The Builder Magazine 

October 1923 - Volume IX - Number 10 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

FRONTISPIECE - EDMUND BURKE 

THE MASONIC RITUAL IN THE UNITED STATES - By Bro. A. L. Kress, 
Pennsylvania 

HIRAM ABIF, THE MAN - By Bro. David E. Wr. Williamson, Nevada 

THE PILLARS OF BRASS - By Bro. Jerome B. Frisbee, California 

FREEMASONRY IN PANAMA By Bros. Oiler, Melhado and Jesurun, Panama 

GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - EDMUND BURKE - By Bro. Geo. W. 
Baird, P. G. M., District of Columbia 

THE STUDY CLUB - Chapters of Masonic History - Part VI, Freemasonry and the 
Comacine Masters - By Bro. H. L. Haywood 

EDITORIAL 

The Craft and Its Auxiliaries 
Midway 

THE LIBRARY 

A Study in Clandestine Masonry 
Havelock Ellis' Philosophy of Life 



THE TRAGIC END OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR - By Charlotte M. Yonge 


THE QUESTION BOX 

The Ritual of a Political Party 

Did Masonry Found Public School System? 

When, Mother Supreme Council Was Organized 

On the Making of Speeches in Lodge 

When the Grotto Was Launched 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows 

Masonic Indelibility 

CORRESPONDENCE 

Two Corrections Concerning Texas Items 

"When Pa Joined the Lodge" 

YE EDITOR'S CORNER 


— o — 


THE BUILDER - OCT 1923 


The Masonic Ritual in the United States: 



History vs. Tradition 


By Bro. A.L. KRESS, Pennsylvania 


For a long time now Bro. Kress has been collecting data concerning the history of our 
ritual, especially as it has been used in America. It is pioneer work, and very 
difficult, especially because of the lack of dependable printed writings, so many of 
which have been published by uninformed authors altogether too credulous of hearsay 
and tradition. The present challenging paper is but the first of several that Bro. Kress 
will write with a view to the ultimate publication of a History of the Ritual, based on 
known facts and scientific methods. Every reader who may be able to contribute 
facts, suggestions or criticisms is urged to communicate with THE BUILDER, or 
with Bro. Kress himself, 330 Center street, Williamspert, Pa. 


THE history of Freemasonry has been effectually removed from the realm of tradition 
and imagination, due to the noteworthy labours of Gould, Hughan, Woodford, Lyon 
and their coworkers. But the development of the Masonic ritual has never been 
historically treated. Such articles as have appeared in the past in our journals can, at 
best, be characterized as psuedo-history only. An excellent example of these 
uncritical accounts, heretofore accepted as fact, may be found in THE BUILDER, 

Vol. I, page 291. There are, of course, difficulties in dealing freely and openly with 
such an important topic as would be possible when writing of Jurisprudence, 
Symbolism or the History of the Order; but they are not insurmountable. It may even 
be supposed by "mouth-to-ear" extremists that the history of the ritual can never be 
written because documentary evidence is lacking. But there is an ample supply of 
such. In fact, much as we cherish the tradition of a ritual transmitted by the instructive 
tongue to the attentive ear, as we review the past some doubt will arise as to whether 
it could ever have been maintained for two hundred years unless some records were 
kept. 


TRADITION OF THE WEBB-PRESTON LECTURES 



Perhaps I should give this paper a sub-title, "The So-Called Webb-Preston Lectures," 
for it is this specific phase of the ritual I shall discuss. There is a persistent and 
generally accepted tradition throughout the United States that Thomas Smith Webb 
somehow or other modified, abridged, altered, or rearranged the Preston Lectures, and 
that this was the genesis of our present ritual. I accepted the story myself at first, but 
it did not require much research to convince me that somewhere along the line 
tradition and fact controvert each other. 


I shall first of all examine the origin of the tradition itself. It was not until about 1 860 
that our Grand Lodges evinced any great interest in the ritual and its genesis, which 
interest was largely stimulated by Rob Morris. As I have pointed out before, the 
ritual was in a somewhat chaotic condition from 1840 to 1860. Intelligent Masons 
everywhere were seeking for "the old ritual." Rob Morris was the leader in this 
search. In the course of his travels in 1857 he visited Philip C. Tucker, of Vergennes, 
Vermont, who had been made a Mason about 1824. Morris had made a practice of 
conferring with the older Masons - those made prior to 1830 - checking and 
comparing their versions in an effort to piece out "the old ritual." Tucker informed 
him that Samuel Willson, also of Vergennes, had in his possession an old manuscript 
cipher, which Willson had made in November, 1817, of the Webb Lectures as he had 
received them from John Barney at that time. Barney in turn had received them from 
one of Webb's "direct disciples" in Boston, and claimed to have rehearsed them 
before Webb himself Morris was elated over this good fortune, examined the cipher 
and accepted the Barney-Willson Notes - now in the possession of the Grand Lodge 
of Vermont - as embodying the most authentic version of the old ritual then in 
existence. 


As a result of Tucker's association with Morris and Morris' insistent effort to revive 
the old Webb Lectures, Tucker made three addresses before the Grand Lodge of 
Vermont in 1859, 1860 and 1861 respectively, which were extensively quoted by 
other writers. In his address in 1859 Tucker sought to present a complete narration of 
the history of the ritual. He said, in part: 



"About the year 1800 - twelve years after the publication of Preston's Illustrations - an 
English brother whose name I have been unable to obtain came to Boston, and taught 
the English lectures as they had been arranged by Preston. The Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts approved them, and they were taught to Thos. S. Webb, and Henry 

Fowle, of Boston, and Brother Snow, of Rhode Island, about the year 1801 I think, 

upon these facts, I am justified in saying, that the lectures we use are the true lectures 
of Preston. Webb changed the arrangement of the sections, as fixed by Preston, for 
one which he thought more simple and convenient, but as I understand, left the body 
of the lectures themselves as Preston had established them." (1) 


These portions of his address were evidently challenged by a member of the Craft - 
whom I believe to have been Mackey, though I have not yet located his article - 
which prompted Tucker to again discuss the matter in his address of 1860. He 
qualified his previous statements somewhat. I quote this address at greater length: 


"In my address of last year I endeavored to condense what little information I had 
about the Masonic lectures, and that attempt has been, in general, quite favorably 
noticed by the Craft. In one distinguished Masonic quarter, however, some parts of 
my address on this subject seem to have met with disfavor. One particular thing 
found fault with is, that I thought myself justified in saying that the lectures in use, 
recovered through Webb and Gleason, were the true lectures of Preston. I certainly 
did not mean to say that they were identical in length with those of Preston. I had 
already said that Webb changed the arrangement of Preston's sections, but that he had 
left the body of the lectures as Preston had established them. Perhaps I should have 
said the substance instead of the 'body' of those lectures. I now state, what I supposed 
was well understood before by every tolerably well-informed Mason in the United 
States, that Webb abridged as well as changed the arrangement of the lectures of 
Preston. I believed that I knew then, and I believe I know now that Webb learned and 
taught the Preston lectures in full as well as that he prepared and taught his own 
abridgement of them. I have a copy in key, both of Webb's abridgement and of 
Preston in full, which I have reasons wholly satisfactory to myself for believing are 

true transcripts of both those sets of lectures as Gleason taught them Again I am 

criticized for saying that Gleason visited England and exemplified the Preston 
lectures, as he had received them from Webb, before the Grand Lodge of England, 
whose authorities pronounced them correct, and I am charged with taking this from 
'hearsay', and my critic places no 'faith in it.' I received that statement from the 
highest authority - from one who knew - and I wrote it down at the time. There are 



existing reasons why I do not choose to gratify my critic by naming that authority at 
this time, and I leave the Craft to judge whether my statement of the fact upon 
undoubted authority is not worthy of as much credit as any Reviewer's doubt about it. 
I do not possess anything in writing or published of Gleason's, as to his lecturing 
before the Grand Lodge of England, but that Masonry abroad did not ignore the 
lectures, as Gleason taught them, we have his own published letter to prove." (2) 


Tucker then reproduces a letter from Gleason to C.W. Moore which was published in 
the second edition of Moore's Masonic Trestleboard, which as evidence is of no 
value. 


Morris, likewise, was diffusing a similar legend in his writing and addresses. In 
October, 1858, at Louisville, Ky., for example, he said: "The lectures I shall teach 
you are those which Thomas Smith Webb prepared some sixty years ago, from the 
Ritual of William Preston. There are no others in the United States that have any 
claim to your respect." (3) 


C.W. Moore, of Boston, was another to pass along the tradition. In December 1858, 
in an address at Boston, he remarked in part as follows: 


"Among the Past Masters of this lodge we notice the name of the late Benjamin 
Gleason, Esq., who was the associate and co-laborer of the late Thomas Smith Webb, 
in introducing into the lodges of New England, and subsequently into other sections 

of the country, what is known as the Prestonian system of work and lectures It 

was the 'work' of Masonry as revised by Preston, and approved and sanctioned by the 

Grand Lodge of England, near the close of the last century The verbal ritual as 

revised by Preston, was brought to this country about the year 1803 - not by Webb, as 
we have recently seen it stated, never went abroad - but by two English brethren, one 
of we think, had been a pupil of Preston, and both of whom had been members of one 
of the principal Lodges of Instruction in London. It was first communicated to Webb, 

and by him parted to Gleason The system underwent some modifications (which 

were doubtless improvements) in its general arrangement and adaptations - its 
mechanism - soon at its introduction into this country; but in all other respects was 



received, and has been preserved, especially in the lodge of older jurisdictions, 
essentially, as it came from the original source of our Craft Masonry." (4) 


So far as I have been able to discover, these earliest narrations we have of this 
tradition. If any brother knows of an earlier reference or can point to the use of the 
term "Webb-Preston Lectures" anywhere prior to 1858, 1 hope he will call it to my 
attention. The tradition rests upon the unsupported assertions of Tucker, Morris and 
Moore. None of them possessed any first hand information, nor produced any facts to 
confirm their assertions. Tucker attempted to, but his proofs are based only on 
inference. It hardly seems worth my while to refute any portion of their statements, 
as I shall show later on that the Webb Lecture could not possibly be an adaptation of 
the Preston Lectures. 


THE "ANTIENIS" AND THE "MODERNS" ARE CONTRASTED 


No intelligent discussion of the ritual can be without reference to the rival Grand 
Lodges named above, which existed in England from 1752 to 1813. While the 
researches of Sadler have given us a better idea of the causes which led to the 
formation of the Grand Lodge of "Antients", it would seem that, a comparative study 
of the rituals of the two bodies would afford still further light on this little understood 
episode. 


As early as 1760 we find the ritual of the "Antients" had assumed the exact form and 
arrangement preserved in the United States today. Under this type the ritual was 
divided into three degrees and each degree into sections. For example, there were 
three sections in the First Degree. The first section, of about sixty questions and 
answers, comprised the "Entered Apprentice's Lecture"; the second, of about fifteen 
questions and answers, the "Entered Apprentice's Reasons"; and the third, of some 
forty questions and answers, recited certain explanatory matter, some of which is now 
found in the second section of the Fellow craft's Lecture. This arrangement was most 
logical. The first section rehearsed the ceremony of initiation, the second, the reasons 
for the various acts; and the third elaborated on them. Every brother in this country, 
except our Pennsylvania brethren, will at once recognize this arrangement. 



On the other hand, the ritual of the "Moderns the latter half of the 1 8th century, 
exhibits an entirely different form and arrangement, which in turn has been preserved 
in England. Under this type the ritual was divided into three lectures and these 
lectures arbitrary sections. The division of their lectures into sections, as I shall 
explain more fully in discussing the Preston Lectures, was for no reason save that of 
facilitating memorization and had not the slightest relation the sections of the 
"Antients." 


In referring to the ritual of the "Modems", I intentionally said it was divided into 
three lectures, for it was distinctly true of the "Moderns" that the real "work" of their 
lodges consisted not in making of Masons, but in the rehearsal of these lectures to the 
accompaniment of eating and drinking. It seems that the initaton of candidates was 
often something of an intmsion and was at times entmsted to a few brothers, who 
took the candidate into an adjoining room that the real "work" of the lodge might not 
be intermpted. The French term "Table Lodges" would fitly describe them. To 
conform to this practice in the "Modems'" ritual, the ceremony of initiation, the 
reasons and the explanatory matter were all merged into one lecture, each section (as 
we know the term) losing its identity. The whole lecture was then interspersed with 
very frequent "Charges" or toasts. In the First Degree, in one "Modern" version, there 
are 219 questions and answers, whereas in the "Antients" we find but about 120. As 
interesting as this is, I can develop this comparison no further with the space at my 
disposal. Let us keep in mind, then, that in the United States we have preserved 
essentially the ritual of the "Antients", while in England the ritual is essentially that of 
the "Modems". 


THE PRESTON LECTURES ARE EXAMINED 


The Preston Lectures have been widely written of, highly praised, and withal never 
understood in this country. I am not now prepared to say how much originality and 
invention, if any, Preston displayed. Unless it should be eventually found that he 
himself was responsible for the arrangement of the ritual of the "Modems", we may 
question if his influence on the ritual has not been over-exaggerated. Our English 
brethren maintain a studied indifference to any attempt to "exhume" the Preston 



Lectures. I believe the last time a Preston Lecture was delivered in accordance with 
the bequest in his will was in 1857. However, the fund of 300 pounds, bequeathed by 
Preston for this purpose, is presumed to have mysteriously "disappeared". Certainly 
all this is quite strange if he were, in the words of Mackey, "the founder of a system 
of lectures which still retain their influence." No one, in recent times, seems to know 
just what the Preston Lectures actually were. 


Preston is said to have been made a Mason in 1762 in a Lodge of "Antients", which 
later went over to the "Modems". He seems to have early interested himself in the 
ritual and by 1774 had so far perfected his lectures that he held an institute for their 
general dissemination in London. In 1772 he published the first edition of his 
Illustrations, which went through many editions. In this work he outlined briefly his 
system of lectures and described his division of them into sections. In 1787 he 
organized the "Grand Chapter of Harodim", which met "at Freemasons' tavern on the 
third Monday of January, February, March, April, October, November and 
December." This was the mechanism through which he disseminated his lectures. It is 
best described in his own words: 


"Different classes are established, and particular lectures restricted to each class. The 
lectures are divided into sections, and the sections into clauses. The sections are 
annually assigned by the Chief Harod, to a certain number of skilful companions in 
each class, who are denominated SECTIONISTS: and they are empowered to 
distribute the clauses of their respestive sections, with the approbation of the Chief 
Harod, and General Director, among certain private companions of the chapter, who 
are denominated CLAUSEHOLDERS. Such companions as by assiduity become 
possessed of all sections in the lecture are called LECTURERS: and out of these the 
General Director is chosen." (5) 


From this explanation, Preston's purpose in dividing the lectures into sections and 
clauses is at once self-evident. As I said above, it was to facilitate memorization and 
these divisions are wholly arbitrary. 



The Preston Lectures, we must remember, are a version of the "Modems'" Ritual. He 
divided the first lecture into six sections, the second into four, and third into twelve. 
Taking the first lecture for comparison (as I have done throughout) there were: 

5 clauses in the first section. 

5 clauses in the second section. 

5 clauses in the third section. 

5 clauses in the fourth section. 

5 clauses in the fifth section. 

5 clauses in the sixth section. 

As a typical example of a clause, I reproduce here the questions in the fourth clause of 
the first section of the first lecture, as nearly as I can reconstmct them: 

1 . Whence came you principally? 

2. What recommendation do you bring? 

3. What other recommendation? 

4. What is the purpose of your visit? 

5. How do you hope to accomplish that? 

6. What was the first grand natural object you viewed? 

7. Through what medium? 

8. What was the second grand natural object you viewed? 

9. Through what medium? 



10. What was the third grand natural object you viewed? 

1 1 . Through what medium? 


It is hardly necessary for me to say that there is nothing in the Webb Lectures even 
remotely resembling this. 


In 1797 Webb published the first edition of his Freemason's Monitor, while he was at 
Albany, In his Foreword, he said: 


"The observations upon the first three degrees, are principally taken from Preston's 
Illustrations of Masonry, with some necessary alterations, Mr. Preston's distribution 
of the first lecture into six, the second into four, and the third into twelve sections, not 
being agreeable to the present mode of working, they are arranged in this work 
according to general practice." 


In the 1802 edition he changed the words "present mode of working" to "mode of 
working in America." 


Now Webb meant just what he said there. Preston's arrangement by sections was not 
"agreeable to the mode of working in America," because Webb referred to the ritual 
of the "Antients" while Preston referred to the ritual of the "Modems". Webb found 
three clear-cut logical sections in the First Degree, for example, so why try to make 
six out of them? Here lies the difficulty. Webb copied most of his matter in the three 
degrees from Preston, but they each were referring to something entirely different. 
This even led to criticism, sixty years ago, that the Webb Monitor did not fit the 
Webb Lectures. Personally, I doubt that Webb ever even knew the Preston Lectures. 


I have sought to establish that: 



1. The Webb Lectures have their exact counterpart in the ritual of the Antients, 
evidence of which exists as early as 1760, or before Preston was even made a Mason. 


2. Webb never rearranged the Preston Lectures. 


3. The Webb Lectures do not even remotely resemble the Preston Lectures. 


4. The tradition arose about 1858, and has no basis of fact. 


5. The term "Webb-Preston Lectures" is erroneous, misleading, and should be 
abandoned. 


Just what Webb's contributions were, together with a citation of all the documentary 
evidence, is a subject, which it may be my pleasure to discuss at some later date. 

References: 

(1) Proceedings Grand Lodge Vermont - 1859 pp. 35-42. 

(2) Proceedings Grand Lodge Vermont - 1860 pp. 23-32. 

(3) Proceedings Grand Lodge Vermont - 1859 p. 42. 

(4) Proceedings Grand Lodge Vermont - 1860 pp. 23-32. 

(5) Preston - Illustrations of Masonry - 1804, American Portsmouth ed., pp. 234-35. 



O 


Hiram Abif, The Man 


By Bro. DAVID E.W. WILLIAMSON, Nevada 


There is an attempt to write history that is merely a rearrangement of documents, dry 
or dead, and there is an attempt, bom of fancy, which sails off into the air in child-like 
indifference to facts. Most essays on Hiram Abif have fallen between these two 
stools but that cannot be said of this beautiful study, which is an imaginative 
reconstruction based on the most careful studies of history. It is a pleasure to publish 
here this contribution from a friend and brother who for long has been so loyal a 
worker in this Society, and who, so Ye Editor is happy to report, has been a personal 
inspiration to those who work at headquarters. If this essay proves to be the first 
chapter of a book, as Bro. Williamson plans it to be, we shall be safe in predicting for 
it a wide reading. 


