The Builder Magazine 

November 1916 - Volume II - Number 11 


MEMORIAL TO JOHN PAUL JONES 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P. G. M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 


THE bronze statue of the peerless John Paul Jones, with its marble pylon for a 
background, is situated at the foot of Seventeenth street, near the entrance to Potomac 
Park, in the City of Washington. It is the work of Mr. Niehaus, an American Sculptor of 
German descent, who used Houdon's bust for a model. 


This memorial had its origin in the hearts of a grateful Congress, when they learned that 
our American Ambassador, at Paris, General Horace Porter, who was also President 
General of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, had spent $35,000 in 
his search for and the identification of the body of John Paul Jones, and had refused 
reimbursement by the Government. 


The body of the great Admiral was brought from France to the United States in a 
battleship, convoyed by a fleet of French war ships, and the obsequies were held at the 
U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, on the 24th of April, 1906. This date was chosen by 
the President of the United States, because it was the anniversary of Jones' battle with 
the Drake. 


Though a man of small stature (five feet seven inches in height) the statue of John Paul 
Jones is of heroic size, about twelve feet in height. The marble pylon, the waters of the 
Potomac and the foliage beyond afford a beautiful background for the memorial. The 
sculpture is classic and his been pronounced exquisite. 



John Paul Jones is represented as standing on the deck of his ship, in the uniform of his 
rank, his left hand resting on the pommel of his sword, his right hand clenched, his lips 
compressed and his gaze fixed on the enemy. 


The pedestal was designed by Mr. Hastings and is decorated on two sides with a 
combination of sword, helmets and laurel branches, in high relief. A band of low relief 
runs around the pedestal, and has a number of Naval emblems for motives. In front the 
attic of the pedestal shows an Eagle in flight, carrying a wreath of oak leaves. In the 
rear is a relief showing John Paul Jones raising the stars and stripes on a U.S. Man-of- 
war. 


At the obsequies the speakers were the President of the United States, the Secretary of 
the Navy, the Ambassador from France, (Monsieur J. J. Jusserand), General Horace 
Porter, (our Ambassador to France), and the Governor of the State of Maryland. 


The officers of the French Fleet which had come to Annapolis, Members of the 
Supreme Court, Senators Members of Congress, officers of the Navy and Army and 
other distinguished men were present. 


The only flowers in evidence were the laurel wreaths on the Casket, and the floral 
wreath containing a square and compasses which was sent by the Grand Fodge of the 
District of Columbia. The casket was covered with the union jack, as is the rule for 
seafaring men. 


No one could hear the speeches that day without a feeling of pride and shame: of pride 
for the man whose acts had been so potent in securing the recognition of the Republic: 
and of shame that he to whom the Nation was indebted full $60,000 for services 
rendered, should have been buried by charity in a foreign cemetery, and there remain, 
neglected by his countrymen, for a century and a quarter. 



It was decided that day to inter the body of John Paul Jones in the ciypt, under the 
Naval Academy chapel (then under construction), somewhat in imitation of the tomb of 
Napoleon, at Paris. The cost of the changes in the building, for this puipose, was 
estimated by the architects, to be $100,000; and, in declining the preferred 
reimbursement of $35,000 spent in discovering and identifying the remains, General 
Porter requested the Government to add the amount to the estimate, which would make 
the tomb so much more beautiful and imposing. 


The refusal of General Porter to accept reimbursement is what determined Congress to 
show its gratitude in erecting a memorial to John Paul Jones, in the Capital City. 


Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, (a member of the Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution), introduced a bill in the Senate, carrying $50,000 for a memorial 
statue of John Paul Jones. 


The bill had such a ring of patriotism and the history and deeds of John Paul Jones had 
been so often repeated in the daily press and was so fresh in the public mind that no one 
thought it necessary to push that bill. The bill was committed and probably would have 
lapsed had not another, paraphrasing Senator Lodge's bill, been introduced in the 
House, by Mr. Driscol of N. Y. This bill differed from the Lodge bill in that it puiposed 
making its memorial to "Commodore" John Barry "Father of the American Navy." 


As John Barry was the eleventh Captain on the original Navy list, Congress could not 
declare him, in that Act, to be the "father." The Bill for the Barry statue was urged by 
the "Irish Societies" while that for John Paul Jones seemed to have no promoters, and as 
both bills were reported by the same Committee the same day, and were passed the 
same day, it is apparent that one helped the other. 


John Paul Jones was made a Freemason in the lodge of Saint Bernard, at Kirkudbright, 
Scotland, in 1770, but he afterwards took his membership to that famous French Lodge, 
Neuf Soeurs, in Paris, of which Benjamin Franklin, Houdon, Voltaire, Helvitius, Elie 
DuMont, D'Estang and other famous men were members. 



John Paul Jones began to go to sea when about 14 years of age. He was a Midshipman 
in the British Navy, from which he resigned because of the retarded promotion. He 
entered the Merchant Marine and was in command of a ship before he was twenty-one 
years of age. 


He must have been a close student, for he seemed to be master of both French and 
Spanish as well as being a superior navigator. His letters are still in use, as models, at 
the Naval Academy. As a diplomat he was in the highest rank, at that time. 


John Paul Jones joined an older brother, in Virginia, where he was living when war was 
declared. He was the first officer who received a commission in the Colonial Navy (as a 
first lieutenant). He was the first to aid the Continental Congress in creating the Navy 
and formulating its regulations. He was the first in command of a vessel of war; the first 
to run up the American flag on an American war vessel (the Alfred); he was with those 
first at sea with the flag, and was in at the first British warship striking colors and 
surrendering to an American warship; the first and only Naval officer named in an act 
of the Continental Congress, creating the flag - the Stars and Stripes. He was the first to 
run up the Stars and Stripes, on board an American war vessel - the Ranger. He was the 
first to carry this flag across the sea; the first to propose and to receive a salute to the 
Stars and Stripes from a foreign Nation, and, therein the first to receive recognition of 
the new Nation, the United States. He was the first to make a British war vessel (the 
Drake) strike her colors and surrender to the Stars and Stripes; the first and only Naval 
Officer to receive a vote of thanks from the Continental Congress, and theonly one, 
during the Revolution, who never lost a warship in battle. 


The Nation's Board of Admiralty said, and the Continental Congress printed 


"He hath made the flag of the United States respected among the flags of other 
nations." 



The victory of John Paul Jones, in command of the Bon Homme Richard, over the 
Serapis, had more to do with the United States getting recognition from other Nations 
than any one act of that war. 


John Paul Jones was the only Naval Officer, of any Nation, who dared carry a war up to 
a British port, so firmly were the Britons masters of the sea of that day. 


John Paul Jones was the only American Naval officer who figured at all extensively in 
British History of the American Revolution. 


At the close of the Revolutionary war the ships of the Navy were dismantled and sold 
and the officers and crews discharged. The Treasuiy was depleted; there was no money 
for salaries. John Paul Jones, however, was retained as Commissioner, in France, to 
settle the complicated affairs that existed: ships had mixed crews of French and 
Americans. Some of the ships had joint owners and some, with mixed crews, were 
owned entirely in the United States. 


John Paul Jones contracted consumption and nephritis from which he died in Paris in 
1792. His assets were not available and he was buried by the charity of noble hearted 
Frenchmen in a small protestant cemetery where his remains lay for a hundred and 
twenty- five years. 


The search for his body extended over a period of six years, ft was found and turned 
over to the French Academy for identification, which, at first, would appear impossible. 
But the history of his burial, the perfect preservation of measurements, particularly of 
the head, compared with the Houdon bust, and the unmistakable identification of 
leisions in the kidneys fron nephritis and in the lungs from tuberculosis, the color of the 
hair, and numerous other ways made the identification complete. The body had been 
preserved in alcohol, in an air-tight metallic casket. 



Two years after his death the Navy of the Unites States was rehabilitated, when it was 
found that but few of the original officers were living. The regulations, prepared by 
Jones, were used and his original organization was continued. 


John Paul Jones was a man of remarkable personality, dainty and particular in his dress 
and manners he was, at the same time, pugnacious. He was popular in the best of 
society. He was a welcome guest at the French Court, and Louis XIV made him a 
Chevalier, and presented him with a sword. He was as popular with ladies as with men. 


The Marquis of Vaudreil said of him, "His talents are so wonderful and of such 
diversity that each day he brings forth new proofs of cleverness." 


Franklin spoke of the "strange magnetism in his presence, and indescribable charm of 
manner." 


The Captain of the Serapis, said he felt that he was fighting something superhuman in 
his battle with the Bon Homme Richard. 


John Paul Jones would never sail in a privateer. In a letter to Jefferson he said, "I can 
never renounce the glorious title of a citizen of the United States," and also "I do not 
wish to engage in privateering. My object is not that of private gain but to serve the 
public in a way that may reflect credit on our Infant Navy and to gain prestige to our 
Country on the sea." 


He also said, "If, by desperate fighting, one of our ships shall conquer one of theirs of 
markedly superior force, we shall be hailed as pioneers of a new power on the sea, with 
untold prospects of development." 



These principles he lived and by them won renown and made his name immortal in the 
history of the Nation and of the world. 

AMERICA 

I love thine inland seas, 

Thy groves of giant trees, 

Thy rolling plains; 

Thy rivers' mighty sweep, 

Thy mystic canyons deep, 

Thy mountains wild and steep, 

All thy domains; 

Thy silver Eastern strands, 

Thy Golden Gate that stands 
Wide to the West; 

Thy flowery Southland fair, 

Thy sweet and crystal air, - 
O land beyond compare, 


Thee I love best ! 



- Henry Van Dyke. 


— o — 


MASONIC SOCIAL SERVICE - CHICAGO EMPLOYMENT BUREAU 
BY BRO. ARTHUR M. MILLARD, CHICAGO 


THIS is the story of an organization of usefulness; an organization made up of 
Masonic bodies, reaching out for the fulfillment of their higher calling which lies 
before, and represented in its workings by men with high ideals; men with a vision of 
puipose and of progress, and inspired by the spirit of that which lies at the foundation 
of Masonry's teachings. 


It is the story of an organization of effort - and of privilege - an organization whose 
work is open to all men of Masonic calling and whose privilege lifts them to higher 
planes of puipose and of action, to purer ideals and nobler impulse by the practical 
application of that spirit of love and of service, which they have found is the body, soul 
and spirit of the Masonic Institution. 


It is the story of the Masonic Employment Bureau of Chicago, an organization which 
during the past few years has placed thousands in employment, has helped thousands to 
help themselves, has inspired the foundation of many other organizations of a like 
puipose and character, both in and outside of Masonry, throughout the United States 
and Canada, and which preaching by its actions the gospel of Brotherly Love and 
Relief, is pointing more clearly the way to the pathway of Truth. 


The Masonic Employment Bureau commenced its career of finding jobs for Masons, 
and helping others to help themselves, in 1905, at a meeting of the representatives of a 
number of Chicago Masonic Lodges, called by a member of Wrights Grove Lodge who 



felt the need of applying his Masonry in a practical manner to those less fortunate than 
himself. 


At this meeting, an organization was formed to be maintained, by such Masonic 
Lodges and other Masonic bodies of Chicago and Cook County as cared to join in its 
puipose, by a subscription fee of so far as possible five cents per member annually and 
for the puipose of securing employment for unemployed Masons in good standing, their 
widows, daughters and minor sons, at no cost to the applicant or those securing their 
services. 


With wise forethought, it was decided that the government of the organization should 
be representative, that is, each Masonic body holding membership in the Bureau by 
contribution towards its support should be represented in the conduct of its affairs by a 
duly appointed representative (the officers being chosen annually from among the 
representatives), and as it has been worked out, this object has a two-fold puipose; first, 
to give the subscribing bodies a voice in the conduct of the Bureau, and second, to 
create an interest in its affairs and puipose by having the representative report back to 
the body from which he was appointed and arouse and enthuse in the members of that 
body a fraternal bond of helpfulness to those less fortunately situated than themselves. 


The growth of the Chicago Masonic Employment Bureau, from its inception up to the 
present time, from a few to hundreds of interested brethren, has not been one of 
phenomenal progress, rather it has been that steady, persevering and persistent effort, 
which, meeting and surmounting the obstacles that beset its path, climbs steadily 
onward to achieve its puipose; but though in its infancy today, though it has but reached 
the foothills of the mountains of puipose, progress and achievement ahead, it stands an 
enduring monument, firm on the rock of applied Masonry, pointing out to the world 
about it the simplicity of service and the way which shall one day be accepted as the 
true and enduring principle on which to build a practical and applied charity in the 
onward march of progress and of civilization. But it must not be assumed that the sole 
object of the representatives concerned in the welfare of this Bureau is but a plan to 
secure jobs for the unfortunate unemployed, because it goes farther than that. It is true 
that the Bureau is organized for the direct benefit of the unemployed, but beyond that is 
the spirit of the work which is behind it all. 



During the past few years the Bureau has secured not only representatives from nearly 
all of the Masonic bodies of Chicago, but also committees in those bodies, all of whom 
are working in unison on the broad platform of helping others. Now, these brethren are 
planning and carrying into effect a broader work and a greater puipose - they are 
building toward an ideal. 


It is not enough to provide work for the unemployed, they are now providing work for 
all Masons, however high or low their station, in helping others to help themselves. 


The Chicago Masonic Employment Bureau is going beyond the material and binding 
that to the spiritual. It is striving to become the big brother of humanity. 


It is teaching the principle of putting aside self in service for others, and pointing the 
way to an applied Masonry, a Masonry which in its search for Truth applies the 
principles of Brotherly Love and Relief to all with whom they come in contact. 


The spirit of the work of this organization of Chicago, the plans and ideals of the 
brethren who make it up, is not a thing apart but it is the spirit of Masonry pointing the 
way to a real brotherhood of service, to a universal work for the advancement of 
humanity; for representing as it does the unity of the Masonic bodies along certain 
definite lines, the principle upon which it stands and from which it receives and gives 
its inspiration, and to which it owes its origin, is that which lie at the source and is the 
fundamental law and principle of the teachings of the Masonic Order. 


It is that which rises above the things of material life and stands on a higher plane, a 
plane of puipose and of progress, for while its object is carried out in the material realm 
below, its application is such as to instill into men's hearts and lives that touch of 
spirituality that fulfillment of duty, one toward another, that application of human 
sympathy and brotherly love, which brings them into closer communion and fellowship 
with Him above, under whose banner they are enlisted and under whose laws they are 
committed to serve. 



O 


THE YORK RITE 


BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, MISSOURI 


It has been stated that "A Rite in Freemasonry is a collection of grades or degrees 
always founded on the First three degrees." This definition is wholly misleading, and 
constitutes as grave an error as to call "The York Rite" as conferred in the United 
States, "The American Rite." 


For the puipose of adding "more light" on the subject, we may state that in the United 
States there are two Masonic Rites, known as the York Rite and the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite. 


Both are misnomers if the name of the Rite is to indicate its parentage or birth place. 
The York Rite was not born in the ancient city of York, neither was the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite begotten in Scotland. 


The so-called York Rite is the result of an evolution in England from a One Degree 
Operative Craft of 1717, to a system of degrees of six or more as now practiced in the 
United States, Canada, England, Scotland and Ireland. The Seottish Rite was evolved 
from the Rite of perfection of twenty-five Degrees, by the addition of eight more at 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1801, where the Mother Supreme Council was formed. 


If either one of the Rites is to be known as the American Rite, the title probably 
belongs to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. To designate the socalled York 



Rite in the United States, as the American Rite, would be even more absurd than to 
call it the York Rite, for it is neither. 


What is meant by the word Rite? A Rite is defined as "A custom of practice of a 
formal kind; a formal procedure of a religious or solemn observance." But such a 
religious or solemn procedure or observance must have a definite end or purpose. It 
must have a goal idea. A central idea which the ceremony of procedure is intended to 
convey. The ceremony may be brief or voluminous, plain or ornate, but the central 
idea must be maintained and attained, as in the Rite of Baptism, in the Rite of 
Marriage, in the Rite of the Holy Sacrament, etc. 


The central idea or pivot around which all Masonic ceremonies or Degrees must 
revolve is the Loss, the Recovery, and the Interpretation of the Master's word. This 
goal idea must be the nucleus of a system of Degrees, and without which no system of 
Degrees can be called a Rite. 


Any series of Degrees, however intimately connected, that does not contain this 
central idea of Loss, Recovery, and inteipretation can not be called a Masonic Rite. 
This is the goal idea or pivot of the so-called York Rite. The number of Degrees in a 
Rite is merely incidental. It matters not whether there are three or thirty- three 
Degrees, provided the central idea, the end of all Masonic symbolism is present. 


The Loss and Recovery with a positive inteipretation, or the Loss and Recovery with 
a general or individual inteipretation is the very essence of a Rite. 


The Loss is symbolized in the Craft or Lodge Degrees, the Recovery is symbolized in 
the Royal Arch. 


In the York Rite the interpretation of the symbolism of the Royal Arch is left to the 
individual interpretation of the Royal Arch Mason, or it finds its positive and special 



interpretation in the light of the new dispensation, as taught in the Masonic Order of 
the Christian Knighthood. 


The Three Craft or Blue Lodge Degrees, the Royal Arch, and the United Orders of the 
Temple and of Malta are the essential grades of the York Rite. The Mark, Past, Most 
Excellent, Royal, Select Degrees, and the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross are not 
essential, nor essentially necessary to the York Rite, but they are great aids in the 
elucidation of the symbolism of the central idea of the Rite and they adorn and 
magnify the Rite. The Lodge Degrees, the Royal Arch, and the Masonic Orders of 
Christian Knighthood constitute the so-called "York Rite." To eliminate the Royal 
Arch would be like removing the keystone of an arch, and the whole fabric would 
crumble and fall. 


In essentials, the York Rite is the same in the United States as it is in every province 
or Country in the British Empire; in other words, it is essentially the same in the 
Anglo-Saxon world. But each country has its own system. In the United States it 
consists of seven Degrees and three Orders; in Canada, of six Deees and three Orders, 
although Canada has added the most excellent Degree in the Chapter and the Red 
Cross of the Commandery to harmonize, for the purpose of visitation with the United 
States; in England, it contsists of four Degrees and two Orders; in Ireland, of five 
Degrees and two Orders; in Scotland the system conforms closely to that of Ireland. 
The most excellent Degree is unknown in the British Empire, except in Canada; in 
England, the Mark Master's Degree is under the control of a Grand Lodge of Mark 
Master Masons. 


It will be noted that in the countries mentioned, the number of Degrees in the Rite 
varies, even the Degrees bearing the same name vary in the ceremonies of presenting 
the same truth. The Master's Degree in Pennsylvania varies much from the same 
Degree in the other States, yet symbolically it is the same. The Royal Arch in the 
United States, is more dramatic in its form than that of England or Canada, yet in 
essentials it is the same. 



The Order of the Temple in the English Ritual is brief; in the Canadian Ritual it is 
more elaborate and has its military features; in the United States it is more wordy, 
possibly more ornate and dramatic, yet it is essentially the same in all these countries. 


The Rituals of the Order of Malta in these countries are so near alike that a person that 
is conversant with one can readily use the other; even a casual observer can readily 
see that this so-called "York Rite" in essentials is the same everywhere where the 
English language is spoken. The Concordat adopted in 1910 by the Temple Powers of 
the World, emphasizes this great fact. 


The name "York Rite" is an inexcusable blunder; at least an unfortunate mistake. 
There never was a York Rite. It is unnecessary to enter upon any discussion as to the 
claims of the York Grand Lodge or a York system of Freemasonry as the question has 
been settled beyond controversy. The name "York Rite" is an inheritance from the 
forefathers of Freemasonry in the United States, who were more skilled in ritual 
tinkering than in the history of Freemasonry. This becomes especially apparent, when 
one remembers that the ephemeral Grand Lodge of York never chartered a single 
Lodge in America. The Freemasonry of the United States began under the Provincial 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, then under the Grand Lodge of England (Modems) 
with Price as Grand Master. The Grand Lodge of England (Ancients) and the Grand 
Lodge of Scotland chartered Lodges in America, and it is reasonably possible, that 
before the union of the two Grand Lodges of England, the Royal Arch and the 
Masonic Orders of Christian Knighthood were conferred in this Country by the 
Military Lodges connected with the Irish Regiments stationed in the Colonies. To sum 
it all up, our so-called York Rite is the English Rite dressed in more fantastic clothing. 


The name "York Rite" should be eliminated and the name English Rite substituted. In 
view of the foregoing facts as to what constitute a Rite, we in the United States are 
practicing or have formulated an American system of the English Rite; not an 
American Rite as it is frequently erroneously called, but a system of Degrees of the 
English Rite; it should be known as the English Rite, or Anglo-Saxon Rite. 





A MASON’S PRAYER 


Unto thy altars, Truth, we come; 

We would commune with thee; 
From errors of the heart and brain 
Oh, keep our Order free. 

Make us true seekers for the light 
That springs from thee alone, 

That we may lead a darkened world 
To thy sister Reason's throne. 

Help us to build our edifice 
"Fair, fronting to the dawn," 

Not on a thrice denying saint 
Who would his Ford were gone, 

But on thy words wherever found 
In tree or grass or rill; 

And in the very soul of thee 


We'll find our haven still. 



Help us to travel unafraid 
The path that thou hast shown, 

For with thee standing by His side 
A man's a host alone. 

Help us to realize that time 
"Makes ancient good uncouth," 

And for the blind who fain would see 
Oh trouble the waters, Truth ! 

—Oscar A. Janes. 


-o- 


THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE 


BY BRO. FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 


CIRCUMSTANCES have conspired to single out the Order of the Temple from the 
other orders of Soldier-Monks of the twelfth century for the particular notice of 
succeeding generations. Preeminent for their valor and their accomplishments during 
the days of their magnificent success, the bitter injustice and cruel suffering attendant 
upon the suppression of the Order has thrown around their name a dark shadow of 
tragedy. Not only so, but the added horror of the accusations made against them, the 
whispers of still more dreadful things circulated by envious, fearful, or malignant 



tongues, the unusual end of the proceedings against the Order, and the conviction of 
many members before the ecclesiastical courts have lent an air of mystery to the 
whole sad story. 


The very mention of the word Templar brings to many minds the suggestion of 
romance and of mystery coupled with a vague sense of hidden crime and lurking 
horror. As a matter of fact there is really very little mystery about the fate of the 
Templars and it is perfectly possible to find out of what they were accused and to 
make a fair estimate of their probable guilt or innocence. This is of particular interest 
to Masons because large numbers of Masons in other than symbolic degrees have 
taken the name of the old Order, endeavoring to practice its principles and emulate its 
virtues and holding in everlasting remembrance the name of the last Grand Master. 


Before proceeding to tell in detail the story of the fall of the Order, let us stop to 
review briefly the story of its growth. 


In 1118, two Knights, Hugues de Payens, a Burgundian, and Godeffroi de St. Omer, a 
Frenchman, associated with themselves six other Knights for the service of the Holy 
Sepulcher, the protection of pilgrims, and the welfare of the Church. 


These men took a step beyond that taken by the ordinary crusader, in that they 
undertook to give their whole lives to the service of the Church militant and to found 
an order of men likewise devoted to the same service. These eight men took an oath to 
the Patriarch of Jerusalem by which they swore to fight for Christ under the three fold 
vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It will be understood, of course, that the vow 
of poverty, while it debarred the Knight from having any personal possessions 
whatever, did not apply to the accumulation of riches by the Order or to the Knight's 
enjoyment of those riches, while the vow of obedience had reference only to his 
relations with his superiors in the Order. 


King Baldwin I. of Jerusalem gave them for a residence a part of his palace next to the 
Mosque of Aksa, the so-called Temple of Solomon, from which they took the name of 



Knights of the Temple. At first they had no particular regulations or "rule," as it is 
commonly called, and no distinguishing dress. Their first idea appears to have been to 
make the Order a means of reformation by opening its ranks to men whose past was 
one of sin and failure and giving them an opportunity to redeem their souls through 
offering to Christ a service of constant danger. They, therefore, admitted to their 
number excommunicated knights, after they had obtained absolution from a Bishop, 
and other men of darkened past who desired an opportunity to bring forth fruits meet 
for repentance. This missionary idea was soon abandoned and the Knights chosen 
from candidates, who showed themselves worthy. It was unfortunate, however, in that 
it immediately laid the Order under suspicion of both the Church and laity because of 
doubts of the sincerity of such repentance. 


