The Builder Magazine 

October 1928 - Volume XIV - Number 10 


Cryptic Degrees and the Supreme Council 

Being part of a chapter in the projected Official History of the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite 

BY BRO. CHAS. SUMNER LOBINGIER, Washington, D. C. 

THE degree system set forth in the Mother Supreme Council's Manifesto of 1 802 
will repay careful study. 


Besides those degrees which are in regular succession, it reads most of the 
Inspectors are in possession of a number of detached degrees given in different 
parts of the world and which they generally communicate free of expense to those 
brethren who are high enough to understand them; such as Select Masons of ‘27. 


Whether this last was the designation of one degree only or of more than one is not 
here specified. Waite, who seems to have given more attention to the proper 
allocation of the Cryptic degrees than any other writer, tells us (1) that they "are a 
part of Adonhiramite Masonry, being concerned with the personage in question 
after his arrival in Jerusalem." Of the two degrees classed as Cryptic, that of Royal 
Master, he continues, 


... in respect of its motive is almost identical with the Grand Tyler of King 
Solomon. It is also an integral part of Adonhiramite Masonry, and is concerned 
with the attainment of the Great Secret communicated to a Master Mason. . . The 
ritual which next concerns us, being that of Select Master, takes us again to the 
vaults, which tradition supposes to have existed immediately beneath the site of the 



Holy of Holies. The degree is really a variant of Masons Elect of 27, or at least it is 
an offshoot from the same root (2). 


Questions involving the origin of these degrees and their relation to the Scottish 
Rite and to the Mother Supreme Council have occasioned much discussion in 
recent years. Waite (3) informs us that the class to which they belong "are all prior 
to the year 1779 and some of them considerably earlier." The earliest date assigned 
for their use in this country is in connection with the Charleston Lodge of 
Perfection which was organized in 1783. 


Alluding to the recital above quoted from the Supreme Council's Manifesto of 
1802, Bro. George W. Warvelle says: 


This statement is the basis of the Scottish Rite claim of dominion over the Cryptic 
degrees, and while it is possible that among the side degrees of which "most of the 
Inspectors" were in possession, there might have been that of Royal Master, yet 
there is no proof that such was the fact. But even conceding that it may have been 
known to some of the members it was nevertheless individual property and the 
Supreme Council never officially asserted a jurisdictional right thereto until fifty 
years afterwards (4). 


Bro. Warvelle could hardly have known that 


The first Council of Royal and Select Masters organized in Georgia, was Adoniram 
Council, No. 1, of this city, for which a Dispensation was granted by the G.C. of 
the 33d in Charleston, in October, 1822. That Dispensation has been lost or 
mislaid. In 1826, our Grand Council was first organized. I was on the Committee 
of Correspondence who called the Convention for the purposes. 



One of the first acts of this new body was to recognize the Supreme Council by 
formally voting to furnish it with a copy of the Proceedings (6). Surely this was not 
only asserting, but confirming, a jurisdictional right within twenty years after the 
Manifesto. Under date of Feb. 7, 1825, Grand Commander Holbrook wrote to 
Giles F. Yates of Schenectady: 


The Royal and Select Masters, as mentioned by Cross in his Chart and in the 
Masonic Library, were first conferred in this city about forty years ago, and the 
Deputy Inspectors 25th Degree (as they were then called) were empowered to give 
them. Brother Myers, I think, was the person who first gave them in Baltimore, 
where they continued for some time to flourish, but at length they become nearly 
dormant, when a gentleman on his return from Europe revived them with a vigor 
that has caused them to spread through the Eastern States. Cross received them 
from that source, and then he gave an authority to confer them in South Carolina, 
for two dollars fee, but the Select Master was garbled, and had lost a good part of 
the signs and words, etc. The man who was making money by so doing was glad to 
pay for the knowledge of the Degrees in question. The authority for conferring 
these Degrees Royal and Select has always been attached to the charter for Grand 
Council of Princes of Jerusalem. But there are several Bodies of Royal Arch 
Masons which are chartered for these Degrees expressly (7). 


That the Mother Supreme Council continued to assert such right is apparent from 
another letter (8) dated March 24, 1828, written by Yates, which contained the 
following: 


Our G. Council of P. of Jr. has no formal Charter, although our Charleston friends 
promised to send us one, and enquired whether we wished to have authority given 
in the same to confer the Degrees of Royal and Select Master. We answered in the 
affirmative. Subsequently, however, Bro. Holbrook wrote that no formal Charter 
was necessary, they having regularly recognized us and confirmed our authority as 
a G. Council in their official communications. 



It will thus be seen that, early in the nineteenth century, the Mother Supreme 
Council had acted officially regarding the authorization of bodies to confer the 
cryptic degrees. Certificates executed a year later, but avowedly based upon 
statements of one or more charter members of said body, then still living, point to 
its working of these degrees just as it had worked the Royal Arch and just as one of 
its sister bodies later worked that of Mark Master. On Feb. 10, 1829, Perez Snell, 
who, on that day, likewise received from the Mother Supreme Council letters of 

credence (9) authorizing him "to confer or to communicate all the detached 

degrees," etc., appears to have written the following certificate: 


Supreme Council Chamber Charleston, S.C. 


10th Feby., 1829. 


I hereby certify that the "detached Degrees," called Royal and Select Master, or 
Select Masons of 27, were regularly given by the S. Gr. L. of P., Sublime Grand 
Lodge of Perfection 32 (No. 2 in the U.S.A.) established by Br. Isaac Da Costa, in 
Charleston, in February, 1783, one of the original members of which M.I., Most 
Illustrious Brother Moses C. Levy, is still alive and a member of it to this day, 
without ceasing to be so for a day. 


And further that at the first establishment of the Gr. C. of P. of J., Grand Council of 
Princes of Jerusalem in Charleston, 20th February, 1788, by the 111. Deputy 
Inspector General, Joseph Myers, B. M. Spitzer and A. Forst, Br. Myers (who 
succeeded Br. Da Costa after his decease) deposited a certified copy of the degrees 
from Berlin in Prussia to be under the guidance and fostering protection of the 
government of the above named Grand Council of P. of J. 33. 


Br. Myers shortly after this (20th February, 1788) resided sometime in Norfolk, 
Richmond and Baltimore previous to his removal to Europe, and he conferred or 



communicated a knowledge of these degrees upon a number of brethren in those 
cities The original copy is still in my keeping and (10) 


Agreeably to the obligations of the same and the Grand Constitutions 

governing those degrees, viz., Royal and Select Masters of 27, it is correct and 
lawful to give them either to Sublime Masons who have arrived to the Kt. of the 
9th Arch (13th) or to Companions of the 3d Arch Royal Arch Masons. 


March 15, 1830. M. H. 


The foregoing (12) appears in Moses Holbrook's autograph ritual of the Cryptic 
degrees, and is initialled in his hand writing, under date of March 15, 1830. The 
book has been referred to by numerous writers (13), is now in the Supreme 
Council's Library, and is under my eye as I write. It may be objected that Snell 
here certifies to much that could not have been personally known to him; but it 
must be noted that he relies on Moses C. Levy, a charter member of the Lodge of 
Perfection then living. 


In the same year when the Snell certificate appears to have been executed the 
South Carolina Grand Chapter had before it a circular (14) from the Maryland 
Grand Chapter asking it, with other Grand Chapters, "to take the said degree 
(Select Master) under your recognizance and control." The circular was referred to 
a committee of which Moses Holbrook was chairman and which reported as 
follows "upon the propriety and expediency of the different Grand Royal Arch 
Chapters . . . assuming jurisdiction and authority over the Royal and Select Masters 
Degrees." 


They have ascertained that the respectable brothers and companions, Dr. F. 

Dalcho, Dr. Isaac Auld, Dr. James Moultrie, Sr., and Moses C. Levy, Esqr., with 
many others received their degrees in Charleston in February, 1783, in the Sublime 
Grand Lodge of Perfection, then established in the city (Charleston), of which 



body three of the above named brothers are still living, venerable for their years 
and warm attachment to the glorious cause of Free Masonry, and highly respected 
and esteemed in the community where they have so long and so honorably 
sojourned and they are still members of the same sublime body. Your committee 
have further ascertained that at the original establishment of the Grand Council of 
Princes of Jerusalem in this city, on the 20th of February, 1788, by the Illustrious 
Brothers Joseph Myers, Barend M. Spitzer, and A. Forst, Deputy Inspectors- 
General from Frederick IF, King of Prussia, Brother Myers then deposited in the 
archives of the said Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem certified copies of the 
said degrees from Berlin, in Prussia, which were to be under the future guidance 
and fostering protection of the above named presiding body. The above named 
three respectable brethren and companions are, and have steadily been, members 
and officers of the said body of Princes of Jerusalem; their evidence, therefore, 
must be conclusive upon these points. Your committee are informed that the above 
named Brother Myers, previously to his return to Europe, while pursuing his 
mercantile concerns, resided some time in several of the cities of Virginia and 
Maryland, where he communicated a knowledge of the degrees in question. 


The committee further state that the Grand officers and the Sublime Council of 
fnspectors-General have been since 1783 steadily in the habit of conferring the 
degrees in question under their authority in the Southern and Western States. Your 
committee have seen and perused the first copy of these degrees that ever came to 
America, and old copies of charters that have; been returned by Councils in States 
where Grand Councils have been formed, and the bodies surrendering have taken 
other charters for conferring the degrees from such Grand Councils of Royal and 
Select Masters thus formed. 


From these statements the Grand Royal Arch Chapter will readily perceive that 
these degrees have been under a regular and independent Masonic protection and 
authority for more than forty-six years, and that they were thus circumstanced in 
the United States of America at a period long antecedent to the establishment of 
Grand Royal Arch Chapters, or even of Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, in any 
part of the world. (15) 


Bro. George W. Warvelle in commenting on this report observes: 



Now Dalcho was born in 1770 and at the date in question was therefore but 
thirteen years of age. Nor did he come to Charleston until 1799, when he resigned 
his position in the army and entered into medical practice with Auld. I cite this to 
show how little reliance there is to be placed on this document, which, for so many 
years, has been quoted as practically infallible (16). 


What he says of Dalcho is true but it is not true of all the others mentioned in the 
report. Moses C. Levy, e.g., was not only living at the time but was old enough to 
have received the Cryptic degrees in 1783; for he was married prior to 1778 (17). 
The certificate quoted above from Holbrook's copy of the ritual mentions Levy 
only as one of the original members of the first Charleston Lodge of Perfection and 
even if he alone received the Cryptic degrees in the year of its formation, it suffices 
to establish their priority under the Scottish Rite. On this point Pike (18), a great 
lawyer, had said, speaking of the same South Carolina report: 


If we cannot believe Masons of the loftiest character and standing testifying to 
facts within our own knowledge, how are we to believe tradition? Which of the 
legends in the York Rite has testimony as good to support it? Either this testimony 
is true, or all Masonry is one hideous lie. 


Among the degrees which Abraham Jacobs received from Moses Cohen in Jamaica 
in 1790 were 


Knight of the East, Prince of Jerusalem, Knight of the East and West, Select Mason 
of Twenty- seven, Grand Maitre Ecossai . . . Knight of the Rose Croix, Grand 
Pontiff, Grand Master ad vitam, Prussian Knights in two degrees, Knights of the 
Royal Axe . . . Patriarch Noachite and Sovereign Knight of the Sun (19). 



"This," observes Drummond (20), "is the first mention of the Select Degree that I 
have seen or of which I know." But he overlooks Levy and the information 1 which 
he gave to Snell. 


Bro. Warvelle (21) contends that "the only authentic evidence respecting the early 
exploitation of the Select Master's Degree comes from Baltimore," and "that the 
true birthplace of Cryptic Masonry in this country, if not in the world, is not 
Charleston but Baltimore (22)." A further examination of his argument reveals that 
this "authentic evidence" consists mainly in a blank dispensation (23) signed by 
Eckel and Niles and reciting that one Henry Wilmans 


.... did by and in virtue of the powers in him legally vested establish, ordain, erect 
and support a Grand Council of Select Masons in the City of Baltimore. 


This is said to have occurred in 1792 and on March 12 of the same year we have a 
record (24) showing Wilmans as a visitor at Baltimore Union lodge, No. 21 
(chartered by the Virgina Grand Lodge), in which he is described as "P. M., No. 
13, Charleston." There is no lodge of that number at Charleston (now West), 
Virginia; but at Charleston (originally, and at that time still, called Charlestown) 
South Carolina, St. John's, No. 13, was a well-known lodge to which one or more 
Active Members of the Mother Supreme Council belonged. Wilmans, as Grand 
Inspector General, established a Lodge of Perfection at Baltimore and all 
probabilities point to his having received his degrees and authority from Deputy 
Inspector General Myers at Charleston. Certainly no other authority has been 
found for Wilmans. Bro. Warvelle admits that "where Wilmans obtained his 
degrees, or from what source he derived his powers, is not known (25)." Yet three 
years later we find him stating (26): 


The primary dissemination of the degrees, in organized bodies and finder 
constitutional authority, must be conceded to Wilmans and Eckel at Baltimore. 



The italics are ours. What "constitutional authority" can one possess if the "source" 
from which "he derived his powers is not known?" If Wilmans had any 
"constitutional authority" at all it came ultimately from the Mother Supreme 
Council. Moreover, Niles himself is on record as declaring at this very time (1817) 
that: 


There is reason to believe that this degree was in use long before those of Most 
Excellent, or Mark Master.... We have been told that a regular Chapter of the 
Select was held at Charleston, S.C., many years ago; but believe it has declined 
(27). 


Here is a distinct acknowledgment by one who received the degree from Wilmans 
that the latter did not "invent" it and a suggestion of Charleston as its probable 
source. 


A fundamental feature of Bro. Warvelle's challenge of the Scottish Rite origin of 
the Cryptic degrees is the claim that each originated separately and had at first no 
connection with each other. "If," he says (28), "the Charleston body would show 
but a doubtful title to the Select Degree it was positively without any in respect to 
the Royal." But Waite, who appears to have studied them more than any other 
writer, tells us that the Royal Master 


....in respect of its motive is almost identical with the Grand Tyler of King 
Solomon. It is also an integral part of Adonhiramite Masonry, and is concerned 
with the attainment of the Great Secret communicated to a Master Mason. ... The 
ritual which next concerns us, being that of Selected Master, takes us again to the 
vaults, which tradition supposes to have existed immediately beneath the site of the 
Holy of Holies. The degree is really a variant of Masons Elect of 27, or at least it is 
an offshoot from the same root. (29) 



Now it is in this last phraseology that the Supreme Council enumerated the 
"detached degrees" in its Manifesto of 1802. There is certainly nothing in the 
context indicating that only one degree is referred to. So in the earlier Jacobs' 
patents it is recited that 


we have . . . initiated him in . . . the Grand and Sublime degrees of Knight of the 
East . . . Select Mason of Twentyseven . . . and further conferred on him the 
Sublime degrees of Knight of the Rose Croix, etc. 


This language is not inconsistent with the supposition that this "root" degree, as 
Waite calls it, may have included, or at least given rise to, more than one. 
Moreover, the report of the South Carolina Grand Chapter Committee in 1 829 
invariably uses the term "degrees" and specifies them as "Royal and Select 
Masters' degrees." The fact that the two were "exploited" separately by those 
whom Bro. Warvelle terms "rival peddlers" is hardly sufficient proof of separate 
and independent origin in the face of the fact that they were worked as part of the 
same system (Adonhiramite) in France. 


THE CRYPTIC DEGREES IN THE NORTH 


We must now return to Abraham Jacobs whom we left at Kingston where he 
received various degrees, including "Select Mason of 27" in 1790. From there he 
returned to the United States and was active in Scottish Rite work in Georgia for 
more than a decade. (3 1) An entry in his diary under date of April 25, 1796, recites 
that he "conferred the degree of Select Masons of Twenty-seven" at Savannah on 
Past Master James Clarok of Solomon's Lodge (32). From 1804 Jacobs was in New 
York conferring degrees and establishing bodies (33) and we find the following 
entries in his diary (34): 


January 19th, 1806. Received an application from Brother Thomas Lownds, a 
Royal Arch Mason, requesting to receive the Sublime degrees, in expectation of 



establishing the orders in this city, conferred on him the degrees of Secret and 
Perfect Master. 


February 2d. Intimate Secretary and Provost and Judge Thomas Lownds. 


Further entries disclose that Lownds received more degrees during August, 1808, 
in which year Jacobs was also conferring the degree of Select Masons of Twenty- 
seven (35), and again in October and November, 1809, and that of Knight of the 
Sun on the 3rd of the latter month (36), on which date also a Council of Princes of 
Jerusalem was established by the newly invested brethren, with the approval of 
Deputy Inspector Tardy, and notice (37) thereof was forwarded, under date of Nov. 
14, to Grand Commander Mitchell of the Mother Supreme Council. Under date of 
Nov. 6, the new body issued a charter (38) for Aurora Grata Lodge of Perfection, a 
preliminary meeting for which had been held in the month previous. (39) In all 
these movements Lownds appears to have been a prominent figure, his name being 
first on the list of those present at the preliminary meeting. Less than two years 
later we find him occupying a similar position in the meeting which organized 
Columbian Grand Council of Royal Master Masons, and he continued to be its 
Master for nearly a decade. (40) Bro. Warvelle thinks that "in all probability it (the 
degree of Royal Master) was fabricated by Lownds and his associates." But why 
resort to the theory of fabrication when Lownds had been working for a 
considerable time with one who possessed, and was authorized to confer, the 
Companion degree of Select Master? As is well said by Past Grand High Priest 
Hunt (41), this theory of invention by Lownds 


... is a mere assumption and seems unlikely in view of the fact that Lownds made 
no claim to exclusive control of the degree, also, while Columbian Council refused 
to admit those who had received the degree in a clandestine way, it from the first 
recognized and received several who had received it elsewhere. This would 
indicate that it did not claim exclusive jurisdiction over the degree and that there 
was a legitimate and an illegitimate way to acquire it. 



Bro. Warvelle (42) characterizes Jeremy L. Cross as "the great Apostle of the 
(Cryptic) Rite" and his patent (43), signed by Eckel and approved by Niles, as "the 
first authentic grant of power in connection with this (Select) degree that has thus 
far been discovered." But what about the Jacobs' patent of twenty-seven years 
earlier which authorized its recipient "to initiate brethren and constitute lodges"? 
Its terms were broader and it was issued by an Inspector General of the Rite which 
claimed authority over this degree, while neither Eckel nor Niles produced their 
authority and if they had any it seems to have come through Wilmans from the 
Mother Supreme Council. Cross was made an Inspector General by that Council 
about seven years after he received the Eckel-Niles' patent, and while he claimed 
authority under the latter (44) he could have claimed it equally in the former 
capacity (45). Thus, wherever we find one of Bro. Warvelle's alleged "inventors" 
or "exploiters" we find also a connection, either proved or highly probable, with 
the Mother Supreme Council, and all signs point to it as the source of their 
authority. Indeed, no other Masonic body in the United States appears to have 
acted independently in connection with these degrees until the Maryland Grand 
Chapter, in 1817, declared that its subordinate chapters "shall have (sic) power to 
open and hold Chapters of Select Masters and confer the degree of Select Master 
Mason (46)." On the face of it this was pure usurpation; no authority was even 
pretended and when the question came before the General Grand Chapter it was 
explicitly declared that it 


and the governing bodies of Royal Arch Masonry, affiliated with, and holding 
jurisdiction under it, had no rightful jurisdiction or control over the Degrees of 
Royal and Select Master (47). 


Bro. Warvelle seems to consider that both Supreme Councils in the United States 
were slow and infrequent in exercising their authority over these degrees, though 
he refers to the Mother Supreme Council's assertion of such authority in the 
Manifesto which was almost coincident with its inauguration. That document, it 
will be remembered, refers to these "detached degrees" as those which the 
"Inspectors . . . generally communicate." Now John Barkers whom Bro. Warvelle 
recognizes as active in the dissemination of Cryptic Masonry "some time during 
the twenties (48)," was an Inspector, i.e., an Active Member of the Supreme 
Council as early as 1823 (49). and Bro. Warvelle is strangely mistaken in thinking 
that "he had no authority from either the Southern or Northern Supreme Councils." 



We have a reprint (50) of a blank patent issued to him and signed by all the other 
Active Members for use in conferring degrees and while the portion specifying 
what the degrees were has not been preserved, we may infer that it was not less 
extensive than those specified in one issued under date of Feb. 10, 1829, to Perez 
Snell which expressly authorized him "to confer or communicate ... all the 
detached degrees usually given by the authority of the Supreme Council (51)." 
Barker, himself, had on May 20, 1827, granted such a document to Snell expressly 
authorizing him "to confer the degrees of Royal Master and Select Master," and 
signed it as "Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree and General 
Agent of the Supreme Council (52)." So on Sept. 6 of the same year Barker issued 
a warrant (53) for a Council of Royal and Select Masters at Louisville, Kentucky, 
signing it in the same manner and in the following month he opened such a 
Council at Cincinnati "agreeably to the powers vested in him by the Supreme 
Council (54)." So Mackey wrote, after he had been Secretary-General for about six 
years: 


There are many old Masons now living in the Southern and Western, as well as the 
Northern, States who received them (the Cryptic Degrees) from Bro. barker the 
accredited agent of the Supreme Council. 


And in the same connection that eminent writer and Scottish Rite authority adds: 


. . And, indeed, we think we may safely say, as the report we have cited plainly 
implies, that the Subordinate Councils now existing in the South and West, were 
originally organized by Royal and Select Masons who had received their degrees 
from and owed their allegiance to the Supreme Council at Charleston. Much 
documentary evidence might be cited to prove that the original possession and 
jurisdiction of these degrees were wholly vested in the Supreme Council (55). 


When that body came to establish its various Councils of Princes of Jerusalem, 
they were specifically empowered "to confer the degrees of Royal and Select 
Master," as in the charter (56) of the New Orleans Council in 1829, and that of 
Natchez, Mississippi (57), in 1830. Writing in 1871 Albert Pike declared: 



Every Grand Council in the Union, except those of Massachusetts and Maine, owe 
their being, in whole or in part, and nearly all of them wholly, to the Supreme 
Council, and the Massachusetts Councils were either wholly illegal and 
illegitimate, because self-constituted, or owe their being to the Southern Supreme 
Council through Connecticut by the way of New York, or directly by the 
instrumentality of Jeremy L. Cross (58). 


Bro. Hunt (59) shows that of the thirty- five Grand Councils of Royal and Select 
Masters now in existence, at least foursevenths "were organized by Councils 
chartered, either directly or indirectly, by the Southern (Mother) Supreme 
Council." Moreover the Scottish Rite authorities in both jurisdictions have 
consistently pressed the claims of their respective Supreme Councils and especially 
that of the Mother Supreme Council as the source of these degrees. Following the 
activities of Dr. Holbrook in the third decade of the nineteenth century, Mackey 
(60) reasserted it in 1848 and 1850, and in the latter year the Northern Supreme 
Council formally asserted its claim to these degrees as a part of its heritage from 
the parent body (61). The latter, in its first compilation of laws, withheld from the 
Consistory the right to grant charters to "Councils of Royal and Select Masters, 
which must always receive their charters from the Supreme Council or from a 
Grand Council organized by consent of the Supreme Council." It also prescribed a 
fee of $25 for chartering a "Council of Royal and Select Masters," and a tax of fifty 
cents on each member thereof (62). In its next compilation it enacted that: 


The Supreme Council shall have jurisdiction over the Councils of Royal and Select 
Masters in every State where no Grand Councils of those degrees has been 
established; and such Councils shall make their returns, and pay their tax to the 
Supreme Council (63). 