WHEN King Solomon stepped over from his palace every day to watch the building 
of the great Temple in Jerusalem, he was met by a broad-shouldered, swarthy man, 
standing about five feet six inches in height, wearing his black hair in curls to his 
shoulders and bearing himself with the dignity that was natural in a man who, while 
still young, had won such fame as to be called to undertake the greatest work of 
construction that the Israelites had ever attempted. 


That man was Hiram, called Abif. Biblical history says little about him and profane 
history nothing, but amid the crowd of courtiers and figures in Israel that are 
mentioned in the biblical descriptions of Solomon's reign, where the king, himself, his 
chief queen, the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Queen of Sheba, King Hiram 
of Tyre, A don i ram the tax collector and the officers he placed over the various 
districts, including his son-in-law Ahimaaz, fill so large a place in the public eye, this 



Hiram Abif stands out as a personage. In the feasts and entertainments with which 
Solomon must have made his people merry in the same way as his neighbouring 
princes made theirs, Hiram Abif was undoubtedly a prominent guest, for in Egypt 
men who built and decorated temples were honoured and, in a city where a princess 
of Egypt was queen, accustomed from her earliest days to rule, she would quite 
naturally set the fashion. Hiram, too, accustomed to the atmosphere of courts, for he 
the friend of King Hiram of Tyre, and as an artist designer was a man of rank and 
standing in Phoenician cities, as judging from the remains visible of the architecture 
of those regions, an architect was also an artist in all the cities around the 
Mediterranean and Aegean seas. In short, Hiram must have appeared to the people to 
be a prince. In addressing him they would call him "lord" and regard him as of only a 
little lower rank than the sovereign. 


What raised him even higher in the eyes of the Hebrews of Jerusalem was the fact 
that he was an artist. In a Temple to the great Jehovah there could be no figure of 
man or of beast, such as was common in Phoenicia at both Tyre and Sidon, and such 
as the Egyptian princess knew in the land of her birth. There could, however, be 
images of beautiful flowers, of lilies and of palm leaves, of strange creatures with 
faces of men, wings of birds and feet of animals, and there could be intricate and 
graceful arabesques and geometrical designs. Hiram Abif s was the ability that could 
produce such works and a people who but a few generations previously had lived in 
tents must have looked at him with awe. In Phoenicia he had probably had many men 
working under him to whom he was absolute master, and this while he was what 
today would be described as scarcely more than a youth. He was the son, too, of a 
man evidently famous in his time. 


To understand what position he held at the court of his master, Hiram, and that of 
King Solomon as well, it must be realized that Hiram Abif was not a brass- worker in 
the same sense that the word is used now, but was a master artist in the working of 
metals; a man who, thanks to the gifts of his royal sovereign, was among the wealthy 
subjects of the Tyrian monarch. Nor would he be regarded as altogether a foreigner in 
Jerusalem, for it was undoubtedly known to everyone at Solomon's capital that this 
master craftsman, this artist lord and prince, was the son of a Jewish mother. His 
language was the same as that of the Jewish people, except perhaps for a different 
sound to this or that letter, and it is even possible, owing to the fact that his mother 
was a Jewess, that he spoke pure Jewish without a trace of accent. To the poor of the 
nation and to the lower ranks he would seem to be an Israelite as much as themselves, 



and it may be that, by contrast with Adoniram, who, as collector of the tribute, would 
be hated, he was actually popular, although the people were groaning beneath the 
taxes and forced labour drawn from them to erect the very building of which he was 
the constructor. 


Prince though he was and rich lord in the eyes of the people, when he was called 
before Solomon he fell upon his face before the great king and so remained. That was 
the universal custom in the courts of despotic Eastern rulers and Solomon was not 
different, as the biblical descriptions reveal, from other monarchs of the time. The 
King of Israel possessed absolute authority and was accountable to no human power. 
Nor did Hiram rise until he was ordered to do so. So it was with the highest subjects 
in Egypt and in Chaldea before their royal masters and so it was at the court of King 
Solomon. But there must have existed a kind of intimacy between the king and his 
chief artist, and it is likely that in the social life of the court Hiram Abif was one of 
the circle of friends with whom Solomon surrounded himself. Hence the abject signs 
of obedience demanded of a subject in all Oriental courts would only be required of 
the half-Tyrian in public, while in private he would be admitted to the close 
confidence of the great king. No such a principle as democracy was ever known in an 
Oriental country and all honours and advancement could come from but one source, 
the throne. It is easy to understand, therefore, that every person around Solomon 
must have won his employment by a certain subserviency to the master's will. 
However free and upstanding he might be in the building of the Temple, Hiram was a 
courtier when in the presence of the Israelite monarch and behaved as all the other 
courtiers conducted themselves. It was the manner of the times and he could never 
have won his way to eminence by any other course. And Solomon was no easy ruler 
to deal with, for he was subject to the whims of the women in his palace and the 
whip, judging from the comment of his son, Rehoboam, was freely used upon his 
people. 


HIS FAMILY LIFE 


When the sun went down Hiram Abif would be found at his own home in the midst of 
the women of his household, as it is not probable that a young Tyrian lord, brought up 
in strict accordance with the customs of the Phoenicians and their neighbours, would 
remain unmarried long after reaching the age of sixteen, for child marriages were the 



rule in the ancient Orient from the earliest times of which there is anything known, 
just as they are today. The men employed upon the Temple, both those from abroad 
and the subjects of Solomon, were housed in a temporary village built especially for 
them, because there would be no, place in the city of Jerusalem. Their quarters would 
certainly be far from luxurious, but they were probably kept clean and the wives of 
the workers, who, of course, accompanied them in compliance with the customs of all 
Eastern peoples, lived there, too, preparing the meals, looking after small wants and 
raising their families. But Hiram Abif was not one of these people. Either through 
his father's efforts and talents, or because of his own early genius, he would long 
since have been placed in a higher class and these people would regard themselves as 
his servants. They recognized that they were apart from him. In dress, bearing and in 
all his surroundings he was very different from them in every respect. 


It is almost possible to reconstruct the daily life of Hiram the artificer by taking what 
is known of the, history of Phoenicia, its people and its industries,; utilizing what 
modern learning has revealed to us about the Israelite monarchy and its place among 
the states of the times, and judging from the available facts just what position he 
would have held in an Eastern despotism if he were alive today. Yet the actual 
references to him in all ancient literature are few - six in the Bible, two or three in 
Menander and Dius, as quoted by Josephus, and two or three more independent 
references by Josephus, himself. His fame; the greatness of which in his day must 
have been such that his connection with the Temple at Jerusalem was deemed a 
notable event, was almost completely over shadowed in the course of a few centuries 
by the development of the legend of King Solomon's greatness. Stories formerly 
attributed to tribal heroes of the whole Semitic race gradually clustered around 
Solomon, until the king of the Bible narrative had become a superhuman being, a 
demigod like the Hercules of the Greeks, and the important parts played by those 
associated with him in the building of the Temple had been forgotten or belittled. 
Hiram Abif was not alone in thus losing what may be termed the center of the stage. 
Adoniram, the master of the tribute, under whose direction the always mutinous and 
turbulent Israelites were compelled to perform the, to them, new labour of cutting 
trees in the forests of Lebanon and hauling the logs down to the sea, deserves a 
greater place in the history of the work than has been given him, and it was he, too, 
who had to devise the means of collecting what must have been huge taxes from a 
people that prior to the previous reign had probably been called on to contribute little 
toward the support of the king. The rulers in the different districts, enumerated in the 
account in Kings, all had their share in the work and all had their troubles to 
overcome. 



But, as time passed, Solomon became more and more the hero of the story and the 
others dropped out of it or into subordinate positions. Thus Hiram, a leader among 
the artists in metal work of Phoenicia, the industry for which that country had been 
famous for centuries in all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea and even as far as 
Assyria toward the east, occupies in the story as it has come down to us a position 
much lower than that which he actually held, as shown by the accounts preserved of 
the building of Egyptian temples and the rank of the men who held similar positions 
there to that of Hiram. 


The oldest notice of Hiram Abif is in First Kings, VII: 13, 14: "And King Solomon 
sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali 
and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom 
and understanding and cunning to work all kinds of brass. And he came to King 
Solomon and wrought all his work." The account in Chronicles is in the Second 
Book, 11:13, 14, where King Hiram of Tyre is represented as saying: "And now I have 
sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, Huram my father's, the son of a 
woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in 
gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple and blue and fine 
linen, and in crimson, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy 
cunning men and with the cunning men of David, thy father." 


KINGS AND CHRONICLES VARY IN THEIR ACCOUNT 


King Hiram, of Tyre, reigned from 969 to 936 B.C., and the building of the Temple at 
Jerusalem was begun by Solomon in the eleventh year of his Tyrian contemporary's 
rule, or in 958. The two books of which Kings is composed were not all written at the 
same time and the authors, or editors, themselves refer to two of their sources of 
information as "The Acts of Solomon" and "The Book of Jashar," but it is the general 
belief of biblical scholars that, according to the method of Hebrew writers, the actual 
text of the older narratives has been preserved, though the book itself did not assume 
the form in which we have it before 535 B.C. It is not thought that the description of 
the building of the Temple is of contemporary date, for instance, but was probably 
written long afterwards, yet the late William Robertson Smith and Prof. E. Kautsch, 



of Halle, have written that it is probable the original author had access to exact 
particulars as to dates, the "artist Hiram and so forth, which may have been contained 
in the Temple records." At any rate, of several accounts of Solomon's reign and the 
building of the Temple, the only one we possess is Kings that is at all near the date of 
the event cords. The account in Chronicles is now generally assumed by scholars to 
be founded upon the earlier canonical books of the Bible with the exception of a lost 
volume called "The Book of the Kings of Israel," referred to in Chronicles itself. The 
editor of Chronicles has introduced material peculiar to himself, the value of which is 
not accepted without question, and the book was compiled some time after 300 B.C., 
nearly seven centuries after the time of Solomon and the building of the Temple. 


Among the alterations made by the Chronicler, unfortunately, are those which cause 
the account of Hiram Abif to differ in Chronicles from that in Kings. Indeed, it is in 
Chronicles that the addition of "abif' to the name of Hiram occurs, or rather, as it is in 
the Hebrew, "abi" in one place, meaning "my father," and abiw" in the other place, 
meaning "his father." The "w" in the latter word is an attempt to transliterate the 
Hebrew letter that was formerly called "vav" into, English. It is still pronounced "v" 
among the Jewish- speaking people of Southern Russia and Rumania and at the time 
Luther translated the Bible into German, it was so sounded by the scholars of Western 
Europe, whence in translating the Hebrew into English, Miles Coverdale, who 
followed Luther's views, made the word "Abif' or "Abiv." It is from this source that 
we obtain the name Hiram Abif. 


It is to the Chronicler, too, that we owe the statement that Hiram Abif, besides being a 
worker in brass, was "skillful to work in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple and 
fine linen" and all the rest of that description, which, as Tyre was not different from 
other lands of the age, is very unlikely. As the metal workers of the lands of antiquity 
were called upon to devise art work of the greatest technical ingenuity and artistist 
taste, it is not improbable that Hiram Abif was able to work gold and silver and 
copper as well as brass, and he may even have known how to treat iron, as the 
Chronicler says. That he would have been a worker in stone and timber, however, is 
contrary to all tradition in the Orient, and it is out of the question to imagine him 
turning his hand to "purple and blue a linen," which, although it was one of the most 
important industries of Tyre, was entirely foreign to metal working. 



And neither the Chronicler nor the author of Kings gives us any inkling of what 
finally became of Hiram Abif. "So Huram made an end of doing the work that he 
wrought for King Solomon in the house of God," says the Chronicler, just as the 
author of the description in Kings had written at least three centuries before him: "So 
Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for King Solomon in the 
house of Jehovah." 


— o — 


The only distinction recognized among Masons is that of an excellence in virtue and 
intelligence. In all respects they stand upon a level. - Anon. 


— o — 


The Pillars of Brass 


By Bro. JEROME B. FRISBEE, California 


This clear forthright article on a subject of much interest to Masons is a splendid 
example of how interesting research may be made. The reader should search out of 
his old files of THE BUILDER other articles on the same theme, of which the 
following are typical: "Pillars of the Porch," by Bro. John W. Barry, June, 1917, p. 
177; July, 1917, p. 200; Aug., 1917, p. 236. "Accession of Solomon: Building of the 
Temple at Jerusalem," by H. H. Milman, Sept., 1919, p. 235. "The Two Pillars," by 
Bro. H.L,. Haywood, C.C.B., Oct., 1919. "The Pillars of the Porch," by Bro. W. B. 
Bragdon, March, 1922, p. 74. "The Egyptian Influence on Our Masonic Ceremonial 
and Ritual," by Bro. Thomas Ross, Sept, 1922, p. 265. 



Bro. Frisbee is the author of a book, magnificently illustrated, on King Solomon's 
Temple, price $2.00. It may be secured through the National Masonic Research 
Society, or from The Temple Publishing Company, Lindsay, Cal. The essay printed 
herewith, written especially for THE BUILDER, is representative of the style and 
nature of the volume, the author of which is a member of the American Institute of 
Archaeology. 


THE two great pillars of brass, set up before the entrance of King Solomon's Temple, 
were at once the most striking objects that met the eye and the most puzzling symbols 
that ever challenged the intellect of man. They are the prototypes of the significant 
pillars that stand today at the door of every Masonic lodge; mute reminders of a 
glorious past, exhaling the very essence of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, radiating a 
vague, superhuman air of eternity with the impressive imperturbability of the silent 
Sphinx, which, in majestic repose, maintains its eternal vigil before that other 
mysterious monument of the ages - the Great Pyramid of Egypt. 


Masonry cherishes these spectacular pillars with a reverence that excites our wonder, 
but its explanation of their symbolism is superficial for the simple reason that it has 
lost their esoteric meaning. These pillars are the keys of the Temple without which 
its treasure rooms remain unopened and the hidden mysteries forever concealed. The 
necessity of interpreting their symbolism, before proceeding to explore the Temple, is 
declared in the most emphatic terms. "Son of man, behold with thine eyes and hear 
with thine ears and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee." (Ezekiel XL; 4) 
"Then he brought me to the porch of the House, even by ten steps whereby they went 
up to it, and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side and one on that." (Ezekiel 
XL; 48) "And Jehovah said unto me, Son of man, MARK WELL, and behold with 
thine eyes and hear with thine ears, and MARK WELL the entrance to the house." 
(Ezekiel XLIV; 5) Multitudes have gazed with silent awe upon that mysterious 
entrance, unable to comprehend its meaning even with those eloquent pillars speaking 
their symbolic language. Today the task is doubly hard, for we must first reconstruct 
the pillars before we can interpret their symbolism. Many have essayed the task of 
reproducing these mysterious pillars in pictorial form but the difficulty encountered in 
endeavouring to interpret the involved descriptions found in the Bible, without a full 
appreciation of the possibilities revealed by archaeological research, or a clear 
perception of the principles of artistic design, have produced results that are far from 



satisfactory. Stade's crude design, reproduced herewith, is typical of them all and 
embodies the common error of supposing that the pillars supported a portion of the 
porch. This error is apparent to every Freemason, and should be evident to all 
students of archaeology, for it was a common practice in ancient times to set up two 
detached pillars before the temple entrance. One of the best examples extant is the 
Egyptian temple at Medinet Abu. An excellent illustration of this temple, showing 
the two pillars may be seen in DeClifford's work: Egypt, the Cradle of Ancient 
Masonry. 


The capitals of the pillars, ornamented with an intricacy of lily work, rows of 
pomegranate blossoms, nets of checkerwork and wreaths of chainwork, have proved 
to be most puzzling and most difficult to understand and visualize. The capital here 
illustrated is a reproduction of the most beautiful capital in the world; the delicate 
tracery of the tapering spirals and expanding parabolas of this marvellous carving has 
never been equalled. The original - carved in white stone - stands on the sacred Isle 
of Philae, far up the Nile, where it was erected during the age of Solomon's Temple. 
This capital is not only in the form of a lily, but it is conspicuously ornamented with 
lily work. Its display of lily work, its surpassing beauty, its Egyptian origin and its 
existence coeval with Solomon's Temple, are the reasons for its selection by the 
author as the model for the reconstructed pillars. 


EGYPT WAS THE SOURCE 


Egypt is unquestionably the source from which the builders of King Solomon's 
Temple derived that peculiar entrancing and almost incomprehensible symbolic 
architecture which was the expression of their extraordinary intellectual attainments 
in art, science, philosophy and religion. The hypothesis of a Babylonian origin, 
assumed by Chipiez and accepted by Caldecott and others, is disproved by the well- 
known fact that the Babylonians worked in crumbling brick, while the Egyptians 
wrought in imperishable stone; and by the further fact that the Gebalites and men of 
Tyre, employed by Solomon, were craftsmen of the Egyptian school. 



The relationship existing between the Hebrews and the Egyptians was very intimate. 
"Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt, and he made 
him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and he gave him to wife the daughter 
of Potiphera, Priest of On." (Genesis XLI) Pharaoh's Daughter took Moses and he 
became her son, he was taught all the learning of the Egyptians and married the 
daughter of Yethru, a priest of On. In later years Moses decreed: "Thou shalt not 
abhor an Egyptian; because thou was a sojourner in his land. The children of the 
third generation that are bom unto them shall enter into the assembly of Jehovah." 
(Deuteronomy XXIII; 7) "Solomon built a palace for Pharaoh's daughter whom he 
had taken to wife." (I Kings VII ; 8) 


The commercial intercourse between Tyre and Egypt was also very extensive, and the 
builders of Tyre could not have been unfamiliar with the wonderful temples standing 
in majestic splendour along the banks of the Nile. About a hundred miles up the 
Leontes River, which flows into the sea at Tyre, are the mins of the temple of Jupiter 
at Baalbek. Among these mins lie two hundred granite columns, twenty-five feet 
length by three feet in length by three feet in diameter, each cut from single block of 
the peculiar rose-colored granite found only at Aswan in Egypt, seven hundred miles 
up the Nile. 


