The Builder Magazine 

June 1924 - Volume X - Number 6 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

FRONTISPIECE - ENTHUSIASM OF THE CRUSADERS 

THE BASIS OF MASONIC UNITY - By Bro. Sir Alfred Robbins, England 

WHENCE CAME YOU AND HOW SHALL I KNOW YOU? - By Bro. Melvin P. 
Johnson, P.G.M., Massachusetts 

AMERICAN INDIAN MASONRY (Concluded) - By Bro. Arthur C. Parker, 
Associate Editor, New York 

GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - FREDERICK DESMONS - By Bro. G. W. 
Baird, P. G. M., District of Columbia 

A REVIEW OF CRYPTIC MASONRY (Concluded) - By Bro. George W. Warvelle, 
P. G. M., Illinois 

AN APRON LECTURE FOR THE SELECT MASTER DEGREE - By Bro. Percy 
Edgar Brown, Iowa 

MASONIC JOURNALISM OF THE LONG AGO - By Bro. Joseph E. Morcombe, 
Associate Editor, California 

THE STUDY CLUB - Chapters of Masonic History - Part XIII, Various Grand 
Lodges France, Germany, Etc. - By Bro. H. L. Haywood 

DON'T HURRY UPSTAIRS 

EDITORIAL 


A Masonic Critic 



The Nestors of the Craft 


THE LIBRARY 

Bro. Frank C. Higgins' Theory of Masonry 
Freemasonry as a Form of Mysticism 

THE ARCHITECTURAL FEVER 

THE QUESTION BOX AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Dr. Copeland a Mason 

Stone, Wilbur, Denby 

Masonry Not in Business 

Meaning of Am B'Tsafn 

Science and Freemasonry 

A Chinese W.M. 

Texas Does Not Specify Number of Degrees 

Principles Governing Fraternal Recognition in G. L. of New York. 

Light Wanted on Masonic Funeral Customs 

A New Special Research Group 

Index fori 923 


YE EDITOR'S CORNER 



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THE BUILDER 


VOLUME X NUMBER 6 


JUNE 1924 


THREE DOLLARS THE YEAR 
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS THE COPY 


Published Monthly by the National Masonic Research Society 


The Basis of Masonic Unity 


An Interview With Sir Alfred Robbins, P. G. W., President of the Board of General 
Purposes, 

United Grand Lodge of England, W. M. Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Etc., England 


Sir Alfred Robbins was a welcome visitor to this land during March, April, and May 
as an official representative from the United Grand Lodge of England. Wherever he 
went he was greeted with all the honors that American Freemasonry could bestow 
upon so distinguished a guest; and he, with Lady Robbins, received such private 



entertainment as must have convinced him of the high esteem in which he is 
personally held by American Masons. While in Missouri he was the guest of honor at 
a Specific Communication of the Grand Lodge of Missouri held in St. Louis, Monday 
evening, April 2 1 , at which time he was made an honorary member of Grand Lodge, 
being the fourth in Missouri history to receive that honor, the first having been 
Lafayette. On April 23, he was guest of honor at a regular session of the Grand 
Chapter, R. A. M., Missouri, held at Columbia, where he was made an honorary 
member of the Grand Chapter. On Monday, April 2 1 , he was entertained at luncheon 
in the name of the National Masonic Research Society and on that occasion was made 
an honorary life member of the Society. The interview published below is the 
substance of a number of his utterances made during private conversations, he has 
revised it in manuscript and corrected it in proof. The Masonic International 
Association was described in an article under that title, The Builder, April, 1922, page 
99; the reader should also consult, for purposes of comparison, Bro. Oliver Day 
Street's essay on "World-Wide Masonry and Its Desirability," The Builder, June, 

1923, page 171, 


THE wish that we might find some basis for union among all Masonic Grand Bodies 
in the various nations of the world is one that most active Masons have long 
entertained. Of late, certain definite efforts have been undertaken looking toward that 
end; and the International Masonic Association, I believe, is such an undertaking. As 
I understand the purpose of this association, it has in view the finding of a common 
platform on which the Freemasonry of England, the United States, and all other 
nations in which English speaking Freemasonry is practiced, may unite on the ground 
of fraternal recognition with the Freemasonry practiced in France, Italy, Spain, 
Belgium, and other countries where Latin Masonry exists. I believe that every Mason 
who has at heart the general and far-reaching purpose of our Fraternity would wish 
that such a thing might be made possible. But, speaking for myself, and having in 
mind the character and activities of Freemasonry in England, I am bound to say that I 
consider such plans thus far formulated as being impracticable, and as leading us on 
to very dangerous ground. 


The fundamental difference between English speaking Masonry and Latin Masonry is 
that the former definitely and specifically requires of every candidate that he sincerely 
profess belief in the Great Architect of the Universe before he can be admitted into 



one of our lodges; whereas most of the bodies practicing Latin Masonry either ignore 
this fundamental requirement or assume towards it an ambiguous attitude. If this 
question is fundamental, as I consider it is, 1 know I can frankly say for English 
Masonry that it will stand firm on its present position, the one it has always held, and 
will in no sense modify or abandon this central necessary requirement. If we were to 
do any such thing, English Freemasonry would lose ninety per cent of its 
membership. I know it would lose me. In our opinion, such a course would require us 
to depart absolutely from the original plan and foundation of Freemasonry. 


Some of our brethren in America, I am told, take the position that in Anderson's 
Constitutions a Mason is not expressly required to believe in the one living God and, 
therefore, it is the United Grand Lodge of England that has departed from the original 
plan rather than Latin Masonry. I cannot in the least agree with this theory. For one 
thing, Anderson's Constitutions are not held by us to be an everlasting and infallible 
authority: we know our Anderson too well. For another thing, it is not necessary for 
us to prove by book and bell, down to the very text and letter, our present position. 
That has come as the result of a gradual growth and development inside the English 
Craft, long before our present organized Freemasonry existed. Our present position is 
as completely validated by the unfailing tradition of centuries as if, in the 
Constitutions of 1723, it had been specifically stated in so many words; and a candid 
study of the history and customs of English Masonry since 1717 will convince any 
student that from that date until now, theism - the sincere trust in T.G.A.O.T.U. - has 
been central and fundamental in English Freemasonry. Back in its early beginnings 
our Grand Lodge used as its official motto "In the Lord is our trust"; this motto was 
placed on all our Grand Lodge documents; it appeared on the seal of every lodge 
warrant; and it was stamped or printed on every official utterance of our original 
Grand Lodge. Did our brethren in the beginning use these words as a mere formula 
without meaning ? It is impossible for me to think so. 


I am told that certain ambiguous formulas used by the Grand Orient of France and 
other such Latin Grand Bodies really mean the same thing, and that in spirit and 
purpose Latin Masons are at one with us. If they are, why do not they say so 
definitely and specifically? Why did they change their formulas? They changed them 
for a purpose, and that purpose is not ours. 



All of us understand the conditions under which our French brethren work, the 
difficulties with which they are confronted, and some of us may be in sympathy with 
certain of their efforts, except that we do not at all approve of entangling Freemasonry 
in political activities. Nevertheless, I am not at all in favor of seeking a union with our 
brethren of Latin countries if in so doing we must abrogate that which is fundamental 
in English speaking Freemasonry. Such a departure would be too high a price to pay 
for any kind of unity. Many efforts have been made to devise some formula that 
might serve as a platform for union on which all of us could stand. Thus far, I have 
not seen any such formula, or met any man capable of framing one that would not 
neutralize or even completely cancel what everywhere in English speaking Masonry 
is considered fundamental. World-wide Masonry is a consummation for which we all 
earnestly wish and pray; but what advantage would it be to us if, in gaining it, we 
were to deprive the Freemasonry of all English speaking lands of that which therein is 
considered most precious in the Craft? 


If we are sincerely desirous of reaching world-wide Masonic unity, why should we 
not begin closer at home? Among our Grand Lodges practicing our form of 
Freemasonry there is much work to be done, because, among them, they have many 
problems to solve. We have such in the British Empire, and I am sure that you have 
such problems among your forty-nine Grand Lodges in the United States. Until such 
time as a way opens up along which we may legitimately and honorably move toward 
world- wide Masonry, why should we not employ ourselves in an effort to bring all 
English speaking Freemasonry closer together ? The English speaking peoples 
comprise a far flung brotherhood; among them are more than four million Masons. If, 
in their activities and aspirations, they can be brought into close touch so that all 
Masons among them can work together at the same great task, this, 1 believe, would 
be in itself a far greater contribution to the peace and welfare of the world than an 
artificial, ill-founded unity. 


There are many ways in which we brethren of We English speaking peoples may 
draw more closely together. My own visit to the United States is making me see this 
more clearly than ever before. I am learning to know responsible American Masons 
personally, and I have enjoyed the opportunity of interpreting to them Masonry as we 
have it in my own country. If more of my English brethren could find an opportunity 
to visit their American brethren, and if in turn the Grand Bodies of the United States 
could on occasion send official or unofficial visitors and even ambassadors to 
England, such personal contacts would in themselves do much toward bringing about 



a more complete solidarity. At the same time it would be possible for us to work more 
closely together at specific problems. I know that English Masonry is not as well 
understood in this country as it might be, and I am equally sure that my brother 
English Masons do not sufficiently understand the activities and problems of 
American Masonry. If we can bring ourselves more closely together so as to meet 
such problems as we have in common, even to the extent of giving specific and 
definite service one to another, we shall be gradually building up that kind of unity 
that will endure, and will be of great ultimate fruitfulness not only among Masons 
themselves, but for all English speaking peoples. 


Our English Masonry is very practical in its nature. I speak for my brethren there, and 
I am sure I correctly interpret myself, in saying that we are not naturally so much 
interested in antiquarian and curious subjects as appears to be sometimes believed 
over here. For us there are two great and enduring landmarks, belief in T.G.A.O.T.U. 
and the Volume of the Sacred Law open on every Masonic altar. What other 
landmarks there may be I do not know; men may form such opinions as they wish on 
that much disputed subject. They are free to speculate about the origins of Masonry 
and try to interpret our symbols and rituals; but the main thing is that we shall do in 
the present our own great and proper work, which is, through our Masonic fellowship, 
to enlarge and enrich human brotherhood; through our obligations and teachings to 
create individual character; and through our institutional activities to devote an ever 
increasing portion of our time and substance to charity, kindliness, and all good 
works. What does it matter whether we can claim to be derived from sources three 
thousand years old, two thousand years old, one thousand years old? We have an 
heredity two centuries old about which there can be no shadow of a doubt; and a 
period of two centuries is a very respectable heredity in itself. The important thing is 
that we shall practice and exemplify Masonry as we have it; and it is my deep desire 
to do everything in my power to assist that end. 


— o — 


A contract was entered into between the Scottish Rite bodies of Little Rock and the 
Grand Lodge, whereby the latter loaned them $75,000. 



O 


There will be little need for innovations and for new attractions in our lodges if we 
shall keep close to the practice of our professions and devote our energies to the 
attainment of a full understanding and exemplification of the ideas we profess; even if 
we fail in some measure, a sincere attempt will meet its sure reward. I am not an 
alarmist, and I do not share in the cry that is going up in some quarters of dangers 
from without. The future is secure if we look well to our duties within. - Edward P. 
Hufferd, P.G.M., Colorado. 


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Whence Came You and How Shall I Know You? 


By Bro. MELVIN M. JOHNSON, P. G. M., Massachusetts 


(Copyrighted by the Author) 


READERS are requested to remember that I assume all responsibility for facts stated 
and opinions expressed in articles contributed by me from time to time to Masonic 
magazines. Printing them is not expected to be regarded as an endorsement of the 
facts or opinions by the editors or anybody else. It is hoped that if there are any 
qualified Masonic students who entertain different views upon any controverted 
subject they will be freely and fully offered for publication. The only way to settle 
mooted questions is to discuss them from all viewpoints. Instead of resenting such 
discussion I most earnestly urge and welcome it. 


MELVIN M. JOHNSON. 



THE nations of the world recognize what is I called international law. It results from 
the fact that no nation lives isolated; each has contacts with others. The citizens of 
one travel into the others. Commerce travels across boundary lines. Each civilized 
nation, therefore, so conducts itself as to have a certain regard and consideration of its 
sister nations and their citizens. The principles and rules which grow out of this 
relationship are known as international law. 


Just so, the Grand Lodges of the world have an inter-Grand Lodge or 
interjurisdictional law. Only in isolated instances has it been written into treaties or 
enacted as statute law. It is rather the result of common consent. What, then, are the 
general principles of this interjurisdictional law and how far shall any Grand Lodge 
be affected by the laws, customs, and usages of another? 


The first and fundamental inquiry concerns recognition. This is an extra-territorial 
question. Each Grand Lodge must gain information from outside its own territorial 
jurisdiction to learn what other bodies there are which claim to be Masonic and 
whether they are really such. Having determined (by tests which will be discussed 
elsewhere) that a foreign Grand Lodge is entitled to be treated as belonging to the 
Masonic family, "recognition" is extended to it and, usually, representatives are 
exchanged. These representatives have no real authority and their commissions are no 
more than pledges of amity. Each Grand Lodge, as a result, acknowledges that there 
are other Grand Lodges which, within their several jurisdictions, have as complete 
autonomy as it has within its jurisdiction. 


No principle of interjurisdictional law is more universally acknowledged than the 
perfect equality of all sovereign Grand Lodges. It results from this equality, that no 
one may rightfully impose a rule on another. Each legislates for itself but its 
legislation can operate on itself alone. Disregard of this rule of interjurisdictional law 
has been at the root of most of the disagreements between Grand Bodies. Each of the 
Grand Bodies of the world should remember that as it may conduct its Masonic 
affairs within its sovereignty to suit itself without interference, so it must accord that 



same right to its other equals within their respective jurisdictions. If and when any 
Grand Body so radically departs from the Landmarks as to cease to be a Masonic 
body, it becomes, Masonically, an outlaw and no longer entitled to recognition. Until 
then, so long as it comports itself with that courtesy and comity demanded by the 
inherent nature of Freemasonry, it is entitled to maintain its limits free from invasion 
and free from any effect which it does not, itself, see fit to give therein to the laws, 
customs, and regulations of others. 


The doctrine of fraternal comity, however, is likewise universal. 


By the application of this doctrine, each Grand Lodge gives full faith and credit to the 
work which each other Grand Lodge does with its own material. This means that the 
Masonic status of each brother is determined by the laws of the Grand Lodge which 
has acquired jurisdiction over him and to which he rightfully owes allegiance. 


His status is to be considered 


I. As Raw Material, i. e., as an Applicant. 


II. As Unfinished Material, i. e., as a Candidate. 


III. As Finished Material, i. e., as a Master Mason; Including (a) Questions of 
Discipline. 


I. STATUS AS AN APPLICANT 



No application from a profane may be lawfully acted upon unless he has acquired a 
residence within the territorial limits of the Grand Lodge receiving his application. 
That does not necessarily require citizenship in the state or country within which such 
Grand Lodge is located. Citizenship and residence are different things. Residence and 
domicile are, for this purpose, synonymous. If a man is actually physically present in 
a certain place and then and there determines to make that place his home 
permanently or until his affairs so change as to require the removal of his home to 
some other locality, then that certain/place has become and is thereafter his residence 
unless and until he establishes a residence somewhere else. 


Length of residence before his application may be received is another matter. When 
one becomes actually a resident within the sovereignty of a Grand Lodge, it is for that 
Grand Lodge alone to determine how long that residence must be maintained before 
he may become a candidate. For any other Grand Lodge to attempt to impose 
conditions as to length of residence, would be to dispute the sovereignty of the Grand 
Lodge of his residence and to invade its jurisdiction. 


Self-evident as this is, yet it is sometimes forgotten when the candidate has previously 
been rejected in another jurisdiction. Once upon a time it was contended by some 
nations of the world that when a man had acquired allegiance by birth, his citizenship 
was perpetual. This has, however, ceased to be accepted as a rule of international law. 
Would any nation contend, even for a moment, that one who had applied for 
naturalization and had been refused citizenship could never apply for citizenship in 
any other nation? Or, suppose the United States had a law which declared that no one 
who had been refused citizenship should again apply for naturalization within five 
years, and a rejected applicant should actually move to and in good faith acquire a 
residence in France, would the United States quarrel with that Republic if it should 
accept him as a citizen within, say, three years of his rejection here? Such questions 
almost answer themselves. Just so within our Fraternity. When the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania legislates that no other lodge shall ever elect an applicant without the 
consent of the rejecting lodge, that legislation is good and binding throughout the 
jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, but the Grand Lodge of that state has no right or power 
to impose its own laws upon Massachusetts. Massachusetts is just as sovereign as 
Pennsylvania. It may decide for itself the material which it will accept. The law of 
Massachusetts gives a rejecting lodge five years' control. If, then, one who has been 
rejected in Pennsylvania has really and genuinely moved to and acquired a residence 
in Massachusetts, and has maintained that residence for the required term, is, after 



five years from his rejection, given his degrees in Massachusetts under its laws, he is 
a Mason, neither irregular nor clandestine. 


New York gives a rejecting lodge an absolute control for only one year. An applicant, 
therefore, rejected in Massachusetts, who could not apply, for five years without a 
waiver, according to its rules, may nevertheless, after one year, be initiated in New 
York without it, provided in truth and fact he has been a resident of New York for the 
time required by the Grand Lodge of New York. It would be absurd for 
Massachusetts to say that it had the right to pass a law governing what New York 
should do with its own material. 


"HE MUST COMPLY WITH THE LAW OF THE PLACE WHERE HE IS" 


Each individual has a perfect right, by civil or Masonic law, to determine for himself 
where he shall live, provided he does live there. But while he is there, he must 
comply with the law of the place where he is, not the place where he is not. No 
nation, no Grand Lodge, in this era of the world, attempts to say to one who has 
moved to some other jurisdiction that he shall not acquire a residence there (or even 
citizenship) if he sees fit so to do. 


It would be called ridiculous for one Grand Lodge to claim that if a man had once 
within its confines reached the status where he might apply for the degrees, he could 
never apply elsewhere during the term of his whole life. Is there any magic in the fact 
that he has once applied? It will be granted that when an application has been made, 
the applicant has thereby submitted himself to the decision of the ballot and, if 
elected, to have the lodge do what he has asked to have it do. Granted also, that any 
body has the right to say from whom it will receive applications. But is it not 
ridiculous to attempt to read into his application an agreement that if rejected he will 
for life remain a Masonic prisoner within the jurisdiction where he has once applied? 
And even more ridiculous to say that he has, by his applications, imposed a condition 
upon all other Grand Lodges in the world? When did they surrender to the uninitiated 
such an authority over their acts? 



It is obvious that a sovereign may do what it pleases within its sovereignty. And by 
the principles of interjurisdictional comity, each Grand Lodge should accept, 
acknowledge, yes, recognize, what all other Grand Lodges lawfully do within their 
own jurisdiction and in accordance with their own customs and rules, always 
assuming compliance with the Landmarks anal absence of insult. 


Therefore, each Grand Lodge may define its own material. Each may say from what 
resident male adults it will permit its particular lodges to receive applications. The 
status of an applicant is determined by the Masonic law of the place of his residence. 
The rest of the Masonic world should abide by that de termination. 