In 1127 Hugues de Payens, who had been chosen Grand Master, went to Europe with 
the purpose of finding support for the Order. He was fortunate enough to enlist the 
interest and obtain the active patronage of St. Bernard. Bernard of Clairvaux, 
morelmonly known as St. Bernard, was the greatest and most influential churchman 
of his time and one of the greatest of all times. Under his patronage the Order quickly 
obtained favor and support and grew in members and power. 


St. Bernard drew up the "rule" or series of regulations governing the organization of 
the Order and the lives of its members. The original "rule" of St. Bernard was written 
in French. Unfortunately there are no early copies of it known to be in existence. 
There are however, later copies together with the translation into Latin known as the 
"Latin Rule" and additional statutes which were adopted from time to time. 


It was vehemently asserted by the enemies of the Order, in later years, that there was a 
secret "rule" quite different from this which entirely changed the character of the 
Order, colored it with heresy, and stained it with sin. There is no evidence whatever 
that any such "secret rule" ever existed. Stories about it may be safely dismissed as 
idle gossip. 


The French "rule" provided for the officers of the organization and defined their 
duties. It also carefully regulated the daily conduct of the Knights and provided for the 
support which they should receive from the common funds of the Order. It is 



interesting to observe that the "rule" provided that each Knight should have three 
horses and one squire. By favor of his commander, or prior, he might have four horses 
and two squires. 


This effectually disposes of the legend that the great seal of the Order, representing 
two Knights mounted on one horse, was intended to indicate that in early days the 
Order was so poor that the Knights went to battle mounted thus in pairs. The second 
rider in the device is probably intended to represent either a wounded Knight who is 
being rescued by his brother in arms or a pilgrim being protected by a Knight of the 
Temple. 


The Knights were not priests. That is to say, although under the three vows they were 
not in holy orders. Each priory or house of the Knights was provided with one or more 
chaplains. These chaplains were members of the Order of the Temple and were 
always in holy orders. The chaplains were exempt from ordinary ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction. Spiritually they were accountable only to the Pope; temporally only to the 
Grand Master. They were the sole confessors of the Knights, who were not permitted 
to accept the ministrations of religion from any but their own chaplains unless it was 
impossible to secure a chaplain's services. 


The monastic custom of having the Bible read at meals was prescribed by the "rule" 
for the Knights, in consideration of the fact that they were laymen, and consequently 
uneducated, the Bible was read in the vernacular and not in the Latin which was 
customary in religious services. There is in existence an old French Bible of the 
Templars which shows evidences of the critical spirit on the part of the translator. 


With this brief survey let us pass on to the opening years of the fourteenth century. 
The little band of eight Knights sworn to the service of the Holy Sepulcher and the 
protection of pilgrims had grown to be one of the great powers of the world. If its 
puipose and policy had been other than they were it might have shaken the power of 
any monarch in Christendom. It consisted of many thousand Knights besides the lay 
brothers and feudal servants of the Order. It possessed wealth far greater than that of 
any state in Christendom. This wealth was the result of the great stream of gifts which 
for two centuries had flowed steadily into the coffers of the Order, supplemented by 



the spoils of war, and husbanded with great financial abilty. Kings, princes, and 
nobles throughout Europe had vied with each other in their great donations to the 
Order of the Temple. It owned literally thousands of estates all over Europe and 
wherever in the east the crusades had been successful. 


The crusades being over and their immense expenditures having ceased, the enormous 
revenues of the Order were accumulating in its hands, and those were not idle hands, 
for the Templars were not content to let their gold pieces lie idly in their treasury. This 
was before the age of modem banking and the Templars, with their great wealth, their 
many establishments, and their connection with the Orient, made themselves the great 
international financiers of the age. Kings and merchants alike borrowed on good 
security and at ample interest the unused treasure of the Order. Oriental exchange, 
especially, was almost absolutely in their hands so that they acted as the great 
financial clearing house between Europe and Asia. Their establishment, commonly 
known as the Temple, at Paris was the center of the world's money market. 


It is said that when De Molay came from the east, lured by the treacherous call to 
consult about the cmsade, he brought with him 150,000 florins in gold and ten horse 
loads of silver. With due allowance to the difference in the purchasing power of 
money, the gold was probably the equivalent of three million dollars today. I have no 
way to guess the value of the silver, but it must have been very great. This, it will be 
remembered, was the ready money upon which De Molay could lay his hands at short 
notice. 


The power of the Order matched its wealth. The Grand Master was a sovereign prince, 
recognized as a full peer of any monarch in Europe. The Knights, save those too old 
for warfare, were all soldiers trained to arms and owing no allegiance to any power 
but the Grand Master and the Pope. During the stormy years of the crusades, they, 
with the Knights of the compan ion Orders, formed the fighting edge of the Christian 
army. Combined with their lay brothers and the feudal array of their tenants they 
formed an army far superior to any other in existence. 


That an Order possessed of such wealth and power should have been regarded with 
suspicion, and even fear, is only natural. It is entirely clear, however, from their entire 



history, and especially from their fate, that the Order had no policy in the political 
affairs of Europe either for its own advantage or that of any others. The Knights 
adhered strictly to the original policy of the Order. They had no enemies in 
Christendom and no friends outside of it. Their sole military and political purpose was 
the service of the church and the reconquest of the Holy Land. It must be remembered 
that while we know that the crusades were over in 1300 the men of that day did not 
know it. They fully expected that the crusades would be resumed, and the Knights of 
the Temple were maintaining their numbers and diligently increasing their wealth in 
order to be able to strike more effectively than ever before when the banner of the 
Cross should once more take the field against the Crescent. 


In addition to all their wealth and power the Order had great privileges of two classes, 
lay and clerical. As lay nobles they held and exercised all the usual feudal rights in 
and over estates which had been given to them, with certain extremely important 
additions. The Order, being a coiporation in the first rank of the feudal hierarchy, 
exercised in all its fiefs what was known in those days as high, middle, and low 
justices, that is, complete jurisdiction extending even to the infliction of the death 
penalty. Owing allegiance only to the head of their Order, the estates of the Knights 
were not liable for military service except to the Order itself. The estates of the Order 
were the permanent possessions of the coiporation. 


The greater part of the revenue of the kings of that age was derived from certain rights 
of taxation which were exercised on special occasions; for example, the passage of an 
estate by death or marriage from one holder to another involved certain payments to 
the king or over-lord which amounted practically to an inheritance tax. The marriage 
of children, the knighting of the noble's sons, or other events in the family of the noble 
were occasions for gifts to the king which were practically taxes. Other forms of 
taxation were laid from time to time on the feudal estates. But coiporations do not die, 
do not marry, and do not have children, consequently the estates of the Templars were 
free from every kind of taxation, except for the benefit of the Temple itself. 


This exemption from military service and from financial burdens struck at the very 
roots of the royal power as the state was organized in the middle ages. The Templars 
enjoyed all the benefits of the feudal system but bore none of its burdens. When an 
estate in France or England, for some reason, passed into the hands of the Templars it 



was to all intents and purposes taken out of the kingdom as effectively as if it had 
been swallowed up by the sea. 


As an Order of military monks, the Knights enjoyed clerical privileges equally great. 


That their spiritual affairs were in the hands of their chaplains, has already been 
pointed out. In addition to this, the Grand Master and others of the high officers 
possessed the power of disciplinary confession, but not of sacramental confession, a 
point important to be remembered in connection with later developments. The Order 
as a whole and its members individually were entirely free from the jurisdiction of 
bishops and other ecclesiastical authorities. They were accountable only to the Pope in 
person. They were not affected by general censures or decrees of the Pope unless they 
were especially mentioned. Their churches, of which there were great numbers on 
their various estates besides those attached to their houses, were not affected by 
ordinary excommunication and interdicts. No matter what ecclesiastical censures 
might hang over the people of the nation the activities of the churches of the Temple 
went on undisturbed. Excommunicated persons might be buried in consecrated ground 
belonging to the Templars, and this was not infrequently done. They possessed, by 
papal decree, the right to have churches not their own which were under interdict 
opened twice a year and services held for the purpose of presenting their cause and 
taking collections for the support of the Holy War. They collected the usual tithes 
from the churches on their estates but they did not pay any tithes, even for those 
churches, into the coffers of the Church. 


The natural result of this condition was envy and hatred on the part of both civil and 
religious authorities. Civil authorities looked on with dismay while the broad lands of 
noble after noble passed by gift or bequest into the control of the Templars and ceased 
to contribute to the maintenance of the state, while the individual noble was filled 
with envy as he saw the Knights of the Temple enjoying privileges and powers so 
much greater than his own, and the law officers of the crown indignantly found their 
authority everywhere terminating at the boundary line of one of the Temple estates. 


On the other hand the religious authorities, accustomed to control the lives and actions 
even of kings, were enraged beyond measure to find themselves utterly powerless 



before the Knights of the Temple. Entrenched behind the many privileges granted by a 
long line of Popes the Templar could and did snap his fingers in the face of the most 
arrogant archbishop or cardinal and the angry churchmen had to swallow his wrath 
and digest it as best he could, while he had not even the poor consolation of collecting 
revenues from the parishes in his jurisdiction which had passed into the hands of the 
Order. This sort of thing had raised tides of envy and hatred against the Order of 
which it seemed to be strangely unconscious. 


Claims that the Knights abused their power and privileges were common. The picture 
of the Templar in Scott's Ivanhoe undoubtedly represents the widespread conception 
of the character and conduct of the members of the Order. That there were men like 
Scott's Templar could hardly be denied, but there is no reason to believe that they 
were typical of the Order generally. 


One feature of the Order gave the opportunity for proceedings against it and the 
excuse for its undoing. The Order of the Temple was always a secret order. Its 
conclaves for business and for the reception of candidates were always closely 
guarded. It was as impossible for one not a member of the Order to get into meeting of 
the Knights of that day as it would be for like person to get into a meeting of one of 
our modern gatherings of Knights Templars. 


This secrecy, as is inevitable, in all ages and especially in times of ignorance and 
superstition, like the thireenth and fourteenth centuries, bred all manner of suspicion. 
Men, and especially ignorant men, are ready to believe that evil things are done in 
places where they are not admitted and unfortunately there were too many who envied 
and hated the Templars and were ready to spread these whispered accusations. It was 
asserted that under cover of this secrecy the Knights not only lapsed into heresy and 
consorted with Saracens and other misbelievers but that they practiced idolatry and 
necromancy, that they performed the most blasphemous travesties of religion, and that 
they were given to licentiousness and practiced every conceivable crime, natural and 
unnatural. 



We have now set the stage for the tragedy. Let us consider a little the persons and 
antecedents of the three principal actors. They were the Grand Master of the 
Templars, the King of France, and the Pope. 


The Grand Master of the Templars, who had in been office since 1295, was Jacques 
de Molay. He was a simple, unlettered Knight, personally brave, confiding and 
unsuspicious, incapable of intrigue or treachery, not very clear headed or resourceful 
in the face of other than physical peril. His intentions were always good; his conduct 
under the severe trials to which he was subjected was sometimes weak. He was a man 
who could be easily deceived and could be worked upon through his reverence for the 
Pope, his respect for the King, and his honest desire to protect the interest of the Order 
and the welfare of his brother Knights. 


The Knights generally were fighters and some of them were men of affairs, but they 
were not thinkers and they were not intriguers. It has been said that they were too 
stupid to be heretics but this is probably an extreme statement. They were rather 
simple minded single hearted gentlemen thoroughly loyal to the cause to which they 
had dedicated their lives and for which they were ready to die. 


The King of France was Philip IV, commonly known as Philippe Le Bel or Philip the 
Fair, a name, by the way, which would better be translated, Philip the Handsome. 
Born in 1268 he ascended the throne in 1285. As his name indicates, he was a man of 
singular beauty, being said to be the handsomest man of his time. He was cold, self- 
contained, far-sighted, crafty, and unscrupulous. He possessed great ability and was 
absolutely remorseless in the choice of means and in the pursuit of his ends. It is said 
that he was never known to smile and those whom he crushed in the cold persistency 
with which he executed his purposes said that he was not a man at all, but that his 
beautiful body was inhabited by a demon instead of a human soul. 


It must be admitted that from the point of view of the interests and prosperity of the 
kingdom he was a good king. In his day France was well governed and strongly 
consolidated and he left it on the whole in a much better condition than he found it. 

He had one supreme end in life and that was to make the royal government supreme in 
France. He was determined that the government should be independent of priests or 



noble and the king should have a free hand, not limited in the exercise of his authority 
by any powers within or without the confines of the kingdom. 


To accomplish this he believed that two things were necessary. One was that the 
shackles imposed by the papacy upon the King of France, in common with the other 
monarchs of Europe, should be broken and the crown of France relieved from the 
domination of the Vatican. The other was that the feudal nobles should be brought 
into subjection to the crown and especially that the independent power of the Order of 
the Temple should be broken, their wealth plundered for the filling of the royal 
Treasury, their great estates restored to the usual condition of feudal dependency, and 
their resources of men and money made available for the purposes of the kingdom. 


The Pope was Clement V. In order to understand the conduct of Pope Clement, it is 
necessary to go back a little. At a comparatively early period in the reign of Philip, 
Boniface VIII ascended the throne, in 1294. The predecessor of Boniface was 
Celestine V, one of the most singular popes who ever occupied the chair of St. Peter. 


Deeply imbued with mysticism, he was a dreamer of dreams and a writer of strange 
books. The sanctity of his life and the strangeness of his somewhat unintelligible 
writings placed him on the narrow edge between condemnation as a heretic on one 
side and canonization as a saint on the other. Whether saint or heretic, he was utterly 
unfit for the difficult administrative duties of the papacy. He never wanted to be Pope 
and after a short and troubled reign he was induced to resign, and sought seclusion, 
which was really imprisonment, in a monastery, where he died in a very short time. 


Boniface was certainly the leader in the movement which brought about the 
resignation of Celestine and was charged with being the author of the unfortunate old 
man's misfortune. At any rate, he succeeded him on the papal throne. There was quite 
a good deal of doubt in the minds of canon lawyers as to whether a pope could resign, 
and therefore a cloud rested on the title of Boniface, a cloud which was only partially 
dispelled by the death of Celestine. The enemies of Boniface, and he had many, 
declared that the death of his predecessor was not a natural one and that Boniface 
himself was responsible for it. 



Boniface was proud, arrogant, and rash. He declared himself over-lord of all the 
monarchs of the world, and set the high water mark of papal pretension. On one 
memorable occasion, when there was a vacancy in the office of Emperor, the Pope 
appeared in public, brandishing his sword and declaring that he was Emperor as well 
as Pope. He claimed, and attempted to exercise, power to set up and pull down kings 
and even emperors. 


Naturally, Philip the Fair and Boniface very soon found themselves engaged in a 
deadly conflict. Boniface laid France under an interdict and excommunicated King 
Philip and his family. The King, supported by a host of the clergy as well as the laity 
of France, appealed to a future Council of the Church. It is worthy of mention that this 
appeal was signed by the Order of the Temple. The appeal struck Boniface in his most 
sensitive spot. The question of whether or not a Council was superior to a Pope had 
not yet been settled and the assumption that it was his superior was unspeakably 
exasperating to the overbearing, tyrannical Boniface. 


King Philip was far too aggressive to content himself with this appeal. Seizing an 
occasion when the pope was absent from Rome on a visit to Anagni, his native town, 
and comparatively undefended, the king sent his chancellor, William de Nogaret, and 
Sciarra Colonna, a great Italian noble who was on bad terms with the pope, to arrest 
Boniface. By whom Philip expected that the pope would or could be tried is not clear. 
The charges preferred were intrusion, that is to say, forcing himself into the papal 
chair without proper title, gross immorality, tyranny and heresy. 


Boniface was actually arrested and treated with great indignity. Some authorities say 
that he was actually struck in the face by Colonna. The people of Anagni rose and 
oveipowered the guard and released Boniface, but the shock of his arrest with the 
attendant humiliation and indignation caused his death within a few days. 


He was succeeded by a somewhat colorless pope, Benedict II, who ruled only from 
October 27, 1303, to the seventh of the following July. He released France from the 



interdict and Philip and his family from excommunication, but his reign was 
otherwise unimportant. 


Now came the question of the election of a new pope, in which Philip proposed to 
play an important part. His attention fell upon Bertrand de Got (Gouth). De Got came 
from a Gascon family and was an Aquitainian, that is to say, an English subject, for it 
must be remembered that at this time about half of what is now France belonged to the 
dominions of the English kings, either by descent from the Dukes of Normandy, or by 
virtue of the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry HE 


De Got was Archbishop of Bordeaux. He had been an early friend of Philip, who 
knew the man thoroughly, but in the quarrel between Philip and the pope, he had 
sided with Boniface. Election to the papacy was not then limited to the cardinals, and 
the Archbishop of Bordeaux might well aspire to the tiara. He was extremely 
ambitious, hungering with all his soul for wealth, honor, and power. Philip knew his 
man and believed that as pope he might be controlled, especially if he was made to 
feel that he owed his election to the king. 


Philip did not see the Archbishop personally, as has been claimed by many writers, 
but he did unquestionably have an understanding with him through intermediaries 
before using his influence to secure his election. Two questions were raised by King 
Philip. One was the question of the suppression of the Order of the Temple, for the 
interest of both church and state through the abolition of the power and privileges 
which made the Templars so objectionable to both. The other was the question of the 
heresy of Boniface VIII. King Philip threatened to bring pressure to bear which would 
make it necessary to call a General Council before which he would impeach the late 
Pope of heresy. In view of the great unpopularity of Boniface and of certain things 
said and done by him, there appeared to be great danger that the charge could be 
pushed home and the memory of the late Pope attainted of heresy to the great scandal 
of the church and disgrace of the papacy. 


De Got was unscrupulous enough to agree to almost anything in order to be made 
Pope and he therefore agreed to co-operate in the suppression of the Order of the 
Temple if the king would agree not to press the charge of heresy against his 



predecessor. With this understanding King Philip supported his candidacy and he was 
elected Pope and took the title of Clement V. 


As might be expected it very soon appeared that Bertrand De Got who wanted to be 
Pope and Clement V who was Pope, were not quite the same person. Like many 
another successful politician before and since the Pope had no intention of fulfilling 
pre-election promises if he could get out of it. 


His first movement was to propose the consolidation of the Order of the Temple with 
the Order of the Hospitalers. This would then enable him to reorganize both bodies 
and amend their charters. This project was proposed in 1306, but was abandoned on 
account of the vigorous opposition of the Grand Masters of both the Orders. The Pope 
then proposed to reform the Order of the Temple, but moved slowly in carrying out 
the project. 


King Philip was very impatient at the Pope's delay and continually pressed him to 
fulfill his promises of suppression under threat of a general Council and condemnation 
of Boniface VIII for heresy. He was not content, however, with insistence and threats. 
Through his agents he found two broken Knights of worthless character, Esquiau 
(Squin) De Florian, a Frenchman, and Noffo Dei (Deghi), a Florentine. These men 
claimed to have been members of the Order of the Temple and offered pretended 
confessions in which they charged the Order with heresy and various abominable 
practices. For all this they were well paid. 


On the basis of this manufactured evidence Philip submitted formal charges to the 
Pope. The Pope received them, but continued to delay action. Philip's determination, 
however, was more than a match for the Pope's procrastination. He found means to 
force the Pope's hand through the intervention of William of Paris, Grand Inquisitor of 
France. The Grand Iniquisitor had been King Philip's confessor and was entirely ready 
to lend himself to the King's desires. By virtue of his office he had power to take 
summary action in all cases of heresy within the kingdom and to take such measures 
as he saw fit to deal with them. 



Philip submitted his evidence to the Grand Inisitor who forthwith demanded of the 
civil authorities the arrest of all the Templars in France. Obviously this was a very 
serious matter. If the Templars had taken concerted action to resist such an arrest it 
would probably have been impossible. Assembled in their strong houses they might 
have stood siege until aid could have reached them from other countries and it would 
have been a very serious question whether Philip could have retained his throne. Plans 
were therefore laid for their capture by suiprise and arrangements were made for the 
simultaneous arrest of all the Knights throughout the kingdom on the night of October 
13, 1307. 


The blow came like lightning from a clear sky. It is true that the Templars had been 
aware of the circulation of unpleasant reports. They knew that there were whispers of 
evil and De Molay had gone as far as to ask, in 1306, that an investigation be made 
into the conduct of the Order, but investigation was the last thing the King desired and 
no attention was paid to the request. 


The apprehensions of the Templars were set at rest and their confidence was further 
deliberately strengthened by the treacherous conduct of the King. In 1306 King Philip 
had been assailed by a mob in the streets of Paris and saved himself from great 
personal danger by taking refuge in the house of the Templars which happened to be 
not far from the scene of disturbance. This obligation, however, rested lightly on his 
conscience. The Templars were accustomed to have a public reception of Knights in 
addition to the private initiation and King Philip attended such a public reception the 
spring of 1307. On October 12, the very day before that fixed for the arrest, De Molay 
was present by invitation, at the funeral of King Philip's sister-in-law and was 
assigned a place of honor among the participants in the ceremonies. It is not to be 
wondered at that the blow of October 13 was an entire suiprise and was entirely 
successful. De Molay and all the Knights in the kingdom were arrested, their goods 
were seized, and their houses taken possession of, without the slightest attempt at 
resistance so far as we have any record. 


The events which ensued are somewhat complicated and consist of two distinct sets of 
proceedings, first, personal proceedings against the individual Knights and second, 
proceedings against the Order as a whole and in all its branches. 



Proceedings against the Knights were the first in time. They were begun with great 
vigor by the Grand Inquisitor of France, but there was some question about the Grand 
Inquisitor's jurisdiction. Particular rights and immunities of the Templars which have 
already been noted might be considered as placing them beyond the reach of 
proceedings not instigated by the Pope, or at least approved by him. 


The Grand Inquisitor, however, would not allow himself to be troubled by questions 
of this sort and immediately proceeded to examine the arrested Knights under torture. 


We must not forget that this was not an unusual proceeding. The examination of 
accused persons, and even of witnesses, under torture was the ordinary method of 
judicial procedure at that time. It was not a method confined to the Inquisition but was 
commonly practiced by the civil courts. It would have been very unusual if it had been 
omitted in this case. Horrible as it appears to us and useless as a method of 
ascertaining the truth, it was an every day occurrence in the 14th century and was 
absolutely relied upon as a method of getting at facts. 


Torture was not confined to physical torment. The accused were promised clemency if 
they freely confessed the acts with which they were charged and named their 
accomplices. In the case of the Templars such promises were conveyed in letters 
under the royal seal. These letters were decoys pure and simple. They were either 
forgeries or deliberately written with intent to deceive and without the slightest 
intention of keeping the promises which they contained. 


The accused were told that if they retracted these confessions they would suffer the 
pains of death in this world and of hell in the world to come. It was realized that men 
under physical torture will often say almost anything which may be suggested to them 
as a means of securing relief from their sufferings and these means were taken to 
prevent a retraction of these forced confessions. 


Moreover the law of evidence in use in those days contained one provision which 
seems to us a peculiarly ghastly mockery. The confessions which were wrung from 



the lips of the tortured victims were taken down as uttered. Depositions thus obtained 
were taken to the victim after he had recovered from the first effects of the torture and 
he was asked to sign them. If he did thus sign them, aware that a refusal to do so 
would mean renewal of the tortures together with the before mentioned threats of 
death and damnation, confessions thus signed were held to be voluntary and not 
legally made under torture. 


Naturally many of the Knights confessed. De Molay himself made a partial 
confession. Most of these confessions were afterwards retracted, but for the time 
being they stood. 


The charges will be examined further on, but the principal things confessed should be 
noted here. They were: 


Denial of Christ. Defiling the Cross by spitting upon it and by other methods too 
indecent to describe. 


Indecent kisses which it was claimed the initiates were compelled to give the 
receiving officer on various parts of his body. 


Sodomy. This, by the way, was a vice much more common in the 13th century than 
now and was ordinarily a part of any serious accusations made against either 
individuals or groups of individuals. It was one of the charges against Boniface VIII 
when he was arrested by De Nogaret and Colonna. 


Idolatry. This was based on the alleged worshipof an idol, of which we shall hear 
more, and on the accusation that the cord which was part of the habit of every 
Templar was consecrated by this idol by being touched to it before the Templars put it 
on. Other abominations were vaguely referred to but these were the main points of the 
accusation. 



(To be Continued.) 