When Pike took over the rituals of the Mother Supreme Council for revision he 
found among them, and copied (64), those of the Cryptic degrees; and in 1 868 he 
wrote: 



As to the Council degrees, or what is lately called "Cryptic Masonry," they are 
originally side degrees of our Rite which one could have or not as he pleased (65). 


McClenachan, a distinguished member of the Northern Supreme Council, wrote in 
the same year: 


The Royal and Select Masters' Degrees were side or detached degrees of the 
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In the Southern States of the Union, the 
Supreme Council initiated chartered, and fostered Councils of Royal and Select 
Masters, and as rapidly as they were self-sustaining, they become independent 
( 66 ). 


Such likewise has been the position taken by such eminent dignitaries and writers 
of the Cryptic Rite as Drummond (67), Robertson, (68) Grand Recorder Davis of 
the South Carolina Grand Council (69), and Past Grand High Priest Hunt of Iowa 
(70). Meanwhile, however, in 1852, a committee of the Illinois Grand Chapter, 
avowedly uninformed, reported (71) that 


. . . these (Cryptic) Degrees seem to be under the control of three jurisdictions - 


1 State Grand Councils. 2 The Grand Council of the 33d. 3. State Grand Chapters. 


The latter acquired their always-doubtful title from the General Grand Chapter that 
Body repudiates them. As to the second, your committee are aware that the 33d is 
composed of worthy, eminent, and substantial Masons; but from whence they 
derive their exclusive authority, your committee do not know. 



It was to this passage and to the South Carolina Grand Chapter report that Albert 
Pike referred when, as chairman of the Arkansas Grand Chapter Committee on 
Masonic Law and Usage, he asked: 


. . . that and all other Grand Chapters, whether they have any more authentic 
information as to any one single fact of Masonic history or tradition, than we have 
quoted, as to the jurisdiction over the Council degrees belonging of right to the 
Supreme Councils. (72) 


(To be concluded) 


— o — 


More About Stephen Morin 


By BRO. CYRUS FIELD WILLARD, California 


IT is curious how various bits of news about Stephen Morin are struggling to the 
surface, to show his high standing in the Grand Orient de France. 


Thory, Clavel, Rebold, Gould, and Rebold's recent successor, Lantoine, seem 
entirely ignorant of the high rank that Stephen Morin enjoyed among the 
dignitaries of the Grand Orient, such as the Due de Luxembourg, the Due 
d'Orelans, Bacon de la Chevalerie, Savalette des Langes, Dr. Guillotin and many 
others, whose names were signed on certificates with his of which I have given 
photostatic copies in other publications. 



This high rank he would not have enjoyed had he been a Jew, as the detractors of 
the Scottish Rite have always alleged he was. It is well to bear in mind that the 
Jews of France were not accorded full civil rights until after the Revolution of 
1789 and hence a Jew could not have signed the documents he did and associated 
with the peoples he did. 


In the March number of the Masonic Digest last year I reproduced a Masonic 
certificate or patent to Bro. Noel from the Grand Orient de France, which Bro. 
Robert I. Clegg had framed and hung over the doorway of his office, because it 
bore the signature of Dr. Guillotin, the originator of la guillotine, by which he did 
not die, according to modern historical research. On close examination it showed 
among the signatures of those above mentioned and in the names of the members 
of the Chambre de Paris, the name "Morin" signed in the same manner as he signed 
his name as Master of the Lodge, La Parfaite Union, at Port au Prince, San 
Domingo, on the patent of Ossonde Verriere, a planter of that Island, which Sachse 
says in his Ancient Scottish Rite Documents is now in the possession of the Grand 
Lodge of Pennsylvania. 


Sachse also said it was the oldest Scottish Rite document in America, but I have 
shown in another article, entitled A New Masonic Find, in the Masonic Digest for 
September and October, 1926, that the oldest Scottish Rite document was the 
certificate in French issued to Michel Morel Domeny by the Scottish Lodge La 
Parfaite Union, at New York in May, 1764, which document is now in the 
possession of Ossian Lang, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New York. 
This document is signed by one who calls himself a "Past Scottish Master" and 
also "Knight of the East." Strange to say it also bears the signature of George 
Harison, the Provincial Grand Master under the Grand Lodge of England, 
Modems; and this lodge was organized by him in 1760, which was considered 
incredible by Bro. W. Wonnacott at first, because it was not on the lists of the 
Grand Lodge of England and it was necessary to send on to him copies of the 
documents in question. 


Bro. Ossian Lang is of the opinion, since my discovery, that Stephen Morin was a 
member of the French Protestant family of Morins that came from the Protestant 
city of La Rochelle in France and settled in New York in 1691 and became 



members of the French Protestant Church of Saint Esprit, that this French Lodge, 
La Parfaite Union of New York was the Mother Lodge of Stephen Morin. He said 
hundreds had ransacked the list of members of lodges in France without ever being 
able to find the Mother Lodge of Stephen Morin. It was my privilege to show, that 
in all probability, the Lodge La Parfaite Union of Port au Prince that gave the 
patent to Ossonde Verriere and which is signed by Morin, was the same Lodge La 
Parfaite Union of New York which Stephen Morin had carried from New York to 
Port au Prince as Moses M. Hays carried his lodge from New York to Newport. 
Especially so since in the Verriere Patent, Morin says he is acting by the powers 
conferred on him by Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers, Grand Master of England, 
who was the superior officer under whom George Harison was acting. 


It puzzled Sachse how it could be that Stephen Morin claimed to be acting under 
the authority of the Grand Master of England, when his well known patent, at 
which Lantoine sniffs in disdain, says he is only acting under the authority of the 
Grand Lodge of France and the Supreme Councils of Prince Masons of France. 


The puzzle which Sachse could not unravel is plain, if we accept the fact which 
seems clear, that Stephen Morin transferred the French Lodge La Parfaite Union 
from New York (where George Harison, Provincial Grand Master under Earl 
Ferrers, had signed the Domeny certificate) to Port au Prince, with the consent and 
approval of the Grand Master of the Moderns, which he would have to have in 
order to do this, and transplant it to a jurisdiction over which France ruled. We 
know that the Lodge La Parfaite Harmonie, a St. John's Lodge, which Morin was 
authorized by his patent to organize under the authority of the Grand Lodge of 
France, was actually organized, for an endorsement of that Lodge is inscribed on 
the Verriere Patent. But Stephen Morin was also Master of the Lodge La Parfaite 
Union, and acting under the power and authority of the Grand Master of England, 
Earl Ferrers, for he so states in his patent to Verriere which is signed by himself; 
and this of course he would be, if he were a member of a lodge founded in New 
York by George Harison under Earl Ferrers, Grand Master. 


Now come additional facts about Stephen Morin. 



In A History of Lodge No. 61, F. & A. M., Wilkesbarre, Pa., by Oscar J. Harvey, 
on page 181 et seq., which was at my request loaned to me by Bro. Wm. L. 
Boyden, Librarian of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, 
who first noticed it, we find a long account of the manner in which the author of 
that book discovered "An Old Masonic Charter" and which, divorced from much 
prolixity, is as follows: 


While engaged in historical researches a few months since, I discovered an 
interesting document, ancient but well preserved though discolored and marked by 
the hand of Time. 


It appears on its face to be a Warrant or Charter granted by the highest Masonic 
authority in France to a number of brethren in the Island of St. Domingo, 
constituting them a Lodge by the title of Chosen Brethren and bearing date of "the 
3rd day of the 3rd week of the 5th month in the year of Light, 5774 Annoque 
Domini 1774." It is printed on a sheet of parchment from an elaborately and 
artistically engraved plate, 18x19 inches in size. It runs as follows: 


A LA GLOIRE DU GRAND ARCHITECT DE L'UNIVERS. 


Sous Les Auspices et Au Nom Du Serenissime Grand Maitre. 


LE GRAND ORIENT DE FRANCE A Tous Les Macons Reguliers. 


UNION FORCE SALUT 


Sur la demande presentee le premier jour de la premiere semaine du cinquieme 
mois de T An de la vraie lumiere Cinq mil Sept cent soixante et quatorze. par les 



freres composant la Loge des "Freres Choisis" a Orient du Fond des Negres, Isle de 
St. Dominique, a l'effet d'Obtenir du GRAND ORIENT DE FRANCE des 
Constitutions pour leur Loge sous le dit titre: 


Vu la decision de la Chambre des Provinces du sixieme jour de la seconde 
Semaine du cinquieme mois de la presente annee,- 


Nous avons constituees et constituons a perpetuite par ces presentes a Orient du 
Fond des Negres, Isle St. Dominique, une loge de St. Jean sous le titre distinctif 
des Freres Choisis, pour la dite Loge. . . a se livrer aux travaux de lArt Royal a la 
charge par . . . de se conformer exactement aux Statuts et reglements faits et a faire 
en notre Grand Orient et etre inscritge sur le tableau des loges regulieres de France 
a la date du troizieme jour dela seconde Semaine du troizieme mois de TAn de la 
vraie lumiere Cinq mil Sept cent soixante et treize, Epoque des Constitutions que 
le Grand Orient . . . regularisant les travaux de cette loge a l'epoque du vingt- 
neuvieme jour du troizieme mois, 5774. 


EN FOI de quoi nous luy avons delivre ces presentes qui ont ete expediee au Grand 
Orient de France et scellees des Sceaux et Timbre de l'Ordre, Signees par nous et 
contresignere par notre Secretaire-General le troisieme jour de la troisieme 
Semaine du cinquieme mois de lAn de la vraie lumiere Cinq mil Sept cent 
soixante et quatorze. 


There are three places where words have been obliterated and are shown blank 
accordingly. The translation following is by the present writer. It begins with the 
ascription: 


TO THE GLORY OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE 



Under the Auspices and in the Name of the Most Serene Grand Master (1). 


THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE To All Regular Masons Union Strength 
Health 


Upon the request presented the first day of the first week of the fifth month (2) of 
the year of the True Light, Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-four by the 
Brothers composing the lodge of the Chosen Brethren at the Orient of Fond des 
Negres Island of St. Domingo, for the purpose of obtaining from the GRAND 
ORIENT Constitutions for their Lodge under the above-named title: 


Considering the decision of the Chamber of the Provinces on the sixth day of the 
fifth month of the present year: 


We have constituted and do constitute by these Presents unto perpetuity, at the 
Orient of Fond des Negres, Island of St. Domingo, a lodge of St. John under the 
distinctive title of Chosen Brethren for the said Lodge ... to devote himself (or 
itself) to the works of the Royal Art upon the condition that ... of conforming 
himself (or itself) exactly to the Statutes and regulations made and to be made in 
our GRAND ORIENT and to be inscribed upon the list of regular Lodges of 
France at the date of the third day of the second week of the third month of the 
year of the True Light, Five Thousand Seven hundred and seventy-three (3), Epoch 
of the Constitutions that the GRAND ORIENT . . . regularizing the work of this 
lodge from the twenty-ninth day of the third month, 5774. 


IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have delivered to him (or it (4)) the Presents which 
have been forwarded to the GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE to be sealed and 
stamped with the Seals and Stamp of the Order. Signed by us and countersigned by 
our Secretary General the third day of the third week of the fifth month (5), of the 
year of True Light Five Thousand Seven hundred and seventy-four. 



The author of the History of Lodge No. 61 then goes on to say: 


The Warrant is signed by Le Due de Luxembourg Grand Master, "Le Baron de 
Toussaint," Secretaire General and by the members of three Boards or Councils, 
denominated Chambre d' Administration, Chambre de Paris and Chambre des 
Provinces. [Note that this was shown on the photostatic reproduction of the Noel 
Certificate.] Among the signatures of the last named Council is that of the 
celebrated Dr. Guillotin, the reputed inventor of the gillotine. The Warrant also 
bears a certificate of registry. En La Chambre De Paris, signed by S. Morin, 
Secretaire 


This shows without doubt that Stephen Morin, or Etienne Morin as it would have 
been, had he been a Frenchman instead of an American, was the Secretary of the 
Chambre de Paris of the Grand Orient de France in 1774, inasmuch as we have 
here the testimony of a reputable witness that he had seen his signature to that 
effect. 


There is a footnote by Bro. Harvey at the bottom of page 183 which reads: 


Stephen Morin was a Jew who in 1761 was appointed by the "Grand Lodge and 
Sovereign Grand Council" which convened at Paris, as Grand Inspector to 
establish in every part of the world, the Perfect and Sublime Masonry. He 
proceeded to the Island of St. Domingo where he resided for a number of years and 
executed his delegated authority for propagating the hauts grades throughout the 
New World personally and by deputation Thus the island of St. Domingo is of 
Special interest to Free Masons as having been the first home in the Western 
Hemisphere of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the Source of Sublime 
Free Masonry in America. 



The author of the History of Lodge No. 61 also gives a very long and prolix 
account of the capture by the U. S. S. "Trumbull" of Connecticut, during the 
hostilities between France and the United States (1799 1900) of the French vessel 
La Vengeance (6) which was taken to Norwich, Conn., Sept. 13, 1800, and sold as 
a prize of war on Oct. 29, 1800. 


Among the prisoners sent to Norwich was a Lieutenant named Jean Pierre Boyer, a 
native of Port au Prince where he was born in 1776. In his possession at the time of 
his capture were found a complete set of regalia and jewels of a Masonic Lodge, 
and a variety of Masonic documents in French, such as forms for admission to the 
Fraternity, catechisms of the various degrees, from E. A. up to Perfect Master, 
communications from the Grand Orient at Paris and the Warrant or Charter above 
referred to, which was, at the time when the History was published, in the 
possession of Bro. Harvey. 


He goes on to say that Jean Pierre Boyer became President of the Haytian Republic 
at Port au Prince in 1 8 1 8 and in 1 820 became President of the Republic of Hayti, 
which then comprised the whole island, and continued as such until 1 842 when a 
violent insurrection overthrew his power and compelled him to fly. He died at 
Paris in 1850. Colonel Eliphalet Bulkeley of Norwich, and New Londont Conn., 
retained the "Boyer" charter in his possession until a short time before his death in 
1816 (after he had removed to Wilkes-Barre in 1807) when he transferred it to 
Hon. David Scott, P. M., of Wilkes-Barre Lodge. The Warrant remained in Bro. 
Scott's possession until his death in 1839, when it passed into the hands of his 
daughter, Mrs. Marietta Watson. With her it remained for nearly forty-four years 
(1883) so Bro. Harvey relates, and on her death it was presented to Bro. Oscar 
Jewell Harvey, the author of the History of Lodge No. 61 (7). 


Bro. Harvey was Worshipful Master of this lodge in 1879 and published his book 
in 1897. Bro. Boyden in looking over this book for information ran across the 
reference to Stephen Morin which in due time came to the attention of the writer 
who has endeavored to ascertain by writing to the Secretary of this Lodge where 
the Charter is now. 



The main point, however, is that this Charter or Warrant establishes the fact that 
Stephen Morin was not the unknown Jew that the detractors of the Scottish Rite 
have endeavored to prove him to be in order to create a narrow prejudice against 
him and the Rite. 


It is strange that the French writers and especially those who have claimed to be 
historians, have never been able to bring out these facts. It is probably due to the 
fact that they did not want to do so, any more than Gould did. Gould must have 
known Morin's position in the Grand Orient, as will be shown by later quotations 
from his writings, but he allowed his prejudices to overcome his judgment. 


In the Encyclopedia Britannica, under the heading "Morin" we find the following: 


Jean Morin, the most learned Catholic theologian of his age and one of the 
founders of Biblical criticism, was born in 1591 at Blois. His History of the 
Deliverance of the Christian Church (1630) brought him into trouble and gave 
great offense at Rome while his Declaration (1654) was strictly suppressed. His 
great work on penance gave equal offense to the Jesuits and to Port Royal. 


This shows a family eminent in the Roman Church, and also perhaps why his 
family later became Protestants. There was nothing Jewish about this family. 


The records of baptisms, marriages and deaths in the Protestant French Church, 
Saint Esprit, in New York, as furnished to me by its present minister, show that the 
Morin who settled in New York in 1691, shortly after the Revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes had driven the best blood of France to foreign shores, was the Son of a 
merchant of La Rochelle, the city that so bravely withstood the siege of the 
Catholic forces. 



It is certain that Stephen Morin who, Rebold says in his Histoire des Trois Grandes 
Lopes under 1 803, was an American, could not have held the position of Secretary 
of the Chambre de Paris of the Grand Orient of France, among so many of the 
nobility, had he not also been of good French family. 


The French are now endeavoring to create an historical school in Masonry, but 
they seem to know very little about the history of the Grand Orient of France by 
virtue of authentic documents, nor of Stephen Morin's connection with it, which 
eventually led to the planting of the seed of the Scottish Rite in America, which in 
the United States alone has 600,000 members or more than ten times the 
membership of the Grand Orient of France today. 


Gould, in dealing with Freemasonry in France, says in the third volume of his 
History (8): 


Rebold suffered under the same defect [i.e. blinded by hatred of high degrees] 
combined with a prejudice against the Grand Orient, (p. 392). 


On June 15, 1771 the Grand Master, the Count de Clermont, died. (p. 401) . 


In the first place it will be well to call the names of the exiled brethren, among 
whom are Daubertin Morin and Labady. (p. 402). 


In this year [1761] the faction (or Grand Lodge) headed by Lacome and Jonville, 
held a joint meeting with the Emperors [of the East and West, governing body of 
the Rite of Perfection predecessor of the Scottish Rite] which resulted in the grant 
to Morin of his famous patent. 



1765. At the next election, it would appear . . . that the Emperors had secured all 
the offices. This gave rise to violent debates and recriminations both in Lodge and 
in print.... As a consequence the most violent were banished.... Among the exiles 
may be mentioned Daubertin, the former secretary of the Emperors, (p. 400). 


Daubertin signed Morin's Patent as Secretary of the Grand Lodge and as Grand 
Secretary also of the Sublime Council of Prince Masons in France (9). 


1771. The exiles were re-admitted and received with open arms and the kiss of 
peace . . . Oct. 17. Circular of Grand Lodge announcing past events and calling 
upon the Lodges in the Provinces to appoint deputies.... It gives a list of the Grand 
Officers [among whom were] Daubertin, Sec.Gen.Labady, Sec. for the Provinces; 
Maurin [or Morin] Asst. Sec. for the Provinces.... (p. 403). 


A committee of definition was appointed consisting of Buzeneois, B[acon] de la 
Chevalerie, Chev. Champeau, R. de Begnieourt, De Bauelas, Morin, Toussainct 
(10), De Lalande and Bruneteau, the four latter being Paris Masters, (p. 406). 


The first of the four latter is Morin, who must therefore have been the Master of a 
Parisian Lodge. It is well to note on this Committee the names of Counts, Barons, 
Chevaliers and others whose name began with "de" the mark of French nobility, 
and with whom Stephen Morin was associating in 1773 on terms of perfect 
equality, which he could not have done had he been a Jew. As Americans we care 
nothing about such matters except as they may be historical indices. 


1773.... Buzeneois being on the point of leaving Paris was replaced by Lamarque 
l'Americain of St. Domingo, (p. 406). 



This shows there was a lodge in St. Domingo in that year, perhaps the Freres 
Choisis or perhaps La Parfaite Harmonie. 


A commission consisting of Bacon de la Chevalerie, Count Strogonoff and Baron 
Toussainet was appointed to revise and examine all the high degrees, (p. 410). 


The signature of Bacon de la Chevalerie is on the Clegg certificate to Noel, with 
that of Morin, as a member of the Chamber of Paris. 


1776. The Grand Orient replaced the former committee to inquire into the high 
grade, by Guillotin, Savalette des Langes Morin. De la Ghaussee and De Lalande. 
(p. 411). 


Dr. Guillotin's signature is on the Clegg certificate and also on the charter cited by 
Harvey in his History of Lodge No. 61. Savalette des Langes has his signature on 
the Clegg certificate. He was the head of the Philalethes that the Baron de Gleichen 
speaks of in his Souvenirs, and one of the greatest aristocrats in France. De 
Lalande was the founder of the celebrated "Nine Sisters" Lodge and head of the 
Observatory, while Brest de la Chaussee was one of those who signed Morin's 
Patent in 1761, fifteen years previously. Yet this shows Morin by the fact of his 
being appointed on this Committee to revise the high grades, as associating with 
the men of the nobility, which he could not have done had he been a Jew. 


The Grand Master was Philip, Duke of Orleans, a close relative to the King of 
France, and his Deputy was the Duke of Montmorency-Luxembourg, persons with 
whom a Jew could not have associated at that time, as the Jews did not win full 
civil status until 1792, or sixteen years later. But Morin is shown as being 
appointed by the presiding officer, the Duke of Luxembourg, probably, as he did 
all the work, on the committee, to examine into and revise the higher degrees. 
Gould recites these facts and suspiciously remains quiet about it, although he must 
have known who Morin was. De Lalande as stated was the founder in 1776, the 



same year, of the "Nine Sisters" Lodge which became so celebrated, and among 
whose members were Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones, two celebrated 
Americans like Morin, Vernet and Greuze, celebrated painters, Lacepede, director 
of the Jardin des Plantes, Helvetius, and later, Voltaire. As a member of the same 
committee of the Grand Lodge with De Lalande, it is more than possible that 
Stephen Morin, who was an American sea-captain, sat in lodge with Benjamin 
Franklin and John Paul Jones, with whom he had many things in common. 


Samuel Oppenheim, the very careful author of Jews and Masonry Before 1810, has 
assured the writer that Stephen Morin was not a Jew, but was a sea-captain who 
was captured on one of his voyages to the West Indies by a British vessel in 1777. 
This would explain why we hear nothing further about him until the American 
Revolution was over. 


We see by the Moyer charter, as related by the author of the History of Lodge No. 
61, that he, S. Morin, was the Secretary of the Chambre de Paris of the Grand 
Orient of France in 1774, and a man of considerable prominence in French 
Masonry. 


Why does Gould not show this fact plainly (10)? 


Gradually, piece by piece, we are beginning to learn more about him and the part 
he played in French and American Masonry. If we had some organized Lodge of 
Research in America working on this matter instead of one lone individual we 
would make greater progress in placing before the world the true history of 
Stephen Morin who was responsible for the two great organizations of the 
Southern and Northern Jurisdictions of the Scottish Rite in the United States, 
whose combined membership as previously stated is now in excess of 600,000. 


It was Stephen Morin who appointed Henry Andrew Francken, who in turn 
appointed Moses M. Hays who appointed Isaac Da Costa, who organized the body 



in Charleston from which ultimately developed the Supreme Council of the 
Scottish Rite, Mother Council of the world. It is from this Mother Council that all 
other Supreme Councils of the world have originated. 


It is for this reason that any scrap of information about Stephen Morin is of great 
importance. 


NOTES 


(1) This was the Duke of Chartres, later the Duke of Orleans. 

(2) March was the first month, hence this was Aug. 1, 1774. 

(3) This would be May 10, 1773. 

(4) Who or what lay was, was evidently told in the places obliterated. 

(5) July 17, 1774. 

(6) This was not the frigate La Vengeance which was defeated in an engagement 
with the U.S. Frigate Constellation (commanded by Commodore Truxton) in Feb. 
1800. The French frigate made her escape owing to the Constellation's mainmast 
having been shot away. The vessel spoken of here was a trading Schooner, pierced 
for ten guns, but actually only carrying eight four-pounders. The Trumbull was a 
sloop of war of eighteen twelve pounder guns. The frigate La Vengeance carried 
fifty- four guns. 

