on the
bee in Evans' Animl Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture.


*


BEGTASCHI


See Turkey


*


BEHAVIOR


The' subject of a Freemason's behavior is one that occupies much attention in both the
ritualistic and the monitorial instructions of the Order. In the Charges of a Freemason,
extracted from the ancient records, and first published in the Constitutions of 1723, the sixth
article is exclusively appropriated to the subject of Behavior. It is divided into six sections, as
follows:


Behavior in the Lodge while constituted.
Behavior after the Lodge is over and the Brethren not gone.
Behavior when Brethren meet without strangers, but not in a Lodge formed.
Behavior in presence of strangers not Freemasons.
Behavior at home and in your neighborhood.
Behavior toward a strange brother.


The whole article constitutes a code of moral ethics remarkable for the purity of the principles
it inculcates, and is well worthy of the close attention of every Freemason.


It is a complete refutation of the slanders of anti-Masonic revilers. As these charges are to be
found in all the editions of the Book of Constitutions, and in many Masonic works, they are
readily accessible to everyone who desires to read them.


*


BEHOLD YOUR MASTER


When, in the instal1ation services, the formula is used, "Brethren, behold your Master," the
expression is not simply exclamatory, but is intends as the original use of the word behold
implies, to invite the members of the Lodge to fix their attention upon the new relations which



have sprung up between them and him who has just been elevated to the Oriental Chair, and
to impress upon their minds the duties which they owe to him and which he owes to them. In
like manner, when the formula is continued, "Master, behold your brethren, " the Master's
attention is impressively directed to the same change of re1ations and duties.

These are not mere idle words, but convey an important lesson, and should never be omitted
in the ceremony of installation.

*

BEL

spelled Bel, is usually pronounced bell but both Strong in his Hebrew Dictionary, and
Feyerabend in his, prefer to say bale. The word is probably the contracted form of v,
commonly pronounced bay-ahl and spelled Baal, and he was worshiped by the Babylonians
as their chief deity. The Greeks and Romans so considered the meaning and translated the
word by Zeus and Jupiter.

Bel was one of the chief gods of the Babylonians perhaps their supreme deity, and the word
has been deemed a Chaldaic form of Baal. Note Isaiah, xlvi, 1, "Bel boweth down, Nebo
stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle. " Baal signifies Lord or Master
and occurs several times in the Bible as a part of the names of various gods. Alone, the word
applies to the sun-god, the supreme male deity of the Syro-Phoenician nations.

For an account of his worship read First Kings xviii.

With Jah and On, it has been introduced into the Royal Arch system as a representative of
the Tetragrammaton, which it and the accompanying words have sometimes ignorantly been
made to displace. At the session of the General Grand Chapter of the United States, in 1871,
this error was corrected; and while the Tetragrammaton was declared to be the true omnific
word, the other three were permitted to be retained as merely explanatory.

*

BELCHER, JONATHAN

American Colonist, born January 8, 1681; graduated from Harvard University, 1699; died
August 31, 1757. He was made a Freemason at London in 1704, according to a letter he
wrote to the First Lodge in Boston on September 25, 1741, and therefore Brother M. M.
Johnson names him the Senior Freemason of America.

Brother Belcher served as Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New
Jersey (see New Age, August,1925; Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, Melvin M.
Johnson, 1924, page 49 ; History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Ossian Lang,
page 6 ; Builder, volume x, page 312).

*

BELENUS

Belenus, the Baal of the Scripture, was identified with Mithras and with Apollo, the god of the
sun. A forest in the neighborhood of Lausanne is still known as Sauvebelin, or the retreat or
abiding place of Belenus, and traces of this name are to be found in many parts of England.
The custom of kindling fires about midnight on the eve of the festival of St. John the Baptist,
at the moment of the summer solstice, which was considered by the ancients a season of
rejoicing and of divination, is a vestige of Druidism in honor of this deity.


It is a curious coincidence that the numerical value of the letters of the word Belenus, like
those of Abrazas and Mithras, all representatives of the sun, amounts to 365, the exact
number of the days in a solar year. But before ascribing great importance to this coincidence,
it may be well to read what the mathematician Augustus De Morgan has said upon the
subject of such comparisons in his Budget of Paraclozes (see Abrazas).

*

BELGIAN CONGO

The Grand Orient of Belgium has constituted three Lodges in this Colony-Ere Nouvelle,
Daennen and Labor et Libertas, the first two at Stanleyville and the third at Elizabethville.
L'Aurore de Congo Lodge at Brazzaville is controlled by the Grand Lodge of France.

*

BELGIUM

Tradition states that the Craft flourished in Belgium at Mons as early as 1721 but the first
authentic Lodge, Unity, existed at Brussels in 1757 and continued work until 1794. A
Provincial Grand Master Francis B.J. Dumont, the Marquis de Sages, was appointed by the
Moderns Grand Lodge in 1769. For some years, however, opposition from the Emperor
hiudered the expansion of the Craft.

0n January 1, 1814, there were only 27 Lodges in existence in the country.

A Grand Lodge was established by Dutch and Belgian Brethren on June 24, 1817, but it was
not successful. Belgium became independent in 1830 and a Grand Orient was formed on May
23, 1833, out of the old Grand Lodge. In 1914 it controlled 24 Lodges in Belgium and one in
the Belgian Congo.

King Leopold was himself initiated in 1813 and, although he never took a very active part in
the work he always maintained a friendly attitude towards the Craft.

On March 1, 1817, a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was
established.

*

BELIEF, RELIGIOUS

The fundamental law of Freemasonry contained in the first of the Old Charges collected in
1723, and inserted in the Book of Constitutions published in that year, sets forth the true
doctrine as to what the Institution demands of a Freemason in reference to his religious belief:

"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."

Anderson, in his second edition, altered this article, calling a Freemason a true Noachida, and
saying that Freemasons "all agree in the three great articles of Noah," which is incorrect,
since the Precepts of Noah were seven (see Religion of Freemasonry).


*

BELIZE

See British Honduras

*

BELLS

The use of a bell in the ceremonies of the Third Degree, to denote the hour, is, manifestly, an
anachronism, an error in date, for bells were not invented until the fifth century. But
Freemasons are not the only people who have imagined the existence of bells at the building
of the Temple. Henry Stephen tells us in the Apologie pour Herodote ( chapter 39 ), of a monk
who boasted that when he was at Jerusalem he obtained a vial which contained some of the
sounds of King Solomon's bells. The blunders of a ritualist and the pious fraud of a relic-
monger have equal claims to authenticity.

The Masonic anachronism, however, is not worth consideration, because it is simply intended
for a notation of time--a method of expressing intelligibly the hour at which a supposed event
occurred.

Brother Mackey, in writing the foregoing paragraph, had no doubt in mind the kind of bells
used in churches of which an early, if indeed not the earliest, application is usually credited to
Bishop Paulinus about 400 A.D.

However, in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1904, there is a report
of the discovery at Gezer of a number of small bronze bells, both of the ordinary shape with
clapper and also of the ball-and-slit form. If these bells are of the same date as the city on
whose site they were found, then they may have like antiquity of say up to 3000 B.C. Bells are
mentioned in the Bible (as in Exodus xxviii 34, and xxxix, 26, and in Zechariah xiv, 20), but
the presumption is that these were mainly symbolical or decorative in purpose.

*

BENAC

A significant word in Symbolic Freemasonry, obsolete in many of the modem systems, whose
derivation is uncertain (see Macbenac).

*

BENAI

See Bonaim

*

BENAKAIT

The name of a cavern to which certain assassins fled for concealment. The expression may
be fanciful but in wund has a curious resemblance to a couple of Hebrew words meaning
builder and tarry.

*


BENDEKAR

A significant word in the advanced degrees. One of the Princes or Intendants of Solomon, in
whose quarry some of the traitors spoken of in the Third Degree were found. He is mentioned
in the catalogue of Solomon's princes, given in First Kings (iv, 9). The Hebrew word is,
pronounced ben-day-ker, the son of him who divides or pierces. In some old instructions we
find a corrupt form, Bendaa.

*

BENEDICT XIV

A Roman pontiff whose family name was Prosper Lambertini. He was born at Bologna in
1675, succeeded Clement XII as Pope in 1740, and died in 1758. He was distinguished for
his learning and was a great encourager of the arts and sciences.

He was, however, an implacable enemy of secret societies, and issued, on the 18th of May,
1751, his celebrated Bull, renewing and perpetuating that of his predecessor which
excommunicated the Freemasons (see Bull).

*

BENEDICTION

The solemn invocation of a blessing in the ceremony of closing a Lodge is called the
benediction. The usual formula is as follows:

"May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us, and all regular Masons ; may brotherly love
prevail, and every moral and social virtue cement us. "

The response is, "So mote it be. Amen," which should always be audibly pronounced by all
the Brethren.

*

BENEFICIARY

One who receives the support or charitable donations of a Lodge. Those who are entitled to
these benefits are affiliated Freemasons, their wives or widows, their widowed mothers, and
their minor sons and unmarried daughters. Unaffiliated Freemasons cannot become the
beneficiaries of a Lodge, but affiliated Freemasons cannot be deprived of its benefits on
account of non-payment of dues.

Indeed, as this non-payment often arises from poverty, it thus furnes a stronger claim for
fraternal charity.

*

BENEFIT SOCIETY, MASONIC

In 1798, a society was established in London, under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, the
Earl of Moira, and all the other acting officers of the Grand Lodge, whose object was "the
relief of sick, aged, and imprisoned Brethren, and for the protection of their widows, children,
and orphans."


The payment of one guinea per annula entitled every member, when sick or destitute, or his
widow and orphans in case of his death, to a fixed contribution- After a few years, however,
the Society came to an end as it was considered improper to turn Freemasonry into a Benefit
Club. Benefit funds of this kind have been generally unknown to the Freemasons of America,
although some Lodges have established a fund for the purpose.

The Lodge of Strict Observance in the City of New York, and others in Troy, Ballston,
Schenectady, etc., years ago, adopted a system of benefit funds.

In 1844, several members of the Lodges in Louisville, Kentucky, organized a society under
the title of the Friendly Sons of St. John. It was constructed after the model of the English
society already mentioned. No member was received after forty-five years of age, or who was
not a contributing member of a Lodge ; the per diem allowance to sick members was seventy-
five cents; fifty dollars were appropriated to pay the funeral expenses of a deceased member,
and twenty-five for those of a member's wife ; on the death of a member a gratuity was given
to his family ; ten per cent of all fees and dues was appropriated to an orphan fund; and it was
contemplated, if the funds would justify, to pension the widows of deceased members, if their
circumstances required it.

Similar organizations are Low Twelve Clubs which have been formed in Lodges and other
Masonic bodies and these are usually voluntary, a group of the brethren paying a stipulated
sum into a common fund by regular subscriptions or by assessment whenever a member
dies; a contribution from this fund being paid to the surviving relatives on the death of any
brother affiliated in the undertaking.

But the establishment in Lodges of such benefit funds is by some Brethren held to be in
opposition to the pure system of Masonic charity, and they have, therefore, been discouraged
by several Grand Lodges, though several have existed in Scotland and elsewhere.

*

BENEVOLENCE

Cogan, in his work On the Passions, thus defines Benevolence : ''When our love or desire of
good goes forth to others, it is termed goodwill or benevolence.

Benevolence embraces all beings capable of enjoying any portion of good; and thus it
becomes universal benevolence, which manifests itself by being pleased with the share of
good every creature enjoys in a disposition to increase it, in feeling an uneasiness at their
sufferings, and in the abhorrence of cruelty under every disguise or pretext."

This spirit should pervade the hearts of all Freemasons, who are taught to look upon mankind
as formed by the Great Architect of the Universe for the mutual assistance, instruction, and
support of each other.

*

BENEVOLENCE, FUND OF

This Fund was established in 1727 by the Grand Lodge of England under the management of
a Committee of seven members, to whom twelve more were added in 1730.

It was originally supported by voluntary contributions from the various Lodges, and intended
for the relief of distressed Brethren recommended by the contributing Lodges. The Committee
was called the Committee of Charity.


The Fund is now derived partly from the fees of honor payable by Grand Officers, and the
fees for dispensations, and partly from an annual payment of four shillings from each London
Freemason and of two shillings from each country Freemason; it is administered by the Board
of Benevolence, which consists of all the present and past Grand Officers, all actual Masters
of Lodges and twelve Past Masters.


The Fund is solely devoted to charity,, and large sums of money are every year voted and
paid to petitioners. In the United States of America there are several similar organizations
known as Boards of Relief (see Relief, Board of).


*


BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS, UNITED STATES


There have been several institutions in the United States of an educational and benevolent
character, deriving their existence in whole or in part from Masonic beneficence, and among
these may be mentioned the following:


Girard College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, Louisville, Kentucky.
Oxford Orphan Asylum, Oxford, North Carolina.
Saint John's Masonic College, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Masonic Female College, Covington, Georgia.


Besides the Stephen Girard Charity Fund, founded in Philadelphia, the capital investment of
which is 562,000, the annual interest being devoted "to relieve all Master Masons in good
standing,'' there is a Charity Fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of deceased
Master Masons, and an incorporated Masonic Home. The District of Columbia has an
organized Masonic charity, entitled Saint John's Mite Association. Idaho has an Orphan Fund,
to which every Master Mason pays annually one dollar.


Indiana has organized the Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home Society. Maine has done
likewise; and Nebraska has an Orphans' School Fund (see Charity).


*


BENGABEE
Found in some old rituals of the high degrees for Bendekar, as the name of an Intendant of
Solomon. It is Bengeber in the catalogue of Solomon's officers (First Kings iv, 13), meaning
the son of Geber, or the son of the strong man.


*


BENGAL


In 1728 a Deputation was granted by Lord Kingston, Grand Master of England, to Brother
George Pomfret to constitute a Lodge at Bengal in East India, that had been requested by
some Brethren residing there ; and in the following year a Deputation was granted to Captain
Ralph Far Winter, to be Provincial Grand Master of East India at Bengal (see Constitutions,
1738, page 194) ; and in 1730 a Lodge was established at the "East India Arms, Fort William,
Calcutta, Bengal,'' and numbered 72. There is a District Grand Lodge of Bengal with 74
subordinate Lodges, and also a District Grand Chapter with 21 subordinate Chapters.


*


BIBLE



The Bible is properly called a greater light of Freemasonry, for from the center of the Lodge it
pours forth upon the East, the West, and the South its refulgent rays of Divine truth. The Bible
is used among Freemasons as a symbol of the will of God, however it may be expressed.


Therefore, whatever to any people expresses that will may be used as a substitute for the
Bible in a Masonic Lodge. Thus, in a Lodge consisting entirely of Jews, the Old Testament
alone may be placed upon the altar, and Turkish Freemasons make use of the Koran.
Whether it be the Gospels to the Christian, the Pentateuch to the Israelite, the Koran to the
Mussulman, or the Vedas to the Brahman, it everywhere Masonically conveys the same idea-
that of the symbolism of the Divine Will revealed to man.


The history of the Masonic symbolism of the Bible is interesting. It is referred to in the
manuscripts before the revival as the book upon which the covenant was taken, but it was
never referred to as a great light. In the old ritual, of which a copy from the Royal Library of
Berlin is given by Krause (Die drei ältersten Kunsturkunden der Freimaurerbrüderschaft, or
The Three Oldest Art Documents of the Masonic Fraternity, 1, 32), there is no mention of the
Bible as one of the lights. Preston made it a part of the furniture of the Lodge; but in monitors
of about 1760 it is described as one of the three great lights. In the American system, the
Bible is both a piece of furniture and a great light.


The above paragraphs by Doctor Mackey may well be extended on account of the peculiar
position occupied by the Bible in our Fraternity. No one goes through the ceremonies and
participates in Masonic activities uninfluenced by the Bible.


Studies of the Ritual necessarily rest upon the Scriptures and of those inspired by Bible
teachings and language. One good Brother earnestly and faithfully labored to have certain
ceremonies freely edited but when he, devout Churchman as he was, understood that sundry
peculiarities of language followed the example of the Bible, he gladly gave up his purpose to
alter that which abides equally typical of age as the Scriptures.


What had seemed to him mere repetition was meant for weighty emphasis, as in James (x,
27) "Pure religion and undefiled;" Hebrews (xii, 28) "with reverence and godly fear;"
Colossians (iv, 12) "stand perfect and complete," and also in the Book of Common Prayer, the
word-pairs "dissemble nor cloak," "perils and dangers," "acknowledge and confess," and so
on.
These may well be mentioned here as the tendency to change ceremonies is seldom curbed
by any consideration of the peculiar merit, other than their quaintness, of the old expressions.


The Scriptures, the Holy Writings, the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Old and New
Testaments, the Holy Bible, this word Bible from the Greek, the (sacred) books; the two parts,
Old and New Testaments, the former recording the Covenants, attested by the prophets,
between the God of Israel and His people, Christ the central figure of the latter work speaks of
the new Dispensation, a new Covenant, and the word Covenant in the Latin became
Testamentum from which we obtain the word commonly used for the two divisions of the
Bible, the Old and New Testaments. These divisions are further separated into the books of
the Bible, sixty-six in all, thirty-nine in the Old Testament, twenty-seven in the New.


We must remember that Old and New refer to Covenants, not to age of manuscripts.


Earliest Hebrew writings of, the Old Testament only date back to the ninth century after
Christ, several centuries later than the earliest New Testament Scriptures.


There is also another method of division in which the books of the Old Testament are counted
but as twenty-four, First and Second Kings, First and Second Samuel, First and Second
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and then the minor prophets, as they are called, being grouped
as one for several hundred years by the Jews and then divided into two in the sixteenth
century. Roughly we may divide the books into the law according to Moses; the historical



books of Joshua, Samuel, and the anonymous historians; the poetry and philosophy; and the
prophecies, of the Old Testament.

These standards the books contain are known as the canon, originally a measuring rod or
rule. The canon to some authorities admits none of the books of the Apocrypha, which are of
value for the insight they afford of Jewish religious life. There are the Greek Old Testament,
the Septuagint, and the Latin Old Testament, the Vulgate (Septuagint, a translation
traditionally made by seventy persons, from the Latin septuaginta; and the Vulgate, another
Latin expression, applied to the Saint Jerome version and meaning what is common) which in
these works include the Apocrypha, usually held uncanonical by Protestants, and then there
are certain other books that both Roman Catholics and Protestants consider as having even
less authority. Apocrypha comes from two Greek works krypton, to hide, and apo, meaning
away. There is also an Apocrypha of the New Testament. Many Christian writings are of this
class. Some add much light upon the early Church.

The New Testament was written at various times, Saint Matthew being followed about 64-70
A.D, by the work of Saint Mark at Rome. Saint Luke treats the subject historically, and claim is
made that this writer was also responsible for recording the Acts of the Apostles. Saint John
probably wrote his gospel near the close of the first century. His style is distinctive, and his
material favored in formulating the Christian Creed.

The early Hebrew text of the Bible was wholly of consonants. Not until the sixth or eighth
centuries did the pointed and accented lettering, a vowel system, appear, but before the tenth
century much devoted labor was applied upon critical commentaries by Jewish writers to
preserve the text from corruption. The Targum is practically a purely Jewish version of the Old
Testament dating from soon before the Christian Era. The Septuagint is a Greek version used
by the Jews of Alexandria and a Latin translation of the sixth century by' Jerome is the
Vulgate. These three are leading versions.

The history of the several translations is most interesting but deserves more detail than is
possible in our limited space. A few comments on various noteworthy editions, arranged
alphabetically, are as follows:

Coverdale's Version. Known as the "Great Bible," translated by Miles Coverdale, 1488-1568,
a York- shireman, educated with the Augustine friars at Cambridge, ordained at Norwich,
1514, becoming a monk.

By 1526 his opinions changed, he left his monastery, preached against confession, and
against images in churches as idolatry. He was on the Continent in 1532 and probably
assisted Tyndale in his task. His own work, the first complete Bible in English, appeared in
1535, the Psalms are those still used in the Book of Common Prayer. He was at Paris in 1538
printing an edition, when many copies were seized by the Inquisition, but a few got to England
where the Great Bible was published in 1539.

Coverdale was Bishop of Exeter in 1551. An exile later, he had part in the Geneva edition,
1557-60.

Douai Version. Sometimes it is spelled Douay. A town in northern France, formerly an
important center for exiled Roman Catholics from England.

Here the Douai Bible in English was published anonymously, translated from the Vulgate and
doubtless by refugees at the Seminary at Douai and the English College at Rheims, the New
Testament first appearing in 1582, the Old Testament in 1609--10.

Sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church the text has undergone several revisions, notably
in 1749--50.


Genevan Bible. Called also the Breeches Bible from its translation of Genesis iii, 7 "They
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches."

Printed in a plainly readable type, this 1560 edition improved the former black-letter printing
and was a complete revision of Coverdale's "Great Bible" in a bandy form.

Following the plan of a New Testament issued at Geneva in 1557, a Greek-Latin one in 1551,
and the Hebrew Old Testament, this Bible had the text separated into verses and there were
also marginal notes that proved popular.

King James Version. Known also as the Authorized Version, a task begun in 1604, the work
was published in 1611, the actual revision requiring two years and nine months with another
nine months preparing for the printing. Doctor Miles Smith, Bishop of Gloucester, 1612, tells
in the old preface of the style and spirit of his associates.

They went to originals rather than commentaries, they were diligent but not hasty, they
labored to improve and (modernizing the good Bishop's spelling) "lid not disdain to revise that
which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered, but having
and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting
praise for expedition, we have at the length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us,
brought the work to that pass that you see."

Mazarin Bible. Notable as the first book printed from movable metal types, about 1450,
probably by Gutenberg in Germany, but this is also credited to other printers, as Peter
Schoffer. The name of this Latin reprint of the Vulgate is from that of Cardinal Mazarin, 160261,
a Frenchman in whose library the first described copy was discovered.

Printers Bible. An early edition having a curious misprint (Psalm cxix, 161), the "Princes have
persecuted me without a cause," reading the word Printers for Princes.

Revised Version. A committee appointed in February, 1870, presented a report to the
Convocation of Canterbury, England, in May of that year, that it "should nominate a body of
its own members to undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty to invite the cooperation
of any eminent for scholarship, to whatever nation or religious body they may
belong."

Groups of scholars were formed shortly afterwards and similar co-operating companies
organized in the United States, the Roman Catholic Church declining to take part. Ten years
were spent revising the New Testament, submitted to the Convocation in 1881, the Old
Testament revision in 1884, the revised Apocrypha in 1895. After this conscientious labor had
calm, not to say cool, reception, changes were made in favorite texts, alterations upset
theories, for some, the revision was too radical and for others too timid, even the familiar
swing and sound of the old substantial sentences had less strength in their appeal to the ear
and to many the whole effect was weakened. Yet this would naturally be the result of any
painstaking revision, especially so with a work of such intimacy and importance.

Later revisions have appeared. One from the University of Chicago is a skillful edition of the
New Testament by Professor E. J. Goodspeed, whose attempt to reproduce the spirit today of
the conversational style of the old originals is praiseworthy as a purpose, though we shall
probably all continue to prefer that best known.

Tyndale's Version.. William Tyndale, 1490-1536, was born in Gloucestershire, England, on
the Welsh border, went to the Continent, first to Hamburg, then to Cologne, to translate and
print the Bible. This publication forbidden, he and his secretary escaped to Worms where an
edition of the New Testament was completed in 1526. His pamphlets indicting the Roman
Church and the divorce of the English king, Henry VIII, were attacks without gloves and
powerful influence was exerted in return. His surrender was demanded.


But not until 535 was he seized, imprisoned near Brussels, tried for heresy and on October 6,
1536, strangled to death and his body burnt. His translations are powerful and scholarly, his
literary touch certain and apt, experts crediting him with laying the sure foundation of the King
James Version of the Bible.

Vinegar Bible. A slip of some one in an edition of 1717 gave the heading to the Gospel of
Saint Luke xx, as the "Parable of the Vinegar," instead of Vineyard.

Wicked Bible. An old edition,1632, which omits by some accident the word not from the
seventh commandment (Exodus 14).

Wyclifle's Version. Spelled in many ways, John of that name, 1320--84, an English reformer,
condemned to imprisonment through the Bulls of Pope Gregory XI, the death of the king and
other interferences gave him some relief, but his attacks did not cease and his career was
stormy. Dying in church from a paralytic stroke, his remains, thirty years later were, by a
Decree of the Council of Constance and at the order of Pope Martin V, dug from the grave
and destroyed by fire. Wycliffe's personal work on the translation of the. Bible is in doubt, be it
much or little, though there is no question that his main contribution was his earnest claims for
its supreme spiritual authority and his success in making it popular, his devotion and ability
paving the way and setting the pace for the pioneer English editions known by his name, the
earliest finished about 1382, a revision of it appearing some six years later.

The reader desirous of studying the Bible will get great help in locating passages by any
Concordance, listing the words with their text references, Cruden's of 1737 being the basis of
English editions. A Bible Dictionary and the Encyclopedias assist in unearthing many details
of consequence. Several special treatises on various important persons and places are
available, the scientific publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund, established in 1865,
very useful. The study of the life of Christ is readily pursued through the New Testament with
what is called a Harmony of the Gospels, an arrangement to bring corresponding passages
together from the several documents, a convenient exhibition in unity of the isolated but
closely related facts. Books on the Book of all Books are many.

Reason and Belief, a work by a well known scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, is not only itself worthy
but it lists others of importance for study. Appeal of the Bible Today, Thistleton Mark, shows
how the Bible interprets itself and how it bears interpretation, a book listing freely many other
authorities and itself also of great individual value.

These are typical of many excellent treatises.

Of the literary values, two books in particular show clearly the influence of the Scriptures upon
pre-eminent writers, George Allen's Bible References of John Ruskin, and The Bible in
Shakespeare by William Burgess, the latter treating a field which many authors, Eaton,
Walter, Ellis, Moulton, and others, have tilled. Listen to John Ruskin (Our Fathers have told
us, chapter iii, section 37) on the Bible. It contains plain teaching for men of every rank of soul
and state in life, which so far as they honestly and implicitly obey, they Will be happy and
innocent to the utmost powers of their nature, and capable of victory over all adversities,
whether of temptation or pain.

Indeed, the Psalter alone, which practically was the service book of the Church for many
ages, contains merely in the first half of it the sum of personal and social Wisdom.

The 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 23rd, and 24th psalms, well learned and believed, are enough
for all personal guidance; the 48th, 72nd, and 75th, have in them the law and the prophecy of
all righteous government ; and every real triumph of natural science is anticipated in the
104th.

For the contents of the entire volume, consider what other group of history and didactic
literature has a range comparable with it. There are:


I. The stories of the Fall and of the Flood, the grandest human traditions founded on a true
horror of sin.
II. The story of the Patriarchs, of which the effective truth is visible to this day in the polity of
the Jewish and Arab races.
III. The story of Moses, with the results of that tradition in the moral law of all the civilized
world.
IV. The story of the Kings-virtually that of all Kinghood, in David, and of all Philosophy, in
Solomon: culminating in the Psalms and Proverbs, with the still more close and practical
Wisdom of Ecclesiastics and the Son of Sirach.
V. The story of the Prophets-virtually that of the deepest mystery, tragedy, and permanent
fate, of national existence.
VI. The story of Christ.
VII. The moral law of Saint John, and his closing Apocalypse of its fulfilment.
Think, if you can match that table of contents in any other-I do not say 'book' but 'literature.'