-o- 


THE TROWEL 


BY BRO. RABBI EUGENE MANNHEIMER, IOWA 


My Brothers: Mine it is to speak of the Trowel— that instrument which, occupying an 
important position in the work-chest of the operative mason is, as our ritual suggests, 
the especial tool of the Master Mason; made use of by operative masons to spread the 
cement which unites a building into a common mass, but utilized by the Free and 
Accepted Mason for the more noble purpose of spreading the cement of brotherly love 
and affection, that cement which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends, 
among whom no contention should ever exist, but that noble contention, or rather 
emulation, of who can best work and best agree. What instrument could be of nobler 
significance ? What implement of more glorious inspiration ? 


Through the use of the trowel, spreading the cement, the single bricks and stones, 
once a chaotic mass, now stand united and solid, to form this noble edifice which we 
dedicate this day to the cause of God and Masonry. Through the symbolic service of 
the Masonic trowel, spreading the cement of brotherly love and affection, we, the 
individual members, once as separated and chaotic as these stones which house us, are 
as firmly bound together in a union which dedicates us one for all and all for one. . . 
What were this structure, which we solemnly consecrate, had not the trowel been 
honestly wielded, or if the cement and mortar should fail it? What were our 
brotherhood without the bond of love and affection to bind us close? And only as long 
as this bond continues to unite us, only so long will this Temple stand a true shrine of 
Masonry and of God. Only so long will our Brotherhood be a real brotherhood, 
worthy of its consecration and its vows. 



Do we need this lesson? Does this thought require the especial emphasis we would 
wish to give it? Truly, none more. None to which mankind has beer, more impervious 
in all times and all ages. 


Three thousand years ago, on Judea's plain, the prophet of the Lord proclaimed: 
"Behold, it shall come to pass in the latter day that the mountain of the Lord's house 
shall be established at the top of the mountains and exalted above all hills. And all 
nations shall flow unto it. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their 
spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall 
there be war any more." For two thousand years, not the one seer alone, but all 
prophets and ministers of Judaism and Christianity together have united to emphasize 
the same ideal. They have urged and re-urged the truth on the fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of all his children. Out of such conviction they have hoped to bring to 
dawning the day of universal peace. 


But look about us today and see the result. Where is the brotherhood, the affection, the 
peace, the understanding ? Do not bigotry, hatred, superstition, ignorance and jealousy 
flourish as ever before? Are not differences in creed, color and birth, on the slightest 
provocation, still found meaningless excuse for savagely warring nations, as for many 
of-their supposed superiors in culture? Does not the whole modern world panorama 
but demonstrate that whatever our lip service to the ideal of God's fatherhood and 
Man's brotherhood, whatever the hymns and prayers that have arisen from our 
temples, the songs and prayers were not from the heart but from the lips of man only? 


As Master Masons, who have taken the obligations of the three degrees, brotherhood 
is our ideal. We have vowed to eradicate darkness, hatred, superstition and 
misunderstanding from out our own lives and from out the world as far as lay within 
our power. Recognizing no particular creed within our Lodge room, hailing as 
brothers the followers of all creeds who are worthy of such recognition, we have 
taught ourselves, and we hold before the world the constant example, that men of 
different creeds can stand and work together for a common purpose. Living in a world 
of discord, in which brotherhood, love, sympathy and justice are, all-too-often, 
nothing more than words, it is urgent beyond expression that we continually reimpress 
our vows upon our hearts and minds, that we may never lose them from our lives. 



Most urgent of all is it for us to spread their influence as far and wide in the world as 
our united power will permit, that thus we may do our share to end the reign of 
bigotry, hatred and superstition. Thus will we do our part to help hasten the dawning 
of the day when the glorious brotherhood and peace dream of the prophet shall be 
realized. 


As men and Masons we understand that this task is not easy of accomplishment. But 
as men and Masons we have faith in God, in our fellowmen, in ourselves. We know 
that the attainment of the goal is the sure promise of the morrow. In this faith we live 
and labor on. 


But note this one thing more, my Brothers. Those who wrote our ritual did not harbor 
the foolish notion that initiation into Masonry would in some mysterious way, in a 
single moment, through a single act, change the entire nature of the initiate, to make 
him in a moment the perfect servant of God and man that his obligations require of 
him. We are not told that as the result of entering the Masonic fraternity a man must 
be at once, so filled with the spirit of brotherhood that the spirit of false contention 
CAN never again find lodgement within his breast. We are told that it SHOULD 
never again be found within him. The demand is made of each of us who comes to 
this Altar to take the obligation, that he shall continuously thereafter strive to eradicate 
from his heart the prejudice, error and misunderstanding that may have filled him in 
the past, that at last the moment may come when he is a Mason in reality as well as in 
name. But the burden of making ourselves such true Masons is placed upon our own 
shoulders, and nowhere else. To us ourselves and to no others the task is assigned. 


It is these high and noble puiposes, my Brothers, of which the Trowels are here 
emblematic. These the ideals, of which they stand to remind us upon our Altar. As we 
consecrate these trowels anew, this night, unto their holy office, unto these same holy 
puiposes may we, at the same time, re-consecrate ourselves. To these ideals may we 
vow renewed fidelity. 


— o — 



WATCH YOUR STEP 


Yet in opinions look not always back; 

Your wake is nothing, mind the coming track; 
Leave what you've done for what you have to do; 
Don't be "consistent," but simply be true. 

— O. W. Holmes. 




ARCHES AND ARCHES 


Build as we may we shall not reach the sky; 
Our little arches bend forever low 
Beneath the eternal arch that curves on high, 
Above the eternal depths we do not know. 

— F. D. Snelling. 


THE LODGE ROOM OVER SIMPKIN'S STORE 



BROTHER LAWRENCE N. GREENLEAF 


Past Grand Master of Colorado 

The plainest lodge room in the land was over Simpkin's store, 

Where friendship Lodge had met each month for fifty years or more. 
When o'er the earth the moon, full-orbed, had cast her brightest beam 
The brethren came from miles around on horseback and in team, 

And ah! what hearty grasp of hand, what welcome met them there 
As mingling with the waiting groups they slowly mount the stair 
Exchanging fragmentary news or prophecies of crop, 

Until they reach the Tiler's room and current topics drop, 

To turn their thoughts to nobler themes they cherish and adore, 

And which were heard on meeting night up over Simpkin's store. 

To city eyes, a cheerless room, long usage had defaced 
The tell-tale line of lath and beam on wall and ceiling traced. 

The light from oil-fed lamps was dim and yellow in its hue, 

The carpet once could pattern boast, though now 'twas lost to view; 
The altar and the pedestals that marked the stations three 
The gate-post pillars topped wilh balls, the rude-carved letter G 
Where village joiner's clumsy work, with many things beside 
Where beauty's lines were all effaced and ornament denied. 



There could be left no lingering doubt, if doubt there was before, The 
plainest lodge room in the land was over Simpkin's store. 

While musing thus on outward form the meeting time drew near, 

And we had glimpse of inner life through watchful eye and ear. 

When lodge convened at gavel's sound with officers in place, 

We looked for strange, conglomerate work, but could no errors trace. 

The more we saw, the more we heard, the greater our amaze, 

To find those country brethren there so skilled in Mason's ways. 

But greater marvels were to come before the night was through 
Where unity was not mere name, but fell on earth like dew, 

Where tenets had the mind imbued, and truths rich fruitage bore, 

In the plainest lodge room in the land, up over Simpkin's store. 

To hear the record of their acts was music to the ear, 

We sing of deeds unwritten which on angel's scroll appear 

A WIDOW'S CASE - FOUR HELPLESS ONES-lodge funds were running low- 
A dozen brethren sprang to feet and offers were not slow. 

Food, raiment, things of needful sort, while one gave loads of wood, 

Another, shoes for little ones, for each gave what he could. 

Then spake the last: "I haven't things like these to give— but then 
Some ready money may help out"— and he laid down a TEN 



Were brother cast on darkest square upon life's checkered floor, 

A beacon light to reach the white— was over Simpkin's store. 

Like scoffer who remained to pray, impressed by sight and sound 
The faded caipet 'neath our feet was now like holy ground. 

The walls that had such dingy look were turned celestial blue, 

The ceiling changed to canopy where stars were shining through. 
Bright tongues of flame from altar leaped, the G was vivid blaze, 

All common things seemed glorified by heaven's reflected rays. 

O ! wondrous transformation wrought through ministry of love— 
Behold the LODGE ROOM BEAUTIFUL ! — fair type of that above. 
The vision fades— the lesson lives— while taught as ne'er before 
In the plainest lodge room in the land— up over Simpkin's store. 


-o- 


THAT WHICH ABIDES 


A great character, founded on the living rock of principle, is, in fact, not a solitary 
phenomenon, to be at once perceived, limited and described, ft is a dispensation of 
Providence, designed to have not merely an immediate but a continuous, progressive 
and neverending agency. It survives the man who possesses it; survives his age— 
perhaps his country and his language. 


—Edward Everett. 



O 


Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no 
more. 

— Cowper. The Task. 




CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN - NO. 2 


Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg, Caxton Building, Cleveland, Ohio 


Note. Evidence multiplies that this Correspondence Circle idea has met the desires of 
a great number of our Members. This did not surprise any of us. The remarkable— and 
unexpected— feature of the replies to Brother Clegg's September letter was the 
universal desire that the Society should from the beginning lead off in a definite 
Course of Study. The demand appears to be for something very like a Chautauqua 
organization. Our theory of co-operation between Study Clubs contemplated an 
interchange of queries and results between groups of Brethren undertaking to work 
out programs of their own, suited to local conditions. This, we felt, would make of the 
Society's office an headquarters, a forum, a radiating center, suggestions coming in 
and being forwarded everywhere that similar needs seemed to exist. We had hoped to 
add, from time to time, references and helpful plans for overcoming obstacles. 


But to meet the present unexpected situation requires time and study. We shall not 
shirk the problem, but with your help, will tackle it confidently. Our friends must 
needs see that it will only be as they present their suggestions and problems that we 
shall be able (if at all) to think them through. 



This much must be said, in order that the Society's attitude shall not be 
misunderstood. We can only work out the outlines of study, papers, etc., which this 
new plan will require, in co-operation with our own Members as individuals, or as 
voluntary Study Clubs. What is said must be considered as suggestive and advisory 
only. Those who go along with us do so for the sole puipose of self-improvement, 
even as we expect to be benefited by your efforts. As light radiates from its central 
source without producing friction, but generates warmth and fruition on far-distant 
bodies, so must we mutually agree that our united efforts— we supplying as best we 
can that which you will use— shall be always and ever a union with the single puipose 
of promoting a better understanding of Masonry, and between Masons. In a word we 
embark now into a new enterprise, but as before, with no ulterior motive whatever. 
We simply "think out loud" in an effort to help one another. 


COMMITTEE READY FOR TOOLS 


Your work has, by comparison, taught a number of the Brethren the baldness of the 
effort here, and encouraged them to try to better conditions. A Committee on Masonic 
Research and Education has been selected but has no tools with which to work. You 
would confer a great favor if you be so good as to cause me to be sent instructions 
regarding organization, and such literature as would be helpful during the formative 
stage. With best wishes, I am, Yours fraternally, E. M. Walker, Masonic Temple, 
Winnipeg, Man. 


The October issue of The Builder has in the Bulletin section in the center a letter from 
S. H. S. His problems were analogous to yours. They are indeed so closely akin that I 
might venture in default of further particulars from you to repeat verbatim what I then 
said. If in any wise the answer to S. H. S. does not properly meet all the requirements 
I shall be willing, yes, anxious to serve you in every practical manner. 


If your plans are local, and of such were my intentions in preparing the letter for the 
September issue (vide inside back cover), then the situation is less awkward for me to 
handle. I feel very diffident at making suggestions toward State organizations. Such a 



group of earnest students as was suggested in the September issue could very 
informally but effectively pursue research studies. Simplest of organizations is all that 
is necessary. For those who may consider something more formal I shall be very glad 
to assist in any way that is unobjectionable to the Masonic authorities. 


With a very few books of reference and a supply of the various publications issued by 
the National Masonic Research Society you can easily make a start. During the initial 
stages and until your members get the swing of the movement you can use for 
discussion some of the papers that will be printed for that puipose in The Builder and 
in this Bulletin. Our resources will be at the disposal of the Society, as long anyway as 
they will hold out under pressure, and I am always ready to comfer with any of the 
members. Kindly call upon me again as you go along. I am keenly interested in 
everything you undertake in study club propaganda. How can I best serve you ? 


EARNEST STUDY TO BE ENCOURAGED 


I am much interested in Bro. Clegg's proposition for group meetings, and request a list 
of the members of the Research Society in my location. If anyone else in this section 
should request a list please give him the preference as I am Secretary of Adelphi 
Lodge and don't feel that I can really afford the time and effort necessary for such a 
proposition, but feel the lack of real earnest study among the brethren. 


I would much rather be an enthusiastic booster for some good leader than to have to 
do the leading myself, so even if some other brother requests later than mine please 
give him the preference. 


We have over 500 members and are doing considerable work, so you can see the 
Secretary is fairly busy. Julius H. McCollum, Secy., 40 Shelter St., New Haven, Conn. 



My heart goes out to the active Secretary of a big lodge. What a multitude of things 
come his way, all demanding prompt and systematic and continually courteous 
attention. Yet who has better chance to bring studious Freemasonry straight home to 
the members, old and new? Masters come and go but Secretaries commonly continue 
permanent as the famous pillars at the porch, greeting the guests, cheering sojourners, 
ever making programmes and seeing them duly executed. 


Your letter was officially acknowledged forthwith. If there is anything that I can do 
now to start you off the more successfully please let me know of it. 


AWAKEN THE HEART INTEREST OF MASONRY 


I wish to make response to open letter from Robert I. Clegg for list of members of 
Research Society in my immediate vicinity for co-operative study of the neglected 
half of Masonry, the heart part. I very much commend your work. Yours very truly 
and fraternally, A. K. Bradley, Tioga, Texas. 


You have indeed hit the spot. It is the heart interest we seek to encourage. Too much 
of Freemasonry has been allowed to push the research intimacy of it aside. Advise us 
oce your progress. Easy as it is to start something, it takes vim to keep agoing Your 
letter lings so true that I shall expect further light upon your advance. Please keep us 
posted on your progress. Highly value your complimentary words. 


HOW SHALL WE START SOMETHING? 


I see in the September BUILDER something about clubs for the purpose of studying 
Masonry. I am writing for information and as to how to get started. Fraternally yours, 
A. G. Templen, Greeneville, Mo. 



Your desire for information on the best way to make a start - is met fairly well in the 
Bulletin accompanying the October BUILDER. Other particulars as to local members 
were sent to you direct. Much more than these details are necessary and will be 
supplied in due course as my opportunities and the resources the Society are capable 
of dealing to the best of our respective abilities with the situation. We want to start 
right in all we attempt but we shall avoid all possible delays. 


DENVER IS UP AND DOING 


If there is to be a study club organized in Denver, Colo., I would like very much to 
become a member of it. I have been ying to get into something like this for a long 
time. Have been doing a lot of Masonic reading lately, but don't get out of it hat I 
should and am sure that what we need is some definite plan of study along some 
certain line. Very truly yours, W. A. Reynolds, 1079 So. Corona, Denver, Colo. 


If there is not a study club organized in Denver it will not be because of any lack of 
the finest material for membership therein. Be sure and get my old and highly 
esteemed friend, Henry F. Evans, the secretary of Rob Morris Lodge, to join it. Where 
there is one like Evans there must be others of the same kind. In him is the true 
instinct of evangelism. He cannot help but be a missionary of Masonry. You won't 
have to interest him. Long ago he was vaccinated and it took for keeps. 


A definite plan of study along some certain line is as you noint out essentially 
necessary. In the October issue I briefly resented an outline for the student of 
Freemasonry. Any one of the topics enumerated would require a lot of study before 
apoaching exhaustion. 


But such an outline will not meet all the necessities of the case. What I am 
considering, and what I hope to make an actual start at in this issue, is a paper or two 
in some such convenient form as to be read at any study club. It ought to be complete 
in itself. Have plenty of references so that the diggers among us may go ahead with 
their own pursuit of the Masonic quarry, but independent of the literary frills so that 



every brother can understand and appreciate fully. But proceed along the lines laid 
down in the October issue. Make a start. Meantime we must as we are able provide for 
all the needs that are being so suddenly developed on the heels of that pioneering 
letter of mine in September. 


ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN BUILDER 


Note the series of questions running in The BUILDER. Would appreciate information 
as to how to procure answers to same. If published in book form please advise where 
same can be procured. I understand that there is to be a study club organized here as 
soon as Temple No. 4 can arrange and fit up a new home. Reply at your convenience 
appreciated. Yours fraternally, W. H. McEwen, 2106 Providence street, Houston, 
Texas. 


The series of questions may be answered by referring to the book pages quoted in the 
articles published in the BUILDER. Perhaps you refer to the inquiry that once in a 
while waits in the correspondence columns. Such instances are few, very few. So I 
rather think your reference is to the lists of questions emanating from study clubs. The 
questions are really in the nature of a review, quickening the interest and impressing 
the memory with what has been the puiposes of the book on which the questions are 
founded. 


Why let the study club wait for a new home for the lodge? Lodge business is going on 
while the tenancy is fluid. Pending the change you might plan with your local brethren 
the initial meetings of a study club eminently deserving the excellent quarters that I 
hope are in store for you. Please start something. Surely there can be no better time. 
Can I help you? 


AN EXCELLENT PLAN OF CAMPAIGN 



Have read Bro. Robt. I. Clegg's letter on inside back cover of September number of 
BUILDER and it's just what I have wanted for a long, long time. Will you please send 
me a list of the members of the Society in this immediate vicinity so that I may write 
them calling their attention to Bro. Clegg's letter and arrange for a meeting in the near 
future ? 


As to the course of study we will want to pursue, I am afraid that we will in a way be 
obliged to begin with the ABCs of Masonry, but will write you in regard to this after 
we have our first meeting. 


If you have on hand a supply of Bro. Clegg's letter that I may enclose in letters to 
Brothers who are interested in the study side of Masonry but are not at this time 
members of the Society, I would be glad to receive about five of same and through the 
study club they may be made to realize what they are missing by not receiving the 
BUILDER, fraternally thine, J. A. Stiles, Morganfield, Ky. 


Many thanks. All that we could send your way has been forwarded from Society 
headquarters. Do not fail to ask me for anything that will help you in making a start. I 
have in prospect the publication of just such papers as I fervently hope will meet your 
requirements. These will appear soon, perhaps a beginning may be made in this issue. 
Meantime it is most cheering to note how thoroughly you have caught the spirit of the 
enterprise. Your club is certain to be a success. 


STARTING STUDY CLUBS BY WIRE 


TELEGRAM— Will you please send me paper regarding lecture course of outline in 
September issue by Clegg ? Will appreciate a prompt reply as subject to come before 
our Lodge September 18th. Wire me collect if I am too late. H. M. Marks, Jr., W. M., 
Lodge 148, L. & A. M., Lt. Worth, Texas. 



All the available information went your way as quickly as possible. We hope that it 
was of service to you though probably too hurried to do what could have been done 
with a greater expenditure of time. The October issue of the BUILDER contained an 
article or two written with your telegram in mind. If they did not give exactly the data 
of which you were in search I trust you will write us again and go more thoroughly 
into details of what is wanted. 


TEXAN TAKES HOLD IN FINE STYLE 


We desire to get Masonic Lectures started in the various organizations here. I note 
"An Open Letter to our Members " Sept. 16th, The Builder. We desire a lecture once a 
month, given by our Masonic Club in their rooms, fostered by Master Masons. We 
may be able to start study units. We have a place to meet. The Brethren will come 
together on call of the Club the Third Tuesday in each month. The elements are all 
here. The Club has a small library already. We need something for that Third Tuesday 
and you can supply the need I'm sure. Cordially, K. Robey, Fort Worth, Texas. 


Your letter in connection with the telegram from your neighbor, Bro. Marks, is 
conclusive that Masonic activity in your vicinity is most progressive. You have the 
opportunity in shape and are prepared to go on with the work. We hope to publish the 
very material of which you are in search and shall endeavor to time our labors so that 
they will fit in nicely with the Tuesdays on which you hold meetings. Your plans 
strike my fancy very favorably. Every contingency seems anticipated. My heartiest 
congratulations on your perseverance and your foresight. 


A STUDY CLUB OF ONE, PLUS 


Kindly forward me such information as you may have at your command in 
compliance with Robert I. Clegg's suggestion in your September issue of the 
BUILDER. I am much interested in such work and hope within a year or two to be in 
a position so that I can mingle with Brother Masons more than I am permitted at this 
time or for the last five years. In the meantime I can be preparing for the future as I 



have much time that can be devoted to study. Waiting your early reply, I am, 
Fraternally yours, Lem L. Gaghagen, Pelican Bay Woods Camp No. 2, Odessa, 
Oregon. 


Your message somehow gives me the impression that at the moment you are too 
isolated for study club puiposes with the companionship of many Masons. Consider 
yourself therefore a member-at-large, entitled to receive all the information that goes 
to any study club and participating in such long-range benefits as can possibly be 
deflected your way. 


This Bulletin department should be of particularly direct help to you in maintaining a 
close acquaintance with the brethren. Many who cannot join study clubs must be 
cared for here. Their independent study will through the BUILDER have excellent 
vehicle for carrying the results of their investigations afield. 


Let no brother lament that near him there can be no study club. He can, as does the 
good brother here, look ahead to the approaching and favoring prospects and in the 
meantime make the best possible use of our current advantages in the study of 
Freemasonry. 


LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS 


Enclosed find check to cover membership fee of Bro. J. R. Hunter. Will say in behalf 
of the BUILDER that we find it very helpful in our Club work and we hope that by 
the first of January, 1917, all our Club members will be members of the N. M. R. 
Society. Thanking you for past favors, I am, Fraternally yours, N. T. Roach, Winslow, 
Ariz. 


The benefit from membership in a national organization is very evident. If it were 
only that we can spread our inquiries over the larger field, membership in the 



countrywide body is preeminently worth while. We need you, and in the proportion 
that our membership nationally is larger than is yours locally so do you get the greater 
outlook with us. 


In every manner practicable we plan to make the contents of the BUILDER minister 
to the better knowledge of Masonry and your approval of it is appreciated warmly. 


BOOKS, PROGRAMMES, MEMBERSHIPS 


Upon the repeated solicitation of a number of the Brethren of the Craft of this city, I 
am making a canvass among the membership to ascertain whether or not it would be 
possible to organize a Masonic study club. With that purpose in mind I have 
approached one of our very brightest Masons to assist us in the work should we 
succeed in starting a club of that kind. He consented. 


I now ask you, if I am not asking too much of you, to please send me such literature as 
is being sent out to such clubs in your state. Or state whether we ought to affiliate 
under the Research Society. I should like to have a study program or outline of work. 
Also what books, if any, we must purchase. Any information necessary to thoroughly 
start us to working will be appreciated. Kindly send me a couple of blanks for 
brethren who desire to join the N. M. R. Society. Thanking you in advance, I am, 
Yours fraternally, E. W. Cruss, 32d, 2314 Ave. M., Galveston, Texas. 


For the reasons stated in the immediately preceding letter and my comments, it does 
seem highly desirable that you and your brethren should become members of the 
National Masonic Research Society. A further argument is that this body has already 
collected a fund of information that has been given the light of print in the BUILDER 
and in other publications. This data is available for all of you as members. In the first 
volume of the BUILDER, in Dean Pound's book oL the "Philosophy of Masonry," and 
in various other reprints, the Society has now at your command enough for alluring 
discussion at many meetings. 



The October issue had a briefly expressed line of work laid out with a number of 
references to topics and to authorities. We expect to supplement this with a series of 
papers in this month's Bulletin. Such papers will not be too weighty but will 


be arranged for ready use at any study club. They will have a fund of references for 
deeper and further inquiries. 


My own preference as to books is given in the October issue. If I could afford to buy 
but one book I would get Mackey's Encyclopedia, the very latest edition. I am 
doubtful about study club libraries; the individual member's own set of books is the 
thing to aim at. I do not profit by the sale of any book and therefore my opinion is all 
the more that of a buyer of volumes. Lodge libraries are usually stagnant. Perhaps 
study club libraries may not run into the same ruts. But anyway I have more faith in 
every member having his own books and slowly adding to their number. Please refer 
to what is said on the question of books here and there in the Bulletin of October. 


FIRST AN ORGANIZATION, THEN FOR THE REST 


In answer to the Open Letter in the September issue of the BUILDER I write asking 
for a list of the members of Research Society who receive the BUILDER at Onawa. I 
would like very much to get a Study Club started. Unless the list has already been sent 
I would like to have it. After we get an organization, we will no doubt need assistance 
as to topics and programs. I think the study club idea is the genuine fruit that should 
be the result of the Society and the BUILDER. Fraternally, Mark H. Dobson, Box 
476, Onawa, Iowa. 