The limitation of jurisdiction to the residence of the applicant is a purely American 
doctrine. In England for instance, a resident of London might apply in Liverpool or 
anywhere else. There is nothing inherent in the fundamentals of Freemasonry 
requiring such a limitation as prevails in this country. The theories upon which the 
doctrine is based are - 


First, the assertion of exclusive Grand Lodge sovereignty over the territory of the 
political state where it reigns Masonically. 


Second, that the applicant will be best known and, therefore, more carefully 
investigated in the municipal sub-division where he lives. This, however, is no longer 
universally true. Rapidity and convenience of transportation now-a-days often cause 
one's legal residence to be little, if anything, more than his bedroom; his business, his 
social relations, and practically all his associations being in some other municipality. 
In such cases, and they are innumerable, the applicant prefers to join where his 
friends and associates are to be found. This he cannot do without technical 
compliance with laws concerning waiver of jurisdiction which often lodges are loath 
to grant, usually for financial and not fraternal reasons. To permit petitions to be 
received by lodges located either where the applicant resides or where he has his 
usual place of business would be merely to recognize existing facts and conditions of 
life. It would usually result in the petition being presented to a lodge in the 
community where the applicant is better known and more readily investigated. But in 



Freemasonry as in government, laws seldom precede or accompany changed 
conditions. They usually lag far behind. 


II. STATUS AS A CANDIDATE 


When a lodge lawfully receives a petition for the degrees from a profane, he becomes 
a candidate. By petitioning he submits himself to the Masonic laws of the jurisdiction. 
He has irrevocably given to that 1 lodge the right to accept or reject his application. 
Until that particular lodge has either declined to do or has actually done what he has 
requested, no other lodge in the world may deal with him. He has given the lodge to 
which he has applied what a lawyer would call an irrevocable option. The lodge may 
refuse his petition. If so, then there has been and is no contract, no agreement 
whatever between the applicant and the Fraternity. He did what he could to make an 
agreement but the Fraternity refused to make it. True, the Grand Lodge may impose 
certain disabilities upon its own lodges from receiving his petition again within a 
certain length of time, or except under certain conditions. But the applicant is himself 
free once more. He proffered himself and his fees. The Fraternity spurned his offer 
and that's the end of it so far as he is concerned. The Grand Lodge may impose 
conditions upon itself, its lodges and its members, but not upon him. 


If, however, the lodge accepts his application by electing the applicant, then the 
situation is analogous to what the law calls a contract. By that election the lodge has 
bound the Fraternity to give him the degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and 
Master Mason subject to and in accordance with its customs and laws. Until this 
agreement has been carried out (or terminated in accordance with law, as, for 
instance, on objection duly sustained) no other lodge in the world may deal with this 
unfinished material. The same principles apply where there is a separate vote in each 
degree which is merely piecemeal acceptance. 


Thus, the status of a candidate from the presentation of his petition to his rejection, or 
to his declaration as a Master Mason is that of being under the exclusive jurisdiction 
of the lodge which first lawfully receives his petition. This is true even if in the 
meantime he moves his residence to the uttermost corners of the earth. 



III. STATUS AS FINISHED MATERIAL, i. e. AS A MASTER MASON 


At the close of the ceremonies of the Third Degree the candidate becomes a Master 
Masons The agreement which he and the lodge made is completed. The contract is 
executed. His ties now are those of his obligations, no more, no less. He is a member 
of the Fraternity but not of any lodge. In most, if not all, jurisdictions he is entitled to 
membership in the lodge upon signing the by-laws, though sometimes he must first 
learn his Third Degree lecture. 


But he need not join that lodge. If he chooses he may, instead, apply to any lodge 
anywhere for membership. No longer do jurisdictional lines restrict his freedom. And 
at his own free will, if he is square upon the books and not under charges, he may 
terminate his membership in any lodge to which he may belong. The methods by 
which he alters his lodge membership do not affect the question we are now 
discussing, i. e., his status as a Master Mason. 


In some jurisdictions he may be a member of as many lodges as he sees fit, if duly 
elected to membership therein. In most jurisdictions, however, dual or plural 
membership is forbidden though a good reason for such prohibition has never yet 
been given. It, again, is a purely American and quite modem prohibition and is surely, 
though slowly, being discarded. Where it still persists its greatest hardship is in 
compelling a brother to sever connection with his mother lodge, of which perhaps he 
is a Past Master, when his affairs call him to another community where he would 
affiliate if he could, or, as the alternative, be barred from sharing in the labors and 
support of the lodge of his new residence. The result is often to lose his Masonic 
activity wholly from the Fraternity. His sentiment keeps his membership with his 
mother lodge which distance prevents him from attending. He does not feel right to 
share in the pleasures of a lodge he might readily attend because he cannot be a 
member. Consequently, he attends neither the one nor the other except at rare 
intervals, and his enthusiasm wanes. 



Whether or not a Master Mason is in good standing if he be not a member of a lodge 
is a question which each jurisdiction decides for itself. Some make no distinction 
between affiliated and unaffiliated brethren. Some deny visitation, relief, and other 
Masonic privileges to those who remain voluntarily, for a certain length of time, 
unaffiliated. Each jurisdiction is a law unto itself and its laws apply upon its lodges 
and within its jurisdiction when a Master Mason within that jurisdiction applies for 
any of the rights or privileges of Freemasonry. 


What then is the status of a Master Mason desiring to visit a regular lodge? The lodge 
first wants to know if he is in good standing. If he is in good standing in a regular 
lodge of a recognized jurisdiction, he is by the universal law of the Craft in good 
standing everywhere. If he is not in good standing in the jurisdiction from which he 
hails, he is not in good standing anywhere. 


Suppose he is in good standing. What is his status as regards visitation ? By some 
Masonic jurists it has been held and in some jurisdictions it has been enacted into law, 
that the right of visitation is a Landmark. I doubt it. But leave that question for 
consideration elsewhere. Whether or not the right of visitation is a Landmark, 
however, it is clear that in order to visit there must be a full and complete compliance 
with the conditions with regard to visitation imposed by the jurisdiction where 
visitation is sought. There is no inter-Grand Lodge law which defines how any 
particular Grand Lodge shall determine the question of the qualifications by which 
the lodge to which the visitor applies shall ascertain whether or not it will admit him. 
One rule and one rule only is absolutely universal, to wit, that he must submit himself 
to an examination. 


EACH GRAND LODGE DETERMINES ITS OWN METHOD OF 
EXAMINATION 


There is no inter-Grand Lodge law which determines the elements or processes of the 
examination. One Grand Lodge may proceed upon a mental examination alone. 
Another Grand Lodge may require documentary evidence as an element of that 
examination. Each Grand Lodge may direct its particular lodges how extensively the 



mental tests shall be applied, equally each Grand Lodge may determine the particular 
kind of documentary evidence which it regards as sufficient. In laying down rules 
with regard to documentary evidence each Grand Lodge is expected by its sister 
Grand Lodges to recognize the principle of comity. It therefore will consider in laying 
down its rules what kind of documentary evidence, if any, is furnished by the 
jurisdiction from which visitors may come. But when it has considered this question 
and has determined exactly what type of documentary evidence it will require, that 
determination within the particular jurisdiction is final and conclusive. No other 
Grand Lodge has the right to invade the sovereignty of the Grand Lodge in question 
and demand that it shall or shall not establish a particular form of documentary 
evidence which happens to suit another Grand Lodge or other Grand Lodges. 


Take as a conspicuous instance the recent unfortunate controversy between the Grand 
Lodges of New Hampshire and Kansas. The Grand Lodge of Kansas apparently 
demands that the law with regard to the documentary evidence required as a part of 
the examination of a visitor in New Hampshire shall be made not by the Grand Lodge 
of New Hampshire but the Grand Lodge of Kansas. In other words, the Grand Lodge 
of Kansas demands that it shall determine what the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire 
shall accept in examinations of visitors in New Hampshire. By so doing the Grand 
Lodge of Kansas demands the right to determine for New Hampshire and for exercise 
within the State of New Hampshire that which the sovereign Grand Lodge of New 
Hampshire alone has the right to decide. 


The Masonic jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire is complete and 
unlimited and sovereign throughout the entire State of New Hampshire. The Grand 
Lodge of Kansas can no more/pass laws which the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire 
must observe than New Hampshire could demand a similar thing in Kansas. Would it 
not be obviously absurd for the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire to demand that the 
Grand Lodge of Kansas should change its Ritual? Kansas would say that its Grand 
Lodge alone had the right to legislate upon that matter so long as it kept within the 
Landmarks. To ask the question if the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire could lay 
down rules of mental examination of visitors from New Hampshire applying in 
Kansas is to make the answer obvious. If the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire cannot 
establish the tests of mental examination conducted by Kansas, how can it be said that 
the Grand Lodge of Kansas can establish the tests of that part of the examination 
which is documentary for the Grand Lodge of Nest Hampshire ? 



WHERE DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE IS DEMANDED 


It is true that there are some who argue that requiring documentary evidence of any 
kind is un-Masonic, but those who make such a contention cannot have studied the 
history of the past. In 1763 the Grand Lodge of England made a regulation reading, 
"No person hereafter, who shall be accepted as a Freemason, shall be admitted into 
any Lodge or Assembly until he has brought a CERTIFICATE of the time and place 
of his acceptance from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that limit, or 
district, where such Lodge is kept." 


As recently as June 5, 1895, the United Grand Lodge of England, after careful 
consideration, upheld a Master who refused to admit a visitor without documentary 
evidence. As early as 1798 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts procured a plate to be 
engraved for such certificates. The demanding of documentary evidence was 
approved by the Baltimore convention of 1843, and indeed the ancient charters and 
regulations to which every Master-elect submits and which he promises to support 
according to the almost universal phraseology contain as the fifteenth paragraph: 

"You agree that no visitors shall be received into your Lodge without due 
examination and producing proper vouchers for their having been initiated in a 
regular Lodge." Who is to determine what are proper vouchers except the Grand 
Lodge? What Grand Lodge is to determine them except the Grand Lodge of the 
jurisdiction where the visitors apply? If it be contended that the jurisdiction where he 
was made a Master Mason determines what vouchers it will issue, it is nevertheless 
clear that that Grand Lodge cannot determine the same question for any other Grand 
Lodge. His status as a Master Mason is fixed by the Grand Lodge to which he owes 
allegiance. How the jurisdiction where he seeks to visit shall find out that status is for 
the latter jurisdiction to determine. Each jurisdiction which admits the visitor must 
determine for itself and by virtue of the inherent right of its sovereignty what will be 
regarded as proper vouchers in its particular lodges. In the instance to which we have 
referred the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire has determined what it regards as proper 
vouchers. If other Grand Lodges are unwilling to give their members the kind of 
vouchers which New Hampshire regards as proper, they unquestionably have such a 
right, but if they do so they deny to their own members the privilege of visiting in 
New Hampshire. 



To press the illustration a little further, if one Grand Lodge should see fit to transpose 
the passwords of the Third and Second Degrees, as the Grand Lodge of England did a 
good many years ago, its brethren would undoubtedly be members of the Fraternity, 
but it might be impossible for them to visit in some other jurisdiction. 


Along these lines of reasoning the writer reaches the conclusion that the status as a 
prospective visitor of any Master Mason in good standing, when outside of the 
jurisdiction from which he hails, although determined by the jurisdiction of his 
affiliation, less, ascertained according to the laws of the jurisdiction where he seeks to 
visit. For one Grand Fodge to deny recognition of another Grand Lodge, because the 
latter's regulations in this regard do not happen to suit the ideas of the former, is to 
wage Masonic war. If that war be waged successfully the result would be to impose a 
limitation upon the sovereignty of the vanquished Grand Lodge by permitting the 
victor to legislate upon this subject for the other, thereby successfully invading its 
sovereignty. 


Ilia. STATUS FOR PURPOSES OF DISCIPLINE 


By this I mean, Where may a Freemason be tried for an alleged Masonic offense ? 
There are four theories of criminal jurisprudence in the criminal courts of the world. 


First: Forum delicti commissi. This is the territorial theory. Under this theory, crime 
may be punished only by the sovereign of the place where the crime is committed and 
only then when the offender has been brought before a court at that place for trial. 
This is the Anglo-Saxon common law theory and the basis of criminal jurisdiction in 
the United States. 


Second: Forum ligeantiae. This is the theory of the forum of allegiance the Roman 
and French theory. It is that the sovereign to which the offender owes political 
allegiance may punish him for an offense committed anywhere in the world. 



Third: Forum laesae civitatis. This is the theory of the forum of the injured state and 
is adopted more or less in continental Europe. The question here is, What sovereign 
was injured by the act of the alleged criminal ? 


Fourth: Forum deprehensionis. This is the theory of the forum of capture. It is the 
Italian theory, that of cosmopolitan justice. Under this theory any sovereign power 
who apprehends the criminal may punish him no matter where he committed the 
offense and entirely irrespective of his citizenship. 


WHERE A MASON MAY BE TRIED 


The disciplinary powers of Freemasonry for general Masonic offenses (but not for 
violations of mere local regulations) are not limited to any one of these theories, nor 
to the theory adopted by the civil government within which the Grand Lodge in 
question is located. It has been developed as the common law of the Fraternity that a 
Mason may be tried either by the body to which he owes allegiance or by the Masonic 
tribunals of any jurisdiction within which the offender is residing and may be reached 
for service of papers upon him. In other words, if a Mason belonging to a lodge in the 
State of Washington commits a Masonic offense in Iowa and then goes to Florida for 
the winter, he may be tried by the Masonic tribunals appointed under the laws of the 
Grand Lodge of Washington because that is the Grand Lodge of his allegiance. He 
may be tried by the Masonic tribunals of Florida because he is there where service 
may be had upon him. He may not be tried by the Masonic tribunals of Iowa where he 
committed the offense, however, unless he belongs to a lodge in Iowa or the Grand 
Lodge of Iowa can get service upon him while he is within that state. In other words, 
the Masonic theory of punishment does not follow the common law territorial theory. 
Neither does it follow the continental theory of the forum of the injured state. It does 
follow the theories of the forum of allegiance and forum of capture. 


We must always be cautious lest we regard ideas of Masonic government as derived 
from the principles of civil government. Unconsciously it is assumed, often, that the 



correct principles of civil government must apply to all government. It was well 
stated by Vaux: "Freemasonry is a law unto itself." Drummond added: 


"This law must be sought in the fundamental principles of the Institution, as 
expounded and defined by the usages of the Craft. The first lesson taught in Masonry, 
indeed, forcibly suggests that Masonic laws are based upon the laws of God." 
Drummond declared, as the result of his Masonic life's experience and study of 
Masonry, in all of its rites and degrees, that "this natural tendency to apply the 
principles of the civil law, to mould Masonry according to modern ideas, and bring it 
'in accord with the. spirit of the times,' rather than to abide by the old laws and the 
ancient usages of the Craft, is the greates danger to the prosperity and perpetuity of 
the Institution.” 


— o — 


American Indian Masonry 
(Concluded from May) 

By Bro. ARTHUR C. PARKER, Associate Editor, 
New York 

(Copyright by Arthur C. Parker) 


IT would be an interesting thing to trace out the various forms of religious belief held 
by the American natives, but though there are those competent to write upon this 
subject, it is so vast in its extent that no individual writer has yet dared the attempt. 
We have briefly outlined the essential features of the Indian's belief, but of the 
numerous customs and rites we have yet suggested little. Perhaps an outline of the 
religious rites of a single nation or stock will suffice. Let us take the Iroquois. 



To the Iroquois the world was the handiwork of a Creator. He was known under 
various names - Great Ruler, Good Mind, Sky Dweller, Creator. It was believed that 
life came to the earth from the heaven world in the form of a woman ready to give life 
to a girl child. The great Turtle of the black chaos seeing a rift in the sky above called 
out to the water creatures of the darkness and told them of the event bidding them to 
try to bring some substance that would grow if placed upon his shell. At length after 
many creatures had perished one deposited the earthly substance on the turtle's back 
and the substance grew. Then the night birds flew upward and received the Sky 
Mother on an island formed by their interlaced wings. With great gentleness she was 
placed upon the earthy back of the Turtle. As she rested there a girl child was bom 
who immediately grew and became mature. All was dark until the Sky Mother stuck 
the stalk of the Flower of Light in the soil. 


The first born then commenced to go round and round the island finding that it 
became larger each time she tried the journey. One of her latter journeys took longer 
than others for the island had grown very near a place called East. She paused on the 
shore and a warm wind came and whispered to her. She felt it encircle her and lift her 
from her feet but her heart was thrilled with a strange ecstacy. She went back to the 
camp of her mother and told of the strange experience, but the Sky Mother only wept. 


After a season the First-bom-of-Earth gave birth to two boys, one called the Light 
One and the other the Dark One, who had a heart of flint. In giving birth to the twins 
the mother died leaving them to the care of the Sky Mother. The boys grew to 
maturity immediately and demanded to know their father. One was kind and built 
things; the other was ferocious and destroyed anything that came his way. The Light 
One received the name of Good Minded and the evil one was called Bad Minded. 
Good Minded cared for the grave of his mother and watered it because the Sky 
Mother had told him to do so. He watched over it with great devotion until he was 
rewarded by seeing plants spring from the grave. The tobacco came from the head, 
the corn from her breasts, the pumpkin from her waist and the edible tubers and beans 
from her feet. Good Minded then asked his mother where he should go to find his 
father and was told to journey to the east sea and cross to a mountain raising from the 
water. This, after great difficulty, he did. As he stood at the base of the mountain he 
called, "My Father, where art thou ?" And the reply came, "A Son of Mine shall cast 
the great cliffs from the mountain's edge to the summit of this peak." Good Minded 
clasped the cliffs and flung them afar over the top of the mountain. Then came the 
voice, "A Son of Mine shall swim the cataract from the base to the top." Good 



Minded flung himself into the merciless current and swam his way upward to the top 
of a ledge near the mountain top. Then again the voice sounded, "A Son of Mine shall 
wrestle with the hurricane." A great wind swept about Good Minded as if to sweep 
him from his unstable footing, but he wrestled with the wind though he could not see 
it nor tell where to grasp it, until the hurricane cried out, "Enough, for you have 
exhausted my breath." Once more the voice sounded, "A Son of Mine shall brave the 
fire of hottest flame. Come!" From the mountainside burst a sheet of flame that 
burned and blinded Good Minded, but he pushed through the twisting arms and ran 
up the mountain to the summit. There in repose was a being so infinitely brilliant that 
Good Minded could scarcely see. 


"I am thy Father," said the Fight, "thou art My Son." 


Then the Father gave to Good Minded the power to make the earth grow with all 
manner of plants and trees. In a package he placed the magical dust that would 
become animal life. Fong the Father spoke to his Son and then bade him depart. 


When Good Minded returned to the Earth Island and told his grandmother, the Sky 
Woman, where he had been and what power he had received, Bad Minded became 
very jealous and by an ingenious plan sought to destroy him. But after a lengthy battle 
the Bad Minded was vanquished and put in a deep cavity in the earth along with all 
the perverted and distorted creatures he had made from the good creatures. And the 
evil creatures were banished because they chose to be evil rather than as they had 
been created. 