Think, no far as it is possible for any of us---either adversary or defender of the faith-to
extricate his intelligence from the habit and the association of moral sentiment based upon
the Bible, what literature could have taken its place, or fulfilled its function, though every
library in the world had remained, unravaged, and every teacher's truest words had been
written down.


As to Shakespeare we are reminded by the mention of his name of the monitorial item on the
wasting of man (from Henry viii, iii, 2), "Today he puts forth the tender leaves, tomorrow
blossoms, and bears his blushing honors thick upon him," and so on, a selection seldom
adhering closely to the original words.


This is the Shakespeare in whose works we have so much biblical connection that Sprague,
in his Notes on the Merchant of Venice, says "Shakespeare is so familiar with the Bible that
we who know less of the Sacred Book are sometimes slow. to catch his allusions." Green's
History of the English People tells graphically and convincingly of the power of the Bible at the
Reformation when the translation and reading of it in the common tongue was no longer
heresy and a crime punishable by fire, no more forbidden but almost the only, book in
common reach.


Had Shakespeare any' book at all, that book was the Bible.


Brother Robert Burns ( The Cotter's Saturday Night) poetically describes the evening worship,
and the reading of the Bible,
The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high;
Or, Moses bade autumnal warfare wage
With Malek's ungracious progeny ;
Or, how the royal bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire ;
Or Jacob's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire ;
Or other sacred seers that tune the sacred lyre.


Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the second name,
Had not on earth whereon to lay His head:
How His first followers and servants sped ;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land :
How he, who lone in Pathos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, ,
And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounced by
Heaven's command.



*

BIBLE ADDRESSES

The Standard Masonic Monitor of Brother George E. Simons, New York (page 21), offers an
admirable address upon the Bible that for many years has been used by Brethren in various
parts of the United States and elsewhere.

The Standard Monitor prepared by Brother Henry Pirtle, Louisville, Kentucky, 1921 (page 15),
submits another address equally, to be used with pleasure and profit. The growing custom of
presenting a suitably inscribed Bible from the Lodge to the initiate offers further opportunity to
the Brethren to enlarge upon this important theme.

A brief address is here given upon the Bible as a Book peculiarly the cherished chart of the
Freemason in struggling through the storms of life to the harbor of peace:

The Rule and Guide of Masonic Faith is the Holy Bible. From cradle unto grave we cling to
books, the permanent of friends, the sources of knowledge and inspiration.

Books are the lasting memories of mankind. Youth relief upon the printed page for records of
science, reports of philosophy, foundations of history, words of inspiring wisdom. Knowledge
of the best books and a wise use of them is superior scholarship, highest education. in age as
in youth we turn the leaves of literature for renewed acquaintance with the gracious pact and
better hold upon the living present. Of all the books is the one of leadership, the Book
Supreme blazing the way with Light of noblest excellence to man, the Bible.

Within these covers are laid down the moral principles for the up building of a righteous life.
Freemasonry lays upon the Altar of Faith this Book. Around that Altar we stand a united
Brotherhood. There we neither indulge sectarian discussion nor the choice of any Church. We
say the Freemason shall have Faith but our God is everywhere and we teach that it is the
prayer that counts, not the place of praying. For centuries the Bible has shone the beacon
light of promised immortality, the hope serene of union eternal with the beloved who go
before.
Here is the message for Masonic comfort when all else fails, the rays of truth glorifying God,
enlightening Man.

Dr. George W. Gilmore, Editor of the Homiletic Review, and Chaplain of Anglo-Saxon Lodge,
No. 137, New York City, prepared for us the following address for use in presenting a Bible to
the newly raised Freemason: My Brother: Already this evening your earnest attention has
been called to the three Great Lights in Masonry, especially to the Holy Bible. its importance
to the whole Masonic structure has been emphasized. As you observe it now on the sacred
Altar of the Brotherhood, its position is emblematic of the significance already taught you. Just
as it is the basis on which the other two Great Lights rest, so its highest teachings are the
foundation on which Freemasonry is erected, and they have been commended to you as the
basis of your own faith and practice.

There is, however, a condition in this recommendation implicit, in part, in the circumstances
under which you entered this lodge. Among the qualifications claimed for you as warranting
your admission to this place one was that you are " of lawful age."

This was not insignificant. it meant that the Lodge was receiving you as one possessing
mature judgment and the ability of a man to follow his judgment with the appropriate will to
action. Freemasonry, my Brother, looks for no blind obedience to its commands. lt expects
that its adherents will focus upon its mandates their God-given powers of intellect, and is
confident that its precepts and its works will be justified by a mature and considered estimate
of their worth. Hence, in so important a matter as that which concerns your own "faith and
practice," you are commanded to study this sacred book and "learn the way to everlasting
life," to read it intelligently and with as full appreciation of its origin and growth as you may


command.
You should realize, first, that this Book is not, speaking humanly, the product of a single mind,
the reflection of one generation. It is a double collection of many tracts or treatises.


How many hands contributed to the composition we do not now know and probably never
shall.


Some of its parts are highly complex, the product of whole schools of thought, ritual, and
learning.


Its outstanding unity, however, rests upon the sublime fact that the mind of the Great Architect
of the Universe has, in all ages and places, been in contact with the mind of His sons,
imparting to them as their capacities permitted, inspiring their sublimest thoughts and guiding
to their noblest action, and was in contact with those who penned these books.


Second, this sacred volume covers in the period when it was actually written possibly nearly
or quite thirteen hundred years-at least from the time of Moses to ths day, when 2 Peter was
written.
And much earlier traditions, handed down by word of mouth (just as the teachings of
Freemasonry are transmitted), are embodied within its pages.


The Old Testament records the history of a people from that people's unification out of clans
and tribes to its formation as a monarchy, its division, its subsequent decline and fall as a
kingdom, and its rebirth as a church state or theocracy. External history, not recorded within
the Bible, tells of the extinction of this church-state by the Romans.


The history recorded in the Old Testament relates not only to external events, but to the more
important matters of religion and ethics. It embraces not only the perfected thought of 1000
years of development, but also the crude morality of nomad tribes when "an eye tor an eye"
registered the current conception of justice.


It is a far cry from that crude and cruel morality to the teaching of Micah: ''What doth Jehovah
require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" And the
advance proceeds as we reach the New Testament. There we find such a consummate
climax of religion and morality as is reached in the summary of the commandments:" Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God With all thy heart and With all thy soul and With all thy mind and
With all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself," conjoined with such peaks of self-control as
in the command: " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse
you, pray for them that despitefully use you."


The Bible is not, then, one dead level of ethics, religion, or culture. It is the register of a
progress from a primitive stage of morals to the highest yet known. Not the inferior starting
points of this morality are commended to you, but that level of action which best befits a man
who would act on the square in this age of enlightenment.


If, therefore, you find in the record the sharp-practice of a Jacob or the polygamy of a Jacob
or a Solomon, it is not there as a pattern. for your own life and practice. It is, just a record,
faithful to fact and the witness to fidelity in recording.


You are not to reproduce in this age the life and morals of 1200 B. C., or of an earlier age.
You are to exercise the judgment of one living in the light of the prophets, of Jesus Christ, and
of the great teachers and moralists who have followed them.


The highest pattern is yours to follow, that, as the Supreme Teacher expressed it, "Ye may be
sons of your Father in heaven.'' This is the spirit and this the method in and by which you are
encouraged to approach this masterpiece of literature, ethics, and religion, to draw from it the
principles of the conduct you as a Macon shall exhibit in the lodge and in the world.



My brother, it is the beautiful practice of this lodge to present to each of the initiates a copy of
the Great Light. It is my present pleasing duty to make this presentation in the name of the
Worshipful Master and in behalf of the Lodge.

Receive, it, read it with painstaking care, study it sympathetically, appropriate its most exalted
teachings, exemplify them in your life.

Therein is found " the way to life eternal."

*

BIBLE-BEARER

In Masonic processions the oldest Master Mason present is generally selected to carry the
open Bible, Square, and Compasses on a cushion before the Chaplain.

This brother is called the Bible-Bearer. The Grand Bible-Bearer is an officer of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland.

*

BLAZING STAR

The Blazing Star, which is not, however, to be confounded with the Five-Pointed Star, is one
of the most important symbols of Freemasonry, and makes its appearance in several of the
Degrees. Hutchinson says "It is the first and most exalted object that demands our attention in
the Lodge." It undoubtedly derives this importance, first, from the repeated use that is made
of it as a Masonic emblem; and secondly, from its great antiquity as a symbol derived from
older systems.

Extensive as has been the application of this symbol in the Masonic ceremonies, it is not
surprising that there has been a great difference of opinion in relation to its true signification.

But this difference of opinion has been almost entirely confined to its use in the First Degree.
In the higher Degrees, where there has been less opportunity of innovation, the uniformity of
meaning attached to the Star has been carefully preserved.

In the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the explanation given
of the Blazing Star, is, that it is symbolic of a the Freemason, who, by perfecting himself in the
way of truth, that is to say, by advancing in knowledge, becomes like a blazing star, shining
with brilliancy in the midst of darkness. The star is, therefore, in this degree, a symbol of truth.

In the Fourth Degree of the same Rite, the star is again said to be a symbol of the light of
Divine Providence pointing out the way of truth.

In the Ninth Degree this symbol is called the star of direction; and while it primitively alludes to
an especia1 guidance given for a particular purpose expressed in the degree, it still retains, in
a remoter sense, its usual signification as an emblem of Divine Providence guiding and
directing the pilgrim in his journey through life.

When, however, we refer to Ancient Craft Freemasonry, we shall find a considerable diversity
in the application of this symbol.

In the earliest monitors, immediately after the revival of 1717, the Blazing Star is not
mentioned, but it was not long before it was introduced. In the instructions of 1735 it is
detailed as a part of the furniture of a Lodge, with the explanation that the "Mosaic Pavement


is the Ground Floor of the Lodge, the Blazing Star, the Center, and the Indented Tarsal, the
Border round about it!''

In a primitive Tracing Board of the Entered Apprentice, copied by Oliver, in his Historical
Landmark (I, 133), without other date than that it was published early in the last century," the
Blazing Star occupies a prominent position in the center of the Tracing Board. Oliver says that
it represented BEAUTY, and was called the glory in the center.

In the lectures credited to Dunckerley, and adopted by the Grand Lodge, the Blazing Star was
mid to represent "the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem, proclaiming to mankind the
nativity of the Son of God, and here conducting our spiritua1 progress to the Author of our
redemption. "

In the Prestonian lecture, the Blazing Star, with the Mosaic Pavement and the Tesselated
Border, are called the Ornaments of the Lodge, and the Blazing Star is thus explained:

"The Blazing Star, or glory in the center, reminds us of that awful period when the Almighty
delivered the two tables of stone, containing the ten commandments, to His faithful servant
Moses on Mount Sinai, when the rays of His divine glory shone so bright that none could
behold it without fear and trembling. It also reminds us of the omnipresence of the Almighty,
overshadowing us with His divine love, and dispensing His blessings amongst us; and by its
being placed in the center, it further reminds us, that wherever we may be assembled
together, God is in the midst of us, seeing our actions, and observing the secret intents and
movements of our hearts."

In the lectures taught by Webb, and very generally adopted in the United States, the Blazing
Star is said to be "commemorative of the star which appeared to guide the wise men of the
East to the place of our Savior's nativity," and it is subsequently explained as hieroglyphically
representing Divine Providence.

But the commemorative allusion to the Star of Bethlehem seeming to some to be
objectionable, from its peculiar application to the Christian religion, at the revision of the
lectures made in 1843 by the Baltimore Convention, this explanation was omitted, and the
allusion to Divine Providence alone retained.

In Hutchinson's system, the Blazing Star is considered a symbol of Prudence. "It is placed,"
says he, "in the center, ever to be present to the eye of the Mason, that his heart may be
attentive to her dictates and steadfast in her laws;-for Prudence is the rule of all Virtues;
Prudence is the path which leads to every degree of propriety; Prudence is the channel where
self-approbation flows for ever; she leads us forth to worthy actions, and, as a Blazing Star,
enlighteneth us through the dreary and darksome paths of this life'' (Spirit of Masonry, edition
of 1775, Lecture v, page 111).

Hutchinson also adopted Dunckerley's allusion to the Star of Bethlehem, but only as a
secondary symbolism.

In another series of lectures formerly in use in America, but which we believe is now
abandoned, the Blazing Star is said to be "emblematical of that Prudence which ought to
appear conspicuous in the conduct of every Mason; and is more especially commemorative of
the star which appeared in the east to guide the wise men to Bethlehem, and proclaim the
birth and the presence of the Son of God. "

The Freemasons on the Continent of Europe, speaking of the symbol, say: "It is no matter
whether the figure of which the Blazing Star forms the center be a square, triangle, or circle, it
still represents the sacred name of God, as an universal spirit who enlivens our hearts, who
purifies our reason, who increases our knowledge, and who makes us wiser and better men. "


And lastly, in the lectures revised by Doctor Hemming and adopted by the Grand Lodge of
England at the Union in 1813, and now constituting the approved lectures of that jurisdiction,
we find the following definition:

"The Blazing Star, or glory in the center, refers us to the sun, which enlightens the earth with
its refulgent rays, dispensing its blessings to mankind at large, and giving light and life to all
things here below."

Hence we find that at various times the Blazing Star has been declared to be a symbol of
Divine Providence, of the Star of Bethlehem, of Prudence, of Beauty, and of the Sun.

Before we can attempt to decide upon these various opinions, and adopt the true signification,
it is necessary to extend our investigations into the antiquity of the emblem, and inquire what
was the meaning given to it by the nations who first made it a symbol.

Sabaism, or the worship of the stars, was one of the earliest deviations from the true system
of religion.

One of its causes was the universally established doctrine among the idolatrous nations of
antiquity, that each star Was animated- by the soul of a hero god, who had once dwelt
incarnate upon earth. Hence, in the hieroglyphical system, the star denoted a god.

To this signification, allusion is made by the prophet Amos (v, 26), when he says to the
Israelites, while reproaching them for their idolatrous habits: "But ye have borne the
tabernacle of your Moloch and Chian your images, the star of your god, which ye made to
yourselves.''

This idolatry was early learned by the Israelites from their Egyptian taskmasters; and so
unwilling were they to abandon it, that Moses found it necessary strictly to forbid the worship
of anything "that is in heaven above," notwithstanding which we find the Jews repeatedly
committing the sin which had been so expressly forbidden. Saturn was the star to whose
worship they were more particularly addicted under the names of Moloch and Chian, already
mentioned in the passage quoted from Amos.

The planet Saturn was worshiped under the names of Moloch, Malcolm or Milcom by the
Ammonites, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, and under that of Chian
by the Israelites in the desert.

Saturn was worshiped among the Egyptians under the name of Raiphan, or, as it is called in
the Septuagint, Remphan. St. Stephen, quoting the passage of Amos, says, "ye took up the
tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan'' (see Acts vii, 43).

Hale, in his analysis of Chronology, says in alluding to this passage : "There is no direct
evidence that the Israelites worshiped the dog-star in the wilderness, except this passage; but
the indirect is very strong, drawn from the general prohibition of the worship of the sun, moon,
and stars, to which they must have been prone.

And this was peculiarly an Egyptian idolatry, where the dog-star was worshiped, as notifying
by his heliacal rising, or emersion from the sun's rays, the regular commencement of the
periodical inundation of the Nile. And the Israelite sculptures at the cemetery of Kibroth-
Hattaavah, or graves of lust, in the neighborhood of Sinai, remarkably abound in hieroglyphics
of the dog-star, represented as a human figure with a dog's head.

That they afterwards sacrificed to the dog-star, there is express evidence in Josiah's
description of idolatry, where the Syriac Mazaloth (improperly, termed planets) denotes the
dog-star; in Arabic, Mazaroth."


Fellows (in his Exposition of the Mysteries, page 7) says that this dog-star, the Anubis of the
Egyptians, is the Blazing Star of Freemasonry, and supposing that the 1atter is a symbol of
Prudence, which indeed it was in some of the ancient lectures, he goes on to remark ; ''What
connection can possibly exist between a star and prudence, except allegorically in reference
to the caution that was indicated to the Egyptians by the first appearance of this star, which
warned them of approaching danger.''

But it will hereafter be seen that he has totally misapprehended the true signification of the
Masonic symbol. The work of Fellows, it may be remarked, is an unsystematic compilation of
undigested learning; but the student who is searching for truth must carefully eschew all his
deductions as to the genius and spirit of Freemasonry.

Notwithstanding a few discrepancies that may have occurred in the Masonic lectures, as
arranged at various periods and by different authorities, the concurrent testimony of the
ancient religions, and the hieroglyphic 1anguage, prove that the star was a symbol of God. It
was so used by the prophets of old in their metaphorica1 style, and it has so been generally
adopted by Masonic instructors.

The application of the Blazing Star as an emblem of the Savior has been made by those
writers who give a Christian explanation of our emblems, and to the Christian Freemason
such an application will not be objectionable.

But those who desire to refrain from anything that may tend to impair the tolerance of our
system, will be disposed to embrace a more universal explanation, which may be received
alike by all the disciples of the Order, whatever may be their peculiar religious views. Such
persons will rather accept the expression of Doctor Oliver, who, though much disposed to
give a Christian character to our Institution, says in his Symbol of Glory (page 292), "The
Great Architect of the Universe is therefore symbolized in Freemasonry by the Blazing Star,
as the Herald of our salvation." Before concluding, a few words may be said as to the form of
the Masonic symbol. It is not a heraldic star or estella, for that always consists of six points,
while the Masonic star is made with five points.

This, perhaps, was with some involuntary allusion to the five Points of Fellowship. But the
error has been committed in all our modern Tracing Boards of making the star with straight
points, which form, of course, does not represent a blazing star. John Guillim, the editor in
1610 of the book A Display of Heraldirie, says:

"All stars should be made with waved points, because our eyes tremble at beholding them.''
In the early Tracing Board already referred to, the star with five straight points is
superimposed upon another of five waving points. But the latter are now abandoned, and we
have in the representations of the present day the incongruous symbol of a blazing star with
five straight points. In the center of the star there was always placed the letter G, which like
the Hebrew yod, was a recognized symbol of God, and thus the symbolic reference of the
Blazing Star to Divine Providence is greatly strengthened.

*

BLAZING STAR, ORDER OF THE

The Baron Tschoudy was the author of a work entitled The Blazing Star (see Tschoudy). On
the principles inculcated in this work, he established, says Thory Acta Latomorum I, 94), at
Paris, in 1766, an Order called "The Order of the Blazing Star," which consisted of Degrees of
chivalry ascending to the Crusades, after the Templar system usually credited to Ramsay. It
never, however, assumed the prominent position of an active rite.

*

BLUE


This is emphatically the color of Freemasonry. It is the appropriate tincture of the Ancient
Craft Degrees. It is to the Freemason a symbol of universal friendship and benevolence,
because, as it is the color of the vault of heaven, which embraces and covers the whole
globe, we are thus reminded that in the breast of every brother these virtues should be
equally as extensive. It is therefore the only color, except white, which should be used in a
Master's Lodge for decorations. Among the religious institutions of the Jews, blue was an
important color. The robe of the high priest's ephod, the ribbon for his breastplate, and for the
plate of the miter, were to be blue. The people were directed to wear a ribbon of this color
above the fringe of their garments; and it was the color of one of the veils of the tabernacle,
where, Josephus says, it represented the element of air. The Hebrew word used on these
occasions to designate the color blue or rather purple blue, is tekelet; and this word seems to
have a singular reference to the symbolic character of the color, for it is derived from a root
signifying perfection; now it is well known that, among the ancients, initiation into the
mysteries and perfection were synonymous terms; and hence the appropriate color of the
greatest of all the systems of initiation may well be designated by a word which also signifies
perfection.

This color also held a prominent position in the symbolism of the Gentile nations of antiquity.
Among the Druids, blue was the symbol of truth, and the candidate, in the initiation into the
sacred rites of Druidism, was invested with a robe composed of the three colors, white, blue,
and green.

The Egyptians esteemed blue as a sacred color, and the body of Amun, the principal god of
their theogony, was painted light blue, to imitate, as Wilkinson remarks, "his peculiarly exalted
and heavenly nature."

The ancient Babylonians clothed their idols in blue, as we learn from the prophet Jeremiah (x,
9). The Chinese, in their mystical philosophy, represented blue as the symbol of the Deity,
because, being, as they say, compounded of black and red, this color is a fit representation of
the obscure and brilliant, the male and female, or active and passive principles.

The Hindus assert that their god, Vishnu, was represented of a celestial or sky blue, thus
indicating that wisdom emanating from God was m be symbolized by this color. Among the
medieval Christians, blue was sometimes considered as an emblem of immortality, as red
was of the Divine love. Portal says that blue was the symbol of perfection, hope, and
constancy. "The color of the celebrated dome, azure," says Weale, in his treatise on Symbolic
Colors, "was in divine language the symbol of eternal truth; in consecrated language, of
immortality, and in profane language, of fidelity."

Besides the three degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, of which blue is the appropriate
color, this tincture is also to be found in several other degrees, especially of the Scottish Rite,
where it bears various symbolic significations; all, however, more or less related to its original
character as representing universal friendship and benevolence.

In the Degree of Grand Pontiff, the Nineteenth of the Scottish Rite, it is the predominating
color, and is there said to be symbolic of the mildness, fidelity, and gentleness which ought to
be the characteristics of every true and faithful brother.

In the Degree of Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, the blue and yellow, which are its
appropriate colors, are said to refer to the appearance of Jehovah to Moses on Mount Sinai in
clouds of azure and gold, and hence in this degree the color is rather a historical than a moral
symbol.

The blue color of the tunic and apron, which constitutes a part of the investiture of a Prince of
the Tabernacle, or Twenty-fourth Degree in the Scottish Rite, alludes to the whole symbolic
character of the degree, whose teachings refer to our removal from this tabernacle of clay to
"that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The blue in this degree is,
therefore, a symbol of heaven, the seat of our celestial tabernacle.


Brothers John Heron Lepper and Philip Crossle contributed to Ars Quatuor Coronalorum
(volume xxxvi, part 3, page 284), a discussion of Masonic Blue from which the following
abstract has been made. Reference being first directed to other contributions to the subject in
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (xxii, 3; xxiii); and to the Transactions, Lodge of Research (1909-In,
page 109), the authors state their belief that the Gold and Blue worn by the officers of the
Grand Lodge of Ireland and the members of the Grand Master's Lodge, Dublin, are
symbolical of the Compasses from the very inception of a Grand Lodge in Ireland, the
symbolism being introduced there from England in or before 1725. After the first dozen years
some variations were made in the established forms and the opinion is hazarded that one of
these changes was from sky-blue to the dark Garter Blue for the ribbons and lining of the
aprons then worn by the officers of the Grand Lodge of England, afterwards the Moderns.

On Saint John's Day in June, 1725, when the Earl of Rosse was installed Grand Master of
Ireland, he was escorted to the King's Inns by "Six Lodges of Gentlemen Freemasons," the
members of one "wore fine Badges full of Crosses and Squares, with this Motto, Spes mea in
Deo est (My hope is in God), which was no doubt very significant, for the Master of it wore a
Yellow Jacket, and Blue Britches." Brethren of the Grand Lodge still wear working aprons with
yellow braid and yellow fringe with sky blue border on a plain white ground with no other
ornament. These are probably syrnbolical of the compasses as in the following quotation from
a spurious ritual published in the Dublin Intelligence, August 29, 1730:

After which I was clothed.

N.B. The clothing is putting on the Apron and Gloves.
Q. How was the Master clothed?
A. in a Yellow Jacket and Blue Pair of Breeches.
N B The Master is not otherwise Clothed than common. the Question and Answer are only
emblematical, the, Yellow Jacket, the Compass, and the Blue Breeches, the Steel Points.

At a Masonic Fête in the Theater Royal, Dublin, December 6, 1731, we find "The Ladies all
wore yellow and Blue Ribbons on their Breasts, being the proper Colors of that Ancient and
Right Worshipful Society."

From the first the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued Lodge Warrants bearing Yellow and Blue
ribbons supporting the seal showing a hand and trowel, a custom continued until about 1775.

The Grand Lode of Ireland preserves a cancelled Warrant issued June 6, 1750, to erect a
Lodge No. 209 in Dublin. On the margin is a colored drawing of the Master on his throne and
he wears a yellow jacket and blue breeches-with a red cloak and cocked hat-all of the
Georgian period. An old picture-said to be after Hogarth-in the Library of Grand Lodge of
England shows a Freemason with a yellow waistcoat. Our late Brother W, Wonnacott, the
Librarian, thought the color of this garment was no accident and is symbolical of the brass
body of the Compasses.

Up to recent years the members of Nelson Lodge, No, 18, Newry, County Down, Ireland,
wore blue coats and yellow waistcoats, both having brass buttons with the Lodge number
thereon. The color of the breeches has not been preserved but no doubt it was intended to be
the same as the coat.

Union Lodge, No. 23, in the same town, must have worn the same uniform, for there is still
preserved a complete set of brass buttons for such a costume.

These two Lodges, 18 and 23, were formed in 1809 from an older Lodge, No. 933, Newry,
warranted in 1803. But from the fact that in Newry there still works the oldest Masonic Lodge
in Ulster, warranted in 1737 and also from the fact that. Warrant No. 16, originally, granted in


l732 or 1733, was moved to and revived at Newry in 1766, there can be no question but that

Masonic customs had a very strong foothold in that town.
That this custom was an old custom in Newry is also shown by the coat and vest which the
late Brother Dr, F, C. Crossle had made for himself, he being intensely interested in Masonic
lore, and having learned from the lips of many veteran Freemasons in Newry. that. this was
the old and correct Masonic dress for festival occasions. It is true we cannot assume a
general practice from a particular custom, as in the case of the Newry usage, nevertheless
the latter is another link in the chain.

*
BENJAMIN
A significant word in several of the degrees which refer to the second Temple, because it was

only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin that returned from the captivity to rebuild it. Hence, in
the Freemasonry of the second Temple, Judah and Benjamin have superseded the columns
of Jachin and Boaz ; a change the more easily made because of the identity of the initials.

*
BENKHURIM
Corruptly spelled benchorim in some old monitors. This is a significant word in the high

degrees, probably signifying one that is freeborn, from son of the freeborn. The word has also
a close resemblance in sound to the Hebrew for son of Hiram.
*

BENYAH
or Beniah. Lenning gives this form, Benayah. The son of Jah, a significant word in the
advanced degrees. The Hebrew is n-iz.

*
BERITH
The Hebrew Word meaning a covenant. A significant word in several of the advanced

degrees.
*
BERLIN
Capital of the old kingdom of Prussia, and the seat of three Grand Lodges, namely: the Grand

National Mother Lodge, founded in 1744; the Grand Lodge of Germany, founded in 1770, and
the Grand Lodge of Royal York of Friendship, founded in 1798 (see German y).
*

BERMUDAS
A small group of islands in the West Atlantic Ocean. The first Provincial Grand Master of the
Bermudas was Brother Alured Popple, appointed by Lord Strathmore in 1744. A Lodge was


chartered in 1761 by the Grand Lodge, "Moderns," of England as Union Lodge, No. 266. The
first to be warranted by the Athol Grand Lodge was Saint George, No. 307.