Any way that we can help you from headquarters, or anything that I can do 
personally, will be cheerfully done with all the speed and conscientiousness that is 
ours. Emphatically you are right. We are ready and must go forward. The accepted 
time is now. Please call on our facilities as if they were in very deed your own. 



GRAND LODGE URGES MASONIC STUDIES 


North Dakota Grand Lodge passed a resolution during the recent session of Grand 
Lodge favoring the aggressive pushing of Masonic study during this coming winter. 
We, in the library, are making every effort to get reading lists, study outlines, etc., 
with that in mind. We are advised that the N. M. R. S. has just such lists and outlines 
which may be obained for the use of its members. If such is the case, may we hope to 
receive from you some assistance of this sort? Personally, I should be very glad to 
learn just what the resources of this sort are which are available for the use of the 
members of the association. Yours very truly, Clara A. Richards, Librarian in Charge, 
Fargo, North Dakota. 


Let me ask you please to examine the present Bulletin and also the one that appeared 
in the October issue of the BUILDER. There was in the latter a reply to S. H. S. which 
gave with some degree of detail what I was venturesome enough to offer to one Grand 
Lodge Committee on Masonic Education. I offered the suggestions with considerable 
diffidence. I again do so. If they contain anything of worth to the brethren of North 
Dakota and to the Librarian, I shall be abundantly repaid. 


An outline of Masonic study is given in the October Bulletin and some references are 
given to books as well as topics. In general, and maybe for the bookish and scholarly 
Mason, this October outline would serve roughly as a guidepost at the very least. 


It does not satisfy me. As the writer of it I have every right to criticise it. If we are to 
make Masonic study really attractive we must go a long way beyond the point of 
directing the other fellow's footsteps. Many must be led for a while. This calls for 
actual papers to be presented to the study clubs and so thorough and so interesting that 
everybody will go away afterward feeling that all could understand and also be 
inspired to do some digging on his own account. 



Masonry has at its command the best men of our own generation. As their minds are 
gradually turned toward the literary delights of Masonic investigation we may count 
upon an unearthing of rare possessions. I therefore rejoice exceedingly in the activity 
planned by your Grand Lodge and I anticipate we shall be greatly benefited by your 
co-operation with us. I hope your Grand Lodge and its subordinate bodies will 
become allied with us in the most useful of studious associations among Masons in 
America. 


— o — 


THE REVELATION 


What we call degeneracy is often but the unveiling of what was there all the time; and 
the evil we could become, we are. If I have in me the tyrant or the miser, there he is, 
and such am I— surely as if the tyrant or the miser were even now visible to the 
wondering dislike of my neighbors.— George MacDonald. 




A SIGNIFICANT CHAPTER IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY 


BY R.I. CLEGG 


I HOPE to present some facts of very general interest to the brethren. Whatever use 
may be made of them is a matter for each of you to determine for himself There are 
those who will value these details as most important contributions to the ever 
wondrous story of the Craft. Others will I daresay hold them as mere coincidences, 
incidents of only accidental import and of minor pertinence at best. 



Be that as it may, the field is open to you all. Many ts are already available. Many 
more are doubtless waiting for you. It is the puipose of our organization, the National 
Masonic Research Society, the individual as well as the collective forces of the body, 
to take up these admittedly slender threads of testimony and her them into whatever 
cord of evidence is proper and practicable. 


Two points of consequence should first be mentioned: First, It is impossible in a paper 
written for publication to say many things relative to the ritual that could readily and 
properly be communicated by word of mouth within the inner door of a Lodge. My 
brethren must therefore apply for themselves much of what I shall say, having the 
ritual constantly in mind, continually asking yourselves if the words written do apply 
in any wise to what each of you has experienced either as a candidate or as an officer 
in the conferring of the Masonic ceremonies. Please therefore add to what I shall here 
utter your own knowledge of the work. Much will in that way be made clear. 


Secondly, in a paper such as this I must not be too technical. For those who desire to 
carry forward the study of the subject I shall elsewhere in the Bulletin of the Society 
submit a selection of authorities to be consulted. This list can easily be lengthened to 
elaborate proportions. Such an array of authors and of literary productions adds 
strength to any paper but if too freely quoted the effort becomes cumbrous and 
burdensome to speaker as well as to hearers. 


I am convinced that the really interesting and instinctive things to be said and to be 
treasured about Freemasonry need be neither tiresome nor appalling. Whatever 
success we may meet in our endeavors toward this end, successful or unsuccessful as 
any of us may be, we should honestly make the effort. Too often the study of 
Freemasonry is hidden behind a cloud of words or weakened by a poverty of facts. 


Returning to our topic after thus clearing away the path, let me state my case briefly. 



Today the blessings of education are about us. Common is the ability to read. 


Suppose that the contrary was true. Assume that Freemasonry was active but that the 
common people were little informed as to moral truths in the manner that the church 
and Craft desired them to be known. It would under those conditions be a likely 
prospect that Freemasonry would attempt a means of bringing the instruction of 
religion to the masses. 


To make the contents of the Book of Law vivid to the people there is no more striking 
method of presentation than the pictorial one employed by the devout peasantry and 
townsfolk of Oberammergau who for so many years exemplified the tale of the Christ 
on the stage. That Freemasons should have done this is by no means out of the 
question as I shall hereafter show to some extent. 


Now carrying this picture in your mind's eye, the early Freemasons staging the 
episodes narrated in the Scriptures, permit me for a moment to take you a step further. 
After several scores, yes, hundreds of years, of such labor by the Craftsmen we find 
the people gradually acquiring a learning sufficient to meet their needs in the study of 
the Bible for themselves. Then there would be less necessity for the public instruction 
of the multitudes by Freemasons. The field properly tilled, the Craft would then in all 
probability withdraw. 


But would it entirely abandon its dramatic presentations? Not necessarily. These very 
probably would in some form be continued. Spectacles and pageantry delight the eye 
and make a very vigorous appeal to the mind. Many who listen with dull ears are 
keenly alive to impressions upon the eye. 


Did the brethren of old desire to select some most striking lesson to teach a great truth 
then what could they have preserved of more consequence out of the many known so 
well to them than the one acknowledged as the climax of the Craft degrees and which 
reappears in various forms in so many of the grades Masonic of every rite, old or 
new? 



You may now ask for proof of these speculations. Backward we turn the pages of 
dramatic history. What do we find ? Among the trustworthy chronicles brought down 
to our own times is the account of the city of London written by William Fitzstephen 
who died in 1 191. He is quoted freely by Stowe who flourished some four hundred 
years afterwards. Well, what says Fitzstephen, the monk of Canterbury? 


"London," says he, "instead of theatrical shows and scenic entertainments, has 
dramatic performances of a more sacred kind, either representations of the miracles 
which holy confessors have wrought, or of the passions and sufferings in which the 
constancy of martyrs was signally displayed." 


Who took part in these staged moralities, these dramatic episodes of religion? The 
artisan coiporate bodies. Stowe is unmistakable when in his "Survey of London" he 
enumerates the "Skinner's well, so-called for that the skinners of London held there 
certain plays yearly, played of Holy Scripture, etc." 


Snell in his "Customs of Old England" points out a very noteworthy conclusion as to 
the origin of these religious ceremonials. "As far as can be ascertained, the earliest 
miracle play ever exhibited in England— and here it may be observed that such 
performances probably owed their existence or at least considerable encouragement to 
the system of religious brotherhood detailed in our opening chapter-was enacted in 
the year 1 1 10 at Dunstable." 


Incidentally, I may here allude briefly to the religious orders, such as the followers of 
Saint Benedict. The initiation of a member of the Order of Saint Benedict has been 
described by our late and greatly lamented Brother Gould. Further details may be 
found in the various histories of the Order. The ceremonial includes a dramatic 
teaching of the impressiveness of death and the hope of immortality. 



Early artisans and merchants of England (legally chartered by the government to carry 
on their respective trades and professions) joined hands with the religious orders to 
adequately represent these Scriptural incidents. Each Craft took some important 
episode and we can readily understand that there was involved a lively trade rivalry, a 
competition that brought out a remarkably effective result. 


Eventually these isolated plays, crude as they must originally have been, grew into 
pageants, each extending over several days, and the degree of elaboration meant an 
expense of labor and of money restricting these exhibitions to the larger centers of 
population and of wealth. Thus there came about the planning and the presentation of 
the four great cycles, those of Chester, York, Wakefield, and of Coventry. The cycle 
was a series of plays forming a compendium of history. Commencing with the 
Creation, the cycle proceeded to unfold the story of earth and the people thereof unto 
the times of the New Testament. Movable stages were devised so that the several 
sections of every locality could be reached and the halt or lame accommodated 
conveniently. 


Says Archdeacon Rogers of the stage itself, as quoted by Snell: "A high scaffolde with 
two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four wheeles. In the lower they apparelled 
them selves, and the higher rowme they played, being all open on the tope, that all 
behoulders might heare and see them." Wood and iron were used in the construction 
of these portable stages. Trap doors were in the floor of the stage covered with rushes. 


Roger Burton, the town clerk of York, has enumerated for us the various trades taking 
part in the Play of Corpus Christi in that city. It reads as if an inventory of all the 
industrial crafts. The cycles were a glory of the city and it became a point of honor not 
to be outclassed by any other city; or for any participating guild, or "mystery," to be 
outshone by a competitor. 


Sometimes the sections of the play cycle were appropriately apportioned to some 
particular craft or organization. Thus there are instances where this aptness of 
assignment of duties is very marked. Take the scene where Noah is warned to 
undertake the making of the ark, this part of the representation being given to the 
"Worshipful Company of Shipwrights"; and then when the patriarch appears in the 



completed ark this was done by the Mariners, a special touch of realism and of trade 
propriety being afforded by this division of duties. 


Towns were for the time being turned into theaters. The huge stage was drawn from 
one station to another. Again we may quote from quaint Archdeacon Rogers in what 
he says of Chester: "The place where they played was in every streete. They begane 
first at the abaye gates, and when the first pagiant was piayed, it was wheeled to the 
high crosse before the mayor, and so to every streete; and soe every streete had a 
pagiant playinge before them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the daye appoynted 
weare played; and when one pagiant was neere ended word was broughte from streete 
to streete, that soe they might come in place thereof excedinge orderlye, and all the 
streetes have their pagiantes afore them all at one time playeing togeather, to se which 
playe was greate resorte, and also scafoldes, and stages made in the streetes in those 
places where they determined to play their pagiantes." 


Sometimes the elaborate arrangement of the plays so enacted by the craftsmen was by 
no means unworthy of mention in the same breath with our modern scenic triumphs. 
For example we are told that at one portrayal of the "Trial of Jesus" two stages or 
scaffolds were simultaneously employed. One of these displayed the judgment hall of 
Herod, the other was reserved for that of Pilate. Messengers on horseback passed 
between the two halls of judgment. By no manner of means was this an unambitious 
exposition of Biblical story, but one that compares quite favorably, as I am sure you 
will agree, with what has in our own times been attempted in that direction. 


When the pageants passed from the churches into the streets for their rendition they 
gradually became less dominantly controlled by the churchly authorities and were the 
more closely governed by the civic and guild officers. 


Pope Gregory held in the year 1210 that the priests must no longer participate in what 
had in his belief ceased to be an act of public worship. 



Devotees of the church in a strict construction of the edict lost regard for the Craft 
plays but it is very significant for us as Freemasons that Manning who in his 
translation of a French manual upon sins denounced such representations and 
regarded it sinful to look upon them, yet held as allowable that the resurrection might 
be played for the confirmation of men's faith in that greatest of mysteries. Manning's 
prejudice was not universal. More than a hundred years later, in 1328, the Bishop of 
Chester counseled his flock to resort "in peaceable manner, with good devotion, to 
hear and see" these stagings of the Scriptures. 


Moreover the Grey Friars of Coventry had a cycle of Coipus Christi plays of their 
own. These they exhibited outside the town. Exactly what was the reason for the 
selection of this place of portrayal is not clear. Shell records the conjecture that it was 
so chosen because of the competition of the trade guilds. 


The fifteenth century found at York a famous preacher, William Melton. He declared 
that it was necessary to have certain changes made in the conduct of the pageants. 
Accordingly, the mayor, William Bowes, on the 7th of June, 1417, issued an 
ordinance that has some elements of interest for us. Among the various regulations we 
find "that no man go armed to the disturbance of the peace and the play, and the 
hindering of the procession, but that they leave their weapons at the inns, upon pain of 
forfeiture of their weapons, and imprisonment of their bodies, save the keepers of the 
pageants and officers of the peace." So were they duly and truly prepared. 


Hone in his "Ancient Mysteries Described" tells of the practices followed in the 
church. These suggest the fount from whence the greatly embellished plays of the 
guilds were evolved. As for instance we may take "The Making of the Sepulchre," as 
it was termed. This custom, founded upon old tradition, taught that the second coming 
of Christ would be on Easter eve. Therefore Jerome conceived that the people should 
await until midnight in the church for the Redeemer's appearance. 


The "Making of the Sepulchre" and the watching of it remained in England until the 
reformation. An account of it by Davies follows: 



"In the abbey church of Durham, there was very solemn service upon Easter Day, 
betwixt three and four o'clock in the morning, in honor of the Resurrection; when two 
of the oldest monks of the choir came to the Sepulchre, set up upon Good Friday after 
the passion, all covered with red velvet, and embroidered with gold, and then did 
cense it, either of the monks with a pair of silver censers, sitting on their knees before 
the Sepulchre. Then they both rising, came to the Sepulchre, out of which with great 
reverence, they took a marvellous beautiful image of our Savior, representing the 
Resurrection, with a cross in His hand, in the breast whereof was enclosed, in most 
bright crystal, the holy sacrament of the altar, through which crystal the blessed Host 
was conspicuous to the beholders. Then after the elevation of the said picture, carried 
by the said two monks, upon a fair velvet cushion all embroidered, singing the anthem 
of "Christus Resurgens," they brought it to the high altar setting it on the midst 
thereof, the two monks kneeling before the altar, and censing it all the time that the 
rest of the whole choir were singing the aforesaid anthem; Which anthem being 
ended, the two monks took up the cushion and picture from the altar, supporting it 
betwixt them, and proceeding in procession from the high altar to the south choir 
door, where there were four ancient gentlemen belonging to the choir, appointed to 
attend their coming, holding up a most rich canopy of purple velvet, tasselled round 
about with red silk, and a goodly gold fringe; and at every comer of the canopy did 
stand one of these ancient gentlemen, to bear it over the said images with the holy 
sacrament carried by the two monks round about the church, the whole choir waiting 
upon it with goodly torches, and great store of other lights; all singing, rejoicing, and 
praying to God most devoutly till they come to the high altar again; upon which they 
placed the said image, there to remain until ascension day." 


These early practices of the church are not extinct. Particularly at Christmas there are 
many observances to be found that remind us strongly of these ancient customs from 
whence the craftsmen of old drew the inspiration for their great public displays of 
theatrical skill. 


You may ask if there is record of the Masons having taken part as an organization in 
the city cycles of pageants. There is a carefully prepared account still extant of the 
York pageants. This is entitled "The order of the Pageants of the play of Coipus 
Christi, in the time of the Mayorality of William Alne, in the third year of the reign of 
King Henry V. anno 1415, compiled by Roger Burton, town clerk." 



There are fifty- four scenes, some of which are depicted by more than one class of 
craftsmen. For instance, the Pewterers and the Founders were associated in the 
rendition of the thirteenth scene. The first scene was assigned to the Tanners, and was 
"God the Father Almighty creating and forming the heavens, angels and archangels; 
Lucifer and the angels that fell with him into hell." So we go on to the eighteenth 
scene, alloted to the Masons. This was of "Mary with the child; Joseph, Anna, and a 
nurse with young pigeons; Simeon receiving the child in his arms, and two sons of 
Simeon." 


You will be interested to learn that some of these old morality plays are even yet of 
record and are by no means trivial. In fact the conditions under which they were 
produced, and the time spent upon them for some hundreds of years, must have 
brought them to a very high plane. 


Take the Cornish Mystery of the Crucifixion: 


Jesus— Woman, seest thou thy son? A thousand times your arms Have borne him with 
tenderness. And John, behold thy mother; Thus keep her, without denial, As long as 
ye live. 


Mary— Alas ! Alas ! Oh ! Sad ! Sad ! In my heart is sorrow, When I see my son Jesus, 
About His head a crown of thorns. He is Son of God in every way, And with that truly 
a King; Feet and hands on every side Fast fixed with nails of iron. Alas ! That one 
shall have on the day of judgment Heavy doom, flesh and blood, Who hath sold him. 


John— Oh sweet mother, do not bear sorrow, For always, in every way I will be 
prepared for thee; The will of thy Son is so, For to save so much as is good, Since 
Adam was created. 



Jesus— Oh Father, Eli, Eloy, lama sabacthani? Thou are my dear God, Why hast Thou 
left me, a moment alone, In any manner? 


First Executioner— He is calling Elias; Watch now diligently If he comes to save him. 
If he delivers him, really We will believe in him, And worship him for ever. 


(Here a sponge is made ready, with gall and vinegar. And then the Centurion stands in 
his tent, and says:) 


Centurion— I will go to see How it is with dear Jesus: It were a pity on a good man So 
much contumely to be cast. If he were a bad man, his fellow Could not in any way 
Truly have such great grace, To save men by one word. (The Centurion goes down.) 


Second Executioner— It is not Elias whom he called; Thirst surely on him there is, He 
finds it an evil thing. (Here he holds out a sponge.) Behold here I have me ready, Gall 
and hyssop mixed; Wassail, if there is great thirst. 


Jesus— Thirst on me there is. 


Third Executioner— See, a drink for thee here; Why dost thou not drink it? Rather 
shoulds't thou a wonder work ! Now, come down from the cross, And we will worship 
thee. 


Jesus— Oh, Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit; By Thy will take it to Thee, As 
Thou sent it into the world. 


(Then Jesus shall die. Here the sun is darkened.) 



You have here, my brethren, a story of the cross that for simple strength is not easily 
excelled. Not for a moment is it to be marvelled at that great throngs saw these 
spectacles. Theatrical skill in abundance was lavished upon them. Devoted craftsmen 
contributed freely of their means in money and histrionic ability. Great religious 
orders gave them literary aptness. Monks and Masons, Church and Craft, combined 
the best that in them was for the portrayal of the Scripture story from the creation to 
the cross, from the Fall to the risen Lord. 


This co-operation of forces has curiously given some things in common to the 
Catholic and Protestant Churches and the Masonic organization. Think of the 
similarity of symbolism, particularly of colors as with blue, red, purple, white, etc. 
Consider the ritual of the Mass, its obvious teaching and the signs and ceremonies that 
are its accompaniment. Ponder over the joint uses of such words as warden, deacon, 
chapter, council, consistory, and so forth. Do these not tell us of the days when the 
brotherhood of Freemasons held up the hands of the church with dramatic fervor, with 
an ornate stage, showing the Scripture and saying its story in so simple and strong a 
style that the least informed might be made wise unto biblical truths and all 
fundamental philosophies ? 


This fact I hold to be one of the greatest significances of Masonic history, a heritage 
to be proudly possessed and passed onward. 


* * * 


NOTES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 


Readers of the Bulletin will have observed the suggestion made on the fourth page in 
the October issue for a "Course in the Study of Masonry." 



Under the head of "Ritual" I mentioned several items for consideration. One of these 
was the "Mystery Plays of the Middle Age." Promptly I received a request that I say 
something further on this topic as at least one good brother had never thought of these 
plays in that connection. The above article was at once prepared. It is not intended to 
be comprehensive. Time for its preparation has been so limited that I have been 
unable to cover to my liking certain phases of the subject that demand critical 
attention. Yet it may serve for the present. And it may also provide a paper that can be 
submitted at any study club. Frankly do I admit that it is not my ideal of a paper for 
study club consideration. I shall have other papers and I hope papers of even more 
general appeal and perhaps more pertinent significance. When we get to the stage 
where we are receiving papers from study clubs everywhere we shall indeed have a 
finer quality of production. 


To the good brethren who seek to pursue this subject further for themselves, and 
beyond the confines of the various Masonic publications, I have a few references to 
provide. 


An excellent chapter on "Miracle Plays" is to be found in Snell's "Customs of Old 
England." (1) 


Some few references are to be found in Stowe's "Survey of London." 


I am especially fond of that volume in "Everyman's Library" entitled "Everyman, and 
Other Interludes, including Eight Miracle Plays." (2) 


"Everyman," by the way, I have been tempted to reproduce in this Bulletin, and later 
may do so. It is a morality play in which the various attributes of manhood are 
personified and converse with the individual when he approaches his death. This 



exhibition of Wisdom, Strength, Beauty, Good-deeds, Fellowship, etc., in the shadow 
of death is of decided interest to the Freemason, and is peculiarly apt to the era of my 
paper of which it is indeed a valuable survival. 


Hone's "Ancient Mysteries Described" (3) contains some curious lore upon old church 
customs. Allusion to one or two of the many cited by Hone is made in my paper. 


The Encyclopedia Brittannica has an article on the Drama. About a column of it treats 
of the old miracle and morality plays. While you are looking through the Enyclopedia, 
glance at the articles entitled "Initiation" and "Mutilation." While these do not directly 
touch upon the plays here treated, they have marked interest to the student of 
primitive ceremonies. From the consideration of these peculiarities we may derive 
light upon society, secrecy in the earliest stages of its evolution. 


F.H. Stoddard's "References for Students of Miracle Plays and Mysteries" (4) 
furnishes a bibliography that up to the date of publication, 1887, is ranked as full. The 
little volume, "Everyman," already mentioned, has in the introduction a very useful set 
of references. 


The two volumes of Taunton's history of the "English Black Monks of St. Benedict" 
(5) can be consulted for some additions to the references I have made in the above text 
to what is said on the subject by Gould. R.I. CLEGG. 


(1) [Snell] Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 

(2) [Everyman] E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. 

(3) [Hone] William Hone, London, 1823. 

(4) [Stoddard] University of California Bulletin No. 8. 

(5) [Taunton] Longmans Green & Co., New York. 



THE MEASURE OF GOODNESS 


Be good at the depths of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will 
be good even to the same depths. Nothing responds more infallibly to the seret cry of 
goodness than the secret cry of goodness that is near. While you are actively good in 
the invisible, all those who approach you will unconsciously do things that they could 
not do by the side of any other man. Therein lies a force that has no name; a spiritual 
rivalry that knows no resistence.— Maurice Maeterlink. 


-o- 


CHIPS FROM THE QUARRY 


Human improvement is from within outwards.— Froude. In this world a man must 
either be hammer or anvil.— Longfellow. Architecture is frozen music.— De Stael. 
Greek architecture is the flowering of geometry.— Emerson. A Gothic church is 
petrified religion.-Coleridge. 


— o — 


A MAN’S MAN 


CHARLES BAYARD MITCHELL 



A man's man must be his own man. I mean by that he must have faith in his own 
integrity. He does not discount himself. He knows himself. He has surveyed his own 
estate and knows his limitations and boundary lines; but knows his powers, as well. 

He has studied himself. He has discovered within himself a duality; one side of him 
tending downward, and the other upward. He aims to be true to his better self. By 
restraining the evil and giving vent to the good within him, he has seen the better 
forces coming to the throne of his life. He can trust the scepter in the hands of his own 
better nature. He dares trust himself. He can trust his instincts. He yields quickly to his 
intuitions. He feels strong in the sense of his own integrity. He knows he is a true 
man— others may think what they please. He knows he rings true. When a great 
question is to be decided he dares take it to the bar of his own better judgment and 
abide its decision. His mind is superior to doubt and fluctuation. He can laugh at 
opposition. He feels within himself the power to will and to do. He dares to do what 
others fear. He initiates where others follow. He has a sublime confidence in his own 
power to carry out whatever he wills. He knows no timid lingerings. Neither doubts 
nor misgivings keep him back from the trial. He is larger than his vocation and 
superior to opinion. He is impervious to contempt and ridicule. 


No man can be a man's man who is not his own man. Discount yourself and the world 
will take you at your own estimate. A divine self respect, a sane selfconfidence, must 
mark the man who aspires to win the confidence of his fellow men. 