Then the Good Minded took the face of his mother and flung it into the heavens and it 
became the moon. And at that time a new light far more brilliant appeared; it was the 
sun. So came the sun to rule the day and the moon to give hope to the night. 


And when all things had been perfected, Good Minded looked into a pool of water 
and saw his own face. He took a handful of clay and molded his image and it became 
a man. 



There were many pre-humans on the Earth then and they were subdued and told their 
function. They were forbidden to molest men. When all this was finished, the Sky 
Mother said to her grandson, "We must return to the world above the sky, our 
Ga-o-ya-geh." So did they return to the Father but they ever watch over us for we are 
their children and because they were, we are. 


Such is the Indian's Genesis, and though briefly told, there will be few who cannot 
see in it a wonderful symbolism and a real recognition of man's divine origin. The last 
great test of the Good Minded, we observe, is not alone to overcome earth and water 
and fire and air, which are material, but to banish evil and all its distorsions. 


By a series of religious tales, such as this, the Iroquois were taught the great essentials 
of moral life and a recognition of man's relation to his Creator. The lessons of these 
unwritten gospels teach Fortitude, Foyalty, Patriotism, Tolerance, Fraternity and 
Gratitude. 


The Iroquois was religious in every act of his life, for was not the Creator in all that 
he had created? Sin thus became a thing that man could commit against himself, 
against his fellows, human and nonhuman, and against the interests of the tribe. It was 
not believed that the Creator could be sinned against for he was above an injury by 
man. Nor was it possible for a sin to be forgiven for effect always follows action. 
What we have done we have done and not even divinity can say it was not done, nor 
can the effects be wiped away. For the guilty there was no escape through forgiveness 
by the Creator. Sins against self and society must be paid for by restitution in some 
form. 


The religious ceremonies of the Iroquois were many but the great ceremonies were 
those of the seasonal thanksgiving, of which there were six each year. Gratitude to the 
Creator was the underlying principle of the red man's religion. One of the stanzas in 
the Thanksgiving rite is: 



For all that He has Created and should offer thanks, 

For all the things from below up to 'himself in the sky-world, 
We who are here gathered in assembly thank our Creator - 
Yea, all his creatures who are living here in this earth- world. 


Most of the members of the various Iroquois tribes - the Seneca, the Cayuga, the 
Onondaga, the Oneida and the Mohawk - are now Christians, living as white men do. 
But so great a hold have the old rites and religion of their ancestors upon some that 
the old beliefs still hold among a considerable portion of the Onondages and Senecas 
in New York State and Canada. 


The Senecas of the old belief hold their religious rites in their Long Houses, the 
Temples of their Faith. Here the honest student may observe these rites and determine 
whether a people whose religious heritage is what we have described may be called 
"pagan" or not. Is there not something racially heroic in this stand of the Senecas to 
preserve that which is distinctive of their people? Yet, slowly, but surely, the old life 
is fading and in time it will all be gone. The Senecas will have succumbed to the heat 
of the melting pot. 


WHAT HAPPENED? 


What you have read in the pages that have been written was told to a great Mason, 
long before he made his journey to the land of the Senecas and witnessed their 
ceremonies. The Senecas called him Ho-doinjai-ey, the Holder of the Earth, and they 
invited Hodoin-jai-ey to come as a novitiate to the Lodge of the Ancient Guards of 
the Mystic Potence. Two other friends of the Senecas had been invited, Ho-skwisa-oh 
and Ga-jee-wa, thus forming the mystic triangle. 


RED HAND, THE BROTHER-FRIEND 



The candidates were told to listen. The legend of the Ancient Guards was told. The 
complete relation would make a lengthy document, though I am not sure that you 
would find it a marvelous tale. 


Red Hand was a young chief whose life was blameless for he was Ho-ya-di-wa-doh. 
He had received certain mysterious knowledge that made the covetous envy him, but 
so brave and kind was Red Hand that he was admired and loved by men and warriors. 


Red Hand had a place where he spoke to the Great Mystery, and because the Great 
Mystery spoke to him he was kind to every brother of the earth - every tree, every 
rock, every animal. He fed the hungry birds in winter time. When the wolves were 
hungry he gave them meat; when the deer were hungry he gave them grass and moss. 
The children loved him because he gave them trinkets; the old people were grateful to 
him because he knew of oils that cured their lameness: the warriors admired him 
because he had power to lead them against the enemy that sought to destroy them. 


Down to the south country in the valley of the Ohio, went a war party to punish the 
foe. The Leader went apart to seek the chief of the enemy and while he stood alone a 
poisoned arrow struck him and he fell. Then the assassin who rushed upon him 
demanded the secret of his power but he would not give it and so the enemy lifted his 
tomahawk and scalped our Leader, taking the scalp away in triumph to be dried over 
the lodge poles where the smoke issues forth. 


A wolf lifted his nose and smelled blood. He howled to bring the pack and followed 
the scent to the body of a man. He looked and saw that it was Brother Friend whom 
he knew as Red Hand. He called in a different note and there came all the chiefs of 
the animals and even the chiefs of all the great plants and trees. They looked at the 
body of their friend. Then they held a council as to how he should be revived. "We 
will give the tip of our hearts and the spark from our brains," they said. Then they 
sent for the scalp which the Dew Eagle brought, making it again alive by sprinkling it 
from the pool of dew that rests on his back. It was placed on the crown of Red Hand's 
head and grew fast. 



One by one the greatest of created things gave up the vital parts of their beings, the 
tips of their hearts and the hearts of their brains. For a brother is not a friend if he will 
not give his life for the Brother Friend who has befriended him in great emergency. 
When the life sparks were reduced to dust, so small a quantity was there that all 
together there was only enough to fill an acom cup. Then the other chiefs of the 
animals and trees and plants and birds gathered around while the wolf took a cup of 
bark and dipping it with the current of a spring dropped into the water three tiny 
grains of the dust of life. This water of life was poured into the mouth of Red Hand 
and he moved. A compress of the water healed his wounds. Then the chosen hand 
commenced to chant the ritual of the Ancient Guardians of the Mystic Potence. 
During the night of blackness they sang, reciting the life and adventures of Red Hand. 
He awoke but lay still with his eyes shut. He listened and learned the song. The wings 
of the eagles lifted him and bore him to a great waterfall. He heard the rushing of 
strong waters thundering down upon the craigs below. The whipporwill called and a 
light floated over the darkness. 


Then the circle clustered closer and the brother who is the Bear touched the breast of 
Red Hand. All stood erect. The Bear grasped the hand of the Leader who was to be 
raised; though slain the Bear grasped his hand and by a strong grip raised Red Hand 
to his feet. All was darkness, but Red Hand lived. ***** 


The Ancient Guards called, each with his own peculiar cry. Red Hand recognized his 
friends. ***** 


Yiewanoh, who has passed through the initiation of the Ancient Guards, tells us the 
story of Red Hand. 


It is a night of darkness impenetrable. There is no sound save the waterfall and the 
river. In the forest the Leader, patient and listening, is waiting for the sign promised 
him. Will it be given ? Yes, for the Birds and Beasts do not lie! 



THE PROMISE OF POWER 


The Leader, who is Red Hand, trusts and waits until a strong voice from the darkness 
comes, saying: 


"Hast thou cleansed thyself from human guilt and impurity ?" 


“I have,” Red Hand replied. 


"Hast thou ill will toward any of thy fellow creatures ?" 


"I have not." 


"Wilt thou trust and obey us, keeping thyself always chaste and valorous ?" 


"I will." 


"Wilt thou hold this power with which we endow thee for shine own chosen company 
only?" 


"I will." 


"Wilt thou endure death or torture in its cause?" 



"I will." 


"Wilt thou vow this secret never to be revealed save at thy death hour ?" 


"I will." 


"Thy death hour will be revealed to thee; thou wilt be allowed to choose thy 
successor, and at the end of thy journey thou wilt be rewarded for faith and 
obedience." 


There was a rushing of winds and the sound of hurrying creatures was heard. The 
song was renewed and then a winged light appeared. The voices were bidding him 
journey on. 


So sings the whippoorwill, "Follow me, follow me." 


So replies the Chief to him, "Yes, I will follow thee." "See, the night is darkening, the 
shadows are hiding, no light to follow now," so sings the waterfall. 


Down the deep abyss went Red Hand, following his unseen guide. He felt the spray 
of the waterfall and then up he climbed until he knew he was ascending a mountain. 
The dawn light appeared and he went on and on until when the sun was high he found 
the flat summit of the mountain. 



There in the circle of an altar was a wild maize plant. At its roots was the box holding 
the Mystic Potence that restores men to life and heals wounds. 


A white flint knife lay at the roots of the maize plant and a voice called, "Slash into 
the stalk of the maize!" 


Our Leader cut the stalk and blood flowed from the wound. Then again a voice said, 
"Touch the wound with the potence." This he did and the wound immediately healed. 
The voice sounded again, saying: 


"Guard well this Mystic Potence for while ye have it thy people shall endure. When it 
is gone they shall be no more. Go and found an order that shall know all this wisdom 
and preserve in the bonds of faithful brotherhood the mysteries, the chants and the 
will to perform the task of spreading the knowledge of the kinship of all created 
things." 




Da neho enyayehak. 




OUT OF THE DARKNESS 


The Order has been founded, and though many centuries have passed by, the faithful 
Fraternity still remains. In the ritual the members impersonate the brother-friends who 



of their lives. In the mystic square in the darkness we hear their voices. The call of the 
birds is heard and the shrill call of the Guide Bird comes toward morning to herald 
the promise of day. The waters thunder with deafening sound - and so deeply do these 
sounds imbed themselves into the memory of the ears that it is days before they are 
forgotten. 


During the intervals of the night at three periods the lights appear and the brothers 
refresh themselves with berry juice mixed with maple sugar. The sacred incense of 
the O-yan-kwa is burned. The altars are covered when the light appears. 


The morning song comes at last with the calling of great flocks of crows. Then 
appears the boar's head or perhaps that of a bear, steaming with the fragrant soup of 
the maize. There is a ceremonial partaking of the feast and then the O-noh-kwa is 
distributed. It is yet just before dawn and the company has adjourned. The session has 
been from the beginning of total darkness until its end. 


The lodge of Neh Ho-noh-chee-noh-ga has been closed; the Ancient Guards of the 
Mystic Potence gather up their mystery bundles that hold the sacred Ni-ga-ni-gaa-ah. 
* * * It is still night though the Ga-no-dah * * * has been ended. 


We wait in the darkness. Come all ye who listen! 

Help us in our darkness journey, now no sun is shining; 
Now no star is glowing. Come show us the pathway! 
The night is not friendly; she closes her eyelids; 

The moon has forgot us; we wait in the darkness, 
"Follow me, follow me," so sings the whipporwill. 
"Yes, I am following," so the Chief answers him! 



DA-NE-HOH. WHAT HAS HAPPENED HAS HAPPENED 


A tall bronze-skinned guide led the way over an ice-rutted road. The journey from the 
mysterious East had commenced. Following the Guide in single file were four, and 
there were four. It was the land of the Senecas, those most powerful confederates of 
the Six Nations of the Iroquois. To this land in the Valley of the Cattaraugus had 
journeyed the Commander-in-Chief of Buffalo Consistory and three other members 
of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, and now they were on their way 
back to the city that rises where the ancient Seneca town of Do-sho-we once had its 
site. These pale-faced members of the race that came and possessed the red man’s 
land had been adopted brothers and initiated into the highest rites of the Senecas. 


Little has been told; the door has only been held ajar the slightest space and no secrets 
have been revealed. There were feather wands and deer skins, but no purple robes or 
crowns. Yet, who shall say that the Senecas have not the thread of the legend of 
Osiris or that they have not an inherent Freemasonry? 


— o — 


Great Men Who Were Masons 
Frederick Desmons 


By Bro. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P. G. M., District of Columbia 



FREDERICKDESMONS was President of the Grand Orient of France for many 
years. Though a Protestant minister he was respected by the French public and loved 
by members of the Fraternity. He was born at Brignon, Province of Gard, in 1832; 
and died in Paris, 1910. He was always a consistent member of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in which he had an ever increasing following. Of Freemasonry he 
believed that it had for its principal purpose the linking together of men of every 
nation, sect and opinion, making them brothers instead of foreigners. To be a Mason 
in France, having in mind the savage massacre of the Huguenots and the mobbing of 
the very funeral of Voltaire, and knowing that the mantles of those inquisitors have 
fallen on others equally fanatic, requires some courage; the Mason, the Protestant, 
and the Jew are alike tolerated but always in danger. 


Desmons' biographers mention his return to his native country after having completed 
his education and of his life long devotion to his church; from this one may infer that 
he was educated abroad, a fact that may account for his great breadth of mind. 


He was initiated in the lodge at Nimes in 1860, but later formed a lodge nearby, 
where his church was situated, at Saint-Genies-Mal-Gloires; he was Worshipful 
Master of this lodge, named Le Progres, from 1870 to 1888, a period of eighteen 
years. In 1873 he was elected to membership in the Supreme Council and served 
therein until his death in 1910. The Supreme Council elected him President - 
equivalent to our Sovereign Grand Commander; in this office he closely resembled 
our own great Albert Pike in his loyalty, philosophy, philology and wisdom. The 
daily papers now and then had their little flings at les freres trots points (as they called 
the Masons), but no aspersion was ever aimed at Bro. Desmons. 


It is hardly possible to form a correct idea of a people or nation unless one has been 
there. A sailor will tell you it is impossible to know a man until you have sailed with 
him. The great aim of Bro. Desmons was evidently to make it possible for the better 
men of France to get together. The better men and scholars of France are already 
Masons or wish to be. Disgusted with the sorcery and superstition everywhere about 
them, they naturally gravitate toward men of like feeling, but they are not unanimous 
on matters of creed. Many, if not all of them, have learned to thinly of the Bible as a 
book of creeds; we know from our experience with fanatics and politicians how fixed 
a man is when he has once made up his mind on suet; a subject. Bro. Desmons was 



always happy in his efforts at reconciling differences and the writer has al ways 
believed that this was the origin of the famous modification of the Constitutions of 
the Grand Orient, which were adopted Sept. 14, 1877, and which deleted the 
requirement for belief in Deity. This was really a return to the Constitutions of Dr. 
Anderson adopted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1723, which by no means exact 
some things we are nor very insistent on. 


The purpose of the obligation is to bind the postulant, not to convert or prevent him. 
The British still obligate a Mussulman on the Koran. We are careful that the postulant 
expresses a belief in Deity, lest he may not regard his obligation, but after all we take 
his unsupported word that he believes in God. The Grand Orient permits the Bible in 
an of its lodges that want it; it permits the Book of the Law and the testimony of any 
country or municipality to be used in administering the obligation, where it is 
believed to be the most binding on the initiate. 


I believe that the rupture between the American Grand Lodges and the Grand Orient 
of France first arose over the Grand Orient's invasion of jurisdiction in Louisiana; but 
in my own Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, in 1878, P.G.M. Isaac Johnson 
introduced the following resolution, which was adopted: 


"Resolved, that the action of the Grand Orient of France, in ignoring the foundation 
principle of Masonry - that of a firm belief in God and in the immortality of the soul - 
meets the unqualified disapproval of this Grand Lodge.” 


— o — 


A Review of Cryptic Masonry 

By Bro. GEORGE W. WARVELLE, P.G.M., Illinois 



(Concluded from last month) 


WHATEVER may have been the original form of Cryptic degrees it is certain that 
they were not preserved as they came from the hands of their founders, and in their 
dissemination by the self appointed chiefs who controlled them they soon assumed a 
bewildering variety of phases in the method of organization, order of arrangement and 
ritualistic expression. As time wore on these features became more pronounced. In 
some jurisdictions the scale was increased by adding the Super-Excellent Degree; in 
some it was expressly rejected, and in others it was unknown. There was no 
uniformity in the order of conferring the two recognized degrees. In some states, the 
Select was the first of the series, in others the last, and while the general principles 
which give distinctive character to the rite were probably the same in all jurisdictions, 
yet in many there was a commingling of legend and incident. The salient features of 
one degree were often transferred to the other and that which to us would seem to be 
inseparably connected with the Select was not infrequently to be found in the Royal 
Degree and vice versa. In the names, titles and number of officers, there was also a 
great diversity while in the smaller details the same conditions prevailed in a still 
more aggravated form. Added to all this was the unsettled and vexed question of the 
right of capitular domination which ever since the organization of the first councils 
had continued to assert itself. Out of these facts grew these assemblies which are 
popularly known as 


NATIONAL CONVENTIONS 


It was generally conceded that the condition of affairs as just related, called for some 
action calculated to secure substantial uniformity in the number, arrangement and 
ritual of the degrees as well as in the organization of the bodies, both Grand and 
constituent, and as early as 1848 Companion A. G. Mackey proposed that a 
convention be held to make an amicable settlement of the disputed questions involved 
in the conflict of jurisdiction between councils and chapters and to determine upon a 
uniform method of conferring the degrees. An attempt was made to have this 
convention held at Boston in 1 850 during the convocation of the General Grand 
Chapter, but it does not appear that sufficient interest in the subject could be created 
at that time to insure an attendance and no call was issued. With this exception, 
however, no one seemed prepared with a remedy, and so matters remained until 1867. 



At this time measures were initiated looking toward a solution of the difficulty by a 
suggestion that at the Triennial Session of the Grand Encampment of Knights 
Templar to be held in the city of St. Louis the following year the Grand Councils 
should insure the attendance of some of their best workman for the mutual 
consultation and interchange of ideas. 


GENERAL GRAND COUNCIL NOT CONTEMPLATED 


The project was favorably received and the Grand Council of Maine formally 
crystallized the suggestion by making it a resolution addressed to the other Grand 
Councils of the country. It is further worthy of note in this connection that the 
resolution, in express and unmistakable terms, disclaimed "any intention or desire of 
forming, or seeking to form, a General Grand Council of the United States," yet this 
was the germ from whence the present General Grand Council was evolved. But 
nothing practical came of this resolution as the proposed convention did not 
materialize and the "best workman," if present at St. Louis, probably found more 
congenial employment in other avenues of labor. The project was kept alive, 
however, and four years later, through the joint efforts of the Grand Councils of 
Maine and Massachusetts a convention was held at the city of New York at which 
fourteen Grand Jurisdictions were represented, Illinois among the number. The 
business of this convention was devoted mainly to a revision of nomenclature and the 
arrangement and order of the degrees. The results were highly gratifying to all 
concerned, but owing to differences of opinion in reference to some of the matters 
presented, to settle which would require more time than the convention could 
command, it was deemed advisable to remit same to a committee upon which 
members of Grand Councils not represented should also be appointed. This 
necessarily involved an adjourned session and so the convention took a recess for one 
year. The convention met, pursuant to adjournment, at the same place in June, 1873, 
Illinois being again represented. But little of a practical nature was accomplished at 
this meeting, other than to confirm the actions of the year previous, and after the 
appointment of a committee to memorialize the Grand Encampment on the subject of 
"prerequisition," the convention again adjourned to meet in New Orleans the next 
year. It is also worthy of note in this connection that at this meeting a resolution was 
adopted reciting "That in the judgment of this convention it is expedient and proper to 
form a General Grand Council of the United States," and in view of our present 
relations with the body now bearing that name, possibly the knowledge of the fact 
that the mover of this resolution was the delegate from Illinois may not be without 



interest to you. On Nov. 30,1874, the convention again assembled at New Orleans but 
the only question of moment which was presented was the propriety of the immediate 
organization of a General Grand Body. A committee was appointed to prepare a 
provisional constitution, which was to be submitted to the Grand Councils for 
approval, but notwithstanding the committee seem to have reported back such an 
instrument no action was taken upon it. Pending the report it was resolved that the 
"present officers" continued and when the constitution should have been ratified by 
two-thirds of the Grand Councils they shall call a meeting for the organization of a 
new body. The convention then adjourned to meet at Buffalo three years later. The 
convention did meet, as per adjournment, Aug. 20, 1877, but the session was devoid 
of interest. Nothing seems to have been done with respect to the main questions 
presented to the New Orleans meeting three years previous and the provisional 
constitution was not even alluded to. After passing the usual resolution to again 
memorialize the Grand Encampment, the convention adjourned without day but 
subject to the call of the President. 