The English Provincial Grand Lodge did not long survive but in 1803 a Province under the
Grand Lodge of Scotland was established in the Bermudas. Two Lodges, Saint George's and
Civil and Military, are still active under the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

It was discovered in 1813 that the Lodges instituted by the "Ancient" were still working but
those chartered by the ''Moderns'' had ceased all activity. There is a Lodge, Atlantic Phoenix,
at Hamilton, at work , since 1797.

*

BERNARD, DAVID

An expelled member under whose name was published, in the year 1829, a pretended
exposition entitled Light on Masonry. The book was one of the fruits of the anti-Masonic
excitement of the day. It is a worthless production, intended as a libel on the Institution.

*

BERNARD, SAINT

A famous preacher and Theologian, born in France in 1090, was the founder of the Order of
Cistercian Monks. He took great interest in the success of the Knights Templar, whose Order
he cherished throughout his whole life. His works contain numerous letters recommending
them to the favor and protection of the great. In 1128, he himself is said to have drawn up the
Rule of the Order, and among his writings is to be found a Sermo exhortatorius ad Milites
Templi, or an Exhortation to the Soldiers of the Temple, a production full of sound advice. To
the influence of Bemard and his untiring offices of kindness, the Templars were greatly
indebted for their rapid increase in wealth and consequence. He died in the year 1153.

*

BERYL

The Hebrew name is pronounced tar-sheesh. A precious stone, the first in the fourth row of
the high priest's breastplate. Color, bluish-green. It has been ascribed to the tribe of
Benjamin.

*

BEYERLE, FRANÇOIS LOUIS DE

A French Masonic writer of some prominence toward the close of the eighteenth century. He
was a leading member of the Rite of Strict Observance, in which his adopted name was
Eques à Flore. He wrote a criticism on the Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, which was
published under the title of Oratio de Conventu generali Latomorum apud aquas Wilhelminas,
prope Hanauviam. He also wrote an Essai sur la Franc-Maçonnerie, ou du but essential et
fondamenal de la Franc-Maçonnerie, Essay on Freemasonry, or the essential and
fundamental purpose of Freemasonry; translated the second volume of Frederic Nicolai's
essay on the crimes imputed to the Templars, and was the author of several other Masonic
works of less importance. He was a member of the French Constitutional Convention of 1792.
He wrote also some political essays on finances, and was a contributor on the same subject
to the Encyclopédie Méthodique.

*


BEZALEEL

One of the builders of the Ark of the Covenant (see Aholiab).

*

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In French, we have a Bibliographie des Ouvrages, Opuscules, Encycliques ou écrits les p1us
remarquables, publiés sur l'histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie depuis 1723 jusqu'en 1814,
Bibliography of the Works, Booklets, Circulars, or more remarkable writings, published on the
History of Freemasonry since 1725, as far as 1814. It is by Thory, and is contained in the first
volume of his Acta Latotnorum. Though not full, it is useful, especially in respect to French
works, and it is to be regretted that it stops at a period anterior to the Augustan age of
Masonic literature. In German we have the work of Dr. Georg B. F. Kloss, entitled
Bibliographie der Freimaurerei, published at Frankfort in 1844. At the time of its publication it
was an almost exhaustive work, and contains the titles of about 5,400 items classified
according to the subject matter of the works listed. Reinhold Taute published his Maurerische
Buecherkunde at Leipzig in 1886. In 1911 begun the publication of the three volumes of
August Wolfstieg's Bibliographie der Freimauerischen Literatur listing 43,347 titles of works
treating of Freemasonry. The three volumes of Wolfstieg's elaborate compilation, appearing
respectively in 1911, 1912, and 1914, listing and briefly describing over forty-three thousand
items, was continued by Brother Bernhard Beyer of the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne in Beyreuth,
Germany, whose 1926 volume adds over eleven thousand references.

Brother Silas H. Shepherd, Wisconsin Grand Lodge Committee on Masonic Research, has
prepared a list of Masonic Bibliographies and Catalogues in the English Language, 1920, and
the Committee has also published a selected List of Masonic Literature, 1923, and these have
been made all the more useful by An Essay on Masonic History and Reference Works by
Brother Shepherd. Brother William L. Boyden, Librarian, Supreme Council, Southern
Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, has described the method used in the great
Library under his charge at Washington, District of Columbia, in a pamphlet, Classification of
the Literature of Freemasonry, 1915, a plan peculiarly applicable to Masonic libraries. In this
connection we are reminded of the late Brother Frank J. Thompson, Grand Secretary, Grand
Lodge of North Dakota, and a greatly esteemed correspondent of ours. He published about
1903 a System of Card Membership Record for Masonic Bodies and a Scheme of
Classification for Masonic Books, the latter being an extension of the Dewey decima1 system.

*

BIELFELD, JACOB FREDERICK

Baron Bielfeld was born March 31, 1717, and died April 5, 1770. He was envoy from the court
of Prussia to The Hague, and a familiar associate of Frederick the Great in the youthful days
of that Prince before he ascended the throne. He was one of the founders of the Lodge of the
Three Globes in Berlin, which afterward became a Grand Lodge. Through his influence
Frederick was induced to become a Freemason. In Bielfeld's Freundschaftlicher Briefe, or
Familiar Letters, are to be found an account of the initiation of the Prince, and other curious
details concerning Freemasonry.

*

BINNING, LORD

Deputy Grand Master, Scot1and, 1789.


MACKEY'S
FREEMASONRY ENCYCLOPEDIA
B-2


BIRKHEAD, MATTHEW


A Freemason who owes his reputation to the fact that he was the author of the universally
known Entered Apprentice's song, beginning:


Come let us prepare
We Brothers that are.
Met together on merry Occasion;
Let's drink, laugh, and sing;
Our wine has a spring.
'Tis a Health to an Accepted Mason.


This song first appeared in Read's Weekly Journal for December 1, 1722, and then was
published in the Book of Constitutions in 1723, after the death of its author, which occurred on
December 30, 1722.


Birkhead was a singer and actor at Drury Lane Theater in London, and was Master of Lodge
V when Doctor Anderson was preparing his Constitutions, His funeral is thus described in
Read's Weekly Journal for .January 12, 1723. "Mr. Birkhead was last Saturday night carried
from his Lodgings in Which-street to be interred at St Clements Danes; the Pall was
supported by six Free-Masons belonging to Drury-Lane Play-house; the other Members of
that particular Lodge of which he was a Warden, with a vast number of other Accepted-
Masons, followed two and two; both the Pall-bearers and others were in their white-aprons"


(see also Entered Apprentices's Song and Tune, Freemasons').


*


BLACK


Black, in the Masonic ritua1, is constantly the symbol of grief. This is perfectly consistent with
its use in the world, where black has from remote antiquity been adopted as the garment of
mourning.


In Freemasonry this color is confined to but a few degrees, but everywhere has the single
meaning of sorrow. Thus in the French Rite, during the ceremony of raising a candidate to the
Master's Degree, the Lodge is clothed in black strewed with the representations of tears, as a
token of grief for the loss of a distinguished member of the fraternity, whose tragic history is
commemorated in that degree.



This usage is not, however, observed in the York Rite. The black of the Elected Knights of
Nine, the Illustrious Elect of Fifteen, and the Sublime Knights Elected, in the Scottish Rite, has
a similar import.

Black appears to have been adopted in the degree of Noachite, as a symbol of grief,
tempered with humility, which is the virtue principally dilated on in the ceremony.

The garments of the Knights Templar were originally white, but after the death of their
martyred Grand Master, James DeMolay, the modern Knights assumed a black dress as a
token of grief for his loss.

The same reason led to the adoption of black as the appropriate color in the Scottish Rite of
the Knights of Kadosh and the Sublime Princes of the Roya1 Secret.

The modern American modification of the Templar costume abandons all reference to this
historical fact.

One exception to this symbolism of black is to be found in the degree of Select Master, where
the vestments are of black bordered with red, the combination of the two colors showing that
the degree is properly placed between the Royal Arch and Templar degrees, while the black
is a symbol of silence and secrecy, the distinguishing virtues of a Select Master.

*

BLACKBALL

The ball used in a Masonic ballot by those who do not wish the candidate to be admitted.
Hence, when an applicant is rejected, he is said to be "blackballed."

The use of black balls may be traced as far back as the ancient Romans. Thus, Ovid says in
the Metamorphoses (xv, 41), that in trials it was the custom of the ancients to condemn the
prisoner by black pebbles or to acquit him by white ones: Mos erat antiquus, niveis atrisque
lapillis, His dammare reos, illis absolvere culpae.

*

BLACKBOARD

In German Lodges the Schwarze Tafel, or Blackboard, is that on which the names of
applicants for admission are inscribed, so that every visitor may make the necessary inquiries
whether they are or are not worthy of acceptance.

*

BLACK BROTHERS, ORDER OF THE

Lenning says that the Schwarze Brüder was one of the College Societies of the German
Universities. The members of the Order, however, denied this, and claimed an origin as early
as 1675. Thory, in the Acta Latomorum (1, 313), says that it was largely spread through
Germany, having its seat for a long time at Giessen and at Marburg, and in 1783 being
removed to Frankfort on the Oder.

The same writer asserts that at first the members observed the dogmas and ritual of the
Kadosh, but that afterward the Order, becoming a political society, gave rise to the Black
Legion, which in 1813 was commanded by M. Lutzow.


*
BLAÉRFINDY, BARON GRANT DE
Scottish officer in French army; prominent in the French high grades and Scottish Philosophic

Rite and credited by some (see Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie Française, Albert Lantoine,
1925, Paris, page 221) as the founder of the grades of the Sublime Master of the Luminous
Ring (Académie des Sublimes Maitres de l'Anneau Lumineux), a system in which Pythagoras
is deemed the creator of Freemasonry.

*
BLAVATSKY, HELENA PETROVNA
Russian theosophist, born July 31, 1831; died May 8, 1891, established at New York in 1875

the Theosophica1 Society. A sketch of the history of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of
Masonry, published by- John Hogg at London, 1880, says on page 58 that "The 24th of
November, 1877, the Order conferred upon Madam H. P. Blavatsky the Degrees of the Rite of
Adoption. "

*
BLAYNEY, LORD
Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of the Moderns, 1764-6.
*
BLESINTON, EARL OF
Grand Master of Ire1and, 1738-9; also of the English Grand Lodge of the Ancient, 1756-9.

The name Blesinton has been variously spelled by members of the family but the spelling
here given is taken from the signature of the Brother in the records of his Grand Lodge.
*
BLESSING
See Benediction
*

BLIND
A blind man cannot be initiated into Freemasonry under the operation of the old regulation,
which requires physical perfection in a candidate. This rule has nevertheless been
considerably modified in some Jurisdictions.


*
BLINDNESS
Physical blindness in Freemasonry, as in the language of the Scriptures, is symbolic of the

deprivation of moral and intellectual light. It is equivalent to the darkness of the Ancient
Mysteries in which the neophytes were enshrouded for periods varying from a few hours to
many days. The Masonic candidate, therefore, represents one immersed in intellectual


darkness, groping in the search for that Divine light and truth which are the objects of a
Freemason's1abor (see Darkness).
*

BLOW

The three blows given to the Builder, according to the legend of the Third Degree, have been
differently interpreted as symbols in the different systems of Freemasonry, but always with
some reference to adverse or malignant influences exercised on humanity, of whom Hiram is
considered as the type. Thus, in the symbolic Degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, the
three blows are said to be typical of the trials and temptations to which man is subjected in
youth and manhood, and to death, whose victim he becomes in old age. Hence the three
Assassins are the three stages of human life. In the advanced Degrees, such as the
Kadoshes, which are founded on the Templar system commonly credited to Ramsay, the
reference is naturally made to the destruction of the Order, which was effected by the
combined influences of Tyranny, Superstition, and Ignorance, which are therefore symbolized
by the three blows; while the three Assassins are also said sometimes to be represented by
Squin de Florean, Naffodei, and the Prior of Montfaucon, the three perjurers who swore away
the lives of DeMolay and his Knights. In the astronomical theory of Freemasonry, which
makes it a modern modification of the ancient sun-worship, a theory advanced by Ragon, the
three blows are symbolic of the destructive influences of the three winter months, by which
Hiram, or the Sun, is shorn of his vivifying power. Des Etangs has generalized the Templar
theory, and, supposing Hiram to be the symbol of eternal reason, interprets the blows as the
attacks of those vices which deprave and finally destroy humanity. However interpreted for a
special theory, Hiram the Builder always represents, in the science of Masonic symbolism, the
principle of good; and then the three blows are the contending principles of evil.

*

"BLUE BANNER, THE" LODGE

Gould, Hughan, Lane, and others who in the 1875-1890 period began the writing of Masonic
history according to the canons of scholarly work which elsewhere governed professional
historians, always hoped to find evidence of a great antiquity for pre-1717 Lodges but insisted
on documentary proof, and refused to accept traditions, as they were right in doing, though it
is now believed that they were somewhat more skeptical than they needed to have been.
Also, present-day scholars know , they sometimes overlooked data which belonged neither to
the class of traditions nor to the class of documents ; these data are present Lodge facts,
customs, or possessions which in themselves, and necessarily, imply a long period of time.

A datum of this kind, an exceptionally interesting one, is the Blue Banner which was
possessed by an Edinburgh Lodge, the history of which is given in Annals of Journeyman
Masons, No. 8, by Seggie and Tumbull; Thomas Allan and Sons; Edinburg; l930. This Lodge
began as a sort of offshoot, or Side Order, of an old Operative Lodge, and is therefore
reminiscent of the "Acception" in the Mason Company of London. The history of the Blue
Banner goes back for about eight centuries ; it was given to the Scottish Trade Gilds when
they joined the Crusade under Pope Urban A, and for centuries entitled its possessors not
only to special honors but to special privileges, and is more than once mentioned in the early
records of the burgh.

This history contains one entry of a special interest to American Masons. In September, 1918,
the Lodge was visited by Bro. Sam Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor;
he received the distinction for that Lodge a rare one, of being elected an Honorary Member.
His home Lodge was Dawson's No 16 Washington D. C.

See also An Historical Account of the Blue Blanket; or Crafts-Men's Banner. Containing the
Fundamental Principles of the Good-Town, u¤th the Powers and Prerogatives of the Crafts of


Edinburgh, Etc., by Alexander Pennecuik; Edinburgh; 1722. There were 14 incorporated
Crafts in Edinburgh in 1722.

*

BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS

In England of the Eighteenth Century a permanent association or society was required to
have a sponsor, the more exalted in the rank the better, who was named as its Patron - as the
King himself was Patron of the Royal (scientific) Society; it was also expected to have
authorization in the form of a charter, or deputation, or some similar instrument ; and the older
one of these written instruments might be, other things being equal , the more weight it
possessed. The old Masonic Lodges in London at the beginning of the Century had Sir
Christopher Wren as their patron (so tradition affirms) and for written charter each one had a
copy of the Old Charges ; these documents attested that their original authority had been a
Royal Charter granted by a Prince Edwin seven centuries before ; and though historians , for
sound reasons, question this particular claim, it is important to remember that neither the
Lodges nor the public between 1700 and 1725 ever questioned it.

In 1716 representatives of some four or five old Lodges, and Probably after discussions with
other Lodges not represented, decided to set up a Body in which each Lodge could be a
member, and which would be a central meeting place and at the same time could bring the
Lodges into a unity of work and practice. This they called a Grand ( or chief) Lodge; and in
1717 they erected it by official action, and put Anthony Sayer in the Chair as Grand Master.

This new Grand Lodge was itself a Lodge and therefore needed both a Patron and a Charter,
or Old Charges, of its own, and suitable for needs not identical with those of a member
Lodge. It found a Patron in the person of the Duke of Montague, elected Grand Master in
1721, after a time, and especially after the sons of George A had become Masons, it was
under the patronage of the Royal Family and has been so ever since (Queen Victoria officially
declared herself its Patroness).

To prepare a Grand Lodge equivalent of the Old Charges was a more difficult matter. Veteran
Masons were consulted ; old manuscripts were borrowed from Lodges (and sometimes not
returned, as when Desaguliers forgot to return documents to the Lodge of Antiquity). Some of
the Lodges which were opposed to the whole Grand Lodge plan destroyed their documents.
An unknown group of Masons forestalled the Grand Lodge by having J. Roberts print a
version, now called the Roberts Constitutions, dated 1722 (of the two existing copies one is in
the Iowa Masonic Library). From the Lodges in favor of the Grand Lodge plan fourteen
veteran Masons acted as an advisory committee. By 1722 George Payne, a Grand Master,
had prepared an acceptable version of that part of the Old Charges, the important half, which
was called the Old Regulations. By the following year, Grand Lodge, reporting through a
Committee headed by James Anderson, adopted a completed manuscript, entitled it The
Constitution of Freemasons, and had James Anderson print it. Why this book has been
accredited to the authorship of James Anderson is a mystery; he is called "author" at one or
two places but as then used the word could mean "editor" or "scribe"; and his name does not
appear on the title page. Payne wrote about one-half of it. J. T. Desaguliers wrote the
dedication; the rest of it was the joint work of many hands and at least two Committees. The
so-called historical part was collected-the record says "collated''-from Lodge copies of the Old
Charges which differed much among themselves in detail. The title is a complete description
of the book :

"The Constitution, History, Laws, Charges, Orders, Regulations, and Usages of the Right
Worshipful FRATERNITY of Accepted Free MASONS; collected From their general
RECORDS and their faithful TRADITIONS of many Ages.

To be Read At the Admission of a NEW BROTHER, when the Master or Warden shall begin,
or order some other Brother to read as follows."


then follows the text, in the first sentence of which reference is made to ''God, the great
Architect of the Universe,'' and Geometry is named as the Masonic art par excellence,
because it was the art used in architecture.

The publisher's signature on the title page :

"London, Printed by William Hunter, for John Senex at the Globe, and John Hooke at the
Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-Street. In the Year of Masonry
5723. Anno Domini 1723."

This dating is a fact of prime importance, for it proves that the Freemasons identified their
Fraternity with architecture which they rightly assumed to be as old as man. Theorists who
have argued for another origin' of Freemasonry, among the Ancient Mysteries, or in occult
circles, or in political circles, etc., will first have to explain why the founders of the Speculative
Craft had not even heard of such origins ; and one may safely assume that they knew more
about the founding of Speculative Masonry than theorism two hundred years afterwards. As
time passed, and Lodges increased, amendments and revisions were called for; this was
satisfied by the issuance of new editions.

NOTE. The Fifth, or 1784, Edition is there accredited to John Northouck, in reality it should
have been named after William Preston because he did the work on it. As each new Grand
Lodge was erected in one Country after another, and in America in one State after another, it
wrote or adopted a Book of its own. Such a Book dated as of today bears on the face of it little
resemblance to the Edition of 1723 ; but the change from decade to decade has been a
gradual one, always made in response to new needs, and in their principles and every other
fundamental any regular Constitution of today is a direct descendant of the Constitution of
1723. The Ancient Grand Lodge, erected in London in 1751, which was to become a rival of
the 1717 Grand Body until 1813, published in 1756 a Book of its own, which it called Ahiman
Rezon ; this also was in substance a repetition of the Book of 1723. Considered as a work of
literature the most masterly version is the original Constitution of Ireland, a re-writing of the
1723 Edition by John Pennell, published in 1730.

A half century ago a number of writers proposed the theory that "Operative" Masonry had
become defunct; that Desaguliers, Anderson, Payne, Montague, and a number of other
''gentlemen,'' "captured" the machinery of organization, and turned it into a Speculative
Fraternity. This theory went to pieces against such facts as:

first, that the Grand Lodge began in 1716-not 1717- and that those gentlemen were not
Masons for some time afterwards, at least not London Masons, and were not among the
founding fathers, second, the old Lodges were not "Operative'' but only partly so, and one of
them was wholly composed of Speculatives. Desaguliers and his colleagues were architects
of the Grand Lodge system; they did not create anything new, they only found a new way for
carrying on what was already very old. This is made clear by the Book of 1723 itself, and by
the circumstances under which it was prepared.

*

BOOKPLATES, MASONIC

Masonic Bookplates, by J. Hugo Tatsch and Winwood Prescott (The Masonic Bibliophiles;
Cedar Rapids, Ia. ; 1928), lays down the accepted rules for a correct and (by connoisseurs)
acceptable Masonic Ex Libris, or bookplate. Taking it for granted that a skilled artist will draw
or paint it, and that it will be well engraved, the two authors advise: first, that the Mason who
is to use it shall include in it only such emblems and symbols as represent the Rite (or Rites)
to which he belongs ; second, that it be "personalized" by including in the design something to
represent his own vocation, avocation, hobby, special interest, etc.


Shute, who wrote and published the first book on architecture ever to be printed in England, is
said to have been also the first engraver in England. After the Grand Lodge was formed in
1717 a long line of famous engravers were active members of the Craft; John Pine, William
Hogarth, Francesco Bartolozzi, John Baptist Cipriani, Benjamin and John Cole, and our
American Grand Master, inventor of a new process of engraving, Paul Revere. Their work,
and especially their Masonic designs, should be studied by Masonic bookplate engravers. A
Grand Lodge usually employs its own coat-of-arms in its bookplate. Pine was the first to make
an engraved list of Lodges. (See also Book Plates and Their Value, J. H. Slater, Henry Grant;
1898. In addition to collectors' prices it contains a history of the development of Ex Libris art.
Some publishers spell ''bookplate'' as one word, others as two. The Tatsch and Prescott
volume contains a full bibliography. Ex Libris Lodge, No. 3765, was founded . in London,
1915, by bookplate enthusiasts.)

*

BOONE, DANIEL

Ray V. Denslow, specialist in early Middle Western Masonry, reported to The Builder,
January, 1925, that "in his opinion" Boone had not been a Mason. He added however that "a
very good friend" had in earlier days heard Boone spoken of as a Mason. Both the Grand
Lodges of Kentucky and of Tennessee have searched the old membership rolls but have not
found his name. When appropriating a sum toward the Boone monument at Frankfort the
resolution passed by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky made no mention of Boone's possible
membership. At least one pall-bearer at Boone's funeral wore a Masonic collar. (It is
interesting to note that "Boone" is a corruption of "Bohun," a family name of King Henry VAI.)

*

BOYDEN LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION

Brother William L. Boyden, librarian for the Supreme Council, A.&A.S.R.,S.J., at Washington,
D.C., after years of experience and experiment, perfected a library classification system for
Masonic books. He divided titles under ten general heads, in 400 classes and subclasses. He
made the system available to Masonic librarians in a brochure of twenty-two pages, a working
manual: Classification of the Literature of Freemasonry and Related Societies, by W. L.
Boyden; Washington, D.C., 1915; e/o The Supreme Council A.&.A.S.R.,S.J.

*

BOYDEN MS., THE

A manuscript of the Old Charges, nine feet long and about eight and one-half inches wide,
belonging to the Supreme Council, A.& A.S.R.,S.J., and in the vaults of the House of the
Temple, Washington, D.C.; it was discovered (presumably in 1925) by the late W. L. Boyden,
Librarian of the Supreme Council Library at the time, in North Riding of Yorkshire near
Yorkshire, Eng. Boyden published the text in The New Age, February, 1926; page 77. The
text accompanied by critical notes is given in The Old 'Yorkshire' Old Charges of Masons, by

H. Poole and F. R. Worts; published by Installed Masters' Association, Leeds, England ; 1935
; page 171.
Some English Brothers have expressed regret (and not always un-spiced with resentment)
that a Yorkshire MS. should "have been sold off to America."

American Masons can understand that feeling, and the more so in the case of Yorkshire
which was the favorite field of Hughan and of Thorp, who are both as well remembered and
as much revered by Masons on this side of the Atlantic as on that ; but at the same time they
feel that the strictures often expressed, and especially the harshness in some instances, by
Whymper, Gould, and Lane, are based on a misunderstanding of facts. The strictures have


arisen from the assumption that a sizable number of precious, old, and oftentimes unique
Masonic books and MSS. have been drained off out of England into America; but there has
never been such a drain. The Boyden is the only MS. of which there is not at least one copy
left in England. The printed Roberts MS. owned by the Grand Lodge of Iowa is one of two
copies. The Carmick MS. owned by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was written in
Pennsylvania. The American craft, and considering that save for a very few years it is as old
as the English Craft, and is in the same Masonic family, is peculiarly poverty-stricken in MSS.
and rare books. Nor have the great and wealthy American collectors Huntington, Morgan,
etc., collected Freemasoniana; Rosenbach, famous for so many years as their agent, told the
writer that he had never included Masonic items in his search lists. If harsh complaints were in
order American Masons themselves have a large ground for them ; during the French and
Indian wars, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812 America was "drained" of the larger
part of its early Masonic records, a fact which helps to account for the emptiness of the history
of pre-Revolutionary Masonry in America.

The same holds for the old charge of "piracy." A small number of Eighteenth Century books
(Oliver, presston, etc.) were published here without permission and without payment to their
British authors ; to do so was both piratical and inexcusable. But there was as quite as much
piracy from the British end. Books by Harris Town, Mackey, Morris, etc., were extensively
pirated in England right down to the middle of the Nineteenth Century : this Encyclopedia was
pirated a in half dozen languages.

*

BRIDGE BUILDERS

In the article which begins on page 151 it is stated that the Gild of Bridge Builders was a
religious fraternity. Since that article written (it was based on the then most reliable
authorities) what may be called the archeology of bridge building has put that ancient craft in
a new light. Just as some bishop or abbot was given credit for almost every cathedral, large
church, or abbey, and even though the prelate might not have been born when the
construction was begun, so did the same chroniclers make out that almost every other
concerted public activity, association, etc., had been either an action by the Church or else
one directed by it.

Even a local gild of six or seven blacksmiths in a French town of the year1200 A.D. may
appear in the monkish chronicles as having been a Holy Brotherhood of the Church of St.
Paul Dedicated to St. Dominic, etc., the whole of it sounding as if black smithing had been a
holy rite. Everything in the Twelfth Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Centuries was, as it were,
asserted with the appearance of religion-it was then as it is now with the Mexican language in
which "good-bye" becomes "God go with you," and a man asks for a match "in the name of
God," and a mother names a son Jesus and a Daughter Holy Annunciation.
There were fraternities of Bridge Builders in the Middle Ages ; they had their Patron Saints;
they went by religious names; but bridge building per se was no more religious than it is now.
A bridge was build at need, and often at the expense of the taxpayers in a town; its
construction might be entrusted to a special gild formed for the purpose; it might be paid for
by gifts or by tolls; but the Masons who built it usually were ordinary Masons. Its was only
when great bridges were built, like London Bridge (which was a row of buildings erected
across the Thames) or when one was ornamented with carving or with Sculpture, or involved
difficult problems of engineering, that Freemasons were called in; but it is doubtful if in many
instances they formed fraternities qua bridge builders, after the fashion of the separate
associations of castle builders, military architects, tilers, etc.

It is of interest that the first great Modern bridge (at least it is so claimed by historians of it)
was to a peculiar extent almost an event in the history of Speculative Freemasonry. The
engineer and constructor of the famous Wearmouth Bridge in England (pages are given to it
in a number of histories of engineering) was Bro. Rowland Burdon. He was made a Mason in
Phoenix Lodge, no. 94, Sunderland ; he joined Palatine Lodge in 1791; in 1793 was elected
Master, and served several years. The foundation of the Bridge was laid with Masonic


ceremonies by the Provincial Grand Lodge, September 24, 1793; its completion was also
celebrated by ceremonies by the Provincial Grand Lodge on August 9, 1796 (during
Washington's second term, it may be said to help Americans to place the date).