-o- 


THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY 


It is one of the most difficult things in the world for one to be just, while suffering 
from injustice. It is not an easy thing to permit one who attacks another's reputation to 
go on with his own reputation apparently unsullied. It is not a simple matter to be non- 
partisan when one is being held up to scorn by partisans. It is not a pleasant thing to 
stand aside, inactive, while designing persons are telling lies about us. But the man 
who can be JUST under trying conditions, and the man who can refrain from showing 



resentment when assailed, and the man who can still be non-partisan when subjected 
to partisan attack, and the man who can resist the temptation to talk back when he 
knows that some one is lying about him— all of these men are exemplifying the spirit 
of Masonry. —John W. Hill, 33d. 




THE SWEETNESS OF LIFE 


There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all 
sweet things; there's likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who 
would wish to die ?"-George Barrow. 




TRAVEL SKETCHES 


BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON 


LONDON TOWN 


YES, it is London. Had I been set down here from anywhere, or from nowhere, I 
should have known that it was old London town. Here all things turn to the left, as 
they do in the Inferno of Dante— there is no mistaking the place. And speaking of the 
Inferno, the English way of handling baggage gives one a clear idea of what that place 
must be like. 



How quiet London is. Compared with the din of New York and the hideous nightmare 
of the Chicago loop it is as quiet as a country village. There are no sky-scrapers to be 
seen, but the scene spread out like a panorama from the top of Primrose Hill is not to 
be forgotten! Yes, it is London, the greatest city in the world, and not another like it. 
But which London is it? Well, that depends upon what London you are looking for. 


There are many Londons, my dear reader. There is the London of the Tower and the 
Abbey, of Soho and the Strand, of Buckingham and Downing Street, to say nothing of 
Piccadilly. There is the London of the story-book; of Whittington and his Cat and 
Goody Two-Shoes and the Canterbury Shades; of Shakespeare and Marlowe and 
Chatterton; of Nell Gwynne and Dick Steele and poor old Noll— aye, the London of all 
that is bizarre in history or strange in romance. 


They are all here, with much else in this gigantic medley of past and present, of 
misery and magnificence. Sometimes for me it is hard to know which holds closest, 
the London of Fiction or the London of History, or that London which is a mingling 
of both— the London of Literature. Anyway, as I see it, Goldsmith carouses with Tom 
Jones, and Harry Fielding discusses philosophy with the Vicar of Wakefield; Nicholas 
Nickleby makes bold to introduce himself to Mr. W. H. Thackeray and to ask his 
favor in behalf of a poor artist, the son of a hair-dresser in Maiden Lane; and Boz, as 
he passes through Fleet Street, is tripped by an Artful Dodger and falls into the arms 
of St. Charles Lamb. 


No doubt my London is in large part a dream, not to say a fool's paradise, but it is 
most enchanting. Slowly it works its ancient spell, and he who does not love it is fit 
for strategems and spoils— not fit for anything, I had almost said. There is no denying, 
I am in love with London, and can drink as much tea as any Englishman who ever 
coveted his neighbors goods. Here is the center of the world, so far as I am concerned, 
the great old city of the motherland of all my fathers— everywhere the hauntings of 
history, a scene to stir the soul of one who loves England equally for its fiction and its 
fact. 



Yesterday I visited the Abbey and attended the afternoon service— an hour I can never 
live long enough to forget. How can I express my feeling as I stood for the first time 
in that grey old pile thinking of the mighty dead who sleep there— thinking how those 
pillars have stood through all the nights and days, through storm and calm, peace and 
war, for ages. Truly, "time, the white god, makes all things holy, and what is old 
becomes religion." I sat facing the Poet's Corner, where Tennyson and Browning 
sleep side by side, as they should in the eternal fitness of things, and the effigy of 
Shakespeare has the bust of Bums nearby, if one cannot pray in Westminster Abbey, 
where men have prayed for centuries, and where the echo of voices long hushed still 
cling to its arches, he cannot pray at all— unless it be on the wide and eloquent sea ! 


Today I went to St. Paul's and heard the Archbishop of Canterbury preach, and after 
the service wandered for two hours in the recesses of the cathedral. Descending into 
the crypt one looks upon the tomb of Nelson, the mighty lord of the sea, and the 
sleeping place of Wellington, the great commander of the English race. Lord Roberts 
rests a few feet away. Here sleep the great artists— as the poets are honored in the 
Abbey— among them Wren who built St. Paul's, a famous Mason. Who can measure 
the influence of such a building, enshrining as it does so many historic memories, the 
dust of great men, and the tradition of ages of patriotism and prayer? ft stands for 
order in the stl eets, for order in the land, for order in the secret places of the soul ! 


From St. Paul's it is not a far walk across London Bridge to Southwark Cathedral— 
hardly less interesting and far less known. In this parish stood the Globe theatre, in 
which Shakespeare made himself and England famous, and there is a recumbent 
figure of the poet in alabaster— the gift of Americans. His younger brother lies buried 
there in company with Massinger and Fletcher. Indeed, it had been a place of literary 
renown long before Shakespeare, in the days of Gower, who rests there, and Chaucer, 
whose Canterbury pilgrims set out from the Tabard Inn, once close at hand. Also, in 
this parish was bom John Harvard, founder of our great university, and there is a 
chapel in his honor in the cathedral. And so my story might go on endlessly. 


Old London is the keeper of a great history, but the London of today is athrill and 
athrob with the stir of history in the making. How impressive to step out of some grey 
old church— like that of St. Bartholomew, or the Temple where poor Noll found rest at 
last— into the teeming, tragic London of today; from the peace of the past into the 
tense air of the greatest war in all the annals of time. If the London of old is 



hallowing, London of today is thrilling— sometimes terrifying. There is a sense of a 
vast tragedy only a few miles away, and here one is behind the scenes, so to speak- 
soldiers and sailors everywhere; armies of nurses, Red Cross emblems, ambulances, 
hospitals, and so forth. 


How striking the contrast as one steps out of the quiet of the past where "the eternal 
ages watch and wait." Indeed, just now England is a world of women nurses, 
messengers, porters, tram and bus conductors, very conscious and important in 
uniform and badge and brass buttons. Manifestly the English woman is finding herself 
and she likes it. Bright-eyed, capable, and cheerful, she is doing things she never 
dreamed of doing before. Even women doing their ancient work as house- wives feel a 
new distinction, I dare say, and dust their rooms for the good of the country. They 
have learned their worth to the nation in a new way. Will they be willing to go back to 
the old ways after war? Can they do it? What will be the result? Will not England be 
permanently different? 


Such questions have followed me ever since I landed. At Hyde park entrance the other 
day I saw one of the shrieking sisterhood which I thought were extinct— I wish they 
were. Maybe I shall live long enough to forget that sight, but I doubt it. Hideous is a 
mild word. Fact is, my profession will not allow me to say what I really feel. Those 
poor, half-crazed creatures have set their cause back fifty years in England, and 
injured it everywhere. Had I been shaky on the subject of suffrage, that harangue, and 
still more the wild-eyed fanaticism of the ranter, would have sent me away with a vast 
disgust. Heaven help a cause that has such advocates. 


But she and the like of her are forgotten when one sees the heroic spirit of the 
multitudes of women who work and endure, counting their sorrow as only one item in 
a measureless common woe. And they are so brave and gay withal. Indeed, London is 
unnaturally gay and many are puzzled by it, knowing not what it means. Almost every 
reporter who has interviewed me— and they have been legion— has brought up the 
subject. Yet it ought to be very easy to understand. A man who had been in the 
trenches told me that there men leam to live a moment at a time— they may not be 
alive more than a moment. And the reaction, he said, an explosion of "insane gaiety," 
to use his words. Pent up feelings must find vent, and it is no wonder that the theatres 
are crowded every night— and the more rollicking the play the greater the jam. 



Frankly, I was not prepared for the feeling against America which exists in England 
today, and I am amazed at it. It is widespread, and is sometimes so intense as to verge 
on anti-Americanism. My English friends assure me that it is not so in a way that 
really matters, but I know better— and Americans living here confirm my impression. 
Perhaps it is not so with those who are discerning, but with the man-in-street it is 
different. He feels, however wrongly, that America betrayed humanity in behalf of 
dollars. It is not so much that the president kept us out of the war, but the appalling 
way in which he did it, that hurts. 


Further, the American government is a continuing entity to English people. They do 
not divide it into presidential terms or personalities, and the feeling against America 
will continue whatever the future may be in our politics. Therefore it behooves us to 
do all within our power— on both sides of the sea— to see that such a feeling does not 
gather force and grow; for, surely, the last and worst calamity that could befall 
humanity would be an estrangement between the Empire and the Republic having one 
language, one tradition, and one common ideal of civilization. But I am off my subject 
and had better go back to London. 


The newspapers here interest me very much. They are small now, to be sure— except 
Old Thunderer, the Times— owing to the price of paper and the lack of labor. They are 
poorly printed, as compared with our papers— certainly the religious papers are 
abominably printed. But they are better written by far. They serve the news up after 
their fashion in more compact form, but in a much more lucid style, and some of the 
war correspondents— Phillips Gibbs more than any other, methinks— are very 
remarkable. Also, the editorial page has more influence than with us, though it has 
suffered decline, I am told, on this side. Men of letters write more frequently for the 
daily press than with us. Certainly the press, both in London and in the provinces, has 
been very kind to me in every way. 


I am bound to say that religious conditions in England are most distressing and 
confounding. The churches are empty, for the most part, and have little influence— the 
state church emptier than the rest, if possible. Perhaps I should have said church 
conditions instead— for some of my thoughtful friends tell me that there is more 
religion outside of the church than inside. Carlyle thought it was so in his day. 



Anyway, I have attended three religious conferences since I came, representing three 
branches of the church, and the tone of bewilderment and discouragement was 
common to all. They know not what to do, and the ministers are all the time trying to 
explain the war and "to justify the ways of God to man"— with not much success, I 
must admit. It makes me think of a student in the University of Michigan, after three 
visiting ministers had each discussed the question of the existence of God. He said 
that up until that time he had never had any doubts, but that now he was a little 
uncertain. I am much in his case, as to the explanations I have heard so far. 


There is a vast unbridged— and seemingly unbridgeable-gulf between the church and 
what is called the working classes; and it widens every day. What the end will be is 
hard to know. If the war did not save dear old England from something like 
revolution, it at least postponed it. Perhaps the shaking the war has given the churches 
will wake them up, before it is too late. For surely the people are as religious as ever 
they were, but the churches no longer express their religion. There are exceptions, of 
course, to all these statements— thank heaven— but I am speaking of the general 
condition. 


And the City Temple is an exception to anything on earth. It is wonderful— all that I 
expected and more. It has been full from top to bottom at every service a sea of faces 
below and clouds of faces in the galleries. What a sight ! What an opportunity ! What 
a crushing responsibility! If anybody ever tells me that an English audience is 
unresponsive, I shall be ready to fight him. It is not so. I never had such a response, 
much less such a welcome, in any strange place in all my life. And if anything had 
been lacking at the Temple, it would have been made up by the Masons at their 
brilliant banquet and reception in my honor. That, too, was a scene never to be 
forgotten till all things fade in the dark. Of this more anon. 




MASONIC LIGHT UPON MEXICO - A REPLY 



BY BRO. JOHN LEWIN MCLEISH, OHIO 


(Through the courtesy of the Editor of The Builder I have been privileged to peruse 
advance sheets of Bro. Eber Cole Byam's article, "Mexican Masonry, Another Side," 
written for the October issue of the magazine. Brother Byam presents so strong a brief 
against the Mexican Revolution which he italicizes as an I.W. W. Revolution, 
incidentally condemning Mexican Masonry and condoning Mexican Catholicism, that 
I am sorely tempted to plain speaking. Realizing fully our Masonic Doctrine of 
Tolerance, I shall stress the fact that any allusions herein made apply strictly to 
Catholicism in Mexico, and I shall support my arraignment by references easily 
obtainable to those seeking More Masonic Light Elpon Mexico.) 


IN 1494 Pope Alexander VI divided the undiscovered regions of the earth by an 
imaginary line of longitude running through the Atlantic Ocean from pole to pole, 
three hundred and seventy miles west of the Azores. He gave the Portuguese 
unlimited sway over all the countries that they might discover to the east of that line, 
and pledged himself to confirm to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, the right to every 
isle, continent and sea where they should plant the flag on the western hemisphere.— 
(Mexico and the United States, by G. D. Abbot. Putnam.) 


The Catholic Conquistador Hernan Cortez and his little band of mailclad men brought 
only the sword and the cross to the New World. They took freely of the Emperor 
Montezuma's gold, enjoyed his hospitality, and in return began "a holy war" ruthlessly 
destroying the monuments, history, literature and records of a splendid Aztec 
civilization quite equal to that of the effete Spain from which they had come. 


A Jesuit historian, Abbe F. S. Clavigero, in his History of Mexico, says: "The 
Spaniards in one year of merciless massacre sacrificed more human victims to avarice 
and ambition, than the Indians during the existence of their empire devoted in chaste 
worship to their native gods." 



A more recent authority, L. Gutierrez de Lara, in his "The Mexican People: Their 
Struggle For Freedom," says:— 


"In Mexico on the other hand, the invading Spaniards found not barbarism, but a 
feudal civilization, private ownership of land in place of communal ownership, and 
serfdom in place of nomadic liberty. With fire and sword they laid waste a civilization 
in many respects superior to their own: and the fighting elements among the natives, 
once subjugated or exterminated, the serfs fell perforce into the most abject servitude 
of their new masters. . . Spain brought to Mexico an arrested civilization and a fanatic 
Romanism embittered and perverted by the fierce conflict with Islam. The Holy 
Inquisition set its bloody fangs in the heart of the people: persecution, fire and torment 
quenched all liberty of conscience and the soul of Mexico lay degraded and shackled 
as even her body. The ignorant priests went so far in their hatred of all enlightenment, 
that emanated from any other source than the Vatican, that they burned to ashes the 
invaluable library in the Imperial Palace of the Aztecs, destroying at a blow the 
records of the culture beyond their comprehension." 


The Pope's proclamation in 1494 set the precedent for the later policy of the Vatican 
to "Catholicize" the world, was the forerunner of the latter day slogan of the 
Cardinals, "We shall make America Catholic." Witness the Council of Trent convened 
by Pope Paul II in 1545 legislating "a body of canons that were to subject all mankind 
for all ages to the will of one man in the papal chair." 


The Conquest successful, Spanish civilization fastened a firm hold upon Mexico. To 
quote from Wilson's Mexico:— "Many of these wretched people were formally reduced 
to the condition of absolute slavery, and some were even branded as such with the 
owner's initial by a red-hot iron, women as well as men, while the middle class, the 
real backbone of the nation, perished from the land." 


Now quoting from my own article, "Mexican Masonry," published in Light of June 
15, 1916: 



"At the inchoation of the nineteenth century Mexico seemed hopelessly enslaved 
under the harsh rule of Roman ecclesiasticism expressing itself through the puppet 
personalities of Spanish Viceroys, representatives of a king and cortes utterly 
subservient to the Pope of Rome. For three hundred years this sad condition had 
persisted in Mexico. In consequence the clergy were stupendously rich, and seemingly 
fortified in an impregnable position. What was left of the natural resources of the 
country after supplying the priests and mother , country went to the enrichment of the 
Viceroy and the Spanish satellites making up his court. For the native-born was abject 
misery, slavery, dire poverty. Through the country the dread Inquisition flourished 
and held sway. Its wretched victims filled to overflowing the great military prisons 
like San Juan de Uloa with their disease-disseminating, vermin-infested, dark 
dungeons, veritable hellholes. So unutterably cruel were the penalties attached by the 
Inquisitors to failure to pay the clerical tithes, or any utterance against the existing 
order, a breath of what they might consider heresy, that wonder is the SYSTEM held 
sway as long as it did. However much the native-born contributed to their taskmasters, 
it was never enough. Overseas, decadent Spain was in dire , straits: Upon the Viceroys 
it devolved to pay the upkeep of the Court of the Bourbons, to meet the endless 
demands of the CLERICAL OCTOPUS fattening upon both countries." 


A Roman Catholic Bishop, Las Casas, protested strenuously against the Spanish 
cruelties crossing the Atlantic twice to show convincing evidence that a continuation 
of the policy inaugurated by Cortez could only result in utter extermination of the 
Aztecs as a race and nation. 


Let us now take more testimony from a Catholic Authority. Let a French Abbe, the 
Catholic Chaplain of Napoleon's Expeditionary Force to Mexico, speak to you from 
his book, "Mexico as It Is," published in Paris in 1867. Says this very reverend father, 
Abbe Emanel Domenech: 


"Mexican faith is dead. The abuse of external ceremonies, the facility of reconciling 
the devil with God, the absence of internal exercises of piety, have killed the faith in 
Mexico. It is in vain to seek good fruit from the worthless tree which makes Mexican 
religion a singular assemblage of heartless devotion, shameful ignorance, insane 
superstition, and hideous vice. . . The idolatrous character of Mexican Catholicism is a 
fact well known to all travelers. The worship of saints and madonnas so absorbs the 
devotion of the people, that little time is left to think about God. . . If the Pope should 



abolish all simoniacal livings, and excommunicate all the priests having concubines, 
the Mexican clergy would be reduced to a very small affair. Nevertheless there are 
some worthy men among them, whose conduct as priests is irreproachable. In all 
Spanish America there are found among the priests the veriest wretches, knaves 
deserving the gallows, men who make infamous traffic of religion. Mexico has her 
share of these wretches. Whose fault is it ? In the past it has been Spanish manners. . . 
climate. In the present it is the episcopate. . . Priests who are recognized as fathers of 
families are by no means rare. The people consider it natural enough and do not rail at 
the conduct of their pastors excepting when they are not contented with one wife. 

They make merchandise of the sacraments, and make money by every religious 
ceremony, without thinking that they are guilty of simony, and expose themselves to 
the censure of the Church. If Roman justice had its course in Mexico, one-half of the 
Mexican Clergy would be excommunicated. . . The well-instructed priests, 
disinterested and animated by a truly apostolical spirit, holy souls whose religious 
sentiments are of good character constitute an insignificant minority. . . One of the 
greatest evils in Mexico is the exorbitant fee for the marriage ceremony. The priests 
compel the poor to live without marriage, by demanding for the nuptial benediction a 
sum that a Mexican mechanic, with his slender wage, can scarcely accumulate in fifty 
years of the strictest economy. This is no exaggeration. The consequences of the 
excessive demands for perquisites in general are as lamentable to public morality as to 
religion." 


It was just such esoteric knowledge of the evils of his brother clergymen that led 
Miguel de Hidalgo, a Mexican priest, to foreswear his vows and seek MASONIC 
LIGHT in Mexico City in 1806. From the time he sounded the slogan of revolution 
against the puppet Viceroys of Rome and Spain, to the ultimate triumph of Juarez, the 
enforcement of the Laws of Reform, through the successive revolutions of Madero, 
and Carranza, the fight has been for the one great principle of compelling the 
separation of Church and State. 


If as Bro. Byam says, "The Church in Mexico was stripped and had the melancholy 
satisfaction of witnessing the chagrin and rage of the shippers because the booty was 
so much below their calculations," WHY NOT? 


Nearly naked and poverty stricken came the priests to Mexico to kill and plunder the 
poor natives and amass fabulous wealth during the three hundred years of their 



undisputed sway. When the worm turns at last, to drive them from their piratical 
strongholds, to give back to the State that which the Church took by right of might 
and the Inquisition, is it other than the enforcement of a good law "Naked ye came 
and naked ye go" ? 


Again Bro. Byam says:— "Latin American Masonry is atheistic, revolutionary and 
contentious, and in Mexico it has become anarchistic and murderous." 


I do not agree with Bro. Byam at all. Only in one of the twenty-seven states of Mexico 
was the Great Light absent from the altar and this I believe in Monterey, during the 
mastership of General Reyes. In regard to his statement concerning Bro. Castellot, I 
again quote from the New Age, the official organ of the Scottish Rite, Southern 
Jurisdiction, of January, 1915:— "Scottish Rite Masonry in Mexico is under the 
leadership of Dr. Joseph G. Castellot, formerly President of the Mexican Senate." 


Permit me now briefly to epitomize from my article. Mexican Masonry, already 
referred to: 


"Our first authentic Masonic record in Mexico may be traced back to a little house in 
Mexico City, Calle de las Ratas No. 4 where as early as 1806 the Masonic Lodge then 
known as "Arquitectura Moral" held regular meetings. . . Although the SYSTEM 
crushed the Moral Architect Lodge not at all did they preclude the spread of Masonry. 
In 1813 was established the first Grand Lodge under the Scottish Rite, having for its 
Grand Master Don Felipe Martinez Aragon. A number of subordinate lodges sprang 
up through the country. In 1816-1817 there were working under charter from the 
Grand Lodge of Louisiana these lodges, "Friends United No. 8," and "Reunion By 
Virtue No. 9." In 1824 the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania gave charter to a lodge 
working as "True Brothers of Papaloapam No. 191." . . . Factional fights and 
internecine strife were but natural in an order embracing men of the fervent, 
effervescent disposition of the native Mexicans. The time seemed ripe for a schism. It 
so happened that the American Minister to Mexico, Mr. M. Poinsett, was one of the 
high authorities of York Rite Masonry in his native land. For many symbolic lodges 
who petitioned him Bro. Poinsett secured a Charter under the York Rite of the United 
States through the Grand Lodge of New York. In 1828 there were as many as 102 



York Rite lodges in Mexico working under this Charter. Out of the jealousies of the 
two active Rites Scottish and York emerged still a third, the Mexican National Rite, 
composed of York and Scottish Rite Masons. Although the York and Scottish Rites 
had taken a considerable part in the shaping of the Republic's welfare, it remained for 
the youngest of Masonry's Mexican daughters to openly formulate a definite platform. 
In 1833 the Mexican National Rite set forth its policy as follows: 


"Absolute Freedom of Thought, Freedom of the Press, Abolishment of the Fueros 
(Privileges) of the Clergy and of the Army, Suppression of Monastic Institutions, 
Destruction of Monopolies, Protection of Arts and Industries, Dissemination of 
Libraries and Schools, the Abolishment of Capital Punishment, and Colonial 
Expansion." 


All of these high principles and others were embodied in the Laws of Reform enacted 
and put into the Mexican Constitution by the greatest of the Masons of the Mexican 
National Rite, Brother Benito Juarez. They are the same principles for which First 
Chief Carranza is fighting today. 


Says Brother Byam:— "The laws of Reform were not aimed at securing freedom of 
worship, but at the spoliation of the Catholic Church." 


Even were his statement just, and I cannot for one moment admit that it is, may we 
not answer that when the Mexican State says to the Roman Catholic Church, "Take 
that thine is, and go thy way," is it the fault of the State that "Naked they came and 
Naked they go" ? On the contrary, "We are satisfied: that is a GOOD LAW." 


Naturally the Laws of Juarez did not at all appeal to the Vatican as you may see from 
reading a summary of their intent. They were: 



1 . Laws establishing liberty for all opinion, liberty of the press, and liberty of faith and 
worship. 2. Laws granting to the members of all denominations the right of 
establishing schools and colleges. 3. Laws permitting the intermarriage on terms of 
religious equality of Catholics and Protestants. 4. Laws permitting civil marriage. 5. 
Laws permitting the burial of Protestants in Romish lands where Protestants have no 
cemetery of their own in which to bury. 6. Laws establishing public schools for 
secular education that shall be free from the control of the Romish priesthood. 


Said the Pope, joining with Bro. Byam, in condemning them, "They are contrary to 
the doctrines, rights and authority of the Catholic religion. Let it be understood that 
the Roman Catholic Church declares such laws as these, wherever they may be 
enacted, to be null and void." (See Christian World, Vol. XIX, pp. 312-314.) 


Now to consider that portion of The Laws of Reform appertaining directly to the 
Roman Catholic Church. William Butler, D. D., summarizes them in his "Mexico In 
Transition," published by Hunt & Eaton, New York, 1893. 


"The complete separation of Church and State. "Congress cannot pass laws 
establishing or prohibiting any religion. "The free exercise of religious services. The 
State will not give any official recognition to any religious festivals save the Sabbath 
as a day of rest. "Religious services are to be held only within the place of worship. 
"Clerical vestments are forbidden in the streets. "Religious processions are forbidden, 
"The use of church-bells is restricted to calling the people to religious work. "Pulpit 
discourses advising disobedience to the law, or injury to any one are strictly 
forbidden. Worship in churches shall be public only. "Gifts of real estate to religious 
institutions are unlawful, with the sole exception of edifices designed exclusively to 
the purposes of the institution. "The State does not recognize monastic orders nor 
permit their establishment. "The association of the Sisters of Charity is suppressed in 
the Republic, and the Jesuits are expelled and may not return. "Matrimony is a civil 
contract and to be duly registered. The religious service may be added. "Cemeteries 
are under civil inspection and open for the burial of all classes and creeds. "No one 
can sign away their liberty by contract or religious vow. "Education in the public 
schools is free and compulsory." 