There can be no doubt but that, had it not been for a subsequent remarkable 
convulsion of the Cryptic world, the premonitory symptoms of which were then 
visible, this would have been the last session of the convention, and the project of a 
General Grand Council would never have advanced to any higher stage of 
development than it assumed at the New Orleans meeting. The practical work of the 
convention was fully accomplished at its sessions in New York, in 1872-3. These 
assemblies seem to have been of the highest importance, and were productive of 
incalculable benefit. In them was done all that was originally contemplated, and to the 
men who promoted and conducted them the Craft are under a lasting debt of 
gratitude. Particularly is this true of Bro. Josiah H. Drummond, of Maine, whose 
genius inspired and whose will directed the effective deliberations of the convention. 
But all that followed was barren. With no well defined policy, the convention 
extended, or attempted to extend, its own existence by adjournments. Its "delegates" 
were not usually the same at its different sessions, and few, if any, who attended were 
accredited as such. It succeeded in dragging its slow length over a period of ten years, 
and finally, by an act, the full legality of which is not without question, culminated in 
the formation of a General Supervisory Body of doubtful utility and powers. To 
understand the motives which actuated the founders of the General Grand Council, as 
well as the incentives to such action, it will be necessary to hastily review the works 
which were transpiring in the Crypt during the period covered by the convention's 
sessions, and particularly of the movement now known in Cryptic history as 



Through a variety of causes, real and fanciful. Cryptic Masonry, for a number of 
years succeeding the close of the civil war, was in that condition generally described 
as "languishing." Having no showy uniforms or military gewgaws to attract the 
heedless, its growth, as compared with the Chivalric Orders, was slow; the aspirants 
for enrollment as imitation soldiers passed it by with scorn, and those who had 
entered it simply through desire to possess "high degrees" began to forsake it for its 
more brilliant rival, then rapidly rising to the flood-tide of its popularity. It had 
nothing to offer but "Masonry," and that is what a vast multitude of "Masons" have 
very little use for. Those who remained mistook this process of purification for 
dissolution, and because they erroneously supposed that our success lay in numerical 
accessions and our prosperity in treasury balances, they became despondent, and out 
of their blind despair evolved the Mississippi Plan. This consisted simply of a 
surrender of the degrees to the Royal Arch Chapter, and while the project had often 
been discussed and, indeed, practically effected in Virginia under a mistake of fact, 
yet, as Mississippi was the first to adopt it as a measure of expediency, it has 
generally been alluded to as a line of policy peculiar to that jurisdiction. By the terms 
of the surrender, each Royal Arch Chapter was thereafter authorized to open "within 
its bosom" and under its charter, as a chapter of Royal Arch Masons, a Council of 
Royal and Select Masters, and all who thereafter obtained the Royal Arch were to 
receive the Cryptic Degrees, if they so desired, without further fee. It was contended 
by the promoters of the plan that this course was essential to the preservation of the 
degrees in their jurisdiction, and while other motives have been charged, reflecting to 
some extent upon the integrity of the men who consummated the deal, I am satisfied 
that it was made with honesty of heart and sincerity of purpose. 


The effect of the action of Mississippi was immediately discernable in the other states 
and a spirited contest ensued. In many localities the preponderating sentiment favored 
its adoption, and this led to what is now known as 


THE MERGER 


It is difficult, at this time, for those who have entered the Secret Vault since the 
abandonment of the "Mississippi Plan" to fully comprehend the motives which 
induced its adoption and even of those of us who were present and participated in the 
work can find but little justification or excuse for the extraordinary course which was 



then pursued. I speak now only for Illinois. Whatever conditions may have prevailed 
elsewhere I do not know and possibly in other jurisdictions the "merger" may have 
been more defensible than with us. But however this may be the action of Mississippi 
seemed to be infectious and was speedily followed in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, 
Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin and our own jurisdiction, while 
measures looking ultimately to the same end were inaugurated in California and 
Missouri. 


Scarcely any two of the merging jurisdictions adopted in all respects the same 
procedure, although the ultimate object to be attained was everywhere the same, but, 
as a general similitude pervaded all of the methods employed, a recital of the plan 
pursued in Illinois, will, perhaps, furnish a fair idea of the salient features of the 
movement as it existed in other states. 


The year 1877 had witnessed a marked depression in Masonic circles which had been 
felt perhaps more severely in the council than elsewhere. Added to this was the 
further fact that a national delegation, including representatives from Illinois, which 
attempted to present the question of prerequisition to the Grand Encampment at its 
session at Cleveland in that year had been repulsed with freezing "courtesy." 
Thereupon the leaders became discouraged; Mississippi's act had just been 
accomplished; the plan seemed feasible and with little or no time for serious 
consideration measures were introduced at an Annual Assembly looking toward a 
formal cession to the Grand Chapter of the constitutional right to confer the degrees. 
In pursuance of this line of policy overtures were made to and received by the Grand 
Chapter which resulted in the appointment of a joint commission by both bodies to 
mature and report a detailed plan for the consummation of such union. The committee 
met, deliberated and finally reported the result of the conference and the report, which 
was formally adopted by both bodies, became, in effect, the concordat which affected 
the transfer of legal authority over the degrees. It provided that each Royal Arch 
Chapter should open a Council of Royal and Select Masters and confer the degrees 
subsequent to the Royal Arch; that the officers of the chapter should hold 
corresponding rank in the council and that all Royal Arch Masons at the date of 
ratification should be entitled to receive the degrees without fee. It also provided, on 
the part of the Grand Chapter, that the officers of all chapters should qualify 
themselves in the work without delay and that the Grand High Priest, as the custodian 
of the ritual, should, as soon as practicable, take the necessary steps to carry out the 
foregoing plan. 



The practical effect of the treaty was that of a dispensation from the Grand Council to 
the constituents of the Grand Chapter to open Councils of Royal and Select Masters 
and confer the degrees, and while our course in this respect has been severely 
criticized in some quarters, its legality cannot be seriously questioned. It will be 
observed that the Grand Council never dissolved, nor did it surrender any of its 
powers in other particulars. It met regularly every year in Annual Assembly; elected 
its own officers, all of whom were members of some one of its constituent Councils, 
and retained the same authority over its said constituents as before the "merger." The 
Councils in the meantime remained as they were; no charters were surrendered, and 
no degrees were conferred; no dues were collected and no Grand Council taxes were 
paid. And so matters continued for five years, during which period the advocates of 
the "Mississippi plan" had ample opportunity to study its theory and observe its 
practice. The results were not satisfactory, and in 1882 a return was had to the old 
methods. 


Without questioning the motives of those who advised or aided the consummation of 
the Mississippi plan, it may nevertheless be said that its influence was pernicious. Its 
logical effect was the disintegration of the Cryptic system and the reduction of the 
liturgies of the Council to the position of mere "side degrees" of the Chapter. In this 
jurisdiction they certainly assumed that position. In many Chapters they were never 
conferred; in others only at infrequent intervals. In some of the "merging" 
jurisdictions I am informed they were almost lost sight of, and had the movement 
attained such force as to carry all of the states, it is fair to presume that like all other 
side degrees, they would in time have fallen into complete disuse and finally have 
been lost. But fortunately the project met with vigorous opposition in many states 
which had a reassuring effect upon some of the weaker jurisdictions, while to still 
further stem the tide a new factor was evolved known as the 


GENERAL GRAND COUNCIL 


As I have stated, when the convention which met at Buffalo, in 1877, concluded its 
apparently purposeless session, it adjourned to meet at the call of the chairman. Very 
soon thereafter the Grand Council of Mississippi surrendered its degrees and 



dissolved its organization. Other states rapidly followed the precedent established by 
Mississippi, while still others held the project hinder serious consideration. This was 
the condition of affairs at the beginning of the year 1880, when the Grand Council of 
Minnesota formally requested the chairman, Bro. J. H. Drummond, to call a meeting 
of the convention. In response, thereto, a call was issued for a meeting to be held at 
Detroit Aug. 23, 1880, for the purpose of consultation and advisory action, and 
pursuant to such call, a meeting was held, in which eighteen Grand Councils are said 
to have been represented. A protest against any usurpation of Cryptic prerogatives by 
the General Grand Chapter or any of its constituents was adopted, and all persons 
receiving their degrees under such auspices were declared to be clandestine. The 
advisability of forming a General Grand Council was then affirmed; a constitution 
was adopted and provisional officers elected, all to be subject to the approval of and 
ratification by the Grand Councils of the country, "or of a majority of them." The 
convention then adjourned, subject to the call of the Provisional Grand Master. On 
March 1, 1881, a proclamation was issued by the Provisional Grand Master (Bro. 
Drummond) reciting a ratification of the constitution by nine Grand Councils, and 
declaring the new organization regularly formed and duly existing "as the governing 
body of the Rite in the United States." Since then it has continued to assert a mild, 
and, I am free to say, innocuous existence. It meets regularly every three years and 
elects officers. It also publishes its Proceedings which consist mainly of the record of 
such elections. While it accomplishes but little in the way of tangible results, I am 
unable to find that it is productive of any very serious harm, and were it not that it 
assumes to be "the governing body of the Rite in the United States," I should not be 
inclined to find any fault with either its organization or methods. 


But, while the General Grand Council now exercises no higher functions than to 
furnish a few more high-sounding, but empty, titles, I nevertheless believe that its 
organization was productive of a most salutary and beneficial effect upon the entire 
Cryptic system of the country. It brought together the leading spirits of the nation, 
who were struggling against disintegration, unifying their efforts and directing their 
energies, and to no small extent it served to stem the tide of dissolution which then 
threatened to engulf the Rite. That the General Grand Council "saved the Rite," as has 
been repeatedly stated by its adherents and supporters, I most emphatically deny, but 
do believe, and here cheerfully testify to my belief, that the movement worked 
incalculable good at the time. I further believe that the Cryptic world is under a 
lasting debt of gratitude to the men who directed and controlled the movement, and 
particularly to Josiah H. Drummond, of Maine; George W. Cooley, of Minnesota; 
George J. Pinckard, of Louisiana, and George M. Osgoodby, of New York. Their 



efforts have certainly been conductive of lasting benefit to the Rite, and history will 
do full justice to their memory. 


Like a slow awakening from unpleasant dreams the merging jurisdictions gradually 
began to realize the mistake they had committed. The very agencies which had been 
relied upon to preserve and perpetuate the Degrees were fast causing their 
destruction; the work of the Chapters was repudiated by the non-merging states, while 
the fact of continued existence of Councils and Grand Councils was an evidence that 
the Rite still possessed vitality and strength. Then came the period of 


THE RESUMPTION 


By the year 1880 a majority of the Grand Councils and Grand Chapters who had 
formerly thought that the separation of the two systems was not only unnecessary but 
operated as well to the detriment of both, had begun to revise their opinions. The 
dangers resulting from the multiplication of Grand bodies was found to be far less of 
an evil than was first supposed, while the fiction of the preservation of the degrees by 
capitular supervision had been abundantly demonstrated. Thenceforward there was a 
growing disposition on the part of both Chapters and Councils to terminate the 
arrangement. In our own state this was easily effected, as the Grand Council had 
never abandoned its organization nor had any of its constituents surrendered their 
charters. A simple agreement to dissolve the compact by the Grand Chapter and 
Council and the issuance of an edict by the Grand Council to its constituents were the 
only steps necessary. In other jurisdictions more serious conditions prevailed and the 
work of rehabilitation was accomplished, in some instances, in a manner not wholly 
above criticism. During the years 1880-83 most of the "merging" jurisdictions 
resumed control of the degrees, and with the single exception of Iowa, all have now 
returned to the old ways. 


From the year 1880 until the present time there has been a steady, constant and visible 
improvement and the tendency is still onward and upward. Indifference and apathy 
have given way to interest and zeal, a more intelligent appreciation of the character 
and scope of the degrees themselves, after years of uncertainty and doubt, have at 



length secured a long denied recognition as integral parts of the American Masonic 
system. 


— o — 


AN APRON LECTURE FOR THE SELECT MASTER DEGREE 


By BRO. PERCY EDGAR BROWN, Custodian of the Work, Grand Council, R. & S. 
M., Iowa 


MY companion, I now present you with the apron of the Select Master. It is white in 
color, like the lambskin or white leather apron which you received when you were 
made a Mason, symbolizing that purity of life which should be your constant aim and 
that uprightness and integrity which should ever attend your steps, if you are to attain 
to the highest achievements. 


It emphasizes the feet that only by right living will that secret vault which you are 
erecting within yourself become a proper place to deposit Divine Truth. Only thus can 
you dwell with God and God with you, and only thus can you hope to receive the 
reward of the righteous, the "Well done, good and faithful servant" of the Supreme 
Master of the Universe. 


But this apron is bordered with purple, indicating the honor which has befell 
conferred upon you by selecting you to receive this degree,' Purple has ever been the 
color worn by kings and rulers and it represents therefore the highest rank attainable 
in worldly affairs. As a Select Master, you have attained the highest rank possible in 
ancient Masonry. The purple of kings also indicates a power to rule. So too the purple 
of the Select Master represents a power to rule - not over temporal kingdoms, but 
over the kingdom of molar own life. The privilege accorded you in admitting you to 
this degree has enabled you to advance further in your search for Masonic light and 



the various lessons which have been inculcated have shown you how, through Divine 
guidance, you may better rule and govern the empire of yourself. 


But those who wear the purple must not only rule well their own lives, they must also 
serve their fellow men. As good kings must always make the welfare of their subjects 
their first consideration, so must you, as a Select Master, devote yourself to the 
interests of your companions. By your increased knowledge and the greater 
opportunities afforded you, through your admission to this degree, you are better 
fitted to perform your whole duty to your brethren and to labor for all mankind. 


Let this apron, then, ever be to you a symbol of pure heart and a power to rule your 
life and conduct, through the blessings and guidance of the secrets of Divine Truth, 
safely deposited in the hidden vault of your inner consciousness, so that you may 
walk with God through a long and useful life and finally secure eternal and ineffable 
happiness in the world to come. 


Let it also be a constant reminder to you of that duty incumbent upon every worthy 
Select Master, that he shall serve God, aid, comfort and elevate his companions and 
do all in his power to be of service to his fellow men and to humanity. 


Finally, my companion, remember that you should strive in season and out of season 
to attain to the character of a true Select Master. 


Keep this goal ever before you - not only while you wear this apron within the narrow 
confines of the lodge room but while you go about the duties of your daily life. 
Remember too that 


"This goal in sight, tho' ne'er attained 


If noble effort is maintained, 



Will make your life one long sweet song; 
Eternal joys, for you, prolong." 


— o — 


Masonic Journalism of the Long Ago 


By Bro. JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, Associate Editor, California 


Bro. Morcombe is a member of Educator Lodge, No. 554, San Francisco, Cal., Rabbi 
Chapter, No. 103, R. A. M. Storm Lake, Iowa, Maple Valley Council, No. 25, R. & S. 
M., Rose Croix Commandery, No. 38, K. T., Sac City, Iowa, and Abu Bekr Temple, 
A.A.O.N.M.S., Sioux City, Iowa. See in the Editorial Department, this issue, "A 
Masonic Critic." 


IT might be interesting to know just when the first periodical devoted to the Craft 
made its appearance. To ascertain the subjects considered worthy of record would 
reveal much as to the inner workings of Masonry beyond anything preserved in 
formal documents. The inquirer of the future, having desire to know the conditions of 
the institution of our time, will be at no loss, thanks to the number of journals now 
published. These cover the entire country. Some essay the national field and deal only 
with the larger questions, while others confine themselves to local affairs and the 
jurisdictional happenings. The older papers and magazines of Masonry are few, and 
where preserved they are rarities. 


Through the kindness of a correspondent this writer has before him a volume of the 
Scientific Magazine and Freemason's Repository for 1798. This periodical was an 
ambitious affair, when compared with British publications of the time, being about 
equal, in form, size and contents, with the contemporary Land on Magazine and the 



Gentleman's Magazine, with just a flavor of Masonry added. There are the usual 
comments on affairs of the time, domestic and foreign, with long winded essays, 
somewhat stilted and labored, as was the style of the period. The Masonic department 
for the year in question found subject matter in the anti-Craft books of Professor 
Robison and the Abbe Barruel - books that we know now as curiosities, without 
critical value and only serving to reveal the intense prejudices and slanderous moods 
of the time. There is a department of book reviews, commending or condemning 
newly published volumes that are unknown today even to the most mole-like of 
researchers. Poetry had its place also - several pages each month of most atrocious 
verse, though perhaps no worse than the vers libre so prominently displayed in some 
of our cherished publications. "Public Amusements" are handled in such wise as to 
indicate that the old brethren were devotees of the play houses. "Parliamentary 
Proceedings" take up much space, as may be well imagined when the year 1798 is 
remembered for the scare of invasion by the French which agitated all England, and 
when Bonaparte was the arbiter of Europe. "The Monthly Chronicle" gathers an odd 
lot of matters, social happenings, perils by fire and flood, scientific guesses and 
inventions, all heaped together, and having now a curious interest because of the 
childlike faith, or rather credulity, so often shown. 


In a foreword to the completed volume the editor speaks of the "present awful crisis, 
when nations are in perplexity and individuals in fearful apprehension, and when 
every man has a peculiar duty to perform. Ours at present appears to be to preserve 
our miscellany from the influence of a party spirit on the one hand, and to advance, so 
far as in us lies, the great interests of society, order and virtue on the other. We would 
be understood to mean that while this magazine shall continue to be distinguished by 
the leading objects which constitute its titles, it shall stand eminently forward in 
behalf of the Constitution, under which, happily, we were bom, and under which w e 
live." All of which might be tmly echoed by any Masonic editor of the present time, 
when viewing the critical conditions of society in this third decade of the twentieth 
century. We could do worse than repeat in our own place what this old brother writes 
in continuation: 


"It is a time that calls for every man to express his undisguised sentiments. Hypocrisy 
now would be as one of the deadly sins. Free, therefore, are we to declare that our 
Magazine is and shall be solely directed under the influence of this persuasion and 
this resolution. 'For our God, our King and our Country' is our declaration at the 
commencement of this sixth year of our labors, and we trust that our exertions will 



not be found in vain in this most important and interesting cause. Earnestly do we 
pray that the Providential Power which pervades and guides the universe may 
speedily disperse the raging elements of dissension, and quiet the turbulent spirits of 
mankind, that Harmony and Peace may again fix their abode on the earth, and all the 
Virtues and the Graces dance in their train!” 