(7) At the time this lodge was organized, 1794, the Pennsylvania lodges were 
known only by their numbers, and had no distinctive names. They were all lodges 
of St. John. 

(8) Gould; History of Freemasonry, Yorston edition, Vol. iii, chapter xxv. 

(9) See the transcript given by Gould, Ibid. p. 380. 

(10) His signature as Baron de Toussainct is on the Boyer Charter. 



(1 1) [Gould does not pretend to do more than attempt to reconcile the very 
conflicting accounts of Thory, Von Nettlebladt Kloss, Rebold, Jouast and Daruty 
in a very condensed narrative. He points out the particular bias under which each 
of the more important of the authors labored, estimating Kloss as most trustworthy, 
although he followed Jouast, "the next best," because Kloss is "too detailed for his 
purpose." It thus seems that Gould has disclaimed having made any original 
research, but depended on making the best of the existing accounts of this most 
troubled and obscure period of the history of Freemasonry in France. See Gould. 
Op. cit. chapter xxv. pages 391-392. Ed.] 


— o — 


The Charitable Work of the Order of St. John 


ONE of the problems of the small town is the relief of members of the community 
who for any reason, sickness, accident, loss of employment, etc., become a charge 
upon the people of the city or town. Another problem is the proper handling of 
similar cases who drift into the town and are found to be without means to live or 
to get to some other place. In these days of cheap automobiles and cross-country 
tourists who give free transportation to such indigent "hikers," the latter have 
become a real problem to many towns located upon transcontinental highways. 


Most towns have all that they can do, and more, to care for their own, without the 
added burden of providing for the needs of transient strangers. In the case of old 
people the problem is simple, provided the county has a home for them, but there 
are many localities which have made no such provision. In some arrangements are 
made to board aged persons in private homes, which is seldom a satisfactory 
method of care. Other counties make no pretense of caring and their custom in the 
handling of such cases is to ship them to the nearest large city with a railroad ticket 
and a small amount of money. This plan of unloading these eases is entirely 
satisfactory to officials and tax-payers for it saves them the continued cost of care 
for the old. 



The same method is often followed in the care of the sick, especially chronic cases 
like tuberculosis, or any other disease which is not acute and if the patient is able to 
be moved. Comparatively few localities have made any provision for hospital care 
of their sick, except counties which have a large city or center of population within 
their boundaries. Many states have no provision for the hospital care of acute cases 
and many lack hospitals for chronic cases, except the insane. Where provision 
exists for the care of the tuberculous, frequently it is limited to the first and second 
stages and no provision is made for the advanced cases, which from the standpoint 
of infection of others are the most dangerous. 


So the men, women and children who become sick in any small community and 
whose illness lasts for some time must be cared for in their own home if they are 
fortunate enough to have one. If for any reason the patients are homeless then 
perhaps a relative, friend, or neighbor will take care of them. In any event the 
patients do not have the best chance because home treatment, save in exceptional 
cases, does not offer the same hope of recovery as hospital care. Thousands of 
lives have been lost in America because of the lack of hospitals in the rural 
communities, supported in whole, or in part, by public taxation, so that sick 
persons can secure care and treatment, even if financially unable to pay for same. 


This is true of accident cases and their recovery in direct proportion to the 
promptness, intelligence and thoroughness of the care which they receive. Our 
large and increasing army of cripples, from which is recruited the army of beggars, 
is often due to the lack of adequate hospital care immediately following accidents. 


What can the small town do for the survivors of the sick and injured who die as the 
result of lack of care? A widow with small children is in a hard way in a small 
town. Not that the people are unsympathetic, quite the contrary, but they as a rule 
can only give temporary relief with money secured by "passing a list". The help 
given usually consists of providing for the immediate needs of food, clothing and 
shelter and then sending or shipping the family to relatives, friends, or to the 
nearest large city where there are institutions and organizations for the care of the 
indigent and homeless. 



This relief work is undertaken as a voluntary act by goodhearted people who have 
been in contact with the family. The ladies of a church, the members of a lodge, or 
some interested group. In comparatively few places is there an organization 
prepared to function with some funds on hand, and with knowledge of state, 
county, city, or private charitable institutions and organizations which might be 
able to lend a helping hand in handling each particular case according to its needs. 
In the larger communities there are organizations known as Associated Charities, 
or United Charities, which fill this need, but in few places are they adequately 
financed to handle all of the cases which come before them, both resident and non- 
resident, in the course of the year. 


In the Western country, the problem of relief is far greater than in the more thickly 
settled parts of the country because of the migration of both sick and well. It is not 
unusual for a broken-down Ford to bring in a family with a number of small 
children, and no funds, no gas, perhaps a bad tire, or some mechanical trouble that 
may result in the family becoming a more or less permanent addition to the 
population. In such cases it is far cheaper to provide for their immediate needs, 
especially such as may be necessary to get them as far as the next town. But 
provision for the care of citizens is sadly lacking. Thousands of babies come into 
the world, and many mothers leave it at the same time, without the attendance of a 
doctor. In many parts of the country where the city, town or county cannot provide 
hospital care for expectant mothers it would seem to be the duty of the state to do 
so and since women have the ballot, it is strange they do not demand it. It is a 
strange fact, but true in most of America, that the unmarried mother usually 
receives better care in some institution than a beloved wife, why the women's 
organizations do not take cognizance of this and work for hospital care of all 
mothersto-be is also one of the strange facts of American life. 


The whole problem of relief of unemployment, of poverty, sickness and distress, 
no matter what its cause, nor where it is met, is due to the lack of constructive 
institutional planning. There are many thousands of organizations in America, but 
comparatively few are devoted to the constructive charitable work. Healthy, 
prosperous people do not need such organizations and usually are little interested 
in them. In times of great calamity they liberally respond to any appeal, but they 



never think of the million or more people in this country who, at all times, need 
some form of assistance to tide them over an unforeseen emergency of life. There 
may be another million, mentally or physically sick, or crippled, who need 
permanent care. 


There are two groups of our population to whom the foregoing does not apply in its 
entirety. They are our Jewish and Catholic brethren. The Jews come nearer to 
adequately meeting the problem of relief of their own people than any other group 
in America and the Catholics are next in the performance of this duty. Both groups 
help to some extent in caring for others in addition to their own. The Protestant 
group does not meet its obligations completely, though it is also true that 
Protestants have contributed millions of dollars for the building of Catholic 
institutions, and there is a vast number outside of these three groups who have no 
claim upon any but public charity, or the limited private charities and institutions 
of the larger cities and towns. 


No one agency can hope to meet all the needs and it can only be met by each group 
doing its utmost to provide for those of its own household. Every state, city, 
country and town must do its full part to meet the apparently increasing burden of 
indigence The limitation of immigration will, in time, help to lessen the load, 
provided the bars are not lifted again to flood us with people who came in during 
the past twenty-five years, and who have cost us billions of dollars, both in care 
and treatment in eleemosynary institutions and in our penitentiaries, in addition to 
the cost of crime. The open door to Mexico is bringing in thousands of others who 
will be a liability for many years. The beautiful ideal of America as the "melting 
pot" of the nations of the world has cost Americans billions of dollars and we have 
found but little of value to us coming from it. Much of the poverty and crime, with 
the lowering of our national and American standards, is due to the unlimited 
immigration of the past few decades. 


If the three great groups into which America has previously been divided, namely 
the Jews, the Catholics, and the Protestants, are to progress on anything like the 
same plane, then Protestantism must unite and its first duty is the care of those of 
its own household. We have taken much pride in our "campaigns" to save the 
people of other foreign countries, many of whom have no ideals, or whose ideals 



are in direct conflict with ours. These millions sent abroad would have built 
hundreds of hospitals in America and would have saved thousands of American 
lives, including the lives of many American mothers. This money, properly 
handled, would have put thousands of American families on their feet in a financial 
sense and made them self-sustaining. We hear much of "farm relief' during these 
campaign days, and much of the farmer's troubles are due to his trying to start and 
operate a business without sufficient capital or are due to his ignorance of handling 
business. There should be plenty of money available in America to supply his 
needs and to teach him business methods. The city man gets his benefit of every 
public institution supported by public taxation, if and when he needs it. The farmer 
gets little, or none. 


The Jewish and Catholic groups render efficient service to their own because they 
are organized. Protestantism is not. In the very large cities a few of the great 
denominations have built and successfully operate denominational hospitals. In the 
smaller places, where no one denomination is strong enough to build and operate a 
hospital, attempts have been made to combine several, or all Protestant, 
denominations and to build a Protestant hospital, but these efforts seldom are 
successfully carried through. Local differences are usually responsible. The same 
has been found true in some cities where an effort has been made to build a 
Masonic hospital because of a failure upon the part of the Masonic bodies to agree 
on plans for financing and operation. 


For these reasons the Order of St. John has come into being in the effort to provide 
an agency through which Protestants, and Masons, may unite for service to the sick 
and needy. Through the organization of Priories in the large places a hospital may 
be built which will serve not only Protestants, but others who may seek its doors. 
Such hospitals must, of course, charge for service until such time as they can give 
it to those in need. In the planning of the work of St. John in every state Priories 
must be so located as to make hospitals available for the people of every section of 
the state. 


It is, perhaps, looking a long way into the future to be discussing the time when the 
Order of St. John will be maintaining hospitals of its own. It is well known that 
most hospitals do a great amount of charitable work. The patients who pay their 



way through their doors cannot be expected to yield sufficient profit to care for all 
of the charitable cases handled. For the surplus revenue needed these organizations 
depend upon endowments, charity campaigns, and like sources. A great many, 
perhaps all, hospitals have their financial worries. Funds are not available to take 
care of all the charity work that comes to their doors. There is an opportunity here 
for the Order of St. John. It can begin its charitable work within a comparatively 
short time of its conception in a community. Select some hospital, endow a bed, a 
ward, or a floor, if the necessary funds are forthcoming, and specify that this 
endowment is to be used only for the care of charity patients. Any hospital will 
look with favor upon such an endowment, and the small sum of $500 or $1,000 
will be sufficient to enable a local Preceptory of the Order of St. John to point with 
pride to what it has accomplished. 


St. John will also function in the care of the sick and needy of the smaller places 
and aid in the solution of that vexing problem. The Preceptory, organized and 
operating in small towns, may become the organized charity society or Community 
Fund of the town. Through its membership fees and dues, funds collected for 
special relief and through benefits, a charity fund can be built up to adequately care 
for legitimate cases of distress. Through the knowledge of the work of institutions 
and organizations in the larger cities and throughout the state, the Preceptory can 
secure necessary institutional care for some of its charges. By exchange of 
information, which will be developed in time, impostors can be detected and put to 
work for the county. While this, nor any other one organization, can hope to meet 
all calls for aid, St. John can do a great work in caring for some of its own group 
who may need help. 


The Preceptory can also help in the establishment and operation of a St. John's 
Hospital in the nearest large center of population and will benefit by being able to 
secure hospital care for the sick of its own town in the nearest city. This should 
include the care of maternity cases to give both babies and mothers their best 
chance for survival. 


Any few interested persons in any town may organize a Preceptory of the Order of 
St. John. It will speedily increase in numbers and influence as its objects and work 
become known. It will combine in one large and strong group the people who want 



to help the other fellow to help himself and who want to help him before he needs 
real help, so that a little aid given at the proper time may save a larger need at a 
later date. 


The combination of a number of Preceptory groups will make the Priory and 
through their united action a hospital may be established that will serve them all at 
any time of need. A hospital is like the fire department. You hope that you will 
never need it, but when you do, you want it quick and you cannot wait for it to be 
built. 


Correspondence is invited from those who are interested in the work of the Order 
of St. John as outlined by this and previous issues of THE BUILDER. 


— o — 


The Degrees of Masonry; Their Origin and History 


By BROS. A. L. KRESS and R. J. MEEKREN (Continued from September) 


HUGHAN had definitely left the Scottish evidence out of consideration, though, as 
Speth remarks, it "would at first sight have told greatly in his favor," that is if read 
in the light of Lyon's interpretation of it. Without this presupposition one would be 
inclined to say that on their face the old Scottish records shout aloud on almost 
every page that two degrees existed from the first. 


Speth alludes also to the "Masters Lodges" which appeared in London (and 
elsewhere, even in America) about 1730, and persisted, in name at least, all 
through the eighteenth century. Later on they consisted merely of the members of a 



warranted lodge assembled as a lodge of masters, but at the beginning they were 
separate entities, composed of the members of a number of other lodges, who were 
masters of course, and that such lodges worked only the master's degree, and 
worked for the ordinary lodges which for some reason could not, or at least did not, 
do it for themselves. (1) 


In an Appendix to the paper some remarks are offered on the nature of this original 
second degree. The long note in the first Book of Constitutions on Hiram Abif is 
adduced, and Speth says that the first mention of a name or fact cannot be co- 
incident with, but must be posterior to, its introduction. Hughan of course replied 
that this did not affect the question, as he held that the three degrees were in 
existence when the Constitutions were first published. But the curious fact remains 
that the name in this form appeared in Coverdale's translation of the Bible, and its 
immediate successors, all of which were so thoroughly suppressed that they are 
exceedingly rare, why should inventors of the 18th century have gone behind the 
Authorized Version for the name of their hero? However, this point was not raised 
in the discussion. 


In conclusion Speth's theory may be thus summarized. In the Operative period the 
Apprentice was "made" a Mason by some ceremony of a secret character, and 
received certain signs and words and so on for recognition. At the end of his 
servitude, his passing into the ranks of free craftsmen, Masters of the Art and 
fellows of the Fraternity, was celebrated by another secret ceremony, in which 
further signs and words and so on were communicated, and that this ceremony 
contained the essentials of the present third degree. Then that during the "mainly 
speculative" period it became habitual to work both of the ceremonies at the same 
time, so that the "making" became merely an adjunct or preliminary to receiving 
gentlemen and others as Fellows. And that finally, owing to unknown causes and 
influences, the first "part" was divided and two degrees made out of it, producing 
our present system, the title Fellowcraft being given to this interpolated double of 
the first degree. Hughan's theory agreed with this origin of the second degree, 
though it is not made quite clear if he agreed with Mackey that this doublet was the 
first step, and the third a final addition, or whether (as would be equally possible 
on his premises) that the materials of the present Master Mason degree were 
ancient, or whether they were, as Oliver thought in his later years, and Pike and 
Mackey after him, merely manufactured out of whole cloth, in the years 



immediately succeeding the formation of Grand Lodge, by Desaguliers, Payne, or 
some other individual whose name has not come down to us. 


In dealing with Speth's paper we have incidentally dealt with the objections raised 
in the discussion, especially by Hughan and Lane. There does not seem anything 
more of importance left to consider in what was said by these two eminent 
brothers. Some others who joined in the discussion call for remark, as though brief, 
fresh views were advanced. The Master of the Lodge, Sydney Klein, suggested a 
theory something like that of Mackey- Speth said of it that in trying to prove 
Hughan and himself both right he would in fact prove them both wrong. He 
supposed that in the 1 1th or 12th century, during the great period of mediaeval 
building, there would be a greatly increased demand for masons, and that in order 
to train new men, an apprentice degree was "thrown off downwards." This would 
be in order to bind the young men who were being taught the trade not to desert 
those who had taught them, i. e., their masters. Later, in the 17th century, at the 
time of the rebuilding of London after the "Great Fire," a great stimulation of 
activity in the Craft resulted, and that then, or shortly afterwards in the 1 8th 
century, the present third degree was separated, or thrown off upwards, from the 
one that had previously been the second, and which in the earliest times had been 
the only one. And so finally the Royal Arch, some twenty years or so later still, 
was again thrown off upward from the third degree, which till then had contained 
all the essentials of both. This puts a great deal on the supposed second degree of 
the pre-Grand Lodge era, but if there were only one ceremony of initiation at the 
start, this does seem to be the most plausible supposition. 


J. Ramsden Riley agreed with Speth that there were two degrees before 1717, but 
seemed inclined to think that the second was something in the nature of a 
qualification for office as Warden or Master of a lodge and he added: 


The third degree, as we now have it, is of sufficiently later date to be considered 
outside the degrees question. 



This position would have been much strengthened had the Chetwode Crawley MS. 
then been known, for that on its face seems to describe in some detail just such a 
second degree as he supposes. On the other hand, Riley agrees with the "one 
degree" supporters, by holding the present third to have been a late invention, with 
little or nothing in it derived from tradition. 


The Rev. Canon Horsley supported Speth's supposition of the amalgamation of the 
original two operative degrees in the early English lodges of Mainly Speculative 
membership, by an analogy drawn from the Catholic Church, in the sense, of 
course, in which that is understood by the Church of England. His illustration was 
drawn from the two traditional ceremonies of Baptism and Confirmation. The first 
of which is an initiation into membership, the second an entering into all the 
privileges of communion. These ceremonies are now, in the Anglican Communion 
at least, generally widely separated Baptism being usual in infancy, and 
Confirmation delayed till years of something like discretion. But there have been 
times when both were performed at the same time, and there is nothing to prevent 
this being done in the Anglican Communion in the case of one baptised in later 
life. He might also have added another example from ordination. It is true that in 
the English Church a Candidate for Holy Orders is made to serve as a deacon for a 
short time before being made a priest, but in effect the order of deacons does not 
exist, any more than does the degree of Entered Apprentice in Masonry, for the 
Candidate normally remains such for the shortest possible period. In the Eastern 
Church the diaconate is a permanent order, as every church has to have a deacon to 
serve it as well as a priest; it is not merely a step to the higher order. 


Edward Conder, Jr., the author of the well-known work on the Mason's Company 
of London, agreed with Speth that master meant, or could mean, master of the 
craft, and not necessarily an employer or master of the work, and that only such 
masters (of the craft) could become fellows, and he quoted as example the 
following from the records of the London Company: 


Reed of Thomas Taylor ye late Apprentice of Thomas Stanley, made free ye third 
day of July 1634 by way of gratuitie to this house XXs. for his admission then to 
be a Master Ills. Hid. for his entrance VId. 



Total XXIIIs. Xd. 


But he said he was unable 


to accept the theory that any great secrets of the Craft, beyond the necessary sign 
and perhaps word, were impacted to the newly passed master. 


He went on to say that it was only in there being two forms of the Mason Word in 
use that a Fellow could be certainly distinguished from a runaway Apprentice, but 
that he could not agree to there being "an extra ceremony for those who joined the 
fellowship," and that he thought the conditions of the period of the opening of the 
1 8th century, the prevalence of Clubs of all kinds, the need to interest men of 
higher intellectual attainments, accounted for a complete transformation of the 
character of the traditional ceremonies, and the addition of such features as made 
them real initiations, and that 


. . . as time went on the protaplasmie germ of mysticism which is in every society 
where secrecy is observed gradually developed and became a real factor under the 
guidance of such men as Anderson, Desaguliers and Martin ffolkes. 


It would almost appear that he had misunderstood Speth to suppose one form or 
ceremony for the mastership, followed by another for the fellowship; but this 
imprersion is probably due to an unfortunate choice of expression. In any case it 
would seem, though he said he held to the two degree theory, that he was nearer 
Hughan than Speth. For he scarcely allows the possibility of sufficient ceremonial 
to be called an initiation to the second grade, while Hughan was willing to grant 
not only the possibility but even the probability of the private communication of a 
pass word to the newly admitted fellow. 



John Yarker, the author of Arcane Schools, also supported Speth on the point that 
master originally meant master of the craft, and was what the apprentice became 
after serving his time. He made another remark which is very much to the point in 
considering the arguments on the other side. 


The fact is we know nothing of ceremonies from minutes either Scotch or English, 
and we have no right to expect to know anything 


Dr. Chetwode Crawley, while professing to be unable to make up his mind, quoted 
the historian Hallam; who said of a certain question, "A strong conviction either 
way is not attainable on the evidence." 


But though he could not make up his mind, yet he delivered a shrewd blow at the 
whole structure of Hughan's argument. He said that the latter might seem to be 
capable of being reduced to syllogistic form, such as this; 


There is direct evidence of a Degree (or secret ceremony) 


There is no direct evidence of a second Degree (or secret ceremony) 


Therefore, 


There never was more than one Degree. 



This as he said is obviously not a syllogism but a sophism, it requires some other 
premises, such as; 


The only evidence to be admitted is direct evidence or 


The indirect evidence adduced is irrevelant or insufficient or 


No Degree (or secret ceremony) can have existed unless we have direct evidence 
of it. 


Really, as has been pointed out, the direct evidence for any secret ceremony is 
scanty and ambiguous. But on this question of evidence, and the proper limits of 
hypothesis and the employment of assumptions and inferences, something more 
will have to be said later. 


One American brother, W. H. Upton, intervened in the discussion in a letter that 
was almost an article in itself. He valiantly espoused the traditional belief in the 
antiquity of three degrees as separate and distinct entities. First stating his 
conviction that the Haughfoot minute alone established the fact that in Scotland in 
1702, there was a plurality of ceremonies with corresponding secrets, he sets out to 
state his own theory. This is that the apprentice received a charge, he quotes the 
Alnwick rule that has been already referred to [Ante, page 174] that any Mason 
who took an apprentice was to enter him within one year and give him his charge, 
and this charge he believes was not the series of articles preceded by the "Legend 
of the Craft" contained in the old Constitutions, but the set of articles that appears 
only in a few of the latest copies of these MSS., and is there called the Apprentice 
Charges. This he thinks would have been suitable to his years and situation. But at 
Alnwick, where working stone-masons "entered" their apprentices long after the 
Grand Lodge had been formed, the copy of the charges used-it was used, for it was 
written into the first pages of the record book-has not got the Apprentice charges. 
Nevertheless, it is possible that in some places the apprentice was informed of the 



"history" of the Craft, and then caused to promise to observe the "charges general," 
and, where they had been adopted, the Apprentice Charges also. And that at the 
end of his time on being made free, he received once more the "Charges General" 
and the "Charges Singular" for Masters and Fellows. The repetition causes no 
difficulty, for they are addressed not only to the entrants but to all present. 


Upton then went on to say that after seven years the 


.... Apprentice was released from his indentures whether a good workman or not. If 
unskillful he probably nevertheless called himself a master of his trade, but became 
a layer or rough mason and perhaps joined the guild masons. 


This antithesis between the Freemason and Gild Masons is one of those elusive 
fancies that cannot be exploded because there is never any tangible evidence 
offered in support of it. The Freemasons were Gild Masons where there was a gild. 
In Scotland many of the old lodges exercised all the functions of a gild. There was 
no difference in Craftsmanship between the two, and though in the 1 6th century 
(and still more in the 1 7th) we may assume the existence of working Masons, 
members of gilds or companies, who were not Freemasons, that was only due to 
the decay of the Operative Fraternity. The suggestion, too, that only a 
comparatively small group of apprentices became skilled Craftsmen seems very 
strange. It is as a matter of fact impossible for the average youth to work 
continuously for seven years at a handicraft and not be proficient at the end. If he 
was too incapable for this, he would have been so obviously deficient that he 
would never have been accepted in the first place. However this is not an essential 
feature of Upton's theory. He supposes, in agreement with Lyon and Hughan, that 
apprentices were present during the "passing" of the Fellowcraft, but that the latter 
received certain reserved secrets, such as a word whispered in the ear, or 
something of that sort. At this time he supposes the Legend of the Craft was read 
and the oath taken to keep the articles of the Charges. Here there seems a curious 
inconsistency; it was inappropriate that the apprentice should receive this charge 
when entered, as being beyond his capacity, yet he had to be present when the 
fellow received it ! The Third Degree he considers to have been the same thing as 
the installation of the Master of the lodge, which has persisted in America as the 
Past Master's Degree. This installation ceremony appeared as a "Postscript" in the 



first Book of Constitutions, and, though only guardedly hinted at, there was 
obviously some secret ceremonial attached to it. Though, on the other hand, there 
is nothing to show that this was something restricted only to installed Masters. Still 
it is possible that there is more in this suggestion than might at first appear. 