The builders of Baalbek were Master Masons: they handled the largest blocks of 
stone ever quarried and polished them with the perfection of a gem. There lies to this 
day, at the entrance to the quarry, three quarters of a mile from the temple, a rough 
ashler of pure white marble, sixteen feet square and sixty-nine feet in length, 
estimated to weigh 3,000,000 pounds. The uncompleted wall, extending around three 
sides of the temple and twelve cubits from it, is three courses high and contains stones 
fifteen feet square and sixty-five feet in length. These stones were laid up wall 
without mortar and the joints between the stones are so fine that they are almost 
invisible. "It is no exaggeration to say that they are like the joints in a polished 
mahogany table top." 


King Solomon's Temple was undoubtedly a most beautiful building. It has been 
famous for ages as the most wonderful stmcture ever erected by the hand of man, in 
fact, we are told that it was so perfect that it appeared more like the handiwork of the 
Supreme Architect of the Universe; while David told Solomon that he received the 



plans from the hand of Jehovah. In perfection of design and nicety of execution, it 
doubtless equalled the exquisite work at Baalbek. 


These two temples resembled each other in more ways than one, for "Solomon built 
the inner court with three courses of hewn stone and one of cedar beams." (I Kings 
VI; 36) "The foundation was of polished stones, even great stones, stones of ten 
cubits and stones of eight cubits, cut according to measure." (I Kings VII; 10-11) 
These great stones of ten cubits were twenty feet and ten inches in length by twelve 
and a half feet square and weighed 500,000 pounds apiece. The foundation under the 
two pillars of brass, as shown in the illustration, was thirty-two cubits in width (66 
2/3 feet), and therefore required four great stones of eight cubits. In comparison with 
this, one of the great blocks of marble at Baalbek is long enough to fill the entire 
space. 


THE BUILDERS OF BAALBEK 


Who built Baalbek? We do not know. Those sublime artists were content to please 
the Grand Architect of the Universe and made no attempt to perpetuate their own 
names. Their work indicates that they were in possession of the lost word and were 
masters of the royal secret; if so, they must have looked down upon the idolatrous 
worshippers with mild disdain. Perhaps the men of Tyre, who lived at the mouth of 
the river and monopolized the sea trade of the world, could have told who built 
Baalbek; perhaps they built it themselves. It is a gratuitous assumption that the 
bricklayers of Babylon built it, and it is just as certain they had nothing to do with the 
building of King Solomon's Temple. Solomon required men who could polish and 
juggle huge blocks of marble weighing hundreds of tons, and he found the master 
workmen of the world at his very door; and finally, we are told that he employed 
Gebalites, which means stone squarers, and men of Tyre. 


"King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He fashioned the two pillars of 
brass, each eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them 
about. And he made two capitals of molten brass to set upon the tops of the pillars: 
the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was 



five cubits." (I Kings VII; 13-16) "As for the pillars, the height of one pillar was 
eighteen cubits; a line of twelve cubits did compass it; it was hollow and the thickness 
thereof was four fingers." (Jeremiah XLII; 21, 22) "He made in front of the house two 
pillars thirty-five cubits high." (II Chronicles III; 15) "Then he brought me to the 
porch of the house, and he measured each post of the porch; and there were pillars by 
the posts one on this side and one on that." (Ezekiel XL; 48, 49) 


These descriptions differ: two give the height of the pillars at eighteen cubits, one at 
thirty-five. This discrepancy is more apparent than real, and is explained by the 
assumption that the eighteen cubits is merely the length of the shaft, while the thirty- 
five cubits is the total height from the pavement to the top of the sphere and includes 
the following: foundation, six cubits; base, one cubit; shaft, eighteen cubits; abacus, 
one cubit; and sphere four cubits; all of which is clearly depicted in the detailed 
illustration of the pillar. 


The design of the pillar herein described and illustrated is based upon the Biblical 
descriptions, interpreted by a study of numerous Egyptian pillars with capitals of lily 
work. It was not designed with intent to make it thirty-five cubits in height: in fact, a 
sketch of this pillar hung on the walls of the author's study for years before he 
discovered that it measured exactly thirty-five cubits. The shaft was made eighteen 
cubits in accordance with the description given in both Jeremiah and Kings: the base 
and abacus were each made one cubit in height for the sake of artistic proportion, and 
the diameter of the sphere was made four cubits for the same reason - to have made 
them a cubit either more or less would have destroyed the harmony. "The 
foundations were a full reed of six great cubits." (Ezekiel XLI; 8) "And by ten steps 
they went up to it." (Ezekiel XL; 49, Septuagint) The foundation extended five cubits 
beyond the walls of the building, as shown, for "The breadth of the place that was left 
was five cubits round about." (Ezekiel XLI; 11) 


In the illustration here submitted the foundation extends fifteen cubits to the front of 
the porch, thus leaving a space of five cubits round about the bases of the pillars. 

This was done primarily for artistic reasons in order to properly balance the design 
and give the pillars an appearance of stability; it was also necessary in order to insure 
a firm foundation for the pillars. This arrangement leads to an important discovery: 
that the inner court was an oblong square, 250 cubits in length by 100 cubits in width 



- a use of the numbers 10 and 25 that becomes increasingly significant the further we 
explore. 


PILLARS DID NOT HAVE TWO CAPITALS 


As for the capitals, the prevalent notion that each pillar had two capitals, one of four 
cubits and on top, of that another capital of five cubits, is absurd; it is derived from a 
misinterpretation of the following: "19. And the capitals were of lily work four 
cubits. 20. And there were capitals above also upon the two pillars." (I Kings VII) 
Reversing these sentences and transposing a word solves the puzzle thus: "There were 
also capitals above upon the two pillars, and the capitals were of lily work four 
cubits." There are, however, real discrepancies, for example: "David bought the 
threshing floor of Araunath, the Jebusite, for fifty shekels of silver." (II Samuel 
XXIV; 24) "David gave to Oman for the place six hundred shekels of gold." (I 
Chronicles XXI; 25) "The molten sea held two thousand baths" (I Kings VII; 26); 
while later, "It held three thousand baths." (II Chronicles IV; 5) 


Much of this irregularity was doubtless intentional, being necessary, in order to 
preserve the cabalistic meaning. The Bible teaches its great lessons by means of 
allegory; it abounds in "parables and dark sayings of old" which contain a double 
meaning-inviting endless research by the most inquisitive minds, yet rewarding the 
most humble inquirer, disclosing mysteries to everyone in proportion to his training 
and powers of comprehension. The pillars of brass exhibit this peculiarity in the 
superlative degree: their size and beauty making them most impressive spectacles 
whose perfect balance symbolizes the universal equipoise of Nature, while inherent in 
their structure are concealed the means by which the earth is measured and weighed. 


In order to understand the pillars it is necessary, first, to unscramble the descriptions, 
then to separate the wheat from the chaff and finally to sort and rearrange the 
sentences in logical order. This having been accomplished we obtain the following 
result: 



"16. He made two capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the 
height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five 
cubits. 19. And the capitals were of lily work four cubits. 26. Close to the belly, 
which was beside the network. 17. There were nets of checker-work and wreaths of 
chainwork for the capitals. 18. And there were two rows of pomegranates round 
about upon the one network. 20. And there were two hundred pomegranates, in rows, 
round about upon the other capital." (I Kings VII) 


"The height of the one capital was five cubits with network and pomegranates upon 
the capital round about, all of brass, and there were ninety-six pomegranates on the 
four sides; in all there were a hundred pomegranates [in each row] upon the network 
round about." (Jeremiah LXII; 22, 23) 


The full descriptions in the Bible are somewhat lengthy and repetitious in order to 
make all perfectly clear, but it is evident that each capital was five cubits in height 
and that four cubits of this were of lily work above the belly. The belly or bowl was 
covered with nets of checkerwork and carried two rows of pomegranate blossoms 
round about, one hundred in each row. There were also seven wreaths of chainwork 
for each capital, draped around the bowl of the capital. The illustration shows the 
beautiful capital of Philae altered so as to conform to the above interpretation of the 
descriptions. 


"WHAT IS A CUBIT?" 


The measurements of the pillars being expressed in cubits, the next question to arise 
is, "What is a cubit?" There are many answers: the dictionary defines the cubit as 
eighteen inches, and practically every writer accepts this dictum as final; Frederick, 
however, makes it twenty-two inches, while Caldecott writes at great length for the 
purpose of proving that it is but 14.4 inches; the Masonic cubit is the twenty-four- 
inch gauge; while the Sacred Cubit is twenty-five inches. The writer has proved to 
his complete satisfaction that King Solomon's Temple was built by the twenty- five- 
inch cubit. This proposition is demonstrated by a study of the dimensions of the Ark 
of the Covenant, the Court of the Altar, and the Molten Sea. The Pillars of Brass 



illustrate its use in a most clever manner for they abound in hidden and suggestive 
references to the sacred number twenty-five. The Sacred Cubit when used to explain 
the temple measurements, reveals many of the parts and points of the hidden 
mysteries which have hitherto been concealed; it interprets the system of just weights 
and measures ordained by Moses, and most extraordinary as it may at first appear, it 
proves that King Solomon had not only determined the true diameter of the earth but 
had determined its weight as well. 


Caldecott claims, however, that the Temple was measured by the Babylonian cubit of 
14.4 inches. This little cubit was found among some ruins in Babylonia in 1881, and, 
being the latest novelty in cubits, it has attracted considerable attention. There is no 
evidence, however, that it was employed in the construction of King Solomon's 
Temple, in fact, it would dwarf the magnificent structure to the point of 
insignificance; for instance: it would make the famous Middle Chamber only six feet 
in height, for "He built chambers against all the house, each five cubits high." (I 
Kings V; 10) The taller Fellowcrafts could not have stood erect in such a tiny room. 
Built by the Sacred Cubit the ceiling would be ten feet five inches from the floor, a 
good, sensible height. 


These perplexing pillars, variously described as eighteen cubits in height and thirty- 
five cubits in height, become more intricate as we examine them, for while revealing 
these two extreme measures, they concealed their true and most significant height, 
which was twenty- five cubits - including base, shaft, capital and abacus, as shown in 
the detailed illustration of the pillar. The ingenuity of the designer is further revealed 
by the fact that the pillars were twenty-five feet in circumference - for, "A line of 
twelve cubits compassed either of them about." (I Kings VII; 15) 


The solution is as follows: 


12 cubits multiplied by 25 equals 300 inches 300 inches divided by 12 equals 25 feet 



A third and most extraordinary use of the number twenty-five is found in the fact that 
the spheres upon the tops of the pillars were twenty- five hundred feet above sea 
level. This statement is easily proved as follows: the topographical map of Jerusalem 
reveals the fact that the present elevation of the pavement on Mount Moriah is 2435 
feet above sea level, with some parts a trifle higher and some a trifle lower; the pillars 
were twenty-five cubits in height and stood upon a platform six cubits high - a total of 
thirty-one cubits, or 64 feet 7 inches. Now from a point on the horizontal pavement, 
measuring 2435 feet, 5 inches above sea level, let us erect a perpendicular 64 feet, 7 
inches by the plumb: the elevation of this point will be 2500 feet above sea level. 


GREATER THAN THE PYRAMID 


In order to secure this peculiar and significant elevation of 2500 feet, Solomon built 
up both slopes of Mount Moriah with stone work, making a level platform in the form 
of a perfect square, covering twenty- five square acres. The amount of masonry in this 
huge platform exceeds by far the volume of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, which 
covers thirteen acres of ground and once rose 486 feet toward the sky. Much of the 
temple platform still remains and one can stand on the wall today, with a plumb line 
in his hand, 150 feet above the lowest foundation stone. 


There are other subtle employments of the number twenty-five: the distance from the 
center of one sphere to the center of the other was twenty-five cubits, while the 
combined width of the platform and steps in front of the porch was also twenty- five 
cubits. 


These peculiar, involved and fascinating numerical relationships subsist only when 
we measure the pillars with the twenty- five-inch cubit; reconstructed by any other 
measure, the pillars are not only incomprehensible but meaningless as well. The 
whole temple, with its two courts, its vessels and furnishings, respond in like manner 
to the touch of this magic rod - the Sacred Cubit. Like the Sphinx, then, these two 
cabalistic pillars, standing at the entrance of the temple, challenge all comers for an 
interpretation; and unless their esoteric meaning is deciphered the temple remains a 
mystery. A cowan might enter the Holy of Holies and not learn that it represents the 



diameter of the earth; he might gaze upon the Holy Ark of the Covenant and fail to 
perceive that it reveals the weight of the earth; he might even open the sacred Ark and 
examine the golden cup holding an omer and Aaron's rod that was laid up in the Ark 
for a token, and fail to recognize the standards of perfect weight and measure. All 
this and more stands revealed to him who "Marks Well" the entrance to the Temple 
and solves the riddle of the Sphinx. 


We are repeatedly admonished, "Look to the East," and if we gaze with a discerning 
eye we shall perceive, at the dawn of history, not only men of moral and intellectual 
development unsurpassed today, but artists and engineers whose work surpasses 
anything of the kind that the modern world has produced. 


It is the province of Freemasonry to perpetuate and inculcate the divine spirit that 
actuated these marvellous men of the East, and the task of each individual Mason is to 
build, in Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, the spiritual temple, that house not made with 
hands. 


For the structure that we raise 
Time is with materials filled 
Our Todays and Yesterdays 
Are the blocks with which we build. 


Truly shape and fashion these 
Leave no yawning gaps between 
Think not because no man sees 


Such things will remain unseen. 



Freemasonry in Panama 


By Bros. JOSE OLLER, G.M.; A.D.H. MELHADO, P.G.M., and VICTOR 
JESURUN, G. S„ Panama 


This article, written especially for THE BUILDER, is the first published brief history 
of Masonry in Panama thus far written, so far as we are aware, by officials of the 
Grand Lodge of Panama, and it therefore possesses more than usual weight and 
interest. The National Masonic Research Society expresses its thanks to the three 
distinguished authors who are animated by so genuine a zeal for the great cause in a 
land where Masonry labors at many disadvantages. Such brethren as may care to 
discuss the pages following, or to make further inquiries, may address Bro. Oiler in 
our care. All readers are urged to peruse in connection with this contribution, "On the 
Recognition of the Grand Lodge of Panama," by Bros. M. M. Johnson and W. H. L. 
Odell, THE BUILDER, March, 1918, p. 86. 


IT is reported that evidence of the existence of Freemasonry was found in the early 
part of the 1 8th Century in the ruins of the old city of Portobelo, which was founded 
by the Spaniards in 1597, and if one were to accept that as a fact it would appear that 
Freemasonry existed on the Isthmus since the time of the conquest by the Spaniards, 
who, by the way, gave it the suggestive name of Castilla de Oro (Golden Castle). 


But an authentic record existed in 1822, that is to say, about a century ago, when it is 
stated that a few citizens of North America then residing on the Isthmus requested 
from the Grand Lodge of New York a charter under dispensation with a view of 
organizing a lodge in the city of Panama to be named, "La Mejor Union." It would 
appear that this attempt did not materialize and the above named lodge was not 
established. Another attempt was made to raise the pillars of Freemasonry in Panama, 
and it is reported that in December 1 850 a lodge under dispensation, named “Union,” 
held its first communication under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Texas. 



In March 1866, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts granted a charter of dispensation 
to the "Isthmus Lodge", which, however, did not convene and the charter was 
surrendered, and as Panama was then a state under the constitution of the United 
States of Colombia, with Masonic jurisdiction duly organized under the auspices of 
the Supreme Council of the A. S. R., embracing the three fundamental degrees since 
1833, and therefore competent to grant charters to lodges, this lodge (Isthmus Lodge) 
received a charter from the Supreme Council of Colombia, and we are informed that 
it continued to work until 1880, when it surrendered its charter. When the French 
undertook the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Canal the following lodges were 
established: Fidelity, Le Travail, La Estrella del Pacifico. 


These, however, became defunct with the closing of the work of the canal, and as 
most of their members were foreigners - the natives taking very little part - no efforts 
were made to maintain them. In February 1898 the Grand Lodge of Scotland granted 
a charter for the establishment of Sojourners' Lodge, No. 874, in the city of Colon, 
which was formed for the most part by English-speaking members. This lodge, after a 
long period of good Masonic work, surrendered its charter in 1913 and secured a 
charter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, retaining, however, the name of 
Sojourners, and, as the construction of the Panama Canal by the United States of 
America was at its height, this lodge was mostly composed of American citizens. It is 
worthy of note that when the charter was granted by the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts the Sojourners' Lodge was located at Cristobal, in the Canal Zone, 
Panama being a republic since the 3rd of November, 1903. 


As stated above, Panama, which formed part of the United States of Colombia, 
severed its political relations with that Government, declaring its independence on the 
3rd of November, 1903, thus establishing the Republic of Panama, which under the 
Constitution of Feb. 15, 1904, became a free and independent nation. Her 
independence was recognized by the United States of America, and by a treaty the 
United States of America was granted a strip of land for the construction of the 
Panama Canal. This treaty was approved by both governments - Panama and the 
United States of America - and was signed at Washington, D. C., on the 18th day of 
November, 1903. 



The Republic of Panama was then regarded as open Masonic ground, as the Supreme 
Council of Colombia (seat at Cartagena) did not have any lodge in the Republic of 
Panama, Sojourners' Lodge, No. 874, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of 
Scotland, being the only Masonic body alive. 


THE FIRST LODGE WAS ESTABLISHED 


The first lodge established under the flag of the Republic of Panama was "Rosa de 
America Lodge, No. 65", with a charter from the Grand Lodge of Venezuela, Caracas 
being the seat of that Grand Lodge. This lodge was established on the 27th of 
February, 1907, and there began a new and brilliant era for Freemasonry in the 
Isthmus of Panama, as very many of the Panamaians, many of whom were of the best 
social standing and holding good positions in the Government and other branches of 
public life, were received into the Order. Later on in 1910 the Supreme Council of 
Colombia (seat at Cartagena) issued a charter to "Acacia Lodge, No. 50." Both these 
lodges worked for the good and welfare of the Order, although there was at that time 
some rivalry between them as to the right of jurisdiction for the Republic of Panama, 
this rivalry, however, being more between the two Grand bodies than between the 
lodges themselves. "Acacia Lodge" was afterwards closed down by mutual consent of 
its members and another charter was issued by the Supreme Council of Colombia 
(seat of Cartagena) for the establishment of the "Cosmopolita Lodge, No. 55." 