The threat of invasion to which reference has already been made was at that time 
something well within the range of probability. A whole chapter of accidents, and the 
heroism of the British sailors, put a period to the plans of the Corsican conqueror. 
Contrary winds interfered, so that temporary command of the narrow sea was denied 
the armies gathered about their great rafts. And later one smashing blow after another 
delivered by the English fleets caused abandonment of the ambitious scheme. There 
were traitors at home to be watched; misguided men who imagined, as now there are 
some who look to Moscow for the millennium, that the French Revolution would 
surely usher in the new and golden age. At his juncture we are told of Masonic lodges 
meeting and resolving that the whole man power of the organization offer itself to the 
government to meet the threat from across the channel. Most of these Masonic 
volunteers were home bodies, however, and in their resolutions specified the 
particular parishes where they were willing to stand guard and meet the invaders or 
domestic foes. 


A FAMOUS BOOK IS REFERRED TO 


Almost every Masonic library of worth has in it a copy of Dr. Robison's "Proof of a 
Conspiracy," etc. This Edinburgh professor, becoming somewhat unbalanced because 
of the excesses of the French Revolution and the subsequent chaos in Europe, looked 
about for the cause of such upheaval and became convinced that it was to be found in 
the secret meetings and plottings of Continental Masonry. The Scotchman was 
somewhat less credulous than the Abbe Barruel, who found plots and Jacobins around 
every corner. But both were convinced that Masonry existed to tear down religion and 
ordered government, and to let loose atheism and anarchy in the world. The 
opponents of Freemasonry have not advanced one step since that time. The same old 
slanders have been revamped in our own time by those concerned to make of 
Masonry the scapegoat for world troubles. The Craft has again been accused of 
stirring the nations to conflict and of plottings to destroy all religion and to loosen the 



bonds of ordered society. We can recall the recent utterance of that discredited royal 
exile, who from his hiding place in Holland declared that only two institutions have 
survived the World War undiminished in strength - the Masonic Fraternity and the 
Roman Catholic church - and that the first named of these was still striving to push 
humanity over the brink of utter ruin. 


But Professor Robison had a new theory of Masonic guile. He averred that it had been 
instituted and nourished by the church to further its own purposes, but that it has 
turned upon its creator to a vast hurt. One can see in the analysis before us how 
Masonry had been regarded in England when the reviewer writes: "The Masonic body 
has hitherto had to encounter the general opprobrium that their society is frivolous, 
nonsensical and destitute of any consistency. Mr. Robison is the first to give them a 
consequence to which they are not entitled, as belonging to an institution formed by 
Craft, founded in the deepest motives and capable of effecting the most important 
events." Admitting that in some of the assemblies of Continental Masonry the society 
may have been turned to evil ends, the writer asks: "Is Masonry herself chargeable 
with the follies, with the iniquities and the infidelity of any of her sons; or shall the 
institution be held up to general opprobrium because some apostasized Masons have 
acted in violation of their principles ?" 


Much was made in this volume, and in other writings of the time, that the newer 
degrees, termed Masonic and attached to the simplicity of Symbolic Masonry, were 
invented and worked to spread atheistical and anarchial doctrines. "To this it may be 
replied," says our old-time reviewer, "that the invention of new degrees and orders in 
Freemasonry, such as those described by the present adversaries of the Institution, are 
in general innovations and are quite opposite to the pure principles of Freemasonry. * 
* * Yet I will maintain that in some, at least, of those very degrees and orders which 
the professor has reprobated, so far from an anti-religious or leveling principle being 
inculcated, the very reverse is maintained, with a degree of strength unknown in the 
preparatory steps of the Institution. I pretend not to go farther than the Order 
instituted in imitation of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and in which there is a 
more efficient loyalty and more direct Christianity than in all other parts of 
Freemasonry." But here is more than enough of attention to an old slander, happily 
disproven and long forgotten. 



A copper-plate of "Symbolic Masonry," conceived in the style of the time, represents 
three beneficient and scantily clad beings wandering through the sky, visiting the 
seven planets by turn and applying to these heavenly bodies the square, level and 
plumb, by which they discover the seven Virtues and the seven Sciences. Rather 
far-fetched allegory, perhaps, according to our way of thinking. But by this 
representation we are assured "industry shall not go without its reward. This is 
beautifully represented in the appropriate ceremonies of symbolical Masonry. After 
much painful labor the indefatigable sojourners discover the great object of their 
search. The truth is attained by unwearied seeking. It mocks only the idle and the 
careless." 


At the time of the publication considered Masonic funerals evidently did not occur as 
matter of course. We read of a dispensation being procured by the lodge at Maidstone 
from the Provincial Grand Master authorizing the interment, with Masonic honors, of 
a brother who had fallen from a cliff and was killed. Perhaps because such occasions 
were infrequent, this particular Craft ceremony was well attended and the funeral 
sermon was "pathetically adapted to the occasion." 


"DEFEND THE COUNTRY!" 


The perilous position of the country was the theme at all gatherings and cropped up at 
Masonic meetings, where the brethren were anxious to show their loyalty. The sums 
of money needed to defend the kingdom, and which appalled those responsible for the 
government and gave opportunity for a fierce attack by the opposition, seem small 
and even trivial to us, who have become accustomed to billions in governmental 
budgets. But it was evidently a hard strain for Pitt and his colleagues to raise the few 
millions of sterling then needed. There were no bond sales, and there was no 
conscription. Reliance was placed upon voluntary aid, whether for men or money. So 
we find lodge after lodge declaring it the duty of good citizens to come to the 
financial assistance of the nation and advising the brothers to make such contributions 
as they could. We are also informed that the responses were most gratifying. 



Under guise of "A Brief History of Nonsense" there is slightly hidden a return attack 
upon the Catholic church. We are told very frequently by brothers nowadays that it is 
something new and regrettable for Masons to concern themselves with the affairs of 
that other institution, even if its authorities should slander and attack Masonry. But it 
seems that our "ancient brothers" recognized ecclesiasticism in politics as an enemy 
to be met. In serio-comic style this history of nonsense follows the fortunes of the 
power that swayed a scepter "made up of equal parts of lead and iron, with an 
undisturbed dominion over Europe,” until such time as its rule was challenged by 
and Erasmus. "Then the records of Nonsense, which had hitherto been deemed 
sacred, and to question which was to be guilty of a damnable sin, were exposed to 
contempt and sentenced to eternal oblivion. Men began to think and enquire; and the 
more they examined the greater was their wonder at the torpid state in which they had 
so long remained. Strange indeed was their astonishment at the veneration in which 
they had held old rags and rotten skulls, pieces of consecrated wood scapularies, 
strings of beads and round wafers; and with the ideas of which they had been 
accustomed to associate their hopes of everlasting salvation." 


How the chief agents of Nonsense handle their votaries is thus described: 


"There are two outlets from the abominable pit. Those who were fortunate enough to 
have had money, or friends, obtained elevation from the stinking hole (of purgatory) 
to a place of ease and pleasure where all the time was taken up in rapturous 
enjoyments and the singing of psalms. But those who had no means to purchase a lift 
from this preparatory confinement were certain of being precipitated down a gulph 
ten thousand fathoms deep, there to remain for endless ages, with no other liquid than 
melted brimstone, no other food than burning ashes, and the pleasant company of a 
strange sort of spirits, with horns on their heads, long tails, cloven feet and crooked 
talons, with which they took great delight in lacerating and tossing about the poor 
beings who fell into their power. Now the chief servants of this power used to 
assemble their votaries in large crowds, and exhibit to their terrified view these 
comfortable scenes in the most lively colors they could devise, by which means there 
was little doubt of getting them to purchase certain -powerful charms, which they had 
to dispose of, that would infallibly preserve them from this pleasant place, let their 
tempers and actions be what they would." 



The history grows tedious, however, as it proceeds to tell of the unloosing of the bulls 
by the possessor of the three crowns against all and sundry who dared to question the 
right of Nonsense to rule the world. And of course Masons, who are seekers for the 
truth, had several of these animals from the papal herd turned upon themselves, with 
rueful consequences to those living where Nonsense still preserved its power. But for 
the rest the bulls bellowed loud and harmlessly. One can imagine the old brothers 
chuckling mightily over this sort of matter such times as they foregathered in the 
low-ceilinged taverns. 


In place of the page or column of alleged humor that finds place in some of our 
modern Masonic journals, this antique Repository of the Craft had a department 
under title of "The Collector," where one finds many anecdotes. These were doubtless 
regarded as very funny, though their repetition now would hardly raise a smile. 
Somewhat coarse in spots, as in the following: "Henry the Fourth of France loved 
pleasantry, and willingly allowed it in the companions of his victories. Walking one 
day in the environs of Paris, he stopped, and putting his head between his legs, said, 
looking at the city: 'Ah, how many cockold's nests!' A courtier, who was near him, 
did the same thing, and cried: 'Sire, I see the Louvre!' (the king's palace)." 


We read of a Provincial Grand Lodge attending church at Newcastle on Tyne on St. 
John's day, two years before the date of publication - there were no efforts to secure 
"news beats" in those comfortable days. After the religious services the brethren 
returned to “Mrs. Hanzell’s, at the White Hart Inn, where the Grand Feast was spread, 
and which was for most of those in attendance the principal feature of the affair." 
These old fellows could find plenty of subjects for their formal toasts, and each one 
had to be drank in bumpers. Thus we find the list on this occasion: "The King and the 
Craft; Virtue, Benevolence and a Good Peace; the Prince of Wales, Grand Master of 
Masons of England; Earl Moira, Acting Grand Master of England; The Provincial 
Grand Chaplain, and thanks to him for his excellent sermon; The Provincial Grand 
Marshal, and thanks to him for conducting the procession; May our Principles Keep 
Pace with our Professions! All Worthy Masons; All our Royal Brothers," etc. 


It would be hard nowadays to persuade a Masonic editor to publish as a serial the life 
of a cardinal. Yet here we have an extended biography of Ximenes, even though that 
distinguished prelate loomed large in the affairs of his time some three centuries 



before the magazine articles appeared. Not even Cardinals O'Connell and Dougherty 
could get in with us, though they are American wearers of the red hat. But Ximenes 
fills many pages in this volume, doubtless to the edification of those old-time 
Masons. 


There is also a smattering of scientific intelligence, as the title of the periodical would 
lead one to suppose. There is an improvement to the steam engine, by which it is 
possible to get power equal to two men. Naval guns are made better, so that they can 
be operated by five instead of fifteen men. French experiments promised a balloon 
from which it would be possible to discharge a shower of fire, this being denominated 
an "infernal machine." There is account of a cat with eight legs and four ears, vastly 
interesting to contemporary scientists. New comets were being discovered and 
astronomers were busy computing the orbits of these wanderers through space. And 
lastly, in the section quoted from, the Royal Society was being urged to move for a 
universal standard of weights and measures. Some of these things are to us, living in 
the full light of science, as trivial. Yet it must be remembered that men were then but 
testing their powers; that the puerile inquiries made opened the way to greater things. 
And here, to bring this disconnected gathering to an end, is a resolution adopted at a 
lodge at Wakefield in Yorkshire, chosen for its matter and manner: 


"It is the great and leading characteristic of Free and Accepted Masons, in every 
clime, and under every form of government, to be obedient to the powers that are, and 
grateful to the laws by which they are protected, that accustomed as they are 
everywhere to the study of whatever is most perfect in the sublime science of 
architecture, they are led to admire beauty under all its forms and various 
appearances; and that we, the inhabitants of this happy isle, do most especially 
contemplate, with enthusiastic fondness and admiration, the nice symmetry and 
proportion of that glorious structure, the British Constitution, consisting of King, 
Lords and Commons. 


"That the cause and interest of our most ancient institution are more particularly 
maintained by, and have ever been most prosperous under the monarchical form of 
government, that this and other weighty reasons and considerations moving us, we do 
avow an unfeigned love for the King, our sovereign - the friend and father of his 
people - and look upon no sacrifices to be too great, which have for their object the 



dignity of his crown the safety of his person, and the stability of our incomparable 
constitution and law. 


"That we are decidedly amongst the foremost of our patriotic fellow subjects to 
approve and adopt any measure that may (by our competent rulers) be thought most 
conducive to the general welfare and the prosperity of the state. Most emphatically 
and unreservedly, we do desire to be understood as 'hating with a perfect hatred' all 
treasonable and revolutionary practices; and do solemnly deprecate that impious and 
atheistical system which now desolates the continent of Europe, and which will if it 
continues to gain ground, not only disappoint the exalted ends and benevolent 
purposes of the Craft, but also do away with the fear and love of the Supreme Being 
and root out the moral and social virtues from the hearts and souls of men. 


"May the Grand Architect of the Universe preside over this and all other lodges 
around the globe! So mote it be!" 


Should some brother, having in mind the very troubled situation in the world today, 
propose in one of our lodges a series of resolutions covering like ground, he would be 
apt to run foul of the ancient prohibition against political matters. It is evident that 
these Masons of the late eighteenth century did not consider themselves debarred, 
even in their lodges, from considering the state of their own and other countries, and 
putting themselves on record on the side of law and order and loyalty. Yet now it is 
regarded as out of order to declare for civic righteousness and for devotion to the 
principles on which our Government is founded. We may have still something to 
learn from these, our Masonic ancestors. 


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THE STUDY C LU B 



Chapters of Masonic History 
By Bro. H. L. HAYWOOD, Editor 

PART XIII. VARIOUS GRAND LODGES; FRANCE, GERMANY, ETC. 


THE present chapter brings this series of Study Club articles to a close. No attempt 
has been made to publish an exhaustive and critical history of the Craft but rather the 
purpose has been to prepare such a rapid outline sketch of the more important phases 
of the history as beginners might find useful. According to custom the Study Club 
will be discontinued during July and August, to be resumed in September with a new 
series on the Story of American Freemasonry, unless circumstances make necessary a 
change in plans as to the theme. In the chapter of last month brief sketches were given 
of Freemasonry in Ireland and Scotland and of two Grand Lodges in England; it is 
now in order to treat in like fashion other countries, the first of which to be considered 
is 


1. FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE 


The earliest protagonists of the Craft in France are almost mythical figures, and move 
about in a fog of rumor and conjecture, so that it is exceedingly difficult to find one's 
way among them with any assurance of certainty. Conditions were not as favorable to 
the Institution as in the United Kingdom; the political state of affairs constantly 
interfered with the development of lodges; and the French themselves, with their 
Latin minds, did. not have for Craft Masonry the same instinct as their English 
brethren. Like all men of their blood they were more passionate and more logical, and 
therefore more given to going to extremes; moreover the aristocratic spirit was strong 
among them, especially during the eighteenth century, so that many of them were 
impatient with the simple Craft ceremonies of the Three Degrees, and they soon set to 
work to fabricate one system after another of degrees more congenial to their 
aristocratic leanings. 


Some writers, Bro. Robert I. Clegg among them, believe that as early as 1721 lodges 
of a Time Immemorial character, without warrant from England, were organized in 



France; Bro. Clegg names one at Mons and one at Dunkirk. But the main stream of 
tradition has it that the first lodge was founded at Paris in 1725 by the Earl of 
Derwentwater and his fellow Jacobites, who had fled from England upon the fall of 
the Stuart dynasty. There is much uncertainty about this. Gould quotes a "German 
publication" to the effect that in 1736 the Earl of Derwentwater was chosen Grand 
Master by the French lodges to "succeed James Hector Maclean, a previous Grand 
Master." Lalande, the astronomer, was responsible for the 1725 account in his 
Franche-Maconnerie, published in 1773; Rebold followed Lalande in this, and so did 
Dr. Oliver. The Abbe Robin, one of the founders of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters (of 
which Voltaire was a member), published in 1776 Researches on the Ancient and 
Modern Initiations in which he says that French Masonry originated in 1720. Clavel 
says that the first lodge on French soil was Friendship and Fraternity, at Dunkirk, 
founded by the Grand Lodge of England, 1721. Hughan, who made patient researches 
in this subject, said that the first historical record of the founding of a French lodge 
was the one mentioned in Pine's Engraved List for 1734 as having been founded April 
3, 1732, and held at the Louis d' Argent in the Rue des Boucheries, Paris. 


Whenever, however, and by whomever established the earliest French lodges did not 
find smooth sailings, either in the country or among themselves; there was general 
lack of agreement and many quarrels. Thory, who was a careful student of 
documents, gives one a picture of this in his Historie de la Fondation du Grand 
Orient: 


"Freemasonry was then in such a discorded condition that we have no register or 
official report of its Assemblies. There did not exist any bodies organized in the 
fashion of Grand Lodges, such as were known in England and Scotland. Each lodge 
in Paris or in the kingdom was the property of an individual called the Master of the 
lodge. He governed the body over which he presided according to his own will and 
pleasure. These Masters of lodges were independent of each other. Each body 
recognized no other authority than their owner. They granted to all applicants the 
power to hold lodges, and thus added new Masters to the old ones. In fact, it may be 
said that up to 1743 Freemasonry presented in France under the Grand Masterships of 
Derwentwater, Lord Harnouester, and the Duke d'Antin a spectacle of the most 
revolting anarchy." 



According to Thory the beginnings of the first legal Grand Lodge in France began on 
Dec. 11, 1743, when a number of the Masters of lodges met in assembly and elected 
the Count of Clermont Grand Master; this body adopted the title, The English Grand 
Lodge of France, which in 1756 was changed to the National Grand Lodge of France. 
This new body fell into many difficulties at the very beginning. For one thing, 
Masters held office for life, and lodges were so organized that each was virtually the 
private property of its Master, as quoted above; this made general- supervision of 
Craft activities very difficult; for another thing, as a result of Chevalier Ramsay’s 
celebrated oration in 1737, new degrees started up on all sides, and this entailed an 
endless amount of confusion. 


The Count of Clermont, after having lost his interest, appointed as Deputy to act in 
his stead in 1744 a certain Baure, who was neglectful of his duties, and during IN 
hose regime irregular and spurious Masonry flourished. A more famous Deputy was 
one Lacome, a dancing master, appointed in 1761. Upon his accepting office worse 
confusion followed until at last affairs were in such a state of anarchy that in 1767 the 
government forbade further assemblies of Grand Lodge. By Clermont's death in 1771 
Grand Lodge was split in two, with the Lacorne faction making a deal of trouble. The 
Duke of Chartres - a name of ill omen in the history of French Masonry - was made 
Grand Master, largely through the action of the Lacome faction. 