Upton expressed belief, however, in the antiquity of the Legend of the Builder. He 
had just referred to the passage in the Cooke MS. referring to the charge to be 
given to those "tht be mad masters" and their examination in the "articuls aftr 
writen," and says: 


Whether it was on this occasion, or what I have called the second degree, that the 
lesson connected with the widow's son was unfolded I do not venture to say . 


And he sums up as follows: 


When our "work" was revised, about 1723, in my opinion the Apprentice Charge 
was eliminated; a large part of what had been the second degree was thrown into 
the first; an operative lecture was put in the second degree as a graceful tribute to 
the past; the legend of the builder either remained in, or was transferred from the 
second to the third degree; and as all Fellows were henceforth to be "virtual" and 
not "actual" masters the "secrets of the chair" were detached from the third 
ceremony and reserved, as before, for actual Masters, in the old sense of that term 
[i. e., Masters of the lodges]; and finally, that nothing essential was taken from or 
added to "the body of Masonry" at that time. 


This is very ingenious, but it seems very complicated, and it presupposes 
conscious, deliberate "ritual tinkering" on the lines of an American Grand Lodge 
Committee on Work, with all the modern American conception of the supreme 
authority of such bodies to do whatever they may choose. It is not a process that 
could have come about naturally, by development, it implies a thorough shuffling 
of the pack and a new deal ! Finally the Grand Lodge, in 1722, when it authorized 



the new Constitutions, did not supersede the old custom of reading the Charges to 
the Apprentice, for it was directed that the new version of them in the printed 
Constitutions was "to be read at the making of new Brethren," which at that time 
certainly meant initiating "Entered Apprentices." 


NOTES 


(1) Lane, A.Q.C. I, 167. 


— o — 


HOSPITAL BUILDERS 


We build no Pyramid to lift its height 
In futile pride above the bones of Kings, 

To publish some great Pharaoh's martial might, 
Or shame the vanity of earthly things. 

We raise no Monument of graven stones 
To mark the spot where some great Battle raged, 
Where Nation spoke to Nation in the tones 
Of iron hate by crimson hate assuaged. 



No pillared Hall of Justice build we here, 

Nor Marble Fane, nor House of Narrow Faith; 

But firm and strong these Fortress walls we rear 
To buttress out the ghastly Hordes of Death, 

The Death that rides triumphant on the breeze, 
That taints the crystal goblet ere we drink, 

That brings the strong man trembling to his knees, 
And hurls its gasping victim oer the brink. 

We build a Knightly Hold along whose halls 
The white-clad Hosts of Healing come and go; 
And from the crest of battlemented walls, 

Where struggling Science marks her ancient foe. 

We give our Red Cross banner to the breeze, 
Where all the stricken myriads can see; 

And in the face of many-fanged Disease 
We hurl the gauntlet of the strong and free. 

We ask not much; if in the passing throng 



There be a few that bless our labor, then 
We'll thank our God that we have builded strong 
And sent them forth as better, nobler men. 


If we be judged as we have lived and wrought, 
We'll ask no grudging praise, nor sordid gold. 
But only to fulfill the lesson taught 
By Him who healed the suffering ones of old. 


- Edward A. Mount, Jr., '94 (The Alcalde). 


— o — 


Notes on Freemasonry in Europe 


Communicated by BRO. E. RAMMELMEYER, Utah 


AT present the state of affairs in Germany remind one almost of the Anti-Masonic 
period in America; Masons are dragged into politics, although through no desire of 
their own. There are abnormal conditions, with many people out of work, and the 
political parties are looking for a scape-goat for all these ills. 



The "Center" (Catholic) party, the largest bloc in the Reichstag, together with the 
so-called Voelkisch parties are accusing the Freemasons of an international 
compact with the former enemies of Germany, preaching reproach and calumny of 
the worst kind against German Freemasonry, which forces the latter to defend 
themselves with the truth. 


These political parties cite the irregular Grand Lodge, "The Rising Sun," the Grand 
Master of which met the representatives of the French Grand Lodges at Bale, 
Switzerland, at a Masonic gathering, supposedly as representing German 
Freemasonry; but without any shadow of right to do so, as all the regular German 
Grand Lodges had forbidden their members to attend. 


Die Deutsche Adels Genossenschaft, an association of the German nobility, in their 
official organ, the Deutsche Adels Blatt, assail the German Grand Lodges as a 
medium of international Judaism, and it forbids all its members to join the Masonic 
Order. It seems strange to note that since the war this society of the Prussian and 
German nobility in all its branches has a predominating membership of Catholics 
and their affiliated Jesuits. They inaugurated an intensive propaganda against 
Masonry, chiefly in pamphlet form for popular consumption, seeking to make it 
appear contemptible. The official organ of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes 
(the oldest, and largest in membership) replied to these venomous defamations as 
follows: 


German Freemasonry stands aloof from confessional contention. At the cradle of 
Freemasonry stood the thought of Tolerance, and to this thought the Germanic 
lodge life, and German Freemasonry has been sincere up to the present time. The 
three old Prussian Grand Lodges, with their more than 57,000 members, represent 
the Christian principle, and take as members Christians only we admit that the 
other German Grand Lodges, with about 23,500 members, have indeed some non- 
Christians among them, but their numbers in these so-called humanitarism lodges 
are insignificant; and if they put Humanism in the foreground, they do it 
nevertheless with an enlightened Christian perception. Who is it disturbs, under 
these conditions, the harmony of the creeds? German Freemasonry unites and takes 
into its fold Christians of all confessions, who by the understanding of the religious 
opinion of others bring themselves closer together, and encourage Tolerance 



towards their fellow menall of which is contrary to the desires of the leaders of the 
Catholic Church, and of the Jesuits, who are perverting and opposing the thought 
of Tolerance completely, by striving everywhere to separate their adherents from 
other denominations; and always with the deliberate aim to strengthen the power of 
the Catholic Church. Which is working more for the betterment of the country? 
German Freemasonry, seeking for unity and harmony, or the Catholic Church with 
its policy of division and strife? 


General Ludendorff, Chief of the Staff during the war, is also very antagonistic, 
with the vituperation, and the silliness and absurdities in his recent pamphlet, 
Annihilation of Freemasonry Through Disclosures of Their Secrets. This eighty- 
two page production is read extensively by the gullible members of the public, 
chiefly because it is written and published by a distinguished man. 


Some of the assertions of this pathological individual are mentioned here briefly: 


That Freemasonry is a cosmopolitan society controlled by Jews. 


That the Jewish order B'nai Brith was acknowledged by the German Grand Lodges 
as a regularly accepted and constituted Grand Lodge. 


That Freemasonry is the avant garde to bring all nations under the yoke of the 
Jews, depriving the people of their liberties. 


That a Cabalistic Rabbi is a lecturer in the German Christian Grand Lodges in the 
higher degrees. 



That the Thirty-third degree system is flourishing among the German Freemasons, 
but more especially the Cabalistic Order of the Kadosh, etc. 


That Emperor William and Nicolas of Russia lost their thrones because they did 
not belong to the Order. 


Although he is bitter against the Jesuits he nevertheless makes use of their writings 
against Masonry. The Grand Masters of the nine Grand Lodges have taken 
concerted action to counteract this insidious affront. 


Besides these attacks to which German Freemasonry under the present condition is 
subjected, another is to be noted which comes from a very unusual direction. Two 
Presbyters (D. D.) of the Protestant Synod have been assailing the Craft in lectures 
and in Church periodicals, stating among other things that Masonic tenets would 
lead men away from the Church, and that it was a serious question whether Masons 
would be able to stand before the tribunal of Christ without fault, and so on. To 
this the Right Honorable National Grand Master of the largest and oldest Grand 
Lodge made reply, writing to both of them, saying among other things: 


That in Berlin there are over forty Protestant ministers who are officers in their 
respective lodges, and many others throughout Germany, who are either Masters or 
officers in their respective lodges and are also Protestant ministers, from all the 
various theological and Church political strata. They certainly do not deny 
Christianity in the lodge room, which is entirely of Christian character. 


Then he went on to say: 


In no wise do we feel that we are put before the tribunal of Christ-but only before 
the tribunal of misinformed ministers and we deny to them the right to pass 



judgment upon us. The verdict thereon and how we will appear before the tribunal 
of Christ is not of your choosing, but of Christ himself, and this is a matter we, as 
Freemasons, have to settle solely with our Christian consciousness. 


Both ministers replied in a conciliatory manner to the Grand Master, who happens 
to be a dignitary in the church, and pastor of one of the prominent churches in 
Berlin. To this we may well apply as an addendum the pithy words of Bacon: 


It is certain that heresies and Schisms are of all others, the great Scandals. Nothing 
doth so much keep men out of the Church, and drive men out of the Church, as 
breach of unity. 


Against which we have the Masonic doctrine wherein all good, unprejudiced men 
can agree. 


There is also some contention between the Christian and the so-called 
Humanitarian Grand Lodges. The latter are mixed in respect to the religion of their 
membership. There is dispute also concerning the application of this or that ritual, 
which at times rises to the surface with some ebullition in the various Masonic 
publications of the two systems; but this is only a matter of local opinion, and both 
systems follow the old landmarks with heart and mind. 


The German Masonic publications are full of articles treating of philosophic, 
historic and religious issues and questions. They are written chiefly by brethren 
with an academic education, who are an important factor in all the St. John's 
lodges. Besides this Masonic events from other countries are recorded for the 
benefit of the inquisitive brother. The many books and pamphlets published yearly 
by individual brethren treating various Masonic topics may be mentioned here 
also, many of them are distinguished by intellectual depth and are of great value 
and interest. 



The rapprochment between the German Grand Lodges and the Grand Orient of 
France and the Grand Lodge of France at Paris for an agreement and reconciliation 
has not made much headway, as is disclosed by the correspondence. The following 
is a summary, taken from the Mitteilungen, the official monthly journal of the 
Grand Lodge of Saxony, with a circular letter to the Saxon lodges, dated 


Dresden, March 10, 1927. 


With reference to the correspondence of Feb. 16, 1927, between the French Grand 
Masters, Messrs. Brenier and Doignon, and Br. Ries, the Grand Master of the 
Eclectic Grand Lodge at Frankfurt, the following statement came to me for your 
information. 


G. Anders, Grand Master. 


The statement mentioned is translated as follows: 


The authorized representatives of the French Freemason organizations, the Grand 
Orient of France and the Grand Lodge of France, expressed a desire for a 
conference in regard to Masonic questions with a representative of a German 
Grand Lodge. They addressed a communication for this end to the Grand Master of 
the Eclectic Grand Lodge at Frankfurt-that Grand Lodge which in the years 1905- 
1908 had made the proposition to the German Lodge Union to take up the question 
of entering into Masonic intercourse with the French Grand Lodges. 


The Grand Master of the Eclectic Grand Lodge welcomed this proposal for a 
meeting, and subsequently informed the German Grand Masters of its contents by 



letter, and left it to their discretion to be present at the discussions. On Feb. 16. 
1927, Bro. Brenier, President of the Council of the Order for the Grand Orient, and 
Bro. Diognon, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, went into conference 
with Bro. Ries, the Grand Master of the Eclectic Grand Lodge. After greeting the 
representatives of the French Grand Lodges, Bro. Ries gave a brief resume of the 
character and condition of the German Grand Lodges. The French Grand Masters 
replied that they would completely forget the past in an endeavor to accomplish a 
rapprochment, for which the French Grand Lodges have repeatedly expressed their 
desire in various resolutions. 


Bro. Ries asked the following questions: 


Q. Does French Freemasonry recognize all the rights which are inherent in and 
incumbent on all free people, for the German people as well as others; and if so, 
whether the German people have the right to work in a peaceful way for a revision 
of S. 231 of the Versailles Treaty, in which Germany is charged with the sole guilt 
and being the instigator of the World War? 


A. This question being of a political nature has never been considered by French 
Freemasonry. We will gladly submit it to our associate councellors; but the answer 
remains with our Convents, the Grand Lodge Parliaments. 


Q. Is French Freemasonry of the opinion that there will be difficulty in a 
rapprochment should the French troops occupy German territory for years to 
come? 


A. We work daily to have the French troops withdrawn from German territory. We 
support, in this, the policy of Briand. 



Q. Are the French Grand Lodges prepared to prove their brotherly disposition by 
obtaining the return of Masonic property, such as libraries, matriculations, 
archives, souvenirs, pictures, furniture, etc., which belonged to the German lodges 
in Alsace-Lorraine, and which should be given back to the respective lodges? 


A. We beg to receive a list of these lodges and of the desired articles. The French 
Grand Lodges will take an interest in this and do whatever can be done. 


The Mitteilungen says in regard to the above: 


In the Eclectic Journal (Bundesblatt) the Grand Master of the Eclectic Grand 
Lodge, Bro. Ludwig Ries, gives an explanation in reference to the meeting 
between Brethren of his Grand Lodge and the Grand Masters of the French Grand 
Lodges. The question, "What is to be done now?" Bro Ries answers as follows: we 
will have to await the final reply to the question through the respective Convents of 
the French Grand Lodges. When this answer is received, I shall send them to the 
other Grand Lodges and submit to their judgment whether to seek for further 
propositions by the Frenchmen. The attitude of my Grand Lodge to the French 
Grand Lodges did not change through our discussion, nor was it binding in any 
way whatsoever. Nor have I any idea of giving the world a fraternization Scene. 

But what I aimed to do was Masonic Service for our country and for humanity. 


To which Bro. Gottschall, the Editor of the Mittelungen, remarks: 


Nobody will doubt the best intentions of the Grand Master of the Eclectic Grand 
Lodge. But it would have been more prudent to have obtained the opinions of the 
other Grand Lodges before entering into the discussion. 



In the Bundesblatt of the drei Weltkageln (the Three Globes), the oldest and largest 
Grand Lodge in Germany, we take the following: 


In regard to the movement of the French Grand Lodges for a French-German 
Union, we cite a communication of Bro Wertheim, a German Freemason living in 
Paris, to his Grand Lodge, to the effect that politicians are numerous in the French 
Grand Lodges and subordinate lodges, and that according to their views the future 
development of Europe depends solely on the cordial relations between France and 
Germany, and they therefore have come to a determination to seek for an 
international Masonic union between the two countries, for the furtherance of an 
international spirit and popular sentiment. Such a union would clarify the work in 
the task of informing the French of what happens in the German press and vice 
versa, and by carefully sifting the material thus obtained for mutual understanding. 
But such international union has been made impossible from the moment the 
German Freemasons declined to entertain the proposition. Whether, or to what 
extent, the Eclectic Grand Lodge has come to an agreement upon the extract of the 
statement cited above, the Eclectic Bundesblatt is silent. 


We were very anxious to hear something definite on this topic, especially since the 
most Hon. Grand Master, Bro. Ries, at the quarterly Grand Lodge meeting, gave 
out that the Eclectic Grand Lodge would not repulse such an approach, but that it 
must be in harmony with the dignity of the Grand Lodge and with German honor. 
Upon which the Bundesblatt of the Three Globes comments: 


But we are, from our position hitherto enunciated opposed to any deviation, and we 
will not allow the pure ideal striving of our Union to be overlaid with politic, 
economic, or social interests. 


POLAND 



The seventeen German Freemason lodges in German Poland, which was reunited 
to the resuscitated Republic of Poland by the Versailles Treaty, and which were 
formerly daughter lodges of different German Grand Lodges, founded a Grand 
Lodge of their own, under the name, Grand Lodge of German Freemason Lodges 
in Poland. 


The Bundesblatt informs its readers of the seventh Annual Catholic Reunion in that 
part of Poland, at which, besides the Archbishop and several Bishops, the apostolic 
Primate of Poland was in attendance; information which was taken from the 
Posmer Tageblatt. This dwelt first on the crisis of the Polish soul, and secondly 
that the Holy Father inducted the festival of the Christ-King for the Polish soul. 
Christ in all His glory remains today, with the demand that Poland's existence must 
safeguard its rights, and the question arises how Poland can be saved. It must 
counteract the wave of revolution which undermines the religious life. Before all 
things it must break with Freemasonry, which aims to suppress the Christian spirit 
among the nations. And so much the more should Poland break with them, because 
Freemasonry represents the conspiracy in favor of foreign ways and of foreigners. 


ITALY 


Of Mussolini's efforts against the Freemasons, the Bundesblatt says: 


The Navy Department demands that all officers in the Navy and Marine must make 
known to the Government their affiliation with secret societies, especially with the 
Freemasons. Men who belonged to the Order must give date of initiation and when 
they took their dimit, they also must make declaration not to affiliate again. 


The Hamburger Logenblatt (Grand Lodge of Hamburg) in 1927, June number, 
writes as follows: 



The profane press brings news of all sorts and kinds about Freemasonry in Italy on 
the occasion of the judicial procedure against Zaniboni. 


The Duce put his declaration of May, 1925, into action: "I will contest 
Freemasonry to the utmost, first I will break their bones in two, and then make 
them prisoners." 


The sixty-eight-year old General Bro. Capello was condemned to thirty years in 
prison, and the first six years of it was to be in solitary confinement. The Grand 
Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, Bro. Torrigiani, was two hours after his arrest, 
without any court proceedings, exiled to the Liparian Islands for five years. 
Altogether, forty-five Italian brethren have been exiled for the crime of being 
members of the Masonic Order; some of these leaving wife and children behind in 
dire distress. For the crime of which Capello was charged, and the verdict 
rendered, two newspapers comment and they truly are not friendly towards 
Freemasonry. The Boersen-Courier said: 


What really, as it appears to German comprehension, is charged against Capello, is 
that he belonged to an organization forbidden in Italy. But with the General, Italian 
Freemasonry was to be destroyed, although the most presumptuous logic failed to 
show actual connection with Zaniboni, and the evidence was incredible. 


While Germania (the organ of the Catholic Clergy, Berlin) commented thus: 


From what one heard in the corridors of the Halls of Justice, the verdict was not 
surprising. To an outsider, the trial has not brought out any satisfactory reason for 
the severity of the verdict against Capello. But at the trial it was really 
Freemasonry that was at the bar of judgment, and Capello was only its 
representative the same verdict that fell upon the guilty Zaniboni had to strike him 
also. 



In ancient Rome the word was coined "Fiat Justitia, pereat mundus !" Today in the 
fascistic Rome it is forgotten. 


— o — 


History of North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D. 


By BRO. CHARLES F. IRWIN, Associate Editor Connected with the 164th U. S. 
Infantry 


THE dispensation for this lodge was granted in October, 1917, to a large group of 
North Dakota Masons who were officers and soldiers in the 164th Infantry, U.S.A. 
The commanding officer of this regiment, Colonel John H. Frame, was the first 
Master of the lodge. 


Grand Secretary Stockwell, in commenting on this lodge, writes as follows: 


I do not recall that he (Col. Frame) made any formal report in turning over the 
papers and dispensation in connection with this lodge. The paraphernalia of the 
lodge which was largely made by the brethren overseas has been returned to our 
Grand Lodge Museum and is one of the most interesting collections which we have 
there. 


Our lodge, connected with the 164th Infantry, U. S. A., held one or two meetings 
in Charlotte, North Carolina, before going overseas. One meeting was held on 



board the transport, and I am inclined to believe the meetings in France did not 
exceed eight or ten. 


A number of candidates were elected and received their degrees in France. We 
limited the right of this lodge to receive petitions from North Dakota men only. We 
do not care to infringe upon the jurisdiction of any other Grand Lodge and more 
than that, in order to be absolutely certain, we made it necessary for the name of 
every petitioner to be submitted to the lodge in whose jurisdiction the petitioner 
resided when in North Dakota. 


Our further source of information of this military lodge is confined to printed 
reports and references found in various Grand Lodge Proceedings of the years 
1918, 1919 and 1920. For example: 


Proceedings of Missouri, 1919, correspondence: "Three lodges were created (by 
North Dakota) by Dispensation in casual form and are Military Lodges. [Note This 
is inaccurate. Only one was Military C.F.] The Grand Master explains at length 
and was doubtless supported by the council of wise members but the great majority 
of our Grand Lodges have refused to take such an action." This was a review of the 
North Dakota Proceedings of 1918. 


Proceedings of Indiana, 1919, p. 98, correspondence, reviewing North 
Dakota, 191 8: "Three new lodges were instituted and ONE MI L ITARY LODGE 
was granted a Dispensation." 


In the Proceedings of 1918, North Dakota, the Grand Master in his address at the 
annual communication referred to this military lodge in the following language: 



On Oct. 30, 1917, we issued our Dispensation to the above lodge (No. Dak. Mil. L. 
No. 2, U.D.) upon Petition of some 45 Master Masons in the Military Service of 
the U. S. A., with the 164th Infantry, at Camp Greene, North Carolina. These 
brethren had originally been in the 1st and 2nd North Dakota Infantry, National 
Guard. We carefully considered the petition, weighing any objections which might 
be urged against Military Lodges, and decided that in the light of our previous 
experience (namely, the No. Dak. Mil. Lodge No. 1, which went to the Philippine 
Islands during the SpanishAmerican War in 1899) the advantages far outweighed 
the objections. This Dispensation was a lengthy one in which we endeavored to 
cover any possible contingency which might arise. We trust our action in this 
particular will have your approval. While the exigencies of the military service, 
particularly in things war, have prevented as frequent meetings as might be 
desired, still enough information has reached us to justify in our own mind the 
organization of this lodge. 


The officers designated in the Dispensation are as follows: 


Bro. John H. Fraine, W. M.; 

Bro. Gilbert C. Grafton, S. W. 

Bro. Frank S. Henry, J. W. 

Bro. Louis L. Eckman, Treasurer 
Bro. Chris J. Kunz. Secretary 

We gather from the 1920 Proceedings of North Dakota Grand Lodge the following 
(p. 519): 


The First North Dakota Regiment arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, Oct. 1, 
1917, the first mobilization point on its way to France. As soon as the regiment 
was formed, the men of the Masonic Fraternity at once began to talk of the 



possibility of forming a Military Lodge, such as North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 
1, U. D., which went to the Philippine Islands during the Spanish- American War. 
A petition was signed and sent to the Grand Lodge requesting a Dispensation to 
work as a lodge during military Service. About the 1st of November, 1917, 

Colonel John H. Fraine received the Dispensation, which gave North Dakota 
Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D., power to work the degrees and receive candidates 
subject to the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of North Dakota. 


Sunday, Nov. 4, 1917, the first preliminary meeting of the lodge was held in the 
Masonic Temple at Charlotte, North Carolina. Colonel John H. Fraine was elected 
Worshipful Master; Lieutenant Colonel G. C. Grafton, Senior Warden; Major 
Frank S. Henry, Junior Warden; Capt. Louis Eckman, Treasurer; and Lieutenant C. 
J. Kunz, Secretary. As the regiment was Viable to be called at any time, the 
meeting adjourned subject to the call of the Master. 