Ten years after the secession of Panama from Colombia, Masonry had developed 
considerably, as by that time other lodges were established besides the two already 
mentioned. The Order having attained the standard of stability so long desired by the 
Panamaians, and as the membership of the “Rosa de America Lodge" was so large, 
they were able to establish others directly from among their own members. The 
lodges so established were "Pro Mundi Benefico, Restauracion, Orion, Jos. B. 
Alvizna, and Aurora do Istmo. 


An attempt was made in 1913 to form a Gram! Lodge, and on Oct. 14 of that year all 
the lodges (with the exception of "Cosmopolita," which insisted in paying obedience 
to the Supreme Council of Colombia (seat at Cartagena), decided to establish a Grant 



Lodge in the Republic of Panama. This Grand Lodge, however, was only recognized 
by a few Grand bodies of South America, viz.: Venezuela, Guatemala and Dominican 
Republic. It was also accepted as a member of the International Masonic Association, 
with seat at Neuchatel, Switzerland. During its existence this Grand Lodge issued a 
charter to a new lodge composed of English-speaking Masons in the city of Panama, 
named "Unity, No. 7," as the lodges under its jurisdiction were numbered anew, the 
old ones losing their old numbers. 


It was not until April 19, 1916, that Panama realized the importance of Freemasonry, 
when the leading Masons of the republic had acquired the necessary knowledge to 
organize a Grand Lodge in accordance with Masonic Jurisprudence. All the Masons 
and lodges officially got together (at this time "Cosmopolita Lodge" united with the 
move) and the representative; of each and every lodge in the city of Panama (there 
being no lodges at any other point) met with the consent of the Grand Lodge of 
Venezuela and the Supreme Council of Colombia, which gave these lodges full 
powers and founded the Grand Lodge of Panama and began to prepare a constitution. 
This task was placed in the hands of a committee which, after a short time, presented 
a constitution to the members of the Grand Lodge which was considered by that body 
and passed in its first and second readings, and was signed on the 1 6th of August, 
1916. Election of Grand officers then followed. 


A special communication of the Grand Lodge was called for the 12th of October for 
the installation of the new Grand officers, which was done amidst the greatest 
enthusiasm among the Masons, and they immediately proceeded with the work of 
preparing the by-laws. 


The first temporary Grand Master of the Grand Lodge was M. W. Enrique Vallarino, 
from April to October, 1916. This is for the reason that the Grand Master elected to 
serve for the term ending March 8, 1917, was M. W. Guillermo Andreve, who was 
installed as stated above in October 1916. The Grand Lodge of Panama, thus 
organized, was welcomed by Masonry in general, and particularly by the M. W. 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This Grand Lodge had granted a charter to 
Sojourners' Lodge. 



BROTHER MELVIN M. JOHNSON AN ENVOY 


M. W. Melvin Maynard Johnson, Past Grand Master and Special Envoy to Isthmian 
Masonry, during a visit to the Isthmus, signed a treaty of Recognition and Jurisdiction 
- ad referendum - with Grand Master Andreve, whereby the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts recognized the Grand Lodge of Panama as a sovereign regular and true 
Grand Lodge, and the Grand Lodge of Panama in its turn waived jurisdiction over the 
Canal Zone in favor of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This treaty was ratified 
and signed in the city of Panama June 24, 1917. M. W. Rafael Neira, Grand Master of 
the Grand Lodge of Panama, and R. W. Herbert C. White, District Grand Master of 
the Canal Zone, officiated at this ceremony. M. W. Melvin Maynard Johnson had 
installed a District Grand Lodge during his previous visit. 


A great internal reorganization took place. Some lodges became defunct and their 
members affiliated themselves with others, and in some instances charters were 
granted to new lodges. 


At present there are the following lodges established in the city of Panama (Pacific 
side of the canal): 


"Rosa de America, No. 1." 
"Cosmopolita, No. 2." 

"Pro Mundi Beneficio, No. 3." 
"Pacific, No. 5." 


In the city of Colon (Atlantic side of the canal): 



"Atlantida, No. 6." 
"Union, No. 7." 


According to official data there were about 500 Masons on the rolls, but, 
unfortunately, some who neglected their duties fell into irregularity and were dropped 
therefrom. Quite a large proportion of the remainder have attained to a high standard 
of efficiency and have continued to work for the good and welfare of the Order. There 
are now about 300 brothers who toil for the welfare of the Craft. 


The Grand Lodge of Panama is now a well-organized institution, demanding strict 
obedience to the ancient landmarks and utilizing its utmost endeavor to lay up for 
itself a bright future, in spite of its struggles against prejudice, fanaticism, jealousy 
and ignorance. 


Since the organization of the Grand Lodge of Panama it has been the ideal of every 
Mason to build a Masonic Temple in the city of Panama - a home for the Grand 
Lodge of Panama and a place where brethren from all parts of the world may feel sure 
of a truly fraternal reception. Last year the Grand Lodge acquired a plot of land with 
an area of 1392 square metros located in a conspicuous spot facing the Pacific Ocean, 
where all incoming and outgoing vessels through the canal will be able to see the 
Square and Compasses. 


Shortly after the formation of the Grand Lodge the subordinate lodges worked their 
degrees with different authorized rituals; those that had originally taken their charter 
from Venezuela used the so-called Scottish Rite Ritual taken from Cassard; whilst the 
lodge that had its charter from Colombia worked under the same ritual taken from 
Almeida. 


A UNIFORM RITUAL IS ADOPTED 



The Grand Lodge of Panama recognized that this was not a desirable situation, and in 
1920 - M.W. Jose Maria Fernandez being then Grand Master - the Grand Lodge of 
Panama passed a law whereby it adopted the ritual authorized by the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts, and this was translated into Spanish and is now being used by the 
lodges in which Spanish is spoken on the Isthmus. 


There are two lodges composed of English-speaking members - Pacific, No. 5, and 
Union, No. 7 - which, on receipt of their charter, were granted dispensation to work in 
the Ancient Y ork Ritual authorized by the Grand Lodge of England. 


The first Grand Secretary was Brother Jose Oiler, who served for three years 
consecutively, carrying out his arduous task with great success. He was succeeded by 
Brother Jesurun, who has been reselected for four years consecutively. The Masonic 
period 1923 to 1924 will complete his fifth year of efficient service for the welfare of 
the Craft. 


The following Grand Masters have been elected since the organization of the Grand 
Lodge: 


1916- 17 

1917- 18 

1918- 19 

1919- 20 

1920- 21 

1921- 22 

1922- 23 

1923- 24 


M. W. Guillermo Andreve. 
M. W. Guillermo Andreve. 
M. W. Rafael Neira 
M. W. Jose Maria Fernandez. 
M. W. Guillermo Andreve. 
M. W. A. D. H. Melhado. 

M. W. A. D. H. Melhado. 

M. W. Jose Oiler. 



It is pleasing to the Grand Lodge of Panama to report that its relations with other 
Grand Lodges have been most cordial, and up to the present it has been recognized by 
the following Grand Lodges: 


Alabama, Arkansas, Colombia (Barranquilla), Colombia (Cartagena), Colorado, 
Connecticut, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Philippine, Francia, Guatemala, Indiana, Iowa, 
Ireland, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, 
Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, 
Pennsylvania, Peru, Puerto Rico, Salvador, South Dakota, Venezuela, Vermont, 
Ecuador. 


In conclusion, the above account gives, although very briefly, a history of 
Freemasonry in Panama - a strip of land which has united and will continue to unite 
the Americans with a fraternal tie, and which, kissed by the two oceans by means of 
the canal, has contributed most generously that humanity may benefit from the fruits 
of a more intense commercial intercourse than hitherto. 


May these lines based as they are on facts serve as an appropriate means whereby our 
Masonic brethren in other lands be well informed of our organization, our labors, our 
ideals and our objects; and that those jurisdictions which, for any reason whatever, 
have been reticent in extending us the fraternal hand of Masonic recognition, be 
disposed so to do to our mutual benefit and the glory of our most ancient Order. 


— o — 


Great Men Who Were Masons 


Edmund Burke 



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


ON Oct. 12, 1922, only a year ago, a bronze statue of Edmund Burke, erected at the 
expense of the Sulgrave Institute, an English organization with a branch in this 
country, was set up in Washington, D.C. We know Burke as one of the mightiest of 
British statesmen, as one of the world's master orators, and as the best friend our 
Colonial forefathers had in the British Parliament when they fought for independence, 
but we do not know as well as we should that Burke was also a Freemason, as were 
also many of his celebrated friends or contemporaries, among them being Alexander 
Pope, Jonathan Swift, Richard Savage, James Boswell, David Garrick, Sir William 
Forbes, etc. (See THE BUILDER, July, 1923, p. 207.) Burke was a member of 
Jerusalem Lodge, No. 44, Clerkenwell, London. 


He was born in Dublin 1729 and died in England July 8, 1797, being buried in the 
little church at Beaconsfield at his own request, though there was a general demand 
that he be entombed in Westminster. His father was a Protestant attorney, his mother 
a Roman Catholic, Edmund and his two brothers following the father in matters of 
faith. Burke entered a school at Ballitore, then went up to Trinity College, Dublin, 
where Oliver Goldsmith was a classmate, and where, without winning any great glory 
in scholarship, he took his degree in 1748. In 1750 he went over to London to enter 
the Temple as a law student, but soon, like so many other youths of similar 
temperament, conceived so violent a distaste for that profession that he abandoned it, 
whereupon his father withdrew his allowance, for he refused to support his son in the 
vagrant pursuit of literature which then became the young man's ambition. 


EARLY DIFFICULTIES 


The young Burke fell upon a season of difficulties. "I was not swaddled and rocked 
and candled into a legislator," he wrote in later life, for once breaking his custom of 
silence concerning those early years; "Nitor in adversum is the motto for a man like 
me. At every step of my progress in life (for in every step I was traversed and 



opposed) and at every turnpike I met I was obliged to show my passport. Otherwise 
no rank, no toleration even, for me." 


But he had a passport to show. In 1756 he made his mark by a brilliant satire on 
Bolingbroke in A Vindication of Natural Society, and then immediately repeated his 
success by publishing what is now considered an English classic, Philosophical 
Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful. 


We are here more interested in him as the friend of the American Colonists. We 
admire a man with the courage of his convictions, who dares to do right in spite of his 
peers and not because of them. A decade ago we should have been censured for 
saying that it was George III and his royal court and not the British people who made 
war on the Colonists, or for reminding a reader how English we were in the days 
when the first census taken (1790) showed 72 per cent of the population of English 
birth or extraction, as against 5.8 per cent Scotch, and only .35 per cent Irish. The 
Revolutionary War was so unpopular in England that George! Ill was obliged to go to 
Hesse Dermstadt for soldiers. Frederick the Great, a Mason, and supposed to have 
been one of the founders of the Scottish Rite, stopped those enlistments, and later sent 
a sword to General George Washington, a fellow Mason, along with a beautiful 
message. 


HE BECOMES AGENT FOR NEW YORK 


Burke was for a short time agent for New York at a salary of 700 pounds. In 1774 he 
boldly and publicly sided with the cause of the American Colonies. His great speech 
on American taxation, delivered April 9, 1774, was a brilliant feat, still read and 
admired. His support of the rebelling Colonists made him unpopular with his 
constituents, but he proved himself invincible. 


One of the great events in Burke's career was the publication of his Reflections on the 
Revolution in France, which so electrified London, November, 1790. "Its vogue was 
instant and enormous," writes John Morley. "Eleven editions were exhausted in little 



more than a year, and there is probably not much exaggeration in the estimate that 
30,000 copies were sold before Burke's death seven years afterwards. George III was 
extravagantly delighted; Stanislaus of Poland sent Burke words of thanks and high 
glorification and a gold medal. Catharine of Russia, the friend of Voltaire and the 
benefactress of Diderot, sent her congratulations to the man who denounced French 
philosophers as miscreants and wretches." 


It is remarkable that so many active spirits in the French Revolution and in our own 
were Masons - Burke, Frederick the Great, Heli Dumont, Voltaire, Franklin, 
Lafayette, Washington, John Paul Jones, Napoleon. The beautiful memorial depicted 
in the frontispiece is in a triangular lot between Massachusetts avenue, L street and 
1 1th street, and faces the east, as is proper that it should. 


— o — 


Chapters of Masonic History 


By Bro. H.L. HAYWOOD, Editor THE BUILDER 


PART VI. FREEMASONRY AND THE COMACINE MASTERS 


In a chapter on the Roman Collegia published last June I referred briefly to the 
Comacine builder guilds as forming a bridge between the ancient classical culture of 
Rome and the medieval civilization which grew up after the barbarian invasions had 
ceased, leaving Europe in a state of more or less quiet. It is now in order to proceed 
farther into that subject, for it is one that will pay careful examination, especially 
since so much is being written about it these days pro and con. One friend and 
brother, who has a name among Masonic scholars, exclaimed in a recent letter, "I 
have grown weary of hearing about those blessed Comacines, and how Freemasonry 
sprang out of their loins, and how they kept the light burning in the Middle Ages. 



The truth is we know nothing about them." I could not agree with this colleague 
because he is undoubtedly wrong in saying that we know nothing about the Comacine 
masters - we know a great deal - but I could understand why he should be so 
impatient of those enthusiasts who have been claiming far more for the Comacines 
than the facts warrant. It will not be our purpose here to attempt to settle the problem 
one way or another; a setting forth of such facts as are known, with a brief sketch of 
the theory concerning their bearing on the history of Freemasonry, will satisfy our 
present needs. 


The Comacine theory was first brought to the attention of the English-speaking 
Masonic world by a woman, Mrs. Lucy Baxter, who, writing over the penname of 
"Leader Scott", published in 1899 a remarkable volume entitled The Cathedral 
Builders; The Story of a Great Masonic Guild, with eighty-three illustrations, issued 
by Simpson Low, Marston and Company, London. The book is now unfortunately 
out of print, and growing more scarce all the while, with a rapidly mounting price. 
This work of 435 pages was followed in 1910 by a kind of codicil, in the shape of a 
small volume of eighty pages, by our faithful and beloved friend, Brother W. 
Ravenscroft, called The Comacines, Their Predecessors and Their Successors, 
afterwards published as a serial in THE BUILDER, along with many illustrations, and 
then reissued in book form. Except for scattered references in histories and 
encyclopedias these two books comprise the sole literary sources for English- 
speaking Masons, but there is quite an abundant literature on the subject in Italian, 
some of which should be translated and published in America. 


I. HISTORY OF THE COMACINES 


As we have already seen, the arts and crafts of the Roman Empire were rigidly 
organized into guilds, or collegia, each of which had in monopolistic control some 
one business, profession or handicraft. These were destroyed by the barbarians along 
with the towns and communities in which they were located, but a few of them, at 
Constantinople and in Rome particularly, survived the holocaust. It is believed that a 
collegium, or a few collegia, of architects and their workmen continued in the diocese 
of Como, situated in the Lombard kingdom of Northern Italy, on and about the lovely 
Lake Como, which included the districts of Mendrisio, Lugano, Bellinzona and 
Magadino. Why they remained there is a mystery, but it is believed that the presence 



of large stone quarries in that region was one reason, and that the strength and 
relatively high development of the Lombardic state was another. This region, many 
suppose, remained their seat and center for centuries; hence, their name, "Comacini." 


"The expression 'magistri Comacine'," writes Rivoira in his magnificent Lombardic 
Architecture (Vol. 1, p. 108), "appears for the first time in the code of the Lombard 
king, Rotharis (636-652), where, in the laws numbered CXLIII and CXLV, they 
figure as Master Masons with full and unlimited powers to make contracts and 
subcontracts for building works; to have their collegantes or 'colleagues' partners, 
members of the guild or fraternity, call them what you will - and lastly, their serfs 
(servi) or workmen and labourers." Rivoira says that in the region of Como guilds, or 
collegia, had never come to an end, and that many stone, marble and timber yards 
existed there to attract such workmen. 


In his History of Italian Architecture Ricci states that the Comacine guilds were made 
free and independent of medieval restraints and set at liberty to travel about at will, 
but that statement has received no confirmation in Papal Bulls, the Acts of the 
Carolingian Kings, or in any of the authentic annalists, though search has often been 
made, and was made at Rome long before there existed any prejudice against 
Freemasonry in that quarter. The Comacines extended their influence and activities 
in the same way as other guilds, by invitation and contract, and by organization of 
lodges in new towns. 


When St. Boniface went to Germany as a missionary, Pope Gregory II gave "him 
credentials, instructions, etc., and sent with him a large following of monks, versed in 
the art of building, and of lay brethren who were also architects, to assist them." 
Italian chroniclers say that when the monk Augustine was sent in A.D. 598 as a 
missionary to convert the British, Pope Gregory sent along several Masons with him, 
and that Augustine later on sent back for more men capable of building churches, 
oratories and monasteries. Leader Scott believes that in both these instances the 
workmen sent were Comacine masters and bases her contention on the evidence of 
building methods and styles employed. Similarly, she traces the Comacines into 
Sicily, Normandy, and into all the large centers of Southern, Italy, in this way 
explaining how, by a gradual circling outward, the Comacine fraternity of builders 
came at last to work in nearly all parts of Europe and Britain. 



On page 159 of her book Leader Scott gives a valuable summary of the history of the 
Comacines, basing it largely, one may suppose, on Merzario's I Maestri Comacini, 
Vol I, a treatise that should by all means be translated and published in this country. 


"Let us restate the argument briefly- 


" 1 . When Italy was overrun by the barbarians, Roman Collegia were everywhere 
suppressed. 


"2. The architectural college of Rome is said to have removed from that city to the 
republic of Comum. 


"3. In early medieval times, one of the most important Masonic guilds in Europe was 
the Society of Comacine masters, which in its constitution, methods and work was 
essentially Roman, and seems to have been the survival of this Roman college. 


"4. Italian chroniclists assert that architects and masons accompanied Augustine to 
land, and later Italian continental writers of repute adopted that view. 


"5. Whether this is proved or not, it was customary for missionaries to take in their 
train persons experienced in building, and if Augustine did not do go, his practice was 
an exception to what seems to have been a general rule. Besides, a band of forty 
monks would have been useless to him unless some of them could follow a secular 
calling useful to the mission, for they were unacquainted with the British language 
and could not act independently. 



"6. Masonic monks were not uncommon, and there were such monks associated with 
the Comacine body; so that qualified architects were easily found in the ranks of the 
religious orders. 


"7. From Bede's account of the settlement of Augustine's mission in Britain, it seems 
clear that he must have brought Masonic architects with him. 