It is impossible in short space to furnish an account of the confusion that existed for a 
few years; it is sufficient to say that out of it all the old Grand Lodge became 
moribund and on its mins was erected the Grand Orient, a name invented at the time, 
apparently, and since used in many lands. The Grand Orient undertook to secure 
control of all the "higher degrees." It held its first meeting March 5, 1773, and its 
Constitutions were adopted on the following June 24. The original Grand Lodge held 
on to existence but fought a losing battle. The Duke of Chartres, its Grand Master, 
became also the head of the rival body, the Grand Orient, a thing that tied the hands 
of the older Grand Body, so that it grew weaker with each year and at last expired in 
1792. 


After the Revolution had come the Duke of Chartres assumed the name Philippe 
Egalite. On May 15, 1793, in an insulting letter to the Grand Orient, he renounced 



Masonry altogether. His disreputable career came to a bloody end on the guillotine 
during the Terror. 


Meanwhile, in 1782, the Grand Orient had organized its Chamber of Degrees upon 
the recommendation of which there were added to the original Craft ceremonies the 
degrees of Elect Freemason, Scottish Freemason, Knight of the East, and Knight of 
the Rose Croix, with a view to bringing under the control of the Grand Orient all 
"higher degrees." 


During the Revolution the Craft became somnolent, so that in 1796 only eighteen 
lodges were active in the whole of France; but a revival came afterwards, and with it 
interest continued to increase in higher degrees. Many of these were brought under 
one obedience when, in 1 804, and acting under a Constitution granted by the Mother 
Supreme Council, Charleston, S. C., Count de Grasse Tilly organized the Supreme 
Council, a Grand Body that has ever since remained independent of the Grand Orient. 
In after years there was organized under its auspices a Grand Fodge of France, to 
have charge of the Craft degrees. 


In 1871 the Grand Orient abolished the office of Grand Master, since which time the 
duties of that office have been performed by the President of the Council of the 
Order. On Sept. 14, 1877, it took the yet more extraordinary step of amending Artilce 
I of the Constitutions of Masonry. The paragraph originally read: 


"Freemasonry has for its principles the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, 
and the solidarity of mankind." 


After a year or so of deliberation, this was at last amended to read: 


"WHEREAS, Freemasonry is not a religion, and has therefore no doctrine or dogma 
to affirm in its Constitution, the Assembly adopting the Vaeu IX., has decided and 



decreed that the second paragraph of Article I. of the Constitution shall be erased, and 
that for the words of the said article the following shall be substituted: I. Being an 
institution essentially philanthropic, philosophic and progressive, Freemasonry has 
for its object, search after truth, study of universal morality, science and arts and the 
practice of benevolence. It has for its principles, absolute liberty of conscience and 
human solidarity, it excludes no person on account of his belief and its motto is 
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." 


Immediately upon this (in the December following) the United Grand Lodge of 
England appointed a committee to consider this innovation; after two months the 
committee reported it as having been a departure from all the Landmarks of the Craft, 
whereupon England withdrew fraternal recognition; since then the great majority of 
Grand Lodges among English speaking peoples have taken the same action. 


A new Grand Body, known as The National Grand Lodge, was organized in 1914 to 
erect lodges practicing Ancient Craft Masonry on the same principles as those 
adhered to by English speaking Grand Bodies; to date it remains small in size and 
influence. 


II. FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY 


In his Report on Correspondence made to the Grand Lodge of Alabama at its Annual 
Communication in 1922, a volume of 376 pages containing the most comprehensive 
account of foreign Grand Bodies published in many years in this country, Bro. Oliver 
Day Street gives a list of the various Masonic bodies in Germany as follows: 


"1. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg, founded Feb. 11, 1811, with seat at Hamburg. 


"2. The Mother Grand Lodge of the Eclectic Union, founded March 27, 1823, with 
seat at Frankfort on the Maine. 



"3. The Grand National Mother Lodge of the Prussian States, called 'of the Three 
Globes,' founded in 1744, with seat at Berlin. 


"4. The National Grand Lodge of All German Freemasons, or Grand Lodge of the 
Country, or Grand Countries Lodge, founded in 1770, with seat at Berlin. 


"5. The Grand Lodge of Prussia, called Royal York of Friendship, founded in 1760, 
with seat at Berlin. 


"6. The Grand Lodge 'Sun,' or 'Zur Sonne,' founded in 1741, with seat at Bayreuth. 


"7. The National Grand Lodge of Saxony, founded in 1811, with seat at Dresden. 


"8. The Grand Lodge 'Concord', founded in 1846, with seat at Darmstadt. 


"9. The five Independent Lodges, (1) Minerva of the Three Palms, at Leipsic; (2) 
Baldwin of the Linden, at Leipsic; (3) Archimedes of the Three Tracing Boards, in 
Altenburg; (4) Archimedes of Eternal Union, at Gera; (5) Karl of the Wreath of Rue, 
at Hildburgshausen." 


The five independent lodges named by Bro. Street, formed, in 1833, what they called 
a Free Association, which functions very much as a Grand Lodge, and is generally 
acknowledged as regular. 



The existence of so many Grand Bodies in one country immediately suggests that 
Freemasonry in Germany has undergone many transformations, a fact that is borne 
out by its history. The first German lodge to be constituted was established at 
Hamburg, Dec. 6, 1737. In August of the following year it initiated the Crown Prince 
of Prussia, who afterwards became Frederick the Great. Frederick in turn established 
a private lodge of his own at Rheinsberg, and later permitted the forming of a lodge at 
Berlin, Sept. 13, 1740, which took the name "Of the Three Globes." This lodge, after 
erecting a number of lodges at other points, transformed itself into a Grand Lodge 
under the title Grand Royal Mother Lodge, which in 1772 was changed to Grand 
National Mother Lodge, number three in Bro. Street's list. 


The National Grand Lodge of all German Freemasons was founded Dec. 27, 1770, by 
Johann Wilhelm von Zinnendorf, one of the most arresting and dramatic figures in the 
annals of German Masonry. He was made a Mason at Halle, Aug. 10, 1731, and 
afterwards joined the Lodge of the Three Globes. When that lodge embraced the Rite 
of Strict Observance, Zinnendorf became Master of the Scotch Lodge. He quarreled 
with the Rite of Strict Observance, which excommunicated him and which he in turn 
condemned. Immediately he secured through a friend of his a copy of the Swedish 
rituals and used them as a basis for a new Rite, which he set up in opposition to the 
Strict Observance. A sufficient number of Masons followed his lead to enable him on 
June 24, 1770, to set up a new Grand Lodge, in which twelve lodges participated. For 
seven years this Grand Lodge enjoyed the recognition of the Grand Lodge of 
England, and later the protectorship of the King of Prussia. Zinnendorf remained 
Grand Master from 1774 until his death in 1782. In spite of all manner of obstacles - 
he was denounced by the Grand Lodge of Sweden and became hated by many lodges 
in Germany - he had so much zeal and so many of the qualities of leadership that he 
was able to triumph over his enemies. 


A still greater name in the history of German Masonry is that of Friedrich Ludwig 
Schroeder, who was born at Schwerin, Nov. 3, 1744. Schroeder was one of the 
greatest actors Germany has even known and possessed of fine character and a 
powerful personality. Soon after his initiation in 1774 he established a lodge under 
the system of Zinnendorf, but it did not last long. In 1814, when he was seventy years 
of age, he became Grand Master of the English Provincial Grand Lodge of Lower 
Saxony. This honor came to him as a result of the work he had done in the years just 
previous by way of reorganizing the ritual. According to his view, Freemasonry in 
Germany had become corrupted by the luxuriant growth of higher and side degrees; 



believing that Masonry in its purest form was that which had been developed in 
England, he translated a form of the English ritual into German and set up what came 
to be known as Schroeder’s Rite, which consisted of only three degrees. This was 
adopted by the Provincial Grand Lodge in 1801. 


Partly as a result of Schroeder's influence and partly owing to other forces at work, 
other Grand Lodges followed suit, so that of the eight Grand Lodges now in 
existence, five practice only three degrees. The National Grand Lodge uses ten 
degrees; the Grand National Mother Lodge uses seven; the Grand Lodge of Prussia 
uses a fourth degree, confined to a select few. 


III. OTHER GRAND LODGES 


Among the most distinctive of all degree systems is that employed by Sweden and 
generally known as the Swedish Rite. The Grand Lodge National of Sweden was 
founded in 1759, twenty-four years after the first lodge had been founded at 
Stockholm. The Swedish Rite as it now exists was established in 1775, or 
thereabouts, and is compounded of Craft Masonry, the Strict Observance, and 
Scottish Rite Degrees, with a trace of the influence of Swedenborgianism. Of this the 
first three degrees correspond to those practiced in our Blue Lodges; the fourth to 
sixth degrees, inclusive, are so much like the Scottish Rite in character that members 
of Scottish Rite bodies are permitted to visit; the last four degrees are peculiar to the 
Rite. 


The Grand Lodge of Norway was set up as a Grand Lodge independent of Sweden, 
Nov. 24, 1891. The Mother Lodge of Norway was founded in 1749 and was in 1818 
united with the Grand Lodge of Sweden. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Norway was 
founded in 1870, and this, as already stated, became independent in 1891. The 
Norway Grand Lodge controls eleven degrees, the first three of which are Entered 
Apprentice, Lellowcraft and Master of St. John; the others belong to the Swedish 
Rite. 



Freemasonry was established in Denmark at Copenhagen, Nov. 11, 1743, under a 
German charter. Lodges were subsequently warranted by the Grand Lodge of 
England, and in 1749 Count Laurvig was granted a patent as Provincial Grand Master 
by Lord Byron, Grand Master of England. The Grand Lodge of Denmark was 
constituted in 1792, at which time Prince Charles became the ruling head of Danish 
Lodges. Frederick VII rearranged the Danish degrees according to the Swedish 
system when he became Grand Master in 1848. 


Freemasonry took root in Italy in 1735. From that time until 1820, when all Masonic 
lodges were suppressed, the story of Freemasonry in Italy is one of sudden change 
and confusion. Italian Freemasonry revived in the 1 850’s, but since that time, owing 
to constant changes in Italian ecclesiastical and political affairs, Italian Masonry has 
developed such a variety of forms that it is exceedingly difficult for an American 
Mason to find his way amid the maze of conflicting testimony and bewildering facts. 
The Masonic movement culminating in the Grand Orient of Italy began in 1859 at 
Turin. In 1861 twenty-two lodges assembled at Turin and formed a Grand body, 
which, on Jan. 1, 1862, became the Grand Orient of Italy at Turin, recognizing only 
three degrees. This Grand Orient came under the influence of higher degrees during 
the first decade of its existence; it emerged from this struggle in 1873 when all the 
rival ractions united in the present Grand Orient. In 1875 a number of lodges, lead by 
Saverio Fera, seceded from the Grand Orient and organized themselves into the 
Grand Lodge of Italy for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In 1919 the Blue 
Lodges adhering to this Supreme Council severed their relations with it and, with its 
express consent, became independent of the Scottish Rite. These lodges then held an 
assembly and formed themselves into the Most Serene National Italian Grand Lodge. 
It exacts of its members a belief in Deity and displays the Bible upon its altars. Of the 
two Supreme Councils in Italy, one is connected with the Grand Orient, the other 
works with the Serene National Grand Lodge. There is also in existence in Italy the 
Grand Lodge of Florence. 


Freemasonry in Spain has always existed in a state of considerable confusion. When 
Bro. R. F. Gould wrote his History of Freemasonry, he listed five Spanish Grand 
bodies. According to Bro. Street's Report, already cited, there are now in existence at 
least four Grand bodies, two Spanish Grand Orients at Madrid, Spanish Grand Lodge 
at Barcelona, and the Supreme Council of the Spanish Grand Orient. 



In Portugal the most important Grand body is the United Lusitanian Grand Orient 
founded in 1872. The Grand Orient of the Netherlands was formed in 1757. The 
Grand Orient of Belgium dates from 1832. Egypt has a Grand Lodge, organized in 
1872. Swiss Freemasonry is under the Grand Lodge "Alpine," formed July 24, 1844. 


A Grand Lodge for the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia was formed at Prague under a 
patent from the German Grand Lodge "Zur Sonne." Jugoslavia came into possession 
of a Grand Lodge, June 9, 1919, under the title "Grand Lodge of the Serbs, Croats and 
Slovenes, Jugoslavia," with headquarters at Belgrade. Freemasonry was introduced 
into Greece by the Grand Orient of France in 1809. In 1860 a Provincial Grand Lodge 
was established in Greece, under the Grand Orient of Italy. The present Grand Orient 
of Greece was organized in 1868; the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite July 12, 
1872. 


In Canada each province has an independent Grand Lodge of its own. The Grand 
Lodge of Canada (Ontario) was formed in 1855; Nova Scotia, 1866; New Brunswick, 
1867; Quebec, 1869; British Columbia, 1871; Prince Edward's Island, 1875; 
Manitoba, 1875; Alberta, 1905; Saskatchewan, 1906. 


Freemasonry on the continent of Africa is a world in itself, with many Grand Lodges 
and Provincial Grand Lodges working under English, Scotch, Irish, French, Italian, 
etc., constitutions. 


In Central America and South America, Masonry has for the most part been formed 
under Scottish Rite influences; it is impossible in a paragraph or two to convey any 
impression of the great number of Grand bodies in existence or of the complexity 
with which the Craft is there organized. 


In Mexico Bro. Street lists some thirty-two Grand bodies. The key to the' history of 
Mexican Masonry has been politics and also a certain amount of friction between 
Scottish Rite and Craft lodges. 



SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 


Mackey's Encyclopedia (Revised Edition) 


Acta Latomorum, 13, Africa, 34, Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, 62; Austria, 
86; Belgium, 102; Buhle, 122; Canada, 131; Clermont, Count of, 156, Cologne, 
Charter of, 159; Compagnonage, 171, Darmstadt, Grand Lodge of, 197, 
Derwentwater 206, Des Etangs, Nicholas Charles, 208, Emperors of the East and 
West, 241; Fessler, Ignaz Aurelius, 262; France, 276; Frederick the Great, 279, 
French Rite, 285, Germany, 295, Grasse, Tilly, 309; Hamburg, 316; High Degrees, 
324; Hund, Baron von, 339; Illuminati of Bavaria, 346; Italy, 358; Jacobins, 359; 
Krause, 417; Memphis, Rite of, 479; Mexico, 482; Mizraim, Rite of, 487; Morin, 
Stephen, 492, Naples 507, Netherlands, 509, Nova Scotia 509, Ontario, 530, Orient, 
53i Orleans, Duke of, 538 Persia, 558 Peru, 559; Philosophic Scottish Rite, 562; 
Poland, 5i4; Portugal, 576; Primitive Rite, 584; Prussia, 595; Ramsay, Andrew 
Michael, 607; Rite, 626; Rose Croix, Prince of, 636, Saxony, 664 Schroeder, 669, 
Scottish Rite, 671, Spain, 703, Starck, 712 Strasburg, Constitutions of, 729; Stuart 
Masonry, 730; Supreme Councils, 741; Sweden, 744; Swedenborg, 745; Swedish 
Rite, 747; Switzerland, 747; Thory, 783, Titles of Grand Lodges, 787; Torgau, 
Constitutions of, 790; Tschoudy, 805; Turkey, 809, Venezuela, 826; Weishaupt, 
Adam, 842; Zinnendorf, 876. 


BOOKS CONSULTED 


Acta Latomorum Thory. Allgemeines Handbuch der Freimaurerei (2 Vol.), A.Q.C. 
(France), XVI, 181; XX, 15; XXIV, 107; XXVII, 22, 63, 96. A.Q.C. (Germany), I, 

17, 161, II 159; V, 192; VIII, 240; IX, 55, 113, 146, 160, XIV, 83. Concise History of 
Freemasonry, Gould. Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, Fort. Four Old 
Lodges, Gould. Histoire des Trois Grandes Loges, Rebold. Histoire Pittoresque 
Clavel. Historical Landmarks, Oliver. History of Freemasonry Findel. History of 
Freemasonry, Gould. History of Freemasonry, Laurie. Mackey's Revised History of 
Freemasonry Clegg. Origin of the Royal Arch, Hughan. Proceedings Grand Lodge of 



Alabama, 1922. Proofs of a Conspiracy, Robison. Things a Freemason Should Know, 
Crowe. 


— o — 


DON'T HURRY UPSTAIRS 


A number of Grand Lodges have passed legislation to regulate advancement to the 
Higher Degrees. There is little antipathy to Higher Degrees, as such, in this - a great 
many active workers in Grand Lodges are themselves members of chapter, council, 
commandery, or consistory - but a desire to halt the mad rush that carries so many 
new Master Masons away from the lodge before they have learned the A B C's of it. 
Usually the remedy adopted is to set a time limit in which a lodge member cannot 
seek advancement. This is sound in purpose, but is it sufficient? How many Master 
Masons are any better grounded in Symbolical Masonry at the end of a year than at 
the end of a month ? It is not time that counts, but proficiency, so that a wiser plan is 
to seek means of training every lodge member in the life and purpose of his lodge. 
The remedy is not to get him more into lodge but to get more lodge into him. 


All Higher Bodies, as they are called, should welcome every effort made to ground 
Masons more thoroughly in fundamentals. The lodge is never so much the friend of 
the chapter, council, commandery and consistory as when it insists that the one 
passport to more light up the hill is faithful service in its own work and degrees. The 
Mason who seeks to pass through the Higher Degrees before he has in his blood the 
lessons of Apprentice, Fellow and Master is like a boy trying to enter high school 
before he has studied his primer; he is as useless in the one as ridiculous in the other. 


— o — 


EDITORIAL 



A Masonic Critic 


BY this time our readers will have noted the addition to our Board of Associate 
Editors of the name of Bro. Joseph E. Morcombe, Editor-in-Chief of the Masonic 
Periodicals Corporation, publishers of The National Trestle Board, now merged with 
THE BUILDER. Bro. Morcombe took a prominent place among the literati of the 
American Craft when, in 1910, in association with Bro. W. F. Cleveland, he prepared 
for the Grand Lodge of Iowa a history of that body; and at about the same time 
launched The American Freemason, with headquarters at Storm Lake, Iowa. Within a 
short time he made The Freemason the most learned and vigorous Masonic periodical 
in the land, and that before there was as general a demand for scholarly Masonic 
literature as there is now; a large number of the younger students and writers now 
coming to the fore gained their first vision of the possibilities of Masonic study from 
the articles written by Bro. Morcombe's exceptionally brilliant circle of contributors, 
and from his own trenchant editorials. 


He found a much wider audience in The National Trestle Board, which, had not the 
Masonic Periodicals Corporation found it wiser to deal only with local fields, would 
have undoubtedly continued to make its way to an ever increasing clientele. The 
National Trestle Board was a noble journal, ample as to size, almost over generous in 
quantity, and comprehensive in content, the controlling purpose of which was to bring 
into focus all the activities of the Craft to the end that the goings on of the present 
might be appraised at the court of Masonic opinion. Its passing was a national loss. 