Nov. 16, 1917, the regiment left for Camp Mills, Long Island N. Y., and the 
following month was so taken up with plans for embarkation for France, that there 
was very little opportunity for any meetings of the lodge. The regiment embarked 
on Dec. 12, 1917. on what had been the German Vaterland, then renamed the U. S. 
S. Leviathan. 


During the passage a stated meeting was held in Col. Fraine's stateroom, where as 
many as could be crowded in attended. One of the ship's officers loaned an electric 
candlestick with three lights which originally had been part of the equipment of the 
Kaiser's suite of rooms always reserved for him on this boat. A week was spent in 
England, and France was reached on the first day of January, 1918, when the 
regiment was immediately split up and scattered. 


From the standpoint of Masonic activity the next three months were without 
interest. Finally enough of the officers (of the lodge) met at Gondrecourt so that 
Sunday, March 3 (1918), a preliminary meeting of the lodge could be held in an 
old hall loaned by the Y.M.C.A., which had at one time been the dining room of an 



old hotel. At this meeting 36 different states Canada, England and Australia, were 
represented. Plans were made for active work. 


March 16, 1918, a meeting was called for work in the Entered Apprentice Degree, 
at which Louis M. Thune, who later gave his life, received his first degree. Col. 
Frame acted as Master. The altar consisted of a hotel table with two cases of 
condensed milk, covered with a gunny sack, as kneeling benches. 


At the first meetings each man used his own handkerchief for an apron, and French 
girls were hired to sew on tapes, so that thereafter there was a regular supply of 
aprons. The three lesser lights at this first meeting were candles fastened to a 
triangular piece of wood nailed to a tent pole, sawed off to the proper length. 


Later Capt. Grant secured a candlestick with three lesser lights from the ruins of a 
Roman Catholic Cathedral in the front line trenches at Xivry. The altar jewels, the 
officers' jewels, and the trowel were cut from the tops of men's kits by means of a 
pair of tinner's shears, an old pocket-knife and a three cornered file which Lieut. 
Hill happened to have in his possession. He and Capt. Grant first drew the outlines 
on the aluminum pans, and then cut them out, the task requiring most of their 
leisure time for more than a week. The trowel was provided with a fork handle. 
The letter "G" was cut from pine and covered with the lining of a bacon-tin. 


The officers' jewels were fitted with blue ribbon bought at a French store and 
fastened with ordinary safety pins. The setting maul was a stuffed canvas canteen 
cover. The chimes for High Twelve were made by Capt. Grant from two 75 mm. 
French shell cases which were the FIRST SHOTS FIRED by one of the American 
batteries and which produced a tone very pleasing to the ear. The first Tyler's 
sword was a rusty jack-knife which he happened to have in his pocket later a U. S. 
bayonet was used, and still later a German bayonet was secured. 



The ballot box was made from some bits of pine, and the ballots were white navy 
beans and cubes of pine dipped in ink. The gavel and other implements were made 
from various bits of wood procured from the remains of an American gun carriage 
which had been hit by a German shell, and the handles of two of them from the 
spokes of the same shattered carriage. 


One of the first gavels used was one which had been brought from New York by a 
brother who attended the Ziegfield Follies there. Capt. Grant provided the means 
of having the columns and the three, five and seven stairs by having a sign painter 
paint them upon the reverse side of an old black poncho. 


From the Proceedings of 1920, Grand Lodge of North Dakota, we gather quite a 
few references to this Military Lodge, as follows (p. 521): 


Regular meetings were held between March 16 (1918) and the latter part of June, 
at about which time the regimental headquarters were moved to Langres, where 
meetings were resumed and continued until Col. Fraine left the regiment. There 
was also a two-day session, Aug. 10-11, 1918, at Gondrecourt, at which the First, 
Second and Third Degrees were worked on unfinished material left over from the 
earlier meetings held at Gondrecourt. Col. Fraine and LieutCol. Grafton came from 
Langres to Gondrecourt for this purpose of holding these meetings, during which 
eleven received the E. A., four the F. C. and seven the M. M. Degree. Complete 
details of these meetings are on file in the Grand Secretary's office. 


In all, meetings in France were held at Gondrecourt and Turanne Barracks, 
Langres. Degrees were conferred at all these meetings with the exception of one. 
Much of this work was done at the request of various lodges in North Dakota and 
other jurisdictions, including Ohio, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, South 
Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan and Idaho. 



One of the very interesting facts about this lodge is that its three principal officers 
had been members of the old North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 1, U. D., at 
Manila, during the Spanish- American War. 


In the Proceedings of 1919, p. 270, the Grand Secretary has the following to add to 
this fine story: 


Late in March there was received at the Grand Secretary's office the paraphernalia 
and funds of this lodge. The paraphernalia we have brought with us for exhibition 
at this Grand Communication. The funds ($666.66) came to us in seven money 
orders, and are deposited in the Northern Savings Bank of Fargo, in a savings 
account in the name of North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, awaiting disposition 
by the Grand Lodge. 


While we have not given the matter careful consideration, we are convinced that 
this money ought not to be carried into our General Fund, but rather set apart for 
some specific purpose having relation to the Great World War. 


Acting on the advice of the Grand Master and the Jurisprudence Committee, we 
have issued a certificate giving the status of those elected in this lodge, and 
waiving jurisdiction over them in favor of any lodge in whose jurisdiction they 
reside, or may establish a residence. A copy of this certificate is attached for the 
use of any committee to which this may be referred. 


On page 254 of the same Proceedings we come upon this reference: 


The paraphernalia of North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2 U. D., has been returned 
to the Grand Lodge and return of the Minutes and Records is expected at any time. 
Owing to the fact that this lodge was restricted to candidates who were bona fide 



residents of North Dakota, and owing to the transfer of many men and officers 
there were many difficulties encountered. In spite of all these handicaps this 
Military Lodge held about a dozen meetings and conferred all three degrees. Some 
thirty candidates were elected and a number of degrees were conferred by courtesy 
for other lodges. At one meeting more than 100 Masons met, and nearly thirty 
different jurisdictions were represented. Very few Grand Jurisdictions had Military 
Lodges in this war, but we are confident that our Military Lodge served a useful 
purpose. The Dispensation will now be surrendered and the candidates who 
received degrees will receive certificates similar to those issued twenty years ago 
in the case of our first Military Lodge. 


On page 51 1 in the 1920 Proceedings, the Grand Secretary speaks concerning these 
certificates: 


Last year the Grand Lodge instructed the Grand Secretary to issue a certificate of 
membership for those brethren who constituted North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 
2, U. D. We prepared copy for the same and forwarded it to Bro. J. H. Fraine, W. 
M., for his approval. The letter containing the copy for the certificate never 
reached him. We had retained no copy and hence, thinking that the original might 
appear, we have delayed preparing a new copy. However it is our intention to 
prepare this copy without further delay and have the same printed. The money in 
the North Dakota Military Lodge Fund is still in the Northern Savings Bank, 
Fargo, N. D. We have returned to Plain City Lodge, No. 449, Paducah, Ky., 
$30.00, fees paid by R. L. Boone for degrees conferred as courtesy by N. D. Mil. 
L., No. 2, U. D. Interest amounting to $35.07 has been added so the Fund now 
totals $671.33. 


P. 516, ibid. Grand Lodge Library Report. 


The Library has received (names) in North Dakota Registration Book for the 

returning men from service who visited the North Dakota section of the Hall of 
States, New York City, which we received through the courtesy of Miss Harriet 
Wenburg. 



Ibid, p. 519-21. Of outstanding importance among the additions which we received 
during this year are the N. D. Mil. L., No. 2, equipment .... The lodge equipment 
made by certain members of the N. D. Mil. L., No. 2, U. D., was brought back to 
Fargo and placed in the Museum by Lieut. Ernest Hill. It was displayed during the 
Grand Lodge Sessions of 1919 at Grand Forks and later organized into an exhibit 
in our Museum. The official records of the lodge contain no references to this 
interesting collection, hence it has seemed advisable to make a statement 
concerning it; a matter of record by means of this report. With the collaboration of 
Capt. R. F. E. Colley and Lieut. Ernest Hill, this brief sketch has been prepared. 


In the Proceedings of 1919, p. 362, we come upon the list of brothers who entered 
this Military Lodge, as follows: 


The following brothers, residents of North Dakota serving in the A.E.F., received 
one or more degrees in the North Dakota Military Lodge, U. D., No. 2: 


Brocopp, Herman A. Carlson, Earl O. W. Drowley, George Harold Ellis, Walter 
Goerner, Werner C. Gram, Bristol F. (Elected) Hanson, Earl E. (Pet. Reed.) 
Heaton. Vinton P Moore, Cuthbert B. Moon, Glen W. Mosted, Alfred Omlie, 
Myron W. Oster, Hyman L. Rifleman, Perry N. (Elected) Schamowski, Adolph H. 
Skinner, Forrest F. Skogmo, Harold E. South, Earl W. Stillings, Harlow C. 
Stillings, Raymond Stillings, Roy V. Stokke, Elmer A. 


The days of the Military Lodge were now fast running to a close, and we come 
upon the records of its closing in the Proceedings of 1919 and 1920, as follows: 


1919, Page 307 - 



The Report of the Committee on North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D. 
Presented by W. Bro. Theodore S. Henry who had been a Capt. and a member of 
the Lodge overseas. He moved its adoption. It was adopted as follows: 


To the Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of North Dakota: 


Your Committee on North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D., begs leave to 
report as follows: A careful examination of the letters and other papers received of 
this lodge, records the fact that this Military Lodge, No. 2, performed much labor 
while in existence, but papers are lacking which would give us complete records of 
the many men who joined this Order by initiation. 


Owing to the non-appearance at this time of the minutes and other vital records, the 
conferring of degrees, it is not possible to give complete information concerning 
this lodge. However, we recommend that the Grand Master be authorized to issue 
certificates, showing the name of the brother who received his degrees in the North 
Dakota Military Lodge to be in good standing in the degree which he attained, and 
waiving and releasing all and every jurisdictional right which said North Dakota 
Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D., may possess over said brother. Attached hereto is a 
form of the certificate.... 


There has been turned into the Grand Lodge Treasury the sum of $666.66 by North 
Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D., being proceeds received for degrees 
conferred. We recommend that this Grand Lodge issue to each charter member and 
each person receiving one or more degrees in North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2. 
U. D., a suitably worded and engrossed Certificate of Membership, the expense of 
which will be deducted from the proceeds turned in to the Grand Lodge by said 
Military Lodge. 


We further recommend that the balance of the money remaining from these 
proceeds form a nucleus for a Military Relief Fund, which fund shall be used for 



the relief of members or their families of the North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, 
U. D. This fund shall be under the control of the Committee on Masonic Relief, 
and be kept separate from all other funds of the Grand Lodge. We further 
recommend that the Dispensation of North Dakota Military Lodge, No. 2, U. D., be 
discontinued. Fraternally submitted, 


Theodore S. Henry James M. Cubbison Thaddeus C. Michael Albert Lowe Elmer 
W. Witherbee Committee. 


Proceedings 1920 Grand Masters Address, P. 511. 


Before commencing the review of the Proceedings of North Carolina, your 
correspondent wishes to acknowledge the great kindness and unbounded 
hospitality extended by the people of Charlotte to the officers and men of the 1 st 
North Dakota Regiment, later the 164th U. S. Infantry, during their stay at Camp 
Greene. Its Colonel, Hon. John H. Fraine, and most of the field and line officers 
were Masons. They have written home concerning the kindness of the brethren of 
North Carolina in general, and the citizens of Charlotte in particular. 


Our thanks are extended to the loyal Americans who opened their hearts and 
homes to our North Dakota boys. Col. Fraine and two companies of the regiment 
came from Grafton, the home of your Correspondent, and we of this city as well as 
the people of the whole state, feel deeply grateful for the kindness and courtesy 
shown these brave men who are now in the trenches of France, fighting for liberty 
and democracy. Nothing proves more fully that we of the North and you of the 
South are a United Nation, with the bitterness and misunderstanding of the past 
forever buried, than the spontaneous and openhearted hospitality shown by the 
people of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the soldiers of North Dakota. God bless you 
all for your goodness, and may Providence keep our boys and your boys from the 
supreme sacrifice that they may return to us and live and labor for a more splendid 
realization of the institutions of Freedom, Liberty and Justice established by the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. 



And now may I offer the following toast which is a sentiment unquestionably dear 
to the heart of all Americans, North, South, East and West: 


Here's to the blue of the wind-swept North As it meets on the fields of France. May 
the spirit of Grant be over them all As the Sons of the North advance! 


Here's to the grey of the sun-kissed South As it meets on the fields of France. May 
the spirit of Fee be over them all As the Sons of the South advance! 


Here's to the Blue and the Grey as one As they meet on the fields of Frances May 
the spirit of God be over them all As the Sons of the Flag advance! 


And with this beautiful sentiment expressed more than eight years ago by the 
Correspondent of North Dakota Grand Fodge toward our splendid brethren of the 
southland the story so far as we possess it is told. There are many additional 
experiences that might be added to it and the hope lies in our hearts that some son 
of that Grand Fodge will take upon himself to tell the complete story as known 
only to those who went through the whole moving picture of the Fodge Fife can 
tell it. It is one more chapter of the brilliant Masonic history written during the 
days when the cannon's roar shook the nation. And in these days of peace the 
principles tested by the fire of battle are proving themselves and we confidently 
believe that Masonry has a vital place in the life of our nation and, God helping us, 
we shall ever do our utmost that the Brotherhood of the World may become not 
only a hope but also a fact. 


NOTE 



The following is the text of the certificate granted to members of Military Lodge, 
No. 2; 


(Square and Compasses) GRAND LODGE A. F. & A. M. Of North Dakota. 


(Flag) FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 


This is to certify That Brother was identified either as an officer, member or 

candidate for degrees with NORTH DAKOTA MILITARY LODGE, No. 2, 
UNDER DISPENSATION. 


This lodge was granted a Dispensation on October 30th, 1917 and was attached to 
the 164th U. S. Infantry, originally composed of the First North Dakota Infantry 
and parts of the Second North Dakota Infantry. The 164th was commanded by 
COL. JOHN H. FRAINE, who was the Worshipful Master of said lodge. 


Meetings were held in Camp Sevier at Charlotte, North Carolina, on board the 
transport LEVIATHAN, and at various points in France. A number of candidates 
were elected and received their Masonic degrees in this lodge. 


This Certificate is given as a testimonial of our high regard for the valor and 
patriotic devotion which prompted these, our brethren, to respond to the call of 
their Country in time of national peril; and whose attachment for our Order caused 
them to associate themselves together in a Masonic Lodge that true Masonic light 
and fellowship might be known amid the storm and stress of war. 


Given under our handles and the seal of the Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of North 
Dakota, this day of A. D. 19...., A. L. 59 



Attest: 


Grand Master. 


Grand Secretary. 


Within a pocket in a small lambskin apron, the flap of which was buttoned, and 
with blue tapes, was the following Certificate: 


Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. Of North Dakota United States of America. (Square 
and Compasses) presents and vouches for 


as a worthy Master Mason, a member of Lodge No at , 

North Dakota, U. S. A. and so commends him for brotherly care and lawful aid to 
any Mason who may find him in distress or need, incident to his Service as a 
soldier of the United States of America, with the assurance that all courtesies 
extended will be deeply appreciated. 


La Grande Loge A. F. & A. M. presente et reponde pour 


comme etant un digne maltre macon, membre de la Loge maconnique, 

numero , situee a , de North Dakota, U.S.A. La Loge ci-dessus le 

reccommande a le soin Fratemel et l'aide legitime d'aueun francmacon qui le 
trouve dans le besoin ou la misere, a l'effet de son service comme soldat des Stats 
Unis dAmerique, avee l'assurance que toutes courtoises montrees seront 
profondement appreciees. 


Die Grosse Loge A. F. & A. M. stellt vor und steht Burge fur 



dass er ein wurdiger Meistermaurer ist ein Mitglied der Loge Nr 

in , North Dakota U. S. A., und empflehlt ihn jedem Freimaurer der ihn in der 

Not finden moge, als Folge seiner Pfliehten eines Soldaten der Vereinigten Staaten 
von Amerika, fur Braderliche Pflege and gesetzmassige Hilfe, mit der 
Versicherungw dass alle Gunstbezeigungen, die man ihm ziegen mag, hochst 
gesehatzt werden. 


Dated Fargo, N. D 


, Grand Master. 


(Seal) 


, Grand Secretary. 


Signature 


— o — 


LUDENDORFF WRITES; MUSSOLINI ACTS 


(Translated by E. Rammelmeyer from Die Bauhuette.) 


Garibaldi who unified the Italian provinces into a centralized government and 
nation was an ardent enthusiastic Freemason and Grand Master of "The Grand 
Orient of Italy." He also had a plan worked out for the unification of all European 



nations, which in later years was painfully set up on legalized principles and 
paleontologic injustice. The respect paid to this man by the Italian people by 
external actions can be seen by the statues erected to him conspicuously in every 
city. 


Before the edict to exterminate the Masonic Fraternity by Mussolini, wreaths were 
placed by the Craft at the foot of these monuments on July 2, the day of his death, 
especially by the Lodge "Cavour" in Turin. 


Now it happened that some thirty odd years ago, at the solemn dedication of the 
great magnificent Garibaldi Monument in Rome, the Italian Freemasons had set at 
the pedestal a beautiful durable wreath of bronze. This was embellished with our 
symbols. 


On a November night of last year this wreath was chiseled out and removed. By 
this we consider that the monument was dishonored; and more, through Facistic 
illogic and narrowness more infamy was brought to desecrate this wreath, the same 
as was done at the Masonic Temple of the Grand Orient of Italy by Facistic mob 
power. For in the place of the Square and Compasses were placed bound Lictor 
rods acrimoniously, inserted as a sign of senseless Facistic Might. 


To these ancient Roman war symbols, skipping the many magnificent symbols 
which later centuries produced in Italian deeds of culture, an army rifle was 
wrought in beside the fasces; also a Bronze Book, which possibly represents the 
Italian Constitution, which the Duce trampled under foot. 


The flare of torches of a festive nocturnal procession illuminated this vulgar, bold 
exploit at the pedestal, dishonoring the memory of Garibaldi whose Masonic 
doctrines were deeply rooted in him as a precept and creed, leading him to his 
great patriotic deeds and achievements. 



O 


EDITORIAL 

R.J. MEEKREN, Editor in Charge 

E. E. Thiemeyer, Research Editor 

BOARD OF EDITORS 

LOUIS BLOCK, Iowa 
ROBERT I. CLEGG, Illinois 
GILBERT W. DAYNES, England 
RAY V. DENSLOW, Missouri 
GEORGE H. DERN, Utah 
N.W.J. HAYDON, Canada 
R.V. HARRIS, Canada 
C. C. HUNT, Iowa 
CHARLES F. IRWIN, Pennsylvania 
A. L. KRESS, Pennsylvania 

F. H. LITTLEFIELD, Missouri 
JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, California 



ARTHUR C. PARKER, New York 
J. HUGO TATSCH, Iowa 
JESSE M. WHITED, California 
DAVID E. W WILLIAMSON Nevada 


OPTIMISM OR PESSIMISM 


THERE has been some comment about the pessimistic attitude adopted by the 
Masonic press. 


Whether or not there is justification for the remarks is a debatable question. The 
criticism of the Fraternity, in which Masonic journals have participated, has been 
severe in the past few years. Many defects in the organization have been called to 
the attention of those in official circles, but as yet we have seen little inclination to 
remedy the trouble. One critic of the press some time ago asserted that editors 
should adopt an optimistic attitude. Unfortunately no definition of his meaning was 
given. 


Let us for the moment grant that we have been pessimists; that we are continually 
looking on the dark side of the situation. Suppose we adopt the other attitude and 
praise the present state of affairs as predicting a rosy future. Will we get anywhere? 
We might, but on the other hand at least one person is inclined to believe that 
Grand Lodge officials will rest on their haunches and allow things to drift along 
without any constructive effort on their part. 


Suppose for the moment that the Masonic Fraternity is as perfect as it is possible to 
make it. Can we keep it that way? More than once has it been said that nothing can 
stand still; everything must progress or else it goes backwards. The world is full of 



illustrations of this point. No city which is not constantly widening its streets, 
improving its lighting facilities, and more recently, constructing airports, can hope 
to compete with its more progressive neighbors. Unless the improvements are 
made the city does not grow. New industries pass it by and its population fails to 
increase. It has reached its peak. Will it stay the same size, support the same 
industries, and have as many inhabitants for very long? The answer is obvious. 
Business enterprises begin to seek more progressive homes. They must keep 
abreast of the times. When they leave a city their employes leave, too. There is a 
little town not very far from St. Louis that is a typical illustration. A score of years 
ago it was the home of a huge glass plant. The city failed to see the advantage of 
electrical power. Another town five miles away seized the opportunity. The glass 
plant moved and now the original town is a collection of boarded houses. The 
Masonic Fraternity, in spite of its age-old ritual and love of tradition, must progress 
or follow the backward path. 


It can't possibly progress with Grand Lodges content to follow in the footsteps of 
their forefathers. Would any Mason consent to have his home lit with gas or 
kerosene lamps simply because his father or grandfather had this form of 
illumination? The Fraternity failed miserably on the tuberculosis campaign because 
there were a number of objections raised, most of which could be simmered down 
to the f act that such a plan was a new innovation. The Order of St. John has taken 
the idea in hand and the Masonic Fraternity has lost an opportunity to grow. 


The Craft is not perfect, it makes errors. Such mistakes should be discussed 
openly. There are many of them, but this is not the time to enumerate them. The 
optimistic note in editorial writing is splendid. No one will find an editor who is 
not willing to praise any undertaking which reflects favorably upon the Craft, but 
the Masonic editor is in a peculiar position. He is in touch, directly or indirectly, 
with every Grand Lodge. He sees all the errors and all the good. The evidence is all 
marshalled before him. A Grand Lodge errs. The editor can see the error because 
he sees the effect on the Craft as a whole, whereas the Grand Lodge either does not 
see, or does not want to see, the effect outside its own border. 


It is only through the Masonic press that such errors or criticisms can be brought to 
the attention of the Craft. It is hard to tell how much influence the editorial 



columns do have. Sometimes we are inclined to think that it is very little. The 
organization of Masonry is such that the pulse is not easily taken. The fact that the 
Grand Master is an absolute monarch during the interval between Grand Lodge 
meetings makes it necessary to impress one particular man or the whole thing fails. 
He may say no, with no reason whatever, as more than one G. M. has done, and his 
actions are subject to review only by the Grand Lodge. By the time this body meets 
the whole plan may have collapsed, whereas his support may have given the 
impetus necessary to put it over. As a result we stand still, we don't progress, and 
we will eventually retrograde. 


There has been very little severe criticism of the Craft in America, except on one 
point. The press generally has condemned the utter failure of official Masonry to 
support charitable undertakings. We say that charity lies at the foundation of 
Freemasonry, but there is nothing on which the securing of favorable action is 
more difficult than a charitable undertaking. We have our homes, it is true, but 
Masonry will never attain the satisfaction of Masonic charitable aims until no 
worthy appeal for aid by a Mason goes unanswered, whether it be for financial aid, 
medical attention, care in old age, or what not. 


We cannot be optimistic about the future of the Craft until such time as this aim is 
realized. We can pat ourselves on the back and say we are getting along, but we 
cannot follow in the footsteps of Voltaire's Candide until the outlook is vastly 
improved. 