(It happens that the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge were Masons, as may be found in an
article in the New York Masonic Outlook. See History of Phoenix Lodge; see also other bridge
items in History of Britannia Lodge, page 104.)

NOTE. Apropos of the typical Medieval custom of clothing everything with a religious guise it
is interesting to observe that ordinary business documents such as deeds, bills of sales,
contracts, or legal documents, or a physician's prescription, or a parchment roll of kitchen
recipes might be decorated with religious emblems and begin-like the Old Charges-with a
religious invocation.

Bishops often were educated and trained in cathedral schools at a prince's or king's expense
expressly to hold positions in what is now the civil service. Even the since-canonized Thomas
à Beeket served for years in that capacity, and was made a bishop for political reasons!
Thousands of tonsured clerics were trained to work in offices, government bureaus, etc., as
clerks, bookkeepers, etc., and never performed religious services in their lives. It is not out of
any desire to disparage religion, or to discredit the church, but solely in obedience to the facts
as found, that historians are agreed that the Ages of Faith were not more faithful than other
ages, and that the men were in their spirit, thought, and conduct no more religious, or pious,
in the Thirteenth Century than they are now. The fact is important for Masonic history,
because a reader of it may gain the impression that because so many Medieval Freemasons
worked on churches, cathedrals, abbeys, priories, monasteries, chapels, etc., they were in
some peculiar sense a religious fraternity. They were men in religion, but no more so than
other men; ran their own affairs ; excluded priests from control over their Lodges ; and had no
religious rites, practices, or doctrines peculiar to themselves.

*

BLUE BLANKET

The Lodge of Journeymen, in the city of Edinburgh, is in possession of a blue blanket which is
used as a banner in Masonic processions. The history of it is thus given in the London
Magazine: "A number of Scotch mechanics followed Allan, Lord Steward of Scotland, to the
holy wars in Palestine, and took with them a banner, on which were inscribed the following
words from the 5lst Psalm, the eighteenth vers, 'In bona voluntate tua edificentur muri
Hierosolymae,' meaning'ln Thy good pleasure build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.' Fighting
under the banner, these valiant Scotchman were present at the capture of Jerusalem, and
other towns in the Holy Land; and, on their return to their own country, they deposited the
banner, which they styled The Banner of the Holy Ghost, at the altar of St. Eloi, the patron
saint of the Edinburgh Tradesmen, in the church of Saint Giles. It was occasionally unfurled,
or worn as a mantle by the representatives of the trades in the courtly and religious pageants
that in former times were of frequent occurrence in the Scottish capital. "In 1482, James III, in
consequence of the assistance which he had received from the Craftsmen of Edinburgh, in
delivering him from the castle in which he was kept a prisoner, and paying a debt of 6,000
Marks which he had contracted in making preparations for the marriage of his son, the Duke
of Rothsay, to Cecil, daughter of Edward IV, of England, conferred on the good town several
valuable privileges, and renewed to the Craftsmen their favorite banner of The Blue Blanket.
''James's queen, Margaret of Denmark, to show her gratitude and respect to the Crafts,
painted on the banner, with her own hands, a Saint Andrew's cross, a crown, a thistle, and a
hammer, with the following inscription : 'Fear God and honor the king ; grant him a long life
and a prosperous reign, and we shall ever pray to be faithful for the defense of his sacred
majesty's royal person till death.' The king decreed that in all time coming, this flag should be
the standard of the Crafts within burgh, and that it should be unfurled in defense of their own
rights, and in protection of their sovereign. The privilege of displaying it at the Masonic
procession was granted to the journeymen, in consequence of their original connection with
the Freemasons of Mary's Chapel, one of the four men incorporated trades of the city. "The


Blue Blanket was long in a very tattered condition ; but some years ago it was repaired by
lining it with blue silk, so that it can be exposed without subjecting it to much injury. " An
interesting little book was written by Alexander pennecuik, Burgess and Guild-Brother of
Edinburgh, and published with this title in 1722 and in later editions describing the Operative
Companies of Edinburgh. The above particulars in the London Magazine are found in
Pennecuik's work with other details.

*
BLUE DEGREES
The first three degrees of Freemasonry are so called from the blue color which is peculiar to

them.
*
BLUE LODGE
A Symbolic Lodge, in which the first three degrees of Freemasonry are conferred, is so called

from the color of its decorations.
*
BLUE MASONRY
The degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason an sometimes called

Blue Masonry.
*
BLUE MASTER
In some of the advanced degrees, these words are used to designate a Master Mason.
*
BOARD OF GENERAL PURPOSES
An organization attached to the Grand Lodge of England, consisting of the Grand Master, Pro

Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, the Grand Wardens of the year, the Grand Treasurer,
the Grand Registrar, the Deputy Grand Registrar, a President, Past Presidents, the President
of the Board of Benevolence, the Grand Director of Ceremonies, and twenty-four other
members. The President and six of the twenty-four members are annually nominated by the
Grand Master, and the remaining eighteen are elected by the Grand Lodge from the Masters
and Past Masters of the Lodges. This board has authority to hear and determine all subjects
of Masonic complaints, or irregularity respecting Lodges or individual Freemasons, when
regularly brought before it, and generally to take cognizance of all matters relating to the
Craft.

*
BOARD OF RELIEF
See Relief, Board of
*


BOAZ
BOAS

The name of the left hand (or north) pillar that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple. It
is derived from the Hebrew pronounced bo'-az, and signifies in strength. Though Strong in his
Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary says the root is unused and of uncertain meaning (see Pillars
of the Porch).

*

BOCHIM

a Hebrew word pronounced bokeem and meaning the weepers. A password in the Order of
Ishmael. An angel spoke to Hagar as she wept at the well when in the wilderness with her son
Ishmael.

The angel is looked upon as a spiritual being, possibly the Great Angel of the Covenant, the
Michael who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, or the Joshua, the captain of the hosts
of Jehovah.

*

BODE, JOHANN JOACHIM CHRISTOPH

Born in Brunswick, 16th of January, 1730. One of the most distinguished Freemasons of his
time. In his youth he was a professional musician, but in 1757 he established himself at
Hamburg as a bookseller, and was initiated into the Masonic Order. He obtained much
reputation by the translation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey and Tristram Shandy, of
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield; Smollett's Humphrey Clinker; and of Fielding's Tom Jones,
from the English; and of Montaigne's works from the French. To Masonic literature he made
many valuable contributions; among others, he translated from the French Bonneville's
celebrated work entitled Les Jésuites chassés de la Maçonnerie et leur poignard bris par les
Maçons, meaning The Jesuits driven from Freemasonry and their weapon broken by the
Freemasons, which contains a comparison of Scottish Freemasonry with the Templarism of
the fourteenth century, and with sundry peculiar practices of the Jesuits themselves.

Bode was at one time a zealous promoter of the Rite of Strict Observance, but afterward
became one of its most active opponents. In 1790 he joined the Order of the Illuminati,
obtaining the highest Degree in its second class, and at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad he
advocated the opinions of Weishaupt,. No man of his day was better versed than he in the
history of Freemasonry, or possessed a more valuable and extensive library; no one was
more diligent in increasing his stock of Masonic knowledge, or more anxious to avail himself
of the rarest sources of learning. Hence, he has always held an exalted position among the
Masonic scholars of Germany. The theory which he had conceived on the origin of
Freemasonry--a theory, however, which the investigations of subsequent historians have
proved to be untenable--was, that the Order was invented by the Jesuits, in the seventeenth
century, as an instrument for the re-establishment of the Roman Church in England, covering
it for their own purposes under the mantle of Templarism. Bode died at Weimar on the 13th of
December, 1793.

*

BOEBER, JOHANN

A Royal Councilor of State and Director of the School of Cadets at St. Petersburg, during the
reign of Alexander I. In 1805 he induced the emperor to revoke the edicts made by Paul I and
himself against the Freemasons. His representations of the true character of the Institution
induced the emperor to seek and obtain initiation.


Boeber may be considered as the reviver of Freemasonry in the Russian dominions, and was
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge from 1811 to 1814.

*

BOEHMEN, JACOB

The most celebrated of the Mystics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, born near
Gorlitz, in 1575, and died in 1624. His system attracted, and continued to attract long after his
death, many disciples in Germany. Among these, in time, were several Freemasons, who
sought to incorporate the mystical dogmas of their founder with the teachings of
Freemasonry, so as to make the Lodges merely schools of theosophy. Indeed, the
Theosophic Rites of Freemasonry, which prevailed to a great extent about the middle of the
last century in Germany and France, were indebted for most of their ideas to the mysticism of
Jacob Boehmen.

*

BOHEMANN, KARL ADOLF ANDERSON

Born in 1770, at Jönköping in the south of Sweden. He was a very zealous member of the
Order of Asiatic Brethren, and was an active promulgator of the advanced Degrees. Invited to
Sweden, in 1802, by the Duke of Sudermania, who was an ardent inquirer into Masonic
science, he was appointed Court Secretary.

He attempted to introduce his system of advanced Degrees into the kingdom, but having
been detected in the effort to intermingle revolutionary schemes with his high Degrees, he
was first imprisoned and then banished from the country, his society being interdicted. He
returned to Germany, but is not heard of after 1815, when he published at Plymouth a
justification of himself. Findel in his History of Freemasonry (page 560), calls him an impostor,
but he seems rather to have been a Masonic fanatic, who was ignorant of or had forgotten the
wide difference between Freemasonry and political intrigue.

*

BOHEMIA

A Lodge named The Three Stars is said to have been established at Prague in 1726, and
other Lodges were subsequently constituted in Bohemia, but in consequence of the French
Revolution they were closed in 1793 by the Austrian Government.

*

BOHMANN, F. OTTO

A merchant in Stockholrn, 1695-1767, who left a legacy of 100,000 thalers to the Asylum for
the Orphans of Freemasons that was founded in Stockholm in 1753. A medal was struck in
his honor in 1768 (see Marvin's Masonic Medals, page 172).

*

BOLIVIA

The third largest political division of the continent of South America. A Lodge was chartered in
Bolivia in 1875. Three others have since been established and all four pay allegiance to the
Grand Lodge of Peru.


Brother Oliver Day Street says in his 1922 Report on Correspondence to the Grand Lodge of
Alabama: "So far as we have been able to ascertain this State has never been able to boast a
Grand Lodge, Grand Orient or Supreme Council of its own. Its only Masonic organizations
have been Lodges chartered by some of the Grand Lodges of the neighboring states. Indeed,
Peru and Chile are the only ones we can ascertain which have even done this. Bolivia can
scarcely be said to have a Masonic history.''

*

BOMBAY

A seaport on the west coast of India. The first Lodge to be established in Bombay was
opened in 1758 but it disappeared from the register in 1813. In 1763 James Todd was
appointed Provincial Grand Master.

A Provincial Grand Master of Western India and its Dependencies, Brother James Burnes
was appointed in 1836 by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. None had been appointed by
England since the time of Brother Todd. Brother Burnes was a very active Freemason and it
is a curious fact that Brethren even left the English Lodges to support the new Scotch Bodies.

English Freemasonry became less and less popular and finally ceased to be practiced until
1848 when Saint George Lodge No. 807, was revived.

In 1886 Scotland had issued nineteen Charters to Lodges in Bombay and twelve years
previously Captain Morland, successor to Brother Burnes, was raised to the position of Grand
Master of all Scottish Freemasonry in India.

The Craft took no firm hold on the natives of India.

Several of the princes were initiated but the Parsees made the first real advance in the Order
when Brother Cama, one of their number, was elected Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of
England. The first Hindu to hold important office was Brother Dutt who became head of a
Lodge in 1874 (see India and Madras).

*

BONAIM

Brother Hawkins was of the opinion that the word is really an incorrect transliteration of the
Hebrew word for builders, which should be Bonim; the construct form of which Bonai is used
in 1 Kings (v, 18), to designate a portion of the workmen on the Temple: "And Solomon's
builders and Hiram's builders did hew them." Brother Hawkins continues to the effect that
Oliver, in his Dictionary and in his Landmarks (1, 402), gives a mythical account of them as
Fellow Crafts, divided into Lodges by King Solomon, but, by a slip in his grammar he calls
them Benai, substituting the Hebrew construct for the absolute case, and changing the
participial o into e. The Bonaim seem to be distinguished, by the author of the Book of Kings,
from the Gibalim, and the translators of the authorized version have called the former builders
and the latter stone-squarers. It is probable that the Bonaim were an order of workmen
inferior to the Gibalim. Anderson, in both of his editions of the Book of Constitutions, errs like
Oliver, and calls them Bonai, saying that they were "setters, layers, or .builders, or light
Fellow Crafts, in number 80,000.''

This idea seems to have been perpetuated in the modern rituals. From this construct plural
form Bonai some one has formed the slightly incorrect form Bonaim.

*


BONAPARTE, JEROME

Brother of Napoleon I. Born November 15, 1784, and died June 24, 1860. King of Westphalia
from 1807 to 1813 and afterwards known as the Duc de Montfort. Grand Master of the Grand
Orient of Westphalia. After 1847 he became successively Governor of the Invalides, Marshal
of France and President of the Senate (see also Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie, Albert
Lantoine, 1925, Paris). Jerome, son of the above, also given as a Freemason.

*

BONAPARTE, JOSEPH

Elder brother of Napoleon I. Born January 7, 1768. Sent to Naples as King in 1806 and made
King of Spain in 1808. After 1815 known as Comte de Survilliers. He was a Freemason.
Appointed by Napoleon I to the office of Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France in 1804.
He died July 28, 1844.

*

BONAPARTE, LOUIS

Born September 2, 1778; died July 25, 1846. Brother of Napoleon I. King of Holland in 1806.
Grand Master Adjoined of the Grand Orient of France in 1804. In 1805 became Governor of
Paris.

*

BONAPARTE, LUCIEN

Brother of Napoleon I. Born May 21, 1775, and died at Rome, June 29, 1840. November 10,
1799, when Napoleon I overthrew the National Councils of France at the Palace of Saint
Cloud, Lucien was President of the Council of Five Hundred and able to turn the scale in favor
of his brother. In 1800 was Ambassador at Madrid, Spain. A member of the Grand Orient of
France,

*

BONDMAN

In the fourth article of the Halliwell or Regius Manuscript, which is the earliest Masonic
document known, it is said that the Master shall take good care that he make no bondman an
apprentice, or, as it is in the original language :

The fourth artycul thys moste be,
That the Mayster hymn wel be-se,
That he no bondemon prentys make.

The regulation is repeated in all the subsequent regulations, and is still in force (see
Freebom).

*

BONE


This word, which is now pronounced in one syllable, is the Hebrew word bo-neh, , builder,
from the verb banah, to build. It was peculiarly applied, as an epithet, to Hiram Abif, who
superintended the construction of the Temple as its chief builder. Master Masons will
recognize it as part of a significant word. Its true pronunciation would be, in English letters,
bo-nay; but the corruption into one syllable as bone has become too universal ever to be
corrected.

*

BONE BOX

In the early lectures of the eighteenth century, now obsolete, we find the following catechism:

Q. Have you any key to the secrets of a Mason?
A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a bone box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory keys.
The bone box is the mouth, the ivory keys the teeth.
And the key to the secrets is afterward said to be the tongue.
These questions were simply used as tests, and were subsequently varied. In a later lecture it
is called the Bone-bone Box.


*


BONNEVILLE, CHEVALIER DE
BONNEVILLE, NICOLAS DE


On the 24th of November, 1754, he founded the Chapter of the Advanced Degrees known as
the Chapter of Clermont.


A1l the authorities assert this except Rebold, Histoire des Trois Grandes Loges, meaning the
History of the Three Grand Lodges, page 46, who says that he was not its founder but only
the propagator of its Degrees.


*


BONNEVILLE, NICOLAS DE


A bookseller and man of letters, born at Evreux, in France, March 13, 1760. He was the
author of a work, published in 1788, entitled Les Jésuites chassés de la Maçonnerie et leur
poignard brisé par les Maçons, meaning The Jesuits driven from Freemasonry and their
weapon broken by the Freemasons, a book divided into two parts, of the first of which the
subtitle was La Maçonnerie écossaise comparée avec les trois professions et le Secret des
Templiers du 14e Siécle, meaning Scottish Freemasonry compared with the three professions
and the Secret of the Templars of the Fourteenth Century, and of the second, Mémeté des
quatre voeux de la Compagnie de S. Ignace, et des quatre grades de la Maçonnerie de S.
Jean, meaning the Identity of the four pledges of the Society of Saint Ignace, and of the four
steps of the Freemasonry of Saint John. He also translated into French, Thomas Paine's
Essay on the Origin of Freemasonry; a work, by the way, which was hardly worth the trouble
of translation.


De Bonneville had an exalted idea of the difficulties attendant upon writing a history of
Freemasonry, for he says that, to compose such a work, supported by dates and authentic
facts, it would require a period equal to ten times the age of man; a statement which, although
exaggerated, undoubtedly contains an element of truth.



His Masonic theory was that the Jesuits had introduced into the symbolic Degrees the history
of the life and death of the Templars, and the doctrine of vengeance for the political and
religious crime of their destruction; and that they had imposed upon four of the higher
Degrees the four vows of their congregation. De Bonneville was imprisoned as a Girondist in
1793. The Girondists or Girondins were members of a political party during the French
Revolution of 1791 to 1793, getting their name from twelve Deputies from the Gironde, a
Department of Southwestern France. He was the author of a History of Modern Europe, in
three volumes, published in 1792. He died in 1828.

*

BOOK OF CHARGES

There seems, if we may judge from the references in the old records of Freemasonry, to have
formerly existed a book under this title, containing the Charges of the Craft; equivalent,
probably, to the Book of Constitutions. Thus, the Matthew Cooke Manuscript of the first half of
the fifteenth century (line 534) speaks of "othere chargys mo that ben wryten in the Boke of
Chargys.''

*

BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS

The Book of Constitutions is that work in which is contained the rules and regulations adopted
for the government of the Fraternity of Freemasons. Undoubtedly, a society so orderly and
systematic must always have been governed by a prescribed code of laws; but, in the lapse
of ages, the precise regulations which were adopted for the direction of the Craft in ancient
times have been lost. The earliest record that we have of any such Constitutions is in a
manuscript, first quoted, in 1723, by Anderson( Constitutions, 1723, pages 32-3), which he
said was written in the reign of Edward IV.

Preston (page 182, edition of1788) quotes the same record, and adds, that "it is said to have
been in the possession of the famous Elias Ashmole, and unfortunately destroyed,'' a
statement which had not been previously made by Anderson. To Anderson, therefore, we
must look in our estimation of the authenticity of this document ; and that we cannot too much
rely upon his accuracy as a transcriber is apparent, not only from the internal evidence of
style, but also from the fact that he made important alterations in his copy of it in his edition of
1738. Such as it is, however, it contains the following particulars: "Though the ancient records
of the Brotherhood in England were many of them destroyed or lost in the wars of the Saxons
and Danes, yet King Athelstan (the grandson of King Alfrede the Great, a mighty Architect),
the first anointed king of England, and who translated the Holy Bible into the Saxon tongue,
930 A. D., when he had brought the land into Rest and Peace, built many great works, and
encouraged many Masons from France, who were appointed Overseers thereof, and brought
with them the Charges and Regulations of the Lodges preserved since the Roman times, who
also prevailed with the King to improve the Constitution of the English Lodges according to
the foreign Model, and to increase the Wages of Working Masons.

"The said king's youngest son, Prince Edwin, being taught Masonry, and taking upon him the
Charges of a Master Mason, for the love he had to the said Craft and the honorable Principles
whereon it is grounded, purchased a free charter of King Athelatan his Father, for the Masons
having a Correction among themselves (as it was anciently expressed), or a Freedom and
Power to regulate themselves, to amend what might happen amiss, and to hold a yearly
Communication and General Assembly.

"Accordingly, Prince Edwin summoned all the Masons in the Realm to meet him in a
Congregation at York, who came and composed a General Lodge, of which he was Grand
Master; and having brought with them all the Writings and Records extant, some in Greek,
some in Latin, some in French, and other languages, from the Contents thereof that Assembly


did frame the Constitution and Charges of an English Lodge, and made a law to preserve and
observe the same in all time coming, and ordained good Pay for Working Masons, ac."

Other records have from time to time been discovered, most of them recently, which prove
beyond a1l doubt that the Fraternity of Freemasons was, at least in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, in possession of manuscript Constitutions containing
the rules and regulations of the Craft.

In the year 1717, Freemasonry, which had somewhat fallen into decay in the south of
England, was revived by the organization of the Grand Lodge at London; and, in the next
year, the Grand Master having desired, says Anderson, "any brethren to bring to the Grand
Lodge any old writings and records concerning Freemasons and Freemasonry, in order to
show the usages of ancient times, several old copies of the Gothic Constitutions were
produced and collated" (see Constitutions, 1738, page l10).

But these Constitutions having been found to be very erroneous and defective, probably from
carelessness or ignorance in their frequent transcription, in September, 1721, the Duke of
Montagu, who was then Grand Master, ordered Brother James Anderson to digest them "in a
new and better method" (see Constitutions, 1738, page 113).

Anderson having accordingly accomplished the important task that had been assigned him, in
December of the same year a committee, consisting of fourteen learned Brethren, was
appointed to examine the book ; and, in the March Communication of the subsequent year,
having reported their approbation of it, it was, after some amendments, adopted by the Grand
Lodge, and published, in 1723, under the title of The Constitutions of the Freemasons,
containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc., of that Most Ancient and Right Worshipful
Fraternity. For the use of the Lodges. A second edition was published in 1738, under the
superintendence of' a committee of Grand Officers (see the Constitutions of that year, page
133). But this edition contained so many alterations, interpolations, and omissions of the
Charges and Regulations as they appeared in the first, as to show the most reprehensible
inaccuracy in its composition, and to render it utterly worthless except as a literary curiosity. It
does not seem to have been very popular, for the printers, to complete their sales, were
compelled to commit a fraud, and to present what they pretended to be a new edition in 1746,
but which was really only the edition of 1738, with a new title page neatly pasted in, the old
one being canceled.

In 1754, Brother Jonathan Scott presented a memorial to the Grand Lodge, ''showing the
necessity of a new edition of the Book of Constitutions.'' It was then ordered that the book
"should be revised, and necessary alterations and additions made consistent with the laws
and rules of Masonry" ; all of which would seem to show the dissatisfaction of the Fraternity
with the errors of the second edition. Accordingly, a third edition was published in 1756, under
the editorship of the Rev. John Entick. The fourth edition, prepared by a Committee, was
published in 1767.

In 1769, G. Kearsly, of London, published an unauthorized edition of the 1767 issue, with an
appendix to 1769 ; this was also published by Thomas Wilkinson in Dublin in the same year,
with several curious plates ; both issues are now very scarce. And an authorized supplement
appeared in 1776.

John Noorthouck published by authority the fifth edition in 1784. This was well printed in
quarto, with numerous notes, and is considered the most valuable edition ; it is the last to
contain the historical introduction.

After the Union of the two rival Grand Lodges of England (see Ancient Masons) in 1813, the
sixth edition was issued in 1815, edited by Brother William Williams, Provincial Grand Master
for Dorsetshire; the seventh appeared in 1819, being the last in quarto ; and the eighth in
1827; these were called the Second Part, and contained only the Ancient Charges and the
General Regulations. The ninth edition of 1841 contained no reference to the First or


Historical Part, and may be regarded as the first of the present issue in octavo with the plates
of jewels at the end.

Numerous editions have since been issued. In the early days of the Grand Lodge of England
in all processions the Book of Constitution was carried on a cushion by the Master of the
Senior Lodge (Constitution, 1738, pages 117-26), but this was altered at the time of the union
and it is provided in the Constitutions of 1815 and in the subsequent issues that the Book of
Constitutions on a cushion shall be carried by the Grand Secretary.

*

BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS GUARDED BY THE TILER'S SWORD

An emblem painted on the Master's carpet, and intended to admonish the Freemason that he
should be guarded in all his words and actions, preserving unsullied the Masonic virtues of
silence and circumspection. Such is Webb's definition of the emblem in the Freemasons
monitor (edition of 1818, page 69), which is a very modern one, and Brother Mackey was
inclined to think it was introduced by that lecturer. The interpretation of Webb is a very
unsatisfactory one in the opinion of Brother Mackey. He held that the Book of Constitutions is
rather the symbol of constituted law than of silence and circumspection, and when guarded by
the Tiler's sword it would seem properly to symbolize regard for and obedience to law, a
prominent Masonic duty.

*

BOOK OF GOLD

In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the volume in which the transactions, statutes,
decrees, balusters, and protocols of the Supreme Council or a Grand Consistory are
contained is called the Book of Gold.

*

BOOK OF MORMON

This sacred book of the Mormons was first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who claimed
to have translated it from gold plates which he had found under Divine guidance secreted in a
stone box. The seat of their organization is at Salt Lake City, Utah. In this connection,
Mormonism and Masonry, by Brother S. H. Goodwin, Grand Secretary of Utah, is a detailed
and excellent work of reference.

*

BOOK OF THE DEAD

By some translated the Book of the Master, containing the ancient Egyptian philosophy as to
death and the resurrection. A portion of these sacred writings was invariably buried with the
dead. The book in facsimile has been published by Doctor Lepsius, and translated by Doctor
Birch. The story of the judgment of Amenti forms a part of the Book of the Dead, and shadows
forth the verities and judgments of the unseen world.

The Amenti was the Place of Judgment of the Dead, situated in the West, where Osiris was
presumed to be buried. There were forty-two assessors of the amount of sin committed, who
sat in judgment, and before whom the adjudged passed in succession.

There seems to be a tie which binds Freemasonry to the noblest of the cults and mysteries of
antiquity.


The most striking exponent of the doctrines and language of the Egyptian Mysteries of Osiris
is this Book of the Dead, or Ritual of the Underworld, or Egyptian Bible of 165 chapters, the
Egyptian title of which was The Manifestation to Light, or the Book Revealing Light to the
Soul. Great dependence was had, as to the immediate attainment of celestial happiness,
upon the human knowledge of this wonderful Book, especially of the principal chapters.

On a sarcophagus or tomb of the eleventh dynasty, according to the chronology of Professor
Lepsius, say 2420 B.C., is this inscription: "He who knows this book is one who, in the day of
the resurrection of the underworld, arises and enters in; but he does not know this chapter, he
does not enter in so soon as he arises. " The conclusion of the first chapter says: "If a man
knows this book thoroughly, and has it inscribed upon his sarcophagus, he will be manifested
in the day in all the forms that he may desire, and entering into his abode will not be turned
back" (see Tiele's History of Religions, page 25).

The Egyptian belief was that portions of the Book of the Dead were written by the finger of
Thoth, that being the name of the Egyptian god of letters, invention and wisdom, the
mouthpiece and recorder of the gods, and umpire of their disputes, back in the mist of time,
3000 B.C. The one hundred and twenty-fifth chapter describes the last judgment. The oldest
preserved papyrus is of the eighteenth dynasty. Professor Lepsius fixes the date at 1591 BC.

The most perfect copy of this Book of the Dead is in the Turin Museum, where it covers one
side of the walls, in four pieces, 300 feet in length.