Bro. Morcombe's own writing is characterized by the tonic qualities of independence, 
wide learning, wit, pointedness and a general disregard for smug prejudices and 
ancient sophistries, with ever and anon a bit of irony, or a jab at some antagonist. He 
has probably performed more surgical operations on the diseased organs of Masonic 
theory than anyone amongst us, all of which is only another way of saying that he is a 
Masonic critic. 



"Critic" is a gift to us from the Greek language, in which "kritikos" was a beloved 
word, and derived from an ancient root having the meaning of "able to discuss." 
Webster now defines it as "one who expresses a reasoned opinion," which, if it be 
correct, sets the word apart in splendid isolation, seeing how seldomly there is any 
reasoning behind expressed opinions. Criticism is not fault-finding, destructiveness, 
or opposition; it is not the critic, but the criticaster who loves to find fault; and it is 
the criticaster, not the critic, who loves to split hairs in an argument: 


"He is in Logic, a great critic 
Profoundly skill'd in Analytic; 

He can distinguish and divide 
A hair 'twixt south and south-west side." 


It was Socrates, apparently, who first discovered the great fun of being a critic, and it 
was Plato who developed it into an art, giving it the high sounding name of 
"dialectic," a term defined by Plato's famous pupil, Aristotle, as "a standard of 
judging well." Later on when Kant set about laying the foundations of modern 
thought he elected to use it in the title of his greatest book, The Critique of Pure 
Reasons, a work that has caused countless headaches. In literature criticism has 
become a fine art, the gospel of which was preached to us by Matthew Arnold with so 
much suavity and address and with so much emphasis on the creative function of 
literary appraisal; one needs only recall the names of some of the modern literary 
critics to see how right Arnold was - St. Beuve, Hazlitt, Macaulay, Lowell, 
Watts-Dunton, Taine, Gosse, Symons, Anatole France, Saintsbury, etc. - each of 
whom has himself been a literary creator of the first rank. 


The critic lets in light on dark places, opens the window to the air of heaven, tears the 
disguise from sophistry, destroys obsolete dogmas, brings new theories to the test of 
reason, and awakens men that have fallen asleep at their posts. He doesn't accept a 
thing on anybody's say-so, but demands book and verse, and clings strenuously to his 
one dogma, "that nothing is more sacred than a fact." It is this spirit that makes the 
modern world modern, for it is the essence of modernity that nothing is so old or so 



revered but that its value may be enhanced under the scrutiny of a "reasoned opinion" 
offered by men with "a standard of judging well." 


Criticism has a hard time of it in Freemasonry because we Masons are thin skinned 
about the Craft; we have a sensitiveness, a feeling of reverence, a clinging fondness 
for anything that has "Masonry" attached to it, so that it hurts our feelings to see 
anything Masonic laid on the operating table. Nevertheless we raised up a breed of 
critics in the past century who left a mighty tradition behind them, and one hard to 
live up to. T. S. Parvin was essentially a critic, with small reverence for received 
opinion; so was Josiah Haydon Drummond, the wielder of a big stick; and Albert 
Pike, the hardest hitter of them all. If ever we get too softhearted to turn loose the 
critic we shall suffer from it, because criticism is life and freshness in the mind, 
without which everything grows stale 


* * * 


THE NESTORS OF THE CRAFT 


"I have sometimes thought that this Organization was composed of the most sincere 
workers and the least appreciated for their labors of any in the various endeavors of 
Freemasonry, but as for myself if I never have any other reward than that of the happy 
friendships I have formed among you for the past twenty years during which time not 
a single one of you have ever caused me an unpleasant moment, but on the contrary 
have brought much additional happiness into my life and inspired me with new 
ambitions to devote myself to renewed efforts in behalf of our beloved Fraternity." 


These words, written by Bro. Lou B. Winsor, Grand Secretary, and at the time 
Fraternal Correspondent, Michigan, have no reference to a private club, a side order, 
or a secret fraternity, nor were they written for a circle of private friends, though their 
warmth might lead one to suppose as much; by "this Organization" was meant the 
forty or more brethren who compose the Round Table of Fraternal Correspondents, 
among whom Freemasonry is found in fullest and most fragrant flower. 



Not all Masons, especially among those most recently come into the Craft, know of 
the labor of these brethren, since their work is printed as an appendix to Grand Lodge 
Proceedings, which are volumes seldomly read by the rank and file. The duty of a 
Fraternal Correspondent, or Reviewer as he is sometimes called, is to pass in review 
all Grand Lodge Proceedings so as to furnish his readers with a succinct outline of the 
work of the Fraternity during the preceding year. With such a report before him a 
Mason can take in at a glance the toil and achievements of the entire Fraternity during 
twelve months. 


These brethren maintain a high standard among themselves. Speaking for them all 
Bro. Louis Block, himself a veteran at the Round Table, answered the query, What is 
a Fraternal Correspondent ? in this manner: 


"Well he is a sort of reporter and reviewer. It is his duty to tell his brethren of the 
work of Masonry in the world at large, to tell them what Masonry means, and what it 
stands for as interpreted in the expressions of thinking Masons the world over, and in 
the achievements of the Craft, not only in other states but in foreign lands and climes 
as well, in a word to give them Masonry up to date. 


"As we conceive of it, the Report on Foreign Correspondence was designed to serve 
as a sort of post-graduate course in a school of Masonry of which the writers of the 
round table form the faculty. Its purpose is to give the Mason of one locality and one 
state accurate information as to the achievements and accomplishments of Masonry in 
other states and localities, and to show him what the Masonic institution stands for in 
the world at large. 


"Does the local Mason need this information? Most assuredly. For the Mason who 
knows only his own Masonry is like the business man who knows nothing more than 
his own personal, private, and peculiar methods who never studies the operations of 
his associates and competitors, and whose business for that reason sooner or later dies 
of stagnation and dry rot." 



In nearly all instances Fraternal Correspondents are chosen because of their great 
experience of the practical workings of Freemasonry. They are the Nestors of the 
Craft. With a rich background of general Masonic knowledge, and with ripe wisdom 
gained from years of practical services, they glance across the Masonic world in the 
large, report what they see, encourage good work, dynamite errors from the root, and 
among themselves maintain a critical but ever friendly habit of speaking out in 
meeting, spicing their words the while with a deal of banter and good natured raillery. 


Some of the ablest leaders of the Craft have wielded their influence largely through 
these Reports. Bro. Aldro P. Jenks, P. G. M. Wisconsin, himself a Reviewer of nearly 
thirty years of experience, recalled some of the "giants in those days" when making 
his twenty-fifth Report: 


"When I commenced the work, twenty-five years ago, there was a galaxy of brilliant 
writers gathered at the 'Round Table.' We recall Greenleaf of Colorado, Robbins of 
Illinois Parvin of Iowa, Drummond of Maine, Hedges of Montana, Cunningham of 
Ohio, Diehl of Utah and Upton of Washington, all of whom have passed to their 
reward. These writers constituted a 'Big Eight' that, by the consensus of their 
opinions, determined most of the great questions coming before the Craft. They have 
left the imprint of their services engraver deeply upon the annals of Freemasonry. For 
years they have shaped and, for many decades to come, will continue to shape and 
guide the traditions and practices of the Craft in the United States; because it is true 
that it is the dead, and not the living, that rule and guide us " 


The work of Josiah H. Drummond in this field was herculean; through the larger part 
of the latter half of the nineteenth century he was Fraternal Correspondent for Maine, 
and in addition, for many of those years, served in the same capacity for the other 
Grand Bodies, most of which, like Grand Lodges, published Reports. Drummond was 
the greatest master of Masonic Jurisprudence of his generation so that in all his 
Reports, more than a hundred in number, there lies imbedded a mass of information 
and of wisdom on that subject that should be rescued and published in book form. 



Brethren often regret the lack of a national forum in which Masonic issues might be 
fearlessly but with wide knowledge ventilated and discussed; if they will read a dozen 
Reports published during the present year they will find their want already satisfied. It 
is probable that, take them by and large, the brethren of the Round Table are the most 
capable and the best informed men now writing on Masonry in this nation; it is 
certain that some means should be found to bring their labors more widely to the 
attention of the Craft, for in their Reports a Mason will find a school of Masonry, 
wherein to learn history, jurisprudence, and the works of the present. If a Study Club 
is looking about for a course of study, here is a suggestion: secure a copy of the last 
Report issued by your Grand Lodge; map it out in lessons; and then go through it 
carefully point by point. You will find in it a good year of work. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


Bro. Frank C. Higgins' Theory of Masonry 


"Ancient Freemasonry, an Introduction to the Study of Masonic Archaeology," by 
Frank C. Higgins. Johnson Book & Stationery Co., Kansas City. May be purchased 
through National Masonic Research Society. Red cloth, 463 pages, illustrated. $2.65 
postpaid. 


FRANK C. HIGGINS is a Past Master of Ivanhoe Lodge of New York City and the 
author of quite a number of book and magazine articles, which have appeared during 
the last ten or twelve years in Masonic literature over the country. Bro. Higgins 
makes the attempt to connect the symbols of Freemasonry with ancient mathematical 
and astronomical science and binds these closely with ancient philosophy and 
theology through the evidence furnished by archeology. 



All his books and articles from start to finish simply expand the subject by adding 
further facts and incidents. His books are profusely illustrated with pictures of ancient 
gods and sacred objects in which our ancient brethren had attempted to make known 
fragments of their scientific discoveries. The main elements of Bro. Higgins' theory or 
demonstration are drawn first from the facts of Gematria. It is a more or less 
well-known fact that the letters of the Hebrew and Greek alphabets had a numerical 
value. Those peoples did not seem to have any figures or characters to represent 
numbers specially, but used letters for that purpose. When Bro. Higgins translated 
many Hebrew and Greek proper names, especially the names of deities into their 
numerical values, he found that the numbers thereby obtained were cosmic numbers: 
that is, numbers that represented divisions of time and space, such as the number of 
days in the year, or solar periods; the days in a month, or lunar periods; and the years 
occupied in the passage of the precession of the equinoxes through the space of a 
single sign or in the entire circle of the zodiac. In applying these numbers to the 
representation of geometrical proportions, he found the figures thereby drawn to have 
been employed by our ancient brethren in the attitudes and postures given to the 
statues and pictures of the ancient gods and figures ornamenting ancient buildings. 
Ancient geometry and astronomy seem to be closely connected with ancient theology 
and the philosophy by which that theology was explained. 


My first introduction to Bro. Higgins' work was a series of articles in the American 
Freemason, published by Bro. Joseph Morcombe, at Storm Lake, Iowa, entitled 
"Origins and Symbols of Freemasonry." The chapter which first attracted my 
attention was on the geometrical origin of the signs of the zodiac. The drawings were 
so significant, so perfect, so conclusive, that when I had finished the article I said to 
myself. "A prophet has certainly arisen in Freemasonry at last." Bro. Higgins alone of 
all the students of the subject has shown us what a symbol really is. We no longer 
need hesitate as to which one of a thousand and one imaginative meanings we ought 
or might apply to a newly discovered symbol. Its meaning is written in it plainly, 
though it may require a little learning to decipher it. As the meaning of an English 
word is bound up in the construction of that word and will appear, through the 
application of more or less philological knowledge and study, so the meaning of a 
truly ancient symbol will also appear, if our scientific knowledge of ancient geometry 
and astronomy is sufficient. We no longer need wonder why the ancient Egyptian 
gods all had their arms folded in a certain attitude. They all demonstrate the 10-5-6-5 
of the J.H.V.H., the geometrical dimensions of the Jehovah trapezoid. 



Bro. Higgins shows us in ancient symbolism the formation and government of a 
cosmic universe of which the Ineffable Name is the geometrical key. It is an 
astronomical fact that the inclination of the earth to the plane of the ecliptic is 23 1/2 
degrees. This inclination is really the cause of the change of the seasons. If we draw a 
line from the earth at the vernal equinox, along the ecliptic through the sun to the 
earth at the autumnal equinox and divide that line into tell equal parts, then take a 
sight to the north star from each of these points, we obtain our inclination of 23 1/2 
degrees; if we go up this inclination five of the same dimensions as the ten we 
originally made on either side, it will take a line exactly six of those dimensions to 
connect the two points. In short, we have drawls a trapezoid of the dimensions 
10-5-6-5, or Jehovah. If we take the great cross of the zodiac represented by the 
summer solstice, the vernal equinox, the winter solstice and the autumnal equinox, 
illustrated by the signs of the lion, the ox, the man and the eagle, we find that these 
signs are in their position the fifth, second, eleventh and eighth, equalling twenty-six, 
which, is the same as the numbers of the Ineffable Name, 10-5-6-5, also equalling 
twenty-six. The stone winged bulls that stood at the entrance of all ancient Chaldean 
and Assyrian palaces, which were cherubim made up of the same lion, ox, man and 
eagle, were also indicative of the same Ineffable Name and the same grand cross of 
the zodiac and the same seasons off the year. Thus, theology, astronomy, astrology 
and mathematics were all merged in the one great philosophy, which is Masonry. 

That is, it is Masonry if geometry and Masonry are, as the Ritual says, synonymous 
terms. 


The old Biblical proper names reveal by their numerical values and philological 
make-up cosmic numbers of the most important astronomical, astrological and 
philosophical facts that ancient science had discovered, and communicated those 
sciences to those who had been properly instructed. Many of these old numbers in the 
Bible like six hundred, three score and six, 666, that had caused so much speculation, 
under Bro. Higgins' explanation become as plain as the Pythagorean problem. The 
essential numbers of the Pythagorean triangle are 3-4-5 and we are delighted to find 
that such words as Logos, A1 ShDI, Moses, Hermes and the Hebrew words that 
represent "I am that I am" carry these very numbers. Add these numbers together and 
they represent twelve, the number of the signs of the zodiac, and the three and four 
show the movable heavenly bodies or planets under the ancient observation. The 3-4 
and 5 are also the numbers of the Lesser Lights of Freemasonry, the Sun, Moon and 
Hermes, the latter name being that of the planet Mercury, who was always indicated 
as the Master of the Ancient Mysteries. 



The symbols of Masonry may all be said to represent mathematical symbols of the 
universe, developed in the days when philosophers worshipped Him who was the 
Great Light, in whom there was no darkness at all. We read that the gold, which was 
the metal of the sun, that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents, besides the 
gold that came to him in trade and tribute and all legitimate ways. This is the sum of 
the numbers from one to thirty-six. It represents the number of Shamash-Sh-M-Sh, 
the Hebrew spelling, equaling 640, and the number of Jehovah which we have said 
was twenty-six, making in all 666, showing that Jehovah dwelt in the sun, that the sun 
was His solar envelope or tabernacle, from which the beams of life and light 
continually went forth to gladden and renew life on the earth. 


We admit that some knowledge of Hebrew and Greek and the simple facts of 
geometry and astronomy are necessary to appreciate to their full the meaning of Bro. 
Higgins' demonstration. This fact was not made necessary by Bro. Higgins, but by the 
fact that this philosophy came down from the long ago. Do not let us throw away his 
book because it requires some knowledge to understand it. 


The book which heads this review was written for a popular audience in the New 
York Herald and it certainly ought to find enough erudition in the general Craft to 
master it. Don't lay the book down with the exclamation, "It is too rich for my blood." 
Don't let the great number of trees hide the forest. Bro. Higgins has done much to 
make good on our brags that Freemasonry contains a store of hidden knowledge of 
great value. Our ancient brethren, whether they belonged to our Order or not, were 
surely Masons in the highest meaning of the word. They possessed theological sense 
and they possessed mathematical sense and they never made the two incompatible. 
They did not split hairs over the legitimacy of their Masonic standing. We read that 
any recognized Driest might enter and pray in any temple, no matter what its location. 
Their organization may have been quite clandestine, so far as our examiners make 
out, but their knowledge is surely Masonic knowledge. If not now, it ought to be as 
soon as our membership can make it so. The writer has seen and talked with Bro. 
Higgins of New York while sitting quietly in his office, and as Eugene Field said of 
Dana of the New York Sun, "He won't do no living human being harm." 


Rollin C. Blackmer, M. D. 



FREEMASONRY AS A FORM OF MYSTICISM 


"The Meaning of Masonry," by W. L. Wilmshurst. Published by William Rider & 
Son, Ltd., London. May be purchased through National Masonic Research Society. 
Black cloth, 216 pages. $3.60 postpaid. 


There is an old saying that "religions are many but religion is one." This idea appeals 
with peculiar power to minds of a certain type, especially those that are made 
uncomfortable by diversity and opposition and prefer unity and agreement. The idea 
is not true in the strictly historical sense, because there has been the greatest possible 
variety among religions on the most fundamental matters of doctrine and faith, so that 
no amount of juggling can make them teach the same thing; but even so there is a 
truth in the idea, because the religious needs of men have always and everywhere 
been pretty much the same. 


This belief that a certain unity underlies all the diversities of faith is made the point of 
departure by the mystical school of interpreters of Freemasonry. The brethren of that 
school hold that for centuries and centuries the wiser and more devout among the 
adherents of all religions have among themselves understood and held a doctrine of 
faith too broad to be given to the multitude, and that they have therefore preserved it 
as a Secret Doctrine, given only to the initiated, or to those otherwise prepared to 
receive it. It is contended by these brethren that in our times Freemasonry is the 
custodian of this Secret Doctrine, the truths of which are hidden away among our 
symbols, to be known only by the inner circle. 


Bro. Wilmshurst belongs to this school. On page 7 of his book we find him saying: 



"Thus in the five papers I have sought to provide a survey of the whole Masonic 
subject as expressed by the Craft and Arch Degrees, which it is hoped may prove 
illuminating to the increasing number of brethren who feel that Freemasonry 
enshrines something deeper and greater than, in the absence of guidance, they have 
been able to realize. It does not profess to be more than an elementary and far from 
exhaustive survey; the subject might be treated much more fully, in more technical 
terminology and with abundant references to authorities, were one compiling a more 
ambitious and scholarly treatise. But to the average Mason such a treatise would 
probably prove less serviceable than a summary expressed in as simple and 
untechnical terms as may be and unburdened by numerous literary references. Some 
repetition, due to the papers having been written at different times, may be found in 
later chapters of points already dealt with in previous ones, though the restatement 
may be advantageous in emphasizing those points and maintaining continuity of 
exposition. For reasons explained in the chapter itself, that on the Holy Royal Arch 
will probably prove difficult of comprehension by those unversed in the literature and 
psychology of religious mysticism, if so, the reading of it may be deferred or 
neglected. But since a survey of the Masonic system would, like the system itself, be 
incomplete without reference to that supreme degree, and since that degree deals with 
matters of advanced psychological and spiritual experience about which explanation 
must always be difficult, the subject has been treated here with as much simplicity of 
statement as is possible and rather with a view to indicating to what great heights of 
spiritual attainment the Craft Degrees point as achievable, than with the expectation 
that they will be readily comprehended by readers without some measure of mystical 
experience and perhaps unfamiliar with the testimony of the mystics thereto. 


"Purposely these papers avoid dealing with matters of Craft history and of merely 
antiquarian or archaeological interest. Dates, particulars of Masonic constitutions, 
historical changes and developments in the external aspects of the Craft, references to 
old lodges and the names of outstanding people connected therewith - these and such 
like matters can be read about elsewhere. They are all subordinate to what alone is of 
vital moment and what so many brethren are hungering for - knowledge of the 
spiritual purpose and lineage of the Order and the present-day value of rites of 
initiation. 