"8. Gregory would be likely to choose architects for the mission from the Comacine 
Order, which held the old Roman traditions of building, rather than those of a 
Byzantine guild, and the record of their work in Britain proves that he did. 


"9. In Saxon as in the earlier Comacine carvings there are frequent representations of 
fabulous monsters, symbolical birds and beasts, the subjects of some of these carvings 
being suggested, apparently, by the Physiologists, which had a Latin origin. 


"10. In the writings of the Venerable Bede and Richard, Prior of Hagustald, we meet 
with phrases and words which are in the Edict of King Rotharis of 643, and in the 
Memoratorio of 713 of King Luitprand, which show that these writers were familiar 
with certain terms of art used by the Comacine masters." 


If this account be true it is of inestimable importance to us as giving an explanation of 
how the arts of civilization, long supposed to have become extinct during the Dark 
Ages, were never extinct at all but were continued in preservation by the workmen 
and artists in the Comacine guilds. Those men were more than builders, for they 
were skilled in many other crafts beside, and understood sculpture, painting, Cosmati 
work or mosaic, wood work and carving, and also, it may well be, literature and 
music, along with many other accomplishments belonging; to the civil arts. Like one 
ship crossing a stormy sea into which all its sister vessels had sunk, the organization 
of the Comacine masters preserved the ark of civilization until such time as the 
hurricane cleared from Europe and the seething barbarian tribes themselves became 
ready for peace and communal life. If there is any unbroken continuity in the history 
of architecture, if builder guilds of a more modem period can trace any of their arts, 



traditions and customs back to ancient times, it is through the Comacines that the 
chain was kept unbroken in the Dark Ages. 


It must not be supposed that all this has as yet been solidly established; the Comacine 
Theory continues to be a theory. Rivoira, who is always so careful, is cautious 
against accepting too much. He says that we know little about their manner of 
organization, or about the terms connected with them, schola, loggia, etc. But even so 
he attributes to them great histories importance, not only as serving as a link with the 
ancient collegia, but also as paving the way for the magnificent renaissance of art and 
civilization which as seen in our first chapter in this series, burst into flower in Gothic 
architecture. His following words bear witness to that. 


"Whatever may have been the organization of the Comacine or Lombard guilds, and 
however these may have been affected by outward events, they did not cease to exist 
in consequence by of the fall of the Lombard kingdom. With the first breath of 
municipal freedom, and with the rise of the new brotherhoods of artisans, they, too, 
perhaps, may have reformed themselves like the latter who were nothing but the 
continuation of the 'collegium' of Roman times preserving its existence through the 
barbarian ages, and transformed little by little into the medieval corporation. The 
members may have found themselves constrained to enter into a more perfect unity of 
thought and sentiment, to bind themselves into a more compact body, and thus put 
themselves in a condition to maintain their ancient supremacy in carrying out the 
most important building works in Italy. But we cannot say anything more. And even 
putting aside all tradition, the monuments themselves are there to confirm what we 
have said." 


Merzario, not quite as cautious as Rivoira, bears witness in the same manner: 


"In this darkness which extended over all Italy, only one small lamp remained alight, 
making a bright spark in the vast Italian necropolis. It was from the Magistri 
Comacini. Their respective names are unknown, their individual works unspecialized, 
but 



the breath of their spirit might be felt all through those centuries, and their name 
collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art between A.D. 
800 and 1000, the greater and better part are due to that brotherhood - always faithful 
and often secret - of the Magistri Comacini. The authority and judgment of learned 
men justify the assertion." 


Signor Agostino Segredio is similarly convinced, and so expresses himself in a 
passage quoted on page 56 of Ravenscroffs The Comacines: 


"While we are speaking of the Masonic Companies and their jealous secrecy we must 
not forget the most grand and potent guild of the Middle Ages, that of the 
Freemasons; originating most probably from the builders of Como (Magistri 
Comacini). it spread beyond the Alps. Popes gave them their benediction, monarchs 
protected them, and the most powerful thought it an honour to be inscribed in their 
ranks. They with the utmost jealousy practised all the arts connected with building, 
and by severe laws and penalties (perhaps also with bloodshed) prohibited others 
from the practice of building important edifices. Long and hard were the initiations to 
aspirants, and mysterious were the meetings and the teaching, and to enable 
themselves they dated their origin from Solomon's Temple." 


And so also Leader Scott, who Sums up the matter in a sentence: 


"Thus, though there is no certain proof that the Comacines were the veritable stock 
from which the pseudo-Freemasonry of the present day sprang, we may at least admit 
that they were a link between the classis Collegia and all other art and trade guilds of 
the Middle Ages." 


Brother Joseph Fort Newton accepts this interpretation in The Builder's, where, on 
page 86, he writes: 



"With the breaking up of the College of Architects and their expulsion from Rome, 
we come upon a period in which it is hard to follow their path. Happily the task has 
been made less baffling by recent research, and if we are unable to trace them all the 
way much light has been let into the darkness. Hitherto there has been a hiatus also in 
the history of architecture between the classic art of Rome, which is said to have died 
when the empire fell to pieces, and the rise of Gothic art. Just so, in the story the 
builders one finds a gap of like length, between the Collegia of Rome and the 
cathedral artists. While the gap cannot, as yet be perfectly bridged, much has been 
done to that end by Leader Scott in The Cathedral Builders; The Story of a Great 
Masonic Guild - a book itself a work of art as well as of fine scholarship. Her thesis 
is that the missing link is to be found in the Magistri Comacini, a guild of architects 
who, on the break-up of the Roman Empire, fled to Comacina, a fortified island in 
Lake Como, and there kept alive the traditions of classic art during the Dark Ages; 
that from them were developed in direct descent the various styles of Italian 
architecture; and that, finally, they carried the knowledge and practice of architecture 
and sculpture into France, Spain, Germany and England. Such a thesis is difficult, 
and from its nature not susceptible of absolute proof, but the writer makes it as certain 
as anything can well be." 


On the other side are authorities who deny the existence of any such fraternity as the 
Comacines, or else give them a minor place in the history of medieval architecture. 
R.F. Gould, in the original edition of his Conche History, page 105, speaks his mind 
clearly: 


"At the present day the idea of there having been, in the early part of the thirteenth 
century, Colleges of Masons in every country of Europe, which received the blessing 
of the Holy See, under an injunction of dedicating their skill to the erection of 
ecclesiastical buildings, may be dismissed chimerical. Though 

I must not forget that, according to the well-known and highly imaginative Historical 
Essay on Architecture (1835) of Mr. Hope - who greatly expands the meaning of two 
passages in the works of Muratori - a body of traveling architects, who wandered over 
Europe during the Middle Ages, received the appellation of Magistri Comacini, or 
Masters of Como, a title which became generic to all those of the profession. The idea 
has been revived by a recent writer, who believes that these Magistri Comacini were a 
survival of the Roman Collegia, that they settled in Como and were afterwards 
employed by the Lombard kings, under whose patronage they developed a powerful 



and highly organized guild, with a dominant influence on the whole architecture of 
the Middle Ages (The Cathedral Builders). But, even if such a theory had any 
probability, it would be far from clearing up certain obscurities in the history of 
medieval architecture, as the author suggests would be the case. Interchanges of 
influence were not uncommon, but the works of local schools present far too marked 
an individuality to render it possible that they could owe much (if anything) to the 
influence of any central guild." 


On page 175 of the same work Gould refers to George Edmund Street as saying that 
such a theory as that of the Comacines "seems to me to be altogether erroneous"; 
Wyatt Pap worth as saying that "I believe they never existed"; and on the preceding 
pages prints a long excerpt from Dr. Milman to the same effect. 


It appears to me that this opposition is a reaction to an exaggeration of the Comacine 
argument. Leader Scott does not claim for them that they themselves laid out 
European civilization, or founded Gothic architecture (as Dr. Newton appears to do, 
and which is most certainly an error), or that the founding of all the medieval 
architectural styles was their work; she holds merely that in and around Lake Como 
there long existed a guild of architects, and to this guild traced many influences; their 
influence in various lands she suggests by way of cautious tentative theories, and 
never wearies of warning her reader that she is feeling her way through the dark; and 
she believes that the history of this Comacine guild may be traced back to very 
ancient days, and may be very probably linked on to the history of the Roman 
collegia. 


II. THE COMACINES AND FREEMASONRY 


We Masons have long ceased to be moved by the vulgar desire to claim for our 
Fraternity an impossible antiquity, as if it had been organized by Adam in the Garden 
of Eden, or was, as one old worthy expressed it, diffused through space before God 
created the world. Freemasonry is old enough as it is, and honourable enough, not to 
require that we embellish it by a fabulous lineage. We know that it came into 
existence gradually, like everything else in our human world, here a little and there a 



little, and that it was no more miraculous in the past than it is now. At the same time 
we are interested to observe the rise and prosperity of organizations similar to it, or 
prophetic of it, wherever or whenever they may have come into existence. The use of 
cooperation and of fraternity, the employment of the device of secrecy and loyalty to 
aims above the present moment, the contemplation of such endeavors by our striving 
fellow men, toiling in the dim twilights of life, is always an inspiration, and helps to 
set aglow the ideals of our own Masonry hidden away in the recesses of our souls. It 
is from such a point of view, I believe, that we should look upon the story of the 
Comacines; I have not been able to persuade myself that they were in any accurate 
use of the word Freemasons, or that our own Fraternity has had any but the most 
tenuous and general historic connections with the lodges of those old masters. The 
story of our Craft is intertwined with the history of architecture, so that any new light 
on the latter helps us the better to understand the evolution of the former; in this 
sense, and in the sense defined just above, the story of the Comacines is of value to 
us, but not as comprising a chapter in the known veridical history of Masonry. The 
Comacine guild was in many respects similar to the Masonic guilds that came after, 
and which served as the roots from which Symbolical Masonry ultimately developed, 
but to see in the Comacine guild the immediate parent of the Masonic guild is not 
possible, it seems to me, unless we are to trust too much to imagination or are willing 
to stretch the word "Freemasonry" to mean more than it should. My own theory, 
which will be elaborated step by step as these chapters proceed, is that Freemasonry 
strictly so-called originated in England and in England only that it had its gradual rise 
among the guilds that grew up with Gothic architecture; that a germ of moralism, 
religion and ceremonialism in those guilds, chancing to find itself in a favouring 
environment, out-grew the operative element until in the seventeenth century lodges 
began to become wholly speculative; that in this time of transition new elements were 
introduced from certain occult sources; and that this evolution culminated at last in 
1717 with the founding of the Mother Grand Lodge at London, from which all 
modern Freemasonry has been subsequently derived. I have not been able to satisfy 
myself, though I have had the will to try, that our Masonry was given to us by the 
Comacine masters. 


Leader Scott herself, whose knowledge of Freemasonry was even less than her 
opinion of it, was very careful not to confuse the Freemasonry of today with what she 
rather loosely (too loosely, one may think) calls the "Freemasonry" of the Comacine 
guild. The passage in which she expresses herself is almost always quoted only in 
part; I shall give it in full, not only as showing her own theory of the historical 
connections between the two, but also as revealing her unfortunate lack of knowledge 
of Masonry as it exists today. The passage quoted begins on page 1 6 of her book: 



"Since I began writing this chapter a curious chance has brought into my hands an old 
Italian book on the institutions, rites and ceremonies of the Order of Freemasons. Of 
course the anonymous writer begins with Adoniram, the architect of Solomon's 
Temple, who had so very many workmen to pay that, not being able to distinguish 
them by name, he divided them into three different classes, novices, operatori and 
magistri, and to; each class gave a secret set of signs and passwords, so that from 
these their fees could be easily fixed and imposture avoided. It is interesting to know 
that precisely the same divisions and classes existed in the Roman Collegium and the 
Comacine Guild - and that, as in Solomon's time, the great symbols of the order were 
the endless knot or Solomon's knot, and the 'Lion of Judah.' 


"Our author goes on to tell of the second revival of Freemasonry, in its present 
entirely spiritual significance, and he gives Oliver Cromwell, of all people, the credit 
of this revival! The rites and ceremonies he describes are the greatest tissue of 
medieval superstition, child's play, blood-curdling oaths and mysterious secrecy with 
nothing to conceal that can be imagined. All the signs of Masonry without a figment 
of reality; every moral thing masquerades under an architectural aspect, and that 
'Temple made without hands' which is figured by a Freemason's lodge in these days. 
But the significant point is that all these names and Masonic emblems point to 
something real which existed at some long-past time, and, as far as regards the 
organization and nomenclature, we find the whole thing in its vital and actual 
working form in the Comacine guild. Our nameless Italian who reveals all the 
Masonic secrets, tells us that every lodge has three divisions, one for the novices, one 
for the operatori or working brethren, and one for the masters. Now wherever we find 
the Comacines at work we find the threefold organization of schola or school for the 
novices, laborerium for the operatori, and the Opera or Fabbrica for the Masters of 
Administration. 


"The anonymous one tells us that there is a Gran Maestro or Arch-magister at the 
head of the whole order, a Capo Maestro or chief master at the head of each lodge. 
Every lodge must besides be provided with two or four Soprastanti, a treasurer and a 
secretary-general, besides accountants. This is precisely what we find in the 
organization of the Comacine lodges. As we follow them through the centuries we 
shall see it appearing in city after city, at first fully revealed by the books of the 
treasurers and Soprastanti themselves, in Siena, Florence and Milan. 



"Thus, though there is no certain proof that the Comacines were the veritable stock 
from which the pseudo-Masonry of the present day sprang, we may at least admit that 
they were a link between the classic Collegia and all other art and trade Guilds of the 
Middle Ages." 


The analogies between the two briefly referred to in this quoted passage, might be 
expanded. The Comacines had lodges, Grand Masters, secrets (they kept a secret 
book called L'Arcano Magistero), wore aprons, kept a chest, dispensed charity, 
possessed means of identification, and employed much symbolism of which some 
items are familiar to us, as King Solomon's knot the Lion of Judah, the two Great 
Pillars "J" and "B"; square, compasses, mosaic pavement, etc. Also there was a 
certain gradation among them, similar to our degrees, though I have failed to discover 
any evidence of an initiation. 


Brother Ravenscroft, with whom one is loathe ever to disagree and who continues his 
researches in this field, may be right in thinking that some ancient Masonic traditions, 
particularly such as had to do with Solomon's Temple, were preserved and 
transmitted to us out of antiquity by the Comacines. It is a fascinating theory to 
which future discoveries may bring more convincing proof; it would seem to me, if I 
may again express a private opinion, that two facts tell heavily against such a theory; 
one is that these traditions, most of them at least, have always been preserved in the 
Scriptures and therefore available at any time; and, what is more important, there was 
no known connection between the Comacine guild, which did its own work in Italy 
where Gothic never became established, and the guilds among which Gothic grew up. 


The whole Comacine question, so far as speculative Freemasonry is concerned, it thus 
appears, remains in the air, or, if one prefers the figure, on the knees of the gods. This 
means that there is much work remaining to be done by students of today, who will 
find themselves, if they will turn their attention to medieval architecture and its 
history, in an enchanted realm. 


References: 



Cathedral Builders, Leader Scott (Mrs. Lucy Baxter). The Comacines, W. 
Ravenscroft. A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Vol. I, A. E. Waite. A Concise 
History of Freemasonry, R.F. Gould. A Critical Inquiry Into the Condition of the 
Conventual Builders and Their Relation to Secular Guilds, George F. Fort. From 
Schola to Cathedral, G. Baldwin Brown. Lombardic Architecture: Its Origin, 
Development and Derivatives, G.T. Rivoira. History of Italian Architecture, Ricci. I 
Maestri Comacine, Prof. Merzario. Handbook of Architecture, James Fergusson. 
Historical Essay on Architecture, Thomas Hope. Sacred and Legendary Art, Mrs. 
Jameson. Renaissance of Art: Fine Arts, John Addington Symonds, A History of 
Latin Christianity, Milman, A.Q.C. V. p. 229, A.Q.C. XII, p. 124, Mackey's Revised 
History of Freemasonry, Clegg, eh. 60. Guilds of Florence, Staley. Memorials of 
German Gothic Architecture, Moller. Medieval Architecture, Porter. Ecclesiastical 
History, Ancient and Modern, J.L. Mosheim. Dictionary of Architecture, C.L. 
Stieglitz. Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Mackey, Vol. I, p. 161. A History of 
Architecture in Italy, C. A. Cummings. 


— o — 


EDITORIAL 


THE CRAFT AND ITS AUXILIARIES 


Unless all signs fail and our shrewdest prophets are astray in their vaticinations, the 
auxiliary bodies that prerequire of their membership some connection with 
Freemasonry are in for a day of reckoning, and that before long. The subject is 
coming up in one Grand Lodge after another, and in many cases action of some sort 
has already been taken, while in other quarters official warnings have been published. 
To judge by an increasing number of items in the Masonic press the rank and file of 
brethren stand pretty solidly behind their rulers though almost all of them belong to 
some one or more of the organizations whose policies are being brought into 
question. The burden of complaint appears to be that some of these social and 



semiMasonic societies are tending away from Masonic principles and in a few cases 
almost openly flout Masonic landmarks. 


It is not the purpose here to examine the pros and cons of these allegations, or to 
examine into any particular case, nor should it be inferred that there is any inclination 
to question the right of these bodies to exist. There is as yet plenty of time in which 
these cousins in the Masonic family, if they heed the warnings, and respond to the 
admonitions of their friends, may make the required readjustments or reforms, 
Meanwhile we can all get more clearly in mind a few governing principles which, in 
their scope and permanence, are axiomatic and underlie all action and discussion. 
Consider a few of them. 


The Grand Lodge of Symbolical, or Blue, Masonry, is the cornerstone of the whole 
edifice, and is clearly recognized as such in the constitution of all regular bodies. (We 
are speaking here of the Masonic system in the United States.) The Grand Lodge is 
the mother power holding in final custody all Masonic authority; it defines landmarks 
and lays down the conditions of membership in any recognized Masonic organization. 
If Grand Lodge declares a man expelled, clandestine, or irregular, he can have no 
standing in any other Masonic communion, be it Royal Arch, Council, Knight 
Templar or Scottish Rite. This is the point of departure in all Masonic jurisprudence, 
and from it follows the fact that any Grand Lodge has an unchallenged right to say 
whether a Mason may or may not belong to any given auxiliary body, for such 
relations can be made a part of membership conditions in a Blue Lodge. It is 
undoubtedly true that a Grand Lodge may err in forbidding its members to have such 
connection in some particular case, for Grand Lodges are human and not infallible, 
but its right to adopt such regulations lies beyond all cavil. 