The following extract is from the first chapter: "Says That to Osiris, King of Eternity, I am the
great God in the divine boat; I fight for thee; I am one of the divine chiefs who are the TRUE
LIVING WORD of Osiris. I am That, who makes to be real the word of Horus against his
enemies. The word of Osiris against his enemies made truth in That, and the order is
executed by That. I am with Horus on the day of celebrating the festival of Osiris, the good
Being, whose Word is truth; I make offerings to Ra (the Sun) ; I am a simple priest in the
underworld, anointing in Abydos, elevating to higher degrees of initiation; I am prophet in
Abydos on the day of opening or up heaving the earth. I behold the mysteries of the door of
the underworld; I direct the ceremonies of Mendes; I am the assistant in the exercise of their
functions; I AM GRAND MASTER OF THE CRAFTSMEN WHO SET UP THE SACRED
ARCH FOR A SUPPORT" (see Truth).

*

BOOK OF THE FRATERNITY OF STONE MASONS

Years ago, a manuscript was discovered in the archives of the City of Cologne bearing the
title of Brüderschaftsbuch der Steinmetzen, meaning the Brotherhood Book of the
Stonecutters, with records going back to the year 1396. Steinbrenner (Origin and Early
History of Masonry, page104), says: "It fully confirms the conclusions to be derived from the
German Constitutions, and those of the English and Scotch Masons, and conclusively proves
the in authenticity of the celebrated Charter of Cologne."

*

BOOK OF THE LAW

The Holy Bible, which is always open in a Lodge as a symbol that its fight should be
discussed among the Brethren. The passages at which it is opened differ in the various
Degrees (see Scriptures, Reading of the).

Masonically, the Book of the Law is that sacred book which is believed by the Freemason of
any particular religion to contain the revealed will of God; although, technically, among the
Jews, the Torah, or Book of the Law, means only the Pentateuch or five books of Moses.
Thus, to the Christian Freemason the Book of the Law is the Old and New Testaments; to the


Jew, the Old Testament; to the Mussulman, the Koran ; to the Brahman, the Vedas ; and to
the Parsee, the Zendavesta.

The Book of the Law is an important symbol in the Royal Arch Degree, concerning which
there was a tradition among the Jews that the Book of the Law was lost during the captivity,
and that it was among the treasures discovered during the building of the second Temple.
The same opinion was entertained by the early Christian fathers, such, for instance, as
Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clemens Alexandrinus; "for," says Prideaux, "they (the Christian
fathers) hold that all the Scriptures were lost and destroyed in the Babylonish captivity, and
that Ezra restored them all again by Divine revelation." The truth of the tradition is very
generally denied by Biblical scholars, who attribute its origin to the fact that Ezra collected
together the copies of the law, expurgated them of the errors which had crept into them during
the captivity, and arranged a new and correct edition. But the truth or falsity of the legend
does not affect the Masonic symbolism. The Book of the Law is the will of God, which, lost to
us in our darkness, must be recovered as precedent to our learning what is Truth. As captives
to error, truth is lost to us ; when freedom is restored, the first reward will be its discovery.

*

BOOK, ORDER OF THE

See Stukely, Doctor

*

BOOKS, ANTI-MASONIC

See Anti-Masonic Books

*

BORDER, TESSELATED

See Tesselated Border

*

BORNEO

An island in the Malay Archipelago, a great group of islands southeast of Asia. On August 13,
1885, Elopura Lodge, No. 2106, was chartered by the Grand Lodge of England in North
Borneo at Elopura. It was, however, never constituted as the petitioners had left before the
Lodge could be opened, and it was erased from the register on January 2, 1888.

Borneo Lodge of Harmony was chartered on May 6, 1891, and constituted at Sandakan on
June 7, the same year.

*

BOSONIEN, THE

The name is sometimes given as Bossonius. The Fourth Degree of the African Architects,
also called the Christian Philosopher. The latter reference is by Thory (Acta Latomorum, 1,
297).

*


BOSTON TEA PARTY

England in 1773 passed a law levying a tax on all tea shipped into the American Colonies by
the East India Tea Company.

Three cargoes of tea were in Boston harbor when from a meeting of citizens, December 16,
1773, held at the Old South Church, forty or fifty men disguised as Indians emerged and in
two or three hours three hundred and forty-two chests of tea valued at about eighteen
hundred pounds sterling were emptied into the sea (see Brother Elroy McKendree Avery's
History of the United States and Its People, volume v, page 166). The secrecy and dispatch of
the whole affair definitely indicates previous rehearsals under competent leadership. On that
very night the records written by the Secretary state that Lodge of Saint Andrew closed until
the next night "On account of the few members in attendance" and then the entire page is
filled up with the letters T made large (see Centennial Memorial of Saint Andrew's Lodge,
page 347, also Green Dragon Tavern).

BOSWELL, JOHN

A Scottish Laird, of Auchinleck, and of the family of the biographer of Doctor Johnson. Laird
means the proprietor of a landed estate; occasionally, merely a landlord. His appearance in
the Lodge of Edinburgh at a meeting held at Holyrood in June, 1600, affords a very early
authentic instance of a person being a member of the Masonic Fraternity who was not an
architect or builder by profession. Brother Boswell signed his name and made his mark-as did
the Operatives.

*

BREASTPLATE

Called in Hebrew kho'shen, or kho-shen mish-pow, the breastplate of judgment, because
through it the High Priest received divine responses, and uttered his decisions on all matters
relating to the good of the commonwealth. It was a piece of embroidered cloth of gold, purple,
scarlet, and fine white, twined linen. It was a span, or about nine inches square, when
doubled, and made thus strong to hold the precious stones that were set in it. It had a gold
ring at each corner, to the uppermost of which were attached golden chains, by which it was
fastened to the shoulder pieces of the ephod-the vestment worn by the High Priest over his
tunic; while from the two lowermost went two ribbons of blue, by which it was attached to the
girdle of the ephod, and thus held secure in its place.

In the breastplate were set twelve precious jewels, on each of which was engraved the name
of one of the twelve tribes. The stones were arranged in four rows, three stones in each row.
As to the order of arrangement and the names of the stones, there has been some difference
among the authorities. The authorized version of the Bible gives them in this order:

Sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx,
jasper.

This is the pattern generally followed in the construction of Masonic breastplates, but modem
researches into the true meaning of the Hebrew names of the stones have shown its
inaccuracy.

Especially must the diamond be rejected, as no engraver could have cut a name on this
impenetrable gem, to say nothing of the pecuniary value of a diamond of a size to match the
rest of the stones.

EMERALD, TOPAZ, SARDIUS,
JASPER, SAPPHIRE, CARBUNCLE,


AMETHYST AGATE, LIGURE,
BERYL ONYX, CHRYSOLITE,


FIG. 1 VULGATE VERSION OF BREASTPLATE

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (III, vii), gives the stones in the following order: Sardonyx,
topaz, emerald; carbuncle, jasper, sapphire ; ligure, amethyst, agate; chrysolite, onyx, beryl.
Kalisch, in his Colmmentary on Exodus, gives a still different order: Cornelian (or sardius),
topaz, smaragdus; carbuncle, sapphire, emerald; ligure, agate, amethyst; chrysolite, onyx,
jasper. But perhaps the Vulgate translation is to be preferred as an authority, because it was
made in the fifth century, at a time when the old Hebrew names of the precious stones were
better understood than now. The order given in that version is shown in the diagram Fig. I. A
description of each of these stones, with its symbolic signification, with be found under the
appropriate head.
On the stones were engraved the names of the twelve tribes, one on each stone. The order in
which they were placed, according to the Jewish Targums--various ancient forms of the
Hebrew Scriptures in Aramaic or Chaldee language, was as Fig. 2, having a reference to the
respective ages of the twelve sons of Jacob.

LEVI ............. SIMEON ............ REUBEN
ZEBULUN ..... ISSACHAR ........ JUDAH
GAD ............. NAPHTALI ......... DAN
BENJAMIN .. JOSEPH .............. ASHER


FIG. 2. TWELVE TRIBES ACCORDING TO TARGUMS

The differences made by various writers in the order of the names of the stones arise only
from their respective translations of the Hebrew words. These original names are detailed in
Exodus (xxviii), and admit of no doubt, whatever uncertainty there may be as to the gems
which they were intended to represent. Fig. 3 illustrates the Hebrew names of the stones.

A description of the breastplate is given in chapters xxviii and xxxix of Exodus. From the
former, authorized version of the Bible, we take the following four verses (17-21) : "And thou
shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones ; the first row shall be a sardius, a
topaz, and a carbuncle : this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a
sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.

And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper : they shall be set in gold in their
enclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve according
to their names, like the engravings of a signet ; every one with his name shall they be
according to the twelve tribes." In the margin the word ruby is given instead of sardius in the
first row of stones. The revised version suggests that ruby be substituted for sardius, emerald
for carbuncle, carbuncle for emerald, sardonyx for diamond, amber for ligure or jacinth,
chalcedony for beryl, and beryl for onyx, in the list found in Exodus xxviii.

Students of the Scriptures conclude that from the dimensions of the breastplate, given in
Exodus (chapter xxviii ), a span which would be equivalent to eight or nine inches, the twelve
stones even after allowing some reasonable space for their setting must have been of
considerable size and therefore of only moderate rarity. Furthermore, as they were engraved
with the names of the twelve tribes they could have been of only moderate hardness; and
finally, preference may well be given to stones which research has shown to have been
actually used for ornamental purposes in early bible times. In regard to this matter the article
by Professor Flinders Petrie is of especial importance (see Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible,
iv, pages 619-21).


The breastplate which was used in the first Temple does not appear to have been returned
after the Captivity, for it is not mentioned in the list of articles sent back by Cyrus. The stones,
on account of their great beauty and value, were most probably removed from their original
arrangement and reset in various ornaments by their captors. A new one was made for the
services of the second Temple, which, according to Josephus, when worn by the High Priest,
shot forth brilliant rays of fire that manifested the immediate presence of Jehovah. But
Josephus adds that two hundred years before his time this miraculous power had become
extinct in consequence of the impiety of the nation. It was subsequently

Baw-rek-ath' ...... Pit-daw' ...... O'-dem
Yah-hal-ome' ..... Sap-peer' .... No,-pek
Akh-law'-maw ... Sheb-oo' ..... Leh'-shem
Yaw-shef-ay' ...... Sho'-ham ... Tar-sheesh

FIG. 3. HEBREW NAMES OF THE STONES IN BREASTPLATE WITH THEIR
PRONUNCIATION

carried to Rome together with the other spoils of the Temple.

Of the subsequent fate of these treasures, and among them the breastplate, there are two
accounts: one, that they were convoyed to Carthage by Genseric after his sack of Rome, and
that the ship containing them was lost on the voyage; the other, and, as King thinks, in
Antique Gems (page137), the more probable one, that they had been transferred long before
that time to Byzantium, and deposited by Justinian in the treasury of Saint Sophia.

The breastplate is worn in American Chapters of the Royal Arch by the High Priest as an
essential Part of his official vestments. The symbolic reference of it, as given by Webb, is that
it is to teach him always to bear in mind his responsibility to the laws and ordinances of the
Institution, and that the honor and interests of his Chapter should be always near his heart.

This does not materially differ from the ancient symbolism, for one of the names given to the
Jewish breastplate was the memorial, because it was designed to remind the High Priest how
dear the tribes whose names it bore should be to his heart.

The breastplate does not appear to have been original with or peculiar to the Jewish ritual.
The idea was, most probably, derived from the Egyptians.

Diodorus Siculus says (in his book 1, chapter 75), that among them the chief judge bore
about his neck a chain of gold, from which hung a figure or image , composed of precious
stones, which was called Truth, and the legal proceedings only commenced when the chief
judge had assumed this image.

Aelian (book xxxiv), confirms this account by saying that the image was engraved on
sapphire, and hung about the neck of the chief judge with a golden chain.

Peter du Val says that he saw a mummy at Cairo, round the neck of which was a chain, to
which a golden plate was suspended, on which the image of a bird was engraved (see Urim
and Thummim).

*

BREAST, THE FAITHFUL

One of the three precious jewels of a Fellow Craft. It symbolically teaches the initiate that the
lessons which he has received from the instructive tongue of the Master are not to be listened
to and lost, but carefully treasured in his heart, and that the precepts of the Order constitute a
covenant which he is faithfully to observe.


*
BREAST TO BREAST
See Points of Fellowship
*
BRETHREN
This word, being the plural of Brother in the solemn style, is more generally used in Masonic

language, instead of the common plural, Brothers. Thus Freemasons always speak of The

Brethren of the Lodge, and not of The Brothers of the Lodge.

*

BRETHREN OF HARMONY

Identical with the Fréres Noirs, or Black Brethren.

*

BRETHREN OF THE BRIDGE

See Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages.

*

BRETHREN OF THE MYSTIC TIE
The term by which Freemasons distinguish themselves as the members of a confraternity or
brotherhood united by a mystical bond (see Mystic Tie).

*

BRETHREN ROSE CROIX OF THE EAST

See Marconis, also Memphis, Rite of

*

BREWSTER, SIR DAVID

See Lawrie, Alexander

*

BRIDGE

A most significant symbol in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Degrees of the Scottish Rite, at which

an important event transpires. The characteristic letters which appear on the Bridge, L. O. P.,

refer to that liberty of thought which is ever thereafter to be the inheritance of those who have

been symbolically captive for seven weeks of years.


It is the new era of the freedom of expression, the liberation of the former captive thought.
Liberty, but not License. It is also a symbol in the Royal Order (see Lakak Deror Pessah; also
Liber; also Liberty of Passage).

*

BRIDGE BUILDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Before speaking of the Pontifices, or the Fraternity of Bridge Builders, whose history is closely
connected with that of the Freemasons of the Middle Ages, it will be as well to say something
of the word which they assumed as the title of their brotherhood.

The Latin word pontifex, with its equivalent English pontiff, literally signifies the builder of a
bridge, from pons, meaning a bridge, and facere, to make. But this sense, which it must have
originally possessed, it seems very speedily to have lost, and we, as well as the Romans,
only recognize pontifex or pontiff as significant of a sacerdotal priestly character.

Of all the Colleges of Priests in ancient Rome, the most illustrious was that of the Pontiffs.
The College of Pontiffs was established by Numa, and originally consisted of five, but was
afterward increased to sixteen. The whole religious system of the Romans, the management
of all the sacred rites, and the government of the priesthood, was under the control and
direction of the College of Pontiffs, of which the Pontifex Maximus, or High Priest, was the
presiding officer and the organ through which its decrees were communicated to the people.
Hence, when the Papal Church established its seat at the City of Rome, its Bishop assumed
the designation of Pontifex Maximus as one of his titles, and Pontiff and Pope are now
considered equivalent terms.

The question naturally arises as to what connection there was between religious rites and the
building of bridges, and why a Roman priest bore the name which literally denoted a bridge
builder. Etymologists have in vain sought to solve the problem, and, after all their speculation,
fail to satisfy us.

One of the most tenable theories is that of Schmitz, who thinks the Pontifices were so called
because they superintended the sacrifices on a bridge, alluding to the Argean sacrifices on
the Sublician Bridge.

But Varro gives a more probable explanation when he tells us that the Sublician Bridge was
built by the pontifices; and that it was deemed, from its historic association, of so sacred a
character, that no repairs could be made on it without a previous sacrifice, which was to be
conducted by the Chief Pontiff in person.

The true etymology is, however, undoubtedly lost; yet it may be interesting, as well as
suggestive, to know that in old Rome there was, even in a mere title, supposing that it was
nothing more, some sort of connection between the art or practice of bridge building and the
mysterious sacerdotal rites established by Numa, a connection which was subsequently again
developed in the Masonic association which is the subject of the present article.

Whatever may have been this connection in Pagan Rome, we find, after the establishment of
Christianity and in the Middle Ages, a secret Fraternity organized, as a branch of the
Traveling Freemasons of that period, whose members were exclusively devoted to the
building of bridges, and who were known as Pontifices, or Bridge Builders, and styled by the
French les Fréres Pontifes, or Pontifical Brethren, and by the Germans Brückenbrüder, or
Brethren of the Bridge. It is of this Fraternity that, because of their association in history with
the early corporations of Freemasons, it is proposed to give a brief sketch.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the methods of intercommunication between different
countries were neither safe nor convenient. Travelers could not avail themselves of the
comforts of either macadamized roads or railways. Stage-coaches were unknown. He who


was compelled by the calls of business to leave his home, trudged as a pedestrian wearily on
foot, or on horseback, if his means permitted that mode of journeying; made his solitary ride
through badly constructed roads, where he frequently became the victim of robbers, who took
his life as well as his purse, or submitted to the scarcely less heavy exactions of some lawless
Baron, who claimed it as his high prerogative to levy a tax on every wayfarer who passed
through his domains. Inns were infrequent, incommodious, and expensive, and the weary
traveler could hardly have appreciated Shenstone's declaration, that:


Whoever has traveled life's dull round,
Wherever his stages may have been,May sigh to think he still has found
His warmest welcome at an inn.


But one of the greatest embarrassments to which the traveler in this olden time was exposed
occurred when there was a necessity to cross a stream of water.


The noble bridges of the ancient Greeks and Romans had been destroyed by time or war,
and the intellectual debasement of the dark ages had prevented their renewal. Hence, when
refinement and learning began to awaken from that long sleep which followed the invasion of
the Goths and Vandals and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the bridge less rivers
could only be crossed by swimming through the rapid current, or by fording the shallow
places.


The earliest improvement toward a removal of these difficulties consisted in the adoption of
rafts or boats, and gilds or corporations of raftsmen and boatmen, under the names of
Linuncularii, Lintrarii, and Utricularii, were formed to transport travelers and merchandise
across rivers. But the times were lawless, and these watermen oftener plundered than
assisted their patrons. Benevolent persons, therefore, saw the necessity of erecting hostelries
on the banks of the rivers at frequented places, and of constructing bridges for the
transportation of travelers and their goods.


All the architectural labors of the period were, as is well known, entrusted to the gilds or
corporations of builders who, under the designation of Traveling Freemasons, passed from
country to country, and, patronized by the Church, erected those magnificent cathedrals,
monasteries, and other public edifices, many of which have long since crumbled to dust, but a
few of which still remain to attest the wondrous ability of these Operative Brethren. Alone
skilled in the science of architecture, from them only could be derived workmen capable of
constructing safe and enduring bridges.


Accordingly, a portion of these Freemasons, withdrawing from the general body, united, under
the patronage of the Church, into a distinct corporation of Fréres Pontifes, or Bridge Builders.
The name which they received in Germany was that of Brückenbrüder, or Brethren of the
Bridge. A legend of the Church attributes their foundation to Saint Benezet, who accordingly
became the patron of the Order, as Saint John was of the Freemasons proper. Saint Benezet
was a shepherd of Avilar, in France, who was born in the year 1165.


"He kept his mother's sheep in the country," says Butler, the historian of the saints, "being
devoted to the practices of piety beyond his age; when moved by charity to save the lives of
many poor persons, who were frequently drowned in crossing the Rhone, and, being inspired
by God, he undertook to build a bridge over that rapid river at Avignon. He obtained the
approbation of the Bishop, proved his mission by' miracles, and began the work in 1177,
which he directed during seven years. He died when the difficulty of the undertaking was
over, in 1184.


His body was buried upon the bridge itself, which was not completely finished till four years
after his decease, the structure whereof was attended with miracles from the first laying of the
foundations till it was completed, in 1188.''



Divesting this account, which Butler has drawn from the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, of
the miraculous, the improbable, and the legendary, the naked fact remains that Benezet was
engaged, as the principa1 conductor of the work, in the construction of the magnificent bridge
at Avignon, with its eighteen arches. As this is the most ancient of the bridges of Europe built
after the commencement of the restoration of learning, it is most probable that he was, as he
claimed to have been, the founder of that Masonic corporation of builders who, under the
name of Brethren of the Bridge, assisted him in the undertaking, and who, on the completion
of their task, were engaged in other parts of France, of Italy, and of Germany, in similar
labors.

After the death of Saint Benezet, he was succeeded by Johannes Benedictus, to whom, as
Prior of the Bridge, and to his Brethren, a charter was granted in 1187, by which they
obtained a chapel and cemetery, with a chaplain.

In 1185, one year after the death of Saint Benezet, the Brethren of the Bridge commenced the
construction of the Bridge of Saint Esprit, over the Rhone at Lyons. The completion of this
work greatly extended the reputation of the Bridge Builders, and in l189 they received a
charter from Pope Clement III. The City of Avignon continued to be their headquarters, but
they gradually entered into Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.

The Swedish chronicles mention one Benedict, between the years l178 and l191, who was a
bishop and bridge builder at Skara, in that kingdom. Could he have been the successor,
already mentioned, of Benezet, who had removed from Avignon to Sweden?

As late as 1590 we find the Order existing at Lucca, in Italy, where, in 1562, John de Medicis
exercised the functions of its chief under the title of Magister, or Master. How the Order
became finally extinct is not known; but after its dissolution much of the property which it had
accumulated passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitalers or Knights of Maita.

The gild or corporation of Bridge Builders, like the corporation of Traveling Freemasons, from
which it was an offshoot, was a religious institution, but admitted 1aymen into the society. In
other words, the workmen, or the great body of the gild, were of course secular, but the
patrons were dignitaries of the Church.

When by the multiplication of bridges the necessity of their employment became less urgent,
and when the numbers of the workmen were greatly increased, the patronage of the Church
was withdrawn, and the association was dissolved, or soon after fell into decay; its members,
probably, for the most part, reuniting with the corporations of Freemasons from whom they
had originally been derived.

Nothing has remained in modern Freemasonry to preserve the memory of the former
connection of the Order with the bridge builders of the Middle Ages, except the ceremony of
opening a bridge, which is to be found in the rituals of the last century; but even this has now
become almost obsolete. Lenning, who has appropriated a brief article in his Encydopädie der
Freimaurerei to the Brückenbrüder, or Brethren of the Bridge, incorrectly calls them an Order
of Knights. They took, he says, vows of celibacy and poverty, and also to protect travelers, to
attend upon the sick, and to build bridges, roads, and hospitals.

Several of the inventors of advanced degrees have, he thinks, sought to revive the Order in
some of the degrees which they have established, and especially in the Knights of the Sword,
which appears in the Ancient and Accepted Rite as the Fifteenth Degree, or Knights of the
East; but Brother Mackey could find no resemblance except that in the Knights of the Sword
there is in the ritual a reference to a river and a bridge.

He was more inclined to believe that the Nineteenth Degree of the same Rite, or Grand
Pontiff, was once connected with the Order we have been considering; and that, while the
primitive ritual has been lost or changed so as to leave no vestige of a relationship between
the two, the name which is still retained may have been derived from the Fréres Pontifes of


the twelfth century. This, however, is mere conjecture, without any means of proof.
Accordingly Brother Mackey was of the opinion that all that we do positively know is, that the
bridge builders of the Middle Ages were a Masonic association, and as such are entitled to a
place in all Masonic histories.


*


BOURBON, PRINCE LOUIS DE, COMTE DE CLERMONT


Said to have been elected December 2, 1743, the fourth Grand Master in France. At first he
was energetic and in 1756 the name of the Grand Lodge was changed from that of the
English Grand Lodge of France to the Grand Lodge of France.


He died in 1771, leaving Freemasonry in a much less flourishing condition as he neglected it
during the latter part of his life, delegating his work to others (see Histoire de la Franc-
Maçonnerie Française, Albert Lantoine, 1925, Paris, pages 64-9, etc.).


*


BOURN


A limit or boundary; a word familiar to the Freemason in the Monitorial Instructions of the
Fellow Craft's Degree, where he is directed to remember that we are traveling upon the level
of time to that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns; and to the reader
of Shakespeare, from whom the expression is borrowed, in the beautiful soliloquy of Hamlet:


Who would fardels bear;
To grunt and sweat under a wearly life ;
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns-puzzles the will.Act III, Scene 1. Fardels here means burdens.


*


BOX-MASTER


Sometimes in the Lodges of Scotland the Treasurer was formerly so called. Thus, in the
Minutes of the Lodge of Journeymen Freemasons of Edinburgh, it was resolved, on
December, 27, 1726, that the Warden be instructed "to uplift and receive for the use of the
society a1l such sum or sums of money which are due and indebted to them or their former
Box-masters or his predecessors in office."


*


BOX OF FRATERNAL ASSISTANCE


A box of convenient shape and size under the charge of the Hospitaler or Almoner, in the
Modern French and Scottish Rites, wherein is collected the obligatory contributions of the duly
assembled Brethren at every convocation, which collections can only be used for secret
charitable purposes, first among the members, but if not there required, among worthy
profane; the Master and the Hospitaler being the only ones cognizant of the name of the
beneficiary, together with the Brother who suggests an individual in need of the assistance.


*


BOYLE, JOHN



Grand Chaplain of Scotland.
May 8, 1843, delivered the oration on the death of the Duke of Sussex.


*


BOYS' SCHOOL


The Royal Masonic Institution for Boys is a charity of the Freemasons of England.


It was founded in the year 1798 by a number of Brethren belonging to the Ancient
Constitution who were members of the Lodge of United Mariners, No. 23, now No. 30. This
benevolence was for clothing and educating the sons of indigent and deceased Brethren,
according to the situation in life they are most probably destined to occupy, and inculcating
such religious instruction as may be conformable to the tenets of their parents, and ultimately
apprenticing them to suitable trades.


Brother Francis Columbine Daniel, of the Royal Naval Lodge of the Moderns, started a
somewhat similar Institution, but the two were happily united in 1817 to the lasting benefit of
the Craft at large.


Similar schools have been established by the Freemasons of France, Germany, and other
countries.


Ossian Lang's History of Freemasonry in the State of New York says: "It will be of interest to
many to learn that the common school system of New York is directly indebted to the Masonic
Fraternity of that state for its founding. In 1810 the Grand Lodge determined to provide for the
free education of children of Freemasons in non-sectarian schools, facilities which had
theretofore been lacking. Free schools financed by the Lodges were established, which
rapidly grew in popularity, and these attracted so much attention that in 1817 the legislature
enacted laws providing for the assumption by the State Government for the growing system,
and its extension to meet the requirements of the entire public."


*


BRAHMANISM


Brahmanisme
The religious system practiced by the Hindus. It presents a profound and spiritual philosophy,
strangely blended with the basest superstitions. The Veda is the Brahmanical Book of the
Law, although the older hymns springing out of the primitive Aryan religion have a date far
anterior to that of comparatively modern Brahmanism. The Laws of Menu is really the textbook
of Brahmanism; yet in the Vedic hymns we find the expression of that religious thought
that has been adopted by the Brahmans and the rest of the modern Hindus.


The learned Brahmans have a bidden or esoteric faith, in which they recognize and adore one
God, without form or quality, eternal, unchangeable, and occupying all space; but confining
this concealed doctrine to their interior schools, they teach, for the multitude, an open or
exoteric worship, in which the incomprehensible attributes of the supreme and purely spiritual
God are invested with sensible and even human forms. In the Vedic hymns all the powers of
nature are personified, and become the objects of worship, thus leading to an apparent
polytheism.


But, as J. F. Clarke in his Ten Great Religions (page 90) remarks, "behind this incipient
polytheism lurks the original monotheism ; for each of these gods, in turn, becomes the
Supreme Being." And Max Müller says (Chips, 1, 2) that "it would be easy to find in the
numerous hymns of the Veda passages in which almost every important deity is represented
as supreme and absolute."



This most ancient religion-believed in by one seventh of the world's population, that fountain
from which has flowed so much of the stream of modem religious thought, abounding in
mystical ceremonies and ritual prescriptions, worshiping, as the Lord of all, "the source of
golden fight," having its ineffable name, its solemn methods of initiation, and its symbolic
rites-is well worth the serious study of the Masonic scholar, because in it he will find much
that will be suggestive to him in the investigations of the dogmas of his Order.