"In giving these pages to publication care has been taken to observe due reticence in 
respect of essential matters. The general nature of the Masonic system is, however, 
nowadays widely known to outsiders and easily ascertainable from many printed 



sources, whilst the large interest in and output of literature upon mystical religion and 
the science of the inward life during the last few years has familiarized many with a 
subject of which, as is shown in these papers, Masonry is but a specialized form. To 
explain Masonry in general outline is, therefore, not to divulge a subject which is 
entirely exclusive to its members, but merely to show that Masonry stands in line 
with other doctrinal systems inculcating the same principles and to which no secrecy 
attaches, and that it is a specialized and highly effective method of inculcating those 
principles. Truth, whether as expressed in Masonry or otherwise, is at all times an 
open secret, but is as a pillar of light to those able to receive and profit by it, and to all 
others but one of darkness and unintelligibility. An elementary and formal secrecy is 
requisite as a practical precaution against the intrusion of improper persons and for 
preventing profanation. In other respects the vital secrets of life, and of any system 
expounding life, protect themselves even though shouted from the housetops, because 
they mean nothing to those as yet unqualified for the knowledge and unready to 
identify themselves with it by incorporating it into their habitual thought and 
conduct." 


The author makes a more explicit statement of his position in a passage on page 25: 


"All that I wish to emphasize at this stage is that our present system is not one coming 
from remote antiquity: that there is no direct continuity between us and the Egyptians, 
or even those ancient Hebrews who built, in the reign of King Solomon, a certain 
Temple at Jerusalem. What is extremely ancient in Freemasonry is the spiritual 
doctrine concealed within the architectural phraseology; for this doctrine is an 
elementary form of the doctrine that has been taught in all ages, no matter in what 
garb it has been expressed." 


It follows from this, according to the thesis, that the supreme aim of Masonic 
education is to awaken among Masons a sense of their hidden treasure, and to incite 
them to search diligently for it: 


"What then was the purpose the framers of our Masonic system had in view when 
they compiled it? To this question you will find no satisfying answer in ordinary 



Masonic books. Indeed there is nothing more dreary and dismal than Masonic 
literature and Masonic histories, which are usually devoted to considering merely 
unessential matters relating to the external development of the Craft and to its 
antiquarian aspect. They fail entirely to deal with its vital meaning and essence, a 
failure that, in some cases, may be intentional, but that more often seems due to lack 
of knowledge and perception, for the true, inner history of Masonry has never yet 
been given forth even to the Craft itself. There are members of the Craft to whom it is 
familiar, and who in due time may feel justified in gradually making public at any 
rate some portion of what is known in interior circles. But ere that time comes, and 
that the Craft itself may the better appreciate what can be told, it is desirable, nay 
even necessary, that its own members should make some effort to realize the meaning 
of their own institution, and should display symptoms of earnest desire to treat it less 
as a system of archaic and perfunctory rites, and more as a vital reality capable of 
entering into and dominating their lives: less as a merely pleasant social order, and 
more as a sacred and serious method of initiation into the profoundest truths of life. It 
is written that ‘to him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be 
taken away even that which he hath’ ; and it remains with the Craft itself to determine 
by its own action whether it shall enter into its full heritage, or whether by failing to 
realize and to safeguard the value of what it possesses, by suffering its own mysteries 
to be vulgarized and profaned, its organization will degenerate and pass into disrepute 
and deserved oblivion, as has been the fate of many secret orders in the past." 


The Meaning of Masonry is a book to be valued whether a man can agree with the 
author's thesis or not, for it is full of a serene wisdom, rich with insight, and written in 
a style of quiet beauty, reminiscent at times of Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry. 
Underneath all its pages is that seriousness of purpose and spiritual urgency which 
only religious minds feel about the Craft, as witness the closing paragraph of the 
book: 


"'Get knowledge, get wisdom; but with all thy gettings, get understanding,' exclaims 
the old Teacher, in a counsel that may well be commended to the Masonic Fraternity 
today, which so little understands its own system. But understanding depends upon 
the gift of the Supernal Light, which gift in turn depends upon the ardour of our desire 
for it. If wisdom today is widowed all Masons are actually or potentially the widow's 
sons, and she will be justified of her children who seek her out and who labour for her 
as for hid treasure. It remains with the Craft itself whether it shall enter upon its own 
heritage as a lineal successor of the Ancient Mysteries and Wisdom-teaching, or 



whether, by failing so to do, it will undergo the inevitable fate of everything that is 
but a form from which its native spirit has departed." 


* * * 


THE ARCHITECTURAL FEVER 


The immense building program now being carried out by all branches of the Craft in 
this land is in a large way an unmitigated blessing, but in some instances is proving a 
curse by being overdone, reminding one of the Socrates dictum, that "vice is an 
extension of virtue." If a new building saddles a small lodge with a killing mortgage, 
or raises dues to unfair heights, or cuts down the lodge's funds for Masonic relief, the 
new building had better be left among the castles in Spain. 


At its Annual Communication in May, 1922, the Grand Lodge of Maine adopted a 
Resolution reading in this fashion: 


"Be it Voted, That the Following Standing Regulation he adopted: 


"'That no building shall be purchased, erected or extensively constructed at the 
expense, in whole or in part, of any lodge in this jurisdiction until the plans of the 
same, and terms, and conditions of its construction or acquisition shall have been 
approved by the Grand Master.'" 


In a personal letter Bro. Charles B. Davis, Grand Secretary, comments on this 
Regulation: 



"Permit me to say that this regulation was adopted because several of our small 
lodges down in the country had undertaken to build halls and as a result found 
themselves facing debts which will be hard for them to recover from. Even in one of 
our cities the several bodies built a temple with the result that they have been 
struggling for years now to annually raise money enough to pay the interest on the 
mortgage. Therefore the regulation above referred to was adopted." 


One will watch with interest the outcome of the Regulation adopted by Maine. If 
there is any fault in it it is because it lays one more responsibility on an office already 
overloaded. Other Grand Lodges have found a way out by adopting a set of rules to 
govern the per capita indebtedness of constituent lodges; this works automatically, 
equally and impartially. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX 
AND CORRESPONDENCE 


DR. COPELAND A MASON 


Is Senator Royal S. Copeland, New York, a member of our Order ? 


W. C. M„ Ohio. 


He is. 



STONE, WILBUR, DENBY 


Please tell me if the new Attorney General Stone is a Mason; also the new Secretary 
of the Navy Wilbur, and the former Secretary Denby. 


W. C. S., Louisiana. 


According to our advices neither Mr. Stone nor Mr. Wilbur is a member of the Craft; 
Edwin Denby is a member of Oriental Lodge, No. 240, F. & A. M., Detroit, iMich. 


* * * 


MASONRY NOT IN BUSINESS 


I have some reason to ask if a certain life insurance organization of Virginia is 
operating with the approval of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. 


F. B. C., Michigan. 


Grand Secretary Charles A. Nesbitt informs us that the organization mentioned by 
you is not approved but condemned by the Grand Lodge of Virginia. It is against all 
laws of Masonry, written or unwritten, for the word "Mason" to be used in any way 
by any kind of business organization or enterprise whatsoever. 



MEANING OF AM B'TSAFN 


In the Royal Arch Degree, as practiced in Scotland there is used the term "Am 
B'Tsafn"; can you explain the meaning of it? D. F. K., Ontario. 


Bro. George A. Howell, Grand Scribe E, Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of 
Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, has written to explain the term in this wise: 


In the Hebrew of the term you should read "H" as meaning "the"; "AM" as meaning 
"way"; "B"'as meaning "in, to or on", and "Tsafn" as "something concealed or 
hidden." According to our ritual, the Sojourners in the course of their work at the 
ruins of the old Temple, removing some rubbish, found a large brazen ring fixed to a 
broad flat stone with the words Am B'Tsafn engraved thereon. On removing the stone 
they found the crown of a perfect arch. On removing the keystone, etc., and 
descending into the vault, they found it was King Solomon's secret vault of which 
reference is made in the Mark ritual. 


* * * 


SCIENCE AND FREEMASONRY 


I read the April copy of THE BUILDER with interest. I read all my copies of THE 
BUILDER that way and then lend them around to my friends. One question was 
raised by an editorial in the April copy, "Modem Science and the Science of 



Masonry." Don't you believe there is danger in science? It appears to be working to 
destroy our old beliefs. I believe that God and the Holy Bible are the roots of 
Masonry and if they go Masonry will not last long. Shouldn't THE BUILDER and all 
other of the Masonic magazines come to the defense of our Ark of Faith against the 
science that tries to destroy it? 


P. Y. T., Missouri. 


Your inquiry somewhat falls outside our province so that what is here said in reply to 
you must be read as expressing only the personal opinion of the writer, leaving an 
ultimate decision to the collective wisdom of the Craft. What do you mean by 
"science"? Is it not a vague and too inclusive word that needs defining every time it is 
used? There are sciences and sciences, but no science, except in the sense that all the 
sciences make use of the same general methods and principles. Also is there not a 
danger of confusing the theories of the sciences with their facts? Each man must 
decide in his own mind what he is to think of this or that theory held by some scientist 
as to the age of the earth, the origin of the human race, how the Bible came to be and 
what it means, and on all other such subjects as are now being so widely 
controverted. But a fact is a fact, however it may be discovered, and there can be no 
two opinions as to what is to be done with it; every man is under a moral obligation to 
accept a fact as a fact, whatever may be his theories. The facts and realities of science 
are omnipresent in our lives. It is science that prints the page you are now reading; 
that created the schools in which you learned to read; that digs the coal which warms 
your house; that carries you about in your automobile; that manufactures the food you 
purchase in your grocery store; that carries your conversation over the telephone wire; 
that brings music to you over your radio; that makes your clothes, your furniture, the 
pictures on your walls and the money in your pocket; it sits at your bedside when you 
are ill, and buries you when you are dead. Every physician, school teacher, lawyer, 
chemist, engineer, and almost every other trained man is in some sense, and to some 
degree, a scientist. To make war on science is to make war on civilization. 



A CHINESE W. M. 


I know that Masons in the United States will find it interesting to learn that a 
Chinaman has been elected W. M. of one of our lodges. I quote here an excerpt from 
The Honolulu Advertiser, a daily published in Honolulu, under date of Dec. 3, 1923: 


"As the first Chinese Worshipful Master of an American lodge of Free and Accepted 
Masons, Apau Paul Low, county engineer of Maui, is enjoying an unusual distinction, 
which was conferred upon him Saturday night at the annual election of officers of 
Maui Lodge, No. 742, held in the Masons' building at Kahului, Maui. 


"Low is one of the Chinese to be found on every island of the Hawaiian group who is 
a thirty-second degree Mason. He also is a member of Aloha Temple of the Mystic 
Shrine. Masons of Hawaii are said to pride themselves on their broadmindedness in 
admitting Chinese to membership in their Order. 


"Being elected at the age of 32 years enhances the honor bestowed upon Low, who 
was bom in Honolulu July 22, 1891. He is the son of Yee Sing Low, a former 
merchant of Honolulu and Ho Shee Low. Both parents are dead. Low was graduated 
from the McKinley high school in 1910. 


"After the meeting of Maui Lodge Saturday night, Shriners of Maui met and formed a 
Shrine club. Noble D. C. Lindsay banker of Kahului, Maui, was elected first president 
of the organization. Masons of Kauai plan to obtain a dispensation soon to install a 
Masonic lodge on that island. There are now six Masonic lodges on Hawaii, four on 
Oahu, one on Maui, and one on Hawaii. All Masonic lodges of the territory are under 
the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of California." 


Walter R. Coombs, Honolulu. 



TEXAS DOES NOT SPECIFY NUMBER OF DEGREES 


Our lodge bulletin carries an item about Texas. It says that the Grand Lodge of Texas 
has, at its last annual communication, forbidden constituent lodges to give more than 
ninety degrees during the year. What do you think about this ? 


R. W. T., Louisiana. 


It was news to us that Texas had taken any such action. Your inquiry was referred to 
Bro. W. B. Pearson, Grand Secretary, Texas, who writes that while he knows that 
such a report has gone abroad he is at a loss to explain what started it. "I cannot state 
where this report started, but I can assure you that there was not an amendment of this 
nature that was adopted at the last meeting of the Grand Lodge." If such a thing had 
happened our opinion would be that there is a better way of dealing with the "degree 
mill evil" than through Grand Lodge regulation. The same impulse that leads 
American citizens at large to refer all their troubles to the Federal Government leads 
them inside the Masonic Craft to pile all their problems on the already over-burdened 
shoulders of Grand Lodge. If this habit continues Grand Lodges will become 
over-organized, top-heavy and paternalistic, and that will lead to a bureaucratic 
control of Masonry, a worse evil than any we are now suffering from. In this 
connection there is point to a paragraph recently published in an article in The 
Montana Mason, by its editor, Bro. R. J. Lemert, a portion of which reads in this 
wise: 


"The 'blue' lodge is not a 'subordinate' lodge; it is a constituent lodge, which is a 
vastly different thing. The Grand Lodge exists only by the will of the 'blue' lodges; 
the powers it exercises are delegated, and not inherent, and if the Master Masons' 
lodges in a given state were to cease work, the Grand Lodge would automatically find 



itself non-existent. In other words, the Master Mason's lodge is supreme, and the 
Grand Lodge merely its creature...." 


* * * 


PRINCIPLES GOVERNING FRATERNAL RECOGNITION IN G. L. OF NEW 
YORK 


According to my readings here and there the Grand Lodge of New York has its own 
theories about what foreign bodies should be granted fraternal recognition. Has that 
Grand Lodge ever made public the theory on which it works in such cases ? I should 
like to have this answered in THE BUILDER. 


C. F. L., Pennsylvania. 


Grand Secretary Robert Judson Kenworthy has furnished the complete formula as 
adopted by the Grand Lodge of New York. It is self-explanatory: 


"Before a recommendation of fraternal recognition of a foreign Grand Body may be 
submitted, it shall be ascertained by the Committee on Foreign Correspondence: 


I. That such Grand Body has been formed lawfully by at least three just and duly 
constituted lodges, or that it has been legalized by valid act issuing from the Grand 
Lodge of New York or from a Grand Body in fraternal relations with this Grand 
Lodge; 



II. That it is a responsible, independent, self-governing organization with sole, 
undisputed and exclusive authority over the symbolic lodges of its jurisdiction, and 
not in any sense whatever subject to, or dividing such authority with, a Supreme 
Council or other power claiming ritualistic or other supervision or control; 


III. That its membership is composed of men exclusively, and that it entertains no 
Masonic relations with mixed lodges or bodies admitting women into their 
fellowship; 


IV. That it adheres in principle to the Ancient Landmarks, traditions, customs and 
usages of the Craft, as set forth in the Constitutions adopted by the Grand Lodge of 
England in 1723; 


V. That it meets in particular, the following tests which the Grand Lodge of New 
York considers essential to acceptance of a foreign Grand Body into its fellowship: 


(1) Acknowledgment of a belief in God the Father of all men, 


(2) Belief in immortality, 


(3) Presence of the Three Great Lights of Masonry in the lodges while at work, chief 
among them the Sacred Book of the Divine Law, 


(4) Exclusion of controversial political and sectarian religious discussion from the 
lodges and from all meetings held under the auspices of a lodge. 



VI. While the Grand Lodge of New York claims exclusive jurisdiction in the territory 
in which it is the supreme Masonic authority, it recognizes that the law of exclusive 
territorial jurisdiction, while firmly established in the United States and many other 
countries, is not universally accepted and does not constitute an Ancient Landmark of 
the Universal Craft. To the end that no unwarranted impediment may exclude from 
our fellowship such Grand Bodies as are sharing the same territory with others by 
mutual consent we shall accept such mutual consent as entitling the several Grand 
Bodies included therein to fraternal consideration, providing the applicant for 
recognition does not presume to extend its authority into, or presume to establish 
lodges in, a territory occupied by a lawful Grand Lodge, without the expressed assent 
of such supreme governing body." 


* * * 


LIGHT WANTED ON MASONIC FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


I have just come across something which is either so very old it does not deserve 
resurrection, having been long ago threshed out to the entire satisfaction of the Craft, 
or else it may serve as another new thought for the research fiends and for 
deliberation. At a Masonic funeral recently, the undertaker, who is Mason, and whose 
church affiliation I do not know, expressed himself to the Episcopalian clergyman, 
who had officiated, al follows: "I do not see why they have to bury a man twice." 


I take it that this refers to that part of our ritual which is generally termed 
"committal." While it never occurred to me before I now realize I had subconsciously 
watched this duplication of effort before and thought it rather superfluous, but let that 
pass. Now I wonder, after reading so much about revision and Church of England 
domination in our parent body, whether it might not be that this Church of England 
ritualism was injected into A. F. and A. M. ceremonies, and if so, what might be the 
reason for it, and if it is not in fact superfluous, would it not have a tendency to make 
all men think more of churches if they alone committed us to Mother Earth? 



W. Paul Babcock, New York. 


Bro. Babcock's letter is referred to research fiends and to our readers in general. Will 
not such as have information on this subject send it, along with their views thereof, to 


THE BUILDER ? 


* * * 


A NEW SPECIAL RESEARCH GROUP 


A new special research group to devote itself to Freemasonry of Revolutionary times 
is now being formed under the auspices of the National Masonic Research Society. 
The chairman in charge will be Bro. Paul V. Knudsen, 1703 Harvard avenue, Seattle, 
Wash. If you desire to join this group communicate directly with Bro. Knudsen or 
else send a letter to Ye Editor 


* * * 


INDEX FOR 1923 


There are still some copies on hand of the index of THE BUILDER, 1923, which 
members of the N.M.R.S. may secure by sending a request. 


— o — 



YE EDITOR'S CORNER 


The three pictures illustrating the Crusades, printed in the present issue, were taken 
from History of the Crusades, by Michaud, a massive work in two huge volumes, 
crammed with full page drawings by Gustave Dore. The edition used was published 
by George Barrie, Philadelphia, no date. Students of Crusaders' costumes would find 
this work of value. 


* * * 


Milo J. Gabriel, Grand Master of Iowa, had the privilege, April 15 last, of raising his 
own son to the Sublime Degree. In his address to his son he said: "I was proud of you 
as a boy. I am still prouder of you as a man and I am glad you have started out thus 
early to follow my footsteps. There is no grander institution on earth than 
Freemasonry." Well said! 


* * * 


I have come upon a reference to History of Masonry, by Leggett. Do you know 
anything about this book? I don't. 


* * * 


Prohibition has had no effect on the poets. See what some bard has perpetrated on us! 


"I saw a cow slip through the fence 



A horse fly in the store; 

I saw a board walk up the street, 
A stone step by the door. 

"I saw a mill race up the road, 

A morning break the gloom; 

I saw a night fall on the lawn 
A clock run in the room. 

"I saw a peanut stand up high. 

A sardine box in town 
I saw a bed spring at the gate 
An ink stand on the ground.”