I am sure when Brother Byam carefully considers these wise enactments he will admit 
"The Laws of Reform are Good Laws, Just Laws." 


Three years the Mexicans under Juarez fought for the Laws of Reform. Says De Lara, 
in his "The Mexican People 


"But the fight was destined to be bitter and prolonged, for against the limited 
resources of the Constitutionalists were pitted the millions of the Church and against 
the calm statements of the constitution were pitted the inflammatory, seditious 
harangues of every priest in the country. . . The Church indeed, leaning strongly upon 
her fundamental policy of psychological debauchery, exploited every device known to 
the science of class rule, in order to counterbalance the simple, n.ighty appeal to the 
people of the great Constitution of 1857. Her priests throughout the land proclaimed 
"a holy war" characterizing the struggle as one against the enemies of God. The 
soldiers marched to battle bedizened with scapularies and crosses, bearing aloft flags 
and banners inscribed with the sacred images and symbols of religion. Those who fell 
were extolled as martyrs in the holy cause— the peers of the first Christian martyrs 
under the Roman Empire." 


None the less right triumphed. The Clerical forces were utterly routed. Before 
President Juarez had full time to perfect the magnificent reforms he had in mind, the 
Clerical Conspirators prevailed upon France, Spain and England to press their claims 
for debt. As Napoleon the Little had foreseen Spain and England withdrew in disgust 
when they fully understood the full conditions of affairs in poor Mexico. Only the 
French remained to establish by force of arms the Empire of the Pope's puppet, 
Maximilian. I make this statement advisedly, and quote from the letter of Pope Pius 
IX to his Austrian fugleman as given in "Mexico a traves de los siglos," Vol. V, p. 
671, sic:— 


"Your Majesty is fully aware that in order to remedy the wrongs committed against 
the Church by the recent revolution, and to restore as soon as possible her happiness 
and prosperity, it is absolutely necessary that the Catholic religion, to the exclusion of 
any other cult, continue to be the glory and support of the Mexican Nation: that the 
Bishops have complete liberty in the exercise of their pastoral ministry: that the 



religious orders be reorganized and restablished, according to the instructions and 
powers that We have given: that the estates of the Church and her privileges be 
maintained and protected: that none have authorization for the teaching or publication 
of false or subversive documents: that education public or private be supervised and 
led by the ecclesiastical authorities: and finally that the chains be broken that until 
now have held the Church under the sovereignty and despotism of civil government." 


Of how well Maximilian obeyed his Papal Master you may read in history. In 1866 
Napoleon III ordered the withdrawal of the French Army of 50,000 men under 
Marshal Bazaine, leaving the Pope's puppet to pay the penalty with his life for his 
numerous Black Decrees and an unblushing effrontery in trying "to Catholicize" the 
Republic of Mexico. 


I have touched more in detail upon points herein merely mentioned in my series, 
"Masonic High Lights of the Struggle for Mexican Independence," in The American 
Freemason of April and May, 1916, and October, 1916, to which I respectfully refer 
Brother Byam. Also to Light of May 15th, 1916, and June 15th, 1916. 


A careful examination of the records will show that before the enactment of the Laws 
of Reform the Roman Catholic Church actually owned $200,000,000 of property from 
which and other sources the Church derived an annual income of not less than 
$20,000,000. How did they get it? You will remember that the priests who came over 
with Cortez possessed only a scanty wardrobe and their crosses backed by the 
mailclad men and the Holy Inquisition. "Naked they came and naked they go." It is a 
just law. 


I have shown that Mexican Masonry had no clandestine origin. 


Now relative to the claim of Bro. Byam that the late revolution was an I. W. W. and 
Socialists' Movement. Again I emphatically differ. 



Matters were running along nicely enough in Mexico as long as President Diaz held 
true to his Masonic Vows, and kept in force the Laws of Reform. When having 
married a second time, he succumbed to the relatives of his young wife Senora 
Carmelita Diaz— all Catholics, . . when he lifted the barriers and allowed the Catholic 
Clergy some of their old Fueros or Privileges, Trouble Brewed in Mexico as it always 
will there and everywhere when the blackrobed members of the Third Sex are allowed 
to play Politics. 


Says De Lara, in "The Mexican People": 


"Never for a moment since Diaz came into power in 1876 had the spirit of revolt 
ceased to fire the hearts of the people. Its manifestation had been repressed but the 
spirit lived on and grew stronger with the passing days. . . Mexico under Diaz was no 
place for revolutionists. . . A movement such as this which had for its avowed object 
the enforcement of the Constiution of 1857 in general, and the restoration of the 
agrarian democracy in particular called for prompt suppression at the hands of Diaz 
and the Scientificos. Such a suppression was not altogether easy matter. Up to the year 
1910 literally millions of dollars were expended by the Mexican government to stamp 
out the revolutionary organization. At the same time the Scientists played into the 
hands of the Roman Church, with the result that Mexico was fined more than a 
million dollars in the matter of the restitution of the long cancelled Pious funds 
formerly paid by Mexico to the Church in California for the upkeep of the missions to 
the Indians." 


Now let us listen to William R. Tourbillon, speaking on "The Curse of Mexico" in 
The New Age of September, 1913: 


"The Catholics in Mexico as in all parts of the world diligently seek and acquire 
special influence over the boys and girls, and over the sisters, wives and mothers of 
men. They especially direct their attention to the sisters, wives and mothers of men 
who are least religious so that they are able to dominate even where the head of the 
house is not a Catholic. . . The Cathlic Party knowing that General Diaz could not 
abolish the Laws of Reform as Chief of the Liberal Party, whose program was and is 
bound up with these very laws, worked with all the influence in their power to secure 



the aid and influence of the women in the families of Porfirio Diaz and his Cabinet. 
During the life of the first wife of President Diaz this influence was very small and 
Diaz stood firm in his convictions. His second wife, Mrs. Carmelita Romero Rubio de 
Diaz, a most devout Catholic, allowed herself to fall under the influence of the 
Church, which is ever ready to gain a foothold in some way or other, and through her 
dominated Diaz and the Government. Mrs. Diaz tried in every way possible to 
influence her husband. The Catholic Church through this influence gained many 
advantages, and even General Diaz was rapidly becoming a Mocho. 


"Several years before the late Madero revolution materialized, and even during the 
time the late assassinated President, Francisco I. Madero was going through the 
country lecturing about the great principles of the Liberal Party, a great many 
Liberals, feeling the necessity that Mexico had for the preservation and enforcement 
of the Laws of Reform, and knowing that the Catholic Party was attaining greater and 
greater influence hoped and wished secretly for the success of Don Francisco I. 
Madero. President Diaz had been so long in power and had become so old that he did 
not realize the truth and strength of the movement that a few Liberals helped to blow 
into a great flame and secure his downfall. These Liberals knew that the great 
Catholic Party was regaining control and they were determined to stop it. After the 
loss of thousands of lives the Madero revolution triumphed." 


I only wish space permitted the inclusion of the whole of this very convincing and 
authoritative narrative. As it is I shall abstract only enough to show the sordid 
conspiracy which caused the present dire state affairs in Mexico directly due to "The 
Catholic curse." 


"The Catholics knew that with the late President Madero in power they could not 
dominate. Above everything they demand their former power. They are working with 
determined will to have the Laws of Reform revoked, and to that end nothing can 
stand in their path. . . The principles of the Madero Govement were based on Masonic 
ideas. . . The principles of Masonry were deeply instilled in the heart of Madero and 
his Government. Based on these principles Madero spared the life of Felix Diaz who 
had forfeited it at Vera Cruz, where he was defeated and taken prisoner by General 
Beltran after his first revolt. . . President Madero with the help of Vice President Pino 
Suarez, (both Masons of the highest degrees,) believed, and what is more to the 
puipose put into practice even in the machinery of the Government, practical 



Masonry. His was a Masonry that meant enlightenment for the people— a Masonry 
that did not speak but acted, having always in view the advancement and education of 
the masses, with absolute faith in his brethren to carry out all the principles contained 
in the Masonic Code. The Catholics in Mexico, on the other hand, have been, were, 
and are today opposed to uplifting the masses. Their interests have been and are today 
joined with the 10,000 who own practically the whole of Republic of Mexico against 
the 12,000,000 that are the tools of the few. The 12,000,000 have always been kept by 
them where we now find them, for the priests know that if through Masonic principles 
the populace receive light, the Catholic Church would soon lase its hold over them." 


I ask you to read the following arraignment by William R. Tourbillon and then tell me 
if you agree with Brother Byam that "the Mexican Revolution is an I. W. W. 
Revolution." 


"Madero represented honor and truth. His Government despised treachery and 
cunning and unfortunately for him he had faith in all men. The Catholic Party stands 
guilty today of a base combination and they are morally guilty of the assassination of 
President Madero and Vice President Suarez. They lent their moral aid to its 
accomplishment. They are responsible for the present revolution in Mexico, because 
of their intrigues with Huerta and Diaz. 


"With Madero's Government, Masonry stood for everything that is absolutely true, 
fair, honest and above-board, and the Catholic Party forsook all this, thinking they 
could gain more power." 


"Out of a clear sky the revolt in Mexico City started. The Catholic Party began its 
intrigue through General Mondragan, who was afterwards made Minister of War. 
Mondragon through his friendship with the Colonel of the Government Boys' School 
"Aspirantes" induced the Colonel and the boys to join him. They united with another 
regiment, went to the military prison, freed General Reyes . . and released General 
Felix Diaz. The band separated into two parts, Reyes going to the National Palace and 
in the fight that ensued lost his life. Felix Diaz and Mondragon went to the arsenal 
which surrendered after a sham fight, and they took possession. All this had been 
prepared. 



"Huerta came to the President and Vice President and reiterated his loyalty. He was 
Commander-in-chief. All the troops in Mexico were put under his command. . . The 
army under Huerta, President Madero's trusted friend, shot, at everything but the 
enemy. He was a part of the plot. The Roman Catholic Party had joined hands with 
him. 


"The conspiracy was carried out in every particular. 


The farce had to be well played. Failure for the Roman Catholic Church, Huerta and 
Diaz was impossible. Diaz knew that the troops under Huerta would not shoot at him 
or his troops All had been arranged before hand by the Catholic Party. 


"After the tenth day, Huerta personally invited the President's brother Don Gustavo 
Madero to dinner. . . Don Gustavo was seized and bound. He was sent to the arsenal, 
the enemy stronghold, where without any trial he was shot to death. 


While Huerta did this, Huerta's aid, General Blanquet two blocks away from the 
National Palace, with a group of soidiers made prisoners of President Madero and 
Vice President Pino Suarez in the palace. Huerta the trusted friend and General of 
Madero and Saurez became President. 


"Huerta held them prisoners in the palace for two days before they were killed. . . 

After the second day and at eleven o'clock at night, Huerta ordered that Madero and 
Pino Suarez should be silently taken from the palace in a closed automobile and sent 
to the penitentiary. When they arrived there, they were taken out to the wall at one 
side of this prison and met by a captain and twelve soldiers. Vice President Suarez 
was first shot. He had three bullets through his head and the brain in the back part of it 
was all destroyed. The twelve men were ordered to shoot Madero, but, recognizing the 
President, refused to do so. . . 



"The Captain then struck Madero over his left eye with his pistol, knocking him 
senseless to the earth, and then the coward shot him from behind, the bullet going 
through his brain and coming out between his eyes. When President Madero was seen 
last, just before lowering his body into his grave in the French cemetery, his left eye 
was swollen; it was red and blue from the blow. 


"Huerta, in order that no witnesses to this bloody murder might survive, had the 
twelve soldiers shot, and the Captain promoted to be a Colonel. During all that night 
Huerta did not leave the National Palace. 


"This is the man, Huerta, to whom the Catholic Party of Mexico 'representing the 
Machos,' gave their assistance, friendship and money. Will they give him and his 
deeds the holy blessing of the Pope?" 


Remember the facts stated are given on absolute authority. If Bro. Byam wishes more 
Masonic Light on this period I respectfully refer him to Hon. Luis Manuel Rojas, 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, Valley of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, during 
that period, a true Mason who exhausted all the Masonic machinery at his disposal at 
that time to save the lives of his brothers Madero and Suarez. 


President Taft to whom he repeatedly appealed by telegraph, had already imparted 
instructions to the American Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, and relying upon his 
timely intervention referred Grand Master Rojas to him. Now I quote once more from 
Bro. Tourbillon: 


"The Grand Master after the conference with Mr. Wilson, knew that the Ambassador 
was carrying out a policy that up to today has had no satisfactory explanation. Henry 
Lane Wilson, representing in Mexico the American Government, which since the days 
of its independence has despised treachery and cunning, and has never been a party to 
anything that is not absolutely true and above-board, allowed himself to become the 



tool of the Roman Catholic Party of the Mochos, of Huerta, Diaz, Leon de la Barra, 
and Mondragon. Ambassador Wilson therefore could have requested, could have 
demanded, could have secured the lives of Madero and Suarez, while he walked arm 
in arm with Huerta and the combination. . . Ambassador Wilson would not listen to 
the plea of Mr,s. Madero and Mrs. Suarez to save the lives of their husbands; he was 
implored and humbly besought by them to interfere, as they knew it was in his power 
to do. . . Mr. Wilson knew that Madero and Pino Suarez were to be taken prisoners, 
for the representatives of the treacherous plot met in the American Embassy, but he 
did not advise either Madero or Pino Suarez to escape 


"One word from Ambassador Wilson would have been sufficient to have delivered 
them to one of the battleships which were then in Vera Cruz harbor. . . Nor was Mr. 
Wilson moved by the Grand Master's appeal in the name of all Master Masons in 
Mexico, made to him as a Master Mason, to save the lives of brother Master Masons." 


Perhaps our Ambassador had conceived the same contemptuous opinion of Mexican 
Masonry as that voiced by Brother Byam in his article. 


I have presented the facts supported I think by sufficient authority. If Brother Byam 
wishes more I have plenty at hand. I too lived some years in Mexico, part of the time 
in Mexico City where I had the privilege of daily meeting General Agramonte, Judge 
Andres Horcasitas, J. Mostella Clark and other Masons active in those days: also 
much time in interior Chihuahua where I saw daily for myself the oppressiveness of 
conditions for the masses. In our mines and smelter we employed many hundred men 
with whom I came in daily contact. 


I have gone some length into this reply, because I cannot but regard Bro. Byam's 
article other than an excellent brief for Mexican Catholicism. Much more I might say 
did space permit but as Bro. Denman Wagstaff says sapiently:- Masonry does not 
fight Catholicism . . she tolerates it because of her great Charity for all things. The 
Roman Church is continually attacking Masonry. Very unchristian like I should say. 
We are not intending to attack or storm the Vatican. There is nothing therein 
contained that we need or want or prize. We not only do not covet our neighbor's 



goods, but being plain truth-tellers, we are in addition constrained to confess that 
"there is nothing there which would be of use to an American." 


— o — 


THE SUBLIME ACHIEVEMENT 

BY BRO. HENRY BANKS, P. G. M.. GEORGIA 


IN all times, in all climes, and among all nations, wherever the banner of Masonry has 
been unfurled she has had her enemies. Though her pathway down the ages has been 
strewn with the most fragrant flowers of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, though the 
lives of the best and purest among the Sons of Men have been magnificent monuments 
to the grandeur of her mission, yet her enemies have not failed to decry her merits, nor 
ceased their efforts to destroy her usefulness. While the Masons of this glorious century 
- this century of soul liberty - have the freedom to erect her Temples and worship about 
her altars, the spirit of enmity still exists, and adverse criticisms of her methods are 
freely offered by those who are ignorant of her mission, or blind to the rich fruitage of 
her labours. 


When we consider the antiquity of Masonry, the dangers through which she has so 
safely passed, the persecutions of bigotry, superstition, and fanaticism she has so 
successfully met and repelled, and behold her today with the glory of her centuries 
clustering about her brow, and the years of labour resting so lightly upon her unbowed 
form, standing upright and stately with all the vigour of her early youth, her feet as 
elastic to run errands of mercy - knees as supple to bend in prayer for a Brother's need - 
breast as faithful to receive and keep a Brother's whispered words, hands as ready and 
strong to support a falling Brother, and lips ever whispering words of cheer and comfort 
to the ear of distress - we stand with unshod feet and uncovered head at her mystic 
portals and fain would lay the laurel wreath of well-earned fame upon her pure white 
brow. 



The flight of time has not dulled her ardour nor made sluggish the blood that richly 
courses through her veins. The finger of the ages has been powerless to mark the years 
of passage upon her beautiful face. Her form unbent by the burdens she has borne; her 
eyes undimmed, catch the sign of trouble, and her ears are quick to hear the plaintive 
cry of distress, while old Father Time, with all his perseverance, has not yet 
accomplished the task of unweaving the meshes of her hair, or weaving one silver 
thread among its golden tresses. Although her pathway down the ages has been marked 
by magnificent monuments of glorious achievement and gems of precious truth sparkle 
about her feet, yet she has not been, and is not now, free from detraction. The mystery 
and secrecy that hedge her in and veil her beauties from the prying eyes of the world is 
no barrier to the performance of her mission. 


She came into the world at the cry of distress, uttered in man's need. No blare of 
trumpets or flaunting banners heralded her coming, but secretly and silently, as the 
dews distilled upon Hermon, she came from the loving heart of God to take her place as 
one of His mighty factors in the building up of the waste places in His moral kingdom, 
and to bless man by the beneficent power of her secret, silent influence. Masonry, with 
her beautiful ritual, impressive ceremonies, and the glory of centuries clustering about 
her brow, stripped of her moral character, would lose her greatest charm, her most 
precious jewel. For Morality is her foundation, Truth and Virtue her pillars, and 
Brotherly Love the high priest that ministers at her altars. To be good men and true is 
the first and most important lesson taught within her sacred walls. Every step of the 
candidate, from his preparation to the last solemn scene, as he passes through her 
beautiful ceremonies and is inducted into her mysteries, leads along a pathway strewn 
with fragrant flowers of truth, while diamonds of virtue sparkle about her feet, 
illuminating the mind with moral light, flooding the heart with a celestial glow of divine 
principles, inspiring the soul and leading up to a higher plane of holy, upright living. 

The trowels in our hands are rusty from lack of use, for the cement of brotherly love has 
not always been spread with generous hand. The hours of relief have been so destitute 
of service that we have well-nigh lost the gauge's use, while from lack of labour our 
arms have become too weak to wield the gavel in preparing the rough ashlars for the 
Great Builder's use. Wrong and error stalk among us, and ofttimes unseemly tread our 
chequered floor. 


The mission of Masonry in the world is to fight the wrong and defend the right. Is she 
needed? Is her mission ended? Coming in answer to man's need for moral help, she has 
come to stay. Until there are no wrongs to right, no sin to fight, no distress to help, no 
woes to heal, no lessons of purity and righteousness to teach; when, by the practice of 



our secret art, the original design shall be restored to the trestle board, and man is 
faithfully working it out, then, and not till then, will her mystery be revealed and her 
mission be complete. 


The power of faith threw its mysterious shield of protection about the forms of the 
Hebrew children as they walked unscathed amid the roaring flames of the seven-times- 
heated furnace. It parted the waters of the Red Sea for the passage of the Children of 
Israel. It was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as they wandered for forty 
years. Its mysterious healing power was felt by them as they looked upon the brazen 
seipent uplifted in the wilderness. Its mystic power is felt as it flows in rhythmic 
measure through the songs of the sweet singer of Israel, and, like a thread of gold, it 
will be woven in the robes of righteousness we shall wear around the throne of God. As 
with such mystery God has clothed His wondrous works in nature and in grace, and 
through them showered blessings upon the world, so shall Masonry, His servant, 
continue her blessed work among the erring sons of man. 


The prayer of every Mason's heart should be that all men were Masons, and all Masons 
true. Then white-winged peace would hover over all lands, nations would learn war no 
more. Swords would be beaten into plough-shares and spears into pmning-hooks, 
brotherly love would prevail and every moral and social virtue would cement us. If we 
so pray let us so live; and, renewing our allegiance to the grand principles of Masonry, 
study more earnestly her great light, making it the only rule of our faith and practice, 
and the man of our council, and so move among our Brothers and the world that they, 
seeing the beauty of Masonic holiness as it shines in our words and deeds, may be 
constrained to exalt Masonry to the high and honoured place she so richly deserves. 
Thus we will speed the glad time when the sublime principles of Masonry will cover 
the earth as the waters cover the deep, and the glorious sway of her power shall girdle 
the globe with kindness, love, and truth. 




THE LAMB- SKIN APRON 



Light and white are its leathern folds, 

And a priceless lesson its texture holds. 

Symbol it is, as the years increase, 

Of the paths that lead through the fields of Peace. 

Type it is of the higher sphere, 

Where the deeds of the body, ended here, 

Shall one by one the by-way be 
To pass the gates of Eternity. 

Emblem it is of a life intense, 

Held aloof from the world of sense; 

Of the upright walk and the lofty mind, 

Far from the dross of Earth inclined. 

Sign it is that he who wears 

Its sweep unsullied, about him bears 

That which should be to mind and heart, 

A set reminder of his art. 


So may it ever bring to thee 
The high resolves of Purity. 



Its spotless field of shining white, 
Serve to guide thy steps aright; 


Thy daily life, in scope and plan, 

Be that of a strong and upright man, 
And signal shall the honor be, 

Unto those who wear it worthily. 

Receive it thus to symbolize 

Its drift, in the life that before thee lies. 

Badge as it is of a great degree, 

Be it chart and compass unto thee. 

-Fay Hempstead. 

KEEPING THE PEACE 


Our duty is not only to keep the peace, but to make a peace that is worth keeping. For 
the kind of peace that the world needs cannot be had for the asking. It comes high, but it 
is worth the price. - Samuel M. Crothers. 





EDITORIAL 


THE LAMP OF FELLOWSHIP 


RUSKIN lighted his Seven Lamps of Architecture and set them on golden candlesticks, 
the better to show us that the laws of art are moral laws, whether they are used in 
building a cathedral or in making a character. If we would build for eternity, he tells us 
that we must obey Him whose mountain peaks and forest aisles we imitate in our 
temples. Martineau lighted five Watch-night Lamps, in a noble address, and urged us to 
keep our souls awake looking for the dawn in "this solemn eve of an eternal day which 
we call Human Life." 


But there is another Lamp without which all lights flicker and fade as we walk together 
in the dim country of this world - the Lamp of Fellowship. Indeed, one may sum up the 
whole of life, and of religion, in the one word Fellowship - a deep and tender fellowship 
of the soul with the Father of all, whose inspiration and help are the supreme facts of 
life; and then, turning manward, to fill all the relations of life with the spirit of sincere 
and sympathetic fellowship. What more than this can the best man do, how better can 
he serve his fellow pilgrims who journey with him the old- worn human way? 


"Fellowship is heaven, 
Lack of fellowship is hell." 


By the same token, if the soul of Masonry is its Symbolism, its heart-throb is felt in its 
Spirit of Fellowship. Its history is gray with age. Its philosophy is profound. Its 
philanthropies are beautiful and benign. Its ritual is rich in suggestion, eloquent with 
echoes of those truths that have haunted the mind of man since thought found a throne 



in the brain. But the heart of Masonry, its vital force, its divine fire are in its Strong 
Grip by which men of every land, of every creed, of every shade of temperament and 
thought are brought together on the five points of Fellowship! 


Fellowship - that is the word which utters, so far as any word may utter, the deepest 
reality and the highest aspiration in the heart of Masonry. This is the mystery which its 
rituals labor to express and which its symbols seek to interpret and unfold - a mystery, 
as Whitman said, more profound than metaphysics, by which man is united with his 
Fellows in Faith, Freedom, and Friendship. For this Masonry exists - to assert the fact, 
to spread the spirit, and to promote the practice of Brotherhood - that man may leam 
that it is what he shares that makes life worth living, and that "he who seeks his own 
loses the things in common.” 


Indeed, the whole arrangement of human life exists that man may leam three things: the 
law of right, love of God, and love of man. After long ages of tragedy we are beginning 
to leam the first lesson, that a world in which poison makes men strong and food 
destroys them is not more unreal than a world in which falsehood makes great 
characters and righteousness issues in ignoble spirit and unworthy life. How far we 
have failed to leam the other two truths of love of God and love of man, the human 
scene makes pitifully plain. Yet leam them we must, else the story of men will be 
blurred with blood and blistered with tears till whatever is to be the end of things, with 
never any hope of a better day to be. 