In speaking of the Brahmins, or Brahmans (Kenning's Cyclopaedia of Freemasonry), Brother

A. F. A. Woodford tells us, " It has been said, and apparently on good authority, that they
have a form of Masonic initiation and recognition amongst them"
*

BRANT, JOSEPH

A Mohawk Indian Chief, made a Freemason "and admitted to the Third Degree" at London,
England, on April 26, 1776. This was in a Lodge of the Moderns, the Falcon, in Princess
Street, Leicester Fields.

Brother Hawkins records that during the War of American Independence Brant was in
command of some Indian troops on the British side, by whom Captain McKinsty, of the United
States Army, had been captured. The Indians had tied their prisoner to a tree and were
preparing to torture him, when he made the mystic appeal of a Freemason in the hour of
danger. Brant interposed and rescued his American brother from his impending fate, took him
to Quebec, and placed him in the hands of some English Freemasons, who returned him,
uninjured, to the American outposts. Clavel has illustrated the occurrence on page 283 of his
Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-Maçonnerie. Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, to use his
native name, was bom on the banks of the Ohio River in 1742 and was educated at Lebanon,
Connecticut.

He was a member of Lodge No. 11 at the Mohawk village, about a mile and a half from
Brantford, and was also affiliated with Barton Lodge No. 10 at Hamilton, Canada. Brother
Robertson, History of Freemasonry in Canada, records (on page 687) that Brother Brant
translated the Gospel of St. Mark into the Mohawk language and this was published in 1787.

*

BRAY, REGINALD

Brother A. F. A. Woodford, Kenning's Cyclopoedia, says that he has been reported as Grand
Master in England in 1502 and was probably connected with the Operative Lodges.

*

BRAZEN LAVER

See Laver

*

BRAZEN PILLARS

See Pillars of the Porch

*


BRAZEN SERPENT

See Serpent and Cross

*

BRAZEN SERPENT, KNIGHT OF THE

See Knight of the Brazen Serpent

*

BRAZIL

The largest state and republic in South America. The first Lodge in Brazil is said to have been
established by French authority as early as 1815. At any rate it was at work in 1820 and was
divided into three parts which in 1821 met and formed the Grand Orient of Brazil according to
the French Rite. In October, however, it was closed by order of the Emperor of Brazil, then
Grand Master, and lay dormant for ten years.

Eight years later a Grand Orient of Brazil was formed with José Bonefacio de Andrada e Silva
as Grand Master. In November, 1832, the Supreme Council of Belgium instituted a Supreme
Council, Thirty-third Degree, which in1832 was divided into three parts, each of which
deemed to be a Supreme Grand Council. In 1835 there existed two Grand Orients and four
Supreme Councils.

Out of these several Bodies there finally emerged the original Grand Orient which in 1863
divided into two, the Grand Orient of Lavrado Valley and the Grand Orient of Benedictino
Valley, the former inclined to Roman Catholicism, the latter opposed to it.

In 1872 the two parties united ; the following year they divided again. An attack by the Bishop
of Pemambuco was the indirect cause of a movement towards Masonic union in 1877, and on
January 18, 1883, the union was achieved in a Body which recognized the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite, the Modem French Rite and the Adonhiramite Rite.

In 1914 the Grand Orient exercised authority over 390 constituent Lodges, while England,
Germany, and Italy were also represented in this territory. A further 50 Lodges paid allegiance
to the Grand Orients of Parana and Rio Grande do Sul, the former of which has since united
with the Grand Orient at Rio de Janeiro.

There are two German Lodges at Porto Alegre, and one each at Sertas S. Anna, Sapyranga,
Santa Cruz, Candelaria, and Joinville. The Grand Orient of Italy has a Lodge at Botucatu, and
one at San Paolo.

Eugene Seeger, formerly Consul-General of the United States at Rio de Janeiro, in an article
on Brazil (see Current History, July, 1923), referred to the popularity of Freemasonry there
and asserted that it was largely due to the great number of free public schools established
and supported by the Freemasons for educating future citizens of that republic.

*

BREAD, CONSECRATED

Consecrated bread and wine, that is to say, bread and wine used not simply for food, but
made sacred by the purpose of symbolizing a bond of brotherhood, and the eating and
drinking of which are sometimes called the Communion of the Brethren, is found in some of


the advanced Degrees, such as the Order of High Priesthood in the American Rite, and the
Rose Croix of the French and Scottish Rites.

It was in ancient times a custom religiously observed, that those who sacrificed to the gods
should unite in partaking of a part of the food that had been offered. And in the Jewish Church
it was strictly commanded that the sacrificers should ''eat before the Lord," and unite in a
feast of joy on the occasion of their offerings. By this common partaking of that which had
been consecrated to a sacred purpose, those who partook of the feast seemed to give an
evidence and attestation of the sincerity with which they made the offering ; while the feast
itself was, as it were, the renewal of the covenant of friendship between the parties.

*

BREADTH OF THE LODGE

See Form of the Lodge

*

BREAST

In one of the Old Lectures, quoted by Doctor Oliver, it is said : ''A Mason's breast should be a
safe and sacred repository for all your just and lawful secrets. A brother's secrets, delivered to
me as such, I would keep as my own; as to betray that trust might be doing him the greatest
injury he could sustain in this mortal life; nay, it would be like the villainy of an assassin who
lurks in darkness to stab his adversary when unarmed and least prepared to meet an enemy."

It is true, that the secrets of a Freemason, confided as such, should be as inviolate in the
breast of him who has received them as they were in his own before they were confided. But
it would be wrong to conclude that in this a Freemason is placed in a position different from
that which is occupied by every honorable man. No man of honor is permitted to reveal a
secret which he has received under the pledge of secrecy.

Nevertheless, it is as false as it is absurd, to assert that either the man of honor or the
Freemason is bound by any such obligation to protect the criminal from the vindication of the
law. It must be left to every man to determine by his own conscience whether he is at liberty
to betray a knowledge of facts with which he could not have become acquainted except under
some such pledge. No court of law would attempt to extort a communication of facts made
known by a penitent to his confessor or a client to his lawyer for such a communication would
make the person communicating it infamous. In this case, Freemasonry supplies no other rule
than that which is found in the acknowledged codes of Moral Ethics.

*

BRIEF

The dipioma or certificate in some of the advanced degrees is so called.

*

BRIGHT

A Freemason is said to be bright who is well acquainted with the ceremonies, the forms of
opening and closing, and the ceremonies of initiation. This expression does not, however, in
its technical sense, appear to include the superior knowledge of the history and science of the
Institution, and many bright Freemasons are, therefore, not necessarily learned; and, on the
contrary, some learned Freemasons are not well versed in the exact phraseology of the


ceremonies. The one knowledge depends on a retentive memory, the other is derived from
deep research. It is scarcely necessary to say which of the two kinds of knowledge is the
more valuable. The Freemason whose acquaintance with the Institution is confined to what he
learns from its esoteric ceremonies will have but a limited idea of its science and philosophy.
And yet a knowledge of the ceremonies as the foundation of higher knowledge is essential.

*

BRITHERING

The Scotch term for Masonic initiation.

*

BRITISH COLUMBIA
A province in the western Dominion of Canada. The first Lodge established in this province
was Victoria, No. 783, by the Grand Lodge of England, March 19, 1859. In 1871 the Grand
Lodge of England had four Lodges and the Grand Lodge of Scotland five Lodges. A
Convention was held on October 21, 1871; eight out of the nine Lodges were represented,
and the Grand Lodge of British Columbia was duly organized. Brother Israel Wood Powell, M.
D., Provincial Grand Master of Scotland, was elected the first Grand Master.

*

BRITISH EAST AFRICA

or KENYA COLONY. The Grand Lodges of England and Scotland have each chartered a
Lodge in this district at Nairobi.

*

BRITISH GUIANA

A country in South America. The Grand Lodge of Holland warranted Lodge Saint Juan de la
Ré-Union in 1771 at Georgetown. It did not however survive very long. Lodges were also
chartered by the Grand Lodges of New York, England, Scotland, etc. The Grand Lodge of
Scotland has two Lodges at Georgetown.

*

BRITISH HONDURAS

Known also as Belize, a British colony in Central America. Amity Lodge, No. 309, was
chartered at St. George's Quay by the Grand Lodge of England, but as it did not succeed it
was dropped from the Register in 1813. In 1820 British Constitution Lodge was warranted by
the United Grand Lodge of England at Honduras Bay but, with that of another Lodge
chartered in 1831, its name was omitted from the Register on June 4, 1862.

*

BRITISH LODGE

English Red Apron Lodge, now No. 8, founded 1722, having Centenary Warrant but no
special jewel. Officers permitted golden or gilt jewels, same as Lodge of Antiquity. This honor
conferred when Lord Cranstoun became Grand Master, 1745. He was a member of the
British Lodge and the jewels used by its Master and Wardens were those worn by the Grand


Master and the Grand Wardens and these jewels were gilded before they were returned to
the owners, who were permitted to continue their use of them in gold or gilded metal.

*

BROACHED THURNEL

In the lectures of the early part of the eighteenth century the Immovable Jewels of the Lodge
are said to be "the Tarsel Board, Rough Asmar, and Broached Thurnel"; and in describing
their uses it is taught that "the Rough Ashlar is for the Fellow Crafts to try their jewels on, and
the Broached Thurnel for the Entered Apprentices to learn to work upon."

Much difficulty has been met with in discovering what the Broached Thurnel really was.
Doctor Oliver, most probably deceived by the use to which it was assigned, says in his
Dictionary of Symbolic Masonry that it was subsequently called the ' Rough Asmar. This is
evidently incorrect, because a distinction is made in the original lecture between it and the
Rough Asmar, the former being for the Apprentices and the latter for the Fellow Crafts.
Krause (Kunsturkenden,1, 73), has translated it by Drehbank, which means a turning-lathe,
an implement not used by Operative Freemasons. Now what is the real meaning of the word?
If we inspect an old tracing board of the Apprentice's Degree of the date when the Broached
Thurnel was in use, we shall find depicted on it three symbols, two of which will at once be
recognized as the Tarsel, or Trestle Board, and the Rough Ashlar, just as we have them at
the present day; while the third symbol will be that depicted in the margin, namely, a cubical
stone with a pyramidal apex.

This is the Broached Thurnel. It is the symbol which is still to be found, with precisely the
same form, in all French tracing boards, under the name of the pierre cubique, or cubical
stone, and which has been replaced in English and American tracing boards and rituals by
the Perfect Ashlar.

For the derivation of the words, we must go to old and now almost obsolete terms of
architecture. On inspection, it will at once be seen that the Broached Thurnel has the form of
a little square turret with a spire springing from it. Now, broach, or broche, says Parker in the
Glossary of Terms in Architecture (page 97), is "an old English term for a spire, still in use in
some parts of the country, as in Leicestershire, where it is said to denote a spire springing
from the tower without any intervening parapet. Thurnel is from the old French tournelle, a
turret or little tower.

The Broached Thurnel, then, was the Spired Turret. lt was a model on which apprentices
might learn the principles of their art, because it presented to them, in its various outlines, the
forms of the square and the triangle, the cube and the pyramid."

Brother Hawkins had somewhat different conclusions about the matter and added the
following comments:

In Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (xii, 205), Brother G. W. Speth quotes from the Imperial
Dictionary: "Broach, in Scotland, a term among masons, signifying to rough hew. Broached
Work, in Scotland, a term among masons, signifying work or stones that are rough-hewn, and
thus distinguished from Ashlar or polished work. Broaching-Thurmal, Thurmer, Turner, names
given to the chisels by which broached work is executed."

And therefore Brother Speth suggests that the Broached Thurnel was really a chisel for the
Entered Apprentices to learn to work with. We find that the new English Dictionary explains
Broached as a term used "of stone; chiselled with a broach," or narrow-pointed chisel used by
Freemasons; but Brother Hawkins points out that this still leaves it uncertain what a "Thurnel"
is.


Brother Clegg has had the advantage of actually working with broaching tools and therefore
ought to know something about broached work. The word broach in the industries is usually
applied to the operation of shaping or forming some part by special tools made to produce
some particular shape or design. A triangular hole in a piece of metal or any other material
can for example be furnished to a considerable degree of accuracy by simply forcing the
cutting tool through it as a final operation. This is called broaching and the tools for the
purpose are known as broaches. A tool that is used to smooth out, a small opening by being
rotated within it is often called a broach and, as will be seen, the idea is that the broach is
used to form a special shape. These special shapes therefore are known as work which is
broached and this agrees very closely with the understanding that underlies each of the
comments made above.

The exact meaning of Thurnel or Thurmal is not any too clear but has evidently been applied
to the instrument as well as the product of its work. Brother Charles E. Funk of the Editorial
Department of the Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language has
very kindly read the above article and favors us with the following comments:

I have gone through fifteen or more dictionaries from 1643 up to Murray's New English
Dictionary, including several dialectical dictionaries and one on archaisms. None of them
record any such spelling as thurnel, thurmal, nor thurmer.

Broach or broche, broch, broache, broych, brooch, brotch - are not so obscure. Five centuries
and more of usage still find the early senses preserved. But even so, ambiguity is not avoided
in attempting to determine the expression broached thurnel, for broach may refer either (1) to
the mason's tool, a narrow pointed chisel by which he furrowed the surface of stone, as in the
quotation of 1703, "to broych or broach, as Masons an Atchler or ashlar when with the small
point of their ax (?) they make it full of little pits or small holes;" also that of 1544, " In
hewinge, brochinge, and scaplyn of stone for the chapell ;'' or

(2) to the name of the spire itself, a current form in England today which dates from 1501, "
For trassying & makyn moldes to the brooch."
With this second and still current usage of broach, then, and assuming that thumel is a variant
spelling of tournelle, as it might well have been, we can derive a thoroughly satisfactory
explanation of the expression and one which also agrees with the old illustrations, a spired
turret. This view may be further supported while we recall the old German form Thurm or
tower.

Murray lends further support to this view in his record of the variants of tournelle, which
appeared variously from 1400 to the middle of the seventeenth century as tornel, turnelle,
tornelle, toumel, tornil, and tournell.

A1l of this may lend weight to the theory as given by Mackey. But if this theory is accepted,
the mystery is still unsolved, for by which logic would the symbol of Fellow Craft be the Rough
Ashlar and that of the Apprentice be such a highly finished work as the Spired Turrett One
would expect a reversal of such symbolism at the least.

It seems, therefore, that the explanation as a spired turret is inappropriate---one would not
expect an apprentice " to learn to work upon" such a structure. We are forced, then, to
consider the first definition of broach and to do some more or less etymological guesswork
with thurnel, which I am offering as a possible clue-I can not locate the missing link to make it
conclusive, for we have no reference books covering the subject of stone-dressing tools on
our shelves. Dialectically th was occasionally substituted for f.

We have such instances as thane for fane, thetch for fetch, and thurrow for furraw, and
others. I would expect, therefore, to find some dressing tool, no longer employed, perhaps, or
now under another name, which was called a furnel, fournel, fornel, or even firnel, perhaps
with an m in place of the n. It may be that the firming-chisel is the present type. This tool


would be a tapered handtool, set in a flat head to receive blows from a hammer, and would be
used for rough dressing. Possibly it might be the former which was thus described in 1688:

" The second is termed a Former, it is a Chissel used before the Paring Chissel in all works.
The Clenser, or Former, is a broad ended Iron Plate, or Old-Cold? Chessel with a broad
bottom, set in an Handle; with which Tool they smooth and make even the Stone after it is cut
into that form and Order, as the Work-man will have it."

Again it may have been a development from the formal referred to by Bossewell in 1572:
" A Sledge or a Hammer, of some called a formal,'' ( fore-mall, later called a forehammer). A
broached formal would then have been a tool, perhaps a hammer head, shaped something
like the blacksmith's set hammer, with one broad flat face, the other tapering to a point. The
pointed end would be used for broaching, and the flat end for hammer finishing. Note that
both these descriptions might well refer to the ax in the quotation of 1703.

And further, although the members of the family give Fourneaux or Fournivalle as the original
form of the name. I offer the conjecture that the name Furnald, Fernald may have had its
original from the occupational term furnel (thurnel).

In the latter part of Brother Funk's consideration of this matter he had in mind the name of
James C.Femald, who was editorially connected with his company and a distinguished
author.

*

BROKEN COLUMN
Among the Hebrews, columns, or pillars, were used metaphorically to signify princes or
nobles, as if they were the pillars of a state. Thus (in Psalm xi, 3), the passage, reading in our
translation, "If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?" is, in the original,
"when the columns are overthrown," that is, when the firm supporters of what is right and
good have perished.
So the passage in Isaiah (xix, 10), should read: "her (Egypt's) columns are broken down," that
is, the nobles of her state.

In Freemasonry, the broken column is, as Master Freemasons well know, the emblem of the
fall of one of the chief supporters of the Craft. The use of the column or pillars as a monument
erected over a tomb was a very ancient custom, and was a very significant symbol of the
character and spirit of the person interred. It is accredited to Jeremy L. Cross that he first
introduced the Broken Column into the ceremonies, but this may not be true (see Monument).

*

BROMWELL, HENRY P. H.

Born at Baltimore, Maryland, August, 1823, died at Denver, Colorado, January 9, 1903.
Admitted to the bar in Vandalia, Illinois, 1853. Representative to Congress from 1865 to 1869
from that State-went to Colorado in 1870 and in 1879 elected a member of the Legislature
and in 1881 appointed Commissioner to revise the 1aws of the State.

Made a Freemason at Vandalia in 1854 and chosen Grand Master in 1864. Served as Grand
Orator of the Grand Lodge of Colorado in 1874, and was elected Honorary Grand Master of
that Body in 1889 in consideration of his distinguished services to the Craft. He was the
originator of what has been styled a new branch of Freemasonry, known as the Free and
Accepted Architects, the object of which was to restore and preserve the lost work of the
ancient Craft. At one time there were five Lodges of Architects in the United States, and also
a Grand Lodge.


The instruction embodied in the Degrees was in no sense an innovation, but designed to
impart to students of the Craft a knowledge of Masonic symbolism not otherwise obtainable.
His famous book entitled Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbol, being a dissertation
on the lost knowledge of the Lodge, was begun in 1884 and on it he worked for sixteen hours
a day for six years and two months.

One Chapter, devoted to the floors of the three Lodges, occupied two years and two months
in its preparation, while the book was read and re-read fourteen times for correction and
revision.

*

BROTHER

The term which Freemasons apply to each other. Freemasons are Brethren, not only by
common participation of the human nature, but as professing the same faith; as being jointly
engaged in the same labors, and as being united by a mutual covenant or tie, whence they
are also emphatically called Brethren of the Mystic Tie (see Companion and Mystic Tie).

*

BROTHERHOOD

When our Savior designated his disciples as his Brethren, he implied that there was a close
bond of union existing between them, which idea was subsequently carried out by Saint Peter
in his direction to "Love the Brotherhood."

Hence the early Christians designated themselves as a brotherhood, a relationship unknown
to the Gentile religions; and the ecclesiastica1 and other confraternities of the Middle Ages
assumed the same title to designate any association of men engaged in the same common
object, governed by the same rules, and united by an identical interest. The association or
Fraternity of Freemasons is in this sense called a brotherhood.

*

BROTHERING

Admission to the Craft. Cunningham's Diary, the diary and general expenditure book of
William Cunningham of Craigends, edited by the Reverend James Dodd, D.D., 1887, and
published by the Scottish Historical Society., has the following entries:

June 17, 1676.
To my mai1 to pay his trave1ing. . . . . . . . . 01 2 0
June 26, 1677.
To Andrew Greg his servant in part of
his fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . 02 0 0
To him to pay his Brothering with. . . . . . . . 01 4 0

Glossary at end of book explains that Brothering means admission to the Craft Fellowship.

*

BROTHERLY KISS

See Kiss, Fraternal


*

BROTHERLY LOVE

At a very early period in the course of his initiation, a candidate for the mysteries of
Freemasonry is informed that the great principles of the Order are Brotherly Love, Relief, and
Truth. These virtues are illustrated, and their practice recommended to the aspirant, at every
step of his progress; and the instruction, though continually varied in its mode, is so
constantly repeated, as infallibly to impress upon his mind their absolute necessity in the
constitution of a good Freemason. Brotherly Love might very well be supposed to be an
ingredient in the organization of a society so peculiarly constituted as that of Freemasonry.
But the Brotherly Love which we inculcate is not a mere abstraction, nor is its character left to
any general and careless understanding of the candidate, who might be disposed to give
much or little of it to his Brethren, according to the peculiar constitution of his own mind, or the
extent of his own generous or selfish feelings. It is, on the contrary, closely defined; its object
plainly denoted; and the very mode and manner of its practice detailed in words, and
illustrated by symbols, so as to give neither cause for error nor apology for indifference.

Every Freemason is acquainted with the Five Points of Fellowship-he knows their symbolic
meaning-he can never forget the interesting incidents that accompanied their explanation;
and while he has this knowledge, and retains this remembrance, he can be at no loss to
understand what are his duties, and what must be his conduct, in relation to the principle of
Brotherly Love (see Points of Fellowship).

*

BROTHERS OF THE BRIDGE

See Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages

*

BROTHERS OF THE ROSY CROSS

See Rosicrucianism

*

BROWN, DR. JOHN

See Latin Lodge

*

BROWNE, JOHN

In 1798, John Browne published, in London, a work entitled The Master Key through all the
Degrees of a Freemason's Lodge, to which is added, Eullogiums and Illustrations upon
Freemasonry. In 1802, he published a second edition under the title of Browne's Masonic
Master Key through the three degrees, by way of polyglot. Under the sanction of the Craft in
general, containing the exact mode of working, initiation, passing and raising to the sublime
Degree of a Master. Also, the several duties of the Master, officers, and Brethren while in the
Lodge, with every requisite to render the accomplished Mason an explanation of all the
hieroglyphics.

The whole interspersed with illustrations on Theology, Astronomy, Architecture, Arts,
Sciences, many of which are by the editor. Browne had been, he says, the Past Master of six


Lodges, and wrote his work not as an offensive exposition, but as a means of giving
Freemasons a knowledge of the ritual. It is considered to be a very complete representation
of the monitorial Prestonian lectures, and as such was incorporated by Krause in his Drei
altesten Kunsturkuenden.


The work by Browne is printed in a very complicated cipher, the key to which, and without
which the book is wholly unintelligible, was, by way of caution, delivered only personally and
to none but those who had reached the Third Degree. The explanation of this "mystical key,"
as Browne calls it, is as follows:


The word Browne supplies the vowels, thus:
br o w n e.
a e i o u y


These six vowels in turn represent six letters, thus:
a e i o u y.
k c o l n u


Initial capitals are of no value, and supernumerary letters are often inserted. The words are
kept separate, but the letters of one word are often divided between two or three. Much
therefore is left to the shrewdness of the decipherer. The initial sentence of the work may be
adduced as a specimen: Ubs Rplrbsrt wbss ostm ronwprn Pongth Mrlwdgr, which is thus
deciphered: Please to assist me in opening the Lodge. The work is now exceedingly rare.


*


BRU


See Vielle Bru, Rite of


*


BRUCE


See Robert I, also Royal Order of Scotland.


*


BRUCE, ROBERT


The introduction of Freemasonry into Scotland has been attributed by some writers to Robert,
King of Scotland, commonly called Robert Bruce, who is said to have established in 1314 the
Order of Herodom, for the reception of those Knights Templar who had taken refuge in his
dominions from the persecutions of the Pope and the King of France. Thory (Acta
Latomorum,1, 6), copies the following from a manuscript in the library of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophical Rite:


"Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, under the name of Robert the First, created, on the 24th
June, 1314, after the battle of Bannockburn, the Order of Saint Andrew of the Thistle, to which
has been since united that of Herodom (H-D-M) for the sake of the Scotch Masons, who
composed a part of the thirty thousand men with whom he had conquered an army of a
hundred thousand Englishmen. He reserved, in perpetuity, to himself and his successors, the
title of Grand Master. He founded the Royal Grand Lodge of the Order of H-D-M at Kilwinning,
and died, full of glory and honors, the 9th of July, 1329."



Doctor Oliver (Landmarks,11, 13), referring to the abolition of the Templar Order in England,
when the Knights were compelled to enter the Preceptories of the Knights of Saint John, as
dependents, says:

"In Scotland, Edward, who had overrun the country at the time, endeavored to pursue the
same course; but, on summoning the Knights to appear, only two, Wa1ter de Clifton, the
Grand Preceptor, and another, came forward. On their examination, they confessed that all
the rest had fled; and as Bruce was advancing with his army to meet Edward, nothing further
was done.

The Templars, being debarred from taking refuge either in England or Ireland, had no
alterative but to join Bruce, and give their active support to his cause. Thus, after the battle of
Bannockburn, in 1314, Bruce granted a charter of lands to Walter de Clifton, as Grand Master
of the Templars, for the assistance which they rendered on that occasion. Hence the Royal
Order of H-R-D-M was frequently practiced under the name of Templary."

Lawrie, or the author of Lawrie's History of Freemasonry, who is excellent authority for
Scottish Freemasonry, does not appear, however, to give any credit to the narrative.
Whatever Bruce may have done for the advanced Degrees, there is no doubt that Ancient
Craft Freemasonry was introduced into Scotland at an earlier period. But it cannot be denied
that Bruce was one of the patrons and encouragers of Scottish Freemasonry.

*

BUILDERS' RITES AND CEREMONIES

These have been summarized in two lectures published at Margate, England, 1894, by
Brother George IV. Speth on October 30, and November 13, 1893, in discussing the Folklore
of Freemasonry. Brother Speth says that for those of his Brethren who would take the trouble
to read between the lines, a matter by no means difficult, he ventures to hope that the facts
may not prove dumb guides, but direct their thoughts to the true significance of our
ceremonial customs, and confirm in their minds the certainty of the marvelous antiquity, in its
essence, although perhaps not in its exact outward form, of the solemn climax of our beloved
ritual. Many of us have seen a foundation-stone laid, and more have read of the proceedings.
When conducted by Freemasons the ceremony includes much beautiful symbolism, such as
trying and pronouncing the stone well laid, pouring wine and on and corn over it, and other
similar rites: but in almost all cases, whether the ancient Craft be concerned in the operation
or not, there are placed in a cavity beneath the stone several objects, such as a list of
contributors to the funds, a copy of the newspaper of the day, and above all, one or more
coins of the realm. Should you ask the reason for this deposit, you will probably hear that
these objects were placed there for a future witness and reference.

Although this alleged motive is apparently reasonable, yet it is obviously absurd for surely the
hope of all concerned is that the foundation-stone never would be removed and that the
witness would for ever remain dumb.

Grimm puts it in this way. " It was often though necessary to immure live animals and even
men in the foundation on which the structure was to be raised, as if they were a sacrifice
offered to the earth, who had to bear the load upon her: by this inhuman rite they hoped to
secure immovable stability or other advantages." (See Teutonic Mythology, 1884, translated,
Stalleybrass, 1883 page l141.) Baring-Gould says, "When the primeval savage began to build
he considered himself engaged on a serious undertaking. He was disturbing the face of
Mother Earth, he was securing to himself in permanency of portion of that surface which had
been given by her to all her children in common. Partly with the notion of offering a
propitiatory sacrifice to the Earth, and partly also with the idea of securing to himself for ever a
portion of son by some sacramental act, the old pagan laid the foundation of his house and
fortress in blood." (See On Foundations, Murray's Magazine, l887)


In Bomeo, among the Mnanau Dyaks, at the erection of a house, a deep hole was dug to
receive the first post, which was then suspended over it ; a slave girl was placed in the
excavation; at a signal the lashings were cut, and the enormous timber descended, crushing
the girl to death (see E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1871, page 96).