If a Grand Lodge has the right to entrust the good name of Freemasonry into the 
keeping of any body of men, however remote it may lie from the lodge, that Grand 
Lodge, by the same token, has right to withdraw such privileges. If the Sublime Order 
of Ancient Architects, let us say, an order of men and women imagined to exist for 
social purposes, and prerequiring that the men be Masons and the women blood 
relatives of Masons, is permitted to meet in Masonic buildings, and the general public 
looks upon it as belonging to the Masonic family, it is the Grand Lodge which 
permits these privileges and it is the Grand Lodge that can withdraw them. And if in 



the eyes of that Grand Lodge membership in the Sublime Order of Ancient Architects 
becomes un-Masonic, every regular Mason can be forbidden to join or to belong, and 
that without the undue exercise of authority on the part of Grand Lodge, which has in 
its keeping the name and reputation of Masonry. 


Every auxiliary body exists by grace of Grand Lodge, and by that grace alone, though 
Grand Lodge may not have any right at all to a voice in the official councils of such a 
body; therefore that body, its members and officers, will be well advised to pay 
deferential heed to Grand Lodge. Since its very existence is by sufferance, every 
auxiliary body should consider it a point of honor not to hang back with a forced and 
grudging obedience, but should anticipate Grand Lodge's pleasure and show itself 
more than willing to conform. In the nature of the case such behavior alone is right 
and seemly, so that an auxiliary which protests and opposes is already suspect and 
deserving of discipline. 


Most of the complaints made against auxiliary bodies fall under one or the other of 
two heads: that the auxiliary permits its members conduct unbecoming a Mason, or 
that it interferes with the regular and necessary work of the lodges. There is no room 
for argument about the first count. Any Blue Lodge can discipline a member for un- 
Masonic conduct, wherever it occurs, inside another organization or outside. Neither 
can there be any argument on the second count. A Worshipful Master who permits 
the regular functions of a lodge to be interfered with by some semi-Masonic 
organization is culpable, remiss in his duties and accountable to the law of the Craft. 


Wherever an individual Mason finds himself a member in a body condemned by 
Grand Lodge, or even held suspect, he must not waver a minute as between his two 
loyalties. His first and always binding obligation is to his lodge; his duties in all 
organizations subordinate to the lodge are secondary. 


The brethren who have in hand the management of auxiliary bodies will be well 
advised if they do not wait until a storm is on them before reefing their sails. The 
name and reputation of Masonry is too precious a thing, and carries within itself too 
much power for weal or woe in this Republic to be juggled about by men who first 



care is merely to have a good time at any cost, and whose last thought is for the good 
of the Craft. Such men are as dangerous to the welfare of the auxiliary body as they 
are inimical to the lodge, and the sooner they are bridled the better for them and all 
concerned. 


* * * 


MIDWAY 


Dante began the great journey of his The Divine Comedy at the mid-point of his life. 
It is good to recall the opening sentence of "his mystic unfathomable song": 

"In the midway at this our mortal life, 

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray 
Gone from the path direct; and e'en to tell. 

It were no easy task, how savage wild 
That forest, how robust and rough its growth, 

Which to remember only, my dismay 
Renews, in bitterness not far from death." 


It was while thus pushing his way through this wilderness that he was confronted by 
the panther, which was sensualism, the lion, hunger-mad, which was ambition and 
pride, and the lean she-wolf of avarice. 



It is the midway point in life that is the hardest. The rosy-fingered dawn has vanished, 
the starlit evening lies far ahead, one walks under the prosy gray sky of day. The 
generous forces and sanguine expectations of youth are cooled, and many of its finest 
ideals have gone, lost in the ruck in the workaday world, so that the objects along 
one's path seem harsh and hard, as if life itself were made of iron. It is then that a man 
sweats under his burdens and asks himself bitter questions. It is the period when 
family cares and family demands are at their maximum, when there is the greatest 
danger of business or professional failure. "Last year I lost my mother," wrote a 
friend a few weeks back, "and then in January my older son followed her. Now my 
wife is afflicted so that I have grave fears for her. As if all this were not enough I am 
nearly worried gray trying to pull my business out of the hole it fell into as a result of 
the war." It is midway at this our mortal life that one enters the Inferno: Paradiso lies 
far beyond, if at all. 


It is because one's nature is then under its maximum strain that character sometimes 
suffers. In one of his letters Huxley refers to "senile morality," as if he found his own 
principles in danger from wear and tear. Under Seneca's tutelage Nero was not a bad 
youth; it was in after years that he fell a prey to the lion, the panther and the she-wolf. 
The young Alexander was the pride of the land; it was in the middle years that he 
murdered Parmenio and Clitus. "Both by what they gain and by what they lose, men 
in later life find themselves far more dangerously placed than in earlier years. They 
are, for one thing, freer from restraint. They are no longer subordinates, but lords of 
themselves. Their old guides and teachers have disappeared. In many instances, and 
notoriously today, beliefs which once exercised a restraining influence have lost their 
power. Idols have been shattered. Ideals which shone once as with light from heaven 
are gone. The 'vision splendid' has faded 'into the light of common day.’ They have 
been behind the scenes to discover that effects which imposed on their youth as 
something angelic and celestial are an affair of stage carpentry and the big brush. Age 
is thus with multitudes the time of disillusionment, in itself the most perilous of 
mental states." 


The midway is the Fellowcraft period of life, when the soul passes through the ordeal 
of its Second Degree. In an old tradition of Solomon's building of the Temple it says, 
"he set three-score and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burden, and four-score 
thousand to be hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred 
overseers to set the people at work." When one finds himself among eighty thousand 



Fellowcrafts, a bearer of burdens or a hewer in the mountains, it is little wonder if he 
despairs of his old hopes, his old ideals. 


Nevertheless, it is then if ever that a man becomes a man, worthy in the eyes of God 
to be entrusted with responsibilities, for, as the beautiful lesson of our Fellowcraft 
Degree has it, there is a Middle Chamber to be entered after one has climbed the 
wearisome winding stairs. The wages are not what one expected in youth, but they are 
better, if one has been a faithful workman; courage, endurance, fidelity, patience, 
these are the rewards in which, after they are once gained, a man finds more 
happiness than in wreaths or garlands. It is when the dust is in one's nostrils, when the 
flinty rock cuts through one's shoes and the sun is hot on the sweating back, that life 
is most worthy living. It is then "that the high gods come to the making of man." 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


A Study in Clandestine Masonry 

An Accurate History of the Thomson Masonic Fraud 


THE THOMSON MASONIC FRAUD, A STUDY IN CLANDESTINE MASONRY, 
by Isaac Blair Evans. Cloth, 268 pp. Privately printed in Salt Lake City, Utah. May be 
purchased from Sam H. Goodwin, Grand Secretary, Salt Lake City, Utah, or through 
National Masonic Research Society. Price, $2.50. 


THIS book reflects great credit upon its author not only by furnishing a complete and 
authentic account of the famous Thomson Masonic fraud, but by being, what so many 
Masonic books are not, well printed and bound, carefully organized, and written with 
scholarly restraint and accuracy. When the Masonic student ten years hence makes up 



his five-foot shelf of Masonic writings he will find this volume standard, which is 
another way of saying that it is a contribution to the permanent literature of the Craft, 
and is not a merely ephemeral essay or flyer into the thin air of private theory. Its 
substance is solid and composed of such information as will be of value to active 
Masons for decades to come, whether they be students or have their time engaged in 
carrying on the work of the lodge, and especially if they have any part in Masonic 
jurisprudence. 


Brother Evans worked from first-hand experience. "The reader is entitled to know," 
he wrote in his preface, "my own connection with Thomson's case. It chanced that I 
was United States Attorney for Utah in 1921, and I not only prepared the case (with 
the assistance of Mr. Price) for presentation to the grand jury, but also drew the 
indictment upon which Thomson, Perrot and Bergera were convicted." (Brother 
Monte G. Price, here referred to, was Post Office Inspector. It was he who took the 
first step toward bringing Thomson to trial. His services were inestimable.) Another 
page of the preface is an explanation of the method used in preparing the book. "To 
prepare this book I have carefully read the transcript of testimony in Thomson's case, 
and have studied all the exhibits introduced in evidence, as well as a mass of 
important correspondence, magazines, pamphlets and diplomas not produced at the 
trial, and much material is hereinafter presented of which the court and jury had no 
knowledge. Great pains have been taken to set down only those facts which are 
supported by competent proof, and it is believed that the number of errors has been 
reduced to a minimum. No attempt has been made to edit the many extracts taken 
from Thomson's letters, magazines and books, and from the transcript of testimony, 
but they are printed without emendation so that all readers may draw their own 
conclusions." 


Equally specific is his statement as to his purpose. "The purpose of this monograph is 
made sufficiently clear by the title page and first chapter. It is hoped that besides 
telling the story of an unusual mail fraud, it will, by contrast, make more distinct for 
the general reader, some of the common aspects of regular Masonry." 


An account of the Thomson fraud and case was written for THE BUILDER by Bro. 
C.C. Hunt, Deputy Grand Secretary of Iowa, in three installments beginning with 
October, 1922, page 299, which was so complete that there is no need here to 



summarize the story embodied in Brother Evans' book, except to say that Thomson 
and his fellow conspirators set themselves up as supreme "Masonic" authorities 
claiming for their American Masonic Federation, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, 
Utah, that it alone, in all the land, was the one real Masonic organization. On the 
strength of these claims so unblushingly made the Thomson gang sold broadcast all 
manner of "degrees," high and low, to such men as would buy, for any price that 
could be got. They had their largest success in the South, the West and the Northwest, 
but their market was limited only by the gullibility of the public and men were 
victimized on a national scale. Thomson claimed authority for himself in all the 
branches of Masonry, including the Shrine, Eastern Star and other auxiliaries, and 
was therefore able to supply any kind of "degrees" that might be called for, be the 
purchasers black or white. He once had the effrontery to pose as a spokesman for so- 
called Co-Masonry, and offered to THE BUILDER a preachment on that subject. The 
limitlessness of his audacity indicated that he had no fear of being called to time. 


But he reckoned without his host. "In the meantime, quite unknown to Thomson, a 
Grand Jury had met at Salt Lake City and had returned an indictment against him, 
Bergera, Perrot and Jamieson for conspiring to violate the United States mail fraud 
statute. Shortly before Thanksgiving Day, 1921, Thomson and Perrot were arrested at 
Salt Lake City upon warrants held by the United States Marshal.'.' (Page 149.) At the 
culmination of the trial, after every imaginable evidence had been taken on both sides, 
Judge Martin J. Wade gave sentence, after the jury found a verdict of guilty, as 
follows: 


"Stand up, gentlemen. 


"The judgment of this Court is that each one of you serve a period of two years in 
Fort Leavenworth prison and each one of you pay a fine of five thousand dollars and 
costs." 


In the eyes of the Federal Government the one point at issue in this trial was 
Thomson's fraudulent use of the mails, but to the Masonic fraternity the case had a far 
broader significance. What constitutes a lodge regular ? How are we to trace Masonic 



lineage ? When and where did Speculative Masonry originate? How is clandestinism 
to be defined ? Where do Grand Lodges and other Grand bodies get their authority? 
What is the relationship between Symbolical lodges and Scottish Rite lodges ? What 
standing has so-called Negro Masonry ? How can clandestinism be extinguished? In 
preparing his case, Bro. Evans, who expected the questions of legality to be raised, 
thoroughly canvassed all these problems so that he has been able to build into his 
book a mass of materials valuable to a reader whose interest in the Thomson trial 
itself may be slight. It is this that lifts the volume above histories of merely local or 
unimportant episodes. H.L. Haywood 


— o — 


HAVELOCK ELLIS' PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 


THE DANCE OF LIFE, by Havelock Ellis. Published by Houghton Miflin Company, 
Boston, Mass. Price, $4.00. 


THOSE whose familiarity with Havelock Ellis stops short with his great scientific 
treatise on sex do not know the man at his best; do not know him at all, in fact, 
because his Psychology of Sex is as impersonal as a machine; they should go on to 
read The Soul of Spain, The World of Dreams, The New Spirit (Ah! that rare book!), 
Affirmations, Impressions and Comments, Essays in War-Time, Philosophy of 
Conflict, Love and Virtue (I quote these titles from memory), The Task of Social 
Hygiene, and the volumes on woman. Above all they should read the newest of them 
all, The Dance of Life, in which the master distils a life-time of thought into four 
hundred pages of golden wisdom, quiet and serene. It is a book of utter detachment, 
breathed out of a great peace of mind, in which one of the most civilized men of our 
time speaks from a height above the times and free from controversy and all party 
spirit. "I have never written," he says, "but with the thought that the reader, even 
though he may not know it, is already on my side." 



The idea which lies at the core of the book, and binds all its meditations into a unity, 
is that human life is necessarily an art. Human experience can successfully organize 
itself in a thousand ways. There is no fixed and rigid system to which the universe 
compels us to conform, but always a free play of forces amid a constantly changing 
set of circumstances which demands of us constant readjustment, renewed endeavors 
and an effort to gain results and ideals that are always growing and reshaping 
themselves. This devotion of the personality to purposes of its own through a free and 
creative use of its powers in connection with a world that is also alive, this is art, and 
life consequently is an art, for this is what life is. 


"Dancing and building are the two primary and essential arts. The art of dancing 
stands at the source of all the arts that express themselves first in the human person. 
The art of building, or architecture, is the beginning of all the arts that lie outside the 
person. . . . The significance of dancing in the wide sense lies in the fact that it is 
simply an intimate concrete appeal of a general rhythm, that general rhythm which 
marks, not life only, but the universe, if one may be still allowed so to name the sum 
of the cosmic influences that reach us." All our efforts are of this nature, therefore the 
author develops his philosophy of life in the terms of the dance, and divides his book 
into chapters on The Art of Dancing, The Art of Thinking, The Art of Writing, The 
Art of Religion, and The Art of Morals. 


The present writer does not know if Mr. Ellis is a Mason or not; if not, it is to be 
regretted. He would find in our mysteries an application of his own idea already to 
hand. We interpret life in the terms of ritual, which is the dance in one of the most 
formal and sublime forms, and in the terms of building, which is art devoted to the 
world outside us. Also he would find us dedicated to the same ideal of all-inclusive 
tolerance which bestows on his volume its rare charm and its beauty. 


Here is what he has to say about the "Ancient Mysteries", with which so many of our 
Masonic writers have been a long time preoccupied: 


"It is by looking back into the past that we see the facts in an essential simplicity less 
easy to reach in more sophisticated ages. We need not again go so far back as the 



medicine-men of Africa and Siberia. Mysticism in pagan antiquity, however less 
intimate to us and less seductive than that of later times, is perhaps better fitted to 
reveal to us its true nature. The Greeks believed in the spiritual value of 'conversion' 
as devoutly as our Christian sects, and they went beyond most such sects in their 
elaborately systematic methods for obtaining it, no doubt for the most part as 
superficially as has been common among Christians. It is supposed that almost the 
whole population of Athens must have experienced the Eleusinian initiation. These 
methods, as we know, were embodied in the Mysteries associated with Dionysus and 
Demeter and Orpheus and the rest, the most famous and typical being those of Attic 
Eleusis. We too often see those ancient Greek Mysteries through a concealing mist, 
partly because it was rightly felt that matters of spiritual experience were not things to 
talk about, so that precise information is lacking, partly because the early Christians, 
having their own very similar Mysteries to uphold, were careful to speak evil of 
Pagan Mysteries, and partly because the Pagan Mysteries no doubt really tended to 
degenerate with the general decay of classic culture. But in their large simple 
essential outlines they seem to be fairly clear. For just as there was nothing 'orgiastic' 
in our sense in the Greek 'orgies,' which were simply ritual acts, so there was nothing, 
in our sense, 'mysterious' in the Mysteries. We are not to suppose, as is sometimes 
supposed, that their essence was a secret doctrine, or even that the exhibition of a 
secret rite was the sole object, although it came in as part of the method. A mystery 
meant a spiritual process of initiation, which was, indeed, necessarily a secret to those 
who had not yet experienced it, but had nothing in itself 'mysterious' beyond what 
inheres today to the process in any Christian 'revival', which is the nearest analogue to 
the Greek Mystery. It is only 'mysterious' in the sense that it cannot be expressed, any 
more than the sexual embrace can be expressed, in words, but can only be known by 
experience. A preliminary process of purification, the influence of suggestion, a 
certain religious faith, a solemn and dramatic ritual carried out under the most 
impressive circumstances have a real analogy to the Catholic's mass, which also is a 
function at once dramatic and sacred, which culminates in a spiritual communion 
with the Divine all this may contribute to the end which was, as it always must be in 
religion, simply a change of inner attitude, a sudden exalting realization of a new 
relationship to eternal things. The philosophers understood this; Aristotle was careful 
to point out, in an extant fragment, that what was gained in the Mysteries was not 
instruction but impressions and emotions, and Plato had not hesitated to regard the 
illumination which came to the initiate in philosophy as of the nature of. that acquired 
in the Mysteries. So it was natural that when Christianity took the place of Paganism 
the same process went on with only a change in external circumstances. Baptism in 
the early church - before it sank to the mere magical sort of rite it later became - was 
of the nature of initiation into a Mystery, preceded by careful preparation, and the 



baptized initiate was sometimes crowned with a garland as the initiated were at 
Eleusis. 


"When we go out of Athens along the beautiful road that leads to the wretched village 
of Eleusis and linger among the vast and complicated ruins of the chief shrine of 
mysticism in our western world, rich in associations that seem to stretch back to the 
Neolithic Age and suggest the time of the mystery of the upspringing of the com, it 
may be that our thoughts by no unnatural transition pass from the myth of Demeter 
and Kore to the remembrance of what we may have heard or know of the 
manifestations of the spirit among barbarian northerners of other faiths or of no faith 
in far Britain and America, and even of their meetings of so-called 'revival.' For it is 
always the same thing that man is doing, however various and fantastic the disguises 
he adopts. And sometimes the revelation of the new life, springing up from within, 
comes amid the crowd in the feverish atmosphere of artificial shrines, maybe soon to 
shrivel up, and sometimes the blossoming forth takes place, perhaps more favorably, 
in the open air and under the light of the sun and amid the flowers, as it were to a 
happy faun among the hills. But when all disguises have been stripped away, it is 
always and everywhere the same simple process, a spiritual function which is almost 
a physiological function, an art which Nature makes. That is all." 