Here lies the divine mission of Masonry, to fulfill which we must make deep research 
into our history, and still more into our hearts, using every art at our command, every 
influence we can invoke, joining our hands in one high service, the while we light the 
Lamp of Fellowship and leam to "live in the eternal order which never dies." 


This is the work on the Trestle-board for Brethren everywhere, 
For never was there greater need for level, plumb, and square, 
For trowel with cement of love to strengthen and unite 



The human race in Brotherhood, and usher in the Light! 


— o — 


THE TRESTLE-BOARD 


Truly, "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee," and not a few of our pet 
schemes have suffered wreck during the year, much to our regret. Nevertheless we have 
made progress, and we believe that our Members will agree not only that The Builder is 
far and away a better journal than it was a year ago, but that the Society is not far from 
a solution of the hardest problem which any group of Masons ever set themselves to 
solve - how to induce Masons to study Masonry alike in its deeper aspects and its wider 
practical application. 


Our Brethren abroad are amazed at the advance made, and even those among us who 
hold aloof, waiting for tangible results, must admit that something has been done that 
has never been done before. Looking forward, the tokens are most encouraging, in the 
response to the Study-Club program as well as in the general feeling that the Society is 
an honest and firmly established movement having the good of the Order at heart, free 
from fads and bent on serving the cause to which every true Mason is devoted. 
Criticism has given way to co-operation to a degree unexpected even by the most 
sanguine, and the omens for the future are friendly and full of promise. 


So far, of course, only the comer-stone has been laid, but it is a good beginning, and we 
feel that the spirit and intent of the Society have won the intelligent confidence of the 
Craft. Something has been achieved in the field of original research, as our pages bear 
witness, and more will be accomplished in the days to come. Nothing would be easier 
than to edit an emdite journal filled with learned essays to be read by the few and filed 
away for reference, had that been the puipose of the Society. But our first concern is to 
reach the rank and file of the Craft, as far as possible, and to enlist them in the study of 
Masonic truth, the practice of Masonic principles, and a better use of the Fraternity for 
the service of humanity. 



Many plans are afoot for the new year, but our chief aim will be to push to successful 
issue the Study-Club program, in every part of the land. How difficult the problem is, 
how novel and fascinating withal, the Correspondence Bulletins reveal, and the letters 
which threaten to swamp Brother Clegg show that the Society did not misread signs of 
the times or the needs and feelings of the draft. If we have only scratched the surface of 
the field, we at least know how rich a soil we have to till, and if we do the thing that 
needs to be done the harvest will take care of itself. The motto of England these days 
would not be a bad motto for us, "Every man do his bit, and stick to it." 


— o — 


LET US GIVE THANKS 


Soon will come the day when we shall be called to offer thanks, as a people, for the old 
sweet fashions of nature, for the miracle of seed-time, summer and autumn harvest, for 
the necessity which impels industry and the stores of material for use and beauty. No 
man, surely, can think back over the year and not be moved to gratitude for the joys of 
life, for home and family and the dear love of comrades; yea, even for the sorrows that 
subdued him to sobs and welded him in love and pity to his kind. Thankfulness is the 
fruit of thoughtfulness, and if we cannot be thankful for all things we may leam to be 
thankful in all things - albeit saddened unutterably by the vast shadow of woe that 
hangs over the world. May we not also give thanks for the great order of Freemasonry, 
whose mission is not to tear down but to build up, to bless not to hurt, and whose labors 
in behalf of a better world never stop, never tarry, never tire? Indeed, yes, and with all 
our hearts, the more so in a day when men are divided by sect and party and clan and 
every tie is needed to keep the world together. Humbly let us give thanks, trusting One 
who in a way beyond our reckoning brings good out of ill, and makes the woe of man 
to serve His awful will. 





THE LIBRARY 


STEPS TO THE CROWN 


FROM over the sea comes a neat, well-dressed little book named "Steps to the Crown," 
from the busy heart and tireless pen of Brother Arthur Edward Waite a man the very 
thought of whom is like a fragrance brought from afar on friendly winds. This time it is 
a series of Aphorisms, a form of writing to which one is tempted to say his style does 
not easily lend itself, did we not recall those fine and deep sayings scattered like bits of 
star-dust through his book of poems. Terse, pithy, picturesque, they begin with the 
worldly-wise Counsels of Caiaphas after the fashions of this world, and bring us at last, 
as the writer always brings us, to the white steps that lead to the Places of Sanctity; and 
they speak many kinds of wisdom in one spirit of love. Meanwhile, we tread the 
thresholds of many sanctuaries, in the shadow of a Secret Light, if happily we may 
leam the consolations of the Greater Law and the Path of Union. At random we gather a 
handful of these aphorisms, after this manner: 


Except a man use simple words, he shall not in the last resource escape from being 
intelligible. 


Intellectual tolerance is not incompatible with the enlightened hatred of a good many 
current opinions. 


The world, as a going concern, is for sale to those who can buy, but no good-will goes 
with it. 


The fly walks on the ceiling, and yet it has never affirmed that the world is upside 
down. 



The number of the schools is infinite, but the truth is one. A single clear intuition is 
better than a score of reasonings. 


Subtlety and duplicity can teach us much, but not to escape either death or immortality. 


Return tickets are not issued for any of the great journeys. 


From day to day we pronounce the Lost word with our lips, but it remains lost until we 
utter it in our hearts. 


Herein is a Garden of Nuts in which he who seeks will find what he seeks, and no more. 
Knowledge runs but wisdom lingers, and he that is in haste loses what is most worth 
while. Always it is the heavenly-minded man who is the teacher of the truest worldly 
wisdom, for that he sees through the show and sham of things to the realities that await 
our coming. Who opens this little volume will find a log-book of past voyages, in 
cipher which has been here and there decoded; and if the cipher spells out fragments of 
strange legends, it also gives hint that "the secret of getting on in the world is that of 
passing quickly through it." 


— o — 


THE MASTER MASON 


"Help me to do my work this day - my best; 
And lead me in my blindness; 

With strength of truthful puipose fill my breast 



Sufficient to withstand temptation's test; 
And fill my heart with kindness." 


Such is the brief and wise prayer in which every reader will join who opens "The 
Confessions of a Master Mason," by Brother C. F. Whaley, who dedicates his pages "to 
the man who believes in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man; to the 
man who believes himself to be his brother's keeper; to the man who walks the four- 
fold path of right thinking, right speaking, right acting and right living." Nearly fifty 
years ago, unsolicited, he sought admission into the ancient craft of Masons, and after 
many days he now sets down what Masonry has taught him of the meaning of life and 
how to live it. Truly, it is a wise and gracious little book, one to ponder over betimes, 
giving us a lecture in prose and a legend in poetry; brotherly withal, and of bright and 
pure spirit; reverent and religious, as witness its evening prayer when the shadows fall: 


"Thou great and loving Father: 

I know full well my failures of today; 

I say it to my sorrow. 

Teach me some better, nobler way, 

Be Thou my help in every need, I pray; 
Bide with me yet tomorrow." 


* * * 


THE RELIGION OF AMERICA 


Years ago, wounded by a great sorrow, George H. Fitch sought the "Comfort Found in 
Good Old Books," whereof he told in a volume of that title, of which we made note in 



these pages. Now he would lead us further, if so that we may find the vital force in the 
new religion of democracy as revealed in the "Great Spiritual Writers of America" - 
Emerson and Whitman its prophets, Lowell, Whittier and Markham its poets. Why not 
Lanier, too, whose "song was only living aloud, his work a singing with the hand?" One 
misses that golden voice in this heavenly choir. And what a choir it is: Emerson, 
Whitman, Irving, Cooper, Poe, Longfellow, Thoreau, Mark Twain, Whittier, 
Hawthorne, Bret Harte, Howells, and, by no means least, dear Edwin Markham who is 
not only a poet, but is himself a poem. 'Tis a most useful and inspiring book for a young 
man, opening the door into the best that has been thought and sung and dreamed under 
"the wide and starry sky" of this new world; happy is he who enters and finds there a 
"city of the mind built against outward distraction for inward consolation and shelter." 


* * * 


GEMATRIA 


Lortunately, as we suggested, the series of articles in the Masonic Standard, by 
Brother Prank G. Higgins, in which he presents Masonry as a survival of the ancient 
Cosmic Science, have been gathered into an attractive little book; and may now be 
studied by the Craft. These papers are designed to be an elementary course of 
instruction in the secret learning of antiquity, which the author holds is the real, albeit 
long-lost, secret of Masonry, if not the reason for its existence. Such learning was 
deemed too disturbing to be spread broadcast in olden times, but he feels that the day 
has arrived, in view of the interest in the deeper side of Masonry, when this hidden lore 
should be brought to light and put before the rank and file of the Order. He frankly 
admits that this venerable science, so presented, looks like what he calls a "stupendous 
cut-out puzzle," to piece together which has been his pleasant lifework; but when it is 
put together it reveals a consistent and commanding philosophy which will stand the 
test of scientific examination. Masonry, he tells us, has wrought a great work in the 
world despite its almost total oblivion of what was once its principle reason of being, 
and the inference is that, once it recovers its long-buried learning, it will move forward 
to greater service. As space permits only a brief notice, we reserve a more detailed 
review until a later issue, albeit not without expressing sincere appreciation of a brilliant 
student and a most lovable and brotherly man. 



* * * 


We regret to announce that, owing to the war regulations of the British Empire, it is 
impossible to secure the books mentioned by Brother Baxter in his "Course of Masonic 
Reading" in our last issue. It is only another evidence of how our peaceful labors are to 
be shadowed by the dark cloud of war. 


* * * 


"Away with funeral music - set 
The pipe to powerful lips - 
The cup of life's for him that drinks 
And not for him that sips." 

- Unpublished Stevenson MSS. 

* * * 


BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 


Great Spiritual Writers of America, by G. H. Fitch. Elder & Co., San Francisco. 


Steps to the Crown, by A. E. Waite. Rider and Co., London. $1.00. 



The Beginning of Masonry, by F.C. Higgins. Pyramid Publishing Co., Masonic Hall, 
New York. $1.50. 


Story of the Ancient Craft; Its Lessons in Verse, by O. B. Slane, Wyoming, 111. $.25. 


Freemasonry and Medieval Gilds, by Ossian Lang. Grand Lodge of New York. 


The Relation of the Liberal Churches and the Fraternal Orders, by E.C. Coil. American 
Unitarian Association, Boston. Free on request. 


The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, by Karl von Eckartshausen, edited by A.E. Waite. Rider 
and Son, London. $1.00 


Poems of Rupert Brooke, Introduction by G. E. Woodberry. John Lane Co., Boston. 


Le Symbolisme, Edited by Oswald Wirth, 16 me Emest-Renan, Paris. 




TRULY A MAN 


He is truly a man who makes justice his leader in the path of inquiry, and who culls 
from every sect whatever reason approves of. - Akbar, 1578. 



O 


THE QUESTION BOX 


A TOKEN OF MEMORY 


Suppose each man who entered our Order should receive, as a token of memory, the 
Bible on which he took his obligation as a Mason, how much it would mean to him in 
after years! Having on its fly leaf his name, the date of his initiation into the different 
degrees, the names of the officers who conferred the degrees, it would be a sacred thing 
to him and to his family; a treasure to be handed down from generation to generation. 
What would it mean to a son to plight his Masonic vows on the same Bible on which 
his father, and perhaps his grandfather, had plighted their vows before him? How many 
memories would cling to such a book, making it doubly dear for itself and for its 
associations! Is not this suggestion worthy of thought? 


* * * 


THE OBLIGATIONS 


From time to time there come letters from Brethren expressing regret, if not 
dissatisfaction, on account of certain penalties of obligations. While one may not write 
freely of such matters some things may be said: (1) The points complained of are 
manifestly of modem origin, and had no place, so far as we can leam, in ancient craft 
Masonry. In olden times the oath of a Mason, if we may judge from those which come- 
down to us, was a very simple thing, consisting of one or two sentences. The language 
used was very simple, and it is in some respects unfortunate that it should have given 
place to an elaborate form for which there is no authority either in history or in reason. 



(2) A study of the punishments attached in ancient English law to the crime of high 
treason is very enlightening, if one has eyes to see, regarding the history of the things 
objected to. (3) In some Lodges - especially in Scotland - the candidate is told that, 
while the old form is preserved as a symbol, the real penalties that affect and influence 
the human soul are moral: the penalties of being branded and forsworn as a dishonored 
man and Mason, of receiving the well merited contempt and score of good men; of 
suffering the horrors of an outraged conscience, and of incurring the retribution of the 
Deity whose presence is invoked. 


* * * 


THE OLD CHARGES 


Two Brethren ask if the Old Constitutions which the Society is issuing is in fact the 
earliest copy, and as rare and unique as is claimed. Certainly not, if by copy is meant 
manuscripts of the Old Charges; but it is the earliest printed copy. Of this edition 
Brother Hughan says in his "Constitutions of Freemasons": - "The earliest printed 
Constitutions of the operative Masons were issued in 1722. The title runs - 'From the 
old Constitutions belonging to the Ancient and honorable Society of the Free and 
Accepted Masons; taken from a Ms written about five hundred years hence. London: 
Printed and sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane, 1722.' We have been favored with a 
perusal of this work, and can testify to its exclusively operative character. The 
Obligation taken by the apprentices accords with the Harleian Ms. (1942, British 
Museum.) The ancient charges were read to the initiate, who then subscribed to them as 
follows: 'All these articles and charges which I have now read unto you, you shall well 
and truly observe, perform, and keep, to the best of your power and knowledge, so help 
you God, and the true and holy contents of this Book.' " (Hughan, pp. 12,13. 
Incidentally, this is an example of the simplicity of the oath of an operative Mason, 
while showing that the Constitutions of 1 722, although to be classed with the old 
operative Constitutions, belongs to the period of transition. 


* * * 



Editor Builder: - Kindly advise, through The Builder, if a Brother Mason can inform the 
Master that he wishes a certain candidate rejected, and in the absence of the objecting 
Brother, is the Master duty-bound to cast a black-ball against the candidate for the E.A. 
degree. Is not the objecting Brother obliged to state his reasons for the objection? 


M. B. Slemmer, Centreville, Md. 


An objection to advancement in your jurisdiction has the same effect as a black-ball. 
As to whether this applies to a candidate who has been elected to receive, but has not 
yet received, the Entered Apprentice Degree, the Maryland code does not state. Neither 
does it state whether objections must be made in open Lodge, or privately to the Master, 
nor if it is necessary for the objector to make known his reasons. 


* * * 


AMERICAN UNDERSTOOD 


Dear Sir and Bro.: - 1 have read that in a shop window of a certain Swedish city the 
notice appears: - ENGLISH SPOKEN, AMERICAN UNDERSTOOD. 


This would seem to predicate some distinction in the linguistic accomplishments of the 
two great families of the Anglo-Saxon race. It hardly seems to me, however, to justify 
either the Anglicisation or Americanisation of the quotations from Scottish documents, 
given in the otherwise excellent article by Brother G. P. Brown in your January issue. 


The genealogical reference, to begin with, is wrong, as the poet's father was not even an 
Ayrshire man, and the baptismal record must surely be misquoted, as the family name 
was not Bums, but Burness. 



No Scottish Scribe could be guilty of writing Lockly for Lochlea when entering the 
abode of the initiate in the minutebook, and the town which had the honour of receiving 
the poet into the Royal Arch degree was not Leymouth, but Eyemouth. 


Under the sub-title of "The Sweet Singer," the omission of the word "air" between 
"with" and "benign" in the first line of the second quatrain spoils the whole rythm of the 
piece. 


Yours fraternally, 


Rodk. H. Baxter, England. 


* * * 


UNIFORM WORK 


Dear Brother Newton: - Here is my trouble, as briefly as I can state it. The Grand Lodge 
of our state has never adopted a uniform ritual. Each Lodge, so long as it does not 
violate the ancient Landmarks, is permitted to put on the work according to its own 
particular wording and interpretation. This, naturally, has resulted in there being a wide 
variance in the work in different parts of the State; and in the remote districts has 
brought about a sad state of affairs. To counteract this, our Grand Lodge created a 
committee to formulate a standard method of conferring the degrees, which, if adopted, 
should make the ritual uniform throughout the jurisdiction. As a member of that 
committee, I hope the report will be adopted. But we anticipate opposition, and in order 
to meet it we want accurate information as to the number of states in which uniform 
work is being used, and also some data as to the methods employed in promulgating it 
to the lodges; and I have, therefore, taken the liberty of writing to you for some 



information to assist us in getting our report adopted, which result, we feel, is very vital 
to the future welfare of Freemasonry in this state. 


1 . Does Iowa have an official uniform Blue Lodge Ritual ? 


2. How is it taught to the various lodges ? In other words, do you use a printed cipher, 
do you promulgate it by specially trained lecturers, or what method do you employ? 


3. What is your opinion as to the advantage of having the ritualistic work of a state 
absolutely uniform? 


4. Tell me, if you know or can possibly find out, in your doubtless extensive records, 
how many Grand Lodges in the United States of America have a uniform ritual, and 
what are their various methods of teaching it to the subordinate lodges. 


While I know that you are interested in the philosophy of Masonry rather than the forms 
and phrases by which the degrees are communicated, I believe you will for that very 
reason realize that there is very little hope of having a man grasp a great truth of any 
kind when the language by which it is presented to him a foreign tongue. 


Therefore, we, of the committee on work, feel that if we can succeed in having a 
common language, or a common method of conferring the degrees adopted by the 
Grand Lodge, in a verb few years; from that one thing alone, the standards of Masonis 
ideals, ambitions and puiposes will have advanced at least one hundred per gent in our 
state. 


Knowing that you are interested in the welfare of Masonry everywhere, I call on you 
for assistance because in the short time, I cannot otherwise get the information, and I 
assure you that the time you devote to your reply will be more than well spent. 



Yours fraternally 
J. A. D. 


Here is a situation as novel as it is important and it raises many interesting questions 
which are too large to be discusses in a brief answer. First, as to information: (1) Yes, 
the Grand Lodge of Iowa uses a uniform ritual which it recognizes as the "ancient 
Webb work," not only the teaching of which, but its preservation and disseminaton 
being enjoined on a Board of Custodians, and all innovations or changes in the ritual 
are strictly forbidden. As stated in its Constitution, (Art. XI), "In conferring the degrees 
of Masonry, the subordinate Lodges are enjoined to a strict adherence to the work as 
authorized and taught in this jurisdiction." (2) The ritual is taught to the Lodges by a 
Board of specially trained district lecturers. Ciphers are forbidden. (Code, 297.) Schools 
of instruction are held annually at strategic points in the jurisdiction, to which the 
Lodges of the surrounding district are invited; thus uniting good fellowship with good 
instruction. (3) There is no debate as to the essentials of Masonry, its fundamental 
principles; on these matters all are agreed. Masonic fellowship, of course, is deeper than 
but the ritual is a medium, a vehicle, through which Masonic truth is conveyed; and if 
the medium is chaotic, the teaching will be uncertain and ineffective. Dignity, 
impressiveness and teachability are all on the side of uniformity of ritual. But, strictly 
speaking, there can be no such thing as absolute uniformity - there will always be 
variation of emphasis and inteipretation, just as no two artists can give exactly the same 
interpretation of a Shakespeare play. So that uniformity of ritual need not mean 
monotony, unless the ritual is repeated after the manner of a parrot or a phonograph - 
and that is an awful possibility whether the ritual be uniform or not. There is no doubt 
that, if your Grand Lodge adopts a uniform ritual, the effectiveness of Masonry will be 
many times increased in your jurisdiction. Let this action be followed by a like 
emphasis upon the study-side of Masonry, inducing the masters and brethren to study 
the degrees, live with them until they become living realities to their minds and heart, 
and the influence of Masonry will be still further increased. (4) As to the Grand Lodges 
United States which employ uniform work, the facts are as follows: 


State 

Alabama 

Arizona 

Arkansas 


Work 

Uniform 

Uniform 

Uniform 


Communicated by 

District Lecturers 
Grand Lecturer 
District Deputy Grand 
Masters 


Cipher Keys 

Not mentioned in Code 
Not mentioned in Code 
Prohibited. 


California 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Not mentioned in Code 

Colorado 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Furnished to W. M. and 
Wardens 

Connecticut 

Uniform only in essentials 

District Deputies 

Prohibited. 

Delaware 

Uniform 

Com. on Work 

Prohibited. 

Dist. of Columbia 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Not mentioned in Code. 

Florida 

Uniform 

District Deputy Grand 
Masters 

Prohibited. 

Georgia 

Not uniform 

Not mentioned in Code 

Prohibited. 

Idaho 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Furnished to Master 

Illinois 

Uniform 

District Grand Lecturers 

Prohibited. 

Indiana 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Official cipher authorized 

Iowa 

Uniform District Lecturers 

Prohibited. 


Kansas 

Uniform 

District Lecturers 

Furnished certain officers. 

Kentucky 

Uniform 

Inspectors appointed by 
Grand Master 

Not mentioned in Code 

Louisiana 

Uniform 

Two Grand Lecturers 

Prohibited. 

Maine 

Uniform 

Temporary Grand Lecturers Not mentioned in Code 

Maryland 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer and Com. or 
Work 

i Not mentioned in Code. 

Massachusetts 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer app. by 
Grand Master 

Not mentioned in Code. 

Michigan 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer 

Furnished by Grand 
Secretary 

Minnesota 

Uniform 

Board of Custodians, five in Prohibited 



number 


Mississippi 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer and Deputies Not mentioned in Code 

Missouri 

Uniform 

District Lecturers 

Not mentioned in Code 

Montana 

Uniform 

Grand Master, Grand 

Not mentioned in Code 



Secretary and Deputy Grand 



Master, Custodians 


Nebraska 

Uniform 

Grand Custodian 

Prohibited. 

Nevada 

Uniform except Carson 
Lodge No. 1 

Grand Master 

Not mentioned in Code. 

New Hampshire 

Uniform 

District Grand Lecturers 

Prohibited. 

New Jersey 

Uniform 

Grand Instructors and Dist. 
Deputies 

Prohibited. 

New Mexico 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer and Deputies Prohibited. 

New York 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer and 
Assistants 

Prohibited. 

North Carolina 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturer and 
Assistants 

Prohibited. 

North Dakota* 

Ohio 

Uniform 

District Lecturers 

Furnished Master. 

Pennsylvania 

Uniform 

District Deputy Grand 
Masters 

Prohibited. 

Rhode Island* 

South Carolina 

Uniform 

District Deputy Grand 
Masters 

Not mentioned in Code. 

South Dakota 

Uniform 

Grand Master or his 
appointee 

Not mentioned in Code. 

Tennessee 

Uniform 

District Lecturers 

Prohibited. 

Texas 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturers 

Not mentioned in Code. 

Utah 

Uniform 

Grand Lecturers and 

Not mentioned in Code. 


Deputies 


Vermont 


Uniform 


Grand Lecturers and District Official cipher permitted. 
Deputy Grand Masters 

Grand Lecturer and Division Not mentioned in Code. 
Lecturers 

Grand Lecturer and Deputies Prohibited. 

Grand Lecturer and Deputies Prohibited. 


Virginia 


Uniform 


Washington 
West Virginia 
Wyoming 


Uniform 

Uniform 

Uniform 


Grand Lecturer 


Not mentioned in Code. 


* Masonic Code of this jurisdiction has been requested, but has not been received. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


1717 - 1917 


Dear Brother: - The questions raised in an interesting letter quoted by the editor in a 
recent number of The Builder surely ought to evoke many answers. The question as to 
whether Masonry has a world mission commensurate with other outward expressions of 
organized activities is highly debatable. Its intrinsic character, forbidding those 
activities which have a special sectarian or political bias, prevents its engaging in lines 
of outward demonstrable service. Due observation, however, must be taken in 
connection with this that there is no legitimate barrier to its active participation in social 
reform, or to taking a united stand as a revolutionary party should emergency arise. To 
fail indeed to respond in conscious deliberate activity when a people's rights or liberties 
were affected would be to violate its teachings, betray its heritage and disown its 
traditions. But would a study of our social status reveal such causes as would justify any 
such stand of the body politic of Masons? An investigation that would afford one the 
opinion of the individual Masons of these United States would not, I believe, reveal 
anything that would approximate unanimity as to what ought to be at the present hour 
its social or world mission. We would find without question certain disgruntled folk 
who call for Masonry's unflinching opposition to some provincial issue or other, but can 
we sanely and wisely point the common cause or grievance that would cement in unity 
our Masonic Statesmanship, and crystallize the Masonic forces for one specific aim and 


purpose? We seriously question it. To ascertain then what is the decided modem 
mission of the craft one would have to look other than in fields political or sectarian or 
probably international. Imperative indeed is the need of declaring the modem mission 
especially if there be five out of ten instead of one in ten as quoted in the letter who 
have no real or profound interest in Masonry. 