When one sees the failure of an organization like the National Masonic 
Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association, can he help but be pessimistic? When one sees 
a Grand Lodge of 1 1 6,000 members (and that only one of many) unable to take 
care of its tuberculous, cancerous, insane and incurables, can he be optimistic? Not 
unless he sees some steps being taken to attain the desired end, and when those 
steps are taken, and not until then will optimism take the place of pessimism in 
Masonic journalism. 



VARYING VIEWPOINTS 


REGARDLESS of how thoroughly the subject is treated, either editorially or in 
articles, at regular intervals it becomes necessary to mention the practice of 
Masonic scholars relative to the publication of the so-called secrets of 
Freemasonry. The present discussion is inspired by a pronouncement appearing 
recently in one of our contemporaries and which objects rather strenuously to the 
plain speaking of most or, at least, many Masonic writers. The writer recalls the 
feeling of surprise that came over him when he read his first Masonic book. To see 
in cold black and white things that had previously been considered almost sacred 
was a severe blow. THE BUILDER frequently received requests for information 
on the subject which show that there are those who are equally shocked. There is 
no need of going into detail about the situation; it is sufficiently well known as it 
is. 


The point of view of the lay brother, if we may be so bold as to separate the 
Fraternity into two classes, the scholars and the others, and call one the inner circle 
and the other the outer circle, is easily understood. In many respects we can 
sympathize with them, but we suggest that they try their hand at writing on 
Masonic symbolism, or on the history of the ritual, and see how far they can go 
without speaking freely. 


There are certain things which must be discussed if we are to progress. These 
matters cannot be brought to the attention of the reading public without verging on 
the ritualistic work of the Order. How are we to accomplish the desired end? Two 
methods seem open, one of them to fill in with dots or some other sign which says 
to every reader, "This is a secret, I dare not say more." The other is to adopt the 
practice which has come into common use and about which so much talking is 
done. 



The merits of one plan over the other are not immediately obvious, but at the 
present stage of development one has very decided advantages. Suppose that 
scholars universally adopt the first alternative. In this case, where is freedom of 
speech to stop? If, for your own amusement, you make a collection of monitors 
from various jurisdictions and compare them you would have a difficult time in 
deciding where secret work begins and exoteric matter ends. The secrets of one 
jurisdiction are public property in another. There are the code monitors of some 
Grand Lodges which do not stop short of anything, and which any person with 
average intelligence could figure out if he so desired. That is one difficulty in the 
way of closing the tongues of the writing Mason, but it is, to our mind, not as 
serious as the second one. As soon as blank spaces are left, the non-Masonic reader 
is aware of the fact that secret work is the object of reference. He will, consciously 
or unconsciously, remember these blanks. In some other work he may find the 
blank filled in and immediately decides that he has learned one of Masonry's 
secrets. 


It seems almost childish to have to draw diagrams in defense of what is going on, 
but that seems to be the only way that the desired result can be accomplished. The 
other side of the picture is a study in psychology. When the scholar speaks freely 
the average Mason is astonished. He readily recognizes the allusions and jumps to 
the conclusion that others will do the same. Therein he is wrong. Non-Masonic 
readers are confused by free speaking. They are unable to sift the esoteric from the 
exoteric. There are certain limits beyond which even the scholar will not go. There 
is no reason for being specific on this point. 


Technically you may perhaps say that scholars are violating their obligations in 
this point, but practically speaking, are there any secrets in Freemasonry? There is 
nothing in the ritual which does not appear in other places. The mere fact that the 
phraseology is a bit different does not constitute a secret. The Mason does not 
know any more about many of the subjects to which reference is made in the ritual 
than the ordinary individual. The thought may be conveyed to the Mason in a way 
intended to make him think, but that makes no difference. 


The secrets of Freemasonry are the secrets of individual thought. Some people are 
unable to create for themselves the thought channels which would enable them to 



discover those secrets for themselves. They must be helped along the road. 
Whatever the student writes he cannot do a man's thinking for him, he can only 
endeavor to assist his reader to think for himself. It is not the hearing of a wordy 
ritual that makes a Mason, though we accept as a Mason any man who has heard 
this ceremony. A Mason is not really a Craftsman until he learns to put the words 
into deeds. Judging from the deeds of many who are members of the Fraternity, 
and from the attitude of many who are in official circles in the Craft, there are few 
indeed who are Masons. That, however, is another story. The student who could 
put the real secret of Masonry into words would indeed deserve to be classed as 
rara avis, so much so that the publication of his work would be a priceless gift to 
mankind. 


We do not sponsor nor permit the unlimited divulgence of the so-called ritual 
secrets of Freemasonry. THE BUILDER is careful to exercise many of the 
subterfuges known to students to avoid pointing out the secrets, if you care to call 
them that, but we emphatically cannot conscientiously take part in any effort to 
stifle the work of students who are striving to improve our knowledge of 
Freemasonry. 


May we close with just one question, which is worse, the student who cloaks the 
secrets, generally accepted as such, in a maze that is unintelligible to the profane, 
or the person who calls himself a Mason and yet refuses to aid a worthy brother in 
need of assistance? 


To make the meaning absolutely clear, we refer to the lack of support accorded to 
the tuberculosis relief movement. 


— o — 


BANNERS OF MEDIAEVAL CRAFTSMEN 



Communicated by BRO. N. W. J. HAYDON, Associate Editor, Can. 


ONE of the important features of the 14th century was the struggle between the 
towns and cities and their feudal overlords. Feudalism was based upon agricultural 
land tenure, and grew up when such land was practically the only source of wealth. 
The growth of manufacture and commerce had no place in it. The feudal lords 
sought, naturally enough, to treat the burghers as they did the peasants, but it was 
found that the inhabitants of populous towns had an advantage, in certain respects, 
over even the knights and men-at-arms. This was due to the fact that they were 
always concentrated and could more easily organize. One of the chief difficulties 
of kings and princes in prosecuting war in those days was to keep an army together 
for more than a few weeks. 


The burghers, as their towns grew up, organized themselves everywhere, by their 
crafts and trades, into guilds and fraternities, and many of the towns of that period 
exhibit a stronger resemblance (on a very small scale) to a confederated republic 
than to a modern municipality, and private wars between guilds in the same city 
were by no means unknown. In war the guild became a military unit, and the men 
of a city marched under their craft banners. 


This struggle of the cities for freedom went on more or less everywhere, but during 
the 14th century it was especially notable in the low countries. Had the great towns 
of Flanders only been able to have whole-heartedly sunk their jealousies and 
rivalries, had they only been able to have realized that the growth and wealth of a 
neighbor could, in the long run, only react favorably on themselves, they would 
have been invincible. But this they could no more see, than their overlords could 
understand that unreasonable demands and exactions would slowly strangle for 
them the goose that laid the golden eggs. 


In the long struggle between the men of Ghent and Louis de Male, earl of Flanders, 
the former took the offensive, and, in alliance with those of Ypres, besieged the 



town of Oudenarde which took the earl's part. The earl advanced from Lille to 
Dendremonde against them, and the Flemings hearing of this, planned to make a 
surprise attack upon him. The illustration is taken from a 15th century MS. of the 
Chronicles of Froissart and represents this attack. Froissart says that the attacking 
detachment halted at a village a short distance from Dendremonde, intending to 
attack the following morning. Unfortunately for their purpose some of the country 
people carried word of their presence to the earl; and the garrison was on its guard 
Froissart describes the attack thus: 


Immediately on the break of day, the Flemings advanced by land and in their boats, 
well prepared for an instant attack. When those in the castle and town saw them 
approach they sounded their trumpets, the greater part of the knights and squires 
being already armed. The earl of Flanders, who slept in the castle, heard of the 
march of the Flemings, and that they had commenced the attack; on which he 
instantly arose, armed himself, and sallied forth from his castle, his banner 
displayed before him. At this time there were in the town, Sir Gossuin de Wrle, 
great bailiff of Flanders [and others mentioned by name]. All these knights 
advanced to meet the banner of the earl, and then they marched under it to the 
assault, which was already begun in a severe and horrible manner; for these 
Flemings had brought in their boats, cannons and crossbows, which shot such large 
and heavy bolts that when any one was struck by them there was no escape from 
death. Against these bolts were strongly shielded; and the earl had with him some 
excellent cross-bows, who by their shooting gave the Flemings enough to do. 


The conflict was indecisive, but as the only hope of taking the castle by such a 
small force was by surprise, and that having failed, the Flemings withdrew, and 
returned to Oudenarde in the afternoon after having fought all the morning. 


The militant party in Ghent were distinguished by wearing white hoods, and were 
spoken of as the "white hoods." Froissart gives the impression that practically all of 
the men of what he calls the "small crafts" had assumed this badge. The chief 
industry of Flanders was cloth making. This was subdivided into many minor 
occupations, such as fullers and dyers and shearers and so on. Of the five banners 
displayed in the boat, the middle one shows the lion of Flanders. The two to the 
right each bear a pair of shears extended, showing that they belonged to some cloth 



working guild. The one to the left of the lion banner has an engrailed chevron, a 
very common heraldic "charge," below which is a small square and a large pair of 
compasses arranged in Masonic fashion. Above are two carpenter's axes. It is 
therefore not the banner of a mason's guild. To the left of that again is the fifth 
banner, which also bears a chevron with a level below it and two mallets above. 
This if not a mason's guild was probably of some closely allied craft; bricklayers 
perhaps. 


As has been said, the chevron was a common heraldic device, and was employed 
with other "charges" in a great many coats of arms. It is however found so 
frequently as a component part of the banners and seals of guilds of the building 
crafts that it raises the question whether it was taken to represent a square. Against 
this it must be admitted that it is never depicted with a right angle, and was 
frequently given a wavy outline (engrailed) as in the later form of the arms of the 
Mason's Company in England. It would be very interesting to make a complete, or 
at least fully representative collection of the devices of the building guilds 
throughout Europe, and it is to be hoped that some day it may be done, as it may 
reveal some important facts. 


— o — 


Michigan's Unique Experiment in Masonic Education 
BY G. BOSTON 


The Michigan experiment seems of sufficient importance to warrant an 
interruption of the series of articles scheduled to appear in this Department. The 
N.M.R.S. heartily endorses the idea and will willingly cooperate in any way 
possible with other Grand Jurisdictions interested. 



WHILE Masonic education has made great strides in a number of our American 
jurisdictions during the past half dozen years, it is useless to deny that the average 
blue lodge Mason has yet to read his first Masonic book. He is perfectly willing to 
give the time and study necessary to master the three degrees in the hope of 
donning his apron, but beyond that, he wants any further information pertaining to 
Masonic history, symbolism, philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence, etc., handed to him 
in concise form by able speakers. He simply cannot be induced, and I refer to the 
great rank and file who enter the Order and not those few who are natural scholars 
to dig out for himself the many fascinating facts concerning the Craft with which 
every intelligent Mason should be conversant, and which, of necessity, are not 
included in his ritualistic training. 


It is the same the world over; it is those in the minority who must do the research, 
the digging, the polishing, if the overwhelming majority are ever to have an inkling 
of what it is all about. And then twenty to thirty minutes is about the longest period 
the average Mason will listen. Since we find ourselves in a restless, hurried age, we 
must face conditions as they exist and make allowance for the terrific pressure 
under which most Americans live, move and have their being. If Masonry has 
something really vital to tell a Mason over and above the regular work presented in 
the tiled lodge, then it must put its appeal, its instruction into the most condensed 
form possible. Fifty per cent or more of the pamphlets and other printed matter sent 
to educational chairmen and officers of blue lodges, finds its way into the 
wastebasket unread, because it requires putting one's eye glance to paper. We grasp 
and hold an idea more readily when the ear, and not the eye, is the medium. 


The result? That any blue lodge educational committee which attempts to function 
without an adequate Masonic Speakers' Bureau is pretty much of a total loss. 
Summing up the situation as it existed in Michigan, it was discovered that eighty 
per cent of all demands made upon the Grand Lodge Educational Commission for 
service the past two years, has been to supply speakers for individual, group, 
county and district meetings. The remaining twenty per cent of the calls has been 
for various other forms, including illustrated lectures, reference work, the loan of 
Masonic books, pamphlets, etc. With its limited number of speakers, the 
Commission often experienced great embarrassment and delay in trying to meet 
the incoming calls. In addition, the necessity of sending speakers throughout the 



length and breadth of the state considerably increased the cost of furnishing this 
line of Service. 


Past Grand Master Frank T. Lodge, Chairman of the Michigan Educational 
Commission, together with the other four members of his committee, gave the 
matter serious thought. It was evident what the Commission needed most was 
speakers in every part of the state; speakers prepared to talk on topics of vital 
interest to Masons; speakers willing to give two or three evenings a year, without 
fee or reward, to diffuse light and information. Thus was born the idea that a state- 
wide Masonic Speakers' Contest might help, in a measure, to solve the problem. 
The results were amazing, as the contest proved to be the greatest impetus yet 
given the educational program. From the first, the foremost thought was not only 
the marshalling of talent already available, but the discovery and development of 
new speaking talent in all quarters. 


Work on the Speakers' Contest was initiated by a series of organization meetings. 
The state was divided into nine districts As rapidly as arrangements could be made, 
a meeting was held in each district, with one of the Commissioners in charge of the 
evening; Worshipful Masters, heads of educational committees and all other 
brothers who wished to attend being invited. In addition to the consideration and 
discussion of established lines of service, attention was especially called to this 
new feature. A district chairman, who was to take active charge of the contest in 
his district, was elected in each instance. 


The contest contemplated Lodge, County, District and State Contests, the winner 
in each of the three classes being eligible to compete in the next higher class. The 
contest was open to all Michigan Master Masons. In order to insure as great a 
uniformity as possible, a list of subjects, printed in bold type on large blue posters, 
was mailed to each lodge, each contestant being left free to choose any subject he 
preferred. As an incentive and to stimulate interest, prizes were offered to the 
winners in each class; a suitable Masonic book for the winner of lodge contests; a 
bronze medal for the winner of county contests; a silver medal for the winner of 
the district contests; and in the state contest, a diamond- studded gold medal was 
awarded as first prize and a plain gold medal as second prize. 



The state finals in which all nine districts participated were held at the new 
Masonic Temple, Detroit, the night preceding Grand Lodge Annual 
Communication. Each talk in the finals, as in the lodge; county and district 
contests, was limited to twenty minutes. The speakers were permitted to use an 
outline of their talks, during the contests, if they so desired. The winner of the first 
state honor was Rev. James J. DeKraker, of Grand Haven, who gave a masterly 
handling of "The Apron." Second state honors went to Rev. Joseph L. Kennedy, of 
Rogers City, who spoke on "The Mason and His Church." The judges in all cases 
based their decisions on 60 per cent subject matter and 40 per cent delivery; this in 
the hope of encouraging non-professionals. In this first state contest, no distinction 
was made between professional and non-professional speakers. Michigan's 
experience would seem to demonstrate that such contests should be divided into 
two classes, one for the professional and another for the non-professional. For the 
non-professional, the plan pursued of lodge, county, district and state contests 
seemed to answer all requirements. No doubt the professional class would be better 
confined to two contests, district and state finals. 


During the four months while the contest was under way, from January to May, the 
office of the Michigan Grand Lodge Commission was deluged with requests for 
the loan of books and reference material of all kinds. A number of the regular 
Traveling Library Sets were necessarily called in and redistributed in single book 
shipments. Throughout the state, keen interest was kept alive by the frequent visits 
to lodges of the nine district chairmen and the fifty sub-chairmen. Enthusiasm 
spread in direct ratio to their efforts. The country lodges were rather of the opinion 
that it was their own particular proposition and that the larger cities would have 
few entries; they met with a surprise, however, when twenty-six of Detroit's fifty 
lodges took hold in an aggressive manner and entered contestants. One of the finest 
of all the talks developed by this speakers' contest was that of a Doctor of Dental 
Surgery, a member of Palestine Lodge of Detroit, which boasts 5000 members, the 
largest in existence. His talk, "What Came ye Here to Do," indicated great care had 
been given to the preparation of every sentence. 


It is satisfying to note that this experimental contest proved to be neither a small- 
town nor a big-city proposition. There is no longer any question as to its general 



appeal. Leaders in Masonic thought, many of them state and national figures in 
their chosen professions, caught the vision and did their best to inspire younger 
men with whom they came in contact, to take advantage of this opportunity for 
self-development. Many contestants were put in direct correspondence with older 
Masons who have made a specialty of some particular phase of Masonry, and were 
thus in a position to give them considerable help. 


Of the subjects chosen, the two which proved to be most popular were drawn from 
the realm of applied Masonry; one, "A Mason in His Community and 
Government," the other, "Masonry's Contribution to America." More than forty of 
the two hundred and twenty- five contestants chose the former and twenty- five the 
latter subject. Following is the complete list of subjects entered: 


Altar, The 

Archives, The 

Approach to the East, The 

Apron, The 

Ballot, The 

Beehive, The 

Brotherly Love 

Builders and Building Tools 

Due Guard 

Five Points, The 

Forty-seventh Problem of Euclid 
"G" 


Great Light in Masonry, The 



Great Teachings of Masonry, The 

Hiramic Legend 

Landmarks, The 

Legend of the Third Degree 

Lessons From the Ritual 

Level and the Plumb 

Liberal Arts and Sciences 

Lost Word, The 

Mason in His Church, The 

Mason in His Community and Government, The 

Mason in His Home, The 

Mason in His Lodge, The 

Masonic Charity 

Masonic Foundations 

Masonic Law in Michigan 

Masonry and Business 

Masonry and the Law 

Masonry's Contribution to America 

Michigan Grand Lodge, History of 

Middle Chamber, The 

My Contract With Masonry 



Northeast Corner, The 
Obligations, Masonic 
Our Duty as Masons 
Plumbline, The 
Practice and Tolerance 
Second Degree, Symbolism of 
Square and Compass 
Three, Five and Seven 
Three Steps, The 
Trestleboard of Friendship 
Trowel, The 
Two Pillars, The 
"What Came ye Here to Do?" 
Winding Stairs, The 
Working Tools 


Each week during the contest brought packages of books and clippings from the 
great Masonic library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, all of which were loaned without 
charge. It is safe to state that at no one period in the history of Michigan's Grand 
Lodge has so much earnest study and reading been stimulated as during the four 
months of the contest. The very comprehensive "Syllabus of Masonic Study" as 
prepared by the National Masonic Research Society of St. Louis, Mo., was put to 
daily use. It proved to be a very distinct help to speakers who were not accustomed 
to research work, but who were desirous of getting all obtainable data on any given 
subject before putting the talk into their own words. For instance, one Detroiter 
worked up a remarkably interesting and instructive twenty-minute talk which he 



has since given in a number of lodges; it is entitled "Approaching the East." By the 
use of the Syllabus, he was quickly able to run down all references and get his 
material in chronological order. Into it, he injected his own interpretation and "a 
wonderful job he made of it," according to his Worshipful Master's comment, the 
week following. 


Almost without exception, if reports of those who listened in on the two hundred 
and twenty- five talks which were finally given are true, the winners in ninety 
percent of the contests were those who had not depended on their wits or fluency 
of speech to help them out at the eleventh hour, but rather the honors went to those 
who had taken the time and pains to go after the proposition in a thoroughly 
systematic manner, and do the necessary amount of preparatory work to make a 
meaty, to-the-point, twenty-minute talk. 


The strongest statement that can be advanced as to whether or not Michigan 
considers such a contest worth while, is that a similar Masonic Speakers' Contest 
will be staged by the Grand Lodge Commission beginning Jan. 1, 1929. 


— o — 


EDUCATION AND METHODS 


The following is part of a letter from a Mason of many years' experience, not only 
in the Craft, but in life. There is always the danger of carrying a good thing too far, 
and the still graver though more subtle danger of fettering the spirit of a movement 
with machinery and smothering it with red tape. The whole object of education is 
to stimulate interest. It begins and should remain individual. The Research Society, 
composed of individuals and working through individuals, stands upon that 
principle. There is much to learn in and about Masonry, but not every Mason wants 
to learn about it. If he doesn't it is no use to try and force him. Here the old proverb 
is most certainly true, the horse can be taken to the water, but he cannot be forced 



to drink. It will be seen that we have here an expression of the reverse side of 
official educational methods. Not for a moment would we discourage such efforts, 
but little will be accomplished so long as they are merely official, and applied 
mechanically from the outside. 


My experience leads me to believe that we have too many expert moralists in the 
field. This Education Committee, with its "short talks" pushed on the lodges, with 
insistence that some brother read them at every meeting, and its various and 
numerous official calls on the lodges to instruct them in this, that and the other, I 
think puts the fraternity in the position of being "fed up" on that kind of dope. 
There is, it seems to me, a tremendous amount of claptrap and "bull" being 
disseminated among the Craft. It is destroying interest rather than cultivating it. 
One has seen lodges talked to death by some good old brother who was always 
ready with forty reasons why he loves Masonry. My opinion is that the continuous 
forcing of all these "short talks, leaflets, pamphlets, et hoc genus omne", on the 
Craft is doing no good, and much harm. The average Mason is an average good 
citizen, and if the members of lodge have not violated their obligations, he is not a 
fool. He doesn't need to be told every meeting, under rhetorical forms, that lying is 
lying, stealing is stealing and all that kind of preachments. The truth is, a little 
horse play is much more attractive to the average business man who has to be 
serious during business hours than so much serious homily and commonplace 
moralizing. Arid while I have now resigned my office as D.D.G.M., because of the 
infirmity of age, I have tried, in my visits to the lodges, as far as possible to 
combine a little variety with the official lectures imposed upon me by law. 


We publish this by permission though it was written as a private and personal 
letter. But as our correspondent does not wish to be identified we suppress even the 
customary initials and the name of his state. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 



The books reviewed in these pages can be procured through the Book Department 
of the N.M.R.S. at the prices given, which always include postage. These prices are 
subject (as a matter of precaution) to change without notice; though occasion for 
this will very seldom arise. Occasionally it may happen, where books are privately 
printed, that there is no supply available, but some indication of this will be given 
in the review. The Book Department is equipped to procure any books in print on 
any subject, and will make inquiries for second-hand works and books out of print. 


MASONIC BOOKPLATES. Supplemented by a Descriptive Check List of 586 
Masonic Ex Libris. By J. Hugo Tatsch and Winward Prescott. Published by the 
Masonic Bibliophiles, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Buckram, profusely illustrated, 158 
pages. $10.00 net. 


THE first impression the reviewer has on taking up this book is that it is a fine 
specimen of the printing art. Its very appearance and "feel" attract one to it, and 
when the pages are opened, and the steel plate frontispiece, two color title page and 
the one hundred and more full size reproductions carefully examined, no further 
incentive is required to read the text. The type and format are calculated to attract 
the reader. All in all, Masonic Bookplates is a volume which the fortunate 
possessors will cherish as one of the choicest works in their libraries. 


The book is written for both the novice and the experienced collector. A chapter 
entitled "Concerning Bookplates in General" informs the reader why and how 
bookplates first came into existence. They were the logical accompaniment of 
fifteenth century books circulated when few could read. Some distinguishing mark 
was needed to identify books; very naturally, as a result, heraldic emblems were 
utilized. Their evolution through the various forms of art and ornamentation is 
related in just sufficient detail to satisfy the needs of the beginner. The text is of 
practical worth for it also tells the booklover how to go about to get a bookplate to 
suit his individual tastes. 