We may next turn to his pages about our "Ancient Brother Pythagoras." 


"That remark, with its reference to the laws and rhythm in the universe, calls to mind 
the great initiator, so far as our knowledge extends back, of scientific research in our 
European world. Pythagoras is a dim figure, and there is no need here to insist unduly 
on his significance. But there is not the slightest doubt about the nature of that 
significance in its bearing on the point before us. Dim and legendary as he now 
appears to us, Pythagoras was no doubt a real person, bom in the sixth century before 
Christ, at Samos, and by his association with that great shipping center doubtless 
enabled to voyage afar and glean the wisdom of the ancient world. In antiquity he was 
regarded, Cicero remarks, as the inventor of philosophy, and still today he is 
estimated to be one of the most original figures, not only of Greece, but of the world. 
He is a figure full of interest from many points of view, however veiled in mist, but 
he only concerns us here because he represents the beginning of what we call 'science' 
- that is to say, measurable knowledge at its growing point - and because he definitely 



represents it as arising out of what we all conventionally recognize as 'art', and as, 
indeed, associated with the spirit of art, even its most fantastic forms, all the way. 
Pythagoras was a passionate lover of music, and it was thus that he came to make the 
enormously fruitful discovery that pitch of sound depends upon the length of the 
vibrating chord. Therein it became clear that law and spatial quantity ruled even in 
fields which had seemed most independent of quantitative order. The beginning of the 
great science of mechanics was firmly set up. The discovery was no accident. Even 
his rather hostile contemporary Heraclitus said of Pythagoras that he had 'practiced 
research and inquiry beyond all other men.' He was certainly a brilliant 
mathematician; he was, also, not only an astronomer, but the first, so far as we know, 
to recognize that the earth is a sphere - so setting up the ladder which was to reach at 
last to the Copemican conception - while his followers took the further step of 
affirming that the earth was not the center of our cosmic system, but concentrically 
related. So that Pythagoras may not only be called the Father of Philosophy, but, with 
better right the Father of Science in the modern exact sense. Yet he remained 
fundamentally an artist even in the conventional sense. His free play of imagination 
and emotion, his delight in the ravishing charm of beauty and harmony, however it 
may sometimes have led him astray - and introduced the reverence for number which 
so long entwined fancy too closely with science yet, as Gomperz puts it, gave soaring 
wings to the power of his severe reason." 


— o — 


The Tragic End of the Knights Templar 


By CHAREOTTE M. YONGE 


Few narratives of the dark end of the Order of the Templars can equal this in 
intensity, in vividness, in thrilling interest. It was penned by a brilliant woman of the 
last century and published long ago in a little volume called Cameos of English 
History. 



CRUSADES were over. The dream of Edward I had been but a dream, and self- 
interest and ambition directed the swords of Christian princes against each other 
rather than against the common foe. The Western Church was lapsing into a state of 
decay and corruption, from which she was only partially to recover at the cost of 
disruption and disunion, and the power which the mighty popes of the twelfth century 
had gathered into a head became, for that very cause, the tool of an unscrupulous 
monarch. 


The colony of Latins left in Palestine had proved a most unsuccessful experiment; the 
climate enervated their constitutions; the "poulains", as those were called who were 
bom in the East, had all the bad qualities of degenerate races and were the scorn and 
derision of Arabs and Europeans alike; nor could the defence have been kept up at all 
had it not been for the constant recruits from cooler climates. Adventurous young 
men tried their swords in the East, banished men sought to recover their fame, the 
excommunicate strove to win pardon by his sword, or the forgiven to expiate his past 
crime; and, besides these irregular aids, the two military and monastic orders of 
Templars and Hospitallers were constantly fed by supplies of young nobles trained to 
arms and discipline in the numerous commanderies and preceptories scattered 
throughout the West. 


Admirable as warriors, desperate in battle, offering no ransom but their scarf, these 
knightly monks were the bulwark of Christendom, and would have been doubly 
effective save for the bitter jealousies of the two orders against each other, and of 
both against all other Cmsaders. Not a disaster happened in the Holy Land but the 
treachery of one order or the other was said to have occasioned it; and, on the whole, 
the later degree of obloquy seems usually, whether justly not, to have lighted on the 
Knights of the Temple. They were the richer and the prouder of the two orders, and as 
the duties of the hospital were not included in their vows, they neither had the same 
claims to gratitude nor the softening influence of the exercise of charity, and were 
simply stern, hated, dreaded soldiers. 


LAST REMNANT IN EAST LOST 



After a desperate siege, Acre fell, in 1292, and the last remnant of the Latin 
possessions in the East were lost. The Templars and Hospitallers fought with the 
utmost valour, forgot their feuds in the common danger and made such a defence that 
the Mussulmans fancied that when one Christian died, another came out of his mouth 
and renewed the conflict; but at last they were overpowered by force of numbers and 
were finally buried under the ruins of the Castle of the Templars. The remains of the 
two orders met in the Island of Cyprus, which belonged to Henry de Lusignan, 
claimant of the crown of Jerusalem. There they mustered their forces in the hope of a 
fresh Crusade; but as time dragged on, and their welcome wore out, they found 
themselves obliged to seek new quarters. The Knights of the Hospital, true to their 
vows, won sword in hand the Isle of Rhodes from the infidel, and prolonged their 
existence for five centuries longer as a great maritime power, the guardians of the 
Mediterranean and the terror of the African corsairs. The Knights Templar, in an evil 
hour for themselves, resolved to spend their time of expectation in their numerous 
rich commanderies in Europe, where they had no employment but to collect their 
revenues and keep their swords bright; and it cannot but be supposed that they would 
thus be tempted into vicious and overbearing habits, while the sight of so formidable 
a band of warriors, owning no obedience but to their Grand Master and the Pope, 
must have been alarming to the sovereign of the country. Still there are no tokens of 
their having disturbed the peace during the twenty-two years that their exile lasted, 
and it was the violence of a king and the truckling of a pope that effected their ruin. 


Phillippe IV, the pest of France, had used his power over the French clergy to misuse 
and persecute the fierce old pontiff, Boniface VIII, and it was no fault of Phillippe 
that the murder of Becket was not parodied at Anagni. Fortunately for the malevolent 
designs of the king, his messengers quailed and contented themselves with terrifying 
the old man into a frenzied suicide instead of themselves slaying him. The next pope 
lived so few days after his election that it was believed that poison had removed him, 
and the cardinals remained shut up for nine months at Perugia trying in vain to come 
to a fresh choice. Finally, Phillippe fixed their choice on a wretched Gascon, who 
took the name of Clement V, first, however, making him swear to fulfil six 
conditions, the last and most dreadful of which was to remain a secret until the time 
when the fulfilment should be required of him. 


Lest his unfortunate tool should escape from his grasp, or gain the protection of any 
other sovereign, Phillippe transplanted the whole papal court to Avignon, which, 



though it used to belong to the Roman empire, had in the break-up after the fall of the 
Swabian house become in effect part of the French dominions. 


There the miserable Clement learned the sixth condition, and not daring to oppose it 
gave the whole Order of the Templars up into his cruel hands, promising to authorize 
his measures and pronounce their abolition. Phillippe's first measure was to get them 
all into his hands, and for this purpose he proclaimed a Crusade and actually himself 
took the Cross, with his son-in-law Edward II, at the wedding of Isabel. 


Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, hastened from Cyprus and convoked all his 
chief knights to take counsel with the French king on this laudable undertaking. He 
was treated with great distinction and even stood godfather to a son of the king. The 
greater number of the Templars were at their own Tower of the Temple at Paris, with 
others dispersed in numbers through the rest of France, living at ease and securely, 
respected and feared, if not beloved, and busily preparing for an onslaught upon the 
common foe. 


Meanwhile, two of their number, vile men thrown into prison for former crimes - one 
French, the other Italian - had been suborned by Phillippe's emissaries to make deadly 
accusations against their brethren, such as might horrify the imagination of an age 
unused to consider evidence. These tales, whispered into the ear of Edward II by his 
wily father-in-law, together with promise of wealth and lands to be wrested from 
them, gained from him a promise that he would not withstand the measures of the 
French king and pope and, though he was too much shocked by the result not to 
remonstrate, his feebleness and inconsistency unfitted him either to be a foe or a 
champion. 


THE FURIES ARE LET LOOSE 


On the 14th of September, 1307, Phillippe sent out secret orders to his seneschals. 
On the 13th of October, at dawn of day, each house of the Templars was surrounded 



with armed men and ere the knights could rise from their beds they were singly 
mastered and thrown into prison. 


Two days after, on Sunday after mass, the arrest was made known and the crimes of 
which the unfortunate men were accused. They were to be tried before the Grand 
Inquisitor, Guillaume Humbert, a Dominican friar; but in the meantime, to obtain 
witness against them, they were starved, threatened and tortured in their dungeons, to 
gain from them some confession that could be turned against them. Out of six 
hundred knights, besides a much greater number of mere attendants, there could not 
fail to be some few whose minds could not withstand the misery of their condition, 
and between these and the two original calumnies a mass of horrible stories was 
worked up in evidence. 


It was said that, while outwardly wearing the white cross on their robe, bearing the 
vows of chivalry, exercising the holy offices of priests and bound by the monastic 
rules, there was in reality an inner society, bound to be the enemies of all that was 
holy, into which they were admitted upon their reviling and denying their faith and 
committing outrages on the cross and the images of the saints. It was further said that 
they worshipped the devil in the shape of a black cat and wore his image on a cord 
round their waists; that they anointed a great silver head with the fat of murdered 
children; that they practised every kind of sorcery, performed mass improperly, never 
went to confession and had betrayed Palestine to the infidels. 


For the last count of the indictment the blood that had watered Canaan for two 
hundred years was answer enough. As to the confessional, the accusation emanated 
from the Dominicans, who were jealous of the Templars confessing to priests of their 
own order. With respect to the mass it appears that the habits of the Templars were 
similar to those of the Cistercain monks, who, till the Lateran Council, had not 
elevated the Host to receive adoration from the people. 


The accusation of magic naturally adhered to able men conversant with the East. The 
head was found in the Temple at Paris. It was made of silver, resembled a beautiful 
woman and was, in fact, a reliquary containing the bones of one of the 1 1 ,000 virgins 



of Cologne. But truth was not wanted, and under the influence of solitary, 
imprisonment, hunger, damp and loathsome dungeons, and two years of terror and 
misery, enough of confessions had been extorted for Phillippe's purpose by the year 


1309. 


Many had died under their sufferings and some had at first confessed in their agonies 
and, when no longer tortured, had retracted all their declarations with horror. These 
became dangerous and were therefore declared to be relapsed heretics, and fifty-six 
were burnt by slow degrees in a great enclosure surrounded by stakes, all crying out 
and praying devoutly and like good Christians till the last. 


Having thus horribly intimidated recusant witnesses, the king caused the pope to 
convoke a synod at Paris, before which the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was 
cited. He was a brave old soldier, but no scholar, and darkness, hunger, torture and 
distress had so affected him that when brought into the light of day he stood before 
the prelates and barons, among whom he had once been foremost, so utterly 
bewildered and confused that the judges were forced to remand him for two days to 
recover his faculties. 


When brought before them again he was formally asked whether he would defend his 
order or plead for himself He made answer that he should be contemptible in his 
own eyes and those of all the world did he not defend an order which had done so 
much for him, but that he was in such poverty that he had not four-pence left in the 
world, and that he must beg for an advocate, to whom he would mention the great 
kings, princes, barons, bishops and knights whose witness would at once clear his 
knights from the monstrous charges brought against them. 


Thereupon he was told that advocates were allowed to men accused of heresy, and 
that he had better take care how he contradicted his own deposition he would be 
condemned as relapsed. His own deposition, as three cardinals avouched that he had 
made it before them, was then translated to him from the Latin, which he did not 
understand. 



In horror-struck amazement at hearing such word ascribed to himself, the old knight 
twice made the sign of the cross and exclaimed, "If the cardinals were other sort of 
men he should know how to deal with them!" 


He was told that the cardinals were not there to receive a challenge to battle. "No," he 
said, "that not what he meant; he only wished that might befall them which was done 
by the Saracens and Tartars to infamous liars - whose heads they cut off." 


THE ORDER IS ABOLISHED 


He was sent back to prison and brought back again, less vehement against his 
accusers, but still declaring himself a faithful Christian and begging to be admitted to 
the rites of religion; but he was left to languish in his dungeon for two years longer, 
while two hundred and thirty-one witnesses were examined before the commissaries. 
In May, 1311, five hundred and forty- four persons belonging to the order were led 
before the judges from the different prisons, while eight of the most distinguished 
knights, and their agent at Rome, undertook their defence. Their strongest plea was, 
that not a Templar had criminated himself, except in France, where alone torture had 
been employed; but they could obtain no hearing and a report was drawn up by the 
commissaries to the so-called Council of Vienne. This was held by Clement V in the 
early part of 13 12, and on the 6th of March it passed a decree abolishing the Order of 
the Temple and transmitting its possessions to the Knights of St. John. 


There were other councils held to try the Templars in the other lands where they had 
also been seized. In England the confessions of the knights tortured in France were 
employed as evidence, together with the witness of begging friars, minstrels, women 
and discreditable persons; and on the decision of the Council of Vienne the poor 
knights confessed, as well they might, that their order had fallen under evil report, 
and were therefore pardoned and released, with the forfeiture of all their property to 
the hospital. Their principal house in England was the Temple in Fleet sheet where 
they had built a curious round church in the twelfth century, when it was consecrated 
by the Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem. The shape was supposed to be like the Holy 
Sepulchre, to whose service they were devoted; but want of space obliged them to 



add a square building of three aisles beyond. This, with the rest of their property, 
devolved on the Order of St. John, who, in the next reign, let the Temple buildings for 
10 pounds per annum to the law students of London, and in their possession it has 
ever since continued. The ancient seal of the knights, representing two men mounted 
upon one horse, was assumed by the benchers of one side of the Temple, though in 
the classical taste of later times the riders were turned into wings and the steed into 
Pegasus, while their brethren bear the lamb and banner, like-wise a remembrance of 
the Crusaders who founded the found church, eight of whom still lie in effigy upon 
the floor. 


In Spain the bishops would hardly proceed at all against the Templars, and secured 
pensions for them out of the confiscated property. In Portugal they were converted 
into a new order for the defence of the realm. In Germany they were allowed to die 
out unmolested, at in Italy Phillippe's influence was more felt, and they were taken in 
the same net with those in France. There the king's coffers were replenished with their 
spoil, very little of which ever found its way to the Knights of St. John. The knights 
who half confessed and then recanted were put to death; those who never confessed at 
all were left in prison; those who admitted the guilt of the order were rewarded by a 
miserable existence at large. The great dignitaries - Jacques de Molay, the Grand 
Master, and Guy, the son of the Dauphin of Auvergne, the Commander of Normandy, 
and two others - languished in captivity till the early part of 13 14, when they were led 
out before Notre Dame to hear their sentence read, condemning them to perpetual 
imprisonment, rehearsing their own confession once more against them. 


The Grand Master and Guy of Auvergne, both old men, wasted with imprisonment 
and torture, no sooner saw the face of day, the grand old cathedral and the assembly 
of the people, than they loudly protested that these false and shameful confessions 
were none of theirs; that their dead brethren were noble knights and true Christians, 
and that these foul slanders had never been uttered by them but invented by wicked 
men, who asked them questions in a language they did not understand, while they, 
noble barons, belted knights, sworn Crusaders, were stretched on the rack. 


The bishops present were shocked at the exposure of their treatment and placed them 
in the hands of the Provost of Paris, saying that they would consider their case the 
next morning. But Phillippe, dreading a reaction in their favour, declared them 



relapsed and condemned them to the flames that very night, the 18th of March. A 
picture is extant in Germany, said to have been of the time, showing the meek face of 
the white-haired, white-bearded Molay, his features drawn with wasting misery, his 
eyes one mute appeal, his hands bound over the large cross on his breast. He died 
proclaiming aloud the innocence of his order and listened to with pity and indignation 
by the people. His last cry, ere the flames stifled his voice, was an awful summons to 
Pope Clement to meet him before the tribunal of Heaven within forty days; to King 
Phillippe to appear there in a year and a day. 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARDS 


Clement V actually died on the 20th of April, and while his nephews and servants 
were plundering his treasures his corpse was consumed by fire caught from the wax- 
lights around his bier. His tyrant, Phillippe le Bel was but forty-six years of age, still 
young-looking and handsome; but the decree had gone forth against him and he fell 
into a bad state of health. He was thrown from his horse while pursuing a wild boar, 
and the accident brought on a low fever, which on the 29th of November, 1314, 
brought him likewise to the grave. He left three sons, all perishing after unhappy 
marriages, in the flower of their age, and one daughter, the disgrace and misery of 
France and England alike. 


So perished the Templars; so their persecutors! It is one of the darkest tragedies of 
that age of tragedies, and in many a subsequent page shall we trace the visitation for 
their blood upon guilty France and on the line of Valois. They were not perfect men. 
They have left an evil name, for they were hard, proud, often licentious men, and the 
"Red Monk" figures in many a tradition of horror; but there can be no doubt that the 
brotherhood had its due proportion of gallant, devoted warriors, who fought well for 
the cross they bore. Their fate has been well sung by Lord Houghton: 


The warriors of the sacred grave, 



Who looked to Christ for laws, 

And perished for the faith they gave 
Their comrades and the cause; 

They perished, in one fate alike, 

The veteran and the boy, 

Where'er the regal arm could strike, 
To torture and destroy; 

While darkly down the stream of time 
Devised by evil fame 
Float murmurs of mysterious crime, 
And tales of secret shame. 

How oft, when avarice, hate, or pride, 
Assault some noble band, 

The outer world, that scorn the side 
It does not understand, 

Yet by these lessons men awake 
To know they cannot bind 
Discordant wills in one, and make 



An aggregate of mind. 


For ever in our best essays 
At close fraternal ties 
An evil narrowness waylays 
Our present sympathies; 

Echoes each foul derisive word, 
Gilds o'er each hideous sight, 

And consecrates the wicked sword 
With names of holy right. 

And love, however bright it burns 
For what it holds most fond, 

Is tainted by its unconcern 
For all that lies beyond. 

And still the earth has many a knight 
By high vocation bound 
To conquer in enduring fight 
The Spirit's holy ground. 