The making of too many Masons is something to be seriously deprecated and protested 
against for observation and experience convinces that this promiscuous Mason-making 
process is not for the good of the order. In making the Mason we have often missed the 
most important thing, namely, that we are gonsecrating a man who would be 
forevermore as the noblest among men, clean of heart and mind, a builder of the empire 
of tmth, a lover of fraternity and fellowship. Here I believe we have the clue to the 
modem mission of Masonry - the creation of that sublime and lofty character that will 
express the potential human goodness, that will in its joumeyings, business, and 
pleasure, as a result of Masonic culture and training, react upon the world for its uplift 
and betterment. Into the order those who can give of the riches of their heart, and who 
would delight to their good in the treasures of the craft, should be welcome; but he who 
intolerantly and arbitrarily views those who differ with him, should never be admitted. 
Masonry is not a reformatory. It is a university and ought to perform a like service for 
the world. To mingle with men of many minds, of many viewpoints who religiously 
adhere to the search for tmth and who practice fraternity as dictated by the religious 
spirit of the universal man, is the Mason's privilege and solemn duty. How shall we 
welcome the advent of the two-hundredth anniversary? By re-emphasizing the 
knowledge of Masonry's character upon the two millions of American Masons. By 
returning to the rigid observance of allowing only those qualified according to Masonic 
requisites to come into the Order. By more urgently endeavoring to establish the true 
fraternity that we would hold up as exemplary for the emulation of the world. By 
persistent endeavor to educate the vast number in the Craft in the ethics and philosophy 
of the Order. By humbly confessing our forgetfulness in thought and practice of things 
once solemnly enjoined upon us and a rededication of the Craft to the cause of 
humanity through the service of the man who is a Mason. 


Yours fraternally, 
Robert Tipton, Iowa 



* * * 


WILLIAM J. FLORENCE 


Dear Bro. Newton: - Your incautious statement in "The Builder" for last May that 
"Billy" Florence was not a Mason has brought out protests from my good friends Clegg 
and Somerville, who both refer to my "One Hundred Years of Aurora Grata" published 
in 1908 as authority for the claim that Florenge was a Mason. So it seems to be my 
"move." 


As to his being a Mason: 


(1) Bro. J. Henry Williams, P.G.M., Penna., is authority for the statement that the 
records of Pennsylvania show: 


Mount Moriah Lodge No. 156, Philadelphia. William J. Florence, Comedian, Age 22; 
Initiated, Crafted, and Raised October 12, 1853, by dispensation. Admitted November 
22, 1863. Suspended December 22, 1867. Restored to good standing December 26, 
1871. Admitted M. M. January 23, 1872. Deceased November 19, 1891. 


(2) Bro. George B. Orlady, P.G.M., Penna., states that he sat in lodge with Florence and 
can vouch for his being a Master Mason. 


(3) Bro. George B. Wells, P.G.H.P. and present Grand Secretary of the Grand Royal 
Arch Chapter of Pennsylvania, writes that the Chapter records show: 



Zerubbabel Chapter No. 162. William J. Florence, Marked June 10, 1854; Most 
Excellent June 10 1854; Royal Arch June 12, 1854. Sojourner. (That is, not affiliated.) 


(4) Dr. Saram R. Ellison, Recorder of Mecca Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., New York, tells 
me that William J. Florence, Comedian, Age 25, received the Orders of Masonic 
Knighthood in Pittsburgh Commandery No. 1, at Pittsburgh, Pa., June 13, 1854, being 
entered as a "sojourner." I have written to Bro. David M. Kinzer, Recorder of Pittsburgh 
Commandery, for his confirmation of this, but have not had an answer from him. I shall 
probably see Bro. Kinzer at the session of the Supreme Council, 33d, at Pittsburgh next 
week, and if he confirms this I shall so advise you. 


(5) I copy the following from the minutes of Aurora Grata Lodge of Perfection of 
Brooklyn, of which I am the present T.P. Master: 


At a special communication of Aurora Grata Lodge of Perfection held at their rooms, 
Halsey's Building, on Tuesday evening, April 16, '67, 111. Bro. C.T. McClenachan 33d 
proposed Bro. W. J. Florence, Age 40, Occupation Actor, Residence Metropolitan 
Hotel. Refers to 111. Bro. McClenachan and 111. Chas. Brown, M. D., which was on 
motion received and referred to 111. Bros. Willets, Smith and McClenachan for 
investigation, who immediately reported favorably and recommended his election. The 
T.P.G.M. then ordered a ballot and Bro. Florence was declared duly elected. Bro. F. 
being about to depart for Europe and wishing to receive the degrees of the A. & A. Rite, 
permission was given 111. Bro. McClenachan to confer the degrees upon him as soon as 
convenient and wherever his judgment might digtate. 


D.G. Smith, G.S.K.S.A. 


Acting upon above authority Bro. McClenachan conferred upon Bro. W.J. Florence the 
degrees from 4th to 14th inclusive at Metropolitan Hotel on 21st April, '67, in presence 
of and assisted by 111. Bro. Wilson Small 33d, A.T.C. Pierson 33d S.J., 111. Gabrial 
McCowan 33d of the S.J., Chas. Brown, M. D., 32d, Thos. J. Leigh 32 and D. G. Smith 
32nd, Secretary of Aurora Grata Lodge of Perfection. 



D.G. Smith, G.S. K.S.A. 


This minute is probably erroneous as to the degrees conferred. It is evident to me that 
all of the degrees from the Fourth to the Thirty-second were conferred at this special 
communication, from the following facts: (a) When the degrees of the Scottish Rite 
were communicated, as they were in those days, all of the degrees excepting the Thirty- 
third were usually communicated at one session; (b) It was common in Aurora Grata 
Lodge of Perfection, Council of Princes, Chapter of Rose Croix and Consistory at that 
time to confer the degrees "from the 4th to the 32d inclusive," notwithstanding the 
jurisdiction of each of these bodies over but a part of the Scottish Rite series; (c) The 
Secretary, Bro. Smith, had himself received the degrees by communication at the fifth 
communication preceding the one he here records, and had become Secretary on April 
9th but twelve days before the reception of Florence, and this was the second 
communication at which he acted as Secretary. It is probable, therefore, that Bro. Smith 
did not know just exactly what did occur; (d) At the rendezvous of Aurora Grata 
Consistory of April 23, 1867, but two days after the reception of Florence, there is 
entered under receipts, "W.J. Florence, $55 for degrees." Fifty-five dollars was the fee 
for the degrees from the Fourth to the Thirty-second at that time. From these facts I feel 
sure that Florence received the Thirty-second degree. 


It will be observed that according to the Pennsylvania record Florence was not in good 
standing in his Symbolic Lodge at the time of his reception in Aurora Grata. But don't 
you know that in those crude days, when they used to say "Once a Mason, always a 
Mason," they were often so ignorant of the fundamental principles and eternal truths of 
Masonry that even officers of a lodge would sometimes say "the" where the Standard 
Work was "a!" Billy Florence was always in good standing as a man. 


As to his name and religion: 


Bro. J. Harry Conlin, a nephew, tells me that "Uncle Billly’s name was not Bernard 
Conlin, but William Jermyn Conlin, but that he used his stage name of William J. 
Florence, and was known among his friends as Florence. Bro. Conlin does not believe 



that his name was actually changed to Florence by legal process. Florence married a 
Catholic, who declared that upon his death bed he became a Catholic. Bro. Edwin D. 
Washbume, 33d, tells me that he was in the house when Florence died, but was not 
actually present at his death. Bro. Washbume says that to his knowledge a Catholic 
priest was present with Mrs. Florence when Florence died. The widow took charge of 
the funeral arrangements, and services were held at St. Agnes (Catholic) Church. The 
Conlin family made no energetic objection to this, as they wished to avoid "talk,” as 
Bro. J. Harry Conlin expresses it. The body was buried in Greenwood (Protestant) 
Cemetery, Brooklyn, N. Y., in a plot purchased by Florence himself for the family 
burial plot. Bro. Conlin says, "Uncle Billy was no more a Catholic than you are," - 
meaning me. 


Now please don't say again that Florence was not a Mason, because there is too much 
against you to sustain that statement! 


Very tmly and fraternally 

Chas. A. Brockaway, 33d, New York. 


* * * 


THE ROLL OF HONOR 


Dear Sir and Brother: - In reply to your inquiry of the 12th instant, I beg leave to say 
that, so far as I have been able to verify, the following list of Presidents of the United 
States were Brother Masons: 


George Washington. 


John Adams. James Madison. 



James Monroe. 


John Quincy Adams. 
Andrew Jackson. 
William H. Harrison. 
John Tyler. 

James K. Polk. 
Zachariah Taylor. 
Franklin Pierce. 
James Buchanan. 
Andrew Johnson. 
James A. Garfield. 
William McKinley. 
Theodore Roosevelt. 
William H. Taft. 


From the late General Robert H. Hall, U.S.A., I learned that General Grant was a fellow 
craft Mason; initiated and raised in a frontier lodge, when a second lieutenant; Gen. 

Hall got his information from a brother who was present at the initiation. Just before the 
death of General Hall, I wrote to ask the name of the lodge and date of the initiation, but 
received no reply. I took the matter up with the surviving frontier lodges located where 
Gen. Grant had been on duty when on the Pacific Slope and also with the surviving 
Army Officers who were with him in his youth, who were Masons, but could not get 
the verification I sought. 



I do not, however, regard this as proof that General Grant was not a Mason, for so many 
lodges have gone out of existence, and records have been badly kept in many lodges; 
many records lost, and, what is quite as bad, searches are difficult and inconvenient. 


I once wrote the Secretary of a lodge in the West, inquiring the Masonic record of an 
officer in the Army. The Secretary searched but did not find his name: later I found 
name and date in Gould's History, again wrote the same Secretary, who then looked and 
verified. 


My record of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence are: 

John Hancock, Grand Master in Mass. 

Josiah Bartlett, Grand Master in Mass. 

William Whipple. * 

Matthew Thornton. * 

Samuel Adams, St. Johns lodge, Mass. 

John Adams, St. Johns lodge, Mass. 

Robert Treat Paine. * 

Elbridge Gerry. * 

Stephen Hopkins, St. Johns lodge, Providence, 1729. 

Roger Sherman. * 

Philip Livingston. * 

Oliver Wolcott, * St. Johns lodge, Hartford, Conn. 


Francis Lewis. * 



John Witherspoon. * 

Francis Hopkinson. * 

Robert Morris. * 

Benjamin Rush. * 

Benjamin Franklin, G.M. in Penna. 
George Ross. * 

Richard Henry Lee. * 

Benjamin Harrison. 

Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

William Hooper. 


Those marked * are taken from one Library of Masonic History, Vol. IV. The others I 
have verified from Lodge Records. I have made many searches, without being able to 
verify all of those marked *; but without the records there have been good traditions, if 
any traditions are good. 


A direct descendant of Matthew Thornton is positive Matthew Thornton was initiated in 
an Army lodge, but there exists no records at all of that lodge. 


A descendant of Josiah Bartlett (signer) feels sure that her ancestor was not a Mason, 
and knows that there were two Josiah Bartletts; while members of the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts and the Editor of "Light" are certain the Josiah who was Grand Master is 
the veritable Josiah who signed the Declaration of Independence. This Bartlett record, 
however, is the only one which has been questioned. 



The records in Military Lodges have rarely, if ever, been carefully kept, and very few of 
our Military lodge records have ever reached any Grand Lodge. 


Of the Signers 13 were Congregationalists; 34 were Protestant Episcopalians; 2 were 
Quakers; 5 were Presbyterians; 1 was a Baptist and 1 a Roman Catholic. 


All were bom in the United States, excepting nine, as follows: Thornton, Smith and 
Taylor, in Ireland; Lewis, Morris and Gwinnett, in England; Scott, Witherspoon and 
Wilson, in Scotland. Charles Carrot was a native of Maryland, and though recently it is 
claimed he was a "life long friend of Washington" there is no history nor tradition to 
prove it. There is no intimation of their acquaintance until after Washington became 
President, and was invited to present the premiums at the Jesuit College in Georgetown, 
where Bishop Carrol was president. 


During the War of the Revolution there were about 500,000 Scotch (Presbyterian) - 
Irish in the Colonies who were "the Irish in the Revolution." 


George W. Baird, P.G.M. Dist. of Columbia. 


* * * 


SYLVANUS COBB: MASON 


In the March number of The Builder, Brother W. A.G. asked for information regarding 
some of Sylvanus Cobb's stories. It was my privilege to have seen Mr. Cobb many 
times and to know his famous twin brothers, Cyrus and Darius. The following is a short 
sketch of his busy life, taken from a biography, written by his daughter, and "Dedicated 
to the Masonic Fraternity." 



Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., was the son of Sylvanus Cobb and Eunice Hale Waite, bom in 
Waterville, Me., June 5, 1823, and was publicly "dedicated to God" by "Father" Hosea 
Ballou on June 26th. 


His parents moved to Maiden, Mass., in 1828, and lived in the Parsonage House, still 
standing, and celebrated as the birthplace of Adoniram Judson. They moved to 
Waltham, Mass., in 838; and while Sylvanus was attending High school, he went to 
Brooklyn, N. Y., and enlisted in the United States Navy in Feb., 1841, easily passing 
for a man of 21 years. He was honorably discharged from the Navy three years later, 
and on June 29th, 1845, he was married to Mary Jane Mead in East Boston, Mass. 


In 1846, with one of his brothers, he founded "THE RECHABITE," a great 
temperance paper, and three years later went over to the "WASHINGTONIAN." James 
Ed. Polk, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay were among the hundreds who were publicly 
named in these papers as "mm dri nk ers." From the Washingtonian, he went to the 
"WAVERLY MAGAZINE" as associate editor. As a member of the "Sons of 
Temperance" he was a public lecturer for several years from 1869. 


He began to write continued stories in 1850, the first being "The Prophet of the Bohmer 
Wald" published in the "FLAG OF OUR NATION." Began to write for the New York 
Ledger in 1856, and in thirty-one years, he wrote 122 Long stories, 862 short stories 
and 2143 "scraps," in all, 89,544 pages. On May 19th, 1887, he wrote in his diary: 
"Wrote a sketch, 'Jack's Romance' and will now pull up for awhile." The "pull up" was 
for the last sweet rest. 


From 1852 until his death, July 17, 1887, he was actively engaged in civic, political, 
military, temperance, patriotic musical, literary, masonic and religious work. In July, 
1863 he was unanimously elected Captain of the Norway, Me., Light Infantry and 
became intimately associated with "private" Hanibal Hamlin of a Bangor, Me., 
company. At this time, he was also closely associated with Andrew Wilson and Sen. 
Clark of New Hampshire on a regular tour of campaign speaking. While living in 



Norway, Me., he held many town offices, school committee and was chief engineer of 
the Fire Department. 


After the war, he became a resident of Hyde Park, Mass, and was annually elected 
moderator. On March 7th, 1870, he while moderator, allowed 47 women to vote at a 
regular Town meeting, and declared himself for women's suffrage. This was the first 
event of the kind in the country, and caused universal interest and comment. On March 
24th, 1870, he was elected first commander of Hyde Park Post, G.A.R. 


Among his many friends were Gen. N. P. Banks, Benj. P. Shillaber, (Mrs. Partington) 
Hanibal Hamlin, Andrew Wilson, William Wirt Virgin and Harry Rust, all prominent in 
National and public life. Ralph Waldo Emerson once criticised his stories as "yellow" 
literature; but on being persuaded to read one of Mr. Cobb's stories, apologized and 
said, "In sentiment and language, that story was not only unobjectionable, but 
elevating." In such a long, busy life does it seem possible that Mr. Cobb could find time 
to do more, yet look at his Masonic record: 


On Thursday, May 1 1th, 1854, he wrote this in his diary: "Went down to the Village, 
and became initiated as a 'Free Mason' in the Oxford Lodge of Free and Accepted 
Masons. Am now an Entered Apprentice. Like it much." Oxford Lodge No. 18 was at 
Norway, Me. He was passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on Thursday, May 18th, and 
raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, Thursday, June 8th. He was elected 
senior deacon August 3 1st, and held that office in '54, '55 and '65; was secretary in 
1863, Worshipful Master in 1858 '59, '61, '62 and '66. He demitted from Oxford Lodge, 
Oct. 17 1867, and joined Hyde Park Lodge, April 15th, 1869. He served as secretary in 
1872 and '73, and represented his lodge by proxy in the Grand Lodge from Dec. 15th, 
1881, until his death. 


Received the degrees of Mark Master and Most Excellent Master in King Hiram Royal 
Arch Chapter of Lewiston, Me., May 20th, 1859; and was exalted to the Ineffable 
degree of Royal Arch Mason on June 10th. He was a charter member of Norfolk Royal 
Arch Chapter, Hyde Park, Mass., and served as Excellent King for two years. Was 
elected Most Excellent High Priest in Sept., 1873, treasurer in '78 serving for six years 
and chaplain for two years. Elected Grand Scribe in Grand Chapter Dec. 7th, 1884, and 



at the same time was appointed by the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania as Grand 
Representative near the Grand Chapter of Massachusetts. 


He received the degrees of Select Master, Royal Master, and Super Excellent Master in 
Dunlap Council No. 80 of Lewiston, Me., April 7th, 1864. He was one of the 
petitioners for the dispensation which was granted to Hyde Park Council, in 1872; and 
was constituted as one of its charter members in 1873. He was Right Illustrious Master 
in 72 and 73; Principal Conductor of the Work in 77, 78 and '83; Thrice Illustrious 
Master in 79 and '80; treasurer in '84 and until his death. Grand Chaplain of the Grand 
Council of Mass, in 79 and '80, and was elected Grand Principal Conductor of the 
Work December 8th, 1880. 


He received the order of the Red Cross in Boston Commandery, March 29th, 1872, 
Orders of Temple and Malta May 2, 1872. He was one of the petitioners for a 
dispensation which was granted to Cyprus Commandery, Hyde Park, Mass., in 1873. 
He was a charter member from Oct. 12, 1873, and served as Prelate from that evening 
until the day of his death, excepting one year, beginning May, 1878, when he served as 
Eminent Commander. 


He received the 32d of A. & A.S.R. on April 24th, 1874, and at the time of his death 
was a life member of Boston Lodge of Perfection 14d; Giles F. Yates Council of 
Princes, 16d; Mt. Olivet Chapter Rose Croix 18d; and Massachusetts Consistory of S.P. 
of the R.S. 32d. In Boston Lodge of Perfection, he held the office of Grand Orator in '80 
and '81; and Junior Grand Warden in 1883. He was also a member of Mass. 

Convention, High Priests, and Mass. Union of Templar Commanders. 


Could his speeches, made at Masonic banquets and social gatherings, have been 
preserved, they would have been invaluable as illustrations of his love for the order. 
These and many anecdotes and experiences were always given extemporaneously, and 
live only in the hearts and memories of his brothers. They were sometimes deep and 
pathetic, often bright and witty, always clean and pure. His suppression on such 
occasions of everything bordering on coarseness was proverbial. 



He wrote the following sketches for the "Liberal Free Mason" all based upon facts: "A 
Reminiscence," "The Templar's Wife," "Story of a Sleeve-button," "The Sign of the 
Red Cross" and "An Effective Token." Besides many sketches of this character, he 
wrote not a little on the subject of Masonry, his best and well known Masonic stories 
being "Alaric," "The Mystic Tie of the Temple" and "The Key-stone." The first of these 
Masonic stories was written in 1858: "A Sicilian Story of Early Times." "The Mystic 
Tie of the Temple" is based upon the early Masonic struggle and is considered by many 
as his best Masonic story. 


Louis S. Brigham, Randolph, Vt. 


* * * 


"CAPTAIN JACK" 


Dear Brother: - A friend of mine who is a Mason was visiting, this summer, in 
Colorado, and on one of the sight seeing trips in the mountains between Manitou and 
Colorado Springs on what is known as The High Drive, came across an old lady about 
seventy-five years of age, who runs a small curio shop, and whom he understands is 
located the year round at the same point. 


She claims to be the youngest member of a band of seventh women who were given the 
Masonic work during the Civil War somewhere in New York State - she thinks she is 
the only one of the seventy now living. 


My friend, in connection with another Masonig gentleman asked her a great many 
questions and she could intelligently and Masonically answer them - he was greatly 
surprised and likewise the writer. My friend is informed that her husband, now dead, 
was a Mason - he was called "Captain Jack," and this woman goes by the name of 
"Captain Jack." 



Light on this subject through the columns of "The Builder” will be very much 
appreciated. 


Fraternally yours, 


Asa D. Hurd, Mo. 


* * * 


THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION 


Dear Brother Newton: - Ament the article, "The Baltimore Convention," in the 
Correspondence section of "The Builder" for September, Brother Anderson in his 
communication quoting from memory and hear-say, there is some excuse for having 
places names and dates wrong. 


Through the courtesy of our Grand Master, Thomas J. Shryock, I am sending you for 
the archives of "The Builder," a copy of the printed proceedings (very scarce) of that 
important Convention. 


By referring to the printed proceedings you will see that, in pursuance of a 
recommendation of the Masonic Convention held at Washington, D.C., in March, 1842, 
the Delegates assembled in Baltimore on the 8th day of May, 1843, and adjourned sine 
die on May 1 7th, having previously adopted a resolution recommending that the next 
meeting of the Grand Masonic Convention be held in the city of Winchester, Va., on 
the second Monday in May in the year 1846. 



A report was adopted at the Baltimore convention endorsing "the establishment of a 
Grand National Convention possessing limited powers, to meet triennially to decide 
upon discrepancies in the work, etc., etc." Whenever thirteen or more Grand Lodges 
should agree to the proposition, the Convention should be permanently formed. 


In pursuance of the recommendation of the Convention, representatives from the Grand 
Lodges of North Carolina, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, District of Columbia and Missouri 
assembled at Winchester, Va., May 1 1th, 1846. Only eight delegates appearing, the 
Convention adjourned without transacting any business. (From Schultz's History.) 


As this convention is frequently mentioned, it may prove interesting to our members to 
know who composed and attended the Baltimore Convention. Members of the 
convention were: 


Thomas Clapham, Portsmouth, N. H. 


Charles W. Moore, Boston, Mass., R.W.G. Secretary. (Editor Free-Mason's Monthly 
Magazine.) 


William Field, Pawtucket, R. I. 


Ebenezer Wadsworth, West Troy, N.Y., R.W.P. Secretary. 


Daniel A. Piper, Baltimore, Md., G. Lecturer. 



Nathaniel Seevers, Georgetown, D.C., G. Lecturer. 


John Dove, Richmond Va., R.W.G. Secretary. 


John H. Wheeler, Raleigh, N.C., M.W.G. Master. 


Albert Case, Charleston, S.C., M.R.G. Chaplain. 


Lemuel Dwelle, Augusta, Ga., G. Lecturer. 


Edward Herndon, Gainesville, Ala., P.G. Master. 


Thomas Hayward, Tallahassee, Fla., P.D.G. Master. 


John Delafield. Jr., Memphis, Term., G. Lecturer. 


John Barney, Worthington, Franklin Co., Ohio., G. Fecturer 


S.W.B. Carnegy, Palmyra, Missouri, P.G. Master. (Representative expense contribution 
credited to his name.) 


Joseph Foster, St. Fouis, Mo., S. G. Warden. 



VISITORS 


W. J. Reese, Lancaster, Ohio, M.W.G. Master. 


Charies Gilman, Baltimore, Md., M.W.G. Master. 


Hiram Chamberlain St. Charles. Missouri, R.R.G. Chaplain. 


Joseph K. Stapleton, Baltimore, Md., D.G.G.M. G.G.E.U.S. 


R.W.E. Cruben, Louisiana. 


R.W.F. Billon, Missouri, P. G. Secretary. 


R.W. Edward John Hutchins, P.P.D.G.M., South Wales 


R.W. Cornelius Smith, S.G.W., Maryland. The Officers of the Convention were: 


R.W. John Dove, M. D., of Virginia, President. 


R.W. Rev. Albert Case, of South Carolina, Secretary. 



Rev. Bro. W. E. Wyatt, of Maryland, Chaplain. 


Fraternally, 


Gustav A. Eitel, Baltimore, Md.