The opening chapter is followed by a discussion of "Masonic Bookplates in 
Particular" and "Bookplates of Masonic Bodies." Herein are set forth, for the first 
time, the fine points which distinguish Masonic bookplates from the many other 
styles and varieties. These chapters are original and distinctive contributions to the 
literature of bookplates, and reveal a thorough knowledge of the subject. Following 
these chapters is one on "Masonic Engravers of the Eighteenth Century," in which 
sketches are presented of well known artists of their times, such as John Pine, 
William Hogarth, the Cole family, Bartolozzi, Cipriani, Paul Revere and Goethe 
the poet - all Masons, by the way - together with citations of their Masonic 
engravings. A large bibliography of bookplate literature, printed in many 
languages, shows somewhat the great amount of research the authors must have 
engaged in during the preparation of this work. 


Of greatest value to the collector, however, is the descriptive check list of 586 
bookplates. In this are given details of all known Masonic bookplates, together 
with biographical notes of the owners wherever this information could be 
ascertained. This feature also represents a vast amount of research work and 
correspondence which can only be appreciated by those who have attempted a 
similar undertaking. 


The authors of the volume need no introduction to their respective groups. Bro. 
Tatsch is widely known as a Masonic scholar who has added to his reputation by 
the publication of several other books since assuming his present duties with the 
Iowa Masonic Library at Cedar Rapids, as Curator and Associate Editor. Short 
Readings in Masonic History and High Lights of Crescent History have been 
reviewed in these pages, Freemasonry in the Thirteen Colonies is now in the 
printer's hands for immediate publication. 


Bro. Prescott is Assistant Professor of English at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology and has made voluminous contributions to the literature of bookplates. 
Among them are Canadian Bookplates (Boston and Toronto, 1919); Masonic 
Bookplates (Boston, 1918), a brochure of twenty-nine pages which evidently 
brought the authors of the present volume together as collaborators; "Bookplate 
Extra Illustrating" and "The Modem Trend in Some Continental Ex Libris," two 
articles published in the Year Book of the American Society of Bookplate 



Collectors and Designers. He also wrote the foreword to Verna B. Grimm's A 
Bibliography of Bookplate Literature (Cedar Rapids, 1926). 


It is hoped that The Masonic Bibliophiles will bring out further artistic productions 
of this kind. The initial undertaking, though delayed a year, has been well worth 
waiting for. 


E. M. E. 


* * * 


THE LEGACY OF ISRAEL. Edited by Edwyn R. Bevan and Charles Singer. 
Planned by the late I. Abrahams. Published by the Oxford University Press, New 
York. Cloth, Table of Contents, Index, Illustrated. 552 pages. Price, $4.25. 


THIS remarkable book, sumptuously illustrated, is a companion volume to The 
Legacy of Greece and The Legacy of Rome. In some respects, however, it presents 
a subject which is more baffling than those contained in what we may call the rival 
books, because Judaism is a living force in the world today, whereas the 
contributions of Greece and Rome, in the sense in which they are treated in this 
series, have ceased. It is easier to gauge the waters of a reservoir, or a silent pool, 
even with its inlets and outlets, than it is to estimate the force and depth of a 
moving stream. 


To some the title may be misleading. The term, Israel, has many meanings. To one 
it calls up the picture of the patriarch Jacob, in his great spiritual struggle at Peniel 
when he received the designation Israel; to another the tribes as described in the 
Pentateuch, wandering from oasis to oasis as they took their tortuous and much 
interrupted journey towards Canaan; to another, it connotes the kingdom of Israel 



as distinct from Judah. Indeed, this volume might easily at the first glance be 
regarded as a rather elaborate apology for that modern aberration, British- 
Israelism. A second glance would restore confidence since the book is published 
by the University of Oxford Press and has among its contributors Sir George Adam 
Smith, Professor Burkitt and Canon Box. 


Israel is used in this book as a sort of synonym for Judaism. But it is more than a 
synonym. It is adopted as involving a continuity of culture, not necessarily of race, 
with the dim, patriarchal age, the Mosaic system, the teaching of the prophets, the 
period of Ezra, the traditions of the Rabbis whether contemporary with Christ or 
with St. Francis of Assisi. In fact this age-long culture is undeniable; it has its roots 
in the hoary past and in a simple faith directed towards one Deity whose character 
and attributes were growingly apprehended and finally has become established so 
firmly that the vicissitudes of time and experience alters it not. Unlike other 
cultures of the past which enrich their successors and pass away, this one exists 
today. The volume under review attempts to estimate the contribution of this 
culture to the rest of mankind. 


Most appropriately the series of essays begins with a consideration of the Hebrew 
Genius as exhibited in the Old Testament from the eloquent pen of George Adam 
Smith. Nothing could be better than this overture. It is a graceful and lucid 
presentation of the sources of Hebrew influence and prepares one for what follows. 
To this succeeds an admirable sketch of Judaism in its Graeco-Roman environment 
from Professor Bevan. The debt of Christianity to Judaism is also briefly but 
succinctly treated by Professor Burkitt. To the casual reader it may appear that 
more should have been said upon these subjects, especially upon the latter. But 
when we consider that every serious work dealing with the history of religious 
development emphasizes the Jewish-Hellenic interaction, and that no author 
engaged in the study of Christian origins has failed to recognize how much in its 
first stages Christianity owes to Judaism, such criticism loses much of its force. Its 
force disappears altogether when the scope of the whole work is under review. 
Discursiveness here would upset the balance and destroy the symmetry of that 
which, as it stands, is a very fine literary achievement. When Dr. Burkitt says, "It is 
easy to enumerate the Jewish elements in Christianity, they are two: Jesus and the 
Bible," he has said everything. Dwell upon that brief statement and you will see 
how pregnant it is. 



Dr. Herford has become familiar to many from his fruitful investigations of the 
Judaism contemporary with our Lord and his essay on the influence of Judaism 
upon Jews exhibits a sympathy with a knowledge of the people and its genius 
throughout the many centuries succeeding the commencement of the Christian Era. 
Professor Guillaume shows the immensity of the debt Islam owes to Judaism, a 
debt which includes not the essentials of religion alone - the monotheism common 
to both - but the ceremonial minutiae of the Talmud. Mohammedanism reveals 
Jewish influence even in its reactions. The whole presentation is full of interest but 
- what does Professor Guillaume mean by "tendencious traditions?" (p. 158.) It is 
perhaps a misprint. 


The next essay by Dr. Singer and Miss Singer will be read with eagerness by all 
who are interested in the development of Mediaeval thought. Moreover, what 
Professor Guillaume says in regard to Rabbinic influence in the codifying of the 
tenets of Islam is seen to be true in a large degree also in later times and in a larger 
theatre - in the widely extended Ilamic dominions and in Western Christendom 
alike. The Jews were the carriers to the thirteenth centuries "the Islamic world 
developed its great intellectual system" which was based upon Aristotle and 
largely mediated through Syrians, Persians and above all Jews, who were the heirs 
of the old Graeco-Roman civilization. Something of Plato was also known, the 
Tirnaens being widely studied, while the speculations of the Neoplatonists were 
eagerly devoured. In fact someone has said that the philosophy of this period was 
"Aristotle seen through Neoplatonic spectacles" - a truth but not the whole truth. 
The positive sciences were stressed even to greater degree and in all this 
intellectual activity the Jew was the interpreter of Greece to Arab and to Persian 
and the link between the latter to the fresh vigorous minds of Western Europe. 
Many of the greatest scholars also of this period were of Hebrew stock or faith, 
Avicelron, Abraham Ben Ezra, Averroes, Maimonides, were all Jews of Spain. 
Indeed the Jew may be regarded as the pioneer of the earlier Renaissance, that of 
the thirteenth century. One has not in this book to complain of redundancies but - 
might not the maps (pp. 203 and 225 respectively) have been combined? The 
second would seem to be superfluous. 



Although the Jew was the object of much suspicion and contempt which 
manifested themselves occasionally in popular massacre and later on, as in Spain, 
employed the quasi-legal processes of the Inquisition to satisfy their malice and 
mistrust, many of the best men of the Western World deprecated the persecution of 
the Jews. The great bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, "by his eloquent 
protests and vigorous action saved groups of Jews from massacre in England." 

This prelate was the teacher of Roger Bacon who also entered a noble plea for 
tolerance towards the Jew. Far in advance of his age as he was in the scientific 
method of research he was yet its child theologically as the following extract 
discloses: "Adam, Solomon and others testified to the truth of the faith not only in 
Holy Writ but also in books of philosophy long before there were any philosophers 
so-called." [The italics are the reviewer's.] 


In the Renaissance period many of the leading Humanists, as they were called, 
received their impulse from the Synagogue. This is true of the Renaissance itself 
but even more true of the parallel movement, the Reformation. Mirandola and 
Reuchlin were undoubtedly, on the scholarly side of the latter movement, amongst 
its precursors. Erasmus more interested in Hellenic and New Testament studies as 
he was, did not hesitate to pay a high tribute to the value of Hebrew. Luther studied 
Hebrew, and Calvin was more or less a master of the language. 


Among the later essays in this volume perhaps the most important is that which 
deals with the contribution Judaism has made to the Western Law. It is customary 
to regard the legal system of Western Europe (and America) as being merely an 
adaptation of the Old Roman Law which it received through the Christianized 
Roman Empire. Others claim that the basis of English Law is largely Teutonic. 
How many consider the contribution the Hebrew bad made to the jurisprudence of 
Western civilization? Quite apart from the Christianizing of the pagan system 
which took place between Constantine and Justinian and which was necessarily 
Hebrew in its origin, being based upon Mosaic principles, there has always been, 
especially during austere and Puritanic reactions, "a harking back" to Hebrew 
procedure, softened sometimes, it is true, by evangelic interpretation and the 
Sermon on the Mount. Then, again, the presence of large Jewish communities in 
the midst of our Western civilization has perforce modified the law. 



Dr. Selbie contributes a fascinating chapter on the Influence of the Old Testament 
on Puritanism. Within the Christian Church two principles are present, apparently 
antagonistic, but, as the reviewer believes, truly complementary. There is the 
warm, genial, social principle, the principle of fellowship, humanity, and good 
cheer representing the best in paganism and present in a very large degree in 
Catholic Christianity (in the true sense of the word Catholic) and there is the stern, 
individualistic ethical side which is the legacy of Israel and manifests itself in the 
ever-recurrent reforming movements of the church from the days of Tiertullian till 
modern times. As is most justly due Spinoza wins his meed of praise and 
sympathetic appreciation in M. Leon Roth's article on "Jewish Thought in the 
Modem World." 


A brief but attractive essay concerning the influence of the Hebrew Bible on 
European languages is contributed by M. Meillet, while the legacy of Israel to the 
literature of modern Europe is dealt with most competently by Professor Magnos. 
The volume is fittingly concluded in the epilogue from the pen of Dr. Montefiore. 


A valuable glossary and sufficient index complete a book which is a marvel of 
condensation and the only criticism of a general character which can be levelled 
against it is that too much is compressed into one volume. 


F. G. V. 


* * * 


GOVERNOR SMITH'S AMERICAN CATHOLICISM. By Charles C. Marshall. 
Published by Dodd, Mead & Company. Cloth, 84 pages. 



THE talented author of "An Open Letter to the Honorable Alfred E. Smith" has 
just published a further comment upon the relation of the Roman Catholic Church 
and the secular state as it applies to the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of 
the United States. Those who read the controversy between Mr. Marshall and 
Governor Smith as it appeared this spring, will not need assurance that there is 
none of the flamboyant diatribe that has become popular in some circles in 
reference to Roman Catholicism. Mr. Marshall presents his evidence in a cold, 
dispassionate manner, and he argues with the genius of the talented lawyer. It has 
frequently been said that the legal method of argument makes for dryness and 
difficulty of reading. Perhaps Mr. Marshall's arguments would have more of an 
appeal if they were accompanied by some of the prejudice that makes for 
impassioned statements. There is always an emotional appeal to that sort of 
pronouncement, but it is questionable whether it has the lasting effect of the mere 
presentation of cold facts. So far as the present writer is concerned the emotional 
appeal is always felt, but it happens that as soon as the senses have cooled down 
there is frequently no weight to the argument presented. On the other hand the 
presentation in an intelligent manner of mere facts has the effect of cumulation; in 
other words, the more thought that is given to the subject the weightier the 
evidence seems, if it is only factual evidence. 


Enough for Mr. Marshall's method of presenting his subject. Our readers will be 
interested in knowing something of the line of thought that he pursues. It is 
generally recognized that the reply of Governor Smith to the "Open Letter" 
departed radically from the opinion commonly held regarding the relations 
between the church and state. The accepted view is that the Roman Church holds 
itself above the law of the land. Mr. Smith stated that he knew of no power in the 
church sufficient to influence him in matters of government. These are not his 
exact words, and are merely stated to give the general trend of Mr. Smith's reply. 
This pronouncement was hailed everywhere as being the first statement of a new 
Catholicism. It has been termed in the press of this country as well as abroad 
"American Catholicism." The real question is whether or not this new found 
Americanism in Catholic circles is legitimate. Mr. Marshall, by citing appropriate 
passages from the law of the Catholic Church, very convincingly shows that it is 
not legitimate and that no Catholic can abide by the laws and edicts of his church 
and still follow the dictates of his conscience as Mr. Smith indicates he will do. 



The case is plainly made and no amount of denial upon the part of Catholics can 
prove it otherwise. The letter and the intent of the Catholic law is clear and no one 
but the Pope has the power to interpret it. The generally accepted interpretation of 
the Roman Catholic law as relates to church and state was confirmed during the 
past year by an additional letter coming from Rome. To be fully acquainted with 
the subject one needs only to read this book by Mr. Marshall and his previous one 
The Roman Catholic Church in the Modern State. 


E. E. T. 


* * * 


THE GRAPHIC BIBLE. By Lewis Browne. Published by the Macmillan Co., New 
York. Cloth, Illustrated, Table of Contents, Index. 160 pages. Price, $2.65. 


ONCE more has Lewis Browne, with the keen understanding of an experienced 
teacher, delved into the minds of the proletariat and produced a book which 
simplifies the very complicated subject of religion. This Believing World was an 
outline of the religions of the world. In scholarly, yet readable, style the author 
treated the customs and beliefs of all major religious beliefs. A vide gap in the 
religious education of most people was filled by that work. With the accuracy of 
the compass in seeking the North Pole, Mr. Browne has found another of the wide 
open places and filled it as only he can do. 


We all know the Bible as the text book of the Christian religion. The Old 
Testament, of course, is the guide to Judaism, and since Christianity is an 
outgrowth or a development from the older religion, the books of the Hebrew 
Scriptures, together with the New Testament, comprise the Christian Bible. Unless 
one has no little patience and a great amount of time to devote to the study of this 
volume of Sacred Law he is likely to find himself lost in a maze. The story is 
hardly sequential, and there seems to be no real continuity. Is it any wonder that 



the Sunday-school pupil finds himself facing the task of reading it with dread? 
Indeed it would be strange if the child of fourteen or fifteen, to say nothing of those 
younger, could really make anything of it. Most of the philosophy of the Holy 
Bible is beyond their conception unless it is put into language of one syllable, if we 
may use that term. 


All of this need, and more too, has been felt by Mr. Browne. A part of it has come 
through his long experience as a Sunday school teacher. More came through his 
role as an uncle. The idea of The Graphic Bible found its beginnings in the 
following dialogue and Mr. Browne's gift for drawing. 


"Whew, Uncle!" ieered Arnold almost rudely. "You ought to read Treasure 
Island!" 


"But I have read it," I replied. "Tell me, Arnold, why do you find Treasure Island 
more exciting? Do you think it is truer than the Bible?" 


"No, not exactly truer, Uncle. But somehow it seems more real." 


"Why?" I asked. "Doesn't it tell about a place quite as foreign to you as Palestine?" 


"No," the lad replied with assurance. 


"But why?" 



"Well, I suppose it's because I know my way around on Treasure Island. You see, 
Uncle, there's a map inside the cover of the book!" 


Mr. Browne continues the story in his introduction: 


The idea for this Graphic Bible did not first come to me as a result of that remark 
of my nephew. I rather think it came to me much earlier, and as a result not of a 
single bright remark but of a series of trying experiences. It came to me when I 
myself was a Sunday-school teacher and had to contend week after week with a 
roomful of children who did not even pretend to be interested in what I sought to 
teach them. They were frankly bored. . . . 


And then, almost by accident, I hit on the idea of drawing crude maps on the 
blackboard. They were exceedingly crude, especially in the beginning. I used to 
scrawl them hurriedly while I talked to the class, cluttering them up with little hills 
and trees and forts and ricocheting arrows as the lesson progressed. But their 
grotesque inaccuracy seemed to make them only the more interesting to the 
children. At times I did not use the board at all, but instead made a sort of relief 
map on the floor. The desk over here became Mt. Gilboa, the chairs over there 
represented the hills on which the Philistines were encamped, and the chasm in 
between we called the Valley of Jesreel. And with the topography thus indicated, 
the class and I proceeded to fight out the battle between Saul and the enemy. 


Originally, it was intended that the book should consist merely of maps, but as the 
plan grew into reality it seemed necessary to add some descriptive text. The text is 
meagre, only one hundred sixty pages in the whole book, and nearly one hundred 
fifty of them are broken by animated maps of Palestine. The story is simply told in 
language as animated as the maps. There is no attempt to follow the dictates of 
higher criticism. The story is the story of the Bible and not that of more modem 
critics. Those who believe the Bible to be absolute truth will find this appealing. 

To those who are not so literal in their conception of the Holy Scriptures it will be 
invaluable as a guide to what the Bible does say. Naturally the story has been cut to 
the bare bones; it is only a skeleton, but such a skeleton that it is fascinating to 



behold. The philosophy has been omitted, the long descriptions and lists of 
descendants are cut from the text. There is nothing to detract from the continuity of 
the story and it is virtually a brief history of the Jews with maps to show where and 
how the events took place. 


The style of the maps is interesting. The sea is peopled with ships and dolphins and 
all of the queer monsters that were pictured in the maps of ancient cartographers. 
The land is dotted with trees, fortresses, camels, and the prophet and warrior. Of 
course, this is not accidental. Anyone who had seen any of Mr. Browne's 
illustrations would immediately recognize the style of drawing. A glance through 
the pages of the book will convince one that the maps gain much in interest by the 
conscious adaptation of ancient cartographic style. They are not the flat colored 
splotches that have no more life than the paper upon which they are printed and 
which so often bedeck the walls of Sunday-school classrooms. They are illustrative 
of places in which people might live and breathe and have their being. Such maps 
make us realize that the Bible tells us of real men and real women who lived in real 
places and thus is the story made a true one. 


At no time would such a book have been more welcome, and at no period less so. 
Whenever it was published it would have filled a long felt need. Parents will find it 
interesting and will not put it down until they have read it from cover to cover. 
Perhaps some are sufficiently familiar with the story to scan it hastily, but even 
these will find it both interesting and entertaining, as well as instructive, to people 
the maps with imaginary bands of pilgrims coming out of Egypt, with farmers 
striving to gain a living from the none too fertile soil, or with armies that cross and 
recross the plains, hills and valleys, occasionally fighting a pitched battle. To 
follow the more peaceful expeditions of the Great Teacher through Galilee and 
Samaria and on to Jerusalem. 


No home will be complete without a copy of this latest work from the pen of Mr. 
Browne, and no Sunday-school teacher will find himself properly equipped unless 
he possesses The Graphic Bible. But aside from its purely utilitarian purposes, one 
who misses reading it for the mere enjoyment of doing will be depriving himself of 
a thoroughly enjoyable evening. 



E. E. T. 


* * * 


LAWRENCE AND THE ARABS. By Robert Graves. Published by Jonathan 
Cape. Cloth, illustrated, appendix, index, 54 pages. Price, $2.90. 


THERE are few people who have not at least seen newspaper references to 
Lawrence, and his almost mythical exploits during the war; there are many 
doubtless who would like to know more of the matter. It cannot be said that present 
work is wholly satisfying - it is like certain kinds of liquid refreshment - to imbibe 
simply creates a thirst for more. 


The author does, however, make clear a number of things - surface mysteries - but 
only to reveal further depths beyond for which apparently no plummet is available. 


Lawrence himself published a book, Revolt in the Desert, some two years ago. 
When it came out the world at large learned that it was an abridgement of another 
and much larger and more comprehensive work, bearing the appropriately oriental 
sounding title The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which according to Mr. Graves, and 
undoubtedly he is right, bears an obscure reference (obscure to the ordinary 
occidental mind certainly) to that apostrophe to Wisdom which is to be found in 
the ninth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, which begins: 


Wisdom bath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath 
killed her beasts, she hath migled her wine, she hath also furnished her table. 



Of this work only a hundred and fifty copies were printed, one hundred went to 
subscribers at roughly $150 each, the other fifty were given away; this, though the 
cost of the illustrations alone came to more than $15,000. These facts alone are 
sufficient to intrigue curiosity. What was in this mysterious book, produced at so 
great cost by a man without money - who had to write the second book to pay for 
printing the first? It is a question that is not fully answered by Mr. Graves, though 
some information is given from which the reader may divine or construct an 
answer to suit himself. It is apparently as unsparing an account of men and motives 
and actions as a human being could write. That is one thing. But that is not all; and 
one gathers that it was not fear of libel actions that was the motive for its private 
distribution. Lawrence would seem not to be the kind of man to let such trifles 
stand in his way did he deem it right. It is intimated, Mr. Graves' own words may 
be quoted, that 


. . . the censor might ban as obscene some of the more painfully accurate accounts 
of Turkish methods of warfare, and he tells us that 


A simple member of the public was shown the most painful chapter .... Then he 
could do no work for a week, but walked up and down .... unable to rid his mind 
of the horror of it. 


One begins to see a glimmer of light - both for the writing and for the refusal to 
publish. To those with the gift of expression - in words or plastic art - the best way 
to forget is to record. That is as good a guess as any. If the record thus affected a 
reader, the writer would need to forget the reality if he wished to keep his sanity. 


The present work is a connected account of the Arabian campaign; Revolt in the 
Desert was not. In that Lawrence minimi z ed his part, although, amazing as it 
seems, that part was so extraordinary that certain reviewers accused him of an 
exaggerated ego in writing it. General Allenby is quoted as having the opinion that 
Lawrence could handle any kind of campaign as Commander-in-Chief, but that he 
would have to be perfectly free from control; while Marshal Foch is reported to 
have said, in jest it is true, when there seemed danger of war between the French 



and the Arabs, that he had no intention of risking his fame in Syria if Lawrence 
fought on the other side. The latter story may be apochryphal, but Mr. Graves 
quotes General Allenby's opinion as given to him personally in answer to a 
question. 