And manhood's pride and hopes of youth 
Still meet the Templars doom, 

Crusaders of the ascended truth, 

Not of the empty tomb. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX 


THE RITUAL OF A POLITICAL PARTY 


Can you kindly instruct me where to locate the ritual used by the National Council of 
the United States of North America? I have searched through several American 
histories but can find nothing. 


B. D. Y., Nebraska. 


The National Council was better known as the Know-Nothing party, though it also 
was called the American party. As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska controversy in 
1854, the Whig party, in the North, split, and such as were not sufficiently opposed to 
slavery to enter the newly formed Republican party threw in their lot with the Know- 
Nothings, the National Council of which, in session at Philadelphia Feb. 21, 1856, 
formulated a platform consisting of twelve declarations the general tenor of which 
was opposition to aliens and to Roman Catholicism, a constitution, by-laws and a 
ritual. The objects were formally set forth in Article 2nd of the Constitution, which 
reads: "The object of this organization shall be to protect every American citizen in 
the legal and proper exercise of all his civil and religious rights and privileges; to 



resist the insidious policy of the Church of Rome, and all other foreign influence 
against our republican institutions in all lawful ways; to place in all offices of honor, 
trust or profit, in the gift of the people, or by appointment, none but native-born 
Protestant citizens, and to protect, preserve and uphold the union of these states and 
the constitution of the same." 


The ritual consisted of three degrees, with obligations and charges. A careful reading 
leaves one in little doubt as to what already existing ritual served these men as their 
pattern. This ritual is given in full in American Polities, by Cooper and Fenton, 
Chicago, 1882, long out of print but still obtainable in old libraries and second-hand 
book stores. 


* * * 


DID MASONRY FOUND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM? 
DID IT SAVE THE REVOLUTION? 


At a round-table discussion among the Masters and Wardens of the lodges of our city 
recently, a statement was made by an emphatic brother that Masonry founded the 
public school system of America, and I was challenged for refuting it. I know that 
Masons have fostered the public schools, as all good citizens should, but I never 
found mention in history that they were founded by the Craft. Also it was likewise 
contended that had it not been for the Masonic fraternity the colonists would have lost 
the Revolution. Granting the valuable and noble assistance rendered by Freemasons 
are not both contentions too broad? 


C. C. W„ Nebraska. 



Schools of one kind or another, often under church control and parochial in nature, 
were brought with the first colonists from England or Europe, so that it is impossible 
to say when a school system began here or by whom it was established. Virginia, 
started in 1607, left it very much to individuals to secure education in what way they 
could (the laissez faire principle), but the New Netherlands, as the country was called 
which lay between the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers, and which was under Dutch 
control in the years 1621-1674, had a carefully organized polity and saw to it that a 
school was organized with each and every church. The first real attempt to institute a 
public system, properly so called, was made in Virginia in the 1770's under the 
leadership of Thomas Jefferson, of whose Masonic membership no proof has ever 
been forthcoming. Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia and other colonies followed 
suit, but it was in New York, and more especially in New York City, that the 
evolution of the school system became most rapid. In 1 805 the "Free School Society" 
was founded in New York City under the presidency of DeWitt Clinton, afterward 
governor, a Grand Master and Grand High Priest. This was changed to the "Public 
School Society" in 1826, and this organization, in spite of vigorous opposition from 
Roman Catholics, flourished and paved the way at last for a system supported and 
controlled by public officials. The most prominent founders of our present system 
were James G. Carter, Horace Mann and Henry Barnard, the last named of whom was 
appointed the first United States Commissioner of Education in 1867. In almost every 
part of the country Masons were active in working for the cause of public education 
(as far back as Benjamin Franklin), but it cannot be said that Masonry founded the 
system. Consult The History of Education, three volumes, by Frank P. Graves. 


It would be an easier matter to prove that the fraternity played a decisive part in the 
Revolution, because many lodges, and lodge members (more particularly among 
those working under "Antienf ' charters) were among the most prominent patriots and 
patriot forces of the time. A number of brethren are now at work sifting the old 
records and piecing the story together. When their labors are completed your second 
question can be given a categorical reply, but not before. Until then we must be 
content to say that many lodges and many Masons played a great, and in some cases a 
decisive, part in the memorable struggle. On both your questions consult History of 
Freemasonry in the State of New York, by Bro. Ossian Lang, New York, 1922. 



WHEN THE MOTHER SUPREME COUNCIL WAS ORGANIZED 


Please inform me when the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite was organized and 
by whom. 


Y. L., Indiana. 


The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is an assemblage of degrees fashioned during 
the eighteenth century as an addition to the three degrees comprising Ancient Craft 
Masonry, now generally called the Blue Lodge. The Mother Supreme Council of the 
Scottish Rite, as we know it, was organized at Charleston, S. C., May 31, 1801, by 
John Mitchell and Frederic Dalcho. 


The Grand Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in Paris had given to 
Stephen Morin a patent to carry the Rite of Perfection, as the assemblage of degrees 
was then called, to America, which he did, and afterwards granted authority to others 
to carry on the work. The line of descent is as follows: Morin, Henry Francken, 
Moses M. Hayes, Barend M. Spitzler and John Mitchell, the last named receiving his 
patent April 2, 1795. Mitchell granted a commission to Dr. Frederic Dolcho May 24, 
1801, and these two took the lead in forming the first, or Mother, Supreme Council. 
Your own state lines in the territory governed by the Northern Supreme Council, 
organized in 1813; your first Lodge of Perfection was organized in Indianapolis May 
19, 1865, and your first Consistory at same place and time. You may be referred to 
Albert Pike's Historical Inquiry in Regard to the Grand Constitution of 1786, 
published by the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, at Washington, D. C., in 
1872 and again in 1883. 


* * * 


ON THE MAKING OF SPEECHES IN LODGE 



While you are at it I wish you would give me a steer about speech-making. On the 
night I got my Third I made a short speech at the request of our excellent W. M. Since 
then the brethren have pestered me to do some more talking. But I am green, as a 
Mason, and double green as an orator. Please give me a hint or two about this 
business. 


K. A., Georgia. 


If you express your thoughts as forcibly as you make known your wants, you should 
have no trouble in an art that is well within reach of any man of average ability. The 
main thing is to have a purpose, for in a speech it is the object that counts more than 
the subject; aimlessness, and a mere display of one's efforts at eloquence, is a prime 
offense, especially among busy men who are not much interested in watching a 
speaker pile up useless adjectives; but if a man goes after a verdict, shows that he 
means business, and doesn't rest until he gets some good accomplished, he can safely 
let oratory take care of itself. Have something definite to say and say it as sincerely as 
you can, that is the recipe. All the tricks and embellishments can be learned 
afterwards. A speech is properly a piece of human engineering the purpose of which 
is to effect certain changes or make needed adjustments. Being a form of work it is 
never an idle display, and he is the best speaker who gets the most done. For that 
reason a lodge speaker should, by preference, deal with problems in his own lodge. If 
his brethren lack in charity he should make them ashamed; if they are unsociable he 
can warm their spirits; if they act un-Masonically he should rebuke them; ever and 
always his aim is to make Masonry prevail. Whatever material is found to be 
effectual for such a purpose is good for a speech-maker, be it drawn from the ritual, 
Masonic history, philosophy, jurisprudence, present day Masonic activities, what not. 
Don't be afraid to speak right out. "One burning heart sets another on fire." If you are 
allotted fifteen minutes use only twelve. Speak distinctly, deliberately, head up and 
mouth open, and talk to your brethren as if there were but one man present. Above all 
things don't drag in a lot of so-called "funny stories" by the nap of the neck; if you 
feel obliged to use humor let it come instinctively and as a happy surprise. The right 
kind of speech-making is a thing a wise Worshipful Master will develop in his lodge; 
it means life and power for the brotherhood. In the old days the Master gathered his 
workmen about him and all conferred together, so should it be among us who work in 
a great Craft confronted by tasks "greater than the Twelve Labors of Hercules." 



WHEN THE GROTTO WAS LAUNCHED 


Can I get a history of the Grotto ? When and by whom was it organized? 


B. K. T., Minnesota. 


You will find an excellent account of the Grotto in Mackey's Revised History of 
Freemasonry, edited by Robert I. Clegg, chapter 108, beginning on page 1984. The 
organization began in Hamilton Lodge, No. 120, Hamilton, N. Y., in a local 
committee formed for fun and frolic, named Fairchield Deviltry Committee, after its 
moving spirit, Brother LeRoy Fairchild. The presiding officer was called the "King 
Devil." The first formal organization was made on the evening of Sept. 10, 1889. So 
successful was this fun society that a ritual was worked out by two very brilliant men, 
Prophets R. R. Riddell and George Beal, and this was continued, with some revisions 
and additions, when the Supreme Council of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of 
the Enchanted Realm was founded, June 13, 1890, with Bro. Thomas L. James, New 
York City, as Grand Monarch. The charter for the first Grotto was granted to the 
brethren at Hamilton, who first chose the name Druid Grotto, No. 1, but afterwards 
changed it to Mohanna Grotto. From that time until now this Order has grown rapidly 
and is now often called by the sobriquet, "the Blue Lodge Shrine." 


* * * 


INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS 



When was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows organized, and where ? Was it 
started by Masons ? 


L. B. T., Ohio. 


There is a good deal of uncertainty as to the pedigree of this noble organization, for it 
began in very humble fashion and long ago, so that nobody among its pioneers 
anticipated its great growth or long and honorable career. Early records were lost and 
traditions became confused, but it is usually supposed that the first lodge of Odd 
Fellows was Loyal Aristarcus, No. 9, meeting in London, organized in 1745, which 
was twenty-eight years after the organizing of the First Grand Lodge of Freemasons. 
There is an old story to the effect that Odd Fellowship was launched by a number of 
disgruntled London Masons in 1730 or 1740, largely for convivial purposes, but of 
this we cannot be certain, though we can be reasonably sure that the same ground 
swell of interest in secret fraternities which brought about the revival of Masonry and 
caused its so rapid spread over Great Britain and Europe, was also responsible for the 
birth of Odd Fellowship. The founder of Odd Fellowship in America, where it has 
reached its largest proportions, was Thomas Wildey, who came to Baltimore in 1817, 
bringing with him a zeal for the Order developed in his native city of London, where 
he founded a lodge and presided over it for three years. He, together with John Welsh, 
a brother member, issued a call for a meeting. They, with those who responded, 
organized a new lodge at Baltimore, April 26, 1819, with Wildey in the chair. It was 
thus that he began his labors, for which he never lost his enthusiasm until at last he 
saw founded the "Grand Lodge of Maryland and the United States, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows," with himself as the first Grand Master. You will find a brief 
account of Odd Fellowship in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Vol. 
XIX, p. 996; and also a very readable survey in the Cyclopaedia of Fraternities, by 
Albert C. Stevens. For a detailed account see "The Complete Manual of Odd 
Fellowship, its History, Principles, Ceremonies and Symbolism," privately printed, 
1879. If you go into the subject at length why not contribute an article ? It would be 
welcome. 



MASONIC INDELIBILITY 


I have a friend who has voluntarily, and while in good standing, withdrawn from the 
Order. He says he now no longer feels under any obligation to keep our secrets. I tell 
him he is as much under obligation as ever. Am I right? 


A.W.S., South Carolina. 


You are most surely right. Certain obligations voluntarily accepted by your friend had 
nothing whatsoever to do with his continuing in formal membership, but rested on his 
honor as a man as long as he may live. It is just as immoral for him to violate his 
solemn word now as it was before. In this sense the old saying, "Once a Mason, 
always a Mason," is literally true, a fact long ago recognized and imbedded in the 
phrase "Masonic Indelibility." During the anti-Masonic craze of the past century a 
few men gained notoriety by becoming "Renouncing Masons"; the general contempt 
with which these traitors came to be regarded by the public shows that the profane as 
well as initiate accept the doctrine of Masonic Indelibility as sound and right. 


— o — 


CORRESPONDENCE 


TWO CORRECTIONS CONCERNING TEXAS ITEMS 


In your issue of May, 1923, you have two articles in which Texas is spoken of, and in 
each there is a slight mistake, possibly of not much importance. In the article by P. G. 
Tyler, the date of the first meeting of Holland Lodge, in Houston, is given as 
"October, 1837." This error is a natural one, on part of anyone getting their 



information from "Ruthven's Reprint of the proceedings of Grand Lodge of Texas, 
1837-1858.” 


When Brother Ruthven - then Grand Secretary - printed his books in 1860, he gave as 
a preface a sketch of the organization of Holland, No. 36, and in it the record reads 
October. As the sketch was written by Brother Anson Jones, some twenty or more 
years after the meeting, and was largely from memory, he may have written October. 
However, the correct date was Nov. 8, 1837. This I give from the minutes themselves, 
which are in our possession. The three bodies in Houston, lodge, chapter and 
commandery, are fortunate in that each has its original minutes complete from the 
first meeting. Although they have lost by fire their first charters, paraphernalia, etc., 
the minutes were saved by reason of the secretaries having them at their homes at 
dates of the fires. 


The second item is on page 156 under heading “Twenty-six Jurisdictions Use the 
District Deputy System." The question asked was regarding the use "of the District 
Deputy Lecturer system." Texas is included in the list. This is somewhat in error. We 
have District Deputy Grand Masters, but they are not by reason of said appointment, 
"Lecturers." Brother Tyler on page 153 practically tells how the work is disseminated. 
We have a Committee on Work of five members, one elected each year for five years. 
No member can immediately succeed himself 


This committee at their annual meeting - which is immediately after the Grand Lodge 
closes, issues certificates for proficiency to such as have successfully stood 
examination. These certificates are for one, two, or three years. The holder is 
authorized to teach in a specified district, but the lodges can invite any certificate 
member in the district to lecture. Every district has a number of certificate holders. In 
some lodges it is the unwritten law that its officers must hold certificates, so that in 
our cities we have twenty-five or more. Houston at present has forty-two. Last 
December the committee at Waco issued 833 certificates of which 251 were for the 
first time. 



Many certificates are held and renewed from time to time by brethren simply as a 
matter of personal gratification, although many of these are "stand-by workers" in all 
degrees and orders. Our chapter and council has the same system for teaching the 
work. Their committees meet immediately preceding the Grand Bodies. 


J. C. Kidd, Texas. 


* * * 


"WHEN PA JOINED THE LODGE" 


The request of H. F. M., in the August BUILDER, for the poem, "When Pa Joined the 
Lodge," has been responded to by a number of brethren, whose exhibits, though they 
are very much in the spirit of the subject, do not bear that title. Brother George 
Hopper Smith, Cleveland, Ohio, sent in the following, which is copyrighted: 


WHEN FATHER RODE THE GOAT 


The house is full of arnica, 
The mystery profound 
We do not dare to run about 
Or make the slightest sound; 
We leave the big piano shut 
And do not strike a note 


The doctor's been here seven times 



Since father rode the goat. 


He joined the lodge a week ago - 
Got in at four a. m. 

And sixteen brethren brought him home 
Though he says he brought them. 

His wrist was sprained and one big rip 
Had rent his Sunday coat - 
There must have been a lively time 
When father rode the goat. 

He's resting on the couch today 
And practicing his signs - 
The hailing sign, working grip, 

And other monkey-shines; 

He mutters pass- words 'neath his breath 
And other things he'll quote 
They surely had an evening's work 
When father rode the goat. 

He has a gorgeous uniform, 

All gold and red and blue 



A hat with plumes and yellow braid, 

And golden badges, too. 

A sword of finest tempered steel; 

Hilt set with precious stones. 

He says this par'phemalia 
All come from Pettibones. 

This goat he leads what "Teddy" calls 
A very strenuous life, 

Makes trouble for such candidates 
As tackle him in strife. 

But somehow, when we mention it 
Pa wears a look so grim 
We wonder if he rode the goat 
Or if the goat rode him. 

Brother William B. Sayer, New York City, has given us the use of a fetching poem 
written by his wife, Caroline B. Sayer, published in the Grand Lodge Year Book of 
New York State in 1922: 

WHEN WILLIE'S DAD JOINED THE MASONS 


When dad was dressin' to join the Masons, 



It was one night last week, 

I know all the things he done, 

'Cause I stood by the keyhole to peek. 

He washed an' shaved hisself up slick, 

An' put on a new pair of socks 

He felt his muscle an' kept mutterin' some words 

I wonder if they give 'em hard knocks. 

I sneak down stairs to the pantry, 

An' put two lumps of sugar in my coat, 

An' I slid 'em in dad's pocket 
So he'd have 'em to feed the goat. 

I hope that goat don't hurt my dad 
I hope they don't make him walk on live coals, 
'Cause ma'll be mad as the dickens, 

If he burns them silk socks full of holes. 

Next mornin' I asked dad if they treated him rough 
And he just shook me by the han' 

An' said, "My son, you must be a Mason 



When you become a man." 


It is probable that neither of these is the poem asked for. Can you help us out? 


— o — 


YE EDITOR'S CORNER 


A man is never dead until he is buried. 


* * * 


Brother McNaim's article on Goethe published last month has been very highly 
spoken of. 


Here is a puzzle picture. See if you can discover the man's religion. It happened in the 
Hotel Clark, in Los Angeles, (you know the place). A stammerous excitable guest 
rushed to the desk: "Here please send this suit out in a hurry and have it creamed and 
blessed!" 


* * * 


A friend wrote of THE BUILDER that "it is neither radical nor conservative but sane 
and it is intelligent without being highbrow." We may possibly not deserve these fine 
words but they nevertheless express our ideals. 



How do you examine visitors ? Customs differ so much in various parts of the 
country that it would be worth while to publish a report of typical methods. Won't you 
speak up for your lodge ? 


* * * 


A brother has submitted this question: "What is the greatest danger now facing 
Freemasonry?" What would be your reply? 


* * * 


The bricklayer glanced wearily at his platinum wrist watch. "An hour has gone by," 
he muttered to himself, "it's time to lay another brick." Oh, hum! Thus says The 
Country Gentleman. 


* * * 


"And I would urge upon every young man, as the beginning of his due and wise 
provision for his household, to obtain as soon as he can, by the severest economy, a 
restricted, serviceable and steadily - however slowly - increasing series of books for 
use through life; making his little library, all of the furniture in his room, the most 
studied and decorative piece; every volume having its assigned place, like a little 
statue in its niche, and one of the earliest lessons the children of the house being how 



to turn the pages of their own literary possessions lightly and deliberately, with no 
chance of tearing or dog’s ears.” 


John Ruskin.