The following accounts would show how widespread was this sacrificial rite. It was, in fact,
universal: a rite practiced apparently by all men at all times in all places. King Dako bunt his
palace on the body of Danh. The name of his chief town, Dahomey, means on the body of
Danh (see F. Liebrecht, Zur Folkskunde, 1879, page 287).

In Polynesia, the central pillar of one of the temples at Maeva was planted on the body of a
human victim (see G. L. Gomme, Folklore Relics of Early Vnlage Life, 1883, page 27).

A seventeenth century account of Japan mentions the belief there that a wall laid upon the
body of a willing human victim would be secure from accident: accordingly when a great wall
was to be bunt, some wretched slave would offer himself as a foundation, lying down in the
trench to be crushed by the heavy stones lowered upon him (see Tyler, Primitive Culture,
1871, page 87).

Formerly in Siam, when a new city gate was being erected, it was customary for a number of
officers to lie in wait and seize the first four or eight persons who happened to pass by, and
who were then buried alive under the gate posts to serve as guardian angels (see Folk-lore
Relics, page 28).

In the year 1876, the old church at Brownsover, about two miles from Rugby, England, was
restored: The earlier parts of the building were of Norman, the later of early 13th century
architecture. It was found necessary to lower the foundations of the north and south walls of
the church, and in doing so, two skeletons were discovered, one under each wall, about one
foot below the original foundations, exactly opposite each other and about six feet from the
chancel wall which crosses the north and south walls at right angles. Each skeleton was
covered with an oak slab about six feet in length by ten inches wide and two inches thick of
the color of bog-oak. These pieces of plank had evidently been used as carpenters' benches,
from the fact that each of them had four mortice holes cut in such a form as to throw the legs
outwards, and from the cuts made in them by edged tools. The skeletons were found in a
space cut out of the solid clay which had not been moved on either side, just large enough to
take the bodies placed in them. The skeletons were seen in situ: they could not have been
placed there after the original walls were bunt (see Antiquary iii, page 93).

Some substitutions are curious. Animals are to be met with of many kinds. In Denmark a lamb
used to be bunt in under the altar, that the church might stand.

Even under other houses swine and fowls are buried alive. (See Grimm page 1142.) The
lamb was of course very appropriate in a Christian Church, as an allusion to " the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world."

In the Book of Revelation this epithet is only a metaphor, yet Brother Speth says it would
scarcely have been understood unless the rite we are treating of had been known to the
Jews. That it was known, the curse pronounced by Joshua upon the man who should
adventure to rebuild Jericho, proves to demonstration. "And Joshua adjured them at that time,
saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city of Jericho ; he
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the
gates thereof,'' (See Joshua vi, 26, also First Kings xvi, 34.)

The population of India believe at the present day that to give stability to new construction, a
human being should be sacrificed and buried in the foundations (see Folk-lore Journal, 1,
page 23). All the great engineering works are believed by the common people to be protected
against the angry gods of winds and rivers by animal and human sacrifices being performed
under the direction of English officers at the beginning or conclusion of the undertaking (see


Folk-lore Journal 1, page 92). A correspondent of the Times, dating from Calcutta, August 1,
1880, writes: "A murmur has got abroad and is firmly believed by the lower classes of the
natives, that the government is about to sacrifice a number of human beings in order to
ensure the safety of the new harbor works, and has ordered the police to seize victims in the
streets. So thoroughly is the idea implanted, that people are afraid to venture out after
nightfall.


There was a similar scare in Calcutta some seven or eight years ago, when the Hooghly
bridge was being constructed. The natives then got hold of the idea that Mother Ganges,
indignant at being bridged, had at last consented to submit to the insult on the condition that
each pier of the structure was founded on a layer of children's heads''
(see Folk-lore Record iii, page 283).


But we need not go to India for such accusations. In Nature, under date June 15, 1871, we
find: " It is not many years since the present Lord Leigh was accused of having built an
obnoxious person-one account, if we remember right, said eight obnoxious persons-into the
foundation of a bridge at Stoneleigh."


In Scotland there is a current belief that the Picts, to whom local legend attributes building of
prehistoric antiquity, bathed their foundation stones with blood (see Folk-lore Relics, page
29). Brother Speth heard people in Kent, of certainly not the least educated classes, assert
that both the strength and the peculiar pink tinge which may sometimes be detected in
Roman cement, is owing to the alleged practice of the Romans mixing their cement with
blood. Did Shakespeare speak only metaphorically, or was he aware of the custom when he
makes Clarence say,
I will not ruinate my father's house,
Who gave his blood to lime the stones together,
And set up Lancaster.
Henry vi, part iii, act v, scene 1.


Note the words of King John as given by Shakespeare,
There is no sure foundation set in blood,
No certain life achieved by others' death.
King John iv, 2.


Brother Speth gives an experience of the Rev. Baring-Gould. " It is said in Yorkshire," he
writes, " that the first child baptized in a new font is sure to die---a reminiscence of the
sacrifice which was used at the consecration of every dwelling and temple in heathen times,
and of the pig or sheep killed and laid at the foundation of churches. When I was incumbent at
Dalton a new church was built. A blacksmith in the village had seven daughters, after which a
son was born, and he came to me a few days before the consecration of the new church to
ask me to baptize his boy in the old temporary church and font. 'Why, Joseph,' said I, 'if you
will only wait till Thursday the boy can be baptized in the new font on the opening of the new
church.' 'Thank you, Sir,' said the blacksmith, with a wriggle,'but you see it's a lad, and we
should be sorry if he were to deem, if he'd been a lass instead, why then you were welcome,
for 'twouldn't ha' mattered a ha'penny. Lasses are ower mony and lads ower few wi' us'."


Now, it is surely unnecessary, continues Brother Speth, to explain why we bury coins of the
real under orum foundation stones. ''Our forefathers, ages ago, buried a living human
sacrifice in the same place to ensure the stability of the structure: their sons substituted an
animal: their sons again a mere effigy or other symbol: and we, their children, still immure a
substitute, coins bearing the effigy, impressed upon the noblest of metals, the pure red gold,
of the one person to whom we all are most loyal, and whom we all most love, our gracious
Queen. I do not assert that one in a hundred is conscious of what he is doing: if you ask him,
he will give some different reason: but the fact remains that unconsciously, we are following
the customs of our fathers, and symbolically providing a soul for the structure. 'Men continue
to do what their fathers did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have
been long forgotten.'



A ship could not be launched in the olden times without .a human sacrifice: the neck of the
victim was broken across the prow, and his blood besprinkled the sides, while his soul
entered the new home provided for it to ensure its safety amid storm and tempest: to-day we
symbolize unconsciously the same ceremony, but we content ourselves with a bottle of the
good red wine, slung from the dainty fingers of English womanhood."


Brother Speth gives numerous facts from various parts of the world and of widely separated
times.


Perhaps as significant as any and certainly as interesting are the particulars brought to his
attention by Brother William Simpson and dealing with Old Testament days. Referring to
Assyrian foundation stones in the reign of Sennacherib who was on the throne 705-681 B.C.,
we have the roya1 message from Records of the Past (new series, volume vi, page 101), the
words "my inscription" relating in Brother Simpson's note to the foundation stone, the 1atter
probably being a brick or clay cylinder:


I bunt that palace from foundation to roof
and finished it. My inscription
I brought into it. For future days,
whoever-among the kings, my successors, whom
. ASSUR and ISTAR
Shall call to the rule over the land and the people--
the prince may he, if this palace
becomes old and mined, who builds it anew
May he preserve my inscription,
anoint it with oil, offer sacrifices, return it to its place ;
then will Assur and Istar hear his prayer.


The same work (Records of the Past, new series, volume v, page 171) contains an inscription
of Cyrus the Persian King mentioning his discovery of the foundation stone of the Assyrian
Assurbanipal, 668-626 B.C., usually identified with the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10. Here we find
a foundation stone instead of the "inscription" and a significant ceremony is described that
agrees with that of Sennacherib's and is truly very like the modern Masonic Rite when
dedicating hall or temple or laying a corner-stone:


. . . . the foundation-stone of Assur-bani-pal King of Assyria,
who had discovered the foundation stone of Shalmaneser son of Assur-natsir-pal,
I laid its foundation and made firm its bricks. With beer, wine, on (and) honey.


A simnar announcement by Cyrus is also given on page 173 of the above work :
. . . . the inscription containing the name of Assan-bani-pal I discovered anddid not change ;
with oil I annointed (it) ; sheep I sacrificed ;
with my own inscription I placed (it) and restored (it) to its place.


Foundation sacrifices and the substitution of various kinds used for them are considered
freely by several authorities and there is a bibliography. of them to be found in Burdick's
Foundation Rites, 1901. We may note that in folklore customs persist and explanations
change or as Sir J. G. Frazer (Golden Bough, 1890, ii, page 62) says "Myth changes while
custom remains constant; men continue to do what their fathers did before them, though the
reasons on which their fathers acted have long been forgotten." That so many legends
contain allusions to foundation sacrifices is ample proof that such existed. Brother Speth says
further "Had we never found one single instance of the rite actually in practice, we might still
have inferred it with absolute certainty from the legends, although these do not always give us
the true motive."


When it may have become unlawful or otherwise impracticable to bury a body, then an image,
a symbol of the living or the dead, was laid in the walls or under them. The figure of Christ
crucified has been found built into an old church wall. Representations of children, candles



the flame being a symbol of life even as a reversed torch is a type of death, empty coffins,
bones of men and animals, and so on, have been discovered in or under the masonry when
taking down important structures. Freemasons will understand the significance of these old
customs. Every laying of a corner-stone with Masonic ceremonies is a reminder of them, and
every completed initiation a confirmation.

The subject may be studied further in Jew and Human Sacrifice, Herman L. Strack, English
translation of eighth edition, page 138, with bibliographical notes on page 31; Blood
Covenant, H. Clay Trumbull, and particularly pages 45-57 of his other book the Threshold
Covenant, the first of these works discussing the origin of sacrifice and the significance of
transferred or proffered blood or life, and the second treating of the beginning of religious rites
and their gradual development ; Foundation Rites, Louis Dayton Burdick ; Bible Sidelights, Dr.

R. A. Stewart Macalister, Director of Excavations for the Palestine Exploration Fund; James
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, page 368, and in Doctor Mackey's revised History of
Freemasonry, page 1072.
*

BUL

The primitive designation of the month Marchesvan (see Zif). Doctor Oliver says in his
Landmarks (11, 551), that this is one of the names of God among the ancients. It is also said
to be an Assyrian word signifying Lord or Powerful.

*

BULL, OLE BORNEMANN

Famous Norwegian violinist. Born at Bergen, February 5, 1810, and died near there on
August 17, 1880. After brilliant concert tours in Europe, was in the United States, 1843-5, and
again, 1852-7. James Herring, formerly Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of New York,
gave an address at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of Saint John's Lodge No. 1,
New York, December 7, 1857, showing that Ole Bull was a Freemason. He gave his farewell
concert in New York, October 30, 1845, for Masonic charitable purposes, the Grand Lodge
Widows' and Orphans' Fund, which netted the Craft $1,427.55.

*

BULL, PAPAL

An edict or proclamation issued from the Apostolic Chancery, with the seal and signature of
the Pope, written in Gothic letters and upon coarse parchment. This derives its name from the
leaden seal which is attached to it by a cord of hemp or silk, and which in medieval Latin is
called bulla. Several of these Bu1ls have from time to time been aimed against Freemasonry
and other secret societies, subjecting them to the heaviest ecclesiastical punishments, even
to the greater excommunication. According to these Bulls, a Freemason is by reason of that
fact excommunicated by continuing his membership in the Society, and is thus deprived of all
spiritual privileges while living, and the rites of burial when dead.

The several important Bulls which have been issued by the Popes of Rome intended to affect
the Fraternity of Freemasons are as follows: the Bull In Eminenti of Clement XII, dated 24th of
April, 1738. This Bull was confirmed and renewed by that beginning Providas, of Benedict
XIV, 18th of May, 1751; then followed the edict of Pius VII, 13th of September, 1821; the
apostolic edict Quo Graviora of Leo XII, 13th of March, 1825 ; that of Pius VIII, 21st of May,
1829 ; that of Gregory XVI, 15th of August, 1832; Pius IX in 1846 and 1865; and finally that of
Leo XIII, who ascended to the papacy in 1878, and issued his Bull, or encyclical letter,
Humanum Genus, on April 20, 1884. Whatever may have been the severity of the Bulls
issued by the predecessors of Leo XIII, he with great clearness ratifies and confirms them all


in the following language: "Therefore, whatsoever the popes our predecessors have decreed
to hinder the designs and attempts of the sect of Freemasons ; whatsoever they have
ordained to deter or recall persons from societies of this kind, each and all do we ratify and
conform by our Apostolic authority," at the same time acknowledging that this "society of men
are most widely spread and firmly established."

This letter of the Romlan hierarchy thus commences : "The human race, after its most
miserable defection, through the wiles of the devil, from its Creator, God, the giver of celestial
gifts, has divided into two different and opposite factions, of which one fights ever for truth and
virtue, the other for their opposites.

One is the kingdom of God on earth . . , the other is the kingdom of Satan."

That, "by accepting any that present themselves, no matter of what religion, they (the
Freemasons) gain their purpose of urging that great error of the present day, viz., that
questions of religion ought to be left undetermined, and that there should be no distinction
made between varieties. And this policy aims at the destruction of all religions, especially at
that of the Catholic religion, which, since it is the only true one, cannot be reduced to equality
with the rest without the greatest injury."

"But, in truth, the sect grants great license to its initiates, allowing them to defend either
position, that there is a God, or that there is no God."

Thus might we quote continuous passages, which need only to be stated to proclaim their
falsity, and yet there are those who hold to the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope.

*

BRÜN, ABRAHAM VAN

A wealthy Freemason of Hamburg, who died at an advanced age in 1748. For many years he
had been the soul of the Société des ancients Rose-Croix in Germany, which soon after his
death was dissolved. This is on the authority of Thory (Ada Latomorum ii, 295).

*

BRUNSWICK, CONGRESS OF

Convoked in 1775, by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. Its object was to effect a fusion of the
various Rites; but it terminated its labors, after a session of six weeks, without success.

*

BRUNSWICK, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, PRINCE OF

Born 1740, second son of Duke Charles I. In 1769 he affiliated with a Chapter of the Strict
Observance; declared National Grand Master of Prussia, 1772, serving until 1799. Rendered
distinguished service in the Seven Years' War, and said to have written much on
Rosicrucianism, alchemy and magic.

*

BRUNSWICK, FERDINAND, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBUETTEL

Born 1721 and died July 3, 1792. Served in several wars with Frederick the Great, resigning
his military command in 1766 and devoting himself to Freemasonry.


Initiated in 1740 in the Lodge Three Globes at Berlin ; in 1743 received his Master's Degree
at Breslau; became Protector of the Lodge Saint Charles, Brunswick, in 1764; and English
Past Grand Master of Brunswick in 1770; Protector of Von Hund's Strict Observance in 177;
declared Grand Master of the Scottish Lodges in 1772. In 1782 the Duke of Brunswick was
present at the Convent at Wnhelmsbad when the Templar system is supposed to have been
given up and when there he was declared General Grand Master of the assembled Lodges.
Patronized the Nluminati and said to have been General Obermeister (Overseer) of the
Asiatic Brethren. An eminent German Craftsman, presiding at the Saint John's Festival at
Brunswick in 1792, when he declared that he had been a Freemason fifty years

*

BRUNSWICK, MAXIMNIAN J. L., PRINCE OF

Admitted in the Saint Charles Lodge, Brunswick, Germany, in 1770, becoming its Protector.
Youngest son of Duke Charles I, educated at the Collegium Carolinum and went to Italy,
1775, with the German literary Freemason, Lessing. Served Frederick the Great with military
honors and lost his life trying to save a drowning man in the River Oder.

*

BRUNSWICK, WNLIAM A, PRINCE OF

Third son of Duke Charles I of Brunswick, Germany, known to have joined the Lodge Saint
Charles in 1769. Died in 1770.

*

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS

American statesman and orator, born March 19, 1860; died July 26, 1925. Three times
nominated for presidency of the United States, 1896, 1900, and 1908, and twice defeated by
Brother McKinley, and lastly by Brother Taft. In Spanish-American War, 1898, he became
Colonel of the Third Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. Secretary of State, 1913. He was
a member of Lincoln Lodge No. 19, Lincoln, Nebraska (see New Age, March, 1925).

*

BUCHANAN MANUSCRIPT

This parchment roll---one of the "Old Charges"-is so named because it was presented to the
Grand Lodge of England in 1880 by Mr. George Buchanan, of Whitby, by whom it was found
amongst the papers of a partner of his father's. It is considered to be of the latter part of the
seventeenth century-say from 1660 to 1680. This manuscript was first published at length in
Gould's History of Freemasonry (volume 1, page 93), being adopted as an example of the
ordinary class of text, and since then has been reproduced in facsimne by the Quatuor
Coronati Lodge of London in volume iv of the Masonic reprints published by this scholarly
body.

*

BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VALIERS, DUKE OF

Poet, playwright, statesman, described by Dryden as the "epitome of mankind," but really a
spendthrift of time. Doctor Anderson says he was Grand Master of England in 1674. Born
January 30, 1628, and died April16, 1687.


*

BUDDHISM

The religion of the disciples of Buddha. It prevails over a great extent of Asia, and is
estimated to be equally popular with any other form of faith among mankind. Its founder,
Buddha-a word which seems to be an appellative, as it signifies the enlightened-lived about
five hundred years before the Christian era, and established his religion as a reformation of
Brahmanism.

The moral code of Buddhism is excellent, surpassing that of any other heathen religion. But
its theology is not so free from objection. Max Müller admits that there is not a. single passage
in the Buddhiat canon of scripture which presupposes the belief in a personal God or a
Creator, and hence he concludes that the teaching of Buddha was pure atheism.

Yet Upham (Histom and Doctrine of Buddhimn, page 2 ), thinks that, even if this be capable of
proof, it also recognizes ''the operation of Faith called Damam, whereby much of the
necessary process of conservation or government is infussed into the system."

The doctrine of Nirvana, according to Burnouf, taught that absolute nothing or annihilation
was the highest aim of virtue, and hence the belief in immortality was repudiated. Such, too,
has been the general opinion of Oriental scholars; but Müller (science of Religion, page 141),
adduces evidence, from the teachings of Buddha, to show that Nirvana may mean the
extinction of many things---of selfishness, desire, and sin-without going so far as the
extinction of subjective consciousness.

The sacred scripture of Buddhisin is the Tripitaka, literally, the Three Baskets. The first, or the
Vinaya, comprises all that relates to moralityy ; the second, or the Sitras, contains the
discourses of Buddha; and the third, or Abhidharma, includes all works on metaphysics and
dogmatic phnosophy. The first and second Baskets also receive the general name of
Dharma, or the Law. The principal seat of Buddhism is the island of Ceylon, but it has
extended into China, Japan, and many: other countries of Asia (see Aranyaka, Aryan,
Atthakatha, Mahabharata, Mahadeva, Mahak asyapa, Pitaka, Puranas, Ramayana, Sakti,
Sastra, Sat B'hai, Shaster, Shesha, Sruti, Upanishad, Upadevas, Vedas, Vedanga, Zenana
and Zennaar).

*

BUENOS AYRES
A Lodge was chartered in this city, and named the Southern Star, by the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania in 1825. Others followed, but in 1846 in consequence of the unsettled state of
affairs their labors were suspended. A revival occurred in 1852, when a Lodge named L'Ami
des Naufragés was established in Buenos Ayres by the Grand Orient of France; and in 1853
the Grand Lodge of England erected a Lodge named Excelsior (followed in 1859 by the
Teutonia, which worked in German and was erased in 1872), and in 1864 by the Star of the
South. In 1856 there was an irregular Body working in the Ancient and the Accepted Scottish
Rite, which claimed the prerogatives of a Grand Lodge, but it was never recognized, and soon
ceased to exist. On September 13, 1858, a Supreme Council and Grand Orient was
established by the Supreme Council of Uruguay.

In 1861 a treaty was concluded between the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Orient of
the Argentine Republic, which empowered the former to establish Lodges in La Plata and to
constitute a District Grand Lodge therein, which had some Lodges under its rule, when many
more acknowledged the authority of the "Supreme Council and Grand Orient of the Argentine
Republic in Buenos Ayres," which was formed in 1895 by combination of the Grand Orient
and Supreme Council.


*

BUFFALO BILL

See Cody, Colonel William Frederick

*

BUH

A corruption, in the American Royal Arch, of the word Bel. Up to a comparatively recent
period says Doctor Mackey, it was combined with another corruption, Lun, in the mutated
form of Buh-Lun, under which disguise the words Bel and On were presented to the initiate.

*

BUHLE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB

Professor of Phnosophy in the University, of Güttingen, who, not being himself a Freemason,
published, in 1804, a work entitled Ueber den Ursprung und die vornehmsten Schieksale des
Ordens der Rosenkreuzer und Freimaurer, that is, On the Origin and the Principal Events of
the Orders of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. This work, logical in its arguments, false in
many of its statements, and confused in its arrangement, was attacked by Frederick Nicolai in
a critical review of it in 1806, and is spoken of very slightingly even by De Quincey, himself no
very warm admirer of the Masonic Institution, who published, in 1824, in the London
Magazine (volume ix), a loose translation of it, "abstracted, re-arrenged, and improved," under
the title of Historicocritical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.
Buhle's theory was that Freemasonry was invented in the year 1629, by John Valentine
Andreä. Buhlu was born at Brunswick in 1753, became Professor of Phnosophy at Güttingen
in 1787, and, having afterward taught in his native city, died there in 1821.

*

BUILDER

The chief architect of the Temple of Solomon is often called the Builder. But the word is also
applied generallyy to the Craft; for every speculative Freemason is as much a builder as was
his operative predecessor. An American writer, F. S. Wood, thus alludes to this symbolic idea:
"Freemasons are called moral builders.

In their rituals, they declare that a more noble and glorious purpose than squaring stones and
hewing timbers is theirs,- fitting immortal nature for that spiritual building not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." And he adds, "The builder builds for a century; Freemasons
for eternity.'' In this sense, the Builder is the noblest title that can be bestowed upon a
Freemason.

*

BUILDER, SMITTEN

See Smitten Builder

*

BUILDERS, CORPORATIONS OF


See Stone Masons o f the Middle Ages
*
BULLETIN
The name given by the Grand Orient of France to the monthly publication which contains the

official record of its proceedings. A similar work has been issued by the Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America,
and by several other Supreme Councils and Grand Orients.

*
BUNYAN, JOHN
The well-known author of the Pilgrim's Progress. He lived in the seventeenth century, and

was the most celebrated allegorical writer of England. His work entitled Solomon's Temple
Spiritualized will supply the student of Masonic symbolism with many valuable suggestions.
*

BURBANK, LUTHER
Famous horticulturist, born March 7, 1849; died April 11, 1926. Became a Freemason in
Santa Rosa Lodge No. 57, in California, on August 13, 1921. His successful experiments with
fruits and flowers gave him an international reputation (see New Age, March, 1925).

*
BURDENS, BEARERS OF
A class of workmen at the Temple mentioned in Second Chronicles (11. 18), and referred to

by Doctor Anderson (Constitutions 1738, page i i), as the Ish Sabbal, which see.
*
BUREAU INTERNATIONAL DE RELATIONS MAÇONNIQUE
See International Bureau for Masonic affairs
*
BURI or BURE
The first god of Norse mythology. In accordance with the quaint cosmogony of the ancient

religion of Germany or that of Scandinavia, it was believed that before the world came into
existence there was a great void, on the north side of which was a cold and dark region, and
on the south side one warm and luminous. In Niflheim was a well, or the "seething caldron,"
out of which flowed twelve streams into the great void and formed a huge giant.

In Iceland the first great giant was called Ymir, by the Germans Tuisto (Tacitus, Germania,
chapter 2), whose three grandchildren were regarded as the founders of three of the German
races. Contemporary with Ymir, and from the great frost blocks of primeval chaos, was
produced a man called Buri, who was wise, strong, and beautiful. His son married the
daughter of another giant, and their issue were the three sons Odin, Wili, and We, who ruled


as gods in heaven and earth. By some it has been earnestly believed that upon these myths
and legends many symbols of Freemasonry were founded.

*

BURIAL

The right to be buried with the set ceremonies of the Order is one that, under certain
restrictions, belongs to every Master Mason.

None of the ancient Constitutions contain any law upon this subject, nor can the exact time be
now determined when funeral processions and a burial service were first admitted as
regulations of the Order.

The first official notice, however, that we have of funeral processions is in November, 1754. A
regu1ation was then adopted which prohibited any Freemason from attending a funeral or
other procession clothed in any of the jewels or clothing of the Craft, except by dispensation
of the Grand Master or his Deputy (see Constitutions, 1756, page 303).

There are no further regulations on this subject in any of the editions of the Book of
Constitutions previous to the modern code which is now in force in the Grand Lodge of
England. But Preston gives us the rules on this subject, which have now been adopted by
general consent as the law of the Order, in the following words:

"No Mason can be interred with the formalities of the Order unless it be by his own special
request communicated by the Master of the Lodge of which he died a member, foreigners and
sojourners excepted; nor unless he has been advanced to the third degree of Masonry, from
which restriction there can be no exception.

Fellow Crafts or Apprentices are not entitled to the funeral obsequies'' (see Illustrations, 1792,
page 118).

The only restrictions prescribed by Preston are, it will be perceived, that the deceased must
have been a Master Mason, that he had himself made the request and that he was affiliated,
which is implied by the expression that he must have made the request for burial to the
Master of the Lodge of which he was a member.

The regulation of 1754, which requires a Dispensation from the Grand Master for a funeral
procession, is not considered of force in the United States of America, where, accordingly,
Freemasons have generally been permitted to bury their dead without the necessity of such
Dispensation.

*

BURKE, EDMUND

Born January 12, 1729, new style, at Dublin, Ireland, and died July 8, 1797, in England.
Famous statesman, writer and orator who championed the cause of the American Colonists
on the floor of the English Parliament, April 19, 1774.

His father, a Protestant attorney, his mother a Roman Catholic Published in 1756 the satire A
Vindication of Natural Society, then his Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on
the Sublime and Beautiful, translated into German and annotated by another Freemason,
Lessing; a series of Hints on the Drama and an Abridgment of the History of England; and
became interested in America and wrote an Account of the European Settlements. Brother
George W. Baird (Builder, October, 1923) says that Burke was a member of Jerusalem Lodge
No. 44, Clerkenwell, London. In Builder (July, 1923), Brother Arthur Heiron mentions Samuel


Johnson, James Boswell, Sir William Forbes, Richard Savage, Alexander Pope, Richard
Garriek, Jonathan Swift, close friends or contemporaries of Burke, as active and proven
Freemasons. There is an impressive statue of Edmund Burke at Washington, District of
Columbia (see also New Age, January, 1924).