Anyone who wants to know what really happened in Arabia and Syria in the years 
of the war must read the book. It would be impossible to even give an outline in a 
review. It is an absorbing story in itself, the reader finds it difficult to lay the book 
aside till it is finished. But a number of questions are raised. One is, what is the 
object of war - any war? Fashion, it would seem, is as autocratic and all powerful 
in military affairs as in anything else. Germany had set that fashion for many years. 
It was at bottom as unintelligent as the mediaeval battles of massed armoured 
horsemen charging each other according to the rules of chivalry; as unintelligent as 
the fighting of two bulls. The complexity of modem armies, and their weapons 
throws a veil of illusion over the fact that modem war, especially as exemplified in 
the last one, is a mere stupid collision of brute force with brute force. The 
complicated organization, and the technical skill required of the individuals 
engaged who compose the war machine, are to be compared to the complicated 
organism of the living animal, the organs of which are also highly specialized and 
work together in a marvelous fashion had we eyes to see it. But the German theory 
of war was the bull's theory, seek out the mass of the enemy and destroy it. But this 
is offered merely because Lawrence, an amateur, whose knowledge had been 
gained chiefly in historical reading, considered and rejected this theory of making 
war; and while lying sick in an Arab tent thought out a plan of campaign, adapting 
means to ends, with the idea of economizing as much as possible the material and 
lives available. First of all he knew what he wanted to do. The war as a whole was 
fought by people who had no clear idea of their objects, or their value if and when 
attained. Lawrence's object was independence for the Arabs. He wanted to gain 
this with as little sacrifice of life, either of the Arabs or their enemies, as might be 
possible. That plan he carried out. He had to keep it to himself, however. Not only 
had the Turks to be deceived as to his ultimate object, but to some extent his own 
nominal superiors in the British forces in Egypt and Palestine had also to be kept in 
the dark. He had to use the objectives they thought important as bait to gain his 
own end. Besides this he had to preach revolution to the Arabs themselves. But 
again, for all this the book must be referred to. 



Another question that is raised, it is perhaps a variant of the one about war, what is 
the object of imperialism - ever, at any time. And one might add, of civilization, at 
least such a civilization as ours. The Arabs live as hardly as the Apaches of the 
Southwest did, as fond of fighting as they, but without their cruelty. One gets 
glimpses of their lives, their interests, ambitions, pleasures. Our culture tends to 
progressively make us more and more dependent on things. The machinery we 
build becomes our master, as unintelligent at bottom as war. The body is 
indefinitely adaptable. If we live softly and at ease, then hardship and exertion 
become painful evils. What is really gained in the end? We have radio, and 
newspapers - the Arab has his story telling and poetical contests. We have 
competition in business, and elections - the Arab has blood feuds and tribal raids. 
These things are pretty well on a level, when all is said and done, for the good they 
do, or the harm they bring about. Incidentally one sees here and there why the 
Englishman is so hated in certain places and by various people. It is not what he 
does, but the way he does it. It is not only the alien who feels this, but his own 
blood often enough. One thing seems certain, that the working of what may be 
called the group nervous system has not yet been sufficiently studied. Why should 
French and British officials, army officers, diplomats, governments, have sought, 
perhaps still seek, imperial ends? It is of no value to the people of their countries, 
and the aim is impersonal to themselves. National vanity may be the explanation, 
but it seems inadequate. 


But beyond all these questions, incidental really to the story, yet not unimportant in 
themselves, is the problem of Lawrence. Mr. Graves gives the impression that he 
cannot explain him, though they are friends. He presents him as without beliefs, 
without desires, without ambitions, without object in life. Is his present 
suppression of himself as a private soldier to be accounted for as reaction? Ten 
years is a long time for such reaction to persist. There was a division of loyalties, it 
would seem, during the war and after. There was his loyalty to his country, which 
was a matter of accident of birth and upbringing, and the loyalty to the weaker 
people whom he had helped so much in their fight for racial freedom. It was as 
dramatically difficult a position as an intelligent sensitive mind could be put into. 

A harder and coarser make-up would not have felt it perhaps; a less keen mind 
might not have seen it. He fought first against the Turk, and for his country as well 
as the Arab, yet clearly seeing that he would have later to fight, with different arms 
of course, his country also if the Arab was to get his right. Both fights he won, and 
both at the minimum cost. And now what is there for him to do - like Alexander he 
finds no further world to conquer. Greater than Alexander in this, that he has not 



advantaged himself by the value of a penny in what he has done. Even his pay as 
an officer in the British Army was used only as expense money. 


It is possible that Mr. Graves is not entirely on the right track about what is at the 
back of his hero's mind. One incident he relates gives rise to speculation. It must 
have made a peculiar impression on Lawrence or he would not have related it, or 
so we might think. It happened at Rumm, a place east of Akaba, a town at the head 
of the eastern hom of the Red Sea. Lawrence was bathing in a pool, his clothes 
lying on a rock ledge. 


An old grey-bearded ragged man suddenly appeared, with a face of great power 
and weariness, and sat down upon Lawrence's clothes, not seeming to notice them 
or him. At last he spoke and said: "The love is from God; and of God; and towards 
God." 


Lawrence later tried to get some explanation of this. All he could find out was that 
the old man had always been mad and . . . never answered a word or talked aloud 
except when out by himself or alone among the sheep and goats. 


This curious occurrence may or may not be significant, but in the face of the 
mystery presented to us in Lawrence himself it seems as likely to be a clue as 
anything else. 


M. 


* * * 



ANNUAIRE DE LA MACONNERIE UNIVERSELLE. Published by the 
International Masonic Association. Stiff paper, 418 pages. Price - 


IT is now five years since the last issue of this exceedingly useful reference book 
was published. This has been due to lack of financial support in conjunction with 
increase in prices during the post-war period. Those who were familiar with the 
Annual in the past will be glad to know that it has now been brought up to date. 


The book contains statistical and other information about every Grand Lodge or 
Orient in the world, with lists of lodges, and in many cases addresses of secretaries. 
In addition the Supreme Council and other bodies controlling "higher" or 
"philosophical" degrees are given with the names of their officers. Besides this 
there is a list, divided by countries, of Masonic periodicals, and other like 
information. The general matter is given in three languages, French, German and 
English. 


We note in the English sections, American especially, a considerable number of 
errors. Unfortunately the official representatives of too many English speaking 
jurisdictions refuse to cooperate in any way, thus forcing the compilers to obtain 
their information indirectly, or from out-of-date proceedings and the like. For what 
reason this attitude is taken is hard to say. Even if Anglo-Saxon Masonry generally 
refuses recognition to some members of the International Masonic Association, 
almost all of its members are recognized by some English speaking Grand Lodges. 
An American Grand Lodge, let us say for example, denies recognition to the Grand 
Lodge of Switzerland on the sole ground that it recognizes the Freemasonry of 
France, but it does not sever connections with a neighboring American Grand 
Lodge that also recognizes French Masonry. The position is absurdly illogical. 
Under the circumstances the I.M.A. is to be congratulated on having done the work 
of collection and editing as well as they have. For American users it will be the 
foreign information that will be most valuable, and this so far as we have been able 
to test it can be relied upon. 


— o — 



UNIVERSAL LEAGUE OF FREEMASONS 


(Universala Framasona Ligo.) 


THE aim and desire of all beneficent and true Freemasons, is the pacification of 
the world and the universal brotherhood of mankind. Unfortunately it is more 
difficult than ever to attain this object, but for this very reason, it is all the more 
necessary to spare no efforts. Only a united and universal Freemasonry can 
undertake such an enormously difficult task; especially after the sad experiences of 
the late war and its subsequent period of depression and soreness. Unless 
strengthened by the bonds of brotherhood, it would be presumptuous to talk further 
of these aims In fact it would render us the laughing-stock of all clear-minded men. 
In addition to the various circumstances which separated the warring nations, must 
be added the many obstacles to be found, in our own Freemasonry - the diverging 
forms of instruction, the varying systems and the attitudes regarding certain 
venerable and symbolic Masonic tokens. The removal of the latter is the object of 
the "Association Maconnique Internationale" (A. M. I.). 


We, the great mass of brothers from all countries, do not wish to remain remote 
from such a splendid movement. We are striving for the same ideals, even though 
our methods be different. Our aim is the international union of man and man. We 
do not turn to the Lodges and Grand Lodges, but appeal to the individual brother. 
We extend a brother's hand to him and shall feel more than compensated if he will 
grasp it in mutual trust, fired with the desire for peace and harmony. 


We, therefore, make a call to all brethren of all lands. We will not longer remain 
inactive, when the nations, themselves, are drawing nearer to each other, a 
circumstance which has become happily conspicuous during the past years. We 
cordially welcome these initial steps to conciliation, even although they be 
hesitating ones and mainly dictated by economic pressure, and would gladly 
participate in their efforts for Peace. 



Bro. Dr. Uhlmann, Basle, President; 

Bro. Dr. Kurt von Sury, Basle, Vice-President; 

Bro. Eugen Lennhoff, Vienna (Austria), Director of the International Board: 

Bro. Dr. Ch. Rothenberger, Basle, Secretary; 

The following are the three first paragraphs of the Statutes of the Universal League 
of Freemasons: 


1. The Universal League of Freemasons (Universala Framasona Ligo) is an 
association of freemasons from regular rites. Its object is the improvement of 
relations among the brothers of the whole world. It strives to promote a unanimous 
movement for the common ideals of the brotherhood of nations and men. 


This aim shall be accomplished by: 

(a) Written and personal exchange of ideas. 

(b) The publication of a general gazette or journal. 

(c) The arrangement of meetings. 

(d) The systematic encouragement of everything that may foster unity and the 
brotherhood of men. 

(e) The publication of explanatory pamphlets and writings. 

(f) The arrangement of lectures in the several countries. 

(g) The engagement of itinerant speakers. 

(h) Supporting and cooperating with all Masonic institutions having similar aims. 



2. The League shall abstain from every interference connected with the various 
Grand Lodges and keep out of politics and religious questions. 


3. Membership shall be obtained by means of a written entrance declaration, which 
grants complete freedom in everything not appertaining to the program of the 
League. 


All those brothers, whose feelings have been aroused by the principles engendered 
in the foregoing Manifesto and who have the desire to cooperate in the endeavours 
of the League, are invited to communicate with the International Board, under Bro. 
Eugen Lennhoff, Bocklinstrasse 53, Vienna (Austria), and at the same time report 
their wish for membership. The statutes, etc., are gladly placed at your disposal. 
The annual membership fee is 4 s. or 1 dollar. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX 
and CORRESPONDENCE 


FRENCH FREEMASONRY 


J. Coombes, of France, in the August number of THE BUILDER, says: 



1. The Grande Loge Nationale, which is recognized by the Grand Lodge of 
England, insists on having the V. S. L. open at all meetings and obligations taken 
thereon. 


2. The Grand Lodge of France, which is not recognized by the Grand Lodge of 
England, says that lodges in their jurisdiction may use the V. S. L. 


3. The Grand Orient forbids the use of the V. S. L. 


A good many worthy Masons in the United States, on reading this, doubtless 
consider the condition in the Grand Lodge of France and the Grand Orient of that 
country as quite shocking and look upon the custom of the G. L. National as very 
virtuous. But the real question is, "What V.S.L. is referred to ?” If it is, as I am 
pretty sure it is, the Douay version of the Bible, these brethren should be told this 
and also that it is the Roman Catholic Bible. The Douay Bible is very correctly 
referred to as a "version" for it certainly is not a true "translation" of the original 
text. It was because this version is not a true translation that this V.S.L. was 
removed from the altars of lodges of the G.L. of France and upon the action of a 
Protestant minister. Would American Protestant minister Masons like to be 
obligated upon the Roman Catholic Bible? Is it the Book of their faith? Is it the 
book of the faith of any Protestant? 


When this Douay version of the Bible was removed from the altars of the G. L. of 
France, the G. L. of England, severed connections with them. Now we are told that 
they have recognized the Grande Loge Nationale because they have the V.S.L. on 
the altar. Just what Bible does the Grande Loge Nationale place on their altar and 
obligate their members on? I, for one, would very much like to know. My 
sympathy and admiration is for the members of the Grand Lodge of France. 


Ernest E. Murray, Montana. 



Bro. Murray's letter raises a number of interesting questions, but as the matter 
appears to this writer, they all simmer down to the age old question in Freemasonry 
- "What is the Volume of Sacred Law?" 


Modem Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry is pretty generally agreed that the V.S.L. is the 
Book of Faith of the initiate. Many, in fact most, of the Grand Lodges will not 
permit a divergence in the V.S.L. within its own jurisdiction. All subordinate 
lodges must use the same V.S.L. Perhaps the Grand Lodge of England is the most 
notable exception to this practice. Lodges working under that jurisdiction in India 
are known to use Sacred Books other than the Holy Bible. Still, no Grand Lodge 
thinks of severing relations with the Mother Grand Lodge of the world. 


It has always been the contention of this writer that it is perfectly permissible for 
any lodge to have on its altar the volume that is sacred to the candidate. For the 
Hebrew the Old Testament might be used, for the Mohammedan, the Koran, and 
for other religious faiths their particular V.S.L. There is no reason, historical, 
traditional, or otherwise, which would prevent such a practice, but Grand Lodges 
have seen fit to settle the question either by direct legislation, or by precedent. 
Another of those instances where the Grand Lodges have taken unto themselves 
powers that do not and never have belonged to them. After all, the powers of the 
governing body come by consent of the governed so it may be all right. 


It seems to be splitting hairs to the nth degree to argue about which version of the 
Holy Bible should appear upon the altar. Especially is this true in view of the 
divergence of practice within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of England. If a 
man does not want to be obligated upon the King James version why shouldn't he 
be obligated upon the Moffat Bible in modem English, or the Douay version if he 
prefers ? 


It is the desire of Masonry to make its obligations binding, and to make them as 
sacred as possible. If it were not for the fact that an oath taken upon a sacred 



volume is believed to be more binding or more sacred than a mere promise there 
would be no need for any argument. If we follow the same line of reasoning an 
obligation taken upon the Holy Bible is more binding to the Christian than one 
taken upon the Koran for example. And one taken on the King James version 
would be more sacred to the man who believed in that translation than one taken 
upon a more modern version. It works both ways. 


This is advanced not as an authoritative pronouncement, because there is and can 
be no authority which will be binding upon the whole fraternity. 'It is advanced 
merely as a personal opinion. Other comments will be welcomed. 


E. E. T. 


[The following brief reply to the letter in the August BUILDER on the subject of 
the Grande Loge Nationale from Bro. Coombes, has been received from Bro. A. 
Lantoine, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of France and member of the 
Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite for France. The letter as received is in 
French, which we translate. -Ed.] 


I do not wish to begin a controversy about the Grand Lodge, entitled "National." 
Such a controversy would serve only to change divergences of opinion into 
feelings that would be very regrettable. I believe that the Masonry of England and 
that of Latin countries are too different to be mutually understandable; they do not 
speak the same language; and it will be better not to attempt an interpenetration 
that I judge to be (for the moment) undesirable. 


I will permit myself only the remark, which confirms what I said; the defence, or 
rather the panegyric, of the Grande Loge National de France which appeared in the 
August number of THE BUILDER is signed "W. J. Coombes, France," and Mr. 
W.J. Coombes is English. 



Albert Lantoine, France. 


* * * 


THE PAST MASTER 


Through one of my good friends in Batesburg, S. C., one H. L. Fulmer, I am now a 
member of the N.M.R.S., and one of those fortunate to receive THE BUILDER. 


To the interested Mason there are thousands of questions that might be asked, 
however, I have one at this time upon which I would appreciate some illumination. 
It is, When is a man a Past Master? 


I do not recall ever having beard this question answered before, and it has come up 
for discussion several times. I have the honor of being Past Master of my lodge, 
Columbia, No. 326, Columbia, S. C. Personally, I would say that when the Past 
Master's Degree is conferred, the man is then a Past Master, others say that when 
he has finished his term of office, but in many places they serve for more than one 
year or term. I would like to know what you thi nk . 


H. G. W., South Carolina. 


There is not only a good deal of looseness in using the term "Past Master," but 
there is in it not a little ambiguity. In the Masonry of the British Empire generally 
this is eliminated almost entirely by using an additional term. The Master-elect is 
installed and becomes an "Installed Master," sometimes also spoken of as "Master 



in the Chair." So long as he is in office he remains an Installed Master, but as soon 
as he installs his successor, personally or by proxy, be becomes a Past Master. 


The word "Past" may be taken in two senses, that of being passed (as in an 
examination) to the chair, that is the office of Master of the lodge, or on the other 
hand, of having held that office in the past. 


Most of the British Grand Lodges insist very strongly that the secret part of 
installation is not a degree, which in truth seems a mere quibble with the object of 
not contravening the famous declaration made in the Articles of Union in 1813 
between the rival Grand Lodges of Ancients and Moderns, where it was stated that 
"Pure Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more; viz., those of the 
Entered Apprentice, the Fellowcraft and the Master Mason (including the Supreme 
Order of the Holy Royal Arch)." In accordance with this pronouncement the Royal 
Arch in England is regarded as if it were a separated part of the Third Degree, and 
the "Installed Master" is refused the name altogether, in spite of the fact that it 
contains every essential of a Masonic degree, including even an embryo legend. 
The objection to giving it the status of a degree has been so strong that the whole 
weight of official influence has been used to suppress the old forms of opening and 
closing a "lodge" of "Past Masters" and to insist that it is not a lodge but a "Board." 
Incidentally it may be said that recently the old lodges in England, which in spite 
of official opposition had retained their old ceremonies, have definitely won their 
fight, and are now legally permitted to continue them. 


It would seem, returning to the question of the propriety of nomenclature, that if 
the "Past Master" be allowed the status of a degree, and aside from the English 
articles of Union (which were merely a compromise) there is no good reason for 
not doing so, and if this degree be named "Past Master," then everyone receiving it 
becomes a Past Master in that sense. On the other hand he is not a Past Master of 
his lodge until he has handed over the gavel to his successor in office. 



"AT EASE" AND "AT REFRESHMENT" 


Will you please explain the difference between a lodge being "At Refreshment" 
and being "At Ease"? 


I have always been taught that a lodge was either "At Labor" or "At Refreshment," 
and when "At Refreshment" the lodge was in charge of the Junior Warden until 
such time as called to order again by the Worshipful Master. 


I understand in some lodges the W. M. will declare the lodge "At Ease" and then 
call them to order later. Is this correct? If so, in whose charge is the lodge when 
"At Ease"? 


S. H. T., Novia Scotia. 


Only infrequently is the term "At Ease" heard in a Masonic sense. Our rituals, so 
far as the writer has been able to discover, make no mention of this term. Still it is 
a practice in quite general use and does differ materially from the lodge being "At 
Refreshment." 


In many jurisdictions, more particularly those outside the boundaries of the United 
States, it is customary for absolute silence to be maintained by the brethren not 
taking part in the work, during the conferring of a degree. Perhaps this is where the 
idea of a lodge being declared "At Ease" arose. The records are strangely silent on 
the subject. 



In practice it works out as follows: during a lull in the work (the interval between 
candidates, or possibly between items of regular business) the W. M. will 
frequently declare the lodge "At Ease." This simply means that the brethren are 
free to converse among themselves and make themselves generally comfortable. 
The doors remain closed and the lodge remains tiled. It is under the care of the W. 
M. and not the Junior Warden. In short the practice is merely a means of relieving 
the tension of a long formal meeting, without making it necessary to purge the 
lodge, as should be done whenever the lodge is called from "Refreshment." 


This latter term implies freedom from all restraint. The lodge doors may be left 
open and as is frequently the case the meeting adjourns to another room for actual 
refreshment. Because of the absolute freedom of movement in and out of the lodge 
room, it is essential to purge the lodge when calling to Labor again. 


E. E. T. 


* * * 


THE OLDEST MASONIC BUILDING 


The letter of Bro. Wood in the August number on "The Oldest Masonic Building" 
is inaccurate about the first Masonic hall in Philadelphia. 


According to Johnson's Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, page 382, "The 
first record of the construction of a Masonic hall in the western hemisphere is 
dated April 4, 1744, and concerns the lodge room of 'The Great Lodge at St. John's 
in Antiqua'," and from another part of the same work we learn the lodge room was 
60 feet long and 30 feet wide. 



The first Masonic building erected on western mainland was the Freemasons' Hall, 
Philadelphia, dedicated on St. John's Day, June 24, 1755, which stood on Norris, 
afterward Lodge Alley, west of Second street. The building was torn down in 
1801, when the Bank of Pennsylvania was built on its site. The site is now within 
the U. S. Appraiser's Store, and the Alley is now Sansom street. A plate of part of 
the original subscription list for this hall, dated March 13, 1754, is on page 46, Vol 
II, Old Masonic Lodges of Pennsylvania, "Modems" and "Ancients.' The diagram 
showing its site is on page 46, Vol. I, Freemasonry in Pennsylvania, 1727-1907. It 
was sold by the extinct "Modem' Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania at auction, Oct. 1 , 
1785, and on July 23, 1793, one-third of the proceeds, viz., $1,533.57, turned over 
to the Mayor and Council of Philadelphia for a fuel fund, and was known as the 
Freemasons' Fund, but is now merged in the report with other similar fuel funds; 
this was the first o the City Tmsts. See page 99, Vol. 11, Freemasonry in 
Pennsylvania, 1727-1907. 


The cornerstone of the first Masonic Hall, on Chestnut Hill between Seventh and 
Eighth streets, was laid in 1809, and the dedication was on St. John the Baptist's 
Day, June 24, 1811 and it was destroyed by fire in 1819. 


A. H. V., Pennsylvania. 


* * * 


"SACRIFICED A HECATOMB” 


I have often given the lectures in my lodge, and it shows how a person can go on 
repeating things without thinking of what they mean. Recently a Fellowcraft asked 
me after lodge was over, what was meant by Pythagoras "sacrificing a hecatomb." 

I had to admit I did not know, but said I would try and find out. It is probably a 



very foolish question, but I expect many other Masons know no more about it than 
I do. What is the answer? H. B., Vermont. 


The word is a compound Greek word derived from hecaton, a hundred and bous, 
an ox, and means simply "a hundred oxen." It is to be found in most dictionaries, 
and we sometimes wonder why brethren who are puzzled by obsolete or unusual 
words in the ritual do not think of consulting a dictionary; it would help greatly to 
their appreciation of passages that are, we fear, hopelessly obscure to many 
Masons. 


When this passage of the Fellowcraft lecture was composed probably by William 
Preston, classical references were familiar to most people who were not entirely 
illiterate, for they were constantly used by ah the writers and speakers of the period 
The "hekatomb" sacrifice was seldom made, except by kings and rulers, and then 
only on great state occasions. Indeed the word was often used hyperbolically, not 
of a full hundred but for a considerable number. Such sacrifices were really feasts, 
parts of the animals only being burned in honor of the deity to whom it was 
offered. They were, in fact, very much to the ancients what a combined camp 
revival meeting and barbecue on a large scale would be to us. 


* * * 


WHY NOT A MASONIC NATIONAL FOUNDATION? 


The daily press recently carried a news story with the Miami Fla., date line, 
announcing that the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in their annual 
convention, have approved a proposal to establish a National Foundation Fund for 
Charity totaling $20,000,000, and that this fund will supplement the charity work 
of local and state bodies of the Order. No detail are given as to how this fund will 
be expended. 



This action by the Elks raises the question why a similar fund cannot be raised by 
the Masonic Fraternity to provide for the care of Masonic tuberculars and other 
sick and unfortunate brethren. It could be done if one outstanding leader of the 
Craft would take the initiative and propose it. We have funds to send boys and girls 
to college, and for other similar and worthy efforts, but the one great principle of 
the Craft, Charity, remains unsupported by any Masonic Body or leader. 


The Shrine has given an example of what Freemasons will do if given the 
opportunity. Their charity, however, is not for members of the Craft. What we need 
is an effort to adequately provide for those of our own household, who may for any 
reason need a helping hand. 


The approaching Two Hundreth Anniversary of the Craft in America gives us an 
opportunity to demonstrate in a big way what Freemasonry can do. Fet us not 
attempt to commemorate this important milestone by the erection of a useless 
monument of brick, stone and marble. Rather let us see to it that when the time 
comes, no sick or suffering Freemason, or member of a Freemason's family, nor 
any who for any reason are in need, shall be found waiting the assistance of the 
Craft.