*

BURNES, SIR JAMES

A distinguished Freemason, and formerly Provincial Grand Master of Western India under the
Grand Lodge of Scotland from 1836 to 1846. In 1846 he was appointed Grand Master of
Scottish Freemasons in India. He returned home in 1849, and died in 1862, after serving for
thirty years in the Indian Medical Service. He was the author of an interesting work entitled a
Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars. By James Burnes, LLD., F.R.S., Knight of the
Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; published at London, in 1840, in 74 + 60 pages in small
quarto.

*

BURNING BUSH

In the third chapter of Exodus it is recorded that, when Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro
on Mount Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of
a bush," and there communicated to him for the first time his ineffable Name. This occurrence
is commemorated in the Burning Bush of the Royal Arch Degree. In all the systems of
antiquity, fire is adopted as a symbol of Deity ; and the Burning Bush, or the bush filled with
fire which did not consume, whence came forth the Tetragrammaton, the symbol of Divine
Light and Truth, is considered in the advanced degrees of Freemasonry, like the Orient in the
lower, as the great source of true Masonic light ; wherefore Supreme Councils of the Thirty-
Third Degree date their balustres, or official documents, "near the B.'. B.'.," or Buming Bush,
to intimate that they are, in their own rite, the exclusive source of all Masonic instruction.

*

BUILDER GILDS, ANCIENT

Some thirty miles southwest of Cairo, west of the Nile, and on the Libyan desert, is an oasis in
a sunken depression of many hundreds of square miles, in which from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.
circa existed a number of cities and a rich civilization.
This region was sustained by an irrigation system comparable in size and as an engineering
achievement with our TVA; when that irrigation system was destroyed the Fayum, as its name
was, reverted to desert, and its towns were covered by sand. In 1888 Dr. W. M. Flinders
Petrie exeavated a tomb at Hawara and made the astounding discovery that mummy cases
there were built up of and stuffed with written papyri. Later on he had among his assistants B.

P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt. These two young men began in 1896 to excavate the whole
Fayum, and with such success that in 1897 in the ruins of the town of Oxyrhynchus they
came upon the greatest find of written manuscripts ever made in the whole history of
archeology, and sent back to England tons of documents.
These had been written, most of them, in the Koine, a form of Greek in use throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean during the general period of the first three centuries of our era.

These documents were not of scholarly writings but were such as could be recovered from
the wastebaskets of any modern city: letters, business ledgers, wills, recipes, poems, and
songs, daily papers, sermons, pamphlets, financial reports, tax receipts, etc., etc.

For the first time they gave historians a detailed, day by-day picture of men and their affairs in
Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Rome as things were in the first centuries of the Christian era.


The students and historians of Freemasonry will henceforth have to examine the Fayum
papyri in their studies of ancient builder gilds and of that once favorite subject of Masonic
writers, the Ancient Mysteries, because among these tens of thousands of documents are
many which for the first time furnish written records of gilds of that period and of the Ancient
Mystery cults. In the volumes of the papyri published in 1907 and in 1910 by the British
Museum are a number of documents relating to the mason crafts. Legal forms used by the
ironworkers, the carpenters, and the gild of masons show that such gilds (or collegia) of the
years 100 A.D. to 200 A.D. were very like the gilds of masons in the Middle Ages.

It is only now beginning to be realized that the Mason gilds of the Middle Ages from which our
Fraternity is descended were of dual nature, a fact made especially evident in the body of
Medieval law ; on the one side a Mason gild was a trade association for the purpose of
controlling hours, wages, the rules of daily work, etc. ; on the other side it was a fraternity,
with a Patron Saint, a chapel to attend, with feasts at set times, with relief for widows,
orphans, etc., and for Masons in distress. The Oxyrynchus manuscripts make it clear that the
builder gilds of 2000 years ago also were dual organizations of the same kind ; they met in
their own rooms, had the equivalent of masters and wardens, gave relief, had feasts, also
acted as burial clubs, and also were trade, or craft, organizations.

The Egypt Exploration Fund (Graeeo-Roman Branch) published Part I of the documents
found by Hunt and Grenfell as The Oxyrhynchus Papyri,' by Grenfell and Hunt; London; 1898;
37 Great Russell St., W.C., and 59 Temple Street, Boston, Mass. The latest volume at hand
is Greek Shorthand Manuals, edited by H. J. M. Milne (from a family famous in Freemasonry
for three centuries) ; London ; 1934. For non-archeologists one of the best introductions is the
fascinatingly-written The New Archaeological Discoveries, and Their Bearing Upon the New
Testalnent, etc., by Camden M. Cobem; Fttnk & Wagnalls Co. ; New York; 1917. The
Twentieth Century New Testament was based on the Fayum discoveries ; some authorities
believe that the books of the New Testament were written in the Koine, others that it was
written first in Aramaic and then translated into the Koine,' in either event New Testarnent
Greek was the Koine instead of the Greek of Plato and Euripides.

(The shiploads of documents unearthed since 1885 in Egypt, Palestine, and Greece have
swept away once and forever mountains of nonsense about the pyramid builders and the
Egyptian Mysteries. Scores of Masonic writers, exercising their rights to guess, wrote pseudo-
learned volumes to prove that Freemasonry began with the pyramids [a very common type of
structure] or the Book of the Dead, etc. ; their theories are now rendered forever impossible. It
is not an exaggeration to say that when the last of the tons of mss. are translated, edited, and
published scholars can write a day-by-day history of the eastern Mediterranean countries
from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. It is an astonishing fact that less is known about the Twelfth
Century in England and Europe than about that much more ancient period.)

*

BULLETINS, LODGE

During the first two or three decades after the forming of the first Grand Lodge of Speculative
Masons in London, in 1717, the daily papers of London, and to a lesser extent in Edinburgh,
Dublin, and other cities, published news about Freemasonry on the same footing as other
news . In its earliest years the new Grand Lodge published no Proceedings, and did not even
keep Minutes; after the Lodges had multiplied not only in London, but elsewhere they began
to demand reports from the Quarterly Grand Communications. The earliest Grand Lodge
Minutes (reproduced in facsimile in Quatuor Coronati Antigrapha) were in reality not Minutes
but reports, and in them the list of Lodges were deemed the most important portion. It was to
save the Grand Secretary the drudgery of making many copies by hand that the "Minutes"
were for some years engraved by Pine with his successors hence the origin of the famous
"Engraved Lists"upon which Bro. John Lane was the first and most eminent authority. (See
Lane's Lists of Lodges.)


The earliest Lodges demanded that their members should attend, and in many instances
fined them for non-attendance; to make this rule "all-square" the Lodge in turn had its Tiler
(who was paid) go in person to notify each member of the next Lodge meeting.

This method gradually gave way to the issuing of printed summons, for which an engraved
plate was made, leaving a blank for the date ; a number of these plates were masterpieces of
the engraver's art---an art which had a large vogue in the Eighteenth Century.

The same methods were used in general by American Lodges until after the Revolution, when
for about a quarter of a century they made a large use of newspapers. With the sudden
explosion of the Anti-Masonic Crusade after the so-called "Morgan Affair"this publicity was
stopped, and for many years was not encouraged even after the crusade had died away
because it had been abused.

From the Civil War to the first decade of the Twentieth Century a Lodge either sent out no
notices, or spread them by word of mouth, or published very brief and formal notices in
papers.

In the beginning of this Century Lodges began the issuing of Bulletins, a method being used,
or being adopted, by an ever-increasing number. In majority of instances a Bulletin is printed
by the Lodge and prepared and mailed by the Secretary; in a minority of instances, especially
in cities, either Bulletins or small periodicals are privately prepared and published by local
printers who cover their costs and a very small margin of profits with an income from local
advertising.

The typical Lodge Bulletin is a printed two or four pages leaflet, of envelope size; in it are
names, addressed, and telephone numbers of Lodge officers, and oftentimes of Committee
chairmen, or Committee members; notices of regular or special Communications, and of
special occasions; and in some instances a small number of news items.

Lodge Bulletins have been discussed in Masonic jurisprudence; and both Grand Lodges and
Grand Masters have made rules or decisions to regulate them.

It is generally accepted and established that a Lodge, or the Worshipful Master, or both, have
the authority to exercise complete control of any information or news which emanates from or
about a Lodge, whether published by the Lodge itself or by a private printer or publishing
company.

*

BURNS AS MASONIC LAUREATE

On page 164 of this Encyclopedia Bro. Dudley Wright is quoted in a passage which tries to
show that the long tradition that Robert Burns had been named Poet-Laureate of Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge was "a happy delusion" ; and Bro. Robert I. Clegg, when quoting him,
makes use of a pamphlet which that Lodge had published in 1925. It is possible that both of
these cautious editors overlooked the detailed and exhaustive History of the Lodge
Canongate Kilwinning No. 2, by Allan MacKenzie; Edinburgh; 1888 Bro. MacKenzie devotes
the whole of one chapter to the Laureateship. Out of Lodge records, personal
correspondence, the recollections of old members, newspapers, reports, and by use of
internal evidence he constructs an argument solid enough and cogent enough to convince a
Supreme Court.

Bro. Wright uses as an argument the fact that no record was made in the Lodge Minutes. It
was never suggested that the naming of Burns as Poet Laureate had ever been made by the
Lodge in an official action, and hence it naturally would not go into the Minutes ; it is more
likely that it was made at a banquet, informally, by the body of the members acting
spontaneously. Even so, Burns accepted it in all seriousness; as did also the Lodge, which


went to great expense to have the painting made which is reproduced on the sheet following
page 156.

As will be seen in the key on the sheet opposite that reproduction one of the notables whose
portrait stands out conspicuously from a circle of notables is James Boswell, biographer of Dr.
Samuel Johnson. Boswell was made a Mason in the Lodge in 1759 ; was Junior Warden in
1761; was Depute Master in 1767-l768 ; and Right Worshipful Master from 1773 to 1775.

Bro. MacKenzie's book is a wonderfully moving picture of Lodge life in Eighteenth Century
Scotland.

Through it move James Hogg, the ''Atrox Shepherd, " successor to Bums as Scotland's poet,
celebrated in a stanza by Wordsworth, who when asked to be Masonic Poet Laureate first
refused, then relented and wrote a Masonic "shepherd's song" for his Lodge; Sir Wm. Forbes;
the tremendous Lord Mondobbo; Henry Erskine ; some princes from Russia, etc. ; the
Lockharts, father and son, the latter Sir Walter Scott's son-in-law and biographer ; and
Professor Wilson, better known as Christopher North, author of the Noctes A Ambrosianae,
which American booklovers still read ; and in the background, Sir Walter Scott and his father,
both enthusiastic Craftsmen in their own Lodge.

*

BURNS, ROBERT

One of the most celebrated and best loved of Scottish poets. William Pitt has said of his
poetry, "that he could think of none since Shakespeare's that had so much the appearance of
sweetly coming from nature." Robert Burns, or Robert Burness, as the name was originally
spelled, was born at Kirk Alloway, near the town of Ayr, January 25, 1759. His father was a
religious peasant-farmer living in a humble cottage on the banks of the Doon, the river
destined to be eulogized so touchingly in many of Burns' verses in after life. Burns died in the
thirty-seventh year of his life on July 21, 1796, broken in health. For years he had been feted,
lionized and honored by the entire Scottish nation.

At the age of twenty-three he became closely associated with the local Freemasonry, being
initiated July 4, 1781, in Saint David's Lodge, Tarbolton, shortly after the two Lodges of Saint
David, No. 174, and Saint James, No. 178, in the town were united.

He took his Second and Third Degrees in the month of October following his initiation. In
December Saint David's Lodge was divided and the old Lodge of Saint James was
reconstituted, Burns becoming a member. Saint James' Lodge has still in its keeping, and we
have personally inspected the Minute Books containing items written in Burns' own
handwriting, which Lodge he served as Depute Master in 1784.

From this time on Freemasonry became to the poet a great and propelling power. At the time
of his initiation into Saint David's Lodge Burns was unnoticed and unknown and, it must be
admitted, somewhat unpolished in manner, although he had managed to secure before his
sixteenth year what was then considered to be an "elegant" education.

With almost no exceptions his boon companions were all Freemasons and this close
association with Brethren, many of whom were high in the social scale, but who recognized
his talents and ability, did much to refine and stimulate him intellectually, influence his
thought, inspire his muse, and develop that keen love of independence and brotherhood
which later became the predominant factors of his life. The poet held the position of Depute
Master of Saint James' Lodge until about 1788, at which time he read his famous Farewell to
the Brethren of Saint James' Lodge, Tarbolton, given below:


Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu !
Dear Brothers of the Mystic tie!
Ye favoured, ye enlighten'd few,
Companions of my social joy!
Tho' I to foreign lands must hie,
Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry ba',
With melting heart, and brimful eye,
I'll mind you still, tho' far awa'.


Oft have I met your social band
And spent the cheerful, festive night ;
Oft honoured with supreme command,
Presided o'er the Sons of Light;
And by that Hierog1yphic Bright,
Which none but craftsmen ever saw!
Strong Mem'ry on my heart shall write
Those happy scenes, when far awa'!


May Freedom, Harmony, and Love,
Unite you in the Grand Design,
Beneath th' Omniscient Eye above--
The glorious Architect Divine--
That you may keep th' Unerring Line,
Still rising by the Plummet's Law,
Till ORDER bright completely shine,
Shall be my pray'r when far awa'.


And you, FAREWELL! whose merits claim
Juatly the Highest Badge to wear !
Heav'n bless your honour'd, noble NAME,
To Masonry and Scotia dear.
A last request permit me here,
When yeany ye assemble a',
One round, I ask it with a tear,
To him, the Bard that's far awa'.


About this same time the poet presided as Master over a Lodge at Mauchline, which practice
was, as a matter of fact, irregular, as the Charter of the Lodge covered only meetings held in
Tarbolton, but, it is stated, Burns' zeal in the furthering of Freemasonry was so great that he
even held Lodges in his own house for the purpose of admitting new members.


Mention is also made, however, that Lodes' were not then tied to a single meeting place as
now. Regarding this, Professor Dugald Stewart, the eminent philosophic writer and thinker,
and himself an Honorary Member of the Saint James Lodge, says, "In the course of the same
season I was led by curiosity to attend for an hour or two a Masonic Lodge in Mauchline,
where Bums presided.


He had occasion to make some short, unpremeditated compliments to different individuals
from whom he had no reason to expect a visit, and everything he said was happily conceived
and forcibly as well as fluently expressed."


Burns found himself in need of funds about this time and it was due to the suggestions and
assistance of Gavin Hamilton, a prominent member of the Order and a keen admirer of Bums,
that the poet collected his first edition of poems and was able to have them published through
the able assistance of such eminent Fellow Craftsmen as Aiken, Goudie, John Ballantine, and
Gavin Hamilton. A Burns Monument has since been erected, in August, 1879, in Kay Park,
which overlooks the little printing office where the first Kilmarnoek edition of his poems was
published.



Dr. John Mackenzie, a man of fine literary taste and of good social position, whom Bums
mentions in several of his Masonic poems, lid much at this period by. way of kindly and
discerning appreciation to develop the poet's genius and make it known to the world. It was
due to a generous loan made by. John Ballantine, before mentioned, that Burns was able to
make the trip to Edinburgh and have a second edition of his poems published. At Edinburgh,
due to the good offices of the Masonic Brethren there, Burns was made acquainted with and
was joyously accepted by the literary leaders of the Scottish capital. Reverend Thomas
Blacklock, a member of the Lodge of Saint David, Edinburgh, No. 36, and afterwards
Worshipful Master of Ayr Kilwinning Lodge, received Burns on his arrival, lavished upon him
all the kindness of a generous heart, introduced him into a circle of friends worthy and
admiring, and did all possible to further the interest of the young poet. Brother Sir Walter
Scott, the novelist, addressed a letter to this Lodge of Saint David, Edinburgh, which is now in
their possession in which he pays rare tribute to Robert Burns.

On October 26, 1786, Burns was made an Honorary Member of the Saint John Lodge, No.
22, Kilmarnock, the first of the Masonic Orders to designate him as their Poet and honor him
with honorary membership. Just previous to this he joined the Saint Jolln's Knwinning Lodge,
Kilmarnock, warranted in 1747 but not coming under Grand Lodge until 1808, on which
occasion in the Lodge was presided over by his friend, Gavin Hamilton. On February 1, 1787,
Burns became a member of the Lodge of Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, Edinburgh, which
possesses the most ancient Lodge-room in the world, and this Lodge is said to have invested
Burns with the title of the Poet-Laureate of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning on March 1, 1787,
from which time on Burns affixed the word Bard to his signature. This Lodge issued a booklet
on Saint John's Day 1925, from which we quote the following: '

The fact of the inauguration of Burns as Poet.-Laureate was, some time ago, finally and
judicially established after an elaborate and exhaustive inquiry by the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, which possesses the well-known historic Painting representing the scene, painted
by Brother Stewart Watson, and presented to Grand Lodge by Dr. James Burness, the
distinguished Indian traveler and administrator, and a distant relative of Burns through his
ancestry in Kincardineshire, from which Burns' father migrated to Ayrshire.

On the other hand, Brother Dudley Wright, in the Freemason, London, February 7, 1925,
says:

The principal fallacy, which has lately found frequent repetition even in some Scottish Lodges,
is the statement that Robert Burns was on a certain night installed or invested as the Poet
Laureale of canongate Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2.

Bums became a member of this Lodge on February 1, 17S7, as testified by the following
Minute: " The Right Worshipful Master, having observed that Brother Burns was present in
the Lodge, who is well known as a great poetic writer and for a late publication of his works
which have been universally commended, Submitted that he should be assumed a member of
this Lodge, which was unanimously agreed to and he was assumed accordingly."

The story runs that exactly a month afterwards, on March 1, 1787, Burns paid a second visit
to Lodge canongate Kilwinning, when he was invested as Poet Laureate of this famous
Lodge, and there is in existence a well-known painting of the supposed scene, which has
been many times reproduced. The picture, however, is only an imaginary one, for one of the
characters depicted as being present-Grose, the Antiquarian-did not become a Freemason
until 1791. James Marshall, a member of the craft, published, in 1846, a small volume entitled
A Winter with Robert Burns, in which he gave a full account of the supposed investiture, with
biographical data of the Brethren stated to have been present on that occasion.

Robert Wylie, also, in his History of Mother Lodge Kilwinning, of which he was Secretary,
published in 1878, has repeated the story, and added that " Burns was very proud of the
honor''; while Dr. Rogers, in The Book of Robert Burns, volume I, page 180 has also repeated
the story, giving the date of the event as June 25, 1787, and adding the information that Lord
Torpichen was then Depute Master, and that in compliment to the occasion, and as a token of


personal regard, on the following day he despatched to the poet at his lodgings in the
Lawnmarket a handsome edition of Spenser's works, which the poet acknowledged in a letter.

There was a meeting of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning on March 1, 1787, the Minute of which
is in existence, but it contains no reference to the investiture of Burns as Poet Laureate of the
Lodge. It reads as follows: " St. Johns chapel, March 1, 1787. The Lodge being duly
constituted it was reported that since last meeting R. Dalrymple Esq., F. T. Hammond Esq.,

R. A. Maitland Esq., were entered apprentices; and the following brethren passed and raised :
R. Sinclair Esq., Z. M'Donald Esq., C. B. Cleve Esq., captain Dalrymple, R. A. Maitland Esq.,
F. T. Hammond Esq., Mr. Clavering, Mr. M'Donald, Mr. Millar, Mr. Hine, and Mr. Gray, who all
paid their fees to the Treasurer. No other business being before the meeting, the Lodge
adjourned."
It is not a pleasing task to dispel such a happy delusion, but it must be admitted that the
investiture certainly did not take place on that occasion, when there is no record that Burns
was even present. Had the investiture taken place, it would certainly have been recorded on
the Minutes, especially when regard is had to the fact that his very admission to the Lodge a
month previously was made the subject of so special a note. There were only three meetings
of the Lodge held in 1786-7 session, and at one of these only,-that of the night of his
admission as a Joining Member -is there any record of the presence of Robert Burns. But did
not Burns call himself Laureated, somebody may ask. Certainly he did, particularly in the
following stanza:

To please you and praise you,
Ye ken your Laureate scorns ;
The prayer still you share still
Of grateful Robert Burns.

But those words were written on May 3, 1786, before the date of his admission into Lodge,
Canongate Kilwinning. While Brother Burns may not have actually been appointed Poet
Laureate of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, and the account of the meeting of February 1 does
not indicate anything more than that he was "assumed" a member, yet later mention of
Brother Burns in the Minutes does suggest that the Brethren in some degrees considered our
Brother as Poet Laureate.

For instance, on February 9, 1815, the Lodge resolved to open a subscription among its
members to aid in the erection of a "Mausoleum to the memory of Robert Burns who was a
member and Poet Laureate of this Lodge. " There is the further allusion on January 16, 1835,
in connection with the appointment of Brother James Hogg, the ''Ettrick Shepherd" to the
"honorary office of Poet Laureate of the Lodge, which had been in abeyance since the death
of the immortal Brother Robert Burns" (see also Lodge).

Shortly after the publication of the second edition of his verse at Edinburgh, Burns set out on
a tour with his friend, Brother Robert Ainslie, an Edinburgh lawyer. Brother A. M. Mackay tells
us in a pamphlet issued by Lodge Saint David, Edinburgh, No. 36, on the Festival of Saint
John, December 19, 1923, that "Burns visited the old fishing town during the course of a tour
through the Border Counties in the early summer of 1787." The records of the Lodge contain
no reference to the Poet, or to the Royal Arch Degree of which Burns and his friend became
members, but several prominent Brethren in Saint Ebbe were Royal Arch Masons and,
although working under no governing authority, appear to have occasionally admitted
candidates into that Order. Brothers Burns and Ainslie arrived at Eyemouth on Friday, May
18, and took up their abode in the house of Brother William Grieve, who was, the Poet
informs us, "a joyous, warm hearted, jolly, clever fellow." It was, no doubt, at the instigation of
their host that the meeting of Royal Arch Masons, held on the following day, was arranged:

Eyemouth 19th May 1787. At a general encampment held this day, the following Brethren
were made Royal Arch Masons, namely:


Robert Burns, from Lodge Saint James, Tarbolton, Ayrshire; and Robert Ainslie from the
Lodge of Saint Luke, Edinburgh, by James Carmichael, William Grieve, Donald Dow, John
Clay, Robert Grieve, etc., etc.


Robert Ainslie paid one guinea admission dues, but, on account of Brother Bum's remarkable
poetical genius, the encampment unanimously agreed to admit him gratis and considered
themselves honored by having a man of such shining annuities for one of their companions.


It is suggested by Brother A. Arbuthnot Murray, formerly Grand Scribe E. of the Supreme
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland, who is an authority on the old working of the Scottish
Royal Arch Chapters, that Burns was probably made a Knight Templar as well, as under the
old regime the two ceremonies were always given together (see also Mark).


Dudley Wright in Robert Burns and Freemasonry says, "On December 27, 1788, Burns was
unanimously assumed, being a Master Masson' a member of the Saint Andrews Lodge, No.
179, Dumiries. The Secretary wrongly described him as of 'Saint David Strabolton Lodge, No.
178.'" The poet's last attendance at this Lodge was in 1796, a few months after which he
contracted the fatal fever which led to his death.


A word should be said here in refutation of the slanderous charge that Burns acquired the
habits of dissipation, to which he was unfortunately addicted, at the festive meetings of the
Masonic Lodges (see Freemasons Magazine, London, volume v, page 291), and his brother,
Gilbert's, testimony is given below, "Towards the end of the period under review, in his,
twenty-fourth year, and soon after his father's death, he was furnished with the subject of his
epistle to John Rankin. During this period, also, he became a Freemason, which was his first
introduction to the life of a boon companion. Yet, notwithstanding these circumstances, and
the praise he has bestowed on Scotch drink, which seems to have misled his historians, I do
not recollect during these seven years, nor till towards the end of his commencing author,
when his growing celebrity occasioned his often being in company, to have ever seen him
intoxicated ; nor was he at all given to drinking."


Notwithstanding this, however, the poet undoubtedly enjoyed convivial gatherings and he
wrote to a friend, James Smith, "I have yet fixed on nothing with respect to the serious
business of life. I am, as usual, a rhyming, Mason-making, rattling, aimless, idle fellow." In
spite of this "idleness," Burns was very prolific in verse and especially did he give of his
genius liberally in service to the Masonic Order, an example of one of these verses being
given below:


A' ye whom social pleasure charms,
Whose heart the tide of kindness warms,
Wha hold your being on the terms,
Each aid the others,
come to my bowl, come to my arms,My friends, my Brothers.


Among the various poetic Masonic effusions of this "heaven-taught plowman" is the following,
which was written in memory of his beloved friend, a fellow-poet and Brother, Robert
Ferguson:


Curse on ungrateful man that can be pleased,
And yet can starve the author of his pleasure .
Oh, thou, my Elder Brother in misfortune,
By far my elder Brother in the Muses,
With tears I pity thy unhappy fate !
Why is the bard unfitted for the wond,
Yet has so keen a relish of its pleasures?



Part of the proceeds of the Edinburgh edition of Burns' poems was used in the erection of a
tombstone over the remains of this same Scottish poet, Robert Ferguson, on which he
inscribed the stanza:


No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
No storied um, nor animated bust,
This simple stone directs pale Scotis's way,
To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.


A monument was erected for Robert Burns, himself, by public subscription, at his birthplace,
January 25, 1820. The corner-stone was laid with appropriate Masonic honors by the Deputy
Grand Master of the Ancient Mother Lodge at Kilwinning, assisted by all 'the Masonic Lodges
in Ayrshire.


At a meeting in 1924 of the Scots Lodge of London in honor of Robert Burns, Sir John A.
Cockbum, M.D., in the address of the evening explained to us that the poet when young had
suffered from a rheumatic fever that frequently resulted in a condition peculiarly liable at any
time later to sudden fatal consequences. Sir John also urged that due consideration should
be given to the tendency and practice of the era when Burns flourished, when a free use of
intoxicants was common.


*


BUSINESS


Everything that is done in a Masonic Lodge, relating to the initiation of candidates into the
several degrees, is called its work or labor; all transactions such as are common',to other
associations and societies come under the head of business, and they are governed with
some peculiar differences by rules of order, as in other societies (see 0rder, Rules of).


*


BYBLOS


An ancient city of Phenicia, celebrated for the mystical worship of Adonis, who was slain by a
wild boar. It was situated on a river of the same name, whose waters, becoming red at a
certain season of the year by the admixture of the clay which is at its source, were said by the
celebrants of the mysteries of Adonis to be tinged with the blood of that god.


This Phoenician city, so distinguished for the celebration of these mysteries, was the Gebal of
the Hebrews, the birthplace of the Giblemites, or stone-squarers, who wrought at the building
of King Solomon's Temple; and thus those who have advanced the theory that Freemasonry
is the successor of the Ancient Mysteries, think that they find in this identity of Byblos and
Gebal another point of connection between these Institutions.


*


BY-LAWS


Every subordinate Lodge is permitted to make its own by-laws, provided they do not conflict
with the regulations of the Grand Lodge, nor with the ancient usages of the Fraternity. But of
this, the Grand Lodge is the only judge, and therefore the original by-laws of every Lodge, as
well as all subsequent alterations of them, must be submitted to the Grand Lodge for approval
and confirmation before they can become valid, having under the English Constitution
previously been approved by the Provincial or District Grand Master.